Closed Doors, Part 2
"Ayako, I didn't turn it off."
"?"
"This is starting to scare me." Mai said, as there was a series of thumps from somewhere in the building.
"What's going on?" Masako's sleepy voice came from the other side of the room. "Why is everyone awake?" She reached for the lamp, as the sound of footsteps could be heard coming down the corridor.
"Why isn't the lamp turning on?"
"Power cut?" Ayako asked. The footsteps came closer, and closer, though by now they sounded like someone trying to be quiet by sliding on the carpet. Mai felt the hairs on her arms rise. She held her breath as the footsteps stopped outside their door.
The door handle twisted slowly, but it squeaked.
"I… I locked it earlier…" Ayako said, her voice barely louder than a whisper.
The door slowly started to open, creaking as it did so. They sat in their beds, immobilized by fear as the door continued opening. When it was about half way open it stopped. Ayako quietly slipped out of bed and tiptoed to the door. She peered into the corridor.
"No-one's there…"
"What? But we heard someone walking! Someone opened our door!"
"I'm going to go check it out. Coming?"
"I can't let you go alone!"
"Masako?"
"I'll stay here."
"Okay." Ayako rummaged in a bedside drawer until she pulled out two torches. She tossed one to Mai. "Close the door after us, okay?"
"Sure."
Ayako and Mai crept silently through the corridors of the hotel. It was almost pitch black. After a while Mai whispered in Ayako's ear, "We're being followed."
"I know."
They could both hear the barely audible footsteps, sounding like someone trying to keep as quiet as possible, stalking their prey.
Mai stopped, holding Ayako's arm to make sure she stopped as well. The footsteps stopped, and when they started walking again, they continued.
"We'll turn around really fast, okay?"
"Got it."
They carried on walking, trying to pretend that they weren't listening to the eerie footfalls behind them. Mai gave Ayako's arm a small tug, and they both turned around.
No-one was there. The corridor was empty.
Then, a scream broke the silence. They both looked at each other.
"Masako!"
After Mai and Ayako had left, Masako had silently closed the door and climbed back into her bed. Sleep seemed impossible, both from her fear and a sudden urge to go to the bathroom. She got out of bed and walked to the bathroom, her hand reaching for the switch. She flicked it once, twice. The lights didn't come on.
Oh yeah, there was a power cut. When that happened lights, funnily enough, didn't come on. She groped her way to the bedside table and brought out a torch. She flicked it on, using the beam to guide her way to the bathroom again. She went inside and-
Screamed.
Blood was dripping down the tiled walls of the bathroom, making them glisten sickeningly in the narrow beam of light from the torch, which slid out of her hand and clattered noisily on the floor.
"Masako? Open the door!" Ayako shouted through the door. She tried the door handle, but it didn't open. Masako stumbled backwards, out of the bathroom, landing clumsily on the floor. Then she remembered the door and opened it, pale faced.
"Masako, are you okay? What happened?"
"The bathroom…" she muttered, checking to see if any blood had dripped on her. Thankfully, none had. The guys arrived.
"What is it?"
"The- the bathroom… it was…"
Naru slipped into the bathroom and flicked the switch, the lights coming on.
"There's nothing there."
"How-how did you get the lights to work?"
"The normal way, by turning them on. What happened – and why are you two carrying torches?"
Mai and Ayako related the tale until they had heard Masako scream.
"Masako?"
"I went into the bathroom and the walls… they were dripping with blood…"
He sighed. "Well, no-one was harmed, so we'll discuss what happened in the morning."
It was later in the morning, and they were all in base.
"Um, Naru, I had a dream."
He glanced up from his notes. "What happened?"
"Well… it was… Gene. He said that this ghost wasn't normal, and that you couldn't predict what they would do."
"Last night proved that."
"And that you- we should leave. Or someone might get hurt." Here Naru raised an eyebrow, clearly saying that he wasn't going to leave. "He said that if you needed convincing he said that you should leave before the thing you were scared of happened."
"I see." Naru said smoothly.
"Er, what are you scared of?"
"Heights."
"But that's not what-"
"Mai."
"Yes?"
"Tea." Mai ground her teeth together, but left without saying anything. "Yasuhara, go with her."
Yasuhara and Mai walked amiably through corridors, chatting.
"So, what do you think Naru's scared of?"
"I don't know."
"It could be anything, really. As long as a ghost could make it happen."
"Yeah."
They were about half way between the kitchens and base. Mai accidently tripped over her feet and fell over. Yasuhara chuckled, and offered her his hand.
"Want some help?"
"Thanks Yasu." She looked up as she reached for his hand, but then drew back.
It wasn't Yasuhara standing there. A middle-aged man, with leering eyes, and a rotten, toothy grin stood there instead, towering over her, the fear running through her veins.
"Keep away! Stay away from me!" She shrieked, closing her eyes. She opened them again, and he was still there, leering down at her. Steadying herself with deep breaths, she raised her hands.
Yasuhara quickly checked his hand to see that his hand was still his hand, and yes, it was.
"Mai! What's wrong?" He looked around, but they were in an empty corridor. She had started chanting under her breath. "Mai!"
When she heard his voice she calmed down and opened her eyes.
"Yasu?"
"Mai! What was it?"
She jumped up and hugged him. "Where did you go? There was creepy man here, and he was glaring at me and grinning and it was horrible!"
"What? I didn't go anywhere."
She let go. "What? But there was no sign of you."
"It must have been the ghost. Let's get back to base, and tell Naru."
They made it back without anything remotely spooky happening.
Naru raised an eyebrow. "Did something happen?"
"I fell over, and then Yasu offered me his hand, but then it wasn't Yasu, there was this horrible spooky man there and it looked like it was going to hurt me so I started to shriek and then it was Yasu again." Mai gushed.
"Mai, slow down. Having a heart attack is not going to help."
"I am not going to have a heart attack. Sheesh."
"What did the man look like?"
"Well… I think he was middle aged, but he might have been older, and, um, he had really evil eyes, and his teeth were all yellow and there were some gaps in-between his teeth."
"I see."
Naru didn't say anything for a while. Then:
"Mai. Are you sure you saw him?"
"What do you mean?"
"I'm just asking."
"Are you trying to say that I'm seeing things?" Mai asked incredulously. "Yes I saw him. I was here…" She pointed to a patch of floor. "And he was just there! Right in front of me!"
"I was just asking." Naru said simply.
"I did see him!"
"Mai, calm down. I believe you."
"Oh…" Mai blushed in embarrassment. "Er, I'll just… go make you some tea."
She retreated to the kitchen. She opened the door to find Itsukate Mamiko standing before the window. Mai watched her for some time, but she didn't move.
"Er, Itsukate-san?"
She jumped, and spun around, spilling her cup of water. "Oh, Mai-san, I didn't hear you come in. I've, hah, spilt water on myself." She said sadly.
"Let me help," Mai said, grabbing a kitchen towel.
"No, no, I'm fine." She left without touching the towel. Mai stared after her. There was definitely something strange going on here. However, before she could tell Naru about Mamiko, he started speaking to her.
"Mai, Yasuhara is going to the library. I'd like you to go with him."
The library was a large, modern, ugly building which squatted on the back streets like a giant, towering over the other buildings. Yasuhara grimaced when he saw it, muttering about modern architecture in a Western style. They passed through the revolving doors.
Inside there was a complete silence. The scanned the rows of cheap bookcases, crammed together. It looked like someone had been overambitious on a limited budget. At one side of the room stood a plain, grey desk, behind which sat an extremely bored looking girl. She looked up as they approached.
"Do you want something?" She said monotonously, as though she'd practised saying this several times, returning her attention to the doodles on the desk.
"We're looking for information about the hotel, you know, the one that's haunted." Immediately the girl behind the desk sat up straighter.
"Who are you? I haven't seen you before."
"Er, we've just arrived. Yasuhara Osamu, and this is-" He said, bowing slightly.
"Taniyama Mai." Mai bowed also.
"I'm Date Imari. So, why are you interested in the hotel? They say it's been haunted since forever."
"Imari-san! What have I said about bringing your friends for a chat?" An older man, probably in his late fifties hobbled quickly to the desk. He had a stick and limped on his left leg.
"They aren't my friends! They've come here for information on the hotel."
"Oh. So sorry. Imari-san has some, er, unusual work habits. Stop doodling on that desk! Now, how can we help you?" He said glaring at Mai and Yasuhara as though they had invaded his territory.
"The hotel?" Yasuhara asked.
"Imari-san! Help them, will you? I have to do something about this!" He said, pointing at the offending doodles.
"Sorry about him, he's not always this grumpy. Now, where is it?" Imari lead them down a thin path between the book cases. Eventually they came to the place. "This is it. Anything on the hotel is here. Why are you interested in the hotel?"
"We're, ah, curious about ghosts. And the hotel has a lengthy history, apparently." Yasuhara said while brushing through a few articles.
"It does. Once my grandmother told me that the hotel stands on blood-soaked ground."
"Why would she say that?"
Imari shrugged. "I dunno. It was haunted in my grandmother's time. And probably her grandmother's time. I wouldn't be surprised. There are a lot of rumours about the place. I'll leave you to do your research or whatever." She left them. Yasuhara split the pile of papers between them.
"Find anything?"
"Nah, not yet. Most of it is stuff we already know."
"Oh."
"Pity no-one's written a book on the hotel. That would help a lot."
They continued searching through faded newspaper articles.
"Mai, look at this." Yasuhara held out a picture.
"Isn't that-?" Mai stared at the photo. Yasuhara nodded. "Oh my God."
Thank you readers for all your nice reviews. They make us happy ^^
It's nice to take a break and start somehting new, but dw, we are gonna try to write the remainder of impressions at the same time, then when that's finished we will dedicate ourselves to this one. Or maybe you're not worried anyway.