The Onyx Rose
Chapter 3- The Strange Case of Kagome Higurashi
19 hours and three flights away from where she started, Alex's plane was getting ready to touch down. In the terminal two women waited for her, one her age and one old enough to be her mother. They had been waiting for fifteen minutes, and expected Alex anytime. They hadn't seen her for ten long years, since her father's funeral, but Nicole had sent them a recent picture of Alex and she looked just like her mother. Another ten minutes later people began to mill out of the terminal, marking the arrival of another flight. Kumiko almost started to panic when she didn't see Alex immediately, but Kagome was waving to someone and calling "Over here!" A pale girl in all black, pretty with piercing eyes was making her way toward them through the crowds. As she came closer, Kumiko could see she was wearing a skirt and jacket.
Alex was extremely thankful her mother had made her take Japanese lessons even after her father died until she was fluent, because she would have never survived otherwise. Immediately she had spotted her cousin Kagome, a very excited and cheerful girl wearing a short white and green school uniform, waving and calling to her. Even without the waving and calling, there was something different about her cousin, a kind of energy radiating form her, pulling Alex towards her.
When she arrived in front of the two women, she was immediately hugged, and Kagome took her hand as they walked to the luggage bay, chatting happily. If Alex hadn't been so tired she would've shot Kagome a glare for being so hyper, but as it was she just smiled. She might be going crazy from lack of sleep since she hadn't gotten so much as a wink on any of her flights, but she liked Kagome and glad the other girl was so friendly. Once the three of them collected the luggage they got a taxi back to the Higurashi shrine where as soon as she was shown to her room, Alex collapsed on the bed and fell immediately asleep.
When she woke the next morning in unfamiliar surroundings, Alex nearly yelled. She hated waking up in new places, but she bit her tongue and kept her cool. When she had calmed down a bit, she sat up, taking in her surroundings. On one wall was a open door clearly leading to a bathroom and next to it a closed door Alex assumed was for a closet. Against the opposite wall two dressers, and her bed was placed on a third wall between two windows. Next to the door to the hall was a desk with a lamp and a chair. Alex smiled. It was smaller than her room at home, but she liked it.
With a yawn, she pushed herself out of bed and made her way into the bathroom. There was a door leading into another room on the other side of the bathroom, a girl's room, but no one was in there. Alex poked her head curiously in, and guessed it must have been Kagome's. She smiled. Sunlight was pouring into her cousin's room through an open window, letting her know that she had been allowed to sleep late. Alex went back into the bathroom and quickly showered and got dressed. Back in her room she emptied her bags and put all of her things away, making sure to put her rose behind her ear.
When she finally found her way into the kitchen, she found her aunt sipping a cup of tea, with another cup of the stuff untouched across the table. Alex smiled at her aunt and when the older woman indicated she sat in the chair in front of the cup of tea and took a few sips. "Good morning! Did you sleep well?" her aunt asked. "Yes, thank you. I hope I'm not too much of a bother." Alex replied, she didn't mind causing some trouble for people who deserved it, but her aunt wasn't on the list of those that did. "Do you like your bedroom?" "I do, is Kagome's the one that adjoins it?" Kumiko smiled, "The other room is Kagome's, the one that you are in was your fathers, when we were younger." The older woman sighed. "I was hoping Kagome could show you some of the city today, but her friend came and got her early this morning, but she should be back tonight, she has a test tomorrow."
The sat in comfortable silence until Kumiko announced she had to go grocery shopping, and invited Alex to go with her, but Alex declined, wanting to look around the shrine. "Well, if you need anything Grandpa is in the storage shed, and Souta is playing with some friends in the garden behind the house." Kumiko said as she left. Alex found herself alone, and decided to put off finding either of the boys for the moment. First she explored the house, but found nothing to keep her interest. So she went outside to explore the grounds. The first thing she saw was the giant tree in the middle of the courtyard, but decided to investigate that later. Most of the Shrine buildings were storage, and she easily avoided the one from inside of which bumps and cusses sounded. She also avoided the garden, she would meet her younger cousin later.
Finally satisfied she had seen everything of interest except the tree, Alex went back inside the house to change. 'It's no good to be climbing trees in a skirt' she reasoned, 'who knows what kind of pervert could be visiting the shrine?' She changed quickly into her 72-in wide leg black jeans and tucked her switchblade and wallet into her back pockets. Once she was back outside she stepped easily over the little fence around the tree and fifteen minutes later she had managed to pull herself onto a thick branch a good distance up the tree. Alex settled herself on the branch, and pulled the stone rose from behind her ear to inspect it for the thousandth time since she bought it.
She lost herself in the rose, inspecting closely the individual petals made from onyx, when she heard a noise. Coming out of her thoughts she realized that she had been in the tree for at least a few hours. Again she heard a bump, coming from one of the shrine outbuildings. She looked and recognized the well house, one of the buildings she had peeked into before settling in the tree, but it had been just as boring as the rest. Alex shook her head. She was sure she heard voices shouting from the well house, but there wasn't anyone in there, she had locked the door when she had left, someone had left the tiny padlock unlocked with the key in the lock. Alex had thought it was very silly to have a lock and not use it, so she had locked it and taken the keys with her, meaning to give them to her aunt when she got home.
Alex slipped her hand into her pocket, feeling the small keys there, and then slipped through the tree branches to the lowest one, then dropping softly to the ground. 'Stealth mode, Alex' she decided, and made her way over to the well house. She could still hear voices, one that she recognized as belonging to her cousin, and one she didn't know. "Let go, Inuyasha!" her cousin yelled. "No way! You're coming back to the Feudal Era with me, we need to collect more shards!" the other voice answered angrily. "No, I'm not! I have a test tomorrow, and I have to show my cousin around!" Kagome's voice was getting closer, and in seconds she was rattling the door, which Alex had yet to unlock. "Ha!" the other voice laughed, "Now you have to come back!" Alex heard footsteps, and then Kagome's voice. "Inuyasha, Sit boy!" There was a loud yell, another bump, and then only the sound of Kagome trying the door.
Deciding that she didn't want to confront Kagome about what she'd heard yet, she snuck a few feet away softly, and then loudly ran back. "Kagome, are you ok?" she asked when she unlocked the door. "I don't know how the door got locked, but I'm fine. Sorry I wasn't here to show you around today." Kagome smiled sheepishly. "How much did you hear?" she asked. "Not much, just shouting really," Alex lied, "Did you and your boyfriend have a fight?" she asked Kagome innocently. "He's not my boyfriend!" Kagome replied, immediately defensive. Then she giggled. "Yeah, we had a fight, but I showed him." Alex laughed. "You go girl!"
Over then next two weeks, Alex explored the shrine, the surrounding areas of the city, and her father's old bedroom. Her rose plant had arrived a few days after she did, and she had already coaxed a few buds into blooms. What time she didn't spend exploring, taking care of her plants, or inspecting the onyx rose, she was tailing her cousin who seemed to disappear into the well house for hours at a time. Alex had already followed her cousin into the well house once, a few minutes after her cousin, but somehow Kagome had disappeared. Alex had spent an hour looking for another way out of the tiny building but hadn't found anything.
This morning, Alex had woken up with a renewed determination. Today was the day she would discover where Kagome kept going. Alex got cleaned and dressed as quickly and quietly as she could, making sure she didn't wake her cousin, and silently crept out of the house. Once she was out of the house, Alex climbed up into her favorite tree branch, making sure she had a good view of the well, and waited. While she waited, Alex put her hair up in a French braid, she didn't want it in her face.
Quite a while later, Alex heard the back door open and close, and someone walk to one of the out buildings. Alex smiled, and peered at the well house, chucking softly when she saw Kagome pull the wooden door open and step inside. Alex waited a few minutes and made her way to the ground. Once she was standing outside the well house. Alex straightened her clothes, checking that her switchblade was in her pocket and her stone rose behind her ear. Hesitantly, Alex pulled the door open, and stepped inside. The door closed behind her, but holes in the roof let in enough light for her to see.
Suddenly, a small meeeooow sounded in the dim light, making Alex jump. Once she recovered, Alex looked around to find the source of the sound. A look down the dark well, and she had found the culprit. Kagome's cat, Buyo. 'Stupid Cat' Alex thought, "Hold on, and I'll get you out of there." A minute later, Alex stood on the edge of the well, ready to jump in. Carefully she aimed herself to that she wouldn't land on the cat, and jumped. Something she very quickly realized was a HUGE mistake.