AmyNChan: Wrote this for a friend who's having a bit of a tough time...
Mai: AmyChan doesn't own Ghost Hunt.
Mai looked around herself at the house where she and the team had spent the past week, solving this complex case. While she was glad that no one was hurt during this case, there was something that was bugging her...
"Nina-chan?" the brunette asked, gingerly taking a seat next to the five-year-old of the house. The small child held onto her teddy bear as tears continued to silently streak down her face. She gave a polite nod of acknowledgement, indicating she knew Mai was there, but did not face her. Mai could live with that, so she gingerly continued.
"Are you gonna be okay?" she questioned softly. Nina buried her head into her teddy bear, a slight hiccup being heard through the soft fabric of the stuffed animal. Mai's heart felt heavy and she bit her lip, knowing full well that this child was going through something extremely painful for her right now.
So Mai said nothing, and allowed the child to sob. To grieve. To mourn. For about fifteen minutes. It was then that the small voice finally spoke.
"Miss Mai?" her trembling voice asked. Mai hummed to show that she was listening, yet had to wait another few moments before the little girl continued with her query.
"Do puppies go to heaven?"
As much as Mai wanted to tell the young child yes, she felt as though saying such an answer without thinking would only do more harm than good, so she took a few minutes to figure out how to address the issue at hand. As she thought it over, Nina continued.
"Joan stayed behind to protect me. Joan was a good puppy. Don't good puppies go to heaven?" the girl asked, her voice cracking with each statement. It was not long before the girl was trembling once more, the tears that never stopped coming down in a slightly heavier flow.
Mai placed her hand on the back of the small child, rubbing it in comfort. Nina turned to the only source of warmth and held onto it for a moment, thinking only of her wonderful puppy, Joan, who had died three months prior and who had just been cleansed that morning.
"I don't know what happens when we cleanse animals, even puppies," Mai admitted, and was pained to hear a strained gasp from Nina. Mai rubbed her back comfortingly for a few moments and waited for the tears to ease down for a while. "But I know he's not in pain anymore."
"How come?" the girl instantly hiccuped. Despite the disbelief in her tone, Mai felt the child's fingers dig into her side. She did not comment on that, but rather answered the girl's query.
"Because I saw his face when we were cleansing him," Mai confided. "He was happy that you had such wonderful people around you to take care of you and protect you. Joan loved you, and he wants you to be happy."
"How can I be happy?" Nina blurted, tears stinging her eyes. "How can I be happy with Joan gone forever?!"
Mai could not answer that question, but merely looked at the bobbing head of the sobbing child, grieving over a recent loss. The wound was obviously fresh, so Mai felt that telling the child that the pain would recede with time would fall upon deaf ears. Instead, Mai simply continued to rub circles on the child's back, comforting her as best as she could.
The next morning, Mai and Nina would both say a prayer for Joan, the puppy who pushed his young owner out of the way of a moving car.
AmyNChan: Please read and review.
