When Kagome reached the base of the stairs leading to the shrine, she placed a hand above her eyes and looked up at the sun. So many people lived under the same sky, feeling the same warmth upon their skin… yet Kagome felt alone. She lived in Tokyo, a city with a population of over thirteen million people, yet somehow, despite that… she felt like she didn't belong.

Sighing, she began her march up the steps, knowing nobody was home to greet her. Her mom was out grocery shopping, and her grandpa was assisting a shrine in the prefecture over. Sota, obviously, was at school.

'Well, he better be,' Kagome thought. She ignored the guilt tugging at her conscience.

Ok. Fine. She was a hypocrite.

'What he doesn't know won't hurt him,' Kagome justified.

She reached the top of the stairs, kicking a pebble to the side as she headed towards the front door. Her legs ached, feeling like jelly that was slowly melting under the afternoon sun. Maybe she would take a nap; after gym class and that long walk home in the midday heat, Kagome sure was tired. Air conditioning sounded good.

She trudged up to her room, slinging her schoolbag to the floor. Kagome collapsed onto her bed, relieved to finally give her legs and feet a break. She closed her eyes, relaxing into the plush cushioning of her bed. She scrunched her toes and took a deep breath, pretending her mattress was a cloud, as if she were drifting in the open air into oblivion...

It wasn't working.

Taking a deep breath, Kagome couldn't help but feel as though she were drowning. Loneliness consumed her in a way it never had before; she couldn't shake this feeling of missing someone who wasn't there, someone she didn't even know. It was frustrating her to no end.

Kagome stared up at her ceiling. It was smooth and white – nothing really to look at if not for those blue eyes on her mind. They belonged to a man, she was sure.

His cerulean gaze had a feral edge that pierced her very soul, as if sharp claws tore into her body and held her beating heart. Kagome's chest clenched every time she thought of those eyes, and her whole body quivered… whether in anticipation or in fear, she couldn't quite distinguish.

Whoever he was, he was overwhelming.

Kagome sat up, restless. It was a little unsettling that she couldn't stop imagining a stranger staring at her while she was in bed. Kagome shivered at the thought even though she knew she was the only one there.

"What's wrong with me?" she asked herself. Kagome got up and walked over to her window, gazing outside at the giant tree that stood tall in the shrine courtyard.

Goshinboku.

Its ancient presence always gave her comfort. Whenever she sat under its boughs, her mind cleared instantly and she became at ease.

That sounded good right then.

Making up her mind, Kagome scooped up her shoes and slipped them on mid-step down the stairs. Kicking her heel against the ground, she took a lungful of fresh air and headed towards that ancient presence she craved.

And then it happened.

She felt it before she heard it – an ominous, dark force… the kind that had her hair standing on end and made her skin prickle in heightened sensitivity. It came from the well house just a few yards away, which was too close for Kagome's liking. Far too close.

She wasn't alone anymore.

Kagome's immediate reflex was to run, but her anger at someone trespassing on the shrine property clashed directly with her instincts of self-preservation.

'Whoever's hiding in there sure has some nerve!' thought Kagome. It's not like they had anything of value to steal anyways – just some old trinkets that her grandpa claimed had spiritual power. Not that the old man had any hocus-pocus spiritual powers to speak of.

Kagome huffed. As if she'd be scared of some petty thief or snot-nosed prankster. Marching over to the well house with a preening glare, Kagome shouted, "Alright, mister! Whoever's in there better come out right now!"

When she received no answer, her anger faltered as panic at the consequences of her stubbornness flashed before her eyes. What if they had a knife? Or worse… a gun?

'Should have thought about that, Kagome,' she thought, kicking herself. 'Time to backtrack.'

"I- I called the police already, so don't get any funny ideas," Kagome called, edging closer to the door of the well house.

She winced. 'As if they'd fall for that.' Kagome held her breath.

When no one answered, she placed a shaky hand on the door notch.

'Ohhhhhhh,' Kagome dreaded. 'Ok, ok… get ahold of yourself. You can do this. You've taken some self-defense classes and watched plenty of NCIS.'

She swallowed her breath and slid open the door in one swift tug.

Buyo popped out of the opening in the doorway, meowing happily at being freed from the dark and dingy well house.

Kagome let out a groan of relief that had been stuck in her throat as a scream of terror.

"Buyo!" Kagome shouted, "You scared the living daylights out of me!" She grabbed the morbidly obese cat, shifting his fleshy body in her grasp.

'Hmmmmm, he must have put on a lot of weight to make sounds that loud in the well house. What could he have possibly been knocking over?' Kagome considered.

Glancing into the dark building, Kagome's eyes slightly adjusted. Cracks in the thatched roof provided small streams of light for her to see with.

It was dusty, to be sure. No one had been in there in years. Random boxes filled the wooden shelving that lined the walls; dust was caked so thick on them that she couldn't make out their contents, but it was probably extra stock of those bogus trinkets that her grandpa tried to sell to shrine-goers.

'The Shikon no Tama, was it?' She recalled her gramps feeding her some long-winded tale of a miko who guarded the jewel and of the demons that tried to steal it for its power. Of course, Kagome hadn't really paid attention, instead using the plastic ball key-chain to play with Buyo. It was all fake, anyways; there was no way something like the Shikon no Tama ever existed – or demons, for that matter.

"Business doesn't seem to be going great," Kagome said to herself. She felt a rush of guilt overtake her as she thought of the new flip phone her mom had bought for her for her seventeenth birthday. It must have been expensive.

Smirking, she decided she would return the phone to the store and use the money to buy her family something nice. That would be gratifying enough. After all, they did everything for her, even if her gramps had an affinity for weird fairytales and her brother sometimes – or well, always – got on her nerves. She would only ever have one family, and she planned on treasuring them.

You never know when they won't be of this world anymore…

'Dad…' Kagome thought, biting back tears as her heart ached. It had been so long since she thought of him. His death day was coming up; she secretly knew why her mom avoided staying home alone, and why her gramps busied himself at another shrine instead of endlessly sweeping the courtyard. 'Hopefully I can cheer everyone up with this.'

Kagome turned to head up to her room for the phone when she felt a chill rake down her spine. She was frozen in place, eyes round and unseeing as fear struck her a fatal blow. Buyo scratched at her arms, trying to escape from her vice-like grip, yet she felt nothing except the venom of terror seeping into her consciousness.

A loud crash sounded from behind Kagome, and a crazy rush of air blew past her as the well exploded.

"THE JEWEL! GIVE ME THE JEWEL!" a gravely voice screeched.

Before Kagome had time to react, she felt her body being dragged towards the well; something sharp and cold had wrapped itself around her, crushing her small frame into submission. Buyo jumped from Kagome's arms, pouncing into the sliver of light as Kagome watched even that disappear, too, when she was pulled down the well into empty darkness.

Kagome Higurashi. Age seventeen. She was going to die… alone.

Updated: December 30, 2018