=== YOUR POV === 

         I woke up to two familiar faces; Ryuk and Light Yagami, which reminded me... "SHOOT!!!" I shot up to a sitting position and tried to get up, but Ryuk held me back. We got into a yelling argument and I slipped his notebook from its holder. I stealthily slid it to Lawliet, who was now standing by Ryuk, and I suddenly started to feel light-headed. I weakly laid back down as Light looked at me curiously. "How were you able to see Ryuk, Sakura?" "Call me Alex." "Fine. But how?" I moved to reach under my pillow when I pretended to remember that I wasn't in the hotel room in Tokyo. "Where?!?!" Lawliet held up the notebook right on cue. Ryuk's eyes narrowed for a moment, and then he understood. "My name here is Ryuzaki, by the way, Alex." I tried to snatch it from him with my right arm and he pulled it away. "Sounds an awful lot like Ryuk if you ask me." Lawliet reaches forward and tucks a piece of hair behind my ear. Ryuk laughs as Light turns to him. "You gave her a notebook?" "No, I dropped a notebook and Alex was there to pick it up." I'm starting to feel very dizzy and black spots are crowding my vision. L looks down at my torso and panic fills his eyes as I pass out again.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

          I was running. Running from my past; the night my parents had died, my birthday that Halloween night when I'd tried to jump into oncoming traffic but had been pulled back by two strong hands. I'd turned back to see Beyond standing behind me. Running from my present; my best friend, a murderer and a psychopath who's had the patience to deal with my schizophrenia. Running from Light Yagami, who was holding his notebook and writing names in it. Running to my future, where Lawliet and Beyond were standing, looking exactly alike except for their eyes. One pair blue, one red. Running as fast as I could, away from all of the bad things. But I wasn't moving. Light Yagami was slowly approaching as Lawliet and Beyond faded away. I was falling into a never ending pit. I say my personality flashing by; a chipper and perky shell surrounding a dark inside. I was empty. Nothing. No one.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

          My eyes shot open and I groaned. Now Beyond was by my bed, holding my hand, genuine concern in his red eyes. "Alex is awake!!!" My side, left leg, and left shoulder felt like they were on fire and my left forearm was bent at an odd angle. "What..." "You tried to move too fast too soon and reopened your wounds. Just lay there and let us take care of you." I looked at the couch, where Light was asleep and then to my left, where Lawliet was crouched on a stool. "Are you okay?" "No." Light woke up. "Wha...?" "I still need to write my entrance paper." L chuckles. "You've almost died twice and the first thing you can think of is how a brilliant, 20-year-old (G) like you is how worried (G) is about (G) entrance paper?" I weakly nod. He chuckles again, and Beyond joins him. Suddenly, something else crosses my mind. "I'm 19." Lawliet shakes his head. "You were 19. As of midnight last night, you are 20 years old." "Well then, you're 25." He nods. I turn to Beyond. "And you're 23." He nods.

          I roll my eyes. "Now I feel young." Light walks over. "If it makes you feel any better, I'm only 19." We all turn and stare at him. "Since when? I thought you were seventeen." "I was. Then I turned eighteen. My nineteenth birthday was in February." "Hmm. Well, I still need to write my paper. And it's still La- erm- Ryuzaki's birthday." "It's yours, too." "Yeah, well, I've already got you a gift." "You do?" Beyond looks hurt. I roll my eyes. "It's not something I can give to you. You'll just have to wait." "Why?" "It wouldn't be a surprise if I told you." "How?" "Ryuk helped." "I did?" I nod. "Remember last year when I had planned to celebrate our birthday before I took an express flight to death?" Ryuk nods. "On the rooftop?" Recognition glittered in his eyes. "Got it." I turn to Lawliet. "We will have to fly back to Japan for it, though."

          Beyond pipes up. "Yeah, see... that's the thing." Now L is speaking. "Watari insisted that he see you but it was impossible for him to leave our new headquarters, so we built a medical wing and moved you here." I nod. "Sweet. So I can get back to work?" Ryuk laughs. "You're not moving until we say you're okay to." I glare at him and slide my super-thin wrists out of the restraints around them. I hold them up and he curses. Lawliet speaks up again. "We'll let you have your hands, but only for--" "My entrance paper. Thanks!" I wink at him. Beyond scowls and looks away. "I mean, I'm obviously gonna spend time with you two as well, but it's already October 31st. If I am going to end up going to this school, I need to get my paper in by November 10th." Lawliet nods. "Of course. I'll go grab your laptop." He shuffles out of the room and I glance at Beyond as Light says; "It's your birthday; you shouldn't be working." "I did a lot of good work on Beyond's Birthday." He pretends to sigh and roll his eyes. "For the last time, It's Beyond Birthday, not Beyond's Birthday." I chuckle, but it ends as a cough.

          "Don't overwork yourself," Lawliet says, walking into the room with a brand-new laptop. "Woah." "We got a decent amount of funding from some citizens that wanted to donate." I raise an eyebrow. "And?" He sighs. "And I have a fairly large savings account." I smile and open the laptop. Light stands up. "I should get going; school starts soon." Ryuzaki glances at him. "Yes, I suppose you should." He nods and walks out of the room. In the split-second that the door is open, I see Matsuda walking by with an armful of papers. He sees me awake, drops all the papers, and runs into the room. I hear the Chief's voice; "MATSUDA! WHAT ARE--" He stomps into the room to find me awake and working on my entrance paper. "(Y/N)! I'm so glad to see that you're feeling better." I give the Chief and Matsuda a weak smile and go back to my paper. I work on it all day, with Watari bringing me food and water and the Task Force members coming in to visit periodically. Lawliet and Beyond work on either side of me and by that night, I've finished. I send it in and stretch my right arm. L raises an eyebrow at me. "That took you longer than I expected it to." I simply point to my left arm. "Ah. That makes sense." I glance at the clock on my laptop. "RYUK!!!" He comes hovering in, munching on an apple. "What?" "Take him outside!" "Oh, right!" He leads Lawliet out to the courtyard and I hear the fireworks go off.

          Beyond turns to me. "This wasn't supposed to happen." "Oh, I wasn't supposed to be alive?" I snapped. "Sorry I screwed that up. Unfortunately, I do have things to live for now." "Plural?" "Yes." "Who?" "Ryuzaki and you." Beyond's eyes narrow. "I told you before. If I can't--" "And I told you before. Ryuk and I are just friends." He stands up, looking out the window at Lawliet. "You really like him, don't you?" He turns back to me and I nod. "More than me?" "No." "So you like me more than him." "No." He cocks an eyebrow at me. "Equally, then?" I nod. "You know you're going to have to choose eventually." I reluctantly nod. "I think I know exactly who you're going to choose." I tilt my head at him. "And who is that?" He turns to me, his red eyes glittering. "Me." "Oh? And how can you be sure?" He turns away. "I'm not sure. It's a 50% chance that you'll choose me. But if something were to happen to one of us, you would choose the other one." "Are you sure? What makes you think I would choose a 23-year-old detective with a murderous multiple personality disorder over a 25-year-old justice-hungry detective with the exact same IQ, even if he's dead?" "Says the schizophrenic psychopath." Beyond strides over to me, sits on the edge of my bed, and leans over me, his face inches from mine, grabbing my right hand. "You know me." "I know him, too." He runs his hand down my side, sliding his nails down the bandage wrapped tightly around my torso to stop the blood flow. (I'm listening to Billie Eilish's newest album right now and it perfectly fits what's happening in the story right now. Scary 😰. And, for the record, it's not a good idea to argue with murderers, no matter how well you know them.)

        He leans in closer; his hand is on my thigh now. "I'm leaving in the morning." I feel my face crumple. "Awww, is Alex gonna miss me?" "No. (Y/N) is going to miss you," I whisper. He smirks and stands up, dropping my  hand. "Don't be too sad if anyone you love gets into an accident." "Don't touch him." "Who? Ryuk?" He walks out of the room without a second backwards glance at me. I realize I've been holding my breath and let it out, gasping for air. I feel something in my hand and open the scrap of paper. 'I love you. Thanks for the raspberry jam.' I'm feeling light-headed again as Lawliet walks in, his hand in his pockets. "Thanks for the--" he sees the blood flowing out onto the bed, the cut bandages, and the knife, buried up to the hilt, in the front of my stomach. He leaps forward, yelling, "AL--"

===========================================================================

So, this was one of the easiest chapter to write; I just turned on some Billie Eilish, started typing, and zoned out. That was half an hour ago. I'm gonna get started on the next chapter, so let me know if you see any mistakes or anything like that if you see any.

Love, Crystal💖