A/N: Hey everyone it's me again, Silver Moon Vampiress, SMV, for short. So I know I haven't updated my story Hidden Power in a while (three weeks to be exact), and I'm sorry, but I had so much homework to do. Still somehow I managed to write this one chapter for a new story I'm writing and I have several stories hanging around that I started on my "writer's vacation". I was actually inspired to write this story by a reader of my other story Hidden Power, who asked if it was going to be a Menomaru/Kagome pairing and after that I gave it some thought and started writing. So this story is dedicated to Hikage Dragon. One of the fics I have hanging around is a Kagome/Bankotsu fic, another is a Sango/Miroku fic, and the other is a Fullmetal Alchemist fic with a surprise pairing (I'll give you a hint, it's not any of the character's on the list). Well anyway, let me stop rambling and get on with the story.
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha! No way, no how!
Drawn Like a Moth to a Flame
Kagome awoke for the third time that night from the same nightmare, her body drenched in a sheen of cold sweat that made her petite frame glow in the moonlight filtering in through Kaede's hut. She wiped away the beaded up sweat that had condensed upon her forehead, and lifted her lengthy, thick hair from her neck to cool its surface now slick with sweat. She took a few deep-cleansing breaths into her lungs, trying to calm her racing her heart, which was still thumping against her chest, her pulse rhythmically pounding inside her skull. Once her pulse leveled down to its normal rate, she took a look around and found the others were still sleeping in their respective places. Her sudden upstart didn't even disturb Inuyasha, who was usually a light sleeper.
The young miko slipped out of her cozy red sleeping bag, being careful not to disturb the snoring kitsune still sleeping beside her. Once she was free from the confines of the warm, cottony folds, she stood, stretching her average height body to its full length, before collapsing in on herself in a comfortable slump. She then padded over to her school bag and dug out a tanktop, a pair of shorts, socks, a towel and a pair of sneakers. Once she had what she needed, she slunk past her slumbering friends and slipped into the moonlit, summer night. The air was thick with humidity and the scent of fully bloomed flowers sat heavily in the stifling, yet comfortable air.
Kagome looked up at the deep, dark, pitch-blackness of the night, the moon's light reflecting like giant silver saucers in her coffee colored eyes. As she stared up at the sky dotted with millions of bright, distant stars, she reveled at their beauty, which she could only gaze upon in Feudal Japan. After a few moments of standing stationary underneath the moon and stars, she began to make her way along the beaten, dirt path that led to a nearby hot spring. She knew better than to wander away from the group, especially at such a late hour, when demons ran rampant. However, she wasn't going too far and she knew that as long as she didn't wander off too far from the hut, she should be relatively safe. She enjoyed the short trek along the moonlit path, immensely, as sporadic winds whipped her ebony hair about her shoulders.
When she arrived at the edge of the hot spring, she set her clothing aside on a nearby rock and slipped behind it as she stripped her body of her sweat soaked clothes. She then slipped into the warm waters, steam wafting from the cloudy surface and wrapped about her body like silk. Once she found a rock to lean against, she sank down into the water, the level rising past her shoulders. She allowed relaxed in the warm waters, allowing it to ease the tension of her muscles and wash away the slick sheen the sweat on her body had created. She tilted her head backwards against the cool rock behind her and looked up at the sky, taking notice of the moon's light being filtered through the ominous treetops and reflecting on the surface of the water in scattered patches of silver.
As Kagome continued to stare off into the dark abyss of the night, her thoughts returned to her nightmare, which she had been having consistently for the past two weeks. It had gotten to the point in which she was starting to fear falling to sleep at night, for fear she may have that horrid nightmare again.
'Why do I keep having that nightmare over and over again' she thought with a heavy sigh. She allowed her eyelids to flutter closed, and almost as immediately as she'd done so, scenes from her nightmare flashed rapidly behind them.
It started out like it always did, with her standing in an open field surrounded by a mass quantity of multi-colored wildflowers, dancing in the gentle breeze. As she watched the flowers ripple in the field like little swells of an incoming tide, she allowed the sun's rays to beat upon her back, rich and warm, which caused her clothing to feel as warm as freshly dried laundry. Suddenly a flash of teal caught her eye and she then realized that she was not alone in the fields. Her curiosity got the better of her, and she trampled through the sea of color to discover who could possibly be in such a magnificently beautiful place with her. She winced a few times as twigs and brush bit into the flesh of her legs, scratching along it, and sometimes even drawing blood. She ignored the pain that was burning in her thighs however, and continued until she was close enough to see whom it was that was standing in the fields with her. As she continued to run towards the figure that had its back facing her, the person, or rather demon, which she could now distinguish, whipped around quickly to face her, revealing its face to her, as its teal colored hair was flipped back behind its shoulder.
Kagome immediately stopped dead in her tracks as she came face to face with her guest amongst the sea of wildflowers. It was Menomaru, the demon who had kidnapped her and took control of her body; the very same demon she defeated so long ago. She wore a look of outright shock as she stared at him from six feet away. He stared back, his face holding no emotion as his crimson eyes searched hers, making her feel as if her were delving deep into her soul. When he held out his hand to beckon her towards him, she wasn't as eager to comply, stepping backwards slowly and shaking her head emphatically. She soon felt herself loosing control of her own body as her legs began to carry her towards him, seemingly of their own accord. Pretty soon the gap between them began to close, as she was unwillingly dragged five feet, four feet, and three feet closer to him.
When she was only a mere two feet away from him, she began to notice a shadowy figure, with glowing red eyes, begin to sneak up behind him. Kagome wanted to warn him by shouting 'look out', but her throat felt like it was clogged, and she couldn't seem to form the words. Menomaru was so preoccupied with pulling Kagome towards him, that he hadn't even noticed the figure creeping up behind him, and all she could do was watch as the sunlight glinted off the figure's sharp blade, before it ran Menomaru through with it, plunging it through his heart. Menomaru's expression dissolved from extreme concentration to a mask of apparent pain and anguish, once he realized he had been impaled by someone's weapon. Kagome took in air to scream but nothing came out and she stood frozen in shock as the malevolent figure wrenched its blade from Menomaru's back, and his blood splattered all along her uniform. Menomaru's body went limp as an inhuman gurgle escaped his mouth, while blood poured from it, and his body slumped to the ground—an unmoving heap.
The minute his body sunk to the ground, the beautiful sea of flowers in the field disappeared, leaving only death in place of the beauty that once existed there. Along with the death surrounding her, the field suddenly darkened when the sun slid behind thick, dark clouds. The sudden darkness caused her to barely be able to distinguish the dark figure that had killed Menomaru, from the ordinary shadows surrounding it. If it weren't for its red eyes, she never would've realized it was intending to go after her next. She dove out of the way just in time, as the figure made its first assault and took off at a high speed to escape from it. After a while her legs began to feel leaden and she felt as if she were running in slow motion. She knew that the figure was gaining on her, so she tried to pick up the pace, but her efforts only caused her to move even slower.
Then suddenly without warning, her foot became entangled in some prickly dead brush, and she teetered from loss of balance before she finally fell over, landing on her side on the dead, solid earth. The prickly brush she landed in scraped along her exposed skin and drew blood, which became smeared along her wounded flesh as she struggled to get up. However she soon found that that she could not, seeing as her foot was still entangled in the dead, prickly mass of brush. From the corner of her eye, Kagome could see the figure closing in on her with its blood stained sword drawn, the crimson blade refracting what little light there was to see by. When the figure was only a mere few feet away from her, it began to bring its sword up, so it could have a clear shot at her and plunge it through her heart like it had done to Menomaru. At this point, all Kagome could do was screw her eyes shut, tightly and wait for her inevitable death.
Then the nightmare would end and Kagome would awaken in the middle of the night, frightened and drenched in her own sweat, like she'd done so many times before. The nightmare never went beyond that point and she'd been having this nightmare for two weeks now. She was starting to wonder if this nightmare was a premonition of things to come, and yet after nearly two whole weeks, nothing along the lines of the horrific events in her nightmare had occurred, and thus she tried not to give it too much thought. She shivered, despite the lukewarm water encompassing her body, and hugged her body in an absent-minded gesture. After thirty minutes of soaking in the hot springs, she finally felt cleansed of her slick sweat and treaded toward the shore. Once there she hid behind a rock again, dried off thoroughly, and slipped on her fresh clothes.
Once she was in her clothes, Kagome found a nearby stream and sat on a rock near the shore, the humidity of the summer night, blanketing her in a comfortable heat. She became content with the gentle sounds of rushing water nearby, and allowed them to lull her into a dream-like state, and clear her mind of the morbid events of her incessant nightmares over the past couple of weeks. Her surroundings were peaceful, with nothing but the sound of moving water and sporadic winds rustling the leaves in the treetops above her. The cosmic, serene scene of the sky appeared clearly on the surface of the stream, which reflected it beautifully, making the moon and stars sparkle.
However the peaceful scene around Kagome was shattered in her mind set, when she was suddenly torn from her dream-like state, by a voice calling out to her in a hoarse whisper, "Help me."
"Who-Who's there," she called out hesitantly. She stood up slowly from her spot on her rock and her eyes began to scan the deep shadows amongst the trees surrounding her, barely being able to make out anything at all.
"Help me," the voice cried out again.
It was then that Kagome realized that the voice was coming from inside her head, and not from amongst the shadows caressing the trees surrounding her as she had originally thought.
"Who are you," she whispered out between her trembling lips.
The voice did not giver her a reply and simply said, "Come to me. Please, help me."
With the voice still echoing within the walls of her mind, she heard a loud, shrill whistle tear and burn through her skull like fire. She sank to her knees, holding her ears and writhing in agony on the floor as the shrill noise continued. As her defenses gradually began to weaken, Kagome felt her control over her body slip from her conscious control, and she was suddenly manipulated into standing on her feet. Then almost as suddenly as the noise began, she was defying the laws of gravity and soaring through the air amongst the moon and stars. Kagome could do nothing as the scenery below her rushed by, and thus she gave up her struggles, to avoid breaking the concentration of whoever was controlling her, and prevent herself from plummeting downward in mid-air.
After what seemed like a millennium, Kagome's controller finally allowed her to descend towards the Earth once more. When her feet finally touched down on the solid ground, she found herself in a whole new forest area. From what she could make out in the midnight darkness of the night, there were tall trees shrouded in the deep shadows of the night and off in the distance she could just barely make out faint lights, which to her signified that there was a village nearby. Her manipulator however, didn't allow her to take in her surroundings for long, for she soon found her legs carrying her towards a nearby opening in the trees. As she was blindly led through the darkness, she soon began to make out a small cavern sitting far off from the rest of the trees.
Kagome soon found her manipulator's intention was to bring her to the mouth of the cave. She still could do nothing, now having lost all conscious control over her body. She was then drawn deep into the depths of the cave and she found herself walking along the slippery, wet stones along the floor. The farther she was drawn into the darkness, the clearer things became and pretty soon she could see a small oil lamp, emanating a pale, dim light long the cavern's stone walls and illuminating a figure lying on the floor. As she was drawn even closer to the lamp and the figure, lying nearly motionless on the cold stone floor, she began to make out some physical features: teal hair, crimson eyes, and feather-like antennas protruding from its pale forehead. Pretty soon the pieces of the puzzle began to come together and she came to a startling realization as she came face to face with her manipulator—Menomaru.
A/N: So What'd you think? Please send me reviews; I really want to know what you thought of this first chapter. The pairing will come in the next chapter, but it's up to you to give me as many reviews as you can and tell me if you want me to continue this story. If I don't get enough reviews, then I'll just discontinue the story, all right.
Silver Moon Vampiress