A/N: I seem to keep apologizing for late chapters. But well life doesn't wait for me to have time to sit down! The good news and something I want to share especially with people who have been reading my drabbles for a long time now, is that I am pregnant and due November 5th! Which has been playing a huge role in my tardiness! Sad I guess, that a miscarriage makes me write all the time and a healthy pregnancy makes me so tired and busy that I hardly ever write! Any ways on with the show!
Dead Hope
Chapter Four
That afternoon Bou-san and I got the camera's set up. Before we left the safety of the guardians of the temple I pulled Bou-san aside. "Bou-san, do you feel like you are being watched?" He eyed me and then looked around. "No, do you, Mai-chan?" I shook my head. "I don't here but when we pass beyond the foxes I do…" He put his hand on his chin thinking… "Maybe when we get back to camp we should have Ayako make you a talisman for protection. Even if I don't feel anything you have been know to be a little more sensitive then me." I nodded at him and then we set off. Then entire mile walk down the mountain to camp I could feel the staring. Only now if felt like many people were staring at me, as though I had stepped into a crowded room and everyone turned to look.
When we got back to camp and passed the barrier that Monk and Lin had set up I breathed a sigh of relief. Thank-fully that night Naru had asked the inn to provide food for us to eat at the campfire so that we didn't have to leave Base. He was anxious to keep an eye on the monitors tonight. I was grateful I didn't have to leave the barrier.
Looking up from my Bento sitting around the campfire with my friends I felt full and content. There is something magical about a campfire. Makes you feel protected and happy. The smell of the wood, the heat of the fire against your face as the cool breeze from the forest drifts past your back. The stars were out and the night promised to be clear, no hint of rain or fog in the future. As the night got quieter we girls were sent off to bed. The men would again take their evening shifts. I climbed into my sleeping bag, shivering until it became warm and toasty. I fell asleep again comforted by the sounds of my family, sounds I only hear on a case.
Naru and Lin were up late. Naru had the midnight shift and decided he would just stay up until the end of his shift then sleeping and then getting up two hours later. So the two of them were there for the strange sight of Mai. Dressed in flannel pajamas and socks she came out of the girls' tent. It was the sound of the zipper that attracted their attention. They put down their cups of tea and watched her walk, eyes closed towards the barrier of the camp. It was right up until she bounced off of the barrier that they had just assumed that she had to use the bathroom which was located a little ways away from camp.
She got up and then bounced off of the barrier again. Sharing a glance, the two of them went to her side. She got up and again repeated her earlier actions. No sign of discomfort crossed her face. She was just calmly walking again and again into the barrier that should not have affected her.
Naru cocked his head at her and then gestured to Lin to release the barrier to let her through. Lin gave him a questioning glance and then shrugged. It wasn't like they weren't there to protect her. He gestured and then watched as for the fifth time Mai got up and then walked calmly out of camp. They followed. They followed her up the trail. It was obvious that she was walking towards the temple. She walked for a good half an hour up the trail. Until they all got to a very familiar spot. The spot where the man had fallen or had been pushed off of the Cliffside. Tensing a little due to her proximity to the steep Cliffside, Naru moved forward as though he would grab her away from the ledge. Before he could get to her, Mai sat down, crossed her legs and turned her face up and towards the vast open air above the cliff. Lin turned to Naru.
"Oliver, do you feel that?" Naru nodded. They watched as souls or ghosts rather filled the gorge. Mai startled them again as she spoke, eyes closed and in perfect English. "You have called and I have come, what do you need?"
When I had fallen asleep I drifted into my spirit world. It was the first time I had actually felt the difference between sleep and this unique awareness that allowed me to interact with ghosts and spirits. I turned and there was Naru.
"You are getting better at that Mai." He complimented me. I shrugged sheepishly, cheeks red with happy embarrassment. He cocked his head as though listening to something from a long distance. He nodded.
"Do you hear them calling for you?" And suddenly I did. It was soft rumble of voices and dialects. He watched me and then looked rather excited. "Can you tell what all of them are saying?" I concentrated. And then nodded.
"Ahhh, I do believe that I know what that tear in your soul has done." He smiled. "And at least it is useful!"
"What? What is it?"
"It has expanded your spiritual awareness. You are now a perfect medium. Of course it was only a matter of time but now the ability has manifested earlier."
"Perfect medium?"
"Yes, the ability to channel a dead spirit, and speak in the native language of the dead person whether or not you can speak the language already. It is a very useful ability. Before you were only channeling or working with Japanese born ghosts and monsters. But I knew that you could or would have the perfect medium abilities simply by your interactions with me."
I cocked my eyebrow at him. The self congratulations a little much in my opinion. Of course I call him Naru for a very good reason! He coughed sheepishly at my expression and then laughed softly. "Okay, so it would have come with or without me but I sped it up and then the tear sped it up even more."
Sigh, my dream Naru is so much better at acknowledging when he is being cocky! I turned to him fully. "What do they want?" The sound of them was like sitting in a room with about 20 people shouting to get attention.
"They want you!" He said this with a gesture. "We should go to where they are first." "You mean we aren't there?" This surprised me it seemed there were so many already. He shook his head, "No, we need to go to the trail, remember where that man fell off?" I nodded. "That is where we need to go. You are strong but not strong enough yet to communicate large distances."
I looked around my dream world and then noticed a path. I pointed at it and he nodded. Squaring my shoulders we moved. At first it was hard to go up the path like something was holding me back, but then it got easier and we continued up the path. Finally we were there. I could tell because of the many many lights filling the vast empty space. I sat down… This could take a while.
Many voices rose up and started shouting, French, Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese… so many different people. One was right next to me and spoke in a soft English voice… "Please! Please I am so lost!" I answered. "You have called and I have come. What do you need?"
The light gave a funny jump. Like it hadn't expected anyone to hear its plea. The light sifted and before me I saw an old gentleman dressed in the traditional white of the pilgrimage. "I am lost." I looked to Naru and he shrugged. Clearly this wasn't going to be one of those directed dream sequences that I am so used to.
"How did you become lost?" By now the rest of the voices had fallen silent as though this one spoke for them all.
"I was walking up the trail and suddenly I was told that I wasn't worthy and then I fell down. Now I don't know where I am or where I should be…"
I felt bad for this lost old man. "Do you know where you wanted to be?"
The ghostly head nodded. "I wanted to go to a shrine, to pay my respects." Suddenly a great loud crying rose up from one end of the lights to the other. Naru's head whipped around and then he grabbed my arm. "We must go now!" He pulled me to my feet and we took off, fear took a hold of me as the ghosts around me screamed in fear as well and started to jump around hysterically.
Naru pulled me at a pace that I could not keep up on my own. Down the mountain, faster and faster, I prayed that my feet wouldn't stumble. We moved…. And behind me I could feel a menace. It was angry and hunting me, running after me just as surely as I was running from it. My breath rasped in my chest and my side hurt. Still Naru pulled me and we ran. Suddenly Naru stopped and started to pound on a barrier of some sort. I was bent over my knees, lungs aching. I looked up, breathe gone when I heard the voice.
"You are not worthy… you are not worthy…" the awful voice rasped in an insane chant. I saw him, dressed in the robes of pilgrim. His eyes were large and completely insane, his teeth long and bared in a snarl of hatred. He stepped into the clearing with me. I held my arms up in front of me, whimpering in fear.
In a flash of warm yellow and rainbow lights a dim figure cut through the evil ghost. A purple haze tackle me past the barrier and the relived face of Naru, my guru, was the last thing I saw before it went to complete and utter darkness.