Chapter 3

Saturday

Before going to the Handa Mansion we all met up near the front of S.P.R. so we could find out who was catching a ride with whom. Monk, Ayako, John, and I all rode in Ayako's car, while Lin-san, Naru, Masako, and Yasuhara rode in the van.

Although I like to hang out with Ayako, Monk, and John, I wanted to ride in the van, just so I could keep a vigilant eye on Masako. She would still take any opportunity to get 'closer' to Naru. Unfortunately, as always, luck wasn't on my side, I woke up late and the only comfortable seat was in Ayako's car.

"Hey, Mai, you've been pretty quiet all morning. What's wrong kid?" Monk asked in a brotherly tone. Before I could answer though, Ayako slapped him on the head.

"Monk, keep your eyes on the road, and cant you see that Mai's tired? I mean look at her eyes. They have dark circles under them. Naru's probably been overworking her!" exclaimed Ayako. I didn't want them to think that Naru was some cruel tyrant that ordered me around all the time so I told them the truth,

"Heh-heh , actually I just can't seem to fall asleep as quickly as I use to at night anymore."

John decided to join our conversation by asking, "Mai, just how many hours did you sleep last night?"

I looked at John knowing he wouldn't like the answer, but I had already told them all so many lies. One more lie would make me feel immensely guilty, no matter how small it was. I sighed before weakly answering, "I only slept about an hour, at most."

I heard Ayako gasp before asking, "I've seen you like this for a while, but exactly how many days has this been going on for?"

I frowned 'how long has this been going on for?' I asked my self. I noticed that I started having difficulties sleeping after we had all solved the last case Naru had accepted, but that was two months ago. This fact shocked me. I didn't even know my insomnia had been going on for this long. I was pulled out of my thoughts by Monk's voice calling out to me.

"Mai?"

"Huh? Oh sorry, um, well this started about two moths ago," I said shyly. I heard all three gasp. I wanted to tell them not to worry and that everything was just fine, but I couldn't say that. I couldn't tell them something even I couldn't believe. Something like this had happened in the past, but after half a year I had fainted from extreme fatigue. I woke up after three days, but my body and mind, for some reason, had trouble functioning properly. Sometimes walking became a difficult task and sometime I forgot where I was.

Instead of saying I would be fine or telling something like this had happened in the past I decided to stay quiet. My guess is that they too were also out of words to say about this topic because they all went back to being silent. It was either that or they had already made up their minds about telling Naru of my current situation whenever we arrived at the Handa Mansion. If that's what they were planning then luck really didn't know my name. Yesterday after Mrs. Riko left Lin-san told Naru to close S.P.R. early so we could all go pack for our new case, so naturally whatever Naru had to say regarding my out break would have to wait until tomorrow. Unfortunately today was tomorrow and if Ayako, John, or Monk told him about my sleeping issues, Naru would seriously be on my case.

After a long quiet half hour Monk turned on the radio and started singing along with it, until Ayako hit his stomach and told him to shut up because she was trying to get her beauty sleep. Monk burst out laughing and told her that it was far too late to save her face from looking old. John and I both laughed softly at the comment Monk had made, while Ayako mumbled profanities under her breath before she continued with her beauty sleep.

We arrived at the Handa Mansion after three long hours of being cooped up in a car, or in the others case a van. When we all saw the mansion we all stared at it in amazement, well except Naru and Lin-san. I my opinion the mansion was beautiful. The architecture of the mansion was a mix between gothic and a Japanese culture based influences. On top of that the mansion was at least four stories tall. What amazed me the most though, was that some of its windows and entrance doors. They were all made of stained glass, and they had beautiful designs of roses and cherry blossoms. Each design was different from one another and each design seemed unique. It took my breath away, but this place reminded me more of a church than a place where someone would live in.

"Hello Mr. Shibuya I'm glad you could all make it," said a familiar voice. I turned to the person who had spoken and saw Mrs. Riko.

"Welcome to the Handa Mansion. Mr. Handa would like me to express his sincere apologize for not being here, but he won't come back until this situation is fixed," she said.

Naru nodded and said, "I understand. This," he motioned to us, "is the entire S.P.R. team. Miss Taniyama Mai and Kojo Lin, you have already met. They are my assistants. Matsuzaki Ayako is our priestess. Hara Masako is our medium. Takigawa is our monk. John Brown is our exorcist, and Yasuhara Osamu is our researcher. We will all do our best to solve your problem, Mrs. Riko."

Mrs. Riko bowed and replied, "It's nice to formally meet you all. We are all very thankful that you were able to come to our aid."

We all smiled and bowed back at her, except Naru and Lin-san. Once we were all done with the introductions and pleasantries, Mrs. Riko took us inside the mansion and started to show us around.

After the tour Naru ordered Monk, Yasuhara and I to unload everything out of the van, while the he and the other explored the mansion looking for the entity that was troubling the mansion.

While I was setting up some of the equipment I heard Monk's voice on my walkie-talkie, "So Mai watcha think about this place?"

I stayed quiet before answering into the walkie-talkie, "Well, at first I thought that it was amazing. I thought it was breathtaking, we went in I felt so overwhelmed. It was like I was standing in a pit of deadly snakes."

"Yea, you felt that, too? I had the same feeling but I had a sudden feeling of guilt, like when a small child's just been caught stealing a cookie from the cookie jar. Weird, right?" I heard Monk say in an uncertain tone. I was a bit surprised when I he said that he felt guilt because I had the same feeling, except it was more extreme than what he described.

After a while of trying to figure out why Monk and I felt a bit unsure about being here, I picked up my walkie-talkie so I could get Yasuhara or Monk.

"Hey Monk, Yasuhara, where are you guys?"

I waited a moment so they could answer, but they did not. 'Maybe they didn't hear me,' I thought, so I tried again, "Monk? Yasuhara? Where are you guys? I'm lost and I don't know where I am. Are you guys there?"

Like before I received nothing but silence. 'Great,' I said to myself, I was lost inside an enormous mansion with no clue where to go. I looked around to see if a maid was near. It was then that I was hit with the sad fact that all of the servants and maids left early so we could work. Even Mrs. Riko had left. I tried not to feel panicked, but the long never ending corridors in front and to the sides of me made feel frantic. After a while a started to walk left, but I was stopped when I heard a soft feminine voice say, "That's not the right way back."

I quickly stopped and turned around to see who had spoken, but I found no one.

"Who's there?" I asked with a warning tone. No one answered. Was it a spirit? Had my lost gift come back to me? Was my past coming back to haunt me? Was someone pulling a sick joke on me? So many questions raced through my head until I heard a loud shriek coming from the corridor behind me, the corridor I was stopped from walking into.

"Quickly, you have to get of here. Hurry, run!" said the same voice from before. Instead of questioning the reason why I should run I listened to the voice and my instinct and ran away from the shrieks. While I ran though, I kept on hearing the shrieks behind me, and they seemed to be getting closer. Even though I wanted to see what I was running from my heart told me to forget about that and focus on finding a way out from this place.

As if my thoughts had been heard, I heard the same voice from earlier say, "Keep running until you see a red door with a white blossom painted on it. Hurry she's catching up!" I gave a quick nod and sped up my pace until I found the red door that the voice had talked about. I quickly ran to it a closed it behind me. As soon as I closed the door the shrieks stopped. I breathed out a sigh of relief and turned to see where I was. I found, with no surprise, that I was in a bedroom. I was about to explore the room when I noticed something that slightly unnerved me. It was quiet. There was an eerie silence that made my heart start pounding against my chest. Something bad was going to happen. As soon as that thought entered my head the shrieks became roars and the door was harshly banged on. Whatever was doing this wanted to get in. I quickly looked around to see if there was any thing I could put against or in front of the door so it would stall the entity. The only useful thing I could mange to find was a chair. I quickly leaned it against the door and backed away. The banging at the door grew louder and stronger and the terrifying roars continued, nonstop. I looked to see if there was a hiding place, but it was then that I remembered that it was something not of this world I was trying to getaway from not a human. What I needed was to find an exit not a hiding place. I started to go into a panic attack until I saw a window I could maybe climb out from.

I quickly ran over to the window and opened it. I felt extremely relieved when I looked down and saw a pool I could jump into. Sadly I was on the third floor of the mansion. I would have to kick off the ledge of the window to land in the water. For some reason, at the moment, this fact seemed to freak me out more than that of possibly being killed by a malicious entity.

"You have to jump! It's your only chance of escaping this. You're not going to die; the will to live is strong in you. You won't let yourself die. Jump, jump now," exclaimed the voice that had been helping me ever since I got lost.

When I heard a crack at the door I knew I had to jump. I took a deep breath in and leaped into a dive. At the same time I jumped I could hear that the door had also been violently opened. As I jumped I could also hear the roars turn into a menacing hiss as the entity discovered I had escaped.

Thankful I had managed to avoid the edge of the pool and shallow end, too. Although I did take in a mouthful of water I still made it to the surface of the water successfully. I greedily took in huge breaths of air.

Once I was able to breathe properly again I looked up to see the window where I had jumped from. What I saw though made my eyes widen slightly. Instead of an empty window I saw a beautiful woman with brunette hair that flowed around her, and hazel eyes that looked at me with a threatening, evil glare.

"Taniyama-san! Taniyama-san are you alright?" shouted a voice to the far right of me. Although I could hear who ever was calling out to me, I was too transfixed by the woman glaring at me. After a few seconds of staring at each other, the woman started to fade until she had completely disappeared.

I was brought back to reality by Masako's and Ayako's shouts. I turned to where I heard them and saw that the whole S.P.R. team was there. I also saw that Lin-san and Monk had jumped in the water and were now heading towards me. Even though I was conscious to everything that was happening around me, my mind blocked it all out and tried to process everything that had just occurred.

"Mai, what were you thinking?" Naru hissed out at me when we had gotten back to base. Everyone was out checking up on the equipment, or in Monk's and Lin-san's case finding dry clothes, which reminded me I had yet to change into warmer dryer clothing.

"Are you crazy? Just what the hell goes on through your head?" yelled Naru. I knew the wisest thing to do in my current situation was to tell him he was right or something, but then again I was too fond of being impulsive.

"My problem? Naru I already told you all what happened! Something was after me! I was in danger, it wanted to hurt, no probably kill me! What else was I suppose to do? And don't you dare call me crazy; you don't know what crazy really is." I yelled back at Naru. Although I felt better after yelling at him, I had hinted that I had lost my mind once. Through his eyes I could see that he was questioning and analyzing my response.

"Hmm, well just know that you can't ever be alone in this place anymore. Make sure to have two people with you wherever you go. Also about you theatrics in my office the other day" I flinched he did remember, "I would like to say… I'm sor-… I'm sorry, Mai."

'Shoot,' I thought know he thinks I'm crazy and he'll try to figure…. Wait what? He said sorry? The stoic, rude, I'm-all-that-that Naru said sorry!

"Hey Naru….. Are you possessed?" I said in shock. Naru raised an eyebrow and chuckled. This made my eyes widen a bit. 'He's laughing!' I thought in shock. When he caught me staring he glared at me and began to read a book he had in his hands.

Once Naru was done talking to me I went to my suitcase and began looking for dry clothes. While I searched my bag though, I kept on hearing Naru's apology in my head. I was still shocked that Naru had apologized to me. After a few minutes though, a small smile could be seen on my face.

a/n: So what do think? ;] from a 1-10 what do you give this story so far? ;)