DISCLAIMER: I don't own Inuyasha. And all my creative energy is focused on something different. So you''ll have to deal with that disclaimer for now.
AN: Told you I would get the next one out! I'm not sure if I'll do another one today or not. I have a couple one shots I want to get up to. But just so you know I have the other chapters done just need a bit of editing. So just drop me a review and I'll hit myself if I don't update!
A Silver Heart
Burning Memories (Part 10/12)
By Wyltk
I pushed my legs farther, I had to get away. What kind of life would running leave for Shippo? Naraku might still be out there, I hadn't heard anything of him since I fried him with my miko powers. But he wasn't the only one who knew I had the jewel. And who wanted it, who wanted me… And Shippo? A useful tool to get me and then they, he, would discard the boy.
I couldn't do that to him. Even if I had to run more then fifty miles without stopping I would not let Shippo be dragged with me again. Besides why would those inu-youkai come after me? I was nothing. They had a demon now. That's probably why they were so nice to me anyways. I was nothing to them.
Anger boiled inside me and I fought the urge to try and rip off the necklace and throw it away. I pushed myself farther a sob escaping as I felt a familiar presence following me. I was probably going to die. Months of running and I would probably die today. I was exhausted physically and emotionally. I might be able to run but he would catch up, and when he did my Miko powers would be too weak. I knew I could already feel them draining to keep myself running. A little at a time. I could let out all my Miko energy at once and run farther and faster but I'd be defenseless unable to move for who knows how long after it was spent.
There was a well in front of me. A well with water would mean masking my scent. I rushed faster grabbing the rim and vaulting over it. It was only then I looked down at the bones on the ground and screamed. I closed my eyes and waited for the painful contact with the sharp pointy bones.
And then my body seemed to slow down rocking lightly as if soothing me and then I felt myself land on soft ground unmarred with the bones I had seen. I slowly relaxed against the wall of the well before opening my eyes and glancing around and then up. Above me was a roof… or part of one. I was home, away from the strange world I had been thrown in so long ago. I was HOME!
"Grandpa! Mama!!! SOTA! I'M HOME!!! I'M BACK!!!"
"Grandpa, Mama, Sota, I'm home!" I smiled cheerfully heading towards the house skipping as I thought of my wonderful day at school. Hojo, the cutest boy in school whom I had been trying to flirt with ever since I met him, had finally asked me out.
My wonderful day was interrupted just as I gained the well house in search of my grandpa to ask him something for history class. I heard something that sounded like a train whistle come at me. Mother and Sota came running out of the house a peculiar smell following them.
"RUN!" Mother yelled at me Grandpa joining them in their dash away from the house. I watched them as a large ball of fire began towards them and bolted for the well house hoping to hide in the deep well. I motioned my family along with me when I reach the stairs only to watch them be engulfed into the rapidly growing fire ball. I screamed as their bodies we're torn away from me. I jumped the stairs landing strangely on my ankle. I made it to the well and threw the cover open jumping into the open well.
And my world went black.
A sob shook my body and slowly I snapped away from the memories that had just come back. I felt my tears come down faster and I sobbed as I started to climb up the well using the rough wood and plants to help pull myself. I managed to make it to the top and look over it to the desolate block. There was nothing left of the once cheerful houses. The only thing that still stood was a large monument and half of the crumbling well house.
Slowly I began to lift myself out of the well, carefully walking beyond it, looking out at the green shoots that we're slowly shooting up from the ground. Strangely enough the Goshinboku still stood blackened but slowly healing. I winced at I turning my head away.
I looked over to the monument slowly walking up tracing the letters. Each house had the address and then the names written below it. I followed all the names reading those who had died. The temple was at the bottom, my families, and my name carved into the unsympathetic stone.
I knelt and slowly brought my fingers up to trace the names and once done I pounded my fist into the stone breaking down and just falling to the ground. I closed my eyes letting my body shake with the sobs I had kept in for so long. All this time, the dreams of an explosion, the burns on my body. I had forgotten everything about what had happened that brought me to the Feudal Era. But fate wouldn't care for that. No it had to bring me back here!
"I DIDN'T WANT TO KNOW! I HATE YOU FATE! I HATE YOU!"
The outburst did nothing but drain me of most of my remaining energy. I heard my throat make a choked sound and my thoughts churned within me. I pushed myself up wiping my eyes and taking a deep breath as the tears continued to run continually down my cheeks.
What right had fate to destroy my life? To make me live in a miserable existence where I had to run every time I met someone for fear they would betray me. How dare they make me live in a world I didn't want to live in, in the first place! How dare they make it my only choice to live! HOW DARE FATE!
"Hello."
I jumped and turned to look at the girl her hair curling gently around her face as she gave me a small smile. She must have noticed my tears but she said nothing as she bent placing the flowers down at the monument. She bowed for a minute, eyes closed in prayer before she turned to me. I had the urge to fling myself in her arms. She was my best friend since grade school and now I was dead to her and her world.
"It's hard, I know. When it happened, the gas explosion, I was just walking away from the temple. I had gone to visit my best friend Kagome. We always walked with each other to and from school, talking as we went. We alternated one day she would walk with me to my house the next I to hers. That day was my turn, I had just made it beyond the block right where the explosion stopped. Just far enough away to live.
"When I came home for the hospital, after the doctors had checked me over, I found my mom near hysterical. She told me that everything was gone, my best friend and her family we're dead. Then we just sat and watched the news. We watched all day, school was canceled the next and we watched it then.
"I never forgot that day or the days that followed. They found many bodies, some unrecognizable, but closer to the temple all they found were ashes. Sometimes a stray… body part.
"I come, every month, and leave flowers here. I wanted them to know that I remember them. After a while I stopped grieving. They wouldn't have wanted me to. Sometime I fancy one of them might have escaped, but it was just a dream. But I realized they would want me to live my life to the fullest, to live everyday with all my heart, and I'll see them again one day, in heaven, or in a perfect stranger."
She gave me a small smile and bowed before slowly leaving back down the slope of concrete where stairs once stood. And I turned back to the stone in front of me. Then I looked down at the flowers. They were beautiful flowers, wild but beautiful.
"Kagome…" I turned looking at Inuyasha who had slowly walked closer to me. He leaned down and wrapped his arms around my waist. He turned me so my face was pressed against his chest.
"I'm sorry Kagome, I'm so sorry."
He didn't even know why I cried and he still felt sorry? I gave in and buried myself in his arms, beginning to sob.
AN: Now THAT was my favorite chapter. I love building to a climax. But just to remind you, Kagome in the first chapter had numerous burns but they weren't made from the Centipede demon! grins And she kept calling for her family as if they were gone. grins aren't I evil?
And the wolf behowls the moon –Shakespeare
Megaera Wyltk
