Tragedy Loves Comedy by Aura

Otherwordly

Kagome slammed the door shut to the back room, then kicked it several times more when it didn’t shut any one of the times she tried to close it. The small business where she worked only had a tiny office covered in papers yellowed with age and the door that separated it to the only slightly larger stockroom only actually clicked shut if luck happened to be on your side at the time.

It was concrete floors back here, boxes piled everywhere but a single path to the bathroom that she’d avoided sense she’d first arrived, and the office. It was closing on the Christmas season, with black friday only a week away, and things were incredibly busy for the shop. The bathroom door she was relieved worked, she was fairly certain some of the things growing inside could be used for biological warfare. She’d only gone in once and no one else that worked there used it. There was a wal-mart in a larger parking area connected to this one and everyone walked there on break, even the manager.

Corner Toys, which was a name lacking completely in creativity as it was a toy shop that was on the corner of the mini-mall styled building it was a part of. It was a privately owned place that had a lot of older fashioned toys as opposed to any of the newer video games. Still, it seemed to keep a pretty steady pace of business. Between it and an Electronics Boutique in it’s gathered shops this place was constantly busy this time of year.

Sadly, along with the bustle and high income also came everyone wanting to play with things, break things, knock things out of place without picking them up, or just be generally completely out of the mood of ‘the season’. She’d seen fewer people being jolly as opposed to holding a general sense of irritation. This included her boss, who had asked her to close for him for the fourth time that week, the shop closed at seven for holiday hours (two hours later than normal). It was ten and she was still finishing up counting the money after the long task of making the front room presentable and she was two penny’s short...

He’d be all over her if she didn’t put two pennies in the drawer...and she didn’t wanna lock up, walk all the way to her car in the stupid snow and cold, hope she had some, then walk back. But she’d already recounted three times and checked the drawer in the front twice. Thus why her boot continued to play ping pong with the door.

“Stupid worthless piece of garbage...he won’t even give me all the hours I’m here. He’ll write it down as two like he always does...he doesn’t care if I stay later. Last time he called me a liar cause I told him it was 3!” Her voice got steadily louder as she banged the door more and more until it cracked and she winced, stopping her tantrum and checking where the wood had cracked a large piece off the back. “Crap!”

She frowned at it, it hadn’t fallen off completely yet, but likely it wouldn’t be too long...she stopped her kicking and shook her head, she’d burn the bridge of the door if he even noticed. If she was lucky it would break completely on the other assistant manager’s shift and he’d take the blame, he was a pervert with a temper anyway. Not that she could say much there either, the owner was the other manager’s father and sort of a lecher himself at times. If she tried to sue for sexual harassment it wouldn’t matter, they’d either lie about it or fire her and she wouldn’t win in court. She’d have to be able to afford a lawyer and they didn’t pay her well as it was.

She was barely scraping by going to art school and working here in her spare time. She still needed to finish a project for class tomorrow and she hadn’t even gotten time to put sketches on the canvas.

“Pennies.” She reminded herself of her current trouble and then frowned, picking up her jacket only to hear coins falling out of the pocket. “Oh I hope there were some in there.”

She searched the paper littered floor and managed to find two quarters, a nickle, and three pennies. She held up the small pieces of copper in triumph and put two of them in the cloth zipping envelope with the overview of the day’s wages.

“Two-thousand dollars...” She thought wistfully as she put it in the safe and closed it, spinning the combination and then putting on her coat and replacing her own change. “I know a lot of it was credit cards, but man, if they make that much a day they can afford to pay me more than seven bucks an hour.”

She put on her coat, fastening the buttons. She’d moved to the states after she’d finished in the feudal era, her younger days of fighting Naraku and being a priestess seemed like a completely different life now. She never did manage to sleep well or stay healthy while she was still near the well so when she finished high school the only thing she’d had high enough grades in to get into a college was art. So she’d applied to places in the states as her English had never been that bad either and surprise surprise she’d gotten accepted to an institute in Omaha, Nebraska.

Things here were different than home and it’d helped her adjust, though they were expensive and it took getting a few different jobs to keep her going. She’d gone through a couple roommates but finally rented a place by herself and was managing to keep afloat; if only barely.

Her mother sent her money sometimes but Kagome didn’t tell her how close she was any given time to not making tuition even with assistance. She didn’t want to make her mother worry anymore than she already did.

She finished getting the coat on, giving the office a final glance over before putting on gloves then picking up her purse and keys. She slipped out of the backroom, into the more quaint, and once again spotless main area, going past the isle of dolls staring at her. It still creeped her out a little some nights, when she first started she went a long way around just to avoid the doll isle at night. She’d already pulled and closed the shutters and now she left outside and closed the door, lifting the keys to lock it.

Upon leaving she was hit by a wall of bitter cold, stinging her cheeks and nose, it seeped into her past the coat like the layer of protective cotton wasn’t there at all. The news had given a high of six degrees, she figured that it was probably much lower, when a wind blew she had to force herself to finish locking the door after gasping at the painful edge of the chill. She was starting to shiver even as she began the long walk to the car parked off in the Walmart area. They were suppose to avoid parking in the places where customers could use the parking more. In this season it seemed overly strict as they weren’t even parking in the mini-malls lot anymore. She wasn’t sure if the owner had approved this with walmart or if he was just so much of a cheapskate he didn’t care if they suffered. She figured it was the later.

Her hands were shaking as she tried to get the keys in the lock and it took her a few attempts before she did. Getting out of the frigid winds was nice, as her face already felt numb and her ears burned, she’d of course forgotten her scarf at home. Though sitting on the cold leather seat of the car didn’t really help her hold warmth. She shoved the keys in the ignition and started it up, turning on the heater to blast mode and pointing the fans away from her while they still blew cool air.

It was torment every night running to the car like this, and it was only suppose to get colder next week. Her teeth chattered as she played with the radio searching for a song she wanted to listen to, anything that would help her stay awake on the drive home.

When her hands listened enough to push the right buttons despite the shaking she finally settled on some rock station which she turned up a little. She didn’t recognize the song that was on but it was fast paced and the singer was annoying enough she doubted she’d sleep to it unless someone knocked her into unconsciousness.

She rocked in her seat and blew into her hands to warm them, she knew she should have paid the extra for the seat warmers.

It had been three years since she’d helped to kill Naraku and returned to her own time. She was nineteen and would be twenty before much longer. Fifth of a century old and she already felt as if she’d lived for several more decades. It was like her hope had died with the spider she’d helped crush.

The car heated a bit and she pushed the button for the de-froster and relaxed a little as her body didn’t feel the need to overcompensate for the weather. She turned on her lights and put the small car into drive, moving out of the parking lot by turning onto one of the main roads in the area. All but deserted at the late hour except for the poor people still working at the eternally open Walmart. Most of the locals were wise enough to hide inside as much as possible in the arctic cold that had taken over the place.

This city was the closest she’d ever come to believing in the phrase ‘when hell freezes over’ it was absolutely dreadful in the winter. She was convinced whoever thought they should stop and stay here originally was a masochist. Considering her boss and family had been from here for ages she could add sadist to that list if they were descended from the idiot.

She grit her teeth, it was going to be almost eleven by the time she got home, fed Buyo, got ready for bed and ate herself. She still had to finish the painting she needed to turn into class tomorrow and she hadn’t even picked out anything defined for her sketch...more or less gotten to work on it.

Even if she could bullshit her way through a simple painting she needed an idea, then the time to finish it, at least a few hours for something not too complex. She had to be up to get ready for class at eight, she wasn’t going to get much rest tonight, just like the past few so she should be getting used to it.

“I don’t work tomorrow.” She reminded herself, it had become a mantra to comfort herself when she was feeling particularly down about her compact schedule.

She got to the house and looked at the car’s door with trepidation, she knew what was coming and hated it so much. She bit her lip though and after turning the car off and making sure the lights were off she opened the door and made the dash for her apartment. It was a two-level place and she’d gotten the bottom level at least which made it easier to run too but they’d put a woman with kids above her so most of the time when she did have a day to stay at home they were pounding so much on her roof she wanted to leave.

Thankfully it wasn’t far from her parking spot and she reached it, unlocked it, and hurried inside, slamming it shut and turning on her light. She took a deep breath as she’d been holding it during the mad dash, and frowned at Buyo from where he was giving her a dirty look in his bed.

“Get over it.” She told him plainly. “All you have to deal with is a couple cool breezes, I have to actually go out in it.”

He grunted at her and laid his head back down as if he didn’t care what she had to say, there was no excuse for interrupting his nap. She rolled her eyes as she hurried to take her jacket off and hang it up. Moving quickly across the apartment, the main room was rather bear, a small tv and vcr that were gathering dust from lack of use. A futon and the cats bed next to a climbing/clawing post, and a whole corner dedicated to art supplies. Currently it housed a blank canvas and the paints she hadn’t even opened yet, along with other art sets and sketch pads. It connected into a clean kitchette except for the bowl of half eaten cereal from this morning. Then a hallway connected to the single bedroom and the bathroom.

She moved over and poured some food in the ungrateful sleeping feline’s bowl and then pulled herself out a microwave dinner. She didn’t even look at what it was til she stabbed the top of the plastic so she could shove it in the microwave. Chicken Nuggets, Corn, and Mac & Cheese. It wasn’t exactly the most nutritional meal but it would have to do. She moved back out of the kitchen and to her bedroom, getting out of her work uniform to toss it in the washer. She was grateful this place at least offered her her own washer and dryer and she didn’t have to fight over them with insane neighbors like other places she’d lived. Glancing at her old computer with a sigh, she wouldn’t have time to chat with anyone tonight.

Half naked she grabbed some pajamas and unmentionables before jumping into the shower. She wanted a nice bath after being on her feet all day but knew that wasn’t possible so instead washed her hair and body up quickly, rinsed, dried her body and left her hair dripping as she moved back out to eat her microwave dinner with a glass of water.

As she chowed down she reached over and got her folder from class, flipping it open to the assignment due tomorrow.

“Why do they always have to be so damn abstract.” She muttered as she read the short prompt for the assignment. “I should be able to do something simple but fitting. All sorts of things can be otherworldly at least I suppose.”

She nodded to herself, eating with one hand and half sketching in her book as she did. Finishing the meal and with her stomach still grumbly at her she grabbed a granola bar to help her body calm itself. Chewing and swallowing some water as she was still half sketching, hoping some random idea would come to mind. Then scowling a little as she finished her impromptu meal and looked at it more fully.

It was wispy, as if the man within was walking from a cloud. A regal, elf like face with piercing eyes being the clearest lines of the pictures otherwise foggy perspective. It was simple and just a sketch, but she recognized it even without the moon and the claw-marks on the face. She’d just sketched out Sesshomaru.

She frowned as she looked at it. Yes, it sure was...the kimono, the boa tail thing he always had was there, originally she was going to draw a man as if he was made of clouds...in her busy moments her subconscious must have pulled him out instead. The armor was there, even a half-assed version of the cherry blossom symbol on the shoulder of his kimono had begun to take shape.

Occasionally when she hadn’t been paying much attention to her sketches in the past she’d ended up sketching Inuyasha or one of her other friends from the fuedal age, though she’d done what she could to avoid it, as the reminders were still painful. She’d always avoided using them as inspirations in assignments even though for some it would have made it much easier. She’d never drawn Sesshomaru before, not that they’d really ever been friends so much as hesitant allies at the end of her time in the feudal age.

It was true though, Seshomaru was as otherworldly a creature as she could really conceive. Remembering him didn’t really hurt the same way the others had, it wasn’t as if they’d ever been more than tentative allies in the battle against Naraku. The first two times they’d met he’d tried to kill her with those poisonous claws of his, but then he’d made up for that eventually by saving her several times as well. Though it was hard to tell if he’d ever intended to beyond using her for her holy powers against Naraku. He’d always been a mysterious power that even his half brother had never fully understood.

She approached her canvas and changed her initial sketch from his human form to a softened version of his demon form against a cloudscape. It was actually not as hard as she’d thought it would be. She had to sketch lightly though so the lines wouldn’t show up beneath the paints.

She had to chuckle a little, she never thought she’d be painting a sort of portrait of Sesshomaru for an art class, it was a bit strange but she really just didn’t have any other ideas and if she didn’t start she wouldn’t finish and she wouldn’t sleep.

She spent her time working remembering the various strange encounters they’d had with the full demon and before long managed to finish, leaning back to gauge the work. She gave him the entwined tails that curled into the clouds where it was hard to distinguish one from the other. The body was even difficult to pick out as at first it seemed like just a cloudy sky, but as you watched you could pick out the lines and seperations that made him the flying wolf. Helped by the small streaks of pink on the dog’s head and the red eyes, which she left as the most instantly recognizable part of the painting. She hadn’t seen him change that often, but it still stuck with her even after years had passed.

She did a few final touches, cleaning it up to where she was happy with it, it did take her several hours but she sighed in relief when she was finally done. Leaving it to dry and yawning. Cleaning off her brush and pallet before heading in to bed, ignoring her computer as she could just check it in the morning. Pulling the blankets up close and snuggling into them for a little bit of rest before the insanity began again tomorrow morning.