InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Middle Road ❯ Al Aaraaf ( Chapter 22 )

Surgo! Interlumen moestitia. Don't own Inuyasha.

"All hope abandon, ye who enter here."

-Divina Commedia, Dante Alighieri

Al Aaraaf

There! A building. The last hope, the last star, last blinking, winking beacon of hope. A dark object was sitting tranquilly in front of the scorching sun. Sango chuckled in excitment, her disoriented mind not allowing her to grasp the gravity of the situation. The blazing desert heat burned her skin all around her. This was wrong. Where was she? How had she gotten here? Humidity made the heat unbearable.

She stopped, looked up at the dark spot, made a determined fist at her side, and ran toward it with every ounce of energy her body could lend her. The cinnamon sand beneath her flew up in a cloud as she raced across the dunes. Just a little farther. One more step. One more breath. One more dune. One more step.

She was sure she saw smoke rise from the building. A nice, warm meal. A few dozen gallons of water. She would be safe in minutes, moments, seconds. She was approaching it. Just one more lunge. Almost there. She was feet from it. She could smell the wonderful aroma of woodsmoke and soup. She laughed with joy as she collapsed in the shade of the object, her eyes closed as she drank in the cool shadow. She opened her eyes slowly.

"No." She whispered to herself, her countanence changed. She collapsed to the sandy ground with a thud. The last words to grace her lips. "No more."

There, in the seething heat of the desert, there stood a great, black boulder, the small body of a girl in its shadow. Her strength was gone. There was no hope. She was dead.

*** ***

"Kagome, dear!" Mrs. Higurashi banged on the bedroom door. Kagome stirred, and opened her eyes.

"Kagome, wake up!" She gasped and answered,

"Alright mama. I'm up." She heard footsteps descending the stairs. Her heart took a few minutes to stop beating so loudly. She sighed contentedly and leaned her head back down on Inuyasha's bare chest.

"Be careful, dear." Mrs. Higurashi gave her usual speech about being safe.

"I will, mama." Kagome picked up her bag and jumped into the well after Inuyasha. Once they crawled out the other side, Kagome jumped on her lover's back and they stole toward the village.

"So you're sure they haven't been here, Kaede-sama?" Kagome looked a little worried.

"By Kami, child, I have not seen them." Kagome turned toward Inuyasha.

"Maybe something happened to them, Inuyasha." Inuyasha had been unusually quiet. Not as though he were angry or irritated, but something was on his mind. He shook his head and laid a hand on hers.

"I'm sure they're fine." He looked at Kaede strangely, and finished. "They'd be at the other village, anyways."

"Oh yeah, I forgot." Kaede was obviously curious.

"Village?" She said testily.

"Lucia-sama's village." Kaede's eye twitched unnoticably. Well, almost unnoticably. Inuyasha looked at her.

"The old witch in the village in Kofu. The one I told you about"

"Ahh..." She nodded in secret understanding. "I see." Kagome was completely out of the loop here.

"Wha..." She sighed in resignation. She would ask later.

"Well," Inuyasha started. "we had better get goin'." he looked at Kagome and she nodded, standing up next to him. Kaede offered one more bit of sagacity.

"Inuyasha," She started. "this 'twin' you speak of is nothing. Abaddon will not so easily be defeated." Inuyasha nodded and they went out the door. Kaede stared belligerently at the fire.

"Abaddon..." She whispered. "curse you to the hells." She looked through the door at Kagome and Inuyasha as they walked out of the village.

"Lucia-sama..." She almost smiled. "It is almost finished...."

Sango just can't get a break, or Miroku either for that matter. Welcome to my mind...God help you.