Chapter 7- The Significance of Dreams
"I understand why you don't wish for me to be there, Dr. Davis. I try to control myself around humans but I have trouble when someone smells like my first wife, like Ms. Taniyama does." Jonathon Lunar's voice was on the speaker phone that Kim had bought on their outing they had hooked it up in the library so that everyone could hear Jonathon's version of what happened.
"It's alright, sir." Mai chirped from where she stood behind Naru. For some reason he wouldn't let her near the phone. She was suspicious that he thought if he let her near the phone that Jonathon would jump through it and attack her. Mai was convinced that something had changed the man's attitude and yet he still acted like her favorite narcissist.
"Mr. Lunar, we need to hear your side of the story. Madeline has already made sure we know her side…but as we trust neither of you…we need both stories for our files." Naru told the man on the phone as he flipped through the file and Mai watched him even though the only thing that gave away that he knew she was watching was the slight stiffening of his shoulders.
"Well I don't trust myself, Dr. Davis. I'm a werewolf…a beast that can't control its instincts. I did not chose for this to be my life…I want you to know that before we start this interview." Jonathon said and Mai felt her coldness towards the man melt slightly. He was a human, a werewolf yes, but a human nonetheless.
"I understand, Mr. Lunar. Please start with what happened that caused you to become a werewolf and go on through the present." Naru instructed and Mai heard the older man sigh through the phone.
"The Lunars are a very prestigious family, Dr. Davis. My father was not one that would have upheld that title. He, in all honesty, was a crook. A common thief that was taking away from the poor so that he could still live in comfort during the war. He was an utter idiot.
"I'll admit that I poisoned him but it was not because I was jealous of Madeline and what she would inherit. I loved my little sister, even though I had seen her so deeply interested in the dark arts. I was more worried about her than anything else and I knew my father had sinister things planned for her. But little did I know that she was already to deeply involved in the Lunar heritage.
"After I had killed our father I started to feel strange…every night I would forget where I had been. One day Madeline confronted me about father's death, her son watching from behind one of the columns, I told her the truth. She said that she already knew and that she had dealt me my punishment. I asked her what she meant and she said that I was the monster that everyone was beginning to report seeing. I should have killed her…but I didn't.
"She pulled a gun on me and said that I was going to die. I fought her for the gun and it went off, the bullet hitting her son. She screamed and turned the gun back on me and I grabbed it from and shot her. I hid the bodies under the floor boards of the attic and waited for her oldest son to come home from 'courting' his fiancé.
"I told him that the army had taken his mother and brother on treason and he had been scared. I told him to tell the orphans to run and then I told him to hide in France and to return only after he had had two children. Thank whatever god there is that he listened to my advice without question. He never got along with his mother well.
"I lived on aliases for years until I heard that my great-great-grand niece had been orphaned. I did research and found that her real Uncle Jake had died at ten in a car crash. I became him, met Rena and married her. I adopted little Kim and I took up the role of the leader of Lunar family. Things would have gone well…except Madeline wasn't as dead as I had hoped! That damned witch has made life for me a living hell and now she's involved my wife and niece in this game." Jonathon's voice started to turn into a growl and Mai knew that he was letting his anger control him.
"Calm down, Mr. Lunar. If you're telling the truth then the evidence we find will support it. But if you're lying to us…" Mai trailed off and she heard the man laugh.
"Ms. Taniyama…I have nothing to gain by lying. I'm over a hundred years old. I'm a monster…it doesn't matter if you think I'm a liar or not…I certainly can't make you trust me and I have no desire to force you to trust me. But if you do decide to trust me…well then I can tell you the secrets that I know Madeline won't tell you." Jonathon said and Mai felt that she could believe him.
"Thank you for your time, Mr. Lunar. We appreciate you taking the time to talk to us." Naru said before they hung up. He closed his folder with a snap before looking up at the others that were standing around him.
"It seems as though that this is more than the brother and sister that don't get along." Madoka stated dryly and Mai looked at her with raised eyebrows before everything went fuzzy and she shook her head to try and clear her vision. She felt her breath shorten before she began to fall and she expected to hit the floor but something warm caught her and she curled in towards it as her whole body was beginning to grow cold.
"MAI!" was the last thing she heard and if she hadn't known better she would have thought that it was Naru that had called her name.
Mai looked around as she found herself standing in the Main Hallway once again. But it looked different. It looked, and felt, sinister and angry almost like the walls wanted her gone. She looked around wanting some sort of comfort and yet finding none. She was getting scared that something was going to happen and she felt very ill-prepared.
"Mai?!" Mai was whirled around by firm hands and she gasped as Naru, her dream Naru, was glaring down at her for some reason that she couldn't comprehend as he never glared at her in her dreams.
"What are you doing here? It's to dangerous! I don't know what's happening but whatever is behind this…mischief is trying to get rid of you and if you are here you're only making it easier!" he snapped at her and Mai could feel the tears in her eyes. Why was he yelling at her of all people? She hadn't done anything. She felt Naru's hands loosen slightly when he saw her tears.
"Mai-chan…don't cry. I know I'm being harsh but I don't want to see you die. Do you understand that?" he whispered and Mai looked up and she nodded before managing to give him a watery smile.
"I understand. I'd love to wake-up but I've been trying to ever since I got here and it isn't working. I'm afraid…I'm afraid this might be permanent." she whispered before gasping as Naru gently grasped her chin between his fingers.
"Then we'll have to try a new method." he whispered before he caught her lips with his and Mai felt her eyes widen before they slipped closed and the last thing that she felt were the soft lips that belonged to Naru.
"Mai! Mai, wake up! Mai!" Naru and the others had been attempting to wake the girl up for the past twenty minutes. And she wasn't responding to anyone, no matter how hard they shook her she was like a rag doll trapped in their hands. Naru could feel his heart slowly stop beating. What was wrong with her? He had felt her grow cold in his arms as he held her. He didn't want to lose her and he had no time to think over the reason he wanted her to live. He could question himself later; his utmost priority was to make sure Mai did live.
"Her pulse is strong, it's like she's sleeping. But she's as cold as ice." Madoka said as she once again felt the teenager's forehead. Naru frowned in anger. If Madeline was the one that was causing Mai to behave so strangely he was going to find out the most painful way to exorcise a ghost from it's house and use it on her.
"N…Naru…." everyone's eyes widened as Mai murmured his name. Naru found himself kneeling on the floor by the couch watching Mai's face with bated breath. When she made no movement he reached out and in a moment of un-Naru like behavior he gently stroked her forehead.
"I'm here, Mai. Wake up…wake up for me." he finished in Japanese. Mai's eyelids fluttered and Naru felt his heart stop as they slowly lifted and her hazy eyes looked at him before she gave a small smile.
"Ne, Naru? It seems I'm the one that'll be in the hospital by the end." she replied and Naru shook his head, he was just glad to see her awake.
"Let's prevent that at all costs. Did you have one of your dreams?" he asked and she nodded before frowning and he watched as she put her hand to her head and rubbing it almost like she had a headache. And Naru couldn't blame if she did. He wasn't even the one that kept fainting and he was getting a headache.
"No. It was sinister…but I didn't get to see much before everything just went black." she whispered and Naru nodded before standing up and turning to look at Madoka who gave him a kind smile.
"Go on, I'll watch over Mai." she said and Naru nodded before he and Lin left. Madoka sat down in one of the chairs and gently reached over and placed her hand on Mai's forehead and she watched as the girl looked up at the ceiling and Madoka could tell that she was thinking about something.
"Madoka…do you ever dream?" Mai asked softly and Madoka was slightly surprised at the soft interruption of the silence. She had almost believed that Mai had gone back to sleep. She could still remember how Naru had been frantic as he hovered over Mai, trying to get her to wake up. Madoka had noticed how Naru's face was paler than normal and that his breathing was hitched. She hadn't mentioned how he seemed to be worried. She figured that he was beginning to realize the truth himself.
"Yes, I do. Everyone dreams, Mai." Madoka said and Mai gave a small smile before she sat up slowly and turned to look at the woman.
"Then why me? Why do I have those dreams?" Mai whispered and Madoka couldn't help but chuckle at the question because it was the exact thing that she had expected Mai to ask.
"Because…as much as Noll won't admit it…he needs your help." Madoka told the girl and Mai frowned before she looked down at the floor and she didn't notice how she reached up and began to twist her hair. She didn't think Madoka was telling the truth. There was no way that Naru needed her help! Naru didn't need help.
"That isn't true. Naru doesn't need anybody's help except maybe Lin's. He doesn't want my help. The only reason he hired me was because he needed someone to do his filing." Mai said and Madoka felt like screaming. The two teenagers were the most stubborn people she had met in her twenty-eight years!
"I know for a fact that isn't the reason! Do you know how many times Lin called me to try and talk some sense into that boy. Apparently Noll…was being difficult. Neither of us could figure out what was wrong until about four days after Lin's last call and he told me that Noll had hired the high school girl that had helped them at an old case." Madoka said and Mai looked up with her hair still twisted around her finger.
"What do you mean? Noll just hired me to file." Mai insisted and Madoka shook her head.
"You can keep telling yourself that if you want but we both know that isn't the truth. So why are you trying to convince yourself otherwise?" Madoka demanded and Mai looked up slightly shocked before she felt her face flame as she looked down at the floor.
"Because…everything else I've thought about…the shows of kindness…it just seems like it would be nothing more than a fantasy to expect anything else from him." Mai whispered and Madoka saw that Mai was afraid of being hurt. She could understand. Naru didn't exactly give off the 'I'm-ready-for-romance' vibe. Naru was more of a hermit crab that had to be forced out of his shell just to talk to someone.
"I guess I still have my dreams though. Even if that's the only place that he smiles at me." Mai whispered and Madoka looked at her startled. Everything suddenly made perfect sense.
"You dream about Noll?" Madoka's question caused Mai's head to jerk upwards and her whole face was red. Madoka was almost certain that she could compare it to a tomato and Mai's face would be the redder of the two. Madoka hid her smile behind her hand as she truly tried to not smile in victory.
"Uh….well…sort of." she whispered and she gulped at the look that Madoka was giving her and she knew that the older woman wanted more of an explanation. "When…when I first met Naru I thought he was so stuck up. Then I…I got knocked unconscious and I dreamed Naru was there taking care of me and he gave me…he gave the most terrific smile that I had ever seen.
"The next day that I saw Naru I could barely look at him without my face flaming. I…had fallen hard for Naru and he didn't care. I mean…why would he care about a high school student that had caused his assistant to break his leg?" Mai whispered and she leaned into Madoka as the woman relocated next to her and wrapped her arm around the girl.
"Noll changed drastically after Gene's death. Believe it or not…when they were children they were always playing and laughing…when they weren't studying that is. I think they liked studying more than they did playing outside. They were very intelligent. But Noll changed completely when he informed us that Gene had been killed and afterwards he demanded to go to Japan to find his brother's body. His parents agreed as long as Lin accompanied him." Madoka said and Mai sighed.
"Even if Naru did call me because he wanted to be near me…it won't be anything more than a friendship between us. I'm not his type." Mai whispered and Madoka could feel her hands twitch as she resisted the urge to strangle the young girl. Here she, Madoka, was trying to drop all these hints that Naru loved Mai and the younger girl wouldn't take the stupid bait!
"Mai, how do you dream him as?" Madoka demanded and Mai looked startled before a light blush dusted her cheeks and she gave a soft smile to no one in particular.
"He's kind and sweet. He always has a smile for me and he's always got answers. He…sometimes he hold my hand…and even though we're working…it feels as though he cares for me more than just an assistant." Mai said and Madoka gave a smile before suddenly Mai looked up at her interestedly.
"What do you dream about?" Masked and Madoka blinked before shaking her head.
"Not things that you dream about. My dreams are just dreams, Mai. Your dreams help us solve cases and find out what's wrong. That's part of the power that you possess and the power that you possess is very raw and just waiting to be found. Mai, you are a very strong girl and Noll sees that." Madoka tried once more.
"If he believed I was so great…then why doesn't he treat me like I'm a human being?" Mai whispered and Madoka felt her heart drop at the hurt look that was on her face. Mai had obviously thought about her relationship with Naru a lot. And had come up with conclusions that Madoka could see had hurt her badly.
"Mai, who else does he treat like that? As far as I can tell…he doesn't tease anyone else except you." Madoka said and Mai smiled before she stood up and left the kitchen and looked around. She began to ascend the steps before stopping as she heard the secret door scraping open. She ran towards it and stopped as Lin dragged something, or more specifically someone, out.
"NARU!!!" Mai screamed when as she watched Lin put the unconscious man on the floor. He looked at Mai and told her he was going to go call an ambulance before leaving her alone with Naru. The teenage girl ran to him.
"Naru! Wake-up! NARU!!" Mai screamed before she put her head on her chest and let everything she had been holding back out.
