Day 5

Babylon Hotel- The girls' room

3:28 A.M.

I kept running, I knew not where else to go. Everything that I had thought would work out failed. All my plans: backfired. Nothing was working anymore, and it was time to resort to plan B. I heard him call out my name from behind, but I refused to look back.

I couldn't afford to look back.

My eyes flashed open quickly and a gasp escaped from me. I slowly sat up and ran my fingers through my hair.

'That is weird.'

I glanced at the other sleeping forms of my roommates and let out a relieved sigh. I was glad neither one of them had woken up yet. My covers felt constricting, so I ripped them off and slipped out of my bed. I made sure I had a room key and slipped out of the door quietly. The hallway was light lightly and I was suddenly very grateful that the base wasn't too far down the hallway.

'This is stupid. I'm walking through the hall in the middle of the night without anyone, but I really couldn't stay in there.' I argued with myself as I opened the door quietly and peeked in.

"Hello?"

The man sitting at the monitors quickly turned his chair around and sighed in relief when he saw me.

"Ms. Taniyama, what on earth are you doing up at this time?" Gregory asked.

I shut the door behind me and walked over to the coffee pot.

"It was a dream that woke me."

I poured myself some coffee and sat down in a chair next to him. He raised an amused eyebrow and watched me.

"I thought you hated me."

I shrugged.

"I never told you that I hated you. I just don't like people who are too hard and underestimate the team. That's all."

A smirk grew on his face as he looked back to the screen.

"You're an interesting character, Mai."

"So I'm told."

I took a sip of the dark coffee and made a face. It was bitter. I quickly set the cup down.

"What is that? Poison?"

Gregory shook his head.

"It's what they call cowboy coffee in America. A lot of beans, not a lot of water. It's to help stay up all night."

"Eww."

Gregory managed a smirk as he studied me with those dark grey eyes of his. The man suddenly seemed older as the dark shadows developed in underneath his eyes.

"Wanna talk about it?"

I glanced up at him slightly surprised.

"What, my dream? It was confusing."

Gregory made a face as he scooted his chair back to face me.

"What do you mean?"

"Why are you so nice?" I shot back at him.

"Why did you come to me? You knew I was working the shift tonight."

I made a face and folded my legs underneath me then shrugged.

"I don't know. Maybe I thought you would be interested. Besides, you were already up."

Gregory nodded his head and looked over at the monitors before glancing back at me.

"So are you going to tell me your dream?"

I nodded my head slowly.

"Yeah. Normally, when I have one of those dreams, I can see what's going on in different point of view. But this time, I was inside the spirit's thoughts. It was full of panic and resentment. But that was all I could. The spirit mentioned something about another plan. It was running from something. I think it was a woman."

Gregory watched me carefully as I told him what happened in my dream and would occasionally nod his head as if he was agreeing with me.

"This certainly does seem different than the norm. I wonder if this had anything to do with the boy in the barn."

We were silent for second, and I bit my bottom lip. Gregory turned back to the screens and pulled up his lap top.

"Why did you get onto Brent for using the stone?"

Gregory turned back around and faced me.

"Because those stones are damn expensive to use. It takes a lot out of a user, weather it means to or not. Especially the Black Tourmaline. It's a powerful stone that serves as a protective and psychic shield, protects against psychic attacks, and repels negative energy."

"Oh. He mentioned other stones, what do they all do?"

Gregory groaned as he leaned back in his chair.

"Are you usually this inquisitive?"

I nodded my head.

"Yeah. I want to know what I'm dealing with."

He smirked and nodded.

"Smart girl. Well, there are many different stones, and each one has a different or similar use. In Brent's case, he keeps six stones on him, Black Tourmaline, Hematite, Black Onyx, Fluorite, Carnelian, and the Blood Stone."

"And each one has its own thing?"

Gregory nodded.

"Yes. I just told you about the Black Tourmaline. The Hematite is a grounding stone if you're going to do any out of body experiences. It dissolves negative energy and transforms it into positive energy, which is really great when there's a ghost after you. It's easy to find if you know where to go.

"And then you have the Black Onyx which is a stone that strengthens your energy during confusing or stressful times both physically and mentally. Not as powerful against anything paranormal, but it definitely helps the morale of the team. Then there's the Fluorite, which is an odd little stone because there are many colors to it. The Fluorite is highly protective especially on a psychic level. It aids in grounding much like the Hematite. A very useful stone if you're going to be dealing with something nasty. Also hard to find. Many people believe it's mainly because there are different characteristics to identify it."

"So how will you know if you actually have the right stone?" I asked, suddenly intrigued.

Gregory shrugged.

"I guess you'll know when the stone has failed protecting you from getting ripped to pieces by a vengeful spirit."

I frowned and scooted away for a bit.

"You sound like you know that from experience?"

Gregory sighed.

"Another battle story for another time. Right now, we're focusing on the stones. Name the ones I've listed so far. I want to know if you've been paying attention."

I furrowed my eyebrows and tried to think.

"The Black Tourmaline, it's supposed to be a shield. Fluorite, which is highly protective like the Black Tourmaline, but hard to find. And the Black Onyx that strengthens the team morale in difficult times."

"Good. Now I get to ask you a question."

I furrowed my eyebrows.

"But that's not all of them!"

Gregory smile and shrugged.

"That's life dear. I'm sure you know what I'm gonna ask though."

"I'm pretty sure that it has something to do with that really big case that Luella and Martin took with us the last time."

Gregory nodded.

"What happened?"

I sighed and suddenly found my hands more interesting than Gregory.

"Well… you know…" I bit my lip, trying to think of the words I could best use. "Have you ever loved someone, so much that you're willing to do anything for them?"

Gregory's eyes grew a bit dark and he looked down.

"I did, but she had beaten me to it."

I stopped as his words started to sink in. As the dim light in his eyes faded, he stood up and turned away from me. All of the earlier signs of hospitality instantly left as he closed himself up.

"I think you need to go back to bed."

A/N: Hello everyone! I have made a realization. This might be one of my longest stories out of them all! We've reached Chapter 10, and yet we haven't even the slightest idea what's going on! :D YEAH! But if you don't like the length, I'm terribly sorry! But it is necessary for this is one of the most well-thought out stories I've written. Whoo! As for those who've been asking about my try-outs, I'm afraid it was a great big catastrophe. I've been practicing the wrong music for six weeks! :O And of course, I had sight read and didn't make it. They also gave us ridiculous scales… OH WELL! It's better to not live in the past and look to the future. Yeah. So, this chapter didn't go where I thought it would go in actuality. Had no idea that this was going to happen, but yeah! I like twists, and you get to see that Gregory isn't such a hard case everyone sees him to be. So do enjoy!

Love,

Jazzy!