A/C - Hi all! Things are getting more interesting/confusing/dangerous. All those things that we Ghost Hunt fans love :) Review/rate and fav, please!

Chapter 6 - Walking Through Your Mazes

The dynamics of the case were changed. It still startled me that we were risking so much. But, Lin assured us that if we followed our smudging regime there would be nothing to worry about. We were worried though. You could feel it in the air after the meeting subsided. I felt it the next morning as we prepared to go to the prison.

Another thing I felt was the sensation of being, literally, lighter. The counterbalance of serotonin seemed to help with the headaches and the moodiness. I still could not access any of my sensitive-medium abilities but at least some things were better.

"Won't there be forensics on the scene?" I asked. Bou-san, Masako, Ayako, John and I made our way to the vehicle. Lin and Naru were already off to the location. "Or a police investigation?"

Bou-san had been the only one of us yesterday who went to the location.

He shook his head. "The local department did close it yesterday. However, they called Naru last night and said we could continue the investigation."

It sounded strange, and not just to me.

Ayako said, "a dead body, a dodgy maintenance man and a strange little town. This place gives me the creeps. Another couple days and we can finally go home."

Slowly, I nodded in agreement.

Naru had been strict about being with someone at all times because it seemed, at any moment, someone could turn on you - or go missing.

"Will Yasu be okay alone at the hotel?" I wondered as we piled into the SUV.

"He'll be fine. If you ask me, he's probably the safest out of all of us. Lucky dog." Bou-san said.

"That's true."

We climbed into the vehicle, I got to sit in the passenger seat and Bou-san drove. At some point during the drive both Masako and Ayako had fallen asleep in the back.

John was back there too but, if John was awake, he didn't say much.

Twenty minutes into our hour-long ride, Bou-san said quietly. "Hey Mai, there's been something I've wanted to ask you."

Involuntarily, my body stiffened from tension. "What is it?"

Bou-san was visibly struggling for words. His eyebrows furrowed and he glanced to the back to make sure the women were asleep.

"Tell me honestly: when SPR disbanded were you mad at us?" In his voice, I could hear what he actually meant: were you mad at me?

After a moment, he said. "Nevermind, it's insensitive to ask. If you don't want to answer you don't have to, or if it makes you uncomfortable."

I tried to even out my breathing, gripping my hands in my lap. It was uncomfortable since I still didn't feel as though the antidepressants fully left my system. I couldn't be sure if theses feeling's were something else, and behind the numbness there was a real kind of deep-rooted anxiety that existed within me.

The pills were just a crutch for dealing with that darkness and I knew this was going to happen. I should have tried to prepare for this.

"I wasn't mad at you, Bou-san." I said, in a small voice.

"I'm sorry but I just don't believe that you couldn't be mad. Hell, I would be mad at me too. I was supposed to be your big-brother and I just left."

The truth was that I did feel mad at everyone. At the time, it seemed easier to be mad at them than it was to think clearly.

"I was mad at myself," I clarified. "I was mad that I couldn't seem to move on but everyone else could."

Bou-san gripped the wheel. "I want to apologize to you. I shouldn't have cut you off like that. It wasn't fair. And, it wasn't just you I did that too." He looked in the rear-view mirror, and I could see his eyes scanning the back. "I cut them all off. I was just frustrated about what happened and wanted to forget about SPR."

It emulated the thoughts I had in those early days - the thoughts I had very recently until I accepted this case - to forget about the people, the cases and the memories of SPR.

"Why did you decide to join this investigation?" I asked, in part to know why and in part to change the topic.

A breath came out of him and it almost sounded like a laugh. He loosened his grip on the wheel, changing to a more comfortable position and rested his elbow on the armrest.

"I guess I wanted the chance to see all of you again," Bou-san said. "I'll be honest though, I didn't know if I could handle working with Naru again."

I smiled, faintly. "I felt the same way."

My body uncoiled from the tense position, slowly relaxing.

Bou-san said, "I'd like to keep in contact with you Mai. And actually keep it and not just run off." He passed a hand over his face. "Like I said, I was just frustrated. Being back with everyone now, I've realized life is too short to hold grudges and be upset."

He gave me a sideways glance, hazel eyes shining. "It's also too short to push friends away."

Bou-san had always been kind to me, had always known what to say.

I nodded and agreed, wholly. "I would like that."

^.^

John and I were instructed to stay at base. It was mildly irritating because I wasn't even given the chance to try my abilities at this location - even though I couldn't use them. I held my tongue and kept that unnecessary anger in check as the rest of the team broke up to search the location.

John said a prayer for the woman who passed before the team broke up to search the location.

In the prison, Masako and Bou-san were working on making contact with spirits, going from cell-block to cell-block.

Naru and Lin were walking around the location doing... I don't know what.

Meanwhile, John and I watched the screens in the back of the SUV.

Big whoop.

Mid-day, I stretched my limbs out and yawned loudly. I remember this was the most boring part of these investigations. John watched me.

"Can you still astral project? Do you need to have a nap?" He asked, politely in that thick accent.

I covered my mouth. "N-no I don't have to sleep or anything, I'm fine. Actually, uhm, I can't really tell when I'll do it, it just happens." I realized that I had just lied to a priest. It wasn't fully a lie, in my defense, because I truly couldn't tell when I was going to astral project - it just snuck up on me.

He continued watching me, his bright blue eyes were filled with some kind of dark emotion. He looked down.

I sensed something was off. "Is everything alright, John?

"I may have heard something I wasn't supposed to." He gave a nervous glance my way. "I heard what Takigawa said in the car. I'm sorry that I wasn't there for you. Even though we worked together I should have made more of an effort to visit you. It's sinful to feel spite but I felt the same way Takigawa did - frustrated because everything that happened during SPR had worked out, and suddenly it was taken away. It felt a little unfair that everyone lost so much except - "

John stopped himself and said no more, but I knew exactly what he meant.

Everyone except Naru, and Lin, lost everything.

That statement wasn't exactly true because Naru had lost a lot too. It wasn't comparable to what we lost - not in the way that mattered. The things we lost were part of this world and among the living.

Naru had always been chasing a ghost.

It still didn't mean that Naru did not lose anything. I let out a small breath, slightly annoyed I was giving Naru any kind of benefit. But, past the fuzziness, I could see that he wasn't entirely doing it to be cruel. Naru was alone and hurting the entire time he was looking for Gene.

Blue eyes met mine and slowly, John smiled. "I'm just a Priest tryin' to atone for his sins."

In a sitting position, awkwardly, he bowed his head deeply.

"Oh, John."

I reached over to touch his hand. In the back of my mind I wanted to block this out, to close my eyes and not deal with any of this. Not only did I have the confrontation with Ayako and Masako yesterday, but now with Bou-san and John. I had to admit it was on a less drastic, and dramatic, of a scale.

Slowly, I realized though, this was a way of healing.

It seemed, not just for me, that we all had struggles after SPR. None of us wanted to drift apart, but at the same time, none of us wanted to have those reminders of being together.

"If it weren't for your generosity and help, I would be in a much worst place I think. The orphanage really helped me." I said, still touching his hand. John smiled, and I felt it radiate at my entire being. I felt it from within me - that I meant what I said. "I should really thank you."

"No, I didn't -"

"It's alright. All of that stuff is in the past. We can make the future much better now that we are all here together. Don't you think?"

John smiled and nodded. "I'd be honored."

In the midst of our tender moment, Naru's voice pragmatic sounded over the radio. We grinned at each other and pulled apart.

"Father Brown, can you bring a microphone inside? In the east wing, second level." His voice conveyed his other message: be quick.

I jumped up at the opportunity. In our moment of talking, I hadn't noticed Naru go back to the prison and I found them on the camera's, marking their location.

Quickly, I opened the SUV door to grab a microphone from the trunk.

"Please let me do it," I said to John as he gave me a confused look. "Naru hasn't let me do any of this in days. I'll just be a moment and they're on the second floor." I pointed to the camera.

John checked, nervously, then turned back to me. He sounded unsure. A-alright, if you insist."

"Thank you!" I beamed at him and grabbed the microphone.

Hastily, I started towards the prison. It would be my second time in the structure this entire week. I hadn't gone further than the main floor so this was going to be a bit of a learning curve for me as I didn't exactly know how to navigate inside.

It was perfect opportunity to see if my powers were back.

Two days of slowly coaxing my body off the antidepressants and I was ready to try. I didn't felt any initial changes in my overall access to those powers, there was still a dark wall blocking me from it. I would have to see if I could, at least, feel anything being inside the structure. I certainly didn't feel anything being outside of it.

Entering the building, I walked down the long, narrow corridors. The old building cooed and sighed with every breath of the wind. It seemed to be a completely different world inside and I tried to keep my mind at ease. In order to get to the level two cell-block I could see that they had to climb a ladder-like staircase as neared the end of the hall.

Hesitantly, I started to climb it. The old metal groaned from beneath me, clattering slightly as I shifted my weight while I climbed.

Don't panic, you're not alone. I can hear them, they can't be far away.

I tried to coax myself as I reached a small landing, the halfway point, of the staircase. My body was shaking and had to stop to a deep breath.

Slowly, I closed my eyes. I tried to push at the mental wall and forced the world around me to shift so I could see the realm beyond - or feel it. But, the wall did not budge. Steadily, I pressed harder into it. A glittering sensation of darkness pulsed around me and the mental shield did not shutter. That meant the drugs were there still, in my system, and there was a chance I would not get to use my powers at all while we were here.

Feeling slightly irritated and upset, I opened my eyes and started to walk up the stair-like ladder again.

My whole body tensed when I went to lift my foot up. Something held me in place, not by holding my limbs but by invading my space. I felt a presence. It pressed down on me and I felt heavier, as if my shoulders were carrying a wight on top of them. The ladder started shaking and shifting weight from beneath my feet. I braced myself on the railings from the sensation of being shaken side-to-side.

I gripped the edge, trying not to drop the microphone and tucking in between my arm and my body. Another clatter, and the ladder shifted again before I felt part of it give away - the portion of the platform I had stopped on moments ago was about to collapse. I panicked and struggled to get myself away from the half that was going to fall.

Managing to grip the railing, I braced myself when the lower portion of the ladder groaned loudly and clattered to the ground. I felt my full weight as I held myself up when my foot had come off the rungs and I was now hanging off the ladder. These damn too-thin arms were useless and buckled from the exertion. I had absolutely no strength, no muscle and I felt my grip slip within seconds. Someone was yelling at my to hold on and I thought I could feel the brush of their hand, but it could not catch me.

I fell and landed, hard, on the concrete floor. Luckily the fall wan't far, maybe six or seven feet. Still, the impact left me jarred and stunned, and I laid flat on the ground, listening to people shouting from around me.

Slowly, my breathing returned to me.

It was Naru who reached me first. I had started to manage to push myself up, trying to connect to my stunned body again. I felt that my clothes had become skewed during my fall, could feel the cold kiss of the concrete, the sharp jabs of the rocks, on my delicate waist.

I looked up at Naru and I noticed his eyes fall to my bare torso.

Those eyes widened.

He stopped in his tracks and, hastily, I yanked down my shirt.

It hadn't lifted enough to see beyond my waist but Naru's eyes were pupil-wide. He was breathing shallowly and, in this lightning, he seemed paler than normal.

I knew what he had caught a glimpse of. My stomach and waist were littered in deep, dark red scars from the excessive cutting that I did. I had new wounds from a couple days ago still fresh and hot on my pale skin.

For someone else to see that... I couldn't imagine what it looked like. When I looked at them in the mirror I felt disgusted. I could only imagine what someone else would think of when they saw it.

"Are you alright?" Naru said as he seemed to collect himself. The rest of the team had finally caught up and were now by our sides.

"Just a bit winded, I'll be fine."

His cool gaze remained on mine and he lowered himself down, kneeling at my side. Naru hesitated on touching me though. I felt his body singing with tension and knew how much he disliked any physical contact. I hadn't expected him to want to help me, or even be next to me, so when he did it came at a surprise.

His hands brushed my shoulders, it was the barest of touch but I suddenly felt a spark of heat that shivered down my spine. It wasn't intimate, but I fluttered my eyes shut trying to regain my breathing and thoughts.

Naru misread my reaction and pulled back. "Does that hurt?"

"N-No, I'm fine," I breathed.

"What on earth happened?" Ayako also knelt beside me now. Naru sat back on his heels and she looked at my arms, checking my legs, head and shoulders. When she was relieved that I wasn't bleeding anywhere she also sat back. "By God, you could have seriously been hurt. How on earth did this happen?"

"I don't know," I tried to move. Ayako lent me a hand as I struggled to stand. I looked at the portion of the ladder that fell, to the microphone I had protected with my body. Other than my back aching, nothing felt broken. "I guess the ladder wasn't stable."

"We had used that ladder before you did," Masako said. She looked at the remnants of the ladder, confused. "I don't understand how it could have fallen like that."

"It's an old building," said Lin. He had been examining the portion of the ladder. "The structure is not sound, any one of us could have taken that fall. This was probably going to happen any day now."

Typical, I was the one who managed to make this fall.

Naru's cold, precise, voice said, "What were you doing here in the first place? I had asked Father Brown to bring me the equipment."

"I wanted to bring it."

I'm just as much of this team, I wanted to say but instead I just looked at him. He had regained his cool expression at some point. "I just wanted to help."

We stared at each other and I could see the swirl of emotions behind those indigo eyes. Something passed between us: it's not safe for you, I can't protect you.

Naru strived for control and I was, always, the one testing that carefully cultivated authority. I couldn't figure out if that was a good or a bad thing. From the look in his eyes, and the countless times I received this look in the past, he wasn't sure either.

Naru didn't say anything and Ayako continued to help me walk back towards the entrance. "Let's get you out of here."

As we walked outside, I couldn't help but wonder if that was a spirit somehow. I recalled not being able to move before the ladder started to fall. Or, was it just a strange back-fire of spiritual energy from not being able to break past that wall. I had never been able to physically alter the things around me, maybe… I had accessed something darker when I was inside this place.

Outside John came up to us, worried.

"Is she alright?" He asked, thickly accented. Pale blue eyes looked over me, then he sharply looked behind us at the owner of that cool, calculated voice.

"Father Brown," Naru said. "Can you conduct a blessing in cell block two." It wasn't a question, but a firm order. I almost protested that we didn't need to, that there was some misunderstanding because there weren't any spirits here. I shut myself up, instantly. We had no proof there were no spirits here, just as we had no proof there were spirits here. It was a frustrating scenario.

"Sure, of course." John answered, then to me he said. "I hope you're not hurt."

I smiled at him. "I'm alright, I'm more shocked than hurt. This kind of stuff always seems to happen to me."

"Aiy, that's true." John looked uneasy, but he smiled in a friendly manner.

It was Ayako, backed by Bou-san, who both said: "I guess some things never change."

I turned to disagree with them but was stopped when I saw Naru assessing me again. He looked as if he had just encountered a problem he couldn't quite understand. An apostrophe formed between his brows as he regarded me, deepening when we made eye contact. I couldn't say for sure why he looked the way he did.

I had seen a look like that on him. It was on the case where we battled a God and I provoked him into using his powers.

Naru didn't say anything else as he stalked back into the prison.

^.^

That night, Yasu suggested we all got together in his, John and Bou-san's room to watch a movie. He even ordered massive plates of snack food from the restaurant that he placed on a low coffee table. Each of our rooms were similar, in that they had a futon area in front of a T.V.

We all decided to join, a much needed break from the hectic case.

However, the movie we decided on was a thriller. I tended to not enjoy these types of movies because they were so predictable but I couldn't help jumping at the scary parts. John had looked uneasy at some of the more gruesome parts of the move, when body parts were ripped from people and fake blood squirted out.

Just as the movie ended, I got a phone call. I had been in the middle of debating a pivotal scene with Ayako and Bou-san when I looked at the call display. It was Lucien.

"I have to take this." I told them, leaving the room.

It had been days since I had last talked to Lucien. I had texted him and gave him daily updates, but did not feel it necessary to call him everyday.

"Hey," I sounded exactly as I felt, sated and happy. "How're you?"

"I'm good!" Lucien was grinning - I could tell from his voice. "How is everything going?"

"Everything's fine." It was better than fine, I thought as I leaned against the wall. I was actually enjoying myself. "It's been an interesting few days."

"What happened?"

"Well I stopped -" I immediately shut myself up.

"Mai? I lost you there. Did you say you stopped something?"

Oh no. I hadn't told Lucien about not taking the pills.

I knew it wasn't a matter of him being mad that I did it. It's was that Lucien like taking care of me. For a while, I hadn't known there was much of a difference between taking care of someone for the sake of their well-being, or taking care of someone who is supposed to be your equal.

Most times Lucien took care of me as if I were some kind of child, and not his girlfriend.

He said in a worried tone, "I hope you're keeping up with your doses. I know being out there is hard for you, and I wish I would take care of you instead of worrying so much."

"I - uh," I had to say something. Think...think..

"I'm excited to come back home. I really miss you."

Lucien sighed into the phone. "Another couple days and you will be. It'll go back to the way it was and you won't have to feel anxious or scared anymore."

There was an ache in my chest as I thought about what 'before' was. It was miserable days, with no friends and being afraid of every shadow of my past. I didn't want to go back.

"Yeah." I said simply. "I have to go Lucien, it's been a long day." It had been a long day, at least that wasn't a lie.

"Alright. Good-night, Mai."

"Good-night, Lucien."

Glancing up I saw Masako staring at me when I put my phone down.

"Is he a good guy?"

I smiled sadly, "he's almost too good."

I hated that I was starting to see just how ugly I am. Back then I had gladly clung to Lucien and allowed him to take care of me because I couldn't do that myself - was too weak. I was such a pathetic person that I used him for his ability to make me feel less alone.

It wasn't that I didn't truly have feelings for him, they were just deeply overlooked by my need to rely on crutches like antidepressants and Lucien.

Lucien was too good for me.

She didn't say anything else, likely not knowing what the conversation was about, and simply told me. "They're putting in another movie."

I didn't want to think about this, not right now.

"Great!"

I moved off the wall to go back into the room full of laughter and friendly bickering.

^.^

I don't remember what time it was when we had forced ourselves out of the room and walked down the hall to our own rooms. I didn't even wash my face, I just fell into my futon and drifted to sleep.

But this wasn't a dream. I suddenly felt a very familiar feeling about this place. Like Deja Vu, I could remember it, but couldn't quite place it. The plane itself was a swirling black entity, there was not a single structure or living being in sight.

Until I saw a person standing in front of me, the only glimmer of light on this dark world. I felt my whole body tense. For a moment, it was just my chest rising and falling and my heart racing through my veins. I hadn't seen him since Naru left overseas - hadn't been able to access this world since then either.

The dark plane enveloped us and Gene casually strolled over to me.

His face was exactly the same, young and eternal, and I felt sad to see him here. "Why haven't you passed on?" I said, as a way of greeting. Surely, he should have been able to find peace since we found his body. I assumed he was put to rest back home, in England.

Gene stopped in front of me, "it seems I can't passover until the idiot-scientist loses his power. And, for him to do that means…"

He didn't finish because he didn't have to. I knew what he meant if Naru had lost his powers.

Instead, Gene continued. "I've tried contacting you and I could never get through. I wondered if you found a way to thoroughly block me, or something...worse."

Dark blue eyes, like Naru's, peered at me. Unlike his brother though, Gene's were not a barrier to his thoughts and emotions.

"I was blocked," I said slowly, looking down. "I-I started taking antidepressants and they seemed to have numbed this." I looked around the dark plane. It was my astral plane, the one that Gene usually brought me too. Instead of any given structure, this one was simply darkness. Or maybe I wasn't strong enough yet to fully dream of any location.

Anger passed over Gene's face as he frowned. "I'm sorry this happened to you, Mai."

"It's alright." I wasn't alright though. "Do you think he knows?"

If Naru had known it could be why he was acting strange around me. As if he were walking on eggshells and hadn't known how to handle it. I recalled his face yesterday when he looked at me as if he had just encountered a problem he couldn't understand.

Gene looked a little nervous when he said, "I couldn't tell you."

"Right, sorry. Well, I've stopped taking them which is why I can be here now." I looked up at him, answering what he was likely thinking. "What's happening here, Gene? Have you been able to figure anything out about this location?"

Gene looked like he was going to keep pressing the topic of me and his brother. Soon, though, that look dissolved and he said, "There are no ghosts here. At least none that I've come into contact with."

"How? There was a person who died here, surely they would still be on the other-side." I thought, aloud.

"No, I've tried to provoke the spirit realm and I sense nothing." His eyes narrowed. "There is a presence though that I can't quite get a sense for. It's likely you have felt it too."

"A young girl?"

He nodded.

The girl in the black dress. Gene probably already knew about her past. "She isn't a spirit, she's something else. I think that dying changed her. The spirits that should be in the area seem to instantly disappear when she is around, and only she remains."

I thought about the fox fires, in a case at Yasu's school. There were so many curses set that the spirits had started devouring each other until the strongest remain. "Could she be the one taking the spirits and gaining strength, like the koduku curse?"

"No," Gene answered firmly. "There needs to have been a curse established and, from what I've gathered, there's no implications of a curse being on these lands."

"That doesn't make any sense."

Gene frowned and I thought about what he was saying very carefully.

This girl wasn't part of a curse to kill any single person or spirit and could take any soul she wished.

Just what was she?

I remembered my dream, and instantly realized something. "She died in a sacrifice. Do you think that was some kind of initiation for a curse? Maybe she was supposed to curse the landowners who lived there before."

No, that still didn't sound right. Gene considered it though, before he inhaled sharply.

"She must be some kind of anchor to a curse, not on any one or thing in specific, but the land itself. It might explain why she can take any soul."

I nodded in agreement, "It would make even more sense if, somehow she was connected to the land, being the bloodline that owned it originally. Right?"

"Exactly."

It sounded as horrible as I imagined.

Another thought hit me, "could it have been Miki Hikuzaki? Lin thinks he's the omnyouji that set the curse. If the sacrifice started it, then he would have been older by now." I did the mental math. In nineteen-fifteen, Miki would be over one hundred-years old now. He looked like he could be in his late fifties at most.

"He's not an omnyouji." Gene said. "There is something about this though... I don't quite understand it."

Neither did any of us, I wanted to say but didn't.

Gene continued. "I'll try to figure out more about that girl. I can't get too close to her or she will sense me. I'm not certain what will happen if she does."

"Please, be careful, Gene." I looked up at him.

Gene had never shied away from physical touch the way Naru did. Still, it surprised me when he lifted his hand and his long fingers gently touched my cheek, brushing softly. I felt my eyes flutter close at the sensation along my jawline.

To feel him was like everything and nothing all at once.

"I'll be careful," he said and I could find no where else to look but his eyes as I slowly opened my own. "I'm sorry that he did that to you."

I took a shaky breath. I didn't want to talk about this. Not here, when I was finally with Gene after so long.

"I wish that I could have -" he cut himself off abruptly as he dropped his hand. He looked at a loss of words, something passing over his face, flashing in his eyes, before he dismissed all of it and simply smiled.

Gene smiling was the most beautiful thing I would ever remember.

"Don't tell him just yet," he said. "I want to make sure I have more information for him. He'll get cranky when he realizes we only did half the work."

I smiled at him, and at the statement because it was true. "Yeah. He will."

I watched Gene fade into the darkness, slowly, as the world disappeared from around us and real sleep took hold of my dreams.

^.^