Summary: After a troubling visit to a village far away, strange and mysterious things begin to happen to Inuyasha and the others. When the disturbing truth is discovered, the group begins a dangerous journey in order to save the life of their friend. Can they escape the sickness?

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Hey guys! Thanks for coming back to read Chapter Two of my story, 'The Sickness'! Just a reminder, this is the REVISED and REWRITTEN version of the old story posted on here. The plot is exactly the same, just in a different writing style. Thanks to all who reviewed and please continue to do so! Now, on to the story! Enjoy!

The Sickness

Chapter Two: Ethereal Night and Bitter Dawn

Inuyasha leapt gracefully from the branches of Goshinboku and onto the damp forest floor. As his feet touched the soggy ground, an image of that terrible, blood soaked village flashed in his mind. He imagined the earth of the forest, his forest, wet with blood and shuddered. 'Damn nightmares,' he thought. He inhaled deeply, trying to distinguish what made the scent unique and strange and so alien to him. There was something not right about the forest. It had become suddenly still, suddenly dark. His muscles were tense and unwilling to move, but he forced himself.

As he trekked towards the well, where the smell seemed to be strongest, Inuyasha couldn't push those morbid images from his mind. He pushed aside branches and roots as he broke from the foliage into the clearing where the well rested. The first thing he noticed was how quiet everything was. The well sat in the middle of the clearing, surrounded by trees and silent as stars. It was dark and the air was dank. There were no chirping insects or rustling animals. The silence bore down on him uncomfortably. He scanned the clearing, surprised that a bubble of fear was actually forming in his gut. The feeling was almost beyond his control, and no matter how hard he tried to suppress it he could not. He willed his body to move forward.

As he neared the well, waves and waves of the odd scent flooded over him, and with it came slight nausea. 'Damn,' he thought, becoming overwhelmed by his churning stomach. All of his senses became suddenly alert yet dull at the same time. The silence became so loud that his ears burned, and his eyes focused so hard on everything that he couldn't really focus at all. 'What's happening?' he thought as his most reliable ways of seeing in the dark were cut off.

Then, in a flush of clarity, it ceased, leaving him bewildered and panting. It was all gone. His hearing and vision returned to normal, and as they did that's when Inuyasha noticed him. A man was simply standing by the well, staring into its depths with a confused look on his face, like he wasn't really seeing it. Inuyasha looked closer. The man's clothes hung off him in an unflattering way, exposing leathery looking skin, pale as the moon shining above. His body was too thin, his bones protruding, giving him the look of a skeleton. He stood hunched over, strands of stringy white hairs hanging over his face.

Inuyasha stilled, too stunned to say anything. He had never sensed a human coming, and what would a human be doing wandering in his forest this late at night? Inuyasha took a cautious step forward. The stench was reeking from the man in noxious waves. It was then that Inuyasha was able to distinguish at least one small part of the complex scent. Rotting flesh. He took a step backwards, the fear in his gut gripping him in a way he hadn't felt since he was a child, it was almost paralyzing. The man standing by the well slowly began to face him, moving in a ghostly manner, almost gliding instead of turning.

Inuyasha was struck as he saw the man's face. It was gaunt and grey and withered, but that's not what disturbed him. It was the two empty eye sockets staring back at him that shook him from within. He took another step back, cowering under the creature's empty stare. The half-demon watched in horror as the skeleton before him began to convulse. It pressed its hands to its chest in what looked like pain, as if he were trying to hold himself together. Inuyasha watched, unable to move, as the man opened his wide, gaping mouth as if to scream, but nothing but a waterfall of blood came out. It poured from his mouth, eye sockets, and nose as if being forced from his very body.

The stench was unbearable. The creature collapsed to the ground, and after gathering his wits, Inuyasha ran to him. A five foot pool of blood surrounded the fallen human, staining the ground a nasty looking crimson. 'It's just like in the mountain village,' Inuyasha thought, panic settling in him. He stared at the emaciated body of the dead man before him, fear making his stomach turn.

He no sooner wanted to touch the body than to eat his own tongue, but he knew he couldn't leave the poor guy laying there in his own blood. And what would Kagome think when she came back from her time and saw his disgusting contorted form lying there beneath her feet? Inuyasha slowly extended a clawed hand towards the corpse on the ground, every instinct in his body telling him to turn tail and run away. He took a breath and grabbed the man by his slippery kimono and began to drag him towards the forest, in the opposite direction of Goshinboku.

XXX

Kagome woke with a gasp, her bleary eyes taking a moment to focus in on her room. 'Home…' she thought, relief breaking over her body like a cool wave. She rubbed her hand over her eyes, trying to erase images of dead bodies strewn carelessly on the ground, broken and tortured with a punishment worse than death. 'Please…just go away,' she begged, attempting to wish away her nightmares, a dark and dismal place in which her very fears came to life to haunt her. She ran two pale hands through her hair, pulling out the tangles.

"I need a haircut," she murmured, mostly trying to distract her mind from the dark places it roamed so frequently nowadays. Kagome's back suddenly stiffened when she heard it. A chilling sound, a quiet hissing whisper, like steam rising from water…or a soul leaving someone's body. She looked around her small room, her heart beating quickly beneath her ribcage. Her hand slid towards the lamp on her nightstand and clicked it on, casting the room in a weak yellow light. There was nothing there but empty space.

'Snap out of it, Kagome,' she thought, wrapping her arms tightly around herself.

She forced herself to leave the sanctuary of her blankets, stumbling over to her desk and opening her Japanese Literature book. She seriously didn't feel like studying, but she had no choice. She had an exam coming up, and she was bound and determined to do well. She'd spent every spare hour she'd had over the last few weeks trying to catch up on all work she'd missed while being away in the Feudal Era. It had been hard teaching herself all the material and even motivating herself to complete it, but she was nearly there. She'd managed to pull passing grades in all of her classes. She was nowhere near the top of the class, a position she had held before her traveling to the past, but top grades no longer mattered to her as much as they had before. She had other, more important, priorities to attend to. Like saving the world, for example. It was still her duty to gather the jewel shards and defeat Naraku.

It still amazed Kagome, the adventures she had been on. She had been born an ordinary girl and had lived an even more ordinary life. She'd grown up with her mother, brother, and grandfather on their shrine. She'd attended school, made friends, cooked dinner for her family, gone to the movies on the weekends, gone on family trips to the beach, and endured her grandfathers fairy tales until she was fifteen. And the morning that she was dragged into the well by an angry and ancient centipede…well, it had been ordinary too.

That day had been so terrifying. She'd met Kaede and the other villagers, who were instantly suspicious of her. She'd been attacked by a monstrous centipede. She unleashed a half-demon menace who tried to behead her. It had been the start of a journey for justice, an unlikely friendship, a heroic adventure. She never expected to make such amazing friends: Inuyasha, Sango, Miroku, and Shippo. She loved them all with everything she had, and that fact alone made her banish all regrets she had for investigating the well that day. She was happy that she had made that decision, no matter where it lead her now.

She felt guilty at times, however. She felt as though she had abandoned her family as she formed a new one in the feudal era. And the saddest part of it all was that Kagome would give up her life in the present in a heartbeat to be with Inuyasha and the others in the past. That realization made her sick with shame as she imagined her mother waiting for Kagome through the long years of her life, growing old and sick with grief. For Kagome knew that in the end she would have to make a decision. The well would not accept her forever. She needed jewel shards to travel between times, and once the jewel was complete and destroyed she would have to decide between a life of normalcy and a life of fantasy.

She shook her head, trying to focus back on her work. It was hard to focus on such menial tasks as school when there were huge issues that needed resolving. Her decisions for the future, her relationship with Inuyasha, their plans for defeating Naraku…as much as she wanted to plow through these thoughts and figure out all of her problems, they would have to wait.

Kagome read through the remaining chapters she had been assigned quickly, and then read through them again slowly while taking notes. A glance at the clock told her it was seven, and almost dinnertime. She was pondering whether or not her stomach could handle food when her window slid open and Inuyasha crept in.

"Hey," she greeted, stifling a yawn behind her hand.

"Hi," he said back in a small voice. She leaned back in her chair, scrutinizing him. His face was flushed and his hair was a bit tangled. He had a light sheen of sweat on his skin and his eyes were deep and dark and full of what appeared to be fear.

"What's the matter, Inuyasha?" she said, a swell of worry breaking upon her, fraying her nerves.

He was looking around her room desperately, his eyes hopeless and lost. He sniffed the air, clawed hands trembling at his sides. After a while his shoulders sagged in what she could only guess was relief.

"Inuyasha?" she called again, as his eyes finally met hers.

"Kagome…I…I think I might be sick," he said, his cheeks flushing. He didn't want to seem weak in front of her, or rely on a human to take care of him, but the death of the poor man by the well had shocked him down to his very core. His heart was still racing from the encounter. He had dragged the man far away from the forest, leaving a bloody trail from the well to his grave. He could see the man's face in his mind…his sightless eyes, his gaping mouth, his sunken cheeks. He could envision him, the way he stared unseeing at Inuyasha as the half-demon covered his lifeless body with dirt. He had ran from the gravesite as soon as he'd finished, trying to banish thoughts of undead humans chasing after him.

"Oka-y…" Kagome said, getting to her feet and approaching him. She gently pushed him down on the edge of the bed and pressed the back of her knuckles against his forehead and was met with nothing but cool skin. Besides a little heavy breathing, he seemed alright to her.

"You seem fine to me," she said. He sighed in relief and flopped back on the bed, spreading his arms out. Her reassurance made him feel a tiny bit better. He was worried something might be wrong with him…the blurry vision, the ringing ears. That couldn't be normal, could it? He squeezed his eyes shut tightly, wishing with all his might that he could just forget everything that had happened. Maybe it had all been a hallucination after all, anyways.

"Inuyasha…what is this really about?" she said, never having seen her half-demon companion so shaken up. It was obvious that something had happened and he was terrified. He'd come into her room looking like he expected to see a ghost.

"It ain't nothing, wench. Just leave me be."

"What? You came to me, Inuyasha!" Kagome exclaimed, annoyed with him.

For a moment Inuyasha seemed sorry, but instead he huffed and turned away from her. He didn't mean to be so harsh, but how could he explain what had happened back there? He was beginning to doubt that it really did. Especially now that he was in Kagome's warm room, her scent wrapping around him in the most comfortable way. He was just starting to drift to sleep when the scent of rotting flesh and something even more sinister hit his nose. He shot up like a lightning bolt.

Oh no…not here, he thought, his head pounding. He scanned her room again, but there were no zombies. No slaughtered bleeding villagers. Just Kagome, illuminated by the soft light. But the stupid scent was still there, plaguing him. Kagome's concerned eyes were on him now. "Are you okay, Inuyasha? You looked a little flushed now…"

He shook his head, feeling dazed. "Fine," he muttered, covering his eyes with his arm. There was this feeling inside him, this gut instinct that was warning him. But he couldn't make out what the threat was. He could catch faint traces of the smell, hovering around the air. It could have been stuck to his clothes, but it was still disturbing nonetheless. He peeked over at Kagome, who was scratching away with her pen. She was peaceful and safe, yet there was still a nagging persistent feeling of fear, a fight or flight sensation that was screaming at him to flee.

He cleared his throat and said uneasily, "So…can I stay here tonight?"

Kagome froze, her heart skipping a beat. He'd never asked her that outright before…it had always just been assumed that when she was in her time he would stand guard outside and watch over her. She turned to face him, trying to read his thoughts, but he looked away from her, staring at the walls as if he were trying to burn them with his eyes.

Now Kagome was really worried. Inuyasha's pride was a formidable thing, and asking permission to stay with Kagome was definitely something that he would have to sacrifice his pride to do. What could have happened that could scare Inuyasha of all people so badly? "Ummm…" she trailed off, unsure of what to say. "Sure, Inuyasha. Let me go get you a futon."

"Silly wench," he scoffed. "I'll sleep outside."

Kagome rolled her eyes. "Suit yourself, dog-boy!" She turned back to her textbook, staring at the pages but not really reading them. A part of her wanted to be close to Inuyasha, to let him hold her. A lonely feeling had settled over her heart and she wanted nothing more than to crawl into his arms and fall asleep. Kagome turned around and he was no longer there. She peered out the window and sure enough he was lounging in the branches of Goshinboku.

"Good night, Inuyasha," she said softly, knowing that he could hear her. She shut the window, leaving it unlocked, and went back to studying.

No sleep came that night for Inuyasha, however. He watched Kagome go in and out of her room and change clothes twice, while he averted his eyes of course. She sat at her desk for a while and then turned out the light and went to sleep. He tried countless times to rest, but the still darkness around him prevented him from so much as relaxing. He longed to be in Kagome's room with her, safe and warm under the covers. Those kinds of feelings, feelings of fear and helplessness, disgusted him. He hadn't yearned for that kind of warmth and protection since his mother died, but he couldn't shake them. At least he didn't act on them. He knew Kagome would have left the window unlocked, but going inside was like admitting his fears, and giving fear a name and a face and a purpose was dangerous. It could often manifest itself, if you let fear take hold of you.

As dawn broke, he crept back into Kagome's room. He watched her, feeling a bittersweet smile tug on his lips. She was his very best friend, something unattainable and out of reach. Something pure and kind, something he didn't deserve, but something he wanted more than anything. After a final glance at her slumbering face he leapt out the window and sprinted to the well house. A warm blue light engulfed him and he was back on the other side of the well in the peaceful morning light, no darkness or fear to inhibit him.

Hello readers! I hope you enjoyed chapter two of 'The Sickness'! Please keep in mind this is the revised version of the story. This is not the same version that was on here before, it's BETTER! I would really appreciate reviews! I accept criticism as well as praise and I would love to hear what you think. I am working diligently on getting this story up to date and wrapping it all up, so the support would be lovely. Thanks so much for reading my story! Now, onward to Chapter Three: Ordinary Morning, Extraordinary Day. Bye!