Disclaimer: Ghost Hunt isn't mine.

Chapter 11: The Word

"Augh!" Mai screamed, clawing desperately at the hands wrapped around her neck.

"Mai! It's me!" She opened her tightly closed eyes and looked up. The woman was, instead of choking her, now lying in a heap on the floor.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. Amen," John chanted, releasing his choke hold on Mai. He had come upon the scene just as the woman had been about to leap at Mai and had done the first thing that he had thought of, which was to pull Mai out of the way and begin chanting.

The woman writhed on the floor at the sound of John's prayer, but then stilled. She looked up at Mai through bloody, black hair and groaned, "You're mine." before sinking into the floor.

Mai stood there for a while, blankly staring into space.

"Mai? Mai! Are you alright? I'm sorry; I didn't mean to scare you!"

"... phew..." Mai collapsed to her knees. "I really though she was going to kill me. And I wasn't distracted at all- my life didn't even have the manners to flash before my eyes, or anything!"

John smiled. Mai was finding the bright -or rather morbid- side, as always. "Let's get you back to Base. You look like you could use a nap!" The Catholic exorcist pulled Mai to her feet and led her back to safety.

"What was that? Mai?" Takigawa knelt down and stuck his face up near Mai's. "On one of the cameras, right before the tape ran out, we heard you scream. Are you okay?"

"She's fine," John asserted, looking around at the worried faces of SPR, excluding Naru who was nonchalantly leafing through his ever-present stack of files. "The woman made a reappearance, this time in the hallway. She didn't do anything though. I think Mai is just a bit scared and tired."

Naru looked up. "Why wasn't anyone with Mai when this happened?"

The shaken girl looked up disbelievingly. "You were the one who made me go by myself!"

"Somebody else should have argued with me. This shows, first of all, how ignorant you are. And, second and most importantly, that nobody in this office has enough backbone to disagree with what I say."

Masako nodded in agreement, standing behind the smirking teen. Ayako screeched, outraged, "Because every time we argue, you threaten to fire us!"

"And your job is more important than the safety of a co-worker?" Naru shot back.

"You know what- just stop. I'm going to go sleep now, be quiet, 'kay?" Mai rubbed her eyes and then plunked down on the couch. Seconds later, she was snoring.

"How can she just go to sleep like that?" Ayako asked confusedly, it always took her ages to fall asleep.

"Because she's a normal human being. This is probably something someone like you wouldn't understand..." Takigawa enunciated each syllable infuriatingly slowly.

"Shut your bi-" Ayako began to shout, but was stopped in her tracks by a 'shush' from John.

"We have to be quiet, she's sleeping." He motioned to the sleeping, and now drooling, Mai.

"Shut your mouth, bastard!" whispered Ayako.

"Ooh... so scary! I think I may wet my pants," taunted Takigawa mockingly.

"..." John took one look at the odd little 'whisper fight' going on between the Miko and Monk and decided to join Lin.

"So, Lin-san... how are the monitors looking?"

"..."

Mai rubbed her eyes, and blinked blearily. She peered through one eye at the cracked, beige ceiling. Wait... she thought. This isn't Base...

The waking teen sat up quickly and took in her surroundings. She was lying on a hardwood floor -somehow she knew she was still in the Onsen- in what seemed to be a bedroom. A small, straw stuffed mattress lay to her left, and an old wooden chair stood to her right.

Where am I? Is this another dream? Mai looked about in confusion; there was an odd, semi-fuzzy dreamlike quality to her surroundings. It felt like if she touched anything, it would shatter into thousands of sharp pieces. She decided to sit back and enjoy the show. Mai was exhausted. If anything important was here it'd have to come to her – there was no way she was getting up.

Mai sighed and scratched her arm. Oh. Crap... she thought, looking at the yukata she was dressed in. This meant that she wasn't herself, but was yet again, a bit player in someone else's little drama. Sure enough, Mai, as the person, stood up and began to brush her hair with a comb encrusted with pearls. One, two, three strokes down Mai's waist length, black, shiny hair.

Waist length!? Okay, she was most definitely in someone else's body. Grrr....

The body that Mai inhabited started as the door creaked open. She felt her eyes widen in fear and if Mai could have screamed, she would have. Standing at the door. It was the woman Mai had met earlier in the hallway, blood, creepy eyes and all. Creepy eyes that were at the moment fixed on Mai's face.

"Utau." The woman uttered, before swooping forward and through Mai.

It was an odd sensation, like being enveloped in mist. Everything felt foggy... and, Mai wasn't alone in the black-haired girl's mind. Mai could feel the woman there, on the edge. Dark mist was seeping in at the edge of her conscience. Mai's partner in the body felt it too. She fell to the floor, clutching her head, until...

The mist cleared, and Mai/the girl stopped, and stood. She calmly walked through the Onsen to the kitchen, and opened a cabinet. Inside was a row of knives.

Mai gulped from inside the girl's body: knives were never a good sign. And then she realized something. Wait...the girl isn't in control. Mai could feel the girl locked up in her mind, along with Mai, screaming to be freed. Which meant that – Damn! The woman's was controlling her body...

Which explained why she had now reached into the cabinet. Her fingers closed around the handle of an ornate knife, and pulled it from its sheath. She briefly looked at it, and then brought the steel down to her arm. Mai and the girl felt pain like a shock, as the woman forced them to draw the knife slowly across her wrist. Blood bubbled up at the cut, and the woman continued to gleefully force them to slice away at the girl's body.

Stop! It hurts! Mai cried; she could feel the pain as if it was her own. She opened her mouth in a silent scream as blood pooled around her feet.

I don't want to die!

TBC

A/N: Thank you for reading! Revisions as of 5/25/09.

^Shinigami's Lullaby^