I was gonna condense this part and the next and release them together, but I'm struggling with it and this part ended up being longer than I thought it was. I guess it just feels short because not much happens. Sorry about that. I am working on this, I promise!

"So the girl ran for the exit." Monk grinned maniacally, Kara sitting in front of him, completely captivated. "But the door wouldn't open. Since it didn't have a lock on it, she and her two friends started freaking out. So they all ran back into the school theatre, only to find that all their damage had been undone, and a rope noose was swinging from the gallows, back and forth, back and forth…" Monk mimicked the swinging with his hand, and Kara followed it with wide eyes until she fell sideways onto the couch.

"Monk," I scolded, coming up behind him with a platter of tea in hand. "Isn't that the plot to that horror movie you went to see a few weeks ago?"

Monk turned back and grinned sheepishly. "Maybe." He admitted.

I rolled my eyes. "Please don't tell 14A stories to my nine-year-old... charge." I stumbled on my words, careful not to call Kara my daughter. "I don't want her to have nightmares tonight."

Ayako looked up from the newspapers Naru had her looking through. "You bring her along on a real ghost hunt and you're worried that some lame horror movie plot will freak her out?" She raised her eyebrow, waiting for an answer.

Monk put a small rope—a prop he was using to tell the story—on the table and glared at Ayako "That movie wasn't lame. It was a true horror experience."

She rolled her eyes. "It had the stupidest horror movie plot I've ever seen." She argued. "Considering how often you drag me out to watch those ridiculous things, I'd say that's pretty impressive."

Monk balked. "I can't go alone!" He exclaimed. "And Mai and John are scaredy cats, so I can't bring them."

"Hey," I protested, nudging him as I set his tea down in front of him. "Horror movies are made to scare people, so why wouldn't they scare me?"

Kara jumped onto her knees. "You weren't scared of Tatchibana," she pointed out. "So are fake ghosts scarier than real ghosts?"

I grinned nervously, thinking back to the innocent ghost from our last case. In all honesty, I had been pretty freaked when she first appeared, but Kara didn't need to know that. "Well, Tatchibana didn't want to hurt anyone." I pointed out. "Ryo, on the other hand… Well, I was pretty scared of him. Besides, movies use music and timing to build up the tension. Real life doesn't have things like that."

Kara lay back down. "I like horror movies." She declared. "I'm not allowed to watch them, though, so I watch trailers all the time instead."

I frowned slightly, wondering if I should be paying closer attention to her computer usage. I figured the safest approach for now was to change the topic. "Kara, how about you go get changed? It's time for bed."

"Awww, do I have to?"

"Yes," I insisted, lifting Kara off the couch by the hand. "Go on. Masako should already be there."

Kara waved to Ayako and Monk and left the room. I watched her until she reached the stairs, then went back into the room and closed the door.

Naru, who'd been at the other end of the room doing an equipment check with Lin, started walking in our direction with his arms crossed and that 'my brain is working a lot faster than yours right now' look on his face.

Monk jumped on the chance to talk before Naru could escape. "So Naru," He said. "What do you think this is?"

Naru paused to look at us. "It's too early to say." He answered. "Lin and I have been reviewing the security tapes and it appears as though the activity itself is genuine, so we can rule out a hoax, at least."

Ayako put down her newspaper. "Maybe it's human." She suggested. "The stuff they described sounded like basic poltergeist activity to me."

Naru immediately shot her down. "I have no reason to believe the cause of this activity is human." He said. "The only viable suspects would be frequent customers of the museum, nearby residents with a strong affinity to the location, and members of the staff. The location is isolated and there are no notable frequent customers, so the first two options can be ruled out. As for the staff, no one under the age of 30 is employed and all have undergone screenings for psychic ability as part of the business's safety procedures. They cannot be responsible for the phenomenon."

Monk put his feet up on the table, knocking a few newspapers over, which earned him a scowl from Ayako. "Do you think the attractions might actually be behind it? They got some serious stuff here. Maybe they're messing with things better left alone."

"It's a definite possibility." Naru said.

"But there's been no change in their procedures." I pointed out. "There's always a chance that there could be a site bound spirit here, or it could be something like a curse."

Naru closed his eyes for a moment. I wondered, a little smugly, if he was annoyed that I'd made a valid point. "As it stands, there isn't enough data to suggest what might be the true cause of the problem." He said. Looking to me, he added. "Mai, in the morning I want you and Monk to question members of the staff on their experiences here." He turned to Ayako. "Ayako, I want you to continue researching the history of the location. Once Yasu arrives, you can join him. John and Miss Hara will be conducting a more detailed analysis of the attractions." Completing his instructions, he took a cup of tea off my platter and left the room.

Just as he started closing the door behind him, I called out "Don't forget to check on Kara!"

He closed the door, showing no signs that he heard me, but I was pretty confident that he did.

Ayako glumly started stacking the newspapers, preparing for the next day's work. "So," she started. "What's the story with Kara?"

I froze. "I told you," I said tightly. "We're watching her while her new home is being built."

Monk jumped into the conversation. "But why is she with you guys? Why wouldn't she be staying with her parents?"

"Well, she's from an orphanage. She's an orphan." I tried, doing my best to stick as close to the truth as possible.

Ayako narrowed her eyes at me. "But you said her parents knew she was coming with us." She pointed out.

Crap, I did say that. Jeez, Naru, why did you have to make this complicated? "Did I?" I forced what I thought might be a sheepish grin. "I meant the orphanage leaders. All the kids are staying at other places. Naru and I took Kara in because she's got PK."

"Really?" Monk said. The tension slowly dissipated. "What can she do?"

I sighed, glad that I'd diverted their attention. "Well, she can control things like balls and marbles. Sometimes glass shatters when she gets upset. There's also… well, Naru would know better, since he's been working on it with her." I'd almost mention her PK-LT abilities, but for some reason, I didn't feel comfortable sharing that.

"That sounds pretty impressive." Ayako answered admiringly. "Does she show any sign of psychic abilities?"

"Not really, no." I answered. "I thought she might be at first because she could tell Naru and I both had psychic abilities, but it turns out she's just a really smart girl. She figured it out by watching us."

"I have noticed that she talks like someone a lot older than nine." Monk noted. "Has she been tested?"

I shook my head. "The orphanage used private tutors, so none of the kids were ever tested. Mostly the kids advanced at their own pace. I think Kara might actually be a year or two ahead of her age group."

Ayako smiled. "I wouldn't be surprised." She said. "How about we go join those girls upstairs? It's gonna be a long day tomorrow." She glared at the stack of papers, as though they'd personally offended her.

"Sure," I put the now empty tray down on the counter, then followed Ayako out the door. I waved back at Monk, saying "Goodnight!" He waved back just as the door closed.

When we got upstairs, I found Kara was in her PJs and ready for bed. She was sitting at the foot of Masako's bed across from Masako, who was calmly explaining her ability to sense spirits.

"Often I get an image," She was saying. "Like on a TV. Sometimes it is more fuzzy then others. Usually whether I get an image or not depends on the type of spirit it is and whether something is keeping it from communicating."

"I wish I could see ghosts like you." Kara said. "The only time I see them is when they want me to. That's not as fun. It's just kinda scary."

"Kind of scary?" Ayako jumped in. "I think ghosts are a little more than kind of scary. Personally, I'm glad that my many talents don't include seeing ghosts all the time." Ayako flipped her hair, and Kara giggled.

Masako turned a glare to Ayako. "At least my talent is consistently useful. The only time you're useful is when you're standing in the middle of a forest."

Ayako tensed. It was easy to get on her nerves when bringing up how often her spiritual powers did nothing on cases. I thought her power was pretty cool, but it's true that it didn't come in handy very often. "Well," Ayako started, sounding like a bickering teenager, which was ironic because she was the oldest in the room. "At least I can catch the attention of the men I want."

Ayako jerked back, just as shocked by what she'd said as the rest of us. An awkward silence prevailed. Masako had blushed a deep red, either from embarrassment or anger, I couldn't tell. Probably both. Kara looked back and forth from Masako to Ayako, looking utterly confused.

I cleared my throat nervously, trying to break the tension. "Hey, it's not Masako's fault." I said, trying to force a joking tone. "It's impossible to get through to Naru. Even if you shove your feelings down his throat."

Masako and Ayako turned away from each other to look at me with mirroring expressions of pity. I blushed slightly. I hadn't meant to turn the topic to me. I definitely hadn't meant to bring that up.

"Fair enough," Ayako admitted. "You made yourself pretty clear to him, and he still wouldn't accept it."

"What? What happened?" Kara asked me, suddenly eager. "What did you make clear to him?"

I sighed, turning to pull my things out of my suitcase so I wouldn't have to look at the others while I explained. "A few years ago, when I first started working for Naru, I would have dreams with Naru in it that would tell me things about the cases we were working on. It turned out that the person in my dreams was the ghost of Naru's twin brother Gene. The thing is, I started liking Naru before I knew that, so it made my feelings super confusing when I found out. A lot of stuff happened and we found Gene's body and everything, and just as Naru was about to go back to England I decided that it was definitely Naru I liked and I should tell him before he left. So I told him I loved him-"

"Actually, you kinda screamed at him." Ayako butted in.

"Whatever!" I glanced up for a moment to shoot a glare at Ayako. "So I told him I loved him, all crying and stuff, and he just looked at me and said 'me, or Gene?' And he just left it at that and we haven't talked about it since. He's probably forgotten about it by now."

I took a deep breath, feeling a nice sense of relief. It'd been almost two years since I talked about that with anyone. Even though Masako and Ayako knew the story, it felt good to go over it again and vent a little bit. Feeling a little braver, I looked up at the group.

Kara was sitting with her arms crossed, giving me a look that made me feel like she was the mom and I was the kid. "He didn't forget." She said confidently. "There's no way."

"Even so," Ayako said, leaning against the bed. "It's pretty harsh the way he shot you down."

"It was rather insensitive." Masako admitted as well. "I was surprised that you agreed to work with him again when he returned." She added, a little disgruntled. She might be my friend most of the time, but I knew she hadn't wanted me to work for Naru again with my feelings out in the open like that. Not that it made the slightest bit of difference. Even when he came back and offered me my job back, he made no mention of my confession. In the years that followed, neither of us have so much as whispered about it. I might as well have never said anything in the first place.

"But he didn't shot you down." Kara said, fumbling a little with her grammar. The three of us looked at her in confusion. She explained. "He didn't say no, and he didn't say he doesn't feel the same. He just didn't think that you really liked him."

I blinked, surprised. Naru's response at the time felt a whole lot like a rejection. Every time I'd played it over in my head, it still felt like a rejection, and I did that way more often then I care to admit. But now that Kara had said it, I realised she was right. It hadn't been a rejection, not really. It was super infuriating that Naru couldn't at the very least trust me to know my own feelings, but suddenly I was feeling a spark of hope, something I hadn't felt in a long time.

Maybe I still had a chance after all.