~Case 1 - A Mother's Love - Part 2~
Mai sat up with a pained groan. She ached all over. She stretched her arms over her head and let out a near silent gasp when she caught sight of her arms. Mai observed herself in horrified awe- why was she covered in bruises? She was almost entirely black and blue. She looked around at the unfamiliar room. Where was she, anyway?
"I'm dreaming," She whispered to herself, standing up shakily. Her legs felt like they were just barely able to support her weight. "This is probably related to the case we just got..." She muttered and glanced around. "Better see what I can find out."
Her body flinched involuntarily as a door slammed shut. A deep feeling of dread pooled in the pit of her stomach.
"What the hell have you been doing?!" A shrill voice screamed from downstairs. A panic that Mai knew wasn't hers overcame her and she lost the ability to control herself. She shook her head and backed up a few steps, wrapping her arms around herself protectively. She was shaking so violently it almost hurt. The door to the room she was in burst open to reveal an angry, disheveled young woman.
"I-I feel asleep," Mai's mouth stuttered without her permission. "I'm s-sorry, I-"
"You're sorry," The woman sneered mockingly. She stomped over to her and gave her a backhand that sent her to the ground. "Sorry doesn't clean this dump, does it?"
Mai clutched her cheek and felt hot tears begin to slide down her face."I-I didn't mean to! I'm sorry! I w-was too busy last night, and I didn't sleep much. I was tired, and I-"
"Stop making excuses!" The woman raged. She pointed an accusing finger at her and walked forward forcing Mai to scramble backwards until her back smacked against the legs of chair she had been sitting in. Her watery eyes widened in fear. "After all I've done for you, this is how you repay me? You can't do even such a simple task? You worthless little-"
"I'm...I'm sorry," Mai interrupted with her sobs. "Mom-"
The woman's eyes took on a wild edge, any hint of sanity once there now completely gone. "Don't you dare call me that!" The woman snarled. She lunged and wrapped her calloused hands around Mai's neck.
"S...stop!" Mai choked out, bringing her hands up to try to relieve the pressure on her neck. "Please...M-mo..."
"Shut up," She growled, squeezing harder than she had before. Her nails bit into Mai's skin.
Mai's hands, trying to pry the woman's hands from her neck, began growing limp. Her vision blurred and darkened. She dragged her eyes up to the woman's face, who, while her grip was still as tight as ever, now had a twisted sort of happy expression that Mai took an odd delight in. She'd never worn that kind of expression around her before and she, even as her body abandoned all hope of getting the oxygen it so desperately craved, was glad to have been privy to it. "I love you," She did her best to mouth before she saw no more.
"Ah!" Mai shot up in bed, panting heavily as she clutched her neck. "Oh wow..." She shuddered at the all too recent memory of her dream. Her throat still burned and she idly noted how rare it was that her dreams were so vivid that she still believed herself to be in pain after she woke. She rubbed it soothingly as she glanced at the clock. "Oh! I'm going to be late!" She exclaimed, jumping out of bed. She knew that however bad she thought her dream had been that Naru was three times as worse, so decided it would be best to put it out of her mind for the time being.
She quickly dressed and ran a brush through her hair. She didn't have enough time to really check herself out in the mirror, so she could only hope she looked half-way decent. After she located her bag- grateful to her past self that she'd had the foresight to pack it the night before- Mai ran out of her house, hoping she didn't end up being too late.
Naru was leaning against the SPR van when she arrived, head tilted back and eyes closed. "Mai," Naru said as she ran up to him, not even bothering to open an eye. "You're late." Well damn.
"I know," She panted, doubled over while she caught her breath. "Sorry...I woke...I woke up late," Mai took a deep breath and smiled cautiously at him when she straightened.
He sighed and brought his head back up. "That's no excu-" Naru stopped suddenly and his eyes went wide. Mai watched him warily.
"Naru? What's wrong?" Naru walked up to her and took her face into his hands. Her face burned as he tilted her head up.
"Mai, what happened to you?" He asked softly (so softly she immediately froze- that was not a tone he normally used with her when she wasn't in danger), eying her with concern. Mai's eyebrows creased.
"What are you talking about? What's wrong?"
Naru narrowed his eyes at her, his face registering somewhere between 'I'd-really-hate-to-have-to-kill-you' and 'Oh-my-God-what-tried-to-kill-you' on the Dealing-With-Mai scale. "Your neck, Mai. What happened to your neck?" He grazed his fingers across her throat lightly. "It looks like you were strangled."
Mai's eyes went to the size of saucers. "What? Really?" Mai reached a hand up to her neck unconsciously. "I had a dream! That's why I was late. I had a dream and I..." Mai trailed off.
"You were choked in the dream," Naru finished for her. Mai nodded silently, chewing on her lip. She walked over to the van and bent so that her neck was visible in the rear-view mirror and gasped when she saw the dark blue and purple imprints encircling her neck. They were shaped like hands, petite womanly hands, and Mai even noticed the tiny, crescent shaped cuts unmistakably made by fingernails.
"How..." Mai wondered aloud, totally lost.
"I'm not sure," Naru examined her a moment longer before walking back to the office. He stuck his head through the doorway. "Lin? Come here."
Lin emerged a few moments later, laptop tucked securely under his arm. "Are we leaving?"
Naru simply waved an arm in Mai's direction, massaging his temples. As Lin's eyes widened in a similar fashlion to how Naru's had, she noted that is was not yet 11 in the morning and her boss looked 100% done with the day already. She didn't figure looking this exasperated this early was good for his health. Just as she was considering signing the poor guy up for a few yoga classes, Lin drew her attention back to the matter at hand by carefully turning her head around so he could see the marks. "Mai, what happened? Are you alright?"
"She had a dream," Naru said for her. He spoke sharply and his lips were pressed into a thin line.
"A dream..." Lin released her and blew out a stream of air in thought. His eyes creased in concern and he clasped his hands together thoughtfully. "The dream affected your body?" He clarified. Mai nodded her affirmation and Lin took the Naru approach to stress and began to lightly rub his temples. "You shouldn't be able to do that."
Mai's eyebrows furrowed and she shook her head. "What do you mean? What did I do?"
"You're astral projecting into your dreams. Like you did before with Masako?" He reminded, continuing when she nodded her understanding. "Before it was just your spirit, but I believe that what you've done is you've projected your actual, physical body into the spirit's memories," Lin considered her for a second. "You're a strong psychic, but I never would have thought that you would be able to do something like this. Not without trying, at the very least."
The three were silent for a few seconds and Mai plopped down onto the sidewalk with a mildly distressed noise. "Is it dangerous?" Naru asked finally, glancing down at her.
Lin looked at him, sighing heavily. "A little," He admitted. "From what I know about it, projecting that way should drain your energy, Mai, but I'm not sure if the principle applies when you're not doing it on purpose," Mai bit her lip, avoiding eye contact with Naru. If she projected into her dreams too often, did that mean she could collapse like Naru had on their last case?
"Why did I get hurt?" She asked partly out of concern and partially so she'd have a distraction. She was dealing with enough at the moment. Re-living one of the single most terrifying days of her life wasn't high on her list of To-Do's today.
Naru took this one, speaking contemplatively with his chin in his hand. "My guess is that the physical damage you incurred was because of your being in the spirit's place. I assume that if you were to be a third party looking on, you'd be alright."
Mai sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. "What do I do?" She asked, glancing between them both. "I've never had a say in what kind of dream I have. I don't know how to control that."
Lin gave her a half-smile and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I'll make some calls. I've never met anyone who has done something like this without intending to, but someone must know something about this. Don't worry, we'll figure it out," Beside him, Naru nodded in agreement and Mai gave them both a grateful smile.
Naru cleared his throat. "Until then," He said, offering Mai a helping hand up. "We're going to have to keep a close eye on you."
Mai rolled her eyes as he helped her to her feet. Once she was standing she dusted off her skirt and crossed her arms. "I'm fine."
"Obviously," Naru said dryly. He picked up the last box of equipment that needed to be loaded into the van.
"I'm serious Naru!" She exclaimed. "Nothing that bad happened, so you don't need to worry about it!"
Lin helped Naru secure the last box into the car. "You know, we could always have her sleep in the base. That way someone will always be around her if something happens," He informed his young charge, both men now ignoring the indignant teen behind them.
"That's a good idea, actually" He agreed, glancing back. "Did you hear that, Mai?" He asked, working hard to keep the corners of his mouth from quirking up while his assistant shot him one of the dirtiest looks he'd ever seen her make. It was like dealing with an irate kitten. "You'll be sleeping in base for the entirety of this case."
Mai gaped. "Seriously?" She exclaimed. "Don't I have any say in this?"
"Not really," Lin told her with a smile. Naru smirked at her glare and opened the van door, silently gesturing for her to get in.
Mai stomped to the van with crossed arms, throwing herself down on to the leather seat with an angry huff. "No one listens to me at all," She informed Naru when he slid in next to her.
Instead of acknowledging her, he made a point of leaning forward to hand Lin a map. "I've highlighted the address of the client's house," He informed the older man before sitting back and shooting Mai a smug look. "I'm sorry, did you say something?" The resulting growl out of her had been quite unladylike, if one were to ask for his opinion.
After a few more minutes of bickering, the car lapsed in to a comfortable silence. Mai had been on the verge of falling asleep when Naru suddenly addressed her. "Mai," He said, waiting a second for her to compose herself as she jerked up and rubbed sleep out of her eyes. "What happened in your dream?"
"Oh," Mai sat up and rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "Sorry. I never told you, did I?" She relayed the dream to him, looking down as she recalled the sad memory. Naru was stared into space, thinking with his chin resting on his hand.
"So the woman was the mother of whomever you were taking the place of," Naru concluded. Mai winced, but nodded.
"Yeah, I think so. I mean, I called her 'Mom' but she didn't seem to like it much. What a horrible woman," Mai frowned, unable to imagine her own mother ever having behaved that way toward her.
Naru hummed. "Unfortunately, we deal with large amount of terrible people in our line of work," Mai sighed and turned to look out the window, knowing all too well how true that statement was. Naru cleared his throat and Mai glanced over at him, surprised at how closely he was watching her. "Are you alright?"
The gentleness of his voice threw her off for a second. "Y-yeah," She beamed, touched at his concern. She gave him a big thumbs up. "I'm okay. Thanks,"
"We're here," Lin said suddenly, unknowingly ruining the nice moment. Mai swiveled around and peered out the window, pumping her fist as Lin drove up the driveway.
"Yes!" Mai exclaimed while Naru sighed sufferingly. "This is going to be great!"
So I'm beginning to learn that writing Naru is a bigger challenge than I anticipated. In my mind I contort him to be this gentle, if not a bit bull headed, man but the fact is he's just not. He's a narcissistic jerk with a soft spot for a certain little brunette that need not be named (it's Yasu) and that's why we love him. Anyway, please review and say what you thought about the chapter! Tell me if you thought Naru's characterization was off or anything and let me know what you liked or didn't like. Remember, it's your feedback that keeps me going! Thank you all so much and I hope to see you again next chapter! I love you! *blows kiss*