Inuyasha, "The Walking Shell" Kikyou, rated PG
Fandom: Inuyasha
Title: The Walking Shell
Author: Paynesgrey
Genre: Angst
Rating: PG
Word Count: 250
Character(s): Kikyou, (Inuyasha, Naraku mentioned)
Universe: Canon.
Warnings: None.
Notes: Written for the "shell" prompt at iyfic_contest. Winner 1st place.
Summary: She wasn't even a woman anymore.
Death had rested her, but rebirth had deformed her, stripped her of everything she was and poisoned the very nature of her existence. Kikyou had returned to the world a different woman.
Was she a woman? No, she couldn’t even be called that anymore. Women had heartbeats, women could have children, and women could love.
She still had her emotions, yet they seemed murky and scarred. Bitterness rose above all else, bathing her like the fire that had turned her body to ashes. Everything else: love, happiness, and faith all seemed to sting and bleed like an open sore.
Her memories haunted her like ghosts, feeling alien and otherworldly like they belonged to someone else. When she looked at Inuyasha, tempted him and beckoned him toward her, recapturing anything they ever had seemed hopeless, fading into smoke just like her former life.
They could do nothing together. Even as much as she wanted to. Even as some of those residual emotions had come back, taunting her as if they were truly real - or even attainable, she knew that they were just remnants of her forgotten dreams.
No, Kikyou was nothing more than a shell. She knew this, and yet, her body still walked, and souls and revenge still drove her onward. The world still taunted her; she no more belonged here in this world than Naraku did.
With a solemn vow, she’d rid the earth of both of them, and then, finally - Kikyou would find true, natural peace.
Title: The Walking Shell
Author: Paynesgrey
Genre: Angst
Rating: PG
Word Count: 250
Character(s): Kikyou, (Inuyasha, Naraku mentioned)
Universe: Canon.
Warnings: None.
Notes: Written for the "shell" prompt at iyfic_contest. Winner 1st place.
Summary: She wasn't even a woman anymore.
Death had rested her, but rebirth had deformed her, stripped her of everything she was and poisoned the very nature of her existence. Kikyou had returned to the world a different woman.
Was she a woman? No, she couldn’t even be called that anymore. Women had heartbeats, women could have children, and women could love.
She still had her emotions, yet they seemed murky and scarred. Bitterness rose above all else, bathing her like the fire that had turned her body to ashes. Everything else: love, happiness, and faith all seemed to sting and bleed like an open sore.
Her memories haunted her like ghosts, feeling alien and otherworldly like they belonged to someone else. When she looked at Inuyasha, tempted him and beckoned him toward her, recapturing anything they ever had seemed hopeless, fading into smoke just like her former life.
They could do nothing together. Even as much as she wanted to. Even as some of those residual emotions had come back, taunting her as if they were truly real - or even attainable, she knew that they were just remnants of her forgotten dreams.
No, Kikyou was nothing more than a shell. She knew this, and yet, her body still walked, and souls and revenge still drove her onward. The world still taunted her; she no more belonged here in this world than Naraku did.
With a solemn vow, she’d rid the earth of both of them, and then, finally - Kikyou would find true, natural peace.