Well...I gave in... That's right! Enough of you said it nicely so I decided to grant you your wish and make the chapters longer. Now this does mean that it may take longer for the chapters to come out...so please bare with me...I wasn't lying when I said writing had become a tad difficult for me...So if you're okay with the longer-wait-for-longer-chapters-tradeoff then I shall continue to do the chapters this way...

CHAPTER 1

It had been several weeks since the dreams of a horribly haunted manor began; but it wasn't until this morning, when I awoke to the sound of a thunderclap like I'd never heard before and found myself momentarily caught between the dream and reality, that I finally decided to tell the others at SPR.

After all the time I'd spent with SPR you would think I would recognize when a spirit was trying to reach out to me...

Buuuuut...I'm apparently just not that smart.

As the temperature swiftly dropped in the apartment, I suddenly found myself wishing Naru were here.

I started to regret declining Lin's offer to help me with my precognitive dreams.

"Help me," came a little girl's voice from somewhere inside the room.

I jumped from the bed and nearly out of my skin, my heart pounding a bruise into my chest.

I then heard something that sounded like a small tinkling bell followed by something else that sounded eerily like a rope being tightened or possibly stretched.

By now the room was cold enough to see my own breath.

I frantically looked around the room for any sign of movement, but every thing was very still.

The rope noise was steadily getting louder and then the room became silent and the temperature went back to normal. I sighed though I didn't feel all that relieved. Something like this had happened before. There would be several signs of an impending spirit and then right before it would lash out the whole area would be filled with a deathly silence.

RRRIIIIIIIINNNGG!

I nearly pissed myself as my phone's shrill ring cut through the thick lack of sound.

I ran to the phone table in the TV room and with a shaky hand raised the receiver to my ear.

"H-hello?"

"Mai?"

It was Naru.

Never had I been so happy to hear his voice.

"Thank God it's you," I said quietly, still not convinced I was alone.

"Mai," he sounded annoyed, "Why are you still at home? You were supposed to be here at the office thirty minutes ago."

I glanced at the digital wall clock.

I stared for several moments not understanding why my alarm clock in my bedroom didn't go off.

Or maybe it had and I just didn't hear it. My dreams were so loud and so real that sometimes nothing could wake me from them.

"Naru, I'm really sorry. I..."

My voice trailed off at the sudden eerie scratching coming from directly above me in the ceiling.

"...I just..."

And then the walls.

"...I..."

And then the floor.

I spun around several times searching for any signs of a spirit. Suddenly more annoyed than frightened I shouted, "Are you kidding me?!"

I dropped the phone as a loud bang shook the room I was currently in.

"Mai?"

I could still hear Naru... So the phone had apparently gone to speaker when it had hit the floor.

I ignored him, being more focused on the spirits.

There was whispering all around me, though it was all very garbled.

"I get it," I said to whatever it was, "You want me to listen. Fine! Well here I am!"

"Mai! What's going on?!"

Naru sounded quiet even though I'm pretty sure he was yelling. But that could possibly be contributed to the gusting winds now tearing apart my living room.

"Mai! Answer me!"

Another loud bang.

"What do you want from me!" I shouted, now more scared than annoyed.

"Mai! Lin and I are on our way. Try not to do anything reckless until we get there."

"Hurry!"

For this very reason Naru had found me an apartment only fifteen minutes from SPR.

But time seemed to be going much slower, or perhaps they ran into traffic and were now running the rest of the way here.

After what seemed like hours it all stopped…until all that remained was a light swirl of dust and through that dust I saw her.

A woman with long black hair, dressed in a blood stained white kimono and ropes around her wrists.

Now, she wasn't in the room, per se, she was looking at me from across the room…in a mirror.

I didn't know what to make of her.

"W-Who are you...?" I asked softly.

She said nothing.

Only stared blankly back at me.

"Please stop me," pleaded the little girl's voice from before. "I don't want to kill anymore…"

Wait…

Was it the little girl I should fear…or was it this woman?

I didn't have time to answer my internal question as the woman slowly moved through the glass and into the room. And as she did so, the rope sounds started up again.

I gazed unblinking across the room.

Just who was she?

All became quiet… Before the storm.