The Black Notebook...

It was a routine morning (it always is, isn't it?) when I randomly decided to get off my lazy ass and go outside for a stroll. It was pretty funny watching all those people men jogging around in branded sports shoes, beaming in the spotlight. As I listened to Black Sabbath tracks on my Emprex, something in my sight yelled and screamed out at my consciousness. It was something lying on the street, conveniently ignored by everything except my vision.

A Black Notebook.

I walked across and picked it up, though it was covered from head to toe in dirt. As I dusted it off, I wondered what kind of girls' phone numbers it'd have. But it was only as speck after speck flew away gradually that I managed to fully grasp what was written on its cover.

"Death Note"

I opened it, half-expecting some demented child's cartoon caricatures. Instead, all I got was instructions written in crystal-clear English.


"The human whose name is written in this note will die."

"This note will not take effect unless the writer has the person's face in mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected"

"If the cause of death is written within forty seconds of writing the person's name, it will happen. If the cause is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack."

"After writing the cause of death, details of the death must be written in the next six minutes and forty seconds."

"I see, so you can either give them a peaceful or painful death".
Pretty involved for a prank, I thought. How lame!!

As I lay in my bed that afternoon with nothing to do, a strange thought crept into my mind. "Should I actually try it out once? And if somebody does die, will that make me a murderer? Someone whom it's alright to kill, even better if it's someone who has nothing to do with me. Also, that someone whose death I'd know about straight away, thus confirming the notebook's credibility"
But then, I realized I was getting too serious about it (LOL!!!), and switched on the TV.

It was a live news report. Somewhere in rural Iowa, an entire school had been taken hostage, eighty students and three staff workers. Police had identified the criminal and were in the process of stopping the madness.

Now they mention his name and showed his photograph.

I wrote his name down in the Death Note like it said, in almost comic anticipation, of being proven a fool for having fallen for such a prank. Forty seconds, it had said.

38...
39...
40 !!!!!

Hmm, nothing was happening ?!?!?

"The hostages are coming out! Everybody seems unharmed. The police are rushing in, will this lead to an arrest?"

"They're coming out already?! No-one who appears to be the criminal is with them."

I was like WTF?!?!?!?!?

"This just in!! The criminal appears to have died in the nursery school! The police are stressing that they did not shoot the man. Would that mean he was pressured into suicide? According to the hostages, the man suddenly collapsed!"

A heart attack....

"I can't be sure after just one person, it could be a co-incidence. Somebody whom it's okay to kill, no, somebody who should die."

"But now that I've started to consider this, there're so many people who would make the world a better place by dying", I thought !!

Two days later, at about 1:00 in the night, all of a sudden, I heard screams from the street.
A lone woman was being assaulted by a drunkard.

"How dare you reject me? I've gone through hell and high waters for you, I'm going to have you no matter what. Remember my name woman, remember my name...."

And he took his name...I took DOWN his name !!

And just be sure, added "Death by accident" right next to it.

38...
39...
40 !!!

All of a sudden, the man lost his footing and tumbled from the footpath and onto the highway, only to be hit by an unexpecting 250-Horsepower BMW. There was no way he would've survived that...and he didn't !!

That was it!! The note was real!

Police sirens, and flashing lights kept me up all night !! Or was it the hideous feeling of having murdered two people, and still being an innocent ordinary civilian in everyone's eyes ??

Murdered two people with my own hands...rather it took just 3 fingers !! what now? I should get rid of this horrible notebook...NO! wait...they deserved to die !!

"No, isn't this something I've always been thinking about? This world is rotten. Rotten people should be killed off to cleanse this world!! I can do it if I possess this notebook...Only trouble is, my weak mental strength. Look what I've become after killing just two people."

"That is to be expected, it's life, it can't be taken lightly. Can I endure this? Or should I quit? Can I do this ?? Can I not ??"

"No, I can't stop..even at the expense of my mind and the lives of others, someone has to do this. There has to be a change! If I were to give this notebook to someone else, would they be able to do it? There's no one who's that strong. That's right, I can do it..No, I'm the only one who can."

"I'll do it!"

I haven't sleep and I've lost four kilos over the 2 weeks. But I decided to think of it as the cleansing of the earth, and continued to write down the names of criminals.

And I will create a world full of only honest and kind people.