Okay everyone, this story wasn't very long, I know. Unlike "Manor of the Slaughtered Guests" it's not 25 chapters, instead it's 14 chapters. I know: "short" but there wasn't much that was happening on this case. SO, this is VERY near the end, because…oh I'll let you read it.

But there is a sequel after this! So, don't stress about it being the end. Actually, I was thinking about making this a series similar to the manga series for Ghost Hunt (just maybe not 12 volumes/books, I think the most would be six, maybe, but ya never know how many things I'll come up with).

I want to thank you all for reading this fanfiction and I'm so glad you enjoyed this story. I have to say "The Doll House" was very popular, more popular than "Manor of the Slaughtered Guests". I do hope that you can continue to support me in my writings and I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this final chapter.

Until then, enjoy!

My chest was hurting beyond belief. Water continued to come into my mouth and I was struggling to get to the surface. How did I even get into water? I was sitting on the couch, listening to Monk and Naru argue just a minute ago, something about what was inside the journal Naru had found. Am I dreaming? If I am, when did I fall asleep? There were so many questions that I wanted to answer, but my mind had gone blank and I wasn't able to think.

"Mai, wake up!"

Someone was calling for me, but the voice was so distorted that I didn't know who it was.

I continued to struggle, but it wasn't helping. My energy was beginning to vanish and I couldn't struggle anymore, so I slowly began to sink.

"Mai, come on, wake up!" There was the voice again. It was screaming this time, but I still couldn't tell who it was. Monk? John? Ayako? Masako? Lin? Or maybe it could have been Naru.

My eyes shut and I was drifting from consciousness when suddenly something gripped my hand and pulled me up. Next thing I knew I was out of the water with the cold air numbing my skin. I coughed up the water that had been in my lungs and slowly opened my eyes, only to see a kind smile looking my way.

"Naru?" I mumbled. Indeed it was Naru, but only the one from my dreams. He was looking at me, kindly, as if nothing bad had happened. "What's-"

"Shush…" he said, brushing his hand across my cheek. His head titled to the side and his smile seemed to become even kinder. "They need your help, Mai."

"Who needs my help?" I asked, struggling to see his face now.

"That's what you need to find out for yourself," Naru answered.

I closed my eyes against the bright light and when I was able to open them again, Naru was gone and I was looking into deep brown eyes. I was looking at Monk, who was leaning over me, inches from my face. "Hey, you're awake!"

"M-Monk?!" I shouted, managing to back away a bit when he stood to his feet. "W-What's-"

"You fell asleep on the couch, Mai," John answered, smiling. "We were a bit worried for a moment, whenever we tried waking you, you wouldn't come to."

"Now that you're awake," Naru said, shutting the journal in his hands, "we can finally solve this case."

"Solve?" I questioned. "You mean…" Naru looked over his shoulder, just as his hand touched the door knob. "You solved it already?"

Naru simply rolled his eyes and left. I quickly got up and followed along with John and Monk (Lin taking off to do something else), most likely wondering what was going on.

"What are we doing out here?" I asked, watching Monk open the storehouse door.

Naru didn't answer me. When the door was open, he walked in with us following. Naru then began looking around for something, rather desperately.

"All right, Naru," Monk said, putting a hand on his hip, "isn't it about time for you to explain what we're doing here?" Right after Monk said that, the doors slammed shut and we were stuck in a dark storehouse.

"Where is he…?" a woman's voice cried.

I felt a small shiver jolt down my spine when I felt something wet drip against my head. I looked up and screamed when I saw the cold eyes of a woman as she hung from the ceiling, still gently swinging back and forth.

"Move, Mai!" Monk shouted. Just as he and John were coming to get me, the boxes in a far corner fell on top of them, trapping them beneath.

I did as Monk told me and began to move, only to have myself slip on the pool of blood. My heart began racing when I found my hands and clothes covered in red, but I was jumped out of those thoughts when the body of the woman fell to the ground. I continued to back away, crawling, when the body began, slowly, crawling to me.

"Where did you take him…?" she said, eyes wide and looking directly at mine. I was scared and could feel myself panicking even more than before. "WHERE IS HE?!"

I screamed again when the woman's hand grabbed my ankle and kept me from moving away. Before I knew it, I was screaming for Naru, and when I opened my eyes, he was there holding out a piece of paper towards the ghost. Whatever was on that paper, it made the ghost surprised and she backed off.

"The person you're looking for is dead," Naru said.

I looked at the woman and saw her eyes trembling and tears began streaming down her face. "N-No…that's…" Soon her expression turned cold. "You're lying!"

"I'm not lying," Naru said, narrowing his eyes. "You're hurting innocent people because you want revenge for something that happened to you a long time ago. Get over it and move on."

I couldn't believe how cold his words were, or how angry they were. Even if he was angry, he shouldn't have been putting it out on someone who's been hurting and is stuck here with no way of leaving, even if they wanted to.

Before I knew it, I found myself standing between the woman and Naru, which surprised Naru no doubt.

"Stop it, Naru!" I shouted. "Do you have to be so heartless?!"

Naru was silent and stayed silent.

I turned around and kneeled in front of the woman and smiled, even though I was still quit frightened. "He's sort of right. You shouldn't be hurting people because you want revenge. Even if someone did something so terrible, even killing you, it doesn't give you the excuse to try killing them in return. They have to live with that action for the rest of their life and live with the guilt. Isn't that enough revenge?"

The woman blinked at me, but soon returned my smile through her tears without saying anything in reply.

I gave another kind smile and nodded lightly. "I think its best that you, and Kushiro, leave and move on. There's nothing else for you here."

The woman nodded at me, and I was amazed when I saw her fading away in a pale blue light.

"So, case solved?" Monk asked, having gotten himself and John out from under those boxes.

"Yes," Naru said.

"Wait a minute!" I shouted, quickly standing to my feet. "What the heck happened?!"

Naru looked back at me, Monk, and John. He sighed and soon began a, rather lengthy, explanation about the case.

"The woman you just saw was Tsujimura Yumako, Yakuzawa Melissa's grandfather's wife," Naru said. "Mrs. Yakuzawa's grandfather, Matsunaga, and Yumako had two children: Toshiro, who is Melissa and her brothers' father, and Kushiro, who died of pneumonia at the age of seven after being pushed into the pond by his father. Kushiro had caught Matsunaga killing Yumako, who cheated on her husband, and Matsunaga threw Kushiro into the pond in rage." Naru crossed his arms. "The dolls you've been seeing around the house were Matsunaga's way of showing how guilty he was over killing his beloved wife and son."

"Wait," Monk said, shaking his head and hands, "what about the shadowy thing that almost got Mai?"

Naru looked at Monk. "That was Kushiro's way of showing Mai what he saw that day his mother was killed."

"So," I said, folding my hands in front of me and looking down, "in the end, Yumako just wanted to get revenge on her husband who had killed her and her son." I looked at Naru. "Is that why you showed her a picture of Tsujimura Matsunaga's grave?"

"Precisely," Naru answered. Naru looked up. "I had the small thought that Yumako would understand that her husband was gone and there was no since in revenge. But"-Naru looked at me with a small, barely noticeable, smile-"it seems you conveyed that better than me, Mai. Good job."

I found myself smiling at Naru's rare compliment and I was relieved to know that this had brought yet another case for the SPR team to a close.

*Epilogue*

A day later, Naru had asked Yakuzawa Melissa to bring her father, Tsujimura Toshiro, over to the SPR office. When Melissa and Toshiro came, Naru had told them that during the case he had learn from Tsujimura Matsunaga's journal that he had left a note for his son, along with a pair of dolls that Matsunaga crafted himself, which he explained to me that Lin got them while we were letting Yumako cross over. The dolls consisted of a wife, a husband, and two sons, which Naru suggested was Matsunaga's family.

Toshiro had read the note his father had left him which explained the things Matsunaga did to his wife and Kushiro. Naru had said earlier that he wouldn't be surprised if Toshiro hated his father after that, but it seemed that Naru was wrong. Toshiro said he didn't hate his father, and he could understand what kind of pain his father must have been in when seeing his wife with another man in the garden they both planted themselves. Then after killing his wife and killing his brother, the guilt he must have felt must have been much worse.

Toshiro said, "I think my father had been through enough pain throughout his life, and if I begin to hate him that would just make him feel worse wherever he is. I would never hate my father, even if he did such terrible things." After that Toshiro began to cry when he saw the dolls.

After everything was calm, Melissa had thanked us yet again and left with her father, Toshiro, along with the dolls.

"Naru," I said, looking to Naru.

"Hm?" he hummed, still not looking up from his notebook.

"Why did you tell Lin to find the dolls?" I asked, holding the tray I carried tea on to my chest. "You could have solved the case and never found the dolls, or the note."

"Someone once said, 'You can't take back what you have said or did, but if you want closure you need to own up to it. Apologize for it and try to make it right.' Tsujimura Matsunaga wasn't trying to make things right, nor was he hoping to get closure. He figured that if he told his son the truth, his son would hate him. Instead, Toshiro realized that his father was deeply sorry for what he had done and didn't hate him for it."

I was about to ask my question, but Naru stood to his feet and began walking back to his office, vanishing behind the door after saying, "Hatred is self-punishment. It's a coward's revenge for being intimidated."

In the end, I knew Naru was just thinking what was best for the family, even if he didn't admit it himself. He wanted Toshiro to know about what happened to his brother and his mother. Naru didn't want him to not have closure and he didn't want Toshiro to continue wondering what had happened to his family members. So, Naru found the one thing that could bring peace back to the minds of the broken family.

Somewhere in my heart, I hoped that Yumako and Kushiro understood what Matsunaga was trying to convey through his Doll House.

Well, that's the end of "The Doll House"! Thank you everyone for reading and I hope to have the next book of the series up sometime this week or next week. I do hope you enjoyed this and if you have any questions about anything, PM me!

Thank you for staying with this story and thank you for the favs, alerts, and reviews!

I look forward to seeing you all in the next book: "Museum of Delusion and Revulsion".