Hi guys! This is my first fanfiction here, so if I missed anything or made any mistakes, feel free to point me in the right direction and/or tell me what's wrong. Here we go!

Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt. If I did, Gene would appear in Mai's dreams a little more.

Mai straightened with much difficulty, trying to balance a monitor atop the two large cardboard boxes she was supposed to be carrying into Mr. Tanaka's mansion. The monitor began tipping dangerously to the side, and Mai's eyes went wide as she helplessly watched it sway sideways.

Quick as a whip, a pale, long-fingered hand shot out and neatly caught it. Mai let out a sigh of relief. "Thanks."

Naru set the monitor onto Monk's stack of boxes. "Just don't break my equipment."

"I'm sure insurance will cover it!" Mai shot back acidly, remembering how he had tricked her into working for him back when she had first broke his camera. Why couldn't he just be nice? She had said thanks after all!

But Naru had moved on to the next person. He handed Masako her stack of equipment, completely ignoring what Mai yelled at him. With a huff, Mai turned around, determined not think about him.

"C'mon, Mai!" Monk called from the door.

"Coming!"

The mansion was, of course, huge. It had a large, hotel-like lobby and living room, endless hallways, and countless rooms. Paintings of people in old-fashioned clothes lined the walls and ornate furniture lay covered in dust here and there. Some rooms were fully furbished, while others were completely empty. Everything was covered in a layer of dust.

Mai suddenly bumped into Monk. She hadn't been watching where they were going at all. She had only been following Monk's back, not that she could see much past her stack of boxes.

"What's up?" she asked.

"Nothing, nothing," he murmured and looked around slowly. "Um…"

Mai knew that look. She had it on her own face more often than she cared to admit. "Monk, are we lost?"

"No, of course not!" Monk protested. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other and glanced inside a random room nearby. He frowned.

"It's okay if you got us lost, Monk," Mai said, smiling behind her boxes.

"No, I swear I knew where I was going. Mr Tanaka just told me to go up the stairs, turn left, and then take a right at the end of the hallway. Our room would be the third one on the left."

"So did you do that?"

"Yeah… Well, I took a right at the end of the hallway but there were no rooms in the short hallway that followed, so I turned when it turned left at the end and it came back to the top of the stairs. Then I'm pretty sure I took a left like I was supposed to but at the end of the hallway, there was only one left, and now…" Monk frowned and scratched his head. He set the boxes down and looked around. "I'm pretty sure the hallway turned right the first time. And we've definitely been here before."

"Monk, that doesn't make any sense," said Mai, giggling. He was definitely lost. "You can admit it if you don't know where you're going."

"I do know where we're going," he insisted. He picked up the boxes and began walking again. Mai sighed and had no choice but to follow him.

Two minutes later they were back at the top of the stairs.

"Okay, I'm lost," Monk admitted in defeat.

"You said Mr. Tanaka told you to go left, then right?"

"Yeah. I even wrote it on my hand. See?"

Mai didn't tell him she couldn't see because his hand was under the box. "Okay. Just...do it again, then."

"Again? I've done this three times!"

"Just one more time. I'll pay attention this time, too."

"Fine, but this is the last time. If we end up at the stairs again, I'm going back to the van. My arms are killing me."

Now that Mai was paying attention, her skin began to crawl. She hated huge, empty houses. They always felt so deserted she thought she was going to be sick. She began humming a silly, bouncy tune to distract herself.

They turned left and then right, just as they were supposed to. Three rooms down, they opened the door to find Lin inside, setting up computers and monitors.

"See, Monk? The room's right here. You probably just took a wrong turn somewhere," Mai said, setting down the boxes and rubbing her sore arms. She felt bad for making Monk carry her monitor, but consoled herself with the fact that he had seven inches and forty pounds on her.

"You two got lost as well?" Masako asked, making Mai jump.

"Where did you come from?" she asked. "Were you behind us?"

"No." Masako set her boxes down on a table. "I actually got lost and after a bit of wandering I found myself in this hall. I heard you and came in."

"Who's blocking the door?" came a grumble.

"Naru!" Mai exclaimed, their icy exchange of words forgotten. "Did you get lost, too?"

Naru gave Lin his boxes. "No. Why would I get lost? And where are Miss Matsuzaki and John? They left the van before me."

"Well," said Mai. "We all got lost. I guess they did too."

"You were simply supposed to go up, left, right. How could anyone get lost?" Naru murmured.

"Lin, did you get lost on your way up here?" Mai asked, determined to prove Naru wrong. Who did he think he was, degrading them all like that?"

"I did," came the brief reply.

Naru frowned. Mai thought he was going to give them all an explanation for it, but he promptly sat down and began typing on his computer.

Ayako then burst into the room, groaning about her arm. John was close behind. "UGH!" she yelled. "What is wrong with Mr. Tanaka? It is not up, left, right. It's up, right, right, left!"

"Naru, are you sure you went up, left, right?" Monk asked.

"Yes. What else would I do?"

"Well," Mai said. "Everyone seemed to have followed the same directions and gotten lost except for you...but then again, Monk and I took a left and right the third time and…" Wait. Had she just proved Naru right? She had to stop talking so much!

"Exactly," he said smugly. "It's a big house. If you don't follow directions carefully, you're bound to get lost."

They all looked at each other. Masako said, "Maybe there are two staircases. Maybe there's one on either side and everyone was going left and right from the wrong one."

"But why are there two staircases? And how'd we get to the second one?" Mai asked. She hadn't been paying that much attention, but she was sure there had only been one staircase.

"We didn't get lost!" Ayako insisted. "We went left, then right, didn't we, John?"

John, ever trying to avoid any sort of conflict, looked uncomfortable. "Well, yes, but we could've gotten disoriented, I guess."

"See, Naru? Even John says so!" Ayaki threw herself on the couch. "I'm not going anywhere anytime soon!"

"Why don't we all have dinner now?" Masako broke in. Mai quietly fumed as the beautiful medium glanced at Naru. Was she trying to get on his good side by saving his butt from an argument?

"Sure," said Naru. "If you can all get to the kitchen without getting lost. While you do that, Lin and I will be getting some actual work done."

Mai smiled inwardly at Masako's speechlessness. If she had been in that spot, she would've yelled right back at him, but that was not in Masako's nature.

"Oh, all right," Ayako groaned. "We'll help you get your stupid computers set up, but we're doing the other equipment tomorrow."

After setting up the monitors, they all went down to the kitchen, never taking one wrong turn. By this time, Mai was beginning to believe Masako's theory that there was another staircase on the other side of the second floor that they had accidentally gone up. Mr. Tanaka was nowhere to be seen, but there was a note directing them to the fridge and cupboards. After dinner, they collectively went upstairs and divided into the two adjacent rooms cleaned just for them. It wasn't long before Mai's eyes began to feel heavy and she fell asleep.

When she opened her eyes, Gene was standing in front of her.

"Gene!" she squealed, and threw her arms around him. Though she was saddened by the fact that he wasn't moving on, she was always thrilled to see him.

"Hey, Mai." He disentangled himself from her arms. "What's up?"

"Well, I am about to be worked to death again! We have to set up all the cameras and mics today." Mai looked around. "But never mind about that. Where're we going?"

"I need to show you something," Gene said.

They came to a large building. "Oh, this is the Tanaka mansion," Mai told Gene.

Gene nodded wordlessly. They entered and began walking up the stairs. At the top, Gene tried to lead her to the right, and though Mai wanted to go the same way, she hesitated.

"Aren't we supposed to go up, left, right?"

Gene looked at her. "What do you feel like?"

"Me-?"

"Come on, Mai. You know better. Go where you think you should go."

Mai turned left, as Gene had first told her. She turned into a long hallway and then looked back to ask him what to do next, but he wasn't there anymore.

I'm right here, Mai.

Mai jumped a little and looked around, but he wasn't there. It was as if… he was speaking from inside of her?

Keep going.

He led her up one hallway and down another, right, right, left, right, down, right. Finally, she came to an empty hallway with only one door.

Go inside.

Mai pushed open the door to find a small library. Was it important?

Yes, but you have to go. It is getting suspicious.

"What? What is?"

But the dream faded away.

So how was it? Good? Bad? Eh?

The goal is to update at least once a week, so...

For next time: A little conversation with Naru, breakfast, and extreme nausea.