Wallflower Blush sat alone on a bench behind Canterlot High, the school that she goes to. Now, she wasn’t sitting alone because she was sad, or had no friends… well it’s a combination of both. She was… shy, a doormat, a push-over, a… Wallflower. And a Wallflower she was. Of course, her main activity wasn’t sitting only, no, it was only top four. Third, was reading. As a Wallflower, this meant an easy get-away from the hustle and bustle of her classmates’ busy lives. Second was sleeping. You can’t feel sad, or suicidal while sleeping… most of the time. And first, which was her top priority, was gardening. It made her feel happy to tend to things that can’t do her wrong, can’t back-stab her, can’t spread rumors about her, can’t do anything but listen and be watered, pruned and given sunlight. The perfect best friend.
THUD.
Wallflower winced in pain as a book hit her on the head. Unfortunately, her reputation as a loner who speaks to flowers didn’t make this uncommon. “Hey! Why would you…” No-one was there. Did they throw it from the roof? No, no student access there. From the woods? Must have been one hell of a throw since it’s about nine yards away from her. So that left only one option, the tree she was sitting under. Looking up expecting to see someone, she was presented with nothing but birds, bark, and leaves. Did a bird throw it? No, the universe didn’t hate her that much… yet.
Turning around, Wallflower finally noticed the book lying on the ground about two feet away from her. Taking a quick look around to clarify that no-one was here, she stood up and grabbed the offending book. It was a very plain notebook that’s main color was black, except the title that was in a scary white font: Death Note it read. Bemused at such a creepy looking book, Wallflower decided to pocket her score, maybe she could sell it for something. Checking her watch to notice class was in 5 minutes, she stowed her new possession away in her grey backpack and headed into the large school building.
Traversing the halls wasn’t too hard, but she had to make a large detour as the art-wing on the left side of the school was currently under renovations. Dodging in between two workmen, she crossed the hall to her classroom where Mrs. Harshwinny ushered her inside. Sitting down at her desk, complex algebra filled her mind, that odd book slowly drifted out.
RING
Being knocked out of her thoughts about how she hated this class, the bell ringed alerting over 1000 students of Canterlot High to leave. Grabbing her bag on instinct she was stop by Mrs. Harshwinny’s scratchy voice. “The bell alerts me, not you!” Mrs. Harshwinny said in her usual fashion, “Since tests are coming up, you are all getting 4 more sheets of algebra.” A groan was release in the classroom as Mrs. Harshwinny grabbed more sheets of paper from her drawer.
“But Mrs…” A partly brave soul said putting his hand up, “You gave us 2 more sheets yesterday!”
“No buts, Micro Chips.” Said Mrs. Harshwinny grabbing more papers. Soon enough, Mrs. Harshwinny allowed the students to leave, but not without a few more quips: “No running!” “Is that gum?” “Sit down!
The class finally exited the building with Wallflower wondering if she needed a back-brace to hold her heavy bag from all the homework. Nevertheless, she walked briskly home through her neighborhood to her 2-story house where she and her mom lived alone. Smiling at being so close to her safe haven, she pushed open the front door remembering to greet her mom and thank her for watering her plants- to quickly run upstairs to her room to her room’s door. Breathing a sigh of relief, Wallflower pushed the door open.
Wallflower entered her upstairs room. It was a basic room by no-means. Just a bed, dresser, table and chair with her windowsill lined with plants. Flopping down on her chair with its usual rebellious squeak, Wallflower took out her homework for Algebra… about 7 pages of pure white and black paper stared back at her. ‘Screw it, I’ll just fail’. Shoving the papers into her desk to never be seen again, Wallflower dug deeper into her bag desperate for entertainment of some kind. That’s when she remember that black notebook. Fishing it out of the front pocket, she was once again greeted with that same book. Even though how plain it was, something was sinister about it. Opening it up she read the first few lines:
The human whose name is written in this note shall die.
This note will not take effect unless the writer has the person's face in their mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected.
If the cause of death is written within the next 40 seconds of writing the person's name, it will happen.
If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack.
After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds.
Slowly closing the book Wallflower sunk into her chair. Many thoughts ran through her mind: ‘Well this is a joke’, ‘I should throw this in the bin’, but the dominate thought was, ‘Does it work?’. Did she want it to work? No…. “What kind of sicko prankster would give me this… book.”
“Oh well that just hurts.” Mocked a voice behind her.
Swiveling around, she saw a monster. He… she guessed looked like a human, just like her, except he was at least a foot taller than her, had pale skin, skin-tight black cloths, and eyes that bulged out all while floating a foot above the ground.
“Well? Aren’t you gonna scream? Scram? Plea for your life?” The monster said again.
Wallflower who had never believed in the paranormal up until this point fell out of her chair while clutching the notebook. “Sorry, sorry! I didn’t mean it when I called you a sicko.” Wallflower sobbed, “Are you here… for the book? Just take it!” Wallflower added knowing the easiest why out of these paranormal situations was to help the demon.
“Nah, I’m here to help you, kiddo.” He said with a smile that somehow bulged out more than his eyes.
“W-what?” Wallflower stammered.
“Let’s start over, and you’d better not make me start over again.” He said with a stern tone but maintained his unholy smile and stare. “I’m a Shinigami, a god of death! I basically kill people.”
“I… but-.” Wallflower said but was ultimately cut off.
“No buts! Just go with it! You don’t want me to start over, again do you?” The Shinigami hissed somehow staring at her even though his askew eyes were most likely staring at her bed and wall.
“I... okay.” Wallflower started, “How do I know you’re legit, though?”
“Oh, a non-believer here, ah?” The Shinigami said with a chuckle. “Watch.” And with that, all the plants on the windowsill died. Wallflower’s mouth fell open. If this was a prank, it was a very elaborate one. Deciding that it wasn’t time to reprimand the Shinigami for killing her plants, Wallflower made the executive decision to listen to the Shinigami.
“I… sorry for not believing you… I guess you want to… help me. But with what?”
“Ah, strait to business, aren’t we? Well, I can work with that. Correct, I’m here to help you, but to do that you need to help me by trusting me. I don’t need anything except your co-operation.” He stated with his repulsive smile growing in size.
“And what if I don’t agree?” Tested Wallflower fearing the worst.
“Nothing. I just take the book.” The Shinigami said calmly.
“What?” Wallflower said confused.
“Yeah, I just pass it onto someone else more… deserving and let them use its powers!” The Shinigami said leaning closer to Wallflower.
“The power…” Wallflower said thinking back to what the book said: “The human whose name is written in this note shall die.”.
Noticing the look of recognition in the girl’s eyes, he dropped the hook and line. “I’m aware that you are bullied badly, imagine if those bullies die?”
“I… I… NO.” Wallflower said suddenly, “I can’t just kill people!”
“Technically I’m killing them, you’re just writing the instructions.” The Shinigami uttered.
“But that’s still murder, I’ll be the executioner!”
“But doesn’t that make it all the greater! All those people will die at your hands! Everyone who ever hurt you will suffer.”
Wallflower stood up and ‘faced’ the Shinigami even though it was a foot above her. “Still, as much as I hate them… no-one deserves to die!”
“What about Sunset Shimmer?”
“How… did.” Wallflower uttered. In all fairness, Wallflower did want Sunset Shimmer to die. Wallflower spent years building her reputation only for it to be shattered by Sunset, with no consequence for her in the end. Everyone just forgave her with that whole rainbow thing, she turned into a literal demon for crying out loud. And no-one cared… and everyone still hated Wallflower. The Shinigami turned around to hide his bursting smile, and dropped the sinker:
“That creep, Zephyr Breeze. Those duo bullies, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. That cyber-bullying trio of the CMC. That braggart Beatrix Lulamoon. And dozens more (The author will properly find out) all have something in common aside from bulling. You know what that is?” At this point Wallflower and the Shinigami were staring into each other’s eyes as the Shinigami tilted her head up, “They are still out there. Still bulling and causing unrest… you can stop this Wallflower.” Leaned in and whispered in her ear. “Become somebody…”
Wallflower backed down and fell onto her chair. “Why… did you give me this book?”
“Because I saw a talent in you Wallflower, a talent to rightfully kill.”
Wallflower was too speechless to talk. She knew it was wrong but… the power that it entailed was the way to get out of her dead life… save others… at the cost of those horrible people. The Shinigami suppressed a chuckle at her quivering hand that held the book. “How about this…” The Shinigami said making Wallflower look back up at him. “I’ll return in one week. If no-one’s name is written in that book, you WILL give it back to me. If there is a name written… well, we will get to that. Is it a deal?” Wallflower looked down at his hand… and shook it.
“Great… I’ll be back in a week.”
“Wait!” Wallflower yelled making the Shinigami pause.
“What’s your name?” The Shinigami paused again, before answering.
“Shinigami don’t have names, but you can call me Aconitum.”
And with that, he disappeared.
Squeak…
“Honey? Who are you talking to?” Wallflowers mom said poking her head around from the door.
“No-one… mom.”
Chapter 2: Mrs. Harshwinny. Fire.
Wallflower watched as her mother closed her bedroom door leaving Wallflower alone in her bedroom. Slowly, Wallflower put the Death Note onto her desk and walked over to her window. Seizing the now dead plants to throw them out, Wallflower paused. These plants where like her friends, she had them since the start of the year and now they were dead… never to be watered again. Halting tears, Wallflower placed the pots back down and walked over to her fallen chair and picked it up.
Sitting down onto the chair, Wallflower sat there, for a long time before slowly swiveling around to face her desk. Like minutes before, her desk had old apple scraps, papers, books, pens that went missing years ago… and that book. Slowly, like one would about to grab a snake, Wallflower tentatively opened the book to review the pages and sub-rules. If she learned anything from Horror Novels, you always read the rules… and not make deals with demons. There was quiet a lot of rules, so Wallflower grabbed some paper off her desk to summaries everything she was reading in her own rules:
Rule 1: If anyone’s name is written here under any circumstances, they will die, no matter what.
Rule 2: The Shinigami cannot be seen or heard; this applies to the book.
Rule 3: If I want to stop this, just give the book back to the Shinigami.
Rule 4: Always write in this format: (Name) dies (Time) because (Cause Of Death) (Details). Time and Details are optional and are only needed if the writer wants the human to die very specifically.
Rule 5: DO NOT WRITE MY OWN NAME.
Smiling at how organised she was, Wallflower picked up the lined paper and shoved it into the book’s pages for future reference. Standing tall, Wallflower walked over to the light switch, turned it off, walked to her bed and flopped onto it. Today was a big day for mankind, for good… or worse.
Creak…
The tell-tale sign of Wallflowers door creaked open as Wallflower’s mother walked in. “Wallflower dear?... Oh.” Wallflower’s mother smiled at seeing her sleeping daughter, when she saw a strange book on her desk. Curiosity got the better of her as she started to creep towards the book. Just when she was about to open it… she stopped. Although she couldn’t she the title in the dark, it had to be a dairy. Slowly backing out of the room, Wallflower’s mother smiled- obliviously.
The sun rose over Canterlot High as a loud bell rang out from the school building singling students to go inside. As ordered by the bell, hundreds of students flocked into the building, to filter down the halls into their respective classrooms- Wallflower being one of them. Wallflower, unlike other students, was a fan of Tuesdays, as for both third and fourth period, held extracurricular classes, most notability, gardening. Hastily, Wallflower entered her respective classroom for first period: Algebra. “Sit down, sit down!” Mrs. Harshwinny ordered without much protest from the class.
Sitting down at her regular seat, Wallflower took out her mostly empty Algebra book that doubled for her doodle book. Almost on clockwork, the class fell into silence as Mrs. Harshwinny’s punishments were brutal, as Mrs. Harshwinny started talking about something pretending the class was listening. During the entire class, Wallflower was constantly distracted, not that it was odd for her to be distracted during Algebra, but the thought about the book. She knew how dangerous it was… but did she want to find out firsthand. She didn’t of course… did she?
For the next hour, Mrs. Harshwinny rattled on about… hell if I know, until the bell rung again. Like yesterday on instinct, Wallflower grabbed her bag like everyone else only to be yelled at by Mrs. Harshwinny: “The bell alerts me, not you!” Wallflower seriously considered quoting that for her. “Anyway, I’ve got an announcement,” Mrs. Harshwinny said with a killing smile, “Tests have been moved today into the Science Classrooms during both third and fourth period!”
“But Mrs.!” Blurted out our subtle hero Micro Chips, “The test is going to be about polynomials, we haven’t even gotten to that yet!”
“Not my problem Micro Chips, and you just earned the entire class a lunchroom detention.” Mrs. Harshwinny retorted being closely followed by groans and angry voices.
Wallflower was upset that she would miss out of gardening, held herself together and looked down at her bag spotting the Death Note. Quickly looking away to the window, Wallflower tried to clear her mind of those… intriguing thoughts on how she could use her new-found powers. Finally, being let out of that musty prison called her classroom, Wallflower sprinted down the halls to her next class: English as Mrs. Harshwinny had undoubtedly made her late. Finally getting to her classroom, Wallflower walked inside quietly as no-one noticed her.
Hiding behind a big kid called Bulk Biceps, Wallflower attempted to fish out her English book, to see the Death Note laying onto of the disorganized pile of books. ‘Just do it…’ Came a voice inside her head. ‘No! She’s just a teacher, a cruel one at that, but just a teacher.’. Wallflower sunk into her desk as the thoughts about what she should do started to consume her.
“Wallflower! Are you listening?” Came the voice of Mrs. Cheerlee.
“YES!” Said Wallflower a bit to quickly and loudly, “I mean, yes Mrs. Cheerlee.”
Satisfied with her answer, Mrs. Cheerlee walked back to her board to continue talking about nonsense.
Trudging down the corridor, Wallflower found herself outside the Lunchroom Detention Classroom, and walked inside. Unsurprisingly, half the class wasn’t here to share their detention. As Wallflower was about to walk to any desk, Mrs. Harshwinny spoke up: “Wallflower, come here and take your detention slip.”
“What?” Wallflower said confused, “I’m already here.”
“Yes, but after my class you ran off. RAN off, you will be serving another detention after school for running in the halls.”
Wallflower wanted to yell but kept to herself as she dutifully took the small slip and walked to her desk. Slowly sitting down, Wallflower opened her Algebra book to continue working on her drawings, however, this luxury for long as her book was ripped out of her sight.
“Drawing in class.” Sneered Mrs. Harshwinny, “That’s another detention.”
“This isn’t a classroom Mrs. Harshwinny.” Wallflower said angrily.
“Oh, getting smart, are we? How about another detention?” Suddenly Mrs. Harshwinny smiled cruelly, “That’s three detentions Wallflower- see you on Saturday morning, I’ll notify your parents. Wallflower was upset, she barley ever got in trouble at school. Still Wallflower leaned back into her desk accepting her punishment.
The hour crept away at a snail’s pace, still, the bell rung. Unfortunately, that was just the signal to have another 2 hours with Mrs. Harshwinny. Gathering her things from her desk, and her Algebra book which had dozens of pages ripped out of it and left the classroom with the other students. Thankfully, the Science labs were only a few corridors away, so Wallflower got there ahead of everyone else. Pushing the classroom door open to find all the seats separated, Wallflower took her seat in the very back.
Moments later, the rest of the class showed up and took their wanted seats as far away from Mrs. Harshwinny as possible. Just as the class was seated, Mrs. Harshwinny strode in, papers in hand, and begun to deposit each booklet on the desks. About 2 minutes passed and Mrs. Harshwinny stood up at the front- to look at the clock and say:
“Start! You have ninety minutes!”
The class dissolved into light scratches of black pens as Mrs. Harshwinny wouldn’t allow anything else, and the occasional cough. Suffice to say, the test was hard. Wallflower barely knew anything about polynomials and whatever else was there. With 10 minutes left in the class, Wallflower pressed her pen down the paper… and nothing happened. She tried again and again. But nothing. The cheap pen had run out of ink! Without a replacement in sight, Wallflower remembered that a pen jar was kept on the back shelf's, about 2 feet away from she was sitting.
Slowly turning her head- she spotted the jar. Standing up and grabbing the pen, she quickly sat back down at her desk and continued writing.
BEEP…BEEP…BEEP.
Mrs. Harshwinny’s alarm went off almost scaring a few students.
“Alright class, hand your papers in, its free period until lunch break.” Smiling, Wallflower stood up with the rest of the class, sat her sheet down, and walked to the door. “Except you Wallflower…” Mrs. Harshwinny added. Slowly, Wallflower turned around to see Mrs. Harshwinny smiling evilly at her.
“Yes miss?” Wallflower said.
Mrs. Harshwinny said nothing but stared at her until the class left. “Wallflower, I am very disappointed in you.” Mrs. Harshwinny said in a happy voice.
“What do you mean Mrs. Harshwinny?”
“Well, running in the hall, talking back to a teacher- twice, and cheating on a test are very uncommon acts for you to do.”
“W-what do you mean?” Wallflower had no-idea what to say. She hadn’t cheated.
“You know exactly what I mean Wallflower!” Mrs. Harshwinny shot back with an icy tone, “I saw you get up during a test. You know what the rules are.”
“I was just getting a pen!”
“That’s what they all say, you know what this means?” Wallflower shook her head out of fear. “It means this.” And with that, she ripped the booklet in half. “Get out of my classroom.” Tears started to form in Wallflowers eyes as she left the classroom and stooped by the door to cry but stopped when she heard something. “Another one of those misconducts, and I’ll have her out of this school. No place for a plant-talking delinquent in this fine establishment.”
Wallflower froze. That is why Mrs. Harshwinny was being cruel to her? Because she talked to plants. Wallflower was angry- no, livid. The entire class was being bullied, and now Mrs. Harshwinny wanted her out because she was talking to plants. Wallflower stared at her backpack for a moment before ripping it open and pushing book aside- not stopping until she reached her target… the book. Slinging the bag over her back and taking out a new black pen, Wallflower walked down the halls of Canterlot High while opening the book.
Wallflower exited the building where surprising no-one from class was there. Staring into the book, Wallflower wrote her teachers name, more specifically, her teachers true name where she read it a few months ago: ‘Marie Lee Harshwinny.’. After writing those 3 words, Wallflower paused. ‘Howshould Mrs. Harshwinny die? Mrs. Harshwinny once told the class she wanted to go out in a blaze of glory… wait, blaze- fire!’. Without stopping to think, Wallflower wrote: Fire. Wallflower didn’t care how it was accomplished, she just wanted Mrs. Harshwinny dead. Quickly, she ran off school grounds as in 60 seconds, a fire Mrs. Harshwinny will die.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Harshwinny sat alone in the science lab chucking to herself. Standing up to check the corridor, and seeing no-one there, Mrs. Harshwinny went back to her desk. ’45 seconds to go’. Opening a locked drawer, she saw her favorite brand of smokes. ’30 seconds to go’. Grabbing hold of the smokes, Mrs. Harshwinny smelt a bad smell in the air, but wrote it off to those smelly teenagers. ’15 seconds to go’. Across the room, an open gas line hissed as it was opened 15 minutes ago by a curious student who forgot to close it. ‘10’ Mrs. Harshwinny tried to open the packet of smokes. ‘9’ Mrs. Harshwinny fumbled a bit. ‘8’ Mrs. Harshwinny opened the box. ‘7’ Mrs. Harshwinny drew out a smoke. ‘6’ Mrs. Harshwinny reached into her pocket. ‘5’ fished out her lighter. ‘4’ drew it up to her cigarette. ‘3’ failed to light it. ‘2’ tried again. ‘1’ A spark flashed before her eyes… before a bigger one engulfed her.
A street down from the school Wallflower gasped for breath, she wasn’t by any means an athlete.
BOOM.
A deafening explosion presented itself to Wallflower in the direction of the school. Not thinking twice, Wallflower ran towards it. Just making it to the school, Wallflower could see the entire science block up in flames. “I THINK MRS. HARSHWINNY IS STILL IN THERE!” A few loud voices cried out from a gang known as the ‘Rainbooms’, not that Wallflower cared about them All she could think about was that Mrs. Harshwinny… was undoubtedly dead… and she did it.
Slowly sulking out of sight from her classmates and behind the school, Wallflower paused. Should she be sad? Regretful? Scarred? No… she was happy. Mrs. Harshwinny may not have had to die in some regard… but it was a steppingstone… one for the greater good. It started out as a chuckle, to a laugh… but soon, Wallflower was full out belting with laughter. She had the power. To kill, and… and… well nothing else but that didn’t matter! All that mattered was she was in power! Little o’ Wallflower could kill whoever she pleased, and she would!
Unbeknownst to Wallflower, on top of the roof top was the Shinigami staring down at her, smiling. For he knew, it was going to be a good week.
