Case 1- Circle You

Naru's P.O.V

2:30 A.M

I jolted awake, sitting straight up in bed, heaving large amounts of air in and out of my lungs. My eyes dart across the vast darkness filling my room. It take me a minute to calm down, and when I do I relax my shoulders and head. It's the same dream, same nightmare, that has been waking me up like this. The same thing every damn time.

I pull the blankets back and stand up out of bed with the intent to go to the bathroom. Instead I end up in front of the mirror hanging on one end of the bedroom. I stare at my reflection and see how it doesn't look like me. It's not dripping with sweat. It's not staring back at me with a blank expression. It's wearing a lopsided smirk that I could never duplicate.

"I see we are still dreaming the same dream?", says a voice in my head. My reflection moves its mouth at the same time the voice speaks in my head.

"Shut up, Gene", I say in a somewhat defeated tone.

Gene, or my reflection, laughs. Again, I only hear the laughter in my head, "Admit it, you idiot scientist, you are so lovesick!"

"I am not. She loves you, you know", I retort. And its true. Mai does love Gene, she just won't say it.

"And why do you think she won't say it?" Gene asks like he's asking a child. And I am certainly not a child. "You keep telling yourself lies, Noll, but in reality you're just too afraid to face the truth". At that, I glare at the mirror. The mirror just smiles back.

"And why do you think I'm afraid of facing the truth? If, as you believe, its the other way around, and Mai does love me and visa versa, why on earth would I be scared?", I snap. Gene shrugs and looks at me as if to say 'How the hell should I know? I'm not you, I'm dead'. I roll my eyes, "Of course you wouldn't know, you stupid medium".

At that Gene just stares at me, "You'll get one more chance", He says softly, "If you screw up again, then that's it. You won't have another shot at her", then gives me a sad smile, then vanishes. I finally see myself since waking up. Hair matted down, sticking to my forehead, eyes dull from the lack of sleep. I shake my head and head to my original destination. I don't bother closing the bathroom door, considering there is no one here besides myself. I jerk the shower faucet to freezing cold and undress.

Normally the cold showers wake me up, heighten my senses, and make me more alert at times like this. But this time, it only numbs me and makes me focus more on the terrible nightmare. Its always the same: the day that Gene's body was found. Mai and I are standing at the edge of the lake, looking out towards the water. I look at Mai, knowing that there is something I want to tell her, something important. At least its important to me. I reach a hand out and gently place it on her shoulder. She turns to face me and raises an eyebrow. I take in a long breath and speak very softly, "There is something I have been meaning to tell you. Something I have been wanting to tell you for a while".

"And what would that be?" She asks in a tone too cold and harsh for her.

Another intake of air. This is my last chance to tell her how I feel, to pour out the large pool of confusing emotions that have been filling every inch of my body since day one. I won't back down, not this time. "I don't know if it's been obvious enough for you to notice or if you just dismissed it, but I really like you", I manage to say without stuttering. Mai only looks at me with a blank expression. "And I don't mean it as just friends, but more than that", I continue while nervously rubbing the hem of my long shirt sleeve.

Mai, who has hardly spoken a word, let alone shone any sort of emotion towards my words, suddenly shakes her head. "No you don't", she says. To say I am stunned would but too much of an understatement. She looks to the sky, "You don't truly feel that way. You're deluding yourself but saying such lies."

"But-", I start but I am swiftly interrupted.

"I will be leaving tomorrow. I don't know if I should ever return, but you will get paid by the end of the month", Mai says. She is staying so calm, as if this thing happens naturally every day. I blink a few times, hoping the scene would change with each the time I finish, Mai is gone. For how long, no one knows.

I don't know what to say. She reached into my chest, ripped my heart out in the most painful way, tore it to pieces, and then left me to clean up the mess. So after standing there for what feels like hours just have the visions of my entire life falling apart in front of my very eyes, I wake up like I did this morning. Then I have the run-in with Gene, then end up where I am at: standing in a cold, skin-numbing cold shower, hoping to pull myself together enough to last the day.

Sometimes I don't know which one is more painful: the feelings in the dream, or the feelings in reality. In the dream, I'm playing as Mai. I hear what my mind thought was running through her head at the very moment she confessed, and I feel the full force of every negative emotion in the world as each word Mai, who depicts my own self, said turned against me. In reality, I am left with the feeling of regret and guilt knowing that I actually told her what she told me in the dream. I make myself sick knowing now how nerve racking and bold, courageous and brave confessing one's emotions toward another can be, and what it feels like to be rejected in the most cruel way possible. What's even worse is that its how Mai felt after I rejected her.

I heave a sigh and shut the shower off. I dry off and change into a fresh set of clothing. I check the clock. 4:26 A.M is what it reads. With so much more time to kill, I lay back on my bed and stare at the ceiling.

My brain just won't let this dream go. It kills me to know that once I went back to England, and the funeral was held, I found myself longing to go back to Japan. I didn't know why I had such a strong and sudden urge to go back, until I thought of Mai. I had tried to keep in contact with her, but it never really seemed to work. Either she would never reply or I was just to busy with work to notice or care. I wouldn't say for a fact that I had feelings for her, but I figured that it would put some ease to my mind to know that she was being well taken care of and was in good health.

After three long and hard years of trying to suppress the feelings that was sending my entire body into a confused and majorly stressed state, I convinced my parents to let me go back to Japan. Of course I didn't tell them the real reason behind my decision. I simply told them I liked the paranormal activity there more than here and wished to continue the Japanese branch of BSPR. The agreed and soon enough I was back, only to find that Mai had completely vanished. She cut all ties with any of her SPR family and simply disappear from everyone's lives.

So here I am now, wishing to take back everything that I said to her on the day by the lake. I want to make it up to her somehow, to help make up for the horrid things I must have put her through. I rub my eyes with the heel of my hands. Its like Gene all over again, and that was just awful. It was something I don't ever want to relive again if I can avoid. After a while, I found myself drifting into a light slumber. I contemplated whether I should open my eyes or wait for my alarm to signal the time to get up. Before it could make a decision, my body relaxed and my brain went silent, but not without letting the thought I have kept locked away in the deepest parts of my mind escape to haunt my dreams once more:

Please don't leave me, Mai. I need you.

AN: I am soooo sorry guys, really I am TT_TT I have been oh so very busy that I completely and totally forgot about updating. But I promise that I will update as soon as I possibly can. It took me forever to finally come up with a chapter idea and EVEN LONGER to write it . Again so so so so so so so so SORRY for being inactive for like a month.

Anywaaayyys I am kinda sad. No one said anything about being interested in details for the contest I have in mind, but I'll give a brief summary of it: When I makes cases for this story, I tend to get my ideas from songs. So I need help coming up with my next case (Don't worry this on is far from done :P). If you are interested in entering, all you have to do is leave a comment stating the song title and preferably the artist. If you win, I will base my next case off of your chosen song AND you will have an Original Character created by YOU :D Plus there are no limitations to how many songs you suggest, so the more you suggest, the more likely you could win :D So if this tickles you fancy *suppresses laughter* you are welcome to start naming songs at any point. When this contest ends I have NO IDEA XD

So as always, thank you all so much who comment, it really motivates me to keep writing (cuz if no one comments I'm going to think no one is reading or enjoying my story -.-) And now I bid you all Farewell (I hope to start seeing contest entrees soon u)

TA-TA DARLINGS

-Scarlet Skies