8/19/17

Dear Readers,

If you are interested in reading something more original that Mysteria, check out my teaser chapter of Beyond the Wall (working title, not GoT related) on fictionpress and let me know what you think. (Link on profile)

Hiding. It had been a long-time sport for me. Hide 'n seek with children on the playground. Hiding from my abusive parents. Hiding the carcasses of dead animals that I had happily tortured since at least secondary school. Hiding from the coppers after I murdered my mother and father one night, taking an axe to both of them. Their screams of pain had awakened the neighbors who, typically, always ignored my young childish screams when my parents had beaten me to a bloody pulp at least once a week. And then there was hiding at the amusement park. I had lived here for decades—first hiding lovers or the homeless who had ventured too far into the forest the amusement park owners had torn down to build the park—then turning to hiding the children who ventured too closely to the boundaries of the amusement park when the dark could hide my now-hulking body. Now, just as I had hidden the critters who sparked my interest as a child, I hid other children from prying eyes, with no exceptions.

Until now.

I watched as the teen girl I had captured, the one who had looked so similar to the sister I had loved 20, maybe 30 years ago—a sister my parents had cared nothing for and had exploited until the day she was murdered—explored the deepest underground cavern in the amusement park. Surprisingly, nobody had discovered the entrance in all this time. Perhaps because they were so convinced that the disappearances were supernatural, perhaps because the entrance was hidden in plain sight.

This girl, I want to keep.

As Mai walked further into the darkness, her captor followed soundlessly, watching and waiting.

Meanwhile, back at base, Buddhist monk, Hosho Takigawa, known to his friends as Bou-san, and Catholic priest, John Brown, had just arrived. They were met in the downstairs lobby of the hotel by Lin-san and Noll. Gene had returned to the site of Mai's disappearances alone in the hopes that the light of the new day would reveal more clues of how Mai's captor had pulled off their disappearing act. And also hoping that Mai would find a way to contact him again.

This is all my fault. I should have never let her out of my sight, Gene thought morosely to himself.

The hedges appeared just as solid in the morning light as they had the night before. No breaks, no indentations, and no sign of where Mai and her captor had seemingly melded into them. And yet, something was off.

"Looking for a needle in a haystack, Davis-san?" The voice, though familiar, startled Gene out of his trance.

"Takigawa-san, it's about damn time you showed up. Where's John?"

"Awww, come on Gene, you know I'm just messin' with you. Thought you knew how to take a jab."

Gene sighed at this. "I know. I'm just a little on edge. I shouldn't have invited our visitor along for the ride…no pun intended for once. Or, at the very least, I should have kept a better watch on her. You'd like her I think. Cute, spunky, and a better sense of humor than I have right now."

"So let's find her. You've searched this area probably a hundred times in person and in your sleep so let's just move on to the next section of the maze. Or…" Bou-san looked around, catching a small glimmer reflecting off the sun. "Hold on a second. Do you see this?"

Bou-san kneeled down just in front of the section of the hedge next to where Mai had disappeared. Gene moved closer to him. "It looks….like a hinge? What the hell? How did I miss this?"

Inside SPR's base of operations, Noll and Lin showed John the security footage of the previous night's mishaps. Not that it answered too many questions. As soon as they reached the seconds before Mai vanished, the footage snowed over and cut to what looked like 30 seconds after. No help there then.

"So, you basically called on us to act in a manhunt rather than a paranormal case, eh?" John glanced over at Noll. The small glint in his eyes was answer enough. "Don't worry Mr. Davis, I'm sure we'll find your visitor. I mean, she can't have gotten too far. The perpetrator seems to come back on a regular basis which means he also doesn't wander too far from the grounds."

"Noll, please. Mr. Davis is my father," was Noll's only verbal response on the matter. The rest had already been covered.

"Fair enough, though I must ask," John leaned in a bit closer and lowered his voice to a whisper, "who are those two?" He jerked his head slightly towards Rachel and Alice—the class clowns who had proven more hindrance than helpful. "And why were they here before Takigawa-san and me?"

Noll looked at him with a carefully regarded expression, replying, "Another story for another time, I believe."

The two girls had long resumed their fervent bickering and heated glares at one another, obviously not noticing the impression they had made on everybody in the room.

"But to put it quite bluntly, we thought they might could help with whatever paranormal activity there might be at the park. Turns out we were wrong on more than one account. Whatever malicious activity has been going at the park has not proven paranormal. And those two are as useless as a couple of bricks." Noll made sure the girls had a chance of overhearing this particular jab, but they seemed to pay him no heed.

Lin simply rolled his eyes in response as John tried unsuccessfully to hold back a quick laugh.

"Perhaps we should rejoin Gene and Takigawa-san at the park and see if they have found anything." It was the first thing Lin had said in quite some time, and he added, "Without those two," with a pointed look at the medium and her useless researcher sister.

This remark the girls did hear and looked on the verge of protesting vehemently when Lin quieted them with a sharp glare that should have been able to shoot holes in a cement wall.

Noll and John stood up just in time for Gene to mentally page his brother.

Bou-san found something we overlooked last night. Perhaps it will lead to Mai.

I hope you're right, Gene.

So concludes the newest update, which, I know is extremely late. You may have to go back and re-read what was there before. Also, keep in mind that this is an alternate universe for Ghost Hunt. Not any type of continuation on the show or manga, which I still do not own. Obviously. Enjoy.