Hey everyone! So my exams have been over for awhile and I have been...lazy. However! I have typed up chapter 2 of Human Resources, now I just have to work on chapter 3.
Anyway I hope you enjoy this chapter...though I have a feeling alot of people will hate me by the end of this chapter.
Chapter 2
The next morning Masako, Monk, John and even Ayako were sent to the basement to check on the ghost moving the name plates in the morgue, Naru sent all of them partially because they could not be certain how strong the ghost was and he wanted his team to stay safe and partially because with all of them out of the base it would be much quieter.
Once they arrived the mortician, an odd young woman named Kuri Hira, shoed them the way the morgue draws worked. Each draw had a number and a slot for a piece of paper to fit into. The paper would have the deceased's name on it. The mortician also had a list with each number and the corresponding name. The system was this thorough to avoid any mistakes in identity.
"We wouldn't want a family going home with the wrong stiff would we?" Kuri said, while giggling into the overly long sleeve of her white medical coat, when she was asked why the system was so through.
"What's wrong with those draws?" John asked while pointing to an entire column of draws with bright red out of order signs on the front of each individual draw.
"Hmm I don't know, they have been broken for as long as I can remember, but no news from up top about repairs or replacements so I don't bother to ask," Kuri said with a casual shrug of her small narrow shoulders "Unfortunately I don't get as many visitors as I would like at this hospital since it is so small and in the middle of nowhere so it's not a major concern," she finished grinning madly at the group.
"I see," Monk said while slowly edging away from the somewhat ageless woman, she honestly gave him the creeps.
"Would you like my list of visitors?" Kuri asked in a way that made her sound like she was referring to the guests in a hotel and not a list of deceased people in metal draws.
"That would be useful for us to identify the names that have been swapped if any have been, thank you," Masako said while holding her sleeve to her mouth.
"Indeed," the morbid woman strolled off giggling to herself.
"It's not just me, she is scary, right?" Monk asked the group.
"She is," Ayako agreed which was a small miracle.
John just smiled awkwardly not wanting to offend anyone and Masako looked at the Monk like he was crazy, they dealt with ghosts on a regular basis and he couldn't handle one slightly morbid woman. Weird.
"Anyway, do you sense a ghost Miss Hara?" John asked wanting to change the subject.
"Yes, it's a woman, I think," Masako said as she closed her eyes and scrunched up her face a bit.
"You think? How can you not sense something clearly?" Ayako asked.
"When a ghost is hiding it can't be sensed as easily," Masako said with a huff.
"Maybe you are just making excuses," Ayako scoffed at the young girl.
"Ladies please cat fight later," Monk said while holding his hands up in a surrender motion. In return he got a glare from each woman and a slap to the back of the head from a certain redhead.
"So there is definitely a ghost involved, that's good to know," John said to the group desperately trying to keep the peace so as not to cause a ruckus in the morgue.
Naru couldn't figure it out and that was a rare occurrence for him, but he just couldn't figure out how Mai could have a full night's sleep yet still fall asleep in base at only 11am.
He briefly played with the idea of waking her up but decided against it, purely because she could be gathering useful information and not at all because she looked peaceful and adorable. Nothing like that. At all. Fuck, he had it bad.
With that decided he walked over to the monitors to watch his other employees as they checked the morgue and to watch for any signs of this woman.
~Dream~
Mai was sure she was dreaming since she was now wandering the hospital when previously she had been in base, oh and the little detail that the hospital was now transparent and she could see the gang in the basement from the second floor was a big giveaway too.
Mai looked around for Gene for he usually told her what she was supposed to be looking at but she couldn't find him.
She did notice the boy hanging out in the girls toilets and she assumed that it was Bob, it appeared he could see her too because he waved at her. Mai waved back to try and be friendly but still refused to use that bathroom.
"Guess I'm going solo on this one," Mai muttered to herself.
Mai first decided to look more carefully at her friends in the basement, just in case she was supposed to be warning them of imminent danger. She tried her very best to ignore the morgue draws that were now just as transparent as the walls and floors thus she could see the…occupants.
She looked around and saw a woman dressed in typical nurse scrubs hiding in the back of the room. If Mai had to guess she would say that that was the ghost moving the names around but she didn't look like the threatening type of ghost, she looked…terrified.
Mai decided the focus of this dream must be elsewhere as surely Masako had already noticed the nurse in the morgue so she looked around the rest of the hospital.
Something caught her eye it was a white mist in the vague shape of a human walking towards the stairs and heading onto the third floor.
Mai took a moment to breathe deeply and think over what she had seen. She thought about the ghosts that she cannot see on the normal plane of existence and how they were clear here so maybe…
"Maybe that's what the woman looks like on the astral plane since everyone can see her normally," Mai reasoned aloud before deciding to pursue the woman and see what she gets up to.
Mai stayed close enough to the woman to follow her but far enough back that she couldn't be seen if the mist woman could in fact see her at all.
Once the mist woman was on the third floor she seemed to drift from room to room just…checking on the patients. Mai continued to follow the mist woman until the mist stopped until the mist stopped in front of the private terminal room.
"That's right, the chief said the woman always returns to this room," Mai thought to herself.
Mai cautiously walked up to the room while looking through the walls to see what the mist woman was doing. The woman was just sat next to the patient's bed, she looked like a loved one waiting for her family to wake up. Once Mai was sure she wasn't going to move around anymore she turned her rather one track mind to the patient in the bed. The person appeared to be asleep but otherwise the man, boy really, looked fine. Once Mai was standing over the bed (on the other side from the mist woman who it appeared could not see Mai at all) she noticed the patients looks.
He had black hair that went just past his ears and fell just above his eyes, his skin was a pale white, so pale that it almost looked like the boy had never seen the sun. The boys eyes were closed, his long eyelashes touching his cheek, however Mai knew that if his eyes were open they would be a shocking dark blue.
In that hospital bed was Naru!
~End of Dream~
Mai woke with a start, gulping in as much air as her lungs could hold.
"Mai are you okay?" A calm voice came from her right where Naru was kneeling next to the sofa Mai was on.
"Naru?" Mai said dreamily before tears began to form in her eyes and she lunged forwards wrapping her arms tightly around his neck.
Naru was shocked and stayed frozen for a while and just as he was about to give in and wrap his arms around Mai's trembling body she pulled herself away.
"Sorry Naru, I'm being silly, I just thought…never mind. It was just a bad dream," Mai said giving Naru a slightly weak smile as she cleared her face from tears.
Naru cleared his throat before talking "Right, well, was it of any importance to the case?"
"Yes I saw the ghost in the basement, she looked so scared," Mai said she wondered briefly if she should tell him the second part of the dream but decided against it for now. It might have just been a normal nightmare that happened to occur after the psychic dream, she still wasn't very good at telling them apart.
"So the ghost in the basement is a female?" Naru asked while making a note in his journal.
"Yes and it looked like she was a nurse, I mean she was wearing a nurse outfit…and not the stripper kind," Mai said making sure Naru had as much detail of the dream as she could give, though she couldn't resist the stripper gag.
Naru didn't look impressed "I see," he said in a rather deadpanned voice. "Is that all?"
"Yup," Mai said popping the 'P'.
"Mai go and check all the cameras stationed around the hospital and then go get the idiots from the basement. We will see if Miss Hara can add anything you missed," Naru ordered.
Mai left the base in a bit of a huff that Naru would want Masako to add to her observation but she quickly realised that it would only make sense to check every available source…even if her could have phrased it nicer.
Mai continued to drift slowly through all the halls and rooms they had been permitted to place cameras in smiling and poking her tongue out at each camera, she checked to make sure it was securely in place and running perfectly. She enjoyed pulling faces at the lens and imagining Lin's nonplussed reaction on the other side. Mai got to the third and final floor of the hospital and continued checking cameras until she noticed she was standing outside the private room that Naru was laying in, in her dream of course not real life.
Mai stood for several minutes before deciding to just go in, the worst that could happen is that she has to apologise for storming into someone's room. Mai edged the door open before peeking around the door.
The first thing Mai noticed was how dim the room was and due to the dim (okay non-existent) lighting she assumed no one was in the bed but then her severely one track mind finally took noticed of the impressive amount of monitors for an empty room to have, monitors that were steadily beeping as well.
Finally she noticed that someone was indeed in the hospital bed but it was of course not Naru, she had left him safely in base with Lin, the likeness was there though. For lying in the bed in what Mai could only assume was a deep coma was a still very much alive Gene Davis.
DUN DUN DUNNNNNN
Yeah I told you alot of people would hate me and that would be why...oh well!
So what will Mai do? Tell Naru? Psh like she ever tells Naru anything!
See you all next chapter! Please review and let me know what you think!