Waiting.
I was always waiting. I waited for years, and in some ways, I still am. But they never came.
Never.
Had they forgotten about me so quickly? Or maybe, they just didn't need me anymore, didn't want me anymore.
Maybe they wanted to get a new daughter, maybe I was broken.
I couldn't think straight while I was sitting in that black car that smelled of tobacco with all those awful thoughts in my head.
And he wasn't making anything easier. Him. He was who I would be staying with until I was eighteen. At least, that's what they told me. For the longest time, I actually believed that they would be back for me. But, that's just how any eight year old girl would think, right?
"We're here," the old man driving the car grunted. The man sitting next to me never even opened his mouth, or even looked at me. He was very tall and scrawny with 5 o'clock shadow covering his long face, and was to be called my uncle.
He didn't even ask how I was doing. After all, I had just lost both of my parents. And to tell you the truth, I don't think he really cared.
But, I didn't cry.
I didn't know how to cry, however weird that may sound.
The car started to rumble as we rode over some stones set into the long driveway leading up to the….house? I stared around at the large house, no, the huge house! It looked like a castle that you only hear about in fairy tales.
The extravagant fountains and gardens. Except, like uncle, it was almost as if it was….dead.
Lifeless.
There seemed to be no color, just gray. Just like that morning sky. The air was damp and cold and as I sat shivering, uncle was unaffected. When the car came to a halt, an old woman ran outside with a large black umbrella.
She leaned down to open the car door for the silent man and held the umbrella over his head as he walked inside the house without even a glance to me. I just sat there looking like a real idiot, not really knowing what to do.
Eventually, the grumpy old man got out and came around to open my door for me. He grunted and pointed at the doors uncle had disappeared into. As I walked away struggling with my heavy bags I heard him whisper something weird, "She looks just like her."
Looks just like who?
This whole place is so strange. Especially the people who lived and worked here. Even though uncle was so lonely, his house was full of activity and people. Like a busy hive of bees scurrying around to keep the house in order.
The old woman from earlier that morning met me in the front room as I walked in and was stampeded with people trying to help or pamper me in any way possible.
"Ye girl," she spat out," Follow me." And without another word she turned sharply and began firmly walking up the large twisted staircase. She led me down long corridors, and tiny side hallways, and down small staircases.
The entire place was like a gigantic maze. I didn't know how I was ever going to be able to make my way around this place. "My name is Kaede, I am head of household and will be watching over ye."
She had a harsh tongue, as if she hated me. I didn't get why she was so bitter, I had just met her.
What's her problem?
"Here are your rooms. I expect ye to still be here when I get back to fetch ye for dinner." She turned and quickly stepped outside the room, waiting for me to step inside. But I wasn't moving. I still had tons of questions.
"When will I see my uncle?" I asked in the most innocent tone I could muster since I wanted to try and get on this woman's good side, if she even had one, otherwise my stay in this stone cage was going to really suck.
"Mr. Higurashi is very busy; ye will most likely not be seeing him unless ye have to." I could tell she was getting bored with me and wanted to leave as soon as possible.
"Fine. When will supper be ready?" I didn't feel the need to fake nice to her anymore. Once her mind was set on hating me, it could only get worse. "Dinner will be served at exactly six o'clock P.M., ye will not be late."
"How would I be late if ye and your wrinkled self are taking me?" I asked sarcastically. I thought it was very funny, the way she said ye, instead of you. She finally shoved me through the door along with my stuff and slammed it behind her as she stalked away.
I waited till I couldn't hear her loud footsteps echoing down the hall before I ran over to my big yellow backpack and reached in. "Thank god you're ok, Buyo! The way she just threw you into the room I thought that was the end of it for sure!"
The little fuzzy brown head of the small kitten just stared up at me stupidly before letting out a tired yawn. He closed his eyes about to finish his nap but he didn't realize that he was no longer in the bag so he fell over and hit the floor.
He opened his eyes with a shocked expression as if that was the first time he had woken up. He looked around and ran over to the bed and gave a giant leap.
I don't really know what he was thinking but he just hit halfway up the bed and slid back down to the ground for a second time. However stupid he may be, right now he was my only friend.
I ran over to the little pest and scooped him up to into my arms. "You need to learn to be more careful," I cooed into his soft white fur. I had forgotten where I was for a second and opened my eyes to finally look around at the room.
It was a bit to big for my taste, I could hardly reach the top of the bed it was so tall. There was a second smaller room that connected to it that looked like a sitting room. It had a small round silver coffee table in the middle and about forty small pillows of many colors spread across the entire floor.
There were no windows in this room, which I thought was kind of weird. A room this kawaii shouldn't have a dusty old lamp for its light source, it should have sunlight.
I gasped.
Even though the walls had no windows, they weren't bare. The back wall was covered in a gigantic portrait of….me? How could they have known what I look like if I had never seen any of them before? I'm positive they never sent them any pictures.
As I looked closer at the portrait the little girl looked different. At first glance, I could have sworn she had my face. But, there was something different about her, I just couldn't think of what.
I reached up to touch her face. My fingers ran across the rough canvas and paint. It mad me so mad that I couldn't understand why we were so similar and so different at the same time.
I slammed my fists into the painting. I heard it creak but I just ignored it. I slid down to floor and leaned against the painting. I was breathing really fast in shallow pants.
It wasn't just the painting that had upset me. It was the fact that the little girl was smiling.
My Smile.
The smile I used to give when my parents were with me.
But it had died along with them.
I sighed. There wasn't any reason to be getting upset now. It was all over. There was nothing I could do to make them come back.
"Kya!"
The wall behind me let out another loud squeak before swinging back. I screamed as I fell flat on my back against the dusty floor. I sat up coughing and sneezing from the layers of dust that now covered my back.
"Oww…"
"Hey! What's going on in there?!?" Someone outside was banging on the door. "You're not supposed to be in there! Come out with your hands in the air!"
"Oh crap."
I sprang onto my feet and ran out of the tiny room. "Buyo! Into the room!" I hissed. He just gave me a stupid stare. I ran over and picked him up and shoved him into the small room. I slammed the door shut as the other one opened.
"What are you doing in here?!? This room is reserved for my cousin! Get out right now you filthy maid!"
It was just a boy.
A small boy not much older than me. Maybe by just a few years.
"Excuse me! Didn't your mother ever teach you how to talk to a lady!" I shouted at his face as I stood planted, my face turning red. "And you must be mistaken, this is my room! I'm not a maid! I'm Mr. Higurashi's niece!"
The boy just stared at me through his violet orbs. He was dressed in a purple t-shirt to match with black jeans and had short black hair pulled back into a tiny pony tail.
"If you are his niece, then why are you covered in dirt?" He had a smug look as if he thought that he had already won this fight. Anyone else listening to this argument would have thought they both made stupid points, but they continued to embarrass themselves anyway.
"Well, maybe if you did a better job at keeping this place cleaner, I wouldn't be so dirty, now, would I?" I watched with amusement as his smug look dropped and he was trying to figure out what to say next.
"How can you be the new kid, I thought you were supposed to be a boy!" he shouted as the look was replaced with an adorable little pout.
It was my turn to feel stupid. This day was getting weirder with every second that passed. "Are you saying you're my cousin?" I asked him.
"If your Mr.Higurashi's niece, then yeah. I'm his son, Miroku, although, he doesn't act like I am."
We both just sort of stared at each other for a while. My brown orbs were locked with his violet ones. "No one told me uncle had a son," I said more quietly. "Not many people know," he answered.
"Well, I guess I'll leave you to clean up for dinner," he said more politely, breaking the awkward silence. "Thanks, and sorry I'm not a boy," I giggled. "That's ok, I'm not complaining." He turned and gave me a wink before running out into the hallway.
I blushed as my face felt hot and turned away as if he was still there watching me. He was charming for his age. Most of the boys I'd met thought I had cooties. Maybe it was different since he was a bit older.
I stopped feeling embarrassed enough to remember the most important thing he had said. He was Uncle's son.
My cousin.
My only relative left. I had uncle too, but….
He wasn't all here. Maybe a part of him died with someone he loved too. Maybe he was just always that way, but, I don't think so.
I suddenly remembered what I found in the other tiny room and ran to throw open the door.
"Meooowww….."
"What the…?"
"Oh my god! Buyo! Are you ok?!?!" The stupid little cat had managed to fall asleep, right where the door came colliding with the wall. He was now squished up between the two and about to fall asleep again, but I pulled the door away from the wall since I was inside now and he fell straight back down to the floor.
I ignored his whines and finally turned to look at the wall, now that the little cat was safe, hiding under three gold pillows.
My jaw dropped.
The frame of the portrait went around the whole rim of the wall. The picture itself had opened, as if it was a door. Beyond that stupid smile that didn't belong there was only darkness.
For the second time, I heard banging on the door. "Pardon me, Miss Kagome, are you in there?" It sounded like a maid, the way she talked to me since I was only eight.
"People in this house have a problem with finding the right times to visit," I groaned to myself.
I skidded up to the portrait and slammed it shut so I came face to face with the little girl again. I ran slipping on pillows and scrambled out the door and slammed it shut behind me.
I sprang onto my feet as the door opened to reveal a very pretty woman. She had long raven black hair that she wore into a tight bun behind her head. The thing that made her so beautiful though was her scarlet eyes. They didn't look scary on her.
"You must be little Kagome," she cooed as if I were a baby," My name is Kagura, Kaede sent me to help you get ready for dinner, I'm her personal maid," she explained
"I don't mean to be rude, but does it look like I'm wearing diapers to you?" I asked and just stood there smiling. "You don't have to call me Miss Kagome either, Kagome would be ok."
I expected her to get all mad at me like Kaede would, but she just stared at me then she broke into a smile. It surprised me a little bit but, it was still nice. It was one of the only kind faces I had seen ever since I got here. "You're absolutely right, you're no baby so you shouldn't be treated like one." Her overly cheery smile was now becoming a little annoying.
Hmm…
"My goodness, your filthy, we better get started or you won't be ready in time." Her smile was practically glued to her face and it wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. I just shrugged it off and let her pamper me.
---------
"Kya!"
"What's wrong?" the scarlet witch asked. She's no better than Kaede! Kaede is very upfront with her hatred, Kagura is extremely sneaky. "What have you done to my head?!?" I shouted at her.
I had just finally gotten my first glance in the mirror after hours of torture. Scrubbing, pulling, twisting, tightening and for what? To look like little Bo peep.
"You look adorable," she cooed in a bittersweet tone.
"I thought we went through the fact that I'm not a baby!"
This really sucked! The only way to get rid of her now was to pretend I like it and call in a different maid to do some last minute adjusting.
"Your right, its so kawaii! But, I need to fix my bows, you head on down to dinner. Thanks so much for your help!" We both exchanged fake smiles as she skipped out the door, closing it lightly behind her.
I ran over to the wardrobe and threw open the doors. "Aww man!" There was only one other dress that I would be able to wear to such a dinner as this and it was green!
Although it had a very nice style, that didn't get rid of the color. Green had been the color of my uniform for as long as I could remember. Even though it was my best color, I hated it. But, it was a lot better than the crap I was wearing so I quickly switched the two dresses and rapidly tried to yank out my bows.
I ran into the small bathroom and put my head under the water streaming out of the sink so I could get rid of those nasty curls. Once they were all out I quickly parted my raven black hair to put it into two messy braids tied with long green ribbon.
The dress wasn't itchy like the other one and cut off right above my knees. It had no lace on it thank god, Just a long green ribbon that tied around the top of my stomach with two tiny red bows on the end of each sleeve that cut off just after my shoulders.
I slipped into a pair of shiny black shoes just as Miroku stepped inside. "You look nice," he complimented. He was wearing black dress pants and from behind his violet shirt he pulled out a white rose.
I just stared at it in his hand. I had seen that rose somewhere before, I just couldn't remember where. He walked over and placed it behind my ear. I blushed again and turned my face away so he would not see.
If I hadn't been so stupid I might have noticed the big brown dog that had followed him into the room and was now hiding under my bed. "Shall we go down to dinner?" he asked.
I stood there uncertain then nodded and followed him out the door and through the mess of hallways and stairs.
But, I just couldn't help feeling like I had forgotten something.
---------
The walk down to dinner was pleasant enough until Miroku reached out to hold my hand. I screeched and jumped back. "What do you think your doing?!?" I shouted at him.
"Just trying to be friendly," he smiled. Motioning to his hands, I looked down to them and he had put them away into the depths of his pant pockets.
"That was very inappropriate," I scolded in the same tone as my mother had used on me whenever she caught me stealing from the cookie jar or candy bowl.
He just smiled and continued walking, not noticing the blank look in my eyes. I continued after him, listening to the clicking of my shoes against the hard floor as I walked down the hall.
"This place just keeps getting bigger and bigger," I said as I stared at the beautiful and disturbing pictures and portraits hanging on the walls.
As we kept walking we passed a portrait of a beautiful young woman wearing a diamond tiara over her chestnut brown hair, with a blue gown to match her Sapphire orbs.
"When I was younger, one of the men who had worked in this place his whole life said that it used to belong to that princess," he said while indicating to the portrait I was staring at.
"It is legend that one moonless night, on the girl's eighteenth birthday, she disappeared from her bed without a trace," he went on, with playfulness behind his dark and mysterious look.
"What happened to her?" I asked with my mouth agape and wide eyes. I had been oblivious to the playfulness and only saw the seriousness of what he was telling me.
"There are many theories, but none have been proven to be true," he told me. "The romantics say that her true love came to save her from her wretched father."
I smiled at this. How wonderful for someone to care for you so much.
"But everyone knows what really happened to her," he chuckled, "But I shouldn't tell you, you'd have nightmares for weeks."
My eyes grew even wider and I ran over in front of him and stopped him dead in his tracks. "You tell me right now Miroku Higurashi or it will be a very cold night for you!"
"Alright, alright," he sighed," She was murdered."
"What!"
"Yep, rumors spread through the castle that she had been taken in the night right from her very own bed. Rumors also were that it had to be someone who knew the castle better than most," he finished.
"Why?" I asked with curiosity practically exploding inside of me.
"Well, I guess it was cause the people in the castle heard her scream and when the guards standing right outside her door bolted into her room there was no one there."
"So?" I pressed.
"Well, the only way they could have gotten in the room without being seen and escaped with her in time was if they knew a secret passage way into the room."
My blood ran cold.
"A secret passage way?"
"Sure, don't all the great castles have em'?" he asked, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
I flashed back to the darkness behind the portrait of the little girl, suddenly I was frightened of what lay in waiting.
"I refuse to believe that she was murdered!" I stated after a moment of pause, coming to my conclusion.
"Then your stupid, why would she scream?" he asked her with the playfulness bouncing behind his dark expression again, and once again going unnoticed by me.
"I'll figure that out later," I answered with a confident smile.
He just sighed and continued their course down to the dining room.
"Miroku?" I questioned seriously again," You know that portrait in the smaller room of my bedroom, the one of the little girl who looks sort of like me?"
His body went visibly rigid and his tone icy," Yes, what about her?"
This shocked me a little bit and I knew that this was making him uncomfortable but I had to know.
"Who is she?"
"If I were you, I'd never bring that up again," he spat at her.
"Is that a threat?" I asked, a little confused but growing angry.
"Consider it a piece of advice," he answered before quickening his pace through a sharp turn down a small staircase.
We had finally reached the large dining room.
"How bleak," I said to no one in particular.
"Excuse me Miss. Kagome, I designed this room myself," a cold voice behind me managed out.
Kaede.
The room was rectangular with only a table in the center about 20 feet long with many chairs down the sides then with only one chair per each end.
It had an incredibly high arced ceiling with five windows along the wall that reached the very tip of the ceiling. All of the blinds were closed, leaving scarcely any light in the room, bedsides for a few candles along the table.
I expected about 50 people to be joining us for the dinner however only Kaede, Miroku, and I sat at the long table, with Kaede at the head of the table, and Miroku at the other with me sitting uncomfortably beside him.
He seemed to sense this and patted my knee under the table, his sour mood from just before vanishing. I gave him a smile before leaning over and whispering," Where's Uncle?"
Miroku gave me one of those have-you-gone-mad sort of looks before realizing I was serious. "He spends most of his time in his room, that includes his meals, you were lucky he came to pick you up from the airport."
This didn't completely shock me and I wasn't entirely disappointed either. "No wonder he was so pale." I whispered to myself.
Then through doors hidden behind ugly maroon curtains came in about twenty cooks all carrying some sort of dish. They all set it down on the table before quickly vanishing just as fast as they'd came.
"Where's everyone else?" I asked. The table was set for about 45 more people, as was the food.
Miroku just laughed and winked at me before saying," Go on, dig in!"
---Meanwhile in Kagome's Bedroom---
Big brown eyes stared through the door of the tiny room. Three gold pillows began to twist and turn, beneath them, something purred. His moment to attack was drawing closer.
A fuzzy little brown head popped out from the sea of colors and yawned greatly. It blinked and stared around stupidly as if not remembering where he was.
The time was now and the dog leapt from his hiding place under the over sized bed and aimed for the kitten hidden amongst the fabric. Buyo froze with terror but dodged out of the way and raced for the opened door to the hallways. The dog ran after it with its tongue lolling out closing in behind.
Out of panic, Buyo took sharp turns and detours before the smell of fish and steak drifted into his nostrils. The delicious smell caused him run even faster as he raced for his dinner.
Once the fluffy dog realized what the stupid cat was after he took a detour so that he would enter through the other side of the dining room for a surprise attack.
Buyo bolted through the tall doors and gave a great leap over Miroku's head onto the table. Miroku gave a rather girlish scream and toppled over his chair landing with a heavy 'thud' on the ground.
Coming from the other side of the table, Miroku's great dog jumped over Kaede's head, her not being so lucky. The dog's hind legs kicked her face into the rice pudding she had been eating.
Kagome ended up on the floor too, but because she felt as if her gut was going to burst she was laughing so hard. Miroku joined in when he saw Kaede's position.
Buyo was sliding down one side of the table knocking dishes over as he slid, with the dog sliding down the other side, knocking even more dishes over. They collided in the middle causing food to splatter everywhere.
Kagome and Miroku's laughter grew even louder and Kagome's sides felt like they were going to pop. Kaede lifted her head out of the bowl.
They stopped laughing within half a second.
She had the most wicked glare that sent shivers down Kagome's spine and made the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. It was a death glare that said one word.
Run.
The giant dog just leaned over and ate a meatball off poor Buyo's head who was currently stuck in the bowl of clam chowder, not to say he wasn't enjoying himself.
"Hungry?" Kagome asked with a gulp.