Chapter 11: Meanwhile…
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Whispers…
"Mom, I'm scared! They're showing up again!"
"Hush, don't worry. I'll get there right now."
"Mom, Hurry… sob… They're… Scary!"
Lin stirred in his sleep. He felt the cold floor behind his back. He opened one wary eye. He could swear he could hear whispers inside that room. He feigned sleep. The door opened. Kaede went out of it in a fluid sort of way. She then locked it by locking the door knob before closing the door. When Lin got a clear view of her face, she looked very worried and strained over something. She seemed to be considering waking him up. When she took a step away, Lin grabbed hold of her ankle and sat up.
"Where do you think you're going?" Lin asked in his usual monotonous voice. By what it seemed to him, it's about three in the morning.
"This seemed to have made Kaede confused about telling of not to tell. She looked down at her toes. That was when the telephone rang. She began to rush to the telephone outside her room but Lin was faster…
"…"
"Mom, they're plenty of them now! Even more than before!"
"Who are you?"
Lin didn't expect a sobbing toddler to be on the opposite line. And 'mom'? The boy's voice seemed awfully familiar, too.
"Did you kidnap my mother?!" the kid yelled through the phone that Lin had to pull the receiver from his ears.
"MOM! ARE YOU ALRIGHT THERE?! WHY IS IT THAT THE CHINESE MAN IS ON THE PHONE?! MOM! HURRY! DON'T…! I'M SCARED! THERE'S PLENTY OF THEM!"
Then the boy on the other line cried. That's when Kaede grabbed the phone from Lin.
"Hush now, baby. Mom will get you from there."
Then her face became expressionless then worried. She looked at Lin in such a shocked expression. She then bowed down as her tears came over. That's when Lin heard the dial tone go out.
She was practically worried. Then Lin's good sense kicked in.
"I'll drive."
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The Chinese man was lost for words to say when Kaede pointed out a very run-down temple. She was crying and forcefully wiping her tears away all the while he drove. Lin doesn't usually go for gut instincts alone. A child, perhaps a strong psychic, having known he's Chinese, is in trouble. By the looks of the temple, it has to have one or two ghosts by estimation.
But that's not only the point why Lin can't speak. The child called Kaede his mother. They took her away, with her consent but that doesn't amount to taking a mother away from her child.
They parked quite near to the temple. The tires screeched for the sudden halt. Then, without warning, Kaede burst out full speed towards the temple. Lin rushed after her. He wont let his guard down. She might escape any moment. Then she suddenly halted in front of the temple and yelled with all her might.
"Yusuke!! Where are you, Yusuke?!"
It was then that Lin confirmed his theory. The child was indeed hers. Then they saw a figure running from the side of the temple. A boy of maybe two years of age came running towards Kaede. She knelt down and hugged the sobbing child, fighting back her own tears the whole time.
"Shhh, It's gonna be okay. No need to cry now, really. Mommy's here. I'll protect you okay?"
She said more comforting words as Lin surveyed the temple. He looked in one of the windows and…
Yes. The non-psychic but onmyouji master Lin saw a ghost of a girl wearing a burnt miko's dress. When the girl turned, it sent a prickling sensation down his back. The all forgotten feeling of fear came tumbling down on him. His brows began to sweat and cold out. Half of the girl's body was badly burned. Then he looked in the other windows. The sight was the same.there was a monk in one and there was a baby burning in one of the inner rooms. The sight was horrible. Lin didn't need another push to ask Kaede to go back to the car. When they rode a safe distance from the temple, with Kaede hugging a sleeping boy in the back, he began asking her questions. They rode through the highway, the most efficient way to get to the hospital Noll and the rest were in.
"Is he yours?" he asked out of politeness.
"Yes," she answered, "He's … He's not supposed to see all of those spirits." She blurted out loud as the water works turned on.
"I can't see spirits," she further explained, "the only spirits I can see are the spirits of people who wants to show themselves.
"I can't see the spirits that just float around. I sense them but do not see them. But Yusuke…" she looked at the child.
"So small and he has to deal with all of those. He complained every night to me about those spirits but he said whenever I'm with him they all go away…"
"They want him to speak for them, do they?" he asked. They were nearing the exit and he could see the hospital far away.
"I don't know."
"Your son is unusually pale."
"His skin is paler than mine but he's alright, for now."
"Is by any chance his eyes are dark sapphire?" Lin asked looking at the side view mirror of the car.
Kaede bowed her head down. From what Lin saw, he didn't need to hear her answer.
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AN: you may be wonderin why the heck Lin's so close to this girl, well he likes her... as a daughter that is!! it's hard to write the next chapter about the continuation of Naru's drastic stunt fall... hard, very hard...
anyway, lotsa hints here... hmmm, maybe yuki smith will appear... if her name is really that! and maybe the davises too!!
no flames okay!!
(there's going to be a next book!! yay yay!! Hokkaido!!)