I'm sorry it took longer than usual, I just realized I only had the copy chapters 41, 42, 43 and 45. See that? See how I missed the number 44?


Chapter 44: Foreboding

Before Mai had the chance to ask Ayako about her suspicious actions but a sudden loud thud and a few noisy shouts cut them off. Ayako almost growled in annoyance, Mai could sense it.

"Ayako, calm down" Mai said, trying to pull her hand of Ayako's hold and run freely to the direction of the sound.

"Calm down!" a small voice of a kid said, surprising the threesome, though Akashi hid his surprise better.

"They will die!"

It took them a moment to realize the voices weren't talking to them, the voices were having a conversation with each other.

"They don't really deserve it you know"

"Like how the others didn't deserve it"

"WE DIDN'T DESERVE IT! WHAT MAKES THEM DIFFERENT FROM US?!"

The threesome stood there waiting to see if someone else would speak again, when more than a minute passed, they ran to the room and saw John down unconscious, surrounded by the other team members.

"Because this time, we're doing the murder" Mai stopped in her tracks. She saw Akashi and Ayako already surrounding John and asking for the specific details and Mai knew she was the only one who heard the voice.

#

"Where's Madoka and Yasu?" Mai asked after everyone settled to the base several hours later after a fruitless effort of checking every video tape, scanning room temperatures, re-watching tapes, and forcing Mai to sleep. Ayako and Masako were with John, who was resting.

Mai was sitting beside Naru on the same couch. Kyle was sitting with Monk on the opposite couch, both looking tired and restless. Akashi was leaning by the door, Lin was typing in his laptop.

"I sent them home" Naru said "After John regains consciousness; I'm sending him home with Masako"

Mai nodded. It didn't take a genius to know why Naru would send them home. The house was a literal murder house and the risk of someone getting fatally injured is high.

"I heard them talking" Mai said silently after a while of debating if she should speak up or not. Lin stopped typing and the room was dead silent.

"Who?" Monk asked, he really did look like he had troubles sleeping. Countless times he had performed his mantra out in the blind, but I was useless. All it did was make him tired and it drained his energy as fast as leaking water in a pipe.

"The spirits," she said "They are really the cause of all this stuffs. They won't stop until they… they get what they want"

"And what is it that they want?" Naru turned to her, Mai meet his eyes and she can read them, he knows what Mai is thinking, but he's asking her to tell it out in the loud so the other would know.

"Us," Mai's eyes hardened "Dead."

The lights died off, but the monitors were still on and white. That is until a face of a rotting little girl appeared. Everyone stood up "It's not long before all of you are going to join us" the little girl grinned, her jaws clearly showing her smile "Don't worry, we give warm welcome parties to dead people"

The monitors died off too and Mai could have sworn the little girl looked directly at her before it went off. It was pitch black and Mai unknowingly moved towards Naru and Naru unknowingly stepped forward to block her at the least.

A loud groan of pain vibrated from the room. "Is everyone alright?" Mai asked, her voice shaking. "I think that was Monk-san" Mai said "Monk-san?" Another groan and a shout of pain and then followed by a loud thud. The lights opened and Mai screamed at what she saw.

In the floor were Monk and Kyle, unconscious and swimming in their own blood.

#

Ayako was pacing at the hospital waiting room. She won't stop and Mai is getting a headache from it!

"This is wrong," Ayako said, softly "The thing in here, it's not like any other case we have, this thing is malicious. It doesn't think twice about attacking, much less murdering"

"What are you trying to say?" Mai asked her, paling. She hoped it's not exactly what she thinks it means.

"We're dropping the case" Ayako said as fast as she could without biting her tongue, she practiced earlier, when the team had decided one of them has to tell Mai and convince her "I talked to it with Naru, and everyone else, they agreed too"

"And everyone else" Mai folded her arms "so where's my say in this?"

"Mai, you saw what happened yesterday! You flat out experienced Masako almost dying before we came, there were knives hovering Mai! You got burned by hot water, John's down, Naru was threatened too, and yesterday Kyle was wounded deeply and so was Monk, they're at the hospital" Ayako inhaled shakily "We can't risk anymore accidents Mai"

"No!" Mai yelled back "There's a family that's waiting for us to help them with their problem, we can't let them down!"

A slap echoed in the room and Mai was overwhelmed with shock that she didn't even bother moving her head back to face Ayako. She just stared at the floor, her cheeks red and aching.

"We can't always save people Mai, safety comes first" Ayako stood tall, her eyes flashed hurt "please don't be selfish" Ayako turned to her heel, and Mai stepped back, the words hit her like a bucket of cold ice.

Please don't be selfish.

Ayako's right, her team was suffering, all because she didn't want to drop the case. Because she let her pride as a top 2 angel get the better side of it. It's all because she didn't have her powers, she couldn't protect them.

A calm hand on her shoulders surprised her and she met the eyes of Akashi, which was then when she decided, she will end this, she will protect her team. But first, she will need Akashi's help.

#

"How did it go?" Naru asked the priestess. By the look in her face, it was quite obvious it didn't go well, but Naru wanted to prove he was correct, as always. After all, Ayako insisted they ask Mai's permission to leave even after Naru said it wasn't necessary.

"You know how it went" Ayako said, annoyed "She's coming, I told her to make the right decision. We can pack up now" Naru stared at the woman, unmoving form his spot. Something got under her skin, that's for sure. He sighed "Gather the cameras before you take the monitors"

Ayako nodded stiffly and left the base. There was only Naru and her in the house full of angry spirits, Ayako shivered, what more could go wrong than what happened to Kyle and Monk?

Ayako entered the kitchen to get the video recorder and the tape when she felt herself slightly stumble on something. Ayako toned it down with harmless profanities and she was silence when she saw what she stumbled on. She dropped the expensive video recorder and the tape on the process of shock "MAI!"


Cookie: So we found Kyle and Monk on the floor, and then we found Mai on the floor /gasp/ what is happening?!

So very sorry for very late updates. Family problems and all that stuff, believe me when I tell you they're watching my every move (we have cctv mostly everywhere)