Case File #1: Skeletons in the Closet
Part 8
Her world was an inky black, lit only by the tell-tale floating orbs that usually accompanied her dreams. Her body glowed, a clear indication that she was once again at the mercy of her unconscious.
She wondered vaguely if her dreams would ever be normal again.
Several orbs drifted past her at a lazy pace, seemingly drawn to something to her left. Mai looked in the direction the orbs were floating towards and gasped.
In a short distance away, orbs were gathering, drifting as if drawn into an upward spiraling column reminiscent of the DNA double helix she'd seen images of in her school's sciences texts, only without the ladder running down the center. Orbs ascended in the loop, reaching the top before falling gracefully and rejoining the fray at the bottom, repeating the process in a continuous recycling of orbs.
It was beautiful.
Mai struggled to see past the upward trend of tiny lights – there was something in the center.
A sudden thought occurred to her: Was this column a kind of barrier?
She took a tentative step forward, confused and interested at the same time. She no longer dreamed without seeing something of significance, and knew that whatever was within the spiral had to have been important.
A few more steps revealed two people in the center, talking animatedly. It was hard to see them clearly for all the light given by the ascending orbs, but what she could make out made her pause.
To her left was a pale young man clad in black – Dream Naru for certain. Mai was stunned to see him with his face strained and brow furrowed, talking rapidly with his arms extended, hands clasped on the upper arms of the person in front of him; the person to Mai's right.
That person was a girl, probably around Mai's own age. She'd long and wavy ash blonde hair, more ash than blonde and quite unruly. The hair cascaded down past her shoulders to about her bra line, some spilling over her shoulders and Dream Naru's hands. It looked like the same color of ash blonde from her previous vision.
Mai almost swore she could see his fingers nervously toy with the ashen tendrils.
She shook herself mentally and refocused. Dream Naru's face was not in the least bit pleased from what she could make out. He looked upset and worried. The girl looking up at him merely scowled.
'Her face…' Mai struggled to get a better look. 'Even though it's only a profile, I know I've seen her face somewhere before…'
Snatches of conversation broke her from her concentration.
"You shouldn't… in the ether, Kat!" Dream Naru yelled.
"…t my fault!" the girl snapped. Mai was stunned at the semi-familiarity of her voice. "I was… closet… and woke up here!"
"You n… areful!"
"I am!"
"No… two months! Spotty com… thought… find you! I was wor…ck!"
The girl looked astonished at his words. Dream Naru sighed heavily. The next thing Mai could see, he was leaning towards her. He looked to be whispering something. Whatever it was, it made the girl look down, bangs hiding her eyes. She muttered something that must have made Dream Naru relax a little, because he smiled at her and shook his head.
Mai was confused. What was going on? Who was that girl Dream Naru was with, and where had she seen her before? Was she connected to the case? Was she another "guide"?
This dream wasn't making any sense at all.
There was a jerk at her waist, followed by another, more forceful one. Mai turned and let out a loud yell, and struggled to break free. Something dark and ominous had formed behind her at some point in her silent observations of Dream Naru and the girl in spiral. And now it was trying to pull her towards it!
Brown eyes, frightened and wide, snapped back over to the two in hopes of gaining their attention. Part of her was elated, finding a set of dark blues eyes staring back at her. But the evident panic swirling in them did nothing to put her at ease, nor did the shock in the dark green eyes of his ash blonde companion. The strange girl was just as horrified and was rapidly muttering something under her breath. Tendrils of darkness spread over Mai's legs and torso, engulfing her chest and making their way towards her neck.
The double helix of orbs fell abruptly, releasing the two from the center. Dream Naru made a break after her, but their fingers barely brushed against each other as the darkness wrapped itself fully around Mai, swallowing her entirely. Soon, all she could hear was two voices yelling her name in unison.
"MAI!"
…
…
There was something unsettling about the scene before her. The room was illuminated by streetlights outside, their yellow and orange glow casting the strangest of shadows all around. The apartment was unsettling in its simplicity; it's comfortable appearance.
It wasn't comfortable in here.
It wasn't the rumors. It wasn't the warnings. It wasn't the fact that she shouldn't be here, and neither should any of her friends. There was a warning aura about this place, one that she couldn't believe that they hadn't noticed. Masako at the very least would have been able tell… wouldn't she have?
The air tensed around her. Mai hugged herself tightly. 'This can't be happening…'
It was all just for the thrill of it, right? Nobody gave a damn about what went on in here anymore; moonlighting couples came here all the time! Hell, she'd heard that two people she knew had actually done it in one of the old upper suites!
It made sense to investigate. Curiosity was what drove all of them, after all. Listen to the stories and see if they were true – that was what drove them. Live for the thrill and enjoy it while it lasts.
But was that why they'd come here? Was that why they were all in trouble? She wasn't enjoying herself at all. Where was Naru? Where were the others? Were they at base?
'What base?' she asked herself. A vague memory of a trailer on a construction site came to mind, but there were no trailers near here, nor were there any construction projects going on at the moment. Why would there be? Nakameguro was a residential district; it wasn't like Shibuya…
There was the sound of heavy footfall. Someone was running. Mai curled up into herself and backed away from the door leading out in the hallway. There was no time for her to close it – the footsteps were too near.
Her heart clenched, like it was trapped in a vise. 'Oh, God… am I really going to die in here?'
"Mai!" she jolted at the familiar voice, and cried out when she saw him skid in front of the door and barge in, slamming the door shut and locking it.
"Naru!" she dashed over to him, finding herself in a tight and sudden embrace. "I thought you were gone…"
"I managed to get away," he panted. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her away from the door, eyes scanning for a way out. "Is there a fire escape by the window?"
"I didn't check…" The warmth of his arms disappeared as he went over to the window, looking about desperately before swearing loudly. 'I've never heard Naru swear before…'
"There's no way out of here," he said grimly, tearing his eyes from the cityscape below and walking back to the center of the room where she trembled.
"Wh-where are Ayako and the others?" she dared to ask as a set of black-clad arms wrapped around her small frame again. His grip tightened at the question.
"I don't know, Mai."
There was a dull thud from somewhere below. The two looked down at the floor, still and silent. Mai clutched onto Naru's arms, sobbing and praying for this all to end.
There was a shot. And then they heard a yell. It was too familiar and too nearby and sounded so horribly like…
"John!" she gasped, a new wave of tears overcoming her. Mai felt her legs give out. The only thing holding her up was Naru's grasp, which had grown even tighter than before. "Oh, God… Naru… John…"
"I know, Mai," he said solemnly. He swallowed hard. "He was with Masako."
A shriek followed soon after. Mai wanted to wake up – this was only a dream! Just a dream! A had to be! A nightmare!
"Does that mean Monk and Ayako…?" she couldn't bring herself to ask. Naru didn't answer.
Heavy footfall ascended the stairs. Slowly. Deliberately. Why hadn't she run further along down the hall towards the fire escapes instead of crashing into the first room that wasn't locked? He was so close now…
"Don't make a sound," Naru commanded in a hushed voice. Their proximity would have caused Mai to blush considerably, but her heart pounded too much out of fear and she was so far into panic that her body was no longer acting properly. "We need to hide."
She nodded vaguely in agreement, and allowed herself to be half-carried to the back of the room. There was the sound of a sliding door, and Naru pulled her back against him. It wasn't until he had her against him firmly with one arm possessively around her shoulders and the other sliding the door shut that she realized where they were.
They were hiding in a closet.
…
…
…
Semi-conscious, Mai stirred only slightly, a musty darkness the only thing registering in her muddled mind, along with yelling and pounding mere inches away from her.
"DAMN IT, OPEN UP! GET US OUT OF HERE, SOMEBODY! HELP!" frantic pounding and a loud hiss of pain. "STUPID SPOOKS, I'LL SEND YOU ALL TO HADES! OPEN UP!"
Rattling. Violent shaking. The sound of a radio on the fritz. Hacking. Incontrollable hacking and wheezing. Someone collapsing to their knees and having difficulty breathing. Muttering to someone… there was a name – was it to the Jīn she'd seen the name of on the hardhat? They sounded so lonely…
Mai felt herself mumble a name that didn't register. The person next to her responded in a whispery voice. Whatever the response, however, Mai lost it in the darkened recesses of her unconscious.
…
…
…
"Mai." She looked up into a set of determined dark blue eyes. Naru was still there with her.
He opened his mouth to speak again when a loud creaking sound across the hall caused them both to give a start. Mai very near to tears now.
"Mai, I want you to stay right here. Understand?" She nodded as he released his hold on her. He put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her gently into the corner of the closet, reaching over and proceeding to drape a moth-eaten blanket over her. "And no matter what happens, don't move."
She caught his sleeve as he made to rise. "What about you?"
"I'll be fine. Just wait for me here. Hide. Don't make a sound." Before she knew it, he'd slipped out from the closet and closed the door behind him, leaving her alone and quaking under the holey blanket.
Everything was silent. Too silent. It grated on her nerves. Had Naru left the room, or was he still there on the other side? Where was he? That monster…
There was pounding, followed by the sound of splintering wood and a loud crash. Someone breathing heavily had burst into the room, and from the light dwindling at the base of the closet doors, they had a flashlight.
"Found you~," a voice practically sang, the light sweeping past the closet and off to somewhere Mai couldn't see.
She heard something. A shuffle. Naru!
"They're all gone, you know," the owner of the voice said pleasantly. It was masculine, with a thin and almost nasal quality to it. Unassuming. "Every single one of them. Funny how you all chose to protect your girlfriends, when you always could have saved yourselves. I did give you that option, you know. Pity you had to waste a lifetime for a moment's passing pleasure."
"Is this your idea of a pastime?" Naru's voice asked carefully. "Does anyone know about what you've been doing here?"
"My dear boy, nobody cares," the voice assured him. "This is private property and you happen to be trespassing; I'm only fulfilling my obligations as a landowner and as a taxpayer."
There was a click. Mai didn't hesitate. She slid open the door and scrambled out, but only to hear the gun go off and see a bright flash of light.
And watch in stunned horror as Naru slumped pathetically to the floor.
"NARU!"
The voice, the owner of the gun, turned and grinned at her in the darkness.
"Oh, I know just what to do with you, young lady…"
Mai froze as he drew nearer, gun barrel pointed directly at her chest. A rifle. A rifle with a flashlight taped atop of the barrel.
She wanted to run, wanted to scream, but wasn't able to do anything. All she could do was stare at the heap that was Naru, silently pleading with any god or deity that she wake up and find out that this was all a nightmare.
She caught sight of one blue eye cracking open before a violently yanking came from behind.
…
"Lin." Naru looked over his shoulder inquiringly at his assistant. The Chinese man shook his head grimly.
"I've got my shiki looking everywhere for them. They haven't sensed anything yet."
'Damn.' Naru desperately wanted to smash something. Even after hours of endless searching, they'd come up with nothing. He'd even gone so far as to allow them permission to check the unfinished fourth and fifth floors. He and Lin had gone even further: they were on the sixth floor of the apartment complex.
And still, there was nothing. Where the hell was Mai? And was Katsu Shinomori with her?
"We're going up another level higher," he announced, and continued to sweep his flashlight about, calling Mai's name several times as he and Lin continued in the darkness.
Lin himself was lost in his mind, half concentrated on his shiki as they roamed purposefully around the construction site, half concentrated on his eighteen-year-old charge. Even if Naru didn't show it, he was worried. Lin was worried, too; the last thing either of them needed (or wanted) was to have Mai Taniyama turn up severely injured in this place. There were a great many dangers on an ordinary jobsite; with everything that was said to have occurred…
Mai being a danger magnet certainly didn't help matters. And then there was that Katsu Shinomori.
Lin's brow creased at the thought of the interloper. There was something about that girl he didn't readily trust. Instinct told him to keep an eye on her. He'd already tried setting one of his shiki on her, and discovered that it hadn't been able to locate her.
That shouldn't have happened.
The two went back to the service stairwell and began the ascent to the seventh floor. So unnaturally lost in thought was Lin that he hardly registered the shadow creeping up behind him. When he finally did, he turned abruptly, ready to set his nearest shiki at whatever-it-was that followed.
There was nothing.
Frowning, Lin turned and proceeded to continue after his charge.
He stopped abruptly and felt his jaw involuntarily clench.
There was a wall blocking the way up.
"What you don't know might hurt you…"
"Who's there?" he barked, looking around for the source of the voice. The beam of his flashlight danced around the metal beams and concreted steps, revealing nothing.
He turned again.
"Noll!" he called out. "NOLL! NARU!"
Nothing. Absolutely no response.
Cursing, Lin turned and sped down the stairwell, whistling for one of his shiki to hunt down Naru as quickly as possible.
…
Mai felt as if she'd been ripped apart; torn asunder. One moment she looking down a gun barrel, and the next she suddenly found herself off to the side and in the hallway with someone gripping hard onto her wrist.
"Wh-what… what happened?" she asked aloud, not altogether certain she wanted to know the answer. The disorientation from the odd experience of being yanked out of a body was only now beginning to dissipate.
"I pulled you out before you could get really hurt," a feminine voice answered softly from behind. Startled, Mai whirled around. The pressure on her wrist lifted as she found herself staring straight into a set of dark green eyes with strands of ash blonde bangs framing them from above.
It was the girl who'd been arguing with Dream Naru!
"Who are you?" Mai asked, struggling to remember the girl's face. It seemed so familiar – it was frustrating!
The girl chuckled nervously. "Let's just say I'm a freelancer of the oneiric sort and leave it at that."
Mai blinked. "But what are you doing here? And why did you…?"
"I'm really not supposed to be here, but I couldn't let you go through all that." The girl's smile wavered. "I think you're going through enough as it is, to be honest."
"I… thank you… I guess…" Mai bit her lower lip. She was safe, but… "But what about…?"
The question died on her lips as the man with the rifle dragged a young woman with long caramel-colored hair out from the room. The two onlookers watched as the woman screamed silently, as if someone had suddenly muted their world.
And then Mai realized it.
"That was me just a moment ago…" she gulped. "Then what about… Naru…?" She looked back into the room, astonished to find that Naru was gone, replaced by a young man with spiky black hair that ended in bleached tips. He muttered something and forced himself out of the room, following the girl and the assaulter as best as he could.
"What's going to happen to them?" Mai asked quietly, unsettled by this turn of events. She'd been in dreams where she'd been murdered (even now, she could remember the cold steel of the blade and the sound of Urado's rasping, "I don't want to die!"), but this left her a bit more shaken and disturbed. She'd never been pulled out of a dream like this before and still remain in the dream! Tears were pricking the corners of her eyes.
"They died, Mai," the girl said gently, noticing the brunette's distress. "It's all in the past. What you experienced just then was more like an RPG: you dreamed yourself in their predicament with the rest of SPR filling in the other roles. Just like a cast of characters in a play."
Mai looked at her. "So, Naru… Monk… they're all alive?"
The girl giggled, causing Mai to give her a frowning look. "Mai, I highly doubt that Kazuya Shibuya will die anytime soon. Guys like him don't die so easily. And neither will the rest of your friends." The girl ceased her laughter and offered the brunette one final smile, warm and gentle. "I know it hurts to see the ones you love play parts in horrible tragedies, but rest assured that they'll all still be there when you wake up."
Mai sniffed. "Really?"
"Really." Something in the girl's eyes shifted. "You're lucky in that respect. Not everyone has that luxury."
"Wait, what…"
The girl suddenly began to distort and fade. She scowled upon seeing this before turning back to Mai. "I have to go now, but you'll be waking up soon. But before I go, you have to promise that you won't mention me to Naru – not in reality, and definitely not in your dreams."
"I –" Mai hesitated. Why did the girl…?
"Promise me, Mai!"
Mai nodded, feeling herself beginning to drift as well.
"I promise."
…
…
…
July
Day 2 (cont.)/Day 3
Night /early morning– time unknown
"It's about time you woke up," a semi-familiar voice said in the darkness. "I was getting really worried there."
"Katsu?" the name came out a bit hoarsely as Mai pulled herself into the realm of consciousness. "What happened?"
"Put succinctly, ghosts." The interloper sighed. "Well, something went and hauled us into one of those kooky closets and locked us in; I guess you could say they were ghosts. I saw you slam your head before you blacked out. You okay?"
"My head hurts, but I'm all right." Mai struggled to sit upright, finding her neck to now be sore from the awkward position she'd been sleeping in. "What about you?"
"I'm okay," Katsu replied loftily. "I'm just hacked off that I got tossed in a closet like some rag doll and now my wrist is killing me." There was a slight rustle and soon the thin beam of a penlight pierced in the darkness. Katsu extended her right hand in Mai's direction. In the light, the brunette could make out a decent bit of swelling and deep bruising.
"Did the ghosts do that?" she gasped.
"Nah, this is more my doing than anything else. The ghosts didn't help out much, though." She handed the penlight to Mai. "I actually injured it the other night when I punched Takigawa. He's got pretty tough jaw." The two girls giggled a bit. Katsu sighed. "But after we got flung in here, I must've gotten knocked out, too. When I woke up I just started pounding on the door and yelling for someone to get us out, but the only thing I succeeded in was screwing up my hand even more."
"You should have Ayako take a look at it," Mai suggested, guiding the beam of the light around, making out the edges of the confining space.
"I'm not too worried. I'll just wrap it up later. I'd do it now, but my bag isn't with me."
Mai blinked. She couldn't remember when Katsu had to put the thing up. She'd kept it with her practically all the time.
"But I'm not too concerned about my wrist at the moment. Right now, I'm more interested in getting the hell out of here and back down to that trailer you guys are set up in."
"Yeah…" Mai wrapped her arms around her legs and propped her head on her knees. She was worried, and a lot of the dream she'd just awoken from hadn't made much sense. They were still missing. Where was Naru? Was Monk alright? Was the entire team out and looking for them? Who'd that girl been? Why was Dream Naru acting so strangely now? Ever since the beginning of this case, there'd been something going on that she couldn't explain.
In her stupor, she hadn't noticed that her interloper companion had reclaimed her penlight. Mai found herself blinking fiercely as a bright, thin stream of light blinked in rapid succession in her eyes.
"Earth to Mai," Katsu teased. "You're name is Mai, right?" Mai nodded. Katsu cocked her head to one side. "Are you sure you're doing okay? You're zoning out on me, and I'm sure exactly how to deal with head injuries. I thought hardhats were meant to prevent that sort of thing."
"What? Oh, no! It's nothing like that!" Mai waved her hands in protest. "It's just that I… well…" she paused. Katsu didn't know anything about her dreams. But she seemed to have accepted everything so far…
Mai took in a deep breath. "You see… I sometimes have these dreams that have something to do with whatever case we're on at the time. Sometimes they put in the past and I see what's happening, and sometimes they're a little different. Kind of like… an RPG?" she used the phrase coined by the girl she'd seen in her dream before and looked up to Katsu.
Surprisingly, the interloper nodded. "I see. So you're not just a secretary and tea girl. That makes sense. I'd imagine that just about everyone on this team of yours would have something important to contribute. I take it you had another dream then?"
"Y-yeah. But it was…" she faltered.
"Weird? Strange? Freaky?" Katsu offered. "Dreams tend to be like that. It's okay if you want to talk about it. It'll take the edge off."
Mai felt that she must have looked ridiculous, looking at Katsu with her mouth agape.
Katsu frowned. "What's up?"
"N-nothing! It's just… well, how can you be so calm about all this?" Mai finally asked. "I mean, you act as if nothing fazes you. With everything that's gone on, I can't believe you're sitting there so calmly."
"If you want to know the truth, I'm actually severely claustrophobic."
Mai's jaw officially dropped. "What? But I never would've guessed with –"
"With how calm I am?" the interloped laughed dryly. "You really must've been knocked out to have missed my freak-out earlier. Believe me: the sooner I get out in the open air and back down on the ground, the happier I'll be. But for now, indulge me. Tell me about this dream you had. You'll feel better, too."
Mai blinked as her mind turned over this new information. Katsu was good at keep her emotions in check. She was a lot like Naru in that respect. The only difference, though, was that Katsu seemed to react in anger in instances that Naru would have merely acted indifferently. But at least she wasn't totally unapproachable.
Taking another deep breath, Mai relayed her dream, leaving Dream Naru out as usual and ultimately deciding to omit the girl she'd encountered. Throughout Mai's recount of the dream in the room Katsu remained mostly silent, nodding or making a facial expression as a way of silent reaction. She interjected only a little, asking a question or for an explanation.
"And after the guy pointed the gun at you, what happened?" she asked after Mai had paused.
Mai didn't answer immediately. She still didn't understand what had happened.
"I-I really don't know," she admitted. "One moment, I was staring down a gun barrel, and then I was standing in the hall, watching as the gunman dragged a girl down the hall from the room. I knew that I'd been experiencing what she'd gone through, but I've never had anything like that happen before."
Katsu frowned. "That's just plain weird. Did you at least get to see what happened next?"
"No. I woke up."
The two girls sighed and slumped against whatever sides of the closet they were sitting up against.
"Well, it's pretty obvious you were dreaming about the old complex that used to be here," Katsu observed after a moment's tenuous silence. "But as to everything else, I really couldn't tell you. I just used to break into the old place for the thrill of it. The old building had been abandoned for the longest time when I first went in there. Not even the local vagabonds would go in there. Just the strangers and us idiot kids."
…
Naru looked down the strange hallway with his lips pursed together, eyes moving left and right as he took everything in.
The hallway on the seventh floor was completed, and lined with what suspiciously looked like closet doors. When he'd turned to go back down the stairs, all he'd encountered was a dark wooded door.
Lin was gone. Naru hadn't faintest idea what had happened or how it had occurred, but it had. It was disconcerting – no disturbing. Lin was in-tune to everything that went around him, and was too clever to get lost all that easily.
And now the young CEO was trapped in the apartment complex, the exit gone and his only options being to continue with the aid of his flashlight or to open that strange door behind him.
Recalling Takigawa's earlier experience with a similarly mysterious obstacle, Naru chose the former option.
And that's when he heard the thuds. And the voices.
…
The two girls fairly jumped out of their skin upon hearing a loud thud coming from every side. Followed by another. And another.
There was a succession of thuds.
"Please tell me you can hear all that," Katsu whispered, half hoping she was only imagining things, half hoping she wasn't going crazy. They'd been trying to get out of the closet for a while now, and hadn't had much luck. It felt like something was preventing it from sliding open.
"I heard it." Mai gulped. Were the ghosts coming back?
The thuds came to a stop.
"Anyone wanna try getting out of here again?" Katsu offered brightly.
Mai squeaked a definite "Yes!"
The two shifted their positions and began to tug at the sliding doors, Mai working on one as Katsu yanked at the other. But try as the might, the doors still would not budge.
They sighed and slumped down, Mai just across from Katsu.
"Okay, so they want us trapped in a closet. Thanks, we get the message!" The interloper yelled this last bit over her shoulder, as she was leaning against the immovable doors.
"I was in a closet in my dream…" Mai said lowly. "Do you think that maybe the two I saw weren't the only ones to have tried hiding like that?"
"Could be," Katsu acknowledged. "That would explain the closets… but why – hey, wait a minute!" she jolted upright so quickly that Mai wound up falling against the back of the closet.
"Ow…"
"That room you were in, the one in your dream," Katsu continued, clearly excited about something, "what did it look like? Can you describe it?"
Mai nodded. "Yeah, the closet was in the back, a little towards the left I think. And there was a kitchen to the right, with the bathroom just before it, and –"
"And two bedrooms on the far left with a full-length mirror in-between?"
"Yeah!"
Katsu let out a low, satisfied whistle as she leaned back against the doors again. "All right! Now we have explanations for at least two of the weird occurrences going on around here: the closets and the room that I kept hunting down for over a week."
"We're going to have to tell Naru about this."
Katsu scoffed. "Yeah, if we ever get out of this – WHOA!"
With a loud umph, Katsu fell backwards as one of the doors suddenly slid violently aside, a bright light shining down upon them. Mai blinked fiercely in the unexpected brightness and tentatively moved forward a bit. The light lowered.
"Oh, well fancy meeting you here," Katsu said sarcastically. "If it isn't the Prince of Darkness, cometh to collect two closet cases. Nice hat, by the way."
Mai looked past the bright stream of light and smiled broadly at the familiar figure. Part of her mind registered with great amusement that he was wearing Tomei Construction Company's issue hardhat, the unsightly yellow clashing horrendously with the rest of him (yet he still somehow managed to look good), but relief choked back any laughter she normally would have derived from it.
Naru looked down at the two girls and blinked, a vague amount of surprise and shock registering through his system.
Well, at least he'd found Mai. Thankfully, she hadn't been alone.
He almost sighed in relief. Almost. Hearing Mai chirp out a happy, "Naru!" was good enough for him at the moment.
But first…
"What are you two doing all the way up here?" he demanded, tone indicative of clear disapproval and slight anger. Mai frowned up at him as she helped Katsu up.
"All the way up where, Naru?" she asked. "We've been stuck in that closet for hours!"
"Yeah, and that was after we ran into… uh…" Katsu faltered and looked around, snatching up Naru's flashlight from his hand and shining it around. "Isn't this the same hallway we were in earlier?"
Mai's eyes widened upon looking around as well. "Y-yeah, but… weren't we up really high before?"
"We're on the seventh floor," Naru supplied coldly, impatiently awaiting an explanation and receiving none in return.
Mai and Katsu shared an uneasy look. "But I thought we were on the twelfth floor…?"
There was a cold gust of wind, and the flashlight went out. Katsu fumbled for her penlight and let out a curse upon finding it too was not functioning.
THUD. CLUNK. THUD. THUD. POUND.
"They're back again," Mai whimpered. She felt something grab her shoulders from behind. "N-Naru?"
"Is this what happened before?" he asked, having to raise his voice as the din grew louder.
"Yeah…"
All around, voices flooded in, the temperature in the hallway steadily continuing to drop.
"Sorry… so sorry…"
"Didn't mean to see…"
"Had to look… had to peak…"
"See… had to see… just a little look…"
Something in the darkness formed. Mai felt the grip on her shoulders leave, the warmth of Naru's hands fading quickly in the freezing corridor.
And then she was pushed hard in the stomach. The wind was abruptly knocked out of her, and the feeling of a set of arms wrapping around her waist and the thud of someone else hitting into the back of the closet as she landed against something firm and warm barely registered in her swimming mind. Her legs gave out and she collapsed against whoever-it-was behind her, the scent of tea and some kind of cologne alighting in her olfactory senses.
She heard the door slide shut with a definite slam and almost missed Katsu saying sarcastically, "Great. So we're back to this shit again. Yippee."
A/N: I had a lot of fun with the dream sequencing. Considering Mai's powers are still developing, I thought it would be neat to experiment a little bit, rather than let things get repetitive. Dream sequences are something I love experimenting with. ^_^
Special thanks to Foxgrl18, akjupiter, and Aoi Kitsukawa for your reviews, and to everyone who added this story to their alerts/favorites lists, thank you so much! I'm really glad everyone's enjoying this so far. Until the next chapter! And please remember to R&R! ^_^