Closed Doors

Part 1

There was another bang and a bullet embedded itself in a wall, followed by the patter of running feet. An ominous silence fell, and he started walking forwards, humming slightly. Fear encircled the hotel. Mai ran up and up stairs, desperate to get as far away as was humanly possible. She banged on doors, but no one was in, or no one opened them.

Great. She stopped in the middle of the corridor. Silence fell. Back on the ground floor the man looked at the ceiling. He wondered briefly who was running. Slowly, he locked the front door. He had already locked the others, there was no way out. And he was probably about to break his promise. Not that that mattered anyway.

The first step creaked. That was good. He liked that. However the second one didn't. Slightly annoyed he jumped on the first step, pleased with the general disturbance that made. You could tell by the absolute silence. He smiled slightly. Well, this was a special occasion. Now he could get away with it. This time he wouldn't be caught.

-Some days earlier-

A severely wet group of people were hauling stuff from a van and into the hotel. Inside their footprints merged in a confusion of wet and dry across the tiled floor. They continued up the stairs, up, up, to the third floor, though by that time they were barely visible. From there you could follow the murmur of voices, which stopped abruptly after a crash.

In the SPR tradition, Mai had of course dropped a camera, after tripping over the door frame.

"Mai, if it's damaged it will come out of your wages." Naru reminded her.

"I'm alright." She said, dusting herself down and picking up the camera.

"You tripped over the door frame."

"Thanks for asking." She smiled at him. He sighed. Of course, he wouldn't actually take it out of her wages, but it was still a good threat. Especially as she hadn't actually broken anything. Yet. She had put the camera down and left, leaving him standing like a lemon holding a monitor. Quickly he put it down and went back outside.

Eventually all the equipment had been taken in, as well as their luggage, and now all that remained to do was to position the cameras around the building. Naru had already sent Masako and Ayako with the thermometer and a sheet of paper to record the temperatures in the room, mostly to get rid of Masako and to stop Ayako and Bou-san from arguing all the time. Which left him in relative peace and quiet. Relative being the operative word.

Of course, Mai was still there, and so was Bou-san and Yasuhara.

"Hmm, we'll need cameras in the foyer, dining room, fifth floor corridor on the east and the south stairwell. If you go in pairs we'll be done quicker." Now for real peace and quiet.

Mai and John went to the foyer and dining room while Yasuhara and Bou-san took the corridor and stairs. Naru probably regretted letting them work in pairs for the rest of the day. Bou-san and Yasuhara had much to discuss, namely Naru's surprising return to Japan. Because, let's face it, "there is more spiritual activity in Japan" was a fairly awful excuse. The problem was, Naru probably believed it. Though, of course, Yasuhara and Bou-san saw through this rouse immediately.

Luckily for Naru, John and Mai had already returned, so the dynamic duo were unable to corner him. By then it was lunchtime, and SPR weren't likely to do much with their stomachs rumbling, so there was a break.

"Sooo…" Yasuhara started, after everyone else had left.

"Naru-chan…" Bou-san said slowly.

"What?"

"Weelll, we were wondering why you came back to Japan." He continued.

"There's far more spiritual activity here, compared to England."

"Ah-hah! But, Japan is not the most spiritually active country is it?" Yasuhara said triumphantly.

"No."

"So why did you come back?"

"What do you two want?"

"Nothing nothing." Bou-san said hurriedly.

"Just wondering, that's all."

"Mmhmm."

"Er, yeah." With that they left, leaving a slightly baffled Naru with only his thoughts and a bemused but silent Lin for company.

The rest of the day passed slowly and without any activity from the ghost. Naru, Mai and Lin were interviewing, so there was nothing for the rest of them to do. Sensing their boredom the owner of the hotel's wife brought up an ancient game of Go, long lost at the back of a cupboard.

"We wanted our son to learn, but he never liked it. I'm sorry there's not much to do around here. Obviously when it's sunny the countryside is stunning but…" She looked out of the window at the rain driving down.

"Thank you." They said. Placing the battered box between them, they didn't touch it.

Meanwhile the hotel owner, Itsukate Dai, was being interviewed. He had bought the hotel recently, and very cheaply because of its reputation as being haunted. The estate agent had quickly handed over the keys before driving off immediately, clearly relieved to be shot of the place.

"But, if it was haunted then why did you buy it?" Mai interrupted, confused.

"I don't believe in ghosts. However my wife does, and she says she feels like she's being watched all the time. Of course when we arrived we were told the hotel's rather violent history by the locals. Either way, it doesn't hurt to have the building exorcised, just in case."

"What exactly is this history?"

"Well, we bought the place when the original owner died and the land went up for sale. Apparently first his son died mysteriously. They say he was found with the door locked from the inside, but he hadn't committed suicide, and there was no other way out. They never found the murderer, and everyone said it as the ghost. After that his twin daughters went missing. Their bodies were recently found in the grounds, when they had decided to clear the old, overgrown flower beds and re plant them. His wife left from fear, but he stayed. They say he went mad, never was seen outside. Anyway, he died of cancer, and the land was put up for sale. Nobody wanted it, and it was so cheap."

"Anything else?"

"Oh, the rumours go back for years. About 50 years ago this group of kids were daring each other to go in. The place was pretty much abandoned then, a really weird family lived there. But that's a different story. So this kid plucks up the courage and goes inside. Alone, none of his friends had the guts. He came out screaming, never would say what happened, but it changed him. He's now terrified of everything. They say his hair turned white soon after."

"What about this family?"

"Weeell, they were a strange bunch. Foreign apparently. I think they were Korean. Ever since they moved in weird noises could be heard at night coming from the house. They seemed to be absolutely terrified, but never left strangely. They had a teenage girl, and she became friendly with one of the local boys. He died mysteriously too, and no one went near them after that. Of course, the death was never attributed to anyone, but that doesn't stop the rumours. Some reckoned that she fell in love with him but he rejected her, so she killed him. The family, naturally, defended their girl. A year later or so, the daughter committed suicide. Or ran away. I'm not sure. Either way, she went missing. The mother and father died of natural causes. Illness, I think."

"Have any of your guests currently staying experienced anything supernatural?"

"Er, about half, I think. But most of them are just things like noises. Things that go bump in the night. Spooks them out, but nothing serious. A few have seen figures, silhouettes, that sort of thing."

"When they say they have seen figures, is it the same figure every time?"

"Yeah, now that you mention it, I think it is. A bloke. He's been seen around the hotel. Someone even saw him outside once. Among the trees. Didn't think much of it at the time, could have been anything really. Sometimes he's just standing there, watching you, and sometimes he goes away when you see him. I haven't seen him, personally."

"That will be all… thank you."

Dai nodded. "If anything happens again, I'll tell you as soon as possible."

When he had left, Mai spoke. "Do you think… do you think that it was a ghost that killed all those people?"

"It probably was. We'll need to find out what was here before this hotel was built here."

"Do you think it's just one ghost?"

"Probably. We'll have to ask Hara-san."

"But why would he-?"

"I don't know Mai. Tea."

She grumbled something under her breath, but left without otherwise complaining. She went into the kitchen, the back of her neck prickling ominously. The tap was running but otherwise there was no noise. Frowning slightly she turned off the tap and jumped, startled by the sound of feet moving behind her. Her eyes widened, and slowly she turned around.

"Are you alright, dear?" Dai's wife was giving her a concerned look.

Mai visibly sagged in relief.

"Oh, yes, I just hadn't seen you. You made me jump, that's all. Um, where do you keep the tea?"

She quickly made the tea and left. The kitchen still made her feel slightly nervous with its sad air. She felt a lot better when she got to base where the others were getting quite excited over a game of Go.

"Hey Mai! Come and help us!" Ayako and Masako beckoned her over; it was a girls versus guys match.

"Are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Bou-san, that's not very considerate. She could've actually seen a ghost." Yasuhara said in mock seriousness.

"It's all these stories about this hotel, they make me jump at small things." She smiled apologetically.

By the time they had finished the third game of Go, which the boys won easily, it was getting late, so they packed it up, had dinner and went to sleep. Mai climbed into bed early, hoping to get to sleep quickly, but she couldn't stop thinking about all the stories from the hotel. Who knew how many there were before this hotel was built? She turned it over and over in her mind, before falling into a restless sleep.

Mai woke up in the now familiar circle of bright light. She got up quickly, and turned to find Gene standing next to her. No wonder she had thought that he was Naru, he was exactly the same. Even stray wisps of hair fell in his face in the same way.

"Gene. I haven't seen you for ages."

"It's so nice for you to call me by my actual name. Who would want to be mistaken for my idiot of a scientist twin." He grinned.

"I'm sorry. But you are the same. What are you going to show me this time?"

"Mai, how many times do I have to say, I'm just your spirit guide. I do not show you dreams."

"Ok, ok. What am I going to be seeing today?"

"Nothing. I just wanted to warn you. This ghost… they're not normal."

"Normal?"

"He doesn't follow any rules, and Noll can't predict what he'll do. He doesn't care. About anything."

"So? Lots of ghosts in other cases were dangerous."

"Just tell Noll to leave this place before someone gets hurt."

"Right."

"And if he needs convincing tell him that he'd better leave before the thing he's scared of actually happens."

"What's Naru scared of?"

"Never you mind. He'd hate for anyone to know."

"True enough."

"I think it's time for you to wake up. Take care of yourself."

She woke up. It felt so dark in the room after the light of the circle. What time was it anyway? No birds were singing, and no light was creeping round the edges of the curtains. She turned the lamp on and felt across the bedside table for her watch.

"Mai, turn it off…" Ayako said, sounding grumpy.

"Oh, sorry. Did I wake you up?"

"No, I was already awake. The thing that woke me up was the pipes rattling nonstop. You'd have thought they could have some descent plumbing in this place."

"But the heating wouldn't be on. It's four in the morning."

"Thanks Mai. The light hurts my eyes." Ayako said as the lamp turned off.

"Ayako, I didn't turn it off."

This is, of course, completely unrelated to Aftermath. A little idea started growing in my mind so we started writing it down and wah-hey! This is what happened. A whole new story.

Enjoy :) And don't forget to review! ^^