Hey Guys! Sorry for taking so long to update, time got away from me! Luckily I'm out of school for now (Only one year left!) and I'm visiting my family. I really didn't even notice how long it had been since I updated. I'll try to update more frequently from now on!
Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost Hunt…...yet.
On with the story!
My eyes shot open and I sprung up. Monk leaned back on his heels and pushed some of his hair out of his face. I blinked a few times and then lifted my hand to the back of my head. I winced as I felt a bump forming. I opened my mouth to ask Monk what happened when the doors to the living room burst open. Ayako was in the door first, closely followed by Naru, who was followed by….Masako? For such a confining outfit, the small girl sure did move fast.
Ayako's eyes latched onto me and she landed on her knees with a painful sounding thump. In less than a second her hands were running over me, trying to feel for an injury. I shooed her hands away but she just glared at me until I relented. Masako gently lowered herself beside me, worry in her eyes. Without removing the kimono sleeve covering her mouth she asked
"Mai, are you alright?" I felt my face scrunch up as Ayako brushed over the bump on my head. She looked absolutely livid. She turned and hit monk.
"You idiotic, good-for-nothing, UGH STAND STILL." She cried as he scurried away from her.
"What, and let you beat me? No way!"
"Stop." Naru's icy word made Ayako and Monk stop in their tracks. I looked up at him for the first time since he entered, and noticed that Mr. Sato and his family were crowding around behind him. Mrs. Sato stepped forward.
"Is everyone alright? We heard a terrible scream. We assumed the worst." I noticed her hands were grasped tight onto a towel, wringing it as she stood. I sheepishly grinned and wobbled to my feet.
"I'm sorry. I'm not sure what happened. What scream are you talking about?" Mrs. Sato's shock was evident on her face, but before she could speak their son stepped forward. A teenage boy, about my age, looked me over suspiciously before saying
"You mean you didn't hear that? It sounded like somebody was being murdered." The slaughter scene flickered in front of my eyes for a moment and I remembered my original reason for leaving the living room. I turned around to Naru, but before I could say anything to him he grabbed me by my elbow.
"Mai was too busy sleeping to hear a scream." He dragged me out of the room and up the stairs before any of the family members could respond, leaving Monk to explain to them that nothing was wrong as Ayako and Masako followed close behind. When we neared the door to base I started to dig my heels into the ground.
"Naru no, we shouldn't go in there! It's not safe! It's-" the door sliding open cuts me off and I slam my eyes shut. I hear Naru sigh and he lets go of my arm. I stand in the doorway for a moment before willing myself to open my eyes and see… a normal room. I look around and see nothing out of the ordinary. Confused, I turn to where Ayako sits, staring at me from one of the chairs.
"I don't understand."
"Mai, did you have a dream?" My brows draw together as the scene flashes before my eyes again. Before I can answer, however, Ayako huffs from her chair.
"She has a nasty bump on the back of her head Naru. And look at that gash on her leg! She needs to be looked at before you start interrogating her!" She stands and walks over to me, latching onto my wrist. Naru sighs and lets her drag me to the couch.
"What do you mean, 'gash on my leg'? There's nothing-" I look down and notice a stream of blood, slightly dried, running down from my knee. I look back up to where Masako wets a small cloth and Ayako pulls her medical bag out.
"Sit still." She says as she pulls my leg out to examine the cut. I search my mind for any time that I would have hit my leg and draw a blank.
"Mai." Naru's no-nonsense voice cuts through my thoughts and Ayako sighs as she resigns herself to the fact that I wouldn't be getting a break. I look up to him and raise a brow.
"Yes?"
"Would you care to explain why you were just screaming bloody murder?" He sits on the arm of the chair, black notebook open and ready.
I stare blankly at him for a moment before saying "I fell on my back." Naru lets out a sigh.
"I am aware of that, Mai. You were on your back when I came into the room." I shook my head.
"I fell on my back." I say again, looking down at my bloody knee. Ayako finished wiping the blood off of my shins and was about to press the cloth to my knee but I caught her hand. She chuckled at me and said
"Mai, I know you've experienced worse, it'll only sting for a moment." My eyes blurred as I stared at my knee.
"I fell on my back." I repeated as I took the cloth out of her hand. I wiped it harshly across my knee and look back up to Ayako. She blinked once, twice, before whispering
"Then where did the blood come from?" Naru snapped his book closed and stood. He loomed over me and stared down at the unbroken skin on my leg. Lin had turned in his chair and was observing the scene with interest.
"It's possible that you were possessed." Lin spoke. I jerked and looked up to him, feeling my stomach drop. Naru nodded thoughtfully before opening his book to write a short note. Ayako shook her head at me and pulled a travel ice pack out of her bag. She broke it over her knee and placed it against the back of my head. I winced at the impact and glared at her.
"It's your fault for getting possessed right away, Mai. Honestly, couldn't you have waited until we had been in the house a bit longer? It will be much harder for me to sense a ghost's presence now." Masako huffed from her chair. Her sleeve was covering over her mouth and despite her harsh words and haughty tone, I saw genuine concern in her eyes. I rolled my eyes at her.
"It's not my fault Masako! I didn't ask to be possessed!" I stuck my tongue out at her. I saw a slight smile before her sleeve went to cover her mouth again.
"How childish." I grinned at her before leaning back on the couch and closing my eyes. I heard Ayako sigh before consciousness left me.
When my eyes opened I was, luckily, in the base still. Night had fallen outside the windows, and the only light source in the room came from the wall of screens the group had set up hours before. I sat up and saw John sitting in one of the chairs opposite me with a book in his hands. His eyes lifted from the book when I moved and he smiled at me before turning back to his reading. I looked around and saw Ayako draped across the remaining chair, a string wrapped around her fingers. She tried to hook her ring finger under one piece, but the whole thing slipped. A loud exclamation and a frustrated grunt followed as she reset the string. I chuckled as I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. Ayako glared at me for a moment before returning to her string.
I swung my legs off of the couch and scootched down to the end closest to her. I held out my hand and after a moment of staring she handed it to me with a huff. I set the string on two fingers and within a minute held my hand out to her, the string forming a perfect star. John looked up at the strangled noise that Ayako made and I laughed. She muttered under her breath about shorter fingers as she snatched the now untangled string out of the palm of my hand.
She struggled for a few more minutes, each failure accompanied by a curse. Eventually she sighed and handed me the string.
"Will you show me how?" I smiled at her and nodded. I set it up and showed her the steps one-by-one. While I was demonstrating, I asked
"Why do you want to know so bad?" I could have sworn that a blush came onto her face with her reply.
"Well, Yasuhara did it, and then Takigawa did it, and then John. But when I tried I couldn't do it, and Takigawa and Yasuhara were being idiots and told me that I just didn't have the skill." She ends her mini-rant with another huff. I looked over at John and saw he had his head ducked. I narrowed my eyes at him and look back at Ayako.
"I showed Yasu and Monk that trick the other day, and neither of them could do it. They were probably messing with you." I said nonchalantly as another star is formed between my fingers. It takes a moment for my words to register, but when they do Ayako turns her death glare onto the ashamed priest across from us. I handed the string back to Ayako and watched as she struggled to make a star. After a moment, a misshapen star was between her fingers. I applauded her efforts and she beamed at me. I rolled my shoulders as I stood up and felt my my back pop as I stretched my arms above my head.
The door to the base slid open and I turned to greet the next shift.
"Decided to finally join the living, Mai?" Bou-san asked with a grin. I rolled my eyes at him while Ayako shook her head at him.
"Knowing what she usually dreams about, was that really the best word choice, you run-down monk?" John set his book down uneasily as the older two began to fling insults at one another. He stood and attempted to stop the fighting to no avail. I was about to take pity on the young exorcist and step in when Lin abruptly stood in front of the screens. After a moment of tense silence the rest of us surge towards the silent man, eyes fixed on the screens.
My eyes immediately go to the center screen, the living room. Lights were flickering on and off, and the already torn wallpaper was now shredded.
"What could cause this kind of reaction?" Monk asks as John bows his head in prayer. Lin already had Naru on the phone and alerted him about the chaos while Ayako turned and searched her bag for any useful charms. Slowly, I felt my eyes get pulled away from the screens. I focused on the small crack in the wall opposite me once more. I took one step towards it, and then another. Before Lin registered my movement I was reaching out to touch the ruined paint. I think I heard him call my name before my finger runs over the imperfection, and then the world goes black.
Hi again! So this chapter is a bit longer than the other two, and hopefully the rest of the chapters will be the same way now that the opening is out of the way. And now that I'm out of school I'll be able to get more writing done, yay! Anywhooooo, I got a few reviews on this story (squee) and there are actually 10 people (living, breathing, human beings holy crap that's exciting) following this story (SQUEEEEEEEE) sooooo I'm going to respond to the reviews here
Glorian175: I'm glad you like it, and hopefully you won't have to wait that long anymore ':)!
Blue Humming Bird: I'm sorryyyyyyy! I promise to be better about my updating schedule
