Kaede's hut seemed painfully empty after dinner. Even though the others were all there, Inuyasha's absence was conspicuous, particularly as the night dragged on and it became clear that he was not coming back. Sango could only hope this wasn't a bad sign—she chose to hope this meant he had gone through the well, and would find a way to work things out with Kagome, however unlikely that seemed.
Still, her sleep that night was uneasy and filled with unsettling dreams.
She was beset by her own memories, but they were all jumbled up and came only in fleeting flashes:
Her father's face, smiling as he… died.
The sensation of walking down the hall of a haunted castle; though the space was filled with the expectant faces of the courtiers, she was keenly aware of something evil scuttling in the shadows… but it was gone before she could determine the source of the evil aura.
The familiar and creeping tendrils of Naraku's evil vines, snaring her ankle, tangling around her to squeeze the very air from her lungs as they filled her mind with horrible visions.
A sunny day, flying on Kirara's back; she didn't have to look to know the monk was riding behind her, and their other friends were keeping pace below on the ground. In moments the sky was dark, thick with saimyoushou, and she and Miroku were tumbling from Kirara's back, hurtling toward the earth, where—
A sudden avalanche of dirt and rock engulfing the village, trapping her and her friends in an airless void just like the grave where she had been buried. She could hear her friends' cries, but could not move to help them…
She awoke gasping for air as she had so many times before. She was alone in Kaede's hut with Shippou and Kirara. For a panicked moment she wondered where she was and and how she had come to be there and what had happened to Miroku and Kaede, but then she heard them conversing in low tones. Her racing heart slowed as she listened. Their voices were coming from just outside the hut. They weren't lost; they hadn't gone far.
Feeling somewhat relieved that they were nearby and that her fears were nothing more than a bad dream, she snuggled Kirara close and tried to go back to sleep.