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CHAPTER FOUR.
Spoiler: click to toggle January 16th, 2009
Since Shibutaku crossed over I’ve had very little ghost encounters. Lind L. Tailor shows up every now and again, helping me research the Kira Case. He’s also helped me with contacting the Task Force. I started out by sending an e-mail to the Kanto Police Department requesting to be told more information regarding the Kira Case. They replied back quickly telling me to keep myself updated with newspapers and television broadcasts.
I continued sending e-mail after e-mail though, and even sent a letter through snail-mail. I made the same request each and every time, but wording it a little differently. I figured that eventually they’d either file a restraining order or give in.
It was Lind who told me to do what ended up getting me a meeting with the Task Force. He told me to call the police department and tell them I had vital information on the Kira Case. The first time I called they hung up on me, thinking it was some kind cruel practical joke. The second time I managed to hold their attention long enough to ask about working with the Task Force, but they simply told me that there was no Task Force in Kanto and they couldn’t help me, and they hung up before I had the chance to protest.
The third time I called I was finally able to wear them down. I explained that I had managed to gather information about the Kira Case. I then told them that I did some further research to find that Kira is believed to be located in Kanto. I let them know that this was the reason I believed that any police team working against Kira would be stationed there. And then I asked for a meeting with the Japanese Task Force.
“I’ll see what I can do,” the woman on the other line said. We hung up, and that evening I received a call from the Kanto Police Department. They were giving me all the details about my meeting that I would be having on January 16th. They told me to come to the building at exactly 8:10 in the morning and to use the main entrance. They said that I should ask for Soichiro Yagami and promised that I would be in his office to speak with him by 8:15. They said that I would have to be quick and wished for the meeting to be over by 9:00. That didn’t give me much time to make a convincing argument to Mr. Yagami, but since I’d waited so long to get the meeting I figured I had no choice but to agree to the strict time frame.
As soon as I hung up I began to plan out what I would say to Soichiro Yagami. I wrote down possible ways to tell him of my “gift” to speak to the dead, but each new draft sounded worse than the previous. As I was beginning to consider blowing off the meeting all together, Lind L. Tailor showed up again.
“You’ve been waiting too long to just give up that meeting,” he said.
“I know,” I sighed, tossing a paper full of scribbles and cross outs into the waste basket. “But if I can’t tell him then what’s the point?”
“The point is putting a ruthless murderer in prison!” Lind yelled. He sounded truly angry and it frightened me a little. I’d never seen him like that. Was it this kind of rage that sent him behind bars? “Kira killed me and countless others, Em! I understand that we were criminals, but did we really deserve death?!”
“Well…Some were on death row.”
“Like me?” He turned his back. “Em, when he killed me he thought I was L. L was an innocent person, but Kira tried to kill him because he wanted to tell the world that Kira is evil. Who knows how many other people died because they insulted Kira, or just because they were in his way.”
Silence settled over us. I’d forgotten that Lind L. Tailor had been an inmate on death row. And I’d never thought of the Kira Case the way he did. Then again, he had a lot more time to mull it over in the years before he came to me.
“Lind?”
“Hmm?” He kept his back to me.
“C-can I practice what I’m going to say to Mr. Yagami with you?”
Finally he turned around again and looked me in the eyes.
“Sure.”
Lind and I spent a good two hours working out what I would say to Soichiro Yagami during our short meeting, which was why I felt ready as I walked through the doors of the Kanto Police Department at 8:10 this morning.
“I’m here to see Soichiro Yagami,” I said. The woman at the desk, the same woman who had been there the last time I came, must have been informed of this meeting, because before she got up to lead the way to Mr. Yagami’s office she checked the time. She then took me up three flights stairs and down a long hall to the office. She reminded me of the meeting’s pre-set time frame and then returned to work.
Before I had a chance to knock the door opened and a man with graying hair and square-framed glasses appeared before me.
“Em, I’m assuming?” I nodded and he stepped aside to let me in. He shut and locked the door and then took his seat behind his desk. The office was like any other professional’s office you’d see. Mr. Yagami’s degrees and certificates decorated the walls, and amongst all the office supplies were a few pictures of his family.
“Now,” Mr. Yagami began, pulling me from my thoughts. “I’ve been told you have information on the Kira case.” “Well, yes, Mr. Yagami, I do, but…”
“But? Are you saying you don’t have anything to tell me?”
“No, no, it’s not that. It’s just that what I have to tell you…Well, you may not believe me at first. I just need you to hear me out until the end, ok?”
He leaned back in his chair, a signal for me to start explaining.
“You see, Mr. Yagami, my whole life I’ve been different from everybody else. Ever since I was a little girl I was able to…to see and speak to the dead.”
I could see him restraining himself from stopping me to ask if I knew I was insane, or maybe he was just fighting the urge to kick me out of his office.
“My mom told me that they were earthbound spirits, and that they couldn’t cross over into the light, or in more common terms heaven, because they had unfinished business to attend to with the living, or sometimes it’s because they just can’t accept their deaths. Anyway, I’ve had some hauntings recently from various ghosts who I believe to be victims of the killer Kira. The names of these spirits are Lind L. Tailor, Takuo Shibuimaru, and there’s another but he doesn’t give his name or even let me see his face. He is very powerful though, and whenever he comes I feel like I’m having a heart attack.”
I was surprised that Mr. Yagami was so far doing as I asked and letting me say all I had to say before commenting.
“This spirit…He told me that the Kira Case should have been solved by now. He said that if Kira had already been captured then many lives would have been spared, and he seems to think the reason Kira has yet to be captured is his fault.”
I paused again for a breath, and when Mr. Yagami said nothing I continued.
“These spirits are all very troubled, Mr. Yagami. Although I have gotten Takuo Shibuimaru into the light, the other two aren’t able to go yet. They’re linked to their killer and they can’t rest in peace until he is arrested. That’s why I would like to work alongside the Japanese Task Force in order to find Kira. It’s necessary for me to see to it that Kira is captured so that these spirits can finally be at ease.”
I was finally finished, and I sat back and waited for Soichiro Yagami’s response. He took a few moments to absorb everything I had told him, and he was very calm as he at last had his chance to speak.
“Well, Em…The hospital is on the opposite end of town, not terribly far away, and the psych ward is located on the second floor.”
That was new. I’d never been directed to a psych ward before. First time for everything, huh?
“Mr. Yagami, I assure you I am not lying. Everything I just told you is one hundred percent truth. Please believe me.”
“Young lady, do you honestly expect me to believe all that you just said?”
I was quiet for a moment, going over the rehearsal Lind and I had last night in my head.
“No,” I replied. “If I heard someone tell me all of that, I would have trouble believing it, too. But Mr. Yagami, that doesn’t mean it isn’t true. Let me work you with you and you’ll be able to see that I’m not lying.”
I’d never wanted anybody to believe me about seeing ghosts so badly. I just prayed Soichiro Yagami and the Task Force would give me a chance.
“Em, I can’t let you into the Task Force based on what you’ve just told you me.”
I figured that. I glanced at the clock. It was 8:50. I only had ten minutes to make a reasonable closing argument. It seemed that I would need a miracle to get Mr. Yagami to believe me, and that miracle came in the form of a certain death row inmate. I’d never been so happy to see a ghost show up, and I’d never loved Lind L. Tailor’s ability to pop up at the most random moments more.
“Just listen to her!” Lind exclaimed, his eyes on Mr. Yagami. “She can help you!”
This was my chance to prove to Soichiro Yagami that I could see ghosts. If I could prove to him that Lind was really in that office with us he would let me into the Task Force. Either that or he’d think I was making it all up and would personally take me to the psychiatric ward of the hospital across town.
“Why can’t he hear me?” Lind asked, turning to me. I shook my head.
“Mr. Yagami, one of the spirits I told you about, one of the Kira victims, Lind L. Tailor, is here.”
“What are you saying?” he asked. Lind continued to ask me why Mr. Yagami was ignoring him.
“Lind L. Tailor is here with us. He seems desperate to see Kira brought to justice. Please, Mr. Yagami, if you allow me to be on the Task Force I’ll be able to tell you what the victims know about their killer, and I’ll be able to help them find peace.”
“Is this some kind of joke, Em?” Mr. Yagami asked.
“It’s not a joke! Listen to her! She can help us both! Listen to her!”
I felt bad for Lind. All he wanted was to be able to cross over into the light, and I wasn’t able to do anything for him. I needed the help of the Task Force, I needed to know that there was someone backing me up so that all these wounded spirits could heal.
“Em, why isn’t he listening?”
“Lind,” I said, finally acknowledging the ghost. “He can’t see you or hear you. He doesn’t know you’re here.”
“Then let me prove it to him!” Lind shouted. He rushed towards Mr. Yagami’s desk and knocked over the picture frames, then reached over them to take the papers the police officer had in front of him. He threw the papers across the room and then tore all of Soichiro Yagami’s certificates off the walls.
“Lind!” I yelled as he tossed the empty chair beside me. It collided with the wall with a resounding thud, and then crashed to the floor. “Lind, stop it! Lind!”
The sudden mood swings Lind had been having recently really scared me, especially when he got this violent. But they always made me remember that behavior like this was expected to come from criminals. And that’s what Lind was during his life: a criminal. For him, this was as normal as seeing ghosts was for me.
Lind punched the door with great force, leaving a slight indentation in the wood. He then sighed heavily and sank down to the floor.
“Believe her now?” he asked quietly. I turned to Mr. Yagami.
“Still think I’m lying?” The man seemed stunned. He wasn’t looking at me; he was looking at the spot where Lind’s fist met his door. He was looking at the papers scattered across the floor. He was looking at the overturned chair across the room.
“I think,” he finally said, “you should leave.”
I glanced at the clock. 9:00. And even if it wasn’t time for our meeting to end, I think Mr. Yagami would have wanted me gone anyway. I stood up and walked to the door, where Lind was. He got up and we left the police department together, neither of us saying a word. It wasn’t until we were in the car and driving away that Lind said anything.
“Em,” he said, his voice almost a whisper. “I’m sorry.”
I stayed silent. I didn’t really know what to say to him after all that had happened in that office.
“I…I just wanted him to believe you, so that we could find Kira sooner.”
“I know, Lind.”
“I didn’t mean to overreact like that. I should’ve stayed calm, but…I just couldn’t.”
“I know, Lind.”
“I’ve always been like that but I’ve never been able to control it. I hate that. Em, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to do what I did back there, it all just happened. I’m really sorry.”
I pulled the car over and turned to face Lind L. Tailor. I locked onto his sorrow-filled eyes and took a breath.
“Lind…Those outbursts, that rage…Is that why you were put on death row?”
He turned away from me, looked out the window and swallowed hard.
“That…That’s something I’d rather not talk about.” And then he was gone.
CHAPTER FIVE.
Spoiler: click to toggle January 20th, 2009
Lind L. Tailor has not shown up in the past three days. I haven’t felt his presence, I haven’t heard his voice, I haven’t seen him. Honestly, I’m kind of glad. I still feel a little shaken by what happened in Soichiro Yagami’s office on the 16th. But at the same time, I want him to appear to me so that I can thank him. On the morning of January 17th I received a call from Mr. Yagami.
“Em, I’ve done some thinking,” he said, and I held my breath. “After what happened yesterday I feel that I have no choice but to believe what you’ve told me. I would like you to phone conference in during a meeting of the Task Force. Now you will not be an official part of the Task Force, that can’t happen until you gain the trust of every person currently on the team. You will not be given the name of any of the Task Force members for safety and security purposes. The meeting you will take part in will be on the twentieth of January. You will call us at exactly 6:35 in the evening and you will take part in the meeting for one hour. The number you will call is 555-4547. In any further encounters this will be line one. If you are asked to participate in another you will be given the number for line two and any other subsequent lines you may need. Do you have any questions?”
I assured him that I didn’t and we hung up. Today I got the phone in my hands at 6:30. I sat on my couch staring at the clock, watching the minutes slowly bleed into each other until it was time for me to call. When I finally dialed the number I only heard one ring. Someone quickly picked up on the other line and asked who I was. I recognized the voice as Soichiro Yagami’s.
“This is Em,” I said. I heard a click, which I assumed meant I was being put on speaker phone.
“Right on time. Let’s begin.” The voice that spoke sounded younger, but full of authority.
“Em, I’ve already informed the team of what was said at our meeting.” That was obviously Mr. Yagami. “Now, is there anything you can tell us about these Kira victims?”
“Well, there are two that are definite victims. The first is Lind L. Tailor. I’m sure you will all remember him. L had him give the announcement about Kira to Kanto. He’s been helping me gather information on the case, but all of that information you’ll already have. I haven’t seen him since my meeting with you.” I paused, remembering Lind’s rage in ’s office. As frightening as it was, I owed him for that. That outburst was what got Soichiro Yagami to agree to letting me take part in this meeting.
“What about the other one?” another voice prodded eagerly. I recognized this voice. It was the man I’d met on my first visit to the police department, Touta Matsuda.
“He’s a little more mysterious. And he’s very powerful. He seems to draw on the energy of the heart.”
“Energy of the heart?” This voice was new.
“Yeah. Let me explain. Ghosts need energy to make themselves known. They usually feed off the energy of the living.”
“So this one takes energy from your heart?”
“Yes. I can only hear him speak when there’s a kind of pressure on my heart. I think it’s also his way of telling me how he died. I looked up heartaches and the pain I feel when this spirit is around is exactly like the pain described by heart attack victims.”
“Well then this spirit may have just died of a heart attack. There’s no need to assume he’s a Kira victim.” This came from the young, authoritative voice.
“Well, I would have thought that if the ghost didn’t constantly refer to Kira,” I told him. I reached in front of me to take my notebook from the coffee table. The pages of the book contained the line one number for the Task Force, a list of websites Lind had found about Kira, and some notes on the spirit that refused to show his face. “When he first haunted me he said ‘I didn’t deserve to die’. He then proceeded to tell me that he could have stopped ‘him’, he should have been careful, and then he asked me to find ‘him’. After speaking with Lind L. Tailor it became apparent to me that the ‘him’ the ghost was referring to was Kira.”
I took a moment for the Task Force to absorb what I’d told them.
“So,” the young voice began, “this spirit doesn’t believe to think he deserved to die?”
“No,” I replied. “Neither does Lind L. Tailor.”
“Lind L. Tailor was a death row inmate scheduled to die on the date of the broadcast,” the young voice countered. I took a breath and thought back to my conversations with Lind.
“Lind L. Tailor was a man pretending to be L who was killed because Kira didn’t like what he said.”
There were a few minutes filled with silence. Within these minutes something outside caught my eye. With the phone still held to my ear I got off the couch and went to the window, pushing aside the curtain with my free hand so I had an un-obscured look the street. A woman was walking outside, her hands stuffed in the pockets of her black coat. Now this is a typical sight for everyone, people go for walks all the time. But what struck me was the way that, even though the wind was blowing fiercely in preparation for a storm, the woman’s hair remained in place. The wind wasn’t blowing it, or her scarf which was tightly wrapped around her neck.
As she continued walking she moved out of my range of vision. I let the curtain fall and started across the living room and into the kitchen. I leaned over the counter and pulled the window’s curtain aside. As I saw her approaching I caught a glimpse of her eyes. They were black and completely blank. There was no indication that she was thinking of anything, no looking around at her surroundings. She was solely focused on whatever it was that was in front of her.
Then a car drove by, and passed right through her.
“Em, is there anything else this ghost has told you? Anything that could help us find Kira?” It was Soichiro Yagami again, drawing me away from my thoughts.
“No. He just keeps telling me to find thing. He said he didn’t want anybody else to die by Kira’s hand.”
“What about Lind L. Tailor?” It was the voice from before who I had no name to associate with.
“He only knows as much as I do.”
“Em, I remember you mentioning a third spirit,” Mr. Yagami said.
“Yes, yes. His name was Takuo Shibuimaru. He was a biker. I’m not one hundred percent sure he was a victim, but that strange ghost mentioned to me that he was. And something that I’ve noticed about Kira victims is that their presence feels…dark. I hadn’t experienced that feeling before meeting Lind, and I felt with that other ghost. I also felt it with Takuo.”
“So how sure are you that Shibuimaru was a victim?”
I thought it over for a moment. 99 percent sounded too confident. 90 sounded almost too low, and because of that I wanted to keep in the range of the 90s.
“95 percent,” I replied.
“And how did this Shibuimaru die?” the younger voice asked.
“Motorcycle accident. He was hit by a truck while trying to chase a woman. He had a harassed her before, and she ran from him. He showed me all of this in a dream, and I believe Kira might have been at the scene of the crime.”
“No, he wouldn’t have been there. Kira kills from a distance,” the young voice said rather quickly.
“Yes, but if Shibuimaru is a Kira victim as I suspect, then how else would Kira have known about his crime if he hadn’t been there to witness it? Shibuimaru was not a big-shot criminal, he didn’t kill anyone, he didn’t take anyone hostage. He was just a creep lurking around the streets.”
“She has a point,” I heard Matsuda say, and I heard mumbles of agreement from other Task Force members.
“Em, I’m sorry, it appears your time is up,” Mr. Yagami said. I glanced at the clock; it was exactly 7:35.
“I understand,” I replied just before the line disconnected.
CHAPTER SIX.
Spoiler: click to toggle January 22nd, 2009
Still no sign of Lind L. Tailor. I’m starting to get worried. If he doesn’t come back I may not be able to cross him over. If that happens, he’d be stuck in the physical world forever. Just the thought of that makes me shudder. There are too many ways spirits can go wrong here. But I can’t think about that now. I have a new ghost to focus on.
The woman I had seen while I was one the phone with the Task Force walked past my house yesterday at the same exact time as the day before. This time I got on my coat and boots and went outside to follow her. I trailed behind her down my block, and when we reached the end she disappeared. Disappointed and slightly discouraged that I lost her I went back inside.
Then last night, I had a dream. I was walking into a train station, a folder held under my arm. I could hear someone speaking in my ear, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying. I could feel someone’s eyes on me, but there were so many people around I couldn’t figure out whose.
I turned onto one of the waiting trains, sat by myself, and pulled out a laptop. With a few clicks I opened a file with multiple names on it. I pulled a piece of paper from the folder I had taken on with me. There were some boxes on it. After hearing some more mumbling from the transmitter I had in my ear, a pulled a pen from my pocket and began to scrawl the names from the computer file into the boxes. Arire Weekwood, Freddi Gumntair, Bess Sekllet, Fridge Copen…Who were these people? Why were their names important? What was this spirit trying to tell me?
When I finished writing the names I put the paper back into the folder and placed the folder on the rack above my head. Then I slipped the laptop back into my briefcase and stood. I heard some more mumbling from the transmitter, and then strode off the train. As soon as I stepped onto the platform I my heart started racing, and then slowed. I could feel it straining to work as I fell to the ground. I twisted my body around to see the train. As the doors were closing, I could see a young man. He looked down at me with a smirk and pulled down his sweatshirt hood so I could see him more clearly. I knew exactly who it was…Kira.
I woke with a start. I reached over to my nightstand, flicked on the light and was about to go into the drawer for my journal when I realized I wasn’t the only one in the room.
“Lind?” I asked, hopeful, as I turned to face the spirit. It wasn’t Lind. It was the woman who I’d seen walking down the block while I spoke to the Task Force, the one I tried to follow the day before. “Is…Is that how you died?” I questioned, thinking over the dream. The woman shook her head. “Then you know someone who died that way?” She nodded. “Who?” She vanished.
I didn’t need to ask to know just where she was going. I got dressed quickly and got in my car, driving straight towards the train station. It was late, about four in the morning, and there would be no trains running at this time, so I drove all the way out to the Kanto station. It was empty when I got there, and everything was locked. I got into the station by convincing the security guard I’d left my purse there. I made sure the guard was out of earshot when I began calling for the woman.
“Hello? I know you’re here. If you can hear me, give me a sign.”
I then started to hear people around me. I looked around to see a crowd of people who weren’t actually there. They shoved past me, chatting on their cell phones, flipping through newspapers, glancing between the schedule and their watches to see how much time they had before their train arrived. It was another vision.
I looked around at the throngs of people until I found a man who reminded me of the dream I’d had. He was fairly tall, had black hair and was walking with a briefcase in one hand and a folder under the other arm. I felt a sudden presence beside me and turned to see the woman. Her eyes were trained on the man.
“That’s the one who died,” I said, more of statement than a question, and she nodded before disappearing again. I turned back to the crowd, found the man again, and followed him. He led me onto a waiting train, and as I walked through it new people appeared. I began to recognize them from the dream. Everything was acted out exactly how I’d seen it. He took out his laptop, and then took the papers from the folder. He wrote something on them, the names I’d seen. Curious, I moved towards him. I sat down next to him and leaned over his shoulder. On the computer screen was a file with small pictures of men and women, their names underneath them. I looked at the names until I found the ones I recognized. I glanced to the top of the page to see the letters FBI on the top. They were agents.
I’m sure it was L’s plan to keep the FBI’s involvement in the Kira Case from the general public, but if agents died it might have been a good idea for someone to tell me about. It would have been helpful to know what kinds of spirits I should expect to see. On the other hand, maybe my knowledge of this could help the Task Force believe me.
Once the man has written down the last few names, he tucked the papers back into the folder and placed it on the rack above his head. He then waited a few minutes before standing up and walking off the train. I got up with him, followed him through the doors, and watched him fall to the ground almost as soon as he stepped onto the platform. I looked to the train doors, which were closing, and saw a young man, he seemed like a high school student, looking down at this FBI agent has a heart attack wracked his body. Although the boy had his hood up I could see the smirk on his face, a look of victory. The agent twisted his body around until his eyes met the boy’s.
“Kira…” the agent forced out before he closed his eyes and the vision faded away.
Without the vision, the dark train station seemed overwhelmingly empty. I looked to my side, where the woman was standing once more.
“That man…You loved him?” She nodded. “And he was killed by Kira?” She frowned deeply and, again, nodded. “Did Kira kill you, too?”
“I…I don’t know…” We both fell silent until she spoke again. “When the Kira killings started, the Japanese police called the FBI for help with the investigation…Raye and I…we came here so he could meet my parents.”
I could see tears welling in her eyes as she relived these moments of her life, of that man’s…Raye.
“He…He got called to work on the case. He was supposed to be investigating someone, someone close to the police. All their families were being looked at.”
But this person…He was the main suspect…Raye Penbar was supposed to follow him…
I recognized the voice almost immediately: the ghost that never told me his name. It had been a while since I’d heard it, since I’d felt that pain in my chest.
“Did Raye die before he could finish his investigation?”
A tear slid down her cheek as she nodded. She tried to say something, but only chocked on sobs. This was something that has always amazed me about ghosts. They prove that you can still feel something after death…sadness, anger…love.
“We were supposed to get married,” she whispered, her voice so low I had to strain to hear it. “We were going to have a life together…This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen!”
Her voice then bounced off the walls of the train station, echoing around us. She turned away from me, wiping tears from her eyes. I reached out and put a hand on her shoulder.
Help her…
Help him…
Please…Help all of us.
I winced against the pain I felt in my chest and tried my best to ignore it.
“The person Raye was investigating…Do you know who it was?”
“He wasn’t allowed to tell me.” She turned to face me. “It was Kira, wasn’t it? The suspect he was following? That was Kira. I know it. That’s why he’s dead, why we’re dead.”
Yes…
“Most likely.”
“Hey!” a voice called out suddenly. Both ghosts disappeared. I turned around to see a fairly large man coming towards me. I gasped and stepped back. “Hey! Who’s there?”
This wasn’t the security guard who’d let me in, and it certainly didn’t look like any security guard I’d seen around here. As he came closer to me I could see his torn jeans, stained white top, and tattered brown jacket. His scuffed work boots slammed down onto the floor hard.
“Who’s there?” he called again. “What are you doing here? No one comes here now.”
I swallowed. I’ve faced spirits who have the ability to cut you, bruise you, trap you and even kill you, but I had never faced a situation like this. Compared to this man, those dangerous spirits didn’t scare me at all.
“Who’re you? Huh? Who are you?”
I backed up again, but at that point he was close enough to clearly see me, and upon doing so his face lit up with delight. I could smell alcohol on his breath, most likely from the bar down the street.
“What’re you doing down here?”
“Leave her alone.” I looked behind the man and smiled at the person who’d made that last statement.
“Oh, happy to see me?” the man asked with a grin.
“Not you,” I replied.
“Me,” Lind said sternly, and he punched the man’s back. The man grunted and spun around, wondering what he’d been hit by. That was when Lind punched him in the head. The man stumbled backwards, and if I hadn’t moved fast enough he would have bumped into me.
“What the hell?!” the man shouted.
The man threw a wild punch, and Lind became intangible just in time to avoid being hit. The man then spun around, trying to pinpoint whatever it was he was fighting against. Lind rushed towards me, grabbed me the arm, and began to run to the front of the station. I stumbled as I tried to keep up with him, and luckily he kept me stable as we raced outside. I could hear the drunken man calling behind us, asking where I was going and why I was in such a hurry. I ignored him as Lind thrust me past the guard, who was jerked awake by the sound of my frantic footsteps.
“You…You find what you were looking for?” he asked, and I shouted a quick “yes” to him before getting into my car. Lind slipped into the passenger seat. I turned to him, pushing my bangs out of my face.
“Th-Thanks,” I said, finally getting a chance to catch my breath.
“Don’t mention it,” he replied. We were silent for most of the drive, and although the silence was a little awkward I was willing to put up with it. I was glad to see Lind back. But after a while, I couldn’t help but ask him…
“Hey Lind…Where have you been?”
“I’ve uhm…I’ve been thinking. About what happened.”
With my eyes trained on the road I told him, “That was a while ago.”
“Yeah...But…I still didn’t mean it…I really did want to help you, Em.”
“You did,” I said. “Task Force agreed to talk to me.”
“That’s great!” I didn’t have to look at him to tell that Lind was smiling. I turned to him, gave him a small smile, then turned back to the road. We were silent for a few more miles before I felt the need to speak up again.
“Listen…About that day…when you asked you about why you were on death row…”
“Em…I made some bad choices when I was younger, and I got into a lot of trouble.”
“I understand. I’m…I’m still curious, but...”
I pulled into my drive way, plucked the keys from the ignition, and turned to face Lind. I reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder.
“You tell me when you’re ready, ok?” He covered my hand with his. I was surprise to find that, unlike other ghosts, he was warm. His touch felt comforting. His eyes lit up as he looked at me.
“Alright.”
CHAPTER SEVEN.
Spoiler: click to toggle February 1st, 2009 It was dark. I could see nothing but a faint, red glimmer on the walls. I couldn’t tell what it was and something told me I did not want to know. The light, which came from a fixture at the center of the ceiling, began to flicker, casting strange shadows over the red on the wall. There was a buzzing sound, and then the light came on fully. I looked down, and immediately wished I hadn’t, for in front of me lay a mangled and broken corpse, on its back, eyes open in horror, mouth in a permanent ‘o’, making me believe the person had died screaming. Breathing heavily with fear I spun around threw my hand at the doorknob, turning and shaking it until the door began to moan in protest. It was locked. I was trapped. I heard the floorboards creak and turned around to see a shadowy figure facing me, tall and slim with an arm raised above its head. I looked to its hand, high above me, and saw the blade of a knife glimmering, blood drying on its menacing teeth. I backed up and the figure came forward and I could see it begin to swing its arm down as if in slow motion as I slid down the wall, throwing my hands over my head and screaming as loud as I could manage. I was shaking, and then, as the image fading, I felt myself being shaken. My eyes snapped open and I flung myself forward, shouting until my lungs hurt. “Em! Em!” Strong hands grasped my shoulders and my heart was pounding hard against my chest, I could hear it beating frantically in my ears. “Em, it’s okay. It’s okay.” Lind slid his arm around me, held me close to him as I broke down in tears. He ran his hand gently along my back and whispered to me that it was alright, that I was safe. He waited until my breathing had slowed, until my sobs had died down, before pulling away slightly. “Em,” Lind whispered. “What did you see?” I swallowed hard and shook my head. “I don’t want to think about it,” I said quietly. Silently detaching myself from Lind I swung my feet over the edge of the bed and hopped down. I quickly went into the bathroom and flicked on the light. I turned the water on in the sink and splashed some of it in my face. When I looked back into the mirror I saw not only my reflection but another figure behind me. I gasped and jumped and turned around only to find that it was Naomi Misora. “Naomi,” I breathed, relief apparent in my voice. She looked up at me, her eyes sad. I thought back to the dream, still fresh in my mind, wondering if maybe… “That wasn’t a dream, was it? That was a vision you gave me,” I said to her, and she nodded. “Why?” “He needs help, but he won’t take it from you,” Naomi said. “Who wants help?” I asked, confused. “Raye?” “No,” she said. She was quiet, looking down at her feet, and I waited. She then suddenly snapped her head up and said, “Get to him. Help him. Before he destroys her.” “Destroys who?” I wanted to know, but Naomi vanished without giving me an answer. Save them… My chest felt tight, and I grabbed at my heart as I dropped to my knees on the tiled floor. Save them… And then it was gone. I caught my breath and then stood up. Lind was still in my bedroom, sitting where I had left him. “Are you ok?” he asked. I nodded, and then shook my head furiously, and then, after a moment of thought, nodded again. He raised an eyebrow and drifted over to me. “Are you sure?” “I saw Naomi,” I blurted. “What did she say?” “She told me someone needed my help, that I had to get to them before they destroyed someone else.” “What does that mean?” “No clue.” Lind sighed and stepped backwards, took a seat on the bed. I sat down by the computer and stared at the lines in the wood on my chair. The silence we were submerged in was awkward, but didn’t last very long. I heard Lind sigh again, longer and deeper, and I looked up. “I know you don’t want to think about it,” he said, “but you’re going to have to tell me what you saw in that vision.” I swallowed hard and ran a hand through my hair. I closed my eyes, thinking back to the horrors that had haunted my sleep, and recounted the whole thing for Lind. When I finished he was quiet in thought for a few minutes. “Well?” I urged. “Maybe…” He paused, mulling over his words. “Maybe the ghost she’s talking about was the corpse?” “The corpse?” I asked. “Yeah…corpse. What? I’m wrong, aren’t I?” “No, no, I just hadn’t thought of that. You might actually be right.” “Really?” He grinned with pride. I nodded. “We won’t know for sure until we investigate it, but the corpse could be our ghost,” I said. “But we have one problem.” “What’s that?” Lind questioned. “How the hell do we investigate this?” “I guess we’ll have to start small,” Lind said. I eyed him carefully. “And how do we do that?” Lind thought for a moment and while he was thinking the phone began to ring. I was considering letting the machine pick up, but when I looked at the caller ID and saw the name ‘Yagami’ scrolling across it I felt obligated to answer. “Hello?” “I-Is th-th-this Em?” It was a girl’s voice, not too old but not too young either. She was stuttering and tripping over her words, like she was scared. “Yes,” I said slowly. “Who is this?” “S-Sayu Yagami,” she forced out. I could feel her fear through the phone now. I guessed she was trembling. “Sayu,” I said softly. “How did you get this number?” “My d-dad had it with w-work stuff. I-I heard him talking a-a-about you. Is it true?” “Is what true, Sayu?” “D-Do you see them?” She didn’t need to say anything else. I understood her. “Yes,” I sighed. “Yes, I see them.” I paused, listened to her frantic breathing. “Do you?” I asked. I heard her mumble, but I couldn’t make out what she said. There was a long pause before she spoke again. She told me she wanted me to write down an address, and I did. I asked her why she wanted me to do this. She was silent again for a long while, so silent I had thought that maybe she hung up, or the call dropped. “I think I need your help,” she whispered, hardly audible, and then I heard the distinct click of disconnection. I waited for a few minutes, frozen in my spot, staring down at the floor and going over Sayu’s words in my head with the phone still held to my ear as if her voice would float back into the receiver at any moment. If you would like to make a call, please hang up and try again. I clicked the phone off, settled it into its cradle, and let a long, dramatic sigh. “What was that all about?” Lind asked. I shook my head, massaged my temples with the tips of my fingers. “Get to him,” I said, Naomi’s words rolling off my tongue without me even realizing it. “Help him. Before he destroys her.” “Woah wait,” Lind said. “What are we talking about now.” “Help him. Before he destroys her,” I repeated, and I met Lind’s eyes with my own. “I need to get to the Yagamis.” Lind didn’t question me. He watched as I quickly threw my coat over myself, haphazardly laced up my boots. He handed me my car keys when I almost left them behind. He reminded me to watch out for ice on the roads, warned me when I was coming to a red light too fast, tapped my shoulder when I had been to lost in my own thoughts to see the light turn green. He read the address Sayu had given to me over and over until he had it completely memorized and didn’t even have to look at the scrap of paper when I asked for the millionth time. It took about an hour for me to locate the house that this address belonged to. I parked on the street and made my way slowly up the front steps. I hesitated at the front door, staring at it until Lind reminded me that I couldn’t just phase through it like he could—knocking was the proper protocol. So knocking it what I did, and in a short minute the door creaked open, revealing Soichiro Yagami. “Em?” he asked, surprise etched across his features. I reached into my pocket, grabbed a piece of gum and jammed it into my mouth as quickly as I could. “Um…I got a call from a girl. She said her name was Sayu.” Soichiro’s brows knitted together. “Why was my daughter calling you?” he asked. “ How did she even get your number?” “She said she found it with your things from work. But how she got my number isn’t important, Mr. Yagami. She asked…about them.” “Them?” I let out a breath, bit down hard on my gum. “The ghosts.” Soichiro thought for a moment, and then opened the door wider and stepped aside to let me in. “What did Sayu say to you?” he asked me as we both settled ourselves on his couch. I felt uncomfortable, but I tried to hide the fact. His daughter needed help, and I was the only who could give it to her. “Mr. Yagami, has Sayu been acting…different than her usual self lately?” I’d struck a nerve. I could see him clench his hands together, I could hear him grind his teeth. “Em…Of course she has.” I tilted my head. “How old is Sayu?” I asked, figuring that maybe she was going through those rough teenager years. “It’s not puberty, hormones, school or anything of the sort,” Soichiro said, reading my mind. He sighed, leaned his elbows on his knees and pinched the bridge of nose. “Sayu was kidnapped.” I didn’t know what to say. Were there words for things like this? A set list of things to respond with when someone drops a bomb like that on you? “I’m sorry.” “So am I,” Soichiro said, more to himself than to me. “She went through so much. Her mind…She couldn’t take it. Her life was on the line. She didn’t think she was going to make it. She hasn’t been the same since. She’s…She’s in a wheelchair now, because she can hardly stand to walk. She’s too weighed down by all the memories. She wakes up in the middle of the night screaming, but she won’t talk to any of us. She’s so withdrawn.” I gave him a moment, either to think of something else to tell me or to just collect himself after everything he had just spilled onto the table.
“Mr. Yagami, has Sayu ever started to…Well, to talk to someone that isn’t actually there?” He started to say no, but stopped himself. He thought for a few dragging seconds and then met my eyes. “She whispers when she does it,” he says. “Like she doesn’t want us to know. But my wife says she’s heard Sayu say things like ‘Get away from me’ or ‘Stop’. She tried to confront Sayu, but she just won’t open up. Nobody can get anything out of her. We’ve been to therapists and psychologists and they all think she’s insane. They want to put her on meds…Lock her up.” His eyes narrowed with intensity. “My daughter is not crazy.” We are both quiet and I can see a play off emotion over his face, realization lighting in his eyes. “You don’t think…?” “May I speak with Sayu, Mr. Yagami?” I asked. He considered it and then stood. “Follow me,” he said, and I did. He led me into a room towards the back of the house. “Since she got the wheelchair, my wife moved her into the guest room. Easier access for her.” I nodded at his explanation. He rapped on the door lightly, then rested his hand on the knob. “Sayu?” He inched the door open slightly. “Sayu, sweetie, can I come in?” I peered into the room from behind Soichiro. It was dark, lit by one window on the far wall. The girl was sitting in her wheelchair at that window, gazing outside where her mother was tending to a garden. She didn’t look at me or her father, she just nodded in response to his question. He stepped inside, and then let me in, and then he closed the door behind him. This is the part where I let my instinct take over. I crossed the room and knelt in front of Sayu, so that I was level with her. She wouldn’t look me in the eye, her gaze was trained out the window. “Sayu,” I said softly. “My name is Em. We talked earlier, on the phone.” “I remember,” Sayu said quietly. She tried to meet my eyes but couldn’t. Instead she let her eyes drop to the floor. “Can you help me?” “Sayu, do you see ghosts?” I asked her. She shook her head. “Can you hear them?” She nods. “Can you help me?” she repeated. I placed my hand over hers. The touch shocked her, and she made a first attempt to pull away but decided against it at the last minute and simply rested her hand on her lap. “Yes,” I whispered. She looked me in the eyes.“Yes, I can help you.” Think twice. Sayu heard the voice, too. I could tell by the way her muscles tensed, by the shiver than ran up her spine. She’s mine. “No,” Sayu said in a voice so tiny I needed to strain to hear it. Yes. “No!” Sayu screamed, and she slap?ed her hands over her ears. She hummed to herself, to block out the sound, but that cool voice kept streaming between us, a barrier of sorts. You can’t get rid of me. I saw a form behind her. Crimson eyes shimmered in the shadows, obscured by unkempt black locks. Blood stains dotted pale skin, a knife gleamed in the figure’s hand. He bent down over Sayu, breathing down her neck. She could feel him. She shivered harshly. “Go away,” she said, her voice shaking. He leaned in closer, huffed a cold breath onto her skin. “Get out!” she shouted. The figure looked at me with his haunting eyes.
You heard her. His lips never moved, but I heard his icy voice clear in my head. “Em,” I jolted, stood up, and spun to face Soichiro. “I think Sayu’s had enough.” I glanced at the figure, who had his knife touching Sayu’s neck. She shuddered at the feeling of the cold metal on her skin. He looked at me again, smirked, and then disappeared. Sayu was still shaking, the memory of him trapped in her mind. I walked out of the room with Soichiro. Once he was sure Sayu is completely out of ear shot, he turned to me. “What the hell was that?” he wanted to know. “I’ve never seen it before,” I said. “But I’ve heard of it.” “Of what?” Soichiro pleaded, and all the air of the police officer I’d known him as washed away. He was simply a father desperate to help his daughter. “Trauma victims are sometimes so emotionally stressed that their brains re-wire themselves. The logical part, the part that keeps normal people, like you and your wife and your task force, thinking that ghosts are a figure of the imagination, is lost. The logical part makes people like you think people like me are psychotic. When a trauma victim’s brain gets re-set, and it lets go of that part, it opens a door. Now, those victims can hear, see, feel, touch, and sometimes smell ghosts. Sayu, she can’t see that ghost, but she can hear him just as clearly as she hears you or me. She can feel his touch and it’s as real as this.” I placed my hand on Soichiro’s arm to demonstrate. “I don’t want to confirm this until I do a little research, but it looks like that’s what’s happening here.” “Can you help her?” he asked me. “If all of that is true, can help Sayu? Can you get that ghost away from her?” I was quiet. This ghost was dangerous, I could see that. I didn’t know if I could handle him on my own, so I didn’t want to promise Soichiro that I would. I stared at him and felt a certain determination come over me. The worry he had for his daughter was the same worry my own mother had when I’d dealt with my friend threatening spirit quite a number of years ago, an old drunken abuser who terrorizing his wife from beyond the grave. I’d saved that woman then; I’d gotten the ghost away. I had to do that same thing now, for Sayu. “Mr. Yagami,” I said. “Everything is going to be ok.” Something came over him then. He could feel a transfer between us. He placed all his trust in me in that single moment. “Ok,” he said, soft, and then a little louder. “Ok.”
Edited by Lupin, May 1 2009, 08:30 PM.
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