InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Movie House Hanyou ❯ The Border Between Waking Life and Dreams ( Chapter 13 )

The next day Kagome arrived at work early and skimmed over the work schedule for the week starting then. Her eyes narrowed as she noticed something odd about the list of employees and their shifts, comparing it to the one from last week, which had been left up in the message display case mounted on the wall of the break room.

"Who are half of these people? And there are like, five different people who don't even show up on here for this week," she rambled, more to herself than directed at anyone.

"Oh, a few people got canned, and there's a bunch of new hires, Kag," Lamika interrupted from behind her coworker, somewhat startling her. Kagome, after recovering from her slight jump, turned to step back and look at the taller woman, who seemed even taller with her microbraid false hair extensions, and said nothing, just looked concerned.

"Most people don't last more than two months here. Of the people on that list, I'd say about only eight have been employed here for a year or longer. And that's outta what, 40, 50 people?" She raised her eyebrow and placed the hand of her outstretched arm against the wall, facing Kagome. "C'mon, Sashka can't hire worth a flying fuck."

"That's uh… a bit blunt, you know," Kagome offered nervously. She liked Lamika, but the woman had an attitude problem at times.

"Yeah, well I tell it like it is, girl. D'ja know that half the females he hires, he hires based on looks?" Lamika snorted with disgust. "Anyway, I am outta here, so have fun with the crowds. It'll be a disaster with all those little kids here to see that new cartoon. Was a nightmare already so far, and I'm 'bout ready to get mah black ass away from this place for the next two days, I'm so stressed out. Hell, I ain't even gonna take my daughter to see it till durin' the week. See ya."

With that, the twentysomething smiled, swiped her timecard and grabbed her coat before reaching for the door handle, which ended up turning downward as someone else opened the door from the other side. Lamika managed to get herself out into the hallway somehow, Dennis and Tamisha having tried to nearly trample her on their way into the break room.

Kagome looked around the room and decided to finally clock in. As she made her way toward the door after her timecard swipe, she discreetly tried to not pay attention to the conversation those two were having but couldn't help but take in bits and pieces. Tamisha seemed intent on pestering Dennis on the details pertaining to getting a bank account. She shrugged it off.

Walking down the hallway toward the main lobby, she saw Zara storm out of the GMO in a fuming rage, a few choice words being uttered toward someone inside the office room in what sounded like it could be Japanese as the supervisor slammed the door shut and glared at it, but honestly, she had no idea what the words could possibly mean.

"What did you just say to whomever that was, Zara?" Kagome was concerned; Zara was rarely in good moods and always seemed stressed over one thing or another.

It took Zara a moment to register a non-offensive presence and be able to speak and act in a more civilized manner, but she soon loosened up. "Oh, Sashka's just being an ass right now." She rolled her eyes before continuing on, "I called him a 'sabaka yibuchaya.' It's Russian for 'dog fucker.' I can't stand him."

Kagome smiled. "I'm not exactly hot about him either," she replied with a laugh. "What did he do to piss you off this time?"

Zara crossed her arms and sighed, landing her gaze off into some random upward corner. "One of the movies we just got rid of this weekend was Willard. He was making some remark about how much I'm going to miss having that movie shown here. Said I would get along with the main character pretty well. The ass has been on my case about it ever since he heard the movie was even being made." She frowned and made what almost sounded like a growl.

Kagome furrowed her eyebrows together, not quite understanding. "I don't get it."

Zara replied flatly, "The main character is this crazy guy who befriends a whole bunch of rats. And I have four pet rats. Sashka always gives me crap about that, teases me day in and day out calling me the Rat Girl. But, enough about me. We've got work to do. You're going to be on register 6 tonight. It's already set up. Have Jamar unlock your stuff once you get back there," she finished off and turned to go in the direction from which Kagome had just come, her arms swinging as she dipped back into her disgruntled funk.

"Wait!" In the back of her mind, something told Kagome she should ask Zara about, well… about something. Sure, she didn't understand why she had the compulsion, but something inside her just screamed out the order.

The supervisor stopped in mid-stride, turned her head, and yelled out, "What?" in a bored and annoyed manner.

A bit frazzled by her supervisor's reaction, she just decided to ask something that had been bumping around in her head for a while. "Um, do you think I could ever learn box office?"

The purple-haired female merely stated in an agitated tone, "I'm not the one to ask. That would be Naraku, Kagura, or Merle. One thing I do know is they are glad to have you in the concession stand because you boost the per capita, among other reasons, and they'd be unlikely to put you anywhere else for quite some time. What's for sure, though, is that in my opinion, you'll need to grow a little bit of a spine. The customers at the box are even worse. Don't say I didn't warn you. I'm surprised even I can handle them."

She turned her attention back to her previous intention and walked off, leaving Kagome standing there trying to take in the blunt, realistic, and somehow pleasing yet simultaneously displeasing answer, somewhat unnerved by the outburst. But underneath Zara's bitterness, she could sense something else. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but perhaps it would surface as time passed.

---

For the past two hours, nothing could hold his attention span for more than five minutes. He kept seeing something else to distract him. Well, more like seeing, hearing, or smelling. Anything normally mundane was now complexly fascinating. His skin, while recovering fairly well from the abuse he had undergone Thursday night, felt strange in texture, particularly the parts that hadn't been subjected to--

He shuddered and closed his overwhelmed eyes, trying to block out the tremors that had been fluctuating across the wall surfaces, as if the walls themselves were breathing. Anytime he saw what could be described as a pattern, it started moving ever so slightly, and his fixation would only grow until he could feel the tension and paranoia fester within the capillaries in the skin around his eyes, feel a faint pulse that was so distracting he had to look away, and cover his face to block out the throbbing as it spread to other parts of his face.

After a sigh, Inuyasha ran his fingers through his hair and kept his head tipped back, staring at the white stucco of the ceiling. The posters in the light-up cases were trying to talk to him. He could actually hear Robin Williams whispering to him, see the lips of the man on the poster moving. Maybe if he ignored them, they would shut up.

His canine ears more than welcomed the hallucinatory sounds, though, and eventually he had no choice but to leave the poster room. Even the colorful allure of the windmill standee's rotating, mesmerizing sails couldn't make him stay there. His ears flattened against his head as he exited the room in a rush, slamming the door quickly shut, tiresome echoes ringing after him as he jetted through the hall of the basement and up the fuzzy staircase, ignoring the dripping walls as best as he could.

Once up on the main level of his house, he sat on his couch and spaced out for a while, trying to simply sit back and enjoy things. Once the new moon was out, it would be easier for him to revel in the sensory overload. Right now, the hallucinations were simply distracting.

---

Late at night, a short, black-haired woman pulled up at Inuyasha's house with her girlfriend in their shared vehicle. After exiting the car, they both walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell.

Inside the house in the main room, Inuyasha shook himself out of his current fixation when he heard what should have been his doorbell but sounded bogged down with echoes and vibrations. The molested ring jolted him as he turned his head and looked off toward the front of the house, color spots appearing at random as the entire scenery seemed like a slow blur just in the action of turning his head.

He blinked rapidly and stood up, a used spoon in one hand and an open and half-empty can of frozen orange juice concentrate in the other. Walking toward the front door in a steady gait, he fought off the urge to stop and fixate his gaze on one imaginary color or sound or another as they popped up. The hardwood floor seemed to creak, crunch and smoosh beneath his footwear with each step, but it only made him smirk in dazed self-amusement.

It took him a while to stray his gaze from the rippling effects that vibrated and visualized through the air at the next sounding of the doorbell. As soon as he recovered from his distraction, the human Inuyasha stuck the spoon into the can of concentrate, opened the door and looked at the two humans on his doorstep before widening his violet eyes, screeching as if he had been burned, and slamming the door shut and leaning against it, panting hard and staring off into space.

Holy fucking shit, that can't be whom I thought I just saw, could it be? How the fuck did she find me after all these years? His thoughts became scattered and paranoia-ridden as the doorbell rang again, and this time the floor turned dark and murky like a polluted koi pond, his reflection staring back up at him and mocking him with obscene gestures.

Closing his eyes, he tried to block out the convoluted images and sounds for another moment, until he both heard and felt a harsh knocking on the door he was leaning somewhat painfully against. His back still felt raw and was merely scabbed over at the moment, and the knocking sent pulsating waves of fluctuating sensations throughout his body like whiplashes.

"Ki-Kikyou, what the fuck are you doing in Minnesota, you goddamn bitch?!" the hallucinating human figure managed to shriek out, hoping that the seeming stalker and her accomplice would just leave and never return. A cool, slimy coat of sweat formed on his forehead and by the back of his neck and shoulders, and when he opened his eyes again, they flitted from side to side, taking in the swaying and unstable structures of the house he lived and currently hid in.

An assertive voice from the other side of the door called back, "Inuyasha, it's Sango! Shit, it's okay to open the door!"

"S-Sango?!" Inuyasha sighed in embarrassing realization at his silly mistake, and if it weren't for the particular circumstances, he would have been laughing. If I were in an anime or manga, there would be one of those giant sweat drop things showing up on the back of my head right about now. "Right, gimme a sec to calm my nerves!"

Sango and Chelsea waited patiently on the front step, trying to keep straight faces.

"Dude, I don't think I've ever seen him do that," Chelsea muttered with a smirk.

Before Sango could ask for specific clarification, they heard the door slowly creak open. Standing in the doorway was the black-haired figure they rarely ever saw, staring at them hesitantly.

Spooning into some of the orange juice concentrate and eating it like ice cream, he paused and gathered his breath before speaking. "Listen. You did not see me mistake anyone for her, understand?" He pointed the spoon at them accusingly. Now that he'd heard Sango's voice, he was able to recognize the two lesbians standing before him.

"Sure, whatever you say, 'Yash. But tell me two things," Sango replied with a mischievous smirk.

In a low voice, Inuyasha uttered, "Nani?"

"Just how many hits are you tripping on this time?" Chelsea couldn't help but break into laughter at her girlfriend's question.

He eyed her warily. "You're not my mother. And it's four."

"And why are you eating frozen orange juice concentrate like ice cream?"

Upon hearing that, he grinned stupidly. "Cuz it tastes like ice cream, ya stupid bitch. Don't fuckin' come over here without calling, especially on a night like this--"

Cocking her eyebrow, Sango interrupted him, her arms crossed. "We came over cuz we thought you'd need someone to babysit you, moron." She rolled her eyes. "I mean, geez, look at your eyes!"

"Yup, my dials are most definitely pupilated--"

Both women burst into giggling fits.

"Get inside, and next time, call before you stop by, okay?" But the two women barely heard him as he stepped aside and allowed them into his home. After they were inside, he took a glance upward at the dark sky and then out across the street, where he saw houses engulfed in a conflagration of licking green flames that rivaled the Great Hinkley Fire that he'd only read about. "Hmm, interesting." With that last thought, he went back inside his home and locked the front door.

ten minutes later…

"Lemme outta this goddamn chair, you stupid girls!"

Sango and Chelsea looked over at the irate black haired figure who sat, much against his will, in a wooden chair from across the kitchen table, his wrists handcuffed to the back of the chair and a strong rope firmly lashing his upper legs to the seat.

Looking at his so-called babysitters with a delirious glare, the human Inuyasha continued bitching and ranting, trying to wrest his arms free and shaking his head back and forth, desperately attempting to appear formidable but not even coming close to succeeding. It merely caused the room to sway even more, and stationary objects like the table seemed to be floating around, bobbing up and down in a dreamlike manner, the colors everywhere vibrant and stark, like he was in a living and breathing abstract painting.

"I think you should calm down, 'Yash," Sango smugly replied after the thrashing figure had gone silent and still.

"And I think you should let me loose! If you're gonna have me tied up like this, at least do something to entertain me, or something…" he managed to growl out with a huff.

"Like what?" Chelsea broke in as she stood up and went toward the refrigerator to get some carbonated beverages. As she peered into the now opened fridge, she glanced at the contents. "Dude, when did you start drinking Cherry Coke? I thought you were a Coke guy."

"Who cares?!" he bitched out in defense, definitely not intending to explain the real reason. The chair he was bound to rocked from side to side as he thrashed again in a fit of annoyance.

"You probably should stop that before you fall over and hurt yourself," the seated female began again, trying to hold back a chuckle. All she received in response was a humanish growl that somehow did not seem so threatening as when he was in his hanyou form.

The two females looked at each other before shrugging their shoulders, taking a Cherry Coke for themselves from the fridge, and walking up to either side of the chair in which he was seated. Sango grabbed hold of the chair's wooden frame and tipped it back slightly, careful not to let the struggling and grunting human jar her grip.

"And just what in the hell are you going to do with me, then, huh, Suzuki-san?" Inuyasha angrily muttered, his eyes narrowed upwards at his friend and his breath ragged from his earlier shouts and outbursts. She avoided answering him; he was delirious.

As the silent Sango slowly dragged his chair back away from the table, out of the kitchen and into the main room, he turned his head to the side as best as he could and widened his eyes at the sight that greeted him in the lower half of the room.

The floor still retained its appearance as that of a glazed-over koi pond, but now dozens of koi were swimming around deep below the water barrier, and the rest of the room phased out, everything appearing as a vast wasteland. He was still bound to a chair, but the two females were no longer alive, but life-sized marionettes, lengthy violet strings attached to each of their hinged joints. The shorter marionette behind him caressed his forehead with her rough wooden hand in a cumbersome manner, whispering commands for him to calm down and relax. The taller marionette walked across the water without creating a single ripple upon the surface, a trail of koi swimming after her trail of footsteps, and turned to look at him, a devious grin carved upon her wooden face in permanence.

He settled back into the chair and watched the taller marionette intently, not paying attention when the shorter marionette stepped away from his now stable position upon the pond, simply taking in everything that he saw. The air reeked of clove smoke, and he turned his head to see that the shorter marionette was now smoking off to his side, the tendrils of grey smoke drifting upwards into the tremulous sky.

"Chels, get my hairbrush from my purse, would you?" Sango ordered. "And my Cherry Coke as well." Once both items were brought to her, she handed the clove cig over to her girlfriend, took the can in one hand and the brush in another, and began to brush her delirious friend's hair in long, gentle sweeps, starting at the top of his scalp. The bound human closed his eyes and smiled in bliss for a moment before opening them again and licking his lips.

He seemed to space out, probably enamored not only with the sensations of the brush being run through his long hair but also whatever hallucinations he most likely was being drawn to at the moment. The girls could only guess what he might be seeing, as he usually never told anyone what his hallucinations were like.

Back in his dream world, the koi pond and the wasteland shifted to a bottomless, wall-less void of fluctuating dark colors, the marionettes still adorning him with attention and hair care that tingled his scalp in ways most immeasurable and indescribable. Exotic tremors floated through the air whenever he or they spoke, and disembodied musical notes began to dance upon his skin.

Inuyasha hummed along to a strange tune that obviously only he could hear, as the two women taking advantage of his compromising position stopped for a moment to contemplate just what might be going through his mind.

"Shhh," Chelsea whispered to her girlfriend in her ear, taking another drag off her clove. Sango looked at her with furrowed eyes. "Let's untie him now. He won't realize it for a while," she finished off smugly. Both women snickered and agreed.

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A/N: I was originally going to have this be the halfway point for chapter 13, but decided I would probably spend another three days working on the damn chapter then, and it would end up just as long as chapters 9 and 11 (which are both 6700-7700 words). Anyway, enjoy. Next chapter should be coming a lot sooner than it took for me to get this one out, but that was because I was busy working on a special oneshot companion piece. It is titled Fit For Flogging, and it's basically the second session Inuyasha has with Jakotsu, exactly one week after the Coke bag incident. The end of chapter 14 will take place the day before FFF. Anyway, FFF is available on AFF, MMO, and also on my deviant art account. It is rated NC-17 for a reason. Do not read if anything Jakotsu/Inuyasha offends you, whatsoever. Please leave reviews for it; I'd like to know what you all think of it.

By the way, at this point in time, we are at the very end of May 2003. I'm expecting this fic to be about 30-something chapters long. Review responses will show up at the end of chapter 14, so if I haven't answered any questions you might have had, and if I plan to answer them, they'll show up then.

Japanese vocab:

Koi - carp, like giant goldfish