The news hit me like a truck. I sank down in the seat, trying to hold in a wave of nausea. "He'll die?" My voice sounded weak and shaky, even to me.

"Yes. Get that kohl on. We need to move."

I pulled down the visor and slid open the mirror. The small light came on, and I smudged the kohl around my dark blue eyes. "I'm not going in there until you tell me what's wrong with Dad."

"He's been possessed. By a demon."

"C'mon, now. What is actually wrong with him?" My mom grabbed my arm and squeezed. "Mom, that hurts!"

"Don't question me." She pulled the car over on the side of the road and parked. "He was possessed. If we don't get the Eye of Ketar, the demon inside him will kill him."

"Mom, I'm sorry, but I don't understand. Shouldn't we get a priest or something if he's possessed?"

"It's not the same. A demon has him. That's why we're going to Spirit World. They hold the key."

"Oh, so Spirit World is like a place where they store holy relics."

"Something like it," she answered. "Get your tools. We're going in."

She jumped out of the Rav-4 and opened the trunk, fiddling around for her tools. I grabbed my bag from the back seat and slid out the door. I checked to make sure I had everything I needed: lock picks, rope, my foldable bow and some lightweight carbon arrows, LED flashlight. I found my new gloves and jammed my hands into them.

I stared at my mom. She looked the same. Same dark hair, ochre eyes, svelte figure that matches my own. But something about her looked different to me. After we finished this job, I would have to question her about demons and possession.

"I'll open this gate. You'll have to open the next."

Before I could answer, she had her pack on her shoulders and was at the gate. She found some locking mechanism I didn't even see, and the gate flung open. I stepped through, and felt a whoosh of air. I looked around and felt like I had walked though a doorway outdoors. Which was crazy, since I was already outside.

What is this place? I knew I couldn't ask Mom. We didn't speak at all while we were on the job. It looked like we were on a mountainside, which was an elaborate illusion in this building, since I knew we were just on a road.

My mom nodded to me, gesturing to the next doorway. I didn't hear any guards, but I figured they would be inside the next room. The door was a massive stone structure with a call box on the outside.

I set down my bag and pulled out my rubber-ended lock picks and screwdrivers. I wasn't taking a chance and getting electrocuted. I separated the call box from the wall and figured out what lines led to the door mechanism. The stone door slid open silently and we slipped in.

My mom gestured for me to follow her. She pulled out a slip of paper and held it up to the precious little light coming in the doorway. She must have seen enough because she sprinted forward down a hall.

The building had huge ceilings and fancy gilded doorways. But it basically looked empty. I saw a few open rooms with rows and rows of books or records. I peeked through a cracked door and saw a desk piled with papers. I'm glad I don't work here.

My mom ducked down a hallway and pulled me in with her. She gestured back to the entrance and motioned for me to begin fixing the door mechanism. She held up five fingers and double tapped her wrist. Go to the entrance, fix the door and wait five minutes, but no more than ten. I nodded and started my silent trek back to the entrance.

I hoped my mom wouldn't get stuck in here. We had an agreement that if one of us ever got caught, they would leave the other. There have been some close calls, but we've never had to leave each other. I hoped that would be true today as well. This Spirit World place was making me feel weird.

The entrance loomed bright in the pitch-dark building. I shot through the opening and grabbed the call box. I left the wire out from the box and screwed it lightly back on to the wall. As soon as I saw my mother, I would have the door ready to close and the box back on the wall fully in less than thirty seconds.

Instead of hearing my mom or an alarm coming from inside, I spun on my heel at a sound from behind me.

There he was, looming over me. How did I not hear him coming? How did I not see him block out the moonlight? I didn't have to see the flame color of his hair to recognize his now-familiar silhouette. "Minamino," I whispered, as much a curse as a comment.

"Rin. What is your purpose here?"

He caught me red handed. I stood up, dropping my tools into my open bag. "Do you work here?"

"You could say that. Now, don't avoid my question. Why are you here?"

He works here. I couldn't let him identify me. This was it. Something I had hoped would never happen. I had to kill him. It would be easier if he were a stranger. I flicked my eyes to the door, hoping to distract him as I flung my fist out to his jaw. Good night, Shuichi.

And he was gone. It was like he had never been here. Before I could react, he had grabbed my arm from behind, pinning it to my back. He breathed in my ear. "Maybe now you will tell me your purpose in Spirit World."

I winced as he pulled my arm back. I won't let him beat me again. I reached into my pocket with my free hand and jabbed my knife back, hoping to catch him in his side. My arm was free and I quickly put the wall at my back. I couldn't see him.

My instincts called to me and said he was coming from my left. I jabbed out with the knife, and it was snatched from my hand. "Don't do this, Rin."

"I can't leave you alive. It's nothing personal. Just business."

"Then so is this. Rose Whip!"

He jumped back, at least I thought he did, and a green whip lashed out at me. Relying on instinct, I reached out and snagged the whip out of the air. My new gloves protected me from the rough surface of the whip, but some of the spikes grazed my arm, cutting it deeply. I groaned, trying not to cry out in pain.

He tugged the whip back and I came with it, kicking out at my opponent. He wound up the whip and tossed stone near me. Then, I lost sight of him.

A rumbling beneath me made me jump back to the doorway. But I was blocked by the appearance of tentacles, coming from the ground. I backed up right into another set of wriggling vines. "What the hell is this?"

Minamino walked through the vines. I struggled to back away from him, but found myself more and more tangled in the woody vines.

"These are the branches of the Liana plant. Modified to suit my needs, of course. They will wrap around you and eventually strangle you. Unless you tell me why you are here. And be honest, my plants and I hate liars."

"What did you do? Drug me? I must be hallucinating."

"No, this is all very real." The vines tightened around my legs, cutting off blood flow and sending pins and needles down them. "Are you the one after the Eye?"

I glared into his deep green eyes. How could he know that? "You'll have to kill me."

"I would rather not do that. Were we not supposed to become study partners?"

The vines tightened around my neck, making me dizzy. I spilled out the first thing that came to my mind. "I would have liked partnering with you, but I suppose, tonight will be the last night for me and my family."

"What are you saying?" I felt the vines slacken minutely.

"Demons possessing my father, Spirit World museum, study buddies, Eyes of Ketar." I felt light headed.

The vines released me and I fell to the ground. Shuichi lifted me up and pulled me to the door. "We have to get out of here. Your partner was caught by some of the ogres inside. I'll get you out of here before Koenma, or heaven forbid, King Enma find you. Then you can tell me the entire story."

I had gained enough consciousness back to realize what he was saying. He had found out my family's darkest secret. I needed my mother. She could stop him. "I won't tell you anything."

He grabbed my shoulders and forced me to look into his eyes. "You will. I don't want to force you to tell me, but believe me, I have ways of making you talk that will make you wish you didn't resist me."

Looking into those fathomless eyes, I believed him. "You said she's been caught? By…ogres?"

He leaned in to the doorway. "Yes. You'll hear the alarm sound in a few seconds. Let's take this gateway out. How did you get here?"

"My… partner… drove us here."

"Do you have the keys?"

My mother always stowed a spare key in my pack. "Yes."

"Hold on." He grabbed me under his arm and ran to the gate. He pushed it open and slid through as I heard an unearthly wail of an alarm blaring behind us. He set me down and I tossed him the keys. "You will tell me what your purpose is for breaking in to Spirit World as we drive."

I grimaced at him as we sat down in the front of the Rav. I turned to see emergency lights flashing in Spirit World. "Get us out of here."