A chipper voice rung through the halls of the Higurashi house. "Happy Birthday, dear! I hope you have a wonderful day at school! Oh, and make sure Sota makes it to school on time!"

"Okay! Bye Mom, I'm leaving!" Clad in her school uniform, Kagome Higurashi hurried down the steps of the main house and out the door into the warm spring air. The day was full of promise, it was her birthday, after all, and she was looking forward to spending the day with her friends, even if it was during school hours. Mother was going to make a big meal to celebrate – even Grandpa promised to help with the preparations. She wondered if the nasty, old, wrinkled hand he had given to her the day before was really her 'gift'. He was always fussing with fake charms and counterfeit sutras and sometimes worse – peddling them off on her. "That better have been a joke." She murmured under her breath.

She pulled her backpack tight to her back as she inspected the shrine grounds for her younger brother.

The Higurashi family shrine was a decently sized property; there was the main house, the storehouse, the office, the area of the sacred tree and at the corner – the old structure that housed a long-dried well. Her grandfather had told her the stories of all these places – never really telling the same story twice. All she knew was that the grounds held the secrets of ages. Secrets that grandpa loved to embellish.

"Sota!" Kagome called out. Where was that kid? Annoyed, she set out to search for him.

She didn't have to go far; spotting him almost instantly standing outside of the wellhouse with a bowl of what looked like fish and wet cat food.

"What are you-"

"It's Buyo. He's missing!"

It wasn't unusual for the cat to go missing. He was an outdoor cat, after all. He would often grace the shrine steps after a particularly fruitful excursion, bearing all sorts of treats for her. Dead mice, rats, even the errant bird.

"Sota, he'll be fine. He's used to being outside. He probably just made another cat-friend. Let's go, Mom will kill me if we're late." She pulled on his arm, but her younger brother was insistent. The cat had been gone for too long.

"Please Kagome!" he begged her. "Please can you help me look for him?"

Kagome sighed. She knew there was nothing she could do to get him to leave her alone, except help him. She had thought to leave him there, but she knew mom would be upset with her if Sota was late.

She eyed the building again.

"Buyo!" Kagome usually avoided the wellhouse. It was as old as the Higurashi shrine itself, and housed an old well that was no longer in use. It's not that she was scared of it, exactly. Something about the well made her feel uneasy. Her head felt fuzzy when she descended into the musky sunken room.

A loud, sudden thump had them both jumping back.

"Sota, did you hear that?"

Silence.

"Sota?" Annoyed, Kagome peered up towards the door. That little jerk! He left! Huffing, she scanned the lid of the well. There it was again, a terrible scratching against wood. Was the cat in the well? Before she could reach out to open the doors, a whir of brown and white flung itself at her.

"Buyo! You naughty thing! You scared me half to death! Let's go, so I can let Sota have it." She turned with the chunky cat in her arms when suddenly the thing went insane, violent. He wrestled away from Kagome's grasp and bounded out of the shed towards the main house. "Buyo!" she hissed, the scratches left from the cat burning her arms and chest. "Stupid cat." She whispered to no one.

Scritch. Scritch.

There it was again. Kagome felt a wave of fear pass through her. Buyo was long gone. So what, exactly, was making that noise?

Despite her intuition telling her to run the hell out and not look back; Kagome turned and stared hard at the covered well. That's when she saw it; a slight, nearly imperceivable mist escaping the lid through the cover. She leaned over to inspect the seeping fog when she was nearly knocked out by flying wood and a percussion that reverberated through her body, her back slamming hard into the dirt floor. The fog was now pouring out into the room; the purple ozone filled the shed, obscuring her vision as she pulled herself to sit up.

What is this stuff? Underground gas leak?

Kagome grabbed her stomach. If she didn't get out of there, she was either going to vomit or pass out – or both. She watched in horror as something white shimmered through the haze and slid over the side of the well.

Is that an arm?!

It was followed by a black mass of hair. Someone was climbing out of the well. "Sota!" Kagome screamed, pulling herself back towards the steps as her terror overwhelmed her, her thighs tearing against the rocky ground.

The thing had nearly fully emerged from the old well. Her muscles felt paralyzed, and her heart pounded in her chest so hard that she thought she might black out. All she could do was stare up at the demonic form rising before her. It took the form of a naked woman, yet its features were twisted and terrifying. Rows of sharp teeth lined a mouth too big for its slightly elongated head, a head with two black holes above the eyes. Several sets of extra arms extended from the grey-white torso attached to a long winding body that twisted and snaked on the ground towards her. "The jewel! Give it to me!"

Despite the terror and fear, Kagome braced herself against the floor and twisted her body in an effort to get to her feet and run for the door. The thing grabbed her, wrapping her arms around Kagome's head and chest.

It was trying to pull her back into the well with it!

Kagome's fingers sunk into soft dirt as she was yanked backwards, closer and closer to the mouth of the well. She wasn't going to go without a fight. Kicking and twisting her hips, she planted her feet on the side of the well for leverage and used every ounce of strength in her body to wrench out of the woman's grasp. From her hands, she felt a tingling – a pinkish glow pulsed and pushed from them. The thing shrieked as its body appeared to be sinking back into the well. Scrambling to her feet, she had only a second to react as the woman thrust her hand forward, into Kagome's abdomen.

She felt a searing pain as the thing's fist disappeared into her midsection, her uniform blooming crimson. The feeling was inexplicable. Kagome dropped to one knee, blood spilling from her lips onto her hands. A ripping feeling, then a searing heat before a numbness that had her pitching forward on her knees. An icy shudder passed through her, and the light from the open wellhouse door faded, falling further and further away from her, until all she knew was suffocating darkness and the echoing of a woman's laughter.

Xx

Kagome's whole body hurt. The tang of blood hung heavy in her mouth and nose, head pulsing as she strained to open her eyes; the darkness lingering as she tried to focus them.

Was she still in the wellhouse?

Kagome swallowed, stretching her lead-like arms to feel the ground around her. Noise echoed out around her, spiking her anxiety. She tried to make out the source as she fought her growing nausea. The noises grew louder, closer.

Voices. Are those voices?

"She's waking up!" A familiar voice called out.

"Oh, thank goodness. Kagome can you hear me?"

Yes, yes she could, she wanted to answer. The figures before her were taking shape. She knew who this was.

She was safe.

She was ok.

"Mom her eyes look weird, we should call for help. And she's bleeding! Look at her stomach!" Her younger brother was nearly sobbing, kneeling close to her and pointing to her abdomen.

"Grandpa already did Sota, run and tell him she's awake, won't you? And please, bring your sister some water."

"Ok mom!" She heard the thud of footsteps fading into the distance as her vision cleared.

Mother. She could see her mother now, eyes locked on to hers. Her tongue felt thick, her words getting tied on it. "Mom, the well, I –"

"Kagome don't try to talk just yet. And don't move. Sota's getting you some water and we've called an ambulance. Sota told me you were looking for the cat and fell and hit your head. And you cut your side. Oh, Kagome, we were so scared."

Her mother held her hands but refrained from grabbing her or helping her up.

Was it a dream?

She held up her hands, pulling them out of the woman's grasp. They looked normal as ever. There was no pink light pulsing from them. What is going on? Kagome longed to tell her mother all she had seen. The monster, the attack, the pink light.

"Mom, I don't feel so good." Was all she could manage before her vision blurred and she let the darkness surround her. She left like she was falling, falling, down. She pictured the sides of the well, and she was falling into its empty, hollow, endless depths. As she descended into the abyss of shadows, she couldn't help but feel that the void was within her.

Something was missing.