Without You | Sesshomaru

Chapter 18

Lyra didn’t know how long she had been sitting in the shrine. She cried and cried until she could cry no more. Her heart and mind had become numb from the pain and she couldn’t even tell if she was still breathing or not. But she knew she was somehow still alive. Barely.

Soon, she heard someone's voice in the distance.

“Sota!” It sounded like Kagome's mom, Mama. “Come inside quickly. It's raining.”
“Coming, mom. I need to put my bike away before it gets rusty.”
“Be quick!”
“Okay!”

A few seconds later, the wooden door of the shrine creaked wide open. Lyra glanced up and saw Sota standing at the door with his raincoat on, his hood covering his head. Behind him, the skies were grey and the rain was heavy. They both stared at each other in silence, only the rain falling on top of the building and outside making any sound.

“Lyra?” Sota said in confusion. “What are you doing here?”
She gulped and sat up slightly. “Oh... I, um...” She cleared her throat. “I wanted to see Kagome in the feudal era but I think she’s somewhere with her friends.” Lyra couldn’t believe how good she was becoming with her lies. She was pretty much fluent in it now.
Sota walked in with his bike, leaning it against the wall to shield it from the rain. “Yeah, she loves it there.” He went down to her with a big grin. “Come on. Mom's gonna be so glad to see you.”

He took her hand to pull her up. She smiled at his enthusiasm and stood up before they both made their way to the door. The rain was already quite heavy and Sota stuck his hand out as they stood at the doorway. Lyra didn’t even have any sort of coat or jacket with her.

“Hey, you can borrow my raincoat if you like,” he offered her.
“No, I'll be okay.” She smiled again but it was blank. “Don’t want you getting a cold.”
Sota laughed. “We’ll just have to run in quickly then.”

He grabbed her hand and pulled her outside. Within a second, her clothes and hair were completely soaked. But she didn’t mind. At least the rain would wash away the dry tears that stained her cheeks. Once they made it inside, Sota closed the door and quickly took his shoes and coat off before putting them away and running inside to call his mom. Lyra stayed standing by the door, not wanting to make the floor wet. Seconds later, Mama had rushed towards her with Sota beside her.

“Sota, go and get some towels,” she told him before smiling at Lyra as he ran off. “This is such a nice surprise.”

Sota had returned with a couple of towels and handed them to Lyra.

“Thank you.” She began to dry off as much as she could from her clothes and hair. “Yeah, it was last minute.”

She gave her aunt the same lie she told Sota before her aunt told her to go up to Kagome's room and borrow her clothes. Apparently Mama wanted to hear all about the engagement. Lyra was not keen about talking about it but she knew she didn’t have a choice. Going up to Kagome's room, she grabbed the first jumper and jeans she could find. After changing, she hung her clothes on the chair to dry. As she straightened out her wet top, the shine of the diamond ring caught her eye.

‘Hm. A few mere trinkets is all it took to sway your heart.’ Sesshomaru’s words echoed in her ears making her close her eyes tightly.

‘I'm sorry, Sesshomaru... I don’t care about money or jewellery. I would give everything up just to be with you. Just not my father’s life...’

Opening her eyes, she looked at the ring, her anger at her father slowly rising again. It didn’t remind her of Kanda. It only reminded her of the words her father had said to her. She may have forgiven him, but she was still upset. Those words he spoke was all it took to trap her in her web of lies, which only wrapped around her tighter and tighter. She was imprisoned by those words and that ring. That ring was nothing but a lie. Cuffs that imprisoned her to a life that would slowly break her.