Chapter 13

We all eventually got up at 11. We were still a little tired from being up late, but we decided going to my new job to get coffee and breakfast would be good for us. "Mai and I heard you yelling this morning, is everything alright?" Keiko asked me worriedly. I smiled.

"Yeah, my brother called me, but everything's fine." Mai didn't believe me but didn't say anything, which I'm grateful for because I really don't want to talk about my 'family' right now. It would just ruin the rest of the day for me.

"So who's excited about this afternoon?" Michiru asked changing the subject. Thank you Michiru!

"I know I am." I said grinning.

"You're going to try and scare the crap out of John and Monk, aren't you?" Mai said grinning.

"Of course! And, I might I have a little surprise later on." Mai shook her head. I decided to text Naru and ask him to join us near the end. I texted him while the other three were still getting ready. I heard from Mai that the first time she met Naru was when she, Keiko, and Michiru told ghost stories. They were using flash lights and he was there listening in and they were doing that thing where each of them tell a story and when they're finished they turn their light out. After all the lights out, they count down from the number of people there and the last one is supposedly a ghost. I think I'll have Naru be the last one just to scare them again. I just hope it works on Monk and John too. It would be boring if it didn't. I told him not to tell anyone involved in our ghost story telling, so that it would come as a surprise. He didn't show it, but I could tell he was looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to it too. I can't wait to see Monk and John's face when Naru scares everyone. I thought grinning.

"Aki, what are you planning?" Keiko asked nervously. I shrugged.

"Nothing much; or I should say, you'll figure it out later." Michiru pouted.

"You're so mean, Aki~!" I stuck my tongue out at her.

"Well, I never said I was nice." She stuck her tongue out at me.

"It's a fancy meeting you girls here," I looked up and grinned. Monk and John were just walking in.

"Hey Monk, John," I greeted them as they sat down with us.

"It looks like we all had the same idea." Mai said grinning too.

"So how's the investigation going?" Michiru asked curiously. "Aki, you said you'd tell me about it." I grimaced.

"I did tell you that, didn't I?"

"We've got a lead that we're going to follow on next Saturday." Monk said frowning. "This isn't like our usual cases though."

"It's not?" I asked him curiously. He shook his head.

"Usually the cases don't involve the police and it's not this complicated. Even Naru looks like he's struggling to understand this case."

"Well, I'm glad to hear that. If all your cases were like this, then I don't know if I'd be able to handle it. Seriously, this is totally draining."

"The police are involved?" Keiko asked gasping.

"Yeah, it was unexpected." John said sighing. He looked exhausted. Now that I think about it, he's not the only one. Monk, Ayako, Masako, Naru, and Lin all look exhausted, even Mai does too

"Can you tell us what's going on so far?" Michiru asked curiously.

"It's probably too dangerous to do that now." Monk said thoughtfully. She pouted.

"That's why I said I'd tell you after we were finished with the case." I said smiling at her.

"Someone vital to the case was just killed last night." Mai said grimly. The two gasped.

"That's why we don't want to tell you anything. We don't want you two to be targeted next." John said smiling sadly. They nodded.

"Okay." Keiko, Mai, and Michiru got up to use the bathroom, telling us they'd be right back some time later.

"Are you okay, Aki? You seemed to be really upset yesterday." Monk asked me in concern. I frowned.

"I'm okay now. Yesterday, when I was talking about going through a lot of dangerous things, I was talking about those incidents that happen to me from time to time."

"How bad did they get?" John asked worriedly. I smiled grimly.

"Really bad, like someone dying bad." Monk hugged me.

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to." I smiled and hugged him back.

"Thanks, but I'll tell you about it eventually. Right now, I don't want to talk about sad things though because this case is kind of depressing. So, that why I want to tell ghost stories."

"Understood!" Monk said grinning as we let go of each other. I smiled. Once the other three got back, he asked, "How about we go and tell ghost stories now, since we're already together?" Mai grinned.

"That sounds like a plan!" Crap, I need to message Naru. So on the way to the school, I messaged Naru. His reply back made it seem like he was a little irritated but agreed to come anyways. I grinned. I love messing with this guy. It's really fun. We reached the school in no time at all and made it inside the school without any trouble. I was getting excited. We entered one of the unused classrooms and crowded around the desks. We decided to sit on the floor so we wouldn't bring any attention to ourselves.

"So, who wants to go first?" Michiru asked curiously.

"Ooh, I want to!" Monk said grinning.

"Wait, did everyone bring a flashlight?" Mai asked curiously. We all pulled out our flashlights and turned them on.

"Alright Monk, scare our pants off." I said grinning.

"Oh, I plan to." I can't wait. "Okay, a mom bought a porcelain doll for her daughter."

"Monk, you aren't telling what happened with Ayami-chan are you?" Mai asked him scowling slightly.

"Of course not, now listen." She sighed but nodded. "So, the daughter instantly loved it. She played with it 24/7. One day, her mom decided that she was going to take her daughter to an amusement park. The daughter left the doll on her bed and when she came back home later that evening, the doll was waiting for them at the front door. The daughter tried to tell her mom about it, but her mom just assumed she left the doll at the front door. Later on that night, as the girl was sleeping, she heard something rustling that woke her up. When she woke up, the doll was lying beside her on the bed and staring at her!"

Monk said this part loudly. "Come on Monk, I know you can do better than this." I said grinning. He stuck his tongue out at me and continued his story.

"The daughter thought nothing of it and went back to sleep. The next morning, the mom came into the daughter's room to check on her daughter and found the doll broken. The daughter was sitting on her bed staring at the wall with a blank expression her face. When the mom called out to her, the daughter didn't respond. The mom waved her hand in front of her daughter's eyes but they didn't flinch or anything. The mom also noticed that her daughter's skin was hard like glass."

I spotted Michiru and Keiko shiver. Mai looked freaked out and honestly I felt goose bumps go up my arms.

"She even tested the theory by taking a hammer to her daughter's skin. The daughter shattered like glass, but there was so much blood. The mom committed suicide later on, leaving a note stating how sorry she was for killing her daughter."

"Okay, that was more creepy than scary, Monk. How did you manage to think something like that up?" I asked him curiously. He grinned.

"I've heard a few stories here and there." I rolled my eyes as he turned his light off.

"Okay, let's go in a circle. Since Monk started, John you're next." Mai said grinning. He nodded.

"Alright," He paused thoughtfully. "There was this church in Australia I used to visit every day. In the nursery, there are rumors of a little girl sitting in the corner and she always cried. When someone went to find out why she was crying, she would slowly look up at the person. The little girl's eyes are always blacked out and she'd have a too wide smile and when a person looks into her eyes, she would start screaming and if they ran away from her, she would follow them. And then, if she caught them, she would put her hand down that person's throat and steal their soul." This time all of us, including Monk, shivered.

"Wow John, you topped Monk's in creepiest story." Mai said excitedly. John just laughed nervously.

"Really? I thought it wasn't that scary at all."

"Yeah, I'm with John on this one, but it did creep me out." Monk said shrugging.

"Okay, I guess I'm next." Michiru said as John turned his light off. "This girl was walking into her AP Bio class and saw a purple butterfly resting on the window. She went to get a closer look at it and it flew into her chest and disappeared. The girl was freaked out, but she didn't say anything to anyone about it."

Nice creativity... I thought impressed.

"After class, she forgot all about it and moved on with the rest of her day. Later on that night, her stomach was hurting her, so she went to the bathroom thinking it was just that. But when she looked at her stomach in the mirror, she found a hole in her stomach!

Mai and Keiko screamed. Oh come on, it wasn't that scary.

"She screamed and when her mom came to check on her, the girl wasn't in the bathroom, instead there was a purple butterfly resting on the bathroom mirror."

"O-Okay, my turn." Keiko said as Michiru turned her light off. "Well, one day a boy was wandering around the music room after school. He found a dusty music box in the instrument closet. He asked the teacher if it belonged to anyone, but it didn't. So he took it home and cleaned it up. After cleaning it up, he opened it, but no music played. He looked at it more closely and saw that it was in need of some repairs. So the next day, he went to an antique shop and asked if it was possible that the owner could fix it. The owner said he could do it in two hours. Two hours later, the boy paid the owner and took the music box. "Boy," The owner said with a troubled expression.

"What is it?" The boy asked the man curiously.

"Ah, it's nothing, have a good day." The boy nodded to the owner and soon he was heading back home. When he got home, he went straight into his room, shut his door, and opened the music box. He never came out of his room and his mother was worried. So she went to check on him. She knocked on his door.

"Satoshi-kun, are you alright in there?" She asked him, but there wasn't an answer. "I'm coming in." She said worriedly before opening the door. Once she did though, she screamed. What she found was her son lying on his bed, blood leaking out of his ears. But there was something wrong with it. His blood wasn't red, it was black. The music box lies next to him, with its lid shut. She rushed to him. "Satoshi-kun!"

"M-Mom, it's funny, isn't it? My blood is black..." He said, laughing. He coughed. "I wonder if your blood is black too." He got up, grinning. She backed away from him slowly.

"Satoshi-kun..."

"Mom, I love you." The next thing his mother knew, he had pulled out a knife and slit her throat! "Oh," He frowned. "You're blood isn't black..." Then with a scream, AAAAAAH!

Everyone screamed at that. "Keiko-san, don't do that so suddenly." John said clutching his chest.

"Really," Monk said trying to calm himself.

"He slit his own throat!" Keiko said ending her story.

"That's it?" Michiru asked her. Keiko just shrugged.

"That's the best I could come up with." I smiled.

"You did a good job." She just smiled and turned her light off.

"Okay, Aki, it's your turn." Mai told me. I nodded.

"Okay, there's this old abandoned building in Osaka where if you go there on Hollow's Eve, you'll be cursed for the rest of your life. The curse is called the Kisaragi Curse. The Kisaragi Curse is when you have really bad luck for the rest of your life. It doesn't sound that awful now, but a girl, Shiba Miyuki-chan, and her sister went to the old abandoned building on Hollow's Eve on a dare from their older brother. Their brother dropped them off and left them there to spend the night. When he came back to get them, Miyuki-chan never said a word to him and her eyes had no emotion whatsoever in them. It was like she was just an empty shell. Her sister however was just fine. In fact, she was smiling really big and looked to be happier than the day before. The brother was put out by it, but thought nothing of it. He figured they were just trying to scare him since it was Halloween. Though, his youngest sister went back to her usual self, Miyuki-chan, however, did not. She stayed distant with a blank face and her family and friends grew concerned for her. She wouldn't even speak to anyone. Then one day after school, her friends cornered her in the classroom after their last class. They asked her what was wrong, but got no answer.

One of the girls got mad at her and slapped her, demanding her to answer them. Then Miyuki-chan said, "You're all going to be cursed by her!" The girls looked at her, feeling uneasy.

"What do you mean, Miyuki-chan?" One of them asked. "Who's 'her'?"

"She's going to curse you all next." The girls left her alone after that. And the days that followed they started avoiding her and as they did, they started to notice that their luck seemed to have turned for the worse. Their grades started slipping, their purses were being snatched almost on a daily basis, their parents got into fights and threatened to divorce each other, and one of them had the bad luck to get caught in the middle of a car accident. She was hit from both sides and died on impact. The girls got scared and blamed Miyuki-chan for everything that happened. And you know what happened next?"

"W-What happened?" John asked nervously. I grinned.

"Miyuki-chan told the girls the next day, "It's your own fault for making her angry," And Miyuki-chan was never seen again after that day. Some say she went back to that abandoned building and killed herself and others say she moved to another town looking for more victims. The girls that were cursed were left uneasy and continued to have bad luck."

"Aki, I think your story is the creepiest one." Monk said shivering. I shrugged.

"Well, Mai, it's your turn." I said turning my light off. I was so excited for what was going to happen at the very end. Mai nodded.

"There was once a girl named Sayaka. She went to Kurosaki Academy with her two friends, Miki and Yuma. The three girls heard that the school was haunted and decided to see if it was true. So, one day they all hid in the gym until everyone, including the security guards, left the school. They had brought flashlights with them and started walking around. Sayaka and Yuma were walking in the front while Miki walked behind them. She didn't make a sound because she was very timid. It started raining outside and Sayaka knew Miki hated thunder storms. So Sayaka turned around to check on Miki and Miki was gone. "Yuma, Miki's gone!" She cried. Yuma jumped at the sudden noise.

"Miki's gone?" Yuma asked looking around. "Where did she go?" Sayaka rolled her eyes.

"How should I know?" Sayaka asked frowning at Yuma. "Anyways, we should go look for her." Yuma nodded and the two turned around to go back, but then they heard a scream.

"Aaaah!" Mai let out a scream here causing us all to either scream with her or jump.

"The girls turned around so suddenly they almost gave themselves whiplash. "Miki! Is that you!?" Yuma cried out.

"The scream came from the opposite direction, let's go!" Sayaka said, grabbing Yuma's hand and the two took off in the direction of the scream. "Miki!" Sayaka yelled as they walked down a narrow corridor.

"Answer us Miki! Are you okay!?" Yuma yelled out as the girls came to the last room at the end of the corridor. The girls paused at the door as they heard a voice coming from inside.

"H-Help... me..." They heard someone whisper."

"M-Mai, don't use that voice..." Keiko stuttered. I have to hand it to Mai. She is one hell of a ghost story teller.

"Miki, is that you?" Sayaka whispered. Yuma slowly put her hand on the door handle and turned it slowly. She pushed the door open and suddenly there was another scream."

Again Mai let out a scream here, this time I screamed too because it totally caught me off guard.

"Yuma and Sayaka both screamed and ran away. Sayaka made it back to where they were before. "Yuma, we got away." Sayaka said feeling relieved. Only when she turned around, she noticed that Yuma wasn't behind her. She now heard two screams. They were Miki and Yuma. Sayaka was scared and didn't know what to do. So she started walking away from the direction she just came from. As she walked, she heard things falling or being knocked over, whispers, footsteps, and then suddenly she couldn't take it anymore and took off running. Sayaka wasn't paying attention to where she was running and suddenly, SMASH!"

"Wah!" Everyone but Mai cried out in shock.

"She ran through a window and fell to her death. The next morning, the security guards didn't find anything out of the ordinary. It was like Sayaka, Miki, and Yuma never existed. Where did they go? And what happened to Miki and Yuma? No one ever found out."

"Mai, you're really good at this." I told her grinning. She grinned back.

"Thanks."

"Now, then we need to count back from 7." Michiru said as Mai turned her light off.

"7..."

"6..."

"5..."

"4..."

"3..."

"2..."

Pause...

"1..." Suddenly everyone, but me obviously, screamed. I laughed as Naru turned the light on.

"That was great, Naru!" He shrugged.

"Naru!" Mai yelled scowling at him. I shrugged when she finally figured out that I was the one who messaged him to be here. "Aki!"

"What? It was hilarious seeing Monk and John's face when Naru said 1." Monk pouted.

"How could you be so mean to this old man?" He said hugging me.

"Monk," I whined. "Naru, save me!" He sighed. "Oh! Naru, what time are we taking those papers to the police tomorrow? I have to pick up my uniform for work tomorrow at 2."

"We'll leave at 7 in the morning and we should be back by 10 at the latest." I nodded.

"Good," Then he excused himself and left. I pouted.

"Party pooper." Monk chuckled as he let me go.

"So that was your surprise." Michiru said sighing.

"That really scared us." Keiko said still clutching her chest.

"That's what I was hoping for." I said grinning. The rest of the day was spent just hanging out. Monk and John had some things they needed to get done. Darn, I forgot to ask him how their search was going on finding a way of getting rid of that evil spirit at that school. Oh well, I can always ask them tomorrow.