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Annals of Fear II	By : DeathNoteFangirl Category: Death Note > Yaoi-Male/Male > Mello/Matt Views: 5803 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note and I do not make any money from these writings

Chapter List
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Author's Note: I'm going away for the weekend and might not be back until Monday/Tuesday.   Therefore I'm posting up three day's worth of chapters.   Please note that, once these are up, there will be no more chapters until Tuesday.   Also, this story is being discussed here: http://mrsjeevas.joharrington.co.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=11

"Deontic!"   Valerie clattered up the concrete stairs and pushed at the computer hub door.   It was ajar and opened at her touch.   The room within was bathed with candlelight, though the actual equipment remained dead.   The Watari woman was waiting for her.   She had evidently been watching from the window.   "It's chaos out there, everything electrical has gone down.   Not just the mains, but batteries in every form. But I think I have you a lift up to the manor house, if you want it."

Deontic leaned over the table to peer again at the pavement below.   The gentleman there was wearing calf length, rolled up, white jeans, beneath a hooded, waterproof jacket.   He was perched upon a contraption that looked like a pushbike attached to a huge, steel framed net.    She asked, mildly, "Who is he?"

"His name is Daf. He's been wonderful.   He waited with me and brought me back."   Her face had received four stitches all told.   Three at the bridge of her nose and one on her cheekbone.    "Deontic, everything is down.   Even the hospital has no power."   Valerie lowered her voice, though no-one was eavesdropping.   She felt a little excitable, after the exhilaration of the ride back here.   While Deontic appeared to move within an oasis of calm.   "The town is swarming with police officers on foot.   It feels catastrophic.   It is unprecedented."

"Tell me exactly what is happening out there." Deontic inspected the stitches, while she received Valerie's eye-witness report. At the end of it, Deontic looked pensive.    "Have the authorities requested Watari assistance?"

"No." Valerie smiled. "But I didn't exactly advertise that you were here."   She flicked her hand towards the window.   "That thing is more comfortable than it looks.   He works in a surf shop, but he makes extra money with his bicycle taxi service during the summer. He knows where the manor house is and he's willing to take you up there."

Deontic considered it.   "Please invite him up here, Valerie."   She moved to a table covered in origami and selected two pieces of paper.   She began to write, while Valerie yelled to Daf from the staircase.    He appeared beside her shortly afterwards.    Deontic glanced up at him, appraising him from behind her round glasses.   "Good evening.   I will be with you in just a moment. Thank you for coming."

Daf's exuberance became tempered too, in the peaceful atmosphere.   He and Valerie sat together on a table, grinning like school-children.    A handful of minutes later, Deontic folded her letters into quarters and tidily set them in a pile before her.   She smiled at Daf.   "I appreciate you looking after Valerie.   She is a visitor to our country, as well as this town. Your hospitality is well received."

"There's fine." Daf seemed smaller, under Deontic's gaze and her crystal clipped accent.   Valerie frowned, questioningly, but no-one volunteered information.   "Want a lift up to the old manor, is it?"

"Not me." Deontic smiled.   "What have you been told, Mr...?"   She let her sentence hang, fishing for the appropriate honorific.

"Thomas, ma'am."   He was all but touching his forelock.   Valerie couldn't believe her eyes.   "Dafydd Thomas, ma'am."    Deontic inclined her head.   She was a picture of grace and poise.    She waited and he spluttered on.   "Friends you have, up there. Stranded like. With no provisions."

Deontic nodded. "That is sound information, as far as it goes.   However, this is also a very sensitive situation.   There is a potential there for people to enter into great danger.   Innocent bystanders. I want you to understand that before you go near the place."   She watched his jaw drop.    "I therefore propose that you take Valerie with you to within a safe distance, then wait for her to return with one of our operatives."   Her gaze flickered from one to the other.   "Is that agreeable to you, Valerie?"

"What do I do?   Just go in and find somebody?"

"Yes." Deontic smiled reassurance. "And if there is no-one to be found, then you return for me.   That is why I'm staying back.   I need to be a point of contact and I may have to be the last line of defence."     She could see that Daf didn't have a clue what was going on.   Valerie was slightly wiser, but even she seemed a little confused.    She decided to clarify it for them.   "You are both, of course, undertaking roles that ordinarily would be filled by trained operatives.   That cannot be helped.   Shall we say a quarter of a million each?"

Daf actually did slide off the table.   He slammed down a foot to steady himself.   His whole face was a mask of disbelief.   Valerie was also impressed, but not quite comically so.   Valerie nodded, "That would be very generous."

Daf swallowed.   "So I get a quarter of a million pounds. Sterling?"

"Whichever currency you prefer." Deontic indicated that this would be no problem

"Just for running Valerie up the road?"

Deontic winced slightly. "A little more than that, if you would be so kind."   She took her first letter and handed it to Valerie.   "I unfortunately have no envelopes.   That needs to be hand-delivered to the highest ranking authority figure in the town.   I'm suspecting that you will need to visit either the police station or the council offices.   It informs them that there is a Watari presence in town and it offers my assistance, if that is needful."    She smiled back at Daf.   "Would you be able to squeeze a small amount of luggage onto your bicycle, Mr Thomas?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Thank you."   Deontic excused herself and broke into Century's study.   She picked up his defibrillator and medication, before adding a box of lollipops.   She returned to the hub.   "Are the shops still trading?"    At their negative response, she went downstairs and, with textbook professionalism, she broke into the chalets belonging to Mello and Matt, then Fenian and Kiana.   She returned with extra cigarettes, a box of chocolate bars and a change of clothing for Matt.   She added his gilet, left in the hub, to the pile.   "Is this too much?"   Daf mutely shook his head.   Deontic rifled through the boxes, stored under the desks, and selected wind-up torches, candles and two boxes of matches. She added a note to her second letter, then handed that to Valerie.    "This lists the last known readings for all of the monitors, as well as my actions thus far.   I am going to stay here, until Matt or one of the others relieves me."   She frowned, thinking hard.   "Valerie.    Don't alert the civil authorities, unless you judge that the situation out there is more critical than the one at the house."

"Ok."

"Mr Thomas.   It may be that we will require your further services, as events play out.   You will, of course, receive monetary recompense for this."   She stood primly before him.   "I do have one further request.   That is that you do not mention this to anyone, excepting those at the manor house.   I recommend that you take the river path."   Deontic did not allow her inward shrinking to show. "It is shorter and more direct.   But if there is any hint of strangeness.   Anything out of the ordinary." She paused.   She couldn't put it much more plainly without inciting panic.   "Anything that worries you, should be met by you turning around and coming straight back to report it to me. Your personal safety should be your priority." She waited until they both nodded.   "Daf, please go no further than the road above Llanfarian." She saw a flicker in his gaze and inclined her head. "My apologies for my mispronunciation."

"Llanfarian."   He corrected. It didn't sound much different to her own attempt.    "But it's fine."

"Valerie, your lone progress from there to the house may be the most dangerous.   Please speak up if you are not prepared to do this."

Valerie smiled.   "I've worked in war-torn African nations. I think I can handle this."

"Do not get complacent."   Deontic surveyed them carefully.   "I wish I could give you communicators, but they are all out; and, anyway, they do not work at present." She folded her hands together, holding them tightly so not to display her nerves.    "Take the letter with you, but leave the provisions with Mr Thomas.   Mello or Fenian, whichever is currently in control of the house, will escort you back to the bicycle and they can collect their items then."   She smiled.   "Any questions?"

Daf sucked in his breath.   "So that's definitely a quarter of a million pounds sterling?"

"For this initial run, yes.   Any extra will be offered to you and priced accordingly.   However, it may be judged that there are no extra deliveries." She gestured her helplessness.   "I, unfortunately, am not up to date with current proceedings.   However, if you are advised that the work is done, I would still appreciate you returning to give me your report."   She searched her methodical mind to see what she had missed out.   "Oh! I can pay you with a cheque now or cash tomorrow. Whichever is preferable."

Daf laughed aloud.   "Going to have bloody 'Candid Camera' jump out on me in a minute."

Deontic's expression didn't change.   "I can assure you, Mr Thomas, that this is deadly serious." She switched her attention to the psychologist. "Oh! Valerie!   In the unlikely event that Matt is the only person present, please do feel free to..."

"Punch his lights out?"

Deontic smiled. "That too."    She walked to the door and held it open.   "Good luck to you both." They took the hint and left.   She heard their enthusiastic chatter begin as soon as they were around the bend in the stairs.   She envied them the levity.   She wished that she too had the same spirit of adventure.   Deontic walked back into the hub and closed the door against the icy wind.   She noted that, as she exhaled, her breath fogged the air before her.   She glanced once around the room, then returned to her origami.

Hurtling in the direction of the marina, Valerie held on tightly to the triangular steel frame.   Her body pressed the thick net down to within just a few inches of the tarmac, but no further.   Two inches from her feet, a tiny wheel span so fast that it seemed to disappear.   It was a little disconcerting that only that wheel was lifting the frame from the floor.   Valerie imagined the sparks that would ensue, should the wheel shoot off.    It was a freezing way to travel, but filled with a sense of the bizarre that continued to delight her.   She would like to try it in summer next time though.    Above her head, Daf kept chuckling.   He was still stunned by the payment tag on this, as, indeed, was Valerie.    He called back, "Up by here now.   Not too far out of our way."    They had had to take the road, as the river path was too narrow for the net trailer.

"Thank you!"   She called back.   She watched the darkened marina, then the sea-front start to fall away behind them. She laughed like a girl.   "And thank you for being so fit.   I'd have died trying to pedal up here."

Daf didn't reply.   He was too busy cycling up a steep side-road.   The wind picked up.   It was bitterly cold now, yet Daf had finally broken out in a sheen of sweat.   He stopped at the top to catch his breath.   He was still grinning though.   He caught her looking and waved an arm towards the dark slopes above them.   "Pen Dinas."

"Oh?"   Valerie politely looked, but there was nothing to see.   "Lovely!"

"Not far now!"   Daf gained his second wind and immediately started cycling.   Their twisting lane moved from open slopes to the tunnel-like shelter of trees.   "Good for me too." He called back once.   "Normally too many cars to do this, see?" The journey went on, almost hypnotic in its surreal aspect and scenery.     The iciness of the wind slowly took the upper hand though, with Valerie wishing them there.   She huddled as best she could and waited it out.   Eventually, Daf stopped the bike. The wind whistled through the trees.   Valerie stirred, assuming that they were there.   Daf twisted around, "I can get you a little closer yet, but come here and see."

Her feet were blocks of ice.   Her legs had gone to sleep. The first thing that Valerie did, upon rolling out of the contraption, was to stamp repeatedly, until some feeling returned.   Then she looked up and the vista took her breath away.   "Oh. That is..."   She nodded.   Daf looked very proud.   The full moon had come out.   The Ystwyth Valley, hitherto lost in the mire, was revealed in all its wild splendor. The mountains on each side tumbled steeply down, meeting in a wide plain.   The occasional lone tree or bush was picked out as patches of blackness, but the clumps and woods had shades of shadows.   The fields reminded her now, even more so than in the daylight, of an old patchwork quilt.   Each segment unique and pretty in its own right.   Her eyes took it in quickly, realising that there wasn't the time to linger.   Her gaze travelled to the Ystwyth River, its streaming currents picked out silver by the moonlight.   The stepping stones of the weir seemed lit from beneath.   She could see their greyness quite brightly, as the churning water reflected back the light.

Moving slowly into focus, Valerie also saw the man standing on the weir.   His face up-tilted towards the moon and the valley beyond.    She gasped.   "Daf wait."   She hurried to the wire fence, delineating the edge of the road, and cupped her hands around her mouth.   She yelled. "Fenian!"    It took two more shouts, with Daf joining in on the last, before the Irishman turned around.    His head moved as he searched for the source of his name.   "Fenian!"   Valerie leapt up and down, waving with both arms.   It was warming her up, if nothing else.   Daf did the same.   They were seen.   Fenian peered up, through the leafless trees and spotted them.   He looked disappointed.   He also looked exhausted and wet.    The rocks beneath him were splattered with drip marks.    "Is there any way down there?"   Valerie asked, urgently.

Daf shook his head.   "Not without going back to Aber.   Or through the woods, maybe."

They were too far apart for a proper conversation.   Valerie wondered if he even knew precisely who she was. Neither she nor Daf would stand out so well as he did, with the mountain behind them.   He tried shouting something back, but the only words that she could make out were 'tell' and 'chalet'.    He pointed down the river-bank, towards the ocean.   She assumed that the message was that he was going back to the chalets.    To confirm that, Fenian started walking into that direction.   He was hobbling.   He kept looking back, but he didn't try to shout anything else.   "Ok, then."   Valerie grinned, resuming her seat.   "Onwards and upwards."

"He one of them?"   Daf looked puzzled.   "Not MI5 then?"

Valerie didn't know how to answer that.   "What makes you say that?"

Daf saw the reservation in her eyes.   "No more questions, is it?    Fair enough."   He hopped back onto the saddle. "Name like Fenian, working with the English.   That's all."    He cycled off along the forest road, while Valerie guiltily didn't respond to his comment.   It put a damper on the mood, which he evidently felt too, as he spoke again, once they were on the flat.   "Sarn Elen, this is.   One of Elen's road.   Old queen, she is. And here's me, driving you, like your own charioteer."

Valerie laughed. It was enough. They could be friends again now.   "Thank you for this, Daf.   I'm glad I met you."

"Me too." Daf's voice held a grin.   "Quarter of a million pounds, is it? Duw! That glad, I am, to have met you!"
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Annals of Fear II