The Holes in our Hearts
Chapter 5: In a World Beyond Worlds
Mai woke up in field on flowers. Their colors were vibrant and she watched in fascination as the wind blew through the fields causing the multitudes to bend and sway in subconscious rhythm. The reds, yellows, purples, and pinks all danced in time making the area seem to flow. Mai glanced up to be astounded by a sky that was a startling shade of blue. Clouds glided by as though there was no sense of time. The wind kissed Mai's cheek as she stared at the sight around her.
Then she noticed the two lone flowers on top of a hill. Set apart from the rest by the depth of their color, these flowers grabbed Mai's attention. She walked over to get a closer look. On the left there was a flower with a dark green stem adorned with thorns. At the top was one of the most stunning blossoms Mai had ever seen. The color of the richest emeralds, the petals glistened in the radiant sunlight. Mai stared in fascination at the flower that seemed to glow and radiate power. However, her eyes were soon captivated by the neighboring flower.
They were so similar and yet so different. Mai looked at the flower on the right. This flower just seemed dignified. A stem as black as midnight led into petals that were tinted blue in the depths of the blackness. This flower did not have thorns though. This flower's stem was a soft as velvet. But, perhaps even more captivating than the other blossom, was the color of the petals. At first glance they appeared midnight blue, but then when Mai shifted her viewpoint they changed. Never had Mai imagined that there could be so many shades of blue, each more refined than the last. The blues that reminded her of ice, the ocean, the sky, and something else she felt she should remember…
"Oh my gosh, Naru!" The color of blue that stood out the most in the flower was the exact same color as Naru's eyes! Suddenly the perfect reality was shattered. Now Mai looked at the field that had kept her captivated and realized she had completely been ignoring what had happened to her only moments before. She remembered sitting in Naru's apartment as her reality was shattered by the appearance of Grimlock.
That man claimed to love her yet she could remember nothing about him except for his name; and he had to tell her that! Then Mai thought about the man she knew she loved. Naru. She could see his eyes now. The look he had given her right before she had let Grimlock turn her life over. If Mai had not been so convinced that Naru thought of her as nothing more than a friend she would have thought that he had been trying to tell her that there was much more to their relationship than he had ever let on.
"Well, wherever the heck I am, this is supposed to be where I unlock my memories. This field may seem like a nice place to stay but I've got to go somewhere and do something. Lord knows I'm not going to get anywhere sitting here."
With the resolve to leave the field, Mai climbed down from the hill that held the two flowers and started heading towards the horizon.
Meanwhile, back in Naru's apartment…
"What the hell did you do to her you bastard!" Naru was angry. He didn't think he had ever been this angry in his whole life. Even after Gene died he had not hated the person that hurt his twin as much as he hated this creature that was sitting in front of him now. After Mai had collapsed, Naru had moved her to his couch and did the best he could to make sure she would be comfortable. However, now that there was nothing more he could do, it was time to figure out who this insolent jerk was!
Grimlock opened his eyes fully. Little did Naru know that during his whole meltdown and the time he took caring for Mai, he was being watched. 'And so it begins. The worm thinks he is her only love. I'll be darned if I let him think he knows everything!' With his thoughts under control, Grimlock turned to Naru.
"First of all, my name is Grimlock, not 'you bastard'. For one who claims to have so much intelligence you sure are slow on the uptake. And secondly, I only opened her mind. You should be thankful. She has passed the first test."
"What do you mean test?" Naru's concern for Mai allowed him to ignore the fact that this thing had insulted him AGAIN!
"Mai's consciousness is currently deep within her brain's memory center. I believe you humans have tried to label this the limbic system. How you can think to classify something as complex as the human mind is beyond me. Anyway, when breaking a memory block a person first has to get passed their own brain's defenses. Usually this is something along the lines of placing the person in a place where they are content. They get so lost in this place that they lose all memory of their lives in the physical world and just stay there. It takes some pretty powerful tie to the outside world to allow a person to remember who they are. I've been monitoring Mai's progress and she just left that area. Now the real fun will begin."
Naru sat in stunned silence. He had never heard of this idea that the mind could be blocked or that a person could get lost in their own mind. "So when will she wake up?"
"That all depends on her. This is the problem with mind blocks. They can only be totally removed by the person who is under the mind block. In other words, Mai is the only one who can unlock her memories. However, the mind is a very nice place compared to the real world. True the mind has its own dark spots but if a person avoids those then most people tend to be happier inside their own minds. This is why people often stay in this comatose state. It means they have chosen to leave this world and never wake up."
"You mean there's a chance that Mai could never wake up!" Naru barked in horror.
Grimlock shivered involuntarily. "Yes. But I have known Mai for far longer than you have. And if there is any person in this world who can beat this and come back in one piece, it's Mai."
"Who are you to say that! How do you know Mai anyway?"
"That's a question Mai will be able to answer when she wakes up. Now shut up worm. She's moving again and I have to be able to focus if I am to follow her progress."
Naru wanted to retort but the idea of not knowing how Mai was made him hold his tongue. 'I hate not having control over this. For all I know this guy could be something who wants Mai to be stuck in her own mind forever.' However, left with no other choice, Naru grabbed a chair and sat down next to Mai. 'This is going to be a long night.' Naru thought.
Silence descended upon the room until nothing could be heard but Mai's breathing and the second hand of the clock. Together, the narcissist and the man from another world waited through the night for the girl that meant so much to the both of them.
Back with Mai…
'Well this is weird," Mai thought to herself as she wandered through a long hall. After walking out of the field of flowers she had come upon a corridor full of doors. Now she was walking through it trying to figure out what to do next. Out of curiosity she opened a door.
Inside she saw herself with the other members of SPR. They were in the park. It was then that Mai realized she was looking at her own memories from when the group had been at the park trying to help a girl spirit who was tormenting couples.
'Well,' Mai reasoned with herself, 'If each of these doors has one of my memories behind it then I just have to keep opening doors until I find the ones that have Grimlock behind them. So one by one, Mai began opening the doors to her memories. Some were happy memories, others were not. She saw her family before the accident that had left her an orphan. Then she saw the accident that had made her an orphan. Mai was bombarded with so many memories that before long she felt drained and was left sitting on the floor in the hall of doors.
'This isn't getting me anywhere. The memories I want have to be here somewhere, but I can't look through all these doors, I'll be here the rest of my life. Maybe if I can find something they all have in common…'
So Mai got up and looked around. Sure enough she soon found a hallway that was branched off from the rest. However, unlike the other ones this hall was covered in dust and in overall poor condition. 'Well, if there was any place that I would guess memories that haven't been seen in a while would be hiding, this would be it.' Mai went down the hall and stopped at the first door. It was rusted shut and had a deadbolt on it. After an immense struggle, Mai was able to move the bolt. And a hairpin worked wonders on scrapping away some of the rust.
'Well, let's see what this is all about.' With that Mai forced the door open. All of a sudden all the other doors in the hallway flew open and Mai was greeted with the lifetime of memories she had been forced to forget.
All Mai could do was hold on the wall as image after image streamed by. Her and Grimlock running through a field outside a huge castle. A man who looked like Grimlock but wore a patch over one eye.
And then there were the creatures: fairies, vampires, werewolves, angels, demons, witches, and warlocks. Never in her life could Mai have imagined the things she had forgotten. Not only did these creatures exist, but some of them were her closest friends after her parents died. Then there were the memories that Mai had of herself. She saw herself standing in a field of creatures. Holding two double edged swords and spinning then in blindingly fast circles, the version of herself that Mai saw in her memories was a warrior that could take on the masses. In the corner of the field she saw Grimlock observing with a look of pride on his face.
The next images to come where of herself and Grimlock. Walks in the palace courtyard, dances, stolen moments were the two of them seemed like the only people in the world. How could she ever have forgotten this man? The one who had showed her how to live and the things there were to live for.
However, not all the memories were pleasant. Just as with the memories that were not sealed, there were the memories that were almost too painful to bear. There were the images of war. She watched as the courtyard that served as the setting for so many of her good memories was burned to a cinder. She watched as the creatures she called her family were killed and then swallowed by the darkness.
Suddenly, just as it had started, all the images stopped. Mai stood up on shaky feet and screamed at the world around her. "I saw what I needed to see. Now take me back!"
Back in Naru's apartment…
Naru was sitting in his chair holding Mai's hand when suddenly she started screaming. Tears were streaming out of her closed eyes and her screams were of a person in total agony.
"What the hell is going on here Grimlock!" Naru yelled as he tried to keep the panic out of his voice while holding a thrashing Mai down.
"She must have reached the war. That means she will wake up soon. Just hold her." With that Grimlock came over and placed a hand over Mai's forehead. "I am so sorry you must see this again," he whispered, "I would give anything to spare you from having to relive that day."
Naru watched dumbfounded as this man who had seemed like nothing but an arrogant jerk spoke in a gentle manner and treated Mai as though she were precious.
It was in that moment that Mai woke up. She bolted off the couch and looked around her eyes wide with terror. Admittedly, Naru and Grimlock both jumped back too. Naru was the first to come to his senses, "Mai?" he asked his voice shaking ever so slightly.
Mai looked at him and for one terrifying moment, Naru thought she didn't recognize him. Her eyes were like those of a wild animal cornered. Then suddenly the madness left her eyes and she whispered, her voice harsh from all the screaming, "Naru…Grim." Both boys in question immediately went over to Mai. "I…I remember who I am. How could I have ever forgotten that?"
However, before anyone could answer Mai started to sway and passed out once again. This time Grimlock was the one to catch her. "It's okay my love. Sleep now. The war is over and now that you remember we can move forward. Sleep in peace tonight." He laid her on the couch and then stepped back turning his eyes on a now terrified Naru.
"She never going to be the same again is she…" he whispered. It was a sound that died just as the first rays of dawn peaked through the window.
Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt. I am just having fun with the characters. Hopefully the other people who are reading this are just as amused as I am.
Thank you so much to the people who reviewed. Your ideas have given me a few new twists to add to the story later on. To the Guest who reviewed with the plot idea, I'm not quite sure I'm going to do all of that, but you actually outlined a few of the chapters I'm going to be adding in later. The things you readers tell me are what shape my writing! Look for another update soon!