Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.

.CHAPTER 10.

The Dream

Everything was a hazy mess… Inuyasha could barely see anything… just white, white, and more white.

He wondered where he was, but for some strange reason, he couldn't speak.

Suddenly, a hole appeared in the whiteness. He looked on, trying to see what it was.

The hold grew bigger and bigger until it was bigger than him. He tried to reach out to it, to walk toward it, but found that he couldn't… it was as if he was bound to something. He couldn't move… he couldn't do anything but look.

A being emerged from the hole, and his head suddenly snapped to look at who – or what - ever just walked out of the hole. He started walking towards the…thing.

Inuyasha's mind whirled in confusion. He seemed to have no control over his body. Some strange force was controlling it. He panicked, not knowing what to do. He continued to walk. The being was a little blurred, as if it wasn't exactly intact with reality…

A mirage, maybe…? Inuyasha's mind wandered. Then again, he wasn't exactly sure if he was in a realistic place.

"Traveling away from this world, I see…" the being said in a cool voice. It laughed. The laugh sparked a memory in Inuyasha's mind. It was the same, chilling laugh he had been tortured with hours ago… Or maybe not. Who knew if there was even such a thing time in this realm…?

"Get out of my way, Naraku," he replied back. Except it wasn't his voice… It was… Kikyou's. Inuyasha was shocked. He was in… Kikyou's body? He hardly dared to believe it.

He – or Kikyou – started running towards the thing that Kikyou had called 'Naraku'. Inuyasha was trying his hardest not to come close to the terrifying laughter, but he had no control over the body he was sharing with Kikyou.

She didn't hesitate to barge right into Naraku. Inuyasha felt a searing pain at the shoulder as Naraku slashed off Kikyou's arm with inhuman claws. He heard Kikyou gasp in pain and look down at the bloody stump that was her arm. She continued on toward the hole that was slowly starting to close up.

"No matter what you do, Naraku, you won't hinder the journey to my final destination. I won't allow you," Kikyou said quietly. There was not a single tremor in her voice. It was strong… confident. A lot more so than Inuyasha felt at the moment.

She turned her back on Naraku and started running to the hole that was now just big enough to fit her body in. She managed to get to it safely, but halfway through it, Naraku threw a sharp sword at her back that flew, straight and true, right into Kikyou's back, and through her heart. At least, where her heart was supposed to be.

The pain was unbearable, and for a split second, Inuyasha thought she was going to die… But that didn't make any sense… she had already died. Unless she could die a second time… which was impossible.

Inuyasha heard an earsplitting scream, one that came from Kikyou's mouth, but correctly represented both their feelings. There was a terrible ripping feeling inside of him, and he felt something being torn painfully away from the body they shared.

He saw a translucent figure separate itself from Kikyou's body and float away. Then, everything went black. Kikyou stumbled blindly the rest of the way through the hole; Inuyasha felt it brush against the side of Kikyou's body as it closed up behind her.

Kikyou wasn't moving. Inuyasha had just begun wondering why, when he realized that she wasn't conscious. Maybe the other side of the hole wasn't black, but he wouldn't know… All he was seeing was the back of Kikyou's closed eyelids.

He thought back to his previous assumption about dying a second time.

The last thing he felt was the empty, hollow feeling inside him – Kikyou – before he was torn away from her body, leaving her alone once again.

Inuyasha awoke with a start. It took a while for him to realize that he was in his own bedroom… Not in a whole different realm.

It was all… a dream? he thought to himself, bewildered. But it was all so… clear… a lot clearer than most of my dreams.

He shook his head. Maybe I AM going crazy… that was some fuck of a dream I had back there…

He decided not to tell anyone about it. All it would do is earn him a smack in the head and/or a visit to the counselor's office. He pushed it to the back of his mind, but couldn't quite brush of the queer feeling that was telling him the events in his dream had really happened. He shuddered to think about it.

"Inuyasha!" Rin called from downstairs, "Inuyasha! Come down…"

"Gimme a couple minutes!" he yelled back.

He grabbed his toothbrush and jumped in the shower, twisting the water handle to the hottest. After a soothing 5 minute shower to cleanse him of the dried sweat and dirt – as well as certain disturbing thoughts – from the day before, he threw on some clothes and dashed down the stairs.

"Yea?" he arrived in the kitchen to find Rin crying and Sesshomaru patting her in a comforting way, and immediately sensed that there was something wrong. He mentally smacked himself. Well no shit, Einstein… She crying…

She looked up upon his entrance, and hastily wiped away her tears.

"Oh, Inuyasha! Good morning," she said, attempting a smile, but her voice was a bit muffled, as if she was speaking into a cloth. She sniffed her stuffed-up nose and looked at Inuyasha with red eyes.

"R-rin… What's wrong?" Inuyasha didn't think he had ever seen Rin like this before… Well, maybe once when she read the fake "save the dogs that are being hunted" forward… but other than that, she was always cheerful. Her gloomy mood put him out too.

"Oh, it's nothing, it's-" she burst into tears again. Sesshomaru hugged her close and soothed her.

"Did you know about…" Sesshomaru hesitated, "Kikyou's death?"

Inuyasha had never seen Sesshomaru act so serious, either. He couldn't recall the last time Sesshomaru had said something with a straight face.

"Yeah…" Inuyasha averted his eyes.

"I-I'm s-s-so sorry, Inuyasha!" Rin cried. She ran to Inuyasha, and sobbed into his arms.

Inuyasha jumped a little, as he wasn't expecting this kind of affection from Rin, nor was he in any way prepared to deal with a crying Rin. He patted her back awkwardly.

"It's okay, Rin…"

"I h-had no idea! Wh-when you came home yesterday… I mean… Why d-didn't you tell us?" Rin wailed.

"I… don't want to talk about it," Inuyasha dropped his head, and his white bangs shaded his eyes, so they wouldn't betray his emotions.

Sesshomaru stepped forward and pried the sobbing Rin from Inuyasha's arms. Inuyasha sighed in relief, and quickly retreated outside. He didn't look back, or slow down. Nor did Sesshomaru or Rin go after him.

He arrived at the giant oak tree close to the hospital. He didn't know why he picked this tree, but it helped him think, and that was what he needed to be doing at that moment…

He hadn't really been thinking in depth about Kikyou's death. He wasn't as shocked as he thought he would have been. But Rin's sudden outburst pulled his head out of the clouds and brought him back down to Earth. Earth, where nothing is right… nothing is fair…

He didn't want to deal with it. With all the pressure at school. All the questions.

And most of all, he didn't want to deal with Kikyou's funeral. They'd probably have a huge burial ceremony where all their classmates are invited and whatnot… Kikyou wouldn't have wanted that. She would've wanted a quiet burial. A private one. With only her family and her closest friends there.

Inuyasha was too lazy to jump up into the branches, so he just settled for a grassy spot underneath the budding tree. He felt tired and dizzy. A little light-headed as well. As if he had just boozed up on a couple bottles of beer. He leaned his head against the bark of the tree and fell asleep within seconds.

He slept under the tree for almost the rest of the day. His restless sleep was filled with dreams and nightmares. He forgot most of them, but there was one that he remembered. One that stuck out in his mind like a sword. The dream he had earlier about Kikyou. It was as if that dream had actually happened.

"Inuyasha!! Earth to Inuyaaashaa!" a voice called.

He turned around and saw Sango and Miroku.

"Wh-what?" Inuyasha spluttered, "What the hell are you guys-?"

"Hi to you too," Sango rolled her eyes and continued, "Rin and Sesshomaru started worrying about you… so they called us up to hunt you down, and here you are, taking a NAP under a goddamn tree while they sit at home and worry about you. Nobody knew where you went! You just disappeared for the WHOLE day."

"No I didn't… And they wouldn't worry. I always go off like that," Inuyasha trailed off and looked guiltily at Sango. Ok, so maybe Rin was worried, but not Fluffy.

Sango just rolled her eyes again and tugged on Inuyasha's shirt, telling him to get up.

"Rin was CRYING over the phone! She sure SOUNDED worried…"

Inuyasha paused. He didn't want them to find out that she wasn't crying over HIM. He didn't know how to break the new to his friends. But they would eventually hear. Events like this somehow find their way into the media's hands.

He sighed and waved her off, staring off to the distance.

She waved a hand over his face.

"Earth to Inuyasha!" she screeched in his ear, "I want you back in the damn house in 5 minutes FLAT, damnit!"

She sounded seriously pissed, so Inuyasha decided not to take any chances. He sighed again, but followed her this time. She had an iron grip on his hand, making sure he didn't try to run off.

"S-sango?" he asked timidly.

"Yes, hun?" she turned around and smiled a deceptively sweet smile.

"C-could you… do you think you could loosen your grip on my hands just a tidbit?"

"Of course,hun," she emphasized the last word, and loosened her grip – just enough to get the blood flowing back to his fingers. Inuyasha flexed his fingers and winced as he felt invisible pins prick his hand in a million places.

She continued to drag him back to his house, with Miroku trailing along behind them.

When they burst through the front door, Rin, who had been sitting at the table, nervously twiddling her fingers, immediately jumped up and ran to them.

"What happened? Where'd you go? Are you hurt?" Rin bombarded him with questions, looking him up and down to check for injuries.

"Rin, I'm fine," Inuyasha placed his hands on her shoulders, "I'm fine… but are you?"

"Yes, yes, I'm… I'm fine," she gulped, then nervously looked back at Sesshomaru, who just stared back at her with an unreadable expression.

"Inuyasha… we called Kikyou's family…" she paused there, for Inuyasha had flinched at the mention of her name, "they are devastated, and are currently recuperating from this… this terrible loss…"

Inuyasha almost rolled his eyes at that. To be quite frank, Kikyou's family never cared for her. They never really loved her. She didn't deserve such a fucked up family… But it was way too late to change anything now…

"They never –" he started angrily, but was cut off by Rin.

"Listen to me, Inuyasha!" she sounded almost in hysterics. Inuyasha had never seen Rin like this before. He looked over her shoulder and saw his brother, still sitting on the table. Sesshomaru was staring straight at him, his demon-like eyes boring into Inuyasha's head.

Sesshomaru frowned at him, and tilted his head slightly to the side as if he didn't understand what Rin was up to either.

"I'm… I'm sorry… it's just that, this is such a…"

Sango, who had been standing by the sidelines with Miroku finally spoke up.

"Wait, what? What terrible loss? What… what's going on here?" she sounded scared.

Rin's eyes started to tear up again, and Inuyasha took the initiative to explain to his friends.

"Guys… I'm sorry I didn't tell you as soon as this happened. I just… wasn't ready, and all that shit. And I didn't think you could handle this…" Inuyasha took a big breath and faced Sango and Miroku, who were listening intently, "K-kikyou… she passed away yesterday."

Following his words were a few moments of silence during which Sango and Miroku digested this information.

Sango, always the talker, was the first to break the silence.

"This… this isn't some kind of cruel joke?" her voice was piercing, but her face gave her away.

Inuyasha hung his head. He felt overwhelmed already. And he had to break the news to many, many, many more people…

Sango's lip trembled. She grabbed the closest stable thing to her (which just happened to be Miroku) and held on. Miroku was taken aback by this sudden act, but hugged her back. Sango's body collapsed and she almost dragged him down with her, but he recovered just in time to catch her and keep them both from crashing to the floor.

She stayed in Miroku's arms for a while, eyes still wide with shock. Inuyasha didn't lift his head up. Miroku took the news in a more dignified way.

He sat Sango down on the couch and plopped down next to her. (After all, how could he resist a few moments next to her without her screaming, yelling, hitting, kicking, biting, mauling, or killing him?)

Time crawled by, and they all stayed, frozen, unable to move.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Sango stood up. All eyes turned to her.

"I'm going home. I need to… need to think about this," she announced this and dashed out, forgetting to grab her jacket.

Miroku looked at Inuyasha, who didn't return the look.

"Guess I'd better be off…" he said to Inuyasha's bowed head, and patted his friend on the back, "I… really can't express how bad I feel about this in words, mate… But you know, me and Sango will be here for you if you need a shoulder to lean on… just… just know that."

With that, he grabbed Sango's jacket and ran out after her.

As soon as the front door shut, Rin stepped forward, but Inuyasha had had enough sympathy for one day. She opened her mouth, but was silenced when Inuyasha held up a hand. She nodded understanding that he needed time alone. He started to walk off upstairs, but Rin's words halted him.

"One more thing, Inuyasha…" she called after him.

He stood stock-still at the top of the stairs, one hand still on the banister.

"Kikyou's family is having a funeral for her… you are invited, since you are… were her boyfriend," Rin hesitated, "I think they'd love it if you could make it…"

"Ok…" he ignored her correction of the present tense to past tense.

"Really, Inuyasha… consider it, okay?"

He gripped the banister tightly, and furrowed his brow.

"Alright… I'll consider it," he finally said, fully intending to skip the funeral.

He tore away from the banister and ran to his room.

What the fuck's the point of a funeral? They'd say all those nice things about Kikyou… and she wouldn't even be there to hear them…

"Kikyou… help me," Inuyasha closed his eyes and tilted his head up, "If you're up there… somewhere… help me… give me the strength… to move on…"

Author's Note:

Heyyy guysies, thanks for all the reviews thou I hope that people would start giving me some constructive criticism.

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. Busy with the end of the school year and all that jazz.

:) R&R, ploxx. (: