Chapter 8
Mai was again surrounded by darkness. She looked around and saw nothing. She called out, but got no answer. She sank to her knees feeling desperate. She closed her eyes and started to feel like she was falling. She opened them and saw a grassy field in front of her. Beside her was a rocky road. She stood up and noticed that she was leaning on a tree. She felt a little pressure coming from her leg, causing her to look down. She gasped. Mai saw that she was wearing the exact same thing as the woman in her dreams. She was interrupted from her thoughts by voices behind her.
"Come on Eilena." said a female voice. Then another voice appeared.
"Yeah, better hurry before Sango and Kagome get mad." said a male voice.
"Shut up Miroku. We're not the ones that are getting impatient. It's Inuyasha." said a different female voice. Mai turned to face them and saw them standing there, not even ten feet away.
There were two females and two males. One of the girls was wearing some sort of a ninja suit, had her hair in a ponytail, had a huge boomerang on her back, and a small two-tailed demon was beside her. The other girl had her hair down, she wore ancient priestess robes and on her back was a bow and arrows. The man beside her wore monk robes. He had short hair that was wrapped in a small ponytail on the back of his head and had a staff on one hand, that had beads wrapped around it. The other man was wearing a red kimono. He had a bead necklace around his neck and a sword on his hip. His hair was silver and he had dog ears. 'Half-demon Inuyasha. Wait, how did I know that?' she thought. She also knew all of her other companions names, even the little two-tailed demon's name. They were, Kagome, Miroku, Sango, and Kirara. She felt something on her shoulder. It talked.
"Come on Eilena, you know Inuyasha's going to throw a fit." she turned her head a little and saw that it was a small fox demon. 'Shippo' she thought. He was the size of a small toddler, he had orange hair tied in a ponytail, and a bow on top. Mai smiled. For some reason she loved their company.
"Will you hurry up Eilena? You know we ain't got time to sit around doing nothing. We have to catch up to him and his helper." she looked up to see Inuyasha right by her face with a determined look.
"I know. Let's go." she said. As she left she grabbed hold of Inuyasha's hand and dragged him along. His hand tightened around hers. All of a sudden the scene in front of her dissolved. She turned around and saw the woman, which Mai now knew that her name was Eilena. Her face was a little less clouded, but she still couldn't see her face right.
"It seems you have seen one of my memories." she said. Mai was not surprised to know that it was the Eilena's memory. Then she remembered her tattoo.
"Why do I have a tattoo on my back and why does it burn?" she asked. Eilena took a few seconds to answer.
"The tattoo on your back is my mark and now it is yours. The reason it burns, is because it can feel the presence of something evil. Even if it's a mile away. What you have not noticed about it is that it also glows faintly while it burns." she paused, "Get used to the feel, for more is on it's way." she said and disappeared.
Mai.
Mai.
She heard someone call her. She closed her eyes and felt herself being shaken. When she opened them again, instead of seeing the darkness and Eilena, she saw Naru only a few inches apart from her face. She blinked trying to figure out where she was. Naru leaned back to give her space. Mai got up slowly and her hand suddenly went to her neck. She winced a little.
"What happened?" she asked. She looked around to see everyone there except for Misaki. Mai was going to say something when Misaki burst in with a tray.
"Oh, you're awake. Thank goodness, we were all very worried about you." she said relieved. Everybody took this moment as a sign of doing something. Bou-san went over to Mai and kneeled down in front of her.
"You alright, Mai?" he asked worriedly. Mai gave him a small smile and nodded. "You sure? Because when we got to you, you weren't breathing anymore and well..." he left the unfinished sentence trail off. She gave him a confused look saying what-are-talking-about?. This time Ayako answered.
"As Bou-san said, when Naru got to you, you weren't breathing anymore. He brought you here and performed CPR. After a little while you coughed, but you didn't regain consciousness." she finished. Mai blushed at the part that Naru had done CPR and put her fingers to her lips.
"What was that thing anyways?" asked Ayako changing the subject. Mai's blush left as soon as Ayako mentioned the demon. Mai knew that it was the spirit of a demon that Eilena and the rest of her friends had killed. But what she didn't know, was why had it attacked her when it could have attacked Takeru for running. She frowned a bit. Naru who was watching her looked up.
"It seemed like a spirit of a demon." he stated. Takeru's eyes widened.
"Now I remember where I had seen it before." he said and looked at Naru. "It was one of the drawings that was attached to the scroll." he said. Naru looked at him for a second and turned to Yasuhara.
"Tomorrow I want you to go to the library and get copies of the scroll and the drawings, after you are done with your other assignment." he turned to Takeru and said, "I would like you to accompany him tomorrow and show him to the library." Takeru looked at him for a few seconds and nodded. Naru looked at Mai.
"Mai, I want you and John to get the temperatures of every room." she nodded slightly. He looked over at Masako. "Hara-san, I want you to go walk around the house to see if you can sense anything. Matsuzaki-san, accompany her." he said the last part not even looking at her. "Bou-san, I want you to perform any exorcisms that need to be done." And with that everyone went to do what they were told to do.
While Mai and John were walking down the second floor hall, Mai was thinking about the demon and frowned. John saw this and instantly grew worried.
"Taniyama-san, are you ok?" he asked with a worried look. Mai saw this and smiled at him.
"Yeah, don't worry. I'm fine." she said. He looked a little unsure, but didn't pursue the matter. About an hour later, everybody had gone back to the base to report on their work.
"What did you find Hara-san?" asked Naru almost instantly. Masako took a moment to answer.
"Well, it's hard to describe. I feel presences and sometimes I smell things, but then they suddenly vanish." she frowned a bit, "I feel presences in the house and on the outside, mostly coming from the forest." Naru was in deep thought. He looked at Bou-san.
"Well, what can I tell you? I did feel something and made small exorcisms and like Hara-san said, it felt like they disappear sometimes, but they are most definitely here." he finished scratching his head. Naru nodded.
"Mai." he said, waiting for her reply.
"All of the rooms temperatures were normal, but some went up and down." Naru held up a hand to stop her.
"What do you mean?" he asked. This time John spoke.
"Well, sometimes the temperature would go up two degrees, go down four, and then return to it's normal temperature." Naru frowned slightly.
"Where?" he asked.
"The attic, storage room, basement, the boys room, and the walk-in closet on this floor." Mai said. Naru was thinking hard and Mai thought she could almost hear the gears in his brain turning.
"We'll continue this tomorrow. Everyone go to your rooms." Everyone was too happy to oblige. Before Mai left she looked at Naru.
"Naru...don't go to bed too late." she said with a half smile. She wanted to tell him about Eilena, her dreams, the tattoo, and everything else, but for some reason she thought that she shouldn't. She went up to her room and found Masako already in the bed while Ayako was changing in the bathroom. When Ayako came out she said goodnight to Mai and laid down on her bed. Mai changed quickly because she felt a tug on the back of her brain. When her head hit the pillow, she was fast asleep.
