First Time, Last Chance

Chapter 2

There was darkness all around, the unsettled shadiness of night engulfing all that lived. But suddenly, waves of light pierced the growing serenity, destroying all in its path. The sky was falling, being erased out of existence. The darkness was everywhere...

Shadows...

Kagome woke with a startled cry as her cat, Buyo, jumped onto her bed. Her trembling fingers tightened around her bed sheets as she bolted upright, the makings of a headache beginning to pick at her mind; she merely sighed softly and scratched Buyo's ears. He began purring contently as her fingers began playing with his ears, which was a peculiar habit that she had never been able to break. Buyo tilted his head, watching her with blazing eyes, and the intensity of that burning expression stirred up a cloudy remainder of her dream.

Glowing eyes...

Whispering...

No. He...

Kagome's headache throbbed as she fought desperately to remember. Who was this "he"? This hadn't been the first time that she had seen this dream.

He had been...shouting something.

He...

Bang! The door swung open loudly. "Happy Birthday, Kagome!" her family shouted, crowding eagerly around her bed. Kagome felt the last trace of previous thought slipping away from her memory like the flame of a candle being extinguished. But as the significance of the day sunk in, Kagome paid no mind to it, beaming happily at the faces around her.

Her younger brother, Souta, bounced onto her bed with a grin. "Open my present first!" Thrusting the delicately wrapped gift into her face, he started bobbing up and down on her mattress, chanting, "Open it, open it, open it!"

Kagome carefully unwrapped the box, forcing a grin at the gift that seemed too hideous for words. "Oh! It's a...um..." She coughed.

Souta pouted. "It's a mummified hand, Kagome! Isn't it cool!" His smile was too disarming, so Kagome laughed aloud and ruffled the kid's hair. "I love it."

"Good! I'm glad you like my present!" Souta smiled proudly. Kagome's grandfather cleared his throat loudly and exaggeratedly. She had suspected that he had played a part in this rather...interesting gift.

Her brother blinked and then seemed to understand. "It was from Grandpa too. He helped me pick it out!" Wow. She hadn't guessed. Kagome gently placed the hand back in the box. "Thank you Souta and Grandpa! I'll just leave it in here." And feed it to Buyo later, Kagome added silently. Buyo meowed, almost as if he knew what she was thinking.

"You two should start getting ready for school," Mrs. Higurashi said, turning to leave Kagome's room. "I've already made breakfast, so come down when you're ready to go, okay?"

Kagome and Souta nodded. "Thanks, Mom!" Souta scampered out of the room, Buyo slinking after him for his morning stroll. And so she was alone.

Kagome sighed. A heavy curtain of foreboding hung over the suddenly chilly room as she struggle to remember the bits and pieces of her dream. Or had it been a nightmare? There was something that did not seem right...

Souta interrupted her thoughts, popping into her bedroom quickly. "Kagome, what are you doing? Mom says you're going to be late for school if you don't hurry! And plus, she says if you don't get dressed in two minutes, I can have your breakfast!"

That got her moving.

Kagome changed in a matter of seconds, grabbing her bag as she thundered out of her room. She ran to the kitchen in a mad dash to save her breakfast, where she spotted Souta eyeing her food. "Drop it, squirt! That's mine!" Kagome yelped.

As she sat there happily munching her food, Souta looked up from his meal, blinking. "That's weird. Buyo hasn't come back from his stroll yet." He pointed to the fresh bowl of food that he had poured for the cat. "He didn't even come running when I started pouring his food."

Kagome spooned the last of her breakfast into her mouth and got up from the table. "He's probably just lounging around. I'll go look for him." She waved to her family before leaving the house, and glanced hastily around the front area. No sign of the cat. Where could he be?

Five minutes had passed, and there was still no sign of Buyo. She was going to be late for school if she didn't start walking! Kagome frowned. Maybe she should head back inside and ask Souta to look for Buyo, because he was nowhere in sight.

She paused. Unless...

Kagome glanced at the shrine, sighing softly. She wasn't sure why, but the shrine had always sort of scared her. Not in the creepy sense of darkness, but in the underlying sense of another presence that lurked among the walls.

Once, as a child, she had ventured unsupervised into the shrine. Among its cold depths, Kagome had wandered towards the well, curiosity getting the better of her attention. Yet she had barely gone within three feet of the well when she felt it. Amongst the forbidden shadows playing in the corners of the shrine, something pulsed.

A whisper. The light feeling of a touch on her shoulder. A voice, calling her from within the well. She could actually feel the pulling of some unknown force drawing her towards the well. Even with running as fast as she could, Kagome had felt the force lingering about her with a vengeance.

Thinking back on the experience, Kagome laughed to herself, though she wouldn't admit that it was a nervous sort of laugh. Perhaps it had all been the work of her devilish imagination, for she did have a habit of daydreaming of other worlds when she was a child. That was partly her grandfather's doing, as being the keeper of the shrine had resulted in his story-telling of demons and wars and curses in ancient history.

She took a deep breath as she paused before the entrance to the sacred place. Her hands clenched tightly, Kagome crossed over into the gloomy side of the shrine. As always, she greeted the darkness with a pained, nervous expression.

"Buyo? Buyo, where are you? Come here, Buyo!" Kagome called out softly as she walked around. She nearly shot out of her skin when she felt two hands grab her arm.

It was only Souta.

He rolled his eyes. "Geez, Kagome. What's with you?"

"What are you doing in here?" Kagome asked, hoping that her heart rate would soon return to normal.

"You took such a long time that Mom told me to get you and Buyo." He grinned so roguishly that Kagome smiled, despite herself and hugged him. The sound of Buyo's meowing distracted the both of them from their brief brother-sister moment, and Souta squinted, pointing at a spot in the dark.

"There he is, Kagome! Over by the well. Quick! Get him!" Souta exclaimed excitedly.

Kagome nodded. "Okay." She moved carefully through the dim area, making out Buyo's lazy figure resting in front of the well. Shaking her head as she bent down and picked the cat up, she scratched his ears. "What a troublemaker!"

And suddenly thinking of the time, she gasped. "I'm going to be late for school!" Kagome began rising from her crouching position, and it was at that moment that she felt something happen.

Her back turned towards the well, she blinked in confusion at Souta's panicked expression. Eyes widened with chilling fear, her brother was trembling from head to toe, and he could barely lift his hand to point at something.

Huh? Was he pointing behind her?

"Ka...Kagome! Look out!" Souta finally managed to gasp.

But it was too late. Something grabbed her shoulders, and in the panic that ensued, her thoughts were lost in a jumbled maze of chaos. All Kagome could feel was the heavy weight of Buyo disappearing as he scrambled through her fingers.

She didn't have time to scream as she fell.

(A.N. sweatdrop I know that it has been months since I've last updated. I've been busy, but that is absolutely no excuse to leave you guys hanging for so long! I'm terribly sorry! Plus, I hate to admit this, but I got a mild case of writer's block when trying to think of how to write what I wanted in the story, and to make it perfect for the direction it'll go in. I got overexcited about future developments in the story and ended up not knowing how to start it off! But don't worry guys, I've got it all figured out, and I'm proud to say that I'm back! (Again...) ; So as an apology/bonus for my patient fans, I'm uploading a couple of chapters for you guys, since I know you'll kill me if I update the chapters one by one. I've also posted up another Ten Lessons in Love chapter, and I will have a few mote Only a Reflection Away chapters posted up by the end of next week. My internet has been down because of cable problems, so it's very, very slow to access websites, so it might take longer than I expect, until they fix the cable. In the meantime, please bear with me as I start up the postings again, and please accept my deepest apologies for my seeming lack of devotion to this story. This one's my personal favorite, so I promise not to let it go without a fight! So please, I hope you enjoy these chapters. Please read and review! And e-mail me!)