Chapter Three

"Emmi? Is that really you?" a hesitant voice asked.

"Maia?" Emmi opened her eyes and raised a hand to her spinning head. "Maia!" Her vision was blurry, all she could make out was a black space with with blurs moving this way and that.

"Emmi! It is you!" Emmi spun around to see her childhood friend behind her.

"Maia!" She pulled her into a tight hold. She looked so different! Hair that was once blond and reached mid back was not boy cut and brown. But she'd know those kind honey eyes anywhere. She pulled back. "Why are they saying you're dead? You can't be dead!"

"Emmi…" Maia gave a sad smile. "It's a long story…"

"Please, Maia."

"After Mom took me here on the run from Dad, she died in a car accident. It was but a few days later."

"Maia…"

"A teacher took me in for a while, and eventually I moved out on my own. Two years or so ago, I met Naru and Lin-san."

"Naru?"

"Mm," Maia nodded the affirmative. "Gene's twin. I nicknamed him Naru-short for narcissist.

"Anyways, he was here under the title of Kazuya Shibuya. Sounds fake now that I think about it, but at that time it seemed real enough. He ran S.P.R-Shibuya Psychic Research. Long story short: I ended up working for him. What I didn't know was that in reality he was searching for Gene's body. Gene had been killed in a hit in run and dumped in a lake."

"But Gene is alive!?"

"He is now, but I'll get to that later. Naru was unfortunate, or fortunate depending on how you look at it, enough to experience his brother's death through the link they shared as psychics and twins. While I worked for him, and he looked for his brother, Gene visited me in my dreams as my spirit guide and helped me solve cases.

"At the same time I fell helplessly in love with Naru. I made the mistake of confessing to him when he found his brother's body, but I knew he would be leaving back to his home in England soon. Anyways, he told me that I didn't love him-I loved his brother."

Emmi couldn't help but interrupt: "Jerk."

"Well, I didn't name him Naru for nothing. Besides, I knew that when I fell in love with him; I simply didn't care. Needless to say, after I found out what was happening the whole time, it was hard not to see him in a new light, and I felt like I loved him all the more. Seeing him with his brother….. Naru wasn't ready to love me, or be loved by me. He needed something: Gene. I didn't think I could give it to him, but I guess I could…"

"What do you mean?"

"I was looking at Gene's body. i had asked Naru for permission since I would no longer see him in my dreams. I had already made the revelation that he needed Gene, and I started crying about it over Gene's frozen body."

"And?"

"Suddenly Gene wasn't dead; I was."

"You mean-you mean you traded-I can't-What?!" Emmi cried, tripping over her words.

"A life for a life."

"Oh, Maia. How can you be so calm about it?"

"I've been here watching them sense. I think Masako, one of the mediums I worked with, could see me, but she didn't say anything."

"I could see you. That's why I fainted."

"Oh, Emmi. You always were special."

"And you always managed to get in trouble. I only wish I could get you out of it this time."

Maia gave her a sad smile. "You have to go soon. I'm sorry about your family, you didn't deserve it." Before Emmi could ask she continued. "When you're dead you find you know quite a few things. Anyways… Please, tell Naru and Gene that I don't blame them, not for one moment."

"Yeah, sure…."

"Thanks. Goodbye!"
"Wait! Maia!" Emmi shouted, but it was too late as she shot up on a random couch.

"Gaa!" Gene rubbed his now red forehead while Emmi rubbed her own.

"Why were you leaning over me, Gene?"

"Wait, how did you know it was me and not Oliver?" Gene asked, stunned. They were, after all, identical twins.

"I seriously doubt Naru would do something like that!" she explained-if anything, confusing them more.

This time it was Naru who asked, "Who told you to call me that?"

Emmi sighed. "I told you, her name's Maia Michel. We were childhood friends. She talked to me."

"But she's dead.." Gene looked away and rubbed his shoulders subconsciously.

"Call me crazy, but we talked after I fainted. She told me what happened."

"What!" Naru shouted. Lin chose that time to come in with a tray of teas, passing them out to everyone before sitting down with his own.

Emmi idly traced the rim of her steaming cup with her pinky. "Thanks," she whispered. "Maia, or in your case Mia, also told me to tell you that she didn't blame either of you."

"Do you?" Gene asked, looking down in his cup. "You told us she was your friend, and here I took her life for my own."

"You didn't take it, she gave it," Emmi corrected, "and she doesn't regret it, so neither should you. Look…" She gazed off in the distance, her eyes glazing over like she was off in some distant memory. "I don't know how much she told you about her past, her childhood, but it wasn't pretty. Her dad wasn't the nicest, and often if she didn't come over to my house bruised, it was because I dragged her to my house after stepping in the way."

"She went through that?" Lin asked suddenly.

"That's why she came here with her mom. We were like sisters, and it hurt both of us when she left, but it was for the best. I didn't know she had lost her Mom so soon after coming here. I selfishly assumed that she was doing great now that she was free and went on with my life. If I had known… God, I'm just so grateful that she had you guys.

"If I know anything about Maia, it's that she's the definition of optimistic and far from suicidal. She was so selfless… If she traded her life for you it was because of how much she loved you and because she believed it was the right thing. It had nothing to do with something either of you had done." Naru winced at the mention of 'love'.

Emmi! Emmi felt a nudge in the back of her head.

I don't think they're listening, Emmi thought.

Emmi, please. Let me.

Emmi inwardly nodded, and the next words that passed through her mouth were not her own. "Naru, I love you so much. Don't blame yourself. And, Gene, whether it was by your brother's name or your own that you lead me in my dreams, you were a best friend. A brother I never had. I couldn't have asked for a better spirit guide. Don't wish you were in my place now that our roles are reversed-I don't. Oh, and take care of Emmi, please. She may not talk like it, but she herself has been through Hell and back. I love you both. Goodbye."

"Mia!" both Gene and Naru shouted.

"Too young to die…." Emmi whispered as she felt Maia leave them. A single tear rolled down her cheek at the loss of her old friend.