Chapter Seven

A/N: You'll have to forgive me for taking so long on this, my life killed my muse and I finally revived it, yay.

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Naru was wondering what exactly was taking Masako so long; it had been almost an hour. She was a professional, or at least called herself one, and he wanted to get back to SPR. His latest 'dream' had thrown him for a loop and he did not want to stay on the case any longer.

While Naru pondered what he was going to do to get his sanity back once the case was over, everyone else still at the house had congregated in the base with him.

"Wonder how much longer she's gonna be…" Bou-san said, stating what everyone was thinking.

"Well, she is supposed to be good." Akito replied.

"She is," Lin affirmed, "unlike some…"

Everyone in the room looked at him in some shook for his unusual use of sarcasm.

"Wow" Bou-san said, "I wish Ayako-san was here to hear that." Akito hit him in response.

While Takigawa rubbed his latest injury, the phone rang. Everyone just looked at the noise maker for a moment before Daichi answered it. After greeting and listening for a moment he handed it to Naru, who also listened for a moment before hanging it up.

"Lin, check on Hara-san." He commanded once the phone was safely back on the cradle.

As Lin opened the door Masako ran in crying. Of course being the annoyance to Naru that her existence demands, she ran straight to him. He simply looked at her, waiting for her to calm down enough so that he could find out why she had ran back to the base crying.

"I don't know what to do—wah—What should I do? Hic. Mai… Mai… Mai…" She started once she was able to get out some form of coherent thought.

"What about Mai?" Naru asked, becoming both impatient and annoyed.

"She was fighting him and Mai showed up-"

"Mai was here?" Takigawa asked with some puzzlement in his voice.

Masako nodded before continuing, "He tried to grab Mai, but the woman was fighting him while Mai was running and they ran out of the room and I don't know what to do, what if he catches Mai?"

Naru did not want to think of what would happen if the homicidal ghost did catch Mai since it appeared that she was not in her body. Ayako had been the one to phone with news that Mai was not waking 

from her nap in the car and the doctors had been running in and out of her room for the last while so Ayako was worried. Naru was worried now too.

He looked at Masako and motioned for her and Bou-san to follow him while he ran out of the room. He had no clue where Mai would run if she was trying to get away from a ghost while astrally projecting and in a strange house. He took a guess and ran outside. Once in the gravel drive for the house Masako stopped starring at the fountain that dominated the center of the garden in the middle of the circular drive.

"M-M-Mai!" She yelled while Naru and Bou-san both ran towards her looking in the direction she was trying to catch a glimpse of what she was seeing.

"Where is she?" Naru asked scanning the area.

"She's at the fountain still trying to get away from the man and the woman is still fighting him." Masako replied.

Takigawa started up his chant once Naru nodded at him, trying to get the ghosts away from Mai's spirit. Masako told him to stop after a moment, she realized that Mai and the woman were also being affected by the chant which was counter-productive. They continued to watch in apprehension while Masako described what was going on unseen in front of them.

"He hit her and now Mai is running around the fountain again… the woman is grabbing his ankle to keep him from Mai and he fell. Mai just kicked him while he was down, typical, he looks mad. The woman is still holding him down… he's looking this way; I don't like the look on his face. He disappeared; I think he went into the house. Naru this looks bad." Masako ended with that note, having no idea how bad things had gotten.

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Mai was still running, she had no idea where the maniacal ghost had gotten to, but she wanted out of there, now. She was trying to wake-up from her nightmare, not knowing just how real it was. She had ran to the fountain, thinking that it would help the woman, only to have it fail fantastically on her. Now she wasn't in the house with the rest of SPR, but in the house as it had been when the man and his family lived there.

She ran through the rooms, looking for a way out. Whenever she saw a door that she thought led to the outside, she would open it only to find nothingness staring back at her. Mai was panicking (big surprise), and did not know how to wake up.

'Where is Naru?' She kept asking, he always saved her.

Passing another hallway, she stopped. Something was calling her from down at the end of the hall. She slowly started down the hall…

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A/N: okay so that was a cliff… but I need some ideas for the next part so let me know in your reviews. Options are:

Dream Naru is down there

The 'Manic Ghost' is down there and can kill her somehow down there

The nice ghost is down there

So let me know what you want, smiles