Spooktober 2018

Day 8 ~ Ritual

Spooktober Day 7

Ritual

There, just behind a thin copse of trees gathered around in a man-made clearing, stood a group of figures all wearing long black cloaks, chanting in some kind of foreign language that Shippou had never heard before, and if what his eyes were telling him was correct, in the center was an unconscious human tied up against a thick pole.

"It's a ritual," Izayoi hissed, ducking down low and dragging her friend down with her.

"W-w-what?" Shippou stuttered, unable to tear his gaze away from what was happening before his eyes. All but two people had their heads down and thankfully seemed oblivious to their presence. Too scared and shocked, the two children failed to notice a silver glint coming from beneath the hood of one of the figures and had they been listening closely enough, they would have heard a feminine voice shushing the taller of the two figures over the strangely repetitive chanting.

"A ritual," she repeated, and she couldn't help the slightly frightened tone to her voice. "You know, like...like something people do to summon spirits!" Shuddering, Izayoi was starting to second-guess her decision to go against her parents' wishes and come out here at night.

Shippou whimpered and edged closer to her. "S-spirits? Like...ghosts?" He gulped and stared at the weird ritual happening not even twenty feet away from them, shaking like a leaf and really wishing he'd talked his friend out of this now.

"Dunno," she murmured and promptly decided they'd had enough adventuring for one night. "Ah, Shippou, w-what do you say we—"

Before she could finish her sentence, movement in the clearing caught her attention and against her better judgment, she turned her head to see what it was. Instantly she regretted it; the taller of the two figures stepped up to the unconscious person, lit a match, and tossed it at the bottom into the pile of dry brush. Instantly the pole was engulfed in flames, along with the human, and then if the two children hadn't already been scared out of their wits, the creepy arsonist turned their head, looked directly at them, and revealed the glistening blood coating the bottom half of their face and covering their neck.

Fangs gleamed in a lethal, bloody grin and Shippou and Izayoi screamed before turning tail and scrambling as fast as they could back toward home, falling over themselves in their haste.

Suddenly Izayoi giggled and Shippou cast her a look that clearly suggested he was second-guessing her sanity. "Wait til my friends at school hear about this!" she gushed as they neared the edge of the woods and Shippou's groan was loud in the silence of the forest.

The two cloaked figures waited until they couldn't hear the sound of footsteps running away anymore before moving. The shorter figure withdrew a fire extinguisher from the depths of their cloak, aiming at the fire that hadn't had the time to really grow and putting it out while the taller whipped out cell phone and put a stop to the chanting coming from the hidden speakers by pressing pause on the music player.

"God, this stuff reeks," a male voice growled as clawed hands lifted and pulled back the hood, revealing silver hair and dog ears.

"You're the one who wanted to make it 'real,'" a feminine voice fired back as the short figure set the fire extinguisher down and tossed the hood back to glare properly at her husband with brown eyes. It quickly faded, however, and a worried look overtook her features as she gazed out in the direction the two children fled. "I still think we overdid it," she opined, biting her lip. "Are you sure it wasn't...too much?"

"Nah," the half-demon assured and produced a towel from somewhere, wiping off the fake blood coating his face and neck. "They were scared for about two minutes, then it turned to a weird combination of excitement and what I can only call disbelief since what I smelled doesn't really have a name to it, and I heard Iz say something about telling her friends at school. Trust me, it was just enough."

Still not looking very convinced, Kagome wrinkled her nose and heaved a sigh, staring at the bags of sand tied together and covered with a dark bed sheet that served as their "human sacrifice." "I guess," she murmured and watched as Inuyasha started knocking down the "members" of their fake group, nothing but wooden spikes formed into a crude human shape and also covered with cheap five-dollar bed sheets.

"It's fine, Kagome," her husband reassured her once more and strode over to take her into his arms. "You know Iz. Got a sense of adventure like her dad and ain't scared of nothin'." He grinned proudly, and Kagome finally cracked a smile, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"And reckless like her dad," she added and Inuyasha's looked completely unrepentant and, if possible, even more proud. "Let's just hope that we didn't traumatize poor Shippou with this ruse," Kagome said and Inuyasha snorted. "So, you think it worked?" she asked and idly played with a strand of hair that fell over his shoulder, the silver a stark contrast to the black of the cheap cloaks they'd gotten at Spirit Halloween.

"Definitely," he replied and leaned down to kiss his wife's nose. "That'll be the last time either one of 'em thinks about sneakin' out again after dark."

"How did you know they would?"

Inuyasha gave his wife a roguish grin and waggled his eyebrows. "You mean to say you don't remember when we would—"

"Down, boy," Kagome snickered and Inuyasha's chuckle was husky. "As a matter of fact," she purred and gently tugged on his hair. "I do remember."

Inuyasha's amber eyes gleamed in the darkness. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," she whispered, her lips curling impishly. "The real question is...do you remember what we—"

"Shuddup, wench," Inuyasha growled and abruptly cut off Kagome's mischievous giggles with a kiss.