Chapter 29

Mai attempted to take in her surroundings but wasn't able to glean much from her accessible clues. She knew she was seated in a rather uncomfortable chair from how stiff her back was. She deduced her hands were tied behind her somehow when she was unable to move them as she attempted to lift them and inadvertently inflicted pain at the point where something was binding them tightly together. She figured out her ankles were tied to the legs of the chair after she attempted to move them in a similar fashion. She wasn't sure what bound her appendages. Handcuffs? Rope? Zip Ties? It could be a number of different possibilities.She was thankful that whatever the contraption was that it wasn't restricting her circulation. She still had sensation in her fingertips.

She only had speculation and deductive reasoning to rely on to give her facts. That's because she wasn't able to see much. She knew that even if she put her hand in front of her face she wouldn't be able to see it. There was something inhibiting her sight. A mask? A bandana? Once again she couldn't be sure.

The one definitely thing she could be certain of was that she was held captive. She knew that she was trapped in this prison made of darkness. It extended forever and nearly made her feel dizzy and off kilter like she was going to pass out or fall down. The first of the two possibilities felt imminent. The second highly unlikely since she was in a chair and not on her own two feet.

Her ears perked at the sound of shuffling coming up behind her. Then what she could only guess was a muffled chuckle. "You, my dear, were a rare find." A hand touched her bare throat. It glided up against her neck and pushed away her hair, only stopping at the nape of her neck. She stiffened at the foreign touch and hoped the perpetrator didn't notice how the hairs on her neck seemed to be standing on end. "I'm surprised at the luck I had when you stumbled along my path." The voice was guttural and difficult to determine the sex of the speaker. If Mai was a gambler she would be tempted to lay money down and say the speaker was male.

Then the phantom sensation of a disembodied hand trailed down her arm across her elbow, and it palmed around her breast grasping it harshly. "This," the voice hissed in her ear. "This is why I chose you. This is why you are here." His thumb and forefinger plucked at her nipple painfullyforcing her body to react against her wishes. The sound of a hissing breath touched her ears and his presence seemed to evaporate.

She felt a breeze lick over her body and sounds of footsteps retreating away from her. She took several large breaths and kicked at the pavement underneath her feet, trying hard to grasp some kind of purchase to be able to topple the chair over. She only hoped that the chair was made of wood, and that she could inflict enough force that it may break as it fell. She was even more desperate than before to get out of the bindings that held her captive.

She became too engrossed in what she was doing, and hadn't heard him come back across the room. His hands were once again on her and putting pressure down on her shoulders forcing her to remain in place. "Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. You can't be doing that." This guy was a venomous snake, and Mai was done with this scenario. She fought against his hands and tried to once again to push her feet against the pavement. "Oh, so now you are going to be difficult?" A rustling sound barely touched her ears. "Good thing I was prepared for that."

Suddenly Mai felt like she was being strangled only the hands that touched her weren't clasped around her neck. She felt one bunched at the base of her neck. The other was still firmly holding her in place at the shoulder. "Breathe deep my pet. For this is the last remaining oxygen you're going to get."

Her brain knew that breathing deep was not the action she should take. She also knew fighting her body in such a way was fruitless. She succumbed when her body acted reflexively and fought against her logic.

She kept taking large gasping breaths, and with each one her world became more hazy. She became more dizzy. She felt her eyelashes flirting with her cheeks and nearly surrendered to the welcoming darkness.

Heat flared against her cheek, and her eyes sprung wide open instantaneously.

"Mai! Dammit! Wake the Hell up!"

OoO

Case 2 Day 1

Noll felt exceptionally claustrophobic in the small office they had set up as base.

All the preliminaries that both teams initially went through on a case were taken care of.

Gene and Mai had done initial temperature checks. Monk and Ayako set up cameras in locations where there were none. Lin had set up their technical system so both their own cameras and the security cameras would feed directly to their own monitors. Noll wasn't quite sure what John Brown and Kimura Akane were up to. It seemed he was doing his best to explain the purpose of the task everyone was currently working on.

Earlier on in the day, Noll and Mai had done some on site interviews to learn about the company, the warehouse, and to reevaluate the police reports previous employees had given. With the exception of employees hearing muffled whimpering in the northeast quadrant nothing seemed to be too paranormal in nature.

It was hard for any of the employees to discuss the past that correlated with the women that were murdered. What little they did gather about the victims had Noll somewhat perplexed. Idiot Scientist, always having to be right. Noll pulled his pensive expression to keep his frown, that he directed at his brother's thoughts, hidden.

The women in question varied so much in personality and visual characteristics it didn't seem likely to be the motive of a serial killer. It seemed he uttered something aloud about those thoughts because when he turned back to Mai she looked at him with a confused expression on her face. He had to sigh and bite back some relevant retort about her intelligence. He turned his back and sneered at his brother's snide mental thought. Wow, Noll! You're learning.

"Serial killers tend to have something specific about the victims they choose." He picked up the case folder. "These women are so vastly different that they don't seem to fit in one specific classification that would, for lack of a better word, entice a serial killer to chose them all as his victims." He threw the folder back down and some of the papers slid out fanning themselves across the table.

Mai stood up and went to the large dry erase board of the conference room they had been interviewing in. "So, let's see if we can break this down even more." She uncapped the marker putting the lid at the end of it. "There were how many victims again?"

Noll proceeded to recite the names of all seven of the victims that went missing. Mai put asterisks beside the names of those who had been found. She then made columns. One for each category: age, hair color, body type, and known personality. Once she had all this information cataloged she stepped back from the dry erase board. "The only thing I see in common at all is age. They all seem to be between 20 and 30 years of age."

"That can easily be explained away by the career they each held. This isn't exactly the type of career people make a living doing. It's more of a stopping point on their way to the career they would eventually want to have."

Mai nodded.

Hours later and now Noll was gazing down at Mai as she began to drift off on the couch. Their weren't any abnormalities with the temperature checks. None of the team heard anything unusual in the northeast quadrant nor did they pick up any unusual visuals or sound recordings. The data that Mai and Noll went through led them to no other clues. It was time for Mai to try to learn something from her dreams.

OoO

I swear this is the worse part of the cases in Japan. No scratch that worse is when Mai becomes a paranormal magnet and ends up lost or hurt. Watching her suffer through one of her dreams was a very close second though.

There was also the complication of having to come to terms with the fact that her dreams were a necessity to solving most of the cases. I would always turn my back as she slept and focus on whatever Lin had been typing on his computer screen. Today I felt compelled to watch her as the rhythm of her breathing evened out and her lashes flicked across her cheeks as she entered R.E.M.

I should have ignored her body and focused on Gene relaying her dream to me. I nearly laughed aloud when his body crumbled on the floor beside her. Luckily I caught myself and covered the sound with a cough before any of my childish colleagues could take notice. I was sure Lin was behind me smirking. Not being able to hide things from my tutor was a curse. Although Madoka would have turned it into an even bigger production.

I watched as Mai's face turned down in disgust. 'Gene? What's happening?'

'You don't want to know.'

'WHAT?!' I could feel my pulse race out of anger at my brother and fear for Mai. 'I insist you tell me.'

'Well, first of all Mai is taking the place of one of the victims. So everything that is happening to her. It's not really happening to HER.'

'I'm not an imbecile!'

'No, your my twin brother and an idiot scientist that won't admit he's in love with his former assistant. I'm trying to spare your emotional overreaction.'

I grimaced at his choice in label regarding my feelings for Mai. As a scientist I need proof that something exists before I can fully put faith in my own belief about it. It's not that I didn't know love existed. Unconditional love was something I might not overly show outwardly. I did know it and experienced it not only through having a twin. But also through my adopted parents, and if I was completely honest Madoka and Lin also. Did love of a romantic nature exist? That I had no experience with so I wasn't sure if I believed in it or not.

'Just tell me what is happening!'

'The killer is being overly forceful with her.'

A sense of dread washed over me. 'He isn't…?' My mind conjured up some of the worse possible mental pictures, and I felt a trickle of fear course down my spine. If I had been thinking clearly I wouldn't have asked the question at all. The case file said there was no sign of sexual abuse in the bodies that were discovered. It would be highly unlikely that those that hadn't been discovered would have been different.

'No, no not that. But—' A mental gasp passed through our shared link. "Crap, Noll, you need to wake up Mai! Wake her up now!'

I didn't waste any time asking questions and looked down at Mai. She was gasping for breath and her hands were at her neck. Crap she was suffocating. "Mai! Mai! Wake up!" If I didn't wake her up fast enough she could die right before my eyes.

I began shaking her over and over again. Screaming the same words at her. The problem was nothing was working. I felt my control snap and suddenly my hand was slapping harshly against her cheek. The pain I inflicted upon my palm barely registered.

"Mai! Dammit! Wake the Hell up!"

OoO

Ayako left Mai's side to go get her a tall glass of water. Mai's body was shaking from head to toe. She sat on the couch with her legs folded up against her and her forehead against her knees. She had to release the hold she had on her knees to take the glass from Ayako's outstretched hand once she came back with it.

Ayako searched Mai's face and turned her chin away from her so she could get a better look at Mai's cheek. The corners of her lips turned downward. "I think we need to put some ice on that cheek." She got up to retrieve the item from the nearby kitchenette. She openly glared at Naru as she passed him.

Noll would take any cruel words that Dr. Matsuzaki threw his direction. He had never hit a woman before. He really didn't care to repeat the performance. But if he had to relive that moment again he would still choose the same course of action. It had been the only thing that had woken her up after all. It was far better that she was injured and alive rather than the grim ulternative. He understood of course that not everyone would see it that way. Honestly, this was one of those rare moments where he really wanted to talk to his mother.

Akane and John entered the room. "Mai? What happened to your cheek?"

Noll tuned out their discussion as Mai once again relived her dream for others. He winced as she flustered to find words to describe how he had slapped her to wake her up. Yeah, I definitely need to call mother.

Noll, you didn't do anything wrong. Don't let what others think determine how you feel. You saved her life!

Gene's words were soothing but still not the voice he wanted to hear right now. He was about to leave the room when Akane spoke. "I guess this is the best opportunity to try to learn if I can heal someone other than myself."

"You will not be using Mai as your guinea pig. You need to train first." He really wanted to shout at her but he kept his tone as neutral as possible to hide his passionate anger on the subject.

"But I—"

"I said no." He said abruptly and turned on his heel to leave the room. He feared if he hadn't left at that moment the others would have witnessed emotions he would rather keep in check.

OoO

I watched as the door shut behind him. There was a part of me that wanted to follow him. To reassure him that I understood why he slapped me. To reassure him that I understood why he didn't want Akane to attempt to use her abilities.

But I was frozen to the couch. I didn't ever want to think of the strangulation again. Nor of that man's fierce touch on me. I would probably relive it as my own nightmares for months. That concern is probably what kept me frozen here.

Gene sat down beside me and wrapped his arm around my shoulder. I leaned my head against his shoulder and pondered over if it was Naru that was comforting me would it feel the same since they were identical. I felt heat infuse my cheeks as I answered my own question. No, there's no way it would feel the same. But Naru's shoulder is the one I really wanted to lean on if I were to be completely honest.

Okay I felt I had to finish this chapter I was enjoying the way it unraveled so much. I even realized as I was writing it that I wanted to add another element to the case that I hadn't mapped out on paper on in my head previously.

I hope this chapter wasn't confusing with the backtracking. I would have wrote something to indicate the backtrack directly. But when I started to do so it felt like it lost some of its organic flow.

I really really loved this chapter and I hope you all end up feeling the same way. :) Review to let me know your thoughts. :)