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Chapter 5: The Grave Scandal

By the time everyone was outside, the house was silent and bathed in darkness. It was as if the spirits had given up as soon as the children were out of their reach. Lara and the boy stood, bent over, their hands on their knees, panting as if they had ran a Marathon. Mai could physically see their adrenaline dropping as they were safely out of the clutches of the supernatural, for now at least. Maddie, however, still squirmed in Naru's arms trying to escape back towards the house that she had been forcibly taken from. The young girl had tears streaming from here eyes.

The brunette walked over the her boyfriend and the girl, reaching out to touch her dark red hair and then moved to stroke the tears from her eyes. "Maddie," she said is a soothing voice. "Maddie, you need to calm down. I know that they are your friends, right?" She spoke never taking her eyes from the young girl in front of her. He hazel brown eyes filled with sadness and confusion. If Mai had guessed correctly the ghost had been trying to use the girl for something.

When the little girl nodded at the question, Mai's suspicions seemed to be proven. "And they have been talking to you since you have lived here?"

This time the girl shook her head, an almost hesitant 'no'. This confused the Japanese girl at first because this type of phenomena usually occurred immediately after a family moved into a home, simply because the spirits were tied their by something. "Do you remember when they started?"

Maddie stared up into Mai brown eyes for what seemed like hours, biting on her lip. Then, as if she had gathered enough courage, she spoke. "A- a few weeks ago."

"And a few weeks ago, did you find something strange or cool?" The girl fell silent, but it did not matter as the unnamed boy called out about a bone in the garden. Briefly, the small group of paranormal investigators wondered what type of bone it was, however the most likely type would been human. This could be split into three categories, the spirits own remains, a loved ones remains or the remains of their killers. Although, a small percentage of could be attached to non-human remains such as a pets.

Mai and the others glanced around them, searching through the flowers bed, hoping to see if there were any signs of supernatural entities. Their eyes quickly fell on a brown patch of land beneath the window of the house. The flowers there were shriveled and wilted. The soil dry as sand beneath the sun during a drought. It was unusually to see spiritual activity so concentrated in such a limited area, therefore the group summarized that the object the these poltergeists were attached to was berried there.

The thought of human bones lying beneath the house before them sent chills up Mai spine. She had read something about this kind of thing happening before in her family's journals, but she did not want to jump to conclusions.

"Thank you, for helping us," Lara the eldest of the three said relief and gratitude evident in her voice. The girl, that appeared only a few years younger than Mai and Naru, must have been terrified.

"Oh," Mai said, holding she hands up, shaking them as if in denial. "There is no need to thank us-"

"Lara, Maddie! Jason!" Two voices shouted, suddenly interrupting the brunette.

"Mum! Dad!"

Mai and the group turned around to see two adults in their thirties grouping out of a silver SUV. They were dressed in smart clothes as if they had only just came back from some sort of meeting. However, it was too late at night for that kind of thing, so Mai assumed that they had been attending a formal ball. The woman, who had hair as red and Maddie's, wore a tight cotton black dress that reach just above her ankles. Just short enough to show off her four inch black heels. The man had dark brown hair and wore a black suit with a white shirt, complementing his wife appearance perfectly.

"What are you doing out of the house!," the mother spoke as she held her youngest daughters face in between her hands.

"We were attacked," the boy stated. "Lara was locked in the basement and the tree was smashing into my window. It nearly grabbed me when it broke through."

The middle aged man shook his head and said, "Jason, what have we told you about tell lies!?"

"But, I'm n-" The boy started, however Martin soon stepped in and introduced himself to the mother and father of the three siblings.

"So, I am Martin Davis and this is my wife, Luella." He said in a very business like tone and Mai instantly knew that the paranormal couple were about to volunteer themselves to help exorcise all the ghosts within the property.

"Oh," the husband spoke slightly surprised at the mans forwardness. "It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Shane and this in my wife, Jessica."

"Well Shane, Jessica," Martin started. "I am sorry to inform you of this but your son is telling the truth. Your house is haunted-"

Shane snorted in disbelief and he crossed his arms over his chest in a defensive gesture. Mai could tell this was the type of guy who did not believe much of anything. He was probably the closed minded type who thought ghost did not exist, God was a scam and there was no such thing as the afterlife. Maybe she was being too judgmental but that is what Mai saw in Shane at that very moment.

"What are you some sort of late night con-artists!" he demanded his voice echoing in the silence of the night.

"Excuse men sir, I am Masako H-" the medium began as she tried to sooth the matter.

"No, I don't want a group of con-artists and thieves anywhere near my family."

Now this was a situation the young brunette had no been in before. As Mai stood slightly in front of Naru, she could see Shane face getting redder and redder as the paranormal investigators has yet to step off their property. The children were protesting, insistently telling their parents that it was true and that their were ghosts in the house. However, the parents ignored them.

So in order to elevate the problem at hand, the Japanese woman stepped forward and said in perfect English, "It appears that we have overstayed our welcome. I apologize if Mr Davis' forwardness has unsettled you, however I would like to give you this." It was Mai business card, that also held Naru's phone number written on the back, "If you or your children ever need help, then please call me."

Leaving the family of five to think about what she had just said, Mai lead Naru, Masako and the rest of her boyfriends family off the property and towards the direction that she remembered the car was in. Soon enough she can across the vehicle, with its lights still turned on. The brunette felt somewhat comforted by the fact that the other had readily chased after her, despite their evident dislike for her when compared to Masako.

"Care to explain your actions," Martin said, as he pulled the car out and back onto the road, making my feel like a child about to be disciplined by her father. Dispite that fact that his eyes continued to gaze forwards looking for potential hazards, Mai could swear she felt his eyes trying to penetrate her very soul, try to assertain what she had thought of acheiving with letting the family go back into a potentially harmful situation.

"We cannot force the family to except their situation if they do not believe it the very thing that you were saying you can protect them from," Mai told the man from the backseat of the car. "They are the type of people that believe in only what they see, so we have to wait for them to come to us."

Nothing else was said on the matter and the car continued to drive down the dark empty roads at night. All of the passengers silently thinking that, in this case, Mai was right. They would not have been able to persuade Shane to think logically until her saw proof of the paranormal activity himself.