Cumin: Book 1

Guilt

I came to with a start by the cold touch of snow against my neck. Naru had a hand on the back of my head, holding it up, and soon the cold snow was replaced by something warm being stuffed in-between. I glanced down as Naru righted me into a sitting position against the tree and found myself wrapped tight in wool blankets with a rain coat serving as a shield between me and the snow.

Naru reached into his coat and pulled out a grungy scarf, which he unceremoniously plopped onto my head.

"Sad. I was hoping you'd stay unconscious. You're a lot quieter and a lot less trouble, then."

I blinked at Naru, trying to get over the black fuzzy earmuffs he had on his head. Then it clicked. "You went into the house?"

"And came out fine." He tucked his gloved hands into his pockets and leaned against the tree besides me. I looked up at him, then back down to the warm cocoon he had wrapped me up in. It took a bit of awkward squirming to release an arm to wrap the scarf about my neck.

"Thanks for...keeping me warm." I wiggled my buried toes. "Any news on Ayako?"

"Nope."

"Um..."

"What?"

"I, uh, had one of those dreams."

"And I'm sure you're about to tell me about it." He hesitated. "Was Gene there?"

"Yeah! He, um, pointed out that the sitting room that we've set up base is warded against spirits. Someone built symbols of some sort into the walls. That's why whenever we're in there we haven't heard the baby cries."

He closed his eyes and nodded. "I had a theory about that."

I went on to tell him about the utility closet, as well as the somewhat lackluster foxfire within. When I mentioned Gene's reminder (Karma is a bitch), Naru barked a short, loud laugh that caught me off guard.

"That's him." He pushed off the tree. "Is that it?"

"Um, pretty much."

"Did you see any foxfires in the boxes?"

"Not really—though the area around them was really bright and colorful. Ayako's blood looked like..."

"I get the idea." He tapped his shoe in the snow, looking back at the huge house, with its Annabelle columns and carefully pruned evergreen bushes. "So there's something else here besides the Kuman."

"Every time I hear that I can't help but think about cumin. You know, the spice?"

He didn't respond, still tapping his shoe in the snow. He had a look I knew all too well: of sharp concentration. Then he seemed to decide something within himself and turned to me.

"I'm going to go in and open one of the outside windows to the base so you can climb in."

I thought that a little extreme. "What are you so afraid of?"

"I don't get afraid." He said dryly.

I rolled my eyes. "Okay, Vulcan, you have a theory on what happened to Ayako and it somehow has to do with me. Care to share?"

"I thought it was obvious." Everything was obvious to him. To Naru he was but a step down from omniscience. "When the spirit of the baby was released from its body, it went to the only place it new: the womb. What transpired between it and Ayako I can't be sure, and as far as I'm concerned John only released one so far, but I'd like to play it safe."

Especially given that we didn't know just how close to death Ayako was.

I shivered and wrapped my arms around me. He spared me a glance, but after seeing what he must have wanted to see, he gestured me to the side of the house and went in to open the window. Picking up the rain coat he had used to separate me from the snow, I hitched up the blankets he had put over me and set out on my merry way across the snow packed yard. It took a lot longer to get to the window than I would have liked, and by the time I made it my legs had gone numb from the knee down and the air in my lungs hurt.