The Doll House

Chapter One: One Messed Up Fairy Tale

In the quiet suburbs of Tokyo, Mai and Naru stood in front of a beautiful building. It was modern looking with massive elegant windows and was surrounded on all sides by miles of trees. Sam barked from next to Mai, wagging his tail.

"Did you really have to bring to dog?" Naru asked as Sam licked his hand.

"Yep, you said bring what you need, so I did." Mai said stroking the scruffy black dog's head. Naru sighed and dragged Mai towards the building; the dog followed happily behind them so he had to admit it was well trained.

"As long as it doesn't get in the way." He said not bothering to argue with her over such a pointless matter.

"He not an it." Mai reprimanded him. "This house is amazing."

"Well you have spent the last hour gawking at it, now hurry up Lin and Jinx-san are waiting inside." Mai frowned but allowed her boss to drag her inside. The door was opened by a pretty purple haired lady, who led them through to the living room.

"I'm so sorry to have to drag you out all this way." The woman said smiling. "My sister-in-law, Kana, and my niece, Ayami." She said gesturing to a short brown haired woman and a light brown hair girl with her hair in pigtails. "My brother is on a business trip overseas right now, and it's just us in the house so I'm feeling uneasy." Jinx snuck into the room and stroked Sam to stop him from jumping up when he saw her. She looked at the scared woman and remembered their meeting. It was three days ago when Morishaita Noriko entered the SPR office. She had told them there was something strange about the house she lived in. The furniture would suddenly start to rattle, they would hear knocking on the walls of rooms when no one was in them, and doors that shouldn't be open would open up by their own. This was enough to interest Naru.

"There are just a lot of strange things happening." Noriko said holding onto her niece.

"Who is in charge here?" Kana asked looking annoyed.

"I am the manager, Shibuya Kazuya." Naru said, glaring at Mai when she sneakily patted him on the back for saying his name the right way round.

"You…" Kana said shocked. By now they were used to people reacting this way when they found out the manager was just a teenager, "Anyway… is this really the work of, you know, ghosts?" she finished whilst examining her nails. Mai looked at her own trying to see anything interesting about them until she heard Jinx giggling at her. She glared at her friend unable to find any thing funny about what she had done.

"It's our job to investigate that." Naru stated politely, but the girls knew he was annoyed at having to say something that was so obvious. When they entered the room that would be the base for this investigation, Mai saw that all the monitors and recorders were set up already.

"Some people were actually doing what they are paid to do." Jinx said seeing Mai's expression.

"Ha, ha very funny." Mai said sarcastically pulling a face at Jinx. She jumped as Naru grabbed her shoulders and steered her out of his way.

"If you're not careful your face will get stuck like that." He said walking over to Lin. Jinx smothered her laugh, not wanting to draw attention to herself as Sam plodded over to Naru and lay at his feet.

"Samwise you traitor." Mai said as her dog thumped his tail on the floor. Naru looked down at the dog and sighed before ignoring him.

"What is the equipment status in each room?" he asked Lin.

"Monitors are normal…" Lin started but Mai tuned him out.

"Ne, Jinx when do you think John-kun will get here." She teased making her friend blush and look at the floor.

"I wonder if it couldn't be a poltergeist." Jinx said changing the subject, "going by what Noriko-san said…" Lin and Naru stared at her. Mai caught her chin with her hand.

"I'm not sure, it's true the activity reflexes what a poltergeist does but it just doesn't seem to fit." Mai said thinking aloud unaware that the two men where now staring at her.

"Mm I know what you mean." Jinx said.

"Oh, you two are starting to sound like grown-ups there, part-timers." Bou-san's voice filled the room. The two girls looked to the door and saw Ayako and Bou-san leaning against the frame.

"Bou-san." Mai said smiling brightly at him.

"Yo." He greeted her as he hugged them both.

"Overdoing things as usual, I see, with this mountain of equipment." Ayako said looking at her nails.

"Why does everyone seem to be doing that?" Mai asked.

"Doing what?" Bou-san said releasing the girls.

"Looking at their nails, Ayako did just now and Kana-san did it when she found out Naru-Chan was the boss." Mai explained looking really confused. Bou-san and Jinx looked at one another before laughing.

"It's meant to show that something as trivial as their nails are more important then the other occupancies of the room." Naru said in a condescending tone. Mai frowned.

"So they're being snobby." She stated making Ayako glare at her.

"If you had wanted it that simplified then I wouldn't have bothers answering, but yes Mai they are." Naru said turning to face her.

"Why you…" she growled but Bou-san held her in place.

"Calm down Jou-Chan and don't let the nasty monster get to you." He joked causing the girls to laugh at the picture of Naru in a monster costume.

"Let me see." Ayako said walking up to the screens and leaned over Lin, "I'd say this is the work of an earth spirit or something." She announced as she stood up.

"It is more likely a human." Jinx teased, succeeding in making the priestess mad.

"Ow really." Ayako hissed.

"Jinx does have a point." Mai said drawing the demons attention away from her friend.

"How?" It asked.

"Well, when a human causes as poltergeist it's normally a female under great stress, in thing case it could be the fact that Noriko-san doesn't get along with her sister-in-law." She explained to the angered priestess.

"True. Kana-san does seem a bit grating, huh?" Ayako said calming down.

"Though I'm not…" Mai began but Naru cut her off.

"Amateurish, shallow thinking." Mai growled at his words.

"If you had let me finish…" but he interrupted her again.

"In cases of poltergeisting where a human is the culprit, it's usually a young teen – an adolescent child. Noriko-san is 20, too grown-up to be called an adolescent."

"I was going to add, I do not think a human is the culprit here." Mai snapped.

"I know." Naru said, his eyes challenging her to yell at him. Mai bit her lip, to stop herself, and was slapped by Jinx.

"Don't do that." She scolded Mai.

"However it is true, there are cases of spiritually sensitive women. I will conduct an experiment regarding that tonight."

Jinx left the base feeling tired, and looking at the clock she saw why. Naru had made them work for 4 hours straight. She slumped feeling sorry for Mai; Naru would only let one of them take a break and so her friend had all but shoved her out the door to, as she put it, protect her Hime from the evil monster. She giggled slightly remembering Naru's expression when Mai had said that.

"Jinx-Chan, perfect timing." Noriko said smiling at her, holding onto a plate of food, "it's time for Ayami's snack. Care to tag along?" Jinx smiled suddenly full of energy.

"All right." She beamed and rushed to her side, "Ayami-Chan is so cute, isn't she? If you had to say, does she take more after her father?"

"Mm, her mother." Noriko replied. Jinx frowned.

"But she doesn't look all that much like Kana-san…" Jinx said feeling awkward.

"Oh, my sister-in-law is my brother's second wife." Noriko explained, with a sad smile, "Ayami is his previous wife's daughter."

"I'm sorry…"

"Don't worry about it." They reacted the top of the stair and Noriko led her to the first door on the right. She knocked twice before entering.

"Ayami? Snack time. Jinx-Chan is here, too." She announced as she walked towards her niece.

"Hello there! Hope you're hungry!" Jinx said smiling. Ayami looked up at Jinx and smiled before grabbing a blonde haired doll wearing a Victorian style dress. She walked over to Jinx and held out the dolls hand as she spoke.

"Hello."

"Hello. What's your name?" Jinx asked as she shook the dolls hand.

"Minnie!" Ayami said smiling happily that someone would play along with her.

"My, Ayami, were you reading that book?" Noriko asked looking at the open book that was on the floor. Ayami face lost all its colour and she looked terrified.

"What's wrong?" Noriko asked her niece as she backed away.

"Come on, let's have a snack." Jinx tried to encourage her but the little girl turned away from them.

"Ayami doesn't want it." The girl said sounding like she wanted to cry. There was and knock on the door and Mai entered the room.

"Our boss would like everyone in the living room if you don't mind." She said smiling. As they walked down the stairs Jinx stared at Ayami wondering what had made the girl so scared.

"What's wrong?" Mai asked noticing her friends dazed expression.

"I'll tell you later. Where Sam?" Jinx said looking for the dog that hardly every left his master's side.

"With Naru." As they entered the living room Jinx saw the light, which Naru had used to place a suggestion in everyone's mind in the principals office. Looking outside she could see it was getting dark. The perfect time to do this experiment. Noriko, Kana and Ayami sat on the sofa facing the light as Naru instructed them on what to do.

"Tonight the vase in the living room will move, and small glass vase which will be on the table." He said softly so as to not break the trance the three where under. Naru turned on the lights momentarily blinding everyone. The house residences eyes where drawn to a small, glass vase next to Naru. The suggestion had worked. Naru dismissed everyone, after getting the key to the room from Kana, so as they walked back to the base she informed Mai of everything that had happened, but the girl was too tired to make any sense of it as she leaned over the back off a chair.

"Let me sleep on it Jinx." Mai said with a shattered smile. Jinx frowned as she watched her friend yawn.

"When will Naru let us go to sleep?" she asked her. Mai shrugged.

"When everything is done." Naru said walking into the base followed by Lin, Sam, Ayako and Bou-san. Sam bounced over to the girls and, when Mai ignored him, whimpered and sat at her feet. Mai glanced down, sighed seeing Sam's puppy-dog eyes and stroked his head.

"So the scruffy mutt is yours." Ayako said to Mai.

"Naru is everything set up?" she asked blanking the priestess.

"Yes all we need to do is wait." Lin sat in front of the monitors and they began their wait.

At 9pm nothing had moved.

"God how long are we going to have to wait?" Bou-san complained. The door burst open and a dishevelled Kana rushed in.

"Come quick." She yelled before running off leaving them to follow. She led them to Ayami's room and showed them the chaos inside. Everything, even the was moved away from the wall.

"I came up here to tuck Ayami-Chan into bed and found this." Kana explained, "What is going on? I thought you came here to control this."

"Your sure the little girl didn't do it right?" Ayako asked. At her accusation Ayami hugged Minnie tighter.

"Get real Ayako there's no way she could have." Jinx snapped.

"You're right. The rug has been moved as well. Even I don't have that sort of power." Bou-san said crouching next to the edge of the carpet with Naru next to him.

"I agree." Naru said examining the floor, "if there is a human who could do this, I would love to meet them."

"Why does that make me feel less safe?" Mai asked sarcastically make Jinx smack her round the back off the head for scaring Ayami more.

"I was just saying…" Ayako defended her self.

"It wasn't Ayami." The little girl said.

"We believe you." Jinx said smiling at the child who moved closer to her. A scream filled the house.

"Noriko-san." Mai yelled before running out of the room, down the stairs and, almost tripping over Sam, she rushed to the living room and found the woman staring in shock about the place. Everything was upside-down, the pictures and bookcases were facing the wrong way and the rug was turned as well with the furniture still on top.

"That settles it, it's a poltergeist." Bou-san said seeing what had happened in this room.

"The culprit is an earth spirit." Ayako protested, "I'll have it driven out as early as tomorrow just you watch. Good night." And with that she walked out.

"Where does she get her confidence?" Jinx said walking over to Mai.

"What's the matter?" Bou-san asked Naru seeing the boy in deep thought.

"Mai your thoughts." Naru said turning to the red head, making her stare at him, "Today would be nice." He added when she didn't respond.

"Jack ass," She said sticking her tongue out at him and refusing to answer.

"Mai…" He warned her and she knew if she kept this up he would kick her off the case.

"Fine, I was thinking isn't all this happening very quickly?" She said frowning slightly.

"Good girl." Naru mocked her.

"I'm not a dog." She growled turning to face her boss.

"You're right dogs are easier to train as they are more intelligent." He teased patting Sam on the head. Mai bristled at his words, Jinx grabbed hold of her and clung on for dear life hoping to stop her friend from doing something that could, or more likely would, get her fired.

"So what does that mean?" Jinx asked trying to distract the fuming girl.

"Psychic phenomena tend to have an aversion to outsiders, when unconnected people come in, they ought to abate temporarily." Naru explained.

"Really?" Jinx said looking confused.

"When TV shows cover famous haunted houses generally, nothing ever happens right? Usually, the response gets weaker. The fact that it's getting stronger instead means that something is pushing back" Bou-san informed the girls.

"So you're saying it is trying to scare us off." Jinx clarified, relaxing her arms as she sensed Mai no longer wanted to kill Naru.

"Yer, us coming here pissed off what ever is in the house." Mai said as Bou-san agreed.

"And this all means it's not a weak poltergeist either."

"We might have a hard time with this." Naru stated looking about the room, "the two rooms will be off limits till the investigation is over."

"Why?" Mai asked confused.

"For our protection or are you too stupid to realise the danger." Naru replied coldly. Mai looked at him with a lost expression on her face before she turned and walked calmly out off the room.

"Mai…" Jinx began.

"I'm going to bed." Mai snapped leaving the room and Sam scuttled after her, worried about him master.

The next day they discovered that the vase had not moved at all, proving that the culprit was not human. Also Mai was still not talking to Naru and spent her time working in the base with Lin and ignoring Jinx's attempts to get the girl to open up.

"Wolf, tell me what is wrong." Jinx yelled as the younger girl stared at one of the monitors and absent-mindedly stroked her dog.

"Nothing." Naru entered the room and glanced at the occupancies announced Ayako was about to begin her exorcism. Mai didn't turn or acknowledge him. Narrowing his eyes, Naru strolled over to the girl and leaned over her shoulder to look at the screen in front of Mai, which showed Ayako performing her ritual. Mai tensed and focused harder on the screen as Naru moved even closer to her so they were almost touching.

"Have you ever heard of something called personal space?" Mai snapped not able to take him being so close to her.

"Yes." Naru said, smirking at her.

"Then don't invade mine." Mai growled. Moving away from her, his self-gratifying look grew.

"It got you to talk to me, looks like you can be train as quickly as your mutt." He said daring her to fight back.

"You have to tame something before you can train it." Mai replied, rising to meet his challenge. Looking between the two Jinx had to stifle a laugh, knowing they would both be horrified to know what they where doing counted as flirting. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Lin shake his head, looks like she wasn't the only one who noticed. Ayako burst into the room followed by an unhappy looking Bou-san.

"The case is as good as solved." Ayako laughed covering her mouth with her sleeve. For the rest of the day nothing happened and everyone had to admit it did seem like the priestess's exorcism could have worked. Mai was relieved when Naru sent her to check all the room temperatures as it meant getting away from him, even though Sam had stayed with Naru again. She sighed; despite what she had said she was no closer to working out who Naru really was or who the person that had shown up in her and Jinx's dream was. So distracted from her work she hadn't realise she had finished until she was in front of the base again.

"Naru, these are the room temps." She said as she walked in and handed over the clipboard with the information he wanted, over to the young man.

"Ayami-Chan's room is cooler, huh?" he said checking over the writing, he turned around in his chair and began to type in his laptop.

"Where are the others?" Mai asked noticing they where alone. The computer made a bleeping noise grabbing Naru's attention.

"The house it self is not warping or moving and the floors are pretty much flat." He explained the readings on the screen to Mai, "there aren't any signs of subterranean water, so it's not the ground sinking."

"So it really is a spirit." Mai said tensing up.

"The possibilities are increasing." He agreed. "This is why it is vitally important that everyone takes safety measures Mai."

"I know, but you don't have to infer I'm stupid just because I'm curious and anyway it's not like you have ever appeared to care if we get hurt." Mai snapped as she crossed her arms. Naru stood up and face her.

"I do care Mai…" he began before a shriek shattered the silence of the moment.

"What's that?" Naru said frowning, before grabbing Mai and dragging her with him to the sources of the noise. They flew through the doors of the kitchen to find Kana standing in shock and the fire from the oven dance around the room, licking at the ceiling and walls.

"Sam stay." Mai yelled at the black dog that was trying to enter the kitchen, as she rushed forwards and pulled the frozen Kana behind her, shielding the older woman with her body as best she could.

"The flames appeared out off nowhere." Kana yelled as she clung to Mai. The flames lunged towards Mai and she braced herself for the pain that came with their touch. It never came. Naru had come to their rescue and dragged them both back to a safe distance.

"Bou-san grab the extinguisher!" he yelled as Bou-san entered the room.

"Right." The man yanked the plastic pin out and began to dowse the fire, which quickly surrendered. Noriko appeared and took her crying sister-in-law from Mai. Once all the flames had died down Bou-san slumped to the floor as Sam rushed to his owner and started licking her bare legs.

"What happened?" Jinx yelled as she appeared at the door followed by Ayako. Mai sighed and hugged Sam happy no one was hurt. The dog bristled and began to growl and Mai soon saw why. There was someone peering in through the window.

"Naru, someone's out there." She yelled holding Sam back as Naru opened the window.

"There's no one here." He said turning to face Mai.

"There was! It was a child…" she trailed off.

"What is going on?" Jinx asked looking at the two off them.

"Lets find out." Naru said, narrowing his eye. He pulled Mai off the floor and then led the way upstairs.

"Naru is couldn't have been Ayami-Chan." Jinx tried to convince him once she had worked out where he was headed. Naru stopped outside the door and watched as Mai slowly open the door to peak inside. Ayami was still awake, pulling a piece of cloth over her doll as she said.

"Minnie, I'm going to tuck you in now, OK?"

"Creepy." Mai whispered as a shudder ran down her spine. Just as the cloth reacted the dolls eyes, Noriko turned on the lights causing the girl to look their way.

"Ayami…" Noriko said as she ran to the girl and crouched in front off her. "Ayami where you just outside?"

"No." the little girl replied and shook her head.

"But Mai-Chan said she saw a child." Noriko explained, "You really were peeking in from outside, right?" The little girl frowned and glared at Mai.

"No, I wasn't." Ayami insisted.

"Are you telling the truth?" Noriko asked and Mai groaned knowing the girl would throw a fit now.

"I am." Ayami shouted with tears in her eyes as she backed away from her aunt. "Ayami didn't do it." The room began to shake as something pounded on the walls.

"What…?" Mai asked a troubled look on her face. The room began to shake more causing the furniture to move as well.

"It wasn't Ayami." The little girl cried as she huddled into a ball. The bookshelf toppled forwards, intending to crush the woman and the little girl.

"Noriko-san!" Jinx tried to warn her but the woman was unable to move.

"Mai no." Naru yelled as she pushed Noriko out of the way and covered Ayami with her body to protect her, she told the girl to hold on to her and using bookcase as a foot hold pushed them both out of the way as it slammed into the floor. Mai lay on her back with Ayami cradled to her front breathing heavily. Sam flew over to her and started yipping happily and licking her face. Ayami pulled her face out of Mai's shoulder and giggled as Sam licked her cheek. Mai released the girl so she could play with Sam and winched when she cause Naru's gaze. He was not happy. Naru walked over to her and crouching by her side checked her over for any injuries and finding none he relaxed.

"Never do that again Mai." He said looking all most relieved before allowing Jinx to hug her friend.

"Everyone get some sleep." Naru said as he walked out off the room.

The next morning everyone congregated in the base room.

"You've botched things again, haven't you?" Bou-san teased Ayako causing her to growl.

"I guess I just can't do anything."

"Well no one was hurt so it okay." Mai said trying to cheer the priestess up.

"But what was that?" Jinx asked looking glum.

"It reacted to the little girl shouting." Bou-san thought out loud, "It could be tied to the image of the child you saw, Mai."

"I'm sure that was a ghost, Sam loves kids so it makes not sense as to why he would growl at one." Mai explained, patting the dog's head, causing Bou-san to look shocked.

"That would mean you can see spirits then. Do you feel anything in this house?" Bou-san asked.

"Well no just it feels like an unhappy place, right Jinx?" Mai said trying to describe what she felt.

"Yer." Jinx agreed.

"Looks like you two have some hidden talents." Bou-san joked; Mai and Jinx glanced at one another. He really didn't know how right he was.

"I believe Ayami-Chan is the culprit." Naru stated.

"I thought the experiment proved it wasn't a human, how much confidents do you put in that test?" Bou-san asked confused.

"100 per cent."

"You're not making much sense Naru." Mai said frowning, "but if Ayami-Chan was the culprit why would she consciously or subconsciously put her self in harms way?"

"Could the suggestion of failed?" Bou-san asked the boy.

"No"

"You've been wrong before."

"Naru…" Lin interrupted their spat, "the temperature in Ayami-Chan's room is falling."

"Lin, the speaker." Naru demanded and his silent assistant obeyed. Scraping sounds filtered through the speakers into the room, followed by the sounds of a person walking about. Jinx latched on to Mai's arm. The screen showed that there was no one in that room, at least no one living.

"Incredible…" Naru exclaimed looking at his laptop.

"What?" Jinx whispered but Naru still heard her.

"The temperature. It's dropping unbelievably fast." He explained and Jinx's grip tightened on Mai's arm.

"Are you saying that the culprit behind the poltergeisting is…" she trailed off.

"It couldn't possibly be Ayami-Chan." Naru stated, "No, this is not the work of humans."

"Pay up." Mai said smiling with her hand open towards Jinx.

"What?" Bou-san asked, a look of disbelief on his face.

"I bet Jinx 2000 yen it would be a ghost." Mai explained her smile widening.

"It's nice to know you make the best out of every situation." Naru said shaking his head gently. Jinx laughed and released Mai's arm.

"I have forgotten about that." She managed to say in between giggles.

"Mai, Jinx-san I would like you two to watch Ayami-Chan." Naru ordered.

"I hate that doll she has." Mai complained making Naru glare at her.

"Mai…" he warned.

"Yes sir." Mai said, saluting. She did an about turn and marched out of the room followed by a laughing Jinx.

"Sammy stay by the grumpy old man." Mai said popping her head back into the base. The dog barked and sat at Naru's feet.

Mai, Jinx and Noriko sat in the guest room and watch Ayami play with Minnie.

"Ayami-Chan sure is well behaved. Ne?" Jinx teased Mai remembering tales of how much trouble Mai caused when she was younger. Mai pushed her gently and smiled.

"Up until just a while ago, she was more cheerful and friendly to others." Noriko said sounding sad.

"When did this happen?" Mai asked suddenly interested. Jinx sighed whiles most girls like to dress up, talk about boys and giggle, Mai was more the type to get into trouble by find a mystery and trying solve it. Although Jinx had a hard time remembering a mystery her friend had failed to solve.

"She only got like this after my brother remarried and they moved to this house." Noriko explained looked shocked at the suddenly serious girl.

"I see." A knock on the door interrupted Mai before she could explain what she was thinking. Kana walked in with a tray laden with food.

"Ayami-Chan, here's your snack." She said with a fake smile. She placed the tray in front of the small girl, "It's nice to have someone to play with, huh?" Ayami refused to talk and just stared at the floor, clutching Minnie closer to her. Kana tried a different approach.

"I really wish you would answer me. Here, have a cookie." She tried to guilt the girl into responding, but she soon realised it was a lost cause and gave up, "fine have it your way." And with that she stormed out of the room. The three others flinched as she slammed the door.

"Oh, Ayami…" Noriko said walking over to her niece. "If you don't want them aunty will eat them, OK?" but as she reached out for one Ayami slapped her hand away.

"No." Ayami yelled, "They're poisoned!" Mai stood up and knelt by the girl.

"How do you know this?" She asked smiling brightly at the girl.

"Minnie told me so. She said there's poison in the snacks. She said that woman is an evil witch, she made dad her servant with her magic and that Ayami and aunty are in the way so she's trying to kill us!" Ayami explained whilst crying. Mai stared at the doll.

"She did, did she?" Mai muttered. Jinx wandered over to Ayami.

"Well Ayami-Chan, me and Mai need to go now but don't worry we'll come back and play tomorrow." She explained and helped Mai off the floor and led the way out off the room.

"Minnie said Wolfy is a bad doggy." Ayami said as Mai was about to leave, "but Wolfy saved Ayami." Mai paused and looked back at the girl. She was started right at Mai the doll still in her arms and it seemed all most as if doll was glaring at her. Looking out the hallway she saw Jinx start to go down the stairs unaware that Mai wasn't following her. Noriko looked at her niece in shock.

"Who is Wolfy? The dog you where playing with last night?" she asked.

"I can only assume she is talking about me." Mai said walking back into the room. "Did Minnie tell you my nickname?" the little girl nodded, "What else did she say?"

"That Wolfy is big, bad and scary and will hurt me like the witch and like the man in black." The girl said not looking at her.

"Let me tell you a secret Ayami…" Mai said smiling softly, "Me and the man in black are only scary so we can chase the monsters away." The girl smiled up at her.

"So Wolfy is good?" she asked.

"Yep Wolfy is good."

Mai flopped down onto her bed and groaned.

"Would you keep it down some off us are trying to sleep." Ayako snapped. Mai grunted in response but other wise did nothing.

"So what did Naru say?" Jinx asked pulling the covers over her.

"Not much." Mai said into the pillow so that she had to strain to hear it.

"What do you think?" Mai turned to face her friend.

"The doll or who ever is inside the doll is using fairy tale like logic to corrupt Ayami-Chan mind against people."

"Meaning?" Jinx asked to tired to try and work it out for her self. Mai turned fully over so she was on her back.

"Think about it, in fairy tales the step-mother is always cruel and tries to hurt the heroine and wolves are animals that want to eat children." Mai explained.

"What about Naru?" Jinx reminded her, "I don't remember any fairy tales that could have anything linked to him in them."

"You are over looking one key fact my dear Watson." Mai said with a grin, "Naru is Naru and he is intimidating enough a it is."

"Right." Jinx sighed, "So Ayami told you because she was confuse as to why some one bad would save her."

"Right." Mai nodded.

"And what does this have to do with what is going on?" Jinx asked.

"Go to sleep Jinx." Was the response. Jinx smiled.

"In other words you don't have a clue." And with that she closed her eye and tried to drift off. However sleep seem to be evading her.

"Mai are you wake?" she whispered so as not to rouse the sleeping dragon that was Ayako.

"No"

"Very funny." Jinx growled softy.

"I'm being serious Jinx, I'm not wake and neither are you." Mai said.

"What the frack are you talking about." Jinx exclaimed sitting up in bed. Mai nodded over to the door and there he was. Naru. Jinx's first thought was what the hell was he doing in the girls' room, the she realised this was a dream as Naru was smiling.

"Naru?" she asked and his smile grew, "what's wrong?" he moved his mouth but Jinx couldn't hear what he said. Looking over at Mai she realised neither could she.

"What?" Jinx said trying to get him to speak up, then wished that she hadn't.

"Ayami-Chan is in danger." Mai frowned as spoke up.

"Who are you? How do you know this and why do you look like Naru?" she asked stepping out of bed. The look a-like smiled.

"All in good time…" he said before fading away. The room started to disappear as well and Jinx panicked.

"Mai what is going on?" she yelled and the walls vanished.

"At a guess, we are going back to our separate dreams. Don't fight it Jinx, I'll see you in the morning."

Jinx shot up in bed. Her loud gasp woke up the two others in the room.

"What's wrong?" Mai yelled as she tried to jump out of the bed up but became tangled in the sheets and fell over the side of the bed, hitting the floor with a loud thud. Sam jumped off the bed and sat staring at his master.

"Mai?" Jinx asked worried she had been knocked unconscious or something.

"I'm alright." Mai relied as she fought with the sheets trapping her.

"Well you two sure know how to make mornings interesting." Ayako sighed as she fell back into bed. Mai let out a cry of triumph and reappeared by the side of her bed.

"Come on, let's get changed and go to the base." Mai said throwing her pillow at Ayako before she ran into the bathroom to get dressed. On the way to the base room Ayako quizzed them on what Mai had told Naru.

"Ayami is talking to the doll." Naru said when they entered the base and Sam rushed to his side again.

"So what are we going to do? Get that Minnie doll off the girl?" Ayako asked. Noriko knocked on the door and entered holding Minnie in her arms.

"This is Minnie, right here." She said smiling and Naru picked it up. Mai and Jinx leaned against one another laughing at the sight of their cold boss holding a doll, "My brother bought it for her just before the moved into this house."

"Did Ayami-Chan's behaviour change before then? Or after?" Naru asked examining the doll.

"After, I think." Noriko said with a frown. The door opened and Ayami appeared panting heavily. Sam perked up at the sight of his new playmate but the girl ignored him.

"Give her back!" Ayami shouted at Naru trying to react the doll in his grip, "Give Minnie back!" Naru crouched down to her level.

"Ayami-Chan, I understand you're able to talk to Minnie." He said to her. The little girl looked like she was about to cry but then grabbed Minnie and ran off.

"Nobody is allowed to touch her!" she yelled as she left the base.

"Ayami!" Noriko exclaimed running after the small girl.

"What are we going to do?" Mai asked looking at the base door.

"Wait until night and then we will observe Minnie." Naru said before sitting down and reading. Bou-san entered the room and like usual teased the priestess who in turn threatened bodily harm. Mai watched amused as Jinx tried to stop the woman from killing Bou-san.

"What are you reading?" Mai asked leaning on the back of Naru's chair with her head on his shoulder. Naru glanced at the girl as she read what was on the page.

"Your head is on my shoulder again." He said raising an eyebrow.

"And again, deal with it." Mai said smiling, "Now answer the question."

"Lin has been finding out information about the house, this is what he has found so far." Naru explained. The both went silent for a while unaware that Bou-san, Ayako and Jinx were staring at them gob smacked as was Lin.

"Do you have anything I can read?" Mai finally asked.

"Why?"

"I'm bored." The girl said shrugging her shoulders.

"As keen as I am to help your intelligences grow I'm afraid most of the books I have are in different languages." Naru informed her.

"Got any in English?" Mai asked ignoring his insult.

"Yes."

"Then I read that." Mai said as she stood up and looked at the others who where still staring, "Jinxy this will be a good opportunity for you to practise your skills." Naru sighed and throw two books at Mai, which happened to be on the desk, and then went back to ignoring every one. Jinx skipped up to Mai and took a book.

"So that's how you know what Naru smells like." She whispered and winked. Mai blushed bright red, flumped on the floor, with Sam by her side with his head on her leg, and began to read as Jinx smothered her laugh.

Night time came quicker then the girls would have liked.

"Mai, Jinx-san, go with Noriko and retrieve Minnie." Naru ordered causing Mai to frown but she didn't respond.

"Come on Sam." She called and followed Jinx and Noriko up the stairs. Ayami was fast asleep in Noriko's room with Minnie in her arms.

"How are we meant to get Minnie?" Jinx whispered.

"We'll just have to explain to your boss that we couldn't." Noriko whispered back preparing to shut the door when Mai crept into the room.

"Mai what are you doing." Jinx asked quietly. The girl didn't respond as she reacted out and gently pulled Minnie from Ayami's grasp and walked back to the door.

"Failure is not an option." She said once the door was closed. They placed her in Ayami's room as Naru had instructed before saying good night to Noriko and heading back to the base. Everybody was looking at the screen that showed the doll when they entered the room.

"So that's Minnie, huh?" Bou-san said examining the image of the doll, "I'm surprised the little tyke let you borrow it."

"Well, we didn't ask her permission." Jinx said sounding guilty.

"You stole her." Bou-san said with a grin.

"No I stole her. Jinx just stood there and looked shocked." Mai corrected him.

"Thanks." Jinx said sarcastically whilst glaring at her friend.

"Tis a bloody creepy doll though." Mai said looking back at the screen.

"I guess." Bou-san agreed, "Dolls were originally meant as vessels for trapping people's souls. Being soulless and empty on the inside, they're easy to possess. So, what exactly are you doing now, Naru?" the boy stood up staring intensely at the screen.

"What's going on?" Jinx asked not really wanting to know. Looking at the screen she saw what had caught her boss's attention. Minnie, who had been sitting up, was now on her front. Mai grabbed her hand and squeezed it in a gesture of comfort. They all watched as the doll began to move down the bed, as if she was being dragged. The camera blurred as the doll reacted the end of the bed and her head came off. Mai grip tightened on Jinx's hands as she felt the girl shake. Something hit the tripod holding the camera over as the head rolled towards the lenses and stopped so only Minnie's eyes where in view. The message was clear. It was watching them.