(A/N): When you read the end of this chapter, please don't hate me. I will update as soon as I can, don't worry, it won't take too long. I promise. Anyway, just in case you didn't know, cars in Japan usually have the driver's seat on the right hand side, like in England. That will make sense when you read on. Well, here's chapter 21. Thank you so much for all your reviews, favourites and follows. My sister says I should have a special author's note for everyone who reviewed, favourited and followed, and I think that's a good idea, but the only problem is that some of you have reviewed anonymously, so I wouldn't be able to mention you specifically. I'll think of something...

Thanks for reading, and hope that you enjoy this chapter. My sister's reaction to reading the end of this chapter was (I was a few rooms away), "WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUDGE?!" (But ruder) Again, thanks for reading, and please keep reviewing! :)

Groggily, my eyes flickered open. It did not take long for panic to overwhelm me. It was dark. Completely dark. Where was I?

I did not dare move. Why was it so dark? No, it wasn't dark. Someone had wrapped a blind-fold around my eyes. Saburou had.

Oh God. Oh my God.

I could hear no one, so I struggled into a sitting position. My hands were tied behind me.

Oh my God. No. This couldn't be happening. This was not happening.

My hands writhed and struggled. Whatever bound them was soft, some kind of fabric. But it did not loosen. Already I could feel my heart racing and my breathing becoming more and more rapid.

Stop. Calm down. Panicking won't help. Just calm down.

I tried to steady my breathing. Just calm down. Calm. Down. My breathing slowed. Good. Now you can think straight.

Where was I? Not in the Church anymore, it seemed. The floor was not hard and cold, but an irritating fabric, some cheap carpet. Like…the interior of a car…

There was the feeling of motion about me, which I had failed to notice in my panic. I was moving. So maybe I was in a car. Or not a car, maybe a van…?

At this realisation, I felt panic trying to engulf me again, and I quickly fought it off. Panicking would not help me right now.

In my pocket, something began to vibrate. My phone…Saburou had not taken it off of me just yet…

Abruptly, the motion stopped. The van must have come to a halt. Straining my ears, I heard the sound of a car door closing. Then footsteps resounded from somewhere. Outside, maybe. All the while, my mobile continued to vibrate repeatedly. Someone was trying to ring me.

"…Hello?" It was Saburou's voice.

I listened intently. "Yes…Don't worry, everything is under control." No one was speaking to him. He must have been on the phone to someone.

"He'll be out for a while. I used the usual dosage."

That made some sort of sense. I must have been drugged. Fighting the panic again, I continued listening, as my mobile continued vibrating.

"…No, I haven't taken his phone yet. I had to get him out of the Church quickly. I didn't want the other priest barging in on us…Yes, I know…I just wanted to get out of Tokyo quickly, it was hard enough getting him out in daylight, we're lucky that Church is so secluded… I will do…Yeah, I know, I haven't had time to lock the van properly…well, if I started doing it in the middle of Tokyo, someone would probably see…Yeah, I'll do it now…Wait a minute. Someone's coming."

The sound of another vehicle resonated from outside. A voice I did not recognise spoke put.

"Excuse me, I'm lost. Could you give me some directions?" The voice was heavily accented. Whoever it was, Japanese was not their first language.

At once, I set to work trying to free myself. While I still had my phone, which was still vibrating, there was chance of rescue. It could be easily tracked, and when Lin turned up at the Church to find me missing, he would immediately realise something was wrong. If he could track it down, as it had been fully recharged since I last checked and not switched off, then he might be able to find me. As soon as Saburou took away my phone, hope was lost. I had to escape, if not very far.

Taking a deep breath to fully calm myself, I strained against the binding around my hands, stretching it as far as it could go. Then I stopped, and let it go slack. Then strained it again. Then stopped. I did this repeatedly, again and again, until the binding finally began to loosen.

"Ok…so you take the second right after that…got it?"

Soon, I was able to slip my hands out. Ripping off the blindfold, I staggered to my feet. My head spun sickeningly, still feeling the effects of being drugged. Like I thought, I was in a van, in the far right corner. At once, I wanted to answer my mobile, but first, I needed to escape from here.

"So then, it will be on your right. Got that?...Got that?" Saburou was sounding frustrated.

Hastily, I stumbled to the door of the van. Was it…?

It was open. I could not believe my luck.

Creaking open the door slowly, my heart in my mouth, I looked out of the van. It was quite dark outside. No one was there – Saburou must have been on the other side. Slipping out, my foot treading silently onto the ground, I closed the van door behind me and peered around. We were on a narrow, country road with thick forests on either side of the verge. Standing by the driver's door, Saburou was watching a battered car driving away. He took out his phone again.

"Should I follow him for a bit? Just in case?...He might have been an undercover, we've had our fair share of them…Ok. I'll do that."

He opened up the driver's seat door, and I withdrew myself. The exhaust began to spout fumes, and I bolted to the trees on the left, out of sight from the side mirror that Saburou would be looking in.

The white van drove painfully slowly down the road. Hiding in the trees, I could only watch and pray that Saburou continued driving, and did not stop and check if I was still in the back.

"Please…Please, go on. Don't stop." I found myself whispering as I knelt down on my knees, peering through the undergrowth. "Let him go on. Oh God, don't let him stop. Don't let him stop."

He did not stop. The white van got further and further away, driving down the long, lone road, in steady pursuit of the passer-by. After what seemed like an hour, it turned a corner, and was gone.

I allowed myself to let out a shaky breath, that I did not realise I had been holding in the first place. An adrenaline that seemed all too familiar in my body began to calm, while my head was pounding and I had to resist the sudden urge to throw up. My back against the tree and my knees withdrawn, I gasped for breath. The only noise was the sound of my own panicked breathing and my mobile continually vibrating. Sweat trickled down my forehead as my mind began to comprehend how close to death I had been.

"Your time is up."

Saburou was going to take me away. He was going to kill me, in a horrible, painful way.

And as soon as he realised I had escaped, he would come to find me. He would come back and finish the job he needed to complete.

Trying to prevent the terror building up inside of me, I fumbled for my mobile. Finally, I could pick up the call.

"Father Brown, where are you? I'm at the Church, and you're not here. I've been trying to ring you. Where are you?"

Relief washed over me. "L-Lin-san…"

"Where are you? Is everything all right?"

"No." I answered truthfully. "Saburou came – he came to the Church and…and we fought and he drugged me and I woke up in his van and I was blindfolded and my hands were tied and…" I stopped, and took a deep, ragged breath. "…he hasn't realised that I've escaped. Not yet. I don't know where I am."

There was a small silence, and when Lin spoke up again, his voice held a calmness that I could not help but admire. "Ok. Can you describe your surroundings for me?"

"Ummm…I'm on the edge of a forest…there's a road, it's very long and narrow, only 1 car can drive at a time…there aren't any cars on it now…either side of the road is a forest…"

"That's good. Are they any signs of any sort?"

"Not that I can see."

"What about the trees? What type are they?"

"Umm…I think they're coniferous…"

There was another silence. "…I'm going to try and track your mobile."

"How? Are you going to ask the police?"

"No, I can do it myself." This surprised me. "For now, stay out of sight from the road. It sounds tempting to stay by the road, but if Saburou-san is anywhere near it, then it's best that you avoid it. Don't head too deep into the forest, because there's no guarantee that there will be any civilisation nearby, so if you get lost or Saburou-san catches up to you, you'll be alone. Walk the opposite way to the direction Saburou-san drove, but keep in the undergrowth and not directly on the road. Can you do that?"

I nodded shakily, then realised I needed to speak. "Y-Yeah. I can do that."

"Good. Remember, if anything happens, just call me. In the meantime, I'll keep on trying to find your location. Ok?"

"Ok."

Lin hung up the phone, and immediately I missed his collected voice that took control of the situation. Nonetheless, I picked myself up, only to almost fall over from my pounding head. I gripped the tree, and the moss stains covered my hands and my front. Panting, I shook my head, trying to rid myself of the pain. It did not go away, and instead the taunting fade of the melody replayed in my head.

I felt angry now. I was not going to let this stupid song jeopardise my current situation. Steeling myself, I began to walk through the undergrowth, ignoring the long grass that tripped me up or the branches that swiped at my face. No. I had to keep on going. The minutes seemed to stretch into hours, and it became increasingly darker and darker. Soon, I was fumbling through the trees blindly, and I could not tell where one tree ended and the next began.

A few times, I could hear the sound of a vehicle driving slowly down the road, and my impulse was to freeze and hide myself. However, each time, the vehicle went on by, and did not stop.

It was a long time before I was interrupted. Stopping dead in my tracks, I stood before a stone wall. Coated in moss and crumbling from exposure, it seemed to stretch on further than I could see in the dark, but was not particularly high. A few of the stones had fallen away into a heap at the base, where sprouts had begun to start growing between the cracks. As I stood, contemplating what to do as my mind had ran out of panicked thinking, the sound of a vehicle spurred me into action. Was it the white van? I did not know, and I did not want to risk finding out. Instead, I put my foot tentatively on the fallen stones, testing my weight to see if it would remain stable. They did not even move a centimetre. Climbing onto the highest point of the pile, I pulled myself carefully over the wall, and lowered myself down quietly onto the other side.

A large field. That was my initial thought. It was vast and only interrupted by a few deciduous trees here and there. No, wait…as I looked closer, I realised that the field was not continuous like I had thought. There were shapes coming out of the ground, but in the dark, I could not make out what they were. Stumbling forwards, I strained my eyes against the darkness, trying to make out something that might reveal my location.

Then I saw it – a large sign, with Japanese printed on it. Dredging up concentration, I focused on the words as much as I could; the writing was half illegible in the dark. Finally, I had managed to decipher what mattered the most: my location.

'PRECIOUS HEARTS BURIAL SITE'

A graveyard. That explained the strange shapes that peppered the field. Shivering, I made the sign of the cross, largely out of habit, and then grabbed my mobile.

"Father Brown, I've almost got your location. I've had some trouble finding you, but just give me five more minutes." Immediately, I heard Lin's calm voice.

"It's ok. I've managed to find a sign. I'm in a grave yard."

"What is it called?" In the background, I heard a keyboard being typed.

"Precious Hearts Burial Ground."

The sound of typing was all I could hear for a brief minute. "…I've found it. Stay there. If anyone approaches you, hide. Otherwise, just sit tight. I'm coming to find you."

He hung up, and once more, the relief that washed through me was satisfying and comforting. I staggered forwards, drained of energy, and collapsed before I had walked very far. Fatigue was eating steadily at me. At first, I checked my watch, but it was too dark to read the numbers, so I flicked to my mobile instead. The bright screen hurt my eyes, but I was able to read what it said. 10pm. Well, it had been around half 5 when I was in the Church, when service ended, and around 6 o'clock when Saburou had confronted me. Since then, I had been trying to get as far away from Saburou as possible for some hours. Now, I felt like I could barely move, and I guessed that whatever Saburou had injected me with played a part. At least my head wasn't hurting anymore, and the melody had ceased for the time being.

As I lowered the phone, its brightness gave me sight to a short range of my surroundings. A smooth, marble headstone was startlingly close to me. I jumped a little, moving back as much as I physically could. The grave was not particularly big, unlike the others that were nearby. The small offering platform was pathetically undersized compared to the other graves, and was almost bare, save for a few orange flowers. Staring blankly at the headstone, I could not bring myself to try and read the words written there. Actually, there was not much written there at all. Just a name.

Then something clicked, in the part of my brain that was still alert but felt so far away. Something was wrong about this grave. What was it? What was –

When I realised, fear and anger fought inside me, battling to overwhelm me. In the end, it was not either which came out a victor, but sheer defeat.

Orange flowers. The Japanese did not leave orange flowers at graves. They left white chrysanthemum.

I examined the flowers, already knowing what kind they would be. Orange lilies.

This was a message from the colleague. Now, anger was beginning to crawl back into me, followed closely by a feeling of sick disgust. Picking up the distasteful flowers, I saw a piece of paper that had been hidden beneath. I tossed the flowers to one side, and lifted the paper by a corner, unwilling to touch anymore.

I opened it up.

'Time to prepare your funeral bed, John.'

It was neat, tiny handwriting.

'I prepared his. Now it's time for yours.'

'With love, your colleague.'

My first reaction was to grab the lilies and destroy them. Their sight filled me with resentment. This was too far. This was much too far. I snatched them up, and held them in my hands as if to tear them up. Something stopped me. My hands trembled, with the delicate petals scrunched inside my fists, tearing slightly. In the end, though, I placed them gently back on the ground. Orange lilies. I had grown to fear and hate them simultaneously. Yet it was not the lilies themselves, it was the person who had sent them. I was not going to destroy the lilies, for they had done nothing wrong. It was the colleague who deserved punishment.

Now that my brief rage had passed, I looked back at the grave with a cleared head. Why this particular grave? Why not any other headstone? Pulling together my focus, I read the grave headstone once more. This time, my efforts were successful.

This grave belonged to Isuke Watanabe, age 72 at death.

Footsteps sounded behind me. I whirled around, preparing to defend myself, when a bright light scorched my retinas and left me incapacitated. This was it. This was the end. I braced myself. It was my turn.

"…Father Brown?"

The light swivelled away from me. I peered through the darkness at the familiar voice.

Lin stood over me, a flash light in his hands.

At once, I clambered to my feet as he began, "Are you hurt?" Before he could ask more, I simply threw my arms around him. I think it surprised him.

"Thank God it's you. Thank God." I whispered.

"…Father Brown, are you all right?" He asked.

"Not really." Was my answer. "I just…" I stepped back, and passed him the note. "I thought…I was expecting it to be…" As he read the note, I did not need to say any further. He frowned, and folded the note up. Placing it in his pocket, he turned his attention back to me.

"Don't worry. He's not here. If he was, I wouldn't let him touch you." I did not doubt the sincerity in his voice. "Ignore him. He's just trying to scare you."

"I don't think he's just trying to scare me." I swallowed. "Saburou…he said my time was up. He tried to take me away."

Lin sighed quietly, and patted my shoulder, as if he was not quite sure how to console me but understood it needed to be done.

"Shall we leave?"

I nodded quickly. Sweeping the beam of light around carefully, observing his surroundings, Lin began to stride swiftly from the burial site, and I hurried to catch up with him.

After a thorough examination of the car, we began our journey back to Tokyo. Apparently, we were near a village outside of Tokyo, maybe an hour or less from the city, called Shiroku. I sat in the back seat, leaning against the window and watching the dark shapes of scenery fly past me. All I wanted to do was close my eyes and rest, but I forced myself to stay awake. There was something in the back of my mind, something that terrified me.

When Saburou had drugged me, and I had fallen unconscious, I had remembered something. I remembered waiting at the bus stop in the middle of the night. I remembered seeing Saburou. Then Kazuki came, and he had arranged to meet up with Saburou. What's more, I had heard a brief snatch of conversation that meant nothing to me at the time, yet now threw me into confusion and dread.

"…You've been off work for a while. When are you coming back? Soon?..."

Saburou and Kazuki knew each other. More than that, they worked together.

The realisation worried me. Why would someone like Saburou, an associate of the colleague, be working with Kazuki? Kazuki had claimed to be a doctor, and now that I thought about it, Saburou had been wearing a white lab coat when he came into the Church. So, he was a doctor as well? Yet I could not imagine someone like him being a doctor.

I reported my findings…or rather, my recollection, to Lin.

He listened in intent silence.

"So, what do you think it means?"

Lin said nothing. He stared at the road.

"…Lin-san?"

Finally, he spoke up. "There's an explanation for this. You know it. You just don't want to accept it."

"What?" Something inside me stirred. Accept it?

"Actually, not just about your flash back. About the whole situation. You know an explanation that answers all the questions. Kazuya does, too. He highly suspects it, as do I."

"What is it?" I felt my heart speed up. They knew? Did they know what had happened to me?

"…Think about it, Father. It will hurt. It will hurt you, and it is better for you to realise yourself."

"What do – no, I don't know. Please. Tell me." I begged him.

He shook his head. "I can't do that."

"Why not?!" I asked desperately.

"Because it is too cruel for me to just…announce. Kazuya thinks we should. He says things are getting too dangerous. But I think otherwise."

"Why?"

"We don't know certainly, for one thing. If our judgement is wrong, it would inflict a lot of needless pain on you. And even if we are right, the matter is very…delicate. Painful. Think hard, Father. Think about all those doubts you have, and face them. Don't find an excuse to rationalise them. You have to face them. Notice the problems and the speculations. Bring them together. And then, you will realise."

For the rest of the journey, Lin did not utter another single word. Instead, I was left to my thoughts, speculating wildly, trying to make sense from Lin's cryptic instructions. No. They were not cryptic. In fact, they were quite straight forward. I was missing something. Whatever it might be, it was too personal for me to except as an answer. I did not want it to be the cause for my problems. Lin was telling me to re-evaluate everything I had learnt, and try to see what I had ignored and blocked out. But even now, there was a part of me that did not want to. Maybe, this was the side of me that knew what had happened, and had chosen to ignore it. There was a subconscious inside of me, something that had decided whatever happened was too painful; it was better to just not remember. It was the reaction of my brain to suppress the memories, and now that I was trying to rediscover them, my brain was refusing to think rationally.

Lin was right. I was ignoring a vital link, refusing to piece up the clues. What was it? What had I missed?

When we finally arrived back at Tokyo, the streets were still crowded with people, only just beginning their city night life. The neon lights buzzed in the darkness, and the air was warm and heavy. After a short eternity of weaving through traffic, Lin finally arrived at Takigawa's apartment.

"Oh!" Guiltily, I realised it had completely slipped my mind. "How is Takigawa-kun? Did you manage to bail him out? Is everything ok?"

Lin nodded, as he pulled up the car. "He's in the apartment. I'll walk up with you."

Walking up the stairs to Takigawa's apartment, I found myself worrying about what I would say to him. An apology did not seem enough. He had been arrested because of me. 'Sorry' was not sufficient.

Lin paused outside the door, and knocked steadily. I waited behind him, unwilling to stand in plain view. He did not have to wait long for the door to be opened.

"Lin-san?" Takigawa stood at the door, looking tired and defeated. He did not see me.

"Is everything all right?" Lin asked immediately.

Takigawa nodded. "Yeah. I'm fine." However, he did not look as if he was fine. "There's something I need to tell you. It's about…"

"Not now. I've been away from Kazuya too long. I need to make sure he hasn't done anything stupid." Lin grabbed me and pushed me into Takigawa's apartment. At Lin's force, I crashed into him, then backed away, muttering, "Sorry, sorry."

"Stay alert." With that, Lin closed the door and left.

Takigawa looked at me. "Are you…ok?"

I nodded. "I'm fine."

He shuffled over to the door, and began to lock it up again. His demeanour was…different. His tone, his body language…it was all very sullen. Was he angry with me? He had every right to be, I knew that.

"…Lin-san rang me and told me what happened." Takigawa spoke insouciantly as he locked up. His voice lacked his normal friendliness.

"When? I don't remember him doing that in the car."

"Before." Takigawa finished, although he left his statement somewhat incomplete. He turned abruptly, and walked into the main room. I followed him, now nervous. Takigawa was acting strangely. It was not anger, like I had first suspected. No. There was something bothering him.

Standing by the window, Takigawa stared out into the streets. It was a while before he spoke up.

"…John." He did not use an honorific. "There's something…when I was being interrogated, I had a conversation with a man. A man called Manzo Ueda."

I did not recognise the name. "Oh?"

"And he gave me some advice. He…he was interested about you."

I froze. "About me?" Panic began to creep inside me. "Wait…you didn't…you didn't tell anyone I was at the Church, did you?"

"No." He exhaled slowly. "…John. I'm going to come clean. I'm worried."

"Worried?"

"About you."

I frowned. What did he mean? "Why?"

He sighed, and looked frustrated. All the while, he had not looked me in the eye. "It's…Look, I don't want to believe that it's true. I really don't. I don't want to accept it. But…I've listened to the evidence. And…I don't know what to think anymore."

I did not like the sound of what he was saying. My heart was on the verge of sinking. "What do you mean?" I asked, my words firm.

He looked up at me, and made eye contact with me. It was only for a second, before he looked away again, ashamed.

"…John, I'm scared. I don't want it to be true. But I'm scared that it is."

"Scared that what is true?" His tantalising words filled me with panic.

Then there was a knock at the main room door, from the kitchen. My blood ran cold. Someone was here? Someone was listening in on us?

"May I come in?" A voice asked, a voice I knew all too well.

"Yes." As the door opened, Takigawa told me, "This is Ueda-san. He's a doctor."

The person came into view. We locked eyes, and my body felt paralysed.

"No." I shook my head. "No. This is…this is Saburou." I looked to Takigawa, horrified. "Stay away from him, he's dangerous!"

At my warning, Takigawa looked more exasperated and upset. "Just-just listen to what he has to say."

"No!" Freed from my paralysis, I stumbled backwards, shaking my head. "Takigawa, he attacked me! He tried to abduct me! I'm not going to listen to anything he has to say!" I grabbed my mobile, and began to dial Lin's number, but Takigawa took it from me.

"Takigawa, what are you doing?!" I shouted. "Why is he here?!" All this time, Saburou had not moved an inch. He was still wearing the lab coat, and made no effort to intervene or attack. Instead, he watched us, silent.

"Please, John. Just listen to him." Takigawa begged me. This did not make sense. Why had Takigawa been talking to Saburou? Why would he do something like this?

Now, Saburou spoke up. "John, please calm down. I'm not here to hurt you."

I swore loudly, and backed further away from him. "Last time I saw you, you drugged me."

"No, John." Surprisingly, his voice was very soft. "I didn't attack you."

"Yes, you did! You drugged me!"

"That's what you think. But it's not true." His words were nonsensical. Nothing made sense. What was going on?

"I want to help you, John. You think I'm here to hurt you, but I'm not. You need serious help."

Serious help? "What are you talking about?"

Saburou sighed. "There's no easy way to say this."

I turned to Takigawa. "Houshou, please. What is going on? I don't understand."

Takigawa pursed his lips, and said nothing. He avoided my gaze.

"Houshou?" I whispered. "Houshou, please. This man is not here to help. Why is he here?"

Again, not a word was uttered. Finally, Takigawa straightened himself out, and stared at me, matching my gaze.

"John." His tone was solemn. "I…" He could say no more. Instead, Saburou spoke up.

"I've been watching you for a while. Not like that." He added, before I could interrupt. "I've been diagnosing you."

"Diagnosing?" I asked, indignant.

"Yes, diagnosing. And I've reached a conclusion. John." He glanced at Takigawa, then back at me.

"You have Paranoid Schizophrenia."