Into the Darkness
By: Melissa Bonnar
Chapter 1: reminded of the past
She ran through the thick brush of the forest floor, trying not to trip. Sweat dripped down her forehead,she looked behind her and saw the shadow still chasing her, she tripped on tree roots. When she looked up she saw that is was the "tree" an important tree. Soon she saw the shadow standing over her with blood dripping claws, the blood was from her own arm from earlier. The shadow was now visible, the silver haired devil wearing a red kimono, his red eyes glaring ever so glowingly.
His lips moved slowly as his fangs stuck out of his mouth. "Kagome...die!"
Kagome was heartbroken. "Inuyasha!"
The alarm clock buzzed in her ears. She got up and put a pink robe around her silk pink pajamas, she went to make the bed when she saw blood everywhere on the sheet and blanket. She turned her attention to her arm, it was bloody, and still bleeding, she was terror-stricken. Kagome took her sheet and blanket off of her bed and put them in the wash, then cleaned the wound that mysteriously appeared. Then she went down the hall and stopped at a black door, she opened it quietly and walked inside, the carpet was black with white walls. In a black bed was Kagome's 14 yearold daughter, Kagome went to her daughter's side and gently shook her awake.
"Wake up Anori." She gently whispered in Anori's ear.
Anori opened her eyes, Kagome looked at them in fear, the golden eyes were so familiar in her mind from when times were good between Inuyasha and herself. She didn't let her daughter see the fear in her face though.
"Come on, get dressed, I'll make breakfast. Kay?"
"Sounds good mom." Anori sat up in bed and looked around to the familiar settings as her mother closed her bedroom door behind her, the posters of good metal rock bands hung on her wall, her computer, TV, stereo, and bedside table. She got up and walked to her own bathroom, she took her morning shower letting her long black hair fall to the middle of her back. After that she got out and dressed in a pair of black flared pants with chains on them, a black shirt with a band on it, and slipped on her black hoddy, then put on a pair of socks and her black and pink converse. She brushed her long hair, half of her face covered by her hair, she put on eyeliner, put on the necklace of a purple jewel her mother gave to her, and got her black book bag and took one last look at the person in the mirror. Anori saw black hair, gold eyes, the corner of her lip was pierced so was her left eyebrow once. Anori wasn't always like this, she used to love playing games with her mother and father, but just a year ago she found out that the man she thought was her father really wasn't her father. Then she took a break down and became what she is now, she only had one friend, Aki, he went to her school with her, he was just like her, except he didn't go through the same thing. Anori didn't know who her real father was, her mother just said that he left them. Anori walked down for breakfast, when she got down there, she heard her mother on the phone with her step-father Kakashi.
"...I don't want to hear why you weren't here last night Kakashi! I don't care, I'm taking my stuff and leaving you with my daughter..."
"Come on Kagome I'll be home later, I promise..." Kakashi said. Then a woman's voice was heard in the background.
"Good Bye Kakashi. I won't be here when you get here."
Kagome hung up and put her head in her lap, she raised her head to see Anori.
"I'm sorry Anori, come on eat, then go to school, after school go to grandma Higoroshi's 'kay." Kagome said putting some pancakes on Anori's plate.
Anori shook her head and sat down, she wasn't really hungry but she didn't want to make her mother upset, so she figured she could choke down a few.
When she was done she got her bag, kissed her mother on the cheek and went out the door. She met Aki at the school doors, he greeted her as usual with the "Hey", Anori didn't reply today she just walked with him inside the tall school building. The normal student anounced whats been happening of the intercom when they walked in.
"Welcome to another boring day of Kyoto middle school, as you know..."
Anori stopped listening and looked over a Aki. "I'm bored with this place, now I'm going to have to stay with my grandma and mom, she split it up with Kakashi."
"Finally? Wow didn't think she'd have the guts."
"Me niether but she pulled through, she was getting started on packing before I left. Anyways see ya 3rd hour." Anori walked into her first hour class. People watched as she took her seat, they stared at her with hatred. The day went by fast, by lunch time she had seen Aki again. Anori got her lunch and sat down outside next to Aki, they talked for a while, then ate and went back to her normal schedual for the rest of the day.
Kagome was packing her stuff, she was already done with Anori's things, she had all of their stuff packed in a matter of hours. She then loaded the suitcases and boxes into her van and drove to her mother's house in Higure Shrine. Kagome parked the van in the lot and walked into her mother's house.
"Mom, I'm here, with the stuff." Kagome said holding a box.
"Alright dear, I'll help you with your things." She said. She had aged quite well, Kagome's mother's beutiful black hair had turned grey/black, wrinkles were visible under her dark brown eyes. She had aged unlike Kagome, who still looked 15 years old, she just dressed differently.
"No mom, you'll hurt yourself again, I will get the things, I can handle it don't worry I'm stronger then when I was younger mom." Kagome said forceing a smile upon her face.
"You were stronger when you faught demons in the Fuedal Era..."
A painful look apeared on Kagome's face, yet she forced words out. "Mother, please don't bring anything up infront of Anori, okay?"
"...Fine, I won't bring anything up infront of her, but you know that question about who her father really is, is gonna show up sooner or later."
"I know but for now she is fine." Kagome went back outside and got the rest of the things moved in the house. As was taking her last suitcase inside, she looked over past the tall tree to a small hut, painful memories flowed into her head. Kagome turned in horror and walked up to the house. It was getting dark and Kagome was now outside sitting on the top of the tall stairs looking for a sign of Anori.
Anori was with Aki after school, they went to the hang out where you'd usually see goth, punk, skater, and thrash teenagers go after school. Music was always playing there, and just teenagers having fun, dancing, eating, playing video games, and talking. It wasn't that Anori was gothic or anything else like that, she didn't know what she was.
"Aki its getting late, I'm gonna head home, see ya tomarrow, okay."
"Alright Anori, bye." Aki smiled at her.
Anori said good bye to some other people she knew there and walked out the door. It was on the side of a building in a alley. Anori wasn't scared, 'cause now it was pitch black outside, her grandmother's house was about 4 blocks away. Anori and Aki have been best friends since they were 6 years old, and they never got in a huge fight or anything. They cut their index finger once and put their blood together and promised they would never lie, fight, or keep anything from each other no matter what. The cuts on their fingers scared because they cut too deep, Anori looked at her finger, she remembered how things used to be. Suddenly a sound from a dark alley ,two blocks away from the one she emerged from, she looked into it she saw a mysterious shadow. It was a person she walked into the alley.
"Do you need help?" She asked, cursed kindness from her mother.
The shadow did not reply, but it did growl like an animal.
"Do you need any help?" She repeated.
"Die..." It said. It was a girls voice.
Anori got scared then, but that didn't stop her ever-running mouth.
"What the hell did I do to you!" She yelled, realizing she was stupid.
"Father hates you for being a half breed." She said ever so coldly, then dissapeared like a flashing blur.
Anori was frozen with mixed emotions, fear and hatred swept over her like an invisible blanket.
Anori walked back home, she saw her mother at the top of the steps, she said nothing as she passed her. Kagome got up and grabbed Anori's arm.
"What is your problem Anori, I don't like you out after nine o'clock, you know that." Kagome said in a fearful voice.
"Not now mother, I've heard this same lecture many times, let me be now." Anori walked into the house and went into the kitchen to get something to drink. Her grandmother was sitting at the kitchen table drinking awful herb tea she always makes. Anori went to the refrigerator and looked in it, there were bottles of fresh mountain water, she took one and took a drink.
"Where am I staying gran?" Anori asked tiredly.
"In your uncle Sota's old room, since you don't like your mother's old pink room. Your things are already in there, all you have to do is unpack."
"Okay, I'm taking a shower, and unpack. So I will probly not see you untill tomarrow, I'm glad its the weekend. See ya gran." Anori said as she walked out of the kitchen and up the stairs. She was familiar with the rooms here, and walked in her uncle Sota's former room which was now hers. She got her clothes for a shower and went into the bathroom and took her shower.
Kagome walked in the house after standing under the tall tree that has watched over the shrine for thousands of years. She walked into the kitchen where her mother was still drinking tea.
"Hey mom." She greeted her mother.
"Oh hi Kagome. Anori went to take a shower and then unpack."
"Okay, there is something wrong with her, she didn't argue with me when I tried to lecture her...she just said 'not now mom'...thats not like her." Kagome said looking worried.
"She'll be fine, she has your strength, but what I want to know is when she transforms one night, what are you going to tell her, just flat out that she is a half demon? She won't handle that the right way Kagome." Her mother paused to take a sip of tea. "One night she will transform, and there is nothing you can do about that, the closer she is to that well her transformation nears ever more."
"How do you know all of this mother?" Kagome asked puzzlingly.
"Oh me and In...talked about it once when you were at school, I asked him what would happen if you and him had a child."
After Anori got out of the shower, she remembered she left her book outside near the huge tree.
Anori went outside, sneeking past her gram and mother. When she got near the tree and grabbed her book, she felt the weirdest sense drawling her to turn and look at the creepy old hut.
"What the heck, oh well it couldn't hurt to check it out...just for a minute." Anori said walking over to the hut, she drew back the sliding door and peered inside. It was empty, she walked all the way inside, and there visible from the light of the moon shining in through the hole in the roof was a well. Anori walked over to the old well, she touched the wood at the mouth of it. She laid her book down on the steps of the hut and put one leg over the mouth of the well, she noticed there was a rope ladder on the side, she trusted it and stepped but once all of her weight was on it it snaped. Anori hit the bottom hard.
"Ouch...stupid well, stupid ladder, stupid ground..." She grunted, standing up.
She stood and looked around, it was too dark to see anything. Suddenly her purple jewel necklace started to glow a bright purple, and all around her glew up too, the ground disappeared and she was floating in a void. Anori held her necklace tightly in her hand, it made her think of when her mother first gave her the jewel.
"Anori, you're the most important person to me in the world, I want to give you something, hold out your hand and close your eyes." Kagome had said.
"Okay mommy." Young Anori replied giggly.
Kagome put the purple jewel in Anori's hand.
"Okay open your eyes."
"Oh mommy its beautiful!" Anori hugged her mother. Kagome tied the neckalce on Anori's neck.
"Never more beautiful than you. Never take it off 'kay?"
"I won't mommy."
That seemed so long ago, and since then Anori had never taken off the necklace.
The well stablized and Anori's feet were touching the ground again. The well looked different though, were the broken rope ladder was is now a group of vines. Anori climbed up the vines, ignoring the fact that they weren't there before. When she got to the top she looked around, she was in a small clearing surrounded by a forest, the full moon shining brightly.