Nightmares

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Inuyasha characters, I'm just using them in my story. I am good.

Summary: The group's relationships grow as time goes on, but what will happen when nightmares that come true threaten them?

Chapter One-

            As the sun dropped towards the horizon, bathing the forest in a red glow, the crickets began to chirp. Doves cooed to each other, finding places to sleep for the night. A mild breeze rustled through, and shadows began to lengthen. The land's busy day was drawing to a halt.

            Suddenly the tranquility of the summer evening was broken by a sound. A high-pitched humming sound. It became louder, and from around the bend in the forest's trail came six figures. Inuyasha and Miroku walked out front, Kagome and Sango in the back and two smaller ones, Kilala and Shippo in the middle. It was Shippo who was making the incessant humming. "Wow, Kagome, I like this song!" he piped up, and the little fox demon jumped up on Kagome's shoulder to put the headphones of her walkman on her ears.

            "Ya, along with every other song on that blasted thing." Inuyasha muttered to Miroku. Miroku rolled his eyes up to the canopy. On Kagome's last visit to her own time, she had brought along this circular device that played songs he'd never heard before. Shippo seemed to like it, though, and had been humming the tunes for hours, changing the "seedees" as Kagome called them. Inuyasha would have whacked him by now if it weren't for Kagome's ability to sit him. Damnit, he thought to himself. Sango seemed to think it was funny.

            "We should set up camp here," announced Kagome as they came to a clearing, and as Shippo listened to the last song. "Fine by me," grunted Inuyasha, and he leapt up onto a tree branch to watch them do the work. When a fire was erected they made soup and had dinner. Then they rolled out sleeping bags next to the fire. Sango, Miroku and Shippo went out like a light, for the day had been a tiring one, and Kilala slept silently next to Sango. Kagome sat listening to her walkman and poking the fire with a stick. Inuyasha sat cross-legged beside her. He watched the fire reflect in her brown eyes, and heard the faint murmur of music escaping from the headphones. He didn't see how so many songs could come from almost paper-thin disks.

            "How do they work?" he asked her. No reply. Kagome just kept poking the fire with her stick.

            "Hello, Kagome, how do they work?" he tried again. Still no response. She didn't even seem to notice that Inuyasha had said anything. He started to get angry. Was she deliberately ignoring him? "KAGOME!" he shouted, almost waking up the others. She raised her head, and took off her headphones. "Oh sorry, did you say something? I couldn't hear you with my headphones on." She said, smiling. Inuyasha contained his anger and said, "I just was just asking how they work."

            "How does what work?" she asked.

            "The seedee thingers. How do they work?"

            "Oh, the CDs! Um, I'm not really sure, but I think that the songs are electronically written on them in codes. So when you put them into a CD player, they read them." She concluded.

            Inuyasha just blankly stared at her. "Do you want to listen?" she asked, holding up the headphones. "Yah right, I couldn't care less." He got up. "I'm going to get more firewood." The hanyou said, then stalked off into the woods.

            Kagome yawned. Inuyasha could be so stupid sometimes. She got into her sleeping bag and laid her head onto the pillow, watching the flames crackle and lick the air. Sleep began to overcome her. Suddenly she heard a crack, and looked to her right. She thought she saw a faint shimmer, but it was gone after she blinked. Oh, come on, Kagome, she thought, your eyes are just playing tricks on you. That's what you get for looking at the fire for so long. Still, it had startled her. She laid her head back on her pillow as her heart rate returned to normal. Anyways, she thought, Inuyasha will protect me from anything. And as she looked through the fire she could see Inuyasha returning with an armful of firewood. Then her eyes became heavy, and she fell asleep.

            Inuyasha returned to the clearing and saw that Kagome was asleep. He quietly added the wood to the flames and sat across the fire from her, watching its light play across her features. Then he smiled, twitched his ears and closed his eyes. He was resting like that for some time, sitting up cross-legged with his hands in the sleeves of his kimono. Then he heard a noise, and his eyes flicked open. He looked around the clearing, and his eyes rested on Kagome. She was whimpering in her sleep, and twitching.

Kagome walked through the old abandoned house. The only light came from broken panes of glass in the filthy windows. She could see the layers of dust on the rotting wooden floors and carpets, and cobwebs lined just about every corner. The air was musty and warm, but it still made her shiver. Plaster on the walls was discoloured and cracked. She continued walking down the hallway. Suddenly she heard a scuttling noise. She whipped her head around, trying to locate where it was coming from, but it seemed that it was gone. Kagome let out a sign and looked around to see a cloud moving through the hallway, towards her. She stared at it, and noticed that it was made out of small things. They looked like insects…cockroaches! Kagome screamed and took a step backwards, but the rotting wood broke and she crashed through the floor, falling on something soft. She looked underneath her, and found that she was lying on a hill of cockroaches. She screamed as the ones from the hallway fell through the wall on top of her…

Inuyasha watched Kagome moan and roll around. What was happening? Was she okay? Should he wake her? He was becoming scared as she started to scream, but he didn't know what to do. Then Miroku woke up, and crawled over to her. He shook her, and she woke up and looked around. "Huh?" Kagome muttered. "I think you had a nightmare, but your alright now." Said Miroku, holding her close. A little too close, thought Inuyasha, and he growled. Miroku, who's hands had been beginning to roam a bit, stopped and let her go. The others woke up from the commotion, and he filled them in on what had happened.

Sango put her arm around Kagome's shoulders. "What was it about?" she asked. "Oh nothing, just…cockroaches. I really don't like them. I'm fine, I'm fine, I don't want to talk about it. Sorry I woke you guys up." She assured them. Sango grinned, and told her it was okay.

Kagome ran her fingers through her hair, sighed, and said, "I'm just going to get some food." She smiled and walked over to the bag of food, taking out the container that she had put dry cereal in.

The others heard her scream. They rushed over and saw the cockroaches scurrying from the container and from the bag. Miroku looked at Sango as Kagome ran off to the edge of the clearing. Inuyasha followed her. He found her sitting near a large bush. "Kagome, stop worrying like an old housewife. It was just a coincidence." He consoled her. She rolled her eyes at him. "Shut up, Inuyasha, cockroaches are one of my biggest fears, okay?" she spat. He snorted. "Yah, well, I'm not the one squealing during the night and waking everyone up!" She gave him a pained look and walked back to the campsite.

Miroku and Sango had cleaned up the roaches, and thrown out everything that they had been in . Now Miroku, Sango, Kilala and Shippo were going to bed again. "You should try to sleep again, Kagome, you probably won't have anymore dreams." Sango told her. Kagome smiled, but sat next to the fire again.

The others went to sleep, and when she heard their breathing, Kagome sighed. Yes, that must have been a coincidence. It was just that when she was little, some boys at school had put some on her, and she'd been afraid of the insects ever since. She sensed Inuyasha sitting beside her, but didn't look up.

"Are you alright?" he asked her. She nodded. They both sat watching the flames.

Waaaaa, that took a while to write. I hope you like it, I'm gonna work on the second chapter soon. Pleeeeeease read and review!