Long Years Past
Chapter 7
Dark of the Dawn
The figure stirred beneath the thin white sheets. Sweat drops formed on her brow as her head twisted violently from side to side, her poor mind apparently engrossed in a nightmare of the most horrific kind. She mumbled his name over and over, mixing it in with a jumble of other disconcerted vowels and moans of distress. Then she lay silent once more, the nightmare having gone as quickly as it had come.
A pale hand reached lovingly toward her face and gently smoothed raven locks back into place. The woman sighed and moved to stare out the hospital window to rain-drenched Tokyo. For three days her daughter had been like this, having terrible nightmares over and over. It was frightening the way she would call out his name with more urgency every time. It was even worse for her as a mother. Mothers are supposed to comfort and help their children, but she could do neither. She was helpless standing there and watching her daughter suffer. Hot tears rose to her eyes, threatening to overflow the face she worked so hard to keep calm.
Kagome, please wake up…
"Mrs. Higurashi." A voice from the door called.
She turned from the window and composed herself. "Oh, yes. What is it doctor?"
He looked sympathetically at the troubled woman. "Mrs. Higurashi, you look exhausted. Why don't you go home and get some rest, maybe spend some time with your family. They must be as worried as you. Your daughter's condition is stable and unlikely to change soon. If anything happens, I'll be sure to call."
"Are you sure?" she questioned, glancing warily down at her daughter. She didn't want to leave her all alone.
"Everything will be fine, I promise."
"Alright." She sighed reluctantly.
She bent down and kissed Kagome's forehead. "I'll be back later dear. I love you."
The clock on the opaque wall opposite a small hospital bed counted the seconds as they went by, as steady as any metronome. Tick. Tick. Never pausing, always ticking. In the darkness of the room, you would have never seen it, never have even noticed it was there. Even in the daylight hours when everything meshed to an overwhelming white as hospitals tend to do, you might not have acknowledged its presence. It seemed to know this, for although it was rarely noticed, it always made sure it was heard.
Tick. Tick. 12:47.
Tick. 2:52.
3:04. Tick. Tick. Tick.
Tick. Tick. And nothing. Everything went quiet.
"Wh-where am I?" a groggy, disoriented voice broke the silence.
Kagome groaned and opened her eyes, searching for anything familiar. Then last thing she remembered was falling through the well, and something told her, from the look of things, she wasn't in the feudal era any more. She panicked at the thought of being captured by some unknown demon or even worse, that maybe Naraku had found a way into the present, and sat up quickly, trying to get a grip on everything around her. She was greeted with a sharp, searing pain from her shoulder. Her scream echoed slightly louder than she had intended, and she fell back in the bed with her mind engulfed in pain like fire. For a moment she lost all clarity, then slowly, she allowed herself to breathe normally again and the throbbing of her shoulder subsided. As she regained her bearings, she noticed the pull of something connected to her arm. Her eyes followed a thin tube that stretched from her right arm up to a bag of liquid hanging on a piece of metal. It took her a moment to recognize it as an IV.
"A hospital…" she breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm in a hospital."
No sooner had Kagome realized this when she heard footsteps thudding on the linoleum outside of her room and an angry voice that made her doubt where she was.
"What's going on in there?" A male voice ran into the room and flicked on a light switch, causing the figure in the bed to shield her eyes. He stopped in front of the bed, almost falling over when he saw Kagome.
"You're awake! Wow, umm…I heard a scream, and well… are you ok?" the young doctor nervously adjusted the papers on the clipboard he was holding.
She felt so confused, not to mention blinded. "Umm… I guess so." Her voice came out in an unexpected croak, her throat hoarse from a lack of water. Her head was spinning again. "Where am I?"
"Oh right, no wonder you're so confused!"
Kagome felt like pummeling him with his clipboard. Of course she was confused!
He continued. "You must have a slight case of amnesia. Do you remember anything that happened before you woke up?"
She hesitated as the images of that night flashed through her mind. What was she supposed to say? 'Yeah, I was traveling in feudal Japan with a kitsune, a demon slayer, and a monk with a vortex in his right hand and we had just killed our fated enemy when a jealous dead miko attacked me and sent me flying through a magic well back to the present because I'm in love with a half-demon and she wants to drag him to hell with her for all eternity?' Yep. She could see that going over real well.
"Not really." She lied
"Oh," replied the doctor looking slightly disappointed. "Well, you mother called us three days ago and we brought you in here to intensive care, and you've been unconscious up until now."
"My mom!" Kagome said. How scared her poor mother must be! She had totally forgotten about how worried everyone must have been when they found her, wherever they found her, that is. Not to mention what story they had to come up with to get her out of this one. Tears came to her eyes just thinking about what she had put everyone through.
"Can you please call my mom? I really want to see her!" she pleaded with the doctor.
"Of course, of course. Don't worry about it. You just get some rest. We weren't expecting you to wake up this soon, is all. Would you like the light off?"
Kagome nodded, and the room was bathed in darkness once more.
He turned to walk out of the room, but stopped as he noticed how she squirmed in the bed, wanting to sit up straight. "Please try not to move, you've got a shattered ankle and a dislocated shoulder. I'll have a nurse come by and bring you something to ease the pain."
'Nothing you could give me could possibly ease this pain'
She thought of him, and she cried even more. Her heart felt like it was being stabbed with a thousand knives.
'Oh, Inu Yasha! Are you ok? Did Kikyo do something to you?' she thought, bitterly.
Her eyes followed the shadows on the wall to a window she hadn't noticed before. It was raining, out there in Tokyo. Was it raining where Inu Yasha was? Was he worried about her too? Was he even alive? She mentally kicked herself for even thinking of that. Of course he was… wasn't he? She reassured herself over and over that he was, but something bothered her. Why hadn't he come to get her? The doctor had said she'd been out for three days… surely he'd have come by now, if he hadn't followed her over on the day she fell. Surely he cared enough to do that!
She would have liked to have gotten up right then and there and marched on over to the feudal era to 'sit' him into oblivion for dallying with Kikyo when she was in pain, but she knew it would be a long time before she had the strength to get up and walk, much less go back. It was like life had suddenly altered its plans without her permission, and she was powerless to stop it.
"Inu Yasha… I love you…please come..." She whispered.
Kagome hadn't even realized the nurse had come and gone until she felt a sedative closing her eyes. She gazed once more out the window and saw the beginning rays of sunshine peaking out over the building tops, but the clouds soon choked them out, returning the world to rainy dawn. Her head fell back on the pillow gently, and her mind was filled with sweet drug-induced nothings.
Unnoticed by anyone, a small arrow on the wall jerked backward and settled into a steady pace of counting once more. The clock on the wall ticked by the seconds as if it had never stopped. It was counting backwards now, though, as if it were waiting for something. For someone. The countdown had begun.
Tick. 3:01. Tick. Tick.
Tick.
