Story
Half-past midnight ghost story
If you travel west on the massachusetts trn pike past springfield and the connecticut river, you'll come to the town of ansell. on the edge of Angels pond.It's aquaint village tucked into the woods, with the slopes of the berkshires in the background. The town's main attration is the Higarashi Inn, which has stood for close to three conturies and attracts tourists who stay overnight or, at the very least, have a leisure meal at the Higarashi Inn restaurant. The Inn is supposed to be haunted, thought no one can agree on how mant ghosts might be involved or whose spirits there might be.Even more cerie are the stories about Ansell's pond. In colonial days, there where reports that on noght when the moon was full, witches would dance across the pond, their bare feet edged in white fire, their red skirts billowing in the night winds. All the while , shadowy figures would creep along the shoripigs with the heads of cows, roosters with the heads of pig, goat,footed rabbits , and wolves with the face of woman. The young children avoided the pond as soon as evening began to fall. But the older kids in town would often organize compouts witches or other creatures that some people swore still haunted the pond. These stories fascinated kagome higarashi,a new sixth grader at shilcon middle high. She came from a small town, whose name none of the other kids could pronounce,in tokyo Japan. She moved in with her mom Mrs. Higariashi and grandfather. Who interited the Higarashi Inn.Not for from the pond. Thoght key had live in the town for thirteen years, people know very little about him. Kagome was pretty and had the ghost of a french accent, which intrigued the sixth grade boys, thought the girls shubbed her, Jealous of the attention she was getting. Kikyo- dame dislihes her the most. Thought kikyo had broken up with Inuyasha to date Naraku ( who's captain of the football team)Lukyo found her self growin jealous of the interast he ex-boyfriend was showing in the new girl. One day while Kikyo was talking to several of her friends in the cafeteria, she spotted kagome walking past. Changing the subject abruptly and raising her voice so t hat the other girl was sure to hear,Kikyo said "I hear she believes in crazy stuff like ghost and witches and ludens."
"You mean cough drops?" another girl asked
"No silly " said Kagome who knew they were making fun of her. "Lutins. They are like les fees - faires - yes! They are very real. Also les loups - garous - were wolves. One should not make fun of those things"
"One should not make fun of zeese tings," Kikyo mocked. Her friends laughed for more loudly the necessary. Kagome shrugged, then added, " those who make laugh at lutins and such may find themselves stolen by the faincs or wind up only made them laugh more loudle. Shaking her head, the girl continued on her way. Things grew tenser when kikyo and her group spotted Inuyasha strolling home with kagome. The two ambled along not aware of the flares sent thier way from a cyclone fance full of girls, clinging to the far side of the metal mesh like bats to a cave wall
" A bunch of us are going down to the pond on friday" Inuyasha was saying. "It's a full moon, and were doing a ghost watch."
" What 's that?" Kagome asked.
" We hang out on the shore, roast hotdogs, and cook smores. We watch to so if a witch or something else shows up"
" Such things are not games," said Luculle." still it might be interessant to see what might come to your party." Then she sighed," but I do not think my mom and grandfather would let me go. I am never allowed to stay out beyond eleven O'clock even on a weekend.
" Heck. most of us have to be hime by ten," said Inuyasha "then i will ask," said kagome brightening. She did come to ansells pond on friday night. Inu quickly left Kagome and some other friends with mouth full of smores, beside a fire suupervised by several older brothers and sisters, when kagome strolled down the beach frim the direction of the Higarashi inn.
" It's late," Inuyasha said."I didn't think you'd come.
"My relatives were not happy," she said with a smile but I told then everyone at school would mock me if i did not come. IN the and, here i am but i must be home before eleven." They avoided the fire side, where Kikyo and the other were watching their every move. Inuyasha found them seats on a fallen log some distance away from the cluster of kids and older siblings scattered along the ponds shore watching for hints of ghosts or monsters. Kagome gazed edgerly across the monlit water. After a while she complained," I see nothing, I feel nothing." "You won't" said Inuyasha,"but fun to party. And I like being here you." Then he turned away as if she could see how red his face had become, ever in the dark but Kagome didn't notice his embarrassment." Look!" she said suddenly, pointing across the water. He looked and there halfway across the moon-silvered sufface, he was sure he saw a double flicker of white fire supporting a shadowly billowy figure. His mouth and the pond went dry, was he looking at a ghostly with skimming the pond which now looked like a floor of glass? He heard shouts from down the beach kids were yelling and pointing they had seen something, too. The the brush behind him stirred. He whirled around to see... he wan't sure.It looked like a girls face on the body of a huge dog, but it vanished so quickly, he thought he might have om imagined it. When he looked across the pond, the shadow with fiery feey had also dissappeared. The watchers on the shore were talking excitedly, drifting back to huddle around the fire. Something rustled again in the bushes behind them. "lets go back to where the other are," Inuyasha said, suddenly standing up. He reached out his hand to kagome, but when she started to get up, she suddendly cried."Something has stung my cheeks!" She touched her fingers to her face, and they came away bloody.
"It's not a bite," said inuyasha ,drawing her into the circle of firelight, " someone threw something." They looked around but saw anly Kikyo and her pals staring back at them, all innocence and retended concern.
"I am sure I know who did this," said kagome.
"O can guess," Inuyasha said. He looked areund for kikyo, but she had move away to another group.
" How bad is it?" asked inuyasha,"not as bad as someone else would hope,Kagome answered, dabbing at the cut with a bit of klenex." Still I think it's late enough for me to be going home now." she started back up the shore and wave him off when he wanted to follow." My guardians don't like visitor after dark."
The next day, Kikyo led a chorus of laughter when she asked kagome,"what happed to your face? Cut yourself shaving?" She started at kikyo until the other looked away.Kagome smiled and contuned on her way.
"Weird-o Kikyo muttered. Soon after this, the english teacher- who also directed the sixth-grade play each year- announced that she would be holding auditions for the musical "cinderella"(italice). Among the hopefuls were kagome and kikyo. Kagome won easily when their teacher dicovered that she had a beautiful singing voice. Kikyo tool the part of one of the ugly stepsister with bad grace. The fact that inuyasha was chosen to play prince charming only added to her anger- and her determination to break up whatever was happening between inuyasha and the other girls. She was still dating naraku but kagome had become a challange to her. At first,kagome's mom and grandfather refused to let her take the lead in the play. But then the teacher-director assured them that the evening performances over two weekends would never run later then ten O'clock, and inuyasha mother promised to drive kagome home after each performances, since neither older higarashi could drive. With these guaranless came to the openining- night performance, applauded badly, and called kagome their petste condrillon(italics)- little cinderella. But kikyo saw how anxious kagome watched the clock each evening after the play ended, she seemed to grow more and more nervous with each passing minute. " I wonder what happen if she stays out past midnight?" Kikyo asked on of her friends. Someone said "maybe she turns into a pumpkin" someone else said" that creepy mom and grandpa of her probably read her the roit act. Ther've been in town all these years, and they can't even speak english without making it sound french." " They're all loser," kikyo sumned up. Bat an Idea was taking shape." Next saturday is the cast party after the last perfomance. I know Ka-gom-e is going to the clock back an hour and do the same with own watches."
" Inuyasha mom always drive her home. She'll be keeping an eye on the time."
"Inuyasha mom is a chatterbox," said kikyo it's easy to get her talking about anything, them she just forgets what's going on.I'll talk to her. She won't be any problem at all. That was the plan.
When the applause died down after the last satueday performance, kikyo and her commados went into action, setting all the clocks and watches they could find back an hour.There was a mounted digital clock, but they blanded it out with a swatch of black electrical tape, as the last - night auduence filed out of the school auditorium the cast most skill in costure, returned to the stage area to scorf down pizza slices,potato chips and peanuts and retrieve cans of soda from donated cookies Kikyo took inuyasha's mom aside and started up a conversation that soon had the woman recalling trips to spain and childhood momories. Time ceused to have meaning for her, as kikyo intended. Kagome and inuyasha wandered off, paper plates leaped high, and sat by themselves. Around them were the painted flats representing the palace ballroom where cinderella had met prince charning and later married him.Inuyasha wasn't wearing a watch since his has been broken when he attempted a 360 kick flip on his skateboard the week before and taken a bad spill. Kikyo had rin- a younger girl who wanted to join kikyo group - ask t o borrow kagome gold watch, pretending to admire it then setting it back an hour before she returned it. People talled, laughed, shouted- no one seemed to notice that the time was off by an hour. A few people whose watches hadn't been tempered with, glanced at them and left, but there were enough lingerers who seemed contant to let the time be what it seemed to be. Kagome and Inuyasha were among them. They talked about some of the funny thing that had happened at performances about school work, about thier feeling for each other. Kikyo watched them with anger and satisfaction that the noght would mean trouble for kagome, if her efforts paid off. The crowd had thinned. The clocks and watches showed 11pm Inuyasha's mom was telling along, involved story about the family's cruise to Alska to anyone who would listen. Suddenly kagome stood up spilling a half-eaten pizza slice and a handful of potato chips onto the floor. She pressed her hands to her face." I feel so strange," she told Inuyasha, who was staring at her, his mouth full of pizza." what time is it?"
"It's just after eleven. Look at your watch." He said she looked then shook her head, something is wrong! she cried. The talk and laughter amid the backstage setting died away, as people to stage at the girl. Kikyo nudged her friends. Pay back time, she mouthed.