DISCLAIMER: I don't own yyh; but I do own Mai and all my original characters...this story is also based off of the 'odd occurrences' that happened at my friend's house last week.
Please enjoy!!
Thank you to my reviewers!
Sarah1281
Stephanie
Tressa
Thoughts and/or Flashback
The Imaginary Files
::Going Under::
"Mai...?"
Yusuke looked up as the girl began to stir beneath the pure white sheets. The Guardian blinked slowly before raising her eyes to him, they then fell on the others in the room with her.
"Hey guys..." she whispered weakly with a small grin, "I didn't cause you guys to worry too much, did I?"
Kurama shook his head from the chair beside the bed and clasped her hand gently, "Only a little bit, koi..." he smiled and Mai returned the gesture.
"So what the hell happened to you, Mai?" Urameshi asked her from the other side of the room where he and Kuwabara were playing Dai Hin Min (which seems kinda hard with only two people...) on the nightstand. And surprisingly enough, Hiei stood shadowed in a corner, his arms crossed over his chest irritably; obviously he had been forced to come against his will...
Mai lifted her hand from beneath the covers and rubbed her head gingerly, "Ugh...I dunno...What did the doctor say?"
The Detective shrugged, "They haven't been in here to check on you yet...the paramedics decided that it wasn't serious enough to go to the emergency room; just a check-up to make sure everything's alright..."
He cut himself off just then as the door opened beside him and Botan stepped into the room; her arms overloaded with cups of coffee from the dining hall. She paused briefly when she noticed Mai awake before suddenly dumping her load on Kuwabara's lap and racing to the side of the bed.
"So how are you feeling?" she inquired rather perkily while Kuwabara began listing off profanities as the hot liquid poured over his pants.
Botan sweat-dropped, "Oopsie!" she chirped innocently, "Sorry, Kazuma!"
Kuwabara grumbled to himself as he stood dripping wet and slunk into the hallway where the peevish giggles of the nurses could be heard as he walked passed them.
"Hn...baka..." Hiei muttered from his corner.
The Guardian watched him leave before she turned her head towards Botan and smiled weakly, "I'm fine, I guess..."
But she then stared up towards the ceiling. Desperately she tried to recall what had happened...but for some reason, her mind came up blank; no matter how hard she tried to recall, she could remember nothing.
"Damn it..." she muttered under her breath and rubbed her temples.
"Is something wrong, Mai?" Kurama inquired worriedly.
Her eyes darted towards him quickly, but she forced a weak smile and said nothing...
But something felt so out of place...
She looked around the plain white room slowly and at her friends watching her carefully...
Something didn't feel right at all...
As if she should have remembered what happened...
What the hell happened? Why don't I remember any of it?
Her eyes fell on the room she was in...the plain white walls that surrounded her struck something familiar in the back of her mind...but it was a hospital; all hospitals had white rooms like these...
But something was just different about it...
A white hallway stood before her...
Mai jumped slightly as the brief memory flashed through her mind and she felt her blood pump rather forcefully through her veins suddenly. The room began to spin abruptly and the Guardian groaned and clutched her head.
"...Mai...!"
'They're coming...for us their coming...'
'They've come...they will know the truth that they will...'
--Blood...blood everywhere; lining the hallways like a crimson river...
The lights flicker over the deep red liquid that stain the tile flooring. All is silent through the corridors except for the soft drip, drip of the blood trickling through the doorways. A flash of light once more through the corridor...
And suddenly three figures appear in the center of the hallway; their feet hovering just inches above the crimson stream. Their locks of translucent hair fell into their faces; dripping with the ghostly blood trickling downwards into the pool beneath them. Their misty white forms shifting like fog and their milky eyes stared off down the corridor blankly, but seemed as though they could pierce through anything.
Simultaneously, their heads turned toward the same direction as if sensing a presence nearby...but in the same motion they raised their hands upward and pointed towards the viewer; whoever it was who was watching them...
'They're searching for the souls of the lost...' they hiss darkly
'They come looking for those who have stolen the spirits of those before them...'
Their mouths moved hardly and seemed to form no words at all...but only to produce the sound that came through them.
'Why do they come...?'
'Why do they come to their doom...?'
The Guardian's body began to jolt violently as the vision passed through her mind. Her subconscious mind desperately tried to clasp on to the sheet of her bed to steady her spasm, but to no avail, her body continued to twitch uncontrollably.
Yusuke jumped from his chair abruptly when the girl's paroxysm began and now watched nearly horrified as the Guardian struggled to stop whatever was happening. Kurama stood also and urgently tried to keep Mai from hurting herself.
"Hiei go get a doctor!" Botan turned to the speed apparition quickly, but he was already gone through the doorway.
Tears of pain formed in the Guardian's eyes as they suddenly lost their depth and became faint and cold...pale as ice and death...
But then...she all of a sudden went still...
Her eyes stared off into the abyss of white around her and her mouth moved up and down as if she was trying to speak.
"Mai!" Both Kurama and Yusuke yelled in unison as the Detective rushed to the bedside.
"What the hell is going on?!" Urameshi roared and turned to Kurama as if he knew, but the red head shook his head in confusion, his eyes wide in fear...
Behind them, the door opened and a doctor and several nurses entered the room. Diligently, the nurses made a move to get to the girl, but stopped suddenly when Mai's body began to twitch violently again.
But this time, from her throat a deep whisper could be heard trying to break through to the others...
But the voice that came out was not her own...
"...Get...get out..."
Her eyes closed as if trying to block out the pain racing through her body, but to no avail, she let out a cry of pain and her eyes shot open once more.
"...GET OUT!!..."
-:-
"Did you sense it?"
Two doctors in white walked down the tiled hallway; their shoes clicking dully on the floor. The corridor was quiet all for the low humming of the air conditioner running above them. Several nurses paced in and out of the nearby rooms trying to finish their shifts.
The other doctor nodded; his eyes hooded beneath his brow, "It filled the room completely...as if I could reach out and touch it..."
His partner nodded and stroked his chin thoughtfully, "That girl...and her friends...they were entirely surrounded in it; I've never sensed so much in one place before..."
"Yes..." the other continued thoughtfully, "I believe we have hit the jackpot..."
The pair chuckled softly to themselves as they turned the corner. But from above, a pair of deep red eyes watched them as they passed beneath them.
"Hn..."
-:-
Weird...Kurama though as he glanced down at his watch...A nurse should have come by now; visiting hours are nearly over...
His eyes fell on the small bandage along Mai's arm where the nurses had injected her with the anesthetic to steady the spasm. So far, the Guardian had remained in a stilled slumber as the medicine took affect.
Hiei had disappeared sometime earlier after all of the pandemonium had settled down, but the red-head had a feeling that the apparition was still somewhere in the building. Botan had fallen asleep in the chair closest to the door while Kuwabara and Yusuke were still busy playing cards. The Detective, however was slightly more wary than before and continuously glanced up to make sure nothing had happened to Mai...
Kurama checked his watch again and sighed before returning his attention to the book in his lap. But then he glanced up once more out of curiosity at the Guardian; her spirit energy was slightly higher than usual...
Beep! Beep!
Nearly everyone in the room looked up when the muted alarm went off from the briefcase near Botan's chair. The blue-haired girl blinked and shifted her attention to the bag.
"Oh! Crap!" she cried suddenly as she fumbled with the briefcase, "That's probably Koenma!"
The remaining three in the group stood and peered over her shoulder as she lifted the latch to reveal a small T.V. with the small demigod on the screen.
"What's up, Junior?" Yusuke asked.
"Where the hell are you guys?!" he roared in response as his face grew red and the T.V. screen began to show signs of static.
"We took Mai to the hospital," Kuwabara replied casually as he tucked the pack of playing cards in his back pocket, "She had some sort of spasm and we took her to get some help—"
"Shit!" Koenma cut him off angrily, causing the group to jump.
"What's wrong, sir?" Botan asked warily; careful not to build on his rage.
The toddler shook his head before addressing the company, "Did they give her anything? Any medicine at all?"
Kurama nodded, "She had another episode and they gave her an anesthetic."
"Why do you ask?" the blue-haired girl continued to ask, but static suddenly began to crackle along the edges of the screen, making it difficult to understand what the toddler was saying.
His voice began to fade and cut off as the static worsened. Obviously, he was having the same difficulty on his end and sounded angry and was desperately trying to tell them something.
"Da-mn...t—g—out...the—tal is....."
The screen suddenly blanked out as the static consumed the entire picture. Koenma's face did not appear again.
The group was silent as the faint roar of the static screen became the only noise in the room. The looked at one another.
"What did he say at the end?" Yusuke asked; his eyes still locked on the screen.
Botan fiddled with the video until it was rewound. She punched a few buttons before a new screen appeared waiting for the sound waves to pass through. The grim reaper typed in something and the audio from the video began to play.
She fixed the sound quality; erasing the static in the background:
"Dammit! Get out! The hospital isn't safe!"
The static returned as the tape went dead.
The room went silent as the group looked at one another before glancing quickly at Mai lying on the hospital bed, and the patch along her arm. A sudden surge of fear raced through the when the things Koenma had said finally clicked in the back of their minds.
"You...you don't think...?" Botan whispered, but Kurama had already moved back to the bedside and snatched the bandage from the Guardian's arm. His fingers delicately moved along the area where the arsenic had been injected into her.
He brought his fingertips to his face and cautiously sniffed them. He suddenly made a face of confusion and shook his head.
"If they did inject something other than medicine into her...I can't tell..."
"But does Koenma really think we're in danger here?" Kazuma wondered while peering out of the doorway and into the hallway as if expecting to see doctors running towards them with knives or something.
But Yusuke didn't wait for an answer; he quickly moved beside Kurama near the bed and without a word lifted the Guardian into his arms nimbly.
"Well I don't know about you guys, but I'm not going to wait around here and wait for something to happen to us!" he muttered as he made his way towards the door and flung it open.
The others followed him as he stepped out into the hallway where many of the doctors and nurses paused and watched the odd company hurriedly make their way down the corridor.
"Wait!" a worried nurse called after them, "You're not allowed to take a patient who hasn't been approved by a doctor!"
But Yusuke and the others ignored them as their pace quickened down the hallway. It seemed as though every member of the faculty stood and watched them from the doorways; their eyes piercing through them like knives...
"...Koenma may have been right..." Kurama told the other three quietly and cautiously eyed those watching them pass down the hallway, "I don't believe a hospital should hold so much animosity..."
Urameshi snorted, "Well we aren't just going to sit around and find out, are we?" he said and shifted Mai's weight over his shoulder.
Above them, the lights began to flicker and the hum of the ventilation above shut down, swallowing them in total silence...all save for their hurried footsteps. And as they watched, it appeared as though whenever the lights went out, the doctors and nurses watching them would disappear...only to reappear when they turned back on again...
From behind them whispers could be heard rippling down the hallway...but not curious ones as to why the group was leaving, but deep, demonic whispers of hatred and seething with everything but humanity.
Kazuma quickly glanced over his shoulder and his face grew suddenly pale as he noticed the faculty of doctors beginning to quietly follow them down the corridor.
"What the hell is wrong with this place?" Botan hissed to her companions worriedly when she noticed the same thing as Kuwabara, "What in the world is going on?!"
"If we knew that, Botan..." Yusuke grunted as he picked up the pace, "Then we wouldn't be running away instead of fighting—"
"Why aren't we fighting, Urameshi?" Kuwabara whispered back, "We could easily blow these guys to pieces!"
Kurama shook his head, "I'm sure you both could, Kazuma, but these people are still human; for all we know they may be possessed or something like that; we can't risk their lives like that...but right now we have to get Mai out of here."
The group turned a corner quickly and entered the main lobby to find it completely empty...not a single soul resided in the area at all...
Kuwabara looked over his shoulder once more and his brow furrowed in confusion.
"Urameshi...where did they all go?"
The entire party turned to find the previous hallway deserted...all of the doctors and nurses had vanished completely and the corridor had gone entirely black. No longer did their whispers fill the hallway, but instead, the group stood in complete and utter silence.
"Let's at least take advantage of this..." the Detective growled and dashed across the lobby towards the main entrance. With Mai along his shoulder, Yusuke quickly shoved himself into the door...
Only to find that it wouldn't open.
"What the fuck?!" Urameshi muttered and kicked the door angrily, "It won't even budge!"
He then clenched his fist and threw it at the glass door, hoping that it would somehow shatter...but his hand merely bounced off harmlessly without even causing a crack in the window...
Yusuke growled furiously and backed away from the door. Everyone else took the hint to back off as well and watched as the detective raised his hand in front of him with his index finger extended.
"Spirit Gun!!" he roared as the blast of blue spirit energy thundered in the room; creating a deafening roar as it charged towards the doors.
But suddenly, a glimpse of light seemed to reflect off of something in front of the doorway...and the entire wall as it was. And even as the attack made contact with the doors and the wall in general, nothing happening...and both remained perfectly in contact.
Urameshi blinked, "Wh-What the hell is this?"
Kurama frowned darkly, "It appears as though someone has put up a barrier around the entire premises..." he then turned to Botan, "Do you think you could create a portal to Spirit World?"
The blue-haired girl appeared rather nervous, "I-I could try..."
She raised her hands out in front of her...but before she even made a move to open the portal, she gasped suddenly and was thrust backwards by an unseen force. She was nearly thrown into the air as Kurama quickly moved to catch her when she fell...
When she collided into the red-head, she blinked in confusion and brushed a strand of her hair out of her eyes, "I...I can't open it..." she whispered nearly dumbfounded.
Yusuke looked around the lobby as the lights began to flicker once more, "So we're stuck here..."
It's been so long...
But at last we have found what we've been looking for...
And suddenly...the hospital went dark...
-:-
A/N: egh, crappy, I kno, but my friend has been bugging me to update and I'm afraid he'll kill me if I don't get it up soon ::nervous laugh::
Ah, but please review! I know it sux, but I hope you guys at least enjoyed it this far...hopefully it will get better as I get on with the story and stuff like that...
Hasta Luego! (or however you spell it)