Heh. This is my first ever attempt at Death Note fan fiction, so I'm afraid that you'll have to bear with me. Reviews are much appreciated. (:

Meine Liebe.

Chapter One : Entführt

Sayu Yagami, nineteen years old and content, took a deep breath of cold night air, clearing her lungs and shedding the slow and sluggish feeling always brought on by a day of college. She was really worn out today, exams were coming up and she wanted to get the best possible grade she could – which was average, but she wasn't ashamed to admit that. She never claimed to be some sort of super brain. But, when she first got into college, her lecturers were a little taken back by her generally average past; Light Yagami was still infamous for his ingenuity. But Sayu was just a normal girl, they came to see that pretty quickly and let her be.

But of course, Sayu was not bitter about that. She had lived her entire life in her brother's shadow; in fact, although she did not know this, she had not once, in her nineteen years, been appreciated for what she could do or who she was. Her parents didn't do it on purpose, there was no conscious decision to depreciate their daughter, but every time they got her report card, they couldn't help but compare it to the merits of their son.

Sayu didn't know about that. She had lived an easy life up until that point, out of the limelight and free of stress.

That was going to change tonight.

As her breath steamed in front of her, Sayu did not notice the truck tailing her from behind. The streets of Tokyo were still crowded with commuters, so she didn't hear the footsteps following close behind her.

Turning off into the park -a short cut to her house - Sayu pulled her cell phone from her pocket, intending to call Nao, tell her about Kenji, and 'ohmygodhe'ssocute' and 'ohmygodtellmeaboutit' until she went to bed.

A normal teenage conversation. A normal night. Part of her routine.

She dialled the number.

Nao picked up. "Hey girl, what's up?" A loud, cheerful voice sounded through the speaker. "Sayu? You there?"

Sayu was there. She was struggling in the grasp of an unbelievably muscled man, shrieking through the hand that covered her mouth, clawing at the calloused hands that held her as he dragged her easily to the van that was idling nearby.

"Sayu? Helllllo?"

The doors slammed shut and the van sped away.

...

She was harshly bound and gagged, tape cruelly sealing her mouth, tugging on her lips as they worked in muffled sobs.

She had squeezed herself into the corner of the van, her back pressed against the cold metal. She had slipped a bit when they went over a bump and now she was slumped over, her spine curving and her head was being pushed forward. Her neck ached, but she couldn't reposition herself because both her arms and legs had been tied up. The floor of the vehicle was dirty, and it smelled of sweat and alcohol.

Sayu kept her eyes pressed shut, and an ocean of tears streamed from behind her eyelids. This wasn't real, there was no way this could be real – this was too much like the recurring nightmare she'd had as a child, of being captured in the night by strange people and carried away to be killed. She would wake up soon. And she'd be safe and warm, staring up at the poster of Hideki Ryuga on her ceiling.

The van went over another bump. Sayu hit her head pretty hard against the cold metal of the van and saw stars. It hurt. It really hurt.

One man laughed.

And she didn't wake up. This dream was real.

Sayu Yagami cried even harder.

...

With a dramatic swoop, he bit off the end of a new chocolate bar. He had been waiting rather too long for confirmation, and in his agitation, had eaten five bars without tasting them. He spoke through the sweet paste coating his tongue: "What's taking them so long?"

Rod Ross regarded the teen calmly with reptilian eyes. "They'll get her. A plane ride from Tokyo to L.A takes a while, Mello. No matter how easy of a target she is."

Mello threw himself back onto the couch irritably, snapping at the chocolate again. He just wanted to get that girl now, so he could get that notebook sooner. Time was precious, and he needed to use every moment he had productively. He had to prove himself; and the sooner he got that murder notebook, the sooner he could close the Kira case and take his rightful place as number one.

All this came down to was beating Near and avenging L. That's all Mello cared about. That's all he wanted.

The blond glanced irritably at the cell phone beside him. He grabbed at it, flicked it open. No new messages. With a hissing sigh, Mello snapped it shut, tossed it aside.

Rod Ross rolled his eyes.

...

"Will somebody please shut that stupid girl up!"

Sayu Yagami had been captured at half past nine the night before. It was now nine in the morning. In that window of eleven and a half hours, she had only ceased snivelling once, when her body gave in to fatigue. But such peace hadn't lasted long. One member had tried to silence her using the only method he knew, but the hits had only made her cry harder.

Sayu was in a state – bloody nose and smudged make up, caked down her face in tear tracks. Her eyes blood shot and sore, nose running unattractively – but she didn't care, why should she?

Sayu Yagami, nineteen years old and terrified, was convinced that she was going to die.