(A/N): To make up for the long wait, I've made another chapter as quickly as I could. Thanks for reading!

At first, he smiled.

"I wanted to see you." He spoke softly. "Now I finally can."

All I could do was stare, reeling with shock. Kazuki was here. Kazuki had been at the burning building. Kazuki was dead. Yet I felt no sadness…just a hollow feeling inside of me, some vacant hole where my grief should have been. A strange emptiness. I should have been sad, but I did not know why.

For a second, panic was etched into Kazui's face. "You…do remember me?"

"Kazuki Brooks." When I said his name, the panic washed away quicker than a stain by water.

"You were a patient." I went on. "And we met on the streets. In the snow."

He smiled, but his eyes hid a sadness. "Sometimes I wonder, if I had missed you, out there on the streets, among that huge crowd of people…things might have turned out differently."

"What do you mean?"

As he opened his mouth to speak, I heard the sound of footsteps. Yasuhara appeared at the door way.

"Hey, Brown-san, you ok?" He peered in, looking around. His gaze moved past Kazuki, and I realised that, once more, only I could see him.

"Yea, I'm fine. There's nothing really in this room, but I think those teenagers might have been in here at some point."

"Oh, ok. I'm just going to check in some of the other rooms. Bou-san and Mai-kun are out around the back."

The second he left, I turned to Kazuki.

"I don't understand, why can't he see you?"

"He's not scared." His answer failed to enlighten me.

"What?"

"He's not scared." Kazuki repeated himself. "But you are. Deep down. It's a survival instinct you can't get rid of. A terror buried inside of that you're not even aware of. Fear. The others are cautious, yes, but their fear is not the same as yours."

"Why fear? Why do you have to be afraid to see…" I stopped myself from saying 'the spirits. "…you all?"

"Because we are too."

They were afraid too? "Why are you afraid?"

"Hey!" Someone was calling, halting our conversation. It sounded like Yasuhara. "Brown-san, come here for a second!"

Slowly and begrudgingly, I began to leave the room. At the door, I paused and turned around to Kazuki. He was following me.

As we walked down the hallway, I spoke quietly.

"…How did you die?"

"I thought you knew that. Can't you remember?"

"No, I meant…why were you at that burning building?"

Kazuki frowned. "I'd rather not talk about that."

I bit my lip. "Why was I there, then?"

"I'd rather not talk about that either."

We entered the room where Yasuhara's voice had originated from. The first thing to catch my eye was a pile of lumber, half covered by a collection of dusty sheets in the middle of the room. Next to it, Yasuhara was crouched on the floor.

"What is it?" There was no point in telling Yasuhara about the spirit, not if he couldn't see him. If I told him about Kazuki, it would not change that fact. We were not trying to exorcise him, and Kazuki posed no threat to anyone. What's more, this felt…personal.

"I think there's a trap door or something underneath here."

"What?!" I knelt down beside him. "How can you tell?"
"Look. I noticed that these sheets," he gestured to them, "didn't have any dust on them, or rather the layer was a lot thinner than anything else on the pile. So I moved it, and you can see the lumber underneath has been moved around." He was right – while most of it was in neat stacks, a few were disarrayed. On the floor, a series of scratches were clear against the wood, presumably where the lumber had been dragged across the floor.

"And if you look closely…" He pointed to the floor underneath the lumber. Where his finger was, I could make out a strange indentation. It ran in the wrong direction to the grain of the wooden floor boards.

"…the wood looks like it's separate." He finished. "I mean, it could just be a crack or something, but I doubt it."

"Well, we'll have to move all this lumber before we can be sure." Standing up, I told him, "I'll go and get Takigawa-kun, it'll be easier with his help."

Hurrying down the stairs, I stopped short and looked around me wildly. Where had Kazuki gone?

"Kazuki?" I whispered his name.

"Yeah?" Jumping, I whirled around to his voice. Kazuki stood with his hands in his pockets, looking amused.

"Where did you go?"

"Nowhere, really. I'm dead. It's not like I can go anywhere."

"Wait, are you bound to this specific location?"

"We all are. Otherwise, we wouldn't stay in this hell-hole. It has bad memories for us, I think."

"How so?"

"You sure are inquisitive, huh?" He avoided my question, so I repeated myself.

"Why does this place have bad memories for you all?"

"You've got to be careful, John. Remember the phrase 'curiosity killed the cat'? It's the same as last time, you're the cat."

Same as last time? What did he mean? Stifling my impatience, I asked one last time,

"Why does this place have bad memories for you?"

Finally, he succumbed to my persistence.

"Honestly, I don't know. Whatever happened here, it doesn't matter. The fact is, we all had a lot of pent up feelings when we died. Bad feelings. Fear. Anger. Despair. Pain. Regret." Somehow, the last word had the most emphasis. "And those feelings stay with us. They fester inside us the longer we stay here. They grow, until we don't know why we're here, we don't know who we are. We don't even know why we're angry. There are so many of us, the negative feelings just….merge together. All we know is what is happening around us, and all we can think of are these negative feelings. Soon, even present events just…disappear from our understanding. We remain here, a swirling mass of emotions with no memories, just pain and fear."

I swallowed. "Not-not everyone here is like that though, right? I mean, you're here. You remember things."

"Right." He nodded. "Only those who were here the longest are like that. There are still those who remember things, some who even understand why we are so angry and scared. But those who are already lost…they're like a magnet. They draw you in and enhance your fear, until it grows and begins to eat away at your mind and your memories. All you can do is cling onto the good memories you have, it slows the process. That's why I wanted to see you."

I faltered. "What?"

"Your friend is waiting." He swiftly evaded any questions. "You'd better go fetch the monk."

Frowning, I nodded. "Ok. But I'm not finished with my questions."

"Fine." I began walking, and Kazuki followed me again.

"Who are you to me? Exactly? I remember some things, but not everything. I have amnesia."

He nodded in understanding. "Ok. Well, I guess you could say we were friends. Pretty close friends."

I frowned. "Wait…do you mean…?"

He smiled. "Not that close, no. But we became close in a short amount of time."

"How?"

"Well, it wasn't much at first. You know, just acquaintances. But, I don't know…I guess similar cultures played a part. It's exhausting, living in a country so different to your own. So when you meet someone with a similar culture, suddenly you seem to…connect more. It feels safer."

We reached the outside of the house, where the sky was dark and heavy. A few drops of rain spat at my face, while the wind drifted slowly across the field, tugging at the grass. Closer than I expected, Mai and Takigawa stood looking up at the house.

"Hey!" I called to them. "Yasuhara-san thinks he's found something!"

"What is it?" The two of them walked over. Neither of them noticed Kazuki.

"He thinks it's a trap door, but there's a load of lumber in the way."

"You talked about him." Kazuki's sudden dialogue disorientated me for a moment. "The monk. You talked about everyone at Shibuya Psychic Research."

I did not dare say anything. Instead, Takigawa began to speak, oblivious.

"We were hoping to see a spirit out here, like those hikers, but so far we've seen nothing." He walked back into the house, and Mai began to follow him. At the door, though, she stopped abruptly.

"You ok?" I asked as she looked around her, puzzled.

"Uh, yeah…um…I just thought I heard…no, never mind." She swiftly continued walking again.

In the room, Yasuhara was still crouched by the pile of lumber.

"Hey. I'm certain there's a trap door under here now, I don't know what else it could be."

"Well, let's move all this." At once, Takigawa began to move the lumber.

"Yeah, you do that." Yasuhara stepped back quickly.

"Hey, I can't do it by myself! This stuff's heavy."

"Well…" He looked at me slyly. "Brown-san, I'm sure you don't mind helping, do you?"

"No, I'll help." Immediately, I set to work.

"You really are a push over. The definition of one." Kazuki watched me, sitting on the floor next to the lumber pile.

I ignored him, so he went on. "You shouldn't let people take advantage of you so easily. If you don't want to do something, then say so."

The lumber was heavy, and there was a lot more covering the possible trap door then we had originally estimated. However, we were moving it at a steady rate.

"So…this is fun. Does the monk here know you've been talking to me?" When I did not answer his question, he continued. "Oh, come on. Talk to me. Being dead isn't as exciting as it sounds. It's a bit of a downer, really. I mean, you can't eat or drink or anything, for starters. I kind of miss coffee."

I almost laugh in disbelief, but I stopped myself quickly. No one noticed.

"I remember, the second time we met, we had coffee. And you forgot your gloves and scarf because apparently Australians don't understand the meaning of 'cold' and 'wrap up warm'."

I gave him a look, and mouthed the word, "Stereotypes."

He smiled. "Oh yeah. I guess one of the key parts of making friends is not to make fun of their country."

He looked down at the floor briefly. When he raised his head again, his expression had saddened.

"I shouldn't know. I had no friends. Before I met you, I literally had no friends. You were my only one."

His confession made me stop temporarily. I stared at him, concerned. It struck me how lonely it must be. If what he said was true, then he was completely alone. Did he have any family? I could not remember anyone visiting him when he was at the hospital. No family members rang. What if he had no family? No one would grieve his death. There was no record of his existence any longer, not even at the hospital. And the one person who was supposed to be his friend did not feel particularly sad. For the one person who was supposed to be his friend could barely remember him.

"John-kun, you ok?" Takigawa must have noticed my pause.

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Just…lost in thought."

At last, we had moved most of the lumber away. Just like Yasuhara had predicted, a perfect square was on the floor, with hinges on one side and a handle on the other. There was not a speck of dust in place, only a series of long scratches across the surface. The metal hinges were flaking with rust, and the handle was worn and on the verge of breaking. What was down there? Something important?

Then again…it had not been too hard to find. If there was something very important down there, something that the colleague wanted to hide, then surely it would be better hidden? Not covered by a pile of lumber? The colleague was careful, and making the trap door so easy to find made me suspicious. If you were specifically looking for something, like Yasuhara had been, then the trap door was quite noticeable. Would there be something important down there? Or was it just a trick, to throw us off? Or worse?

Takigawa knelt down by the trap door, and tried to lift it. At first, it did not budge. But suddenly, it opened jerkily, the hinges screeching and the wood straining. Opening it wide, he peered in. It was completely black down there, but I could see a ladder leading down into the darkness.

"So…" Yasuhara crouched down next to Takigawa. "Who want to go first?"

"Don't go down there." Kazuki spoke up suddenly. His voice was clearly anxious.

"What?" Despite myself, I spoke up.

"I said, who wants to go first?" Yasuhara repeated himself, assuming I had misheard him.

"Are you sure we should go down there?" Mai stared into the darkness warily. "We don't even have flash lights."

"Yeah…I don't think we should." I agreed with her quickly. "It could be dangerous."

"Don't worry, I brought some flash lights." Yasuhara took one from his bag and threw it to Takigawa.

"Don't let them go down there." Kazuki repeated himself firmly.

"Really, I don't think we should go down there." I told them. "I mean, that trap door wasn't too hard to find, was it? What if it's a trick?"

"Look, I'm sure it will be fine, John-kun." Takigawa tried to reassure me, but I shook my head.

"Please listen to me. I don't think it's a good idea." At my insistence, Takigawa frowned at me.

"Why? Why don't you think it's a good idea?"

"Look, it's just a feeling I have. It was too easy finding this trap door. Colleague-san wouldn't be so careless."

Takigawa pursed his lips. "You have a point there…Hey, how about we do this?" He turned on the flash light and shone the beam of light down the trap door.

"Well? Do you see anything?" Mai shuffled near the trap door.

"Ummm…wait. Wait a second." Takigawa narrowed his eyes. "There's something down there."

"What is it?" I neared the trap door as close as I dared. Almost out of sight, some kind of bag had been discarded at the bottom.

"Look, we need to go down there. See what it is." Takigawa told me his decision, almost apologetically.

"But –"

"Look, I want you to stay up here. If something happens, if anyone comes here, we'll be completely exposed down there. So I want you to be up here, just in case anything does happen. And Mai-kun, you stay up here too."

"I'll come down with you." Yasuhara volunteered.

"You really shouldn't be doing this, it's not a good idea." I pleaded once more, but it was too late. They had made up their mind.

"It'll be fine. We'll just take a quick look around, we won't be long." Takigawa was already climbing down the ladder, flash light in his hand.

I watched them, and the dread inside me was rapidly increasing. Looking over at Kazuki, he appeared fearful as well. This was a bad idea, a very bad idea.

"This is bad." Kazuki echoed my apprehension. "Go to the front door. Stay out of sight, but you have to look out for anyone coming."

"What?" I breathed. Mai was too nervous, watching Takigawa and Yasuhara descend into the darkness, to notice me speaking.

"When they go down there, an alarm will be triggered. Your presence will be noticed. Someone will be sent to see who would be here. If they see you…it will be bad."

"Why didn't you tell me before? I could have tried harder to stop them!" I whispered. Mai, this time hearing me, turned and asked in confusion,

"What did you say? Did you say something in English?"

"Um, look, it doesn't matter. I'm just going to wait by the front door, in case anyone comes. Is that ok?"

Mai nodded uncertainly. "Uh…ok."

Sitting on the base of the stairs, I watched the outside road through a window next to the door frame. So far, no one had appeared. Kazuki stood behind me.

"Why didn't you tell me before?" I could speak more openly now. "I should have –"

"Their minds were already set. It was too late, anyway. Now that I remember it, opening the trap door itself probably set off the alarm too. It would be quicker to just let them get on with their search, so you can leave quicker."

I let out a shaky breath. "…How do you know all this?"

"I saw them install it."

"Who?"

"Some bad people. Like I said, when these people see you, hell will break loose. If they do come, remember that hiding yourself is the top priority. If the others are seen, they'll probably just get yelled at for being here, maybe threatened with a call to 110. But they'll react a lot worse if they see you."

"Ok…" I tried to calm myself. Kazuki sat down next to me.

"Look." He smiled gently. "It's going to be fine. You'll have time to leave before anyone comes."

"…Why…you said I was your only friend." I needed to know something. "Why did you save me? Was that the real reason? Why did you save me at the building and not yourself, when you knew the smoke could kill you?"

He sighed, and looked down at the floor again. "…Like I said, you were my only friend. Not because I was a horrible person, or socially awkward or whatever. I pushed everyone away. You see, I had a secret. A big, terrible secret. A heavy burden that I could barely live with. So anyone who tried to be close to me was pushed away. Whether it was a mere acquaintance or a good friend, I pushed them away. No one in my family is alive. So I was God damn lonely. And then you came along. Something about you was different to everyone else. Maybe it was the way you were so…nice. I hadn't experienced that in a while." He laughed. "Or maybe it was the way I felt like you wouldn't judge me…that I could open up to you. Just like how you opened up to me. We shared a lot of personal things, you and I."

He looked at me, and his pastel eyes were earnest. "But most of all…I think it was…you were just as lonely as me."

His words struck me. Something inside me suddenly felt…different. Everything was so tragic. He had shared things with me, shared secrets, and I had with him. But I could remember nothing. And now…I felt sad. That was it. A grief had been born inside of me. And it felt too late to express that sadness. Kazuki was long dead, and I had not shed a tear at his death.

"But listen to me, ok?" His tone became serious. "You need to leave."

"What?"

"Leave Japan. Go back to Australia. Hell, go somewhere he won't expect you to be."

"Who? The colleague?"

Kazuki laughed bitterly. "Is that what he calls himself?"

"Kazuki, I can't just leave. He'll come after me. You know that."

He sighed. "But you can't stay. Look, you've got to stop asking questions. Stop digging into this mess. The only reason you're not dead, you haven't ended up like me, is because he's taking pleasure from your fear and uncertainty. As soon as he feels you're getting too close, he'll drop the sadism and he'll kill you. Or something worse."

"I have no choice. He's going to kill me either way. He told me so. The only way I can stop all this is by finding out what happened."

Kazuki fell silent as he considered this. "…Ok. Fine. But you have to be careful. Be careful who you trust. I'm guessing it's the monk you're confiding in?"

I nodded, so he continued. "Well, I know he seems like a nice guy and all, but you'll be surprised how quickly 'the colleague' can change people. You shouldn't trust whole heartedly in him, unless you're positive you can trust him."

"Don't worry. I can." I reassured him. It was the single thing I was confident about.

Then I heard it. The sound of a car engine.

Outside the window, a car pulled up on the road. A white van. Already, I felt panic rise up in me.

"Shit." Kazuki's eyes widened. "You have to go. Go hide. Now."

I stood up, but then I noticed it. Kazuki was beginning to fade away, flickering like a dying light.

"Kazuki? What's happening? Why are you…disappearing?"

"My time's up. I can't stay when they're around." With each flicker, he remained invisible for longer.

"What do you mean? Why can't you stay?"

"When they're around, it messes with me. Look, I can't explain it. There's no time."

"Kazuki…" I didn't want him to leave. There were still so many questions I needed to ask, for one thing. And…what if it was the last time I saw him? It didn't feel right that this should be the last time.

"There's no time for goodbye. Go. Go tell the others, and then go hide."

And then he was gone. I stood, dazed for a moment. Then the sound of voices spurred me back into movement.

Running up the stairs, I ran back into the room where the others were. Now, Takigawa and Yasuhara were climbing out of the trap door.

"We have to hide. Now." My heart was pounding hard.

"Why? What is it?" Takigawa was carrying a black duffle bag.

"Someone's here. They've just parked outside. We need to hide now."

"Are you –" Before he could ask again, I interrupted him.

"Look, we have to hide now. This is bad. Please. We need to hide."

Takigawa hesitated, then nodded. "Ok. We'll hide. But where?"

"Um…" My mind raced. "…Outside. Out around the back. If worse comes to worse, we can run away more easily at that point."

"Ok. Come on, let's be quiet."

Quickly, we headed down the stairs, Takigawa in the lead. Not even half way down came the sound I had been dreading – someone at the front door.

"Wait wait wait." I grabbed Takigawa's sleeve. "Stop. There's no time. We've got to hide up here."

Immediately, we dashed up the stairs again. Takigawa ushered Mai and Yasuhara into what must have been an old bedroom. A frail bed draped with sheets was in the corner. Glancing downstairs, I could see that the door was opening.

"Hide in here, under that bed." Takigawa whispered to the two of them. Then he grabbed me, and we ran down the landing. At the far end, I could see a laundry closet.

"In, we'll hide in here." Takigawa pushed me inside first, and then slipped in too, closing the door quietly but firmly behind him. The closet, only two metres in width, was filled with folded sheets, coated in cobwebs, and a variety of planks and old tools. Downstairs, I could hear voices.

"Hello?...Is anybody here?" A sweet, honeyed voice called up from the front door. It made the hairs on the back of my neck raise up.

Takigawa grabbed a rotting plank and jarred it beneath the door handle.

"There's a car parked out front," The voice went on. It was a man's voice. "I'm pretty sure someone's here." He called in a singsong voice. I retreated into the furthest corner of the closet, tugging at Takigawa's sleeve. He backed away as well.

Footsteps came up the stairs. "All I want to do is talk. Have a little chit chat." The footsteps stopped outside the closet door.

"A nice, civil conversation." His voice was very near now. And panic coursed through me as I realised that I knew this voice. It belonged to the man with the gun at the burning building.

There was a pause, and then the handle slowly began to turn.

"Hm. Curious." The handle turned some more. "This door shouldn't lock. Maybe it's jammed."

There was a pause. Then the closet door banged loudly. The plank almost became dislodged. Despite the need for silence, I inhaled sharply, so Takigawa clamped his hand across my mouth.

"…Hm. Maybe it will take more than a kick to unjam." Oh God, had he heard me?

Another voice called from further down the landing.

"Come on, it's probably just some teenagers who came here to make out or something. They'll have buggered off at our arrival."

"What about the car?"

"I wouldn't worry about that, it's just a cheapskate scrap of metal." I saw Takigawa frown. "I'm guessing they've only just learnt how to drive."

"Hm…" The man sounded uncertain.

"What? You think someone's in there?"

"Give me a second." The handle rattled one last time.

Then the man began to hum a tune with a strange, jarring melody. It was one I had heard before. The colleague had sung it. This time, though, something was different. My whole body became paralysed. My breathing and heart beat sped up. My hands began to tremble. Why was I reacting like I was scared? I was not – it was just a simple tune. Why was my body reacting this way? It was an automatic reaction. Now, I was on the verge of speaking, unwillingly. It was some defence tactic, one that I didn't understand. Why was I doing this? I needed to stay silent. Our life could depend on it. Yet my brain, my body, they had other ideas.

Takigawa clamped his hand tighter around my mouth, and wrapped an arm around my chest. I tried to regain control over my body. You have to be quiet. You have to be completely quiet. No speaking, no movements. Just complete silence.

The man outside paused for a second.

"…There's no one in here." Relief overwhelmed me. "My mistake."

"Come on, let's go."

"I was planning to get my bag. I think I left it down the trap door the last time we came here."

"Sorry, but I am not moving all that lumber onto it afterwards. God damn pain."

"Has the lumber been moved? It must have been."

"Yeah, but no one's here. Come on, let's go. We've got a job to do instead of wasting our time here."

"…Ok. Let's go." Footsteps led away from the laundry closet. Down the stairs they went.

Then the front door creaked, and they were gone.