Vacay (self-insert #6)

Chapter 3

I didn't budge a muscle.

Lin stood frozen in the doorway.

Naru snoozed away at my feet.

"You just...entered?" He said slowly. "Nothing happened?"

"Yeah. There was a spider crawling towards his face, and as funny as it would've been I didn't want to see him eat it. I thought I'd shoo it away or kill it and completely forgot about the barrier." Since he didn't look too pleased, I added, "Sorry."

He sighed. "Well, at least it saves me the worry of having to attend to him all by myself." He remarked. "Where is it?"

I stared at him blankly.

"The spider." He elaborated.

I mutely held up the rolled-up paper to display the brown smear. Sighing again, he ushered me out.

Masako and John arrived several hours after I finally figured out how to feed a sleeping person oatmeal, and by then I really didn't want to see the tan mush again. Maybe I could change it up every day? Wouldn't Naru like that? I plopped down at my laptop and checked my email. Madoka was at the top of my inbox. Look at this picture! The email screamed in bright pink letters. I tapped on the attachment and found myself staring at a picture of sleeping Naru.

I closed out of it. Forget oatmeal—I was going to get tired of listening to Naru's breathy snores real quick.

"Same thing happened in the corridor." Ayako was saying. Through the gap created by her arm and Mai's, I could see little floating lights swirling around Hazuki-chan's room before disappearing.

Lin's fingers flew over the keyboard. "Switching to the feed of the room overlooking the cove."

My view was blocked as Ayako and Mai leaned forward in time to the awed gasps. "What are they? Lights?"

"It looks like they're rising from below."

"Are they apparitions?"

Bou-san leaned back to look at Lin. "How's the audio?"

"No audio. No vibrations either. The other sensors are within normal levels. Except the temperature dropped five degrees."

I tilted my head at that. "We should set up thermographs in varying locations so that we can be sure that it's something paranormal and not the night air—like a control group."

Bou-san jumped—apparently he'd forgotten I was there—and covered it up with a cough. "Who do you think you are, Naru?"

"I took two college-level research classes in my universe. Some things tend to stick."

He rolled his eyes at me. "Also, aren't the floating lights a dead giveaway?"

Not really, seeing how paranormal phenomena could be faked, like how Kuroda had jammed a door with a nail in the very first case. I wasn't in the mood to argue, so I settled with, "Was the pun intended?"

There was a knock, and Mai went to go allow Akifumi inside with the coffee. He was starting to act like our personal butler. Another email from Madoka popped up. Lo and behold: Naru was grinning.

No, that wasn't Naru. There were smile creases at the corners of his eyes. It was Gene.

Naru when he isn't PMSing, the caption read.

Naru when he's on crack, I replied.

Oh, good one. I'll use that another time.

"Impossible!" Akifumi said sharply, making me flinch. "Did you go down there? I wouldn't have allowed it. Those stone steps are dangerous."