Innocent Resentment
"The feelings of those with stolen light"

Chapter11 -Vanity: Fallen Tone of Emerald

I was early. I made sure I was. I didn't want to seem desperate but...well...what if I got there too late and he was waiting for me and thought I wasn't coming and just left. All because I hadn't come early enough.

Dawn had just broken when I entered through the schools front doors. The halls were empty and my footsteps echoed down the corridors loudly making me all the more nervous. My heart was beating and I could hear it drumming against the inside of my ear. Butterflies brushed gossamer wings against the inside of my stomach, twisting it into knots. Here I was, standing at the most important crossroad of my life. From ugly duckling into a swan.

I smiled, that's what he'd want to see right? A brilliant, warm smile to let him known that I liked him and thought he was amazing. But why? Just because he thought I was? I shook the thought away, irritated. What a stupid idea, don't start having doubts now!

The minutes clicked away slowly, seconds seeming eternities in which I was suspended in a kind of breathlessness. And then...time seemed to speed up and suddenly there were glimmers of life in the halls, yet none of them the one I was waiting for. I remained poised by the window waiting however; even when the homeroom bell rang I didn't leave.

Maybe he was late?

That had to be it. It had to. He'd stayed up late being anxious and had woken up late.

The homeroom bell gave way to the chime of first period and the halls became packed and stifled once more and searched the crowd desperately for the pale locks I'd viewed from the window the other day but nothing familiar met my eyes. Finally the mass thinned and the hall was quiet again. He wasn't...he wasn't coming. Just when my hope faltered there was the sound of feet clicking against the polished floor of the hall, like a reward for my patience. I turned; relief spreading like a rose in my heart.

I met a flaxen haired beauty but not the one I'd been expecting. Instead Momoi was strolling in my direction. I expected her to stop; to give some reason why her brother wasn't here but she walked right passed me as if I was invisible. Didn't she...didn't she see me? I turned.

"Momoi?"

She stopped and glanced over her shoulder, lifting an eyebrow blankly and then recognition touched her expression. "Oh! It's you...um...Eri right?"

Didn't she remember me? "Where's Kyoei? Is he sick?"

"Oh that's right. I completely forgot." She offered a sympathetic smile. "He's not coming."

I became worried. "Is he alright?" Was he injured? Most likely in some sport incident or one of those reckless actions only the bravest, coolest of boys did.

"Of course. He's in class." Sympathy shifted into amusement. "I made a bit of a mix up. I really should have known though. It was so obvious. I was a bit perplexed since he usually only chooses pretty girls."

"What...what do you mean?" Fear rose up to choke me, straining my voice like a collar. No. It couldn't be. Life wasn't that cruel. It wasn't!

"It wasn't you he was interested in. It was your friend. Kagome, I think her name is."

The collar tightened and expanded, curling around my heart itself and squeezed till I felt as if my heart was made of glass, fractured, hairline cracks spreading across it.

Your friend Kagome. He wants Kagome.

And she shattered.

"This is ridiculous."

Kagome glanced over her shoulder at the sound of Yuka's whispered voice to see her and Ayumi leaned in murmuring to each other. She expected to see Eri in the group as well but her friend was missing. And Kagome got a worried feeling in the pit of her stomach. It couldn't be...

"Where's Eri?" She asked.

Ayumi looked up at her and frowned worriedly. "I don't know. We haven't seen her all day." She gasped suddenly. "Do you think it's the bear?"

Kagome stood up abruptly, thrusting a hand into the air, halting her Math teacher mid sentence. "May I be excused?" She didn't wait for permission before rushing out of the room, ignoring the sounds of Yuka and Ayumi yelling her name.

Eri! How could she have been so stupid? That girl, that demon who called her self Discord had said she wasn't done. She should have kept an eye on Yuka and Eri! She burst into the hall, racing along the length towards the spot where she'd found the tell tale signs of blood the last time.

There was nothing, the corridor floor glitter at her innocently. But the door that led to the school roof had been propped open with a large, black rock and Kagome knew it was an invitation, and a trap but she didn't care. She had to save Eri!

Kagome touched a finger to the jar of jewel shards, but she knew they would do no good. Discord didn't want the shards, she was working for Naraku. But what was the point of tormenting Kagome's friends this way? How did that achieve anything?

Kagome broke onto the roof and was pricked with a sense of deja vu. A light breeze touched the scene as it had when she faced Ayumi. It seemed as if the entire place was empty, even the grounds beyond the school building itself. She looked around for Discord or the demon she had called her brother but saw neither of them.

But they'd be hiding so she couldn't spot them.

"Kagome."

The voice cracked over her attention like a whip, sharp and cold. She turned to look across the roof, towards Ayumi. Her friend stood near the edge of the roof, eyes glowing a deep green that bore no forgiveness of resemblance to Eri's. Her hands grasped a bow made of wood that seemed to have been burned all over then polished till it was a gleaming black color that collected light into stark shadows. The silver tip of a black arrow was pointed at Kagome's heart steadily, taunt hum of the bowstring indicating that it was anxious to be released.

"Eri."

"You're going to die."