Now You See Me (self-insert #7)

Chapter 6

Out in the corridor, we stared up at the ceiling. After a moment, Lin spoke up. "It appears we need to go up and look."

"In that case, it would be best not to become scattered, but the situation is complicated because there's a door between floors, so there's the possibility of anyone who goes through it ending up trapped on the second floor." Naru pointed out.

Lin shrugged. "Brown-san, please stay here. You too, Matsuzaki-san."

"I'll come with you." I cut in. "No, don't interrupt me. I'm your assistant, and that means watching your back in situations like these."

"Nira..."

"I'm not asking permission."

Lin tried to stare at me into obedience, but I folded my arms. Eventually, he sighed. "Fine." He said reluctantly.

"Great!" I cheered.

We crawled through the small toddler-sized door, feeling Mai's gaze on our backs. "We'll be right here!" She told us, her voice shrill.

Lin flashed her one of his rare polite smiles. "Thank you. Come on, Nira."

I trotted after him, my hand hovering hesitantly over the grimy railing while the other lifted my abaya the way a princess would lift her gown. "I'm taking the longest bath after this case."

"After you torch the building, right?"

"Right. Thanks for reminding me." My breath caught in my chest as my foot somehow nearly missed the landing. "I'll do that, roast some marshmallows for s'mores, then take a bath."

"Hm."

We reached the top of the staircase and entered the first classroom when it hit us.

Literally hit us.

One minute we were pushing open the sliding door, the next we were lying on the floor in crumpled heaps, trying to breathe through flattened lungs, and my backpack—which had a laptop in it—did not help. I curled up into a ball, dazedly wondering when the brain rattling banging would stop. High pitched laughter mingled in with the commotion, unless that was a side effect of suddenly having your lungs squeezed like a tube of toothpaste.

All of the sudden, it stopped.

Next to me, Lin grunted as he pulled himself upright. "Nira? You..." He coughed before continuing hoarsely, "Are you okay?"

"Ow." I rolled onto my side and pushed myself up, wincing as my entire front twinged. "I feel peachy. You?"

"I'm fine, aside from a cut on my hand."

"What?" I slipped off my backpack and began digging through it, pulling out items as I found them. "Alcohol swab. Bandage. Any splinters? I've got tweezers."

"None." He said, ripping open the alcohol swab and pressing it to the jagged line of red. He clenched his teeth.

"Thank God. If you did, I was going to make you pull them out." I waited for him to finish patching himself up before speaking. "What happened to Naru and the others?"

"Let's go see."

We managed to stagger to the open doors though I did it with far more groaning and wincing. Lin took the pain silently as we hurried as fast as possible down the hall and down the stairs.

Nothing.

"Naru?" Lin called. "Naru?!"

"DOCTOR OLIVER EDGAR CAYCE DAVIS?!"

Lin rounded on me. I smiled disarmingly. "They can't here or see us. I just remembered. Every time a person ends up on their own, they vanish. To us it seems like the opposite, but that's not true."