Haunted Love

Written for DarkDreams55

Mai sat quietly as she scanned over the room. She was in the base with Naru, Lin and the client, who told them her name was Aki. They had received a call from Aki saying that she desperately needed their help. Naru had, of course, declined it at first but after a long augment with Mai, he had caved in and agreed to meet her.

"So you are telling me that a ghost has been haunting these woods." Naru said looking up from the file he was holding in his hands. Aki nodded her head sadly, not looking at him. "And you called us up here, to exercise this…ghost" Naru looked at the woman who again shook her head sadly. Naru sighed to himself before closing the file. "I hope you do realize that I am not an exorcist nor do we provide that kind of service."

"I am aware of that." Aki said in a soft voice. "But I thought that maybe there was some way you could help me. You see my sister went out into the wood a few days ago but never came back. When we went looking for her, she was on the verge of death. Once she had recovered, I realized that she was beginning acting strange. She would continuously go back out into the woods and not come back for hours. One time she came back covered in blood. Please, I just want this all to stop." Aki said looking up at Naru with her light green eyes. From where Mai was sitting, she could see the fear and pain in her eyes. She was truly scared.

"Have you ever thought that maybe this has nothing to do with the super natural? That maybe your sister in mentally ill and should be seen by a doctor." Naru said harshly. Aki just stared at him, unable to say anything. Her mouth opened and closed, trying to find her voice.

"M-my sister is not insane." She yelled, finding her voice. "How dare you accuse her of that!" Aki stood up in anger as she yelled this at him.

"I am not accusing anyone of that." Naru said standing up. He placed his hands in his pockets before looking up at Aki with hard eyes. "I am simply just stating a fact. There is no ghost here. There never was. You are just too stupid to see that your sister needs medical attention. Now if you don't mind, we'll be taking our leave." Naru said before making his way past her and towards the door. "Mai" Naru called when he reached the door.

"Yes?" she asked looking up at him.

"We are leaving." Naru said as he stepped out of the room. Lin followed him, not looking back once at the young woman. Mai stood up and bowed to her before following her boss out the door.

Aki stood in the middle of the room, her hands in a tight fist. Tears began to fall down her cheeks as she gritted her teeth.

"You'll see." She said. "You'll see just how haunted those woods really are."

Mai walked out the door and into the cold mountain air. The client happens to live high in the mountains where snow laid over everything. The trees surrounding the house stood up straight covered by a white snow that sparkled in the sun light. On the ground the white snow laid untouched. It was a perfect winter wonderland.

Mai was so memorized by the sight that she had forgotten that Naru and Lin had already reached the van and where about to leave without her. Suddenly Mai heard something behind her. She turned to find a little girl giggling to herself behind a tree.

"Hello." Mai said softy to the girl. The little girl looked up at her with bright blue eyes. The first thing Mai noticed was that she was not wearing winter clothing. Actually she barely wore any clothing other than the short summer dress. "You are going to freeze if you wear that." Mai said taking a step closer. The girl immediately took a step back. "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you." Mai said taking another step closer. The girl suddenly turned around and ran into the woods. "Wait!" Mai called running after her.

Mai ran for sometime. She had lost the girl, but she had hoped that if she kept running, she would find her again. Mai slowed to a stop as she looked around. She didn't know where she was and what made it worse was that it was beginning to snow. Above her, Mai could see that the sun had already begun to set behind the trees. It was growing dark, and if she didn't find her way back to the van soon, Naru would kill her. Mai pulled her coat closer to her as she felt a cold breeze touch her warm cheek.

"I guess I should head back the way I came." Mai said to herself before looking around one more time. Not finding anything she turned around and began to head back the way she had come. She walked for hours thinking she was almost out of the woods, until the realization had finally it her.

"Damn it!" she yelled as she wrapped her arms around herself. The sun had set and darkness was beginning to creep up on her. The snow was beginning to fall even faster as the temperature began to drop rapidly. "Naru where are you." Mai whispered to herself as she looked around.

Right now, she didn't care how much Naru would scold her or how much he would punish her, she just wanted him here. He would, at least, know of a way to get out of here and back to the safety of the black van.

Somewhere off in the distance, Mai heard a wolf cry out to the moon. She jumped a little at how close it had sounded. She was suddenly becoming very aware of her surroundings, little by little. She could hear every noise; she could see every movement that happened around her. To her left an owl was watching her through its sharp yellow eyes. Behind here something lurked in the tall branches of the pine. Above her, the moon shined down on her, reveling her to the world of night.

"Mai" whispered a voice behind her. Mai spun around.

"Naru!" she called looking through the gaps in the trees. No one was there. Mai began to panic. She knew she hadn't imaged that, but somewhere deep down, she wanted to believe it. She wanted to believe it so bad. "Hello?" she called out again taking a step forward.

"Die!" screamed a voice someone came running out at her. Mai let out a scream as she fell backwards to the ground. Mai closed her eyes as she held up her hands to protect herself. She waited and waited for the pain that was to come, but none came. Slowly Mai opened her eyes and looked up. All she saw was the dark night surrounding her. She lowered her hands and looked around, but only found that she was alone once again. Thinking back, Mai thought about the girl.

Blood dripped down her pale, fragile face. Her black hair flowed behind her, almost as if it was not there. Her white clothes were stained with blood. She had long pale weak arms held a knife that seemed to be made of crimson.

The image was burned into her memory, making it impossible to think about anything else.

"Mai!" called a voice. Mai did not want to look, but something made her body turn to face the direction the voice had come. Off in the distance, Mai could see a pale faced person running towards her.

"No!" Mai screamed covering her head. She did not want to see that again. She did not want to go through that all over again. "Mai" called the voice. This one was different from the first. It was full of worry and relief. Mai desperately wanted to turn around, to look at who was calling her but she knew it was a trick. She knew that what ever was haunting the woods wanted her to surfer. "Mai" whispered the voice as arms wrapped around her.

"No!" Mai screamed pushing the arms away. She tried to get up, to run away, but she tripped and fell to the floor.

"Mai what are you doing?" asked the voice. Mai's eyes snapped open. She knew that harsh voice.

"Naru!" she yelled sitting up and turning to him. He was staring at her with anger filled eyes.

"What the hell are you doing!" he yelled at her. "Do you have any idea how worried Lin and I where? You have been gone for hours! Hours Mai! And what do I find you doing? Playing hide and seek in the woods!"

"No Naru it's not like that!" Mai pleaded as she tried to stand up. Naru grabbed her arm and helped her up before waiting for her to continue. "I was just-there was a-Naru you have to believe me!" she said. Tears began to fill her eyes. She was so happy to see him that she could barely hold back.

"How am I supposed to believe anything you say if you haven't told me anything?" Naru said. Mai thought about this statement for a minute.

"Oh right." She said looking away. She had just made a huge fool of herself.

"Are you going to tell me or are we just going to stand here for another few hours while we wait?" Naru asked harshly. Mai glared at him before taking a deep breath and saying. "There was a little girl who ran off into the woods by herself. I went after her, but I somehow ended up getting lost. When I decided to go back, I somehow ended up even more lost than I already was and than this…thing came at me. Naru she was one of the scarcest things I have ever seen and I think she is still out here."

There was a noise behind them that made them both turn around. Standing in the gap of the trees was a young girl. She had hair that was darker than the night around her. Her face was whiter than snow that had a crimson liquid dripping down the side. Her white clothes held bloody hand prints all over it, in her hand, a bloody knife that seemed to rest there.

Naru took a step over, putting himself in between the girl and Mai. Her body moving on its own, Mai took a step closer to Naru and grabbed onto his jacket. The girl stood there, watching them with her dead eyes. She took a step forward thinking about something, before she ran full speed at them.

Naru pushed Mai back as the girl swung her knife at him. He held up his right arm in order to defend himself as he used his left to protect Mai. Naru watched as blood flew out of his arm. At first he felt nothing before the agonizing pain began to erupt. He fell to the ground as blood fell all around him.

"Naru!" he heard Mai scream when she saw the blood. He cursed himself as he realized that the gash in his arm had it a major artery. He reached up and put pressure on his arm, hoping the bleeding would stop. Above him, the girl held up the knife and licked the warm wet blood that dripped down from it. A smile appeared on her face, telling Naru that she like what she tasted. Naru tried to think of a way out of this as the girl held her knife above her head.

Crack

The sound echoed all around them. Naru looked around for the source of the noise when he felt something beneath him shift. He looked down in time to see cracks forming. Without hesitation Naru turned around and grabbed Mai. He pulled her closer as the ground beneath them gave way.

hey everyone~ i know that i said i wasn't going to be writing for a while, but DarkDreams55 is a friend of mine and she asked me to write her a one-shot which i now have to say is a two-shot cause i didn't realize how long it was going to be... But anyway i'm posting the second part of this tomorrow. Also my sis did NOT get a chance to look this over so there might be mistakes and stuff so just ignore them.

so please enjoy!

~morningnight

I don't not, under any circumstance, own Ghost Hunt. All rights go to the Author; Fuyumi Ono