We wish you the best on this happy day because we bear good news…
You are cordially invited to the engagement party of Sango and Miroku!
Celebrate with us and save the date for…
Tears dripped onto the paper. She heard knocking on her bedroom door and wiped at her face.
"Kagome, what was in that letter that you got?" her mother asked as she walked in. She didn't notice her daughter's watery eyes.
"Oh, it's nothing." She turned it over inconspicuously.
"Just a letter from Sango." She insisted.
"A letter? In this age of texting and email." Her mother raised an eyebrow.
"Yes." Kagome did not elaborate. Her mother pursed her lips.
"Ok." Her mother replied, disbelieving, but left. The door closed and Kagome stared at the white and gold letter. Sango had graduated two years ago. It was tearful for the two girls, but they promised to keep in touch. Sango had known and dated Miroku for a long time, so the engagement was a long ways coming. Kagome understood college life was different from high school. She understood it was hard to keep in touch with some high school student. It was just, the engagement seemed to solidify the gap between them. They were in two different worlds and nothing would be like before. Kagome was already accepted to a couple of amazing colleges, but she did not plan to go to the same one as Sango. They had planned it for a long time. They would become world famous doctors, surgeons, mathematicians, rocket scientists. But then the real world caught up with them. Sango found her passion in criminal law and Kagome with history. It made her heart wrench. Kagome had friends, but none had been as close to her heart as Sango. She couldn't blame her, though. Time moves on and Kagome doesn't. She traced a scar on the back of her hand. Caused by a cat. Everyone had thought she'd end up as a vet or animal person, but that was only a hobby.
She crumpled up the invite and threw it away. She would avoid this problem for now. Right now, she was going to run and forget her feelings. Literally.
"Momma, I'm going to go for a jog." She slipped on some sweats and some earbuds.
"No you aren't. It's almost dark out." Her mom was at the dinner table helping Souta with math homework.
"Please? Just a little. Around the block. The way I've done it a million times." She could see her daughter's bad mood and ceded.
"Not fifteen minutes." She said.
"Don't get lost." Souta teased. He and Sango's brother Kohaku hung out a lot. Kohaku had entered high school this year, though, and Souta was still in middle. He didn't take it so hard, though. Maybe it's a boy thing.
She took off and let herself get caught up in the mechanical thump of her feet on the ground. Pop music blasted in her head. She didn't recognize the artists or the songs, but she liked it as white noise. Noise to block out this crushing guilt. She couldn't avoid this forever, but she could try.
In the dying daylight, she saw a white puff. The amount of strays in this city was upsetting, but served good pastime for her hobby. She slowed to a walk and pulled the earbuds out before grabbing some treats.
"Hey, big guy." She went over to it, but sensed something was wrong. On closer approach, she saw blood. Her heart stopped. The dog looked dead, but its chest was going up and down. There were gashes. Fresh blood. Old blood. One of the hind legs didn't look right. It was a mess. She speed-dialed her mother.
"Momma, please, you have to drive out here! No, I'm ok, but I've found this dog and…god, momma! You gotta drive out here!"
Kagome cried in the back seat as the dog, still unconscious, was wrapped in a blanket.
"You gave us a scare back there, dear. Souta wanted to tag along, but I insisted that he finish his homework." Her mother drove the short distance back to the temple.
"I don't think there's much we can do on our own, but I'll give Kaede at the animal shelter a call." They were a familiar contact due to Kagome's affinity for injured animals. Kaede was a sweet old lady. Kagome enjoyed their friendship, especially with Sango gone.
"There's so much blood." She cried out. It was normal for Kagome to cry when she empathized with a certain animal's pain. This was something unusual though. A person must have inflicted these injuries. An animal abuser.
"It can't die, it can't." She wiped at her face when she saw their house come into view. It was going to be a long night.
"You'll help me carry him in, won't you?" she asked.
"Yes, dear." And so the duo worked quickly and carefully. Souta got excited at the seriousness of this situation. He'd barely made a dent in his homework, though, so he wasn't a part of the action. Kagome did the best she could. She washed the dog's injuries, antiseptic, bandaging them, doing their best to set the hind leg. There was definitely something wrong, but Kagome rarely worked with broken bones. She didn't want to screw anything up.
"It's getting late, dear. You should get some sleep before school tomorrow." Her mother advised as she was off to bed.
"Soon, momma. I have one more thing to do and then I'm off." She insisted. Her mother went to bed, disbelieving, but tired. She was right. Kagome had no intention of getting to bed any time soon. She was grateful for this distraction from Sango. The shed out back had become Kagome's little base of operations. They learned the hard way of the downsides to keeping a stray in the house. This most recent dog was not put in a cage or kennel due to the severity of injuries. Kagome went out with a cool compress to check in. Breathing was more stabilized, but still worrisome. Blood was seeping through some of the bandages, through, so she wrapped some more on top. The mound of blankets was comfortable and the sound of the night lulled the weary Kagome to sleep.
A hand on her throat startled her.
"Where am I?" a male voice demanded. She became paralyzed with fear. When did she fall asleep? God, she was so stupid to fall asleep in the shed! She probably didn't even lock the door. A murderer probably broke in. God, she was going to die.
"Don't make me repeat myself." He threatened. His nails were long and sharp. It was dark, but she could tell he had traditional wear and long hair. Unusual.
"Hi-Higurashi Shrine." Her voice trembled as did she. She looked over to find the dog, but all she found were bandages. It probably ran away at the sound of intruder and open shed door. She looked over, though, and the door wasn't open.
"Why am I here?" he demanded. She whimpered and his grip tightened.
"What do you mean?" she whimpered.
"What am I doing here?" he demanded again. Her heart was thumping hard. She thought he was crazy. He was a wandering lunatic. He didn't seem drunk or on drugs, but who was she to know.
"I don't- I don't know." She said. She didn't expect him to fall to the ground. She froze for a second before turning on the light. She gasped. For a moment, she thought he might be cosplaying or something. His pointed ears, facial markings, and long, white hair. But then she noticed his white kimono stained red from various gashes. Swollen leg. Ripped bandages hanging from him in some areas.
She never believed in ghosts or demons from her grandfather's stories. She thought that he was trying to scare her. Now, though. Now, she had no explanation for this.
"Are you awake?" she whispered. No movement.
"H-Hello?" she asked louder. Nothing. She tapped the uninjured part of his arm with her shoe. Nada. She bent down and stared at his face. It didn't look like SFX, the markings. She rolled down her sleeve and used it to white at the crescent moon. It didn't budge. Either it was good make up or nothing. No. She looked at his ears. They didn't look fake, but they couldn't be real. This was quite the situation.
"I should, uh, call the police?" she whispered to herself. As she exited, she noticed the door was locked. That would mean the intruder somehow got the door locked after he got inside or who knows. She went back to the house to grab her mobile phone, but returned to the shed before a call. When she got back, the dog was lying in place of the man. Ripped bandages. Gashes. Swollen hind leg. Her mind felt like sludge. She moved so slowly. The crescent moon shape on the dog's forehead was undeniable. She dropped her phones and it clattered left to right, left to right. She couldn't summon her voice. She wanted to scream, pretend this wasn't real. She pinched herself and winced in pain. She looked down and the dog and it was very much real. The pain on her throat was very much real. She couldn't have hallucinated, could she? No, no, no. No. This was not happening. It was, though. She got out a cage and pushed the dog in there.
"Sorry if you're not a lunatic man…ugh, maybe I'm the lunatic." She whispered. She didn't know how to explain to her mother the situation. No, please don't take the critically injured dog to get help because it's a man. No, she didn't believe that herself. Ugh, what could she do?