Chapter 2- Wrong Way

*Kagome POV*

The dark-haired girl started to doze off slowly, dimly aware of the scent of fresh air in her nostrils and the cold feeling of the wind on her body. She lay, motionless, as her mind cleared at an agonizingly slow pace. No matter how dazed she was…there was something strange happening to her.

Where was she?

Slowly she opened her eyes, wincing in pain as the wind made her eyes water. She was flying through the sky… lights twinkling below her like a sea of stars, and the inky black sky above her covered her in darkness like a blanket with the moon shining as bright as a spotlight. The wind was singing her in a way that seemed to put her into her doze… she couldn't remember the last time she felt so happy. What had happened to her?

She couldn't remember a single thing.

That was when she realized something… she wasn't alone…

For the first time since regaining consciousness, she realized that she was riding piggyback on a person wearing a scarf and a long black cloak who was jumping across the rooftops. Other than the occasional sound of his light footfalls as he landed from one roof to the other and her own breathing, there wasn't a single sound to be heard apart from the night wind.

This person…

This person meant everything…though why it he was important, she could not recall. Was there some reason that this feeling of safety was emblazoned so strongly in her heart?

It didn't matter she supposed. She merely closed her eyes and let the person continue to carry her through the night, feeling safe and secure with him. She was happy for some reason, she couldn't remember why, but she knew that she wanted to remain like this forever. The feeling that she could be feel and happy forever…

But most of all, someone else was here with her.

She wouldn't be alone anymore.

"Kagome?"

Someone was calling for her?

"Kagome? Are you there?"

Who is that?

"Kagome, wake up…"

Wake up? What did that mean? That wasn't the boy who was talking. She looked in front of her, desperately trying to see his face… he turned his head and Kagome could see his mouth in the low light. She saw him whisper something to her that she couldn't make out.

"What?" she whispered to him. "What did you say?"

But then the second voice spoke up again and the voice of the boy had been drowned out.

"It's time to wake up now."

But why? She didn't want to leave the safety of this boy, even if it was a dream. And what was he trying to say to her?

She felt someone shaking her and all of a sudden, her eyes snapped open.

*Normal POV*

"You finally awake? About time sis," said a little boy that looked no older than 10 sitting next to her.

"You sure slept for a long time," her mother said as she smiled from the front seat.

Kagome Higurashi was a normal 15 year old girl who was just moving to a new town with her parents and her little brother. Kagome blinked several times before she realized where she was; she was in the back of her parent's car, she must've dozed off.

She rubbed her eyes and asked, "Did I fall asleep?"

"You kidding? You slept for practically the whole trip!" Sota said smugly as he held a large white cat with black and orange patches. Kagome punched him in the shoulder before yawning widely. Her father looked back at her through the mirror.

"Did you have that dream again sweetheart?" he asked.

Kagome merely nodded. It wasn't anything new to her family. For as long as she could remember, she had a bizarre dream of a person in a dark robe carrying her through the night… it was so extraordinary but was never scary… in fact she loved that dream.

But she didn't understand why she kept having the same dream over and over again for 10 years. It all happened after the fire that burned down her house when she was 6…

And for some reason… Kagome couldn't remember what had happened that night. Her parents had told her that she had come running towards them from across the street, but she had no idea how she got there. Everything that night seemed to be like a big blur.

After that, almost every night, she would have that same dream. The boy would take her flying through the night sky and would whisper something to her… but she could never hear what it was. All she knew for sure was that every time that she awoken from it was that she felt like she ended up losing something important.

But that wasn't all of it.

Just a few days after the fire, when her parents took her to the hospital for her checkup…

The doctors all said it was some kind of miracle …

Her disease had been completely cured.

But no one could figure out why.

After that, everything changed. She was allowed to go out and play with other children, she could go to school, her visits to the doctor became less and less, her parents had finally started treating her like a normal person and not some fragile glass doll, and she had a little brother just a year later.

Her life was going good until her dad accepted a new job and they all had to move.

Of course Kagome wasn't one bit happy about this because she was leaving behind all of her friends and everything else she ever knew. The only thing she could think of that this was just going to be some boring town where she'd never get to have new friends.

Her father was driving and her mother was reading a small book in her lap, Sota was playing with their cat Buyo and Kagome just held onto the only thing she had to remind her of her old life. It was a bouquet of flowers that she got as a going away present from her best friends Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi.

Kagome read the card that came with it:

"Dear Kagome,

We all hope that you do your best to stay in touch. No matter where you are we'll always be best friends forever! We'll miss you!

From, Yuka, Eri and Ayumi."

She was brought out of her thoughts when her mom said, "Kagome, do you really have this dream every night?"

Kagome nodded her head. "It's always the same dream, mom. I told you a thousand times that I don't know why."

Her parents looked at each other before shrugging it off and went back to talking about their new home. Kagome realized that they were finally in the new town that she would be stuck in… it didn't look so bad… so far anyway.

The vehicle bumped and jumped over the narrow speed lumps as Kagome's body rocked to and fro with its jagged rhythm.

"Dad, are you sure this is the right place? It looks like one of those small towns with ten people living in it," Sota, nagged whilst tugging on his obese cat's paws.

"Meow-ow?" Buyo the calico mewed.

Dad tried to mend their complaints with his thread of words, "We'll just have to learn to like it, that's all."

Kagome angled her head at her parents in the slightest lazy effort to stare into the backs of their heads.

Dad suddenly examined, "Oh look Kagome! There's your high school! Looks great doesn't it?" Kagome looked out the car window and saw a large, yet plain white building that looked like it could only hold a couple hundred students. "Looks great, doesn't it?"

She rolled her eyes at her little brother, who had stuck his tongue out at it. Neither didn't want to go to a new school; they both would've been happier if they could stay at her old one where her friends were. But noooooooooo. They had to move to a new place just because dad got a new job. This only proves that life just isn't fair.

I mean, doesn't anyone ask their kids what they want anymore?

Kagome slothfully shifted her dead eyes to the window as she heard her mother admit, "It doesn't look so bad."

"It looks like a rundown factory…" Sota drawled dryly under his breath. "I wonder what my school's gonna look like. Hopefully not like Kagome's." Sota brooded over out loud.

At least someone here was honest.

Dad calmly said, "Can't believe it, new house, a new life for all of us! Isn't it just exciting?"

Kagome rolled her eyes again as she said in a sarcastic tone "Oh yeah, real exciting dad. All we need is to be attacked by a giant monster to make the day even better." Sota laughed and her mom sighed.

"Kids, I know that you two aren't happy about this move-" she began.

"You got that right," both kids said at the same time.

"But can you please give it a chance before you make up your minds that you hate this place?" she finished.

As Sota folded his arms and began to look sulky, Kagome rolled her eyes and filched a glare at her blossoms.

Wait...

Were they...?

"NO!" she shrieked, jostling up as the petals fell from their shriveling buds. Urgently, she shoved the bouquet between her parents in a single panicky thrust. "Mom! Dad! My flowers are dying!" she said quickly.

The flowers were already crushed and dying, and Kagome bit her bottom lip. Her last present from her best friends and she was destroying it.

"Aw come on, Sis. They're just stupid flowers. You can buy some more!" Sota nicked at Buyo's right ear.

"What would YOU know about it?" Kagome practically bit his head off. "They're a going-away present from friends I'm never gonna see again! Your friends didn't even bother giving you anything. That is, if you ever HAD any friends to begin with."

"Mooom!" her kid-brother whined. "Kagome's being mean again!"

"Am not!"

"Am too!"

Mom didn't even so much peek back at the wrangling siblings, "Well, no wonder they're dying, the way you've been clinging to them."

Kagome face-faulted...

Her mother looked outside the window to survey the houses, "As soon as we get to the house we'll put them in some water and they'll perk right up."

Fed up, Kagome slinked back, "Great. I get a going away gift that's my first bouquet and it doesn't even last that long!"

Her dad looked at his daughter from the mirror, "What about for your birthday last year? Doesn't that count?"

"No dad. That was a single carnation. One flower doesn't count as a bouquet. And besides, I told you before that my favorite flowers are cherry blossoms and purple irises," said a grumpy Kagome.

Dad could only sigh.

"Hold onto your card, I'm opening the window," mom said as she handed her the goodbye card that fell from the bouquet. "And quit whining. It's fun to move to a new place. It's an adventure."

Kagome gazed out of the dropping window, squinting against the lukewarm breeze of afternoon climate. The metallic exterior of a gas truck passed by, briefly blocking her view of the streetlamps.

They were all quiet for a moment before they made a turn and hit an old road that looked like it was made of cobble stones that looked like an ancient walkway. The car stopped beside a gargantuan tree that stood about as tall as a 5 story building. It looked as if it stood there for a thousand years and the giant scar on its trunk seemed to confirm it.

"Wait," dad said looked around. "This can't be right can it?"

"Whoa, look at that tree…" Sota awed.

"It's huge!" Kagome agreed, finally interested in something that crossed her boring path today. "But what's with the giant scar?"

Mr. Higurashi poked his head out from his window, face winded up in a parcel of confusion and disagreement. "Wait, did I take the wrong turn?"

Up ahead was only crowded trees that would lead them into a tunneling forest.

"This can't be it!" dad said again as he fine-tuned his glasses a little more.

Her mom also looked around, "I told you that we should've stopped to ask for directions. What is the deal with men never asking which way to go?"

"Oh don't you start on me," he whispered, embarrassed. "I'm sure that it's this way."

"Honey, no," mom begged. "I'm sorry, let's just turn around and…"

"No, I'm sure that this is the right way," he insisted.

"Dad," Kagome said as she jumped into their conversation, "You always get us lost. Remember what happened when we went camping last year?"

"AH! Don't remind me!" Sota called. "I'm scared for life."

"Dad, just turn back and take the turn," Kagome went on. "Actually, just turn back and go all the way home again for that matter."

Dad just laughed at her desperate attempt to get them back to their old town as he turned into the forest road. "We have a new home now, Kagome. And I'm sure this will be fine. Just sit back and enjoy the view."

Kagome once again mentally snorted at that idea. The view had been the same the entire trip and she was sick and tired of it. Nonetheless, she sat back down; taking the flowers she'd gotten into her lap, and nervously toyed with the card in her fingers.

"Trust me! I know what I'm doing!" dad almost yelled. And before anyone else could say anything, he hit the gas and they were dashing down the road. The shades of the arched trees darkened the atmosphere in the car, little splinters and shards of sunlight racing along the hood that peeked through the shadows of tree leaves.

For a moment everything seemed to be going fine until the car started to speed up. Kagome glanced at her dad nervously, knowing the man didn't like going too fast like this. The man in the driver's seat seemed to concentrating on his road a lot, silent curses coming out of his mouth from time to time as the car simply kept going faster. Kagome looked outside to see the trees passing by in nothing but blurs and she started to panic slightly.

"Dad! We're going too fast!" although she knew she was stating the obvious, she just had to say it. Dad didn't look at her, staying focused on the road instead.

"It's quite steep here, just hold on," he said. Kagome really wanted to do that, but she didn't have much to hold onto. She grabbed the side of the door as wide brown eyes looked through the front window to see what was coming.

"Dad, I think we're lost," Sota announced what they were all thinking.

"We're fine," her father thumbed his nose. "I've got GPS."

The car wheeled over a rattling stump.

"Ah!" Sota's body jerked with his cat, but he managed to hold onto the side of his mother's passenger seat from his standing position.

"Sit down please, Sweetie," Mrs. Higurashi smiled blankly at him before she turned to her husband and said, "Just admit it! Something's wrong with the GPS!"

The car was suddenly journeying over a chain of toothed rocks and pebbles, but Mr. Higurashi seemed to be gaining speed anyway. All the items, even the cat, were shaking out of control like they were in the middle of an earthquake.

Kagome gripped her flowers, eyes wide. Kagome looked out the window at all the passing trees and branches to notice the strangest little things that she ever saw in her life.

There were dozens of little spotted mushrooms… normally these wouldn't be so strange… except for the fact that they were all moving and had big eyeballs staring back at her.

"M-Mom?" Kagome said in a strangled tone as the car suddenly began to go faster. But no one could hear her over the roar the engine suddenly made and they were then practically flying down the road. They went whizzing pass the mushrooms and Kagome had to twist around in her seat to stare out of the back window to try to get see if she could get a better look to make sure that she wasn't just seeing things.

Her eyes followed the mushrooms even as the car passed them.

"What are you looking at?" Sota yelled at her as he was holding onto his seat with a death grip. Before Kagome could answer the car was suddenly traveling over large bumps and pot holes that shook the car. But they still kept going faster.

"Honey?" Mom yelled at dad who was so focused on the road that Kagome was sure if he could hear anyone. "Please slow down before you kill us! I don't want to spend my first day in this town dead!"

They went crashing over an old vine in the middle of the road before they all saw something in the distance.

"What's that?" Mr. Higurashi suddenly blurted, shoveling his foot down into the gas pedal and steering the car to a complete halt in front of a hindering sculpture and hollow tunnel. Mom, who was breathing hard and fast as if she was the one who had run all this way, said, "Say it! You took a wrong turn..."

Finally accepting defeat, dad could only give a nod as he said, "Fine! You win! But look! See that?"

His wife's nose shriveled up like Kagome's blossom buds. "What's this old building...?"

"It looks like an entrance."

She gasped as her husband stepped out of the car with a haughty simper on his face. "Dear, get back in the car! We're going to be late-Wha? Sota! K…Ka-GO-me! Oh, for heaven's sake."

Sota and Kagome accompanied their father's side as he stood in front of the profound channel way with his palm feeling about the inner wall.

"This building's not old, it's fake. These stones are just made of plaster," Dad smirk slouched off his cheeks to hear the wind singing chants to their eardrums from inside the tunnel.

Of course Kagome also stood out wanting to tell her parents that they should go, for she was getting a strange feeling about this place. Kagome could only stare at the strange tunnel, not really paying attention to anything. For some strange reason something inside her told her not to go in. Whatever it was, she wanted to listen to that voice inside her.

The leaves at her sneakers tumbled into the unknown tunnel at the wind's seducing whistle as if they were being sucked inside. "Oh…" she whispered as her hair rustled under the haunting draft. "The wind's pulling us in… "

Buyo's ears flattened on his noggin, his body growling.

"What is it?" Mrs. Higurashi's heels clapped against the old stone flooring until she was standing behind them all. "Why's everyone so tense?"

Dad calmly said, "Wow… this looks interesting… Come on, let's go check it out!"

Kagome pinched her eyes with a glare. "No way! Are you out of your mind?"

"C'mon, sis let's go in! I wanna see what's on the other side!" Sota cheered, the cat clinging to his back.

"I'm not going! It gives me the creeps!" She held her shivering elbows.

"Don't be such a scaredy-cat, Kagome," Sota teased.

"Let's just take a look," dad suggested to his wife instead.

Mrs. Higurashi's eyebrow cocked as she gazed into the pitch black darkness before their eyes.

Kagome spoke up again, "Dad, let's go! The movers might get to the house before we do!" Although she hated the fact that they were moving, that was no reason not to use it against her dad right now. She had a really strange feeling about this place and she just wanted to get away. The rest of her family seemed to have different plans though.

"It's alright. They've got the keys! They can start without us!" he said

"Alright. Just one quick look," mom said.

"I don't think we should go in. That tunnel is giving me a bad feeling," Kagome said quickly, "See? Even Buyo things it's a bad idea!"

And indeed, the hair on Buyo's back was standing on end and he was letting off a slight growl.

Dad could only chuckle as he said, "He's a cat. He gets uneasy whenever someone doesn't feed him. Where's your sense of adventure Kagome? Let's go!"

Everyone began to head down the tunnel, even the cat, while mom called back, "Kagome? Just wait in the car then!"

"But guys!" Kagome yelled staring at them with her chocolate brown eyes as their silhouettes began to disappear; she stayed behind for a moment until finally the statue that was next to her finally gave her the creeps and she followed them.

Of course, there was a strange wind flowing through the tunnel that blew her raven black hair behind her as if something was warning her to go back now. Mom saw the look on her daughter's face and said, "Kagome, you have to calm down, dear. You don't have to worry because nothing bad will happen. Alright?"

But Kagome didn't show any sign of responds that she heard her mother.

"Everybody, watch your step," her father advised, his silhouette vaguely distinguishable in the blackened surrounding.

At the end of the tunnel was a room.

"What is this place?" Sota piped, hugging Buyo.

At the other end of the tunnel welcomed them with the architecture of an abandoned, ancient church. Dry leaves of brown decorating the concrete floors and cob webs lodged between the pillars left the family mystified. The ocher light from the exit guided their eyes to the outside. Wooden benches, colored glass and something that resembled drinking fountains were scattered around the room. It looked to be abandoned for quite a while, and anther shiver ran up Kagome's spine.

"Where are we?" Kagome whispered as she glanced around nervously. This place was Creepy with a capital C. She was half expecting to have a ghost jump them from behind one of the stone pillars or sit up from the benches. She really had watched too many horror movies with her friends but she didn't really care. Something was very off with this place.

"Hmm…" dad glanced around as well, though not with the fear that was in Kagome's eyes. He held his free hand to his ear and listened for a second, "Do you hear that?"

Kagome didn't hear anything for a moment accept for the thick dapping of dripping water leaked off a fountain. That is until a low whistle sounded and the sound of whizzing metal wheels followed by the soft 'swssshhhhswsshhhh' of heavy metal against metal and the 'puffpuffpuff' of a steam engine.

"A train?" Kagome frowned at that idea and wondered why a train would be in a deserted place like this.

"We must be near a train station!" Sota beamed.

Eagerness swept through their father especially, "Let's go look outside," dad suggested, pointing toward the arched doorway at the end of the room. "Perhaps we'll see it."

Kagome knew her grandfather was just saying that so they'd continue to investigate, but what could she do? The man wouldn't go back even if she would beg, he was simply still too adventurous. Why her parents had wanted to move to a town where it would be 'nice and quiet' was beyond her.

His wife nodded and followed forward with Sota.

Unwillingly, Kagome followed them… but she couldn't help but stare back at the black tunnel they had left; it was like it was telling her just how far they were submerging themselves into this unknown world. She jogged up a bit faster to walk in step with her mother, wary of that passageway and its creepy aura.

Why was everything so doggone creepy around here?