Chapter One: Through the Well Once Again
Satoshi Higurashi found himself standing in the doorway of the Higurashi Shrine once again. The last time he had been there he was only a boy, about ten or eleven. Now a grown man, he smiled at the sight of the well that had been the source of all the wonderful memories of his childhood. It had been twenty six years since he left for America. Now he had returned, but not alone. Behind him at the van were his wife and daughter, both of whom he had told the strange tales of his great-grandfather. "Come and see!" he called to them. "This is the well I was telling you about! I can't believe it's still here.." he murmured excitedly as they came to him.
His wife, Joanna, stood by him in awe. "Wow…it's just like you described it, except maybe a little dustier. This place has such a magical feel about it, don't you think Sara?" she asked the girl behind her cheerfully.
The girl raised her eyebrows skeptically and stepped inside. She stared at the wooden structure with her arms crossed, a look of fake concentration on her tan face. "I'm so impressed. Congrats, Dad, this is the grossest, spookiest well I've ever seen." She turned immediately and walked towards the huge tree not far away from the shrine.
"Sara!" her mother scolded. "This place is very special to your father. And you loved hearing the stories about that girl…oh what was her name…didn't you say you wanted to be her?"
Sara glared at her mother coldly. "Yeah, when I was, like, six! I've grown up now, and I don't care about some stupid family stories…"
Satoshi looked sad. He never outgrew the stories, not even while going through his moody teenage years in a new country. They had always been his source of hope, his comfort when he was feeling negative. It broke his heart to hear his own daughter cut down his family tradition.
The moody fifteen-year-old came to a stop in front of the gargantuan tree. She looked up at it, and her face was suddenly filled with respect and wonder instead of creases of hatred. The branches swayed slowly in the breeze as if it were painful to move them, and she was reminded of an old man with arthritis in every bone in his body. She wondered just how old the tree was. A thought swam to the surface of her mind, a memory of the stories; she fanned it away before it had time to take shape.
A leaf fell gracefully from one of the topmost branches, circling as it descended. It came to rest on Sara's shoulder, as if welcoming her with a fragile offering. She frowned at it and brushed it off, walking away before it even hit the ground. She slammed the door behind her and stomped up to her new room, which was bare except for a bed, a dresser with a vanity mirror, and half a dozen boxes filled with her old things. She collapsed on her bed in a huff and stared around the room, laying out a mental plan for her possessions.
Later that night, after dark had fallen, she crept outside and scooped up the leaf, putting it in her jewelry box.
…
Almost thirty years earlier, Satoshi and his father had moved to America in hopes of finding better schools and job opportunities. Satoshi had finally found a school of architecture close to his home and after graduating college found the love of his life- Joanna. She was a famous painter, and did some of her best work based on the Japanese style or of Japanese-type scenery. That's what sparked the idea of moving back to his original home in Satoshi's head. The idea was turned into a reality when his only daughter was born. Since she could walk and talk she had shown a passionate interest in her father's native culture, and the day her mother made her her first kimono, she immediately asked, "Can we go to a fireworks festival now?"
"Yes…" her father had replied, with a slightly dazed tone. "Yes, let's." It was truly meant to be, because his firm at work was requesting volunteers to study different styles of modern and historic architecture abroad. Satoshi all too eagerly agreed to go to Japan with his team, who were also willing to travel around the world. Two of his colleagues were especially close to him; their daughters were Sara's best friends.
David Gregory had two daughters, one Sara's age and one a year younger. Teresa was the older and had short light brown hair and hazel eyes. She acted very mature for her age but was very sensitive and open with her emotions, so she made friends easily. Katherine, or Katie, was the younger, who looked almost identical to her sister with the exception of her hair, which flowed down just below her waist. She had a firey personality and was quick to act (sometimes too quick) and always spoke what was on her mind.
Mark Connelly had three daughters and a son, but only one daughter (the oldest) came with him to Japan. The other children chose to live with their mother (they had divorced several years ago). The girl, Sadie, was Sara's age and was also her oldest friend. She was part Spanish and was teased because of her heritage. Sara befriended her immediately because she also had split cultures. Sadie had thick dark brown hair cut just above her shoulders and deep brown eyes to match. The Mexican side of her was firey like Katie, but she also had a healthy mix of compassion and protectiveness when it came to her friends.
Sara balanced them all out fairly well. She was shorter than the rest (barely) so in respect to her roots her friends lovingly referred to her as Sara-chan. Her hair was a sandy blonde color and waved slightly at the ends. Her eyes were green with a slight bluish tint. She was quiet and shy and respectful, but as of late her attitude had unexplainably shifted to BRAT when she was around her parents. Despite her love for the oriental country, it was unbearably hard to leave her homeland, so she felt anger towards them. But as soon as she was alone, she returned to the quiet, good-natured girl she had always been. She felt sort of bad about the way she treated her family, but she just couldn't stop herself.
And so the three men decided to move together, to keep their inseparable daughters together and to further their foreign knowledge of art and architecture. The houses they purchased were all within walking distance of each other. Within three weeks, the families were more or less settled, now taking the time to relax and meet other people in the neighborhood.
…
"Are you sure we should be in here?"
"Yeah, this place looks pretty unstable, like it could collapse at any second…"
"Oh quit your whining you big babies. It's just an old well," Sara said to the two Gregory sisters, who stood hesitantly at the entrance to the shrine. Sadie was curiously inspecting the little slips of paper decorating the wood surface while Sara was coaxing the other girls to join them.
"What are these things again?" Sadie asked, poking one cautiously. "I know you've told us before, but I can't remember the exact pronunciation…"
"Sutras," the blonde girl replied in a dull voice, like she'd rehearsed the words a thousand times, "that're supposed to repel evil demons from coming through. My great-great-grandfather sure had a wild imagination." Her hand hovered over one of the spells momentarily, as if about to touch it, but withdrew quickly.
"Do you think that's true? That the spells are the only things keeping demons from coming back through?" Teresa asked in awe. She had always been a supernatural fanatic.
"No, that's just a story. Demons and monsters and evil spirits don't exist," Sadie said matter-of-factly, dusting off her hands.
"Sadie, don't touch them!" Katie cried, running to shove her hands away from the well.
"What's the matter? Afraid?" Sadie challenged.
"No, but still! It's way too creepy in here…and dusty."
"Yeah, I can't breathe. Let's go back into the house and watch TV or something," Teresa suggested, turning to face the stairs.
Sara frowned in disappointment at her friends. "But I thought you wanted to see the well my dad all told us about when we were younger."
"Yeah we see it, let's—"
"Just admit it! You're weirded out by it!" Sara said. She walked dramatically over to the well and hoisted herself up on it, crossing her legs and arms defiantly.
"EEP! You're cursed now! You're going to be haunted by demon spirits for all eternity!" Teresa cried. After a few seconds of stunned silence all four girls burst out laughing, muttering in between giggles what kind of monster would visit them in the night.
As soon as Sara had touched the well, the sutras had trembled and slowly disintegrated into ashes while the girls laughed. A strange wind seemed to stir in the small room, making the girls' hair stand on end. A low rumble emitted from the little wooden well, starting out as a painful creak then growing into almost a roar.
The girls stumbled backwards and forwards and every other direction as the whole place started to tremble. "What the heck is going on!" Sadie demanded, latching on to the wall for support.
Teresa screamed and fell to her knees, rocking back and forth. "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God…" she muttered, squeezing her eyes tightly shut.
Katie made her way over to her sister and kneeled over her. "Sara, if this is some sort of joke, it isn't funny! Please stop!"
Sara was gripping the edge of the well so hard her knuckles were white, as was her face. "I have no idea what's going on! Everybody get out of here!"
The words hardly left her lips when the sound of splintering wood crashed from behind them. They all turned just in time to see the top of the well being torn off and thrown through the air. Sara barely had time to duck as it sailed just inches over her head and smashed into thousands of pieces against the wall behind her.
Teresa and Katie screamed hysterically. Sara just stood there in her stooped position, feeling sort of numb. That could have been me… she thought incredulously.
"Are you all right!" Sadie cried, the panic apparent in her abnormally high voice.
Sara nodded weakly. "I think so," she had to yell to be heard over the strange roar and the now ravenous wind. She was cut off by more cries of terror and turned around only to let out a terrified scream of her own. Emerging from the well was something large, green, and scaly. It looked cylindrical but tapered to a point at its tip. After thrashing about wildly for a moment, the whatever-it-was shot forward, knocking Sara off her feet with such force that she flew several feet through the air and skidded to a stop after a painful landing on her side.
The other girls screamed, watching in helpless horror as their friend crashed to the ground. Sadie, who was the closest, ran forward, yelling in rage, and sunk her nails into the creepy tentacle-like thing, planning to rip it apart. She hardly penetrated the surface though, for she found the scales were as hard as rocks. She heard a strange noise like air leaking out of a balloon and the thing wrapped around her arm, lifted her into the air, and threw her against a wall, nearly knocking her unconscious. Katie and Teresa could hardly move, just watching in shock that froze them like ice.
The thing released Sadie, who collapsed to the ground with a hollow thud, and moved slowly to Sara, who hadn't moved. It coiled slowly around her waist and lifted her, pulling her lifeless body towards the well.
"Oh no you don't!" Katie cried with a sudden rage that melted her frozen fear into flaming courage. She grabbed Sara's arms and tried to pull her away from the beastlike thing, only to feel her feet sliding from under her. She suddenly felt arms wrap around her waist. Teresa grabbed her sister and began pulling also. "Plant your feet!" she said, trying to hide the strain in her voice. "We can't let it get her!"
Sadie, who was just barely conscious, slowly pushed herself to her feet. She wobbled over to the well and took hold of Sara's arm with one hand and Teresa's middle with the other. The three of them pulled with all their might. The evil coiled thing of death (author note: MWAHA! Thing of death… ahem…okay continue) began pulling even harder as well. It became a painful tug-of-war match between three teenage girls and a giant green tentacle. Quite suddenly, with one terrifyingly strong jerk, the thing yanked the three girls off their feet and into the well. Still holding onto Sara and each other, they screamed and began kicking the thing with their now unoccupied feet.
Busy with their struggles, none of them noticed Sara's eyes flutter open. Trying to ignore the almost unbearable pain in her ribs, she noticed the green scaly thing wrapped around her middle. She took a deep breath of air to scream, but stopped short at the pain that this simple action caused. Staring helplessly at it, and feeling it tighten uncomfortably around her, she followed it with her eyes; it was long and winding…no, coiling…it was slightly yellowish on one side. She continued to follow it until she found herself staring into two enormous glowing yellow eyes. The eyes were attached to a wide, flat head with two slits for a nose and dangerously sharp fangs, dripping with a yellowish liquid. She was staring into the eyes of an enormous and angry looking snake!
This time even her pain couldn't stop her scream. The other girls looked up, surprised that their friend was awake. "You're awake! Oh, thank goodness!" Teresa exclaimed in a relieved tone.
"What are you staring at…AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Katie's voice echoed strangely as she finally noticed the giant snake.
"WHAT THE HELL?" Sadie cried.
"What's going on?" Sara cried desperately. She noticed they were surrounded by a bluish glow and seemed to be floating. "Where are we?"
"In the well…I think," Teresa said, her voice trembling. The others seemed to have not noticed any of this before.
"Enough senseless talking."
They heard an unfamiliar voice, that seemed to be accompanied by a rasping hiss. Looking around, they heard it again, laughing and hissing maliciously.
"That snake…is talking!" Katie yelled in a high-pitched voice. Looking up, they realized this was true, for as the voice laughed the snake's tongue flicked in and out.
"You foolish humans," the snake continued, narrowing its piercing yellow eyes. "You should not have decided to take me on in battle. Now you shall all have to die. But first…" Its gaze drifted to the girl in its tight grasp. "..You have something I want. Give it to me."
Sara began to shiver in fear. "W-what? What are you talking about? I don't have anything!" she insisted, searching her mind desperately for anything this giant snake could possibly want from her.
"You have it. I thought it had disappeared from existence long before my father's time, but I can sense it. Give it to me or I will extract it from you myself." The snake flicked its tongue at the trembling girl, touching her cheek and running it down to her neck.
Sara squeezed her eyes shut, repulsed, and jerked away. "EWW! Let go of me! Get away!" she screamed, and she began to struggle violently, tortured by the pain in her ribs.
Sadie and Katie began to resume their kicking at the beast while Teresa tried to pry Sara's coils loose the slightest bit so she could wriggle out. That didn't work out so well.
About this time the five of them started to feel the effects of gravity and the bluish glow ceased. They all hit the ground, which was warm and mushy like soil and dust. The impact seemed to affect even the great snake, which loosened its grip on Sara ever so slightly. She shot out of its clutches like she just sat on a nail, and began to climb some old vines that were growing along the sides of the well. Her chest was hurting like nothing she had ever felt before, but her adrenaline was pumping so hard she couldn't stop. Just keep moving, she kept telling herself. Keep moving and praying. Moving and praying… She could hear and feel her heart pounding in her chest, which worsened the pain, and she heard her friend's cries of "keep going!" and "don't give up!" and the snake's angry hiss as it realized it had been fooled. She felt something (one guess what) grab her leg but with one last pull she freed herself and launched herself over the edge of the well.
Looking around though, she began to wonder if she had really been in the well at all.
She had fallen to her knees not at the foot of the dusty stairs that led out of the small shrine room, but on soft, warm grass. She found herself looking at a pure turquoise sky dotted with fluffy white clouds, framed by tall, strong trees and other shrubs and bushes and plantlife. It was like stepping into a nature documentary about what Japan was like before it was industrialized. It appeared that she was on the edge of a dense forest, and she could hear birds, squirrels, and other wildlife twitting about from within its protective barrier of branches. Confused, she forcefully pushed herself to her feet and looked around her in all directions. "…huh?" she couldn't help but mutter under her breath. It was the most beautiful place she had ever seen.
Just then she heard a hiss behind her and turned, seeing the giant serpent charging out of the well right toward her. Sara heard more cries of "hurry!" and "run!" from inside the well. She hesitated for only a fraction of a second to glance at the opening of the well, wanting to help her friends, but the snake snapped at her, barely missing her right shoulder, so she decided to worry about that later. She took off as fast as her bruised ribs would allow and ran down what looked like a path of some kind. This thing only seems to be after me, she thought, trying to increase or at least maintain her speed, so maybe if I run away, the others can get back safely. With these thoughts urging her on, she leapt over a fallen log, once again barely avoiding the speeding serpent's swift strike. (Say that five times fast. I dare ya.)
…
A boy sat in the topmost branches of a tree, his arms folded behind his inclined head. With his eyes closed, his other senses seemed more alert. He always wondered why this was. He learned long ago that sometimes you couldn't always trust your eyes. The memory of that long forgotten incident stung his heart. He pushed it away quickly. I promised her I wouldn't cry…
A faint noise caught his attention. His ears twitched as he focused in on it, his brow furrowed in curious concentration. It got louder…it sounded like running footsteps and something dragging the ground. A really heavy something. A scream sliced through the peaceful murmur of the forest, and about a hundred birds scattered out of a nearby tree. He opened his amber eyes tentatively and rose to his feet, his right hand automatically hovering above the handle of his sword. He detected movement in the bushes just below him to the right, and the source of all the commotion suddenly burst forth into the clearing.
It was a human girl, running unsteadily like she was off balance. She held her side like it was injured. Directly behind her was a huge snake demon, its tongue lashing out furiously, slowly gaining on the girl. She looked behind her quickly and gasped, seeing how much closer the reptile had gotten. She suddenly stumbled, her exhausted legs unable to carry her any farther, and fell face first into the grassy carpet. Rolling herself onto her back, she screamed as the snake lunged at her, jaws wide open with the lethal fangs ready to tear her to pieces.
Suddenly a figure leapt down from above, striking the snake with a force that sent it flying into the trunk of a nearby tree. It sunk to the ground in a crumpled heap, then shook its ugly head and charged at its new unwanted opponent. The figure drew a sword, which transformed into a huge fang, and leapt into the air. As the snake lunged, the sword was raised above its master's head, then brought down swiftly, neatly slicing the reptilious demon down the middle.
Sara shrieked as the two halves of the snake fell on either side of her. Looking up with a wild jerk of her head, she saw her savior as he descended back to earth after his triumphant kill. It was a boy that looked only a few years older than herself. He had strangely long silver hair flowing out behind him as he fell. He was looking at her with oddly handsome amber eyes, with thin slits for pupils. He wore a red kimono and his feet were bare. As he made contact with the ground, he sheathed his huge sword, which returned to normal size, and stared fixedly at her.
The girl stared back at him with wide, fear-filled eyes. He found her very odd looking. She had gold hair, whereas all other human females he had ever seen had black hair. Her eyes were strange too; they were pale green like the ocean instead of brown. Her skin was just barely darker too. She wore a pink shirt and strange blue pants. Wait a minute, he had seen those kinds of clothes before, but only in one place. His eyes widened.
"You came from the well, didn't you?" he demanded harshly.
She looked startled. "W-what?"
"Did-you-come-from-the-well?" he asked slowly, pronouncing each syllable with annoyed exaggeration.
The strange girl nodded. "Well, yeah. That huge snake came out of the well and dragged my friends and me to this weird place…"
"What! There are more of you?" he demanded with a hint of annoyance.
Just then three girls came up from behind him. "Sara!" they called in unison. Sara and the strange boy turned to look at them. They ran past him as if he weren't there and went straight to Sara.
"Oh thank goodness you're all right!" Teresa cried, collapsing into Sara's arms and sobbing with relief.
"We thought for sure that it had gotten you after we couldn't hear your screams!" Katie burst out, also kneeling beside her friend, putting a hand on her back.
Sadie's lip trembled, like she was about to cry. "Don't…don't ever do that to me again!" she yelled, fighting back her tears. "I thought you were dead! I would've killed myself if something had happened to you!" She practically fell on Sara and buried her face in the poor girl's shoulder, finally letting go over her restrained emotion.
"Feh! You bunch of weaklings were afraid of that little demon?"
They looked up, apparently noticing the boy for the first time.
"He was no big deal compared to most of the creeps roaming around these parts. You'd better get back to the well and forget about this place." He pouted sternly, staring at each of them with a commanding air.
"Hey, who are you?" Sadie asked rather rudely.
"And how do you know we came out of that well?" Katie asked.
Sara was studying him closely, while trying to pry Teresa off of her throbbing bruised ribs. She suddenly noticed something very peculiar about him. "What the…you have dog ears and fangs!" she exclaimed.
The aforementioned ears twitched slightly. He frowned, apparently upset by this remark. "Yeah, what of it? I got claws too. You want me to show you how they work?" he asked, cracking his knuckles ominously.
"Hey, wait just one minute! You just saved me! Why are you suddenly threatening me?" Sara asked.
"This rude guy saved you?" Sadie asked.
"Yeah…he sliced that snake in half just a minute ago," she replied, pointing to the severed body lying around her.
The girls recoiled in disgust at the dead body.
"You really need to go back to where you came from. How did you get through here anyway?" he asked impatiently.
"I told you, that giant snake pulled us through," Sara replied.
"But how did the snake get through? What happened to the sutras that were on there?" he demanded.
"Sutras…oh those paper things…they were there all right, but then something weird happened and they disappeared," Katie said.
"Disappeared?"
"Yes. Then that snake came out of the well and grabbed Sara," Teresa said.
The boy looked like he was in deep thought. "It must have taken someone with great powers to destroy those seals. They were placed there by her brother…he was the strongest priest I had ever known besides that lecherous monk…"
Sara assumed he was talking about her great-great-grandfather Sota. Suddenly her eyes got wide as she had a flashback from her young childhood. As the boy in red stood there scratching his head, she remembered her grandfather showing her a picture that Sota had drawn when he was only in third grade. It was a badly done drawing of his hero, the brave dog warrior. The warrior was dressed all in red, had white hair and doggy ears, and a huge sword like a fang. Sara stared at the boy in front of her in amazement.
"It can't be…" she mumbled. "You must be though, there's no mistaking the likeness!"
He raised an eyebrow. "What are you going on about?"
"You're the one from my great-great-grandfather's stories! You're the great dog warrior!"
He looked at her like she had lost her mind then got a weird look on his face. "Hey…the little brat used to call me that. But how did you know?"
They looked at each other for a minute, one in disbelief, the other in wonder.
"Hold the phone…you're not talking about those old stories your dad used to tell us?" Sadie asked.
"Yeah…they were just made-up," Katie said.
"But you remember don't you?" Sara asked eagerly. "There was a brave, silver-haired dog warrior who fought demons and fell in love with the girl who traveled through time! Oh what was her name…?"
"…Kagome."
The dog boy's eyes had misted over. His expression was soft and wistful, unlike the hardness and rudeness he had shown before. His now clenched fists trembled.
"Yes. That was it. Kagome…" Sara said softly. "You are him, aren't you. The dog warrior from the stories. They were real…they were actually…real…" Sara suddenly toppled over onto the ground, drained by fatigue and shock, her bruised ribs and injured head finally forcing her into a fitful sleep. Her dreams were haunted by a faceless presence, trying to take something from her, torturing her and her friends until she couldn't take it anymore. What could that mean? What was going to happen…?
…
Well I hope you liked it so far. I told you, a little boring at first, but I felt it really needed to be explained. The next chapter will be sort of fluffy and full of just plain old light hearted fun! (and jealousy…) Then chapter three……well, you'll just have to wait and see! Oh, by the way, the bold parenthesis are my little comments that I like to make, they have nothing to do with the story. Well, they do, they're comments ON the story, but they aren't relevant…YOU KNOW WHAY I MEAN! Please review so I'll know what to work on!