Author Note: I am back! Hehehe (At least while my baby finally sleeps!)
Chapter Five:
If Mai had been awake, Lin was sure that she would have been scared to death. Naru had taken to muttering curses and rude comments all directed towards the girl lying on her cot in the tent. Mai's grand entrance back into camp had woken everyone up. Except Mai. She had collapsed onto the forest floor and did not rouse. Even to the calls of her friends. Who would have been frantic if Naru hadn't seemed so calm. He just told them all that Mai had had a psychic episode and was most likely exhausted. And then he turned from everyone and left them standing there around Mai's unconscious body while he went to the camera station.
After some confused looks (and a rather intense glare from Bou-san) the group had picked her up off the ground and placed her on her cot and had gone back to bed themselves. Once again leaving Lin and Naru the only ones awake in the very early morning hours before the sun poked its head out.
Lin was absolutely positive that Mai had never woken up during the entire escapade on the trail. He even questioned whether or not she would even remember what her role had been. All he knew is what he had seen in the real world. She had talked in English to the ghosts in the valley and had run from the spectator that was haunting the Cliffside. That last part being exactly what was making Naru so very angry. If he and Lin hadn't been there, Mai could have been seriously injured at least and given the ghosts homicidal inclinations at worst she could have been killed.
Of course there was also the theory and this was his theory, not to be mentioned to the rather homicidal live person next to him that Mai couldn't have stopped herself from going up to that cliff even if she had tried. Lin was positive that there was no way that Mai actually wanted to be in dangers way or even to see some of the nightmares that the cases often come from. Naru was of course with a different opinion, but he was seeing it with his heart and a few misperceptions from his past. Not only had Gene done the exact same thing as Mai but he had enjoyed it. It was only natural that Naru would taint his opinions with the actions of his brother. Sometimes Oliver had a hard time realizing or understanding that not everyone had even a quarter of his and Gene's power and enjoyment of ghost hunting. Lin shook his head, however with this latest development of Mai's, she is fast catching up to the powerhouse that Gene had been. Poor Mai.
When I woke up the next morning I was exhausted. It felt like I hadn't slept more than a few minutes. I debated moving from my sleeping bag and I laid there listening to the sounds of the forest beyond the tent and the quiet movements of my friends. The birds were singing sweetly to the sun and it smelled even from my tent of green growing plants, dirt and that unmistakable yet hard to describe scent of morning. Mornings just smell different from midday and evening time, they are fresh and new. I could just barely hear Bou-san and John discussing …. ME! Something … yes… I strain my ears… if I got up they would hear and stop talking… but they were just far enough that I can't quite…. Oh… they are talking about what happened last night… hmmm sounds like Lin and Naru didn't tell them much before they went off to bed. Heheehee Bou-san sounds rather mad that Naru didn't tell him anything, and that he left me there on the ground for them to pick up. HEY! He what! Just left me there! Some prince he is! I can't decide if I want to get really mad about that or not. Probably should just leave it alone I mean he did rescue me from… oh..yah… Goosebumps travel up my spine and make friends with a cold sweat. I met him last night, the monster that is haunting the Cliffside. What did he say to me? "I am not worthy." Big sigh there, not that I haven't heard that for a lot of my life. Orphans are kind of intimate with that problem. Not worthy of parents, not worthy of a good home, not worthy of good jobs because everyone knows that we are desperate for money and will steal you blind, must always be grateful for everything you get. I mean seriously, someone gives you a crumb and you must bow and offer great thanks, but if they give their son or daughter that same crumb than suddenly they are depriving their children and must make it up to them. Hypocrites, the lot of them.
Anyways back to the scary, very unnerving ghost. Man, I think I should be more scared than this… what is wrong with me? I think I am getting burnt out, too many nightmares to fast and suddenly it is… well not mundane but at least it is numb. Like those cops who work murder cases, they can only work on that department for so long before they are pulled off, to save them from the trauma.
Blah, my mind is jumping from subject to subject, I can't think straight, and I am so tired…. I think… maybe I will go to … sleep….
When I woke up again it was to the sounds of men cursing and the tent was moving restlessly in the wind. It seems that the cameras up on the Cliffside were turning off and or going fuzzy. I got dressed in jeans and a long-sleeve gray shirt, socks and boots, with a quick swipe of the hairbrush. I was shocked when I left my tent. I had apparently slept the day away and our campsite was quickly turning into a bad place to be. The sun was hiding behind a wall of storm clouds, and you could feel the menace of the storm approaching. The wind was picking up and moaning through the trees. You could feel that the rain was a breath away.
I watched John, Bou-san, Lin and Naru all working frantically to batten down the canvas and ropes that kept our computer equipment safe and sound. Masako and Ayako were just a busy putting everything they could away and sealing up what food we had left. No one had noticed me yet. Busy as they were with their respective tasks. As the wind whipped our tents and blurred my eyes with my hair I saw him, just beyond our fragile boundary, watching us through the trees. He was smiling at me, eyes burning with insane hate.
I screamed.