Death Note: The Next Kira

Chapter One: Pack Up for Japan

JANUARY 12, 2006

WACO, TX

6:39 AM

                                                                    MARIE 

I woke up gasping and heavily breathing as the sunlight from outside shone down on me. "Marie!" I heard a voice call out. "Marie! Please wake up! You don't wanna be late for your trip to Japan!" I opened my eyes once I heard my mom call that out. As soon as I sat up in bed, Alex woke up from his sleep. We stretched out and yawned together. Well, I stretched out my arms and Alex stretched out his front paws. My yawn was louder than Alex's yawn which was very much silent. Memories from my dream last night hit me. I looked at my coat rack with my bags hanging from them. The bags looked like they were barely full. I slipped on my black and purple house shoes and rushed through the coat rack with Alex. As we searched through them, we were relieved to find that they were empty. I sighed in relief. "It was only just a dream." I've never been so happy in my life. I then packed all of my bags with all of my clothes, my favorite movies, my books, my CDs (those were things I didn't pack in my dream because I became too fixated on what was on the news), my iPod, and some stuff for Alex like his feeding and water bowl along with his litter box. After I packed up all of my things, I picked out an outfit that I forgot to pack up. It was a black t-shirt with one of my favorite band singers, Siouxsie Sioux (the lead singer of Siouxsie and the Banshees) along with a black and charcoal plaid colored skirt, some fishnet gloves, some fishnet tights, and a pair of high heel boots. 

After I picked out my outfit, I heard the sound of the door shaking and the sound of someone knocking three times. "Marie, why is the door locked?" I asked. "I don't know," I answered. "Sleepwalking, maybe." That was strange. I don't remember locking the door last night. My mom jiggled the doorknob again and knocked on it three times again. "What's going on?" I went to the door and unlocked it. Afterward, my mom slowly opened it. She was a thin woman with glasses, green eyes, and long curly brown hair. "Honey, did you just get up?" she asked. I nodded. "Yes, I just...don't remember locking the door last night." My mom nodded slowly. "Ah, I see," she said. "Oh, and I almost forgot to tell you that Alex is going to be coming along with me since I packed up all of his things," I told her. "Oh," my mother said in a surprised tone. "I'm not so sure you should do that, honey. What if Christy Grim has a cat allergy?" she reminded me. "Mom," I assured her. "It's rare for people to be allergic to cats." My mother nodded. "Well, okay," she said. "Just in case she is allergic to cats, you need to keep Alex far away from Christy Grim, you got that?" she asked. I held up an okay sigh with my hand. "Got it," I answered. Now, why don't you go brush your teeth and pack up your toothbrush with a bottle of toothpaste? You don't wanna have stinky breath when you go meet your favorite popstar, Christy Grim, do you?" I shook my head. "No, Mom," I answered. "I'll get to it." I hurried straight to the bathroom after she said that. 

After brushing my teeth, I put on my outfit and went downstairs to the dining room to see what Mom made me. "Oh, hello, my dear," she said. "I just made you your favorite breakfast." I sat down at the table to find a plate with waffles with strawberry syrup. "Waffles with strawberry syrup." I looked down at my plate in disappointment because I knew that something was missing. The fried chicken tenders! "I know that you like your waffles with fried chicken tenders, but I don't know what kind of food you and Christy will have on the airplane so I didn't make them." I quickly shrugged it off. "Eh, it's okay, Mom," I reassured her. "This looks just as delicious even without the chicken tenders." She smiled in awe. "Aw," she said quietly. "Thank you, sweetheart." I began to cut up my waffles with a knife and a fork as my mom sat down across from me. I  began to cut my food with a knife and fork. I looked at Mom's side of the table and it turned out, she had no dish sitting in front of her. "Did you already eat?" I asked her. "Yes," she answered. "I had a bowl of oatmeal and berries." I nodded before I raised my fork to my mouth and took my first bite of the waffles with strawberry syrup. "So, what do you think you and Christy will do in Japan?" she asked as I took my first bite and chewed it up. I swallowed the bite of food that I took right after she said that. "Well, a walk in the park during cherry blossom season is a yes." I started. "I could have a rice cake, but I know I can't have sushi." "Yes, yes. I'm very aware of that." my mother assured me. 

Just then, my mother's eyes started to get teary. I got through with my third bite of food when I stopped eating my food for a little bit. "Mom, are you okay?" I asked. My mom's face was instantly filled with tears. "It's too early for you to move out of the house," she answered as she dried her tears and removed her glasses. "It doesn't feel right. And if this is about John, then you should try to get over it while you're still here with us." I sighed. "Mom, I can't do it here. It's just too difficult. Every time I try, I just get even more anxious and worried about him. What if he gets back together with his evil ex-girlfriend or gets together with someone else who makes him happier than I ever did?" "Look, I know it's hard, sweetheart, but that's life. Things like that can happen," she answered. My mother eventually dried her tears and placed her glasses back on. "But I must say I admire the way that you never want to hurt anyone," she assured me. "You really are a remarkable soon-to-be-woman, Marie." I smiled. "I love you," I told her. "I love you, too, sweetheart," she said back. My mom leaned over and kissed my forehead. 

We sat there in silence for a brief moment as I continued eating my breakfast. "Are you still scared of it?" she asked breaking the silence. "Scared of what? The girl from The Exorcist? Heck yeah. Gives me the creeps every time." I answered. "No," she said. "Kira." I hesitated. "Uh...no. Not really." "Well good." my mother said in relief. "You don't need to worry about Kira anymore, sweetie. The real Kira is dead." My mother sighed. "It's such a shame that a sweet innocent boy became a mass murderer going from killing criminals to innocent people. I feel so bad for his mother and sister. They refuse to believe that their loved one is in fact, Kira." I continued to chow down on my food. "And his fiancee,...she committed suicide when she heard the news that her fiance died." 

I then felt like I needed to ask my mother about something. "Hey Mom, have you heard about the rumors about Misa Amane?" I asked. She made a confused look on her face. "What rumors about her?" she asked. "The rumors that she may be still alive," I answered. My mother made a concerned look on her face. "Baby, where have you heard those rumors?" she asked. "Uh," I hesitated. "The news???" My mother rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Of course, they'd say something like that." She looked straight into my eyes. "You need to ignore those rumors about Misa Amane and let her L Lawliet, Watari, Soichiro Yagami, along with all of the people Kira killed rest in peace."

 A million thoughts flooded my head. Why did my dream feel so real? Is Light Yagami now a Shinigami? Or a ghost that haunts people who want to make the world a better place by ridding the evil within it? And what if Misa Amane is still alive just like the rumors I heard on the news? If she is, then God knows what she's going through right now. She must miss Light that she felt like her life had no purpose without him. The thought of Misa Amane still being alive made me both excited and sad at the same time. "Honey, is that what you're wearing to the airport?" my mother asked making me snap back into reality. "Oh yes," I answered. I got up and raised my skirt a little bit as a Disney Princess would. "Do you like it?" I asked. My mother made an awkward smile on her face and slowly nodded. "Y-yes, honey. You look great," she answered awkwardly. I then sat back down and finished eating my meal. 

After breakfast, I went to my room and gathered all my bags together. As I was doing so, I accidentally knocked down something. Alex meowed and I dropped my bags onto the floor. It was a scrapbook of my relationship with John. I opened it up to find pictures of us having our first kiss, and going on our first date (we went to go get some milkshakes from Kim's Diner by the way.) Along with other pictures of us going out to get pizza, watching horror movies at my house while my parents and brothers were away for the weekend, and having a pretend wedding. I thought that he was the one for me. John was so handsome with his platinum blonde hair that was half dyed into a light blue color at the bottom. My parents disliked him because he was held back a couple of times and was three years older than me (he was also held back in Junior year three times due to his abusive ex-girlfriend. (I didn't call his ex evil for anything, by the way. John and I tried to make it work out, but he saw the sad truth before I did.) And it was that we weren't going to make it like this. So...he decided to break up with me. I was so devastated on the first day. I cried my eyes out until they became so red and swollen that I couldn't continue crying anymore. 

Alex meowed to get my attention. I looked down and saw that he had a sad and concerned look on his face. I bent down and wiped the look of grief and sorrow off my face. "I know it hurts, buddy. But this is the only way to get over him." I told him. Alex nodded and wiped the sad look off his face. I threw the picture book away in an empty trash bin under my computer desk.