Inoppertune Tribulations

Disclaimer: I do not own the original story line and this is a non-profit story. Enjoy :)

Inuyasha jumped back from the pool and quickly ran from the clearing. There weren’t many things in this world that could get his heart thumping, but that was definitely one of them. He figured that as long as he had the jewel pieces that had been currently collected, he didn’t have to be here, right? He wasn’t sure what it was, but he felt the undying urge to get to Kagome.

Something’s wrong, he thought as he weaved his way through the trees and back towards the well.

***

Kagome stood on shaky legs and walked into her bathroom. Looking at the mirror, there was something different. Her eyes were a shade darker, her hair a little more flat. And then she realized. Those were the same things that had been wrong before. But… but maybe they weren’t some creepy apparition, maybe it was just the days’ toll on her. This was just herself, a much more tired version of herself, but still herself.

She put a hesitant hand on the glass of the mirror and held it there for a second before pulling it away. She sighed in relief when she realized that there was no left over reflection this time. Maybe she hadn’t been lying to Inuyasha; maybe it truly was just the fact that she was tired.

Or at least that’s what she’d tell herself.

“Sweetie, why did you scream earlier?” her mother asked in a still worried tone.

“I… uh… don’t remember screaming,” she started. “I was taking a nap; I must have had a nightmare or something.”

Her mother took in the lie for what it was: a lie.

Kagome saw the looked on her mother’s face and waited for the questioning to start. To her surprise, however, her mother nodded with a smile.

“Well, I’m sorry to hear that; maybe you’ll sleep better when Inuyasha comes back.”

“Maybe,” Kagome responded back with a semi-nervous laugh. “Whelp, I better continue unpacking.”

Her mother stood there for a moment still looking her daughter over. “Sure, I’ll call you down when dinner’s ready,” she finished with a smile.

Kagome smiled at her mom thankfully as she shut her door. She turned back to her room and looked at that corner which, not so long ago, didn’t seem as innocent as it appeared. That scratching she had heard. That horrible sound that seemed to tear her ear drums out wasn’t scratching at all.

It had been the soft grinding of teeth.

Or at least, Kagome had presumed it was a person at some point in time.
The gruesome scene had been flesh peeling away from a broken and shriveled body. The ribs were broken in and piercing the fleshy organs kept within. The organs had been blackened with age and practically melting off their stems. There was no sign of legs, just a pool of endless blood circling around the scarred stomach. And the arms- Kagome shivered- the arms were melted to the walls of the corner. The point where the flesh became plaster was incredibly hard to tell, and the ear lobes were scalded into the disintegrating flesh of the shoulder.

Then there was the face.

There was no hair, no expression, just burnt flesh peeling back to show the skull beneath. The only thing that had made the face… well, a face- was the desperate and pleading black eyes that seemed to stare directly at Kagome.

Kagome shivered again and immediately tried to change her thought path. She thought back to Inuyasha. He was probably all over Kikyou by now…

“Hey.”

Kagome jumped and whirred around to face the window. “Inuyasha!” she exclaimed as he dug through his kimono.

She gasped when he brought his hand out carrying a very large chunk of the jewel. “From Kikyou,” he answered the unspoken question as he tossed it to her. He slowly stepped off the window sill and looked around the seemingly empty room. “Everything okay here?” he asked still turning his head slowly from side to side.

“Yeah, why do you ask?”

“Something… weird happened when I was down the well,” the hanyou started as his molten eyes finally found her chocolate ones.

“Weird?” A cold chill iced its way through Kagome’s veins. “What kind of weird?”

“I dunno, the creepy kind; the kind that sends chills up your spine.”

“What happened?”

“I’m sure it ain’t nothin’, but… I dunno, guess I’m seeing things.”

Kagome’s look turned almost urgent. “Seeing what things?”

“Seeing… faces and getting these odd feelings like someone’s watching me…”

“What did the face look like?”

“Hell, I don’t know. I ran away too fast. All I know is that something isn’t right. And I’d rather stay here to protect you if things should… get out of hand? I really don’t know, Kagome, it’s just a feeling.”

Kagome nodded. “I can’t say I’m disappointed. I was getting kind of worried.”

“Well, I’m here now,” Inuyasha finished with a finality that had Kagome feeling safe for the first time since they had left the shrine.

“Kagome! Dinner!” Mrs. Higurashi called from downstairs.

“We’re coming!” Kagome called back as she hurried to put her boxes away. She didn’t want to trip on them in a klutzy moment when she forgot they were there.
After she was satisfied she couldn’t possible trip on any of the edges, she and Inuyasha made their way to the kitchen.

Dinner was a quiet affair. Forks hit plates and jaws chewed, but those were the only sounds. There was no idle chit-chat, no asking for more. They ate what they were given and didn’t complain.

That’s odd… Kagome thought as she chewed thoughtfully on a teriyaki covered chicken bone. She sighed and started to stand right as her brother did. Souta’s klutziness combined with her own created a disastrous collision that ended in Kagome covered in sauce and grease.

“Souta…” Kagome’s piqued voice ground out from behind her throat. She sighed with angry eyes and she tried to wipe at least some of the liquid from her form. After wasting several napkins, she realized she’d have to take another shower. She sighed again as she walked gloomily up the stairs.

The miko slowed down the closer she got to her room; she didn’t want to have to use that bathroom again. It was too… creepy. Too odd. When she reached her door, she closed her eyes and tried to center herself. This is stupid, she thought. I shouldn’t be afraid of a bedroom… or a bathroom for that matter.

When the smell that had saturated her hair became too much too ignore, she finally opened her eyes and turned the knob. Walking into her room, she weaved through the maze of packed boxes, searching for her dresser.

“Aha!” she said with a triumphant smile and pulled open her pj drawer. Just as she was about to pull out her favorite pink nightgown, her hand froze.

-She weaved through the maze of packed boxes-

Kagome’s brow furrowed as she turned her head to look behind her, hand still poised for the pjs. Her chocolate orbs widened at the sight before: all the boxes she had so carefully hidden from tripping distance were scattered across the room like they had been before.

Footsteps coming up the stairs interrupted her turning thoughts. Inuyasha walked into the room and opened his mouth to say something. Stopping short, he looked around the room with a puzzled expression.

“I thought you were going to take a bath. Why did you bring all the boxes back out?”

So it’s not just my imagination, Kagome thought as she turned her silent, wide eyes to the hanyou. “I didn’t,” she whispered shakily.

Inuyasha looked at her surprised before his expression became one of confusion again. “You must have…”

“But I didn’t.”

Her curt tone and slightly angered expression made him bite his tongue. There was no help in saying he didn’t believe her. “Okay, well don’t freak out. I mean… maybe…” Inuyasha tried to think of an explanation that sounded at least a little believable. “Maybe you didn’t put them all away?”

“This is all of them.”

Inuyasha stayed silent for a moment. “Well, I don’t know, but go take your bath. Try to relax.”

Kagome’s expression turned terrified as she looked between him and the bathroom door. “But-”

“I’ll be right in here. If you need anything just call. You’ll be fine,” he assured her as he picked up the clothing she still had her hand reached out for. He walked her to the bathroom door and put her nightgown in her hands. “I’ll be right out here.”
Kagome nodded slowly before walking into the room and shutting the door.

Inuyasha let out a sigh and turned back to the room. Looking around once more, he decided to entertain himself with her picture box until she came out.

After a little bit of fiddling, he finally figured out how to turn it on and change the picture. Going through, he stopped on some show with two men fighting each other. Easily seeing through the fake hits and kicks, Inuyasha rolled his eyes and snorted. Humans, he thought.

He was about to change the moving picture again, when suddenly, it changed for him. It took him a moment to see through the steam, but he finally saw that it was a woman in the shower. Not just any woman. Kagome.

Turning crimson, Inuyasha looked away, but alas, he is male, and his eyes “accidentally” found their way back to the screen. He took in her form: her perfect curves and silky skin, the scalding water pouring down over her soapy, raven-black tendrils, her supple chest and her delicate fingers.

Inuyasha blushed brighter as he realized how openly he was gawking at her. He didn’t understand, though. He’d only seen this magic box a few times, but the few times he had seen it, it had never shown people he knew. Why was it showing him Kagome?

The miko stopped the scrubbing of her hair and Inuyasha heard a slight gasp. She stood there for a moment, completely still, before she fells heavily to her knees. The rest of her body fell forward and splashed into the water as her head rolled forward.

Inuyasha gasped and stood quickly, but before he could fully gather what he’d just seen, the screen turned to static.

For just a moment, the screen was white with little black flecks in it, and then, as though it never happened, the screen turned back to normal. It showed Kagome standing and washing her hair and humming a soft tune. Inuyasha didn’t understand. Hadn’t he just seen her die?

The hanyou sat back down slowly. He was contemplating going into the bathroom. He knew that if there was nothing wrong, Kagome would be furious at the intrusion, and she would’ve called for him had she needed help. Right?

Again, Kagome stopped washing her hair. She just stood there, still in the burning water. This time, however, she didn’t fall to the shower floor. Instead, she turned. Her body was facing forward, but her head turned in choppy motions, like the picture was skipping. She looked directly at Inuyasha with deadly eyes for just a moment before the picture skipped again and she was staring away from him like before.

Her hand reached back towards the knobs on the back wall of the shower. The first thing she did was turn the blue knob all the way to the left, then she turned the red knob all the way to the right. The steam in the room thickened and every drop that hit her flesh seared it and turned it raw. Blood flowed down the drain with the water and bits and pieces of her bone started to show through. She gripped the wall on the outside of the shower and he skin practically melded to it. Lifting her feet off the ground, Inuyasha could see thin strands of gooey flesh.

Eyes widening with horror, Inuyasha tried to get his shaky limbs to work. He had to get in there and-

“Hey.”

The hanyou jumped as his heart throbbed painfully against his chest. Whirring around, his eyes were as wide as saucers as he took in the sight of Kagome. A perfectly fine, not melting Kagome in a long, lacy nightgown.

“Inuyasha?” Kagome asked as she took in his frazzled appearance.

He flipped back around to the TV screen.

“And welcome back to Monday Night RAW!”