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I've run out of Sess/OC fics to read so I thought I'd have a go at writing one myself. Here goes nothing!

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. It belongs to the extremely talented Rumiko Takahashi.


EIGHTH BLOOD

Chapter 1: Beginning

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Octavia Petridis was only eighteen, but her life was already over. She had a job in a shop and a mountain of debt thanks to university, but they weren't the problem.

It had started when she was four. She'd lived in Greece with her parents until their disappearance. She later moved to England with her aunt – who immediately lost custody of her – before her parents' case was even closed. Octavia hadn't seen her since. As a child in the care system, her life had been unremarkable after that. Until fourteen years later, when she received an email from a woman called Akane Higurashi, who claimed that she'd found her through an ancestry website. Apparently, Akane's husband's father had had a wife called Reiko, who was Octavia's grandmother. It had all been very confusing, but Octavia couldn't deny that she was excited to meet the Higurashi family, regardless of how she was related to them.

She slouched in her plane seat and fumbled around in her bag for her earplugs. The man sitting next to her was talking on the phone, although shouting was probably more appropriate. She pitied whoever was on the other end of the line. After locating her earplugs, she put them in and looked out of the window. The book on her lap sat neglected. Her friend had recommended it to her, pitching it as a horror-fantasy mashup, but there was too much murder and not enough magic.

The plane landed in Tokyo and she wheeled her suitcase to the place she'd agreed to meet Akane Higurashi's son. He was a young man with dark features and willowy limbs – not handsome, but with a certain charm. "Octavia Petridis?" he asked in English.

She nodded.

He extended a hand and smiled wider. "I'm Sota. Akane's my mom. I think we're, like, really distant cousins or something."

She took his hand and shook it. "It's nice to meet you."

They chatted about the weather as they walked to his car. Octavia rolled down the window and took in the sights as they drove through the city.

"How was the flight?"

"Long," she answered. "I hate cramped spaces. And it was super busy."

"You'll like the shrine, then. It's nothing like the rest of the city."

"I've never been to a shrine before."

He seemed surprised. "Really?"

"Really."

Sota parked on the curb in front of a set of stone steps. Octavia climbed out of the car and tipped her head back to study the red arch at the top, which looked like it was swaying in the wind. The two of them shared the bags between them and made their way up the steps. The shrine was a surprisingly large structure, with long red beams and a hat-like roof which was a watery green. The paintwork was blistered and peeling. Even the stone statues on either side of the shrine were stained from heavy rains and blooming with lichen. The inside of the shrine was concealed by a wooden grid, peppered with small square holes that fed light into the structure. In front of that was a small wooden hut containing a rusty bell.

"The house is this way," called Sota.

Behind the shrine sat a two-storey house with cream walls and a tiled roof. Inside, they were greeted by a woman with short, curly hair and a green apron. She smiled when she saw Octavia and bowed her head. "It's a pleasure to meet you," she said. "I'm Akane. You must be Octavia."

Octavia lowered her head in a bow. "Thanks for having me. I'm looking forward to getting to know all of you."

Akane's smile widened and she clasped her hands together. "And you're just in time for dinner. Why don't you take your bags upstairs and freshen up? It's almost ready."

"That sounds great. Your English is amazing, by the way."

"Thank you, dear."

Sota helped her haul her bags upstairs. The room he brought her to obviously belonged to a teenager. The walls were a lovely shade of lavender, complemented by pink rugs and purple curtains, and the floor was cushioned by light green tatami mats. The desk housed schoolbooks and pencil cases, and the calendar on the wall had been scribbled on with gel pens. It wasn't this year's, though, which she found strange, but decided not to comment on. There was a single bed that had been pushed against the wall, and the billboard above was bursting with post-it notes and photographs. Octavia moved closer to inspect them. A girl in a green school uniform appeared the most often. She had glossy black hair and earthy brown eyes.

"Who's that?" she asked, pointing to the girl.

Sota placed her suitcase on the bed. "That's my sister, Kagome. This used to be her room."

"Did she move out?"

He failed to meet her gaze.

Octavia's heart sank. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry—"

"No, no, she's not . . . She went travelling with her husband."

"Oh. Phew."

He laughed awkwardly. "Yeah. I guess I just miss her sometimes. Anyway, I'll leave you to freshen up."

She smiled. "Sure. I'll see you in a bit."

"See you."

He left the door open and jogged down the stairs. Octavia's eyes strayed to the photographs above the bed, particularly the ones of Kagome. She looked awfully young to be married. Maybe there were more recent photos of her elsewhere in the house. Not everything was a conspiracy. Just because her life revolved around a disappearance, it didn't mean everyone else's did.

She left her phone on the bedside table and went to use the bathroom.

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The next morning was unbearably warm. Octavia woke up in Kagome's bed drenched in sweat. Light streamed in through the window and a breeze caught the curtains, making them dance. She showered and dressed. Whilst brushing her hair, she walked by the window and caught a glimpse of something happening in the courtyard below. The elderly man from the photographs hurried over to a little shed on the other side of the property. If he hadn't been wearing traditional Japanese clothing, Octavia might have thought that he was up to no good. Still, she had a hunch that he was trying to be discreet as he loitered in front of the shed.

She ran downstairs and almost tripped over the fattest cat she'd ever seen. It was lying at the foot of the stairs, staring up at her with two bloated, milky eyes. "There are better places to take a nap, you know," she grumbled before resuming her dash to the front door.

The cat yawned and went back to sleep.

It was too early for visitors, so the shrine was practically empty. Octavia jogged over to the shed. She opened the wooden doors and stepped inside cautiously. Someone shrieked as she passed over the threshold, startling her. She locked eyes with the elderly man from the photographs, who was farther in than she was, standing beside some kind of box.

He shouted something in Japanese and reached for a vase on the ground.

"Wait!" she yelled, holding up her hands in surrender. "It's me, Octavia! Octavia Petridis. I'm Reiko's granddaughter. You must be Akane's father-in-law."

He lowered the vase and regarded her suspiciously. "Granddaughter, eh?" he muttered in English. "Let me get a closer look at you."

"I'm sorry I scared you," she said. "I saw you from the window and just wanted to know what you were doing."

"There's no need to apologise. I'm Jirou. I wasn't feeling very well yesterday, you see, otherwise, I would have introduced myself."

"Well, it's nice to meet you, anyway. I'm glad you're feeling better."

He grinned, flashing his few remaining teeth.

She peered over his shoulder at the box at the centre of the room. "What's that?"

"Oh, nothing. Just an old well."

"Why's it all boarded up? The girl from The Ring isn't down there, is she?"

He laughed nervously. "Fortunately not. It's pretty deep, so we keep it closed as a precaution."

"Can I see?"

"Maybe later." He was avoiding her gaze. "We ought to go back to the house. It's almost time for breakfast."

Octavia followed Jirou out of the shed, which she now knew to be a well-house. She waited until he was several paces in front of her before darting back inside. She placed her hands on the wooden cover and felt around for a handle to prise it up. It was difficult to determine how deep it was, but it had to be a good twenty feet or so. The well was completely empty. However, there was an echo drifting up from the bottom. Her heart hammered furiously as she cupped a hand around her ear.

Come . . . Come . . .

It sounded like there might be another word, but she couldn't make out what it was.

"What do you think you're doing!"

She whirled around to face Jirou, who looked mortified.

"Sorry," she mumbled. "I thought I heard something."

"There's nothing down there but dust."

She followed him to the house and tried not to think about the echo.

It didn't work.

Later, she ventured into the city and bought paintbrushes, paint, a mixing palette, and a canvas. She laid the canvas on the ground in front of the giant cedar tree and got to work. She started by sketching out a bird's eye view of the well, then filled it in with varying shades of brown. There wasn't a strong light source, so there were lots of shadows. The inside of the well ought to be the darkest part of the painting, but it ended up being quite the opposite. Octavia wasn't sure why she felt the urge to fill it with blue, but she did. The pit was transformed. She mixed in a dab of red to create purple clouds amongst the blue and used the end of her paintbrush to fill the space with stars. The Higurashis were floored.

"How did you . . ." Sota whispered when he saw it, but his sentence got away from him.

Akane shared a terse, peculiar look with Jirou.

"Did I do something wrong?" Octavia asked them.

"No, dear," answered Akane. "It's beautiful."

Octavia left the painting outside to dry. She was plagued by dreams that night. In one, she walked into the painting and found herself in another world. In another, she spoke fluent Japanese without ever having practised. All the while, the echo bounced through her dreams, whispering to her. Come . . . Come . . . Come . . .

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It was 3 AM when Octavia was awoken by a noise outside. She scrubbed the sleep from her eyes and looked out of the window.

A light was on in the well-house.

She frowned. Who would be up at this ungodly hour?

She tiptoed down the stairs and was careful not to trip over the cat, which was asleep at the bottom again. Sliding her arms into her obnoxiously coloured bomber jacket, she unlocked the door and closed it behind her. The night air was cool and refreshing. She crossed the yard and lingered in front of the well-house. The light inside flickered as she reached to open the doors, and went out the moment she pushed them open.

Shadows lined the walls inside the well-house. She couldn't see a lightbulb anywhere, and it had been too bright for candlelight. Had she imagined it? She wandered farther in. Her feet carried her to the well. The cover was on the ground several metres away, as if something in the well had struck it from below and sent it flying. Octavia shivered at the thought of something lurking down there in the dark. Not a chance, she thought, heading for the exit, when she heard the echo from before.

Come . . .

Reluctantly, she walked towards the well. She placed her hands on the edges and peered down, half expecting to see a ghost. All she saw was darkness. However, this was a different kind of darkness. Something shifted at the bottom. Octavia's skin tingled as the echo grew louder. Come . . . Come . . .

"What are you?" she whispered, hypnotised by the swirling black.

The inside of the well expanded suddenly. Eyes wide, she shifted closer, leaning over the edge. Light surged from the bottom, catching her by surprise, and she fell.

She kept falling.

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