A/N: thanks to all the reviews. I hope I can live up to your expectations ^_^!

Falling Like Snow
Chapter 3

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          As night fell, the clouds gave way to starry skies. The house was warm from the numerous fireplaces littered throughout the mansion. Shppo busily spent his time building a fire in Kagome's bedroom. "So you live here with Miroku?" Kagome asked. It had bothered her that such a young boy would be living here without his parents.


         The question didn't seem to faze the little one in the least bit. "Yup, my parents used to work here. My dad was the master butler and my mom worked in the gardens. There was a car accident when we came back from Christmas vacation of a few years ago. I have no other relatives. Miroku decided to take me in! He's a nice guy, I think he gets lonely is all." Shippo poked the fire with a stick a few times. Kagome stared into the flames, the house was beautiful in the morning, but at night, it scared her. Unfamiliar places always did. "Besides" Shippo interrupted her daydream, "Everybody leaves this time of year. Miroku was glad to have someone stay with him. This place is usually so busy! Business is slow over Christmas time." Shippo stood up from the fire; he smiled happily at his accomplishment.


           "Do you usually get so much snow? There must be at least a foot of it outside"


         Kagome sat down on her bed and Shippo sat on the chair near the window, he looked outside at all the snow. "No! In fact, we usually don't get any snow here. Oh Kagome please go outside and play with me tomorrow? Miroku always says.. 'Busy, I'm busy shippo, get one of your friends to play' but all my friends live so far away from here.."


          The little one looked down at the floor for a few moments, as if he was totally interested in it. Ever since she had come here, she had noticed that the whole ambiance of the house, as pretty as it may look, was completely sad. Something about the place made her lonely. True, Sango was there, and Christmas was coming, but she felt utterly alone. It must be worse for Shippo, she thought to herself, "Of course I'll play with you!" Kagome hugged the little guy tightly and he hugged her back, though, something drew her attention away from the little one. Her eyes wandered outside. The snow had stopped, but something had moved, "Shippo.. I don't mean to scare you, but I think I just saw something.."


          At that, Shippo jumped on her back, his arms wrapped about her neck tightly, "w...what was it Kagome?"


         She squinted her eyes to see, but she just couldn't. She pressed her nose to the glass of her French doors; still, she couldn't see what it was. Cautiously, a shaky hand reached up to pull her door open. Bare feet walked across the snow on her balcony to its far side where she could have sworn she saw something moving. "Shippo, what's over there?"


         The little one followed her pointing finger to where the field ended and the forest began. "Kagome, I don't see anything. There's a stable over there, but we don't keep horses anymore"


           Though, as much as they both would have liked to ignore it, something in the stables moved. There was no wind, Shippo and Kagome's breath floated in steady clouds. Both sets of eyes went wide. "d...did you see that?"


         Indeed he had, someone was walking around down there. "w....we should t..tell Miroku. Maybe it is Miroku! I forgot about him, I bet he's getting more firewood."


         "Let's go" Kagome walked back into her room and slipped some shoes on, her feet tingled from standing barefoot out in the snow for so long. She walked out of her room and down the long hallway and down the great staircase. Miroku closed the front door gently and took off his hat. In one arm, he carried a lode of firewood "Oh Miroku! It was just you." She put her hand to her chest and sighed a breath of relief. "Shippo and I thought we saw something"


         He laughed a bit and put the firewood next to the empty fireplace. IT was situated on the right wall. "Well, it's getting cold outside. I wouldn't wish for either you or Miss. Sango to get a chill. I went out to the porch to get firewood. It was a good thing you brought it up there Shippo, it would have gotten wet if it was left outside"


         "Don't mention it" Shippo said... but.. that was funny.


         Kagome had thought along the same lines as Shippo. They both looked to each other before Kagome looked back to Miroku. "So.. You weren't in the stables then?"


        He was busily stacking logs in the fireplace, and he spoke to her without turning, "why now, but why do you ask"


           "Miroku! That's where we saw something! It was in the stables and if you were on the porch then you couldn't have."


           Miroku breathed a heavy sigh, Shippo went off on strange rants sometimes, "Shippo, we've gone through this, there's nothing out there. For all we know, there could be a stray cat living there or something, that's probably what you saw"


          In all honesty, Miroku wasn't as good as Shippo with this sort of thing. Shippo hopped from Kagome's back and to the fireplace. "You go check it out then! I'll build the fire. Miroku both Kagome and I saw something move!"


          "Maybe it was your friend Sango" Miroku stated flatly. These games of Shippo's were getting old. Ever since the winter started, he'd been acting funny. At first, Miroku thought he was just trying to get him out of the house so Shippo could look for his Christmas presents, but when they started to get more frequent, Miroku grew tired of playing his game.


         Kagome, however, knew her friend too well to say she was outside, "She goes to bed early. There's no way she would be awake this late. Shippo made her fire before mine, so she's asleep I promise." As if on queue, the sound of a slamming door could be heard and then quick footsteps running down the hallway.


          The footsteps got louder as they approached the room where Miroku and the others stood. Sango stood at the top of the stairs in a dark blue robe. Both her eyes were wide and she looked at the three of them. "T...there's something outside!"


          With that, she ran down the stairs and to Kagome who welcomed her friend with a gentle hug, "We know, Shippo and I saw it too. See Miroku! Sango's room is next to mine, she saw what I saw!"


          "Fine" Miroku put his hat back on, "If miss Sango says there's something out there, then I believe her..." Sure he looked brave enough, that is, until he spoke his next sentence, "anyone want to come with me..?" he spoke in a sheepish tone, his fingers fiddled with his scarf.


          Sango looked to Kagome, "I'll go" Kagome said, she picked her coat and scarf off of the coat rack and opened the door. "Sango and Shippo stay here" She waited for a few moments. "Miroku.. Are you coming?" He ran to the door and walked out with Kagome. He'd been so distracted by Sango in her robe to realize that he hadn't even moved. "Such a brave man.." Kagome said. Of course, her statement was dripping with sarcasm.


         The snow crunched under their footsteps, there was no other sound in the night. Nothing at all. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and the wind left with the clouds. Moonlight glowed against the fresh fallen snow and lit their way to the stables. "Shippo, he keeps on saying he sees something back here or he says he hears something. I tell him it's the wind or a stray animal, but he refuses to believe me."


         The stables were in sight now, they had to walk around the back of the house to get to them. Sango and Shippo stood on Kagome's balcony, just below then Miroku and Kagome stood. The stables were only about 20 yards from the house. The night's stillness was rudely interrupted by the slamming of a stable gate. "Miroku.. No wind" Kagome said.


        That statement alone took away any reasonable explanation Miroku might have given. He walked out in front of Kagome. 'This is ridiculous, Shippo has made too many excuses as to why he wouldn't go out here, he won't skip his shores anymore!' The moved closer to the stables and they heard the sound again. Kagome jumped, but Miroku stood firmly. The wind picked up ever so slightly, it blew Kagome's hair away from her neck. "Miss Kagome, do you see anything?"


         He whispered now, if it was a criminal, he was a rather dumb one, anyone with ears could hear all the noise he was making. If it was an animal, it would have to be rather big to have made such a loud noise. "n...no. Not yet" Kagome half shivered from the cold and half shivered from being startled just moments before.


           As they approached, the wind picked up further. It tossed Kagome's hair over her face and her scarf back around her neck. Miroku opened the gate and looked inside. A new sound added to the sound of the wind. It wasn't a slamming noise like before. This sound was light, and could scarcely be heard over her breath and the pounding of her heartbeat, but the unmistakable sound of wind chimes crept into her mind. The stables were separated much like the house itself. There was a short hallway, which branched off into two on both the left and right side. It was to Miroku's immediate right that he heard a noise, a quick scuffling then the slamming of the far door. Kagome hadn't seen it happen, but when she looked to Miroku, his expression mirrored that of Sango's. He swallowed hard, Kagome moved to stand behind him so she could look over his shoulder.


           The farthest end of the hallway was about 20 feet away. At the end there was a door. Miroku's eyes were fixed on the door. Kagome followed his eyes to the doorway, and that's where she saw it. It would be incorrect to say she saw it, because she couldn't really understand what she saw. A translucent figure stood by the door; it was looking toward one of the stalls. It looked like the figure of a man. Another figure added to the other, it emerged fro the stall the other was looking toward. This one was different though. White, pale, Kagome saw this one clearly for it emerged only a few feet in front of where they were standing. It seemed to look at them, but only for the briefest of moments.


          That sickening feeling of something familiar struck her. Neither Miroku nor Kagome could move. Miroku's hand clutched Kagome's, but all they could do was stare. Both were frozen. The cold bit their fingertips, but it was as if neither could feel. The wind had stopped. All was utterly calm, both figures stood stalk still. The one closet to Kagome and Miroku still stared in their direction. Kagome looked over its face. Its features were unmistakable male. His face was slim and pale. What struck her then, more than anything else were the eyes. Nothing else about the figure could be clearly seen. Those eyes, unmistakable auburn.. The wind picked up again as the figure rushed toward the other, once they touched, the wind was gone, the figured were gone, and the cold became a realization to both Miroku and Kagome.


         "T...they were right" That was all Miroku could sputter before they ran back to the house. Miroku ran in front, he pulled Kagome along as fast as he could.



          "What do you mean you saw something?" Sango demanded to Miroku.


         They all sat in the front room. The fire danced high above the logs. Kagome, Shippo and Sango sat on the couch while Miroku sat on a chair that faced them. "What I mean Miss Sango, is Kagome and I saw someone, well to be more specific, two"


         "b...but.. We couldn't see them. They were... blurred" Kagome warmed her hands on the mug of hot chocolate Shippo had made for them while they were looking outside. "I couldn't tell anything about either of them.. It makes no sense"


         Shippo stood up on the couch and pointed to Miroku, "Your dad was right! You never believe him Miroku, but you do now! There's something not right about this house during the winter time!" The kid practically screamed to Miroku.


           Each of the girls looked to the upset child then to Miroku, "You mean it's happened before?" Sango asked. She took a sip of her hot chocolate, her eyes locked on Miroku.


         He sighed deeply and put his hand to his forehead, "Of course I've heard of it. My father would go on a rant about this place. He said it was haunted. It's all rubbish.."


          "Then how do you explain what we saw?!" Kagome said. She nearly dropped her mug on the floor as she spoke. "Sango we should leave!"


         At that, Miroku spoke again, "The roads are still closed Miss Kagome. There's no way. Walking is not an option in this weather either"


           Sango managed to calm her friend down a bit, she looked to the troubled Miroku with a bit of sympathy in her expression, "Why is it haunted, who are they..?"


          "Servants" Miroku replied flatly. "When my grandfather worked here, they worked here too. Supposedly, one of the servants had a bit of an infatuation with the master of the house's daughter. Nobody knows exactly how, but the boy was killed, and as I said, the daughter left to marry a rich businessman. She never returned here"


          The story ran through Kagome's mind, 'but there were two.. two figures, not just one. Who then was the other..?' She looked outside; it had begun to snow again. Christmas was in three days time, if the snow didn't let up soon, Sango's parents may not be joining them after all.

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A/N: yeah another chapter ::blinkies:: I dunno if you like it, but if you want me to continue, please tell me. There will be a lemon in later chapters, but it's not what you think lol. It's not something dumb like ghost sex ::cough:: that would be messed up. oki review please ^_^