Do You Believe in Ghosts? by elevenharbor

Transcendence

--  Do You Believe in Ghosts? --

Summary: Sometimes, love can transcend all boundaries, even in death

Disclaimer: I do not own any rights whatsoever to Inuyasha or Ghost, in any and all forms. 

-- x --

“Are you both alright?”

The faint, yet familiar dulcet tones of a voice he now only hears in his dreams triggered something within Sesshomaru, causing him to look up unexpectedly. 

“Kagome…” he whispered breathlessly. “Kagome...is that you?”

His question dropped heavily between them like a weighted curtain. The air was thick with tension, the atmosphere saturated with the din of silence. Sesshomaru opened his clenched fist and tentatively reached out in the direction of the sound, unsure of what to expect. His shifting eyes looked for any visible signs of her presence, fearful that he had imagined it all. 

Unbeknownst to him, Kagome kneeled, facing him. Somber eyes stared into an equally melancholic pair of golden pools she wanted to sink into, never to come out. 

Her outstretched hand met his halfway. But instead of passing through him like she usually did, the pads of her fingertips finally made contact with his, electrifying the space between them.

Noting a sudden change in the air, a tingling feeling registered against his hand. The sensation started as a pinprick on the tips of his fingers, until it spread out like wildfire to the palm of his opened hand. Sesshomaru visibly flinched; mouth agape, eyes widened in bewilderment. Unreadable emotions were etched all over his face. 

Seeing him in this state-- pained, broken, harrowed, tormented, disarrayed-- shattered Kagome’s heart into a million pieces. Never in their years of companionship had she seen a myriad of emotions mar his beautiful face all at once. What destroyed her even more was the fact that she was the root cause of it. 

Kagome stifled a sob. Not trusting her voice enough, she glanced at Rin over her shoulder, her eyes pleaded with hers to repeat her burning questions. 

“Sesshomaru” Kagome turned her head back to him and began, her voice coming out hoarsely.  “Can you feel my hand? Can you feel me?”

Rin bridged her strained request straight to Sesshomaru’s ears. “She’s asking if you can feel her hand, if you can feel her.”

Seconds felt like hours as Kagome held her breath and waited, listening to the hammering of her heart in her hollowed chest. Her ears strained for answers she so desperately wanted to hear. 

Sesshomaru felt himself coming undone, unraveling to weave himself into any reality that laced her presence with his. A piece of his mind screamed at the insanity of it all, his logical brain commanding him to pull himself together and get out of this vortex. But he did not care anymore. His silent torture was driving him mad, but each waking moment without her felt more like an eternal prison to him than dealing with his own mental shackles. 

She was taken from him so suddenly, without being given a hair’s breadth of a chance to say goodbye. 

He grieved for her, for him, for them, and for what could have been. He believed that he would never stop grieving. He didn’t know how.

Yet, as the currents shifted and he felt things he had no logical explanations for, he decided to take the plunge. He wanted to spiral into the unknown with no hope for return, if it meant he had a sliver of a chance to see her, to feel her, simply to be with her; however brief. 

Sesshomaru closed his eyes and concentrated on the feeling, willing his mind to commit the sensations to memory. He needed to savor each neuron firing, each tactile stimulation, each hair that stood up to attention, as if his very life depended on it. He should’ve been afraid of the intensity of it all, should’ve run away. But he longed for this moment, for as long as he can remember, since her fateful death.  

Imagining Kagome in his mind’s eye right before him, Sesshomaru finally responded. 

“With all that I am, Kagome,” he said in a brittled voice. 

Kagome could not hold back any longer. The dam that held every emotion at bay finally gave way, her tears cascading like waterfalls down her face. 

“Oh, Sesshomaru,” she whispered tremulously, “I wish I could give my soul, anything right now....Anything! Just so I can hold you once more.” 

Upon hearing Kagome’s anguished plea, Rin hugged herself as she shifted her weight from one foot to the next. “She said...she…” Rin paused, swallowing the lump that constricted her voice, before proceeding. “She said she wishes she could give anything right now, to hold you once again.” 

Another pregnant pause. 

Kagome waited with bated breath to hear what Sesshomaru had to say.  

Elsewhere, another entity also heard Kagome’s wish. Dangling off a rusty nail that was embedded in a wooden post several feet away, the Shikon no Tama started to glow.

Suddenly, a brilliant light emerged from the crystalloid sphere. The light flooded the entire room with a pinkish haze, while stardust settled on a figure kneeling in front of Sesshomaru. 

Eyes filled with surprise and wonder, Kagome looked up at the source of the light, and then back towards Sesshomaru’s direction. On her way down, she noticed her arms and hands had an iridescent glow and were slowly becoming translucent. 

A faint smile graced her lips as Kagome leaned toward Sesshomaru and placed her hand under his chin, willing him to look up. 

Feeling an upward pull under his chin, Sesshomaru finally opened his eyes, tilted his head up, and audibly gasped, dumbfounded at the sight before him. Kagome’s smiling, luminous face stared back at him. The visage highlighting the otherworldly beauty that she truly was.

Time stood still. 

She stared at him for a long, silent moment before slowly bending her face to his, as her pearlescent lips grazed his warm, pliant lips, featherly. 

Stunned beyond words and comprehension, Sesshomaru failed to notice a lone tear that finally escaped the prison of his eyes and trailed down his ghastly white face. 

His eyelids gently closed shut once more as they shared their first and last tender kiss. Neither one dared to move, for they knew that there would be no next time.

A silent exchange, charged with emotion. Words were said without sound.

I’ve said it with my eyes. 

Expressed it with my touch. 

Declared it by giving you my heart. 

But you didn’t know. You never knew.

Unable to keep the iron lid on his control any longer, Sesshomaru pulled back, before releasing an anguished breath. He felt shackled by the heavy weight of their silent exchange and of the impossibility of their current situation. 

Overwhelmed with the barrage of his own emotions, Sesshomaru opened his eyes, his piercing gaze cut through Kagome like a scalpel on skin. 

Golden eyes flickered like a candle. 

Look into my eyes, hear what I am not saying.

“I love you, Kagome.” Sesshomaru mouthed, barely above a whisper, intended for her ears and hers alone. 

I have always loved you. 

I will always love you. 

Though barely a breath, Kagome heard his admission loud and clear. A new wave of tears marred her vision as she swallowed hard. The corners of her lips turned upward, but the smile never reached her eyes. A fading thumb tenderly traced his bottom lip. 

“I know.” she whispered back.

I should’ve known. It was all in front of me. 

But I chose to be blind.

He turned his hand to caress her quickly fading cheek with his warm, slender fingers. He felt static electricity lightly graze the frontal and dorsal sides of his hand as her angelic face nestled on his palm. 

“I need you, Kagome. More than you will ever know.” Sesshomaru stated, agony laced in his tone. “I am trying. Desperately.” 

“But…” his normally throaty voice, once full of conviction, now wobbled at his confession. “...I cannot move on. I do not know how.”

Kagome grabbed his other hand and glided his lithe fingers down her face. She nuzzled her tear-stricken cheeks against his palms, savoring his warmth and embedded it in her memory. Every fiber of her being burned with both ecstasy and pain. The sensation was too much. 

“You have to. I cannot stay any longer.”

Not knowing what else to do, Kagome kept her face in his grasp and cried, pouring her heart out, for the last time. She felt a tug deep inside. Her soul was being pulled, to god-knows where. It was the consequence of her wish, the trade she willingly took. The jewel was taking her soul away, in exchange for this fleeting moment with Sesshomaru.

I am so sorry. More than you will ever know.

The light around Kagome intensified. She slowly backed away from him, keeping her eyes locked with his. 

Sesshomaru watched with a pained expression, as near-transparent hands floated across space and time to touch him once more. Her fingers alighted on either side of his face. The painfully gentle probing of her fingertips burned ever so slightly, but never enough for him to pull away.  

Beneath her aching fingers, she felt his bounding pulse, the blood racing through his veins as his heart worked on overdrive to sustain his warm, beautiful, living body and soul. 

The air was saturated with the sound of silence, choked with so many things, so many promises left unsaid. 

After what felt like an eternity, Kagome finally broke the deafening silence. 

“It’s amazing, Sesshomaru. This feeling inside. You take it with you.”

Sesshomaru struggled with himself to decipher the situation. He knew something was happening. His heart was galloping, yet his mind and body were frozen. But as he noticed her light intensifying, realization dawned on him. 

Their time was up. 

Like a lightning rod that struck him, her voice sprung Sesshomaru into action. Every muscle fiber in his body contracted, before releasing with full force. He chased after her, extending his arms to grab her, but his hand met air.

He did not want to let go. He never wanted to let go.

Kagome continued to fade into whiteness. 

“Love...it can transcend all boundaries… even death.”

With one last glance filled with love and admiration, she wished him her final farewell. 

“I guess I’ll see you around, hopefully on the other side.”

Within milliseconds, the jewel erupted once more, followed by complete darkness. 

The light that was Kagome, was gone. 

Sesshomaru was glued to the floor, eyes transfixed on the spot that held her not a moment ago. 

Rin, having been a silent witness to the very intimate moment she will most likely never see with anyone else in her lifetime, wiped her eyes and willed her tears to stop. She had heard of love being everlasting, but bearing witness to it was a completely different experience altogether. Her heart ached for them. For Kagome, who was robbed of life and a promise of a future with Sesshomaru. 

...and for Sesshomaru, who was robbed of his chance to fully love unconditionally and receive it in return.

She truly wondered if he would ever recover from this harrowing experience. This cruel trick of fate. 

After several minutes, Rin slowly approached him. He remained as still as a statue, a few steps away. 

“Come, Sesshomaru. Let’s get you home.”

Sesshomaru glazed over Rin, his eyes opened but not completely seeing. He replied automatically, his tone void of life.

“She was my home.” 

And now she is gone.

 -- x --

A/N: Yet another story inspired by a late-night dose of OST listening on Spotify. For this one in particular, what did me in was 'Unchained Melody (Dance)/The Love Inside' by the original cast of Ghost: The Musical. (I was today years old when I learned about the theatrical adaptation, 20 years after the film.) This played on loop while writing. Try listening to that song (or the original 'Unchained Melody - Orchestral' by Maurice Jarre, if you want to torture yourself like I did) while reading this. I dare you.

For those who couldn’t guess by the title, quotes, plot, or disclaimer, I got my inspiration from the 1990 classic called Ghost, starring Patrick Swayze (RIP), Demi Moore & Whoopi Goldberg. It's probably one of the cheesiest [some may argue cringe-worthy] movies of all time (up there with Titanic), but I am first to admit that my eyes turn into leaky faucets by the end (scratch that, especially the ending) each time. There’s just something emotionally gut-wrenching about Sam and Molly’s tragic love story that culminates in the end. This angsty one-shot was my attempt at recreating that ending scene, but with our favorite couple, reversing their roles, Rin = Oda Mae (Whoopi), the jewel = “Heaven”. Also threw in some easter eggs from my other one-shot (“Until We Meet Again”), just for fun.

Thank you for reading!