Breaching the Silence by _neversilenced

Prologue / This Day's Black Fate

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of it's characters. They are all property of Rumiko Takahasi.

"A dungeon horrible, on all sides round

As one great furnace flamed, yet from those flames


No light, but rather darkness visible,"

John Milton, Paradise Lost

Prologue

Fire.

Hot, bright, flickering fire. Everywhere. 

On her skin, in her eyes, on her lips, in her soul.

Smoke. A blanket, hovering high. But it cannot keep out the light. So bright.

So bright.

Screaming. So much screaming. Why? Who is screaming? Screams for help. Screams for her. Who are they? Where are they? She can't remember.

She is afraid. Afraid for her? No. Afraid for them.

Her body aches. Her mind repeats.

Help them. Help them. Help them.

Move.

But she cannot rise. She cannot scream.

Breathe.

Breathe. Why won't her body breathe? Too much, too hot, too bright. Her lungs, too burned. It won't work. It won't work.

And then a laugh. A laugh? Where? Why can't she remember? Why can't she find him? Him. That's right. Those eyes. Silver as the moon. And a smile. A smile, cold like winter. Cold. A laugh to make her soul shiver. But only a moment.

And then burning, twisting, silence.

Brighter. Hotter. Louder. The fire's growing larger. Smoldering. Crashing. Burning. Too late, she thinks. Too late. Too late.

And then,

Pain. Excruciating, unimaginable pain. Ripping. Tearing. Blistering. Bleeding.

Someone's here. Someone's touching her, lifting her, carrying her. Where? Where?

Let go. Let go.

But she cannot fight. She cannot breathe.

Her skin, her mind, her body, they burn.

They burn. And it's so bright, too bright.

A voice. A word. A name.

Kagome.

Her name.

She hears, but she does not understand.

The light, it's gone. It burns, but it's dark.

It's dark.

It's dark.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"This day's black fate on more days doth depend:


This but begins the woe others must end."


- William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, 3.1

This Day's Black Fate

It was raining. 

 Inuyasha was perched on one of his favorite trees, using the foliage as an "umbrella". He had learned the word from Kagome a very long time ago. With a sigh he closed his eyes and rested his head against the trunk, allowing himself to relax.

 Three years had passed since Inuyasha lost Kagome to the other side of the Bone Eater's Well. Three years had gone by without any hint of her return. And yet, she was still the first thing he saw when he closed his eyes. She was still first in his mind when he woke in the mornings, and closest to his heart when he slept in the evenings. He would never stop waiting for her; he would never stop hoping. 

 As his subconscious drifted through memories of Kagome, an incessant sound began pulling at his attention. He realized quickly that the sound was coming from the nearby hut, and he chuckled to himself. It had been a week since the birth of Miroku and Sango's third child and the boy was apparently quite the handful. The crying from the hut became louder and Inuyasha's ears flattened against his head. He truly didn't like the sound of crying children. Moments later he heard the jangle of Miroku's staff making its way towards his tree.

 He opened one eye to peer down at his friend, laughing lightly at his disheveled appearance.

 "Oi, Miroku. Being a dad starting to be too much for you?"

 The monk chuckled at that, though Inuyasha could see the weariness on his face.

 "On the contrary, Inuyasha, I do very much enjoy being a father. However, Sango believes that my parenting skills could use some.... adjusting," he said lightly. He brought his hand to the back of his head and added, "She's probably right."

 His laugh was stifled by the crack of nearby lightening and the following tremble of thunder left an unsettling feeling in Inuyasha's stomach.

 "Maybe you should come inside, Inuyasha," Miroku suggested, eyeing the skies with one hand upon his brow.

 "Heh, I ain't gonna let this storm bother me," he stubbornly replied. He crossed his arms and huffed in the hopes that his friend would get the message. As he closed his eyes again and leaned back against the tree, he could hear Miroku's sigh.

 "Alright, Inuyasha," he began as he started walking back towards the hut, "but just remember, we miss Kagome-sama too."

 Inuyasha stiffened as Miroku walked away, his jingling staff breaking the rhythm of the raindrops from the storm.

 Damn Miroku and his intuition.

He knew that his companions were missing their friend as well, but he couldn't bear to talk about it with them. Miroku and Sango had each other - they had their children, their family. They would never truly understand how it felt lose the one they loved - twice - and have no one to comfort them at the end of the day.

Kagome, he sighed inwardly, where are you now?

 As if the gods were answering his plea, a villager came rushing towards the town, screaming Inuyasha's name.

"Inuyasha!" he screamed, his feet plowing through the puddles and mud, "Come quick Inuyasha! Come quick! It's the..."

His last shout was cut off as his foot became stuck in the mud and he landed face-first into one of the puddles. Inuyasha dropped down from his tree, annoyed at another disturbance keeping him from his memories. He lifted the man with one hand by the back of his shirt and dangled him above the mud puddle.

 "What's the problem, mudface?" Inuyasha asked as the man sputtered and gasped.

 The villager stared up at Inuyasha with a wild look in his eyes.

"The Bone Eater's Well, Inuyasha! There's light coming from the Bone Eater's We.....!!!"

 The villager didn't get to finish his statement as Inuyasha released his shirt, allowing his face to fall back into the mud puddle.

Kagome. Are you here, Kagome?!

Inuyasha took off faster than he had run in many years. His heart pounded in his chest, not from exertion, but from the thought of seeing her face, of touching her face, for the first time in three years. As he broke the clearing, his mind racing, his heart soaring, he half-wondered why he hadn't caught wind of her scent yet. It didn't take long for his question to have an answer, as the light emanating from the well began to fade, and not one, but two figures appeared before him.

The first thing Inuyasha noticed about the man standing in front of him was that he was youkai.

His haori was a deep, deep green and his hakama was black. His blonde hair was long, with short bangs in the front. Some hair fell just below his shoulder and the rest continued down his back until twisting into a braid and ending just below his hips. His skin was grey and pale, and his eyes were chilling silver.

 The second thing Inuyasha noticed was that he was smiling.

It was the kind of smile that made the hanyou uncomfortable and his irritation and anger boiled over into his words.

 "Oi! Who are you?!" he shouted at the stranger. 

At the sound of his voice, the second figure that had been standing on the lip of well, facing the opposite direction, turned her head to face him.

She was also youkai. Her long leather jacket covered her entire body as it swayed in the wind, keeping her figure hidden. Her short purple hair reminded Inuyasha of a boy, aside from the two longer strands at the side of her face that fell down just past her chin. Her eyes, her blood-red eyes, bore into Inuyasha as if she could see into his very soul.

"My apologies for the disturbance," spoke the male youkai, his unnerving smile never leaving his face, "we were just passing through."

 And with that, he turned his heels and began to walk away, the female slowly following.

 "Hey! Hey! I'm talking to you! Come back here!" Inuyasha shouted against the wind. He began to chase after the pair, pulling Tetsusaiga from it's sheath.

 "Stop! Tell me who you are! Tell me how you used the well! And tell me, where is Kagome?!?"

 That word - that name- stopped the pair in their tracks.

"Ka-go-me," the male repeated, her name sharp on his tongue, "ah yes, I remember."

 He tilted his head back, and he smiled again, the same smile that made Inuyasha's body tense with discomfort.

 "She's dead."

 Inuyasha charged the two youkai, anger in his heart and fear in his veins. He only managed to make it a couple feet before the female youaki appeared next to him, her head reaching towards his right ear.

 "Sleep..." was all she whispered.

 And suddenly everything was dark. He was falling. He was falling and he couldn't stop himself. All that mattered in the one instant was that it was dark.

 It was dark.