Dangerous Souls

Insanity

Chapter 6- Exorcism...No...

October Day 4, 9:05 A.M.

It was only moments after Mai knocked on the door of the house outside the Ibaraki Prefecture, that an older woman opened the door. "You must be Mai Taniyama," she said, Mai's heart soared when she recognized the woman's voice.

"Yes, Mrs. Kita," Mai replied, giving a bow. "This is my friend Osamu Yasuhara, he's my partner for the history assignment. I hope you don't mind that I brought him."

"Oh, that's perfectly alright," she replied, gesturing them into the house. "Please come in, I have already started to prepare tea. Green is alright with you, yes?"

"That's perfect," the two answered, as they were lead into the living area.

Mai and Yasuhara took their seats on the couch in the living area, the older of the two making a note to check the time on his phone before placing it back in his pocket. Moments later, Haru came back into the room with a tray and three cups of tea. "So, what made you interested in investigating that horrible asylum?" she asked as she took a seat.

"We attend school in the Ibaraki Prefecture and the whole class was assigned to do research on historical buildings, we were assigned the asylum," Mai explained without missing a beat.

"I see, so what were you looking to find out?" she asked, taking a sip of her tea.

"We would like it if you could tell us about your experiences as a nurse there," Mai asked politely.

"The place was very crowded, more patients than doctors and nurses combined to care for everyone," she explained. "You probably have done your research and know that most of the time the patients were kept sedated, otherwise a riot would potentially break out."

She continued to talk about her experiences, how it was actually fairly calm because of the sedated patients every once in a while one would try to fight, but other than that it was a quiet place. She went on about the cleanliness of the facility, that it could have been much better however with such a small amount of staff and so many patients there wasn't enough time in the day to keep up with the cleaning. Her fellow nurses were much older than she was at the time and would often leave her to her own devices, the staff was not as friendly as she would have liked.

"Because I was so young in comparison, I was found as inferior to the doctors and nurses, I had even protested against some of our treatment methods, but was threatened with termination if I continued to go against policies of the facility. There are many things there I wish I hadn't done, but had to in order to pay the rent on my apartment. It really was a horrible place," Haru finished, taking a sip of her tea. "To be honest it still sort of haunts me. I'm sorry you two were assigned to research such a horrible place."

"Don't be sorry, we're sorry you had to endure such a place," the college student replied.

Mai herself began to feel guilty. "Yeah, I'm sorry for making you relive it." Something in her heart clenched. She couldn't help but feel a little sick, Mai Kagome had her horrible death at that place, but it seemed that even the nurses didn't enjoy their lives there.

"No need to apologize, what's in the past, is in the past. Was that all you needed?" the older woman asked with a smile. It was now or never.

"Actually, after all the research we had done, we were wondering if you might be able to tell us about a girl named Mai Kagome, a schizophrenic patient around the time you said you worked there," Yasuhara asked, the two investigators noticed the change of face with the older woman.

"Miss Kagome, was...a strange girl to say the least," Haru began, as Mai took notes on the notebook she brought with her. "I was never her nurse, but I had heard stories from the other nurses and doctors. She had been brought in because she was known to have visions and delusions and would babble on about nonsense. It was scaring her parents so they brought her there."