InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ THE WAR OF BLOODY *LOVE ❯ the talisman ( Chapter 3 )

THE WAR OF BLOODY *LOVE

 

 

CHAPTER 3: THE TALISMAN

"Sh!" Kagome told Sango, as they passed the room her uncle was in. "If you want to explore without being caught, stop laughing."

 

"I can't help it. Your uncle is so funny. Look at him dance!" Sango said. It was true and quite embarrassing really. Her uncle was in the dinning room. He was cleaning; just like what Kagome and Sango were suppose to be doing. He had the spray in one of his hands and the cloth in another.

 

He also had his headphones on and was dancing to the music. Kagome's uncle would spray a surface, and while wiping, he would sway his hips and occasionally stop and do a little dance. You could hear his low voice as he sang along with the music. It was quite funny really. He was singing, "The real folks…mmm the real folk blues…"

 

Kagome seemed to recall that song from a show she liked on television, it was called Cowboy Bebop. Actually, she hadn't watched it in a long time. She should really catch up on episodes. But that thought was put aside, because of their little `mission.' Kagome and Sango were pressed up against the wall outside the room her uncle was in.

 

"Okay," said Kagome. "We have to do this quick. We explore, come back, and act like nothing ever happened, all before he comes looking for us.

 

"How do you know he will look for us? He already looks pretty occupied to me," Sango said with a smile.

 

"Sango! Stop playing around. Do you want to do this or not?" Sango nodded, yes. "Okay, then follow me." Kagome quickly led Sango past the room with the `dancing uncle.' She lead her down a long dark hall. This part of the house wasn't already cleaned, so the floor was dusty.

 

"Where are we going?" asked Sango.

 

"I don't even know myself, to be honest," said Kagome.

 

"What do you mean you don't know? Then where the hell are you leading me-" Sango stopped talking when Kagome stopped in front of a door. It was dark brown, and had cobwebs all over it. The doorknob was peeling with paint. Kagome sighed. They still had a lot of work to do.

 

"Well," said Sango. "Don't keep me waiting. Open the damn door, already!"

 

Kagome shot Sango a look. But stepped forward and brushed some dust off the door. "Yuck," she said. She pushed open the door and walked, quite aware that Sango was right behind her. The room was very dark, and it smelled moldy. Kagome leaned against the dirty wall, and began groping for the light switch.

 

When she found it, she switched it on.

 

"Wow. This room is really messed up," Sango said.

 

"You could say that again," Kagome said.

 

"This room is really mes-"

 

"Sango! I was just playing around."

 

Kagome walked farther into the room. She walked over to an old closet and opened it. Some moths flew out of the closet, causing Kagome to jump back. There was an old sweater with holes in it. There was also an old book that lay at the bottom of the closet, on top of an old chest.

 

"Sango!" Kagome called. "Look what I found!" In a flash, Sango was next to Kagome, kneeling down on the floor in front of the closet. "Let me see!" said Sango pushing Kagome out of the way. "Oh, this is getting good." Sango said, her eyes getting wide. "I wonder what's inside."

 

The chest was about 2 feet wide and 1 foot tall. It was yellow, and looked kind of gray with all of the dirt that collected on it for the past years. At the top of it, something was carved into the chest. Kagome took her hand and swept away the dust. She peered down farther to look at it.

 

At the top of the chest, there was a carving of a little girl. Behind her, was her family. They were all smiling. Whoever carved this into the chest was very good at it.

 

"Who would leave this behind?" asked Sango.

 

"It must have been left when the family moved out. I wonder how they could forget this. It seems very special," said Kagome.

 

"The carving is beautiful. Look! It was even painted. But you can't really see it anymore; all the years have worn it out."

 

"Let's open it up and see what's inside. Move back Sango, so I can pull it out." Sango backed out of the way. Kagome grasped the two metal handles on the side and lifted the chest. It wasn't that heavy at all. Kagome, with the chest in her hands, backed up out of the closet.

 

She started walking towards the middle of the room to place the chest on the floor, when she noticed something. "Hey, Sango," Kagome asked, still holding the chest in her arms. "Did you notice those foot prints before?" Sango looked around the room, and found what Kagome was talking about.

 

By the closet, where they had just come from, instead of being 2 sets of footprints, there were three. "Oh. I did see that actually. When we first came in. Before we went over to the closet, I saw the foot prints."

 

"Why didn't you tell me you saw that," asked Kagome.

 

"Well…I thought it might be your uncle's footprints. They do look kind of big. Besides, seeing some footprints on a dusty floor is not very important."

 

Kagome quickly put down the chest and scrambled over to look at the footprints. Some were already covered over with Sango's and hers, but she could still make some out. "These…these aren't my uncle's footprints. They are too small to be his."

 

"Kagome…what is this all about?" Sango asked.

 

"What I want to know is: whose footprints are these… And when did they get here...?"

 

"Um…Kagome. They are just footprints. Just get over it. Besides, don't you want to look in the chest…? Kagome…"

 

"Huh? Oh, right. Let's take a look in that chest." Kagome walked over to it, and pulled it open. A cloud of dust puffed up from the now open chest, and caused Kagome to sneeze. Once again, Kagome was fanning her face, trying to get the dust away. Sango kneeled down beside her, and together, they looked inside the chest.

 

"Man!" said Sango. "It's just a bunch of stupid photos. Nothing important. I just wasted my time. Why would I want to look at some one else's life, anyway?"

 

"Oh, hold on a minute. Let's look through them," suggested Kagome. Sango rolled her eyes, but put her hand inside the chest and took out a bunch of pictures. Kagome did the same. For a while, both of the girls were silent, as they looked through the pictures.

 

"Well, this family looks happy," concluded Sango. "Can we move on now? How about we explore some other part of the house? I'm sure there is more interest-"

 

"In a minute. Look!" Kagome said, "There's more stuff in here…"

 

"A whole bunch of junk," commented Sango.

 

Kagome ignored Sango's last comment and dumped the whole chest over, spilling everything that was inside onto the floor. More and more pictures, a folded, bright pink dress, and…and something else. Kagome's eye caught sight of something in the messy pile spilled on the floor. There was a small, small pouch. The pouch was brown, and looked slightly bulgy, as if something was inside.

 

"Great," said Sango. "I'm not cleaning that crap, now that you spilled it on the floor. And just look at all of this dust already. You uncle has a lot of cleaning to do…"

 

Kagome pushed the fallen pictures aside that was on top of it and picked it up. It was one of those pouches that when you pull the string, the sides of the pouch bundle together, closing the pouch. Kagome slipped two fingers in between the small whole at the surface of the pouch, and opened it up. She tipped the pouch over and something fell into her hands.

 

It was small and cold, about the size of a strawberry. Kagome looked down at it, and saw that it was shaking. Her hands were shaking.

 

"Wow!" yelled Sango. Kagome jumped at the voice, completely forgetting that Sango was even in the room. And for some reason, Kagome wished Sango wasn't here. She felt that finding this-whatever it is, was for only her to see. Not Sango or her uncle, but only for her. But now, the cat was out of he bag-more like the thing out of the bag…

 

"It looks like…like…I don't even know what it is!" Sango was yelling.

 

"Shhh! Do you want my uncle to hear you," hushed Kagome.

 

"Forget your uncle; we could sell this baby and get-"

 

"NO!" Kagome yelled. The room was silent. Kagome didn't mean to yell at her friend. It just kind of came out. But it was true. She couldn't sell this. No matter what the cost might be. It belonged to somebody, and it wouldn't be right to just sell it like that. "Sango...I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell. It's just that…" She couldn't think of anything else to say.

 

"You want to keep it." Sango said. It wasn't a question, it was a statement. Her voice didn't show any sign of anger from having Kagome lash out at her like that. And that surprised Kagome.

 

"W-what…?" was all she could say.

 

"Do you want to keep that?" Sango repeated, pointing to the small thing in Kagome's hand. Kagome looked down at it in her clenched fist. Should she keep it? After all, it really wasn't hers to keep. And it diffidently wouldn't be right if the former owner was…dead. That would just feel very weird.

 

But Kagome couldn't say no to this. This was hers to find. She knew it was. But…still… Kagome didn't really believe in destiny. Strange, how could she believe in vampires and werewolves, but something like destiny, she couldn't believe in at all. But right then, Kagome knew she would have to start, because destiny is what brought her what she found today.

 

Then, slowly, she nodded her head. Sango smiled.

 

"Then it's settled," Sango said standing up and dusting off her pants from all of the dust. "But what is it? That's what I want to know."

 

Kagome opened her fist, and observed the thing in her hand. Her eyes grew wide with wonder. It was small, but not too small. It was oval shaped, and had a pointed end at the bottom of the oval. The material, Kagome guessed, was…gold…real gold. And on it something was engraved.

 

It was a moon. Not just any moon. A red moon. Red…blood…? The moon seemed like it was coming up from what it was carved on. Kagome ran a finger over it, and noticed that the moon was slightly raised from the rest of the golden surface, causing a slight 3-D look. Kagome's finger tingled when she touched it. It also had a chain looped through a whole at the top of it. So you could wear it on your neck. And she would.

 

She turned it over and saw something else. It looked like a name. It was written some kind of weird cursive. It read: INU*. Inu? Who was Inu? Was he the owner of this thing? What was it? What was this used for. But Kagome didn't need to ask those questions. Because somewhere, somewhere in her mind that she never knew was there, she knew the answer.

 

It was a talisman. A protector against the sun.

 

How Kagome knew, she wasn't so sure, but that's what it was, a talisman. And the owner was someone named Inu. Kagome quickly stood up. She gently, put the talisman over her head, and looked at it, as it lay on her chest.

 

"So, it's a necklace, huh?" Sango asked. Kagome looked at her. She was already putting back all of the pictures into the chest, and folding the pink dress.

 

"I guess it is," Kagome answered, softly. Something must have been strange about Kagome's voice, because Sango stopped what she was doing, and looked up at Kagome.

 

"Are you okay?" she asked.

 

"Yes…I think…" Kagome replied. For some reason, Kagome put her hand on the talisman at her neck. It felt cool against her hand. Not cold anymore, cool. Sango brought her eyes from Kagome's face, to the talisman at Kagome's neck. Sango smiled at her. Sango stood up, and stood in front of Kagome, and peered at the red moon on the talisman.

 

"Kagome, that thing has a red moon on it. Mmm…maybe…that's very weird. But then again, you love this kind of stuff. It would look good with all of your other weird stuff." Sango said. "The red moon looks like the red in your eyes…" Sango was right. Kagome had beautiful blue eyes.

 

They were so blue, electric blue. But in the depth of them, you could see it. You could see the color red. It was very strange for someone to have red in their eyes. Kagome was the only person she knew with them. But Kagome was proof of that. But not that many people really noticed it. Only Sango and Kagome's relatives.

 

"What the! Hey! Kagome! Sango! Where are you guys. You better be working wherever you are!" Kagome's uncle yelled.

 

Kagome and Sango looked at each other, eyes wide. "Ooops!" they both said at the same time, and ran out of the door, to face the `dancing uncle'…

^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~

 

"…and then, I find that you two have sneaked off on the job! I can't believe you did this. And here I thought you were working your butts off!” said Kagome's uncle.

 

"I'm sorry. We just got kind of bored…" Sango apologized.

 

"…that's no excuse…"

 

"…going to clean the rest up after, but we kind of got side tracked…"

 

"I don't give a rat's ass…"

 

"Mr. Higurashi, watch your language…!"

 

"I'm the adult. I'll watch my mouth when I feel like it. Now what were you two doing in that room?"

 

"…chest and then…"

 

Kagome wasn't even listening to what her uncle was saying. The only thing on her mind was the talisman. And the name…Inu. To be honest, the name sent shivers down her spine. And she got goose bumps on her skin. Who is Inu? Where is Inu? Why would he leave this behind? It looked so important. And why would he need a talisman. A talisman that protects you from the sun… why would you need that unless… you're a…

 

"Vampire!" Kagome screamed. The whole room went silent. Kagome didn't even know she said it out loud until she found her uncle and Sango staring at her. Sango looked at her like she was crazy. But her uncle…he looked different. He looked…pained. Kagome wondered why…He looked uncomfortable and was slightly shifting from one foot to another. Was he angry…was he…Kagome couldn't figure it out.

 

Then Kagome realized what Sango said about him before. How when she mentioned vampires and werewolves, he got weird. Kagome would diffidently have to have a talk with him later. But not now. This person-this Inu person, sounds like a vampire. Other people might have thought this talisman was just a belonging left by the family, but Kagome wasn't other people.

 

She believed in these things. She felt this was right. She could feel it inside to outside. This was special, and she wasn't going to let it slip away from her like this. All of her life, Kagome felt empty, like she was meant to do something else in her life. Maybe that's why she chose art; so she could find that something and draw it out so she could see what it was.

 

But now she knew…that what ever she felt she had to do, started with this talisman…this house…And that brought up a very important question: why did the family leave this house, and leave that chest?

 

And why was this house not occupied for 15 years? 15 long years…? And Kagome knew that this talisman did not belong to that family that left. No. This belonged to someone else. This person put it here for some reason.

 

She had to know. All of the years, when she felt something empty in her chest. All of the time when she had a fascination of these supernatural things, it was for a reason. Ever since…since her parents died, she knew she had to find something that she could leave her mark on…

 

This was it. She felt it. She was positive. This talisman came from someone else. Someone who had access in and out of this house. Someone who was near by. But no one lived near this house. In fact, they were miles from any civilization at all. And that would be a problem if her uncle wanted to rent this house out.

 

But she didn't care. There are some things in life you don't leave alone. And this was one of those things. She wasn't going to leave it alone. She was going to pick at it until she found what was underneath. Kagome couldn't help but feel a thrill at what was going through her mind…

 

A 19 year old Kagome Higurashi came to a conclusion, right there and then. She turned to her uncle, and said loud and clear, so he could hear. "Uncle, I want to stay here for a while."