Death Note fanfiction

[tallulahgs]

[Title] In the Dead of Night
[Fandom] Death Note
[Rating] PG for murder
[Characters/Pairings] Misa, her parents and a certain burglar
[Warnings] See rating
[Word Count] 523
[Notes/Summary] Written for and crossposted to dn_contest, prompt 'sneeze'. Short fic about how Misa's witnessing of her parents' death may have happened.



Every time Misa closed her eyes and tried to sleep, her head began to ache, or her nose itched, or she started sneezing and had to get out of bed to look for tissues. She'd thought her hay fever was improving; she rarely got it these days. But someone was obviously making an exception for her tonight.

(Outside in the cooling air the monster stood and watched the windows.)

She sat up, clambered out of bed for the eighth time. Another sneeze. Walking slowly, carefully, as if she were drunk, she opened her bedroom door. A little flicker of air. Her room was too hot, because it caught the sun all day. She didn't bother putting a dressing gown on - even the baggy purple T-shirt she slept in was clammy against her skin. Another sneeze. The rainbow-patterned clock on her bedside table said it was ten minutes past midnight, but her parents were heavy sleepers.

(The monster climbed over the gate and was silhouetted against the sky for only a moment and walked down the dusty path by the side of the house and round to the half-open kitchen window.)

The landing was dim and shadowy, and outside the sky was almost still light. This probably wasn't helping, Misa thought, and sniffed. The bathroom looked like something out of a black-and-white movie, and the blind twitched a little as she opened the door.

(The monster wrenched the window open and climbed into the house and stood on their draining board and then scrambled to the floor. The monster took a knife from the drawer.)

Misa didn't want to switch the light on because it would only make her more awake. She squinted into the medicine cabinet, trying to remember where she'd left the allergy medicine.

(The monster climbed the stairs and they didn't creak.)

But it wasn't there. Perhaps her mother had taken it before bed or something.

(The monster went into her bedroom and saw she wasn't there, and walked on by.)

The house shifted around her, drew a breath.

(The monster went into her parents' bedroom and saw they were there, and didn't walk on by.)

Misa walked back down the shadowy carpet.

(The monster killed her father. Her father never knew but her mother felt him dying and opened her eyes but she must have thought it was a dream, right before the monster killed her too.)

Misa stood at the doorway and saw the monster in her parents' bedroom, a dark shape cut out of the bed she'd climbed into on Saturday mornings and the carpet she'd lain on while playing with her mother's jewellery. Her father was slumped over, face turned towards her, bleeding shadow.

For a moment, the room was very quiet.

And she would have stayed standing there forever if she hadn't sneezed again and made the monster turn and when it turned, she ran, and she got to stay alive.

She stopped getting hay fever, but that night was the first of many exceptions made for her.

Comments

[dapperzombie.livejournal.com]

I forget how young Misa was when her parents got killed (been a while since I read DN), but this was a nicely told, almost sorta folklore concept that makes it seem like a kid's story. Despite, you know, the whole murder and stuff :) (The "bleeding shadow" metaphor was ossum.) Fantastic as usual!

Now I need to start reading that Battle Royale fic of yours...^^ onward and upward!

[tallulahgs]

If I knew, I'd forgotten, but I'm glad you liked - I was kind of going for a creepy fairytale vibe. Thank you!