Yay! I finally got to update this story! It's just that school is starting soon, and I'm struggling with finishing my homework... Argh... I'm such a procrastinator... Well... Here it is! Enjoy!
Haunted
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Kagome rubbed her eyes in rabid disbelief, desperately hoping that what she saw was an illusion. It would have been so much easier if it were. She knew that much.
But regardless of how many times her trembling mittened hands attacked her violet-blue orbs, her vision was greeted with the same unpleasant picture.
There was someone stuck at the bottom of the ancient well.
But that was impossible. It had to be. The old well behind the shrine had retired in disuse long ago. Kagome was even doubtful to think that it had ever been used. It had certainly never been in her lifetime.
When she was a little girl, she remembered sitting by the fireplace and listening to her grandfather's tales of "the old haunted well." In fact, her grandfather still told those stories, whenever he could catch a listener.
Kagome shook herself involuntarily, blinking glistening snowflakes from her eyelashes. She felt her chest tighten as she went over the possibility that a dead body was at the well's bottom. Perhaps it had been there for centuries, and was the reason the well had dried up. Perhaps... Kagome shook herself firmly.
She had evidently been listening to her grandfather's stories too much.
Whoever was at the bottom of the well was hurt, and Kagome could never forgive herself if she sat and did nothing while someone was possibly dying down there...
Kagome cursed most unladylike. If only she had a cell phone... She could call for help. Or she could run and find help right now, which would probably be the smarter thing to do. But Kagome felt her heart pound in her chest with a magnetic pull she had never felt before. There was something calling to her...
Perhaps... Kagome felt her heartbeat quicken... Perhaps this was what her dream had been leading up to...
Peering reluctantly into the well, Kagome silently calculated its depth. If it was a shallow distance, she could jump in and inspect the wounded person, and perhaps put her first aid classes to use. She found that the well's floor indeed appeared just a few feet down. And just when she was about to climb up to the brim -
That was when she heard it.
It was a boy's voice. But the way it came across sounded strange. It was like hearing an echo, a mere faded copy of a real voice.
And Kagome winced at the words.
With more annoyance than anger, the voice seemed to contain a slight growl in its tone, "Come back out here, you little wimp! When I find you, I'm gonna tear the flesh from your bones!"
Kagome shuddered. Whoever that was sure sounded rude.
Resolving that it was probably just a particularly obnoxious kid from the neighborhood, Kagome ignored it, and leapt into the well, after confirming its depth one last time.
She landed on her rear roughly, having failed her attempt at a graceful descent. She felt immensely grateful for the snow carpeting the well floor, for it had cushioned her fall greatly.
Kagome took a deep breath, inhaling the earth-mixed-with-frost smell of the well's interior. It was surprisingly dark, and she realized just then what a risk she had put on herself. From the well's brim, little could be seen of its bottom, so she could have easily miscalculated the well's depth and broken her neck. Or worse. Also, as the well's interior had been victim to the past month's snow blizzards and storms, the layer of snow at the bottom could have been very thick. Thick enough to suffocate a five-foot-eight seventeen year-old like Kagome. It could have probably been even thicker than that.
Kagome shuddered uncontrollably.
She had been lucky. Very lucky. The well was just a few feet deeper than she had thought it was, and the layer of snow at the bottom only reached the bottom of her knees.
But she silently vowed never to do something as rash and foolish again.
She felt around in the dark with her hands. From the top, she had only caught a glimpse of something reddish-orange, and immediately took it for human hair. Now she felt naive, as the flicker of color she had noticed could have been anything – a bottle cap, a coin... anything.
But her hands eventually did come in contact with something. But it didn't feel like hair. It was coarse and tangled, and felt rather like... fur. Kagome withdrew her hands immediately with a sharp intake of breath. Before she could resort to screaming for help, she suddenly felt as if the ground beneath her were giving way.
Kagome clawed desperately at the cold textured walls for support, scraping old snow and new off of the deep burgundy brick.
Then she experienced a feeling that she could only describe as out-of-body. It felt as if she was floating, maybe even flying... and she wondered with a sinking heart – and stomach – whether this was the end of her. She absently remembered the saying "curiosity killed the cat," and wondered how people would react to "curiosity killed the Kagome."
Her stomach lurched even more with fear.
"I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die, please..." she could not help but sob softly. She was so concentrated on closing her eyes as tight as was possible, that it was a while before she realized the strange feeling and earthquake-like experience was gone.
Kagome pulled herself gingerly into a sitting position, finding to her mild surprise that she had been flat on her back. Rubbing her bruised arms and brushing grime, dirt and whatever else off of her back, she squinted her eyes in concentration, trying to figure out just what had happened.
Kagome was surprised to discover that the dark well she had been roaming in just a moment before had become full of a dusty kind of light. She traced her hands uncertainly over the well's rough bricks.
They seemed newer... and her eyes widened in disbelief.
"T-the snow..." Kagome stumbled on her words. The well's interior... the well's floor... where a moment before it had been covered in a thick layer of snow, now it was as dry as it was possible to be. In fact, the entire well appeared to be sunbathed.
Kagome clasped a hand to her forehead.
"This is too confusing," she muttered. She took a look around, and found, not surprisingly, that she was completely alone.
Kagome ran these thoughts through her head in a desperate attempt to make sense of things.
A peculiar thought came to her.
Perhaps it had been a dream. Everything. Perhaps it was summer, and everything she had experienced of winter in the past few months had been a long dream. Perhaps she had never met Sango nor Miroku.
Kagome felt her heartbeat quicken suddenly.
But how long had she been asleep, then? At how, exactly did she end up at the bottom of a well?
Her thoughts were suddenly disturbed with a very loud train of curses, seeming to come from somewhere near the well's brim. Kagome shook by instinct, and lifted her head toward the top of the well.
'That voice,' she thought with quickened breathing. It was the same voice of the 'obnoxious kid' she had heard a few minutes ago. When she had been standing by the outside of the well... where there had been snow.
Kagome shook her head in frustration. This was just too confusing.
She struggled and pushed all thoughts out of her mind and resolved to climb out of the well first. Then she would worry about everything else.
Kagome nodded. It sounded like a plan. Grasping hold of the rope ladder tied against the well's wall, she nervously started climbing.
She did not remember the ancient well having a ladder – most wells did not – and wondered if it was just another trick of her imagination. Perhaps she would climb up halfway only to discover she was standing on nothing, and come tumbling back down.
Kagome bit her lip in concentration as she focused on climbing.
'I'm being unreasonable,' she told herself. 'How can something that feels this real just be an illusion? It has to be real.'
Kagome felt a cold sweat begin to build up on her face, mingling with her hair, which was already a jumble of tangles.
Although it seemed like forever – mostly because of the dread Kagome felt about seeing what was beyond the safety of the well – the brim became closer and closer, and eventually Kagome was able to climb out.
With a sigh of relief, she flung herself onto the soft, luscious green grass surrounding the area. Closing her eyes, she breathed in the light scent of cherry blossoms that perfumed the air, leaving her with a feeling of light-headedness.
"There you are, you little bastard!" a rough voice interrupted Kagome's momentary relaxation.
Before she could say anything – or even open her eyes for that matter – a strong hand grabbed the collar of her school uniform, and lifted her up into the air, none too gently.
Kagome gasped when something sharp began to dig into the back of her neck. She could almost smell the blood seeping through her blouse.
Instinctively, but slowed with exhaustion, Kagome lifted her head to meet the gaze of her attacker.
Wow. That took me a long time to write. Not much dialogue in this chapter. Anyway, did you like it? My writing probably needs a lot of improving, so suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
