** Thank you all for the support and comments. I'm finally feeling better (it's been over a month since I first started my symptoms). The past few days I've been doing a lot of yard work so I haven't been writing as much but I do have chapters 7 and 8 completely written, I'm halfway done with chapter 9, and have the plot written up through chapter twenty! Thank you again for all the follows, likes, and comments. They make my days in quarantine so much better! **
Chapter Six
Caramel eyes opened slowly and stared at the ceiling of the small living room. Mai was well aware that her cheeks were properly drenched in tears but it was the least of her worries. She took in a quivering breath and brought her hands up to cover her face.
Her coworker had been typing on his laptop when he suddenly heard the woman behind him stir. At first he had paid it no mind but upon hearing her distress he turned around. He was surprised to see Mai clearly upset, but of what he didn't know. He felt awkward, he wasn't used to dealing with tears, especially on a case. She was just sleeping, why was she suddenly crying?
"...Did something happen?" he asked in awkward hesitance.
Mai took a deep breath and propped herself up. "Forgive me. This happens sometimes after I have one of those dreams."
Lin's eyes narrowed. "One of those dreams?" he echoed carefully.
Mai noticed the man's change in demeanor and winced slightly. "From time to time I get, what was the word he used...postcognitive dreams."
"Oliver knew about this?" His voice was low. His frustration was evident.
"Yes," she whispered. "...Did he not inform you?"
The man gritted through clenched teeth. "It must have slipped his mind."
Mai looked up at the man apprehensively. "I'm sorry. I would have mentioned something if I realized…"
Lin regarded the woman sitting across from him and sighed. He brought his fingers to his temples and rubbed. "You are not the one who should be apologizing, and the person who needs to rarely ever does. If you haven't noticed, Oliver doesn't have the best social skills nor does he like to keep people in the loop."
Mai rolled her eyes in agreement. "I've noticed."
"You get used to it, but what I wouldn't give to throttle that boy sometimes," the dark haired man growled. He looked back at the petite woman sitting on the sofa. "Tell me about this dream you had."
Mai recounted the vision of the ill mother and her child in their last moments. She explained how their skin looked sweaty and spattered with red rashes. The mother used her dying breaths to sing a lullaby to her unconscious child. The woman passed first and the child followed soon after. She mentioned how she tried to get a view of the child's face so she could identify it if she saw a picture, but before her hand could draw back the blanket she had been pulled from her dream and awoke in the living room.
Lin watched her intently as she recalled each detail. "What song did she sing?"
Mai was puzzled at his question. "That American one, 'You Are My Sunshine.' Why? Does it help the case?"
Lin nodded curtly before turning to his laptop and beginning to type. "Finding out the date the song came out can help narrow down what year the spirit passed away." He paused and pointed to the screen. "There it is. The song became a sensation in America and eventually the world in 1939. With this information we can have Yasuhara do some research on this house as well as it's previous owners between 1939 and the present. Another insight is that they most likely died of scarlet fever judging by the redness of their skin. If luck is on our side we may be able to pinpoint who our spirit is."
Mai let out a small gasp, impressed. "Brilliant! I never realized how even the slightest details could be so crucial in solving a case. I really need to start taking note of more things during my dreams," she told herself. "Speaking of! Oliver gave me a journal to record my dreams in, I should do that now."
The tall man nodded and watched as she pulled a leather journal and a pen from her bag. He looked back to the monitors and video footage, internally rehearsing what he would say to his so-called "friend" when he saw him next. A few moments passed and he heard a book close.
"All done," the brunette spoke as she stretched her aching muscles. "Let me take over so you can rest. I can never fall back asleep after one of those dreams anyway."
Lin realised he was somewhat tired and resigned with a sigh. "If you say so. If you notice something on any of the screens, be sure to take note of which camera it is on and the exact time. This case isn't very high risk so we will review all of our findings in the morning and go from there."
"Is there a certain time you would like me to wake you?" she wondered.
Lin shook his head. "I will set an alarm for myself but wake me if someone is in danger."
With that said, the tall man made himself as comfortable as he could on the small couch and eventually fell asleep. The next several hours consisted of Mai watching the camera footage, taking notes, and reading her book. She mentally laughed thinking about if she had to do this job back when she was young: she used to fall asleep at all times of the day and most certainly would have had a rather difficult time staying awake for a shift like this.
The sun was slowly starting to rise outside and the warm rays began to flood the room. Mai stretched her neck and checked over the notes she had taken throughout the night. Something caught her attention in the corner of her eye and she looked up to study the monitors. She noticed the camera that was in the upstairs hallway had fallen and was facing the floor.
As if on cue, a soft alarm began to ring behind her. She turned to see Lin groggily making his way off of the couch.
"Good morning," she greeted, earning a small grunt in return. Mai took note that Lin wasn't a morning person
"How did it go?" he questioned once he made it to the monitors.
"There were a couple of instances that I wrote down, but actually one of the cameras just fell," she informed him.
He turned to her. "Which one?"
"The upstairs hallway," she supplied.
"Did you secure it with zip ties like I suggested?" he questioned her suspiciously.
The brunette grimaced in embarrassment and gave him an awkward smile. "Oops?" He gave her a look and she ducked her head dejectedly. "I'll go fix it."
Mai grabbed some ties from a box of equipment and a radio for communication. She made her way out of the base, through the empty hallways. The house still looked like no one really lived there. Cardboard boxes still filled most of the rooms, and there were no family photos hanging on the walls. The only rooms with any character were the children's rooms. It didn't take long before she was upstairs. She rubbed her arms after feeling a chill in the air. She wondered if the heating system stopped working. Pushing the thought to the back of her head she began figuring out how to fasten the camera down. She pulled up a decorative chair so she could reach the camera that was falling off of it's stand. Before she could attach the device, two small arms startled her by encircling her legs. She nearly fell off due to shock and spun her head around to see who it was.
"Mai," a quiet voice mumbled into the back of her calf.
She looked down worriedly at the young boy and quickly stepped off of the chair to give him a hug. "Are you alright, Jacob?"
"You said Mummy would be here. Where is she? Why did she leave me?" he sniffled. "I hate it here."
"I know darling. It can be really difficult to move somewhere new. I moved a lot as a child, and even though it was hard it was also really fun. I was able to meet new people and see new places," she tried to comfort the boy.
He looked up at her with a pout of disappointment. "You don't get it."
Suddenly, the radio on her hip beeped. "Mai, what are you doing?"
Mai pulled back from the dejected boy with an apologetic expression. "Sorry, hun. I really have to fix the camera."
She hastily got back onto the chair and positioned the camera. Pulling out her radio she checked in with Lin. "How's the positioning?"
"A few millimeters to the left." She adjusted it and looked into the camera. "That's good."
Giving him a nod she turned around to the boy again. He was already back in his room, watching her solemnly. She gave him a small smile and waved goodbye before he closed his bedroom door. Sighing, she gathered her things and made her way back to the base. She walked in and noticed Lin was looking at her notes from last night.
"We should go over our findings," he announced as Mai pulled a chair up beside him. "While you were sleeping, the father's bedroom door opened on its own." He typed away on the keyboard and footage from the bedroom appeared on the monitors. They watched as the doorknob slowly turned and the door creaked open. There was no one there but they could hear the sound of creaking floorboards. Mai gasped as the footage showed the blanket getting pulled away from Mr. O'Connor's sleeping body and before stopping. The floorboards started to creak again and the door was gently pulled shut as the spirit seemingly left the room.
Mai turned to the man next to her. "Why does it keep going into their room to watch them?"
"I'm unsure. My theory is that they are looking for someone. Out of the two of them, it has only ever made contact with Mrs. O'Connor." Lin looked at the notes Mai had taken and pulled up the footage.
"This was around three in the morning. There were no signs of movement but if you listen to the audio you can hear sobbing echoing throughout the rooms. At four o'clock it happens again. That was all I was able to catch," Mai explained.
Lin stared at the video footage momentarily before rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "I'll ring Yasuhara and see if he can look into any deaths on the property spanning from 1939 until the present. Hopefully he can shed some light on this case."
For the next few hours, they spent their time watching video footage, listening to audio, and recording room temperatures. It was around one o'clock that Mr. O'Connor and his son Neil came in to check up on them.
"Good day," James greeted warmly. "We hope things have been going well for the two of you. My son just went and grabbed you some tikka masala. It must be hard to have a good meal when you're busy working."
The large man held out a paper bag to Mai. The warmth of the food inside relaxed her muscles as she held it close. "That was very kind of the both of you. Thank you greatly."
"James," Lin began, drawing the man's attention from the brunette assistant. "I was wondering if you could help me."
"Of course, my good man. What do you need help with?" he smiled jollily as he sat on the sofa.
"I respect what you said yesterday about your son, wishing for him to stay out of the case as much as possible, however we were wondering if there is any other information you could tell us about his experiences with the spirit. Any information you have may help us solve the case quicker and the sooner you and your family can recover."
The man's gaze grew somber as he weighed an inner battle. Giving up, he sighed softly. "My son...he has been having a difficult time with all of this." He looked down at his watch and rubbed his forehead. "He'll be here soon, so I'll keep it quick. The first week we moved in there were barely any signs of a spirit; just a couple of missing or misplaced items. We just assumed it was because we were still unpacking. Eventually we began to hear the crying around the house. At first we thought it was our son because he wasn't very happy to leave our old house, but then we heard it one night while all of us were eating dinner together and we knew it was something, or someone, else. After that is when my wife began to feel like someone was watching her and even touching her. She woke up and saw a shadow of someone watching her before it disappeared. The next day my son started to experience things as well. Whenever he would play with my wife and she wasn't looking, he would get pushed, pinched, and usually shoved. He was even bitten one time. To be frank it made me think of how a jealous child would act! Luckily it never escalated past that but we didn't want to take the risk so that is when we reached out to BSPR. My brother has been nice enough to help us with our son during all of this."
Lin finished typing and looked towards Mr. O'Connor. "Thank you for that insight. I have a better grasp on what is happening now."
The typically jovial man smiled softly as those memories of what's been happening to his family weighed on him.
A sudden ringing coming from Lin's pocket drew their attention. He pulled out his mobile and turned to the rest of them.
"Forgive me. It is my colleague returning my call about the history of this house," he informed and gave them all a professional nod of his head before dismissing himself.
Mai vaguely watched as he left. James and Neil were discussing something on the sofa and so she made her way over to the monitors. She couldn't get something Mr. O'connor had said out of her head.
A jealous child. Those words echoed around in her mind and a sinking feeling ate away at her. After a series of clicks, she found the footage from the upstairs hallway when she had gone to fix the camera. The camera was facing the ground at first as it dangled by it's cord, but finally Mai saw herself picking it up and positioning it into place.
Absentmindedly Mai could hear the creak of the front door opening.
"Ah, my little boy is finally home!" James cheered and stood from his spot on the sofa.
Mai could hear the quick pitter-patter of tiny feet rushing down the hallway but she continued watching the footage. She saw herself on the screen talking on the radio to Lin and adjusting the camera one last time before stepping down.
Her blood ran cold as she stared at the computer screen. The hallway was empty behind her. Her past self continued to talk and wave goodbye to Jacob even though the child was not there on the screen. How could that be? He was right there, I saw it with my own eyes. Her breath caught as she saw the door to his room close on its own and the video footage froze as she clicked pause.
Coming back to reality, Mai could hear the small footsteps getting closer to the base and she slowly turned to look at the doorway.
"Daddy!" an unfamiliar bubbly voice of a child reached her ears.
Mai watched as a small red-headed boy bounced happily into his father's arms who showered him in kisses. A tall blonde man who looked similar to James followed behind him.
James held the young boy lovingly and turned to her. "Mai, meet my youngest son, Harry," the large man smiled. "As I told Lin, he has been staying with my brother until all of this is solved and has blown over. He's just swinging by to grab some clothes and toys."
The brunette woman greeted them quietly, still in shock. "Nice to meet you both."
The family started to talk about what young Harry and his uncle had been doing the past couple of days he had been gone. Mai turned back to the computer monitor and felt her heart break.
Jacob...