InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Nightmares of the Soul ❯ Trapped in the Shadows ( Chapter 2 )

This story is dedicated to my wonderful, talented, awesome editor, Sue Sue Magoo.

Thank you for all your help!

 

 

Trapped in the Shadows

 

Kagome stood in the middle of a wide path leading through a dim forest. It was twilight, the sky stretching above her a swirling blue-grey. Trees extended out on either side of her, huge, sprawling, intimidating. They towered over her, crowding her, reaching like clawed hands towards the dark sky. Darkness crept through their boughs, shadows hiding among the trunks.

 

Kagome shivered, looking around. It was eerily silent, the darkness pressing on her. Where was she? What was happening?

 

The trees looked like twisted people convulsing in terrible pain. The shadows seemed alive, creeping through the night. Eyes watched her, leering at her from the darkness. She shivered. What was going on?

 

A sound in the distance. Laughter.

 

Kagome whirled, searching for the source of the sound. Turning in circle, she saw nothing but trees and shadows.

 

The laughter came again, eerie, haunting, echoing through the trees . . .

 

A child's laughter.

 

The darkness deepened, thickened. Kagome turned in another circle, shuddering at the ghostly laughter. Shadows flickered in the trees, just on the edge of her vision, disappearing whenever she tried to get a glimpse of them. As she completed her circle, she gasped.

 

A little boy stood in front of her. A little boy holding a ball, watching her with big, golden eyes. His silvery dog ears twitched as he stared at her, long silver hair cascading down his back, a stark contrast to the bright red kimono he wore.

 

“Inuyasha.” she whispered.

 

He stood in front of her, merely watching her, a small smile on his young face.

 

What was going on? Was this some kind of illusion?

 

She smiled encouragingly at the child Inuyasha, happy that she was no longer alone, even if this child couldn't possibly be real. He continued to watch her, unblinking, unmoving.

The darkness seemed to press on Kagome's soul, the thick silence on her heart. Where was this place?

 

Still smiling, she reached out a hand to touch the child. But as soon as she moved her hand, his eyes widened, and he stepped back away from her, clutching his ball.

 

“Inuyasha?” she whispered, frowning. “What's wrong?”

 

She reached for him again. He flinched back from her, a small whimper escaping him.

 

She froze, her hand outstretched. He was afraid of her. Afraid . . . why was he afraid?

 

“Inuyasha?” she murmured, trying to sound reassuring. “I'm not going to hurt you.”

 

He watched her warily, his golden eyes wide and fearful. Why would a child be so afraid of her?

 

She reached for him again, taking a step forward. He dropped his ball and ran.

 

“Inuyasha!” she yelled, “Come back!”

 

She took off after him as he ran away from her, streaking away from her down the path.

 

The darkness thickened more, shadows creeping like poisonous tendrils out of the trees surrounding them. Twilight darkened into night. The twisted trees mocked her as she ran, their silent laughter grating on her soul. The unseen eyes hunted her, sliding through the night.

 

Inuyasha did not stop, did not look back, his small legs carrying him further and further away from her. She wanted to cry, to scream. Don't leave me! She tried to run faster, but her legs seemed too heavy to lift.

 

She gasped as an evanescent figure slowly materialized out of the shadowy darkness ahead of Inuyasha. A woman stood, arms open in welcome, offering her sheltering embrace. Inuyasha reached for her as he ran, his arms outstretched towards her.

 

The woman's face was in shadow, and her flowing gown looked black in the dim light. Kagome recognized the figure as Inuyasha's mother. She slowed to a walk as Inuyasha neared his mother.

 

Darkness swirled, twisting, convulsing, converging around Inuyasha's mother. The cloud of darkness gathered around as her as Inuyasha slid to a stop in front of her, suddenly hesitant. The woman's form shifted, the edges of bleeding away into the darkness. Glowing red eyes appeared on her face as she stretched upwards, convulsing. The darkness massed around her, solidifying as a huge form shot up in front of Inuyasha.

 

The demon howled, a huge clawed hand snapping out to snatch Inuyasha from where he stood, paralyzed with fear.

 

“No!” Kagome screamed. His mother! It was his mother! Why was this happening?

 

Inuyasha screamed in pain and terror as the huge demon crushed him in his grip, mocking the comforting hug that the hanyou's mother had offered him. The demon cackled madly, hate glowing in its eyes.

 

With a vicious howl, the demon hurled Inuyasha into the trees. Kagome flinched at the sounds of breaking branches and crashing underbrush. The huge demon burst apart in a cloud of darkness, the shadowy fog drifting across the forest path.

 

Kagome stood frozen. What did she do?

 

She started as the little Inuyasha staggered out of the trees. He walked across the path, his path perpendicular to hers, the darkness swirling about him. Kagome watched in shock as he morphed, stretching upward, like a clock put in fast forward.

 

He stopped in the middle of the path, now looking about ten years old, golden eyes turning towards her. Golden eyes that were hardened from trials and suffering. Eyes that had lost all trace of innocence or friendliness.

 

Kagome's heart thumped in her chest. What could have happened to have made his eyes look like that?

 

Inuyasha turned back to look ahead of him, to look into the dark trees lining the path. He jerked back, raising his hand as if to ward off an invisible blow.

 

Yells echoed in the distance, angry voices shouting.

 

Inuyasha jerked again, staggering as if he had been hit. He cried out as a wound opened on his cheek. Kagome ran forward a step. What was happening?

 

Inuyasha staggered backwards. Kagome saw the ghostly blow strike this time as men appeared out of the darkness around Inuyasha, their yells and shouts growing louder in her ears.

 

They were . . . villagers. Simple villagers.

 

She watched in shock as one of the villagers smashed his fist into Inuyasha's face, knocking the hanyou back a step.

 

“You dirty, tainted half-breed!” the man screamed.

 

Another man swung a club, smashing it into Inuyasha's shoulder, knocking the hanyou off his feet.

 

“You disgusting freak!”

 

A third man kicked Inuyasha in the stomach as he struggled to rise.

 

“You worthless half-demon! You don't deserve to live!”

 

Kagome watched in horror as Inuyasha took blow after blow, flinching and crying out as the men inflicted wounds on both his body and spirit.

 

“No!” Kagome screamed, running towards them. “Stop hurting him!”

 

The continued to beat on the hanyou, who cowered on the ground, curled up in a ball to protect himself. Inuyasha didn't even attempt to defend himself.

 

“He's just a child!” Kagome screamed, “Stop it!”

 

She ran faster, but no matter how much she ran, she never got any closer. Inuyasha remained out of her reach, too far for her to get to him.

 

When she could run no further, she fell to her knees, sobbing. “Inuyasha . . .” she cried, watching the men continue their beating. “Fight back, Inuyasha! Don't let them hurt you!”

 

No. She knew he wouldn't fight back. He was just a child. He couldn't fight them.

 

Inuyasha's screams of pain ripped through her, each cruel word from the villagers felt like a knife in her heart.

 

She leaned forward, squeezing her eyes shut as pain tore through her. Was this what the priestess had meant? This pain tearing through her heart? If it hurt her this much, how much was it hurting Inuyasha? The old woman's trap, the black orb. Was the darkness creating the nightmare to teach her the pain that Inuyasha had suffered through? Was it forcing her to live Inuyasha's past, to endure these illusions that were his memories?

 

No, she realized, they weren't memories. They were nightmares.

 

It took her a moment to realize that Inuyasha's screams had stopped, that the men's shouts and cruel words had faded away. She looked up.

 

Inuyasha stood in front of her, the villagers gone. Blood ran down his face from dozens of cuts, one of his ears torn nearly in half, the left side of his kimono soaked with blood.

Kagome was horrified to see the blood-smeared tip of a broken rib poking out his side. His skin was so pale he looked like ghost, his golden eyes so faded they seemed dead. He stood in front of her, not moving, not speaking, his face expressionless.

 

Kagome slowly rose to her feet, her stomach turning at she took in his condition.

 

“Inuyasha?” she whispered.

 

He didn't move, didn't acknowledge her words. He just stared and stared, his eyes empty and unseeing.

 

“Inuyasha . . .” she whispered, her voice breaking, tears streaming down her face. She reached out a hand to touch his bloody cheek.

 

He flinched away from her, raising an arm to protect his face.

 

Kagome's heart shattered at the fear in his eyes.

 

The air whistled. Inuyasha cried out in pain as the glowing green whip struck him in the arm, knocking him back a step. Kagome whirled to find Sesshomaru standing behind her. He looked right through her, staring with hate-filled eyes at his half brother.

 

“Inuyasha.” He spat the name like a curse.

 

He stepped forward. Kagome jumped to the side before he walked right into her.

 

Sesshomaru stood in front of the hanyou, who shrank back from his half-brother's menacing glare.

 

The hanyou raised a hand imploringly towards his older brother. The gesture was a plea, a cry for help.

 

“Inuyasha,” Sesshomaru snarled coldly, “how dare you! You insolent brat. You are nothing. You are worthless. You are a curse upon this world. You should never have been born. You should never have been given life. I will never understand why father didn't kill you in the cradle.”

 

Each word was like a blow as Inuyasha sank to his knees before his half-brother, head bowed with pain and shame.

 

“No!” Kagome screamed, “No, that's not true!”

 

Neither brother acknowledged her, heard her.

 

Inuyasha whimpered, raising his head, his desperate eyes pleading with his brother for moment of understanding.

 

“Silence!” Sesshomaru snapped, raising his hand as his fingers glowed green.

 

The whip struck again and again. The whip whistled as the blood sang, harmonizing in a horrifying song of agony.

 

“Stop!” Kagome cried, lunging at Sesshomaru. She passed right through him, falling hard on the ground on the other side of the dog demon lord.

 

“Die, half-breed.” Sesshomaru hissed as he brought his whip down one final time.

Inuyasha looked up at his brother with pain-glazed eyes as lay in a pool of his own blood, unwilling or unable to move as glowing green death came for him.

 

“NO!” Kagome screamed, jumping up to her feet. She didn't even think. She had to protect Inuyasha! She wouldn't let him be killed!

 

She jumped into the path of the poison whip, putting herself between the brothers.

 

She screamed as the whip tore into her, ripping through her torso. She dropped to her knees as pain shattered her body, searing through her. Her vision blurred as the agony overwhelmed her.

 

It was some time before the pain faded and she realized that she had no wounds. She raised her head. Sesshomaru stood before her, eyes unreadable as he watched her. As soon as her eyes fell on him, the dog lord dissolved into the darkness, becoming yet another shadow in the night.

 

Kagome staggered to her feet. She turned around, eyes searching for Inuyasha. She gasped as she saw him limping away, slowly forcing his battered body down the dark path. The shadows swirled like a tainted, sickly fog, struggling to obscure Inuyasha from view.

 

“Inuyasha!” she yelled, “Wait!”

 

Just as none of her words had had any effect before, neither did they this time. Inuyasha continued to stagger away, leaving her alone in the darkness.

 

Kagome leaped forward, running after him. Again, no matter how fast or how far she ran, she never got any closer. Inuyasha became nothing more than another shadow. She strained to keep her eyes on him, not to lose sight of him.

 

The laughing trees watched her streak by, the predatory shadows following in her wake. The unseen watchers jeered at her pathetic attempts to reach him through the impenetrable darkness. She couldn't reach him! She couldn't get to him!

 

Inuyasha disappeared into the gloom, the swirling black fog.

 

Kagome slowed to a stop, falling to her knees, panting. What was this place? An illusion? A dream? Some strange alternate reality?

 

She hauled herself to her feet and began walking down the path, hugging herself and shivering as the mutilated trees moaned in the black wind. The sky was black as death, the ground beneath her grey, rotting leaves and dark, mucky dirt. The place reeked of death, the darkness a creeping taint that consumed everything.

 

Moans of tortured souls followed her as she walked. Screams of pain echoed in the distance. Horror upon horror whispered to her in the darkness. She ignored it all, focusing solely on Inuyasha and her need to find him. That was all she would allow herself to think about, to keep the rising terror inside her from consuming the last of her sanity.

After what seemed like hours, she found him. He sat curled up at the base of a huge, gnarled, old tree, its stark, empty branches twisting their way futilely towards the black sky.

 

As she cautiously approached, she stifled a gasp. Inuyasha had aged again. Now he looked about her age. He sat slouched against the tree, arms wrapped around himself, knees pulled up to his chest, head bowed.

 

Kagome slowly approached to kneel beside him. He didn't move, didn't notice her at all.

 

“Inuyasha?” she whispered.

 

He either didn't hear, or didn't choose to listen.

 

“Inuyasha . . .” It came out as sob. She felt like her heart was shattering under the pain of what was happening, under the oppressive weight of the darkness.

 

His head slowly rose, his eyes turning towards her. She gasped. Hard golden eyes stared at her, his face twisted with pain and bitterness. All she had ever loved about Inuyasha was buried underneath this hatred that poured out of him, at the poisoned bitterness filling his heart, the anger twisting what was left of his soul. And pain. So much pain.

 

“No,” she whispered. She was losing him to the darkness, losing his soul to the shadows. “No, Inuyasha.”

 

His eyes turned away as he raised his hand. Wet blood coated his fingers, running down his hand, black in the darkness.

 

A self-mocking smile twisted his lips as he watched the blood drip from his fingers. He sneered at his bloodied hand, even as Kagome realized he was sitting in pool of his own blood. Self-loathing convulsed in his eyes.

 

He laughed, harsh, cold, mocking laughter. He laughed as the blood ran down his hand, poured from his wounds. He laughed at stalking death, laughed at the darkness claiming his soul, crushing his heart.

 

Kagome felt as though she were dying with him. He didn't care. He didn't care that he was bleeding to death, that he was dying. He welcomed death, welcomed the release from the pain. He laughed at himself as he died, laughed because he had strived so hard to survive, only to die without achieving anything, without anyone at his side . . .

 

To die all alone.

 

“You're not alone, Inuyasha!” she cried, reaching a desperate hand towards him, “I'm here with you! You're not alone! Inuyasha!”

 

His laughter died away but the mocking smile remained, a testament to how he saw his life.

 

“Inuyasha . . .” she murmured in a heartbroken whisper, tears streaming down her face, pain becoming a permanent part of her heart, suffering a constant companion of her soul.

 

The wind howled in laughter at their pain, the trees moaned in mockery of their suffering. The shadows swirled, gathering, waiting to suck Inuyasha's soul into the eternal night. The nightmares of the soul, the terrors of the heart, the tortures of life, the darkness of death.

 

What was this place? Kagome asked herself, the same questions spinning around and around in her head as she watched Inuyasha.

 

The hanyou suddenly struggled to his feet, his eyes fixed straight ahead.

 

“Inuyasha,” Kagome whispered as she watched him stagger forward, away from the tree. He ignored her, slowly walking forward, heading down the path into the shadows. The black fog swirled around his legs as he walked, the mangled trees watching with unseen eyes, the moans of lost souls mixing with the howls of the icy wind.

 

Kagome rose to her feet, following Inuyasha. Where was he going? She didn't know how he could walk with his injuries. Reality was altered in this place, wherever it was.

 

She struggled to catch up with the hanyou as he faded into the shadowy fog, the darkness swirling and gathering around him.

 

“Inuyasha!” she called, panic leaping into her throat.

 

The ominous, slithering tendrils of dark taint clawed at her as she ran after him, slowly, ever so slowly, getting closer to him. Darkness massed around Inuyasha, forming a wall in front of him. He stopped, staring into the shadowy barrier. Kagome panted as she ran, the darkness weighing her down, the thick fog like running through water.

 

Panting, she came up beside Inuyasha. He was staring straight ahead, intently watching something ahead of him. Kagome frowned, turning to stare into the dark wall, wondering what it was that he saw there. She looked back at him. The blood on his face had dried, the wounds scabbed over. His dead golden eyes now glowed with a strange light. Something swirled in his eyes, an illusive emotion that made Kagome's heart swell. She looked back at the dark wall and gasped, stepping back in shock.

 

Another Inuyasha stood facing the first. But this Inuyasha, he looked more like the Inuyasha she knew than the one who stood at her side. The new Inuyasha was clean and healthy, unwounded. His eye shone with happiness and contentment, his face filled with amusement and laughter. He stood tall and proud, unburdened by the weight of pain and bitterness. He looked . . . happy. He looked like everything Kagome wanted Inuyasha to be, everything she wanted him to know.

 

She looked back at the Inuyasha by her side, slouched over in pain, dirty and bloody, face twisted with hate and bitterness. He was the opposite of everything the second Inuyasha represented, everything he was. The first Inuyasha stood, a bloody, miserable wreck, his soul perverted with the pain of his life, his past. The second Inuyasha stood, pure and happy, his soul free from pain and suffering, free to be everything he could be.

 

Kagome gasped as she recognized the emotion swirling in the golden depths of the first Inuyasha's eyes. Hope. He lifted a bloody hand up, slowly reaching for the Inuyasha standing in front of him. The second Inuyasha also raised a hand, mirroring the other, reaching for his opposite. The light of hope reflected in both their eyes as their fingers touched.

 

The second Inuyasha shattered. Like a broken mirror, the wall of darkness shattered, the second Inuyasha shattering with it. The pieces of the happy Inuyasha fell to the ground, the dirty black mud tainting what had once been pure.

 

The first Inuyasha's hand slowly dropped, the hope dying in his eyes, replaced by yet more bitterness. He slowly stepped forward, passing through the dark fog. He walked forward, stepping on the jagged pieces of his reflection that lay in the mud. The shards of broken dreams sliced his feet as he walked over them, leaving bloody streaks across the ground, adding to his pain.

 

Kagome stood frozen as Inuyasha walked away. The happy Inuyasha, the pure Inuyasha, it had been a reflection. It had been . . . it had been what Inuyasha wanted to be . . . it had been what he desired to become. His dreams. And when he had reached for his dream, when he almost grasped it, it had shattered.

 

Without thought, she ran forward after. The shards turned to black smoke as she stepped on them, not cutting her as they had cut Inuyasha. Lost dreams could only harm the dreamer. But she felt the pain which each step nonetheless.

 

She limped after the disappearing hanyou, struggling through the darkness.

 

“Inuyasha!” she called desperately, “Inuyasha!”

 

He walked down the path, the path of life. She slowed to a walk ten feet behind him, matching his pace, afraid to get any closer. She was afraid of the pain, the hate, the anger, the bitterness that swirled in a dark cloud around him. She was afraid of what she would see in his eyes. She couldn't face the empty blankness, the hard golden stones that revealed his dead soul.

 

As the fear consumed her heart, Inuyasha began to draw away from her, though he walked no faster. She fell further and further behind him. She struggled to move faster, but she got no closer. She began to run, but still the distance between them lengthened.

 

“Inuyasha!” she yelled, tears springing to her eyes, “Inuyasha, don't leave me!”

 

He disappeared into the murky gloom. She was surrounded by darkness. She couldn't see, could hardly breathe.

 

She stumbled to halt as her legs gave out. Falling to her knees, she slammed her fists into the black ground.

 

“Don't leave me!” she sobbed. “Don't leave me in this nightmare!”

 

She wanted out! She wanted out of this illusion, this dream! She wanted away from the darkness that weighed down her soul, the pain that tore at her heart, the shadows that were coming to trap her forever in the dark night.

 

The convulsing trees writhed in the darkness to either side. Screams of terror echoed everywhere in the distance. The cold wind moaned through the twisted branches of the trees. The unseen eyes watched her, leering at her tears, mocking her misery. Shadows stalked her, creeping forward on every side, tendrils of the black slinking towards her like some foul poison.

 

Kagome shivered as the icy wind brushed against her, a perverted caress, tainted fingers sliding over her. She sobbed, kneeling on the polluted ground, the darkness overwhelming her, coming for her soul as misery claimed her heart.

 

“Let me out!” she screamed at the uncaring sky. “Old woman! Let me go! I want out of this nightmare!”

 

The darkness stirred restlessly as her pained voice echoed eerily through the mutilated trees. The wind howled louder, its icy fingers running down Kagome's spine.

She shivered, crying harder. She just wanted this horror to be over with, to be free of the darkness. Would this nightmare never end?

 

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Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of the characters associated with the anime/manga.