The quiet hum of the evening was abruptly disturbed by the sudden sound of a lone woman bursting through the doors of her home with a labored scream. Feet barely touching the ground in her frantic escape, she reached her car and attempted with trembling hands to unlock the door.
“Get back here, bitch!” An angry male voice yelled after her as the large figure of a man stormed through the door and out into the dusky evening. He wiped a hand over his brow, smearing the blood that flowed from a wound on his head.
Kagome shrieked and the keys fell from her hand and slid beneath the car. She would not have time to retrieve them. Her boyfriend Kenzo, insane with rage, was but an arm’s length away when she turned, and ran.
She had thought it romantic when he had moved her into the small cottage in the woods. He had told her that there would be nothing to distract them there. That it would be their quiet oasis, their safe haven. But then he had changed. And it took all but a few short months for it to become a prison of torment and fear.
The closest neighbor wasn’t for miles and night was steadily approaching. She could hear Kenzo’s heavy footfalls behind her and knew that she had no way of outrunning him. She turned and headed directly into the tree line and out into the steadily darkening forest.
Heaving for breath, Kagome searched with frantic eyes for somewhere, anywhere to hide. She ran, dodging through the thick foliage which grabbed and ripped at her skin and clothing. She could hear him behind her, cursing with the promise of pain. She couldn’t tell just how far back he was - could have been a mile, could have been a sparse few feet… all she knew was that if he were to reach her, it would be the end.
Kagome ducked between two low hanging branches and pushed aside thick bunches of leaves and twigs. Though she knew she could not outrun him, she prayed that she could perhaps lose him in the curtain of the trees.
“You BITCH!” his voice cursed her in the not large enough expanse between them. “I’m going to ring your scrawny little neck!”
Kagome bit back a frightened cry as she forced her shaking body onward, farther, faster.
The tree line seemed to grow heavier with each passing second. The thought that the miniscule trail would cut off completely into dense woodland caused her fear to escalate into pure, unfiltered panic. She nearly screamed as she heard the fall of his boots on the ground grow ever nearer behind her. Kagome ducked behind a large tree and plastered her back against it, feeling the bite of the wood against her battered flesh.
She closed her eyes, gasping for breath, heart beating wildly against her chest. This was how she was to die? After everything, all that she’d been through? She was going to die at the hand of a man she once loved and whom had once claimed to love her in return.
Would anyone ever find her body? Would anyone even bother looking?
Kagome opened her eyes and immediately saw something in the dark, moonlit forest that had absolutely no reason for being there.
In the shadows she could see what appeared to be a wooden structure. As she squinted and tilted her head she was able to identify it as an old well, standing lopsided and weathered and surrounded by rocks and leaves. As she studied it, she had the strangest feeling of déjà vu, as if it were calling to her, as if she had always known that it would be there.
“I’m going to KILL you!!” Kenzo’s gruff, malicious swear on the wind shook her from her dazed state like a bucket of ice water. He was close… he would reach her in mere moments.
In a last, desperate attempt to hide, Kagome ran to the well’s side. Her hands were shaking as she placed them on the edge and stared down into its inky darkness. She had no way of knowing what was down there waiting for her…
But she knew what was up here coming for her.
Kagome lifted herself over the edge…and jumped.