John knew it wouldn't be long until the team trickled in from the floor above but he began pacing anyway. It's not like what he had to tell them was all that devastating. I mean sure it was hard to work past the emotional lump that would lodge in his throat whenever he even thought of her. But seeing her grave today seemed to help him move past that a bit. Perhaps getting all this out in the open would give him a sense of closure.

He smiled softly at each member of PRI, plus the Davis twins, as they entered the meeting room. Since, Ayako, was also in attendance it was apparent that she turned on the answering service for the duration of this conversation. He sighed and cleared his throat.

"I'm sure you all were curious to where I went off to this morning, and I apologize for possibly leaving you all in the lurch. I will get to that in time, but first I think I need to clear something up about my past. It's kind of a long story so I'm thankful the office chairs are comfortable." He attempted to make a joke.

Atsuko felt his jumbled nerves as her own and jumped to give him a reassuring squeeze to his shoulder. She smiled at him then took her seat again.

"My family in Australia was really close. We all lived in each others pockets practically. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, no one lived more then a few miles away from one another. I actually grew up down the street from my Uncle Garrett and his family. Uncle Garrett was dad's older brother and him and his wife had a daughter who was eight years older than me." He took a moment to sigh and mentally conjure her up in his mind. "Emmaline was my hero, and I would follow her wherever she went. When I was twelve was one of the hardest years of my life. Emmaline, of course, hadn't been around often the past couple years because she had been attending university.

"But the year she turned twenty she came home for summer break... I remember there was a big welcome home party for her. All of our family members of course showed up. I remember there was a lot of merriment floating in the room. But that all seemed to dull when there was this knock on the door. She had jumped up excitedly and ran to it. The man behind it was Japanese, his name was Hamada Kuranosuke. He was a couple years her senior, and had just graduated from university.

"I remember how much fun we had at the party. Kuranosuke was easy to get along with, and he didn't have a problem with spending time with Emmaline's 12 year old cousin that doted on her every word. I guess I didn't know better. Perhaps, I had a crush on my cousin. I'm honestly not sure." He shrugged off this suspicion. "It was when she got up to cut the cake that she said she had an announcement to make that changed things for me. She had decided to enroll in a college overseas program to Japan that way she could be with Kuranosuke.

"That moment led me down a dark spiral. I was grief stricken at the loss of someone so important to me. I don't recall every leaving my room the rest of that summer. But once school came back around my mother put her foot down. She enrolled me in a private catholic school. She thought that being closer to god might guide her little boy back to her. In a way I guess it did.

"I began to take my education so seriously that I was advanced up a few grades. By the time I was fifteen I graduated high school. I enrolled in seminary not long after. I had just completed the portion of the program that taught me how to perform exorcisms when I got a devastating phone call. My cousin, Emmaline, had gone missing. She was family and more important to me then completing my education at that point. So I dropped everything to help investigate her disappearance.

"It was my first ever case. The house that the two had just moved into was haunted by an extremely malicious spirit. He had taken her underneath ground. There was this cellar of sorts. But we didn't have an easy way to gain access tp the space because it had been sealed off from the rest of the house. We couldn't fathom how he was able to get her past that point. I remember Kuranosuke grabbing a pickaxe and he just began to hack away at a piece of the wall. I tried desperately to get him to stop. It was like something was telling me what he was doing was wrong.

"That was when the spirit arrived and began cackling manically. It was sheer luck I was able to exorcise it. I think where it would normally take five minutes now I took at least twice that time. By the time I turned back around..." John finally took a deep breath as tears began to well up in his eyes. "Well, the part of the wall that Kuranosuke had been hitting happened to be the spot where Emmaline had been seated. We contemplated later that she must have been knocked unconscious and that's the reason she didn't hear us trying to get through the wall. With the first hit of the pickaxe he had done irreversible damage, but it was the final hit that struck her skull directly that killed her."

Mai was the first one out of her chair. She pulled John in what she hoped would be a healing, welcome hug. "You," she bit her lower lip and took a breath to compose herself, "you don't blame yourself do you?"

"How could I not? If I had insisted further for Kuranosuke to stop. If I had performed the exorcism quicker..."

Monk touched John on the head as if he were still 18. "No, you yourself said that with the first strike there was irreversible damage."

"Yes, but she at least would have lived!"

Atsuko put her hand on his shoulder. "It would have been a half life though." She wasn't saying anything he hadn't already tried to convince himself of but it helped. It helped sharing all these things with the people around him that were basically an extended family of sorts. It helped sharing his guilt. He felt he was already beginning to heal and move past it. But he knew he only bandaged the wound it would still take time to mend fully.

"So, you said you would explain where you were today."

"Oh yes, I first visited Father Toga and well we had a long talk. He suggested to me that I should take a trip to see her grave. I hadn't been there in years, not since I first arrived in Japan. I won't say it healed old wounds but it was definitely therapeutic."

Noll stood and his presence had everyone making space for him. They all looked at him with questioning eyes. "Do you blame this Kuranosuke for her death?"

"No, she was his wife and he was just trying to rescue the woman he loved. It was a horrible accident."

"Do you blame God for taking her away from you?"

John's eyes bugged out of his head. He never considered that before. Did he blame God? Was that a possible reason that posing as a priest was bothering him now? "I don't think I do. But, I never considered it before. Perhaps I haven't forgiven him in a way. I still believe in him of course. I trust that he's just, and that there is always a reason. But...up until her death she was the one I held most dear and without her... I feel like I am just going through the motions of living."

Noll nodded. "I suggest seeing Father Toga again soon with this in mind. Tell him this possible discovery, and I am sure he can help."

Mai's jaw dropped. The words that were coming out of Naru's mouth were caring and sincere. But that didn't reflect in his business tone. Was there always more to the intent behind his words? Did he always hide so much affection behind the inflection of his voice?

"That was a heavy conversation! I say we lighten things up by ordering a pizza!" Monk jumped up and pulled out his cell phone. He was already talking to the delivery man before Mai was able to interject.

"Please no anchovies. My stomach is still reeling from the last pizza you ordered." Mai groaned in physical agony that her stomach was conjuring up.

It was still several more hours before Noll was finally able to pull Mai aside again. "The dream? You said we would discuss it."

"Sorry, things have been a bit crazy today. Here come with me."

The pizza party had been brought upstairs to the lounge on the top floor that housed their apartments. So now Mai nervously led Naru to her apartment. She wondered what he would think of her small living space as she opened the door.

"Hmm, I was wondering how you would be able to accommodate a whole apartment into a classroom. It's a lot bigger then I anticipated."

"Part of that is creative organization." She indicated the futon before saying, "Why don't you take a seat I just want to grab some notes from my bedroom."

Noll frowned at the futon. It was quite low to the ground, and he would practically be folded inward on himself if he sat there. Instead he took a seat at her small dining room table that she had situated next to her kitchenette. Once Mai reentered the main area he said, "I think you neglected to think of the comfort of your guest when you indicated for me to take a seat here on this futon. Did it even occur to you what I might look like seated in that contraption?"

Mai became angry before the mental image seeped into her mind. Then she began laughing out loud. "Oh, goodness, I'm so sorry. Not for laughing after the seriousness of today I feel like I needed it. But I am sorry for my oversight. That was careless of me. So help me out here, what do you know about the dreams that I have been having?"

Noll shrugged. "Only that they are terrifying both yourself and Gene."

"Yes well, I think the only dreams that might be more scarey would have been the dreams on the Urado case." Mai shivered at the memory. "Let me add heavy on the might." She then proceeded to give him details about the dream itself. When she shivered as she talked about the bony hands prodding at her he wanted to hold her, to comfort her, but he kept his arms folded, clenching his fists tight so we wouldn't proceed with that action.

"You said there was a jar?" Noll asked.

Mai pulled out her crude illustrations. "I pre-apologize an artist I am not. But I thought jotting down the visual might help give me some clarity."

"Us some clarity. We are in this together." Noll frowned at the image he had in his hand. "You said the main skeleton was draped in heavy robes?"

"His face was hooded. I remember that much."

Noll was pretty certain that he knew what this jar was. He was pretty certain he knew what the skeleton was. But before verbalizing it at all he was going to do research on it. He had to ascertain Mai would be safe first. "Let me see your phone, Mai."

Without thinking to ask why she handed her phone to him. He had quickly typed some things in her phone. His own chimed shortly after. "I have programmed my number into your phone and sent your number to mine. If you have another of these dreams I will be calling you directly. You will answer the call. Now let me ask some more questions regarding the dream. Are you waking up with physical injury?" Mai grimaced at the question. "I'll take that as a yes. How often are you having this dream? Has it been only the two times thus far?"

"Yes, only the two times."

"And both of these times have occurred between cases?"

"Yes, we weren't working on a case at the time of the first dream. I'm honestly thankful to have not had that dream during our previous case. I think I went into that last case worrying I wouldn't dream about it at all. But obviously I had not trouble dreaming at all." Mai pushed back a piece of hair that kept falling in her face.

"No, I would give you and your gift more credit, Mai. Both are indispensable to any case."

Mai felt her cheeks began to blaze. Did Naru just willing give her a compliment?

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I think I honestly started tearing up when I was writing John's past. I personally love to change up names a bit. I originally was going to name his cousin Emma but I just liked the idea of making it sound even prettier because of how high of a regard he held her in. So I changed it to Emmaline.

See you again

-Pixie