Sunday, January 18
8:30 AM
The day started early and on a bad note for Rin. Just as she was stirring from her sleep, she heard a crashing noise followed by another a few seconds later.
"Just great, something's bound to be broken this time." she mumbled to herself as she walked up the stairs. Passing the clock on the wall next to the coat closet, she took a quick look at the time. 'Eight thirty in the morning. At least its not dark this time.' she thought as she made her way up the steps.
At the top of the stairs, she looked around. Across the hall and slightly to the right, her bedroom door was shut, just like she had left it the other day. Without wasting much time, she went to the last door on the left side of the hall, her parents' bedroom. She looked at the door and saw that it was firmly shut. Just to make sure, she pulled and pushed on the door knob without turning it. As she thought, the door didn't moved with her pushes but did not open.
Sighing, she turned the knob and walked into the bedroom. The room felt warmer than it had last night so she didn't waste time on the windows in the room. Instead, she went right for the bathroom door. Expecting to see the blanket she put over the window to be blowing in the wind, she was surprised to see the blanket was missing and the window was shut.
"What?" she asked herself as she checked out the window. It was locked, but she couldn't find the blanket anywhere in the bathroom. She was so caught up in finding the blanket that she didn't notice someone had come into the bathroom with her.
"Still looking for things that go bump in the night?' Sesshomaru asked from his leaning position against the sink.
"No, I'm looking for things that go bump in the morning." Rin replied with a smile. "I could have sworn I heard two crashes this morning, but I can't find anything that broke or fell. The blanket isn't over the window either."
Sesshomaru glanced around the room and saw that the blanket wasn't even in the room anymore. "Maybe someone used the bathroom last night, took the blanket down, and somehow managed to shut the window."
"Yeah, maybe they put it back in the main room." Rin said accepting Sesshomaru's explanation for the window. "But, what about the crashes? You can't say you didn't hear them."
"I heard something this time, saw you were gone, and knew you would be up here investigating. Call it a hunch, but I think you're paranoid about something."
Rin shrugged. "I don't know. I didn't think the knocking bothered me much last night, but I think that and the window stuff freaked me out more than I thought it did. You know?"
"Yeah. Come on, let's go downstairs and forget about all this." he answered taking her hand to led her back downstairs.
As they were walking down the hallway, Rin decided it would be best to tell him how nervous she really was. "Hey, Sess, I know this might sound stupid, but for the past few days, it felt like something was watching me. Its really weird, it all started when Kagome played a song and I came up with a messed up interpretation of it. Its stupid, but when ever I look at certain things, I'm reminded of the song and get the feeling that someone can see me but I can't see them." she sighed as she finished. '…and I feel like no matter what I do, I feel like I won't have control.' she added to herself.
Sesshomaru was quiet until they reached the last step. "That's fine. Like I said, your probably just paranoid about it. Don't worry too much and forget about it."
"Its worth a shot." she shrugged.
"Hey, guys, we decided it is time for Rin to display her hosting skills." Sango said when the couple entered the kitchen.
"Yeah, welcome to Café de Rin." Koga said with his arms open.
Rin looked at each face. "You sure about that?" she asked.
"Would we name the hotel restaurant after you if we weren't?" Inuyasha answered with a question of his own.
"Fine, Café de Rin only serves microwave popcorn, canned soup, and of course, cold cereal."
"What's the special of the day?" Koga asked with a serious face.
Rin looked around the kitchen and spotted a box on the counter. "That would be Pop Tarts," she said holding up the box, "but only for the first two lucky customers." she finished before spilling the contents of the box onto the island all the so called patrons of the restaurant were seated at.
Quickly the two packs of Pop Tarts were swiped off the table by Koga and Sango. The rest of the people "ordered" cereal, except for Ayame, who never liked normal things for breakfast. Instead, she had the soup.
Within twenty minutes, every one had eaten breakfast and decided to go outside to relive some childhood memories.
"Last one out is a rotten egg!" Miroku yelled as he ran out the back door.
Outside, everything was going well and everyone was having a good time. The friends were currently in the middle of a snowball fight, girls verses boys and the girls were winning. The girls had all dug a trench in the snow to fully cover them when the guys tried to breach their defenses. Shelves were carved into the wall of the trench and stocked with snowballs. The guys, on the other hand, were less prepared. They built a simple wall to surround them and made snowballs when they were needed. It was pretty easy to see why the girls were winning.
The war was doing good to help Rin forget about the strange things that had been happening around her lately until she wandered towards the wooded area in her back yard to get fresh snow. As she was bending over to pick up a handful of snow, something caught her eye. In the snow, footprints lead toward the edge of the trees and stopped before a second set led back into the woods.
"Uh, Sess, mind coming here for a second?" she yelled to Sesshomaru, who was across the yard.
Sesshomaru looked at his teammates. "Should I go?" he asked.
"I don't know, it could be a trap." Koga cautioned.
"Yeah, it seems a little weird." Inuyasha added.
Miroku spoke up with a conspiracy theory. "Maybe the girls want to take out each of us one by one, until there's none left. First Rin, will call you," he said looking at Sesshomaru, "then Ayame will call Koga. Then, we'd loose our distance throwers and only have the power throwers left. Until Kag and Sango manage to get Inu and me."
"Uh, that makes some sense actually." Sesshomaru said staying in his spot.
On the other side of the yard, Rin hardly moved from her spot. Her eyes were focused on the tracks and nothing else. "Please." she called out to Sesshomaru when he did not come with panic in her voice.
"Maybe it isn't a trap." he said standing up.
Obviously the other girls had noticed the tone Rin's voice had taken when she called for Sesshomaru. He expected them to get some cheap shots at him when he walked past their fort, but made it to Rin completely unscathed.
"What's the problem?" he asked when he was close to Rin.
"Were you or any of the guys back here at all?" she questioned with her eyes still on the footprints.
Sesshomaru thought for a few seconds. "No, none of us have been outside before now. Why?"
"Some one has been coming here, I think." she answered not so sure of what was happening anymore.
"Maybe it was your neighbor looking for their dog again." Sesshomaru said remembering the countless times he and Rin had helped the people on the other side of the trees to catch their dog.
Rin shook her head. "There's no paw prints." she whispered. She turned and looked at Sesshomaru in the eyes. "Did I tell you about the person, or something, I saw in the yard yesterday?"
"No." he said looking over his shoulder to make sure the others were not listening to this part of the conversation. Luckily the snowball fight had resumed without the two and no one was paying any attention to him and Rin. "What's going on?"
Rin sighed and sat in the snow. "I'm not sure. Yesterday when I was in my parent's bathroom getting ready to take a shower, I had to get something out of the closet. When I walked past the window, which was closed at the time, I saw something move and run back into the woods. I know it wasn't a deer or any kind of animal like that." Rin let out a breathy laugh. "I'm starting to think it's a person stalking one or all of us. The loud crashes and the window aren't making things any better either. You probably think I'm crazy right about now. Don't you?"
Sesshomaru did not say anything for awhile. Like Rin, he sighed and sat down in the snow before talking. "I think you're just overreacting. Someone was probably walking around back there and ended up in your yard before turning around." he answered, not ready to accept Rin's paranoid thoughts
Rin smiled and let out another laugh, "You've always been the rational one I guess." She sighed again and stood up, "Well, I'm going in. All this thinking is starting to freak me out again."
Sesshomaru smirked and stood up as well. "I think its time you got your mind off this. How about we leave them outside and spend some of the time you led me to believe we'd have together?"
Sess, I'm really starting to get scared." she answered with tears stinging the corners of her eyes.
"Nothing is going to happen, I pr-" Sesshomaru started to say.
"Don't promise, that's what usually happens before everyone's hacked to pieces one by one." Rin said trying to lighten up her own mood.
Sesshomaru smiled at her and took her hand. "Come on, let's get the others and go in."
9:45 AM
"So, we've got a few movies left, and a ton of video games." Kagome said as she rummaged through the piles of plastic cases.
"Oh my god, no more scary movies." Ayame said to Rin's relief.
Koga looked at his girlfriend. "Why not, getting scared of outrageously fake Hollywood cinematography?"
"Uh, yeah, something like that." Ayame said rolling her eyes.
"Well, I agree with her," Rin said, "there's only a certain number of times I can watch people die before the death scenes start repeating."
"Okay then, what do you have here that isn't scary?" Miroku asked going over to the case of Rin's movies.
"Nothing interesting to all of us." Rin answered.
"Nonsense." Sesshomaru said before going over to help Miroku pick out a movie. "How about this?" he asked holding up a case to a VHS that looked like it had seen better days.
"Yeah," Sango said, "you can't beat the classics."
"Seriously?" Inuyasha asked eyeing the case.
"Yep." Rin said as she took the case from Sesshomaru to put it in the VCR. She sat down in front of the television and pushed the button to turn it on. "The cord must have fallen out." she mumbled to herself. "Hey, Koga, want to check the plug of the TV for me?"
Koga looked behind the television. "Its plugged in." he said.
"Typical, cliché murderer." Rin whispered. "How about we play a nice game, perhaps connect four," she asked, "or we can go to the movies and see something."
"Nonsense," Kagome said as she tried to turn on the lights, "uh, Rin, did your light bulbs burn out last night?"
"No." she answered. "Come on, Sess, I need you to help me with the fuse box."
Down stairs in the basement, Rin was angrily making her way toward the fuse box mumbling about how annoyed she was getting with everything going on. She kicked box after box out of her way, making a generously sized, yet unneeded path to the fuse box.
"Rin, are you okay?" Sesshomaru asked once Rin finally stopped walking and started to open the box.
"Yeah, I'm perfectly fine." she said distractedly while sniffling.
"I think you're lying to me." Sesshomaru said bluntly.
Rin started to quietly laugh. "Of course I'm lying to you! I'm an absolute mess and everything that happened in those movies we watched last night is happening now!" by now, she was hysterical and sobbing. "You think everything is happening on coincidence and I feel like I'm going crazy!"
"What if I told you I'm starting to think you're right?" he asked trying to calm her down.
"Then I'd know you're lying me." she whispered as she fiddled with fuses. "Forget it. I knew I couldn't do this, I need you to help me. That is, if you don't think the light bulbs are burnt out instead." she said as she sat down on the bottom step to calm herself before going back upstairs.
Sesshomaru sighed trying to keep his own anger in check. Sure, he loved Rin, but hearing her yell at him about how he doesn't believe in her started to tick him off. He counted to ten before he walked past Rin and focused on the box. After a few seconds, they heard cheers of approval from upstairs meaning that the television was working once again.
"Ready to go back up?" Sesshomaru asked quietly offering Rin his hand.
Rin sniffled again and shook her head. "Give me a minute."
Sesshomaru sat down next to Rin on the step and put his arm around her shoulder while she wiped her tears away with the back of her hand. She started to laugh and looked at Sesshomaru.
"Now I probably have eyeliner all down my face."
"I wouldn't doubt it. But maybe you can make it a new trend."
"Very funny. Ready now?" Rin asked standing up and straightening out her shirt.
"Yep." Sesshomaru answered also standing up and taking Rin's hand.
"Sorry about that outburst," Rin giggled, "it just felt really good to get that off my chest even if you had to experience the full force of my anger alone."
"Don't worry about it."
They got to the top of the stairs and noticed the door was shut.
"I don't remember closing this." Rin said turning the handle and pushing. The door swung open to reveal the bright hallway and kitchen.
"Probably one of the guys thinking they're funny." Sesshomaru answered. "Oh, and Rin, when I said I'm starting to believe you, I did mean it."
"Sesshomaru, please don't." Rin practically begged.
"I do believe some things, like the person in your yard, but other things I need a little more convincing on." he clarified.
Rin sighed. "I guess that's better than nothing." she reasoned. "I just really hope nothing convinces you though." she said as they walked out of the basement and into the hallway. "Hey, um, I'm gonna go get a drink. Want anything?" Rin asked.
"Sure, I'll have what you're having." Sesshomaru answered. "Want me to come with you?"
"Nope, I've got this under control." she yelled from the kitchen.
A few seconds later, Rin walked into the living room with two bottles of water. She handed one to Sesshomaru and noticed they were alone.
"Where'd everyone go?" Sesshomaru asked before Rin could.
"I don't know." Rin whispered, even though it wasn't necessary.
Sesshomaru chuckled. "Probably ran when they closed the door."
"Maybe."
"Come on you asses, we're out of the basement." Sesshomaru yelled.
A few seconds passed and they didn't get an answer. "Um, Sess, what's going on?" Rin asked with tears already in her eyes just before all the lights in the house flickered and the light bulbs shattered.
Out of frustration and fear, Rin screamed and fell to the floor in a crying mass. She felt all the control she had leave her body. Instantly, she knew that whatever happened in her life now was all under the control of who ever was doing this.
In the midst of all this, Sesshomaru stood still. He did not need anymore convincing. Something was happening and whatever it was, was not good. He quickly knelt down and wrapped Rin in his arms. He did everything he could think of to calm Rin, but he was finding it difficult since he also needed to be calmed. Anger clouded his rational thought and he started formulating plans. Whoever was doing this was going to pay.
Just as Rin started to calm down enough to breath normally, she looked at Sesshomaru. She tried to put on her best brave face, but even in the dark, she knew it was very unconvincing.
"We're gonna do this." she said quietly but with all the determination she did not even knew she had anymore.
Sesshomaru's anger started to dissipate when he heard Rin. "Yeah, but how is it so dark in here, its only ten in the morning."
"We're probably blockaded in. How un original." she laughed.
"Yeah, how unoriginal." he agreed also laughing.
The two sat in the dark laughing. Both knew that they were laughing out of nervousness but did not say anything to the other. A few minutes passed before they heard one of their friends.
"Rin? Sesshomaru?" the frantic voice of one of the girls yelled from upstairs.
