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Chapter 7 -The Worst In Me

^.^

I hardly slept at all from the excitement of seeing Gene again and with all the new information I had to think about for this case.

First, there was a curse and it was likely started when the girl from my dreams (and in the woods) was sacrificed by a a cult. Were they hired from the Hikuzaras'? Or worse, was it the Hikuzaras'? There still wasn't enough proof on this.

Which brought me to the next thing: Miki wasn't an onmyouji. It was important because that meant Lin's onmyouji skills would be much more effective, especially against...that thing.

I hadn't brought up what I thought I saw in the woods... which wasn't anything at all but it felt like something inhuman. I shivered at the thought of it, which could have been my imagination - I didn't want to find out though because no where did anyone explain we would encounter that kind of creature.

Next, there were no spirits at the location - at least not actively. This was confirmed by Masako who hasn't had much luck locating any. That, and Gene also voiced similar findings last night. My theory is, the spirit Masako had contacted was, likely, the lingering spirit of the woman found dead on this location.

I didn't bother to include the ladder-accident as paranormal. It was just my luck to happen upon a faulty ladder mere seconds after the group.

Besides, Gene had said spirits were instantly devoured by that girl in the black dress. Who was she? It reminded me that I needed to ask Yasu if he found any history on the original family, or some kind of explanation for these woods.

Since I didn't sleep, I was up early and decided to smudge before Masako and Ayako woke up. The process didn't take very long and as I walked back to the room, more questions plagued my mind.

I paused with my hand on the doorknob of my hotel room.

It was strange because the more I thought about that entity, the more I remember I felt that it didn't belong on this earth. The feel of that strange enveloped world, an exact plane of this world, was also strange. I couldn't place it. Was it because of the curse? Was it something else we were missing?

"Are you okay, Mai?" Someone asked from behind me. Startled, I spun around and saw Yasu's tall, lean figure standing behind me in the hallway. He was wearing a grey shirt with jeans.

"Oh! You scared me. I'm sorry, I didn't notice you were behind me."

He put his hands up, "You're right, I should know better than to sneak up on you when you're in such deep thought. Anything I can help you with?"

I noticed Yasu was holding bottles of pop in his hands and he offered one to me. I shook my head for the pop. "I'm just thinking about this case. There's so much happening and a lot of it doesn't make sense."

"Tell me about it," Yasu sighed. He leaned against the wall, "This case gets weirder and weirder the more I look into it."

I had to ask Yasu if he had come across some kind of history from the locals, but I also had to make sure I didn't give away how much information I knew because Yasu would report back to Naru. I had specific instructions from Gene not to involve Naru just yet.

"Have you found much on the original family?" I asked, carefully.

"Oh?" Yasu smirked, deviously. Then, after a moment, he grinned. "Am I confirming a vision?"

Damnit - wasn't as subtle as I wanted to be.

Slowly, I nodded.

Yasu said, "I knew it! They told me your abilities were latent here but I knew you were just keeping all the information to yourself."

I panicked and looked down the empty corridors. In a hushed voice I said, "This has to stay between us. I need to know if there is any information on the original family's daughter. Her name, her age - or the reason she died."

Yasu leaned back on the wall. "That's the weird thing, she was like a Jane Doe. There's no mention of her name or confirmed death, only that she had reported to have gone missing."

"What about the parents?"

"After the report there was nothing on them either."

That wasn't what I had been hoping for, and the disappointment showed on my face.

Yasu said, "I don't think I've found anything that we don't already know. Naru might have more information than I would to be honest."

And that was true but I was too stubborn to involve him yet. Everything we knew about the case had already been told to us. I was just trying to confirm the extra information I had found out from Gene - with instructions not to tell Naru.

I sighed, "I'm just overthinking this." It was true, I felt a slow headache begin to start at the base of my skull and it wasn't even seven in the morning yet.

Yasu stared at me as I rubbed my temples, "By the way, Mai I wanted to apologize for not staying in contact. I had meant to ask if you changed your number."

The question caught me off guard, "no, why?"

He pulled out his phone with one hand, unlocking it and searching for something before he showed me a series of text messages. They were all from one person - himself - being sent to a number that had not replied. The texts were mostly polite greetings and questions. I looked at the dates: the oldest one was four years ago.

"I thought I found your phone number and had tried texting you. Since I didn't know your address, I couldn't get a hold of you any other way. I just assumed this was a wrong number."

I looked at the contact: indeed, the number was identical to mine but it was off by one number, a five instead of a seven at the end.

I felt myself flush and looked back up at Yasu, who was also flushed. "I thought that maybe you didn't want to talk to any of us anymore, especially me, since I just kind of...left."

"You didn't," I said out loud, emotions lodged in my throat. He had tried contacting me, sending message after message of greetings to a number that didn't exist. I don't know why but I was stupidly grateful for that. "Yasu, I'm so sorry." I didn't know that he had been trying to contact me.

Yet, all this time I had felt scornful towards each of them. I realized this case was slowly making us all closer in a way that we couldn't have otherwise. There were so many miscommunications to sort through.

Yasu smiled. "No, it's my fault. I should have asked you before we all went our separate ways. I was just too caught up in school the last time we spoke."

The last time we spoke had been a chance occurrence. We met at the train station, and he was rushing to catch his train that was leaving. I remember he had briefly told me about his acceptance into Law School.

I politely reached out for his phone. "May I?"

He handed it to me and I corrected the number, with my contact name in big capital letters.

Teasingly, I said. "I hope this saves some poor, unfortunate soul you've been creeping on."

"I am a wounded soul," Yasu nudged me with his elbow as I handed him his phone. "A man who has been stood up for four years!"

"Oh please," I grinned. "I'm sure you've made out just fine." I elbowed him back.

From behind me, the door opened to my room, Ayako and Masako had come out.

Both ladies were dressed in familiar traditional clothes: Masako in a fitted, red kimono and Ayako in her red and white robes. It gave me a sense of what we were to expect while at the prison today.

They took us in, Ayako saying. "We've found the early riser. We weren't sure we would be able to find where you ran off to before we left."

"Bou-san just text us, we're going to smudge really quick and leave." Masako informed us. Shyly, she glanced up at Yasu. "Good morning," She said.

I peered sideways at his face. He smiled broadly, "Good morning, ladies."

"You look fresh for someone who stayed up all night," Ayako observed Yasu. Indeed, our young male friend did appear to have slept well. Ayako's grin turned feline. "You must be used to entertaining woman in your room late at night -"

"Ayako!" I faced her, blushing. "That is so inappropriate and not even true. Bou-san and John were in there too!"

"Ah, yes," Yasu said in a mischievous tone. "How could we forget about they boys who, so rudely, fell asleep on my carefully hand-chosen movies? Once you ladies left, I was glad to finally have those two to myself for a while. I felt that a debt was owed."

Masako's mouth slacked, "What did you do to them?" She was dead serious.

"Masako, he didn't do anything." I groaned, looking back at the wide grin Yasu was giving us. Instantly I regretting saying that. "You didn't, did you?"

The grin broadened. "You'll see later."

Oh brother, I thought. Yasu parted ways with us while Ayako and Masako smudged quickly, then we climbed into the SUV. Bou-san and John were waiting, and we had to clap our mouths shut seeing them.

Well, Masako and I did. Ayako straight out began laughing. "You look ridiculous!"

They did.

Both men looked rugged, hair out of place and completely tired. Not to mention, each had a small cross drawn on their foreheads in a black marker. Bou-san's looked as if he had tried wiping it off. John didn't even look phased by it - in fact he seemed to beam.

"I'm going to get Yasu back for this," Bou-san declared, jokingly. "We should be sleeping and not staying up into the late hours of the morning. Plus, we shouldn't have to fear for our faces being defiled."

John disagreed, "It really could have been far worst, mate."

Masako and I laughed again because he was right, Yasu drew a cross on their face instead of...something else.

When the amusement of those drawings began to wear off during the drive, we started to fall into a familiar, friendly conversation. There was no particular subject, we just..talked. And I thoroughly enjoyed it.

At the location I was surprised to find Lin staying back with me as John began blessing the outside of the prison. I wanted to tell them that this wasn't going to work, that this was something beyond the prison lands itself.

Suddenly, something clicked into place that I hadn't thought about before.

In my dream there was a cottage where the sacrifice happened. Maybe that's where the curse originated too. Perhaps, that's where we needed to be and the prison - which could have been a decoy this entire time.

Stunned by this revelation, I didn't see Lin leave. I only felt the presence of a new person near me. I didn't have to turn to see who it was, Naru gracefully slid into the seat beside me.

Everything slowed. My revelation did not seem as important with him beside me now. I recalled the last couple of times we had been alone together and each had not been pleasant. Then, there was yesterday when he was the first to come down to my aid. He had seen my shirt, what lay under it.

I turned to see him watching me, his eyes seemed to pass over me as if he couldn't quite make sense of something. I realized he had been watching me the whole time.

"What's wrong?" I asked, evenly.

Or as evenly as I could under my shallow breathing and thunderous heartbeat.

Naru waited, his blue gaze still regarding me coolly. He turned to the monitors. "We're going to use a Ouija board like you suggested the other day."

I didn't want to point out that everyone in the team had originally denied that idea. Seeing as I've been allowed nowhere else but the SUV, I decided it wasn't unlike Naru to change their opinion.

"So why're you in here?" I asked, since it was unusual. He liked being in the thick of the action.

"Lin thought it would be best if I stayed out of the vicinity of the se'ance. Given the obvious." He meant his powers that had the ability to create poltergeist-like activity around him.

"Given the obvious," I snorted. I knew the other reason: he was here to keep me out of the prison.

Keeping my eyes on the screen, I watched as the entire team set up in the basement. Lin was the one on the board, behind him was Bou-san and John, who were also dressed in their spiritualist robes.

It was about to begin and I leaned in, intent to watch. There was a strange feeling of being watched and I glanced beside me at Naru, who was gazing at me. He was, I realized, still fixated on some unknown problem.

"What?" I asked, slightly irritated.

Waiting patiently, I watched the hesitation and, most surprising, uncertainty cross his features. His eyes remained entirely passive but his voice was honed, as if cut by glass. "Were those marks done by Sora-san?"

I almost felt shock, or mild amusement. I couldn't decide: but I wanted to laugh. Had Naru really thought those cuts could be done by Lucien? Or, had he convinced himself of that. I realized that Naru had no social skills - had not been able to communicate to someone properly.

In other words: his etiquette sucked.

Or, was this something else? Why bother bringing it up? This must have been what he had been contemplating: how to bring this topic up.

I huffed out a breath, "do you really think Lucien would do that?" I didn't know what he thought about him, other than the fact that he was the man I was, supposedly, sleeping with.

"No," Naru said. "There's no way another person could have done that to you. Those are self inflicted."

Then why did you ask, I wanted to say. Instead, I settled with, "It's none of your business."

Because he was too close to the truth: that he had done this. He did all of this. Naru left, broke my heart, took my away my job and cleaved apart our group of friends. He had done it all without so much of a flicker of emotion in his eyes. He just watched, as he always did, with that detached, cool expression.

Except, I had broken some kind of restraint on that control he continuously exerted upon himself. His eyes narrowed, "I think if it has to do with me, it is my business."

I felt hot. And, not the kind of heat that made you flush from being in close proximity to a person you were attracted to. I felt rage, like fire cracking through my veins and running, hot, over my skin.

In spite of that, I laughed, hoarsely. "You're unbelievable. You think you can come back here and I'll spill my secrets to you?" In the next moments, I leaned forward and was fueled by scorn and anger. All I wanted to do was hurt him, to have this moment and hurt him like he hurt me. "The sick thing is that you don't even really care, do you?"

Naru's breathing was rapid and shallow. Beneath his harsh, black clothing I could see his pale throat pulsing. There was a warning in his voice, "Are you suggesting that I don't care about you? Is that why you did that to yourself?"

Anger, like I've never felt before, exploded from within me.

The cracking in my ears turned into a shattering sound as those layers upon layers of walls I constructed throughout the years fell apart. In a span of a week, Naru had come into my life and unwound all of my pent up frustration within the last four years. I had turned into a person who lost her spunk and he knew it.

I became a person of submission and crutches. The pills, Lucien, the mental barriers - all of them were just crutches for me to forget this one, single, person and his deeds.

"You are the most selfish person I have ever met." I said each word deliberately slow and let them puncture the air. I had never wanted to hurt somebody, so badly, in my entire life.

We were close now, the tension was thick between us - I felt it on my skin like a coating.

Naru tried to act casual, as if he weren't rigid, but I could see it in his every muscle.

"I have always been the same person," He said. "Whether that be selfish or a narcissist. I have never hid behind some mask."

Once the words were out, he couldn't take them back.

I snapped back towards the seat, as if he had just hit me. I felt the deep reverb in my bones and my breathing became sporadic. Past the tears, past the overwhelming shock and shame, I clamped down on that anger one last time.

"I can't believe I ever thought I loved you." I hissed through my teeth.

His pupils flared and his lips curled back, words rising on his mouth just before something, physically, shook the SUV and I yelped. We braced ourselves from the impact, the two of us being shifted closer together as the SUV bounced back and forth violently.

Something with immense power had shoved the vehicle! Momentarily being caught off guard, I had instinctively gripped Naru's arm. His hands braced my shoulders and I had shifted, being nearly in his lap.

Then, something started banging on the vehicle. It was loud, making the equipment clatter and the walls of the interior shake again. Naru gripped my wrist, reaching for the door, trying to open it when he swore under his breath and I realized it was locked. I wondered if he had been doing this. If, somehow, his cool and calculated control had snapped during our argument. Had he, unknowingly, tapped into that infinite power he housed?

From the shocked and confused look in his eyes when he scanned the monitors, I became aware that this wasn't caused by Naru.

I looked outside, to see if I could find anyone, perhaps Miki, causing this. I did not see any living person but I did see someone familiar.

The girl in the black dress.

She stood closer than she had the last time and I could make out the freckles that were scattered across her face. From behind her, something stepped out, unfolding its tall, spindly limbs and the world shifted. It felt like my stomach had hallowed out. All I saw was the creatures ribbed, grey body and his milky white eyes. The beast leaned back on its hind legs that tapered into black, thick claws. I saw the muscles flicker in those bulky haunches when it moved, fast, before it was a swirl of skin, claws and teeth as I screamed.

A flurry of activity happened in front of me as I shoved myself backwards from the window.

A burst of ghostly faces began to swarm my vision. Shadows darted from across my face at the same time a headache ripped through my skull. It began at the base of my neck and moved to the top of my temples. It felt like my entire skull was being ripped open and I gripped my head, trying to relieve the pressure there.

"Make it stop," I whimpered. "Make them go away."

Skeletal, ghostly faces sprung from the earth, I didn't recognize any of the them and - oh God - they were everywhere! I couldn't see the SUV interior anymore, everything had disappeared. Pale, shining hands reached for me and I felt my body jerk back once again, hitting something hard. Mouths opened, all of those faces trying to speak but no sound came out. Cold shock shuddered through my body as those hands gripped me this time, tightly.

"Make them go away!"

Distantly, I heard someone talking to me. But I couldn't be sure, not when all of those faces had been trying, so desperately, to speak - to scream.

"MAKE THEM GO AWAY!" I screamed, jerking back and this time clutched a warm body that I realized was Naru. Hard, taut muscle under my fingers made me realize that we were still trapped in the SUV and that thing couldn't hurt us. Tremors passed through my body and I shook violently. I felt him respond, unsure at what was startling me but, as always, he tried to take control of the situation. He held me close, so close I felt his own heartbeat pulsing like a rabbit's under his skin.

"It'll be okay," He whispered in a thick voice. His hand smoothed over my hair and he was close enough that I could feel his hot breath on my ear, my neck. I took several, long, seconds to focus on his body beneath my fingers. Tried to focus on breathing evenly, and settling my muscles to relax.

"It'll be okay, Mai."

In one moment, Naru was holding me - whispering that it was going to be okay.

Then the next, the window I had been staring out of shattered. Over the sound of breaking glass, I was screaming again. Naru covered the scattering shards with his body, pulling me closer across his lap and shielding me. Finally the door, that was stuck, had swung open. With the both of us leaning against it, we didn't have time to adjust ourselves as we toppled out of the vehicle and I landed on Naru's chest on the ground.

"What the hell happened?" Lin looked at us, up to the shattered window. "Are you two alright?" The entire team had been running towards us. I saw a sheen of sweat on Lin's forehead, suggesting he must have sprinted like a mad-man to get here before anyone else.

Bou-san was next, screeching to a stop. He looked at the mess of the SUV and swore. "Jesus, are you two alright?"

John, Masako and Ayako were right behind him. "Oh my -"

I pushed off Naru, leaning up onto my knees. He slowly pushed himself up too, pressing a hand to his head.

"Did you make contact with the Ouija board?" His voice was hoarse. Bou-san looked as if he almost couldn't believe Naru was asking that question just now. Before he could say anything, Lin's voice was sharp.

"No," Lin said. "I heard your call on the radio and came as soon as I could."

I was sweating, breathing heavily when I jerked my head towards Lin. "What call?"

"I called him," Naru said and I did not hear him use the radio at all. But I remembered the moment I had become so overwhelmed by those glittering shadows and pale faces that I hadn't even known what world I was on.

Naru knew this too. "What did you see?"

"I-" What did I see? I couldn't explain it, not just what I saw but what I had felt. The feeling of tremendous fear, angst and anger. Those faces that had wanted, so badly, to say something but could not. And then, the creature that had stepped forward, summoning an relentless fear within me.

I gulped and Naru pressed on. "You saw something out the window. What was it?"

There were some things on this case that I could no longer hide. "Outside, there was -" I searched for the words, but I couldn't get Gene out of my mind when he asked me to keep this between us until we figured more out. I clamped down on my lips, blowing out of my nose. I hated lying to my friends, but I couldn't betray Gene.

"Ghosts," I said. "I saw ghosts."

^.^