InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Vertigo ❯ Vertigo ( Chapter 1 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Vertigo

By: SlayerFox


I do not own Inuyasha, That is property of Rumiko Takahashi. I do not own the song 'Vertigo" that is property of the band 'Jump Little Children' Thank you.







Leaning from the balcony
As if without a care
Wondering should I take the fall
Or should I take the stairs

Kagome Higurashi stared into the darkness hollowly. The night was chilly, and she could hear crickets chirping lazily. A cool breeze blew her hair into her face, and she could feel the strands clinging like spider silk.

She stared at the ground from the six stories up, watching the crunchy leaves of autum fluttering across the thin strip of pavement that rested far below the balcony on which she stood. It was an old building, and the railing was a pretty, solid stone that came up to her mid-thigh. She glanced back into the light of the warm room whose comfort she was forsaking, prefering to be cold rather than having to deal with her 'friends' who had dragged her to this party in the first place.

The wind blew again, and the shiver that ran down her back reminded her of Kikyou's Shini-dama-chuu, and her eyes started to tear.

"Inuyasha..."

It started to rain, but Kagome ignored it. She leaned farther over the railing to watch the water dripping from the edge of the balcony.

CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!!!

Thunder boomed somewhere close by, and the noise sent Kagome tumbling over the edge.

Kagome's voice froze in her throat, and one hand caught on the railing. the grip of her fingers slipped slightly....


Have I already fallen over and now spin in the air
I don't know
I'm in this vertigo

A feeling of dizzy exhillaration overtook Kagome, and she closed her eyes.

She had promised him that she'd stay alive, no matter what. Granted that had been in a totally different situation, but she still took it seriously.

Her fingers slipped a little more.

Her eyes snapped open as she felt vibrations. Someone was walking on the balcony....

She could hear Houjo's voice....

"Hey Kagom--OH GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!! ERI! KIYA!!!!!!!! COME!!!! HELP!!! KAGOME'S FALLEN!"

The water slicked her hand, and she slipped a bit more. In that moment, she hated them, for their misunderstanding of everything she stood for. For having believed her grandfather's tales of sickness, for never asking why, when her 'immune system' became 'stable' again, she was a quieter person. For never having seen friends close to death. In that second she decided.....and she let go.

She closed her eyes and had the beautiful feeling of falling.....

Before she was hauled up by her wrists, her friends in panic as to her wellfare. They pulled her back into their hated arms, and cried.

"Oh God! Kagome! I'm so glad you're ok! What happened?" sobbed a tearful Eri.

"I Slipped....." said Kagome simply.

"Let's get you home." said Houjo.

"Fine."

Leaning from a precipice
That only love would dare
Spinning in a gravity
That only love could bare

Houjo's car plodded down the city street, as he tried to make small talk, oblivious as ever to Kagome's overall uninterest concerning him. Instead her mind returned to other things. It would be summer there--the place she wished she could be more than anything. Little Shippou would be tumbling in the grass with Kirara, and Sango would be continuing her selfless quest to bruise every part of Miroku's body. And Inuyasha......

She may have been saved from plummeting to her death, but she was still falling. Her grades were steadily dropping, as she became more and more introverted, refusing to leave her house for anything but school, prefering instead to spend her time playing with Buyo, helping Mama with the cooking and cleaning, conducting shrine matinence with her grandfather, and playing games with Souta. Her family was all she really wanted. No one could replace the friends she had lost...

Only her love for them, and especially for Inuyasha had kept her from doing something....foolish....

"Kagome...?" Houjo sounded uncertain
"What is it?" She asked.
"You seem sad.....Is something wrong....?"
"No. I'm fine. This is my house. Thanks for the ride." she opened the door, got out, and slammed it, walking up the steps to the shrine without even looking back.

She smiled crookedly. Yes. Her love definately transcended time. If her love could last through five hundred years, Maybe she could dwell until she died with just her memories.....


Were I to tumble from this cloudy high how would I fare
Take it slow
I'm in this vertigo

She stopped at the wellhouse, and closed her eyes. The rain of earlier had become a mixture of snow and freezing rain, and she remembered, ignoring the cold. She remembered the feeling of weightlessness as she fell through the blue energy that transcended time. How her fall slowed as she reached the other side, landing her down soft as a feather. She felt dizzy. She opened her eyes and looked at the goshinboku, staring at the indentation that had been Inuyasha's resting place for over fifty years. It finally hit her.

Take me down
Down to where the rain falls
Down where the rain can wash away this high
I feel I've gone
Beyond the edge and falling
Falling like tears that turn to snow
Falling in this vertigo

She knelt at the foot of the tree, her knees cradled by it's ancient roots on which she had stepped five hundred years earlier.
She had always known. They all had. She was from this time. She belonged here. The magic of the well was bound to put her in her rightful place eventually. She couldn't stay. Now that the jewel was completed, she would be stuck here forever. Her heart ached, and the jewel's warm glow wasn't enough to alleviate the pain.

"I want to see him....I want to see....Inuyasha...."
Those words again. They had been uttered so long ago. And yet they were still true...

Her tears fell faster, and the snow kept falling.

Leaning from the balcony
Above the interstate
Will I come around too soon
Or will it be too late

If only she had let go sooner, she wouldn't be here now. She could have joined their spirits in the afterlife, and she would have been happy. She cursed her friends, and their meddling. The feeling of weightlessness had been so familiar, and if she had kept her eyes closed, she could have believed she was going home until she hit the ground, and then, she really WOULD be home. She stumbled to her feet, wiping tears from her eyes futilely, as she stumbled back to the wellhouse, opening the door, and moving to sit on the edge of the well, looking down, as her tears fell to splash at the bottom.

Surely there is only one direction I could go at this rate
Down below
I'm in this vertigo

She pushed off, landing easily at the bottom, the product of years of practice. She swallowed a bitter sob as she looked up, having not felt the magic of the well, only to see the old, dry wood of the well house. She sat there, rocking herself as she cried.
She was such a fool. She chided herself for behaving like a child, but her heart still longed for the Sengoku Jidai. The smell there was clean, and the nights were full of stars.

Take me down
Down to where the rain falls
Down where the rain can wash away this high
I feel I've gone
Beyond the edge and falling
Falling like tears that turn to snow
Falling in this vertigo

She climbed from the well, and shut the door, picking up her purse that she had left, stranded and lonely at the foot of the ancient tree, a sentinal to all that she was. She turned, and entered her house, the screen door opening with a 'shhhhhk' sound.

"Tadaima!" she called, hearing a welcome from the living room, and the other two from the kitchen.

"Going to take a shower, kaye?"

She waited, and after an affirmative answer, she climbed the steps tiredly, dropping her purse in her room, and grabbing a towel from the closet before she entered the bathroom and locked the door. She turned on the water, creating a cool spray from the shower head. She had lost all tolerance for the hot showers she had indulged in before. Now she enjoyed her lukewarm showers, because they reminded her of her time spent in the past.

She stripped, and entered the shower, shaking her hair, and clutching the jewel that rested between her breasts. She remembered the rain....it had mostly been this temperature in the Sengoku Jidai. The hot rains only came later due to chemical fumes, and other sources of polution.

She felt lost, and the snow falling outside mirrored her mood. After all, they said the snow was really the tears of the snow princess....the tears of humanity....

If I had my way I would stay up here forever
And never look down
But surely it will come cause I've always had that feeling
Of rushing the ground
Rushing the ground

A call from her mother called her from her reverie, and she shut off the shower, quickly drying herself, and dressing. she opened the door, and cleaned up her things, before returning to the hallway. she paused at the head of the stairs, looking down. She wanted to freeze time. she knew what she had to do. She would do it tonight, and be done with it. She couldn't live this way anymore. Even her family had noticed, wondering where Inuyasha was....She shook her head, and made up her mind. She slowly walked down the stairs.

She ate dinner mechanically, speaking in the rehearsed places, her family long since used to her automatic responses. When she had finished eating, she told them she was going out, and went up the stairs to grab her coat, and purse. she left, after kissing her mother, grandfather, brother, and even her kitty goodbye.

She opened the door to the wellhouse, and peered down, smiling...

Leaning from the balcony
As if without a care
Wondering should I take the fall
Or should I take the stairs

She leaned over the railing, smiling softly as she brought out her pocket knife. Her eyes overflowed and the first fat tear fell to the bottom of the well. She jumped to the bottom, enjoying the familiar feeling of the ground rushing towards her. She didn't even feel the knife as she made the first cut. Blood dripped profusely from the cut, flowing down her arm, and following the creases in her hand, to pool softly in the palm of her hand. The jewel pulsed, and she clutched it with her bleeding hand, smearing it's pink surface with the stuff.

Another fat tear fell to the bottom of the well, a drop of blood hitting simultaniously.

"I want....To see Inuyasha....."

Suddenly the well was engulfed in blue fire, Kagome's feet falling through the bottom , her body speeding through a tunnel to a lower surface. Someone else was standing there, sniffing the air curiously.

White ears twitched, and Inuyasha looked up, to see a crying, bleeding Kagome falling at him through the well's magic. His own eyes filled with tears as he reached out his arms pulling her into a tight hug.

"God....Kagome...."

She cried into his haori.

"How did you know i needed you?" she asked tearfully, her voice muffled by the fabric covering his upper body.

"You're bleeding....I have a good nose..."

She kissed him.

Take me down
Down to where the rain falls
Down where the rain can wash away this high
I feel I've gone
Beyond the edge and falling
Falling like tears that turn to snow
Falling in this vertigo

Kagome's mother walked in to Kagome's room the next morning to find a neatly made bed, with a note on top.

The note read:

Dear Mama, Souta, Grandpa,

I want you all to know i love you very much. But you see, I can't live in this time anymore.
I'm going where Inuyasha is. Someday we will meet again. Until then,

I love you all

Kagome

Kagome's mother smiled with teary eyes, as she whispered:

"And to think....She was the last to realize it....That boy will be so glad...."

They held a funeral for Kagome that week. There was no body. Kagome wasn't really dead. The family put her to rest.

Somewhere in the past, a girl loved a hanyou
And so it always was.