Yo! Thank you to all readers so far!

"Murdered…?"

Mai nodded. "I…I'm not an only child. I didn't want to talk about this, cause I didn't want to think about it."

"You had siblings?" Ayako asked in surprise.

"Yes. An older brother named Ryou and a sister named May She-she was my twin."

"Wha-?"

At this, Mai chanced a glance at Naru. She was glad to see the surprised and confused look on his face.

"What happened to them, Mai?" Naru asked.

Mai sighed. "One day, when May and I were four and Ryou-nii was eight, dad took him to work with him. I'm not sure why, honestly. I don't remember if they explained it. My parents were professors at the nearby university.

"Anyway, later in the evening, this…detective came to our home. He told us that-that dad and Ryou-nii had been found dead in his last period classroom. They had been killed by a single gunshot wound to the forehead," said Mai quietly.

"Oh my gosh…"

Mai smiled slightly, but it wasn't a smile of humour. "Yeah… We moved not long after that. Mom didn't want to live in the same house-too many memories, I guess. So we started over, just the three of us, me and mom and May.

"Everything was going okay until May and I turned ten. One day, she and mom stayed home, cause May was sick. I remember arguing with mom, because I wanted to stay home too, I didn't want to go to school by myself. Of course, mom made me go. Being a teacher, she was against skipping school and all that."

No one said a word as Mai spoke, her voice barely above a whisper, yet audible to them all due to the silence in the room.

"Later in the afternoon, I was in the classroom and had to hand in our journals. Since May and I sat next to each other and she wasn't there, I was asked to hand in hers , I took it from her desk and… I dunno how it happened, but I-i saw what was going on at home. I saw it in my mind, but at the same time it felt like-like I was really there.

"I saw this man, and I-I saw him attack my mom with a knife-a big knife. I think mom passed out, cause I know she didn't die, but the guy went to May and he attacked her too. He used the knife at first, but then there was a gun to May's forehead. I-i could feel the pain May was in, and I could hear her screaming for mom and dad, and for Ryou-nii, and-and for me. But there wasn't anyone there to help her, and the man just-just laughed at her, and then he pulled the trigger."

A gasp rang through the room.

"What happened then?" John asked in shock.

Mai didn't look at him-couldn't bring herself to look at any of them. She just spoke to the floor. "I found myself back in the classroom, as if nothing had happened… A police officer came and took me to a hospital a little while later. There, mom and a detective told me what had happened, and on her deathbed, mom gave me the key to our old house. The one we had lived in when dad and Ryou-nii were still alive.

"And then she died, and I had to live with my aunt and uncle. They weren't good people. I don't think they had any real interest in taking care of me, and just did it because they felt like they had to. They never treated me very well, but I put up with it because I felt like I owed them. But then they died in a car accident three years later, when I was thirteen. After that one of my teachers sort of looked after me until I started working at SPR and made my own money."

"What happened to the people who killed your family?" asked Ayako quietly.

"Person, you mean."

"…Wait, what?"

"The killer was the same person," said Mai. "The same person killed dad and Ryou-nii, and then mom and May. And he was never found. I was told there was no evidence and that the trail was growing cold. Eventually they said they had to move on to other, newer cases, and I haven't heard from them since. That was a couple of years ago."

"Oh god..."

"Were you...not able to see his face?" asked John cautiously.

Mai shook her head. "It was kind of...blurred, I guess. I couldn't make anything out at all."

There was a long silence.

Mai finally looked up at them. "Naru, a while ago you told me that i had no idea what it was like watching your twin die and not being able to help them. Well, I do know what it's like. I've known since I was ten. I- This is why I said I thought you should try to live your life. Why I said Gene wouldn't want you to keep going like this. That's what I try to do. I try my best to live a happy life because-because May didn't have that chance herself!" Throat closing up, Mai fled from the room before the others could see the tears on her face.

But no one was able to stop her from leaving. They were shocked, beyond shocked. They had known Mai for a few years now, and had never even had an inkling that she'd been hiding anything from them at all, let alone something like this!

It was Yasuhara who finally broke the long silence that had fallen by saying, "The deaths happened around the same time of the year-around now. Yesterday, actually."

Finally Naru and Lin understood why Mai had been behaving so strangely over the last few days. It was no surprise she had been quiet recently, if those incidents were on her mind.

"Wait a second."

Everyone turned to look at Yasuhara again, who was looking down at his notes with a frown.

"I found information on the only two children who died in this area. Taniyama Ryou and Taniyama May…"

"Your point?" said Naru.

"If those two are the ones haunting this house, then they're haunting Hideki-san, right?"

"Yes."

"Why would two children like them haunt this one random man?" Yasuhara asked curiously.

"The darker spirit may be forcing them to," said Masako. "That may explain why I am unable to interact with them at all."

Lin however, seemed to have a different opinion. And as he voiced it, everyone looked at him in shock.

"I wonder if it is possible that Hideki-san is the one who killed Mai-san's family?"

That's it for now. Looking forward to reviews! Laterz!