Dangerous Souls

Healing

Chapter 9-Truth to the Tale

March Day 5, 12:27 P.M.

For the first time in a long time, Mai actually felt refreshed when she woke up that morning. For nearly six months her mind had been plagued by nightmares and terrors from previous cases. She had lost touch with her spirit guide back in November and that connection was finally restored late the night before. The hollowness in her chest that never seemed to disappear was finally filled. She felt almost whole again. Who would have thought that it would take a case that involved sleeping in the same bed as her boss to-

That was when a blush started to creep up on her face. She remembered what happened early that morning, if you could even call it morning. Her pulled close against his chest, his arm wrapped tightly around her waist, him whispering in her ear. She stifled a squeal as she turned over to find that she was once again alone in the bed.

Perhaps it was all a dream. Why would Naru apologize? What did he have to apologize for? Sure she had been annoyed with him many times over the last two years she had worked for him, but she was rarely ever actually angry with him. And the few times she was he did apologize. But what was he apologizing for this time? She wasn't angry with him, and hadn't been since the nursing home case, but she was over that. She had been for a long time.

Then what could he have been apologizing for? She had accepted a long time ago that Naru really did believe in her and just had a rude way of testing her. But his intentions were good for the most part, he wanted her to realize that she couldn't always just go off of intuition if she were to ever be taken seriously in, well, anything. He taught her a lot as far as the paranormal was concerned. How to review evidence, set up equipment, realize when the activity is being caused by a human not a spirit. If anything she should apologize to him.

When she was dating Shouta, Naru really started to take Mai's potential seriously. It was when he started treating her as an apprentice instead of a tea-making slave. And she did notice the change and was happy that he was giving her more responsibility, but Shouta convinced her that it was the equivalent of a boss making his assistant do the dirty work so he didn't have to. That Naru couldn't care less about her potential and that he just didn't want to have to continue to do such menial tasks when he could sip tea. Telling her what Naru really meant, it hurt her in ways that made Naru the bad guy. She couldn't see that it wasn't Naru saying those things. It was her boyfriend who was telling her this. Her boyfriend saying what he really thought, not what her employer was saying. And she bought it. Hook. Line. Sinker.

To be perfectly honest, Mai still felt horrible and stupid from that relationship. How could she not see the monster that Shouta was sooner? Well, that was her own fault, and it still didn't explain what Naru was apologizing for. She should be apologizing. Right?

Then she looked at the clock and realized Naru must have really felt bad if he let her sleep in this late! Then again, after the torment she had been through, she definitely needed it. But how could the narcissist know?

Instead of pondering the reasoning behind Naru allowing her to sleep, she figured this was as good a time as any to actually get ready for the day. She got out of bed and grabbed a few things from her bag and headed to the bathroom.

***

"And that's everything you found?" Yasuhara said into the phone as he jotted down some notes on the pad in front of him. He was one of the few people who had decided to have lunch in the dining hall, sitting far off into a corner to take the call. "Thank you for all your help, Officer." He paused, clicking his pen. "Yes, I'll give my wife your regards. Thank you again."

Yasuhara hung up his phone and looked down at his notes. Their little plan worked. The officer from two days before had kept his promise and did some digging and then called them to report what he found. Granted he was expecting to have Kiko answer the phone, but that's another story.