This applies to all chapter of this story: All rights belong to Rumiko Takahashi and her publishers.

Chapter 1

In the center of what was once a powerful lord's throne room, a dark figure sat in front of a low table, intricate in design but heavily dented and scratched with age. On the table were scattered scraps of paper with symbols and characters only decipherable by him. The glow from an almost spent candle was the only light source in the room. Some servants lingered about the dilapidated castle, but no one dared disturb him there.

He rocked a little as he read the incantation over and over, his blood red eyes twitching slightly with the strain of the ancient dark magics he sought. Suddenly a symbol on one of the papers before him glowed, alternating between a soft pale pink and a dark murky purple. Suddenly the paper caught on fire and disintegrated, leaving only the strange symbol burned into the surface of the old table.

The figure stared at the mark a moment before letting out a deep, sinister laugh. The servants who were near enough to hear quickly left to patrol other areas of the castle.

The light went out but the laughing continued.

Far away, a simple-looking well in the middle of the forest released a light high into the night sky, startling anyone in the vicinity still awake to see such a sight.

—

"I'm off!" Kagome called out cheerfully as she tapped the top of her shoe to adjust it on her foot. She fiddled with her neckerchief in the mirror and straightened her skirt before picking up her last bag and heading out the door.

"Jeez, the first day of school is such a pain," she thought to herself as she walked out onto the shrine grounds where her family lived. The bags she carried were full to the brim with her textbooks, school supplies, and anything else a high schooler would need throughout the year. It had the unfortunate side effect of creating an extremely heavy backpack, plus a lesson bag and a lunch bag.

But despite her heavy load and the impending walk to school, Kagome was in high spirits. She loved her school, she loved her friends, and nothing was going to spoil her birthday, not even an overflowing backpack or boring teachers.

With a cheerful spring in her step, she headed toward the long stone staircase that connected her family's shrine with the rest of Tokyo. Although technically in the middle of a bustling suburb, the high hill the property was surrounded by trees and shrubbery, setting it apart from the secular world. But even from up here she could hear the cars and trucks and children below; a town full of people on their way to work and school.

"Like I should be," she thought to herself.

Her feet carried her across the ancient stone tiles on her way to the stairs. Before she could get there, however, she felt a subconscious tug towards the old wellhouse.

Kagome sighed deeply. She hated getting these sensations because undoubtedly it meant that some creepy crawly or wild animal was on the other side. Forcing her smile once more, she turned to leave again when the pull became more insistent.

"Fiiiiiiiine," she thought sullenly. "I'll save the poor creature and be on my way."

Readjusting her bag slightly, she walked up to the well doors. They slid open with a deep groan, but peering inside she didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Still, she walked down the creaky steps to stand before the old well itself.

"Did something get stuck… down there?" she wondered nervously.

Kagome put her hands on the edge of the well, intending to look for whatever hapless creature had gotten trapped inside. As soon as she touched the ancient wood though, a pulsing light glowed around her and a dark, shadowy figure pulled her inside the old well.

—

Kagome was too shocked to do anything for a moment, but once she regained control of herself she screamed and fought against her attacker. Strangely it seemed to absorb every hit and push; nothing seemed to affect it at all.

As she continued to fall, the well seemed to become brighter. The glowing lights might have reminded her of the sky or the Milky Way had she not been scared out of her mind and focused on fighting for her life.

"It's here… in you… it is you," the figure cooed, twisting around her like a boa constrictor.

Kagome felt like she was being squeezed, drowned, and ripped apart at the same time. She couldn't move as both her and the figure kept falling and falling…

She may have blacked out a moment, but the strange figure was still slithering around her. Even though she could not feel it exactly, the pressure was undeniable.

"Let go of me!" she screamed, trying to free her arms and stop the monster, the freefall, or - ideally - both.

The strange creature laughed and squeezed tighter, making it painful to breathe.

"You will give it to me, and then you will die," the creature said, glowing a sinister purple.

"I will not die here!" Kagome shouted back, surprising herself. She could feel something welling up inside her.

"You won't have a choice, girl," the creature replied, molding and shaping itself in such a way as to cover her whole body.

"No!" Kagome cried out. She was going to die unless she did something.

Suddenly she felt whatever was inside her bubble up and explode, just like that old volcano science project she did in elementary school. A bright pinkish white light made it impossible to see anything. All she heard was white noise. She suddenly realized how tired she was, and let her eyes close.

"Only for a moment," she promised herself.

—

Kagome awoke on the floor of the well, her bags strewn around her. The strange creature was gone, as were the strange lights and noise. Still in a bit of a brain fog, Kagome mindlessly picked up her things and straightened out her clothes.

"That was weirder than normal," she murmured to herself.

She stretched her arms above her head and tried to figure out how she was going to get out of the well when she noticed the roof of the wellhouse was gone.

"Huh?"

She shook her head and looked again, but nothing changed.

"Ok," she thought to herself, trying not to panic, "this is clearly a weird dream and I just need to pinch myself to wake up."

She pinched her arm as hard as she could, but nothing happened.

Rubbing her arm and looking up, she came to the conclusion that nothing would be solved at the bottom of the well, so she picked up her bags and used the long, conveniently placed vines to slowly pull herself out of the depths.

When she finally flung herself and her bags out of the well a good amount of time later, she was panting and sweating profusely. In fact, it took her a moment to recover before she realized that something was very wrong with her surroundings.

"It's so quiet," Kagome said, standing up slowly to look around. The well was the same as the one at her family's shrine, she was sure, but the house, the shrine, and all the other outbuildings were nowhere to be seen. The familiar sounds of car engines and traffic from the street below were completely absent. In fact, she didn't even see the stairs that led down the hill. There was only a hill.

Kagome had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. She was sure this was the same place, but obviously it was different too.

"Don't freak out. Don't freak out. Don't freak out," she told herself.

She walked back over to the well and looked down. The feeling she had when she touched it before was gone. She felt nothing besides the old, dry wood against her palms. The bottom of the well was empty, same as it always had been. The only difference appeared to be the vines, although she could not say with certainty whether or not they had been there before. It's not like a teenage girl spent a lot of time in a creepy old wellhouse after all.

She looked around again for some other point of reference and was pleasantly surprised when she saw the God Tree. It stood high above the other trees in the forest and always seemed to call to her, especially when she was in need of comfort.

Direction decided, she picked up her things and made the short walk over to the old tree.

Author's Note: Not sure where this is going, but hope you enjoy the ride.