Disclaimer: Inuyasha: Sengoku o-Togi Zoushi does not belong to me in any way, shape, or form. This is a work of fanfiction and was written for entertainment purposes only. No profits are made from the writing or reading of this story. Only original characters and situations are © copyrighted by me.
Rated for: Adult situations and graphic imagery.
Eden's End
©2004 by Kei
They called him Spider-Scar.
He was well-to-do, owner of several large mansions in both urban and country settings. His financial status was the highest in all the land. His possessions were of the finest quality, often the most expensive things available. However, there was one problem with Spider-Scar.
In his youth his ancestral home had caught fire. The blaze claimed the lives of both his parents and left him with burns covering much of his body. Crawling up the left side of his neck and face was a burn scar that looked conspicuously like a spider, eight legs and all. The horrid distortion of his otherwise attractive countenance made him undesirable to all the young women of marriageable age.
A wizened nobleman and his widowed daughter lived close to one of Spider-Scar's homes in the city. The widow had two daughters, lovely twin girls of age to become brides. Spider-Scar expressed to the widow his wish to take one of the young ladies to wife. Neither of them wanted him, though, for not only was he marred by the grotesque cicatrix, but he had already been married several times and nobody knew what had become of his former wives.
To cultivate the twins' affection, Spider-Scar invited their entire family, along with many of the other young people in the area, to one of his country houses for a week-long vacation. The wine casks were bottomless, the delicious food always available, and the diverting activities in abundance. Lavish parties were held nightly; everyone rode to hounds in the pleasant, dewy mornings; the afternoons were filled with fishing, swimming, and picnicking; and the evenings were spent feasting and playing parlor games.
At every ball, Spider-Scar invited each of the twin daughters to dance. The elder, Kikyou, unfailingly refused. The younger twin, Kagome, had a softer heart than her sister, and, at her mother's gentle urging, she accepted Spider-Scar's offer. She never met his eyes, which were like two brilliant garnets. The rich man asked her why she would not look at him.
Honest nearly to a fault, Kagome replied, "I am afraid that I will offend my lord by staring at the unfortunate scar on his face."
"I'll not think you rude, my lady," he told her.
"My lord is gracious, but I'll not look," she said.
"Perhaps, my lady, you are afraid it will spring to life and bite your pretty neck?"
Gasping at his impertinence, her head shot up, and his crimson gaze caught her smoky blue eyes. She was surprised further to see the smile on his face. Looking at that genuine expression, Kagome forgot for a few moments about the scar on his face.
After that night, Kagome readily waltzed with her host whenever he asked.
At the end of the week, the revelers returned home and the marriage ceremony took place. All of Kagome's belongings were transferred to Spider-Scar's house, and she bid her family farewell, happy that she lived close enough to see them every day.
That night, Kagome waited for her new husband in the spacious bedchamber she expected to share with him. Hours passed, but he did not appear. Wondering and slightly worried, Kagome took a candle and cautiously peered into all the rooms along the corridor. At the one on the opposite end of the hall from hers, she found Spider-Scar about to climb into bed.
"My lord?" she asked in a whispery, quivery voice. He turned to look at her, his pale features silvered by the moonlight slanting through the window.
"Yes, Kagome?"
"All is well with you? I have been awaiting you for some time," she told him. "I thought perhaps some harm had befallen you and that was the reason you had not arrived at the bedchamber you showed me."
"We will be sleeping in separate rooms, Kagome."
She blinked as tears suddenly pricked her eyes. "Do you find me repugnant in some way, my lord?"
"Why would you think such a thing?" he demanded, all of a sudden quite fierce.
"Why else does a man not visit the bridal bed where his wife lays?" she inquired as a single tear wended its way down her cheek. "Or perhaps I have offended you in some way of which I am unaware. If such is the case, I most humbly beg your forgiveness, my lord."
He sighed and approached her. With long, cool fingers he caressed the cheek not dampened by tears.
"The fault lies not with you, Kagome," he murmured. "I am the one who is repugnant. I do not want you to see and be horrified by my scarred form. It is truly hideous."
Slowly, Kagome blew out her candle and set it on a nearby table. Then she returned to stand before her husband. They stared into each other's eyes for a moment before Spider-Scar moved to turn away. She darted around, grasped his face in both her hands, and stood on her tiptoes to kiss him.
After she pulled away, she said, her eyes sad and beautiful, "You will never be hideous or horrifying or repugnant to me." She set her jaw resolutely. "You will either make love to me or I'll— I'll divorce you!"
A laugh escaped his lips before they recaptured hers in a deep, possessive kiss. They undressed each other, and Kagome worshiped every inch of his body with her hands and mouth, not repulsed by his ruined flesh.
A month later, Spider-Scar informed Kagome he had business to attend to in the country. The trip would take about six weeks, for the affairs were of utmost importance. She begged to accompany him, but he assured her she would be very bored and he would be frequently absent. He told her to divert herself however she wished. She could throw parties, invite friends over, do whatever her heart desired.
To aid her in her endeavors, he presented her with a skeleton key that opened every lock in the house.
"However, this one here," he said, indicating the small silver key hanging on the ring with the other, "opens the closet at the end of the ground-floor hallway. Kagome, you must never open that door. I expressly forbid you, and if you disobey me, you will justly earn my enmity."
"I promise I won't open it," she said solemnly. He quirked a half-smile, embraced her, and went off.
Kagome was soon visited by numerous friends and acquaintances, who exclaimed enviously over her luxurious arrangements. The bride, to her annoyance, found that her loved ones' company did not prevent her mind from wandering to the closet on the ground floor. She probably wouldn't have given the door a second glance if her husband had not placed so much emphasis on it.
Ignoring convention, Kagome shooed her friends out and descended the staircase. She went to the closet door, trembling. She recalled her promise to her husband, but she couldn't overcome her temptation. She stuck the little silver key in the lock, turned it, took it back out, and then pushed the door open.
It took a moment for her eyes to adjust. When they did, Kagome desperately wished they hadn't. Before her was a stomach-turning tableau from a gruesome horror story. She cried out and her hands flew to her mouth, the key slipping from her fingers. The floor was covered with clotted blood, upon which lay the corpses of not a few women, mangled and bloody, their faces forever frozen in looks of unadulterated terror. Some of the bodies had begun to putrefy, filling the air with the noxious fumes of decaying flesh. Kagome could almost hear the buzzing of insects come to feed on the dead ladies. The taste of bile filled her mouth.
Tears streaming down her face, she turned away from the sight and leaned against the wall in the corridor, trying to calm her heaving stomach and racing heart.
"Oh God, oh God, why did I look?" she wailed. "My lord, my lord, why?" She knew, without a doubt in her heart, that those poor victims were her husband's former wives who had mysteriously vanished in earlier years. It hurt to comprehend her sweet husband as a mad, bloodthirsty killer.
"Just as Eve caused the exile from Eden!" she sobbed.
At length, she collected herself enough to retrieve the key, relock the door, and go to rest in her room. But her nerves would not calm. She noticed the bloodstains on the key, so she lurched to the wash basin to clean it, but the blood wouldn't come off. She scrubbed it hard with her fingers, with a rag, but it didn't work. She tried soap, she tried scouring with sand, but that didn't work, either. Every time the blood washed off one side, it reappeared on the other. At last, she gave up the task in vain.
Spider-Scar returned from his journey that same evening. He explained that he had received a message while on the road that stated the affairs into which he would have been looking had already been concluded to his advantage. Kagome did her best to pretend she was nothing but delighted at his early return.
With all her strength Kagome fought to not cry that night as she and her husband joined their bodies in bed.
After breakfast the next morning, Spider-Scar asked Kagome for the keys. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the ring to hand to him.
Seeing her shaking hand but not commenting on it, Spider-Scar said, "The key to the ground-floor closet isn't here?"
"Oh, I must have left it upstairs," Kagome replied weakly.
"Please go get it, Kagome," he requested, steel behind his voice. "Right away."
Kagome took a very long time ascending the stairs, only picking up the pace when he bellowed at her to hurry. Finally, she presented him with the key.
"Why is there blood on the key?" he inquired in an even voice.
Her face crumbled and she collapsed to the floor on her knees, fists clenched in her skirts. "My lord, why did you do such a horrible thing? Why?"
"Ah, so you did go into the closet," he observed, ignoring her anguish. "Now, Kagome, you shall go back and take your rightful place among the ladies who dwell therein."
"My lord, no!" she cried. "Please, my lord! I shall never more disobey your word! I'll never breathe a word of what I saw to any soul! Please, please, forgive me! I am so truly sorry!"
"My lady, you must die at once," he stated emotionlessly, grabbing her wrist and violently wrenching her upwards.
"My lord, I beg you," she rasped, voice raw from her outcries, "think of what we have shared. I swear to you that this is my first and last transgression against you."
"Ah, but Kagome, I cannot trust you any longer. You already broke your promise not to look in the closet. I have no reason to believe your promise now," he said.
"I'm such a fool, such a fool," she wept. "My lord, why did you give me that key? I would never have opened that door and I would have been happy for the rest of my days. Why? Why, why, why?"
"Get a hold of yourself, Kagome," Spider-Scar ordered darkly.
She needed several long moments to recover. When at last she had, "Allow me a final visit to my family, my lord, I implore you," she requested. "I'll not leave your side the entire time, and then we may come back and you may kill me."
"Fine," he sneered, and hauled her off to her family's house.
The only one home was Kikyou. She, her twin, and her brother-in-law sat down in the parlor. Some minutes passed in stiff silence before Kikyou inquired, "What brings you here, Kagome?"
"I simply wished to say that I am going hunting for the Jewel of Four Souls," Kagome said softly. "I will most certainly need my bow and arrow. The dog demon and the youth must also come."
"What sort of nonsense are you babbling?" Spider-Scar demanded. "Forgive this intrusion, my lady," he said to Kikyou; "I believe my wife is unwell. Come, Kagome, I think you must be put to bed."
Without another word, Kagome left with her soon-to-be murderer.
When they came back to Spider-Scar's house, Kagome requested a few minutes to say her prayers, which her husband allowed. When she finished, he commanded her to kneel before him. He lifted her hair away from her neck in his fist while unsheathing his sword with his free hand.
"I really did love you," Kagome said quietly. "You needn't do this. We can forget any of this ever happened and go on as before."
"Like I said earlier, Kagome, I can no longer trust you. I would have to watch you at every moment, which would be strenuous to me and hindering for you. Neither of us would be able to live our lives properly," he said. "Believe me, you are better off dead."
He raised his sword to behead her, but before he could complete the downswing, the door practically exploded open, revealing the figures of two males with swords drawn. One of them was Inuyasha, Kikyou's betrothed, the younger son of a noble household who earned money as a deadly mercenary; the second was the twins' younger brother Souta, a distinguished member of the emperor's army. The two charged Spider-Scar, who forgot about his wife's execution and started to run away. However, the pair overtook him before he could reach the backdoor, and they cut him to ribbons.
Kagome screamed when the first thrust pierced her husband's body. The embraces and words of consolation from her brother and Inuyasha could not comfort her. She felt all this horror and unhappiness was her fault. First she had broken her husband's trust, and now she had catalyzed his death in order to save her own life.
In their childhood, Kagome and Kikyou had made up their own sort of language, as twins are sometimes wont to do. When someone was said to be going hunting for the Jewel of Four Souls, it meant that someone was going to die. Requiring a bow and arrow meant needing help. "Dog demon" had been their teasing nickname for Inuyasha, and "the youth" was the code for Souta. Kikyou immediately grasped Kagome's meaning and summoned the two men to go save Kagome, which ultimately entailed killing Spider-Scar.
As Spider-Scar had no heirs, Kagome became the mistress of his entire estate. She had the dead wives properly buried and the bloody room filled with bricks and completely sealed off. She bought both Inuyasha and Souta captains' commissions and provided Kikyou with a large dowry when the older twin finally wed Inuyasha. She also saw to the care and security of her mother and grandfather in their advancing years. The rest of her inheritance she used to make a comfortable life for herself. Later, she married Sesshoumaru, Inuyasha's older half-brother, and gladly became a mother for Rin, Sesshoumaru's daughter from his previous marriage. The happiness of her life with them eventually eclipsed the terrible time she had passed with Spider-Scar.
—finis—
NOTES:
This story was a retelling of Charles Perrault's classic fairytale "Blue Beard", with a few details tweaked by yours truly. I also tried to flesh it out in some areas with dialogue and description. I hope the readers enjoyed it.
Other retellings of "Blue Beard" that I highly recommend are "Bones" by Francesca Lia Block in her book of retold fairytales, The Rose and the Beast; and "Chambers of the Heart" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman in the retold fairytales collection The Swan Sister, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. I'm a sucker for retellings of fairytales, so it was fun to do my own.
Thank you for reading. Please do me a great kindness by leaving a review with your comments, questions, critiques, or whatever. I'd be much obliged.
Appreciatively,
Kei