Behind Closed Doors
File 10: The Angel of Music
"Again, I really can't thank you enough, Luella!" said the owner of the club and Luella's old friend Charlie, holding the woman's hands in her own. "I'm leaving on errands right now, but my nephew Adam is in the back working if you need someone to ask questions to."
"Of course," Luella said, giving her friend a quick hug before she was out hailing a taxi. The woman sighed, turning around to the others. "Looks like it's time to get to work!"
Bou-san had already unloaded their own taxi, stacking the last box atop the others with a sigh of relief. "Damn, those are heavier than they look!"
Mai tore her attention away from the goose bumps on her arms to examine her surroundings again. "You know, I think that this place might be creepier in the day than at night."
The tattered building, made almost entirely of real English oak and original handmade windows, was completely empty, leaving a ghostly sort of feel despite the sound of traffic outside on the major road it was located on the corner of. The dust of the building crowded the chilly air, seemingly frozen in time and only seen through thin rays of sunlight.
"Well, you haven't seen the building empty at night. If I were you, I would decide then," Bou-san said with a laugh. He knew how easy she was to spook. "All of those creaks when no one else is in the building, walking into spider webs, and you know these old buildings have a lot of secret passages right?"
Mai glared at him, slapping his shoulder. "Stop trying to scare me!"
The monk laughed, ruffling the brunettes already messy hair. "You got me, you got me!"
"Ugh," the brunette huffed, rubbing her temples to soothe the headache that was forming. "I'm already freaked out enough by this place, Bou-san."
"Forget him, Mai," said Ayako, the redheaded woman's grip suddenly on her wrist, pulling her away. "We're going to go take temperatures." They were already going up the stairs before Bou-san had time to even respond.
"H-Hey, that's not fair!" the monk protested, calling after them.
"Damn," Luella cursed through a sigh, "Looks like we're stuck with monitor duty."
"Jesus, Ayako. Nearly took my arm off!" Mai complained, rubbing her shoulder. "What's up with you?"
The priestess paused for a minute before looking away. She took a deep breath, "Nothing. I just…thought we should get to work."
Something was definitely wrong, and it definitely had something to do with Bou-san. Mai crossed her arms, not believing a word from the woman's mouth. "Ayako, are you and Bou-san fighting by any chance?"
"What?!" Ayako's voice cracked and she bit her lip without realizing it. "Why would you say that?"
"I had been noticing things, but I just pushed them to the back of my mind because I thought it was nothing. But the truth is that you two have been avoiding each other, am I right?" Mai interrogated.
"Well, we're not…" Ayako looked away, blushing, "we're not fighting, really."
"Then is there any reason to avoid each other?" said the brunette, rolling her eyes. They were like children sometimes.
"Takigawa…" Ayako sighed, running a hand through her hair, "he asked me to move in with him."
Mai's jaw dropped, her mouth soon transforming into the biggest smile. She gripped the redheaded woman's shoulders, jumping up and down in her excitement. "Oh my god! Wait, is this not good? Don't you want this, Ayako?"
"That's the problem. I-I don't know what I want," the priestess said, pushing Mai away gently. "And I'm afraid that he'll just get tired of me, you know? Somehow, I feel like moving in together would be the end of it. And I'm not ready for that to happen. I just want things to last longer, you know?"
"Are you telling me he's still waiting for your answer?"
"Of course! I can't decide something like that so quickly!"
"Ayako," Mai said softly, smiling at one of the most brilliant women she knew. "You're in love with Bou-san and he's in love with you! There's no way he could get tired of you!"
The redheaded priestess blushed, turning her attention to a clipboard with spaces to write their observed temperatures. "Come on, lets get to work, brat."
"Yes, ma'am"
"Don't call me that."
"Most of the temperatures seem pretty average, except there was a dip in temperature in the attic which of course is very unusual," Mai said, tapping her pencil against the clipboard. "For the larger rooms I took the temperature in all four corners of the room and took the average of those."
"Sounds good to me," Bou-san nodded. "Luella and I set up the monitors. We only have two to work with, but that should be fine seeing as we only have eight cameras. I say two of us set up cameras and the other two will get a reading on the building. What does everyone say?"
"Mai and I will go on a walk-through of the building!" Luella suggested, but grabbed the brunette's arm and pulled her away before she could protest.
The teen laughed, following behind Luella patiently. "Tired of setting up equipment?" Mai asked, wondering why she was being jerked around so much that day.
"No," Luella shook her head. "Bou-san seems to be in an incredibly foul mood. I had to get out of there."
Mai bit the inside of her cheek. No wonder the monk was upset – he was still waiting on Ayako to make up her mind. And now the unfortunate priestess was trapped setting up cameras with Bou-san.
"Those two are always such children, I swear," Mai sighed and rubbed her eyes, the situation already making her exhausted.
"It must be something in the air," Luella said with a sigh, probably referring to Mai and Naru's tiff the previous night.
The two of them started in the main room, exploring the bathrooms, behind the bar, and the hallway Mai had fainted in the night before. They took a trip down to the basement that was being used as a wine cellar, walking down the rows as they tried to pronounce the names on the bottles. Then they ventured up to the loft, passing a tense Ayako and Bou-san on the staircase before they wandered higher. They even spent a moment out on the balcony looking down on the traffic along the main road. Lastly, they popped into the attic for quick look.
The two had talked about many different things to pass the time, but all Mai wanted to discuss was whatever Naru had told his mother about his feelings for her.
She brushed her hair behind her ear and looked around at the dusty attic that contained mostly boxes and old furniture. She'd already been up there to take the temperature, but the room continued to make her anxious for some reason. She spotted the camera that Ayako and Bou-san had set up in the corner of the room and flashed a smile, waving.
She looked at all of the junk that was just lying around. They could probably get rid of a lot of stuff if they just decided to clean it every once in a while. There was a pile of boxes directly in the middle of the room that Mai felt needed to be moved in order to give the camera a good view of the other side of the room.
"Want to help me move these?" she asked, getting to work already, by picking it up and bringing it to the other side of the room.
Luella nodded, rolling up her sleeves and following suit. Soon the boxes all lined a wall in the attic, giving the room a much more open feeling.
While attempting to stack the last box higher than she could reach, Mai lost her balance and the contents of the cardboard box fell, as did the brunette. The teen cursed under her breath, rubbing her sore back as she assessed the damage. It wasn't anything too bad – the box just contained a bunch of trinkets and what looked like toys. Nothing that couldn't be picked up and put away again.
But for some reason Mai couldn't move. Her eyes were glued to a wooden object half wrapped in some sort of cloth and string. She hadn't even realized she had picked it up when she was examining it in her hands.
The weight of the object in her hand seemed so surreal for some reason. She turned over the tattered cloth in her hand. It seemed to be a doll carved out of wood – not very well made, but it looked nearly ancient.
"What is it?" Luella asked, leaning over the brunette to examine the object as well. "A doll?"
"I think," the brunette agreed, her eyes catching an even more interesting object. A yellowed piece of paper with a blurred picture scrawled across the page in what looked like charcoal lay half hidden underneath the box. She handed the wooden doll off to the older woman and picked up the piece of paper.
It had no words written on it, just an image of a small hut and what looked like several stick figures. A child's drawing.
A tear rolled down Mai's cheek. She felt a wave of sickness all of the sudden, her heart feeling like it was stuck in her throat, blocking her airways.
"Mai are you alright?" Luella asked, finally taking note of the tears that were escaping the brunette's eyes.
"These meant a lot to someone," she said nodding, feeling the delicate paper between her fingers. "They were very well taken care of."
Luella cocked her head in confusion. "Do you think…they have something to do with the case?"
"Yeah. I don't know how, but…" Mai inspected the rest of the objects. Besides the wooden doll and drawing, there was an old rusted tin with a marble inside of it, a black knight chess piece, several playing cards that were almost unrecognizable, and dice.
Luella got the hint and began packing everything in the box, setting it against the others. "Well, lets get out of this creepy attic before even more weird stuff happens!" she suggested, offering her hand to help Mai stand.
The brunette nodded, wiping her random tears away. She let the older woman help her off of the dusty floor. "Yeah, that was weird," she said softly as they abandoned the oddly chilly room.
Everyone's gone. Why am I the only one left?
Please don't leave me.
"Mai?"
The brunette jerked awake, sitting up straight on the bar stool. She wiped the small amount of drool away from the corner of her mouth. "What, yes?"
Luella, who was in the process of handing the brunette the glass of water she had asked for, busted out in a fit of laughter. "Did you really fall asleep? You've only been sitting down for a minute!"
Mai took the water with a nod of appreciation. "I'm sorry, I didn't sleep much last night for some reason." She said 'for some reason,' but she knew exactly why she hadn't slept well and the reason was, as usual, Naru. She couldn't get her mind off of him lately and it was making her life much more difficult.
She tugged on the necklace around her throat, finding comfort in the feeling of the stone between her fingers. It was one of her most important possessions and the one of the only gifts Naru had ever given her.
"Hm? What's that?" Luella inquired, joining Mai at the bar. "Oh, is that ametrine? Do you mind if I see it?"
Mai smiled, unclasping the latch at the back of her neck, she handed the necklace to the woman. "Yeah, I think it is. It's supposed to disperse negative energy, right?"
The older woman nodded, looking at Mai with a suspicious glint in her eye. "It's very pretty. Where'd you get it?"
A blush spread across the brunette's face. She took a sip of water to lubricate her dry throat before managing to say anything. "It was a gift, actually. So I'm not sure."
"You know, I used to have a necklace just like this," Luella said, nostalgia hitting her as she looked at the piece of jewelry. "I probably stopped wearing it around the same time I stopped tagging along on cases. I guess I didn't really need it anymore."
Mai nearly choked on her own spit, her eyes frozen on the necklace. Was this Luella's necklace? Had Naru given her his mother's necklace? Would Luella be mad if she found out? The brunette bit her lip. Maybe she was over analyzing the situation?
Mai laughed nervously. "What a coinci–" A loud creak exhibited from the old building interrupted her. She glanced around curiously, wondering if was just the building itself or if it had been something paranormal.
"That was really loud," Luella whispered, also observing her surroundings very closely.
Mai gasped as the unwelcome sensation of searing pain went down her back, her scream caught in her throat as she nearly fell off of the barstool. Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes as she bit her lip to keep herself calm. She grabbed Luella's arm, gaining the woman's attention.
The woman glanced at Mai, worried. "Dear, are you okay?"
"My back," she managed to say, though her voice cracked. "It's on fire." She reached behind her, pulling up her shirt as far as she could.
Luella's eyes widened as she did so, looking over the brunette's shoulder to see a red mark running down her back. "We need to get you out of here, Mai. Are you okay to walk?"
Mai nodded, a tear slipping down her cheek as Luella helped her off of the barstool. It hurt like someone had just taken a whip to her back and every movement she made had it burning.
The water glasses that still sat innocently on the bar top seemed like they had started to move, Mai noticed through her blurry eyes, fascinated by the way the water rippled. She knew it was bad news, though. Soon enough they would fly off of the counter towards them, shattering whenever they came into contact with something.
Before she knew it, she had pulled the woman down onto the ground with her, ducking in a threshold that lead to the back hallway as shards of glass and the rest of the water in those cups rained down on them after the glasses hit the door frame just above them.
At this point, full bottles of alcohol were sliding off of the shelves behind the bar, shattering as they came in contact with the floor.
"Naumaku sanmanda bazaradan kan! On kirikiribazara–"
"Rin, pyo, to, sha, kai, jin, retsu, zai, zen!"
Mai almost sighed in relief when she heard their teammates chants, but knew she wasn't in the clear yet. She and Luella remained huddled in the doorway until all sound had stopped.
Ayako, already out of breath, ran over to them. "Are you two alright? What on earth happened?"
"It's a long story," Luella started off, helping to lift the brunette from her crouching position. "But first we need to take care of Mai's back."
Bou-san walked over to them, though he kept his eyes on the bar area, worried that the spirit hadn't fully retreated yet. "What happened to Mai's ba–" The monk was at a loss for words, as was Ayako, when Luella lifted the back of Mai's shirt up.
The redhead covered her mouth, muffling her horrified gasp. "We– We need to ice this as soon as possible. Bou-san, go get us some!"
As the monk hurried off to the bar area to find ice, Ayako continued to examine the irritated area on the brunette's back, asking questions like how much it hurt, what it felt like, etc. Bou-san soon returned with a beer glass full of ice.
"You couldn't find a bag or a rag or something?" inquired the redheaded miko, looking at Bou-san in disappointment.
"If I had found one, I wouldn't have put the ice in a glass now would I?" the monk replied sarcastically.
Luella glared at the bickering couple. "You two are ridiculous. Stop fighting. We need to get her out of here. But first I'm going to let Charlie's nephew know what happened and tell him we're leaving," Luella said, leaving them.
Bou-san got one last frustrated sigh in before he kneeled on the ground. "Here, get on my back, Mai."
The teen nodded, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. Ayako followed behind them, making sure to keep the glass of ice on the girl's back.
Mai wondered how Naru would react to them coming home like this.
As she laid on her stomach with Ayako icing her back as gently as possible (though at this point everything was pretty much numb), Mai couldn't get her mind off of the events that had occurred earlier that day. Although whatever spirit haunted the old building seemed to have it out for her, she couldn't bring herself to feel that way. There was a lot more to the story of that building – maybe something that Naru and Lin had figured out while they were gone.
In fact, as soon as they got home Mai was given some pain medicine that was so strong she fell asleep within minutes of taking it. She hadn't even seen Naru when Bou-san had carried her inside.
Looking at her watch, Mai realized that it was almost time for dinner. "Ayako, how long was I out for?"
The priestess looked at her own watch, sighing. "For about four hours. How are you feeling now?"
Mai pouted like a child. "Everything still hurts."
Ayako looked upon the girl sympathetically. "Well, you're definitely going to need to sleep on your stomach tonight."
The brunette groaned into her pillow. She hated sleeping on her stomach.
A knock on the door distracted them both.
"I can take over, Matsuzaki-san," Naru said from behind the door.
The redhead gave Mai a suggestive glance, raising her eyebrows before she stood up from the bed. "Thank god. I thought I'd never be relieved."
Mai panicked. She didn't even have a bra on. She wasn't decent! But Ayako was already greeting Naru at the door. The priestess gave him a quick run down of what medicine she still needed to take, handing him some sort of ointment for the burn mark down her back.
Ayako bid farewell before closing the door behind her, leaving just the two of them. Naru sat on the edge of the bed with a sigh.
Mai peeked over her folded arms, her cheeks red with blush. "H-Hey…"
"What did you get yourself into this time?" he inquired, giving her a hard look. "Mother wouldn't tell me anything about what happened. How did all of this start?"
Mai mentally cursed Luella. "Well…we had just finished with a walk through of the building. Bou-san and Ayako were still in the wine cellar setting up cameras, I think. Then there was this really loud creak, so for a while Luella and I just sat and listened. And all of the sudden, there was this searing pain in my back that just knocked the wind out of me. I could barely even say that I was in pain."
Mai took a deep, shaky breath when she realized that Naru's cool fingers were tracing down her shoulder blade. "S-So she was looking at my back and decided she needed to get me out of the building, and I think we were walking to the exit when two glasses of water smashed into the doorway next to us. And then whole bottles of alcohol were falling off of the shelves behind the bar. But of course Bou-san and Ayako showed up and saved the day."
"Seems like you're the target as usual," he sighed. The teen opened the bottle of ointment, beginning to apply it to the burn on his assistant's back.
"It seems like it… but I don't think so," Mai whispered, getting lost in her thoughts. "It was like I was just an annoyance for her. Like she had a goal and I was simply in the way or something. Which is why she attacked me, of course."
Naru glared at the brunette. "Is this your intuition talking?"
"As a matter of fact, yes," she said defensively, huffing into her pillow. "Did you guys get any information on the building?"
Naru nodded, wiping the ointment off of his hands before he began applying bandages to her irritated skin. "The structure currently built on that property is the one that was built in 1668, after the Great Fire of London. Apparently only parts of the original building were burned, but the entire building was eventually demolished and rebuilt. It was a pub before the fire, as well as afterwards when it was rebuilt. It became a night club when my mother's friend bought it. It was rumored that the owners of the old pub were a part of some shady business, but there is no evidence in any documents that we could find supporting those claims."
"Sounds typical, I guess," Mai mumbled, finally relaxing under Naru's touch. "I wonder what kind of shady business…"
"While it could've been a number of things, the most likely is drug dealing," Naru responded.
Somehow Mai felt he was right. But then what did that have to do with a little girl? Mai remembered her being black and she knew that slavery still existed in England at that time. Or maybe it had something to do with prostitution? Mai's gut wrenched, making her nearly sick. She shook her head, attempting to imagine something, anything rather than what was coming to mind.
But Mai all of the sudden was too tired to care. The bed was so comfortable and the room was so warm that the brunette's breathing just evened out and the next thing she knew was the darkness of her eyelids.
"Did you find anything at the site?"
"Huh?" She jerked awake, realizing that Naru was talking to her. "Oh, uh. Well we basically just set up equipment. Actually, we found a box of toys, looked really old…" She began to nod off once again, her speech becoming slurred.
"And?" He obviously knew there was more to the tired girl's story.
"Mhmm. I keep hearing a young girl… African American, maybe around eleven years old. Holding a lot of fear and anger..." Mai yawned.
This time it wasn't the sound of his voice, but the feeling of Naru's frigid fingers trail down her neck that really woke the brunette up. Despite the painful burn on her back, Mai propped herself up on her elbows and turned around to comment on his inopportune flirting, but the look on his face stopped her.
"Where's your necklace?"
She took a deep breath, but quickly deflated. In fact, she had no idea where the necklace was. The last time she had seen it was in Luella's hands, right before all of the commotion at the club. She'd totally forgotten all about it!
"U-Uh, well, it's actually–"
There was a knock on the door, interrupting Mai's attempt at explaining the situation.
"Dinner's ready!" Bou-san called, peeking through the door's crack.
"It's fine," Naru said, not waiting for the brunette to finish. He stood promptly, passing by the monk with a simple nod as he exited the room. He was definitely mad.
Bou-san raised a contemplative eyebrow, looking back at Mai as if looking for answers.
They'd just recovered from a fight and now this? Mai maneuvered herself so that she was sitting at the edge of her bed, fighting off the tears in her eyes. Whether they were from the pain in her back or from Naru's reaction or from her losing the necklace he had given her, she wasn't exactly sure. She took a deep breath, willing the tears away.
The monk frowned. He didn't know what was going on, but he knew how to cheer the brunette up. "Come on, slow poke," he joked, holding out his hand. "Luella will get mad if we're late for dinner!"
Mai nodded, grabbing the monk's hand as if it were a lifeline. He pulled her off of the bed and wrapped his arm around her, being careful not to touch the girl's back. He patted her head, his hand moving down to her shoulder to support her as they walked down the hallway and stairs together.
The brunette smiled at his actions, letting more of her weight fall onto the man. "You know, one day you're going to be a great dad."
She could feel the monk tense up beside her. Obviously, he was not comfortable with the concept. "Do I sense some sarcasm, or is that a legitimate compliment?"
Mai laughed. "Or course it's legitimate! I mean, sometimes you are kind of…" she made trailed off jokingly before she made a noise of disgust. "But anyway, you'd definitely be an awesome dad!"
"Um, what was that? Sometimes I'm kind of what?" he bantered back quickly, pinching her as punishment for her cheekiness.
"Ow, ow! I'm sorry," she said while giggling, quickly twisting out from under his arm and into the dinning room where almost everyone was sitting…
Except for Naru.
She froze in the threshold, looking around, but the narcissist was nowhere to be found. "Naru's not eating with us?" she inquired casually, sitting between Luella and Ayako near the head of the table. Across from her were Lin and Madoka (who was apparently back from her doctors appointment).
"Said he had something to do," said Martin, whom Mai didn't even realize was sitting at the head of the table. Naru's father sighed, leaning back in his chair and taking a sip of wine.
Not wanting to make it obvious that they had just (kind of?) had a fight, which was probably the reason Naru wouldn't be joining them for dinner, Mai simply nodded without another word. She hoped the next person that talked would change the topic.
Thankfully, Luella read her mind. She huffed loudly, maneuvering her fork and knife to cut the roast on her plate. "Anyway, Mai, how is your back feeling? Is it any better?"
"Oh, yes. I did hear a bit about your adventures today," Martin commented offhandedly.
The spotlight suddenly on her, Mai tensed. "Y-Yeah! After some medicine and sleep, it's feeling much better. I'm sure it'll be all healed by the end of the week."
Naru's mother nodded, still seeming worried. "Lets hope so, dear. I still think we should take you to the hospital…"
Mai momentarily panicked. She hated hospitals and would avoid them if at all possible. "N-No! I mean, I feel a lot better. And Ayako, didn't you say it would be okay?" she inquired, turning to the red headed priestess for reassurance.
The self-proclaimed miko glared at her teenage friend, crossing her arms. "No, I said you seriously need to stay out of trouble, Mai. I told you that those burns on your back will be okay, but that's only if you don't move around too much."
Mai nodded, first at Ayako and then at Martin and Luella. "I will! I promise not to overdo it!"
Luella frowned, not sure what to make of Mai's reluctance towards going to the hospital. The women glanced at her husband and then back in Mai's direction with a sigh. "Fine, but if anything else happens…"
The brunette perked up again. "Bou-san, you can be my personal guard! That way if anything happens I'll definitely have someone capable with me."
Trying not to choke on his food, Bou-san pounded his chest with his fist. He leaned on the table, looking past his girlfriend to give Mai a knowing look. "Yeah, yeah. I'll babysit the brat."
"So how exactly did everything happen?" questioned Madoka, apparently having not heard the whole story.
"I'm surprised you haven't heard yet," said Ayako, momentarily shocked at the fact. Lin raised an eyebrow, as if asking the same question. Mai was simply relieved that the woman was changing yet another unfavorable subject.
Mai motioned for Luella to tell the story. Instead of thinking about the day's rather tiring events, the brunette's mind wandered to her frustrating and strangely absent boss.
She also wondered about the necklace. Did Luella still happen to have it on her? Maybe she put it in her pocket while all of the fuss was happening?
Her appetite suddenly gone, Mai simply spaced out for the rest of dinner.
Sorry for the wait! Here's what you've all been waiting for!
