Disclaimer: nope, I still don't own Ghost Hunt T.T

Mai

I awakened once again into pitch darkness but a different type of darkness; it had mass and…discomfort. It was impossible to move in the cramped space I'd awakened in, and moving wasn't exactly the best idea anyways. I was lying inside what appeared to be a wooden box, a chest of sorts. I pushed on the top of the chest, hoping to get out, but to no avail. "Well it was worth a try," I remarked quietly to myself. I drew my fist back and knocked on the wood three times and listened for movement. The response made me jump as somebody knocked back once, twice as hard, by the side of my head. Once I'd regained my composure, I called out to the person. "Hey! Who's out there?"

After waiting for a response for a long thirty seconds I tried again. "Whoever's out there, will you let me out! I'm starting to feel a little claustrophobic! Hello? Hello!"

I stopped and listened again as I heard shuffling around outside the box. The person had moved so I tried the top of the box again, still finding it tightly shut. I lied there listening to the sound of my breathing, and it was beginning to make me more aware of how cramped it was inside the little wooden box. The more I thought about it, the more my mind raced around the unpleasant thoughts that prevented me from being able to breathe normally. I knocked on the box again and yelled, "Please let me out!" Without waiting for any answer, I let my panic take over and began knocking frantically on the box and shouting for the person on the other side to let me out, hoping that at least I'd annoy them enough that they would open the box at least for a bit. Instead, the person standing outside kicked the side of the box where my head was, stunning me as my head hit the side and back of it painfully.

I still couldn't breathe, but I didn't yell or bang on the box anymore; just laid there and thought. Thought about Gene and Naru and what they were doing right now, thought about Lin and his calm demeanor—hoping to remain calm as well as him—and thought about my parents and how different, though not in a bad way, Mr. and Mrs. Davis were. I would love to just be back at the Davis' mansion, drinking tea and talking to Gene…and trying to talk to Naru I guess. But I still can't tell if he likes me or not, but that's not exactly what I should be thinking about right now. I'm stuck in a box somewhere in a theme park where people are known to disappear and turn up dead…Gene, Naru, I thought immeasurable concentration, hurry and find me!

General POV

Not even twenty feet away, Gene—already awakened thanks to his brother's prodding and poking—and Naru, both heading back towards base after discussing Gene's experience with Mai in the astral plane, turned around abruptly at the sound of a familiar voice, Mai's voice, whispering to them from straight through the ground it seemed like.

Gene caught his brother's eye, Did you hear that?

How could I not, was his brother's sardonic reply.

Well, where did it come from because I definitely heard that coming from the direction of the ground and it did not sound like her normal voice; it wasn't spoken. She somehow got that message to us by thinking it, but she shouldn't be able to do that…

Does it really matter right now? We really just need to find her and after we do, we can ask her about it all we want. Do you know exactly which way it was coming from and are you sure it was coming from underground?

Gene stood there and thought about it for about a minute before slowly shaking his head. "I'm not completely positive it came from underground, but it definitely came from a different spot in the maze than where she disappeared from. I think if that's true, then it must have come from underground because there's no other way for somebody to sneak her around the maze right under our noses. What do you think?"

Naru nodded once, very slowly as he crossed his arms. "It seems to me that whatever it was that took her has to be human after this. No spirit would take a human underground, and one wouldn't even have the means to. That being said, I agree with you on her being underground, but that still doesn't help us find her. We would still have to find the entrance which should be where she disappeared, but it's not." He stood there silently for a couple minutes and continued, "Anyways, let's go tell Lin what we've found out. We'll probably need all the help we can get in discovering Mai's location."

The twins returned to find their colleagues in various sorts of disarray. Rachel and Alice were currently locked in a glaring contest, obviously they had been arguing…again. Lin was on the phone probably talking to the rest of their team members who had not yet arrived. Mr. Parker, who had apparently just arrived, was just standing at the far end of the room looking utterly confused. He turned to the door as it opened, his face lightening up at realizing who was arriving. He strode straight to the twins and asked them what was going on.

In reply, Noll told him, "Well, currently one of our members is missing, and we are doing everything in our power," he looked pointedly at Lin and the two girls, "to find her. We are also hoping that her discovery will lead to a possible answer to your problems with the park." Let's not mention that the culprit may be human though. Noll looked at Gene as he thought this and his brother nodded slightly in agreement. "Now, if you'll excuse us, our team has a few things to discuss."

In response to the coolness in Noll's voice, Mr. Parker flushed slightly and nodded. "Of course. Um, just inform me if you find anything…and I'll, uh, leave you to your work." With that, their client withdrew from the base, leaving the twins to explain what they realized.

Naru's POV

"Gene and I have reason to believe that Mai's disappearance was not caused by something supernatural," I stated as soon as Mr. Parker had left, and the group had focused their attention. "We also have reason to believe that Mai isn't exactly barren of some…abilities due to the fact that Gene met her on the astral plane and conversed with her. She told him that she also had the suspicion that her kidnapper was human as well. And lastly, we are sure that she is somewhere underground—somewhere beneath the park; not necessarily beneath the maze but definitely close. The only problem is that we have no idea where the entrance is. Logically, it would be somewhere close to the spot she disappeared, but there is definitely nothing there."

I looked at Gene, wondering if he had anything to add, and when my brother shook his head in response, I looked at Lin. "So what is the news with our other team members?"

"They are a little over thirty miles away from the lodge. But upon hearing about our situation, they have agreed to come straight here to help with the search."

"Wait a second," Rachel interjected before anybody could continue, "what other members are coming? I thought we were it!"

In a cold retort, I answered her before Gene or Lin could reply. "Well, obviously we aren't enough because nobody has been able to locate Mai, and you and your sister have done absolutely nothing to contribute to the case except argue with each other. The people who are coming are of much more professional caliber than either of you, and hopefully, they'll have an idea of how we should proceed."

General POV

The longer Noll spoke, the redder the two girls blushed in furious embarrassment, and the wider Gene grinned at his when his thoughts returned to Mai, his face became solemn and thoughtful as he racked his mind for anything that would help them find her. He wanted to head back out to the maze and take another look around, but it was definitely too dark to search the entire thing on his own—one because it was dangerous and two because one flashlight only covered so much area.

His only choice, then, was to wait for their backup to arrive. The monk Japanese, Takigawa Houshou and the Australian Catholic priest, John Brown had contacted the twins' father's business on quite a few occasions to help out with the occasional hauntings. How Takigawa-san and Mr. Brown had come to be partners in such cases was something of a mystery to the twins since nobody had told them about the branch in Japan. In any case, now that the English SPR needed assistance on a case, the two had readily agreed to help out in any way possible. It would probably be only about fifteen minutes before the two would arrive at the park, and then the entire team could search for as long as it took for them to find poor Mai-chan.

Mai's POV

Somehow or other, I'd managed to fall asleep again as I stayed trapped in the cramped box. When I woke up, something just felt different. I peered up at the top of the dark box and lifted my hand to it. I pushed on it softly and felt it give way. That person had unlocked the box! But why? And where were they now? I sat up a bit further and carefully pushed the lid up, trying to make as little sound as possible. I lowered the top until it touched the ground and sat up the rest of the way. All around me there was darkness. Go figure. I waited a few minutes and looked around. My eyes had definitely been adjusted to the darkness for a while now.

All around me was dirt. Dirt and boxes. It looked like I was inside some underground tunnel, probably right beneath the park. I wondered again where my kidnapper had run off too and whether he would return to find me out of his crate. I also wanted to know what his—was it a man?—intentions had been: was he going to kill me? Or perhaps he was going to offer me back in return for a ransom. Ha! Doubt it. I don't have that good of luck. My guess was that he was going to let me rot inside the tunnel as a sort of torture, then he would take an axe to my dying body. Wow, I sound extremely pessimistic. And I even managed to escape the box. Only questions I have are why was the box unlocked, where is the kidnapper, and how the hell do I get out of here?

I noticed again that I was surrounded by boxes that all looked like the one I had been in. They were all locked…some were more rotted with age than others, and their locks had rusted almost to the point of falling off. A feeling of dread rose quickly in my stomach, threatening to become something of a scream as I realized what was probably in the box. I quickly pushed the urge down and walked over to the oldest looking box. As I passed other boxes, I caught the stench of something other than rotting wood. Something more along the lines of decaying flesh.

I knew exactly what was inside the box before I broke the rusted lock with a large rock I'd found on the tunnel floor. I gingerly lifted the lid of the crate, bracing myself for the sight. Even so, I dropped the lid and covered my mouth to smother a yelp as soon as I saw the bones of a tiny corpse that had probably been in the tunnel for at least a decade. It was so small, that I guess it was probably only a child. Realizing this caused me to actually tear up so that I had to turn away and shift my thoughts to escape and avoiding the murderer so I wouldn't end up a corpse in one of the several boxes covering the floor of the underground tomb. I replaced the lid on the crate, silently promising the corpse that I would not let it rot down here for another decade.

I really hope this doesn't seem off or anything. It's been an extremely long time since I last updated this story. Reviews are always appreciated and I hope you enjoyed chapter six.