<div class="floatright">(http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p121/Mab_faerie/Elliquiy/b36a2cbe-7ec2-4a0f-83c1-80b5a9177b34_zps94ff6f9e.jpg)</div><br/>The shrill sound of a telephone ringing forced Aislin into a hazy consciousness. She turned her head somewhat to gaze at the nearby clock, trying to force the numbers on it to make sense to her still sleep-addled brain.<br/>"9:42" she murmured and sat up. Was it evening? Or had she slept until morning of the following day? It was hard to tell with the way everything felt as if it had begun to blend together as of late.<br/>Making her way, unsteadily so, to the living room, Aislin was assaulted by the bright, warm light that poured through the windows into her home. Apparently it was morning after all. She must have slept a good fifteen hours, at best!<br/><br/>At least it was the weekend. She wouldn't have to worry about dragging herself into work and pretending to be productive, anyway.<br/>But what was that annoying high pitched shrieking sound?<br/>Oh right. The phone.<br/><br/>Fumbling somewhat, Aislin managed to grasp the phone on the fourth ring and slam her index finger on the recieve button.<br/>"Hello?" Aislin breathed, her voice betraying her exhaustion and making her sound as if she was practically still asleep. If the cheerful female voice on the other end of the phone had any inclination of this however, she made no motion to reveal it as she replied,<br/>"Hello, May I please speak to Miss Aislin McCarthy?"<br/>"This is she." Aislin replied, recognizing the voice almost immediately as her Mothers main nurse, but held off from jumping to conclusions just to be sure. Given the insanity she'd been dealing with lately, she wouldn't have been half surprised to find them calling to cart<em>her </em>away instead of to report on her mothers well being.<br/><br/>"Hello Miss McCarthy, this is Catherine Velour, your Mothers Head Nurse. I'm calling to discuss her current well-being?" Her tone had a distinct upwards inflection at the end of her sentence, making it sound more like a question than a statement, but Aislin knew what it was.<br/>Like clockwork, Catherine would call around the same time on the same day, every few weeks and say the same thing.<em>Sorry, but there's been no change.  We're doing everything we can. The root cause remains undetermined. No. No. Yes? ...no. No, sorry. No.</em><br/>"Well thank you for calling. Tell me Mother I'll be in for a visit today." Aislin informed the nurse, knowing it would do her mother no good, but that it at least helped Aislin keep her own peace.<br/>"I'm sure she'll be delighted to hear that, Miss McCarthy. We'll look forward to seeing you."<br/>Aislin held back the sarcastic retort that lingered on the tip her tongue, begging to be spat out like a bad taste. Her mother wouldn't be delighted. Her mother barely knew who she was.<br/><br/>With a few overly polite goodbyes, Aislin hung up the phone and shook her head, mumbling to herself.<br/>"Let's just get this over with..." Perhaps this made her a bad daughter, being so unenthusiastic to visit her only living parent? But then, could a woman so unstable that she wouldn't be able to recognise her flesh and blood standing right before her really be considered a mother at all? Was parenthood so whittled down to very basics of who shared DNA with who? Aislin was not inclined to agree.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>Some time later,  Aislin sat in the waiting room of West-Haven Hospital, perusing through a Cosmopolitan magazine and waiting for Catherine to be available. It wasn't long before the ever familiar nurse, clad in purple scrubs with her blonde hair swept back into a ponytail, arrived to welcome Aislin in.<br/>"Your mother has been looking forward to seeing you, Miss McCarthy." Catherine smiled, Aislin severely doubted the truthfulness of that statement<br/>"My mother doesn't look forward to anything, Catherine. My mother doesn't even know my name." Aislin retorted as she stood, dropping the magazine aside and moving towards Catherine.<br/><br/>"Oh but she knows your face, Miss! She knows that you come to visit her once a week on Saturdays, twice on her birthday."<br/>"No, Catherine.<em>You</em>know that information. But my Mother? My mother couldn't tell me from Eve. She probably thinks I'm just a nurse in a funny outfit." Aislin remarked, following close behind Catherine as she began to lead her down the ever familiar twists and turns of hallways that made up the sparkling clean hospital.<br/><br/>"That's not true at all, dear. She may not be able to express it all aloud, but I'm certain that somewhere in her mind, she knows it's you. A mother can't just forget her daughter. A mothers love is more powerful than any other force."<br/>"Right. Well, my Mother is doing an incredibly good show then. Last I checked, she hasn't called me by name since I was 10."<br/>"Well you just have to keep trying!" Catherine assured Aislin as she led her at last into the room where her mother waited.<br/>"I've spent ten years trying, Catherine. Forgive me if I'm tired now."<br/>Catherine only smiled in response as she closed the door behind her, leaving Aislin and her mother in the nearly barren room alone.<br/><br/>The room itself was bare except for an empty white table and two chairs sitting across from one another. A single glass window was set along the wall opposite the door, and at the moment Aislins mother appeared to be gazing out of it, lost in the thoughts that devoured her fragile mind.<br/>"...Okasan." Aislin whispered quietly, trying not to startle her mother and at the same time, wishing for once that her mother would respond to the word. She never did. She never would.<br/><br/>"Okasan, Watashi wa... koko ni iru. Did you miss me? Do you even know who I am?"<br/>Aislin moved towards the empty seat, watching as her mother stared blankly out the window still, ignoring her existence entirely.<br/>The visits were always like this. Aislin sat and spoke and sometimes wept. Her mother, like a block of marble, remained stone-faced and unresponsive.<br/>Sometimes, though rarely so, she would say something, but it never made sense and it was never in response to anything Aislin might have said.<br/>Ten years of this and then some, Aislin had lost hope long ago. She was tempted to just stop visiting entirely, but that remained a difficult call for her to make.<br/><br/>"Okasan... Watashi wa kimyōna nikki o mitsuketa. It... It just appeared out of nowhere... and now it feels like it's... haunting me. Like I can't escape it. Like everything is... going wrong and there's no way for me to stop it." Aislin lowered her gaze to her hands, now clenched tightly around one another, pale and white with stress and fear.<br/>"Watashi wa kowaidesu!" She whimpered, closing her eyes as tears spilled forth against her will.<br/>She heard, but did not see her mother turn in her seat, until the once beautiful woman faced her full on.<br/>Lifting her head, she could see how her father had fallen in love with this woman. Even now, in her late 40's, she was a beautiful woman. She looked young, despite her age, her skin was still fresh and clear, a peaches and cream complexion complemented pale coral shaded lips. This elegant Japanese beauty had no need for makeup. She was lovely just as she was.<br/>If she had been able to hold onto her senses and keep herself together, it was clear she would have swept any other man off his feet in no time. Instead, the death of her husband led her deeper into despair and swallowed her whole. Now, there would be no escaping from it.<br/><br/>"Kimono." Aislin blinked a few times, certain that she's misheard her.<br/>"K...kimono? What about a Kimono?"<br/>"Haiiro to Midori..."<br/>Aislin tensed. This wasn't happening. Not here. Not now.<br/>"Nikki... Furui Nikki..."<br/>"Stop!" Aislin shook her head in outrage and horrified confusion.<br/>"You read the journal?" She whispered, clear as day, in English. Aislins mother had never much cared for English, but had only used it when Aislin was around, since it was her daughters first language.<br/>"Mother...?"<br/>"You saw the woman in the Kimono?" For the first time in years, Aislins mother had said something that appeared to not only make perfect sense, but was a response to what Aislin was talking about.<br/>"Hai, Okasan... are you... alright?"<br/>"Be careful, my daughter. Don't let her take you. The Kimono woman... she wants back what was stolen from her. It wasn't our fault, but we are left to bare the weight. It was too deep a sin for even us to escape."<br/>"I don't understand! Who is this Kimono woman? Why does she want me? What have I done?"<br/>"Once you read the diary, you've sealed your fate. Do not let her curse spread! I tried to keep you safe..." Her mothers voice strained a bit with a masked sorrow, pain apparent in her gaze.<br/>"I don't understand, Okasan! What are you talking about?"<br/>"I did my best to save you... my sweet daughter. My... Aislin." All of a sudden it was as if the light had fled from her mothers eyes. Her expression went blank again and she slumped back into her seat, listless and unresponsive.<br/>"Okasan! OKASAN!" Aislin screamed, trying to get a response from her mother but found only silence would greet her.<br/><br/>The shouting drew the attention of the staff and soon Catherine came rushing in.<br/>"Miss McCarthy, is everything alright? We heard yelling..."<br/>Aislin spun on Catherine then, confusion, fury and pain in her eyes.<br/>"My mother is<em>NOT</em>permitted to make phone calls to anyone outside of the family! Who is this 'kimono woman' she’s been talking to?!" She demanded, wanting to know who, aside from herself, that her mother had been seeing.<br/>"Our apologies miss, but your mother hasn't made any phone calls in months, as to our knowledge."<br/>"That can’t be right, she told me about a woman she’s been speaking to! What about visitors? Has anyone come to see her?!"<br/>"Ma’am, the phone has a passcode on it that only staff members can unlock. She would not be able to access it of her own accord, and her call chart is blank except for you. I assure you, she’s made no phone calls, and you are her only visitor. There is no kimono woman."<br/><br/>Aislin swallowed down the rage that was building inside her. That couldn't be true. There was no way her mother could be referring to the Kimono woman Aislin had seen in her nightmares. There was no way her mother would have even known!<br/>"I... I need to go." Aislin said abruptly and motioned to leave. Catherine began to protest but Aislin was already well on her way out before the woman had time to finish her sentence.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>Upon returning home, Aislin began tearing her bookshelf apart looking for the Diary. She had placed it between two larger, more noticeable books a few days prior, but now it was nowhere to be seen. She didn't even stop to take off her jacket or shoes or to even put her messenger bag down, she just set to work looking for the notebook.<br/>Still high-strung from the events with her mother, Aislin raced through her home, pulling out couch cushions and cuboard drawers to try and locate the diary.<br/>When she entered her bedroom, she stopped.<br/>The diary was open, on her bed, as if waiting for her. Even from afar, she could see the soft violet swirl of ink moving across it. The diary was writing itself right before her very eyes.<br/>As if that was not shocking enough, the wall that had been solid and bare before, windowless and empty, was now a sliding screen door.<br/>"That wall leads to the outside. I'm on the second floor. There's no door there." Aislin whispered in disbelief.<br/>"I'm going crazy. I'm absolutely, positively, going crazy."<br/><br/>As she approached the bed, she glanced down at the writing as it continued to sprawl across the page.<br/><em>Okasan tried to save me... but she couldn't. Just as she tried to save herself by running away and locking her world up tight in that tiny room. The Kimono woman is coming. She cannot be stopped. She will have what is hers, at all costs. It is not my place to run. I do not deserve the right of betrayal. I will go to her. I must.</em><br/><br/>"I didn't write that..." Aislin knew it didn't even matter what she said now, as whatever curse the diary had wrought upon her and apparently her mother too, was too strong to escape from.<br/>Running was not the answer. It had not saved her mother to run, and Aislin was not the type of girl to lay down and accept her fate peacefully.<br/>If this strange Kimono woman wanted something from her, then Aislin was determined to find out what. There was no in between. She refused to end up an old woman locked in a padded cell. She would find a way to escape this fate for good or die trying.<br/><br/>"Alright... let's get this over with..." With trembling hands, Aislin reached for the paper screen, somehow not surprised when she found it was solid and firm. It moved when she pulled on it, sliding aside with ease.<br/>One shaky but determined breath later, Aislin stepped through the paper screen doorway, half expecting to plummet to her death, but finding herself in an entryway instead.<br/><br/>The bright golden light from the paper screen doorway faded fast and the doorway itself seemed to slam shut and disappear behind her.<br/>All that was behind her now was a thick and solid wall. No doorway. No turning back.<br/>At her feet rested the small purple diary, waited to be picked up.<br/><br/>"So you're coming with me then? ...fine." Kneeling down, she grabbed the diary and tucked it into the messenger bag she'd still had strapped around her person from the visit with her mother.<br/>Taking a steady breath, she rose and turned around, ready to face whatever waited for her now.<br/><br/><hr/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Japanese Translations</div><div class="spoiler_body"><br/>Okasan : Mother<br/><br/>Okasan, Watashi wa koko ni iru : Mother, I'm here.<br/><br/>Okasan... Watashi wa kimyōna nikki o mitsuketa : Mother... I found a strange diary.<br/><br/>Watashi wa kowaidesu! : I am afraid!<br/><br/>Haiiro to Midori: Grey and Green<br/><br/>Nikki... Furui Nikki : Diary... Old Diary<br/><br/>Hai, Okasan... : Yes, Mother...</div></div>