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Dear Diary
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An old decrepit mansion stood in the midst of modernity. Built in the old western style and was once perhaps the most beautiful home around, but now it was the scourge of the block. No one passed by it at night, if not looking for a good scare. It was high for a house, but seemed squat pressed between two towering buildings. Everything else teemed with inhabitance around it, yet it stood empty by day, but not quite at night.
It gave the impression of something crumbling slowly. The stone walls which were once white are now grey and covered in vines. The high windows on the first floor have all shattered so that jagged shards were the only things remaining on the frames. Its double doors had one missing and the other slightly slanted, as if barely hinged. The shutters of the top windows have mostly fallen, yet some are still stubbornly hinged and keep banging on the wall when the wind is strong. The roof may have once had a chimney but all that were left are a few shingles and a rectangular hole at one side.
But the inside is the most eerie of all. The furniture's much like the house, once elegant, now broken. The wide long wooden floorboards creak with the slightest gust of the wind. Nameless portraits and pictures still hung on the wall. And then at night, sobs would echo along the empty halls on the second floor, because a dead girl would not stop crying until the sun rose in the morning.
"ARGH!"
A chunk from a floorboard was missing, and Mai had noticed it only when her foot had got caught in it sending her face first toward the dusty floor. The digital thermometer was several inches from her outstretched hand, while her clipboard slid away even further. She lay still for a moment, waiting for laughter to erupt from somewhere behind her, but no sound followed the noise her fall made.
The others must still be a few rooms back. She had broken away from the SPR team and had only noticed entering this room. A force had urged her onward; it was a mix of her own curiosity and something else she can't quite describe.
She lifted herself from the ground, and dusted herself off. Looking around she found that indeed she was alone. She was slightly surprised at this realization however it did not occur to her to rejoin the others. Instead she was overcome with a strange desire to examine the room on her own.
It was a girl's room, she noticed at once. The huge bed had flowers carved into it, and four long poles swirled upward to support hangings. The walls had once been yellow, but it had faded. There was a dresser on one corner, but the mirror must've already shattered because it was missing. Other than those there were no other furniture left in the room. Mai wondered what happened to the little girl who had once stayed here. For some reason she felt sorry for her.
Mai picked up the digital thermometer, there was a thin yet visible scratch right across the screen. She sighed, yet another thing Naru could hold against her. She made for her clipboard which slid under the old bed. The slit between it and the floor was only wide enough for her arm.
"Where is that stupid thing?" Mai said, kneeling by the foot of the huge bed, her hand stretched as far as it could, feeling for her clipboard unsuccessfully. Dust was accumulating from under her fingers as she continued to grope in search of it. Deciding she'd better find something long to prod it from under the bed, she withdrew her hand.
She stood up and made for the door, as there was nothing in the room she could use. Reaching for the doorknob, she froze. A clattering sound had come from the bed. Her arm was still hanging as she listened. The clattering sound persisted, like something was sliding across the uneven floorboards at a slow and steady pace, as if someone was pushing it onward. She walked back, despite knowing it would've been better to keep the distance.
She stared at the dark slit from which the clattering sound grew louder. Naru, Bou-san, Ayako…she chanted the names of the SPR team in her mind as if calling out to them to burst into the room…where are you guys?
The sound grew louder and closer. Mai could now not move from the spot.
The clipboard appeared from underneath the bed and stopped abruptly a few inches from Mai's feet, like being placed there deliberately. It was positioned with care, the front facing Mai, leaving a straight trail on the thick dust. Mai felt a chill course through her spine. But what surprised her the most was that it had not been alone in its return from the bed. A thin leather bound book lay on top of it.
Mai waited for more to happen, for something else to emerge from the shadows, but nothing stirred in the room. Hesitantly, she lifted the book. She flipped through it. The pages were brown with age, but the black letters written on them were still intact and readable.
Something written in bold dark letters caught Mai's eye, she searched for it. After the last entry Mai flipped to an almost empty page, except for a single written sentence, "OUR SECRET!" The words were fresh, for the letters blotted from the excess of ink and the dot at the end of the exclamation point was still wet.
But before Mai could process any further, before she could even feel the familiar chill of fear the door opened. She jumped, almost dropping everything she was holding. Mai looked quickly at the door, and found Housho Takigawa looking also startled, but more for Mai's reaction.
"Geez, Mai" he said coming over "We've been looking everywhere for you. What've you been doing?" He began to look over her like an adult examining a kid for injuries from some previous secret scuffle.
"R-recording the temperature…It just looked like a promising room to start in" she said lifting the digital thermometer. He looked unconvinced. "I tripped and…uh…I think I kind of broke it…" she said quickly jamming a few buttons secretly before handing it over for the monk to examine.
"Ah…there's a scratch here…" he said tracing it with a finger, successfully distracted. Mai was clipping the thin book between a few sheets of paper on the clipboard. "But I think it's still working. Did you try turning it off then on again?" he turned to her.
"Er…I was about to, when you came in."
He started heading for the door, still fiddling with the device. Mai followed after him, looking around the room one last time. It was still, for some reason Mai thought it was a lot more deserted than when she entered.
The case was closed soon after. Masako didn't sense anything in the old western mansion, yet they performed exorcisms as a precaution and as a service to the poor old woman who could not sell the house.
Mai wondered why Naru had taken up the case in the first place. An odd sobbing sound was not tempting enough an occurrence for him to take up a full blown investigation, with the entire SPR team on the case. For something like this, if he did accept it, only he and Lin would be necessary—Mai felt she would just be tagging along.
"Isn't he overreacting?" Ayako asked when Naru had closed the door to his quarters. They had all trooped back into the office because they finished earlier than expected "Even Mai could've handled a case like that" she said matter-of-factly.
"I don't know" Houshou said skeptically "She was falling all over the place even without the ghosts" He grinned in Mai's direction.
Mai wasn't listening. She was taking longer than usual to make the tea. Her mind was still whirring with the mysterious journal. She hadn't had a chance to scan it since Hosho had found her in the room. With the whole team around, she couldn't dare open it without risking detection.
It was strange as well how Masako had pronounced the house uninhabited by spirits, her word on the matter had always been accurate, but what else could've caused that phenomenon? Could it have been an unintentional manifestation of psychic powers, as they had seen once before? Perhaps it was all just a silly trick.
Should I tell the others? Was the question she kept asking herself the most.
Handing Masako her tea she lingered there for a moment. "Um…Masako" she began hesitantly "You're sure there weren't any spirits right?"
"I'm sure" the medium replied tartly. She seemed a bit affronted by the question, "If you doubt it then—"
"No, no" Mai said quickly "I didn't mean that. It was just that, in the room at the end of the hall something strange happened…"
"Strange how?" John asked. The rest turned to look at her with interest.
Mai was debating whether she should continue. A room full of experienced people in the field of the paranormal seemed like a great reassurance for her, they might know what to do with the mysterious journal, and have an explanation as to how Mai came to have it. But still the words written on the last page stopped her. They were clearly addressed to her.
"I-I…tripped" she said instead "I was walking fine, when I suddenly found myself on the floor, and I thought it was strange" She tried to grin sheepishly.
"What's strange is how you've stayed alive up to now" Hosho said "You're a danger to yourself. Honestly walking around on your own" he said exasperated.
Everyone laughed, and the topic was not broached any further.
Mai didn't want to be alone when she opened the journal, but she had no choice. With all the lights turned on in her small apartment, she had taken the book and laid it on her kitchen table. It was bright enough inside to make it seem like it was morning, and it made her feel slightly reassured.
She took one deep intake of breath and expelled it before reading the first entry:
Dear Diary It began.
I think mother had a fantastic idea of making me begin a diary when a new year of my life had started. I'm twelve now. Actually I've just turned twelve, and one of my presents had been you, my very first diary! Unfortunately mother let father choose the cover. I wanted a brighter one—yellow is my favorite color—but he insisted leather lasted longer and looked more grown-up.
Anyway I'm starting boarding school this year. I'm really excited (and a bit nervous). My friend Makiko is also going to the same school. We've arranged it so that our rooms are right next to each other. I'm really glad she's going. I'm nervous that I might not make any friends there, though this is a secret though. I try not to look too anxious. Makiko is different though, she almost cried with relief when she heard I was also going. What would she do without me, really?
That's it for now. I hear mother coming, she wouldn't want me still awake at this hour. I'll write more next time.
Mai thought it was innocent enough. Like a little girl had really written it without any dark pretenses. She had thought the worst, like a book of some morbid murder, or a curse ready to be unleashed. But it was just a girl writing her very first entry with obvious care, as the writing was neat and perfectly slanted.
She looked over the words once more and realized something. They were not Japanese characters. They were in English, but she had read them without difficulty, understanding every word. She turned to the next page and the next. She scanned them and they were all the same, yet she could read them like it was her native language.
Mai stopped. Something much bigger than she had imagined was conspiring, she was sure of it now, she felt something relying on it and on her.
A/n: There may be some inconsistensies. I'm not very knowledgable about boarding schools in Japan, actually boarding schools in general. So I'm not sure whether girls started to go at twelve. Anyway it didn't go as well as I wanted but...Thanks for reading...
P.S. How do you spell Takigawa's first name?