Masquerade Chapter Five
May Thursday
Day 2 1330
At the Theater, previous day:
Once Mai and Yasu left, under the protection of the charms from Ayako, the rest of the team went on to the normal business of reviewing and searching for proof of the spirit.
Ayako and Masako went once again on a walk through the building, looking at the known hot spots and any other places of activity. Monk and John had focused on the known hot spots and said prayers for those areas. They were not sure if they were successful due to the lack of activity at the time being. Naru and Lin, well, they watched the cameras and computers for any scientific evidence.
And so far, there was none. No ghostly activity of any sort. Nothing. Nada. Zero. Zilch.
So far since sending Mai home, there was nothing to even give the theater of even a hiccup to the name of haunted.
All of this set Naru on edge. After all the activity that they have had since arriving, they should still be getting something.
The quiet base slowly came alive with noise, with the remaining four people coming back from their duties. Ayako and Monk were verbally sparring like normal, John and Masako were attempting to ignore them, already knowing that they couldn't settle the argument.
There goes my peace and quiet, thought Naru.
"Naru, I have not seen anything at all," Masako said, sitting on a couch. "I cannot get a feeling for anything. Nothing at all."
Naru made no indication that he heard her. He was watching the monitors.
"Ms. Matsuzaki, Bou-san, Father Brown anything from you?" he asked.
"Nothing Mate," replied John, while the other two shook their heads.
"No temperature fluxes, nothing on the cameras, and nothing new," Naru leaned against the table, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"If it wasn't for Mai's dreams, this place right now would seem like it was not haunted," Ayako said, crossing her arms against her chest. The rest of the crew nodded. "I'm not sure sending Mai home was the best idea. Yeah, I know that she had the worst reaction to her dreams, and being attacked by this Phantom, not to mention the attack from that shallow wanna be, but with her here, we were actually getting somewhere."
"We could have just protected her just as well here. We have charms, and she could have stayed in the base," Bou-san said.
"And what if the Phantom met her again in her dream plane, and she couldn't get back to her body? How could we have protected her then?" Naru asked dryly. "I have no way to go there to get her, and I know none of you can project as she can. She could have been stuck, and if an individual spirit is out of their earthly body for too long, the connection can break, and the body would die. Would anyone want that to happen to Mai? So therefore as her boss and the lead investigator, I sent her home. There is no more discussing this. It is done." Naru then turned away from the crew on the couch, and reviewed his black book. Making note of something that he thought, Naru tried to ignore the noise behind him.
"is that what you said to her? To get her to actually leave?" Bou-san asked, "because we know mai, she would have fought tooth and nail to stay after that fight in front of the Dena's."
Naru made no movement to reply.
Frustrated, Ayako stood up, "well I'm not going to sit here for the rest of the evening while we wait for something to happen. I am going to bed. It's getting late and I'm tired from all the walking today. This place is huge and it's making my head hurt. Goodnight." With that she left.
"Father Brown, Bou-san, please walk Miss Hara to the lady's sleeping quarters. We will continue this tomorrow morning." Naru said, still looking at the monitors. The men behind him nodded, and followed the young medium out the door. All were tired for the night, and after what Naru said about Mai, none were in a fighting mood.
:-:-:
May Thursday
Day 3 1600
With Monk and Ayako
"That kid has some nerve," Ayako started to say, still very much frustrated from the night before, she was interrupted by the man walking beside her.
"He was only doing what was best for Mai." Monk shuffled his feet a bit before picking his pace up to match the irritated priestess. "After her last dream yesterday, I think we all were shaken up. I do have to agree on sending her home, but what I don't get is why she actually left. She wouldn't any other time. She would always fight to stay." he was concerned about his little jou-chans well being.
Ayako nodded, "I want to know that too. This case is just too weird."
They were wandering through the front of the theatre, where all the old performance posters were hanging. It was like a hall of fame, because all the posters so far were signed by all the leads, and next to the frames were the listed names of everyone else involved, cast and crew. As the two spiritualists walked farther down the hall, they noticed the change of the poster age and art. It was becoming more classic, in sharp colors and bolder lines. And less signatures and other lists.
Soon they were just seeing the yellow with age, and ripped corners of the oldest posters.
One caught their eyes.
"oh my...god…" Ayako murmured, "They were not joking about Mai looking like Madelyna. Put a long brown wig on our Mai and there is Madelyna." She looked at the girl on the paper. Madelyna Stowe. Light brown hair, curled just enough to make her look younger than she was, large brown eyes and a soft smile. The artists did a phenomenal job on catching the twinkle in her eyes, same the same one could be seen in Mai's. It did not matter what role she seemed to play, as they looked down the wall, the same twinkle was there.
So saying that they were shocked, was putting it lightly.
Pulling out his phone, Bou-san snapped a few pictures. "Everyone else needs to see this."
The two remained gazing at the posters for a few more minutes before they continued down the hall. There was about 3 more signs of Madelyna, before they showed another singer. Again, Monk took a picture.
"Ok, now this is definitely getting disturbing." Monk said, stuffing his phone and hands in his pockets. "We need to know more about the past stars. Let's head back to base and show Naru these. At least after that, he can put Yasu to work."
"Poor kid, having to babysit Mai and do research, how will he ever deal?" Ayako joked a bit.
Both had to smile at that. And then they started to return to the base.
:-:-:
With John and Masako
These two ended up wandering the backstage area. Here they were about to pass actors, and crew members, and get a few questions in. Well John was able to ask the questions, being inquisitive about the theater production. Masako as just watching.
The area was vast; where in as the stage looked large, the backstage area was even larger. There seemed to be doors upon doors back here. They lead to hallways, rooms, and some possibilities could be stairways, as the two from SPR were told. Some doors were locked, no key available.
John and Masako wandered just a bit more, and were about to head back to base when Masako stopped and stared at one of the doors.
"Something there, Miss Masako?" John asked, smiling with a little bit of worry laced in.
"There is a soft presence behind here. I'm not sure who it is. I cannot see…" Masako replied, and she reached for the door.
They were half expecting it to be locked. But it opened wide at the gentlest urge. It was a well used room.
Lights were on, but it was not a harsh lighting like the stage lights, or even a fluorescents in the other rooms. Almost like candle light, but from a lightbulb.. the idea is confusing.
Masako looked around the room. Placing her hand against her mouth, her eyes got wide.
"Masako?" John asked, pulling the walkie talkie off of his belt. He pressed the Talk button.
"She is here. She.." Masako faltered in her words, just staring at the chaise lounge in the corner. "They are not lying about her looks." Masako in her little vain glory could only feel like a child in the presence of this beauty.
"Who is here Masako?" John asked, hoping that the two people left in base were hearing this.
"Madelyna."
"Hello there, little one." Madelyna said, smiling at the medium.
"Hello." Masako replied, sitting in the chair across from the spirit. Placing her hands on her lap, the young girl looked at the spirit across from her.
"May I show you something?" Madelyna asked, still smiling. She slowly reached her hand out to the medium.
"Yes." Masako replied, reaching out for a hand. And with that she slumped forward, John barely being able to catch her, letting the button go.
"Masako!"
The walkie talkie buzzed in reply.
"Father Brown, what happened?" Naru's voice came crackling over the waves.
"I believe that the spirit of Madelyna Stowe was here, and Masako might be possibly be possessed currently." John responded.
"Where are you?"
"Backstage area, past the west wing. Down a hall."
"We will be right there."
John nodded, knowing that the two would be there soon, and didn't need a reply. It's just how they worked.
John lifted the slumped form of the medium, leaning her back into the chair. Brushing her hair away from her face, he looked down at her and frowned.
"No, not possessed. But what is going on?" John was confused.
Only a few minutes later, Naru and Lin came into the room.
"what happened?" Naru inquired again.
"Well, we decided to wander in the backstage area, with the actors and crew, to ask a little more questions, and to see if there was any sights of the spirit while everyone was working." John said, "We noticed all the extra doors, and we asked about those, and were told that any that were unlocked we can get into the rooms or hallways to check them out, and anything locked may or may not have a key. This hall was just one that we wandered into and Miss Hara stopped at this door saying that something was in here. I believe that she said it was a soft feeling, and when we pushed the door open, it was not hard to open at all. Masako said that Madelyna was in here, and that's when I pressed talk on the walkie talkies."
Naru nodded. He looked at the girl passed out on the chair.
"She does not seem possessed. Maybe this is something along the lines of what Mai can do, when she astral projects." Naru seemed to question this. "We will see when she wakes up. Lin, can you carry her back to the base?"
Lin nodded, and gathered the smaller girl into his arms.
:-:-:-:
Back at base, Monk and Ayako were waiting. They were sitting in front of the Monitors, watching the three men come back with Masako in Lin's arms.
Once they got into base, Monk stood up, "what happened?! Is she ok?"
"She is fine," Naru said.
the couple at the computers paused. "what happened?" Ayako repeated Bou-san's first question.
"We had a run in with Madelyna," John replied, covering Masako with a light blanket after Lin deposited her onto the couch.
"Oh!" Ayako exclaimed. She looked at the monk. "Show them the pictures."
"Right." Bou-san pulled out his phone. "So we decided to check out the front doors and such. We came across the hall with old production posters. Check out what we saw.." He handed his phone over to Naru. John and Lin looked over his shoulders.
"OH my Lord." John said. Naru and Lin look at the photo of Madelyna Stowe with minimal shock. Granted, they all knew about the whispers of how alike the generations were, but seeing it was something different.
"And check this next one out," Monk said, swiping left on his phone screen.
"Moyoki Akira." Naru said.
"No," Ayako said, "that is a complete different person. That is Bella Dona Oshino Hibiki. Leading lady before Madelyna Stowe came to the theater."
The three men looking at the phone looked up at this.
"We need to know more." John said.
Naru nodded. He stepped over to his notebook and wrote a few things down. Then he pulled out his phone and dialed some numbers.
"Yasu," Naru begun, "I need you to do what you can to find information about Moyoki Akira, as much as you can, and her family history as well. Look for the name, Oshino Hibiki. Gather everything you can find. Get it to me when you can."
He hung up after giving this information to Yasu, who was working at the office.
From here everyone went to the table to review the facts so far.
Naru looked towards the monitors, watching all but none at the same time. His brain went into overdrive with the facts they already knew.
The Phantom had sent letters to the owners making requests, or more so demands.
SPR Recevied one of the letters, addressed to a Madelyna, unknown at the time of arrival.
Mai's dreams seemed to be expanding past sleeping hours.
The Phantom wanted Mai.
Mai knew more about the Theatre than what they could find.
Moyoki Akira hated Mai for some reason
Mai's real name is Madelyna, the great granddaughter of the leading lady, Madelyna Stowe.
Mai actually went home after a small fight compared to normal.
Miss Hara finally got contact with a spirit, Madelyna to boot.
There were still a lot of missing information..
All of the sudden Naru's phone rang, startling just about everyone in the room.
"Hello," Naru answered. It was Yasu. Naru mentally noting how fast he got back to him.
"What did you find?" Naru paused, "What do you mean?...Well, at least she is attempting something with her schooling. Contact one of her friends to make sure she doesn't do something stupid...I don't know, something….things have gotten complicated, we need that information." With that, Naru hung up the phone.
He felt all eyes on him. Yes he was short with Yasu, but it wasn't 100% his fault. Things were not as simple as he thought anymore.
"Mai apparently left the office," was all he said to the question looks from the room.
Murmuring was heard as reply to that comment. Naru ignored it. He went back to studying the monitors.
Nothing changed. Nothing moved. Nothing. Again.
Naru was getting frustrated with this.
Gene I wish you were here. I need you. Mai needs you.. what's going on here?
All of the sudden Masako made a distressed noise from the couch. John went over to check out her.
Naru followed the priests movements. Glancing over at the table with the blueprints from the day before on them, Naru went over and looked over them. Shuffling some papers and reviewing the plans, Naru looked up at the room and declared, "Ms. Matsuzaki, stay here with Ms Hara, in case she comes to. Father Brown, Bou-san, you two are coming with me. We are finishing what we started yesterday. We will find that panel Mai was thinking about."
He grabbed the 1920 plans and walked out of the room, full expecting that the two men he named would follow. And that they did.
:-:-:
May Thursday
Day 2 1630
There was nothing in the front staircase that the men could find. No loose boards, stones or anything else. They moved forward to the rooms adjoining the entryway.
Room by room, they went through the front of the theater house. And only found old trinkets, playbills, more posters, and other things that they could not decipher.
"Hey Naru," Monk shuffled across the floor, gently knocking on the baseboards, "how much longer are we going to do this? So far we Haven't found anything other than lost items."
Naru fought to not room his eyes at the complaining monk. That would ruin his stoic composure. Instead, he just didn't answer. They have to be able to find something. An old build like this, with all the haunting stories had to have something.
John was silently on the third wall in the room they were working on when all of the sudden the walkie-talkie buzzed on his belt.
"Naru, we have activity in the west wing." Lin said though the line.
All three men jumped up and raced to the given area.
When they got there, in less than 5 minutes, they could see the remnants of activity. Monk and John just looked at each other with wide eyes and then turned to the younger man with them.
The wing was a disaster. Props were thrown all over the floor, actors and actresses alike were huddled in a corner, some sobbing and all pale with fright.
"what happened here?" Naru asked, without looking up from the broken mirror the floor.
One actor started to Speak, "we were.. we were just reviewing lines and talking.. and, and then all of the sudden the whole area seemed to start shaking, all the items on the tables and floor seemed to start floating.." The SPR men's eyebrows shot up, "then it stopped shaking. But everything was still in the air. Then Everything dropped."
Naru nodded, walking deeper into the mess, and turning to the wall to see a message etched onto to it, something wet dripping from it.
She is mine.
Then a scream broke through the whole theater. It was Masako.
"MAI!"
Everyone's blood ran cold with that one word.
Author Note:
oh. my. god. finally! after so long, I finally was able to finish this chapter.. SO CHAPTER 4 WITH THE REST OF THE SPR GANG! Honestly one of the hardest chapters to write. It was a bit difficult to get into Naru's character, because I am being like 200% honest here..I am more like Mai than anyone else on the SPR team lol I cannot do stoic and no emotions, I run on them. I could also say that I am very much like Gene too I guess. mah, who knows, not enough character back ground becasue it s so short of a manga/anime.
~Another note... HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY OLIVER AND EUGENE DAVIS! IF THEY WERE REAL THEY WOULD BE MY AGE~
Thank you all for the new reviews, favorites and follows! I still hope that I am still up to your exceptions! I hope I can get some new twists i nthat you wont see coming! Mystery is such a new genre for me! Keep letting me know how I do! MUCH LOVE!
I am using the 24 hour clock system here, seems more fitting for me honestly, so to figure out the time, if i have anything past 1200 (noon) just subtract but 12 and you will get the time. :)
Word Count (Without Author Note): 3.037
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN GHOST HUNT NOR THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, I AM JUST THE PERSON WHO DECIDED TO COMBINE THE TWO FOR AN INTERESTING TWIST OF FATE
XOXO, L0V3SICKF00L