“Dream Eater”
by Mindmelda
Chapter Four:
Yurei
“You can’t carry us!” said Kagome, looking at Inuyasha’s wounds.
“They’re nothing,” he retorted. “They’ll be healed in no time.”
“We brought Keilala with us, and she’ll carry us back.”
The cat demon shifted to her larger form and they all scrambled onto her broad back.
The giant cat demon rumbled. “She says she’s sorry she couldn’t help during your fight, Inuyasha,” said Shippou.
“It was between me and him,“ said Inuyasha. “He probably wouldn’t have given us what we wanted if she’d helped me.”
Kagome gripped Inuyasha’s robes as they flew across the darkening sky.
“We’ll be back to Miroku soon,” she said. “But, I still don’t quite know how I’m supposed to help him!”
“We’ll figure it out together,” said Inuyasha.
Kagome nodded and leaned her head against Inuyasha’s broad chest, holding on to Shippou tightly.
“Miroku!” said Sango. “Wake up!”
She grabbed his robes and tried to pull him up. Up out from his fevered nightmare.
“Kagome and Inuyasha will be back soon!” she said, shaking him.
“Can’t stay awake,” he muttered. “So tired.”
“But, the nightmares are taking your life away, little by little.”
He vaguely heard the despair in her voice, but it seemed so distant, so far away now. He only wanted to sleep, to drown in the nightmares that were sucking his soul.
“She calls me,” said Miroku finally, in a hushed voice. “I must suffer because she does.”
“Who?” said Sango. “Who calls you?” She bent closer to his lips to hear the almost inaudible voice.
“Yume,” he said. “The ghost.”
“A ghost?” Sango said. “So, it is a ghost that is doing this.”
She looked around. “I don’t see anything,” she said to herself.
“I see her,” said Miroku, only half-conscious.
“Reveal yourself, Yume!” said Sango loudly. “Reveal yourself to me and leave him alone!”
A sudden breeze ran through the trees surrounding them, and an eerie haze of green light coalesced to form the vague shape of a young woman.
“Foolish girl, to love him so,” a sad reedy voice came from the figure.
“Yume?” said Sango in hushed tones.
“Yes, I am but a dream now,” said the figure, who raised empty eyes to look at Sango. Sango shuddered slightly, but kept between the apparition and Miroku’s barely conscious form.
“Why do you haunt his nightmares?” whispered Sango. “Why do you torment him?”
“He must suffer as I suffered,” said Yume’s hollow voice.
“What did you suffer?” asked Sango. Miroku grimaced in the grips of his half sleep, and turned his head away.
“Betrayal,” said the ghost’s voice. “A love betrayed, by one such as him.”
“He did nothing to you!” said Sango, “He is not the one who betrayed you!”
“All men are disloyal,” uttered the ghost. “They use us for their pleasure, then discard us. They must suffer.”
“No!” said Sango. “Not all men!”
“All the same,” said Yume’s sad voice. “I have seen your pain, your jealousy when he looks at others. All the same.”
“No!” said Sango. “It wasn’t like that. I have no claims on him.”
“Your love is your claim,” said the ghost. “He will suffer as you and I have suffered.”
“Get away from him,” hissed Sango, now angry, standing to face the apparition. “Your pain is your own, this has nothing to do with us, with the living.”
“You are foolish, girl,” said Yume. “I will show you it is futile to love.”
The apparition began to fade, her voice fading with it. “Futile,” echoed the voice of the ghost.
Sango knelt next to Miroku, small shudders of fear convulsing her frame.
“Please hurry,” she whispered.
Kagome struggled to keep awake against Inuyasha’s warm body.
“We’re almost there,” he said, shaking her a little.
Shippou had given in to sleep and was curled in Kagome’s lap, holding tightly to her clothes.
Keilala growled as she recognized the clearing where Sango and Miroku were huddled together under a large tree.
Inuyasha leapt from Keilala’s back as they landed.
“You’re wounded!” said Sango, looking at Inuyasha in the pre-dawn glimmers of light.
“Scratches,” said Inuyasha dismissing her concern.
“We discovered how to free Miroku from the yurei that haunts his dreams,” said Kagome, sliding down and running up to Sango. Shippou remained curled upon Keilala’s back.
The two young women embraced each other for comfort.
“I saw the yurei,” said Sango, “she called herself ’Yume’.”
“Sesshomauru told us that we must avenge the wrong this Yume suffered in life, and then she will leave Miroku in peace,” said Kagome.
“Then, we must discover the wrong committed,” said Sango. “I have heard of such yurei. They cannot rest because of the grievous wrongs done to them in life.”
“She said she was betrayed by one she loved,” said Sango.
“She spoke to you?” asked Kagome.
“Yes,” replied Sango. “She said Miroku must suffer because she had suffered betrayal at the hands of her lover.”
Sango did not recount the other words of the yurei, that it was her secret love of the young monk that had brought this upon Miroku.
“Could the betrayal have been murder?” asked Inuyasha, sitting cross-legged on the ground and sighing.
“I was thinking,” said Kagome, “if she is nearby, could this have been her village?” She indicated the abandoned village around them where they had been making camp for the last few weeks.
“There is a small graveyard nearby,” said Sango. “If we find Yume’s grave, perhaps we can persuade her to abandon Miroku’s dreams.”
“Sesshomauru told us that I would have the power to invoke her presence,” said Kagome. “The miko’s powers I have should draw her to me.”
“We shouldn’t waste anymore time,” said Inuyasha, standing. “How many more nights of this dream eater can Miroku endure?”
They all looked gravely at each other as they considered his question.
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