Eos by Stella Mira

A Thousand Silences

Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha. All credit belongs to Takahashi, Rumiko.

It makes no difference whether you go or return

it makes no difference whether you go or return

and it makes no difference that my hair has turned white

(that is not my sorrow – my sorrow is

that my heart too does not turn white).

Let me come with you.

A lone silver haired woman walked leisurely amidst a field of white flowers and alabaster stones. She was dressed in pure black, the contrast between the ivory world around her and her shadowy appearance haunting. Once a year she traveled to this faraway place with broken dreams and silenced wishes in her mind. She knew she should have stopped coming years ago, yet the urge to visit never waned – only built. Higher. Deeper. Fiercer. A bittersweet smile tugged at her lips as she reached her final destination – the place where hope had died all those years ago.

"How have you been, Sesshoumaru? You never change – as always – yet look at me. Only the blue of my eyes remains to remind you of me in this withered old body now. Even that is not what once was – such a pale, hazy, aged color it has become," Kagome exhaled a deep sigh at her foolish notions of vain youth. He had never cared for outer appearances, yet the sapphire fire of her eyes – he had loved it.

"Silence again, huh? It won't hurt you to speak a word to me once in a while…" Kagome laughed softly, the sound fragile and lovely in its painful ambience. She knew, of course, the reason for his silence – she never blamed him. But – she still wanted, needed, craved; to hear his voice once more. She recalled the silk of his baritone as it seeped inside her skin every time he spoke. She would never forget the rich timbre of his voice – she had loved it.

"Fine, be that way. We both have our preferences, and my passions always ran deeper than yours. But, I'm tired now, with anything and everything – so tired. And I never liked loose ends; I like clean cuts. It's why I hated you, and I loved you – and I still do. I guess you won't understand what I'm saying, but then again, you and I never spoke much, did we? Because our dream lived in silence. If only I could have had a thousand silences –" Kagome chuckled bitterly with a rueful expression, her fingers caressing the gravestone lightly as if she could gain warmth from its coldness.

Morning dew glistened on her trembling lips, morphing them into petals of cherry blossoms – as they once had been. Translucent, liquid woe rained down her white cheeks, gathered on those lips, misted lashes fluttering once, once more – then nevermore.

The epitaph at the the beginning is from the poem Moonlight Sonata by Yannis Ritsos.