Chapter 8
"Houston, I Have So Many Problems"
She looked up and saw Hina Sato leaned over, grinning over at her, so widely that her eyes were crinkled shut. There were simply too many teeth showing.
Kagome screeched, scrambling back until she hit the wall. There was nowhere else for her to go.
"Inuyasha!" She screamed. He would come for her. He would. "INUYASHA!"
"Would you stop?" Hina groaned. "He's not coming for you."
"Wha—What do you mean?" Kagome inched down the bed. Hina turned her back, looking at the different things in Kagome's room. She picked up a pencil, twirling it in her fingers, holding it up to the window as if to see it in a new light. Kagome slid towards the foot of her bed, keeping a close eye on Hina's form. She looked normal, like Kagome remembered her.
She was almost to the end, and then she would be at the door and her escape.
The pencil struck, vibrating in the wall next to her head. Kagome squealed and recoiled.
"Inuyasha!" She cried again. Where was he?
"I told you—he's not coming."
"You don't know that!" She felt tears run over her cheeks as she watched Hina move through the room.
Hina sighed as if annoyed. She held up a picture frame.
"Shame," she murmured. "I would've thought that you would have at least one picture of me." She turned back to her. "Did I mean so little to you?"
"What?"
"Did. I. Mean. So. Little?" She repeated, shaking the frame at her with each spoken word.
"No! Of course not!" Kagome wiped her nose with the back of her hand.
"Then why—" Hina screamed, throwing the picture in her hand at the wall over her head, and for the second time that day, glass rained down over her. "Why aren't there any pictures?!" She throws another picture, and another, and another, until Kagome is cowering against the wall, alone and afraid, and covered in glass shrapnel.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," she mumbled between sobs. Where was Inuyasha?
She didn't know how to get out of this!
"Inuyasha!" She screamed again, hoping that this time, this time he would be crawling out of the well, this time, he would come to her aid.
"I told you," another picture struck the wall above her head. The shards littered her bed, and they poked her, cut the flesh of her hands and thighs until she's leaving bloody smears across the bedding. "The hanyou isn't coming."
Kagome looked up at her once friend.
"What did you call him?" She hissed, her eyes narrowing at Hina's slip of the tongue. "How could you know what he is?"
Hina tipped her head back and groaned in frustration. Kagome stared at her from her spot on her bed, tears still streaming down her face, but less out of fear and more out of anger now. Glass tinkled off her hair and onto the sheets wound around her. Hina appeared at the edge of her bed in a literal blink, making Kagome recoil into the wall, cutting herself on more glass, staining the sheets beneath her a dark mottled red and then brown as it dried.
Hina leaned down, hands reaching past the bed and casually and far too easily, flopped down a familiar mass of red and silver. Golden eyes that had dulled would see no more. His neck, his beautiful neck, snapped, broken, hanging at an ungodly angle. Weird lumps jutted out at the sides, so violent, so brutal.
Kagome clamored towards his body. Her throat hurt. Her chest felt tight, so tight that she didn't think there was space enough for her heart to beat or catch her breath.
She pulled him against her as she drags them both back against the wall. He's limp, but he's still warm. He's still warm. His youki will save him. It will. It has to. She can't—
She can't.
She can't feel him.
She can't feel his youki.
She shifted her grip, still holding him close to her, as she frees one hand to feel his face, move the hair from his eyes.
He would wake up slowly, like he always did. He would. He would moan and groan for a bit, let out some curses, mumble something dumb like not to worry, and then he would open his eyes and look at her. He would breathe out one long sigh, calling her an idiot for being so worried about him. He's a demon after all. Half, she would correct, and that's no excuse to be reckless.
But she's bleeding all over the sheets, there's glass in her legs and her feet, and the smell of blood doesn't even make him twitch.
He's still so very warm.
Her fingers traced his warm jawline, sharp and angular. The tips of her fingers canvassed down over the lumps in his neck, and trail the uninterrupted path across his chest.
"Do you know what happens to the bodies of demons when they're killed?" Kagome asked, her fingers now running across his collarbone, feeling the hardness of the bone underneath his skin. Still warm.
Hina cocked her head to the side; Kagome sees it out of her peripheral vision. The silence between them prompted Kagome to answer.
"Do you know who I am?" Kagome asked her.
"You are my friend, Kagome Higurashi."
Kagome lowered him carefully to the bed. His hair pooled beneath him, and she traced his lips with her thumb. Still warm under her touch. She's expecting it to fade, for him to turn cold like her father before they buried him. But Inuyasha is still so warm.
"Mmm, not quite. Do you know what I am, Hina?"
She can feel it just under her skin, begging to be released. It has always come to her freely in fits of anger, of rage so powerful, so indignant that it feels almost like lashing out like a child throwing a tantrum. It wants out. It wants justice, and she is more than willing to let it go. To free her from this dream-state.
She looked at Hina's face, and her eyes are completely black now; she's losing—shape, form? She's almost blurry at the edges.
"This isn't real," Kagome hissed. Her hand placed squarely on his still-warm sternum, where the beads should be.
And Hina, or whatever she really is, is not amused at being found out—again, no less.
"You—" Kagome seethed, picking up a long shard, not caring if it cuts her hand now. It's not real, none of this is real. And if it turns out that it is, nothing will matter if he's not there with her. "I'll purify you until you're nothing but dust and ash."
Priestess. It's still Hina's face, but the voice is familiar. It stepped back from the bed, as Kagome stood, stepping over Inuyasha's body.
Her reiki is boiling now, her grip bleedingly tight on the glass.
She'll purify it to a forgotten memory. She doesn't know its name or what it is, but it'll be gone forever and that's all that matters.
In a leap and battle cry, her reiki flared, hard and sharp, and so, so hot, as she drove the shard deep into the space where Hina's heart should be. Hina's hands grip her wrists, ripping, tearing her hands away as she howled, her shape writhing and morphing into the gelatinous shape she's seen before.
It shrieked, thrashing around, letting go of her, as it sinks to the floor in a quivering puddle of goo.
Kagome watched for a moment, just one, enjoying the struggle it's putting up. She let out a shaky exhale, glancing back over her shoulder at Inuyasha's—fake
Inuyasha's body—it's not real, she reminded herself. Not real at all. She turned back to the pile of ash at her feet.
But it's not ash.
And it's not dead or dying.
Teeth stare back at her, long, needle-like, and sharp.
It grabs her wrists again, launching both of them across the room, slamming her into the wall above her bed. It's grip is bruising, and she's positive she cracked something in her chest when she struck the wall.
Coughing, she stares at it as she tries to catch her breath.
Your reiki cannot hurt me. Not anymore.
It's mouth opens and consumes her whole.
He came down the stairs, where her mother was waiting for him in the kitchen with ramen.
"I was starting to wonder if I needed to call you," she said with a smile.
"Hardly. I could smell this stuff a mile away."
He sat down at the table, because she'd told him once that no one ate on their feet in her house, and inhaled his noodles happily. She was always giving him food, usually as a bribe. She didn't think that he noticed, but he did. Though he wasn't one to complain about the arrangement.
"I must admit," her mother said, taking a sip of tea and setting one down in front of him. "Kagome's behavior of late is a little concerning."
Inuyasha merely grunted in agreement, taking a sip of tea, this to avoid saying what he wanted to say, which her mother would probably deem inappropriate.
"She barely ate any of her lunch today. I'd like for you to make sure that she eats and gets some rest this weekend. I know she hasn't been sleeping well, but she doesn't like having her mother hovering."
"She doesn't like it when I do it either." He grumbled, crossing his arms as he leans forward on the table.
"I know that it's unfair of me to ask this of you, but I won't let her go back if she is not well."
"Yeah," he started but turned his head towards the bedroom; Kagome was making noise though it didn't sound bad at the moment.
"Everything okay?" Her mother asked.
"Yeah," he mumbled, standing up. He should check on her and just make sure. "I'm gonna go—" His head snapped towards the stairs as Kagome screamed out his name in a way that he hadn't heard in a long while. Well and truly terrified. A loud thump sounded like a body hitting the floor.
But he was already throwing her door open by then.
"Kagome!"
A sheet was wrapped around her leg as she pushed herself up from the ground.
He grabbed her shoulders, gripping them firmly. He couldn't smell blood, and she didn't look like she wasn't currently in pain.
"Are you—" He started, but she'd broken from his grip, and her hands were frantically running over him, sliding across his haori. A blush broke out over his face, as they drifted over his chest, abdomen, shoulders, rising up to his neck. "Ka—Kagome?"
"You're okay," she whispered, throwing her arms around his neck hard enough to knock him back on his ass. He wrapped one arm around her waist to steady her, the other braced himself to keep them upright as her mother came up the stairs.
"Kagome, is everything alright?" She asked, and Inuyasha froze.
Her mother.
Kagome was wrapped around him, almost intimately. Scratch that, it was intimate! Sitting between his knees with her body pressed against him. Her head was buried against his neck, sniffling.
He was touching her in front of her mother. And she was crying.
He was eight kinds of fucked. Shit, he needed to put his hand somewhere—not her ass, not her ass—why was that suddenly the only place he could think of?—he ordered himself as it drifted hesitantly over her back—shoulders maybe? That was—friendly, right?
He was so dead.
Her mother knelt down beside them, hand touching Kagome's shoulder.
"Kagome," she started, and Inuyasha felt her tighten her grip around his neck. "Are you okay?"
Kagome nodded, not releasing him or raising her head.
"Can you look at me?" She asked, and Kagome shook her head, burying her face further into his neck and shoulder. Her mother pursed her lips, and gently tugged on Kagome's arm, which only tightened around his neck even more. "If you keep squeezing Inuyasha like that you're going to break him."
It was spoken in humor, but he could feel Kagome tense against him, and then slowly release the near stranglehold she had on his throat. Not that she actually could strangle him, mind you. His hand still rested on her back, keeping her upright as she slowly pushed herself away.
"Sorry," she mumbled, hands no longer wrapped around him, but she still kept both hands fisted in the front of his haori.
"Kagome," her mother spoke her name again, and he watched as Kagome closed her eyes and took a sharp breath. "Did you have a bad dream?" His fingers flexed against her back, and she let out a sigh.
Kagome nodded.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"No," she whispered. "I'm okay, just really tired."
"Alright dear," her mother answered, resting a hand on her shoulder. "You're sure that you're not hurt?"
"Yeah, I'm okay. Just tired." Her mother stood, and he could see that something was running through her head. Her eyes shifted to him, and she smiled.
"Inuyasha, do you mind staying with her for a little bit?" She asked, and he shook his head at her request. Her mother left the room, and an instant later, Kagome slumped bonelessly against him.
"Kagome?" He asked as she let go of his haori and wrapped her arms around his waist. He stared down at her, wrapping his own arms around her, tightening his hold as she sat between his knees.
"I'm okay," she whispered. "I promise, I'm okay." She looked up at him, not removing her face from his chest.
"What was it about? The dream?" He asked, and her gaze focused back on the wall in front of her, almost glazing over. He tightened his grip on her, trying to reassure her that he was here and that he would protect her in any way possible, and in some ways that were impossible. Nothing would harm her while he was here.
"You were dead," she whispered, and he flicked his ears towards her. "She killed you."
"Who did?" Inuyasha pressed, urging her to speak.
"One of my friends, Hina." Kagome shifted her legs slightly, curling them in more towards herself, except for the one still wrapped in the sheet from her bed.
The only friends of hers that he'd met were human ones. She didn't have any other demon friends on this side of the well. The name didn't sound familiar though. Not that he could recite any of their names, but he'd recognize them when he heard them. And Hina wasn't one of them.
"I haven't met her," he stated, waiting to see if she corrected him, but she merely shook her head.
"No, you haven't." She swallowed harshly, he could hear it. "She's dead." He waited for her to continue, but she only took a deep breath, squeezing him tighter, and he returned the gesture. "She died two years ago. She was a ghost—"
"Wait," he interrupted. "You dreamed that a ghost killed me? What the fuck is a ghost gonna do to me?" She turned her head to look at him. She really was too fucking close for either of their safety. Because he was dumb and said stupid things and did even dumber shit. Especially when he wasn't thinking clearly and he never thought clearly when they were this close and he was going to screw this up like everything else in his life—
"It was a dream," she said, annoyed. "And ghosts can totally hurt you! Remember Maya?"
"Keh, I wasn't in any danger. You were though."
She gave him a weak, faltering smile, but the corners of her lips still turned upwards, and he nudged her with his shoulder slightly, just enough to shift her head a little.
"So that's what bothered you? A little ghost killing me in your dream?"
"Not a little ghost. It was something else. It just wore Hina's face." She was staring at the wall again, brows furrowed and a frown on her face.
"Kagome?"
"It doesn't want me to go to her grave," she mumbled. "We should go."
"What—Why would—What the fuck happened in your dream?"
"Enough," she answered simply. "If it doesn't want us to go, we should definitely go."
"You want to go piss aoff a ghost based on what happened in a dream?"
"Yeah," she said with a shrug. "Why not?"
He dropped his head backwards and groaned. This fucking woman was going to kill him from stress alone.
"We are not going to go piss off a ghost." Fuck, why was he the voice of reason? Wasn't that Kagome's job? Shit, no. That was a terrible job for her to have. She was not the responsible one in their group, since she practically tried to kill herself on an almost daily basis. So what? Miroku? Fuck if he was putting the lecher in charge, the grabass. Sango? Sango was definitely the responsible one; she took care of Kirara, that had to count for something.
"But it doesn't want us to go. You know that means something!" She tried to pull away from him, but he kept her firmly planted on the floor. "Inuyasha!"
"No, you are not going off to piss off the ghost of your dead friend. Do you even listen to yourself when you talk?" He glared down at her. "Why are we even having this conversation? Kagome, it was a dumb dream! Not real!"
"It's not—!" She tried to—well he wasn't really sure what she was attempting to do—probably something that involved yelling at him, but somehow, she tripped over her own trapped leg, still caught up in the sheet, and would've faceplanted into the floor if she hadn't fallen face forward into his chest.
"Idiot," he commented, holding her close against him, while reaching down to untangle her ankle from the sheet. "How did you even do this?" The foot fell free making a 'thump' sound against the carpet. Her toes flexed as she rolled the joint slightly. "You hurt?"
"No," she mumbled into his shoulder, sighing, sounding almost dejected. He could hear the slight pop as she rolled it a couple more times, flexing it.
Downstairs, her mother was speaking to Souta, he listened for a moment before refocusing back on her.
"Do you want to eat dinner up here or downstairs?"
"Is it ready?"
"Seems like it. Smells like it is. Your brother is about to come up here."
Kagome sighed before pushing herself up to a sitting position, and he already wanted to pull her closer, back against him.
Because he kinda liked it?
No.
No, he definitely liked it.
Well, he just really liked her.
And that was a secret he'd take to his grave.
"Downstairs, I think." She looked at him, as if looking for his approval to her answer. He nodded, glancing up at the door as her brother threw it open.
"Sis!—oh," Souta burst into the room, looking at the two of them, eyes darting between them as Inuyasha started dragging Kagome to her feet.
"We're coming downstairs, kid," he said and Souta grinned.
"Yes!" Souta fist pumped the air and bolted down the stairs yelling that 'big brother' was coming down to eat dinner. Inuyasha walked down the stairs in front of her, just in case she fell, because that was a real possibility with Kagome, and he didn't want their return to be delayed. That was all.
"I'm coming to dinner too, you twerp!" Kagome growled out as she followed them.
"Yeah, but big brother is here!"
"Your big sister is here too!" She pointed out as she took a seat at the table.
"You've been here all week though," Souta grumbled. Kagome leaned across and flicked his forehead as Inuyasha took a seat beside her.
"Ow! Mom!"
"Behave, both of you," she said. Kagome flopped back into the seat, scowling at her little brother. Her grandfather came in and began lecturing them both on proper behavior at the dinner table. Her mother put the final bowl on the table, taking her seat. Inuyasha glanced at Kagome, who only smiled at him, motioning towards their plates.
"So Kagome," her mother started as Kagome struggled to hold the hot bowl of green beans and scoop them onto her plate. Her arm was burning from holding the edge of the bowl, and she was afraid to hold it in only one hand, lest it fall and shatter. But it was too hot to put directly on the table or hold at the bottom. "Tell me how your test went."
Test?
What test?
Her mother gave her an expectant look.
"Oh, I think I did pretty well on it. All that studying must've paid off," she stated, hoping that her mother bought the vague explanation
Inuyasha grabbed the bowl from her hands, and she was about to scold him, when he held it out for her to scoop from.
Oh, well, that was unexpectedly kind.
"Well, that's some good news then. Souta, how'd you do today?"
Kagome smiled and Souta launched into his epic tale about his day, and she scooped from the bowl before handing the spoon to Inuyasha to do the same. He repeated the action with each of the bowls and plates, until she'd had something of everything.
"Thanks," she whispered. He didn't say a word, but she watched the way his cheeks tinted pink ever so slightly and refused to meet her gaze.
She glanced at him periodically throughout the dinner though his focus was solely on the plate in front of him. He sat quietly and ate his usual fill, though he kept his eyes on her for a large portion of the meal so long as she didn't look his general direction.
A loud bang sounded upstairs, making all of them jump.
"I'll check on it," Kagome said, pushing away from the table. Inuyasha moved to stand, but she waved him down. "I'll be right back," she said, and he watched her for a moment before giving her a nod and remaining seated. She walked up the stairs to her room, stepping up on the landing and watched her door ease open all on its own.
Her steps were slow, purposeful. She waited as she reached the point that she could see into her room, but there was nothing that appeared out of place or odd.
No images of dead friends haunting her room.
"Kagome? Is everything alright?" Her mother called.
"Yeah, just the door" she shouted back. She moved into her room, looking around to see if there was anything amiss, but there was nothing. No one was there. But there should be someone, right? Her door didn't just open on its own. Well, not normally.
A soft, familiar clicking, like nails rapidly tapping on a table, came from behind her and she spun, yelping as the door slammed shut hard enough to rattle pictures on the wall. She took a step away from it, clutching her hands against her chest.
"Kagome?" Inuyasha asked on the other side of the door. "Are you okay?"
A picture frame struck the floor and she jumped at the noise.
"Kagome?" A slight pause and her door rattled. "Open the door," he ordered, tone firm.
She opened her mouth to answer him when her window slammed shut with the same force that her door did.
"Kagome, open the door!"
"Coming," she said, trying to keep the tremor out of her voice.
She moved towards the door, keeping an eye on the window. Had it been open when she went down for dinner? Had it been open at all today?
"Kagome," Inuyasha growled. "Open the fu—open the door."
She reached for the door knob, but the sound of her window sliding open made her turn to face it.
How did Inuyasha get there so quickly?
A small hand gripped the frame, and Kagome took a small step backwards. Another hand appeared, gripping the sill, and beginning the ascent for whatever was outside.
Those were not Inuyasha's hands.
She darted forward, grabbing the window and slamming it shut with a ferocity she didn't know she had. She couldn't let it in. Whatever she was now, Kagome couldn't let her in.
Hina sat outside her window, glaring at her.
"So rude," she tutted through the window, wagging her bleeding, stumped and fingerless hand. Kagome's gaze drifted down to the blood running down her window sill, down the wall, and onto the carpet underneath. She skittered away from the severed fingers laying on her carpet, knocking her hip on her desk and tripping over the chair. She landed on her backside with an audible 'oof' and a hiss as she knocked her arm against the ground.
Hina stared at her through the window, placing the stumped hand against the glass, smearing blood across it.
The door swung open, almost casually, and Kagome only glanced at Inuyasha as he barreled in, looking for the evidence, that this was not a dream, that this was real and happening.
"How'd you get over there?" He took a cursory glance around the room, eyes landing on her. She met his, glancing away from the window for just a moment as he moved towards her. "Why are you on the floor? Why didn't you open the door?"
She motioned towards the window, still bloodied and the fingers sitting on the floor. He knelt down beside her as the fingers wiggled, making her jump and scramble into him, gripping his pant leg tightly despite her throbbing arm. He didn't budge at all.
"You don't see that?!" She pointed to the fingers sitting on her carpet. "Please tell me that you can see her!" She grabbed a fistful of his hakama, shaking him not at all. Hina sat on her roof, outside her window, grinning her mutilated smile as her flesh burned off, leaving the exposed muscle and tendons behind.
Inuyasha followed her gaze, eyes darting around, clearly looking at the same spot, but not seeing what she did.
"Kagome?" Inuyasha asked, kneeling down beside her, a hand resting flat against her shoulder blades, supporting her through her episodic breakdown.
But there was no Hina sitting outside her window, there were no fingers on her carpet, or even blood splattering along the sill and the wall.
The warmth of his hand brought her back to herself, and she turned to look at him. It wasn't real.
It wasn't real after all.
"I'm fine," she answered, probably too quickly as she tried desperately not to cry, but whatever. "I'm fine," she gritted out.
He raised an eyebrow as she took several deep breaths, clearly unhappy with her current emotional state. She pulled away from him, leaning forward to soothe her own upset, wrapping her arms around herself.
"I—there was—," she turned to look at him before turning her stare back to the window that was so, so clean it neared immaculate. "You don't smell anything?"
He sniffed the air a couple times before shaking his head.
"What should I smell?"
"Blood?" He jolted at the question, quickly patting her down, looking for injuries. "Not mine," she explained quickly, trying to grab his wrists as he easily maneuvered out of her grasp.
"Then who the fuck else?"
"The ghost?"
"Ghost's don't bleed, Kagome. You know that. Now what's going on?"
"Kagome? Inuyasha? Everything okay?" Her mother called from the stairs.
"We're fine," Kagome called, shifting herself to stand up. Her hands trembled, as she pushed herself off the floor, rising with Inuyasha, who looked one heartbeat away from steadying her.
He grabbed her wrist, glancing down at the tremble, and then staring at her face.
"What's going on, Kagome?"
She shook her head, and tugged her hand free, heading for the stairs with an irate hanyou on her heels. She could feel his irritation radiating off of him.
"You're mad," she said, pausing, turning her head back towards him as she descended the stairs.
"Go eat your dinner," he huffed, not looking at her face as he urged her back down.
He was mad. Because she was clearly losing her mind and imagining ghosts of dead friends. And how do you even fix that?
"Everything all right you two?" Her mother asked as they both reappeared.
"It's fine, Mama. I just knocked some stuff over when I closed the window and startled Inuyasha."
He glared at her, but she merely shrugged and took a bite of green beans.
They finished dinner, and her mother sent her upstairs to wash before she changed her bandages for the night, but she asked Inuyasha to stay downstairs to help her with a few chores. Kagome had no option but to agree and go upstairs on her own.
She went into the bathroom and ran a bath. After today, she just wanted to soak and forget that it even happened.
It felt like she was going insane.
Inuyasha probably thought that, she would. Last time, with Maya, he'd been able to see her, but this time, he didn't even sense anything at all. Was any of it real?
Maybe she was going insane. Maybe she was crazy. Maybe all the time traveling had finally, finally just broken her brain. Or sleep-deprivation. It felt like it's been a week since she had a halfway decent night's sleep sans nightmares.
Closing the bathroom door, she stripped and slid into the water, relishing the way the hot water soothed her body. She sank down until the water covered her face, leaving her arm out and dry. Resurfacing a moment later, she wiped her hand across her face. She let her bandaged arm hang over the side of the tub, as she leaned back against the porcelain.
It was Friday. She'd made it; she'd gotten through the day, and now, all she had to do was take a bath and go to bed.
That's it.
She could do that. She could do this.
All she had to do was relax and sleep, get her stitches out Monday, and then go back to the Feudal Era with Inuyasha. And then it would all be better. A change of pace would do wonders for her.
Maybe her unnormal normalcy would be good for her.
She closed her eyes, letting the water soothe away her day.
"Kagome?" Her mother knocked on the door. "You can't stay in there forever."
Pulling the washcloth off her face, Kagome moaned at having to leave the warm water.
"Kagome?"
"I'm coming. Just give me a few minutes to dry off."
"Come downstairs when you're done," she said, and the sound of her footsteps drifted away from the door. Reaching down between her feet, she pulled the plug out and let the water drain before standing and wrapping herself in a towel.
She stood in front of the mirror, the green and yellow bruise across her chest standing out against the paleness of her flesh. She wrapped her hair up in the towel and dressed in her pajamas.
She opened the door with a sigh, hair still in a towel, as she saw Inuyasha staring at her as he leaned against the wall opposite the bathroom door.
"Were you waiting on me?" She asked him as he leaned away from the wall and put his hand on the small of her back to urge her towards the stairs.
"Come on, let's get your bandages changed," he said, guiding her out of the bathroom and down the stairs where her mother was waiting for her, as though she were incapable of getting there on her own.
Inuyasha leaned back against her desk as she sat on her bed, fiddling with the hem of her pajama shirt. She'd told him that she had something important to say, and now, here they were.
"I thought you were tired," he commented.
"I thought that maybe we should talk first, about everything?" She couldn't make eye contact with him and stared at her comforter, while still picking at the hem of her shirt and shorts. "I know that I've kinda been avoiding it—you."
"Kagome," he sounded exasperated. "We can do this tomorrow morning."
"No, I—this can't wait anymore." She shifted uncomfortably on her bed. "It feels like I'm going crazy as it is."
She fiddled with her shirt for a moment before giving in to the pressure and looking up at him.
"Well, are you going to explain or not?" He finally said, arms crossed and brow raised.
"I am," she started. Hesitating for another second, she shifted over to the corner of her bed, where she could sit against the wall and the headboard, giving her a clear view of her entire room. Nothing could sneak up on her that way.
"Kagome," he warned, agitation clear on his face.
"Just come sit here," she said patting the bed beside her. He didn't move. "Just—please. It would make it easier."
He stood there, staring before ultimately deciding to walk over and climb onto her bed, settling down beside her, arms still crossed across his chest.
"Happy?" He asked, staring at her.
Kagome nodded, and she fixed how her shirt lay and tugged at the hem of her shorts. She'd wanted to do this, almost all day in fact, but now that the moment was here, and that she actually had a moment to think and speak, she wasn't really quite sure how to start.
This was a bad, bad idea. Maybe she should just feign needing to sleep? Try again tomorrow?
"Actually, I think I'm tired. We should—"
"Kagome, talk," he ordered.
Or not. Of course he would be impatient.
"Okay, you just have to promise me something," Kagome said quickly, trying to stall and ensure her own survival, because he was going to be pissed. So pissed that she hadn't told him everything the moment it happened.
About the men, and the things at school, the nightmares . . .
He growled at her, and she dragged her knees to her chest.
"What?" He growled out, angry already. This definitely wasn't going to plan.
"That you won't get mad?" Oh, nice one, because that always worked out in her favor before.
"Kagome!"
"No, you have to promise!" She gripped his sleeve to keep him from running away. Not that it would have actually worked, but it seemed to keep him in place.
He growled.
"Fine! I won't get angry," he snarled, eyes boring into hers, already lying through his teeth. "But you need to actually fucking start talking!"
"Yeah, I know," she snapped. "It's just—I don't know how much of it was in my head and how much of it was really happening." She shifted so that her shoulder touched his, and she wrapped her own arm around his, trying to garner some of his strength to bolster her own. Because she was pretty damn sure that she was crazy at this point now that she had to actually tell the story to someone else.
She took a steadying breath.
"There's still a lot I don't know, but I'll tell you what I do, okay? And—I know that—some of this is going to sound really crazy, but—" Her voice drifted off, and for some reason, anything that followed that statement seemed like it was only going to confirm her madness.
She chanced a look up at him, and he gave her a nod to continue.
His eyes really were lovely to stare at.
"So, my friend, Hina, died a couple years ago. And I think that she's, or at least there's something here that's possessed her spirit or taking her face and, well, haunting me."
THUD!
Something crashed into her window with enough force to rattle the glass.
Kagome gasped, tightening her grip around his arm and pressing closer to his side.
Inuyasha leaned forward to move off her bed, and she clutched at him, holding him close to her, warding off whatever spirit wanted to hurt her.
"Kagome, let go. I'm gonna check it out."
"No, please! It's her! I know it is!" She shook her head, burying her face into the hard muscle of his shoulder.
"It didn't even break the glass, if that's the best the ghost's got, it ain't worth worrying over."
"But—!" He pried her fingers off his robe, shifting to the edge of the bed, leaving her against the wall.
Alone.
"Stay," he ordered, pointing a finger at her, and she scooted back to her corner, clutching a pillow to her chest for comfort. He gave her a strange look that she didn't have time to decipher before turning back to the window.
THUD!
Another one, louder than before, rattled against her window, and she whimpered behind her pillow, even though she lifted her head so she could watch him creep towards the noise.
THUD!
Inuyasha recoiled from the window at the sound, before creeping closer. He grimaced and Kagome pressed herself against the wall in response.
"Do you see anything?" She whispered, and he glanced towards her.
"Yeah," he sighed. "Don't come over here." He stared out the window for a moment before turning away. "I'll be right back. Stay there," he ordered, walking towards the door, leaving Tetsusaiga behind.
"Don't you want your sword?" Kagome asked.
"Just some birds," he explained. "Stay on your bed."
"But—!"
"Do what I say or I'll tell your mother!" He called back as he descended the stairs.
Kagome leaned forward and snatched Tetsusaiga from where it lay against her nightstand, holding it across her chest like a ward against her friend's ghost.
THUD!
She yelped as something else crashed into her window, and she became increasingly concerned.
If it was just some birds, why would Inuyasha tell her to stay put? It had to be something else.
Had to be, and Inuyasha didn't always see the things that she did. Maybe she could help?
She crept to the edge of her bed, listening, but there was nothing outside of the ordinary. Sliding her feet to the floor, she stood, hands still trembling as she tried to quell her fears with Tetsusaiga in front of her.
Would it even work on repelling spirits? Hina had been human, and the notion that the sword might be useless, made her gut churn in anticipation. She moved to her window, prepared to see Inuyasha, but he wasn't there.
So then what was—
THUD! THUD!
She staggered back from the noise and the flash of brown and white, tripping on her own feet as she crashed backwards into the floor for the second time that evening. The hilt of the sword knocked into her cheekbone as it clamored from her grip, landing beside her.
Rubbing her cheek, she climbed back to her feet and went to the window, looking down at the small overhang that Inuyasha frequently perched on.
There were birds.
Small little finches and sparrows, one of which was still twitching, wings flapping as its neck was bent at an impossible angle. Another's breast rose and fall so quickly, its mouth spasming until it stilled completely, and it just—died. All of them were dead except for one, and she was pretty sure that it was fading as well.
Inuyasha leapt up to the roof, startling a little at her presence before scowling.
"I told you to stay in bed," he chastised through the window.
He had a small trash bag in his hand, probably given to him by Mama, and she realized that he was there to clean up the mess.
She looked down. Six birds. Six little birds. Six dead and dying little birds.
"Ah, geez," Inuyasha said, reaching for her window, opening it partway. "Stop crying! I'll clean it up! Just go back to bed!"
She wiped her face with the heel of her hand.
"But that one's still alive!" She pointed to the struggling little bird that flapped only one wing now. It was dying too, just much slower. "Can you save it?"
Can you stop it from suffering? is what she wanted to ask, but she wasn't going to request him to do something so awful.
"I'll," he glanced away from the little bird, and met her gaze, "I'll take care of him too. Don't worry. Just go back to bed, okay?" She nodded, wiping her face. Her cheek hurt where Tetsusaiga's hilt had whacked it a few moments earlier.
Sniffling, she reached up and closed the window, leaving it unlatched like before.
She could hear him shuffling around outside her window, and she turned the light off before crawling in under her blankets, burrowing herself down so that she was covered completely, dragging her pillow down with her too.
Wiping her eyes, she curled up into a ball trying to forget the scared look in the birds' eyes as they realized that they were dying. That there was no hope on the horizon and nothing was coming to save them.
The sound of her desk lamp clicking on made her sigh.
"Are they all gone now? Did you wash your hands?" She asked the quiet, but there wasn't a response. "Inuyasha?"
Feet padded across her floor towards her and her bed, stopping just short of her.
She was facing the wall, under her sheets and comforter, but she could feel the heaviness of the stare at her back.
"Inuyasha?"
She swallowed thickly, suddenly feeling that there was something really wrong just outside her cocoon, and she really didn't want to come out from under the protective covering of her blankets.
Her father used to tell her that if she was ever scared in the dark of the night, to hide under her blankets. That the monsters and other things of the night could not reach her if she stayed under the blankets. He said that she could always call for him, and he would always come to save her; if she stayed under the blankets, then they would keep her safe until he arrived.
So, she laid there, waiting as she felt the pair of eyes boring into her back, and she knew that it didn't feel like Inuyasha.
A very small, infinitesimal amount of light drifted through her sheet at the top of her head, and she could only just make out the shapes of her fingers as they clenched the bedding underneath her.
She did not hear the sounds of breathing or movement, and the feeling of being skewered by a pair of unfamiliar eyes did not lessen.
"Speak one more word about me, about us, my caged little bird," Hina's voice drifted through her room, quiet, resolute, and unwavering in its warning. "Six little birds. Six little lives. Humans are no less fragile."
A weight settled onto her bed, and Kagome curled up tighter.
"One for mama, one for Souta, one for the old man, you get the point," Hina erupted into a fit of giggles that disappeared after a moment.
So when her desk lamp flicks off, casting the room in pitch blackness, Kagome holds firm to the truth that the monsters must abide by the old laws of scared little girls and the unwavering protection of their father's blankets.
A/N: I am not in love with this chapter. It feels-I don't know-raw? cyclic? It's gone through several edits, pretty much every scene but the first one has gone through major edits or just been completely deleted. But this could also be because I've just stared at it waaaay too long, and it's just reached the point that no matter what I do it's not going to sound like it's any good.
This is one of those pieces that I love writing and working on, but it's also one of my more problematic ones. Also, I tossed out my outline because originally this was only supposed to be six chapters long, and it'll probably be double that.
Your thoughts?