Sorry for the wait!
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Another three weeks had passed since Naru's and Mai's heartbreaking conversation and Naru hadn't talked to the girl since, ha hadn't even said a word. He had locked himself in his lab in London, pushing himself to find Mai's cure.
Mai, on the other hand, stayed in her room, her skin kept growing more and more pale by the day. She kept herself locked in her room, seated at her bay window, and spent countless hours staring out at the passerby's on the street. Her eyes were blank as she watched. She would watch the happy families laughing at happy stories of past memories. She would watch little children giving shy confessions to each other, declaring their first love. She would watch old married couples holding each others wrinkled hands.
A few days ago there was even a man and woman walking a baby carriage down the paved sidewalk. For a moment, Mai had closed her eyes and imagined Naru and herself as those two happy parents, bringing their baby boy or baby girl down to the nearby park. But, she quickly pushed the seemingly impossible dream aside.
Day by day Mai grew more withdrawn and un-Mai-like. Day by day Mai's headaches grew more painful. And day by day her dreams grew more violent.
She was having dreams of murders, betrayals, and deaths.
Why is this happening, she thought desperately, clutching her head as the morning's sunshine lit up the horizon.
She heard footsteps in the hall. Figuring it was Luella bringing her breakfast to her, Mai stayed seated on the cushion at her window. Mai had only left her room to use the bathroom and shower in the past week and a half so Luella had started bringing Mai meals throughout the day.
The doorknob to her room twisted slowly and Mai plastered a forced smile on her face. Even though the smile was fake, Mai didn't want Luella to see her constantly devoid to emotion. Mai knew if she were to outwardly show her internal depression then even the most lively of people around her would slowly grow depressed and even annoyed as well. Mai remembered something and quickly pulled the neck of her turtleneck shirt up to her chin. She reallydidn't want Luella to see that…
Mai turned her head to look at Luella but froze when she saw Naru standing there.
"Naru…I thought you were going to stay at the lab for the next month," Mai stated, sight shock was all that her voice showed. Her eyes were as blank as they had been for the past weeks.
Naru stood there, taking it her appearance. His hands were fisted as he tried to keep his cool. "Mai, I'm…"
Emotionlessly Mai tilted her head.
That broke him. Naru took three long strides and was over and embracing Mai in a second.
"Mai, I'm a fool. I have been ignoring you for three weeks, unknowingly pushing you further into depression," he whispered hoarsely into her hair. "I…I just couldn't bear looking you in the eye knowing that…that…"
Mai closed her eyes; emotion was finally finding it's way back to her as she felt the warmth from his embrace spread through her.
Tears slid from her closed lids and she wrapped her arms around her boyfriend as tightly as her weak arms would allow her.
"Naru!" she cried into his chest. "I hate feeling this way. For the past week I felt no emotion whatsoever feeling as if I weren't even living. I missed you! And I sleep so much now! Nearly sixteen hours a day!" She continued to soak his black shirt with her tears as he ran a hand through her hair lovingly, apologizing wordlessly for not speaking to her for such a long time.
"Shhh, it's alright Mai," he said; his voice rough, most likely from lack of sleep and exhaustion.
Mai shook her head fervently and her knees gave out. Naru held her thin frame tighter, keeping her up. He held her carefully, afraid of breaking her now fragile body. He brought her to her bed.
As they sat on the mattress Mai looked up at the raven haired man with red tearstained eyes.
"Naru, I've been having dreams. Horrible dreams. The types of dreams that I get when we're on cases! I used to never get them when we weren't on cases!" she wailed.
Naru's cool blue eyes widened as his girlfriend continued.
"Last night I even had three! Three dreams! The last was…it was…" she trailed off, unsure if she should continue.
Naru stared at her pleadingly, wanting to know.
Mai took in a rigid breath. She slowly pulled the neck line of her turtleneck down.
Naru gasped, his hands clenched even tighter, his nails digging into his skin.
There was a bruise around her pale neck. It was in the shape of a hand print.
Mai tried holding back her tears and continued. "In the last dream, a little boy was strangled by his own mother. It was so horrible Naru! How could any parent kill their own child!" she cried once again into his shirt.
Naru knew right then and there that he needed to figure out the cure, and he needed to do it soon. Mai's wounds from her dreams were already showing up on her when she woke. Mai had told him that that was what had happened weeks before her mother died.
He looked down at the crying brunette in his arms and he took her face in his hands.
"Mai, I will find the cure. I promised you I would," he whispered, trying to convince not only her but himself as well. He lent down and kissed her before pulling back and embracing her tightly once again.
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Mai's depression dispersed over the course of a few days. Naru stayed with her while she was awake and went back to the lab while she slept. She was still sleeping for more than sixteen hours everyday so Naru had plenty of time to do research and more experiments.
The others, Ayako, Bou-san, John, Yasuhara, and Masako, even bought the first plane tickets to England they could buy when Naru had told them about Mai's dreams and wounds.
Like old times, Bou-san would pull her into his bear-hugs and Ayako would hit the man over the head, calling him a perverted old man. Everyone would laugh and smile while she was awake but once she slept they became sad and more determined to find the cure as fast as possible.
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Another week had passed and Naru felt more determined than ever. He was looking over research and old tests, feeling as though the answer was right in front of him yet he just couldn't see it yet. He just knew it was in his research somewhere.
He rubbed his temples and stood to go get another cup of tea.
This tea just isn't the same as the type Mai makes me, he thought with a small smile as he took a sip.
He slowly walked back to his desk. His arm brushed against one of the piles of papers, causing the papers to flutter to the ground to his annoyance.
He groaned and bent down to pick them up but he froze suddenly.
Hold on a sec, he thought as he looked at one of the papers that had just landed a few feet away. He stood and walked over to it. His eyes widened. That's it! It was there the whole time; I was just looking at it the wrong way!
He took off in a sprint to the back of the lab.
On the ground there was a print out of an x-ray he had taken of Mai's head. Underneath the paper was an upside down printout of Mai's DNA along with other upside down papers of previous tests.
By pure accident Naru had just found Mai's cure.
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He couldn't help the smile that spread across his face as he sped home and asked everyone where Mai was. He found it…he really found it!
The shocked and excited gang told him Mai was already in bed and so he sprinted as fast as he could to his girlfriend.
Naru was ecstatic as he ran up the stairs towards Mai's room. He held a syringe in his hand. In the tube was the cure to his love's illness.
Skipping every other step he made his way up the grand staircase and made his way down the hall. He rounded the corner and came to Mai's door.
He knocked.
Without waiting for an answer he opened the door.
It opened a few inches before-
Thump.
The door wouldn't open any further.
No.
Naru pushed the door open a bit further and looked in.
"MAI!!"
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Flashes and pain. That was all Mai saw and felt. She had been making her way to bed, feeling more tired than ever, but the second she closed her bedroom door, she had fallen to the ground unconscious.
This time she wasn't having just two or three different dreams. She was having horrific and painful flashes.
One, she was in a dark room as a man stood above her, butcher knife in hand. He swung.
Pain.
Two, a woman kicked her and beat her along with a teenaged boy.
Pain.
Three, she was strapped down to a chair. Men in white coats ran the cool blades of knives across her body, leaving cuts that burnt like fire.
Pain.
Cold water engulfed her, filling her lungs.- An ex-lover held a gun in her direction and pulled the trigger.- She was stabbed as she watched a burglar pull a little girl into a dark room, locking the door behind him.- A jealous husband wrapped the phone chord around her neck.-
Pain.- Pain.- Pain.- Pain.-
"Naru…Please help me," Mai whimpered as the flashes sped up and she saw and felt more and more. Her head throbbed.
There was a light. Such a welcoming light. It was so warm. She took a step forward.
But then there was a voice coming from the other direction.
"Mai, my baby, don't," the broken voice cried.
"Mother…"
Another voice echoed in her ears.
"MAI!!...NO! Wake up!"
Suddenly there was a prick in her arm, barely noticeable through all of her other wounds, but it was there nonetheless.
Her headache started fading and the flashes started slowing, but the excruciating pain from her deep wounds remained.
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Naru sat next to her hospital bed and held her cold hand.
"This can't be happening," he whispered desperately to himself.
He had opened the door to see the girl lying on the floor of her room. She had cuts and bruises forming on her skin. He could see one cut start off small then grow larger as if an invisible someone was dragging a knife across her skin.
"MAI!!"
He pushed himself inside her room and quickly pulled her up into his arms. She didn't move… her body was cold.
"NO! Wake up!"
Then he remembered the syringe in his hand.
He quickly stuck the needle in her arm, giving her the shot, hoping it would stop the dreams. However, it wouldn't do anything for the deep gashes in her skin.
He threw the now empty syringe across the room and picked the frail girl up in his arms.
He heard frantic voices coming up the hallway as he speedily picked the bleeding girl up and ran out her bedroom door. He ran right past the now crying and shocked SPR gang and his parents.
He continued right on down the stairs and out to his car.
His father was on his tail and he and his dad sped off to the nearby hospital hoping it wasn't too late to save the girl.
Naru hung his head as tears started falling down his cheek.
The doctors tried as hard as they could to patch her up.
Beep…beep…beep…beeep…beep...beep…beep…beeep…
Naru sat there, still holding her cool hand, hoping that the beep on the LCD wouldn't fade. He could feel her faint pulse beneath his fingers as he held her.
Please, don't take her from me…
Not her…
I need her with me…
I love her!
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TRUST ME, STAY WITH ME OKAY? IF YOU HAVE READ MY OTHER STORIES YOU"LL KNOW WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN NEXT!
NEXT CHAPTER IS THE LAST CHAPTER; I MIGHT HAVE AN EPOLOUGE THOUGH SO MAYBE THERE WILL BE TWO CHAPTERS!!
I haven't proof read this yet so I'm guessing there are lots of mistakes, I'll fix it up later so you don't need to comment me about it! Thanks guys! I'm glad everyone likes this story!
