I don't own Ghost Hunt, and never will because I'm not worthy!


Chapter Eleven

Jack and Jill

"Jack and Jill went up the hill

To fetch some pail of water.

Jack went down,

And broke his crown,

And Jill came tumbling after."


For the first time in her life, Ayako found herself wishing her companion right now was John. Okay, not really her first time having that kind of wish since her companion right now is a certain annoying monk. Now, all she wants was that the bubbly and all-smiles-and-good-hearted priest to be by her side, so that he may fix the problem that both the miko and the monk ended up in.

What kind of problem that be SO HARD that Ayako and Bou-san would end up being powerless to even defeat? Come on! They've faced spirits so terrible, no one could ever defeat it. They've faced dangerous spirits that killed a big number of people. They've faced spirits so horrible that thinking about them could make any other person wake up in cold sweat by the thought of it.

But never have they had a situation when a malicious spirit possess their dear Mai, and make her go after them with the intent to kill the both of them.

"AYAAAAAAAAAKOOOOOOOOOOO! BOOOOOOOOOU-SAAAAAAAAN!"

Right now, both miko and monk couldn't go anywhere near Mai since she was now holding a glass shard that she picked up from somewhere in the room. It seemed the spirit has some experience of fighting before for they saw how Mai moves with agility when she swings the shard at Ayako.

Thankfully, the shard misses her by an inch, but both the monk and she got splattered by Mai's blood that came from her hand, which was bleeding from clutching the shard.

"Aww, I missed!" Mai pouted for a second, like a child disappointed when they weren't able to catch a butterfly. But she started to burst out laughing after that, like a child thinking oh well! Might as well try again and catch that butterfly!

With no second to waste, both of them dashed out of the room with Mai calmly walking after them, who is in no rush at all. She laughed.

"Oh come ON! Why don't you want to plaaaaaaay with meeeeeee?"

"Faster, old lady!" Bou-san hissed as he grabbed Ayako's hand and literally dragged her to make her run faster. In normal circumstances, Ayako would have whopped his head for the insult, but she had no time to argue when they have someone chasing after them.

The duo reached the door, but when the man tried the door, it didn't open. It was locked from the inside.

"Impossible!" Bou-san exclaimed. "Doors can't be locked from the inside!"

Ayako pushed the monk aside and tried the door too. It's locked. The doorknob did not even turn, even for a bit.

"Haaaaaaaaving trouble there, guuuuuuuuuuys?"

They looked up, seeing Mai on the top of the stairs, looking down at them with that creepy-as-heck smile.

"Now, why don't we just relax, and all three of us could just sit down for some cup of tea, hmmmmmmmmmm?"

Ayako heard a growl escaping from Bou-san. He seems angry at the spirit for a lot of things, and one of it is probably the tactic the spirit is using by possessing Mai's body. If the spirit weren't in Mai's body, Bou-san might have punched the spirit back to the hell of where it came from.

He quickly grabbed Ayako's hand once again and ran.

"Hurry! There might be a backdoor."

Mai threw back her head in laughter.

"Run! YES! RUN, my friends!"

While running with Bou-san. She took a second to look back at Mai, who was skipping down the stairs. Really not in a hurry to be after them.

"Buuuuuuuuuuut! You must know that no matter where you go, theeeeeeeere's noooooooooo way ooooooooout!"

The game of Cat and Mouse just began.


"Okay! In this record, I would like to recite some rhymes I learned for you guys."

Aki placed the recorder on the desk as she plopped down happily on her chair. She was, once again, making her daily recording to give as a message to Dori, Hori, and Tori. The girl would usually make the three of them a message before the day ends.

"Now, you guys must know first that I worked hard for this. For the message today, I have memorized some songs for you. And they are English nursery rhymes. Hear me? ENGLISH!"

She gave herself a proud smile, pride swelling her chest.

"Anyways… here's the song…"


That very instant, Naru received a really bad feeling.

He finally escaped from being chased down by the two clingy teenage girls, and that's when he first had this feeling. It felt like a warning bell rang in his mind and sent a cold shock down his back, through his veins, then spread out everywhere through his body until it reached his fingertips.

What was that just now? Naru looked around to check if anything caused that unsettling feeling, but no one near him looked suspicious. After a while of searching, he shook his head. He must be just paranoid.

The man was about to leave his spot to proceed to finding the place where Mai is. That's when he heard a voice.

Hurry. Mai. Aki. Danger. Play the game. No cheating. Save her. Memories...

Naru spun around, looking for the person who spoke to him. People were just minding their own business. There was no one even near enough to even whisper to Naru those words.

Naru frowned. What was with that message? They weren't that descriptive either.

It began. Play the game. Aki. Consequences. Don't get caught. No cheating. Save her…

"Who are you?" Naru tried to call out, but was only replied with one word from the unknown ghost.

Hurry!

Then there was silence, as if the ghost disappeared. Which it probably did.

With that message, this motivated Naru to start running, keeping his eyes open for any signs that will lead him to the place Mai, Ayako, and Bou-san is currently in.

While running, he recalled the voice—it sounded urgent. It could be the reason of why it only spoke only in words, or a sentence that's either limited to two or three words. But what Naru noticed was not the message—it was the voice.

The voice… he heard it before. It was a voice he heard from the previous case. The voice that gave him a message in that room. That voice…

It was Sousuke's voice.

And he was trying to tell Naru something…


"So… the first song is a kind of a short song. So it wasn't hard to memorize."

Aki took in a bit of some air, preparing herself for some singing.

"Alright! Here it goes! For you, Hori, Dori, and Tori! Hope you like it since this is my parents' favorite!"


"Dammit!"

Bou-san swore for the umpteenth time after finding out that no matter how many places they find that could lead them to the outside world, they would be stopped since the spirit somehow had control of the house. The spirit made sure to use its control from letting them out of the house, no matter what they did. And they were REALLY getting so annoyed already.

They spotted an open window in the kitchen. Quickly, they darted to the direction of the window.

But, like the rest of the places of the house where they think could be the doorway to escape, the window closed shut by an unknown force.

Bou-san swore as Ayako turned to look behind them. As expected, Mai was behind them smiling mockingly at them—as if reminding the duo of who is in control here.

"Now, now. Behave now, my little dolls," Mai giggled. "As much as I enjoy watching you dollies run around the house with such looks on your faces, I'm afraid I have a tight schedule. You're not the only dollies that I have to deal with, you know."

Bou-san swiveled around to glare at Mai. "What do you mean?"

With a grin, Mai took a step forward to enter the room. It seemed the temperature turned colder for some reason. "Ahhh, have I finally got your attention? Did you really think that you're the only dollies that I thought about playing with? Now that's REALLY selfish of you, you know?"

The monk, with his right arm, shielded Ayako while he watched Mai's every movement as she looked around the room with interest. Both of them took a step bath, but they soon realized that Mai got them where she wanted them—cornered. While Bou-san makes sure Mai doesn't do anything fishy, Ayako took the time to look around the room too.

It turned out this room looked like there used to be a scene of blood bath too. There seemed to be a lot of bloody hand prints painted with blood on the kitchen isles and the countertop right behind them. Someone—or some people—had a fight here in the past, and if Mai has the intent to kill the both of them, then there would be a bloody fight once again.

Mai must have made a move to go near them since Bou-san quickly grabbed the rusty ladle sitting lonely on the bloody countertop behind them. He swiftly swung the ladle as the kitchen utensil hit Mai right at the cheek.

The surprised brunette took a step back and rested a hand on her bruised cheek. But instead of being shocked like he expected her to be, she gave an excited laugh, enjoying the feeling of the sting of pain on her cheek. She stroke the bruise, like it was something interesting.

Bou-san, now realizing what he did, he immediately felt guilty for hitting Mai. Then again, the one right in front is not a person who he knew has a kind heart, but the one in front of him right now is a malicious spirit taking control of the girl with a kind heart. And if he doesn't do anything right now to stop the spirit, then he knows that the girl with a kind heart will end up killing innocent people. He won't want that girl to find out, right after the spirit leaves her body, that she killed people with her very hands. He watched Mai laugh harder—a laugh of a maniac.

No way on Earth would he allow this spirit let his dear, sweet Mai turn into a crazy killer.

"—like father…"

He was so stuck in his thoughts that he didn't quite hear what Mai was saying to him all along. Now looking at her grin, he could tell it could lead to something not good at all.

"Just like father," Mai repeated what she wanted to say. "Just like father." With a giggle, she stroked the bruise on her cheek with her index finger. But now looking at it, she was just painting her cheek with her own blood. They really need to save Mai soon or else she would lose a lot of blood from that cut on her hand.

"Father was an aggressive father," she said with a singsong voice. "Always beating me… Always hurting me… A father who doesn't have any second thoughts when it comes to hurting his loving daughter." She stares at the shard, excitement filling her eyes with a dangerous glint in them. "You and that dolly over there may not be little Mai's real parents, but you made that impression that you seem like a father figure to her, as well as dolly there being the mother figure to her."

"What does this have to do with all of this?" Ayako spoke up after a moment of silence from her. Mai just smirked at her.

"What exactly? Well, I'm not supposed to be giving hints for you to solve this puzzle, neh? It won't be a challenge if I end up giving the answers on how to solve this game, right?" She brandished her weapon once again. "Anyways! Enough talking, and let's now start playing!"

She tried to swipe her shard to at least injure him, but Bou-san used the ladle to shield them from Mai's attack. Right after that, Bou-san looked at one of the isles and found a dusty chopping board. He quickly grabbed it and threw it at Mai's direction. With that as a distraction, Bou-san and Ayako ran as fast as they can, away from Mai.

They turn to the stairs. Bou-san said, "Quick! There might be some window upstairs. Let's go while Mai is away from us." Ayako simply nodded.

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

Bou-san heard the sounds of a grandfather clock somewhere near his ear. He looked around but found no grandfather clock. What was that, he thought.

He turned to look at Ayako, and she, too, had the same expression—as if she also heard the mysterious sounds of a nonexistent clock. Where was the sound coming from? At that moment, they also hear some man's voice, but it only sounded like his voice was echoing around, as similar as one would hear it coming from a megaphone with a low volume.

"Little brat! Come here!"

"O-Otou-san… Don't hurt me, please!"

"DOLLIES!" Mai called out from the kitchen. "WHERE AAAAAAAARE YOOOOOOOOU?"

Bou-san grabbed for Ayako's hand. His expression yelled out the word RUN in it. So, they ran.

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

Every step they took on the stairs seemed like time has slowed down.

Family… My family…

"DON'T RUN AWAY, DOLLIEEEEEEEEEES!"

"Haha, yes. This picture here shows us that no matter what, we'll always be a family. Which means we'll always be together. Do you understand, Aki?"

The both of them are nearly up to the top of the stairs.

Lies… Why did you lie to me?

"DOLLIEEEEEEES!" Mai sounds almost near now, "COME BACK HERE!"

Lies.

Mai now reached the stairs, watching them both run up the stairs.

My family…

Bou-san and Ayako finally reached the second floor.

How dare you lie to me…

"Liars…" Mai whispered.


"The first song I have is called Jack and Jill…"


Jack and Jill went up the hill,

Bou-san felt a presence—a cold presence behind them. Singing seemed to echo all around the house.

To fetch some pail of water,

He turned around, and felt his eyes widened as he saw a glowing figure behind Ayako.

Jack went down

Bou-san pushed Ayako away—but he, instead, was pushed. He found himself falling.

And broke his crown

Bou-san landed on the floor, in front of Mai's feet, with a sickening THUD that made Ayako shout out his name. She checked if he was awake, but he seemed unconscious—or maybe dead…

A giggle was heard from the miko behind her. She turned around to check who it was, but never got to see the face since the figure pushed her. She fell, too, and landed on Bou-san's motionless body.

Both didn't move at all.

And Jill came tumbling after.


A/N: Here's Chapter eleven. I'm sorry it took a while, since last week was our exams and all.

And I also took a while after that because the last few days was me watching this series called Camp Camp. (Does anyone know Camp Camp? No? Okay.)

This was made in a rush, so there might be some mistakes I made. But I will edit this chapter later on since I want to start making the next chapter before I lose motivation.

Since this week is Sembreak for me, I will try to do the next update sometime this week. Also, chapter eleven was supposed to be longer, but it was too long for a chapter. So this chapter is part one, and part two will be in the next update.

See you next time!

EXTRA A/N!

Someone's gonna murder me of I don't explain this immediately, so I'll explain it right now! Although this takes out the fun of being surprised though...

This is actually revealed in part 2, but because I need to say it before I'm skinned alive for this...

No! They're not dead. There's a reason why I didn't place a MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH warning in the first place, right?

Sheesh, didn't wanna spoil you, but I needed to anyway :T