Whew I tried to hold off posting this story for the last week but it was too much. Yikes, I really do like the whole idea for this story and I hope you guys enjoy. Dedicated to my dear friends at school and to Hana who listened to this idea in the first place and helped.
Chapter 1
Sandman come to me tonight,
Comfort me till morning light,
As darkness falls and shadows loom,
I bid you welcome to my room,
Rest your bones beside my head,
Lay your hands upon my head,
Cast your spell of slumber deep,
And stay beside me as I sleep,
If I should die before I wake,
I grant you my soul to take,
My soul to take…
My soul to take…
My soul to take…
(Nursery Rhyme- Nox Arcana)
"Mai wake up!" Mai felt herself being roughly shaken out of her dreams by a mean person.
"Don't wanna wake up," she muttered sleepily, snuggling further into the comforts of her pillow with a sigh. It had been such a good dream too! Not like the nightmares she would normally see that scared her witless and made her unable to fall asleep easily for weeks afterwards. Only no one else knew that as they'd probably try to stop her coming on cases if they had such bad affects on her.
"Mai!" the voice was firmer this time and she wearily opened her eyes. At first everything she saw was blurry until she finally focused on her surroundings. Without realising it, while she had been asleep she had ended up using Naru's leg as a pillow and unconsciously tightened her grip on his trousers, making it impossible to get her off him.
Face burning red, she sat up quickly and avoided making eye contact with him while glaring at the rest of her friends who were sniggering at her misfortune, apart from Masako who glared at her resentfully. Even after the Bloodstained Labyrinth case with Vlad the Impaler, while they had come to some understanding, there was still some jealousy on each of their parts.
For Mai it was how Naru always took Masako out on dates but never asked her out and for Masako it was how Naru acted so familiar with Mai but still insisted using suffixes with her name even though she had insisted that he didn't need to.
"Finally the blood can flow to the rest of body," Naru muttered shaking the pins and needles out of his legs, "Your head weighs a tonne," he said slightly louder before getting out of the van.
There was a moment of silence as Lin slid out of the van after Naru and Masako held her sleeve up to her mouth to hide her laughter as Mai stared after her employer in shock. She had nothing to say for a second before all her friends heard her screaming pure murder and Bou-san had to restrain her from charging after and throttling the naive narcissist.
3 days earlier
"Naru," Mai knocked on the door to her boss' office before opening into the shadow lair which Naru apparently preferred. To be honest if Mai had her way, the blinds would be pulled up and the windows open to let in the refreshing breeze inside the very stuffy office. "Naru," she said again to catch her boss' attention away from the map he was looking over.
Still she got no sign of his attention and with a sigh she walked over to his desk. Staring at the map, she frowned as she read the familiar name of the lake her mother used to take her too as a child.
"Are you going on holiday Naru?" she asked as she let her index finger point at the lake while wondering if he would bring back any souvenirs this time, "There's a really nice hotel near there, very homely, I'm sure you'd like it. Me and mum used to go all the time," Mai smiled brightly as she recalled the fond memories, not unaware of Naru's face on hers.
"What's the lake like?" he asked anxiously, his face full of urgent curiosity.
"Oh it's lovely. It's quite large and very deep in the middle. There are small islands just off the side covered in Sakura trees. The sand is golden and soft and the water's a deep blue but when the sun flickers off the surface it's like it turns silver and-"
"Why did you come in here?" Naru asked abruptly interrupting her.
"Oh," Mai paused for a moment, she had totally forgotten her entire reason for disturbing Naru in the first place, "There's a client outside looking for help," Mai paused as she headed out the door before coming back in it and closing it behind her. Client didn't really do enough justice. "I think we should help her, she seems to be very desperate," Mai said thinking back to when the girl had first entered the office nervously.
"Mai, keep your damn views to yourself. If I don't ask for them I don't want them. Now go and do one of the only decent things you can do which is why you're still hired. Make me a cup of tea!"
Mai stared at him slightly shocked for a second at his attitude change. Holding back tears she decided to give him a piece of her mind after the client was gone but until then… she stormed out of the office in a huff, slamming the door behind her and causing the glass to shudder but thankfully stay in its frame.
Naru stared after her; conflicting emotions ran through his eyes as he scrunched up the lake map and tossed it into the bin across from his desk, missing by an inch and adding to his annoyance with himself. He sighed, knowing he had unjustly taken his frustration out on his assistant but he would be damned in hell, and that was probably a possibility, before he said sorry.
Knowing he would have to take his assistant's wrath sometime or other he stepped out into the reception area, his eyes straining slightly at the brightness before he took an interest in the woman sitting on the couch. She turned to face him as he stepped into the front room.
She looked to be around his age and he noticed that her features told of beauty but looking at the girl in a glance, it was hard to see. What should have been lustrous black hair was lank and greasy. Dull green eyes with dark circles underneath reflected a lack of sleep that even Naru, or Lin for that matter, could not hold the trophy for. When Mai had said the girl looked like she needed help she hadn't been joking although Naru had seen worse clients walk through the door. Even so Naru would have felt some pity for her if he weren't in such a fury for yet another failed lake, meaning more time added on to his stay in Japan than was truly necessary.
"What is it you wanted to talk about?" he said a little more gruffly than intended. The girl blanched and stared at him with wide eyes, more in shock at his unwelcoming tone than anything else, or his lack of greeting. She gaped at him until Mai came in and Naru mentally berated himself, scaring customers away was not a good idea!
"Are you alright?" Mai smiled gently at the timid girl as she poured her a cup of tea before sitting down opposite her with a clipboard to make notes.
"Not really no, else I wouldn't be here came the soft reply with no hint of sarcasm in her voice before she started her tale, "My younger brother and I lost our mother at a young age and my father remarried but he died of a heart attack. My stepmother was given full custody over us and while she wasn't cruel she didn't radiate love or kindness either. She married and our new father disliked us instantly. Six months ago I returned home to find my little brother at the bottom of the stairs. He was pushed but no evidence was found to prove the guilt of or new father. I'd been planning to run away after I turned eighteen and take Keigo with me but I can't anymore," the girl stifled a sob and Naru held back an exasperated sigh, he really wasn't in the mood for hysterical girls.
"This is a story for the police or even child services, Hinamori-san, not paranormal investigators," Naru commented dryly getting out of his seat as he said it.
"No wait, there's more," the girl said desperately with such a pleading expression that Naru relented and sat back down slowly, "We run a popular B&B and the staff have raised Keigo and me. My brother's been in the coma for the last six months, and five months ago my stepparents joined himfor no apparent reason. If it were just this I wouldn't have bothered you but now our customers are going comatose as well, so many are in hospital now! And the same book keeps popping up in random places where I would never have put it,"
"What's the book?" Naru asked vaguely curious and was surprised when Kimi opened her bag and handed it to him.
The book was worn and the binding coming undone and slightly frayed. It would have once been a bright red book, thick with golden writing on the cover.
Mai stood up slightly as she tried to get a better look at it in Naru's hand. The golden writing wasn't in kanji but instead, the roman alphabet belonging to the English language that she was so desperately trying and failing to learn in school.
A Complete Collection of Fairytales
"My mother gave it to me before she died. I would normally read a story to Keigo every night before putting him to bed. It was his favourite book," she muttered before staring at him beseechingly, "I know this must not seem to be much of a case to you but I'm scared of seeing shadows out of the corners of my eye and seeing that book popping up everywhere. Please help me,"
Naru pondered for a few minutes. Apart from the book popping up everywhere it didn't really sound like a proper case. The comas could be explained if further investigated, he was sure and the shadows could just be lighting or pure imagination. The father was a case for the police but there was something in the background, he was sure of it and with Mai bound to go into a rampage if he didn't accept he sighed wearily. He had done cases with little to no paranormal activity before and so why not do it again?
"Fine, prepare three rooms for us. Two for bedrooms and one for a base. We'll arrive tomorrow and I'll give this book back to you then,"
Kimi thanked him before gathering up her belongings and smiling gratefully to the two of them, "Thank you, I'll see you tomorrow," she left quickly to prepare for their arrival or to just get out of the office with the evil glaring boss.
"Mai, call the others and get me tea when you're done,"
With a scowl at his impoliteness she sat at her desk and dialled the numbers she knew off by heart. After twenty minutes she got off the phone, happily knowing that everyone was able to make it.
Walking in with his tea she sighed as she saw him reading the fairytale book. Leaning over his shoulder she tried to read the small English writing and failed miserably to understand what it said.
"Hansel and Gretel," Mai tried pronouncing it to see if any understanding would come to her but Mai's English wasn't the best and Naru had repeatedly told her that so it actually sounded like 'Haaansol eind Grieatelle' Naru sighed but decided not to comment, if she couldn't pass her English exams it wasn't his fault. "What is it?" she thought wondering if the Western fairytales were any different to Japanese.
"Pretty much a poor father on the suggestion of his second wife takes his children into the woods to get rid of them. They leave a trail of breadcrumbs which is eaten by birds so the kids wander the forest and come across a candy house owned by a wicked witch who fattens the brother up to eat him and puts the girl to work. They eventually escape by locking the witch in her oven where she burns to death, the kids return home to find that their stepmother has died and they live with their father happily ever after,"
Mai froze in shock before staring at him horrified, "You are joking!" Even the idea of that was horrible.
"Mai, why would I feel the need to joke? Now have you called everyone?"
"Yeah they say tomorrow's fine. But is it really ok to sleep in that inn? I mean, loads of people have gone into comas there for no reason," Mai fretted worriedly, as much as she loved napping, she didn't want to spend the rest of her life doing it.
Naru rolled his eyes without her seeing, she really did worry too much, "We'll just have Ayako make up some charms. Problem solved. Now get out of my office," Naru said, reverting back to his cold demeanour.
So what do you's think?
Obviously I'll be writing SPR into some of the more well-known fairytales like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, oh and the Three Little Pigs! hehehe But whether I base it on Disney or the original version will have to be seen for each story. and some of the stories will have a little twist to them.
But if any of you want to request that I write a certain fairytale I'll try my best to do it but if you could write out which spr member should play which role that would be a help but I may swap roles about if it doesn't suit with how I imagine the tale to go. also if its not a well known story could you send me a link to it.
So let the story commence.