The Horrid Cries of the Nothing Woman
Chapter 13
The night seemed to drag on forever, the pitch forest swayed as if it were in a trace from the unworldly winds that passed through the canopies and chilled the souls of any who witnessed it. But the promise of sunrise was tantalizing, teasing those who waited in the shadows . . .
But most of all it was the cold that made the darkness of the moist cave ever more frightening. The strange sounds the echoed against the damp stone walls, the stalactites hung over Kagome's head like the teeth of a dragon, water dripping about her . . . she shivered against the unknown. Against the frightening place around her . . .
From the evil that she felt, the very thing that made her so ill . . . and yet she was conscious, though she wished she weren't. Silvery wisps of wind surrounded her, glittering fiendishly from an odd light . . .
Inu-Yasha . . . she cried out to herself, feeling her throat paralyze . . . her heart racing with her fear . . . Inu-Yasha . . . please . . . Where are you?
The Athema boiled heartily about her in great gobs of smoke, slithering through her hair and over her body, choking her with its strangeness. "IIIIIINU-YAAAAASHAAAA" it mocked her, using her own voice sarcastically . . . "WHERE AAAAARE YOOOOOU?"
She trembled and yet no words could come from her as she gasped for breath . . . praying that she wouldn't die . . . praying that Inu-Yasha would find her . . . her body shook with weariness, her heart ached with the unknown as the terrible truth of her predicament slowly became reality . . .
"A PLEAAAASENT MIKO YOU AAAAAARE . . ." the Athema mused, rolling over his victim again and again, rhythmically, laughing in sick pleasure. Without another hint, the smoke began to wrap around Kagome's slender body, taking her into him again . . . "I WILL CONSUME YOU, MIKO . . . AND THEN ONCE YOUR POWERS BECOME MINE . . ." gleefully he chuckled. "THE HELLS WILL RISE UP AGAIN . . . AND I WILL BE IT'S RULER!! THERE WILL BE NOTHING TO STOP ME . . ."
Kagome wheezed in pain as she was lifted from the stone of whence she had lain . . .
Feeling the life being strangled from her body . . .
"What's gonna happen to Kagome if we don't get to her?" Inu-Yasha demanded loudly, banging his fist to the wood floor of Kaede's hut.
The old woman shook her head slowly, sadness etched within her wrinkles. For a moment she began to thank the heavens that, this time, when Inu-Yasha punched her floor that his hand did not go through with his hanyou strength. She was becoming tired of replacing the wood panels . . . "I am not sure . . . attacks from the Netherworlds never have happened . . . and nor did my sister ever speak of them . . ."
"So this is a new thing?" Miroku questioned, interrupting his angry friend before any more foul language could spew from his mouth. "This Athema?"
"Aye. And if it does overcome and bring forth the new Hell, then from it we are all doomed."
Ayame twitched her ears curiously, her orange eyes flashing in the direction of the shaken woman that leaned against the corner of the hut by herself. "Well, I know where this thing went . . . hopefully it's still there." She frowned, leaning in towards Kaede with concern. "Is she going to be all right?"
The old woman did not speak for a long time, carefully she watched Sheya with her good eye, examining her, noticing that she had not moved from the spot where Miroku had sat her. She had not averted her gaze from the open window, though there was nothing much to see at all in the nothingness of night. Had she been shattered in the battle for her soul?
Inu-Yasha pondered those very same questions, and yet he chose not to even acknowledge that she even existed, Kagome was the only thing on her mind . . .
He would worry about Sheya later . . . and yet his ears twitched to hear the Priestesses answer . . .
"There . . . there is no telling what she has been through . . ." Kaede sighed sadly. "She is the only woman I have ever heard of that has survived the Change . . ."
"But . . ." Ayame continued, in a lower voice, the same concern for Sheya's well being as before but strained for time was of the essence. "Can she still help us?"
The old woman clenched her jaw and said nothing.
Inu-Yasha felt his heart flutter in his chest . . . but he was not entirely sure what the emotion that suddenly rendered him paralyzed was . . .
F . . . fear . . .
Mortal fear . . .
His eyes traveled slowly out the window of Kaede's hut into the night that barely insinuated the prospect of day . . .
He felt something watch him too . . . Ayame tried her best not to glare at her oddly human brother, but there was a hint of pity in her amber gaze . . . a sense of concern that they both felt, a worry that passed through to each of them in wordless conversation . . .
Ayame turn aside her eyes to watch Shippou sleeping peacefully in a far corner, unaware of the current situation . . .
Inu-Yasha could sense that Ayame was thinking the same thing: How can he sleep at a time like this?
And yet there was something else about that pitying gaze that had fell upon him . . . there was a tone of non-recognition . . . it bothered him . . . sent pangs of injured pride through his already aching heart . . .
Suddenly, Inu-Yasha thought terribly to himself, he was losing a sister too . . .
Blood . . .
He couldn't take it anymore! But he had to contain his anger . . . he had to keep himself from rushing out into the darkness as a weak, helpless human . . . for Kagome's sake . . .
But what if the night was not going to end?
What if that Athema-thing could sustain the night forever . . .
The thought made Inu-Yasha ill to his stomach . . .
Everyone was waiting for dawn . . . but perhaps there would not be a dawn . . .
Perhaps there wouldn't be a Kagome to save at dawn . . .
There was a voice crying out within his soul . . . Inu-Yasha closed his eyes, trying to calm himself . . . trying to listen . . . he could feel Kagome slipping away from this world . . .
Slipping away by the means of the Athema and whatever it was he wanted with her . . .
He couldn't just sit around . . . human or not . . . something had to be done!
He had to do something . . .
Inu-Yasha . . .
Inu-Yasha . . . please . . . where are you?
Kagome's voice began to fade from her own thoughts . . .