The Fear of Blood (complete prologue)

[bebe_jinx]

The Fear of Blood

Prologue

Inuyasha?s taking too long.

That?s the thought that keeps repeating in my mind. I can?t get it out and all I can stare at is the ticking clock on the chipped wood desk.

I can?t believe I agreed to sit and wait for him. I should have never let him leave my sight. He always believes he?s the only one that can rescue us, that I?m the one who needs the most protection. He doesn?t realize that he needs it too.

They?re after him too.

I can?t believe I let him leave.

But maybe because he has left I can gather my thoughts about what exactly is going on. Sometimes I can?t think with him around. When he?s around all I seem to see is him and that blocks my ability to think about the future.

He says I shouldn?t think about the future though because the way things are going right now there may not be a future. I don?t want him thinking like that and I try to be as positive as I can but I have to agree.

Bad things keep happening to us.

The money is running out. I only had so much in my bank account before this began. I can?t use my credit cards because they can be tracked. I can?t get a job because my family owns half of Tokyo. I don?t know what we?ll do if we run out of money. Its money that keeps us fed and gives us a place to sleep. But Inuyasha says not to worry that he?ll figure something out but he isn?t used to being on the outside of the lab. All he knows is what he?s seen from those tapes and TV.

We only have so many places to hide. We can?t move too far from the corporation but we can?t be too close; we would be too easy to find. How many motels can we stay at before there are no more places to stay? Inuyasha doesn?t let us stay in one place too long, he doesn?t want them to find him; find us.

His nightmares are getting worse. I don?t know what to do when they hit him so hard. I feel so helpless just holding him but there?s nothing else to do. He screams sometimes and I know people in the other rooms wonder just what is going on. He gets lost in those nightmares too. He scratched me so hard I bleed one time. I don?t think he?s gotten over that yet. I can tell by the soft fear in his eyes when he touches me. I can?t loose him, he?s the only one I trust now. I just don?t want to loose him to his memories of what his life used to be.

I?m getting weaker. I know I am. She?s inside me and she?s trying to break free, to take me over but I won?t let her. That?s what I tell Inuyasha whenever I feel that burning inside of me. It?s like she?s trying to set me on fire; to break me so she can be set free and do as she wants. But I won?t let her because I don?t think I could live with myself if she had the chance to cause so much suffering like the first time. Inuyasha says I blackout more. I don?t remember but than am I supposed to? He tries to hide his fear when I can?t remember things I?ve said or done. But I can see it in the twist of his lips and the twitch of his eyes when he tells me that he?ll help me, that we?ll take down the corporation.

I smile and agree but sometimes I think it?s too late for the both of us.

I?ve tried to write this so many times but I always stop. Writing this is like saying I won?t survive. I don?t want to think about dying but with all this fear and danger, it?s the only thing I can think about.

I have to make sure this won?t happen again. The corporation can?t be allowed to make another Inuyasha or kill the girl who will come after me. How do I know another girl will replace me? If she doesn?t get her jewel, she will come back. She has for centuries.

But I?m getting ahead of myself. This is such a dark secret, no one in the public knows about. So I think I should start at the beginning. Not the beginning of my story or even my mother?s, but the reason of my existence, the reason why the Higurashi?s came into power.

I have to tell it like my mother told me. I will try to remember as much as I can because it?s been years since she?s told me. I don?t know what?s true and what?s created for the imagination of a 4 year-old. But the foundation is true, it has to be because if it wasn?t I wouldn?t be here. I get flashes of this story from the one inside me, so I think most is true.

It started with a man named Onigumo and the miko he tricked named Kikyo?


Once upon a time before you and me, before skyscrapers hung in the sky, when the light of the sun and moon were held in the highest of respect, lived a man named Onigumo.

Onigumo was a proud man. A man who worked hard for every grain of rice he ate, from sunrise till sunset any person in the village would see the young man working in his patch of field. People in the village thought this was a great trait, hard work and determination?the foundation of a strong man and later a great leader.

Now being so determined and working so hard gave Onigumo the best harvest any farmer could pray for. And he was not selfish with his food, giving it to anyone who did not harvest enough food for their own family. Such kindness and selflessness put Onigumo in the highest of regard in the whole village. He was the man who solved problems, who became the leader of the village.

But what people in the little village didn?t know was that Onigumo was also a lonely man.

He wasn?t married and no woman in the village, and there were many, could offer him anything he saw as worthy of the life he could give them. All this praise and love the village showered Onigumo with had only caused the man to see himself as more than he truly was: a man who, although generous and hard working, was no less average then any other person.

But nothing ever stopped Onigumo and he promised himself that he would find a woman worthy of him and they would be married.

One day while walking in the dense forest that surrounded the village; Onigumo came upon an oasis. A waterfall and a lake graced this small paradise. But the shining sun that was reflecting from the smooth lake and the cool air radiating from the waterfall were not in the fore front of Onigumo?s mind right then.

Instead it belonged to the woman sitting upon a boulder to the side of the glass like lake. Her back was to him and she sat so still, the young man couldn?t help but wonder if she was made of stone. Stepping towards her, Onigumo didn?t see the tiny dip in the Earth. He closed his eyes before the rock struck his head and his mind switched off as he tumbled down a small hill. Unknowingly coming closer to the woman who would change not only his life but also the life of his children and their children and those children?s children and so on and so forth forever.

The first thing Onigumo saw when he opened his eyes, was the love of his life. She was sitting above him, her midnight hair gently cascading down shoulders to tickle the tiny sensors of his skin. She wasn?t looking into his eyes but above them at his forehead, her expression was blank but her eyes held the concern she felt for her patient.

At least this is what Onigumo saw.

The young man had always hoped to have words of love and longing for the woman that was to be his. But instead of a voice speaking of his gratitude for her care, he groaned making her eyes twitch to his and a gentle smile curve her lips.

?Hello? she simply said while patting at his forehead. She had spoken and Onigumo swore that an ocean wave couldn?t have sounded more calming and welcoming.

And they talked. Many, many times throughout the days and weeks after meeting, Onigumo would take the same path to the same small paradise that he called his own. And everyday there she would be silently meditating or swimming or just sitting upon the boulder unmoving. Onigumo would bring her things and each time, she would decline and say that such earthly, material possessions would do her no good every time she went home.

Because Kikyo was a miko.

A miko was a mystical being who didn?t belong on the mass of dirt and fire called Earth but in the heavens, watching and protecting those that deserved it. But being in paradise can at times get boring and it was not unusual for a miko to go to Earth and play before transcending back to the heavens and returning to her sacred work. The only reason that any miko would be able to travel between the two would be because of the Shikon no Tama. Each miko had the ability to concentrate her powers into one single jewel and that jewel would hold the power to move between Earth and the heavens.

The thought that Kikyo could at will be able to leave, scared Onigumo greatly for he had decided that she would be his and Onigumo always got what he wanted.

One day Kikyo said that she would soon be leaving Earth and she thanked the young man for entertaining her during her stay. Onigumo asked her not to leave, tried to bargain with her and soon even asked for her hand in marriage but all was declined by the miko. A miko doesn?t give up her duty for love.

And it was that lonely night that Onigumo decided that he would steal the Shikon no Tama. It was the jewel that would let her leave. It was because of the jewel that he would be lonely.

The thing about loneliness is that it begins as longing for someone to love and have by your side. But loneliness held for a long time can become twisted; mutated to something less pure and more vile. This longing is changed to wanting to posses someone?to own someone. Because owning a person means never having to let them go, always having them by your side.

And Onigumo did steal that jewel when Kikyo was foolish enough to go swimming in the lake of the paradise that she said belonged not to her or him but to the earth and all of man.

When Kikyo realized that her jewel was gone she knew whom to suspect.

?Give me my jewel.? She sternly said her eyes holding a fire the young man had never seen.

Onigumo gave excuse after excuse explaining why she couldn?t leave him; why they had to be together. And with every excuse, the miko gave a counter reply trying to get the young man to understand why they could never be together.

?I care for you why won?t you stay.?

?You are just human I am not. We can?t be together.?

?I live for you. I would die for you. You won?t find that anywhere else.?

?Why won?t you let me live the life I wish. If you loved me you would let me go. You would let me be happy.?

And the days, the weeks, months passed and still Onigumo would never tell her where he hid the jewel. And Kikyo slowly died in the tiny paradise that was shrinking each day because of the sorrow she carried with her. Although his love (or lust) for the miko blinded Onigumo, he couldn?t ignore how weakened she was. That she stopped swimming and meditating and instead sat on the boulder in silence never looking at him but through him. And even he could see the damning she was putting upon his selfish soul.

Bargains were struck. Onigumo asked that she give him children so that he would be able to look upon her beauty in their eyes and never forget her even when she left and he was an old man.

Kikyo did give him children but she never left because she never thought she herself would love her children so much. The miko never thought the she would love anyone, but her children proved her wrong. She never told her children just why they were so strong and beautiful. She still asked for her jewel because she never trusted Onigumo, who never understood the magnitude of the jewel that he possessed.

Kikyo gave herself to a man she never wanted or loved for the tiny children she said she would give him. She truly understood why miko were never to have children-- never to love another. And in the end, she slowly let her life slip away.

And Onigumo lived happily ever after in a village that held him in the highest of respect for he was a kind, selfless, and hardworking man.


Inuyasha finally came back but he said we had to leave. So now I?m writing this on the metro, I apologize if it?s difficult to read this. Inuyasha is sleep beside me. It?s strange but it?s only when things are this public that he can truly relax. My family would never try to come after to us in the light of day with thousands of people around us.

As for the story, that?s all that I remember my adoptive mother telling me. I never thought about it as a child why my mother would tell me such a sad story. But now I know it was her way of telling me just why these things would happen to me. She gave me an explanation as to why this all began, that their was no randomness or out of control chaos involved that things were this way for a reason and for that I still love her.

I can?t ignore 20 years of my life. She and my father were there for me till the end and I won?t let their deaths be in vain. I can?t die. Not just for Inuyasha and me but for them also.

They died for me because they couldn?t kill me.


A;N/ That is all of the prologue. I would love some crit on the story of Onigumo and Kikyo. I tried to make it sound like a fairy tale kind of but I'm not sure i succeeded. Anyway the next chapter is almost half done. This is gonna be different from others just because of all the action that will probably happen. Anyway tell me what you think. Thanks!

[Lara Winner]

Ooohhh! I am completely hooked. I really want to see more of this. It looks like this could be awesome! Kudos!

[Hitomi Lei]

I like it alot! I hope you decide to go with this story because it sounds wonderfully dramatic!

And I love dramatic stuff!

[ice princess]

BWAH!!! Something based on Ceres?!!? Now that just makes the intro much more intriguing...I'm hooked already!!! I don't care if it's been written a thousand times, which, in the context of IY, I can't say that I've read anything strikingly similar. You've got to keep this up!!! I can't wait to see how you introduce the characters and mold the story. The beginning rocks, bebe, you can't leave us hanging!!

~Ice Princess

[bebe_jinx]

I just wanted to thank everyone. Also I completed the prologue and didnt want to make a whole new thread to post it on.

[Lara Winner]

Ack! I need more! OMG this is freaking great! The story about Onigumo and Kikyo was excellent. Holy crap... this is going to be sooo good!

[ice princess]

I think the story of Onigumo and Kikyo was very well paced and smoothly written. The tone was purely fairy tale, as was your intention, and done so in such a way that it had a modern undertone. Ya know, no thou's and thee's and extraneous, useless language. Very benign and to-the-point. I liked that it was quick, too. I understand exactly the base that this fic is built upon, and while I'm sure the actual event between Kikyo and Onigumo was a *bit* more complex, to say the least, it was perfectly executed for an intriguing prologue.

So yes, you did good.

~Ice Princess

[Calla Lily]

*bites lip in anticipation* Damnit, I'm hooked to this story with that amazing prologue, especially with the tale of Kikyo and Onigumo. Wow, that last line left my mouth hanging open in shock, I'm speechless.

~Calla.

[Hitomi Lei]

*big sparkaly eyes* wow...

I addore fairy tales...I loved the part about Kikyou and Onigumo...

I can't wait for the next part of this!!