NIGHTMARE SCHOOL:

CHAPTER 13:

Mai opened her eyes and felt like she had just woken up from a long sleep. She looked around to see only darkness. The last time she had been here, there had been a lot of will-o'-the-wisps.

She stood up warily, scared that she will disturb something if she moved too suddenly.

"Hello," she called, almost yelling. Her voice echoed through the astral plane.

After she sure there were no will-o'-the-wisps, she took a step forward.

"Gene, are you here?"

Once again, there was no answer. She sighed dejectedly. Neither Gene or the will-o'-the-wisps were around to keep her company.

Mai started to walk without any direction. Seriously, it was hard to know where to go on the astral plane. Firstly, it was so dark and she was the only thing glowing. Secondly, there were no signposts or hints of a map.

As she walked she thought about her substitute family.

"What are they doing now? Has Naru already solved the case? Am I dead?" Mai stopped and dread pooled in her stomach.

"No, I can't think like that. I have to be optimistic. I'm sure Naru will get me out of here." The knot in her stomach began to lessen slowly. "I believe Naru will. He has always rescued me from danger."

That thought made Mai smile. That was one thing she can count on Naru for.

She didn't know how long she had been walking. Then, all of a sudden, the scene changed and threw Mai into another place and time.

Mai found herself in the hallway of a school. The sun had just set in the west which illuminated the hallway in a yellow-orangish hue. At least she wasn't in black darkness anymore.

Down the hall, there was a male teacher walking towards Mai. He wore an eggplant purple dress-shirt buttoned all the way up and black slacks with a belt. His hair was black and had started to bald, he had black eyes, and not too subtle wrinkles here and there. All in all, he looked like a proper teacher.

But, Mai felt something wrong coming from him so she decided to follow him. Even his back looked stiff to Mai, it reminded her of Naru or Lin's posture. She followed him up the stairs to the second floor.

When she turned round the corner, someone tapped her shoulder. Mai looked to her left and almost screamed.

"Gene! What are you doing here?" she asked, relieved that he was with her.

"The question is how can you be here?" he countered. "Were you able to get away from the will-o'-the-wisps?"

"I don't know how I can be here. All I know is that I woke up on the astral plane without them and then I was here. I don't understand it myself."

Gene made a mental note to discuss it with Noll.

"Okay. Come on, I have a feeling that the teacher has a role in this case," he pointed to the man.

Gene offered his hand to Mai and she gladly took it. She nodded and together they chased the man who was already halfway down the corridor.

The man abruptly stopped in his tracks after looking through the small window in a classroom door. He clenched his hands into fists.

What could have been going on in the classroom to make the teacher so annoyed? They approached him at the same time he roughly slid the door open.

"Itou-san! Fujita-san! What are you doing here!?" he asked with a resentful tone in his voice.

The schoolgirl and her boss' twin followed him inside the classroom. Well, Mai's face reddened as she looked at the two boys, whilst Gene snickered next to her.

To word it bluntly, Itou and Fujita were in a state that suggested they had been making out in the classroom.

Both of their shirts were unbuttoned all the way down, and their hair looked disheveled. Luckily their trousers were still on them.

The boys scrambled to stand from their suggestive position on the desk. One of the them looked like he was ready to faint whilst he buttoned up his shirt. The other looked unbothered by his state of undress.

"Fujita! You are a model student at this school. I can't believe you are gay and moreover, that you almost had sexual intercourse in the classroom. Do you know what will happen to your reputation if everyone found out about this?"

The brown-haired boy's eyes widened. "Ka-Kamakura-sensei. Ple-please, I'm begging you. Don't tell anyone," he pleaded like there was no tomorrow.

Kamakura-sensei ignored him and looked at them in disgust. "And you Itou-san! You were known as a playboy. Are you now gay too?"

"I'm bisexual, actually. You do know the difference right, Sensei?" he asked without any trace of guilt on his face. He looked nonchalant and dared to yawn.

Kamakura glared at Itou. "My office, now!"

After that, the vision warped and the scene changed into a different school day. Maybe few days or a week after the shameful incident.

The students were whispering whilst looking at a certain male student with curiosity, disgust and pity on their faces. The male student they were looking at was Fujita Naoki. The student himself was wondering why they were acting like he was guilty of the seven deadly sins as he walked down the hallway to his classroom.

As he opened the classroom door, he was welcomed by someone throwing a blackboard eraser straight at his face. Fujita coughed because of the chalk dust. His face stung and he realised he was covered in white powder.

He heard the other students laughing.

"Sorry, Naoki-san! I didn't see you there," said the light brown-haired boy who had thrown the eraser. "But don't worry, you look absolutely gorgeous now."

"You mean a gorgeous faggot?" one of students shouted so, the students outside the class could hear him.

"Wh-what do you mean by a faggot?" Fujita stuttered, not giving a damn about his face.

"O-of course, be-because you are gay!" he copied how Fujita stuttered.

The laughter boomed again.

"Oh, look! His face is so pale, guys! Like a ghost!"

"No, he looks like a gay geisha!"

They were enjoying spending their time ridiculing him like he was a rare animal. No, a rare animal would get special treatment and would be appreciated. But him? He was treated like garbage, a freak.

"How do you know that?" His saliva tasted so heavy in his throat.

"Chi-chan overheard your parents and principal's conversation two days ago about how you made out with Kagami-kun," a girl sitting by the window told him.

The girl named Chizuru who was sitting in front of her, sneered at Fujita.

"Kagami-kun said you forced him to do it because you threatened him about seeing him going to a club after hours. You really are a pervert, you know," Chizuru said disdainfully and looked at Itou for confirmation. "Right, Kagami-kun?"

All eyes turned to Itou Kagami who was sitting in his chair with a pretty girl on his lap like usual. Fujita's heart broke when he saw Itou was back to his playboy self.

"That's right. I know I'm wrong about going to the club, but he used it to blackmail me," he sighed with a miserable expression. "I like girls, you know."

"It's okay, Kagami-chan. You are a handsome guy, it's not surprising if one or two boys have crush on you. But don't worry, I will protect you," said the girl on his lap whilst hugging him.

Itou smiled. "Thank you, Haru-chan. You're the best!"

"W-what?" Fujita was dumbfounded by the false explanation. "Kagami! You know that wasn't the truth!"

"Shut up, Naoki! You can be gay however, stop bothering him and don't force any guy into your games again!"

The scene changed again. This was the first time Mai had experienced such a long post-cognitive dream. And maybe it will be even longer because of her state.

It was a scene between Itou and Kagami in a deserted hallway. They were alone, maybe after school. Fujita was on the verge of tears and his face showed how betrayed he was.

"How could you lie to them? How could you!?" Fujita screamed in Itou's face, gripping his collar although he was shorter than Itou.

"I don't understand what you mean, Naoki."

"You don't understand? You know full well that I didn't force you into anything. You were the one who seduced me first and you say you don't understand!?"

Itou snorted at that. "And you think I'm serious about you?"

"You are my best friend!"

"I was your best friend," Itou corrected him. "I befriended you because I thought you were different than everybody else. But, I guess I got bored with you."

That was it. That was the Fujita's last straw to hold back his tears.

"You were toying with me?"

He shrugged. "You could say that."

"But why you lied to them? Blamed me?!"

"Because I have a reputation as a playboy to keep," he replied smoothly.

"Reputation!"

The scene ended there, and they were back to the dark astral plane.

"Mai, are you okay?" Gene asked when he saw Mai was crying quietly. They were still holding hands.

"Ah? Why?"

"You are crying."

"Oh, I'm sorry." She wiped away her tears. "It's sad to be betrayed by your best friend."

She doesn't know what she would do if her friends betrayed her. It must hurt like hell.

"It's even sadder that he was in love with him," Gene patted her head in understanding. "You don't need to apologise."

"Do you know them? Do they have some connection with the case?"

"I think so. I had tried to look into this case before, but failed miserably."

"Gene, can you reach Naru to tell him about this? I don't think I can wake up now."

"Yes, I can. He is always checking his mirror to ask about your condition."

Mai blushed. "That's because I'm his employee and he doesn't want my hospital costs to deplete SPR's funds."

"Is that so? Are you a mind-reader now?" Gene teased her. "Or just Naru's personal mind-reader?"

"Geez… Stop that, will you!" Her face turned redder. "Shoo, go away and tell him."

His smile faltered and became a worried smile. "Be careful, okay?"

Mai returned the smile. "I will. Now, go."

He started to fade away after he says. "I will tell him that you miss him."

"Gene!"

After Gene left, she felt sleepy and decided to rest for a bit after their journey into the past. Then she woke up with a jolt and opened her eyes.

"Huh? Where am I?"

She looked around the room. It had to belong to a girl judging by the pink furniture, walls and accessories. When she looked into the mirror, she realised that she wasn't Mai anymore. Her hair was black and straight and the eyes were similar to her own, but were a different shade of brown.

She changed out of her school uniform and into a t-shirt and shorts and she heard the sound of something breaking. She frowned and left her bedroom. She checked the living room and kitchen, but couldn't find anything amiss.

Then she heard the noise again and traced the sound. The noise was repeated again when she stopped at the end of the hallway by her brother's room. This time it was louder than before and was followed by mumbling that she couldn't understand.

She wondered what he was doing. Lately her brother had become a recluse which wasn't part of his normal personality. She knew it was because of the incident with Itou-san at school and he had earned a week's suspension from it. To be honest, she didn't care if he was gay or bisexual.

She stood outside her brother's room and was about to knock to ask if he was okay. She stilled when she heard him shout.

"I will curse them! I will curse that bastard!"

She was shocked by the venom in his voice and wondered what could have happened to make him like that. Slowly she twisted the knob and opened the door a little. Her eyes widened when she saw what was in her brother's grasp and replicated on the floor.

A pentagram.

A black inverted pentagram.

The scene changed again without warning and she was no longer the little sister. But she wasn't alone now. The will-o'-the-wisps were surrounding her with their blue ghostly fire. They didn't have any faces, however Mai had the feeling they were angry.

"Why? Is it because of my vision of the past?" she asked herself while stepping back from them.

They moved closer to Mai. She didn't want to know what will happen if they touched her.

"Rin, Pyou, Tou, Sha, Kai, Chin, Retsu, Zai, Zen!"

Some of them flew back because of the Ku-ji. But more came to Mai at a much faster speed. Mai shielded herself with her arms. If she died here, everyone at SPR would remember her, won't they?

Her memories flashed in her head. Memories of her parents, friends from she was small. The first time she met Naru. Lin. Gene. Bou-san, Ayako, John, Yasuhara. All their smiles sealed in her heart.

Before the blue fire could touch Mai, a necklace appeared on her from out of nowhere.

A rosary necklace.

The necklace was followed by a prayer. Mai knew that voice. Only he can produce such a soothing sounding prayer.

John.

He prayed for her.

He remembered her.

That was enough to send Mai into her old self.

She wouldn't die here.

The will-o'-the-wisps scattered. It looked like they had been hurt by the prayer and the rosary.

Unwilling to waste her chance, she ran away from them towards the unknown. She looked back and saw that the will-o'-the-wisps were chasing her although they had been slowed down by John's prayer.

The prayer stopped, but they still couldn't touch Mai because she still had the necklace on her which kept them a fair distance from her. She kept on running until she saw a light.

People say that light signifies the afterlife, however she didn't care anymore so…

She jumped into the light.