Haunted by Riku Ryuu

Too Easy

Hi! This chapter is for Skye's Pledge Challenge. Thank you for reading this far.

Enjoy.

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Kagome felt panic set in. She would let this stupid hallucination go along if it was only her own life on the line, but now that her family was at stake and her family meant everything to her. She would do anything for them.

“Fine; give me the puzzle!” She growled at the seemingly emotionless man before her. Sesshomaru did not move to do anything; he just stood and watched her.

“I am unable to help your challenges along in that way again. You must find your own way.”

Kagome stared at him with wide eyes before they narrowed in anger.

“What? So you are just going to let my family die?!” She asked with fire in her eyes. Sesshomaru did not show that he was affected by her words.

“I cannot lead you along. The curse prevents me from doing so.”

Kagome’s fire left her with a sigh and she closed her eyes. When the smell seemed to get stronger her eyes snapped open and locked on Sesshomaru.

“What can you tell me?” She asked softly.

“I can give you a hint. Go back to where you began.” Kagome groaned and looked around the room.

“I hate doing puzzles under pressure! … Let me think.” Her eyes landed on the cupboard behind her. She could have sworn she had not closed it, but the cupboard door was securely closed. “I have to complete this ‘room’, so the beginning must be when this started.” Kagome reached for the cupboard’s handle and pulled. It was stuck fast.

Pale hands covered Kagome’s and helped her to pull back. The sleeve of his clothing moved up and Kagome saw stripes on his wrists that matched the ones on his face. When the sleeve went higher Kagome saw red. His arm had words carved into it and after a closer look, Kagome recognized the words from the first poem.

Before she could figure out what that meant, the cupboard opened and she went crashing into Sesshomaru. She had a moment to feel his hard chest behind her before the solid body was gone and she was falling through the air towards the floor.

Kagome’s bottom hit the floor and she flinched from the slight pain.

“Are you alright?”

Kagome looked over to see that her mother was watching her with worried eyes. Kagome got up and was about to brush off the back of her pants when she saw the black shard in her hand. Pink slowly covered the shard before it was absorbed into her hand.

“Strength.” Sesshomaru voice whispered in her ear but when she turned he was nowhere to be seen.

“I’m fine… It was stuck.” She explained lamely. She wondered if her family had even noticed anything strange other than the fact she had fallen. After grabbling one of the plates, Kagome walked over to her mom and stood by as food was stacked high on the surface. The plate was moved to the table and Kagome sat across from her brother.

Instead of devouring her food like she had wanted to before, Kagome slowly gathered each forkful of food before lifting it to her mouth, where she chewed it absent mindedly. She didn’t even notice her mother sitting down next to her. Kagome’s focus was lost to her thoughts that resolved around her new adventures.

The puzzles seemed so simple for such dire consequences. Kagome felt like something was out of place, as if this was all wrong. Then again, Kagome reminded herself that it was not real at all. This was just something out of her imagination and it did nothing more than tell her that her imagination sucked. The first puzzle had been answered by accident and the second by pulling a cupboard opened. What was the next challenge going to be, fixing a light bulb? It didn’t seem serious.

Then she remembered Sesshomaru’s arm. If she had seen correctly, his arm held the words from the first puzzle, probably carved by his own hand. He had said the puzzle was in the book, so why didn’t he just get it and bring it to her instead of harming himself?

Kagome finished up her meal and took her plate and utensils to the washing machine. Her mother tried to take the dishes but Kagome went around her and washed her own things.

“You cooked; the least I can do is clean.” She said with a distracted smile for her mother. Her mother looked like she was going to protest but something held her back.

“Thank you, Kagome.” She said before going back to the table to finish her own meal. Sota followed his sister’s example by washing off his plate and putting it in the dishwasher, but he left Kagome to hand wash the pans used to cook. He yelled something about going out to play before rushing from the room, leaving Kagome and her mother alone.

There was silence except for the splashing of water and the hum of the dishwasher. Kagome did not notice much, still thinking about her odd figments of the imagination.

“Kagome, do you like it here?”

Kagome blinked out of her thoughts and turned her head to look at her mother. Kagome’s mom was looking down at her plate, not really eating anymore. A thoughtful expression was on her face and Kagome wondered what was wrong.

“I’m not sure; we’ve only been her for a day.” She said finally, using an answer that was not a lie but not the full truth either. She couldn’t tell her mom the truth of what had happened because Kagome was not really sure of anything herself.  “Why? Do you not like the house?” Remembering her mother’s happiness the day before, Kagome was worried at the change. “Has something… happened?”

Her mother shook her head.

“No, it is probably just jitters. I think I’ll get around to getting the ballroom ready for the store next week sometime and once that is done I’ll be one step closer to being a bookstore owner.” Her lips turned up into a smile but Kagome saw that it did not reach her eyes.

“If you say so.” Kagome said with a small shake of her head. Kagome’s mom emptied her plate then left the kitchen with another fake smile and the promise to see Kagome later. Kagome finished up the dishes before leaving the room, heading towards her own room. She needed to talk to Sesshomaru and she figured that would be the best place to find him as he probably knew it was her room.

Kagome jumped about a foot in the air when the person on her mind drifted out of the wall. She knew that he could go through doors, but she still did not expect him to go through walls for some reason. Kagome used a hand to pat at her heart.

“Jeez, next time could you not jump out of nowhere? I think you scared a year off of my life.”

One of Sesshomaru’s eyebrows went up in amusement, showing more emotion than she had ever seen from him.

“I did not ‘jump’. To jump, I would have to touch the floor.” Sesshomaru pointed out, his face smoothing back into its blank mask.

“You know what I mean!” Kagome said grumpily, folding her arms over her chest. “Now why are you here? Is there another shard nearby?” Kagome ignored the fact that she had been looking for him and instead looked around the hallway at all the doors around her.

“You led me to believe that you would no longer search for shards.” Sesshomaru said flatly. Kagome scowled at him.

“You know I have to! I can’t let my family get hurt and if that means fighting fantasy dragons than I will do it.” Sesshomaru stared at her.

“Give me your word that you will continue the hunt for the jewels, no matter what happens.”

Kagome blinked at him, confused by his demand.

“I just told you I have to.” She said with a frown. Sesshomaru shook his head.

“Not good enough. Give me your word that you will do what is needed and I will continue to help you.”

Kagome shook her head at him.

“You are so odd… Fine, I give my word that I will continue the hunt for the shards.”

“No matter what?” He asked. A challenge seemed to flash in his eyes and Kagome wanted nothing more than to hide from it but she had no choice.

“No matter what.” And oddly, it felt like she had promised her life.

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