Chapter 2: Contact
As the sun's light broke through the window, Mai awoke from her slumber. She went to her briefcase and changed into her casual clothes. A sudden knock on the door startled Mai. There was a small voice on the other side. "May I come in?" Mai gave a slight "okay" and the door opened.
A young girl with black hair, wearing a kimono walked through the door and into the room. "Naru wants us to gather at the base. Apparently, when he reviewed the footage from last night, he found something." Masako explained.
"Alright, I'm coming." After getting fully dressed, Mai followed Masako down the hall to the base, where everyone was gathered.
"Good, everyone's here." Naru spun around to face the cameras. "I noticed something last night, that everyone should see." He uploaded the film from the night before. The group noticed that the camera he pulled up was the camera in Mai's room. "I have a bad feeling about this…" Mai shuddered when she thought something happened in her sleep.
As the video continued to play, nothing happened until about 3 in the morning. The temperature gauge in the room dropped with rapid speed, signaling something paranormal was in the room with Mai. Two balls of mist appeared next to the bed.
The mist formed into two figures, a man and a woman, hovering over Mai's sleeping body. The figures seemed happy yet depressed as they stared at Mai. This fact unsettled Mai as she never felt anything happen to her last night. The woman spirit spoke and broke the silence.
"Can't…protect…this…time…" Silence filled the room and the spirits stayed by Mai's side for a few more hours. At about 6 in the morning, the spirits disappeared. The footage stopped and Naru turned back to the group.
"The voice may have been broken, but I believe that the woman said, "We can't protect her this time," Naru explained. The group had a confused look on their faces.
"Why would you say that?" John spoke up.
"As the woman was speaking she was looking at the man, thinking that they are both included. Second, the 'her' comes from the fact that they were staring at Mai for a couple of hours. If they weren't trying to protect Mai, then why else would they be staring at her while she sleeps." Naru finished explaining.
"Mai-chan, do you know who those people are? Are they related to you?" the monk wondered.
Mai turned to Hosho. "Why would you think they are related to me?"
"Why else would they be staring at you, and only you for a few hours." The monk responded.
"I don't know! However…"
"What now." Naru seemed upset at Mai.
"I had a dream a couple nights ago. I don't know if it was one of those dreams, but, it took place in this house. I had a dream of a couple being killed by a man with a knife, and I was a little girl running away from the killer."
"You shouldn't be alone Mai, especially because the spirits seem to know you," John informed Mai.
"We can do a seance and attempt to speak to the spirits." The group turned to Masako, who stood there with a calm look on her face.
"Are you crazy! It's not like we can specifically call out those two spirits. What if we conjure something else!" Ayako exclaimed.
"Let me explain, Ayako. I don't believe that those spirits contain any dark energy. They could've killed Mai, but they didn't it. It seemed that they wanted to protect her." After a bit of thinking, everyone agreed to the seance. "Right, we'll do it tonight."
Later that Night
The group gathered in the dining room and sat at the tables, each grabbing each other's hands, forming a circle. Masako sat at the front of the table, closing her eyes to try and sense the spirits. Naru turned the EVP device that he brought on. (A/N: EVP stands for Electromagnetic Voice Phenomenon. Spirits are said to give off electromagnetic energy which they can use to form words. The device allows them to understand what the words are.)
"Are there any spirits here with us now… please make yourselves known and come through the door."
A frightening chill filled the room, sending shivers down everyone's spine. A blue mist began to form, hovering over the dining room table. "Are you the spirits that haunt this house? Why were you watching Mai last night?"
The mist began to take the form of a couple, a man, and a woman. Mai startled and jumped out of her seat a bit in fright. The spirits looked around the table and stopped at Mai. "Mai, talk to them. They seem to want you to ask them questions."
Mai gulped, as sweat formed on her face. She put her hands on the table and spoke. "Who are you to me?" The woman covered her mouth as if it was in shock and turned to the man. They looked back at Mai.
It seemed as if they spoke a sentence, but they only captured one word, in a woman's voice on the EVP device. "Parents…" Mai's eyes widened as she heard the word from the device. "My parents…" She stared back at the spirits, who seemed familiar to her. Mai received a sudden sharp pain in her head, as she put her hands up to her skull.
"Mai, what's wrong?" John asked the young teen.
"I don't know, I looked back at the spirits, and my head just started to hurt. Maybe I know them from my past. I don't really remember much about my childhood." The girl responded. Mai turned back to the spirits and continued asking questions. "What happened back then?"
The spirits turned to each other with sorrow filled eyes. "Is it so bad that you can't tell me?" Mai asked the spirits, causing them to turn their attention back to Mai. The man nods to the side. "Please tell me, I want to know what happened in my past."
The spirits seem to sigh. After a few seconds, the EVP recorded single words. "Man…knife…we…murdered…Mai…we…protect…" Mai grabs onto her head as she closes her eyes in pain. Her head throbbing.
Four words were recorded at this moment as Mai falls to the ground. "He's coming … run … hide..."
"Who's coming!"
"The man…" The group felt an intense evil enter the room as Mai screamed. They ran over to her as 3 long scratch marks appeared on her arm.
"3 scratch marks…this is a demonic evil," Naru commented, as he lifted her arm to inspect the wound.
"Please protect Mai…" were the last words the spirits spoke as they disappeared into the night. The group's attention returned to the unconscious teenager on the ground, with a bleeding arm.
"I'll carry her to her room." Ayako picks Mai up in her arms and settled her on her back. She carried Mai up the stairs and set her on the bed after she patched her arm to stop the bleeding. "You seem to have been through a lot these past few days. Take some time to recover." Ayako spoke as she walked out of the room to return to the group.