C3: Disappearance
The night passed without any more incidents, and the team the next morning gathered around the dining room table. No one spoke at first, but the silence did not last long. Clearing his throat, Naru turned his gaze to Roma who was sitting at the other end of the table. "So Roma, I want to ask you what your dream was about last night." Naru said as he brought out his black notebook and a pen.
Looking up from her coffee, Roma inquired, "Dream? What dream?"
Marcus placed his hand gently on her arm that was holding onto the cup. "You were screaming in your sleep, and then it turned into sleep talking. You said that you saw it. What was it that you saw?" Marcus asked gentle.
"Don't know what you're talking about. I did not dream last night let alone screamed in my sleep. I never made it to realm sleep because of the entity was pulsing with energy. Have you checked the tapes from last night yet?" Roma asked as she finished off her coffee. Getting up from the table, she went into the kitchen to make her another cup of coffee.
Naru waited for her to sit back down before answering, "No we haven't. I want you, Roma, to view the tapes and let me know what you find. The rest of you do the temperature readings and another walk through." With that, Naru got up from the table and left the room.
Hearing Roma sigh, Marcus turned towards her and said, "It'll be okay. I will make another pot of coffee and join you in the base."
Roma nodded and left the dining room. The base was empty when Roma entered it. Making her way to the screens, she sat down in one of the office chairs and set up the equipment that she would need to review the tapes. Knowing that Naru would want to know about Mollie's room first, she popped the tape into the VCR and turned up the volume. Roma fast-forward the tape to the time they went to bed.
~Tapes from the first night~
~Mollie's room~
The time was 11:00 pm and nothing was happening. 11 turned to 12 and 12 turn to 1 and before Roma knew it the time read two in the morning. Looking at the screen, Roma was startled by something zooming passed the camera. Quickly she rewound the video and watched it again. "Hey what was that?" Marcus asked as he sat down beside her.
"I don't know. It moved to fast to catch it." Roma said as she picked up the notebook sitting beside her. Writing down the time and what room it was, Roma rewind it again trying to make it out; however, neither Marcus nor Roma could figure it out. They watched the rest of the tape and towards the end of the first tape there was blood-chilling scream coming from a different room.
Startled by the scream, Roma looked at Marcus before asking, "What the heck was that?"
"That scream would be you screaming in your sleep. As we said, you were screaming in your sleep last night. Did you have a nightmare?" Marcus asked, as he looked her in the eyes.
Roma shook her head, as she answered, "I don't remember having any dreams last night."
~Parent's room~
Moving on to the tape of the parent's room, Roma and Marcus watched the video; however as the time went on, nothing seemed to happen. Nothing moved in front of the camera as it did in Mollie's room, and at the end of tape they heard Roma screaming again just like the other tape. Sighing, Roma popped out that tape and replaced it with another one.
~Kitchen & living room~
Marcus got up to refill Roma's and his coffee as Roma watched the tape of the living room. Putting it on the slowest fast forward mode, Roma watched the tape, trying to find out if something had happened. In no time, something shot across the camera and into the kitchen. Writing down the time and room, Roma switched the tape to the kitchen tape. As soon as she hit play, a shadowy figure darted across the kitchen and through the wall to the outside world. Roma wrote this down too and then made sure nothing else had happened before she switched to the last tape.
~The old barn~
Marcus finally came back to the base with their coffee. Allowing him time to get comfortable, Roma sipped her coffee before hitting play on the VCR. She fast-forwards past the part that they watched last night. The time slowly ticked by as nothing seemed to have happened. Fearing that they would not find anything on this tape, Roma shifted in her trying to get a closer look when a shadowy face popped in front of the camera, causing Roma to scream.
Jumping out way from the screen, seeing as she was almost touching it with her nose, she let out an ear piercing scream. "HOLY CHRIST! WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT!" she screamed as she fell off her seat and on to the floor. Marcus stopped the video before he went to help her up. Once up, Roma could hear running footsteps coming their way.
"What happened?" Lin asked as he and Naru came through the door.
Roma pointed to the chairs causing them to sit down. She rewound the tape and hit play. They watched the rest of the tape with them. When the face popped up on the screen, Lin was the only one to jump; however, he was stupid enough to be close to the screen as Roma was. They watched the shadowy face back up a little bit. It smiled at them through the camera, revealing small, sharp teeth, and glares at them with its red glowing eyes. They watched it walk towards the middle of the barn before it looked back at them. The smile seemed to grow big as it spoke, in a snarling, malicious voice, "I found something better than a pure soul! I am so hungry... oh so hungry. Both... I'll have them both!" It laughed as it vanished without a trace.
~End of tapes~
'What did it mean by found something better than a pure soul? What could be better than a pure soul?' Naru asked himself as he radios the rest of the group to come back to the base.
Once everyone was there, Roma began to tell the team what her findings are. "Well something dark and fast moved across the camera in Mollie's room, but it was too fast to see what it was. There was nothing caught in the parent's bedroom. However, in the living room and kitchen a shadowy figure walked by both cameras before disappearing through a wall. The only audio for these rooms was my screaming, and before you can ask, I do not know what I dreamed about last night. Moving on, the camera in the barn picked up the shadow figure. It popped up out of nowhere, in front of the camera. If you heard a scream earlier, that was I. Okay back to what I was saying. The figure then walked to the middle of the barn and stated that it had found something better than a pure soul, and that it was hungry so it was going to have both of them."
"Since whatever this is declared that it wants to eat two people, no one is to go about alone. Mai stick with Lin and go see if you can sense anything. Monk stays with Ayako in the base. John I want you to go with Marcus to bless both the parent's room and Mollie's room. Roma you will come with me. I want to ask you a few questions." Naru said as he stood to leave. Roma sighed and grabbed a radio on the way out.
The two of them made their way out of the house and into the old barn. Turning around to face Roma, Naru demanded, "What did it mean that it found something better than a pure soul?"
"How should I know? It is not like I'm a walking book that has all the answers," Roma spat back.
Naru's eyes never broke contact as he continued to hound her. "Don't lie to me. I know you know something. I will ask one more time. What is better than a pure soul?"
"All I can think of is something holy, or someone with holy powers." Roma said as she rubbed her temples. She could feel the warning pains, that told her she is about to have one heck of a migraine, on its way.
Sighing, Naru said, "Like a Vessel?"
"A Vessel, a priestess, a monk, a seer... anyone who had been blessed by God with a power that can be used for good," Roma whispered out as the migraine became worse by the second.
Nodding, Naru simply said, "It could be anyone of us then."
"Yes. I need to lay down for a bit. It seems that I have a migraine from hell." Roma said as she turned to leave the barn.
~Mai & Lin in the living room~
"Mai do you sense anything?" Lin asked her as they walked into the living room.
Looking around the room, Mai stopped in the middle of the room before answering, "It feels odd." Mai could feel a mixture of sorrow, hungry, and lust, coming from the corner of the room.
"What do you mean odd? Is there something here with us?" Lin asked as he moved closer to Mai.
Nodding her head, she turned and looked in the corner of the room where she felt that the odd feelings were coming from. In the corner of the room, the shadowy figure stood quietly. At first look, it looked like a human shape shadow, but upon looking closer at it, Mai realized that it had red eyes and sharp teeth. Seeing the thing in the corner, Mai's mind flashed back to the demon that had attacked her in an earlier case. Fear breaking free from her control went rampaging through her mind.
Sensing her fear, Lin placed a hand on her shoulder and asked quietly, "What is it Mai?"
"It's here in the room with us. A demon... just like last time. Lin! IT IS ANOTHER DEMON! WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE!" Mai scream out as the shadowy figure surged towards them.
Lin could feel that something dangerous was heading towards them. He quickly grabbed Mai's hand and ran for the front door. However, the pair was not fast enough to escape. There was a flash a red light, and a scream then the room was empty. Upon hearing Mai's screams, the group rushed in to find the room was empty. There was no Lin, and there was no Mai. The team splitting up into teams went searching for them.
~Monk's and John's search~
"We will take the upstairs and the attic." Monk said as the two of them rushed off upstairs. The first went into the little's girl's room, hoping to find anything that could lead them to where Mai and Lin were. Nothing was found, and the same with the parent's room. The bathroom, hall closet, and guess rooms were all empty as well. The only place left to look for was the attic. Heading back to the hall closet, they found a small door in the roof to the closet. Giving John a boosted up, Monk soon followed him. They decided to split the attic in half; each of them taking one half. Monk was searching his side, finding nothing there either, when John called for him to come over to look at something.
"What is this?" John asked as he pointed to something carved into the floor.
Moving a box that was covering some of it, Monk hiss at what he saw. "John we need to tell the others about this now!" Monk said as he swung down from the whole.
~Naru's and Ayako's search~
"Come on Ayako! We will search the ground floor and the basement. Marcus and Roma search the barn." Naru said as everyone went different ways. Fear was swallowing up Naru's mind as he thought to himself, 'I almost lost her in the last case. I do not want to lose her ever. I just confessed to her not to long ago. Why does this have to happen whenever something finally goes write for me? Mai hold on I'll find you one way or another.' The pair searched their area top to bottom, and then they did it again, making sure that they did not miss anything. However, no matter how hard they tried to find them, they could not find a single clue.
~Marcus' and Roma's search~
Roma and Marcus took off in a dead run towards the barn. Throwing open the barn door, they allowed sunlight to chase way the darkness within the barn. Splitting up, Roma went up to the loft, and Marcus searched the ground level. Roma carefully scaled the old ladder that lead up to the loft. To her amazement, there was still a lot of hay staked up there. She slowly and carefully walked around the loft looking for anything that would tell them something important. However, she turned up with nothing at all. She walked over to the ladder to find Marcus waiting for her.
"Did you find anything?" she called down to him.
Shaking his head, he answered, "No. How about you?"
"No nothing." She said as she started to go down the ladder. As she as just stepping on to the ladder, Roma felt like she was being watched. She looked up to find the shadowy figure face to face with her. A smile slowly crept across the entity's face. The demon back off a bit, before lunging at her. Screaming in fear, Roma launched herself backwards, trying to get away from it. Before Marcus could catch her, she landed on the ground beside him with a heavy thud. The fall from the loft had knocked Roma unconscious, and left a Marcus stunned.
~The search ends~
The rest of the team was waiting, in the base, to hear from Roma's team. However, their hopes were dashed when Marcus barging in, carrying a limp Roma, in his arms. "Did you find Mai and Lin?" Naru asked Marcus.
Shaking his head, Marcus answered, "No, I'm sorry," as he laid Roma down on the couch that was off to the side of the room.
"What happen to her?" Ayako asked as she checked Roma's vitals.
Shaking his head, Marcus replied, "I don't know. I was waiting for her to climb down from the loft, when I heard her scream and saw her fall. I was not fast enough to catch her. She hit the ground quite hard."
"Her heart beat is even, and she is breathing easily. I think she will be okay. We should put her to bed." Ayako said as Marcus gently lifted Roma up in his arms. Both Ayako and Marcus made their way to the room that Roma shared with the other girls. Marcus made sure that she was conformable before quietly leaving the room with Ayako. Once back with the rest of the group, they decided that the only way to get Mai and Lin back was to solve the case, and solve the case as fast as possible before someone was killed. The team did not want to sleep, but the team knew that they need their straight if they were face the entity in a fight.
~Night # 2~
~11:00 pm~
A slight chilly breeze drifted behind the shadowy figure as it made its way up the stairs and into the bedroom that held a sleeping Ayako, and a still unconscious Roma. A demonic smile crawled its way across its mouth, as it walked towards Roma. She had gotten away the first time because she fell backwards, but this time she would not be so lucky. Once it had reached her side, it knelt over her, and ran its tongue up the side of her face.
Roma's eyes snapped open as she turned her head towards the entity. Looking at it with eye that didn't belong to her, she spoke, "Who gave you permission to touch my vessel! You nothing but dirty sinful demon that feeds on nothing but children's souls, or someone who is blessed by God!" It was Roma's body that was talking, but the voice did not belong to her. The voice sound like a male's voice. The entity hissed at Roma as it backed off her.
Standing up, Roma spoke again, "I a child of God command you to tell me where you took God's children, Mai and Lin!"
"Ha! You are not fully in the vessel! You have no power over me yet!" The demon gleefully laughed. The laugh quickly cut off as the demon swung its arm in Roma's direction. It felt like someone was twisting her insides. Roma screamed in pain and fell to the floor. With another swing of its arm, the pain intensified, causing Roma's screams to become ear piercing. Her screaming finally work up Ayako, and brought the rest of the team running into the room. They entered the room to see Roma withering in pain as a shadowy figure stood over her.
Acting out of training, Marcus started to chant a prayer at the demon. "Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes." Marcus said as he made the cross over Roma, who quit withering in pan. The demon back away from Roma as soon as it realized that he could not hurt her anymore.
Ayako planted her feet squarely on the ground before she started chanting, "Rin, Pyo, To, Sha, Kai, Jin, Retsu, zai, zen!" She made the signs as she chanted each word. As soon as the chant hit the demon, it screamed and disappeared through the wall.
"I'm starting to feel like I want to totally destroy that damn demon, or somehow pin it down and slowly poor holy water over it," Roma said as she stood up with the help of Marcus.