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Niyuu- Can I just say that your review made me spit out my water when I read it. I sat at my laptop choking on water because of you. Because out of all the things that people have ever reviewed, that is a first and I certainly did not expect that.

~CWA


CHAPTER FORTY-NINE: INSANITY PART VII


Day Two (Continued)

After Danny's outburst, he seemed to return to normal. He spoke animatedly to the children, who spoke back just as excitedly. He was smiling, but his eyes still shined with a few old tears as he played with the children to keep them occupied. The others watched the scene in silence. None of them spoke of the incident or his scars again. They saw how much it affected him and they were his friends. If he wanted to tell them about it, then he would tell them when he was ready. I hope so at least, Mai thought with a heavy heart, Danny's obviously still affected by whatever did that to him and it's going to keep eating at him if he doesn't talk about it. If not to us, I hope he at least talks to Sam. I just hope he knows that he can trust us and that we're his friends.

As if reading her thoughts, Danny walked back over to the group with an easy grin on his face. They gave him nods in greeting, but his grin faltered.

"I.." he whispered, "Thank you for being concerned, but I really don't want to talk about it. Maybe someday and you guys are my friends, family even, but I just can't talk about it now…"

"We understand," Monk replied, nods of agreement going throughout the group as Monk placed a hand on Danny's shoulder, "We respect your decision Danny and I'm glad we're considered family to you."

"Well yeah," Danny's goofy grin returned, unlike the other smiles it reached his eyes.

Seeing his easy, real smile caused the last bit of tension to be released as they all let out a sigh of relief. Naru motioned for them all to gather back into the private area away from the kids so they obeyed, knowing that they still had a case to solve. The private area was soon filled with all of the investigators as they gathered around. Nao joined the group, curious to hear what the latest news was.

"Are the kids safe," Danny muttered to her, causing her to nod.

"Most of them are outside playing," she answered softly, "So far nothing's happened outside and all possessions seem to happen while they are inside the building. They should be safe."

Yasuhara cleared his throat, getting everyone's attention.

"I did some research," Yasuhara spoke, "And I was able to find out a few interesting things. Most seem to confirm our suspicions. This building was previously an insane asylum back in the late eighteen hundreds, early nineteen hundreds. This explains the locked doors, barred windows and steel rooms, I suppose. More than likely a few were old cells or the rooms of patients. The name of its owner, along with the names and deaths of the patients, is lost to history since most of their records were destroyed."

"Did you manage to find anything else," Naru asked impatiently.

"Yes," Yasuhara flipped through the papers, "The patients here were treated horribly and most were murderers to some degree. They were tortured through drowning and most had lobotomies preformed on them. All of this happened in the room Danny and John had checked, which explains the tools and blood. However, what's more is that back when this was still an asylum, there was a great flood."

"A flood," Mai whispered as she thought back to her horrible dream that led to her possession.

Sensing her distress, Danny gave her a comforting look that calmed her down a bit. Masako seemed a bit stressed as well as her hands started to tremble. This is a safe room, I shouldn't be feeling this way… Her mind grew a bit fogged with visions of the past, everything started to become overwhelming. Her hands continued to shake in the long sleeves of her kimono as her eyes widened. Danny turned to Masako and hunched over a bit to whisper to her as he put his hands on her shoulders,

"Deep breaths. Breathe in for seven seconds, then breathe out for eleven."

He breathed deeply, demonstrating the technique. Focusing on his breathing, Masako was able to sync her own breaths to his before finally, she calmed down. She gave Danny a thankful smile, which he returned with a nod before they both turned their attention back to Yasuhara. He continued to speak as he looked through his papers.

"Well, the weather here was never too great. Mudslides were common and from what I was able to gather, many patients were swept away from the mud and dragged into the lake to drown. But there was one incident where the lake itself flooded, causing a bit of trouble as water found it's way into the building. Soon, the asylum itself started to rapidly flood from both the lake water and the great rains. Any guard, doctor or patient that went outside was swept away with the currents and into the lake. Every other patient was still locked up in their rooms… Trapped as the rooms flooded. It wasn't long before they drowned…"

His voice trailed a bit at the end as they took in the new information. Nao put a hand to her mouth in shock. Danny nodded solemnly. I guess this makes sense, he mused, all the patients trapped want revenge. Or maybe everyone who died felt it was unfair and want the same fate on others. Mai gulped as thought back to her dream, the spirit that was trapped inside their room as they had pounded against the doors before they drowned. Murderers or not, it's cruel, she crinkled her nose.

"I guess that explains a lot," Monk finally spoke, "It seems we have a lot of restless spirits on our hands. Either they are seeking justice or revenge."

Justice or revenge, it doesn't matter, Danny scowled, both are going to lead to a lot of trouble on our hands…

"On the bright side," Danny muttered, "This means we probably just have to exorcise the building and the lake to be done with it."

"To do an exorcism on the building," John mused, "One of us would have to do it room by room or maybe all of us splitting it up to do it?"

"It's worth a shot," Naru added, "We'll get to work on the exorcisms tomorrow. We're all tired and it's already pretty late."

"Last I went outside," Nao spoke up, "it seemed like a storm was brewing so I don't think anyone wants to go outside tonight… I better get the kids now though before the storm hits."

She turned to leave, but froze as the sound of children screaming reached her ears. The screaming came from outside, but easily reached the entire group, causing them to snap into action as they ran outside, hoping they weren't too late.