Haunted by Riku Ryuu

In the Blink of an Eye

Welcome to the fourth chapter of my story! As you have gotten this far and not died at the spelling mistakes and other errors, I applaud you. Hopefully this one is not that bad. This chapter is for the Hero challenge.

Enjoy.

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Kagome backed away from the crow, hands rising in front of her.

“Look, I don’t know what is happening! Leave me alone!”

The crow’s head tilted back and forth, black beady eyes watching her much like a real bird would a worm or a bug. Kagome could have sworn she saw the word eat flash in the bird’s eyes before it jumped forward with its beak open wide, a loud caw leaving its mouth. Kagome closed her eyes and wished that she would wake up from this nightmare.

Something cold touched her arm and tugged her to the side. Kagome’s eyes popped open in time to see the bird run head first into the bookcase that she had been standing in front of. The cold continued to grip her arm and she looked over to see that Sesshomaru had his hand on her.

“You… saved me. How? I thought you were a ghost.”

“No time. You have to figure out the puzzle.” Sesshomaru pulled her further away from the bird that was getting back to its feet.

“Puzzle? What puzzle?”

“The puzzle in the book. You read it, correct?” The bird came at them again and the cold moved around her waist. Kagome felt a second of weightlessness, as if she was a paper in the breeze, before she was placed on the chandelier. She had a moment to worry about it breaking, but when it did nothing more than sway she figured she was fine.

“Did you read both sides of the page?” Sesshomaru asked without emotion. By his expression, you would think that they were not being attacked by a crazy word bird. Kagome scowled.

“You didn’t tell me to read both sides! How was I supposed to know there was another side you wanted me to read?!” Kagome yelled at her hallucination. This wasn’t fun anymore.

“Where is the book?”

Kagome frowned down at her empty hands. She must have dropped it when the crow had appeared. “Oops?”

Sesshomaru disappeared. Kagome blinked at the space that he had been floating in, wondering if her thoughts had sent him away before he could get her down. How was she going to explain to her mother how she had gotten up on top of the chandelier without a ladder?

Sesshomaru appeared just as her panic was getting to the max. His sleeve was pulled up past his elbow and Kagome swore she saw something red on his pale arm before he turned it towards himself.

“What can you not touch, not feel, not see, but lives within until disease?” He read out without feeling. Kagome blinked at him, wondering what in the world he was talking about. “Figure it out. We do not have much time.”

Kagome glanced down at her feet. The glass underneath her was clear enough that the crow was as visible as if there was nothing between them. Big black wings opened up and the chandelier began to sway as the bird flapped. Kagome feared that the bird was going to fly up and get them, but its legs stayed firmly on the ground.

“I don’t know! Soul? Heart? Hopes? I don’t know!!!” Kagome turned her eyes to Sesshomaru and glared. “I can’t do this! I just don’t have the Knowledge!”

Everything stopped.

The air currents stilled and the floor under Kagome’s feet stopped swaying. Silence reigned and Kagome’s vision went black.

Kagome opened her eyes in the next second and saw that she was facing a bookcase filled with books. Her hand was placed on a book labeled “History of Time”, surrounded by many other books of many other colors. Kagome felt something in the place between her hand and the book and curiously picked it up. A small shard of black met her gaze and as she watched, the black slowly bled red then lightened to pink.

“The first shard of the Shikon no Tama; Knowledge.” Sesshomaru said from next to her. Kagome turned her head to stare at him.

“The Shikon no Tama?” She looked back at the pink jewel only to see that it had disappeared. She looked at the floor to see if it had dropped, but there was no sign of it. A droplet of red fell in her vision and she looked up to see that it had come from Sesshomaru.

“The Jewel of Four Souls. You will only find it within yourself.” He told her with nothing in his tone to hint at his feelings. “There are eleven more for you to find.”

“Wait wait wait, what do you mean eleven more? It was not my choice to do that, whatever that was, and I refuse to go through that again!” Kagome glared at him, his golden eyes meeting her bright blue. There was a stare down, both refusing to give, but Kagome remembered the red. She glanced down to see that a small part of his sleeve was soaked with red. “You’re hurt!” Kagome moved towards him, thinking only of tending his wound, but the hand she reached for him with went through his arm.

Sesshomaru walked forward and Kagome shivered as intense cold chilled her body. A moment later Sesshomaru’s form had completely passed through her and was now floating towards the door. Kagome ran to follow.

“Why can’t I touch you when I could before?” Kagome asked him, wishing she could put a hand on his arm to stop him from walking away.

“It is part of my curse.”

“Curse?” Kagome felt like a parrot, repeating the few words he gave her.

Sesshomaru paused and turned to her. Their eyes met again and a blank wall seemed to fall over his face, hiding his thoughts from her vision.

“I am cursed to stay here, a ‘ghost’ in my own home, until someone pure of heart who can see me collects all of the shards.” Sesshomaru said flatly. “I have been waiting for you.”

 Kagome backed up a step.

“I can’t help you, this is just too much for me. I’m not pure of heart and I’m not a hero. You’ll have to wait for someone else.” Kagome said and ran around him to the door. With one hand on the knob, she began to open the door when he spoke again.

“Then your family will die.”

Kagome spun towards him, anger in her eyes radiating like flames.

“Is that a threat?” She bit out. Though she couldn’t hurt him with her hands, she was not above tearing into him with words.

“No, it is a fact. I am not the only one trapped here.”

“Explain.” She demanded. Sesshomaru seemed to respond to her tone, annoyance curving his lips downward in a frown. He obviously did not like for others to order him around, but at the moment Kagome did not care.

“I was sealed to keep a half demon, Naraku, from taking control of the Shikon no Tama. I was to be its guardian, but Naraku used his own spells to seal himself in with me and changed the rules. I was given one hundred years to gather the shards but I cannot… The hundred years ends in ten days. If I do not collect all of the shards then the world will fall to him.”

Kagome shook her head and opened the door all the way.

“This isn’t real.”

The last thing she saw before closing the door behind her was Sesshomaru’s eyes filled with fire.

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And done! I hope you liked it and I would love to hear from you.

Thank you!