DISCLAIMER: I don't own Ghost Hunt!

She was having fun with her friends but she still couldn't get the fact that it was her first birthday without her parents. Her friends understood though and decided to call it a night because when Mai was upset it was best to leave her alone.

"Mai will you be fine going home on your own? It's pretty dark, are you sure you don't want me and Moe (A/N I don't actually know the names of her friends) to walk with you?" Mai smiled slightly at her friends offer.

"I'll be fine Yumi, I've walked home in the dark before" her friends looked at her in disbelief.

"Not dressed like that you haven't!" Moe's voice was slightly shrill and Mai winced before she plastered a fake smile on her face.

"Moe, Yumi, maybe not dressed like this but it's not a long walk to my house and anyway I can scream really loudly if something happens. I promise you I'll be fine!"

She could see them both thinking it over "I don't want you both to have to walk me home then have to come all the way back this way to go to your own homes". She could tell she had won when her friends looked at each other. She knew they didn't like walking or being out in the dark.

"Ok, but you call me when you get home! Swear it Mai!" Mai giggled and stuck out her pinkie finger.

"Pinkie promise?" Her friends grinned and stuck out their own pinkies. It may be childish but it's very effective. They all laughed and hugged after pinkie promising to call each other when they got home.

Walking in the dark under the full moon and the stars was one thing that Mai loved to do. When she was younger she used to walk to the park at night with her Dad, her Dad used to tell her ghost stories. That was where Mai got her love of ghost stories from. She smiled at the memories of her parents and silent tears fell down her cheeks.

She felt lonely, she knew she wasn't alone but no one could replace her parents. She took a deep breath and tried to stop the sobs from coming. She wished her parents were here, she knew it was stupid but her birthday wish was exactly that. She hoped that with some miracle they were alive but she knew.

No one knew that her parents were dead. Well not even she knew for sure. They had gone away on a business trip and never came back. No one called to tell Mai, but she didn't need the call. She knew when it happened because she felt it, she felt her heart break and shatter. She suddenly felt alone and lost.

After waking up screaming from a nightmare that she still couldn't remember she just knew they were gone and nothing would bring them back. She had tried to remember the dream, she knew it was about her parents. If what Ayako said was true, that Mai was having visions then Mai believed she had witnessed her parent's deaths.

She'd done her research, she'd made calls and apparently her parents had left the hotel they were staying at and no one had seen them since. Her friends believed her parents had just left or that they were on a business trip every time they came around to the house. Mai tried to keep them away and now with the job she had she rarely saw them outside of school.

She couldn't tell anyone about her parents because then she would have had to go into care. Get adopted by strangers. Move to a different area, meet new people, lose old friends. Mai couldn't deal with anymore heart ache, she some times wished that she was in the coma instead of Gene. She wished that she could just sleep and never wake up and then she would see her parents sooner then just waiting to die.

She wasn't really suicidal, she didn't want to die. She wanted it to all happen naturally, she just didn't like to feel so alone all the time. She had trouble sleeping in her house with no one there in the next room. No Dad snoring and no Mum reading with the light on. No more family nights.

Taking another deep breath Mai looked up at the sky and sadly smiled "why did you leave me?" She heard a rumble and glanced around her. She noticed she had reached the park and over from the park was a large truck where two people were carrying boxes from it and into a large building.

Frowning she looked closer and noticed a sign 'SPR' on the side of the black van behind the truck.

SPR? What could that possibly mean?

Biting her lip Mai decided she was too nosy and that she wanted a closer look. She glanced both ways on the road then crossed. She wasn't close enough to see the little writing underneath yet but she could now see that there were two men in their late twenties, early thirties moving the boxes and another man that looked a couple of years older then Mai herself was standing by the door and giving orders.

Mai giggled a bit at the thought of working for some one younger then you. She could just see Ayako's face if she decided to give orders out instead. She shook herself out of her nosiness and carried on walking down the pavement. Getting closer to them she could make out their faces. The young man giving orders had dark hair and very pale skin, Mai frowned when she looked at him. He reminded her of some one else but this far away and in the dark she couldn't really see.

One of the men with the boxes was really tall with black hair that fell in his face. Mai could tell just from one look that this man liked his privacy and proffered silence. The last man, Mai recognised immediately.

"Bou-san?" her voice came out louder then she expected and the man nearly dropped the box he was holding.

"Mai?" Mai smiled slightly and waved with one hand as the man put down the box and walked closer to her. She was now next to the black van and she stopped walking as he engulfed her in a hug. "How are you girl? Ayako told me it was your Birthday, did you like the present we got you? She picked it out of course, I would have just got you a mug or something but Ayako said that you were sixteen now and sixteen year old girls didn't need mugs" he laughed and shook his head.

Bous-san or Hōshō Takigawa or Monk to his friends had been dating Ayako for two years now and the gossip was that Ayako was waiting for a proposal any time soon. He was one of Mai's favourite people from what little she sees him. He always made her laugh, being a part time Monk and part time band member he always had the greatest stories to tell.

Mai smiled "I haven't opened it yet, my presents are all at home but tell Ayako I love it anyway because im sure I will". The other two men had stopped what they were doing and were now standing slightly behind Bou-san. They made Mai a little nervouse but she smiled. She couldn't help glancing at the younger one with furrowed brows, she knew him from somewhere.

"Oh were you waiting for your parents to come home?" Mai's smile slipped of her face and she felt the blood leave her face but Bou-san didn't notice or wait for a reply because he had turned around and introduced her to the other men.

Mai stared at Bou-san with slightly wide eyes before she took a gulp and a deep breath and pasting the fake smile back on her face when all she truly wanted to do was cry.

"Well Mai, this is Lin Kōjo and Oliv-" he was cut of by the younger man.

"I'm Kazuya Shibuya, nice to meet you" his cold voice sent a shiver down Mai's spine and she once again lost her smile. She glanced up at him with a gasp. She now knew why she thought she knew him. She ignored his out stratched hand and stared at him, she searched his eyes then whispered "Gene".

She took a step back as all three of the mens eyes widened in shock. She licked her dry lips and tried to slow down her beating heart. She suddenly felt dizzy and couldn't catch her breath. She stumbled back again "I don't feel so good". Just as the darkness started to surround her and she couldn't hold herself up anymore she felt some one's arms around her.

Please REVIEW!