Dangerous Souls

Shoji no Noroi

Chapter 11- Hell

"Find anything, Yasuhara?" Masako called after closing the Nth folder.

"Nope, I don't think s-wait." He noticed a folder on the floor near the door. "Where did this one come from?"

"Maybe John and Kiko brought it with them when they came?" she offered.

"Let's see," he opened the folder and his eyes grew wide. "I don't think so, neither of them mentioned this information when they arrived and we didn't find this at the library."

"Then-" the medium paused and they looked at each other.

"Where did it come from?" they said in unison.

***

"Naru, it's nearly midnight," Lin said, after over an hour of questioning and virtually no progress. "We have no more time."

Naru cursed under his breath, before kneeling by Yoshiko's bedside. "Yoshiko, you remember how a man committed suicide last year?" The woman nodded under the covers. "That will happen again in that very same room unless you tell me what you saw the last few days."

She still refused to answer.

"Someone will die, possibly more than one person. Mrs. Ishikawa was already rushed to the hospital a few hours ago. Did you want her to be the one to die tonight?" Naru sort of fibbed, He knew only men had committed suicide and if anyone were to be in danger it would most likely be either John or Monk, but he needed answers.

"No! Not Akahana!" the woman wailed.

"Yoshiko, please, what did you see? Anything at all, the tiniest detail can help us, but we need you," Monk coaxed her.

It was silent for a minute, Lin's typing had ceased, it seemed breathing did as well. "I...I was trapped..."

"Go on," Monk helped.

"Fire, it felt like I was burning...and-and there were bars but I could jump out of them if I wanted, but I couldn't...and flowers...and a weird star thing....and the hotel...and flowers..." The woman was so tightly wound inside the blankets it was a wonder that she could breathe.

"Thank you," Naru said, standing up. "Monk put a barrier around the room to keep Yoshiko safe."

"You figured it out?" the monk raised a brow.

"She said flowers," he replied.

In unison the men the room figured it out, "The garden."

***

October Day 6, 11:49 P.M.

Eleven minutes until October second.

"What does it say?" the medium asked gliding over to the college boy, peering over his shoulder.

"It's just an article that was published recently about the history of the hotel. The church that had been planned to be built was built, but before the plans for the hotel came into action, a mysterious fire burned the church to the ground," he explained.

"Well, both Mai and Kiko said that in their vision they felt they were lit on fire," Masako commented. "But, what is really all that interesting about that fire? Aside from the animosity between religions the church is barely connected to the case."

"You didn't let me finish, this is a recently published article only within the last ten years or so, where the fire originated from is most likely in the same area where-"

"Where the garden is, we know," Naru remarked as he stormed into the room.

"You got her to talk?" Yasuhara asked as Lin and Monk filed in as well.