"Get help," Mai instructed the camera woman, feeling a strange calm settle over her as she pulled off her sneakers. "Hurry."

She didn't wait around to see if the woman had done as she asked, instead (perhaps stupidly) diving straight into the cold water of the pond.

Mai knew she herself had an uncanny knack for surviving dangerous situations, but what if something happened to the baby? If tragedy struck, would it really be so tragic…?

Just stop thinking! Mai looked around her, trying to spot Lin through the murky water. It was surprisingly deep for a normal pond - she couldn't even see the bottom. There could be something down there and she wouldn't be able to see it. Ugh.

Something brushed against her cheek, and the girl turned, closing her eyes as a school of fish darted past her. Once they were gone, Mai saw what they had been fleeing from.

Foolishly, she opened her mouth to call Lin's name, letting a few precious gasps of air out. She was already feeling lightheaded, so she didn't even want to think about what the older man felt like.

He was thrashing, his shiki swirling around him in confusion. Swimming further down, Mai dodged Lin's long legs and choked slightly when she saw a deathly pale hand wrapped around his foot. She moved to pry the fingers from his ankle, and was horrified to find that the hand was very cold and very much there.

Now that they had a clear target, the shiki flew past Mai, blinding her with glowing white light as they struck at the corpse.

In one last desperate attempt, another hand shot up. Long, jagged fingernails tore through Mai's shirt and the skin of her stomach.

But then Lin was there, his arms wrapping firmly around her. Their legs worked together to bring them back to air.

They broke the surface just as a crowd of people arrived, armed with towels and hysteria.

But Lin and Mai were focused solely on each other.

"Idiot," the man spat, smacking away Mai's hand when she reached for him. "What were you thinking? Did you even think?"

Mai's cheeks puffed out in anger. "In case you forgot, you were drowning! By the time I went and got help, it would have been too late! What was I supposed to do, let you die?"

Lin angrily pushed his wet bangs out of his eyes. His gaze was locked on the bloody tatters of her shirt. The scratches on her skin weren't very deep, but they were deep enough.

Lin pushed himself to his feet and stormed over to Naru, shoving aside the father of Mai's child aside with such strength the other man dropped his video camera.

"You should tend to at least one of the woman carrying your child," Lin hissed at Simon, before walking away, his body stiff. Naru put a hand on his arm, his lips moving.

Simon shrank in on himself, finally showing some shame. He wrapped a towel around the camera woman's shoulders and kissed her cheek. The silver bands on their ring fingers matched - how had Mai never noticed?

Simon's looked briefly at Mai - his mistake - before he too left, his arm wrapped around his bemused wife's shoulders.

Mai's friends lingered awkwardly for a while before deciding to give the girl some space. Everyone left - everyone except Masako.

"I'm so sorry," the medium whispered, falling to her knees and taking Mai's hand. "When I heard you were drowning, for a moment...for a moment I was glad." The girl bit her lip. "I thought it was him who had...though even then…"

Mai sighed. She hadn't even realized Masako was so angry. Of course, the old her probably would have acted the same way.

But things were different now.

"Lin-san was limping...I think whatever was down there twisted his ankle. Tell him to put some ice on it." Mai stood. "And tell Naru-kun that I smelled blood over by the cellar door...and that the body down in the lake was a man's body…"

She was rambling. Maybe some water had gotten into her head.

"Yes, I'll tell them." Masako looked away. "And...I wanted to ask: Mai-san, are you in love with-"

Thump!

When the medium turned to see what had fallen, she found Mai on the grass.

"Husband, please stop!" The woman was in tears. "If anyone finds out what you're doing, we will be killed!"

She was on her knees before her husband, begging, begging.

The man kicked her away and took a swig from his bottle of sake. "Stop being a bitch. All I wanted was a child! And you couldn't even give me that!"

The woman's shoulders shook with a sob. "You're lying," she whispered.

"What did you say?"

The woman grabbed a nearby vase and flung it at him. "I said you're lying! You're a monster!"

The man flung the bottle down at her, smashing it against her head.

"I deserve to be happy," he whispered, flinging the front door open and stepping outside. "I deserve these children!"

Mai turned to watch as his wife began to laugh, and cry, and rip out her hair. All around them, babies screamed in their cradles.

A/N: I had to reupload this chapter a couple times, because for some reason it wasn't showing up in the Ghost Hunt category as being recently updated? This is the last time I'm trying to fix it, so hopefully it will work now.