The morning of May fourteenth dawns bright and clear, without even a single cloud in the sky above the Higurashi shrine. Sunlight slips in through the smallest cracks between the curtains and dyes every room it touches in shades of gold. Birds sing their joy, for a new day has risen and the world still retains its sense of peace and tranquility.

Meanwhile, I simply turn my back on the window and curl into a tight ball, stubborn in my desire for time to simply halt its forward march. The weight of the day ahead feels like a physical thing, weighing me down like a wet woolen blanket draped across my shoulders. Just the thought of moving, of forcing my limbs to pull me from my bed, makes my stomach twist and knot and rise up into my throat, choking every drop of oxygen from my lungs. I could barely even sleep the night before, plagued as I was with worry and doubt about this very day, this very morning.

Two separate alarm clocks cry out at the same time a voice from downstairs calls, "Kagome, time to get up or you'll be late! You, too, Souta!" The only acknowledgment kaa-san receives is Souta's sleep-addled grunts of either resistance or acceptance (it's hard to tell which).

Rebelliously, I wait four more minutes before scraping together just enough strength to get out of bed.

Bustling about my room wakes Souta from his dozing and a sharp kick to the bottom of his door as I pass it on my way to the bathroom brings him fully awake. I shower until the hot water runs cold and the chill reaches deep into my bones and shocks my system. Souta is grumpily muttering about females who take their time in the bathroom, but I pay him no mind as I wrap myself in a bathrobe. I only leave the steam-dense room when my hair is combed through and woven into a thick black braid down the center of my back, still dripping water.

The dining room becomes eerily quiet as I descend the stairs, fussing slightly with my sleeves; I pay my family no mind, already knowing what I'll tell them when they ask. I take my seat across from ojii-sama and inhale the scent of my kaa-san's miso soup that I love. Truthfully, I hadn't expected to like the food here—I was notoriously picky Before, to the point that my father and I used to argue about how I would ruin the food he would make me by picking out the bits of squash and olive and cucumber—but there really is nothing like kaa-san's cooking.

"Kagome, dear, what happened to your uniform?" Kaa-san's voice breaks the silence of the room just as I pick up my chopsticks and open my own mouth to utter an "itadakimasu". Instead, I glance at the woman who, I'll admit, looks good for her age, and hum under my breath.

"I'm not going; I'll be staying home to train for the day. My kyudo still needs a bit of work, does it not, ojii-sama?" My eyes flick towards ojii-sama briefly, but I don't give him the chance to get a word in. "Besides, it's my birthday so it won't hurt if I just skip the day, right? Just call and tell the school I've come down with pneumonia or something, kaa-san."

While everyone digests my words, I finally whisper my thanks for the food and pick up my bowl. The food is so very good, but today, it seems, my stomach won't allow me to choke down more than the miso soup and a few bites of fish and rice. As I'm taking my last slurp of soup, Souta decides to be the one that breaks this bout of awkward silence.

"So, does this mean I get to skip school on my birthday too?"

There is a certain sense of ominous unease that permeates the Bone-Eater's Well, a darkness that has penetrated the wooden structure which houses the old hole and leaks out into the world even as I stand before the entranceway.

I am as prepared as I can make myself, armed with a sword taken from ojii-sama's storage and the bow I use for kyudo practice, a quiver of arrows slung across my back. The sword was not all I took from the storage room, however, for i thought I would need some small amount of armor as well. As such, I am equipped with shin and wrist guards of matching design: a base of violet-dyed leather overlain with strung-together metal panels that are likely to be iron or some other compound, all tied and secured by braided ropes of very strong silk or another similar fabric, dyed in a lighter golden-yellow. The armguards have taken time to adjust to, but they move fairly well, especially in the wrist which I am still surprised about. The only other piece of armor I chose from the collection in storage is a breastplate that an archer would use which covers more than half of my upper torso but, thankfully, does not inhibit my range of motion with my arms.

I check my gear twice over to make sure everything is as I want it, then check a third time to make sure it's as I need it. As I am tightening the ties of my left wrist guard, I hear the scuff of tiny shoes on sandy gravel.

"Buyooo-- eh?" Souta's call cuts short as he sees me with my metal additions and an adorably confused and maybe even creeped out look shows onhis face. "What the-- why are you dressed like that, Nee-chan? And why are you going in the," he pauses just to shudder, "the old wellhouse?"

My eyebrow raises at his obvious fear of the well. We have lived by it all our lives, why would he be so frightened when he knows not what lies within? I shake my head and let out a soft sigh, turning my body sideways to face him somewhat.

"I saw Buyo run inside si I'm going to catch him. The armor is just in case he gets fussy. Don't want to be sliced to bits by his claws." The lies come easily and slip from my tongue with no hint of ill; my brother believes it all, just as my family believed earlier.

'So easy to fool; do they even notice that something is wrong?'

"W-Well, just be careful, nee-chan, cuz I'm pretty sure that thing is haunted…" Souta shudders again in fear and gives the wellhouse another uneasy look before turning away and heading off, probably to school. I raise my hand in a casual wave as he goes, but I don't think he sees it.

When I turn back towards the eerie building, I hear a muffled cat's meow which brings a sigh from my lungs. I am as ready as I will ever be and so I reach out and open the sliding door. A smell like the faint scent of old blood and dying things wafts towards me, but there is no room for second guesses at this point.

Buyo lays comfortably on the edge of the sealed well, gazing at me with too-intelligent feline eyes. He beckons me forth with a twitch of his stubby tail. I walk inside, back straight with purpose, and close the door behind me, only leaving it open enough for the cat to escape when things get hectic. I make straight for the well, taking three steps down and skipping the last one to land straight onto the dirt floor. Buyo stands up and stretches, pacing in a circle until I get closer to the well before suddenly making a break for it.

In no amount of time at all, I am left alone by the old Bone Eater's Well.