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 there 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!" His eyes were searching for the grounds, frantic with worry.

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 moving, 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. Her uniformed was ruined.

Mom is going to kill me.

Light trails of blood were forming where the cat's nails had bit into her flesh. She needed to get back to the house and change for school. There was no way she would be on time now. She silently cursed both brother and pet as she turned towards the door.

Scritch. Scritch.

There it was again. Kagome turned back towards the well as a wave of fear passed through her. Buyo was long gone. So, what, exactly, was making that noise? Her bag felt heavy on her back as she shifted it nervously.

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.

That's not normal...

Kagome took another step closer, now only a foot away, and leaned over to inspect the mist creeping and twirling in the cracks of sunlight that filtered in from the open door. Sunlight she desperately wanted to return to; just one more minute and she would bound up those steps.

One minute, and I'll -

She wasn't expecting what happened then, the speed of the whole thing imperceivable to her eye. A sudden splintering noise filled the tiny room and Kagome was nearly knocked out by flying wood and a percussion that reverberated through her body, slamming her back 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?

The smell that permeated the air was unbelievably foul, like a mix of rotting meat and metal, and was so thick that it felt as though it was solid in her mouth. 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, no, some thing 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 shape 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!"

Jewel?

"What jewel?!" She screamed at it, scrambling backward and kicking out towards that horrifying body.

The demon's face contorted but spoke again, its voice dripping with malice. "Little deceiver, you cannot hide the Shikon jewel from me! I can sense it, the power...it calls to me!"

Shikon...what? Her mind raced. What was this thing saying to her?She had heard that name before...but where?

"I have no idea-"

Wait! The Shikon no Tama. The jewel grandpa had given me! Could it be it was the real thing? It's in my backpack!

She grabbed her bag and twisted it from her shoulders, heaving it at the monster. It thudded into her naked chest and one of her arms laced into it, a blur of yellow and sickly gray. Spurred by the terror and confusion, Kagome braced herself against the floor and twisted her body in an attempt to get to her feet and run for the door. But despite the distraction, she felt icy cold fingers slip around her ankles, then her thighs, and suddenly the ground was sliding beneath her. Kagome's heart thudded wildly as fingers laced themselves around the back of her neck.

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

"No!" 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. She screamed and thrashed, and then the world flipped, and Kagome was upright and swinging from the demon's grip. She was only inches from those rows of vicious teeth, but instead of using them to tear out her throat, it was...laughing? Its hot breath hit her and that panic in her turned into a rage.

"Get OFF of me!" Kagome was feral, shrieking. 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 iron grasp.

I can't die here. I won't die here.

With those words echoing in her mind, Kagome felt a sudden fire bloom within her, one that was deep and hot and foreign. Despite the frenzy, Kagome stopped struggling. From her gut and shooting through her body and arms, the tingling was almost - alive and an entity of its own. Even the demon stopped pulling on her, as if she felt it straight through Kagome's pale flesh. In her hands, grasped around sickly grey wrists, a pinkish glow pulsed and pushed, illuminating the dark wellhouse.

Kagome squeezed down hard on the woman's wrist and felt an explosive jolt wrack her body as the demon was slammed up and backwards into the ceiling. Bits of rotten wood rained down and the thing shrieked and landed hard in the dirt, only inches from her face. Behind it, the snake like main body was falling, sinking back into the well. This was her chance. Scrambling to her feet, she made to sprint out the door when long fingers wrapped themselves in her dark, thick hair and she was yanked back down to the ground.

Snarling above her, the demon 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 roughly, 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?" She felt warm hands on hers.

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.