We Sleep Forever

Suggested Listening: Get Stoned by Hinder

Chapter 4 – Opportunity

The early morning sun spilled through the window of the small bedroom and roused me from sleep. Groaning I threw an arm over my eyes. I had a killer headache and was already suffering some early withdrawal symptoms from my drugs of choice.

My body ached as I rolled over and carelessly flung my legs over the edge of the messy bed. Glancing at the clock I swore.

“It's far too early to be awake.” I mumbled. My mouth felt dry; like I had eaten a pound of cotton. Stumbling across the room I found a clean shirt and a pair of jeans waiting for me on the computer chair.

Marcus must have put them there; I would have just thrown on anything I had found on the floor. Laughing I opened the bedroom door and strode naked to the shower across the hall.

Hissing as the hot water touched my abused body I leaned my head against the cool glass of the shower door. Everyday started out mostly like this, it actually depended on whether or not I had gotten any sleep the night or day before. I sighed.

“I wonder what he would say if he could see me now?” squeezing my eyes shut I exhaled deeply. Pushing myself away from the glass I proceeded to thoroughly clean myself, a little too much if the greasy feeling my hair gave off was any indication.

I always ended up using way too much conditioner. Eventually I turned the water off and toweled dry before putting on the clean clothes and walking out into the noisy fray of my apartment.

It was a permanent party here; an endless supply of booze, drugs and sex. I had many friends who stayed here frequently and just as many random people I had never so much as spoken to.

I didn’t care. They all knew that the laptop and the room that it inhabited was off limits; although sometimes they would disregard that if they hadn’t seen me sleep in a few days... or a week.

My senses tingled at the memory of the night before and I flopped boneless on the ratty couch; techno music blared loudly all around me. I shifted so that my back faced the door and closed my eyes. I was too tired to do much else.

The sound of the door banging against the wall roused me a while later yet I kept my eyes closed. I could feel eyes running over the length of my body and had to suppress a shiver. But it didn’t seem that the person's main reason of being here was me for their eyes left me quickly enough.

Relaxing again I tried to fall back asleep until suddenly I was being pulled from the couch by my hair; the person earned a small gasp from me. Struggling I was immediately backhanded; my cheek stung and I knew it would leave a bruise. Landing hard on the grimy carpet I looked up at my attacker.

I nearly smirked, Zane hadn’t been here in a while; his short black hair looked impossibly dark due to the clouded atmosphere of the room.

His calloused hands tore the shirt from my body and I allowed him to dispose of my jeans. He nipped at my neck and I jerked back; I hated when he did that. He took my belt and whacked me upside the head with the buckle making my vision fade for a moment. But god did it feel great. He flipped me over, just like Marcus had done to me last night, and shoved himself into me harshly.

I know I screamed; it hurt like hell to my already sore body. I knew I was bleeding by the way he slid more easily in and out. It hurt so fucking much and yet I couldn’t help but moan; I craved the pain. My half lidded eyes looked up. I glanced at the leather clad form that was still standing in the doorway and was met with a surprise.

Blond hair, ice blue eyes and a nasty looking scar across the left side of his face. It was Mello. My breath caught in my throat and Zane must have noticed my inattention for he smacked the back of my head.

“Sorry.” I mumbled yet not able to take my eyes off of the blond.

“Dobrý pes.” Zane murmured to me. Yes, good dog indeed. Mello scrunched his nose in disgust and stalked out of the room.

I allowed Zane to finish what he started, but a satisfying sexual experience was the last thing on my mind at the moment. I had just seen Mello after nearly seven years and I wanted to know why he was here. I had just pulled my pants back on when Zane pulled me into a quick kiss.

“That boy distracted you, do you like him?” Zane asked in that heavy accent of his.

“He reminds me of someone I once knew.” and at that I knew Zane would no longer question my interest. Anyone who actually spent any amount of time around me knew to stay out of my past.

“I will leave you to it then.” he walked off with a smile and a wave, presumably to go get high as he often did while here. I walked quietly to the kitchen that Mello had entered but stayed just outside and out of sight.

“Why are you looking for J?” I heard Miranda’s voice ask.

“I want his help solving a case.” She sighed. “If J isn’t working on the case already then it's not worth it.”

“J will take the case once he sees what I have on it.”

My heart raced. Mello wanted to work with J? What could be so important that he would seek him out? I listened to more of the conversation and slid against the wall in thought as Mello went to check out my laptop.

What Miranda said was true, he would never be able to crack the password, never mind bypass it. That wasn’t what I was worried about. After all of these years why did he have to fall back into my life? Granted I wasn’t exactly living the way I should be, but it was this or death. I could drown out my emotions in drugs and abusive sex because the pain kept me grounded; I had even learned to like it. But Mello brought everything back.

I hit my head on the wall and repeated it a few more times until I was dizzy. If Mello was asking someone like J for help then this case must be something...

“I told you it was impossible.” Miranda spoke again and I assumed Mello was back in the kitchen, thank god there were two entrances. I snorted at the comment about this place never seeing a sober day, it was all too true. Pulling my phone from my pocket I held it tightly.

I swallowed thickly; my hands shook around the cell phone.

Flipping open the cover my fingers were already dialing the number before my mind had finalized its decision.

“Yeah?” came the automatic response, though I could hear the surprise in her voice. “Have him explain what the case is about. I have a feeling it might be interesting.”

“I understand. So when do you...?”

“Now. Don't let him leave.” I could practically see her nod to my instructions. “Wait!” I heard her cry out. Mello must have been ready to walk out.

“Tell him I have chosen you to speak on my behalf. And that you will decide weather or not the case is worth my time. Take him to the sound room where I can listen in.” I ended the call and quickly made my way to my laptop, but not before locking the door behind me. I didn’t need to hear the rest of the conversation, I knew Miranda would convince him to stay.

Booting up the laptop I plugged in a set of headphones and put them on as I opened the video and audio feeds for the TV room, otherwise known as the sound room because of all the bugging equipment in it.

“So let's hear about this case.” Miranda said from her position on the couch. Mello seemed to be debating something in his mind but eventually explained everything.

Well perhaps not everything. I knew that he was holding back information, probably things linking to the orphanage he had been talking about. I watched as Miranda pushed the small red button on her phone and her voice came directly from my computer rather than the program.

“I did, and I will help you with this case. However I expect to be told more about the deaths, mainly the parts you left out as it could possibly hold clues pertaining to the case.”

“I can assure you that the information isn’t relevant to the case.” I watched Mello’s face carefully but he seemed neither surprised nor annoyed that I had figured him out.

“I can easily hack the information, which would just take up more time, or you could just give me the information.” Mello sighed so softly that I almost missed it. And after a moment he relented and gave the rest of the information.

The letters left with the victims were Y, M, M and W. My eyes widened in realization, how could I have missed all the clues? Someone was after Whammys, or at least trying to lure out those of us who were from Whammys. Namely the detectives it seemed, probably L, and if that were the case who knew what else they knew about Whammys.

Mello had certainly stumbled onto something huge. It surprised me that L wasn’t working on this already, but perhaps he didn’t even know about it?

He was currently working on another large and rather difficult case, one along the lines of the previous Kira case from years back. There was no way I could turn Mello away, just the same as he would demand to be kept on the case if I tried to shut him out; it was his case.

“Thank you for the information.” I knew that my voice came out through a distorter so I wasn’t worried about him recognizing it. He looked up in the direction of one of the cameras that he seemed to have discovered.

“So I have your help on this?” he asked. His face was blank and betrayed no emotion.

“Yes. I will work with you on this. It is intriguing to me.” He smirked, but it was unlike any expression I was used to seeing from him. It was the type of smirk that made you weary of someone. Along with his new attire and scar I wondered just what the hell he had gotten himself into since I had last seen him.

“I'll give you a day to get up to speed and do some research on this. I will continue my own investigation in the mean time.” he pulled a small pad of paper from his jacket along with a pen and I watched as he scribbled something down.

“This is my number as well as an e-mail you can use to contact me.” he handed it to Miranda who took the paper gently from his outstretched hand.

“I will be expecting your call.” I now had Mello's number. I would have to call him eventually. My stomach churned unpleasantly at the idea, why was I so nervous about having to call him? I thought I would have gotten over things like this years ago... And yet Mello could so easily pull them from me.

“Miranda, aren't you forgetting something?” my voice called out softly over the speaker. Mello remained quiet but I could see the amusement in his features as Miranda scrambled to pull up something from her phone.

“You will need this e-mail to send J stuff. And this is my number, if you need to speak with J just call me and I’ll pass it on.”

Mello put the information into his phone and I watched as he stood up and walked from the room with no more than a nod of the head, and I knew by the sound of a closing door he had left the apartment as well. I sighed and placed my head on the desk.

“Mello...” I heard the lock on the door being picked and smiled slightly; Miranda never could leave me alone.

She walked across the room and placed something on the desk, I had a feeling it was the paper with Mello's contact information on it. Nothing was said for a few minutes after she had entered and I wondered just how long she might stand there.

“Matt.” I looked up sharply at the sound of a name I hadn't been called in years.

“He's the one who broke your heart, isn't he?” Miranda's tone was angry; her green eyes blazed.

“He's not to blame. I slipped up and got caught. If it’s anyone’s fault then it's my own.” I sounded tired even to myself; having to deal with Mello was just sapping my energy.

“Defend him all you like but you wouldn't be like this if it wasn’t for him, you wear contacts and use hair dye religiously to make sure you aren't recognized for Christ’s sake!” she threw her hands in the air in frustration and I watched silently as she slammed the door to the room.

“It's not his fault. I'm the one who played with fire knowing that I would get burned.” I didn’t notice the tear that had slid down my cheek until it landed on my hand. Sighing I wiped it away; honestly I couldn’t deal with all of this right now.

My fingers touched the yellow sheet of paper and for a moment I entertained the thought of never looking at it so I wouldn’t have to call, that thought passed quickly.

I smiled as I read the paper. Michael Keen. Mello had used a fake name rather than give his alias. I shook my head but programmed that name into my phone along with his number. Leaning back in the chair I idly brought up my e-mail and scanned it for any new messages but found none.

“I suppose it a bit early for him to have sent it already, I don’t even know where he's staying...” I ran a hand through my shaggy hair; I really had let it get a bit too long, and sighed. With nothing concerning the case going on I decided to satisfy my curiosity for once, something I had been ignoring for some seven odd years, and see if I could find out information on Mello.

Logging off my email I opened another window to a program I used quite frequently, one that I had designed myself, and began to hack into Whammys server.

It wasn’t really all that hard, but I had to make sure I didn’t get caught before I could find out what I wanted to know. I was under no illusions that I wouldn’t get caught if L had built the system, if he didn’t then it would be smooth sailing.

Reaching into the desk beside me I pulled out a guilty pleasure of mine, cigarettes. Placing one in my mouth and lighting it I went back to the task at hand. Around twenty minutes and three close calls later I was in and surfing the data for anything related to Mello.

“Hm...” I released a puff of smoke and clicked on one of three unmarked folders.

“Jackpot.” on a stroke of luck I had opened Mello's folder first try. The other two probably belonged to Near and I. I frowned slightly at the size of the document, it looked incomplete, but after all the time he spent there surely there would be more? Scrolling down I noticed a small section starting with 'Dates Of:'. It only had three dates. Date of birth, Date of arrival, and Date of leaving. My eyes widened at the last one. He left mere months after I had!

“What the hell?” I muttered in shock. That couldn't be right. Why would he leave so early, surely L hadn’t chosen Near so soon? Or had Mello been chosen as successor? No, he wouldn’t be working with me if that were the case, he would have many more resources at his disposal and wouldn’t need me.

Nearly biting my cigarette in half I quickly scanned the rest of the document but found little else out. I had an odd feeling about this. I quickly opened one of the remaining two folders and found it to be mine.

Under the section for 'Dates of:' was a section dedicated to what I had done since leaving Whammys, something Mello's didn’t have. Mine only showed 'unknown' but I found it odd that Mello didn’t even have a space for it.

Backtracking I clicked on the last unmarked folder and scrolled over to the same section and it showed everything Near had done in the last few years. He was still working closely with L but was not his successor apparently.

What the hell was going on? Why were Mello's past activities hidden?

A warning beep came from my computer and I knew it was time to pull out or become trapped in the system. With a frustrated sigh I backed out of Whammys server making sure to cover my tracks well, and hopefully L wouldn’t find me. That was the last thing I needed at the moment.

Tapping the keyboard softly with my fingers I sat there for a moment just thinking. If I did this there was a possibility that he could find out.

But now that I had found this inconsistency with his data... I couldn’t just leave it. I had a bad feeling about all of it, though I wasn’t sure why exactly.

My decision made, I began to search for anything I could find on Mello. There was a good chance that whatever it was wasn’t exactly on the right side of the law, and that was why it wasn’t mentioned in his Whammy file.

I had avoided this for years and the second he stalks his way back into my life I was hooked again. He was like a drug…

How in the hell was I going to make it through this case with my sanity?

-End Chapter 4-

AN: and there we have it, the mysterious J is actually Matt. But honestly who didn’t see that one coming? Hahaha. Poor Matt, Mello is really doing a number on him isn’t he? Wonder what will happen next.....