Dangerous Souls

Shoji no Noroi

Chapter 8- Why?

Itsuko? She wondered feeling someone shake her shoulders.

Just where have I heard that name before?

September Day 5, 1:17 P.M.

"I don't know where you've heard it before or what the name is that you find so familiar," a familiar voice said as Mai found herself stiffly getting out of her dreamlike state.

"Huh? Kiko?" Mai groaned as she brought her head up from the table she had fallen asleep on. "Yasuhara? Where's Monk?"

"After we finished the temperature sweep and changing batteries, Monk went to make sure John was all right," Yasuhara explained from the couch. "Like you, he went to our room to take a nap. So what name is so familiar to you?"

Mai relayed the events in her dream to her two friends, while rubbing the sleepiness from her eyes. "Itsuko? Wasn't that one of the girls from the summer camp we went to last month?" Yasuhara piped in after Mai had finished.

"No way! You guys went to a summer camp?" Kiko's eyes grew wide with surprise. "No fair! I wish I went!"

"Yeah, but there's something else to the name..." Mai replied, ignoring Kiko's outburst. "Like something recent, something that's not a coincidence."

"Did you have any other visions mentioning Itsuko?" Kiko asked, hopping to jog some sort of memory from her.

But Mai shook her head. "No, I don't think it was a vision, but I feel like I'm forgetting something." She put her finger to her chin in her unique thinking pose. "Something that should be so obvious..."

"Okay, you're sure that what you're trying to remember is from this case and not another one?" Kiko asked, crossing her legs. Mai nodded. "Then let's go over the events that happened. From the beginning of the case."

"Good idea," Yasuhara agreed as Mai took a deep breath.

"Okay, we were told about the suicide that happened last year," she began, closing her eyes, reaching for the memories. "Akahana was attacked just before we were asked to investigate. I tried to go downstairs but ended up on the fifth floor where a spirit tried to communicate with me telepathically...I think." She shook her head, moving on. "I passed out when trying to bring Naru tea and something made the tea boil over and burn my hands. I started having violent visions. I snapped at Naru and when I apologized I had a vision of a demon like thing. Then this ghost maid appeared and I was dragged into room 534. Then I had the visions of suicides and when I woke up I found that letter-"

Both hers and Yasuhara's eyes widened. "The letter!" they exclaimed racing to the table of monitors where files had been placed.

"Naru wouldn't have taken it with him when he went to interview Chuiji Ueda, would he?" Mai asked after the fourth file she looked in turned out to be a dead end.

"I don't see why, or maybe he thought that Chuiji or his dad may have seen it before, or remember the person who wrote it?" The college student remarked also coming out empty handed.

"Maybe, but now we have to wait for Naru to get back so we can make a discovery," Mai sighed, sinking into the couch with an annoyed groan. "And we were so close to knowing something before him, too..."

"Well, we do, we know that Itsuko was mentioned in that letter," Kiko tried to lighten the mood. "That's something."

"Actually, we're more of assuming that she is mentioned in the letter," Yasuhara corrected sitting in the swivel chair next to the monitors. She scowled at him.

"I was trying to make the best of the situation, but apparently that's a 'no go.'" Kiko pouted, crossing her arms.

"Thanks for trying, anyway-"