Chapter 11-Not Good
March Day 5, 5:35 P.M.
"Hey, Naru..." Her words were soft and slurred as Naru turned around at the call of his name. He knew something wasn't right.
"Mai?" he called as he watched her body sway. Her eyelids began to droop and before he could react, her knees had given out and she was falling. "Mai!"
Luckily, he was able to catch her before she hit the ground. Her breathing was shallow as he adjusted her to be leaning on his chest. He felt her forehead. It was warm. "This is not good," he determined glancing at the setting sun behind them.
***
"They're not in the hotel," Lin muttered as Yasuhara struggled to keep up with the taller man's strides. They had just spoken with Saburo, who hadn't seen them all day. And despite the older man's calm exterior, the college student knew he was a little more than frazzled at the moment.
"I mean, I could have told you that simply from the video footage," Yasuhara quipped as he took an extra step to keep up. "But I'm going to assume you're getting your information from your Shiki."
Lin didn't respond, but his pace seemed to quicken. It was then that Yasuhara resigned himself to actually using the gym on campus, at the very least to get his cardio and endurance up. He wondered briefly if Naru ever had trouble keeping up with the man. He brushed the thought aside with an eyeroll, Naru would never find himself having to keep up with someone else. He would make sure they go at his pace.
"...last saw them," Lin's deep voice was low as it tended to get when he was concentrating on something. Almost as though he were speaking to himself. The college student blinked hard before shaking his head.
"Say that again, my mind wandered."
"I said, 'We need to find who last saw them,'" Lin repeated, stopping at the elevators and stabbing his finger into the button.
"I take it we're gonna start with housekeeping?" The elevator door opened and the two men stepped inside. "They're most likely to gossip, meaning-"
"Someone probably saw them or heard someone saw them," Lin finished as the car shot up to the next floor.
An unsettling feeling filled Yasuhara's stomach, making him frown. "I don't have a good feeling about this."
The elevator stopped and they had stepped out, but Lin stopped to give the young man a look. "Meaning?"
"This morning Kiko mentioned that if it weren't for the date thing yesterday, we wouldn't have been the ones to find the skeleton." The taller man gave him another look to continue. "She said it would have been Mai."
With a rather grim look from the otherwise stoic man, Lin nodded and headed down the hall in search of one of the maids. "Miss Hironaka!"
He found one.
***
She felt light, like she was floating in a pool. She was warm, as though the pool was heated. She took in a deep breath and noticed the air smelled crisp, like the forest behind the resort-
With that, she snapped her eyes open and found a familiar facing smiling down on her. "Hello, Mai," he said as she sat up and rubbed her head.
"What happened, Ji?" she asked catching the boy off guard.
"What did you just call me?" It was a bit of a déjà vu moment for Mai as she blinked at him.
She shook her head and furrowed her brow. "I...I don't know..." She took another breath and pulled her knees to her chest. "I mean, I know you're my spirit guide and you disguise yourself as Naru so that I would understand these visions better. But I guess it's a little weird to call you a name that isn't yours, so I made one up?"
The dark haired boy in front of her gave her a curious look, but smiled nonetheless. "I don't mind if you call me Naru," he said with almost a sad look in his eyes.
"But that's not your name," Mai protested with a pout. "You're allowed to have a preference to what name people call you by."
"Like how you nicknamed your boss 'Naru the Narcissist?'"
"He never told me to stop calling him that. If he did, I would have gone back to calling him Kazuya," Mai said with a huff. Her guide wasn't sure if he should laugh or roll his eyes.
"Would you have?" he teased, nudging her lightly. "Tell the truth."
With that, Mai started laughing. "Probably not," she admitted with a shrug. "But seriously, what is your name?"
The look in the man's eyes was a cross between sadness, pain, and hope. Mai had no idea why this spirit was feeling this way, but she knew he was. Still, he smiled. "What do you think is my name?"
"Jin." The word was out of her mouth before she had processed his question. She blinked hard and shook her head. "Where did that come from?"
"I'm not sure," Gene lied. It was only a matter of time now before his brother found out. "Feel free to call me whatever feels most comfortable to you."
"Idiot."
"If you must."
Mai couldn't help but laugh. She was honestly not sure how she could have ever confused her guide for her boss for so long. They might look alike, but their personalities were completely different. Her laughter died down as she realized something. "You never answered my question, what happened to me? I was just outside with Naru when I-"
"That would be my fault," Gene admitted. "I need to show you something, I would have shown you last night, but I was too selfish to."
"Selfish?" Mai repeated with a raised brow.
"We hadn't spoken in almost six months and I didn't want it ruined with what I'm about to show you." His face had hardened with what might have been guilt. Mai nodded and together they stood up. Just in time for the scene to change before them.
***
"That long ago?" Monk asked Kikuchi as she was closing up her shop. "And you don't know where they went?"
"I can tell you that your manager badgered me on info about that body they pulled from the lake. Of course now he decides that I might be onto something," Kikuchi complained with a roll of her eyes as she locked the door.
"Please excuse his behavior, he tends to forget his manners," Madoka said with an apologetic smile. "But, we do need to find him. You didn't see where he and Mai went when they left, did you?"
"Back to the hotel, I suppose." The woman shrugged, dropping her key into her pocket. "He asked me about the Motos and when he ran out of questions he dragged his wife away. Try their room, they're probably having at it as we speak." She walked away while grumbling under her breath, "Going at it like rabbits, them newlyweds."
"Well that got us nowhere," Madoka said with a huff and crossed her arms. "I would say that maybe we should check their room again, but I know they won't be there."
Monk held his chin in his hand as he was trying to process the information they had. "What did Naru want to talk with her about? About the little girl's body?" he asked, furrowing his brow.
"I guess so, but Ms. Kikuchi also mentioned the Moto couple. So it is possible he had some questions about them-"
"That's it!" Monk snapped his fingers, startling the woman.
"What's it?"
"I know where they went!"
***
The sun was setting, making navigating through the trails even more of a chore as Naru trekked on. He had somehow managed to get Mai on his back after she fainted. He leaned her against a tree and maneuvered her up on his back to carry her easier.
Her breathing was labored and Naru knew her fever was rising. Her cheeks felt hot against the crook of his neck. The trail he took was leading a little ways away from the lake, but from what he could tell he was heading the right way. He had to be.
Going uphill was not fun for the young manager. Luckily he didn't have to climb, but the added weight did not make it easy. He wasn't too sure how she had gotten so sick so quickly, but he didn't like it.
"Nuh..." Mai groaned and them began whimpering. Was she in pain? Was she dreaming? Maybe a vision? Did a vision make her sick?
Naru didn't know and if there was one thing he hated, it was not knowing something. So he hoisted her up further on his back and picked up the pace as much as he could. He needed to hurry with the night falling fast. "We're almost there, Mai," he said softly as he could see the peak of the hill in front of him.
If only they were closer than he knew they were.
***
"So Ms. Kikuchi and Tomomi used to play down here?" Madoka asked as she turned on the light of the basement. Cobwebs seemed to cover most of the room as she watched Monk lift off one of the white sheets covering the furniture.
"Man, I feel like we're in another time," he said with a whistle. "And yeah, that's what Shizumu told Ayako and I. He said they would explore the woods and caves, sneak into the kitchen, go swimming and cause mischief down here."
He dropped the sheet back into its place as he surveyed the walls on the basement. Madoka did the same on the other side of the room. "They have filing cabinets, probably former employees' information and probably paperwork from back with Juro's father ran the resort." She looked over her shoulder to see Monk knocking on the walls. "Either way, they're new, unlike the rest of this stuff. What are you doing? Think a secret passageway will open if you tap out a code?"
"It's worth a shot," he replied with a sigh. "At the very least I could see if maybe there used to be a door or a passageway. You know, find a hollow spot."
"Kind of difficult when you're knocking on cement." The woman crossed her arms in front of her. "There are no seams in the walls, nothing to indicate a door or that a door might have been sealed up. And even if one was, it wouldn't explain where Mai and Naru went, so what are you trying to get at?"
Madoka was not a stupid woman. It might have been stupid of her to force SPR to pretend to be married to each other, especially after what happened that the college nearly two months before, but she was unaware of the incident. Aside from that one occurrence, she was very good at picking up when someone was withholding information from her.
She was also good at figuring it out on her own. "The Motos wanted to find Tomomi," she said before Monk had a chance to explain. She shook her head as the understanding came over her. Almost as though she were reading his mind. "You knew that Tomomi and Kikuchi would play down here and thought there might have once been a passageway for them to follow outside. And that the Moto couple might have found it-"
"And Juro sealed it to cover up their murders," Monk finished with a scratch of his head. "I'm starting to understand why Ayako blew up at me. The theory sounded much more sane in my head."
"You really suspected that Shizumu killed the Motos?"
Monk's eyes widened. "I didn't tell you that, how did you know?"
"Not too hard to figure out," she said smoothly. "You mentioned that Shizumu was the one who told you that Tomomi and Kikuchi would play down her and you were momentarily convinced their bodies were behind one of these walls."
Monk eyed the woman in front of him skeptically. He turned on his heel back to the wall. "Then where did they go?"
***
The scene had changed and Mai could see a thin girl sitting at the edge of the lake with her bare feet in the water. Her hair was jet black and cut into a very short bob. She moved her feet about in the water, completely unaware of the other girl who was sneaking up behind her.
This girl's dark brown hair was cut into a pixie and if it weren't for the style of her lavender t-shirt, it would be easy to mistake her for a boy. She walked right up to the unsuspecting girl and tapped her on the shoulder. "Can I sit with you?" she asked in a voice that was much higher than one would expect coming out of her.
"Sure," the other girl nodded. The boyish looking girl had taken off her shoes and socks and joined her new friend with her own feet in the water.
Once they were both settled, she turned to the bobbed haired girl. "I'm Akemi, what's your name?"
"I'm Tomo-" The other girl hesitated, seeming to literally bite her tongue. "My name is Tomi."
The scene changed again and Mai just turned to her guide. "So Ms. Kikuchi really did play with Tomomi, the girl who disappeared?"
Jin nodded solemnly as a new scene appeared before them. "Unfortunately, that's the only happy scene I have to show you."
Mai turned her attention to the two girls finding the trapdoor in the basement. "Tomi! Let's go explore it!" Akemi exclaimed excitedly as they hopped down with their flashlights and closing the trapdoor behind them. "I'm sure this leads to the caves! I can smell the lake."
"Right behind you," Tomi said, turning on her flashlight. "Hey, Akemi?"
"Yeah?"
"Why haven't you brought your other friends to play at the hotel?"
At the question, Akemi's face seemed to fall. She took a deep breath and put on a brave face. "Because, everyone thinks I'm weird." She didn't give Tomi a chance to respond, before she elaborated. "They think I'm weird because I like my hair short like a boy. They think the pretend games I come up with are too weird and confusing. I'm not exactly like the other girls in school so they do their thing and I do mine."
"Akemi..."
"But it's okay. I like it this way, their games are way too boring!" Akemi started laughing and locked her arm around Tomi's. "And I have had more fun with you in the last few days than I ever had with any of them."
"I didn't want to be here," Tomi admitted after a moment. "I don't know why I had to go here, but I think I'm glad I did. Otherwise I wouldn't have met such a good friend."
And suddenly, Mai wasn't sure what Jin had meant about the last scene being the last happy one. This one wasn't horrible, compared to what she had seen in the past. But she soon understood when the two girls reached the end of the same tunnel she had just gone through.
"Akemi?" Tomi asked as they both looked out onto the lake.
"Yeah?"
"Can you promise me something?" she asked, and Mai could almost feel the girl's throat get tight. She knew she wasn't going to like what was coming next.
"Depends on the promise," Akemi teased with a laugh but shook her head. "Of course I can promise you, what's wrong?"
"If I leave, will you promise to ask for me?" The laid back atmosphere had faded from Akemi as she looked as though she might cry. "If anything happens, don't forget about me. Even if everyone else does. I don't want to be forgotten."
And Mai watched as a tear fell from Tomomi's eye. Akemi gave a firm nod to her friend. "I promise. But you have to promise me something. Promise you won't leave me."
"Akemi, I don't know if I could make that promise." And Mai finally noticed it.
Tomomi was wearing the shirt she wore when she died. Pink with daisies on the sleeves and a heart on the front.
***
"Yeah, I spoke to them," Chika said, taking some towels off of her cart and heading into the open hotel room.
"Do you remember when this was?" Yasuhara asked, following her into the room.
"You," she emphasized with her finger, "can't be in here." She went back to fixing the towels on their rack. "As for when, I think it might have been around two? It was right after I clocked in for my shift. I was supposed to do a double last night but it got switched at the last minu-"
"Did they tell you where they were going?" Lin asked, a tad impatient.
"Well, I assume they went down to the basement," Chika said with a shrug as she closed the door and pushed her cart to the next room. "They did ask me how to get there. What they were looking for, I have no idea. But I hate it down there, it's so cold and always gives me the creeps."
"Which way?" Lin was not patient with her. Chika simply raised a brow.
"The door is right across from Mr. Mizushima's office." Lin gave the woman a nod and briskly walked in the direction of the elevators. "But that was hours ago! There's no way they would still be down there!"
"Thank you, Miss Hironaka! We're just going to make sure!" Yasuhara called back as he ran up to the taller man. A finger was jabbed into the elevator button and soon the doors opened. "She's right, there's no way they would still be down there. Even if they found something, they would have gone back to Base since Naru's phone is dead."
"Naru's as much a magnet for danger as Mai," Lin said as they got into the car and the doors closed. "They probably got locked in."
The car descended and Yasuhara crossed his arms. "Wouldn't they have called for help?"
"Remember the case at the theater?"
And the college student nodded. "Right, the spirit would muffle sounds and that's why no one heard him and Mai banging on the door of the basement when they got locked in." He put his hand to his chin as he thought. "I still think it's a long shot to find them there."
Lin gave the younger man a peculiar glance before turning his attention back to the doors. No. He couldn't be developing clairvoyant abilities. He's too old for that to start. He's just getting very good at figuring out the obstacles SPR faces. That's it.
***
The scene had changed to a couple in bed, barely any light shown through the window and Mai knew it was very early in the morning. There was a banging on the door and the man in the bed stood up groggily and paced to the door. It was opened and the man was met with another who grabbed his shirt collar and leaned close.
"Get your wife and come outside!" the second man growled, confusing the sleepy man.
The scene shifted again and Mai was outside watching as the two men from before were standing with two women, presumably their wives. They were huddled around the bank of the lake and the woman who had been sleeping in the bed covered her mouth. "Tomi-chan..." she whimpered.
"You promised us a relaxing, fun vacation and here we are with our daughter dead!" the second man growled at the couple. The whimpering woman clung to her husband as she shook.
"It was just an accident. A horrible, tragic accident," the first man said, stroking his wife's hair. "There wasn't anything we could do to prevent this. We'll call the police and explain what happened-"
"You'll do no such thing!" the second wife barked. "This is your fault! You both will clean up your mess." The couple was about to protest but the woman made tsking sounds and wagged her finger. "Guests will be waking up soon, do you want them to see this? It will damage your reputation beyond repair."
Mai did not like the tone the woman had with her threat. But she watched in silence as the couple was forced to move the little girl into the forest and tied her to rocks before throwing her into the lake. The first wife couldn't stop crying as she did it. It faded into what must have been the hotel owners' office. The second couple was in there as well, and the first man looked furious.
"That's ridiculous! It was an accident! Not negligence!" he roared, banging his fist on his desk, causing his wife to flinch.
"Would you prefer we file a missing persons' report and call the police? I'm sure they would have quite a few questions when they find Tomi's body in the lake," the second wife said with a smirk.
"Just pay them," whimpered the first wife as she shook her head. "Just pay them..."
The scene faded and Mai turned to her guide. "Those people were horrible," she said, suddenly feeling sick to her stomach. "Tomomi wasn't the first child they took, was she?"
Jin's face became sad as he shook his head. "She wasn't the last either." Mai wanted to puke. She couldn't believe that they not only got away with such an atrocity once, but multiple times? She could only hope they suffered a horrible death.
"They were never caught." Mai felt fury boil in her stomach as Jin continued. "But fifteen years ago, they did get in a car accident that left the husband paralyzed and the wife dead. They got what was coming to them."
"Too little too late, if you ask me," Mai said with a huff. Tomomi knew she was going to die. She knew from the beginning. It was a waiting game for her. She didn't deserve that.
"Better late than never," he said, turning back to where the scene had been. "While you might not be able to go to the police, at least Tomomi's story was finally told. She'll be able to rest now. Isn't that right?"
The little girl with bobbed black hair and pink t-shirt materialized before Mai and Jin. She looked up at them with a smile. "Pretty," she said pointing to Mai.
"Thank you," Mai replied slightly taken aback. Tomomi's smile grew and she lunged into Mai, wrapping her arms around the teen's middle.
"You listened!" the girl exclaimed, squeezing tight. "Thank you!"
"Tomomi-chan," Jin interrupted as the girl looked up but did not let go of Mai. "There's one more thing you have to show Mai."
Tomomi nodded and pulled herself away, but held Mai's hand. "They tried to help me. I tried to show them, but they didn't understand my clues."
"You mean Kenshin and Haruna Moto?" Mai asked as the girl nodded.
"I didn't want them hurt! I swe-"
"I know. It's not your fault," Mai said softly as she brushed a lock of hair behind the girl's ear. "None of this was ever your fault."
Tomomi smiled and wiped a tear from her eye as she turned back to where the scenes had been played. It was time for the final scene to play out.
***
"Oh my god!" Ayako exclaimed as she turned away from the monitors on the table and raced out the door of Base. Kiko looked back in confusion, before looking back at the monitors and seeing what the woman had.
"This can't be good," she muttered as she sprinted out the door in the direction the priestess had gone. Outside she found the priestess running up to Naru who had Mai on his back. "What happened?"
Ayako ignored her question as she kept her pace with the young manager with her hand on Mai's head. "She's burning up," she said, turning to Kiko as they passed her. "Kiko, stay in Base and let everyone know we found them."
Kiko ran back to Base, while Ayako followed Naru to the elevator. She jabbed her finger into the button as Naru adjusted the girl on his back. Ayako hit the button for their floor, once the doors closed, she checked Mai's pulse.
"What happened?" she asked as the car ascended.
"We were out by the cave and she collapsed," he explained as Mai began shivering behind him. He glanced back at her. "She wasn't feeling well last night either."
"Well, she hasn't been feeling great for a while." The doors opened to their floor and they stepped out.
"I figured that out when I found her doing homework at three in the morning."
"When did she fall asleep?" They paused at Naru and Mai's room as Naru fished his room key from his pocket.
"Before eleven and she didn't wake up until after noon," he replied as Ayako unlocked and opened the door, shooting him an odd look. "I asked her earlier."
Once in the room, Naru headed for Mai's side of the bed. With the priestess's help, he was able to slide the girl off of his back and onto the bed. Within a moment, Mai was safely tucked in and Ayako had run a washcloth under cold water and placed it on the young psychic's head.
Mai gave another shiver as she squirmed under the blankets. "If she doesn't wake up in an hour I'm calling for an ambulance," Ayako said with a sigh. "I can't figure out what's wrong unless she tells me what's going on, but this could be appendicitis."
"She wasn't complaining about a pain in her side," Naru said. Ayako shrugged.
"She could have thought it was something else. I've known a couple women who didn't go to hospital until it was almost too late because they thought it was just menstrual cramps."
Naru nodded as though the information didn't faze him. Instead he looked to his "wife" and then back at the priestess. "Stay with her then, I'm going to meet everyone else in Base."
"Probably best, we learned a lot while you two were gone-"
"No! Don't!"
The two snapped their heads to a thrashing Mai.
***
"Monk, my love, I just knew you would figure it out too!" Yasuhara exclaimed as he followed Lin down the stair to the basement.
"Aren't you married to Kiko?" Madoka asked with her hands on her hips. The college student shrugged with his head cocked to the side.
"Everyone's got a skeleton in their closet, Monk's mine." Monk facepalmed and groaned. Yasuhara simply grinned.
"We think Naru and Mai might have gone down here to investigate since the Moto couple were interested in finding out what happened to Tomomi," Madoka explained to Lin. "So far all we got is dusty."
"We found Miss Hironaka and she had directed Mai and Naru down here," Yasuhara added his side from behind the Chinese man.
I'm a Barbie girl! In a Barbie world!
Yasuhara's face grew pink as he realized the music was coming from his pocket. Monk and Madoka were trying to maintain their composure as the college student fished the device out of his pocket. "Well, hello there, Kiko."
Monk and Madoka kept glancing at each other, trying to hold in their laughter. If the monk's suspicions were correct, then someone had taken Yasuhara's phone and changed his ringtone today and turned the volume up full blast. Finally a little payback for him changing everyone's phone numbers a few cases ago, Monk thought triumphantly.
Yasuhara hung up and turned back. "We should head back to Base, Naru and Mai are back."
"Whatever you say," Madoka said with a giggle, "Babie Girl."
Monk lost it and so did Madoka, Yasuhara only scowled at them. "This means you're my Ken, Monk!" he shouted, but it only made them laugh harder. "This means war!" he muttered as he followed a smirking Lin up the stairs.
***
Mai watched as the scene changed once again and she saw Haruna and Kenshin were talking to Shizumu in front of the stables. "No, we're not going to riding today, we have other plans," Haruna said with a glance to her husband.
"That's a shame, it's a beautiful day for it," Shizumu said with a sigh, before crossing his arms and grinning.
"We were considering actually hiking some of the trails today," Kenshin replied, nudging his wife. "I left something in the room, I'll be right back." And he left.
"Mr. Shizumu," Haruna began, putting her hands on her hips. "I wanted to know if you knew anything about that story that Ms. Kikuchi goes on and on about."
"Well, I'm not really sure I can help you," Shizumu admitted, scratching his head. "I did go to school with Akemi down in the village, but I didn't really know her. I just heard the stories she had about them sneaking off to places."
"By 'them,' I assume you mean Kikuchi and the girl she says died here." The man nodded. "Where would they sneak off to?"
"If I recall correctly, they would swim in the lake, go hiking, explore the caves, things like that." He put his finger to his chin in thought. "Though they were mischievous, she would also talk about them sneaking into the kitchen and stealing snacks. And they would also sneak into the basement to scare each other, I suppose."
"I see, and are all of the trails the same as before the resort reopened?"
"No, some are new or have been trimmed up to be easier to walk through. A lot of the area became overgrown once the first resort closed."
Everything shifted and Mai was now following the Moto couple as they hiked closer and closer to the cave. She felt the young girl next to her tense up as the couple grinned and waltzed into the cavern with their flashlights. "It's all my fault! I should've given them better clues!"
Mai felt her stomach drop as the couple wandered deeper and deeper into the cave. Something wasn't right. "No! Don't! Don't go further!" She couldn't stop herself from screaming out.
She tried to run toward the couple to stop their impending death, but the ground beneath her began to shake. An earthquake? She wondered, turning to Jin and Tomomi for confirmation only to find them gone. Her wrist began burning from where Tomomi held it.
"Naru!"
***
"Naru!" Mai groaned and thrashed. Naru had gone back to her side and began shaking her shoulders.
"Wake up, Mai!" he ordered sternly, holding her arms down so she wouldn't hurt him or herself. "It's just a dream! Wake up!"
With that her eyes snapped open and she made to shoot up into a sitting position, but Naru's grip kept her down. "Stay down, you'll hurt yourself."
"Everything's okay, Mai," Ayako said softly as she replaced the towel on the girl's head. "You just need to rest."
Mai just glanced between the two above her, still trying to swim her way out of her fogginess. Why was she suddenly so cold? "I'm back at the hotel?" she mumbled with a shiver.
Ayako turned back to Naru. "Go back to Base, I'll fill Mai in on what happened here and she'll fill me in on what you guys were doing." The man in black hesitated, causing the priestess to roll her eyes and wave him away with her hand. "Go on, shoo, Madoka and Lin are worried. Don't keep them waiting."
Naru nodded and headed out of the room. If he heard Ayako's muttering of "Idiot" he never acknowledged it. Once the door had closed, Mai looked up at the priestess. "What the hell happened?" she asked with a raised brow.
"Naru said you passed out by the caves," Ayako said, sitting down on the edge of the bed. She brushed a lock of hair off of the teen's cheek. "He carried you all the way here and you have a pretty high fever. How do you feel?"
"Probably like I have a hangover," she admitted with a shiver. The priestess chuckled, using the back of her hand to feel the back of Mai's neck.
"Let me guess, nauseas, achy, and you're head is killing you." Mai nodded slightly causing a throb to pulse throughout her head. Ayako smiled softly, as she pulled her hand away. "So aside from your head, you're not in any pain?" The girl shook her head softly. "What were you and Naru doing by the caves?"
Mai closed her eyes and let out a breath. "We weren't supposed to be in the caves, at least, not originally," she explained. "We found out from Ms. Kikuchi that the Moto couple asked her about Tomomi and found out they had played in the basement." She opened her eyes and pursed her lips. "So we went down there and found a trapdoor in the floor. Naru jumped down and the next thing I knew I was pushed into the hole and the door was closed behind us."
"You were pushed?"
"It felt like I was, but there was no one there. Once the trapdoor was shut some furniture was dragged over it and the light in the basement went out." She took a breath and decided not to fill Ayako in on some of the moments she had shared with their boss. "I didn't have my phone and Naru's was dead, so we couldn't wait around for you guys to go looking for us and we noticed we were in a tunnel that most likely lead to the caves across the lake."
"You two wandered for hours in a dark cave and when you two got out you passed out?"
Mai nodded and widened her eyes in realization. She shot up to a sitting position and grabbed the priestess's hand. "I had a vision! I had a vision! I had a-oh!" In her excitement she forgot her dizziness, only to have in crash upon her. She grabbed her head and fell back onto the pillow.
"Congrats, but that doesn't mean you can get out of bed," Ayako said with a chuckle and a shake of her head.