Title: Cold Water

Author: Unwritten92

Prompt: Child's Play Challenge - Row Row, Row Your Boat

Genre: Mystery/Suspense

AU/CU: Alternate Universe

Rating: K+

Warnings: Mild child abuse and very little mentions of gore (blood)

Word Count: 415

There was noise in the background, a white kind of sound. Kagome's mother sat crying on the window seat as she rocked the girl in her arms. She sang but because of her tears her beautiful voice cracked with the lines of the old nursery rhyme.

"...gently down the stream"

She worried about her child, everyday she worried because she was like no other. Silent but vibrant her daughter often came with bruises, scratches and blood running from her arms and face. She always came calm, and not acting like a four year old should when they looked as if they had been attacked by a wild animal. And though her mother cried, not once had her baby girl ever shed a single tear.

She had tried asking her but Kagome always shrugged and replied with an "they don't like me very much".

But she knew something else went on behind the scenes. So she decided to investigate and see if she could put a stop to it.

At first she couldn't believe her eyes. Her baby girl sat by the swings while these swung by themselves, but as the day grew colder she could see a silhouette in the snow. That something was not human. As she was to walk forward and take her from there a group of kids neared her daughter and that's when things got really heated. The silhouette didn't touch her daughter nor did it help her. It stood in the same place, watching almost waiting.

Faster than her eyes could see, the kid that had been hitting Kagome suddenly flew in the air as if tossed and weightless. The other kids ran screaming and her daughter ended up very bruised but safe, in a way.

She was a very sensible person, Kagome's mother thought, but ghosts who just up and threw kids in the air with a force that could kill them couldn't be good ghosts. And her suspicions where confirmed when the silhouette took her daughter by the hair and pulled. He dragged her where the pond had a very thin film of ice and was about to drop her when she screamed at it to leave her baby alone.

It did, but she didn't know the repercussions of her actions until later, when she was greeted by that very same being on the balcony of her room.

"merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily"

That's when she wished it had all been a big nightmare.

"life is but a dream."

Originally posted at livejournal on Dokuga_Contest.