InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ My Heart, Rest In Pieces ❯ When I Fall ( Chapter 4 )

A/N: I think I'm going to work on this story from now on, rather than go back and forth between stories. Once I get further ahead on this, I will go back to my other stories. I think it's better if I finish one before I start on the others. So this has priority!

Disclaimer: They aren't mine. I just love borrowing them.

I wish I could fly

From this building

From this wall

And if I should try

Would you catch me if I fall?

Barenaked Ladies "When I Fall"

From Sango's position in the passenger seat, she could effortlessly rest her forehead against the cool pane of glass. Kagome had the radio turned to a rock station, and she hummed along with a song, tapping her fingers against the steering wheel. Sango found herself wondering how her friend could follow the loud, angry beats of the music while remaining relatively on tune. It was all another mystery.

The humming stopped suddenly, and Sango turned her head, looking towards Kagome. The other girl was shooting glances at her from the corner of her eyes, while still maintaining a good view of the road stretched before them. It wouldn't do to get in another accident, after all. The front fender was already dented pretty badly, the paint chipped. Kagome had growled angrily when she spotted the damage.

"So, any predictions on the ghost, Sango?" Kagome wondered out loud.

'The ghost?' Sango mused silently, her expression glazing over in contemplation. This ghost-assuming there was a ghost-would he or she know how Sango could reach her family? The need for closure, the need to say goodbye, was so overwhelming, and so all-consuming. She was even willing to search out and inquire what was a potentially dangerous spirit.

'Maybe Kagome's right,' Sango thought. 'Maybe I do need to let go of my past, no matter how much it hurts.' But she couldn't do it, not so easily. She needed to find this ghost. It wasn't just a hobby anymore; it's what she was living for, to help her find her family. It was what she needed to do in order to let go. It was what she needed for closure.

"Hmm…I'm not sure," she said aloud, pushing away from the window. "Obviously this ghost wants to keep people away. Do you think it's trying to hide something?"

Kagome chewed on her lower lip. "Maybe. But it could also simply be trying to protect the place of its death, ya know? I mean, maybe it's very territorial."

"I hadn't thought of that," Sango admitted.

Another silence ensued, until Kagome came up with another question:

"How do you think he died?"

Sango frowned, noticing the change in pronouns. "'He', Kagome?"

"Well, it's just a guess," Kagome said. "Besides, I was tired of calling the ghost-who was once very much alive-by an asexual pronoun." Sango cocked an eyebrow and it disappeared under her bangs, but she didn't say anything.

"So…" she ventured once more, "how do you think he died?"

"I don't know," the young writer replied, lifting her shoulders in a shrug.

Kagome rolled her eyes skyward, letting out a mock sigh of exasperation. "Of course you don't know, Sango! I don't know either…but that's what we're here to find out, right?"

Sango smiled, the last of her dismal mood dissolving. "Right!"

"So…" Kagome speculated once more, waiting for her friend to pick up. She didn't disappoint her.

"Well, it probably isn't a natural death," Sango pondered audibly, resting her elbow against the door, and placing her chin in her hand. "Or else he wouldn't be bound to this earth."

"It could be natural. I mean, maybe he just needed to stay because of a promise he made. Something he couldn't let go of: unfinished business."

"Oh, I know what you're saying," Sango said, brushing a lock of hair from her face. "He had to stay on this earth to fulfill the promise."

"Yeah," Kagome confirmed, a smile tilting her lips upward.

"I don't think that's it, though," Sango said, continuing as if Kagome had never spoken. Kagome turned her gaze from the road, fixing her friend with a quizzical stare. They didn't have much to go by, so she was surprised that she was able to find any conclusive evidence to support her claims.

"Really? Why not?"

"It's just a guess," Sango smiled, throwing her friend's words back at her. Kagome grinned in return.

"Of course."

After a few more minutes of probing questions and Shikon scenery, the blue car pulled off the pavement and onto a dusty dirt road. It jarred the vehicle slightly, piquing Sango's curiosity as the house came into view.

Despite her contemplations, there wasn't anything exceedingly remarkable about the house. It was painted a cream, off-white color on the uppermost half, and the bottom half was made with large, flat stones set in mortar. The roof was set-off from the rest of the house-the vermilion shingles obviously a newer addition. Two large windows, like eyes, faced towards the driveway; the door-like a gaping mouth-sat at their midpoint. The grass surrounding the building was a pale, sickly green, but not quite brown. It looked dreary, uncared for, but it wasn't stereotypically spooky.

As Kagome stilled the car, Sango gazed on the house in wonder. She felt expectancy creeping along the base of her neck, making her breath speed up.

She froze. Her blood began pumping faster in horror.

"Kagome, the curtain just moved," she said, adrenaline coloring her voice. As she was taking in the house, the sleek red curtain from inside the room shifted, as if someone had brushed by it. Sango was nonplussed by Kagome's lack of surprise.

"Of course it did," she said blandly, pointing out the driver-side window. Sango followed her thumb. Kagome had parked next to another car. "Sesshoumaru didn't happen to mention if we'd be having any company or not, did he?" Sango shook her head in a negative.

"No…"

"So whose car is that?"

Sango opened her car door. "I guess we'll be finding out soon." The twin slams of the doors weren't quite in tandem, and if the owner of the second car didn't already know of their arrival, he or she most certainly did now. The girls walked to the front door, not at all surprised to find it unlocked. Forgoing knocking, they slipped past the threshold.

"Hello?" Kagome called out. The foyer had old, hardwood floors, and there were two exits from where the girls stood. From one exit, they could see the kitchen, with its ugly taupe linoleum floor, and sickly yellow paint.

However, a woman blocked the other exit. She had long, black hair, tied back loosely. Her cold, dark eyes were regarding the two girls with contempt.

"This is private property." Her voice was low, almost hollow. "I'm going to have to ask you two to leave."

"We have permission to be here," Kagome said pointedly, "And you are…?"

"You have permission? From who?"

"The owner of this house," Sango chimed in, "and if you don't tell us who you are, we're going to assume you're an intruder and call the police."

The woman's eyes flickered back and forth between Sango and Kagome, as if considering what they said. She seemed to come to a decision, and smiled insincerely.

"I keep the place clean for Sesshoumaru. No one else can bear to be in this place for more than five minutes," she told them, leaving her post in the doorway to brush by Sango and Kagome and out the door.

"We didn't catch your name!" Kagome shouted. Sango looked down, and noticed Kagome's hands were clenched into impossibly tight fists, and her arms were shaking with barely suppressed rage.

"Kikyou," the woman replied coolly. "Though I don't know why it's any of your concern." She slid into her car seat, turning on the ignition before closing her door.

"Yeah? Then, you can go to hell!" Kagome cried out as Kikyou sped off down the driveway, tires squealing as she peeled through the curves.

Sango placed a calming hand on Kagome's arm, watching as her friend's shoulders heaved with furiously panting breaths.

"You knew it was her, didn't you?"

Letting out a puff of air, she said, "I had my suspicions. What do you think she was doing here?"

Sango sighed loudly. "Not cleaning, that's for sure."

Kagome was quiet for a moment, and then, "I don't care how out-of-touch Inuyasha and his brother are, I don't think Sesshoumaru would give permission for Inuyasha's conniving ex-fiancée to check this place out."

"I agree."

"We could call Aunt Kaede and ask her about it," Kagome suggested, folding her arms loosely across her chest. Sango couldn't help but reflect on how violently Kagome had reacted to Kikyou. She wasn't sure if it was their resemblance in appearance, or Inuyasha's plight as the jilted groom. Although the former was surely disturbing, Sango had a feeling Kagome's animosity stemmed from her unusual fascination with Inuyasha.

With one last lingering look down the road, Sango shook her head. "Nah. Let's check this place out."

Brightening at the prospect of their new adventure, Kagome followed Sango's lead through the house.

The whole place had a very simple layout. From the foyer, there were two exits. One led to a kitchen and small dining room. The other opened to a sitting room. The kitchen was relatively barren. There was no refrigerator: only an ancient-looking stove and what might have been a microwave. The faucet and sink looked like they had been updated recently, and the shiny silver varnish stood out against the lackluster paint.

The dining room was small and open, and was connected to a sitting room. The sitting room contained a loveseat and an armchair, both in a dirty beige color that matched the tile in the kitchen. The other exit from the foyer led to this same room. However, there were two closed doors in the room that warranted further investigation.

One, a brightly painted white door, opened to a small bathroom.

But the other door was wooden, and when Sango tested her knuckles against it she found it was very solid and sturdy. It looked old, and it obviously was made to withstand anything. Looking at the door, she felt a tingling of anticipation creep up her spine, and she held back a shiver.

"Where do you think it leads?" Kagome wondered rhetorically.

Filled to the brim with eagerness, she said, "Let's find out."

Reaching for the rusty doorknob, Sango was surprised when her hand encountered metal that was flaming hot to the touch. She let out a frightened shriek and let go of the doorknob, feeling her nerves protest angrily at the unbearable heat.

Sango ground her teeth together and clutched at her throbbing hand. "Goddamnit!"

Shocked at Sango's outburst, Kagome cried, "What is it? What happened?"

Her breath hissed through her clenched teeth. "The doorknob. It burned me." Taking a deep breath, Sango nudged Kagome towards the kitchen. "I'd better run my hand under the faucet."

Still perturbed, Kagome asked, "How was the doorknob hot? There isn't a fire on the other side, is there?"

"I don't think so," Sango sighed as the water ran over her aching hand. "We would see smoke or hear the flames if the fire was strong enough to heat the doorknob so much. Besides, the door itself wasn't hot. Only the knob."

"That's strange. I'm going to go check it out."

"Be careful," Sango advised.

Kagome walked through the sitting room, studying the massive wooden door. Her hands hovered over the wood for a moment; feeling nothing, she placed her palm against the wood, feeling it cool against her skin. She looked at the doorknob with a baffled expression on her face.

She took her hand off the wood and placed it in the air just above the doorknob, unable to feel any heat from the metal. The lack of heat waves provided her with no assurance, and she was still leery of touching it.

The rushing of running water stopped, and Sango walked into the room, a thin dishtowel wrapped around her hand.

"Did you touch it?" Sango asked upon seeing Kagome's hand.

"No. And I can't feel any heat coming off of it."

Sango smiled. "I bet the ghost did it. He doesn't want us going down there."

Kagome pulled her hand away from the knob and looked at the door thoughtfully. "You think?"

"Yeah. Let's check it out."

Kagome shook her head. "Huh uh. I have a better idea."

"Really?" Her friend looked at her dubiously.

"Yep. I say we head back to Aunt Kaede's house." She spoke loudly over Sango's rising protests. "Listen, Sango. I say we head back to Kaede's, grab our duffel bags, and spend the night here."

Sango grinned, immediately seizing the suggestion. "We could finish exploring the house, and then spend all night staking this place out."

"For ghost activity," Kagome said, accentuating the word 'ghost.' She laughed and turned away from the door, heading for the foyer. "C'mon." Sango didn't follow.

"Actually," Sango drawled, "I have an even better idea. How about you go grab our stuff while I finish exploring the house?"

"Sango," Kagome whined, pouting at her friend imploringly.

"Please," Sango implored right back, holding up her injured hand for sympathy.

"Oh, all right," Kagome sighed, pointing a finger at Sango. "But if you see or hear or feel anything ghost-like, you'll give me all the details."

"Sure thing."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

Full of anticipation, Sango barely registered the front door closing as Kagome left.

Her hand was still throbbing, but it had dulled considerably compared to the initial pain. She pushed the ache out of her mind and turned away from the door, deciding to save the enigmatic hot-and-cold door for when Kagome returned.

Walking to the middle of the living room, she discovered something they had overlooked before. Tucked into a niche in the corner of the room was a set of stairs leading to a second floor. Sango walked over to the recess and gazed up at the wooden stairs. She didn't like the eerie quiet that had settled over the house, and she had to mentally shake off her discomfort.

Her sneakers scarcely made a sound against the wood as she ascended, but the stair steps beneath her creaked and groaned as she placed her weight on them.

'There isn't a handrail,' Sango noted to herself, and placed her uninjured hand on the wall beside her. The stairs were enclosed, which explained how the girls had overlooked them earlier.

At the top of the stairs, a hallway branched off into three different rooms: two on the right side, and one on the left. The two doors on the right contained somber-looking bedrooms. Both were painted a dreary blue-gray color, and both had windows scummy from a thick layer of dust.

The door on the left side of the hallway held a bathroom much larger than the one on the first floor. There was a porcelain claw-footed bathtub and matching porcelain sink, each with beautiful gold hardware. However, the bathroom's luxury was hidden beneath mountains of dust and mildew.

Sango sighed, disappointed that she had come up empty-handed. The second floor was unlivable in its current state, so if they wanted to sleep in the bedrooms they would have a ton of work ahead of them.

She unwrapped the towel from around her hand, wincing at how raw and red her palm and fingers looked. It was worse across the inside of her fingers, where she had grabbed the doorknob. She used the towel to wipe off the mirror above the sink, stirring up dust as she did so. She closed her eyes and sneezed three times in rapid succession. She opened her eyes and gasped.

A shadowy silhouette darted behind her reflection.

She spun around, and saw a flicker off towards one side of the bathroom doorway. Unwilling to give up easily, Sango dropped the dirty towel and chased the specter into the hallway. Thinking she saw it head towards the stairs, she ran after it, stopping at the top and looking down.

The stairway looked dark and ominous, but perfectly normal. Whatever it was had disappeared.

Frustrated, she called out, "Hey! Come back!"

She waited silently; it felt as though the whole house was holding its breath.

'Did I scare him?' Sango wondered. 'Or surprise him?'

A minute passed, then two. Giving up, Sango was about to head back to get the towel from the bathroom.

When she first felt something brush against her ass, she convinced herself it was her imagination. But when it happened again, the second time with a firmer, more purposeful stroke, she spun around quickly.

She had just enough time to see the empty hallway before she lost her footing and stumbled, taking a step backward to regain her balance. The heel of her foot met with empty air and, having overstepped, she felt herself falling backwards.

"Ahh!" Sango cried out, feeling the blood drain from her face even as her heart jumped in her chest.

Both of her hands slapped uselessly against the walls in a futile attempt to catch herself. She squeezed her eyelids shut and tensed her muscles in preparation for the rough tumble. But her body jerked halfway through her fall, and then froze.

Sango's russet eyes flew open in surprise, staring at the ceiling in shock. She was floating on her back, hovering horizontally above the stairs.

"Oh my God," she breathed, afraid to move. She was filled with wonderment and fear: wonder at the way her body was suspended in mid-air, and fear of what would happen if she were released. She felt herself trembling.

"Don't let me fall," she whispered, repeating it as a mantra. "Don't let me fall. Don't let me fall. Don't let me fall…"

She felt something slide across the back of her knees, and something else slide across her back, but she saw nothing. Of its own accord, her body folded in, no longer lying straight. Her knees and waist bent, almost as if she were being carried.

"Don't let me fall. Don't let me fall."

Still curled up, she began moving towards the nearest bedroom, being carried by some invisible phantom. Even though she was away from the immediate danger of the stairs, she found herself still scared. The rush of fear and adrenaline from her near-fall was making her body shake.

"Don't let me fall."

She wondered if she was in shock.

"Don't let me fall."

She felt a breath stir her hair. A strange male voice said, "I won't."

Blinking, she turned her head, but the entity that was holding her remained invisible. She was placed gently on the ground. Her knees felt weak and her muscles felt like Jell-O. No longer feeling the ghost, she reached her hand out, meeting nothing but air. In the air her hand had passed through, an image began to appear.

At first, the image was too transparent to decipher, but it began to get brighter. The lines around it became bolder, until the drape of robes, the curl of hands, and the sweep of hair was visible.

The apparition was giving her a small smile. The other side of the room was visible through his navy and violet robes, but his eyes were bright and warm against his pale face. He reached a hand out, and the bangs against Sango's forehead stirred gently. Her knees gave way, and she landed with a plop against the bed, staring in awe at the man before her. Her heavy landing on the bed stirred up a cloud of dust, and she closed her eyes and she sneezed harshly.

When she opened her eyes, he was gone.

A/N: Replying to reviewers. Hope everyone's still here!

rendezvous- ^_^ I'm glad you like the InuKag stuff. I have a plan for them later on, to make up for not having them in this chapter. Maybe not the next chapter, but the one after that.

Kagome44- It's cool that your friend relates to Sango (in all ways except the sad ones). I'm glad you like the story, and I hope you keep reading.

drow goddess- So much for update soon. But, since all my summer activities are over, I'll be able to update soon once more. Thank you for reviewing! ^_^

rain- I'm glad you like it. Thank you for reviewing.

Vampire-Elf- I guess this chapter answered your question. Yes, Miroku is the ghost. I have some interesting stuff involving priestesses and curses and other such things. ^_^ Thanks for taking the time to review.

Silver Magiccraft- =( So much for updating very soon. Thank you for reviewing, and I'm glad you like it!

Kalira of the flames- Thank you! I was embarrassed for Inuyasha, too…and I'm the one who wrote it, hehe!

Trinity Kirara- I'm sorry for killing Houshi-sama! *hands Trinity a cookie* Don't hate me!

Callisto Nicol- Thanks so much! I am so sorry for not updating sooner! I'm busy and lazy, which is a very dangerous combination. I haven't had time to check out any of your stories, either…so that's what I'm gonna do once I update this story. ^_^

sammi- Thanks for the review! I finally introduced Miroku! ^_^

bfcat- Don't feel dumb! I wanted to build the suspense. ~_^ There's gonna be even more mystery later on, so you'll have more time to brush up on your detective skills!! Thanks a bunch for reviewing!

Any one of these reviews still here gets a BIIIIIG hug and kiss.