Hello people!!

I'm extremely happy that i've got a good response within 48 or so hours and with that extreme happiness i wrote this chapter!! But that doesn't mean this is a happy chapter, oh no no no.

If your confused about something please feel free to tell me!

Disclaimer: If i owned ghost hunt Lin, Gene or Naru would have married mai already. Or john. Ha.

~X~

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

"Singing/Lyrics"

~X~

I want to eat donuts~

Mai had been rushed to the hospital. Secretly, of course. The host had calmed everyone down by saying it was part of the act and the audience started applauding saying they had never been so scared and affected by her performance.

Everyone was worried sick for her, even naru who carefully masked his emotions. He wouldn't let this get to him, the case was too important to let go now.

He wouldn't stop, he'd find a way to get rid of the spirit even if it costs mai's life. Well that was what he had always done but thinking of a life without mai…

Naru shook his head to clear his thoughts and stared at his assistant. It seemed that the spirit didn't want her to die, just to be in extreme pain.

Most of her bones were fractured, cracked ribs and all over her body were cuts, deep but not deep enough to cost her life, it was what caused the pool of blood.

Everyone with the exception of naru was sleeping, their eyes red and puffy, even masako had broken down crying when she saw mai in her terrible state of near death. Lin, who had been as emotionless as naru had suspiciously looking tears in his eyes.

Ayako had spent nearly 6 hours mending her injuries, the hardest were her cracked ribs since one of them had been dangerously close to puncturing her right lung.

Bou-san had been given sedatives and sleeping pills. John had gone into non-stop prayer until he collapsed from exhaustion.

Yasuhara had been dazed through the whole event, unmoving, his eyes fixed intently on mai's frozen, blood soaked body as his body could no longer produce tears.

Naru didn't cry. He hadn't cried ever since gene died, that night he vowed he never would let a person get close to him again so that he would never be in such pain ever again, so why was mai causing him to feel like this?

He stared at her prone body, her heart was stable and ayako said that she would be discharged in three days then they would restart the case yet something was stopping him.

For some reason, somewhere deep in his heart seemed to weep and wither as if in apprehensive anticipation of some part in his chest was screaming at him, screaming that something wrong was going to happen, saying that something life changing would happen right before his eyes, something painted with the color of that blood red rose.

Something that he would regret forever. He would regret it long after his body deteriorates.

"Mai" The said girl turned around to find her cherished naru giving her the most loving smile she had ever seen in anyone's face. "Naru?" She asked before she realized this was just another one of her dreams, one of her fantasies. "Naru!" She tackled him to the ground and buried her face in his chest.

"Nee, naru did you hear me?" She asked the boy she secretly loved though this version was just a figment of her imagination, no matter how helpful he could be, he was still not real, she had to keep that in mind.

"Yes, I did. You have a wonderful voice." The black haired man said smiling and ruffling her hair as his heart clenched painfully. Gene knew that he was in love with her, the moment he saw her smile he had fallen in love but she loved his brother, his living brother.

The same brother who broke her heart on numerous occasions and didn't even care about it, the same brother who had even risked her life for a stupid case! Noll didn't deserve a girl like mai, she was practically the most perfect person on earth but what could he do?

He was just a ghost. A spectral being with no tangible form whatsoever. He had to remind himself that no matter how hard he wished, that song she sang would never be for him.

"Mai, I need you to listen to me. Don't involve yourself in this case, if you do, something awful will happen. Just up and leave, you understand?"

Dream naru told me as I was slowly waking up. "I'm sorry naru-chan but I have to help my friends and I don't want masako to get hurt. Besides I'm strong! I could take this spirit on if I wanted to! Its what I'm here for, right?

" Have faith in me" I smiled at him one more time before opening my eyes.

I regretted the action immediately. My head felt like it was split in two while my chest ached and the other parts of my body were unbearably painful. This felt like, pure (…?!) , untainted (or should I say, malevolently tainted) hell.

For some unknown reason, relief washed over me when I saw her eyes flicker open a second before closing again, she even groaned. Typical. Casually, I walk over to her and say quietly, in a voice not to wake the others, "Awake yet?"

Instantly, her eyes opened again and another groan soon followed "Naru…?" Her voice sounded hoarse and croaky. She slowly turned her head to look at him and tried to muster up some energy for a smile. "I screwed up, didn't I?"

Naru was stunned, though he didn't show it, he had never seen mai smile so weakly like that. In truth, he was scared, scared that she would've died, scared that her eyes would never open again, scared that her warmth would disappear from their lives.

And now he was starting to fear again, his assistant looked terrible, covered in bandages and splints, the skin showing looked deathly pale and paper thin, there were even dark circles under her eyes as if even the chore of sleeping was terribly painful.

"Shut up, go to sleep and heal already so we can finish this case." Naru told her a little too harshly but regretted it immediately once he saw a flicker of sorrow and hurt flash over the girls eyes a second before they closed.

He returned to his uncomfortable position on the chair and let sleep-deprived exhaustion take over him not noticing the tears that were flowing down his female assistant's eyes.

Mai found herself floating above what looked like a large stage, it looked quite like the one they were investigating the only difference was that the stage was made with wooden planks whereas the concert hall she sang in was tiled and concrete.

Mai eventually noticed that if she looked hard enough, the whole place was made with wood, though varying kinds were used, for example, the stage was made of oak-- if her intuition was right-- and had a dark brownish tint to it, the floors possibly mahogany.

She was roused from her contemplation when she felt a hand gently touch her shoulder, looking up she was met with stunning sea-blue eyes. "Naru" She said softly before noticing that his usual smile had a tinge of sadness to it. 'I wonder what's wrong…'

A sound interrupted what she was about to say, "Voices?" She looked down below and stared at the stage, standing there were three people, mai, naru and…mai? Well 2 mais in a case that one was short haired the other long haired.

She stared at them confusedly and looked questioningly at naru who shrugged in response, his smile replaced with a deep thinking look.

Then it struck her, "Twins?" She asked naru and was replied by a reluctant nod and hesitant smile before returning to his look of deep thought, 'I wonder what he's thinking about'

Mai stared at naru briefly before seeing that short-haired mai was arguing—well, it wasn't really arguing since the long-haired mai just stood there, smiling and nodding--- with long haired mai but it seemed that short haired mai stopped when the other naru said something to her.

The scene quickly vanished to be replaced by a haggard, shocked and near-tears looking "long-haired mai" staring at "short haired mai" kissing naru, she quickly fled, tears flowing down her face. Mai watched this in apparent fascination and sorrow, 'A love triangle?'

The next scene was of long-haired mai, wheel-chaired and seemed to be singing. 'Why is she in a wheelchair?' Mai thought with a slight frown before noticing that the other naru was staring at long-haired mai quite intently with a look of sadness and…regret? 'Oh! So he loves both of them?' Mai didn't have time to think of a proper answer before she was jerked back into awareness.

The last thing she heard was the soft crying and amazing singing voice of someone long forgotten.

"Living to sing alone has broken me..."

Ooooh cliffhanger? I think not

mwahahahaha

Sorry, i cant think of anything else witty or funny to say other than, "I think naru has a stick up his ass, gene's somewhat queer and lin is just freaking creepy but we all love 'em!" "PS John rocks! I think he deserves more love and screening time."

With love, XxMixedSushixX