Celestia [Sesshomaru fanfiction]

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Buyo nestled himself by my foot, purring for attention and, most likely, a scratch on his head. But I wasn't in the mood to spoil the cat with my affection.

Another nightmare massacred my slumber - one that was filled with an awful amount of blood and screams. I would think I'd have gotten used to seeing the gore displayed in my head; to seeing crimson everywhere I looked, but I wasn't. I woke in sweat covering my face like rain, my pillow sheet drenched like a flood on a stormy night.

Gramps entered the living room with a tray of two cups and a clay teapot with our family crest inscribed. I smiled looking at the pottery I made as a child with dad. He did most of the work, but it was my idea to have our name on it.

"I made your favorite." Gramps placed the tray down. As he began pouring the freshly brewed tea, the scent wafting into my nose and calming my mind, I debated over asking him about the well again.

"Do you wish to talk about the dream you had last night?"

I started tracing the rim of my cup with my finger.

"Not really, no..." I answered in honesty. It wasn't that I didn't trust him with my dreams; I just didn't want him to feel any more worried than he already was.

"Was it really so frightening, my dear?"

I nodded.

"Would you like to see a doctor for it?"

"Mom told me she would take me to one tomorrow." I didn't see how meeting my pediatric doctor would help resolve, or at the very least, uncover the mysteries behind my dreams, but I was willing to try anything if it meant even a sliver of an idea of what they were trying to tell me. Either that or I was just watching too many horror movies. Sota gambled his comic books on that theory. The sound of a car honking drove our attention to the entrance gate. Mom was back from dropping Sota off at school.

"Are you sure you don't want to come with us?" Gramps looked back at me. "I hear strolling around the grocery store can be quite a relaxing thing."

As true as that may be, I felt staying behind was the best thing for me. I needed to draw down the horrid images that plagued my mind; it was the only way the nightmares would stop haunting me - just until the next one would appear.

"Someone has to make sure Buyo doesn't eat the entire pantry."

The said cat meowed back at me, whether it was in agreement or denial, I wasn't sure, but a few scratches on his belly were all it took for him to purr again. I followed Gramps to the gate. Mom had her window down, wearing the vintage sunglasses that dad gave her as an anniversary present.

"Make sure you read the signs and traffic lights, okay, mom?"

She smiled at me before giving me thumbs up.

"And gramps," I looked at him as he opened the shotgun door. "You have to pay attention and help mom out too."

"There she goes again," he chuckled. He patted my cheek playfully. "We'll be fine, Yuna; you need not worry about us." But that was always when I worried the most: when someone told me not to. The engine then growled to life.

"We'll be back before you know it, darling."

I did my best to show mom a smile and when the red car was out of sight, I ran back to the house to begin my experiment.

At first, the images were scattered and disjointed, reflecting the chaos in my mind. But as the tip of the pencil glided across the paper, my thoughts began to coalesce into a cohesive whole. I felt the tension in my shoulders ease as I lost myself in the rhythmic strokes of the graphite.

Mom used to say that nothing could stop me from finishing my work once I'd placed the pencil on the paper. An earthquake could shake the entire Tokyo and I would still be on the couch, frowning at my drawing until the last line was drawn.

My chest began to ache in terror, sending tremors to my fingers as I completed the drawing:

Her body was draped in beautiful garments of silk and velvet; a beautifully sowed gown that would have pictured grace and beauty had it not been for the ragged tear in her chest where her heart should be, the flesh ripped open as if by a feral beast.

I shuddered at the sight of my creation, my skin crawling with goosebumps. As I continued to take in the monstrosity that I had drawn, I felt a presence behind me that felt like a touch of frost to the back of my neck. I turned, but there was nothing there. Only the emptiness of the lonesome living room.

"Buyo?"

I realized that in the midst of my concentration, my cat had slipped away. He wasn't in the kitchen, neither was he in any of the rooms upstairs. I sighed. For an oversized ball of fur, that cat could hide.

"Buyo, where are you?"

Unbeknownst to me, my steps had carried me to the sacred shrine, and as I pushed the door open, my eyes were drawn to the well, yet again. A familiar chill swept through me as if the frigid wind was planting icy kisses on my cheeks. Gramp's warning gnawed at my ears, but the pull to walk to it, to take one last peek at whatever could be hidden inside the portal's mouth, was impossible to ignore.

One peek wouldn't hurt.

I clutched onto my cardigan tightly and descended the shallow staircase. When I looked below, the stars had vanished, but so had the stone floor. A canvas of fluffy clouds and deep-blue sky. I knew I wasn't dreaming this time. And as I stood there, stunned, Buyo darted past, chasing after a brown furball that let out a piercing shriek.

"EEK! Rat!" I yelled, flailing my arms in a panic. It all happened too quickly; the loss of balance, my feet leaving the hard ground, and my body, falling into the well's mouth. The last thing I heard as I screamed was Buyo's hissing as he continued to chase after our unwanted guest.