A/N: Just few words from the author, since I'm too tired to write something more creative ^^"

Thanks again to Dark Akuma Hunter, who spent her time on making this chapter readable. And thanks to all readers, who left reviews. And also thanks to the people who haven't posted anything. It's still good to know that so many of you read my story ^^

Two days passed by without any unusual occurrences. It seemed as though the ghost had decided to take a break from terrorising them after possessing Cat, which was both good news and bad at the same time. Good, because they didn't have to worry about anyone getting hurt, and bad, because they had yet to dig up anything new other than the letter Mai and Naru had discovered the previous day.

In some ways, Mai was beginning to get some sort of idea about what was going on with their ghost. They had deducted that the girl – Rin – was overprotective of, over even in love with – as Gene suggested – her friend. Still, they had no clue as to what had happened to chain her spirit to the earth and caused her to become so angry. Case-wise, they had yet to make any significant improvement.

Mai was still staying in Naru's room, trying as hard as possible not to think about the kiss more than necessary. It was difficult though, because every single time she looked at him her eyes would travel down to his lips and her thoughts would be overwhelmed with the memory of how good they felt on her own. To try and maintain some form of mental stability she wanted to return to her original, as she had no such romantic urges towards Cat, but she knew that asking Naru to let her was futile. Hence she decided to bear with it. She didn't know, however, that Naru was facing the same problem. Memories of the kiss would plague him at the most unexpected and inopportune moments. It was good, for him, that he had a strong personality and will or else Mai would likely be filing a paper for sexual harassment against her boss. He was just so oblivious…

And so Gene continued to stay in the girls' room. That was the reason Cat found herself being poked in the shoulder in the middle of the night.

"What the hell do you want Gene?" She groaned, wanting nothing more to do with the boy.

The poking didn't stop.

"How did you know it was me?" He asked, looking at her closed eyes. There was a broad grin plastered across his face, irritating her was his new favourite activity. Even if he had to be awake at ridiculous hours in order to do it.

Cat groaned and rolled onto her back as she opened her eyes to glare at him as he hovered over her.

"Because no one else if stupid enough to wake me up in the middle of the night." She answered, shoving him away slightly. "Back to my original question: what do you want?"

"Hot chocolate."

Green eyes blinked up at him, one brow raised in question.

"Excuse me?"

"Come with me to the kitchen to get some hot chocolate." He explained, watching her with expectant eyes.

Cat opened her mouth and closed it again. She wondered how old Gene really was.

"You woke me up at…" she glanced up at the clock on the bedside table, "2 in the freaking morning just to get some hot chocolate." She stated incredulously, eyeing him cautiously. Maybe they should take him to a doctor once the mission was over.

"It tastes best late at night."

She stared at him for a moment before turning her back to him and pulling the covers back over her head.

"No."

The poking started again.

"Come on, you know you want to. And besides, I can't go alone, Naru would have my head if I did. Come on Cat, don't be a party pooper."

Cat groaned when his voice reached her ears and the poking refused to stop.

"If I go with you will you let me sleep?" She mumbled from under the covers. It was so very comfortable lying in bed.

"Yep." Came his reply and she sighed, standing up.

She glared at him briefly before looking around for something to wear on top of her pyjamas only to have a mass of dark cloth thrown at her.

"Wear this and come."

Cat raised an eyebrow, moving Gene's shirt from where it had landed on her head and watching as he moved towards the door. He really did seem to be craving chocolate. She put his shirt on, enjoying the extra warmth it provided, and walked after him.

They had to go down to the first floor to get to the kitchen. Cat had to admit to herself that at night the hotel certainly gave off a spooky atmosphere. Dark shadows mixed with the loud wind that echoed around the building simply served to add to the feeling. Right now, the building felt like something out of some western horror movie.

She glanced through one of the windows and paused, furrowing her brows in thought. Gene was several metres further down the hallway when he noticed that she wasn't with him anymore.

"What's wrong?" He asked, noting her concentration.

"There's something…" the girl started before her eyes widened in sudden realisation. "Shit!"

Without another word she dashed down the stairs, running in the direction of the main doors. Gene blinked in surprise but had no option other than to follow her. He knew that she wasn't about to answer any of his questions.

"Cat!" He shouted when the girl bolted through the doors out into the freezing air. She didn't stop running, cutting a sharp left across the grounds.

'Naru, wake up!' He shouted in his mind to his brother, hoping that he would wake up.

There was a moment of silence.

'This had better be important.' Came a sleepy and groggy reply.

'Grab Lin and come outside. Something has happened.' He said and broke the link, seeing Cat kneeling next to something.

Gene moved closer and noticed the girl staring down in shock with her hand over her mouth. His eyes followed the direction of her gaze. There in the pure white snow lay the half-naked body of a boy, a bloody message scrawled across his chest. The snow around him was slowly being stained red.

"So she's made another move." Takigawa said, leaning on the windowsill in their base a little over an hour later.

"What exactly happened?" Mai asked no one in particular, holding her cup of hot tea. Cat was sitting beside her, still wearing Gene's too big shirt, a thoughtful expression plastered on her face. Why was it always her that wound up finding the bloody corpses?

"The police are saying that he jumped from the roof. They've excluded the possibility of homicide for now, seeing as there was only one set of footprints on the roof. How he got up there is still a mystery." Naru answered, looking through the files.

They had to do something soon. He was glad that it hadn't been Gene, since the ghost seemed rather fond of attacking him, but still, that didn't mean he welcomed the death of a stranger. It had been one of the members of the group that arrived the other day. For the most part he had ignored them, but when he caught Mai talking with one of the guys well… he certainly wasn't happy about it.

"But there is no doubt that it was her doing." Cat pointed out, sipping from her cup. She stressed the word 'her' – having been possessed by the ghost she had developed a personal sense of revenge.

"The message was clear enough." Naru added, closing the folder.

"But why hasn't the ghost attacked Gene?" John asked. "I mean, it seemed pretty interested in him before."

Naru started twirling the pen in his hand, thinking about how to answer.

"If we take into consideration that she is actively seeking revenge, then perhaps killing someone is her way to survive." He said finally, resting his chin on his hand while his elbow rested on his knee. "The fear of her victim is her nutrition, his death was so she could feed herself. With every kill she becomes stronger."

Mai shivered. It just felt so wrong and inhuman; but in their work they often came across things like that.

"So you mean that she killed this guy just to get more energy in order to attack Gene." Cat summarised.

"Most likely. We can't ignore the possibility."

Everyone turned to Gene, suddenly feeling sorry for the boy.

They talked for a while, trying to get all the facts straight. Not that there was much for them to get their heads around. Mai slowly began to doze off, her head lolling down towards her chest once sleep took a hold of her.

The party was amazing. Colourful dresses whirled around the dance floor while men gracefully led their partners in the waltz. There was laughter, happiness and excitement in the air.

Only one person stood alone in the room, tightly gripping the material of her dress as she stood off to one side. Her eyes were trained on a single person, nothing else seemed important to her.

Toshiko was standing in the centre in her white dress, smiling happily to all the guests as they arrived at her wedding. The man in the black tuxedo was right next to her, his hand resting in the small of her back. They looked amazing and were obviously deeply in love with each other, even Rin had to admit to that. They were almost like the prince and princess from a fairy tale. But she knew that it was only an act for everyone. Toshiko, her parents and the guests had all been fooled by the man's guise. He was a good actor.

But she wasn't that stupid. She knew what he was really doing. Even now she could see his eyes travelling around the ballroom, looking for a new lady-friend to be his next toy.

She wanted to crush something, to destroy anything. Her anger swelled inside her, slowly pushing her closer to the edge.

With a determined look on her face she turned and exited the room, going unnoticed by the others. That was fine with her. She just needed peace. She couldn't be interrupted.

Her quick steps took her to her room. She pulled a small black box from beneath her bed and opened it. It was turning out to be a good thing that there was a witch in her family. She had taken more than enough lessons from her aunt to know how to effectively curse things.

The only problem was what she should use…

Thinking for a moment she took the necklace from around her neck. It had been a present from Toshiko for her birthday. It was just the thing, nothing would be better suited to the task.

Cutting her finger with a knife from the box she smeared her blood over the pendant, chanting inside her head.

When everything she needed to do was completed she smiled in satisfaction. Now, as long as the necklace was intact, she would be able to get her revenge.

"…i…"

"…ai…"

"Mai! Wake up!"

Mai's eyes snapped open and she glanced around the base only to find it empty. Her eyes travelled to the person who had woken her and she had to fight down a blush when she saw Naru's face. For a moment she wondered why they were so close, but then her mind started working again and she remembered her dream.

"Necklace!" She shouted, straightening in her seat and putting a tad more space between their faces.

Naru stared at her with a raised brow.

"What are you talking about?"

"The necklace! Rin cursed it so she could get her revenge!"

That caught Naru's attention. He looked down at his assistant with furrowed brows.

"I think - I don't know why, you can call it my intuition if you want – but if we want to get rid of her we have to find the necklace." Mai said determinedly, looking at him. Maybe, just maybe, they had found something decent to go on.