Death Note Fan Fiction ❯ Taming the Tiger ❯ Police ( Chapter 5 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

A/N: Hola. This is several months after chapter 4. Only note is on the name Mello uses. Arseniy is a Russian name which comes from the name of the Roman goddess of the hunt, Artimis. Just something interesting.

Disclaimer: Death Note belongs to Takeshi Obata.

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Mello listened in fear as gunshots rang out somewhere above him. There was shouting and the sound of sirens as more gunshots echoed in his dark cell. Mello pressed himself as close to the wall as possible, breathing ragged, heart pounding, muscles tense, and eyes wide in the darkness.

Slowly the racket overhead died down and there were footsteps in the stairwell. Mello held his breath as they approached the door. There was a bang and the door swung open wide enough to reveal two men in uniform. Mello tried to press himself further against the wall as he shielded his eyes from the light.

One of the officers pulled a walkie-talkie from his belt and spoke into it. “Mike, I need a paramedic down here. There's a hostage. He looks to be in pretty bad shape. We might need a stretcher to move him.”

The other officer began to move cautiously toward the boy huddled against the wall. The boy had big blue eyes and long hair that might have once been blonde. His face was gaunt and he was trembling. The officer was disgusted to see that there was a dog collar around the boy's neck and he was covered in cuts and bruises. He wore a black leather vest and a pair of black leather pants that looked as though they had seen better days.

As he drew closer the boy narrowed his already squinting eyes and bared his teeth like a feral cat. He forced himself into a crouching position, readying himself for a fight that would surely kill him. The officer stopped walking.

“It's alright. I'm not going to hurt you,” he said gently. “My name is Ryan and I'm with the NYPD - the New York City Police Department. We're here to help.”

He watched the conflict on the boy's face. Mello considered what was happening. The gunshots, the shouting, this man claimed to be an NYC cop. If that was true, then the men who had imprisoned him had been captured. Still, he didn't trust this Ryan guy.

“Do you understand?” Ryan asked.

Mello nodded.

“Can you speak?”

Mello opened his mouth to answer in the affirmative and found that he could not. Panicking, he tried to figure out why. He tried to remember the last time he had spoken and realized that he had not uttered a word since he was captured last summer. It was spring now. He shook his head.

“Can you write?” the officer asked.

Mello nodded.

Ryan held out a note pad and a pen to the boy, but the blonde recoiled. “It's alright. I won't hurt you,” he said, tossing the items on the floor at the boy's feet. “What's your name?”

Mello picked up the note pad and pen and scribbled down a few characters in Russian before holding it up. Maybe writing in another language would make the cop go away so he could escape.

“I can't read that,” Ryan said patiently. “Can you write it in English?”

Mello took the note pad back bad temperedly and scribbled something in English under the Russian before holding it up again.

Arseniy Petrenov.

Ryan nodded and watched as the kid took the note pad back and wrote something else.

The light is hurting my eyes.

“Sorry,” Ryan said. The paramedic behind him tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention. Mildly surprised, Ryan turned around and told her, “He's mute.”

“I know,” she said. “I've been watching. We need to take him up to the ambulance.”

Mello shook his head franticly. The lady medic looked at him with concern. “Come on, hun. It's ok.”

Still he refused. When she offered him a hand, he backed away. Moving out of the cell, she went to speak to the other three medics who had followed her down. Mello didn't like that. And he really didn't like when they all came into the cell, backing him into a corner. He fought with what little strength he had left as they tried to put a needle in his arm. Finally he lost and the world began to spin and fade away.