Chapter Five

Mai rested her head against the cold window of the van and watched the scenery pass by. If there was one thing she could say for certain it was that Lin was a quiet fellow. They had been in the car for an hour and a half and still had another hour to go. Mai usually found silence tolerable but she felt like she should try to get to know her new colleague, at least a little.

"So," she began awkwardly. "When did you start working with the Davis's?"

The man looked over at her from the corner of his eye. At first she thought he wouldn't respond but eventually he spoke. "Nearly seventeen years ago."

"Wow! That's a long time, you must have joined when you were still in university," she awed.

His only response was a small grunt of confirmation.

"I heard you and your wife are expecting your first child. Congratulations," she smiled kindly.

Another grunt.

Mai pursed her lips. This man was a hard one to crack. "When did you meet her?"

She heard the man let out a faint sigh. "University."

"How nice to have known each other for so long, I bet she's a lovely person."

"Yes. Did Oliver tell you about our case?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Vaguely," she admitted.

Lin nodded curtly but kept his eyes on the road. "Our clients, the O'Connor's, just moved into their new house a few weeks ago. It is a family of four: a mother, father, and their two sons. One is eighteen whilst the other is four."

Mai nodded along, mentally taking note of everything he said.

The man continued. "After moving in they began to notice the average haunting phenomena: doors closing on their own, random cold spots, items being misplaced or moved, and the sound of someone crying. Eventually things started to take a darker turn when the mother began to feel someone touching her. Apparently their son had some things happen to him but they never disclosed what it was that happened. This was when they made the choice to reach out to us."

"So nothing malicious as of yet, but things seem to be progressing? They haven't been there very long so the fact that their experiences are already getting worse means we shouldn't let our guard down," she thought out loud.

Lin raised a brow and briefly glanced in her direction impressed. "Precisely."

"So, when we get to a case what is usually done first?" she queried.

Lin was slightly surprised with her genuine curiosity. He had to admit he had been unsure of her at first but he was starting to see what Oliver saw in her. "First we greet the clients and they show us around the property. We are assigned a room in the house that serves as our 'base' where the computers and monitors collect all of the data. Depending on the severity or length of the case we are given rooms for sleeping. Since there are only two of us this time we will be sleeping in the base," he informed her. "We then set up all of the equipment; I will stay in the base to watch the monitors and relay over radio where you need to place the cameras. From then on we keep an eye on the monitors and routinely take temperature readings from each room. Depending on when they can meet, we will interview the clients to get their individual statements as well."

Mai was a little shocked to hear this man speak so much. She didn't know he had it in him. "Okay. Sounds relatively straightforward."

"I will guide you through it all," the man supplied.

Mai turned to the man and smiled. "I won't let you down. Well, at least I'm going to try not to."

"Very well. We should be there within a half an hour." Mai could sense that their conversation had drawn to a close and resigned by resting her head against the window again.

They reached their location within a half an hour just as Lin had said. Mai heard a loud growl from her stomach and looked at the clock, realizing it was already four thirty. She bit her lip nervously. She hadn't thought about food.

"BSPR provides sustenance for our cases. We have a cooler in the back," Lin reassured her unasked question.

She smiled sheepishly at him. "You heard that, huh?"

"The dead could hear that."

Mai watched as the man exited the van and smirked. Okay, it seemed Lin had a humorous side. She followed suit and made her way out of the van towards the front door where their clients were waiting. It was a decent sized house with two storeys and a quaint front yard. Mai saw a large man with kind eyes and blonde hair waving politely to them. She assumed that must be Mr. O'Connor. Standing next to him was a gangly red headed boy, clearly his teenage son. There was a long skinny window next to the entry door and the curtain moved aside slightly to reveal a young blonde boy watching them apprehensively. Mai smiled but to her dismay the boy closed the curtain and disappeared.

"Mr. Lin, it's good to see you again. Thank you for coming all this way. We know it must have been a long trip," the man greeted. "And who might this be?"

Lin bowed his head politely. "We've traveled farther than this before. It is our pleasure to is my colleague, Mai Taniyama. She will be assisting me for the duration of this case." Mai reached out and shook the man's hand in greeting before Lin spoke again. "Would you be willing to show us around?"

"Absolutely, young man, follow me!" the man beamed and led them into the house.

Nearly two hours later, Lin and Mai had taken a tour of the house as well as set up the equipment. Lin had shown her how to assemble each piece of equipment and he was slightly surprised that she took to it quickly. Since majority of the experiences happen late at night, they set up thermal cameras along with the regular cameras. They were finally able to grab a bite to eat before Mr. O'Connor and his son came to the living room that was serving as their base to be interviewed.

The teenager, Neil, went first. He explained how he hears footsteps coming from the hallway at night when he knows everyone is asleep. He also admitted to losing items he had just placed down and hearing crying randomly throughout the house. He couldn't be interviewed for long for he had been called in to cover a mates shift at work.

Mai watched as Lin began to interview Mr. O'Connor.

"Mr. O'Connor," Lin began. "Would you be able to tell us your personal experiences with your haunting?"

"My experiences are similar to Neil's. I hear sounds coming from the hallway at night, and sobbing around the house. I've walked through cold spots but when I try to investigate it further it disappears or even moves. I also keep finding things moved about."

Lin expertly typed every word the client was saying without having to look at the keyboard. "Thank you," he replied. "May I ask where your wife and youngest child are? Will they be participating in our interviewing process?"

"Ah, unfortunately my dear Carol is away for a week on business but she made sure I memorized everything before she left. As for my darling son...well, he has been having a difficult time with all of this so we would appreciate it if he stays out of all this as much as possible. It's even worse now that his mother is away. He's always her little shadow whenever she is home. This is all pretty hard for a four year old to understand and he hasn't been himself as of late. He has been needing his space." the man said softly and looked down at his hands.

Mai could understand how all of this would wear on such an innocent child and placed a consoling hand on the man's arm. "That is very understandable. We want to make this as stress-free as possible for you and your family."

Lin watched as Mai's thoughtful gesture brought the man back to his happy self. "James, would you be able to recount your wife's experiences for us?"

The rotund man smiled back. "But of course," he began. "Carol experienced the same things as all of us but just about a week and a half ago it began to focus on her. She told me she felt like she was constantly being watched. She swore she felt someone hold her hand once when she was all alone. On multiple occasions she has said it feels like someone is pulling on her blouse but when she looks behind her there is no one there. It was manageable at that point but we began to get scared when she awoke one night to someone stroking her hair. When she opened her eyes she saw the figure of someone kneeling next to her. It gave her a nasty fright, and rightly so."

"Other than the touching, was she harmed in any way?" Lin asked subjectively.

James shook his head. "Nah. She hasn't been harmed, thank the Lord, but she feels quite uncomfortable in her own home. It's hard to have your family feel uncomfortable in their own home, innit? I'm beginning to wonder if we should just move again."

"There is no need for that, Mr. O'Connor. By the time we are done your house will be cleansed and safe once again," Lin reassured.

"Thank you kindly. Now, I'm assuming you want to hear about my youngest, eh?" Lin nodded and the man continued. "As I mentioned before, I really don't want him involved in any of this. He's been having a very hard time coping. He hasn't been hurt badly if that's what you're wondering, just startled. It is bad enough that he has been getting nightmares though."

Lin finished typing. "Is there anything else you would like to inform us about?"

James thought for a moment and shook his head. "Nothing that I can think of at the moment. If anything comes to mind I'll let you know right away."

Lin stood and reached out a hand for the man to shake. "Thank you very much for your time. We understand it can be hard to talk about these things. You and your family are allowed to go about your daily lives. Mai and I will be coming around from time to time to gather temperatures from each room if that isn't a problem."

"Feel free! I give you permission to do what you must to put an end to all of this." With that the man bid them good luck and told them to let him know if they needed anything.

Mai walked over to the desk covered in monitors. "So now we wait?"

Lin nodded and continued to look at his laptop he had just taken notes on. "Essentially. With a case like this we don't know the motive or the centralized location of the spirit. We will be studying any footage we find to figure that out. It would have been preferred to hear the son's experiences but we must alway respect our client's wishes, especially when it comes to children. After all of this is over I will inform Luella of this case so she can reach out to offer them her services."

"That's wonderful that she helps families in the aftermath of all these cases. I can only imagine what these families go through mentally." She looked at the clock on the screen of the computer and saw that it was already six-thirty. "Would you like some tea? I brought some in my holdall."

Lin thought for a moment before replying. "That would be appreciated."

Mai rummaged through her bag, pulled out the tea, and began to make her way to the kitchen. She was lost in her own mind when a creak of a floorboard caught her attention. Turning around, she saw the youngest son standing at the room at the end of the hallway, watching her. She paused and gave a small wave to the boy, hoping to get a better reaction this time. Yet again he shied away and quickly closed the door, leaving Mai alone once again.

She understood how scary it must be to not only have strangers in your house but to also be victim to a spirit's torment at such a young age. She entered the kitchen and made the tea as quickly as she could before heading back to their base.

She and Lin sat in silence as they watched the monitors for any signs of paranormal activity. The lean man suddenly rubbed his strained eyes. "Mai, I need you to go around to each room and write down the temperatures."

"Okay!" She chirped, happy to have a reason to move around. She grabbed the clipboard and pen Lin had shown to her earlier in the day and the thermometer as well. She began making her way through the house, starting downstairs and working her way to the second storey.

Climbing the stairs she knocked on the master bedroom door. After no one answered she walked in. It was dark in the room, seeing as it was already past seven o'clock but there was also a slight chill to the air. Reading the thermometer, she jotted down the temperature on her clipboard and made her way down the hall, checking the temperatures of each room. The eldest son was still at work so she was able to check the temperature in his room without disturbing him.

Finally she came to a room at the end of the hall. The door wasn't closed fully so when she knocked it began to creak open and a gust of cold air greeted her. She saw posters of cartoons hung on the walls of the dimly lit room and came to the conclusion that it must be the little boys room. A sigh to her right caught her attention and that is when she saw the young blonde haired boy from earlier sitting on his bed, looking out of an open window. The cold breeze blew in, rustling the curtains but the boy sat there unphased. He wore a pair of weathered pale grey pajamas that didn't look to be keeping him very warm.

"Hello," Mai said gently. This time she was determined to get a response out of him. "Is it okay if I take the temperature of your room?"

The boy turned to her and watched her before shrugging slightly.

"My name is Mai, what's your name?" she smiled kindly.

He looked her up and down uncertainly. Averting his eyes back out the window he whispered faintly, "Jacob."

"That's a very nice name. How old are you, Jacob?" After receiving no reply she smirked playfully. "Are you sixteen?"

A small shy smile pulled at his lips. "No."

"One hundred?!" She asked in feigned surprise.

Her smile grew at the sound of the little giggles that escaped his mouth. A shimmer of laughter filled his eyes. "No, I'm four."

"You're four? Wow, that's amazing!" she beamed, glad to see him happy.

The boy nodded cheerfully. "Mhm, Mummy says I'll be five soon!" At the mention of his mother the sadness from before took over once again. "I miss Mummy…It's so different and scary around here," he whispers and looks back out the window.

Mai felt her heart break at his words. "I know, love, but don't worry she will be back someday soon. You know...My friend and I help make scary things go away."

"Really?" he asked quietly.

"Really really. I promise we will help you and by the end of it you'll see your mummy again."

The little boy's face lit up and he threw himself onto Mai, giving her a tight hug. "Thank you."

After recording the temperature in the room Mai said goodbye to Jacob and made her way back to the base. Lin looked up as she walked in. "Sorry it took so long," she apologized and handed him the clipboard. "The master bedroom and youngest's room were both significantly colder in temperature. The window was open in their son's room but I'm not sure why the parent's room was so cold."

"Okay. We will keep extra focus on their room in case something happens during the night. Since the family is still sleeping here during this case we will try to avoid going upstairs unless something needs our attention," the man informed her.

Mai nodded. She pulled a book from her bag and sat down on the sofa. "Do you mind if I read for a bit?" she asked, holding up the book Oliver had written.

Lin raised a brow. "Is that Oliver's book?"

"Yes, he said he had no use for it anymore. It's really taught me a lot." She looked down at the worn book fondly.

"That was the first book he wrote," the man added.

"First? How many books has he written? Mai wondered.

"Six."

Her eyes grew wide. "Six books? And how old is he?"

"Twenty-seven. He received his PhD before the age of eighteen and wrote his first book by the time he was twenty. His theories have changed the way paranormal investigators solve cases."

Mai was thoroughly impressed. She knew Oliver was smart but, now she certainly knew he was a genius. "I can tell by his book. He treats paranormal research like a science, using technology to collect data. It's pretty amazing that someone so young has changed his field so drastically."

"Yes, just don't let him hear you say that or his ego will never stop growing," Lin grunted, causing Mai to laugh.

Lin then informed her that they would have to take shifts sleeping and watching the monitors that night. Seeing as it was her very first case he told her she could sleep first. She read for a good while before her lids began to grow tired. She got up to brush her teeth before turning in. As she lay on the couch she wondered what her dream would be that night. She really hoped it would help their case in some way. She never had control over her dreams so all she could do was pray. She could feel her eyelids growing heavier by the second and finally she was lulled to sleep.

Mai opened her eyes to find herself in a dark and musty room. A small flame from a dying lantern flickered away and faintly illuminated the room. Something about this room seemed familiar but she couldn't put her finger on which room she was in. A cough from her right caught made her turn to find a woman holding what looked like a wrapped up child.

She drew closer and watched sadly as the mother holding her child began to cough violently. The labored breath of the child in her arms rattled throughout the depressing room. The air felt heavy with emotion.

The mother finished coughing and pushed her hair away from her face. Mai winced as she realized the mother's sweaty flesh was covered in a red rash. Her eyes were listless with dark circles underneath, and her sunken cheeks showed just how ill the woman was. The woman was wearing a worn out gown and holey shawl wrapped around her shoulders. She reached a gentle hand down to stroke her child's face that Mai couldn't see. The blonde woman took in a struggling shaky breath and began to sing.

"You are my sunshine,

My only sunshine.

You make me happy,

When skies are grey.

You'll never know dear..

How much I love you…

Please don't take...my sunshine…...away….."

Mai covered her mouth and felt the tears roll down her cheeks as she watched the mother battle to finish her lullaby. Whispering her final word, the frail hand that had been stroking the child's face slowly dropped and her body grew limp. The young child wrapped upon her lap rolled to the ground. A small splotchy arm fell lifelessly from the blanket and the labored breathing that had previously filled the room had ceased. Mai fell to her knees, sobbing, and began to crawl towards the child. She knew she couldn't help the poor child, this was all in the past, but she still wanted to try. She slowly reached out a hand to pull back the blanket from the child's face. Her fingertips gently grazed the rough woolen fabric and -