The Scent of Despair
Written by Catrina Winner
Author's Note: The second chapter of that promised update. I have been very busy, and the new events that have surfaced in this county have understandably distracted me. I am very sorry it has taken so long to put out these two chapters, but I again ask that you review, and I will try to update sooner. Thank you.
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Chapter Twenty
The darkness that assaulted her was heavy and pressing. She pushed away the blankets that covered her eyes and was shocked by the brightness that harassed her sensitive eyes. She felt, rather than saw, her younger brother near her, and as she shifted he awoke, his eyes as red and tearful as hers. She touched his face with her hand, and they cried together for many hours. Finally, the tears were spent, and Kagome and Sota dressed, preparing to face the hard day ahead of them. Unknown to Kagome, it was about to get much more difficult.
The two siblings sat down for a cold breakfast, and the realization of the missing people at last dawned upon Kagome. She glanced around, near frantic, searching for her mother and grandfather, those two people that had been such steady rocks in her churning life.
"Where…?" was the whole of the question she had to pose. Sota looked despondently towards his food, out of tears to cry.
"The car they were in… to go to the store… crashed… and they… did not… come home…" the young boy choked on his dry sobs, staring off into the distance. "I told them that… you were sick… but would take care of… me… so they left me here… promising to return…"
Kagome felt a second sickening twist of her heart. She had just lost Inuyasha, the one she was so in love with. She would not see him again; for while the well may be opened or closed from one side of time, it was less likely the same would apply for its future self. Her brave hanyou would have to be alone, as she was, but not so incredibly alone as Kagome suddenly found herself. Inuyasha had all his companions; she only had Sota and Buyo. Her mind was slowly numbing to everything.
Kagome did not have to ask Sota who 'they' were. The social services must have known that her mother had two young children. And, 'they' would certainly return to take both the children away, as Kagome was too young to care for both of them, without a job, and still in school. There was nothing that she could do, nothing that could stop this. Though they still had some time, there was nowhere they could slip away to now that the well was closed.
"When did they come?" Kagome asked, her voice steady and far away.
"Yesterday…" Sota sniffled his answer. Kagome nodded. That might give them a week or so at the most before the men returned to take them both away. The shock from everything that had suddenly happened had numbed Kagome's mind, closing her off to the pain so she could handle things again with the ease of a detached intelligence. She stood and managed a small smile at her brother, who could not understand yet. Then he asked what she had been praying they could avoid.
"Why did the well seal?"
Kagome's gaze dropped, and for a moment the pain of her loss was palpable, hanging in the air before them, then she was deadened again and she began to clear the table, washing the two small dishes in an icy cold water.
"I was trapped in that time, too, but Inuyasha asked me… to be his wife…" she paused here, smiling a little, thinking of what it would have been like, the two of them together. She continued, "and so I was going to stay there… But I wanted to say goodbye to my family and… and…" her voice became tight and choked, realizing she would never get to say farewell to those that had raised her and loved her. "I went past the shrine the wishes were made at, and it changed my wish so I could revisit my family… but I can't leave here now, and it seems I have very little family left…" she took a deep breath. "But as long as we are together, that is all that matters to me."
Sota ran into her arms, crying again, and Kagome held him until he was exhausted from his tears and fell into a fitful, napping sleep. She carried his heavy body into her room, and wrapped him in her own blankets, snapping the blinds quietly closed. There was a lair of dust over everything, and Kagome needed things to keep her mind busy.
Soon, she was set to the task of cleaning the entire house. Sota slept on and on, fatigued from the day before and the endless tears and stress. Kagome scrubbed, shined, dusted, and washed everything that was perceivable to her sharp eye. She fed and brushed Buyo, spending close to an hour alone with the cat. Then she turned outside, raking dead leaves up and washing windows and sweeping the porches. Finally, she ached from her work, but hardly hesitated to cook dinner. Sota came padding into the kitchen, drawn by the smell, and Kagome laid the table with their finest dishes and fed to him everything he loved. She could never get near the fantastic cooking of her mother, but she had backed her heart and her soul into this food and it tasted delicious.
The two of them washed the dishes together silently, though Sota dropped a crystal glass and it shattered on the floor. Kagome stared down at the shards of what had once been a beautiful work of art. I am like that glass, she thought. I am shattered from the inside out and I can't feel the pain anymore… I'm not alone… As long as I have Sota, and some hope of returning, ever returning to Inuyasha and the others, I am not alone. The glass is broken, and I am broken, but, unlike that wineglass, maybe time can repair me…
They quickly cleaned the mess, Sota receiving a slight cut on his finger and the two of them spent much time carefully cleaning it and slowly putting a band-aid onto it. Then, suddenly, both of them had nothing to do. Sota took Kagome's hand, realizing it was up to him for the moment, and led her back to her bedroom, and handed her a fairy tale, a child again.
"Read it to me, Kagome…" he asked, settling himself under her blankets again. Kagome began to read, quietly at first, then stronger, losing herself in the words that scrawled endlessly across the pages.
Outside it was quickly darkening. The remaining clouds brushed across the sky lightly, seeming to kiss the stars as the scuttled around. The stars themselves shone with an unearthly brightness, sparkling. The moon shone upon the Earth, intent on wiping away the blood that had been shed that day, and hide away those that were witness to it.
When Kagome finally put down the book, her throat ached. Sota was fast asleep, his innocent face lit by the moonlight. Kagome slid into the blankets next to him, unwilling to leave the safety of her only remaining family member. As she slipped into sleep, Buyo curled up in between them, seeming to sense the sadness of the people surrounding her.
The three lost souls slept on into the darkness of the night, quiet and free from the nightmares that plagued them now in daylight.
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Another short chapter, but I hope it makes up for the lack of updates you have had to sustain! Enjoy the reading, even if it is sad… I believe we have three to five chapters before another depressing plot twist. It will be interesting, that's certain, but still sad. Please, please, review, and the next chapter should be out sooner then these two! I hope. ^^