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Description
You sat underneath a small tree, perched upon a hill. You had a book, a small bowl of strawberries and a bottle of water. From where you sat you could see all the younger children who were playing out in the gardens of the Wammy house, it was a late Saturday afternoon in August. The weather was beautiful and you intended to enjoy every minute of it. The tree’s leaves were thick enough to not only block out the excess light, but also the heat, the tree was dark and cool; Perfect reading conditions. You sat alone, hoping to keep it that way. You placed your earphones in, turning to a song called “The Mortician’s Daughter” by a band called “Black Veil Brides”, you didn’t listen to them often but that song really struck a chord somewhere in you. It was slow, with a deep husky voice which made you just want to melt into your surroundings. You sighed in contentment as you picked up your book and turned to the first page.

Every now and then, you’d eat a strawberry or take a sip out of your water bottle, the song still going round on loop. You couldn’t remember the last time you felt so…at peace, with yourself. Taking a break from the stresses that the Wammy house put on its residents really was a weight off your shoulders. Compared to some of the other children, you were relatively new here, only living at the estate for two weeks. Being as shy as you were, you hadn’t come to make any new friends, however, you had already gotten on the wrong side of Mello; he had told you to fetch him chocolate, then when you refused, he had gotten mad and stormed off; leaving Matt to follow after behind him.

After a couple more minutes, your eyes began to strain, forcing you to put the book down. After about half an hour of listening to the same song, you reach for your phone with the intent of changing it, but to your extreme confusion, when your hand made contact with the smooth case, a drop of red gooey liquid fell down upon it. Unable to comprehend what it was, you jumped up into a standing position. You strained your (E/C) tinted eyes up into the tree, to your utter disbelief; another face stared back at you.
“You scared me!” You hissed at the figure.
“I assure, you that wasn’t my intention.” The figure then jumped from one of the lower branches in the tree, landing right in front of you.
It was a boy, well not a boy, a teen. He had messy black hair, pale skin and, from what you could see, very dark bags under his eyes but his hair covered up most of his face. He wore a long sleeved white top, worn out light blue jeans and battered old trainers. The teen stood hunched over in front of you.

“Was it you who did this?” you ask, gesturing to the red gloop on your hand.
“There’s a good chance of it. Lick it off your hand, it’s only jam, _______.”
the teen replied, which is when you realised that he did in fact have a jar of jam tucked underneath his elbow. You weren’t sure why you did, but you actually licked the jam off of your skin.
“Strawberry?” your voice deepened a bit as you questioned him.
“Indeed.”
You stand a little taller, dusting off your jeans. “Can you tell me what you were doing in that tree?”
“Can you tell me what you were doing underneath that tree?” The boy countered, a grin appearing on his slender face. Perhaps he wasn’t as serious as you thought he was. Suddenly a thought occurred to you, he had called you ‘_________’, when to the people in the Wammy house, you were simply known as ‘Dusk’. No one was supposed to know your real name, for protection purposes in the future. You’d picked “Dusk” because it was halfway between light and the darkness, bordering both edges. Almost instantly, you became cautious of the boy, causing yourself to fall silent.
“You must be wondering how I knew your name.” The black haired teen bent down, picking up your book off of the floor. He held it in between his pale thumb and forefinger. “I’m afraid that’s a secret.”
“Why are you eating jam?” It really was a strange thing to eat, making you interested in knowing why he favoured it.
“Sugar is essential for the brain to function at a high capacity.” He started flicking through the pages of your book.
“So who exactly are you?” This far into the conversation and you realised that you hadn’t even known his name yet.
“B.”
“Well, B, you already know my name, but in front of others, please call me Dusk.” You then sat back down onto the grass
‘Is this really the guy who is supposed to succeed L?’ you wondered to yourself.
“I’ll keep that in mind.” B sighed as he started to climb back up into the tree. A sudden pang of guilt overwhelmed you, as you seemed a little antisocial by sitting down on your own.

“You don’t have to climb back up in the tree, you know, you can come sit with me. I have strawberries.” Holding out the bowl of strawberries to him. “You can dip them in your strawberry jam, double the strawberry.”
“Very well then.” B then sat hunched over too, never actually sitting down, just remaining hunched up in a ball type position.
“Do you want to pick a song?” You unlock your phone and hand it to him, just as he had done with your book; he gripped the phone using his thumb and forefinger.
He didn’t spend long looking through your songs when you heard the first you beats of “Corrupt” by Depeche Mode started playing.
You complimented his selection “Good choice.”
It was at this point that he lifted his head a little, allowing you to look at his eyes, he wasn’t looking at yours however; his eyes were trailing over your face and above your hair. His iris’ were the same colour as his hair, it all added up to him looking even more paler than he did coming out of the tree. You sat and talked to him for another hour or so until the sun began to set, taking the remnants of the summer’s day with it.
“I’m going to go back to the house, are you coming with me?” you politely smiled as you started picking up your belongings.
“I think I’ll stay out here a little longer, I’ll see you around, _______.”
“Goodnight, B.” You threw over your shoulder, tucking a piece of stray (H/C) hair behind your ear, you smiled.

“You see that, Mom? I’ve made a friend. Dad, I hope your happy now, I didn’t spend the whole day alone.” You spoke to the air around you. A yawn over took your body.
“Hm, maybe I’ll skip dinner and go straight to bed, I’ve eaten enough jam and strawberries to last me a lifetime. I’ll have to brush me teeth for an hour to get the sugar off.” Still speaking to no one in particular now, you pushed open the back door to the Wammy house and went up one of the spiral staircases.