InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Incarnation Situation ❯ When There's a Well...There's a Way...Out! ( Chapter 1 )

 

***Author's Note***

 

There are some co-authors in this story, just so you know. They are: Asha Himura, and Matsuko, and me, Chocolatetuna. *claps* Let's give a hand for the all the authors! YAY! Just so that's clear.

 

Enjoy the story.

 

 

Chapter 1 ~ When There's a Well, There's a Way…Out!

 

This story starts off in an after school kendo club in Japan. A bell rings, and the kendo club disbands. Three friends hang after, waiting for each other. They always walk home together. Marri goes straight to a bench and sits, still a little tired from the work. She runs a hand through her hair and frowns. Kagome was absent again, today. This time it was rheumatoid arthritis.

 

How can someone her age get that? She wonders. Isn't that a disease old people get?

 

“Whatcha doing?” Kito asks, coming up behind Marri.

 

“Thinking,” Marri responds. She looks down at Kito. “Where's Asha?”

 

She needn't have asked. Asha comes bounding out of the building with an impossible rush of energy and attacks Marri. “Why are you always thinking, huh? Huh?” she asks.

 

Marri dodges and says, “Because at least I have a brain.” Asha falls on the ground and says, “I have a brain too!” Marri rolls her eyes and looks away from Asha, disgusted. She turns towards the path home and sees Kagome, running at top speed. Marri almost calls out to her and then has second thoughts. When she glances over at Kito, she realizes her friend has seen Kagome too.

 

“Hey, there's Kagome!” Kito says. “I thought she was sick today.”

 

“I thought so too.” Marri thinks for a moment. “Maybe something's wrong. I think we should follow her.”

 

Asha's eyes have a little gleam to them. “Follow? Isn't that, like, stalking?”

 

“No,” Marri says. “Not stalking. We're just…concerned.”

 

“Oh, I see,” Kito says. “So this is all for her own good.”

 

“Exactly,” Marri says. They all go on the path, walking quickly, but trying not to get too close or too far away.

 

“You know, I never realized it was such hard work following someone. Stalking is hard work!”

 

“We are not stalking, Asha!” Marri shouts. “We are intervening on behalf of a friend.”

 

“Call it what you like,” Asha grumbles. “I still call it stalking.”

 

As they continue following Kagome, Kito says, “You know, I can't ever remember her inviting us over before. We've been her best friends for what--two years now?--and we still don't know where she lives.”

 

“She's sick all the time--” Marri starts.

 

“--or just pretending to be,” Asha cuts in.

 

“Asha, shut up,” Marri snaps. Surprisingly, Asha does.

 

Kagome's house turns out to be fairly large, with an old rustic-looking, covered well. Kito shudders. “That well gives me the creeps.”

 

Kagome shuts the well door behind her. Marri opens it silently and watches Kagome taking the cover off the well. For a moment, she hesitates, just looking down the well. Asha rolls her eyes. “It's a well, big deal.”

 

Kagome jumps and looks frantically behind her. Kito waves brightly and says, “Hi Kagome! What are you doing?” Kagome looks surprised, her eyes as big as plates, and she loses her balance, tumbling backwards into the well. Kito gets scared and says, “I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you!”

 

“That's hardly going to help, is it?” Asha says meanly, walking towards the well cautiously. Marri elbows her in the ribs. “Ow, what was that for?”

 

“Don't be a jerk.”

 

Kito peers down the well. “Kagome?” She leans a little farther. “Kagom--AAAAAAAA!!!” Kito leaned just a little too far. She struggles to get a good hold on the well and pull herself up. “Help me!” she screams.

 

Asha and Marri run forward, each taking one of her arms and try to pull them up. Gravity is not on their side. Just when they think they almost have Kito back up, she falls in--taking Asha and Marri with her.

 

They are all knocked unconscious from the impact.

 

Marri is the first to wake up. She looks up at the well and the bright circle seems so far away. Wow, she thinks. I'm lucky to be alive. Asha wakes up next and groans. “Well this is just great,” she whines. “We're stuck in a well.”

 

Marri opens her mouth to say something and couldn't bring herself to say it. Asha glares at her. “Why are you staring at me like that?” Asha growls. “Do you see something green?”

 

“No,” Marri says slowly, but I see ears.”

 

Asha's hands fly up to her head and she grabs the ears. “What the--what the hell is this? WHAT IS GOING ON HERE? AM I DEAD?” Asha starts to hyperventilate. “I'm dead! I know it! This is hell!”

 

“ASHA!” Marri snaps. “Are you breathing?”

 

“Yes!” Asha cries.

 

“Then you're not dead.” She looks around the well frowning. There is an unpleasant smell down here. She wonders why she hadn't noticed it before. It smells like rot. “Where's Kito?”

 

“I'm right here.” Kito's voice is present, but Kito herself is not. Her voice sounds strangely muffled. “This is so weird. My clothes don't fit me all of a sudden. It's like…”

 

Marri looks down and realizes a pile of clothes is talking to her. “Kito? Are you in there?”

 

“Of course I am!” Kito looks up at her, scared. “When did you get so big?”

 

“Us? Big?” Asha repeats, recovering from her hysterics. “Nuh-uh. When did YOU become so SMALL?”

 

Kito's eyes widen. “I shrank?”

 

“Yeah,” Asha says. “You're like the mini-me version of you.”

 

“NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!”

 

“Calm down,” Marri says. “There's got to be a way out of this.”

 

“Of course,” Asha says. “Death. We're going to die down here. That's probably why it smells like dead people.” She looks over at Marri. “You've got something on your face.”

 

“I do not.”

 

“Yeah you do. Stripes and a crescent moon. In purple. It looks like you went crazy with a purple magic marker.”

 

Marri touches her face with her hand. It doesn't feel any different. She wonders if Asha might be playing some kind of stupid joke. Then she brushes that thought off. Asha simply isn't capable of making jokes. She always spoils the punch line. If it WAS a joke, she'd probably be laughing her ass off by now. “OW!” Marri looks down at her hand. The fingers are now tipped in claws.

 

“Guys,” she says. “I think I may just have found our ticket out of this hole.”

 

Thirty minutes later:

 

“This was a sucky idea!” Asha shouts. “My hands hurt like hell and I think I'm allergic to these vines.”

 

“Stop complaining Asha,” Marri commands, digging her claws into the cracks between the bricks. “I know it hurts, but we're almost to the top.”

 

“But Kito doesn't have to do anything!”

 

Kito, riding on Asha's back, says, “Well, if you shrank you wouldn't have to do anything either! I'd gladly trade places with you.”

 

“I wouldn't,” Asha mutters. Under her breath, Kito swears she says, `Midget.' Kito's fur bristles. “Why you…”

 

“Look,” Marri says with evident relief. “We're there!” She hoists herself over the edge and falls into the grass. “Thank goodness.”

 

“Yeah, but where is `there?'” Asha asks.

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Look,” Asha says. “The well…Kagome's house…EVERYTHING IS GONE!”

 

Marri takes a good look around and realizes something very terrible: She is right.