Havisham

--

Author's Note: Gah, I hate these, but there we go. This is the result of my GCSE poetry studies (hence the title and quote) and far too much My Chemical Romance. It looks set to be a three-parter, and is cowritten by shirosunday, which is lovely of her cosidering she's had so much on lately. Thanks shiro!

--

Beloved sweetheart bastard. Not a day since then I haven't wished him dead. Prayed for it so hard I've dark green pebbles for eyes, ropes on the back of my hands I could strangle with. Carol Anne Duffy, Havisham

--

Matsuda blinked. Then blinked again.

'What the hell…?'

He was standing in the middle of the old task force HQ- the one they'd been in after the confinements, back when the original L was still alive. But it was different now. It was colder, harsher - and instead of metal, the walls seemed to be made of shattered glass, reflecting the rest of the room in a thousand insane angles.

He barely had time to take it in before a voice rang out behind him.

"So- what do you think?" Matsuda whirled round to see the figure of Teru Mikami in the glass, his shape distorted by the fragments. "I'm told it's been redecorated, but I never saw the original, so I wouldn't know."

It took Matsuda a moment to find his voice; when he did, he was careful to keep his guard up. "Where are we?"

Teru shrugged. "You know the place better than me. Where do you think we are?"

"The old headquarters, but…"

"But what? Like I said, it's changed, but it still serves a purpose."

"What do you…"

"…mean? Simply put- it was built to catch Kira, but now we use it instead." Like Mikami, it had been a long time since he'd heard that voice, but he hadn't forgotten it. Couldn't forget.

"Takada Kiyomi." He muttered as he turned to see her image, like Mikami's, scattered amidst the glass.

"You would be Matsuda, I take it?" she smiled- showing her teeth, making her look disturbingly predatory. "I've heard some… interesting things about you."

"You have?" he swallowed, unsure of how to react. "That's… good."

"For us, perhaps. Not so for you, I'm afraid." The grin had travelled to Mikami's face now; Takada had begun to giggle almost hysterically.

"Matsuda-kun!" the high-pitched squeal echoed through the room as Misa appeared on the wall above the doors. "Misa thought she'd never see you again."

"But you're all dead!" Matsuda protested, gesturing at Misa "I was there when they buried you!"

"You were, and we are." Mikami confirmed. "And perhaps, since you so evidently want us to be dead, we should look the part a little more. Don't you agree, Kiyomi-chan?" he continued, as the woman's giggles became shrieks of insanity and pain.

"Kiyomi-chan is so pretty…" Misa sighed. Matsuda could only watch, horrified, as flames engulfed the woman's body. "It's such a pity to waste it all, neh Mikami-kun?"

"Indeed. But, if Matsuda-san wishes us to be dead, then we must of course oblige." He had barely finished speaking when his midriff tore open. Blood gushed out, becoming corporeal, splashing on the glass and trickling down through the cracks until it began to form a puddle on the floor. Mikami staggered from side to side, not taking his eyes off Matsuda, his mouth opening and closing in silent laughter. Held in a macabre sense of awe by the sight, he almost failed to notice the thud from behind him. And when he turned, he wished he had.

Misa's face had been smashed almost beyond recognition, her body twisted and broken. Only her hair seemed to have escaped the battering, splayed out like a golden cloud on the floor. Takada then shrieked with hysterical laughter, making Matsuda look up at the still burning body. She pointed at something behind him with her charred fingers, melted, black skin dripping from them like oil.

"You thought death could stop us? That you could get rid of us so easily?" a smooth voice purred as a disjointed shadow appeared in the shattered mirrors. Matsuda's eyes widened in recognition, shivers running down his spine and settling in a cold ball of dread in his stomach.

'Oh no, please, anything but him…'

"What's wrong, Matsu? You look as though you've seen a ghost." Matsuda shut his eyes tight, shaking his head as though the voice were inside, as if the action would dislodge it and end this horrible, horrible nightmare…

"He won't go away, you know." Mikami sneered at him from the wall, still bleeding, the puddle of blood slowly oozing its way towards Matsuda's feet.

"He won't, he won't, he won't!" Misa chanted, moving around like a puppet on the floor as she turned her gory, crushed face to Mikami, a pair of absurdly sinister doe eyes looking on as though he had just declared something of deep wisdom.

"Turn around, Matsuda." That voice- he honestly didn't know how long he'd be able to stand it.

"No."

"Turn around."

"No."

"I said…"

"NO!" Matsuda yelled, whirling around automatically on his heel to face his taunter, realising his mistake a moment too late.

Light Yagami- Kira- threw back his head and laughed as he had on the day he'd died.

"Ever the joker, Matsuda, ever the fool." He sneered.

"B-better that than a murderer!" Matsuda stammered, looking with abhorrence at his former 'friend'. Light had changed drastically. Gone was the handsome, confident young man- even the terrified, insane murderer of the Warehouse could not be found here. He now looked like… a corpse. He was still wearing the black suit, but there were holes in all the places Matsuda had shot him, black coagulated blood and seemingly half-rotted skin visible through the frayed threads. His tie was gone and his dirty white shirt was fully unbuttoned making his torso visible. His chest, Matsuda saw in horror, had a hole going right through where his heart should have been, threaded with a blue-grey crystalline growth that resembled a macabre spider's web. Drops of blood trailed their way along the crystals and trickled down his stomach, seeping into the blackness of his trousers.

Matsuda could hardly breathe, his mouth half open in shock. Tearing his eyes away from the ghastly sight, he finally looked at Light's face. He was smirking… and his eyes were tinged with red.

"What happened to you?" breathed Matsuda, horrified. Light looked at him scornfully.

"A combination of you, Near and Ryuk, of course." His voice was sardonic as he began to slowly circle the detective. "I'm still working out a way to get through to Ryuk, but until then, confining my revenge to you and the brat will have to do."

"What have you done to him?"

"Nothing yet. At the moment, I'm merely practising, since I guessed your mind would be that much easier to break."

"You're insane!"

Light shrugged. "Perhaps, but it's a fine line to cross."

"It's a fine, fine line…" Misa crooned, hugging her smashed limbs to herself, cracking sounds audible, and grinning.

Matsuda felt sick.

"And to be perfectly honest, Matsuda-san," Light continued "I think you've already crossed it once. Do the words 'Yellow Box' mean anything to you?"

"Don't…" Matsuda clamped his hands over his ears. "I'm not listening to you!"

"January 28th, 2012," Light grasped his wrists in an ice-cold grip, pulling them away from his head viciously as his voice became more forceful, almost angry. Matsuda gazed up at him with wide, frightened eyes. "You found out I was Kira and allowed those emotions of yours to take over. You didn't just shoot to stop me writing dear Nate's name down, oh no. You shot me again," Light slapped him.

"… and again," Slap.

"… and again!" Slap. Matsuda was reeling. "…because you were angry. Now tell me, Matsuda-san, what makes you any better than us?" he gestured towards the trio in the mirrors, who smiled and giggled and shrieked again at the inclusion.

"I… I was saving Near!" Matsuda protested. Light grasped his face in both hands, digging his nails painfully into his skin.

"Were you listening to anything I just said?" He opened his mouth as if to continue, then paused. His expression changed to a sneer as he ran his thumb along Matsuda's cheekbone. "What's this? Tears again, Matsuda-san? I'd have expected better, even from you…"

"Get off me!" yelled Matsuda, stumbling backwards and falling to the floor where, in his panic, he began dragging himself backwards. "Get the hell away from me!"

Light only laughed again, harder and harsher than before. "Oh, this is sweet!" he hissed, baring his teeth at Matsuda, continued to struggle backwards as the boy? demon? coolly stepped towards him. "Do you realise how utterly pathetic you look, lying there? I imagine it's similar to what you reduced me to, only less painful." He caught up with Matsuda, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him hard. "Don't you like it, Matsuda-san? You were quick enough to deal it to me, after all."

"Get off me!" Matsuda shouted again, flailing about with his fists. He vaguely heard voices in his head calling out urgently, but he couldn't work out who it was they were calling out to, much less what they were saying. "G-get off!" he sobbed, pleaded, implored (anything to make him stop!) "Get off!"

Light's grip on Matsuda slackened as the laughter of his fellow-murderers now echoed eerily in the background. Something pricked his arm, and he felt Light's lips beside his ear as the world slowly began to fade.

"I win."

--

The stretcher was loaded onto the ambulance with practiced care. The man strapped to it had finally calmed, and a few shivering onlookers were already returning to their beds as someone called his next of kin. As the doors closed on Matsuda Touta, a dark figure on his roof- invisible to all who cared to look- unfurled its wings.

"One down, two to go," the being grinned to itself, its red tinted eyes glinting wickedly in the lamplight.

After all, even Shinigami could be made to dream…