The Mind Of Another Chapter 2: Dreams, an inuyasha fanfic

Author's Note: Eh...not exactly happy with the number of reviews I received for chapter 1...hmph...maybe it was too sad for s-s-s-s-some people's taste...oh well! (Look at me, I'm over it...!) Anyway, here is chapter 2.

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha...and it would be pointless suing me 'cause I live in a box...

The Mind of Another

Chapter 2: An eerie dream

Kagome fell forward, crackling her head sharply on the glass. The mirror jerked and jerked. Just for a few moments, her vision was black and empty, and when the darkness turned into lucid clearness, she was gazing at her own face staring back, eyes dilated by more than the pain in her forehead. What was that? A dream?

Her unclear thoughts were abruptly clogged as some small shards of broken glass fell to the floor. Vaguely, she held out her hand to steady the broken mirror and noticed how white and emaciated her fingers were.

Head still ringing from the eerie hallucination, she shivered as she got up from the chair, avoiding stepping on the fallen pieces of broken glass as she walked solemnly to her bed. Kagome dragged her blanket off of the bed and wrapped it around her quivering cold body. She felt frozen and weak, as though whatever had just happened drained all her energy away. It seemed so real. It felt real.

But of course, she knew it wasn't. It was only a flashback of the past, a vision of the death of her father. She had been having a lot of abysmal dreams lately, but nothing like this one. This one was uncanny and valid. Whatever had just happened was just as realistic as any experience she had ever encountered.

In her dream, Kagome didn't see the murderers, only a black figure that dropped to his knees and let out a painful, echoing scream. Then, as though the wind blew her eyesight away from the scene, she saw a book in her vision.

A vivid picture of a black book in the attic... next to the window...

This part of the reverie did not appear in her former dreams.

She didn't know why she was still so cold, for she could not stop shivering. Teeth chattering, Kagome hazily gazed up at her ceiling, at the attic that was above her room.

The young girl put her hand up, sweeping back her dark raven hair. She wore it long, past her shoulders. Kagome stared blankly at the ceiling, before eventually inching her gaze from it to the window, deep in thought.

The sky was evening blue, with a band of purple across it. The streetlights bronzed the leaves on the trees, and they danced in an unarranged rhythm conducted by the wind.

Kagome closed her eyes, trying to figure out what had sparked the experience in the first place. She opened them again and found herself staring at the broken mirror that was placed upon her desk. She was going to have to clean that up later...

Maybe there was something in the lunch she had...or maybe she just needed fresh air. Her head was aching and her shoulders felt like they'd been crafted out of a rock. She'd definitely experienced something. She could feel the effects even now. Not quite a vision, but beyond doubt more than a dream.

The young girl flinched as the recall of the trance vividly came back to her mind, replaying the dreadful scene of her father's death. Kagome winced at the notion. She couldn't get it out of her mind!

Although her father died two years ago, sometimes, when she was alone, uncontrolled tears would still run down her face she was reminded of it.

For the past two year, she had been fighting to keep her self together. Time faded, but the pain remained the same. It was a painful memory that would live forever on. Every time she closed her eyes, she would unintentionally look back at that day. Even though no words came out from her mouth, behind her eyes, echoes of a broken child rang loudly, crying and screaming of a failing memory. She tried to let it go, but as she licked her wounds, the venom seeped deeper. Her heart had been bruised, and each beat led right back to him.

And all that sorrow and despair would turn into anger for just one second, anger toward him, toward fate. She could still taste the anger, bitter on her tongue like a mouthful of copper. That wretched feeling would run through her veins, and then quickly drain away...back to sorrow and despair. And all the pain she thought she knew would seem like nothing, for this was the greatest pain of all. All she could do was hide inside her mind, where she would pretend that her father was still alive. She would have done anything to prevent him from dying. Anything.

That feeling grew, making her blind to everything. She wouldn't speak to her mother and grandpa. Her own mother's words wouldn't even comfort her, for she stubbornly blocked them out. But Mrs. Higurashi was a woman of patience; she knew her daughter would come around, so she set to wait her out.

And for two years, Mrs. Higurashi thought if she never mentioned the death of her husband under their roof and focus on the 'happy' things in life, she would be able to squash the sorrow out of her daughter. It had worked in some way. She herself wasn't over her husband's death completely neither evidently, but she was able to control her emotions better than her children. She was an adult after all. However, all a widow could do about a feeling like this feeling was to push it to the back of her mind.

But Kagome had grown from it all. The pain didn't hurt so much anymore. She had succeeded in putting some of the grief behind her.

Kagome was in point of fact highly unusual in many ways. For one thing, her grandfather would actually waste time thinking up excuses for Kagome skipping school. For another, she could shoot an arrow that could drill a hole through a mountain. But even though she was different, she still felt the pain that only mere mortals could feel.

Eyes staring blankly at blue-purple sky, the young girl sat in subconsciousness. She felt a tingling feeling in her chest once common sense slowly drifted away from her mind. A dream was simply, a dream.

But possibly this one wasn't?

Kagome squinted her eyes as she wrung her hands together anxiously, absent mindedly deciding if she should go up to the attic and try to figure out what the dream meant. She frowned, dark brows drawing together. The eyes beneath were dark as well, rimmed with a circle of brown. Finally her curiosity got the better of her, and as a result she shut her sore eyes tightly together and then opened them again, hoping that would clear the fog in her mind. Kagome stood up, and paced to her door, leaving the blanket behind on the bed. The cold was receding now, her body was returning to its normal temperature.

Kagome patted her way to the stairs warily, as though she was doing something she shouldn't had been doing. The house was quiet, her mother and Souta were out shopping for groceries and her grandfather was probably taking a nap. Her guard dropped as she eventually realized that there was no need in sneaking, so she dragged her feet up the high wooden stairs.

As soon as she got up to the attic door, the young girl hastily turned the doorknob this way and that, trying to open the jammed door, and finally, with much difficulty, when she slammed it against her shoulder, it crashed open abruptly. Kagome darted forward ineptly as she lost her footing and fell on the dusty wooden floor.

Irritated, bushed and covered in dirt, she scowled out of annoyance as she got up gingerly to her feet and brushed off the dirt she was swathed in.

As soon as she had colleted herself, the young girl searched for the light switch with squinted eyes and finally found it behind cobwebs and dust just like everything else that was in the attic. After brushing the filth off with repugnance, Kagome flipped the light switch on and the attic was gradually lit by a dim but acceptable light.

Somebody really needs to clean this place. Kagome thought as she looked around at the room she was in. The last time she was in the attic was when she and Souta made a deal with grandpa and cleaned it for twenty bucks. But that was like... three years ago. It didn't seem like anybody had been up here since then.

The wooden floor creaked loudly as she walked. The young girl had a disturbing feeling that the floor was going to cave in any minute, but she quickly chased that thought out of her head.

Looking around, she noticed that she was delimited by old furniture; two wooden bookshelves and a metal one, a timber coffee table that seemed like it was chewed and eaten by moths and other little bugs that lived up here. An aged black piano was placed in one corner with most of its paint chipped off. Several boxes and crates were on top among various old insulation materials that were forgotten. Next to the piano were stacks and stacks of old books and a various number of dirty picture frames, alongside an ugly brown couch with a ripped mattress, abutting a few poorly folded carpets, clothes, and sheets of blankets. Other than that, there were only cardboard and wooden boxes that lay around with stuff that looked like mould on top.

A tiny squeak flew into Kagome's ears, she spun around sharply and found something that looked like a rat came running towards her. She jumped into midair in alarm as a tiny squeak escaped her mouth while the rat ran speedily into the piles of boxes, and disappeared out of Kagome's eyesight.

Kagome grunted out of exasperation. Great, demons I can handle but not rats...

Shuddering, more of alarm than fright, Kagome loosely remembered the reason why she came up here. Stimulation replaced annoyance as Kagome turned back around and with a winced face, she made her way to the dirty yellow attic window which the black book was seen next to in her dream. The young girl crouched down as she walked, trying to avoid hitting her head against the slanted roof.

There, lying on the floor was a black object, bathed in evening sunlight that slinked through the dirty window. Partly surprised, Kagome darted toward it, but she needn't to hurry because immediately after she took the first step, she tripped over a crack on the floor and she fell, face forward, and then sided easily across the dusty yet slippery floor.

Dizzy, bruised, and again, covered in dust, Kagome got up to her feet grumpily with an irritated groan.

I hate this!!

The girl spat out the mouthful of dust with a cringed face as she dusted herself clean and brushed off the cobwebs that tangled in her hair. Nose still stinging where it hit the floor, she found herself looking once again at the black book. Her frustration was quickly washed away.

Just like everything else, the book was aged and covered in filth, as though it had been in the attic along with everything else. She could vaguely make out a circle that was drawn on the cover with fainted silver paint

Kagome stared at it blankly for a long time... as if wondering what to do next. She licked her dry lips then let out a slow breath and eventually she inched her gaze from it to her hands. The young girl ran her fingers through her hair; hoping that would ease the heaving in her chest, then bend down to pick up the black book with care.

Her hands quivered with poorly suppressed excitement, but part of her was having a hard time comprehending all of this. She had a vision- or dream, or whatever it was, of her father dying and this mysterious black book in the attic, she came up here just out of curiosity, not really expecting to stumble on the book (well, part of her somewhat did), and then she actually came across it.

Could there be a connection between her father's death and this book?

Something stirred within of her. A agitated feeling...yet it was varied with a flicker of uncertainty.

Her hands felt entirely too numb, and as the strength were drained away by surprise, her hands accidentally dropped the book. Kagome let out a small shocked gasp as the heavy book hit the floor with a loud thump. Her hands went up to her mouth then it turned into a fist as she listened cautiously.

Good, no one heard that...she thought after a while of silence as she let out a sigh of relief. Kagome picked up the black weighty book and thenwithout any more wavering, she quickly glanced around the room, searching for a place to set the book on. Her eyes landed upon a wooden box that didn't seem to have too much cobwebs and mould on it. Consequently she paddled her way to the box and placed the book upon it. The young girl tried to blow the dust off of the cover but then coughed as dust invaded her lungs. Ceasing in trying to blow, she wiped away the deep layer of filth that covered the book. The covers were made out of leather, real or fake, she couldn't tell. Kagome cleared her throat, and then flapped her hands, trying to scatter the dust before digging her fingers under the cover to open it.

She opened it to the first page... it was blank...

The door open and then closed deep down below the floor.

Kagome froze.

"Kagome?!" her mother's muffled voice called her name from two floors below her. Kagome's body quickly softened, as she slapped the book shut and took it with her without much thought. She cradled the book in her arms and walked swiftly out of the room, down two stairs and into the kitchen.

"What is that?" Souta questioned with arched eyebrows, pointing to the big black book his sister was holding.

"Nothing!" Kagome countered quickly as she set the book face down on the dinner table.

Mrs. Higurashi twirled around with spice bottles in her hands to find Kagome in the kitchen.

"Oh! I didn't even hear you coming," She said with a smile on her face then she turned around again to put the spice in the cabinets.

Souta threw Kagome a suspicious look at her quick counter as he reached into one of the groceries bags, fumbled around it for a few moments and then pulled out two long broccolis.

Kagome ignored her brother's suspicion and switched her attention back to her mother, who was having a hard time organizing the packed spice cabinet.

"So, what did you want me to do?" she asked lightly

"Huh? Oh." Mrs. Higurashi twirled her head back and forth hastily. Finally she gave up organizing the jam-packed cabinet and then practically threw in the two remaining spice bottles as she let out a quick sigh. She ran a hand through her short hair then quickly turned her head to Souta, who was tapping the two broccolis he had against the counter as if making up his own hip-hop tune, and let out a tough grunt infrequently. His mother reached over and covered Souta's hand with her own, damping down his groove and silencing the broccolis before she turned her head to her daughter.

"Put all that food into the fridge, would you dear?" Mrs. Higurashi said with a smile.

llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

Kagome threw the broken mirror in the trash and swept up the remaining broken pieces carefully, then jumped over to the trash can and tossed them in as well.

The girl turned off the light and walked quietly to her bed. She puffed her pillows and then turned around to switch on her bed-side lamp.

Feeling a little hot, she went to the window, and opened it into the quad below. The streetlights were on, adding to the light that the moon had already given the dark. She felt the wind prickling her arm hair as she shivered and walked to her bed to drag the blanket off of it. Pulling the edges straight, she wrapped it loosely around herself. The girl let cool and fresh air fill the room, and then shut the window close idly.

Kagome leisurely walked back to her bed and yawned. She wasn't really sleepy, just tired.

The girl bended down and slid her arms under the bed, pulling out the black book she found earlier in the attic. She stood up and climbed on the bed, pulled the covers over her legs as she sat cross-legged with the book in her lap.

Kagome let out a slow, but tense breath as she opened the book to the first page. It was as blank as when she first found if in the attic. She turned to the second page.

That was blank too.

Her brows drew together as she held every page in her hand and flipped through them.

They were all filed with nothingness...wait...

Kagome thought she saw color on one of the pages she flipped through. Her brows parted and her heart leaped with growing excitement as she turned her fingers to flip back all the sheets of paper very slowly with heed.

Her growing anticipation reached over its stopping point when her eyes lay on a page full of words. The page appeared to be right in the middle of the book, filled with writing that was in beautiful letters.

A contented smile slowly curved upon her face. She found something.

Astonishment then struck as she began reading the text. Her smiling lips gradually parted as her eyes widened. Her eyes fell upon something that made her chest pound violently.

Kagome's stare followed every letter with care, confirming her understanding of the text on the page.

'A second chance to live through and perhaps change an experience in the past... the change will not affect the present for the change will occur in a different worldly dimension... useful to one who has perhaps lost something or someone...'

Below those awed words was something that looked like a spell.

She's been through enough to know that spells and magic are in fact, very real. But maybe this one was a fake? No, it was more likely that it was real. At least it looked real. But still, there is a very big chance that it was a fake...

Kagome shut her eyes stiffly, trying to systematize the fight between thoughts in her mind. She lifted up her winced face and gulped.

As big a chance as that the spell was in fact, a counterfeit, she still had a VERY strong feeling that it was not. But how could she be sure unless she actually tried it?

Nonetheless, a deep feeling was sure that it was real...that same feeling that knew that the dream she had earlier was more than a mere dream.

Her hands shook so violently she could have torn the page right out. She could hardly breathe.

"Change the past?" Kagome breathed then paused as her brows drew together even closer as she let out a split breath. She has never even thought about that. The idea was just too strong. To use magic to get what you want?

"Daddy..."

lllllllllllllllllllllllll

Across space and across time, Kagome's stunned reflection echoed vividly upon the white mirror. Ashen pale hands held the reflection, and behind it vividly appeared Kanna's emotionless and bland face.

Faint footsteps strolled towards to entrance, increasing louder and louder as it made its way. A shadowy figure appeared behind the translucent glided flaps of doors. The opening slowly unfurled as he pulled it open. He let himself into the dark room, and made his way unhurriedly across the room, to Kanna as well as the young girl who was reflected through the mirror. Kanna turned around and faced his companion, whose features were as vice as ever.

The figure held an almost completed Shikon Jewel in his hand, clutching it with hungry greed. He then let the jewel be hidden, covered by his saggy long sleeve. Without any more delay, he spoke in his malicious voice.

"Has she found it?" he asked fervently as he looked across at Kanna with hooded eyes.

Without answer, the white soulless demon girl stood on the cold hard stone floor, eyes fixed to Kagome's reflection. Her eyesight vision was then shared by another, whose stone facials steadily changed without awareness.

The dark stone castle stood on its platform alone and solitarily. Creatures of any sort were known to keep away from it, for inside a prevailing demon stood, alongside with his incarnation, watching a girl who was unaware of her inspection.

There, deep inside his empty castle, while the rest of the nightly world was in deep sleep, a malevolent scheme was at play.

Bitter thunderous rain began pouring down outside of the castle, striking and hitting the walls as though trying to knock in. Wind howled stridently, carrying away anything in its way. Grey clouds roofed the dark sky, overcrowding the moonlight from illuminating its shimmering light upon the sinister castle.

Neither of the two demons took notice nor paid heed to the happenings outside of their dome, as their watch was both glued to the mirrored sitting girl who had a black book in her lap. The dark figure increasingly took his eyes of the mirror as he walked easily and inaudibly across the room.

Kanna's white body shined stoutly in the dark room, lighting it with a dim glow. Her eyes were then fixed upon her master instead of the young human girl, following his moves.

The master curved his face about once again to look at his servant. A frosty depraved smile gradually emerged on his satisfied face. The first step of his vice plan was flawlessly completed.

"Perfect..."

AN: Remember in that episode when Kagura asked Sesshoumaru for help? And Naraku found out from Kanna's mirror? Well, I figured if the mirror could show things from across space, why not (in my story) across time too?

Anyway, Inuyasha and everybody else will appear in the next chapter. And let me tell ya now that you are going to be REALLY- (what's the word I'm looking for...?) –surprised, because...oh you'll see. :)