I'm really sorry guys! I deleted the chapters announcing the quiz, but the reviews are still there! I thought it would get rid of them but it didn't! I swear I'm not a scheming poser. . I just like playing quiz games.
On another note, I lied. There's one more chapter after this and THEN the epilogue. The 13th chapter ended up so big I chopped it in half.
Please let me know what you think. Also, to our wonderful Guest reviewer: you don't know all the details yet. Yes, it's more than just autism, though severe autism could do that and more to a person. Mental illnesses are a bitch.
Chapter 13
A nurse came back with a clean shirt and a rather terse Lin to drive me back to the hospital. I tugged on the red jacket (as the loss of blood made me cold and with a half-filled balloon for a head), that he handed to me after I'd sign the release form of the nurse.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
Lin made a displeased grunt before saying, "I don't particularly care for Oliver's impression that he commands me."
Which, in English, meant that Lin had wanted to go with Naru back to the old hospital as protection, but had been evaded and told to take me back instead.
"Did he head back with John?" I asked.
"With Ms. Hara."
Ah. How quaint. That short sentence served to feed a squirming green monster in my chest. I'd have to talk to him later about the appropriateness of being alone in a vehicle with a beautiful young woman who loved him when he had a girlfriend…with mild self-esteem issues.
"Where's John?"
"In the car." Which meant I should stop dawdling there asking stupid questions and get going so Lin could get back to Naru.
"Sorry! Sorry."
I had to sigh on the way out. Was I to end up in the hospital every month? Who knew something that was supposed to be insubstantial could do so much physical harm. Then again, it had been me who had bit myself. At the front desk I was handed some pain killers for the next few days, told to set up a date with my local practitioner to get the stitches removed, and set on my way to the back seat of Lin's car.
It wasn't till I saw John's pale face that I remembered. Skipping the open front seat, I slid into the back. John looked surprised, but smiled nonetheless.
"I left the front open for you," he said.
"Aren't you afraid of needles?" I asked. "When Ayako and you came into the hospital, you looked so nervous and she said it was because you were afraid of needles."
He let out a sheepish chuckle. "Oh, well…about that…it's a little more than needles, persay."
I waited. Lin pulled out of the parking lot as John fidgeted.
"Please don't laugh," he said, clenching his hands between his knees. "But just…seeing any kind of needle, be it syringe or IV or anything along the lines sort of…really gets me panicky."
But I didn't feel like laughing at all. "You mean…the whole entire time you were in my hospital room—"
He threw up his hands, cheeks reddening. "It's not that big of a deal, really."
"But I had an IV in my arm the whole time!"
"Well, I've had to put up with it before," he scratched the side of his cheek and switched to staring out the front of the car as his blush grew. "Priests are often needed in hospitals."
"So, then, why you left so quickly afterwards?"
He turned his face even further. "I sort of, um…didn't want to be sick on you…sorry."
Only then did I laugh, but it was more of relief and delight than mockery. Even if he brushed it off as no big deal, the fact that he braved such a phobia and anxiety in order to be there for me really said a lot. Not to mention a tiny part of me had feared he really had leaned in on the impulse to kiss me. That was a whole bag of maggots and worms I didn't want to open, which included, not only John's whole oath of celibacy, but a very moody Naru who probably didn't have the first clue of how to handle jealousy.
Though, as an ugly, old white truck trundled pass us on the freeway, I couldn't help but wonder if there had been anyone there for our medium ghost. If there had been, would she have gotten so bad? So twisted?
Was that really the reason she fought so hard to reach Masako and I?
But then, with someone so broken, did the part of her that sought for others even work anymore?
The sun had just set when we reached the old hospital. The half-moon already hung high, hovering over the hot orange remains of the day and casting one half of the squarish building into shadow.
Ayako met us at the entrance and held the door open for us, her painted lips thin.
"They're all down in the basement," she said.
"Huh?" I squawked.
Lin actually started running, slipping past Ayako and into the poorly lit hall beyond. John looked from Ayako to me apprehensively.
"What's so bad about the basement?" he asked.
"I don't know," said Ayako. "To be honest it's the cleanest and best preserved part of this place. But Naru insists on holding a séance there—because we haven't been fighting tooth and nail to keep spirits out the past day and night, oh no. It's that stupid driftwood god all over again."
"There aren't any signs of rats or spiders down there," I said, falling into place at Ayako's side as we set off at a brisk walk. "Not even cobwebs. It's weird, don't you remember that closet I opened up earlier that was full of rats?"
"And I've seen enough spiders to want to just bomb this place and be done with it," said Ayako.
"Definitely weird," agreed John.
"Can spirits do that?" I asked.
"Well, that's too vague a question," said John. "There are ghosts that are strong enough to drain the energy from those living around them, but I'm not sure as to scaring off living creatures. And if so, I'd think we would have felt it ourselves and avoided the place."
"But wasn't that what we were feeling?" I asked as a tension I hadn't realized had been twisting in my gut the past few days returned. "No one wanted to go into the basement. We all thought it was creepy. But we're use to that feeling, we're use to scary places and haunts, so why would we listen to it?"
John and Ayako stared at me. By some unspoken agreement, we picked up our speed to a jog. The South Hall slipped past us, and out of the corner of my eye I noticed the darkness which had become the East Hall. The West Hall, which we ran through, held the same half-flickering, yellowed light.
"How could a spirit get past our wards like that anyways?" panted Ayako as we came to the North Hall, where the nurse's office waited for us.
Suddenly, John stopped. We nearly stopped along with him, but as soon as we did he had picked up and ran past us. We called out to him, but soon enough we were gathered at the top of the stairs in the doorway hidden at the back of the nurse's office. At the foot of the stairs was Naru, back lighted by the weaker, warm glow of candles.
"Just who I needed," he said, and his eyes fell on John.
"Masako…" he panted. "She isn't…?"
Poor John had paled to the point his freckles looked like mud splattered across his nose. His fists were clenched at his sides and his gaze was glued to the black figure at the bottom of the stairs.
"I'm sure you can guess," said Naru. "Let's not have the indecency to say it out loud." Naru's eyes found me and Ayako. "Didn't I tell you to wait outside with Mai?"
I flinched. The tension in the air was thick enough to snap. "Ugh! Naru, you jerk, you're doing it again! Leaving me out of the loop, you know I hate that!"
"And I'll tell you later." His eyes narrowed. "Go outside."
Like hell. I stomped my foot. "I'm already involved, Naru, if you send us outside that girl's going to find me anyways. She got past wards, she's going to get past a stupid old wall."
His expression sharpened. "Oh? And you know this?"
"Yes." As sure as I ever did. And as I reached to that voice deep within my breast that spoke these truths, it whispered another. "And it wouldn't matter where I go. She reached me at the hospital as well. How do you think I saw those things? She called to me, as she called to Gene. It can't be ignored."
The words didn't sound like my own. Now everyone was looking at me, including John, who suddenly looked pained, even to biting his lip.
Naru, however, ducked his chin, sufficiently hiding his face from us.
"John, get your things," he said, and disappeared back into the basement.
After an exchanged glance, Ayako and I took the stairs down two at a time as John ran off. At the foot, the one ordinary, dust-free hallway had been transformed by candle light. There were no tables or chairs, just Masako sitting on the floor, dressed in a simple, elegant navy kimono. A single candle burned before her, reflecting in her large, dark eyes.
The impression of a waiting animal flash through my head, and I shook it off.
Takigawa and Lin stood on either side of Masako; Takigawa in his robes, hands and prayer beads ready; Lin grim and erect. Naru stood silhouetted by the candle light before her. Charms papered the walls.
"Mary," he said. "You are cornered. Leave or be destroyed."
The moment my foot hit the bottom of the stairs, Masako's dark eyes snapped to my face. Her pupils had gone so wide the iris had vanished. Her lips curled.
Without warning, Masako's hand flashed out to a candle and chucked it at me. I stepped to the side just in time for it to thwack against my shoulder and shatter on the linoleum floor, splattering me with hot wax.
In that same moment Lin had her restrained, and Monk had cried, "Naru!"
But Naru stopped him with a hand. "Unless you can exorcize the spirit without hurting her, wait for John."
"But you already have her name, why can't Lin just do it?"
"Because if I'm wrong…" he turned to me. "You all right?"
I opened my mouth to respond, but Masako—or Mary—shrieked over me.
"SMALL! Pissy bitch, think you're so big—SMALL! I'll fill you with skinny worms till your legs tear apart and your guts fall out!"
Ayako caught me in my retreat, pulling me behind her, but that only seemed to enrage whatever possessed Masako more.
"CUT YOU! CUT YOU! SEXTANT! WHORE!"