Chapter 2

"Ok, the cameras are all set up and here's the temperature readings," Mai held the charts out to him triumphantly, thinking of the bet she'd made with Bou-san, while Naru stared at her disbelievingly, was she still waiting to get a thank you out of him?

With little effort he swiped the sheets from her upheld her hands and flipped through them as she sulked at his evilness. Marching over to the couch she sat down to rest her aching feet after running all over the house.

"Mai, tea," with a scowl Mai stood up again, wondering why he picked on her and none of the other workers who were lying around lazily apart from Ayako who was making charms for all of the rooms they would be occupying.

With an oncoming headache she stepped into the kitchen while trying her best to ignore the unnatural silence. The house itself was massive and faintly reminded her of the castles she saw in her English textbook. On the outside it appeared that the castle was made of stone but on the inside the floor was made from wood and the walls were smooth with no sign of rock. The whole place gave off an air of comfort and light-heartedness or at least it should have.

But when they had arrived, they discovered that Kimi had closed down the B&B to all tourists. Only the guests that truly lived here were allowed to stay and the staff only came in to keep it clean and cook meals.

Most of the tourists who had stayed, even if only for one night had gone comatose, only Kimi and the regulars had woken up again in the morning. Also a few of the staff members who had recently been hired also failed to wake up from what should have been a brief nap.

"Mai?" Bou-san stepped into the kitchen to find the girl in a daydream, "Naru's beginning to wonder where his tea is!"

With a roll of her eyes she poured the steaming hot water into the cup and dunked in a teabag for a few seconds before fishing it out again.

"And God forbid that his lord should not get his tea," Mai muttered loudly as she stepped out of the kitchen with Bou-san in tow.

"And God forbid that the lady should ever stop complaining," Bou-san said with a smile and ruffled her hair as he walked past to open the base door for her.

In one accounts SPR were lucky in that the base wasn't far from the kitchen so if Mai ever got in trouble while making Naru his tea they wouldn't have to run to far to save her.

But that was where their luck ended. The base was in the centre of the B&B but the girl's and boy's bedrooms were at the opposite ends of the house to each other.

While the comatose people had been brought to the local hospital no one had come to claim their possessions leaving a lot of rooms unavailable for use.

Upon entering the base and handing Naru his tea she noticed that everyone had cleared out apart from Lin and Naru.

"Where did everyone go?" Mai asked as she sat down on the couch.

"Ayako's setting the charms into the rooms and John is taking Masako around the house to see if she can sense anything," Naru said tonelessly before lifting a black book and tossing it at an unprepared Mai. Bringing her hands up to late to protect herself the book landed on her head before luckily falling onto her knees.

"What was that for?" she grumbled rubbing her sore bruised head, "You could have just handed it to me. If you'd bothered to get off your ass…" she mumbled off.

"Mai, it's not my fault that your reflexes are unprecedentedly slow, which given this line of business Mai is not a good thing," Naru said calmly, "Now that's a Japanese translation of the book Kimi gave me and I think that it may have something to do with this case. You're the only one here typically, who doesn't know western fairytales. Surprise, surprise. Now get reading!"

Mai glared at him until he turned his back, then her expression changed to one of puzzlement. Naru had only gotten the fairytale book yesterday and he wasn't likely to be interested enough in the short magical stories to have a Japanese version lying around. Does that mean Naru went and searched for this book just for me? Mai thought, it's not like these books are common and they would have cost a fortune. Mai felt herself blush bright red and clamped her hands to her cheeks ignoring the weird look Bou-san was sending her way. And before he could even open his mouth to make a comment she kicked him hard on the leg.

She fingered the cover lightly before opening the book and started to read, quickly becoming enchanted on every word. Even Naru calling for tea couldn't make her put the book down.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Mai opened her eyes and saw herself looking down over the B&B, only the walls were translucent and she found herself staring at her body in the base. The book lay closed in her lap where'd she'd left it after finishing all of the stories. Lin worked at the computer whilst casting an occasional glance at the door and then her. His brow creased up in worry as he stared at her and Mai glanced at the clock.

She'd finished reading at two in the afternoon; it was now just past seven. Wondering how it was possible that she could have slept away for five hours when she'd just gained consciousness in her dreams she realised that Naru wasn't in the base and she dashed out of the room in search of him.

She heard running behind her and before she could glance around she saw dream Naru running beside her. He grabbed her hand and diverted her course taking her to the main hall. The doors whizzed past at inhuman speed before they slowed down and Naru pointed up to the top of the stairs.

Slowly looking up she saw a little boy of about ten at the top of the stairs facing a middle-aged man who stared down at him angrily. He began shouting but Mai couldn't hear any words said. He held up a red book and Mai recognised it instantly as it was thrown and fell through the air to land a foot away from her. Naru pointed back up the stairs fro the scene to regain her attention.

The man had grabbed onto the boy's shoulders and was shaking him like a rag doll.

"Stop it," Mai screamed at the man but it made no difference. He whacked the boy on the face and time slowed as the child wobbled dangerously on the landing, his arms waving wildly as he toppled backwards.

The man stared at the boy in shock and grabbed desperately for him but his hand slipped through his fingers. With a cry the boy fell back and time sped up again as he thumped down the stairs to land beside the book which had been thrown moments before.

An uneasy silence filled the hall as the man stared down at the boy before he quickly ran away from view. Mai stared after him angrily, how could he leave a little boy seriously injured on his own?

"Mai," Naru said gently before he pointed to the door where Kimi had just come through. Mai watched as the girl spotted her brother and desperately dialled the emergency service before the vision disappeared, leaving only the boy lying in a twisted position.

"What was the point of that?" Mai asked staring into her boss' face as he stared tenderly down at her. "Naru?" he cupped her cheek gently before fading out abruptly with alarm on his face.

"Get out!" Mai turned to see the boy staring at her angrily, "Leave us alone,"

"Wake up!" Naru yelled in her head waking her up.

Standing in front of her she saw the boy staring up at her solemnly before he pushed her.

Mai waved her hands desperately trying to balance herself like the boy standing before her did six months before. Her foot slipped and she felt gravity pull her downwards as she heard footsteps clambering up the stairs behind her.

Naaaaruuu!

Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter

Flamegirl: I've been thinking of Little Red Riding Hood and I'm definitely considering doing it

Ariana: Little Red Riding Hood, I don't think I'll do Lin as the wolf for reasons yet to be discovered lol. Another character perhaps???? and thanks for the girl without hands, I just read it and it certainly seems...interesting.

Moons-chan: as for how Naru knew the girls name, I realised that half way through writing but I decided it was one of those I'll introduce myself but won't write down introducing myself things if that makes sense. lol

Thanks to everyone for da suggestions and the enthusiasm for the story