Wow, has it really only been a week? I feel like it's been longer since I've updated! Ah well, guess that's what being busy does to you, makes you forget the time. Sorry for the update so late in the day, I was kind of preoccupied:)

Huuuuge thanks to everyone who favourited and followed this fic, and even more gratitude heaped onto Fancy Kagome86, SterlingClear and . for leaving a review, you guys are stars!

Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 5

"Daemon, come here. Today, we have some more fun activities for you…"

"Daemon…"

Daemon…

Mai looked around her, her brows furrowed as she gazed into the darkness that she floated in. There were no will o wisps lighting up the astral plane, which Mai found unusual, but she could still hear the low female voice echoing around her.

Turning, she peered into each direction, hoping to find something that would indicate what she was here for.

…Daemon…

Turning towards the voice of the woman, she found a small light in the distance, pulsing slightly, as if beckoning her to come closer. Cautiously, she slinked forwards, her eyes riveted to the innocent and kind light, glowing a light blue.

"Come now boy, it'll be over soon…"

I don't want to…

The appearance of a small boy's voice startled Mai and she recognized it as the voice that had sung the creepy lullaby, though it sounded much more childish now. Coming to a stop in front of the light, Mai could feel the shadows of it playing over her skin and, hesitating only a second longer, she reached out to touch it.

As soon as her finger touched the gently glowing light, it flared red, like spilled blood, and Mai had to close her eyes against the brightness, throwing up a hand to block the blinding glow. After a moment, she cautiously lifted her hand, looking around her curiously. She was in a lab room and surrounding her were two doctors wearing white coats and one nurse wearing a pale yellow uniform.

An unfamiliar fear filled Mai's mind and she realised she was much too short and her body too skinny. Glancing down, she saw small hands fisting a ragged flannel shirt, as knobby knees knocked together. Dirty blond hair was falling into her face as her toes curled in fear.

"Oh come now Daemon, you're already thirteen years old, big boys shouldn't be afraid of a doctor's appointment."

The boy, Daemon, stayed silent, though Mai could practically feel the despair and anger swirling around his mind, his body tense with anticipation. One of the doctors sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He took off his spectacles to clean them and Mai felt the boy's body flinch as if struck.

"We do not have time for this today. Daemon, stop rebelling and get on the bed. Mary, take him."

"But Doctor Haslam, if we're not careful, he-"

"I don't care, just get the boy strapped up! I am a busy man Mrs Dale and I will not wait for some snivelling boy to find his courage. Now, strap him up!"

"Yes, Doctor." Mary's eyes held a measure of regret as she turned towards Mai and the body she inhabited stepped backwards, a small whimper escaping her lips. Before she could even think of running, the nurse had her arm in a firm grip and was gently dragging her over to a gurney. The young teen's struggling grew more pronounced, disjointed words falling from his lips as his frail body was easily lifted by the nurse and his arms, legs and neck was fastened to the gurney with thick leather straps. The last to be strapped down was his waist and silent tears ran down Mai's, the boy's, face.

"Oh stop snivelling Daemon. We're just trying to help you get better. You should be grateful. The outside world is a terrifying place, where people will eat you alive if you're not normal. And you, Daemon, are certainly not normal, just as your mother wasn't normal. Now hush... I said HUSH! Someone, get me a gag, I cannot concentrate with his whimpering in my ear."

Mai watched with horror as a ball-gag was roughly pushed into the teen's mouth, the ball stretching his mouth uncomfortable and pressing against his gums, causing more pain as time went on. The gag, having a strap that went around his head, could not even be spit out or moved to a slightly more comfortable position. By now, the boy's entire body was quivering and Mai could feel sweat beading on her forehead. The doctor spoke up again, addressing the nurse.

"Right Mary, you know the procedure. Write down my words exactly, for later perusal. Now, let's begin. September 19th, 1812, 11:02 a.m. Patient number is 20091799, named Daemon. This will be the second attempt at venesection, the previous attempt having no observable effects. Previous treatment includes rotational therapy, leeches, hydrotherapy, isolation, chaining and Electrostatic therapy. Doctor in charge of Patient 20091799 is Doctor Bryan Crowther, overseer is Doctor John Haslam. Nurse on hand is one Mary Dale. The time is now 11:03 a.m. Therapy will now commence."

The other doctor, who had been silent up till now, stepped forward and Mai's entire body about convulsed with the fear the boy felt. The mere sight of the thin man with his neatly parted hair, round spectacle and long, spidery fingers sent terror racing through her body and her tears became thicker. As Dr Crowther bent over the boy's prone body, Mai saw the glint of a scalpel as Mary came closer with a beaker and Doctor Haslam held a clipboard, making annotations.

Dr Crowther glanced at the boy once, the malicious and sick glint in his eyes causing Mai to recoil and a twisted smile graced his face as he brought down the scalpel. The first touch of the cold metal on her arm, drawing a line of ice across it, had the boy screaming, Mai's own voice merging with his.

GH

Naru flipped through patient records in the small light of the lamp, the room quiet around him. The others, except for Alisha, had already gone to sleep; Emily sleeping on the couch opposite Mai, with Cian and Rhys sleeping soundly on the collapsible cots they had been given at the start of their investigation. Naru himself was sitting on the couch were Mai slept, her feet pressed against his thigh where she was curled up. He wasn't sure what Alisha was doing, but as she kept quiet, he didn't see the need to interrupt her, especially as she kept half an eye on the monitors.

A small moan had him looking down to see his wife grimacing in her sleep, her brow furrowed and sweat beading on her forehead. Conflicted thoughts raged in his mind, as he knew she was probably having a dream and he didn't want her to experience anything that happened in this building, knowing full well how bad the treatment could have been. On the other hand, letting her dream play out was the fastest way it get information and solve this case. Another moan interrupted his thoughts and he saw the cinnamon haired woman was twisting on the couch.

Enough was enough, they could get information elsewhere. Over the years Naru had made it his duty to memorise the signs Mai exhibited in her sleep, signs which let him gauge how bad her dreams usually were. After one case, where Mai had experienced consecutive first-person brutal deaths that had taken her months to overcome, he had vowed to himself to never let her experience something on that scale again, even if it was for the best of the case. So he had trained himself to see how her body twisted, how her moans heightened and her lashes fluttered, so that he would know when to wake her up.

And now was such a time.

Just as Naru made to wake Mai up, a blood-curdling scream ripped through the room, causing Emily to shoot upright, Cian to jerk awake and Rhys to roll off his cot with a startled squawk. Naru paid them no mind as he grabbed Mai's convulsing shoulders and he almost lost his grip when her body arched up.

"Mai! Mai wake up! Damnit Mai!"

"Dr Davis, look!" Cian panicked voice drew the dark haired man's attention to a patch of red blossoming on Mai's sweater, the entire arm of the sweater being stained by the crimson liquid. His heart in his throat, Naru pulled Mai's sleeve up to reveal her pale skin beneath it, a long precise cut gouged into her arm. He felt sick at the blood that spilled from the cut, the pink flesh that gaped agonizingly at him and the small glimpse of white bone that he saw.

"Miss Taylor, heal it, before she bleeds out! Do it now!"

Mai was still screaming, tears leaking from the corner of her eyes as they snapped open, unseeingly looking at something none of them could perceive. Naru watched in horror as a similar cut appeared on her other arm, gushing blood at an alarming rate.

"I can't, it- it's not working!" Naru growled, his worried gaze resting on his convulsing wife as she began losing her life before his eyes. Red started to slowly stain the centre part of her shirt and he felt too nauseous to lift it and see the cut he knew would lie on her abdomen. Alisha came around the couch, her face determined and before Naru could see what she was up to, her hand flashed out, a loud slap echoing through the now silent room. Mai blinked as she seemed to come by, her cheek red from the force of Alisha's slap. She drew in a shuddering breath, tears still streaming down her cheeks as her eyes flitted from person to person till she landed on Naru.

Seeing the hurt in her eyes, Naru momentarily ignored the severity of her injuries, as it had stopped bleeding and started to close up and pulled her up, enveloping her in his arms as he dared any of the other to comment. Holding her tightly, he didn't want to admit how fast his heart was beating, how concerned he had been when he saw her thrashing around and bleeding from a mysterious wound.

"Wait, Dr Davis, shouldn't we treat Mai's arm, she might die if she keeps bleeding like this! We should stop the blood!" Cian's freaked voice had Mai drawing a deep breath as she drew herself together, unlatching from her husband, but still keeping her body pressed against him.

"Wound?" she asked, but it was Naru who answered. "Do not worry Mr O'Brian, the wound is gone. A few seconds after Mai woke up, it disappeared, though the blood is still there. I take it that we were caught in another hallucination, either that or the spirit's connection was strong enough to bring part of Mai's dream over to reality. I personally am inclined to believe the first explanation, as Miss Taylor's healing didn't work, because there was nothing to heal. Now Mai, what did you dream?"

Mai was looking curiously at her ruined shirt, a disgusted grimace on her face. She glanced up at Naru's question, a thoughtful look coming over her face.

"Hmmm, it was a first person dream about a patient, a boy who was thirteen years old. His name was Daemon apparently."

"That's demon in Latin…Not the only translation, but one of the more common ones." Mai nodded at Naru's words, before continuing her story.

"Well, he was in a lab room with two doctors and a nurse, the nurse name seemed to be Mary Dale, while the two doctors were John Haslam and Bryan Crowther. The date was September 19th, 1812, around 11 in the morning."

"You seem to know an awfully lot of specific details. You wouldn't be making it up or assuming things right? After all, dreams aren't that precise or easy to remember." Mai scowled at the irritating platinum blonde and Naru could see her ire rising as her already fragile mind-set snapped at the woman's blasé words.

"Yes I'm sure. Do you want to know why? Because I was having a first-person dream where the subject of my dream, a thirteen year old boy, was being experimented on and the sick doctors doing it, liked to hold records of what experiment they did when. So I'm pretty sure about all the information, including the fact that this boy was patient number 20091799 and had endured blood-letting, leeches, rotation therapy, shock treatment and water torture previously. In fact, I personally experienced how he was being tortured this time, having his body cut open and being drained of his blood in an attempt to get rid of his tainted blood!"

"Miss Taylor, you, as an investigator on this team and an intern dedicated to learning, should know who John Haslam and Bryan Crowther are. So instead of questioning my wife's information, rather ask what it means for the case, or else, be quiet if you do not have any meaningful input. My wife's been doing paranormal investigation for longer than you have studied it."

Emily pouted, crossing her arms and looking away as Mai smiled gratefully at Naru. Naru tried to calm himself down, knowing that snapping further at the idiotic woman wouldn't help the situation, especially as she didn't have any experience with Mai's abilities and instead he turned towards Mai. She was picking disgustedly at the material of her shirt, peeling the wet fabric from her skin and shuddering. Therefore, he was not that surprised when he heard her next words, though he was exasperated.

"Naru, I want to clean up and a shower would be nice. I know it's late, but I really want one now."

"Mai, it's too dangerous."

"Naru, come on, there haven't been any observations of this spirt being more active at night."

"Because no one was stupid enough to wander around the corridors at night. No Mai." Mai stared into Naru's eyes, her gaze stubborn and challenging. Naru was also glaring back, his face scowling as he folded his arms.

"I'll go with her, if that will help. We'll have to take the back door, since the spirit rarely lets anyone into the entrance hall in case they try to leave, but it should be fine if we take the long way around." Ma threw Naru a triumphant look as Alisha spoke up, daring him to deny her now. He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as he felt frustration well up in him.

"Fine. Mr Foster, did you get the walkie-talkie's functioning again?" At Rhys's affirmative reply, Naru handed one to Alisha, daring Mai to object. She, however, merely smiled at him, placing a butterfly kiss on his cheek before standing and grabbing a change of clothes, along with her toiletries. Sometimes he wondered why he tried to look out for Mai, why he loved her when she placed her own life in danger this way and… then she would smile at him, laugh and call "Naru!" like she was caressing his name, and he would fall deeper once again.

"Mr O'Brian," Naru called as soon as the two women were out of the room, "Watch their progress on the monitors, as you are the one most able to contact them should something go wrong." The introverted man nodded and moved over to the screens, pressing on the keyboard till he found the camera that showed their two female teammates. Naru went to the desk with all their files and reports, flipping through them in search of this illusive Patient 20091799, who was called Daemon and was thirteen years old in 1812.

Flipping through the patient files they had, he could find no mention of this daemon and Naru became more frustrated as he went along. He did realise, however, that the patient numbers seemed to be given based on the date that they were admitted to the hospital, with the day first, followed by the month and year. This meant that Daemon had to be admitted in 1799, on September 20th, but that made no sense to Naru, as he would have been a baby then. It would, in fact, have been the year of his birth.

After forty minutes of searching and just when Cian let him know Mai and Alisha was on their way back, did he find his first clue about their mysterious patient. The name 'Daemon' cropped up in the file of a female patient, who was admitted in March and diagnosed with severe insanity, so much that she had to be kept apart from the general patients. It was found in April that she was four months pregnant, but instead of aborting the child, the doctors opted to let her carry it to term, interested on the effects it will have on her psyche and the hysteria she exhibited. Daemon was the born on the 20th of September, 1799 and Naru felt sick knowing that this child was born and stayed in the insane asylum.

"I found Daemon's mother." Naru's ominous words echoed through the silent room, as if it carried a bad omen, right before the walkie-talkie crackled to life. Cian, who had turned towards Naru when he spoke, snapped back to the screens as Alisha's voice came out of the device.

"Mai collapsed!"

GH

Mai sighed in relief as the itchy, sticky feeling of dried blood disappeared as the hot water pounded on her back. She knew she shouldn't take long, but after the day and dream she had, she really wanted to just relax for a bit. The knowledge that Alisha was right outside and had volunteered to come with her further reassured her, so when she had finished scrubbing the dirt and blood of her skin and washed her hair, she couldn't help but luxuriate for a while. About twenty minutes later, she reluctantly turned off the water, thankful they still had electricity, that had been wired in a couple of decades ago, as she towel dried her hair and dressed in new clothes.

Stuffing her soiled sweater in a plastic bag, she mourned the loss, as it had been one of her favourites. She couldn't believe only a day had gone by, it felt longer, especially with everything that happened so far. Slipping on her slippers, she opened the door to find Alisha leaning against the wall, scanning the hallway as she waited for Mai. A ball of fire bobbed above her head to provide light and warmth, as the building didn't have any heating and could get quite cold with it snowing outside.

"Sorry for the wait, I'm done now."

"No problem. But we should probably get back as soon as possible. This place gives me the creeps." Mai nodded in agreement, falling into step next to Alisha as she studied the woman out of the corner of her eye. Her attention was drawn once again by the bobbing firelight and she cleared her throat.

"It seems quite cool to be able to control fire. Does it come naturally, or did you have trouble with it?" Alisha glanced at her, seeming to consider her before facing forward again. Mai thought for a moment that she wasn't going to answer her, but after a minute the woman's low voice spoke up.

"It comes naturally to me. Well, the fire I generate on my own is easy to control. Fire that I didn't create or start, meaning wild fire, is much more chaotic and, as a result, much more powerful. It's quite difficult to control wild fire and even I wouldn't try to control a large amount of it. However, by causing the friction between particles near me to rapidly speed up, I can create my own fire."

Mai grinned, opening her mouth to continue this line of questioning, when she felt ice travel up her back as her consciousness was pulled into darkness. The last thing she heard was Alisha calling her name before she was lost to the abyss.

GH

Mai groaned as she opened her eyes to find herself, not in the corridor with Alisha, but rather in a patient's room. She looked down with trepidation, only to sigh in relief as she recognised her own hands and clothes, she could at least be grateful this wasn't a first person dream. Looking around her, she took in the white padded room. It was smaller than she imagined, with no windows and no door she could see. It gave off a neglected atmosphere, as if it didn't matter who lived here, which she guessed was true.

Taking a step forward, Mai looked down as she heard a crinkle and saw that the floor was covered in papers filled with childish drawings. Crouching down, she picked a few up and had to throw a hand over her mouth as she realised what they were depicting. Various torture scenes, looking all the more gruesome as it was a child's hand that drew it, flashed before her eyes as she flipped through the pages.

When Mai couldn't take it anymore, she placed them down, trying to avert her eyes from the pitiful stick figure that was screaming as red poured from its body. Standing, she walked to the wall, trying to see if there was a hidden door somewhere, but as she touched the firm material, she gasped at the slimy sensation and pulled her hand away.

It was coated in red and she felt the hair on her neck rising as the walls started to bleed, the thick red liquid starting to fill the room.

You shouldn't be here… This is my room…

Looking around for the voice's owner, Mai desperately tried to ignore the wet sensation by her feet as she hesitantly answered.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to trespass. My friends and I just want to help you. It's not safe or good for you to stay here all these years, you need to move on. You need to leave this plane of existence."

No! You can't leave! I'll make sure you won't leave…

"Why? What happens when we leave?" Mai felt a presence building in one corner of the room, and it seemed to hesitate at her question. She tried to quell the panic that was building, as the blood was now at her waist and rising rapidly. She could smell the metallic and salty scent of it, nausea pushing up in her.

Come… I'll show you why…

Mai gave one last gasp as the thick crimson liquid rushed up and swallowed her whole.

GH

So, lots of dreams in this one. Hope that answers some questions to you, as this case isn't really much about the initial mystery, but rather what comes after. On another note, I know shock therapy didn't really pick up around the 1200 century, it was a bit later, but it wasn't totally absent. I explain it more later in the story, for those who are sticklers for such things.

I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, even if it was filled more with blood than anything else. Please review, I'm on my knees here!:)