Part 2 || 7 | Momo
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A Tale of a Delicate Matter II
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While Sakura was listening to the weird events leading up to Judy’s disappearance from Franklin’s house during a sleepover and reappearance in Judy’s own house, Momo had been walking with Judy in silence to her house. They were about halfway to their destination on the other side of the block from Grace’s house when Momo noticed that Judy hadn’t spoken a word during their impromptu afternoon stroll.
“Hey, are you okay?” Momo said.
“I’m fine,” Judy said.
Momo waited for her to say something else, even if it was off topic, but she said nothing else for the next few paces towards their destination.
“No, really,” Momo said, deciding to press her luck with a more direct approach. “Seriously, do you feel lost? Or trapped? Or uncertain about something?”
Judy glanced at Momo, then averted her eyes—
Which told Momo that Judy was hiding something, though the jury was still out on what it was.
“Why are you asking all that?” Judy said.
“The truth is,” Momo said, committing herself, “after Sakura bungled everything, I wanted to talk with you alone about what’s been bothering you.”
“You noticed it, right?” Judy said.
“Yeah, I noticed it,” Momo said, recalling the silence between Judy and Grace after the brief flare-up about who had boyfriend trouble. “And you can ask me what’s going on with the case we’re dealing with in return, but just be aware that since it’s still ongoing, and you’re one of the key witnesses in it, I can only reveal so much. Deal?”
“Okay, deal,” Judy said, and then Momo waited for her to compose her thoughts, till Judy let out a sigh. “You’re right, I do feel lost.”
“About what exactly?”
“About Grace sharing my feelings for her,” Judy said, looking down as she walked beside Momo down the neighborhood sidewalk. “I mean, she and I go way back, like since we were in preschool, and we both shared everything together: our lunches, our snacks, our interests, our secrets, almost everything, really. She’s been my best friend for so long that I didn’t realize I had feelings for her, till she started going out with Franklin at the end of middle school.”
“When did she meet Franklin?” Momo said.
“At the start of middle school,” Judy said and smiled. “I used to tease her about having a boyfriend, and Grace would always turn red and deny it,” but then her smile disappeared as she lapsed into a morose silence.
Yet Momo followed the drift of it, saying, “But then you started getting jealous of Franklin?”
“Yeah,” she said.
“When did that start happening?”
“I’m not sure,” Judy said. “Maybe I’ve always been jealous of Franklin, because he gets to have her in a way that I wish I could have her, but don’t get me wrong. Franklin’s a good guy, and I wouldn’t trust Grace with another guy, and I don’t really have anything against him, either. I just wish she’d return my feelings for her.”
“You love her, don’t you?”
“Yeah,” Judy said. “I just wish I had been more upfront about it, but what if she rejects me? I wouldn’t be able to handle it if it comes to that.”
“And because of that,” Momo said as she connected the dots, “you’ve been suppressing your feelings for Grace, so that you won’t be rejected, right?”
“Yeah,” Judy said and shook her head. “Man, I sound really pathetic, don’t I?”
“I wouldn’t say ‘pathetic,’ but you’re definitely conflicted,” Momo said, thinking of her next words as she turned the subject to Judy’s dreams. “We’ve got a phrase for what you’re going through: it’s called ‘unrequited love,’ which can leave you vulnerable to being manipulated.”
“I know that much,” Judy said, then paused for a spell. “What else can you tell me about it?”
“There’s a spiritual aspect to it, too,” Momo said. “Do you know what that is?”
Judy shook her head.
“It’s called psychic vampirism in psychology,” Momo said, “but in my line of work, we call it spiritual vampirism, because the spirits we deal with prey on vulnerable people like you. Since you’re suppressing your feelings for your friend, not letting on about it in waking life, you’re forcing all of that spiritual energy into your subconscious, and your subconscious manifests it in your dreams. That’s why you’ve been having those weird dreams. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“Yeah, I get it,” Judy said.
“That’s probably why you’ve been dreaming of that fox,” Momo added. “Since your love for Grace isn’t being returned, you’ve been looking for love somewhere else.”
“In my dreams?” Judy said.
“Yep,” Momo said, “because your dreams involve going from point A to point B.”
“Like I’m looking for someone?” Judy said.
“Yep.”
“For Grace, you mean?”
“Yeah,” Momo said, “But the name Grace also has a spiritual meaning, like God’s grace, falling from grace, disgrace, stuff like that. In those contexts, grace means ‘favor,’ and you’ve been seeking your friend’s favor without success, because you’re afraid of losing her favor. Get it?”
“Yeah,” Judy said.
“As such,” Momo said, “you’ve been looking for a way to win Grace’s favor in your dreams. In particular, you’ve been going from your bedroom to the outside world using stairs going down, meaning that you’re holding something inside you, and you’re trying to bring it out. Also, when you look back up the stairs, you see a door that wasn’t there before, meaning that you’ve crossed a threshold you can’t come back from. Plus, that door’s locked, and the key you brought with you won’t open it, which means one of two things: either you’ve lost the key, and someone else has it; or you’ve given it to someone else who doesn’t know it’s yours yet.”
“Oh, I see,” Judy said. “The key represents my power to win back Grace’s favor, but Franklin took it.”
“That,” Momo added, “or you’ve given it to Grace without letting her know.”
Judy stopped on the sidewalk within view of her house, and Momo stopped beside her. Judy grimaced as if in pain and said, “So you’re saying it’s my fault I’m feeling like a worthless piece of shit?”
“No, that’s not it!”
“Then what the fuck are you saying?”
“I’m saying you should tell Grace the truth,” Momo said. “Tell her that you love her.”
“What if I upset her?” Judy said as a tear trailed down her left cheek. “What if I cause her to break up with Franklin? I don’t wanna cause trouble for him.”
“Judy,” she said.
“I don’t wanna be that kind of girl,” Judy said, wiping her left cheek with the sleeve of her pajamas.
Momo placed her hands on Judy’s shoulders, saying, “We’re not talking about Grace or Franklin here. We’re talking about you, because you’re the one dealing with this.”
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Yet Judy started sniffling.
“Nobody’s here to judge you, okay?” Momo said. “Please, be kinder to yourself.”
That’s when Judy broke down, letting out her pent-up emotions through the tracks of her tears from squinting eyes before wiping her wet cheeks and eyes, so Momo hugged her, saying, “It’s okay, Judy.”
“No, it’s not,” Judy said.
“It’s okay to cry,” Momo said, feeling like she was comforting another younger sister in Judy Windermere. “It’s okay to feel like you’re falling apart, but just know that you’re not alone. You don’t have to keep it bottled up, so just let it out, and Big Sis will be here to help you, I promise.”
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A Tale of an Empty House II
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Momo and Judy paused by the sidewalk at the sight of the front door left open as Momo and Sakura had found it this morning (and as Taiso Takagi had found it this afternoon), just as Judy had left it in the wake of her misunderstanding with the three Jacks this morning. Momo traded a glance with Judy as they crept along the driveway and the entrance path and approached the door with Judy pushing it open.
Crossing the threshold and following Judy into the foyer, Judy closed and locked the door, while Momo felt goosebumps forming on her forearms. Even when she had been inside the house before, entering it now in the quiet of a late afternoon gave Momo the impression of entering a haunted house before the ghosts appeared at sunset—
Which wasn’t lost on Judy, who said, “Momo, do you think someone’s here?”
“Maybe,” Momo said, stepping in front of Judy and manifesting a holster over her right leg and a gun held in both hands, which attracted Judy’s eyes to it.
“What’s that gun for?” Judy said.
“It’s for protection, so stay behind me,” Momo said. “Besides seeing the fox eyes, did you notice any other weird occurrence in this house?”
“Yeah,” Judy said.
“Where in this house?” Momo said.
So Judy pointed past her, and Momo followed the direction of her pointing finger to the stairs in the living room just before the kitchen, then heard Judy say, “When I woke up this morning, I found the three Jacks sleeping in my room, so I was going down the stairs when I slipped and fell, but I wasn’t really falling: I was actually floating in mid-air, till I touched down on the floor at the foot of the stairs.”
“That’s interesting,” Momo said, then turned back to her. “What else happened, if any?”
“In my subsequent dreams about that fox woman,” Judy said, “I was hiding a dog tag from her in various places in my house, but that fox woman kept looking for it for some reason.”
“Why was she looking for it?”
“Don’t know,” Judy said.
“And why were you hiding it?” Momo said.
“I have no idea why,” Judy said, shaking her head. “I just kept trying to hide the tag from this fox woman, till I just decided to take it with me to bed, but then . . .”
Momo waited for Judy to continue, but when she didn’t, Momo said, “Then what happened?”
“I don’t know why,” Judy said, “but I found myself getting out of bed, leaving my room, and going down the stairs. That’s all I could remember before waking up in a cold sweat. That’s when I noticed the tag was gone.”
“Wait a minute,” Momo said, noticing a visual motif of going down the stairs as a symbolic representation of descending from conscious thoughts through the subconscious via the stairs into the unconscious mind, then turned to the stairs, then looked back at Judy. She recalled listening in on Judy’s story of her initial dream of going down a lengthening set of stairs before meeting with this fox girl named ‘Emma’ and said, “Do you remember anything about going down the stairs that time?”
“Nope,” Judy said.
“Nothing at all?” Momo said.
Judy shook her head and said, “Nothing at all.”
“So the second time you went down the stairs in your dream,” Momo said, “you don’t remember anything?”
“Pretty much,” Judy said.
That was an omen, Momo thought, because it entailed abduction scenarios in which the dreamer’s memory was wiped afterward, only to be recalled through nightmares. At that point, the victim would have to rely on medication to suppress these memories with middling results or rely on hypnosis and talk therapy to help come to terms with it. Cases of this kind were often linked with accounts of alien abduction in the West and kamikakushi in Japan. And when she coupled these observations with the eye-witness reports of the muse officers and examinees during this year’s Muse Bureau Academy entrance exams, in which Judy went missing for five hours during the examination period over six out of the seven days, Momo knew something was up and said, “Barring whatever you don’t remember about that dream, do you remember feeling strange afterward?”
Judy paused for a time, and Momo waited for her.
“I remember feeling weird afterward,” Judy said, “like I did something I shouldn’t have.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know,” Judy said, shaking her head. “What’s this about? Do you know anything?”
“Not much besides what you and I already know,” Momo said. “Anything else?”
“There was one other thing,” Judy said. “When Grace and I were having a sleepover at Franklin’s house over the summer, Franklin and I were relating our dreams. I was talking about what I was telling you earlier when I was trying to hide that dog tag from the fox woman, and Franklin was talking about seeing me in his house going in and out of the walls, and then he said he saw me in a kimono going into one of his closets, and I was like, what the hell are you talking about? I told him I didn’t remember anything about wearing a kimono and entering a closet, so Grace asked him if we could check it out, and at first he was reluctant like a scaredy-cat, but he relented, and we went up the stairs to the room where he saw me in a kimono, and we saw a chair propped up against the doorknob. He removed the chair and opened the door, and when we checked out his closet, nothing happened when Franklin and Grace opened the closet, but when I opened it, the closet was empty, and there were steps going down to God-knows-where.”
Momo gaped at Judy’s words, wondering if that had anything to do with what the eye-witnesses at the entrance exams had seen before saying, “Are you serious?”
“Trust me, I was totally bamboozled when I saw those steps,” Judy said. “Then Franklin lost his shit and was yelling for me to close the door, so I tried closing it, but the door wouldn’t budge. Then Grace and Franklin helped me, but the closet door wouldn’t budge at all, till we lost our grip, and I fell into the closet, and the door slammed shut while I was inside. I was banging on the closet door for them to let me out, and I could hear Grace’s voice for a bit, but then I couldn’t hear her anymore. Then, when I was able to open the closet door, I found neither of them there, so I checked out where I was and realized I was inside my own house. I went to the phone in my bedroom and dialed Franklin’s place, and when they answered, I told them I was inside my house.”
Time passed in an infinity of silence.
Then Momo said, “Can you show me which closet that was?”
“Yeah, follow me,” Judy said.
But Momo grabbed her arm and said, “Don’t wander off. Stay close to me, and we’ll go together, okay?”
A pale-faced Judy nodded her head and said, “It’s up the stairs at the bend in the upper hallway.”
So Momo and Judy went up the stairs to the second floor of an L-shaped hallway (where Taiso Takagi had left the door open at the bend of said hallway).
“Was someone here while I was gone?” Judy said.
“Looks like it, so stay close to me,” Momo said, moving with her gun held in both hands at the ready, should anything pop out at them like a jump scare. Her eyes scanned across the hallway from the door to her immediate right (also left ajar) and the door at the bend of the hallway as she and Judy neared it, then flicked over to the other door at the end of the hallway (also left ajar) before she turned back to the door at the bend and stalked across the threshold.
There in the room was an open closet (as Taiso Takagi had left it earlier in the afternoon), so Judy said, “I didn’t leave that open this morning.”
“I see,” Momo said, raising her gun at the darkness inside the open closet that had a bunch of boxes full of books and manga in it but nothing else inside. “Was this the closet you came out of when you returned to your house?”
“Yeah,” Judy said.
“That’s strange,” Momo said, rolling Judy’s observations with the other observations she had gleaned at Grace’s house in her head, then stepped foot into the closet and pressed a wall light illuminating the space inside. “I think we’re dealing with a fox woman that enters dreamscapes through people’s closets, like the way the bogeyman does it,” and she closed the sliding door shut. “Let’s repeat the scenario.”
“Wait, what do you mean by that?” Judy said.
“Try opening the closet and see what happens,” Momo said.
“Is it safe?” Judy said.
“Don’t worry, I’m here,” Momo said.
“Okay then,” Judy said, reaching for the inset door pull and pulling it aside, but there was nothing amiss inside: no set of steps led down into God-knows-where like there was in Franklin’s closet, so Momo holstered her gun over her right leg and thought of the possibilities: whether Judy’s account at Franklin’s house was a time-sensitive haunting that occurred during the witching hour, or a place-sensitive haunting that affected one house with a set of paranormal phenomena while leaving the other house with no activity at all, or a person-sensitive haunting that affected a specific person connected to it in some way.
“When you disappeared from the Franklin house that time,” Momo said, “when did that happen?”
“I think it was around midnight,” Judy said.
“Well, at least we know a few things,” Momo said. “Either it only works from Franklin’s house to your house, or it only works at around midnight, or it only works when someone connected with it came in this way already. Besides you, Judy, I can only think of that fox woman you met.”
“Emma?” Judy said.
“Yeah,” Momo said and closed the closet door again. “I won’t have you test out the third option, till we get more information about all this, so don’t worry. Let’s head back.”
“Let me get my keys first,” Judy said.
So Momo and Judy headed out through the upper hallway and into her bedroom next to the stairs, where Judy grabbed her key ring from the credenza under the lampshade. Then they went downstairs through the living room and out through the front door, where Judy made sure to lock it before they headed back to Grace’s house a block away.
On the way, though, Judy kept peppering Momo with questions about her thoughts on the Emma case, and Momo tried to answer without giving away too much. Namely, that Judy Sylvan Windermere used to be the entrance exam for prospective muse cadets to pass in order to enroll into Muse Bureau Academy. In fact, Judy’s unwitting situation drew some parallels with the titular character of the Haruhi Suzumiya light novels, as well as the titular character in the Being John Malkovich film but without the R-rating. How Momo was going to explain this to Muse Inspector Nathaniel Coleman without getting an earful at the end of this week was beyond her, so she resigned herself to the inevitable and sighed—
Which Judy caught and said, “What is it?”
“It’s nothing,” Momo said and came up with another topic of discussion involving Judy’s favorite books, which got her off the hook as Judy went on and on about the stories in Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes omnibus.
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TBC