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She bolted out of bed for the fourth time this week wacking her nose straight into the wall she was facing. In her still delirious mind she could only emit an almost silent hiss.
She gripped the sides of her futon trying to find some sort of support and crawled her way to sit up. When she finally opened her crusty eyes and wiped all the what her mother used to call "sleepies" away. She let out a groan. Mai knew her nose was definitely bruised.
She was tired of this. Sleeping and having those terrible nightmares come back to haunt her each night. It's been 2 months since the case but the nightmares have just gotten more and more frequent. The case already ended poorly, I mean they lost two investigators even if it wasn't their own team and even after that they had to set that mansion ablaze. Burning the mansion was way better than other people dying but it still left with the fact they couldn't truly help.
Despite all the bad that happened on the case her mind apparently just wanted to go above and beyond finding new ways it could have ended worse.
Mai sighed and went to the bathroom to check the damage. Her nose was red as expected, it was definitely gonna bruise. At least it didn't seem broken. She wasn't an expert but that would hurt way more than this probably? Right?
"I mean this did hurt pretty bad..." she mumbled.
There was no blood and it wasn't bent so it seemed fine. There was still a hard achy pain that throbbed periodically. Tylenol and an ice pack would be an easy fix for that. She got both of those and sat back down on her futon. It was 4 am. Not quite time for school she had time but definitely not enough time to go back to sleep.
She's done her best to ignore the nightmares thus far but she's got a pretty noticeable bruise forming on her face. Everyone is gonna know soon enough so being the independent woman she was she knew she had to figure this out and fix it.
Mai grabbed her journal off her desk and began to write.
Urado Mansion was always the setting of these nightmares, from getting out to watching her friends die, she's seen it all.
The maze. The bones. The blood. The smell...
She felt like she was still stuck in that mansion.
The worst ones were watching the team, her family, being slowly killed one by one.
She couldn't bear it anymore. She knew she couldn't handle this herself anymore.
"After school, I need to talk to Naru and Lin"
Mai let out an even bigger sigh. She really didn't like asking for help. She didn't wanna seem weaker than they probably already thought she was.
By the time she finished writing all her nightmares it was already time to leave for school. Mai shoved the notebook in her backpack and rushed to get ready at a rapid pace. Grabbing her keys from the table and running out the door.
The day seemed to drag on when she got to school class after class. She was exhausted and her eyes started drooping.
"Mai, wake up! It's lunch! What happened to your nose?" Keiko said, frowning as she approached Mai's desk.
"Ugh. I'm way too tired to eat." Mai said as she finally brought herself to stand up.
As soon as she was up she got a wave of dizziness and saw black.
The last thing she heard was a distant shout.
"Mai!"
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As she slowly awakened she couldn't bring herself to open her eyes yet. She knew what was coming and who was here.
"I already know what you're gonna say. I promise I was gonna talk about it with you after school. I've just been having really bad nightmares and I thought it was something I could handle. The bruise proved to myself that maybe I do need the help."
Naru sighed.
"You could have called. Why did you have to push yourself this much? You can't just keep doing this stuff to your health. You have limits, you need to learn them."
Despite Naru's strict tone Mai could tell he was worried. She smiled softly and cracked her eyes open to look at him.
"You were worried."
Naru stayed quiet for a bit looking away from Mai. He softly said, "You say SPR is your family. Rely on them as such..."
Mai smiled again.
"You're right. I need to trust you guys more. I'm not alone anymore. I don't need to handle everything on my own."
Naru nodded and got out his notebook.
"What are the nightmares about? Are they psychic?"
Mai sat up slowly grabbing the tea from the nightstand that she just knew Naru made for her. She smelled it, green tea, her favorite. She smiled into the cup as she took a long sip.
"I don't think they are psychic. I'm just getting nightmares about our last case. They just
keep coming. I just feel pathetic having to relive the same things over and over again. Sometimes in a weird way it feels like I never left."
Naru puts the book down. There was no need to write anything about this.
"Nightmares don't make you weak. You're not pathetic. A Lot of people have them. Especially after traumatic events. You should ask Lin to teach you meditation. It could help you."
A light bulb went off in Mai's head. The way Naru was talking meant he had nightmares too.
"Thank you Naru.. Thank you for looking out for me."
She smiled bright and cheerful. It was almost too much for him to bear. He needed to redirect this conversation so the warmth in his chest would go away.
"It's nothing. Hurry up and go back to sleep before I call Ayako."
Mai's eyes widened and immediately she laid down to go to sleep. She closed her eyes, a small smile spreading across her face again. She drifted off to sleep. Her dreams were quite peaceful.