Naru woke up suddenly. He looked at his watch, and groaned. It was 5 in the morning. He rolled over to go back to sleep, but it was useless. He wanted tea, he needed tea. He got up, changed, and quietly slipped out the room and walked towards the kitchen. As he was crossing the corridor back in to base, he heard a faint sound coming from where the front door was. Curious, he walked towards the sound. He turned the corner and found Mai, curled up against the door, fast asleep. Frowning, he scooped her up, walked back to base, and plopped her on to the sofa. He threw a blanket over her, and started to read his file.
About an hour later, Lin walking in broke the silence. Lin looked at Mai, then at Naru, raising an eyebrow. Naru just shrugged. Lin walked over to where his laptop was, and started his usual typing. Over the next few hours, the other members of SPR wandered in to base, with varying degrees of sleepiness. Ayako and Bou-san sat in opposite corners of the room, not talking to each other. It was silent, and you could almost cut through the tension with a knife.
"I'm going to go get breakfast." John got up and left base. Yasuhara followed him, and so did Ayako and Bou-san, still not talking. Suddenly, Mai woke up.
"W-w-where am I?" she sleepily asked. "Why am I in base?"
Naru slowly turned round to look at her.
"Why were you sleeping against the front door last night? Is there something wrong with your bed?"
"No… Oh, I remember! I had a headache, and came downstairs." They were silent for a few minutes. Naru was just about to turn back to the file that lay forgotten in his hands, when Mai interrupted the silence.
"Um, Naru, I had a dream last night. There was a woman in it, and she got drowned by something, I'm not sure what. But that's not all…" Mai drifted off.
"Mai, what is it?"
"She… she had the same birthday as me. And the date that she died on was my birthday." Naru was silent. He assumed his thinking position, and Mai got up to go and get dressed.
"Mai, where are you going?" Mai spun round.
"I'm going to get dressed, if that's okay with you." With that, Mai stalked out of base, nearly tripping over the door way in the process. Naru refrained rolling his eyes with difficulty.
Mai was walking along a corridor when she saw the little girl again. The girl was watching her with large, hazel eyes.
"Hi! I'm Mai, remember?" The girl nodded.
"I'm Azusa." The girl clutched the doll she was holding closer to her.
"That's pretty. How old are you?"
"I'm nearly 7." The girl replied. There was a silence. Suddenly, it turned very cold. Mai shivered. It would not be good if a ghost came now. She looked behind her, and when she turned back round again, there was no one there.
"Hello? Where did you go?" Well, that's strange, thought Mai. She walked quickly to her room, and got dressed. She absent-mindedly walked back to base, not paying attention to where she was going. She looked up suddenly, and realised that she didn't know where she was. She walked quickly down the corridor, but it felt like it was stretching on forever. There was a gust of cold wind, and Mai was nearly knocked over. Then, one by one, the light bulbs started to smash, getting closer and closer to Mai. She tried to open a door, but it was locked. Mai ran along the corridor, trying to open each door, and each one was locked. She finally found one that was open, and Mai ran inside. She looked around, and realised that she was in a bathroom. The door flew shut, and the lock was turned with an audible click…
Hmmm… I really should start to write longer chapters! I can't wait for the next chapter! *Grins evilly* Thanks for all the reviews!
Chapter two has now been sorted out, so that it is not a repeat of chapter one. Feel free to read and review! (Hint hint, nudge nudge!)