Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note, the characters used in this story, or the quote used here or any subsequent ones I decide to use throughout this story. I do not own the cover image to this story and do not intend to claim I do by using it as the cover image.

Chapter 1: Could The Universe Be So Vicious?

"I am utterly convinced that God does not play dice with the universe."
-Albert Einstein

My gray eyes scanned over the exposed skin of my torso, looking over the familiar pale flesh with a subdued usual air of distaste locked within my blank stare and tugging at the threads of my thoughts. I carefully surveyed over every minute divot of myself and every natural curvature which formed by the pull of skin over the muscles and bones that created my body's relatively weak frame.

Slowly my trained, vigilant stare traveled upwards across the expanse of my body, analyzing the smooth lines where my abdomen seamlessly converged with my chest, and ultimately allowed my eyes to finally move over to where it sat.

The sight instantly churned my stomach into a broiling stew of utter disgust.

Written across my otherwise unblemished alabaster skin and reminiscent of any normal, inborn birthmark, lay the tentatively constructed Romanized letters printed over top the location of my heart in an almost ethereal light shade of beige. The letters were painted upon the canvas in a delicate design constructed to read the name I had memorized since childhood; since I'd been old enough to ask about it.

The soul mark.

The letters of the soul mark were imprinted upon every person in the same manner that a birthmark came into existence, appearing upon children while they're still infants. No one knew why or how the soul marks came to be past speculation, but as I looked at it with antipathy I could still faintly hear my mother's voice in my head, when she would feel I asked too many questions about the mark and sit me down to tell me that the names were the physical proof that God existed; that He had a plan for each of His human creations.

The specific name etched into every person on Earth was the name of the individual designated to be your soul mate. Of that much everyone could be sure.

My eyes slipped closed to block out the world as my memories took me back again to my mother's explanations. The names, she'd said, were a guiding light by God to direct people to the individual they're destined to connect and bond with. For when soul mates found one another and their hands touched, a bond was instantly ignited, establishing a shared mental link, or path of shared mental thoughts and feelings between the two.

I swallowed down the lump forming in my throat as my eyes opened once more on the present and I looked down from my reflection in the mirror before me. How foolish she had been to tell me such a fickle tale. My fingers went to work fastening up the buttons of my white shirt, though the pale brown name continued to linger at the corner of my sights, licking at my gaze like a fire.

'Soul mates...' I thought to myself with malice. 'What a ludicrous idea. To think that this imprint of names is some carefully devised plan of God implies that He actually cares more for the sentiments of love, and belonging than He does for solving the crisis's of world hunger and war. If that's actually the case, I can hardly see why anyone would want to follow such an omnipotent being.'

My fingers were suddenly stopped on the buttons at my chest; my stare remained transfixed, refusing to shift away from the security of the plastic fastenings over to the letters again. The soul mark's careful arrangement existed like the imprint of a seal in hot wax on a treaty I hadn't freely signed. It was a metal lock bolting shut the cage surrounding my own sense of humanity; a padlock for which I had no intention of uncovering the key to.

I was perfectly content with remaining among the statistics of people who ultimately never found their soul mate. Life was easier without such a trite, unnecessary distraction when there was so much more to worry about.

I finally finished buttoning up the shirt, 'If the designated names are indeed designed by a deity to help guide us to our predetermined soul mate, then what does it say about a god who then places his so-called carefully devised pieces into an institution which abandons the use of real names?' I considered as I turned away from the mirror in my bedroom, adding the cynical thought, 'It alludes to the rather heretical thought that perhaps this god doesn't know how to play his own game of chance very well.'

The soul mark seemed to prick at my skin beneath the confines of the shirt as I made my way to the exit door of the bedroom, 'Why would humanity care to search out their soul mate anyway?' I wondered to myself, 'Perhaps I could sympathize with the notion of discovery simply for the satisfaction alone of knowing who this soul mate is. But creating the bond? No, the only people willing to go through with that are those unable to tame the deafening lone static within their own minds.'

I pulled open the door, an unconscious feeling of comfort flooding over my being at my own recognition of mental peace in existing entirely on my own. 'What could be the evolutionary benefits of sharing mental thought processes with another human being?' I contemplated to myself as I mindlessly meandered down the hall of mostly closed bedroom doors. The soft morning light fell through the panes of the window lying at the end of the hall, revealing to the world the cause for the relative quiet within the orphanage, however temporal it might be.

"No, Matt, I'm not going to tell you."

My movement towards the stairs came to a halt suddenly as a trail of muddled words from an all too familiar source caught my attentive ears. The words spilled from the cracked bedroom door shared by the two lower successors only a few feet away from my location. "What does it matter, anyway," Mello's bored voice questioned, "You know bonded soul mates would hardly be tolerated at this damn institution, anyway."

'It seems I'm not the only one who's considering the soul marks this morning.' I thought, taking another step forward, 'At least Mello's capable of keeping his priorities in line.' I moved to keep walking in an effort to leave the hall before I was forced to be confronted with Mello this early in the morning. But somehow it felt as if my legs were caught within a thick sludge; making movement a much slower progression than I originally thought I'd wanted.

"Well maybe it wouldn't be tolerated for those this close to the L succession, but if we're not actually soul mates then it doesn't matter anyway, right?" Matt's voice added nonchalantly, "Aren't you at least a little curious about it, Mels?"

'Anyone who isn't curious is either foolish or a liar.' I couldn't help but silently answer back to him, 'Curiosity is a part of human nature, after all.'

"Of course I'm curious." Mello voiced, his volume now coming out at a lower decibel, his tone more solemn than before, "But I don't really need to be curious about that sort of thing with you specifically. I hate to tell you this, Matt, but I already know you're not my soul mate."

"How so? I've never even seen your soul mark before." Matt added curiously without an ounce of offence taken by the blonde's assertion.

"I've seen my soul mark a lot, and likewise I've known you a long time. Honestly, Matt, you don't even remotely look like the sort of person whose parents would name you 'Nate', of all things. So there's that."

My pace came to a screeching halt and in that moment it felt as though even the beating heart locked behind the chilled wax of my soul mark was frozen into stark silence. My stare instantly flew back over to the two lower successors cracked bedroom door only a few feet away.

Could God and his entire created universe really be so vicious?

A/N: I'm playing around with the idea of only using one author's note in my chapters now. Originally this was published on Tumblr in third person, but I decided I wanted to practice writing first person, and also practice writing something that is designed to actually be romantic, unlike some of my other fics. So, I've spent a lot of time on working through this fic so far, so if you could do me the courtesy of sending me a review to let me know your thoughts I would greatly appreciate hearing from you!

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-Forbiddensoul562