Okay hello! This is my first serious story (and my first ''long'' one). I had a really bad day when I started on this one, and I just wished I could kill someone, and thought : Hey I can kill someone! Just not in real life!. And I did.. Now on to the warnings!

Warnings : Blood, and character death.

Disclaimer ~ I own nothing, but it would be really cool if I did.

Only death waits on you

Stupid Naru! Mai thought with a huff as she sat at her desk. She almost missed her college entrance exam because they had to finish the latest case. She silently huffed again. She could just have left the day before, 'but noooo how could the king of narcissism live just one day without his tea?' She would totally blame him if she didn't get in because she was late.

A lot of things had changed since Naru left three years back, but there was still a lot of things that stayed the same. Gene still showed up in her dreams, and Naru was still a narcissistic tea addicted annoyance, and Mai still loved him. But things had changed too. After Naru left Mai grew up, she got more mature and also smarter. 'Not that the tea addicted idiot could see that', she thought still a bit angry that she almost missed her entrance exam.

She quickly put a lock of her shoulder length brown hair behind her ear, and focused her bright cinnamon eyes on the test. 'It's not even that hard', she thought. She had chosen a college that majored in paranormal activity, and most of the questions on the test was about that. 'Come on, what is a poltergeist, that is just too easy!' She thought with a slight smile. She was done in no time, and as she slowly leaned back she thought about the case again.

The case had sounded easy enough, but then again, they usually does. But the Masons had left out quite a bit of information about the ghost. Turns out that it was way worse than they had described. What was only supposed to be smacking doors, low temperatures, writing on the walls and flying objects was suddenly so much more. Glass would suddenly explode, furnitures would be flipped upside down or get stuck to the ceiling, voices could be heard, screams would wake you up in the middle of the night and blood would appear drenching the walls or floors. They had left out that information, that important information, because they were afraid that no one would take the case. So to say that the team was surprised when they showed up would be an understatement.

But they did it, they purified all the evil spirits in the house, there were A LOT of evil spirits gathered there, and they could finally, after many injuries, return home. The one worst off was Monk, he had attempted to protect John and Ayako while they were purifying the evil spirits. He ended up in the hospital, another reason that she was a bit late for her exam, but he was in a stable condition. Even she had gotten a bit hurt on the case, just a few scratches, bruises and some bruised ribs, nothing she couldn't handle, and it had been in the start of the case, so she was almost fine again.

She hadn't noticed when she fell asleep, but she quickly figured that she was sleeping when she ended up in the astral plane, but there was something different. 'I normally only end up here right before a case or while on a case, so why am I here now?' Mai thought. She looked around for Gene, but she was alone, or at least she thought that she was alone.

"Gene are you here?", Mai yelled, but she got no answer. 'That's strange', she thought, 'he normally always respond when I call him.'

She looked around again, and this time she saw him. He stood about thirteen foot behind her, but he didn't get any closer, not that he didn't try. She could see him trying to push against what held him back, but it didn't look like there was anything. It was like a big wall of glass was holding him back. She could see him opening his mouth, and she was sure that he said something, but she couldn't hear him, and it frightened her. He tried again, and again, but still no sound reached her, he also pointed quite a bit, but at what she didn't know. But she soon discovered what he looked so afraid of. A puff of warm air blew against her neck, and a stench of death soon followed, she was almost too afraid to look, and when she looked she wished that she hadn't.

Right behind her stood something she wished that she would never have to see again. It was the evil spirit from the case that had caused her injuries. It had come to her in a dream, but she thought they had purified it! She hadn't realized that she had spoken out loud before it answered.

"You just thought that you got rid of me, but I must say, it hurt quite a bit", it said. Its voice made her hair stand and her blood freeze. It sounded so malicious and evil that she could barely move.

You could no longer see if it was male or female. The spirit was covered in blood, and the stench was unbearable, it wore no clothes and had no hair. Its arms were longer than normal human arms and the hands had long claw like fingers. Its head was deformed, and she was sure that there was missing a piece of the skull, the eyes were a bloody red, and she could only see the because of the black that framed them. It was a good head taller than her and it was leaned forward as if it was about to fall. She could feel her hands shaking, and she could tell by the evil, taunting smile that spread across the deformed face, that the spirit also had seen it.

"Are you afraid?", it asked in a taunting voice, as it breathed her right in the face with its foul breath that smelled like blood and death.

She didn't have to answer, it was clear that she was afraid. She was all alone, okay not all alone but Gene couldn't help her now, with this evil spirit that just waited to kill her. She was so afraid that she couldn't even form the words for the nine cuts, and she completely forgot everything she had learned about purifying ghosts. Her eyes were wide in fear, her heart racing and her body trembling. Her breath came in short gasps, and she didn't doubt that she was going to die. What a horrible way to die, she thought.

It slowly brought up its hand and caressed her face as it spoke. "This is going to be so fun", now it looked over at Gene who was banging against the invisible wall with tears in his eyes, "don't you think so".

Tears slowly welled up in her eyes as it caressed her face, was she really going to die? What about all the things that she still wanted to do, what about the SPR, what about her new found family. She had just gotten her family back together, and now she was gonna loose it again. As she felt the other clawed hand tear through the skin at her stomach she realized that yes, she probably would die there. Tears streamed down her face as she let the first of many screams tear trough her throat.

It found it very enjoyable to finally feel fresh blood cover its hands again. It had been so long since it last had such a masterpiece to work with. This girl was something special, she had power and an exceptional mind. It had been a long time since it last met a person that could travel to the astral plane. It slowly tore its clawed hand free from Mais stomach licked the long claws free from blood as it listened to the pain filled screams. 'Besides this one got some tasty blood'.

Mai quickly sprang up from her seat in the exam room, and just for a brief moment she thought that it all had just been a nightmare, but then she felt the pain. Another scream left her dry lips as she looked down on her blood soaked light blue turtlenecked shirt. There was a big rip in the fabric and on her stomach was a big and bleeding wound. She quickly pressed a hand against the wound, and looked around. It was as if time had been stopped. No one moved, they didn't even breath, and Mai was overwhelmed with the feeling of panic.

"Please someone help me!", she yelled at them in a pain filled, but they still didn't move. She tried to grab the person besides her, but they felt like statues, and they were ice cold.

She knew that the spirit was there even before she saw it, she could smell the disgusting smell of death and blood even before it got inside the room, but she just stood still and stared at the door. The first thing she saw was that abnormally big clawed hand, and she froze. What if it had hurt the other students? But she could tell by its evil smile that it knew something that she didn't. It slowly moved closer and she started moving backwards. They kept doing that until she was pressed against the wall and it stood less than two feet in front of her.

"what did you do to them?", she asked in a low trembling voice. You almost couldn't understand what she asked, and that just made the spirit in front of her more smug about it.

"Who said I did anything?", it asked amused. "this is your power, this is what you made". It sounded highly amused, and she understood why. She had unknowingly frozen her only form of help, and she didn't know how to undo it. Her fate was sealed. But at least I'm going alone, she thought with a slight smile. Now that she knew that she was the only one in danger she suddenly felt much calmer, but she was also very frightened to be going alone, she grew up alone, and now she would die alone.

It moved closer and closer until it once again stood right in front of her, and once again a clawed hand was buried in her gut, but it just felt ten times worse this time. Once again a painful scream was ripped from her throat and she could feel the blood flow from the wound. It hurt, it hurt too much, and she could feel the hand moving inside her stomach. It was just too much. But it seemed to be having fun, and it didn't want to hurry. Why not make it last? So with another malicious smile it flung her across the room and into the other wall.

She could feel her formerly bruised rib break, and it only made the pain worse, but this time she couldn't scream. She coughed a few times and she could feel the warm liquid slide down her chin. That wasn't good. The blood from her wound spread around her, and it once again approached her.

"already finished?", it asked confused. "I had hoped you would last longer, but then again, humans are quite fragile". Its voice made her tremble, she was so afraid and her whole world was covered in pain. It slowly leaned down to her. "Don't worry, I'll just take a little sip, I'll even let you live long enough for your friends to find you", it said with an evil smile as it slowly bit down into her neck. She could feel how her blood was drained, and it hurt more than when it had showed its hand into her gut. Another high scream left her mouth, but was silenced half way trough by a bloody cough.

It hurt, it hurt so bad, but she couldn't make it stop. She barely had enough energy to breath, and even that was hard. But as time vent by she started to feel numb. It was a relief for the half dead girl, but it was also a painful reminder that she was just about to die. Breathing got harder and harder, and now the air was tinged with the coppery smell of blood. 'I really should have stayed with Naru and the others', she thought. As it slowly let her go again she just lay limp on the floor breathing in small gasps. "Don't worry, I won't do anything, we couldn't have that you die before your friends get here", it said with a grin.

She hoped that it was just joking, but she knew that it wasn't. She could hear people in the hallway, but she was too tired to scream for help, not that she thought that they would be able to help her. When the door banged open it was already gone. Mai couldn't feel it, but she also knew that it wouldn't leave her alone. A horrified gasp made her look over at the door. She kind of wished that they wouldn't need to watch her last moments, no one should have to watch a friends last moments. There in the doorway stood Naru, Lin and Ayako. She could faintly see Masako and John behind them. Monk must still be in the hospital, she thought as a small smile spread across her bloody lips.

Naru was the fist one to run to her side. He slid across the the blood puddle and landed on his knees beside her. The next one was Ayako as her doctor side quickly took over. "Naru don't move her too much, the wound looks bad we need to call an ambulance", Ayako said in a rush as she sat down on Mai's other side. Lin was already calling the hospital, and Mai wished that she could say that it wasn't needed. Really, even her, with her minimal medical experience, knew that those wounds were fatal. She tried to open her mouth, but nothing really happened. John and Masako still stood in the doorway, frozen in chock and staring at her. They looked like they had seen a ghost.

Hmm that was funny. She felt kind of tired now, and it felt as if she was floating. She could still hear her friends, the kept screaming that she had to stay awake. 'but I'm so tired, a little nap won't hurt', she thought. Her brain felt kind of fuzzy, and she couldn't really remember what she was doing. What was she doing in that classroom? Hadn't she been on a case? She couldn't really find it in her to care, she was just so tired. She slowly closed her eyes, she just wanted to sleep. Slowly all thoughts left her mind, and a bright light shone down at her. It felt so nice, but just as she was about to reach for it a deformed and bloody face showed up. "you didn't think I would let you go, did you", it asked with an evil grin.

{The End?}

And that was it. It actually took me longer than expected. I'm so slow at writing... But anyway, what do you think? Did I do a good job, or is there anything I could do better? Please review :D!

~ I'm kinda playing with the idea of writing a sequel..