The Cat
Mai walked slowly up the stair to the attic, trying not to trip to the steep stairs.
"Do you see anything?" called up Bou-san as he stood at the bottom, looking up into the dark after her. Mai shook her head, forgetting that he can see her. They were currently at the Hoen house hold, setting up cameras in all the places they thought useful. What Mai didn't understand was why Naru wanted one in the attic, but she thought it better now to question him. "Mai?"
"No, Do you have a flashlight?" Mai called down as her foot caught on a step. She quickly reached out and grabbed the railing before she could fall.
"What was that?" Bou-san asked as a bright light appeared in her face.
"Nothing, can you pass that up?" Mai held out her hand as he turned the flashlight around and reached up. She quickly grabbed it before shining it above her head. A cold breeze blew down, making her shiver. Mai sighed to herself as she thought about how this had even come to be.
Mai climbed up the front stairs to the house, not paying attention to the steepness of the steps. She was too focused on getting to work because of what had accrued at their office a few days ago. Though, because of this, Mai didn't see the sunken step and she soon found herself falling to the ground.
"Mai, watch it," Naru said as he saw her tripped up the stairs. She felt her face go a little red as she glared at the step that had tripped her. The least he could do was ask if she was alright. That was the least he could do.
"Are you alright?" Bou-san asked as he walked up to her and helped her to her feet. The stairs up to the old house was not exactly some of the safest in the world and Mai was starting to curse them more and more as she continued to stumble her way up them. When she finally got to the top, where Naru had been waiting for her impatiently, he turned and knocked on the door. There was a moment of pause before it was opened and a woman stood there.
"Oh hello, may I help you?" she asked, pulling her shawl around her tighter.
"My name is Shibuya Kazuya and I have told Mr. Hoen that we would be arriving today." Naru said, introducing himself. The woman looked between him and the group of people behind him before nodding her head.
"Please come in," She opening the door a little more for them. Naru stepped inside followed by Lin, Mai and Bou-san. She closed the door quietly and, as she went into the other room, she kept her face down. "Please come this way," She went to sit on the couch.
"Actually, we would like to get started as soon as possible," Naru said as she sat down. She wrapped the shawl even tighter around her and said in a shaky voice.
"That is fine, though I must warn you, there has been another disappearance."
"Did you call the police?"
"I did,"
"And?"
"They said I have to wait a full forty eight hours before I can report it." The woman sounded as if she was on the verge of tears. "They said until that much time has passed, I cannot report anything."
"Who went missing?" Bou-san asked. The woman looked up at him as she held back tears. Her somewhat wrinkled face looked paled from all of the stress. Big dark bags hung under her green eyes as the shined with water. Her small fragile hands were clinging to the shawl as she spoke up.
"My daughter,"
"Stupid Naru and his stupid orders" Mai mumbled as she made her way up the rest of the stairs. She turned around and got down on her knees before pulling up the camera bag that Bou-san was holding for her. Just as he was about to climb up, the radio in his pocket began to speak.
"Takigawa report it," Bou-san grabbed the radio from his back pocket before pulling it out and clicking the bottom.
"What up?" He asked before waiting for the voice on the other line to speak.
"Are you and Mai almost finished with setting up cameras?" This time it was Naru's voice.
"Yea, we have the attack and then the bedroom, why?" Bou-san looked up at Mai, who just shrugged, not knowing why he cared either.
"Come back to the base. Mai can finish setting up the rest of the cameras by herself."
"But the equipment is heavy!" Mai complained, not realizing that Bou-san had his finger on the bottom.
"Then I will get Yasuhara to go out there if you are too weak to carry a little bag around" Naru vice said before disappearing again. Mai's face went red as she was about to scream something back. Bou-san, though, quickly cut her off and said
"Yea, I'll be done in a minute," He then tossed her the radio and said "Play nice now."
Mai stuck out her tongue as he walked away. She pulled herself up and used the flashlight to look around the room. In some areas, the floorboards were missing or broken while others looked extremely weak. The temperature in the room was also not something she liked. It was too cold for the time of day, but she figured it was because it was always dark up here.
"Okay, now where do I put you…?" She asked as she picked up the bag. It made her right shoulder drop a little at the sudden weight, but she ignored it as she slowly made her way over to the far right corner of the room, where, thankfully, most of the floorboards where in-tacked. As she stepped, she made sure to check each plank before stepping on it and moving on. When she reached her destination, Mai putdown the bag and began to pull out all of the things she needed to start setting up.
Five minutes later, everything was set up and all she had left to do was turn it on.
Creak
Mai paused and turned around, shining the flashlight across the room.
"Hello?" She called out, but there was no response. Thinking it must have been the wind, she turned back to the camera to finish up when she heard another noise.
"Meow," Mai shined the flashlight across the room one more time and in the far corner, she saw the last part of a cat's tail disappeared behind wall.
"Hello?" Mai called out as she stepped away from the bag. She took a couple of steps forwards and shined the flashlight at the corner, but she still couldn't see over there clearly. So, making sure it was safe, she began to venture over there, keeping the flashlight between the floorboards and the corner where the cat was. "Kitty?"
Mai stepped to the right a little and shined the flashlight in the corner, clearly seeing everything that was there.
There was nothing.
"What the-?" Mai looked around the room to see the same cat's tail disappear behind another wall. Confused on what was going on, Mai began to walk over there, thinking that the cat had somehow sneaked by her. Yet, just like before, when she got over there, there was nothing. "Weird."
Mai turned around to head back to the camera when something stopped her. Sitting feet from her was a large grey cat, staring up at her with green eyes. It's long tail started whipping around itself, as if it wanted to play.
"Oh, hello" Mai said, not sure when it had gotten there.
"Meow," It said as it watched her.
Come back
Stay with us
We won't hurt you
"What?" Mai asked, not sure if she had heard correctly. Was the cat…talking?
Don't leave
Stay with us
We won't hurt you
Mai took a step closer to the cat, not sure what was going on. She felt as if she should go with this cat. She felt as if she went with this cat, something good will happen.
Lies
Hatred
Don't Listen
Something stopped her and she found herself closing her eyes and shaking her head a little. When she opened her eyes again, she saw that the cat was gone and she was once again alone in the attic.
Not thinking much of it, Mai walked back over to the camera before turning it on and grabbing the bag. When she turned around to leave, she saw a figure staring at her through the darkness. The darkness around it was amplified by the light coming from the floor below. An eerie feeling crept up her spine suddenly, and Mai felt as if she should run.
"Ah!" Mai screamed as saw the figure. She lost her footing and quickly fell to the ground, hurting her butt on the wood. A laugh erupted from the figure as they grabbed onto the edge of the floor, trying not to fall back.
"Mai, that was hilarious! You should have seen your face!" came the voice of Yasuhara. Mai grabbed her chest, trying to calm her pounding heart.
"Yasu!" Mai screamed at him. "Don't scare me like that!"
"I didn't mean to!" Yasuhara said through his laughter. "I called out to you a few times, but you must have not heard me."
"It's not funny!" Mai said as she found herself beginning to laugh. "Stop it!" She burst out laughing with him, knowing that even though she was scared for her life for one second, it was actually funny to know it was nothing.
"Come on, we have one more camera to set up right? Than we can get some rest!" Yasuhara said as Mai got to her feet and walked over to him. He quickly climbed down the stairs before holding up his arms for Mai to drop the bag to him.
As she climbed down the stairs, Mai looked up one last time to see the cat looking down at her.
"Hey, Yasu," Mai asked as she watched the cat watch her.
"Hmm?" He asked, not bothering to turn towards her.
"Did the Hoens ever mention having a cat?" Mai looked at him to see him halfway down the hall, already pulling out the tripod for the next camera. He looked up at her with a confused look.
"No, why?"
"No reason," Mai said as she looked back up at the attic door. The grey cat was now gone, leaving nothing but an entrance way to darkness filled room.
Happy Early Halloween! I know I haven't updated this in forever and there is ABSOLUTELY no reason for me not to have. You are all too good to me and I love you all! But I guess, as a little bonus for this chapter, if you are reading this author's note, and you review, I will give you a 'little preview' for the next chapter. (You have to have an account for this to work sadly). So until next time!
P.S. I'll be putting up some Halloween one-shots tomorrow, so check them out when you can! (Types: Ghost Hunt, D. Gray-man, Kieli)
I do not, under any circumstance, own Ghost Hunt. All rights go to the Author; Fuyumi Ono
I do not, under any circumstance, own the Picture used with this story. All rights go to the Artist, SARETTA1 (saretta1 . deviantart . com) (*please minus spaces before adding to your url box)