InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Under the Crescent Moon ❯ Rin's Return ( Chapter 2 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

A shrill scream shook the air, and a wide-eyed young woman spun around to face the source of her racing heart, a hand at her throat in pure terror. The laughing eyes that met her own shocked ones seemed to only laugh harder as she reached out and swatted at her tormentor, her mouth gaping.

"Naomi, that wasn't funny!" Naomi, however, seemed to think that it was indeed quite funny, and the silent laughter shaking her shoulders burst from her mouth, her giggles only mocking her friend as she stood, still trying to calm her speeding heart.

"R-Rin, you should've s-seen the look on y-your f-face!" Naomi cried in between gasping breaths, her blue eyes sparkling in absolute mirth. "You're such a scaredy-cat," the girl mumbled after a moment, a hand wiping at the tears in her eyes. Rin pouted, crossing her arms over her chest as she playfully glared at her friend.

"Oh yes, I'm so very pleased that you find that funny, Naomi." She paused, and, seeing the chuckle rather than hearing it, Rin continued, "You almost gave me a heart attack!"

Naomi's giggling seemed to die down a bit, and, as a response to the girl's accusation, she flung an arm around her shoulders, smiling a bright smile. "I did no such thing," she answered, pausing for a moment. "But the look on your face really was priceless, Rin-chan." Rin rolled her eyes, pursing her lips together and deciding that she could ignore her friend for the time being.

They walked arm in arm for a while, neither one talking, until Rin spotted something that set the wheels of her mind turning. She smiled softly, knowing that she was going to have to get Naomi back for her little stunt sooner or later… It seemed as though sooner won out.

"Hey, Naomi," Rin mumbled, nudging her friend in the ribs with her elbow and then nodding toward her newest point of interest. "What do you think is in that old building right there?" Naomi looked at it for a moment, then shrugged.

"Who knows. I heard that Kato and his goons tried to get the door open once and it didn't budge. Kato claims he heard someone telling them to leave, even though the place has been abandoned for years." Rin couldn't help the little smirk that twitched at her lips.

"Wanna see if the door will open now?" Naomi's head turned toward her sharply, and Rin just barely managed to clear her face of all emotion except questioning as her friend stared at her.

"What?"

"Do you wanna go see if it'll open now," she repeated. A light frown creased Naomi's brow, and her mouth worked until she spoke the words she seemed to be searching for.

"Who are you and what have you done with Rin?" Rin could do nothing but laugh, and she shook her head, vaguely feeling her hair slip from it's ponytail as she did so. Reaching up with both hands, she deftly pulled the little black tie from her hair and looped it around her wrist, smiling as her friend eyed her warily.

"I'm still the same old Rin," she said, running her fingers through her dark hair. "I just want to go look." The wary expression on Naomi's face didn't waver, and she stood with her hands at her sides, one eyebrow slightly cocked although the rest of her pretty face retained it's slight frown.

"Are you trying to prove that you're not as scary as I think you are? Because, believe me, if you're asking to do this just so you can prove something then - "

"Naomi, I'm serious," Rin interrupted, grabbing her friend by the shoulders to stop her rant. "I just want to go look, okay? If the door doesn't open then we can leave." Naomi seemed to think about it for a moment, her jaw working as though she was rolling Rin's proposal around in her mouth, tasting it to see how sincere the girl really was. She must have liked what she tasted.

"Alright," she mumbled with a sigh. Rin smiled at her, then grabbed her hand and dragged her across the empty shrine.

Rin's chocolate eyes roamed around the space, wondering what had happened to the people who had lived there. She knew for a fact that there had indeed been a family that lived on the grounds, but, according to legend, they had all but fallen off the face of the planet, no one having heard from them in what had to be ten and a half years.

"Rin?" Starting, the girl turned her eyes to her friend, whose face showed her slight concern. "Are you alright? You looked kind of lost."

Rin grinned. "Don't I always look lost?" she asked, joining her friend at the doors of the shrine. Naomi scoffed but said nothing, and Rin, gathering up the courage, reached forward and gripped the groove carved into the wooden door, biting her lip as she pulled.

It moved.

"Oh wow," Naomi murmured, her tone of voice suggesting that she had expected it to open just about as much as Rin expected to see pigs flying overhead. After exchanging a glance, Naomi moved to help, and together, they pushed the door as wide as it would go, which, although not fully, seemed to be enough for one of them to slip through the opening. The girls exchanged yet another look, but neither one moved as they stared into the darkness behind the door.

Rin, however, was not immobilized by fear or even by awe. A feeling overcame her as she stared into the deep black of the shrine, and a very light frown marred her pretty face, so light that even Naomi, who looked at her again, didn't notice it.

The feeling couldn't be described, at least not in one word, and Rin felt a nervous bubbling in the pit of her stomach, as though she were about to meet someone she had been aching to be acquainted with for ages. Her fingers trembled, and she absentmindedly fiddled with a bracelet she always wore, the smooth pink stones set into the silver metal helping to soothe her somewhat, although her mind scrambled to figure out why looking into this place made her feel this feeling, this indescribable feeling that seemed to momentarily overpower her. She had to find out what was in there.

"Rin, what are you doing?" Naomi's startled cry didn't snap her out of her suddenly determined state, and she briefly glanced over her shoulder as she stepped through the gap they had made, trying to smile but feeling as though she failed miserably.

"I just want to go look. I'll be back in a few minutes, I promise." She ignored Naomi's protests and squeezed through the opening, the blackness not quite so dark with the light behind her.

She waited until her eyes adjusted before moving forward, one slim hand reaching out to grip the banister a few steps from the door. Tentatively, she stepped out onto the first step, and, when it held, cautiously descended the short staircase, dirt greeting her feet when they were once again on the ground.

"Rin? What's in there?" Naomi's voice echoed in the small but empty space, and Rin waited a moment before answering her.

"A well, I think," she called back, making sure to watch out for anything that could twist her ankle as she walked slowly to the structure in the middle of the room. A chill abruptly shook her spine, and she spun around, thinking that she heard someone calling her name. Swallowing, she pushed the thoughts to the back of her mind, placing her hands on the edge of the cool rock surface of a small, waist-high well.

"Is that all?" Naomi seemed slightly disappointed, and as Rin looked back toward the door, she could see her friend pushing her way through the opening.

"Yeah, looks like it. Hey watch your step; there's a staircase there."

"What? Oh thanks." Naomi began to descend the short staircase, her voice not echoing as much as it had been. "So the only thing in here is a well? Is there any water down there?" Rin bit gently on her bottom lip, her hands working to dislodge a small piece of rock. She tossed it into the mouth of the structure, straining her ears as she listened for a splash of some sort.

She was greeted instead by an overly deafening crash, and a loud shriek was the only sound that indicated that her small piece of rock had not transformed into a boulder on the way down. She spun instantly, her feet carrying her quickly to her friend, who was sitting on the ground, a grimace twisting her face.

"Are you alright? What happened?" She pushed her hair behind her ears before reaching down to help her friend to stand, knowing that the girl might've been seriously injured.

"The stairs collapsed," Naomi mumbled. "I'm fine though. I don't think I broke anything." Rin was much too worried to feel the gentle tugging on her wrist.

"Are you sure? You didn't hurt anything?" She felt more than saw Naomi shake her head, and only after she was positive that her friend's claim was true did she let go of her. The tug on her wrist became more pronounced then, and, after she noticed it, a fierce pull caused her to stagger.

"Rin?" Naomi's voice was confused. "Did you just trip over thin air?" There was humorous note in the girl's tone, but Rin, who might've found the comment funny on any other occasion, couldn't bring herself to muster a laugh as the pulling became more and more evident. What the - ?

"No, o-of course not," she stammered, attempting to hide her growing confusion and fear. "I'm not that clumsy, you know." The statement was supposed to sound sarcastic, but the wavering of her voice killed any and all sense of nonchalance from her friend's mind.

"Rin?" The suddenly frantic voice of her companion broke Rin's control, and she reached for her, panic overcoming her confusion.

"Naomi, help me," she whispered, her panic quickly escalating into something more prominent.

"Rin, if you're joking with me, I swear on all that is alive and well in Japan that I'll - "

"Naomi!" The pulling, though it had come in small but violent tugs, was beginning to morph into a constant drag, and she was beginning to become a little more than just scared. "Something is pulling me into the well!"

As the words left her lips, a string of some sort wrapped itself around her ankle, and her feet were snatched out from under her. Her body fell to the ground and the breath was forced out of her parted lips, a strangled cry escaping her throat.

"Rin? Rin where are you? Rin!" She was on her back now, and she felt Naomi's hands find and grasp the wrist that was not being tugged toward her feet, her friend emitting little cries of effort as she attempted to save Rin from… From what?

The fact that she did not know what was happening only served to heighten Rin's terror, and she fleetingly recalled the feeling that had made her enter this cursed room, the feeling that was completely gone now, nowhere to be found even as she searched the very depths of her soul for it.

She began to cry, and, as the string around her wrist relinquished it's hold for one on her other ankle, she reached up and pulled herself closer to Naomi, hoisting her body upwards until they were face to face.

What was happening?

"Rin, what's going on?" Naomi asked frantically, her eyes wider than Rin had ever seen them, glistening with tears, confusion, and fear. Rin could do nothing but cry, her voice not finding it's way from her throat to her lips. She gripped Naomi harder as her feet disappeared into the well.

"Tell Mama that I love her," Rin murmured, finally finding her voice as she was dragged into the blackness below her. "And try not to - ah! - Try not to scare the living daylights out of so many people, okay?"

"Why are you saying that?" Naomi asked, her upper body beginning to lean against the rocky surface of the well. "You act like I'm going to let you go or something." Rin could tell that she was trying to be positive, trying to alleviate the bleak situation, and she smiled softly through her tears.

"You are going to let me go, because you have to." The words rang with truth, and as she said then, a third string looped around her waist, it too beginning it's relentless tug. Naomi shook her head.

"No, no I'm not going to - "

"But you don't have a choice," Rin whispered, a type of calm washing over her in waves. She had worked up in her mind that the only way to get out of this was to let this thing, whatever it was, have her. It was not going to let go, and it was stronger than both she and Naomi combined. Letting her go was Naomi's only option. "Let go, Naomi-chan."

"I can't," the girl sobbed, although her hands were slowly slipping, her grip loosening by the second. "I don't want to lose you... You're the only true friend I have, Rin. What am I supposed to do without you?" Rin tried not to cry again, and she stretched up to place a kiss against her step-sister and best friend's cheek.

"I'm sure you'll manage. Now you have to - ah - let go." They locked eyes, and, although it was slightly darker than it had been before, Rin saw the acceptance in her sister's eyes. Naomi let go.

Rin plunged into darkness. Her head spun and there was an ache in her temple, then everything faded away and she floated into welcome unconsciousness.