Readers,

Sorry about the short update, but I decided to give you two short ones, one before and after spring break.

Thank you to all who are still reading!!

Amy-lalalaaaaaaaaaa

Dreams of Memories

Chapter Ten: Remembering

When I woke I almost thought I hadn't. It was pitch blank and damp all around. I could hear dripping...and maybe the distant sound of water...it sounded like I was in a large room judging by the echo.

'Ok, Kagome.' I thought. 'Just keep it together...'

Something about this darkness frightened me immensely...and it felt far too familiar. And not in a comfortable way either. I was vaguely relieved I didn't remember what had happened here, because quivers of fear were already moving like lightening through me.

My breath was too loud; I was taking in gasping lung-fulls of cold air. I stopped myself, and forced my breaths to calm down.

I had been sitting leaning against what I supposed was a wall. I sat forward, and felt behind me. 'Rock.' The surface of the stone was jagged and angled, water dripping and gathering. I followed the water up with my hands at I stood, and promptly hit my head on something. My head burst into pain, and I fell to the ground, ears ringing. I must have still been sore from being knocked out. Once I'd regained relative control, I felt upwards to see what I'd ran into with my skull: it was a stalactite.

I was in some sort of cave.

What if it was by the lake? What if it would flood while I was trapped inside? My breathing was becoming erratic again, so I drew more even breaths and sat again.

I took a moment to calm down, then got on my hands and knees. I began to crawl, feeling with my hands. I felt ahead straight for what seemed like ten minutes, but I probably didn't get that far, since I was most likely going in a circle. I couldn't tell which way I was going.

Eventually my fingers encountered a new texture. I explored it with the pads of my finger tips. Wood...worn, splintery wood...perpendicular to the rocky, uneven ground. I felt up it carefully, I didn't want to hit my head again.

There was a small rectangular winow about two thirds of the way up the door, with cool metal bars, and spaces of about four inches between them. I was in a cell. I pressed my face to the small openings. There was no light outside.

I sighed, and sat back down in front of the door.

'What am I going to do?' I wailed inside my head.

Then I heard it. A faint echo different from the liquid ones. A solid noise. Like a footstep. Somewhere out in the dark. I froze, and then rose quietly, to peek out through the bars. Another faint step sounded.

The steps were creeping along, as if whoever it was was listening to see if I'd noticed them.

The steps stopped for awhile. I stayed frozen, my heart pounding loudly inside me.

"I see you've woken up." The voice came from behind me. It was smooth and slithering, like a snake trying to charm its prey before it struck.

I swallowed a scream, and fell back, pressing against the wooden door.

A strong hand, as chilled as the walls around us, clamped onto my neck, holding me in place. "You've been very ungrateful." The voice was still hissing, almost mildly, but I was too used to reading Sessho-maru's cool tones to ignore the anger radiating off his words. "You took something from me when you left. And you lost it in the water. I know. I was watching you, hoping you'd drown. That storm saved you, you know, if you'd gotten to shore while I could see you I would have caught you...and wrung your little neck..." He breathed sharply in after the last few words, as if imagining it. "Oh, how you would have twisted..." His voice turned back to calculating and cruel. "But now maybe I shall take something of yours..."

His other clammy hand went to trail along my stomach, where he traced a slightly protruding bone of my rib cage through my shirt. I shivered, trying to shrink away. "Maybe a rib would do nicely. Maybe I shall take one of those." His sharp nails were now grazing along the curve of my side. "Or maybe two...you know I loved it very much, and you lost it. Maybe two bones will make up for it..." There was no change in his voice, but his breathing was becoming rapid, as if he were preparing to rip my rib right from my body.

A small cry of fear escaped me.

His hand suddenly left my side, but the other stayed at my throat.

"Maybe not gone completely...you were like this at the beginning. You are like new now...you shall stay for a while." He mused aloud. Then as quickly as he'd come, he was gone.

I could still feel his hand on my throat.

I sank to the floor, not caring that the rough wood of the door scraped against my shoulder blades.

The memories I'd been holding in flooded me, overwhelming, and I could barely remember to breathe as they filled my head.

He was there, and my mind couldn't comprehend what was happening. His eyes glinted blue in the absolute dark...how was that possible? How was this possible? I screamed no over and over, but he didn't stop... My screams were echoing back at me, louder and louder, as I scratched and scratched, but he was possessed. He was slamming my back against the rocky ground. He would never stop, and I knew it. In my head I retreated from the violence, from the pain bursting in me. And I was silent.

Darkness all around...sitting in a corner, shaking from anxiety and chills, waiting for him to come back, wishing he would never, but knowing he would...mind numb from shock, I didn't cry anymore, I tried not to make a sound, tried to blend into the dark and stony walls...yet he always found me...

Working relentlessly at the small hole in the corner, where the wall and floor met. The water pooled there and drained slowly, wearing away at the rock. I helped it with my nails and my knuckles and my fingers. I eventually hit looser shale after what seemed like an eternity of rock, and began breaking off pieces, pulling them out.

I slid through the small opening, breathing hard, but trying not to make a sound. He would hear, he would see, he would know. He always knew...but then there was water, and I was sliding through it, and I swam out into a larger cavern, lit up from moonlight reflecting in from the cave. I saw a man crouched at the edge of the opposite bank, little more that a black shape, blue eyes reflecting like a cats in the dark...I swam and swam, and came out the cave to see the most amazing scene. The stars and the open lake, and in the distance, warm lights of a large building...

I was so tired, and I was floating...when lightning split the sky...and the wind picked up and suddenly I was beneath the dark water...and I couldn't see the stars anymore...I was so tired...I felt ground beneath me, and I was stumbling, across the rocky shore, onto grass, through the mud…

And with a flash, I was back to myself again, crying loudly, and as soon as I realized it I became silent again. He would hear me, he always did. So I laid there, tears silently blending with the cave water, pooling into puddles on the floor. For a moment I had hope, but then realized, they pooled because they had nowhere to go now. The drain had been plugged.