Hello, I am sorry that it has been such a long time since last I posted something here, but I have partly been busy collaborating with Sleeiping Moon's story called "The Time Traveler's Pharaoh". It is a crossover between Inu Yasha and Ouke no Monshou, and I hope you will read it (it is fully possible to follow the story without knowing Ouke no Monshou as it start at the beginning of said manga which is set in ancient Egypt).

This story however will be my contribution to Halloween. It will be somewhat shorter than my usual stories but I hope you will like it nevertheless.

Disclaimer: I don't own Inu Yasha.

The invitation

Prologue

Kagome was driving through the worst weather she could remember ever to have encountered, and then she could count storms from both the feudal and modern era. Her car wasn't old so she felt relatively safe where she sat, but the rain that poured down on the window made it hard to see outside, no matter how fast the windshield wiper cleaned it. The headlights could also only penetrate so far into the darkness because of the heavy rain, obscuring the vision dangerously much. That she was driving through the mountainous countryside with no artificial lighting along the road didn't exactly help improve the situation either. On her left side of the road did the mountain climb high and steep through the dense forest, while it plunged down on her right side to a flooded river far below which was being fed by many a tiny stream. Said streams had been transformed into roaring rivers that some placed spilled its cold element over the road, forcing her to slow down and drive very carefully through the muddy water.

Her old friends had called her mom on one of the rare days when Kagome happened to be visiting home, asking about her whereabouts or if any of her old "illnesses" had taken her away. She wasn't sure whether she should have laughed or sighed when Ayumi's surprised voice realized who was answering the phone, but in the end, Kagome had to confess for herself that it had been nice to speak with one of her old friends again… if it hadn't been for the unexpected invitation to join them on a sleep over at Yuka's summer house. The girl had been so lucky to inherit the villa when her grandfather had died last year, being his favorite (and to Kagome's knowledge, the only) granddaughter. Kagome knew the road to the house well, because when they had been younger all four of them had spent several summers there, exploring the forest and gone on adventures that only children could do. This and no small amount of guilt tripping ending with the words "you are coming even if it the last thing you do!", had finally convinced Kagome to travel out there to see them again.

It was late evening and a curtain of darkness had been drawn over the nature, so thick and dark it seemed press against the windows on her car, scratching to come in along with the rain. With both hands on the wheel and her eyes fixed on the dark road, Kagome was so focused on the road that she almost missed the presence of something else that moved outside the car. A terrible curse she picked up from her husband escaped her lips when a dark shadow suddenly came running out from the woods above and stopped on the middle of the road. Kagome jumped hard on the break to avoid a collision.

The sound of shrieking wheels filled her ears as the car tried to stop, but the wet asphalt made the vehicle slide sideways forwards at a dangerous speed before it finally stopped.

"Hey! Watch where you are running you stupid freaking creature, the road is for cars not animals!" Kagome shouted, not in the mood for having an accident in this weather. "Move!"

But whatever creature it was, it didn't move. Instead it stood completely stood still, just so far away from the car that the heavy rain prevented her from seeing more than a scant silhouette that shone from the water that flowed down its body. After standing completely still for an unknown length of time it suddenly tilted its head and she got an unpleasant feeling that the creature was inspecting her. "Please, move," Kagome repeated, more softly this time, "My friends are waiting and I need to be on my way."

The rain-soaked figure took a few cautious steps towards her as if pounding on whether it should approach her or not.

Kagome groaned, the rain poured down and hit the car like bullets and she did certainly NOT want to go out there and chase it away. Therefore, with her foot still on the break, Kagome let her other foot push down the gas, making the car roar like a mighty beast. The effect was instant! The animal twisted sideways and ran over to the other side of the road from where it quickly disappeared down the hill and into the looming forest.

"Jeez, one would have thought that every animal had found a shelter by now instead of walking out in the rain!" Kagome sighed and started to drive again, but for some reason she couldn't shake off the ominous feeling she had felt when the creature stared at her, leaving her wonder what it could have been.

The mountains and forest continued to pass her as she drove, never meeting another car along the road but fortunately no more animals either. But suddenly all of her senses screamed to her that something was wrong and she hit the brakes again. At first it was barely noticeable, but as if coming from a distance there was a deep rumbling sound that got louder until it made her entire car shake. "What was that?" Kagome gasped and hurried to turn off the radio to listen while her eyes stared intensely through the front window, but as soon as the sound had started, it also stopped

She waited for several agonizing minutes to pass until she dared to move again, and now at such a slow speed that a jogger wouldn't have any problem of keeping up with her. Eerie minutes in silence followed as Kagome listened for more and tried to guess what it could have been, "It can't be thunder, it is way too cold outside, nobody is riding a motorbike in this weather and it wasn't my car either," she thought.

Then it happened.

In front of her, an entire tree came crashing down over the road from the hill above, uprooting completely and making Kagome do another emergency break to avoid a collision. Branches and splinters flew through the air as it made impact with a sickening crash, blocking the road from one side to the other. She could neither see the top or bottom of the tree as both ends were hidden away inside the forest on both sides of the road.

"Nononono!" Kagome yelled within her car. The trunk itself was so enormous that if you didn't have a chainsaw or name was Inu Yasha, there was no way to remove it. *Sigh* "I guess I should call the girls and give them the bad news, I am sure they will understand" she said to herself and was about to pick up the cellphone when the car began to shake as the rumbling sound came back, but this time a thousand times louder. She turned her head to look at the source… and screamed.

Unfortunately, no one ever heard her cry as the huge landslide came crashing down the hill on its way towards the bottom, sweeping away trees, bushes, boulders and the road, including Kagome's car in a flood of mud.

Please, leave a review and tell me what you think so far^^