I do not own Ghost Hunt.
"You seem to know exactly where you're going," Lin said casually.
Naru shot him a bored glance before moving his gaze to the houses surrounding them. Of course he knew where he was going. Lin was aware of the fact that he had been here before. If he stopped to think about it perhaps that was why he had angered the spirits in this place. Unintentionally, he might add.
He had just been curious about this place. Apart from what Madoka had told him he himself had heard the rumours of something far darker than he could ever imagine haunting this town. Not through the grapevine. Through his social network of parapsychology researchers. Lin had also heard about the kind of rumours floating around yet he chose to ignore them. His thirst for answers wasn't as great as Naru's.
"Are you going to continue to ignore me about being here before, Naru?" Lin asked, a little bit of anger tinging his voice.
"There's nothing to discuss about it. I was here before. And I left unscathed. Isn't that enough?" Naru asked with a sigh.
"It was Madoka, wasn't it? She was here with you. There was no way you could have gotten to Fuyuichi without the use of a vehicle and the last time I checked, you can't drive, and neither do you own one."
"Fine, I was here with Madoka. Are you satisfied?"
"Hardly. I wish you hadn't gone behind my back on this, Naru. You know exactly what your parents would say about it."
"Your job is not to monitor my every movement, and neither is it to restrict it," Naru said without missing a beat. "If you can't separate that from your true purpose here then it would be best to leave."
Lin was silent, no doubt silently fuming at Naru's audacity. Oh well, he had never restricted the use of his words when it came to Lin and the older man knew that. Actually, he had never felt the need to hold back anything when it came to anyone. They all got the full brunt of his ire when it was due. He shook his head and continued down the path, looking for the theatre.
"What did you and Madoka do while you were here?" Lin finally asked, his voice lower than normal.
"We set up a few cameras here."
"For what purpose?"
"I wanted to see the extent of the damages before I risked involving everyone else."
"And what was your conclusion?"
Naru was silent as he thought back to what he and Madoka had seen on the monitors, what had caused him to immediately set out for this place without informing everyone about it. It had scared him enough to want to solve it as quickly as possible with no more resulting casualties. And yet now that he was here he wasn't so sure he could do it.
"We need to stop this before more people disappear. Namely the people in our group," he finally replied.
"Namely Mai?"
Naru ignored the comment, knowing he could hide nothing when it came to her. He refused to let Lin see that, even though he most definitely already knew. He had been with him, after all, when he had purchased the Monarch butterfly for Mai. He had probably known even before then, as silently observant as he was.
"We're here," he said instead.
The theatre loomed in front of them, shrouded in darkness. It looked ragged and worn down from fifty years of neglect. The sign board was missing a few letters. The windows were caked in grime and cobwebs glinted when a beam of sunlight caught it. The door was left slightly ajar. Naru knew he had closed it firmly behind him when he and Madoka had left it three days ago.
"Someone was here," he murmured, reaching out to push the door open so he could slip through.
"Naru, wait for me," Lin protested, struggling to open the door further to accommodate his taller frame.
The inside was as dark as Naru had remembered. Of course, he didn't have a flash light with him. That had shattered when Lin's van had flipped over. He would have to rely on memory alone. He closed his eyes and concentrated, remembering every detail as best as he could. There was an entryway into the theatre hall a few steps ahead to his right. He took a step forward, then another, fingers reaching out to glide across the wall. When he felt the open door to his right he turned to face it. He knew there were curtains blocking the hall from view.
"Hurry up, Lin," Naru said in annoyance. "We're running on precious time here."
"Right behind you."
Naru flipped past the curtains and came to an abrupt halt at the top of the stairs, staring with an amazed look on his face at the stage where he, Madoka and Yasu had set up a few cameras. For starters there was a spot light illuminating only the stage area, more specifically the area where his cameras were. And then there were the cameras themselves. Every single one of them had been smashed to pieces, littering across the stage in some macabre fashion, the film glittering at him under the spot light.
"It's destroyed," Naru muttered. "He destroyed every single one of them. How rude."
"He? What else are you hiding, Naru? What did you see on the monitors? And why haven't you told the others? They deserve to know."
"I don't think it would make them feel better if they knew," Naru responded shortly. "Isn't it worrying, that we've had quite a few cases where the spirits aren't afraid to show themselves to us anymore?"
"Yes. You think it has a connection to what those men who sealed Ammit were up to?"
"Definitely. If there is a change in the balance, the spirits would be able to sense it as well. Far greater and far better than we humans would be able to. So the fact that they seem to be acting strangely means that something has been set in motion. It means that something has changed that we're unaware of. It's making me nervous, Lin. Very nervous."
A loud creak ripped through the air, causing both of them to stiffen. Naru was on high alert for whatever was out there with them, hidden by the darkness in the theatre. It was surprisingly big for such a small town. He knew from his earlier visit that the red cushioned seats coated thick with dust extended far over their heads and dipped low as it neared the stage. Still, he stayed rooted to the spot, unwilling to proceed any further to the stage where his cameras lay in ruins. He was standing in front of the only exit, after all. The back entrance to the stage had been barricaded off, as if trying to prevent something from leaving. It was…odd.
Movement on the stage had Lin raising his fingers to his mouth, ready to whistle for his shiki. Naru gripped his arm, jerking it down violently. He wanted to see in person what they were up against. He peered at the stage, to where a little boy sat among the debris that were once his cameras. He blinked at them emotionlessly, cocking his head to one side and then the other. He wasn't the only one to notice something off about him.
"Is that…a puppet?" Lin asked in disbelief. "There's no mistaking those eyes. The glassy shimmer of a doll's eyes."
"It would appear so," Naru whispered. "Although he looks real enough to me."
Suddenly the boy sprung up into the air, suspended with his arms apart as if something were holding him up from that. Then he began to jerk violently from one side to the next, head lolling around uselessly. Naru didn't miss the way the razor thin strings attached to the boy's arms, no his joints, glinted sinisterly in the spot light. So it wasn't just any puppet, he mused to himself.
"That's a life size marionette," Lin said in awe. "I've never seen one of them up close before."
Naru suddenly jerked his gaze to the rafters above the stage. The darkness seemed to hover like a giant cloud of poison above the spot light, never reaching further than the same level. A life size marionette huh, he thought. If that's the case there must be someone controlling it.
"He could be here," Naru said quietly. "Let's go, Lin."
He bounded down the stairs, heading directly for the stairs when Lin grabbed his arms and jerked him to a violent stop.
"Naru, wait! You don't know what this person is capable of. If you run in head first you'd be getting yourself into more trouble than its worth. Think about it for a second," Lin snapped. "Let's convene with the others and come back with them. We're stronger as a group."
"No, it's too late for that. He could be long gone by the time we return. It has to be now," Naru said in a rush, struggling against Lin's strength. He knew he could knock him on his ass with no effort at all but he didn't want to hurt him.
"Help me," a high-pitched little voice interrupted them.
Naru and Lin turned as one toward the stage, where the little boy was hanging limply in the air. "Did he speak?" Naru asked.
"Please," the boy said again. "He won't let me go. I just want to go home. Help me. Save me."
"What's your name?" Naru called.
The boy cocked his head to one side. "Reiji," he said after a while. "They used to call me Reiji, I think."
Suddenly the boy was jerked, his little wooden body being pulled mercilessly on either side. He was silent, eyes still as indifferent as when he had first propelled onto the stage. Before either Naru or Lin could react his little body splintered down the middle, either side of him being tossed to each end of the stage uselessly. The boy didn't speak, lay deathly still. The viciousness of such an attack had rendered Naru speechless. He was cold all over as a result, horror consuming him at the thought of that happening to any one of his friends. Mai.
"So we've got a malevolent spirit who isn't afraid to display such bouts of fury," Lin said quietly. "That changes things."
"No, it doesn't," Naru snarled. "It just makes it more satisfying to destroy. Let's go, Lin. There isn't another way for that puppet master to escape. We've got him cornered."
"Naru, wait!"
Yet when Naru reached the top level above the spot light there was no one there. Lin met him on the other side, staring down at the stage and the pieces of what once was the little boy.
Thanks for reading!
