First and foremost, let me apologize for delaying the juicy chapter so much. (bow) It's not here yet. The thing is, I'm trying to keep my chapters SHORT. I love long chapters! I've always written long, long chapters, but I understand that a lot of readers out there don't have the time or patience to be reading something 6, 10, 15 or 22 pages long, so I'm trying to keep it between 2 and 3. (more than two pages. Less that four.) To make up for the delayed goodiness, I'm going to be posting a lot more often. This is the second chappie posted today. I won't be writing another one today because I have a very important assignment due in English tomorrow. Sowwy :( just read this for now.

"I did not put it up," the girl replied simply. "It was put up to keep me in here."

--------------------------CHAPTER FOUR------------------------------

"Keep you…?" the two boys stared at the girl in confusion, all of their previous assumptions having been tossed to the winds. So she wasn't the one? Then…who?

"Yes."

"…So, you're alive?" Even Doumeki turned to stare at Watanuki after that comment. "But she has to be!" he tried to explain. "You can see her!"

"Have you ever seen a see-through living person?" Doumeki asked, sounding almost fearful. Watanuki blinked in surprise, turning to gaze at the girl again.

"She's not see-through."

"Everybody can see me in this state," the girl explained. "My spirit has enough power to do that. You however," she told Watanuki, "see me a lot clearer due to some power that you have… I don't know what it is, but I can practically smell it coming off of you."

"S-Smell...?"

"So this is why the spirits try to eat you," Doumeki reasoned with a nod.

"SHUT UP DOUMEKI!"

"What's your name?"

"Sabi."

"Sabi?" Watanuki repeated, looking around the room nervously. It was a decently sized room, although rather gloomy. There was a bed on one end with a little table next to it. On the other side of the room he could see a sofa and an old television. The walls were laden with a collection of antique weapons on hooks. There was one window, but the curtains had been drawn. "So, who put the barrier up and why?"

"I already told you, it was put up to keep me from leaving," she sighed irritable, turning her back on them and taking a step away. "And it was placed there by my father."

"Your…father?"

"Yes. See, our family has always had a very strong blood trait…well, my family on my mom's side. We have the ability to control spirits."

"You mean like possession?" Doumeki asked, completely ignoring the gaping Watanuki.

"No, we call it the Spirit's Voice. By using a certain tone of voice, we can bit spirits to do as we wish. It's compulsion, really… It appears every two generations. My grandmother had it, but my mother did not."

"But why would that make your father lock you up here?" Watanuki voiced, his eyes darting around the room once more.

"He wanted the power for himself…he still does." She took a moment to sigh before turning to them again, frowning sadly. "He tried stealing Grandmother's power decades ago, but failed when she died in an accident…so he married my mother instead, hoping that a daughter would be born with the same trait. The power, however, doesn't show itself until puberty, and I only just discovered mine about a year before my death. Ever since then, dad had been training me, strengthening it in order for him to eventually steal it…

"I didn't know back then, of course. I only found out after I died that he had put a curse on my body that caused for my body to gradually fall apart. He had already placed a barrier around this very room so that after I died my soul would be trapped here and he could perform the spell to absorb it."

"He wants to absorb your soul?" Watanuki gasped with disgust.

"Be careful," Doumeki warned him. "If you repeat the obvious too many times, you go stupid."

"I SAID SHUT UP, DOUMEKI!"

"You're right. You're stupid already." Watanuki opened his mouth to shout something back but forced himself to shut it again, stomping on the ground hard once, twice, and taking deep breaths to calm himself.

"Sabi. Seeing just how old your mother is, you must have died years ago. How come your spirit hasn't been claimed by your father yet? And where is he? We didn't see him when we came."

"My mother married my father in her forties and had me only a year later. I died at the age of 16, which is how you view me now. I died less than a year ago."

"What!"

"My mother was always the kind to worry, so her body aged fast when in reality she isn't even in her 60s yet."

"And your father?" Doumeki urged.

"He's… He's here."

"HERE?" Watanuki exclaimed, his eyes shooting around once more. He knew he felt something!

"He's trapped in the barrier. When I died there was a young spirit trapped in here with me. It told me everything it knew and gave me it's energy, which is why I am so in-focus even to him," she said, nodding towards Doumeki. "The first time he tried walking past the barrier to come for me, I put up a spell of my own, strengthening it against humans as well as spirits and making it so that it would absorb anybody that would try to go through it."

"But…it didn't do that to us," Watanuki argued, still searching the room distrustfully.

"That's because after father got trapped in it, his body was destroyed and his spirit was let loose. He has a very hateful spirit, that man… It filled the barrier right up so that now it repels instead of drawing in. As long as I don't go near that barrier, my father can't reach me…but I am also stuck here forever unless he…"

"Unless he is destroyed," Doumeki concluded, waiting for Sabi's nod before he turned around and headed to the door once more.

"DOUMEKI! Where do you think you're going?"

"We have to destroy the spirit to let her out. So let's go find him."

"Find him! And how are you planning on doing that? And stop looking at me as if you think I'm the dumbest person on earth! And don't you dare say you really do think I am either." Doumeki sighed and before answering the initial question.

"You attract spirits to you. On our way in, you were holding onto me, so maybe that's why he couldn't touch you."

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Let's say we DO get him to come after me. Then what? Are you just going to sit down and chant sutras hoping he will die before I get eaten?" Doumeki pointed at one of the weapons on the wall. A bow. "…Oh."

Doumeki took the weapon down as Watanuki walked to the door, gazing out of it uncertainly. He sure couldn't see the barrier…but of course, he knew from experience that it was very there.

"Get moving already."

"But..! What if I just get thrown out?"

"Then he'll be after you," Sabi and Doumeki chorused, just as the tall archer gave him a nudge in the back, pushing him out of the room…and into the clutches of the unknown.

--------------------------OWARI!------------------------

Otey, that's it for today. I'll try to have another up tomorrow, maybe two...I'll definitely catch up! Yakusoku.

-k.s-