Rebuilding Dreams

Chapter One: How it all started –

Kagome Higurashi backed up against the wall. Her face was pale and tear stained, though the tears had dried hours ago. Her uncle’s shadow loomed over her, grinning. His wicked little eyes gleamed with malice as he approached.
Yukio Hashiashi was Kagome’s uncle, her father’s brother. When Kaemon Higurashi disappeared Yukio had stepped in as surrogate father to Kagome and her little brother Souta. At least, that’s what everyone had thought to begin with. Kagome had quickly learned different as had Souta. At first it wasn’t so bad; he was the usual Uncle who had always came to visit them. Something changed that though. Kagome had to do everything her uncle said or she would get a beating, and really, it wasn’t so hard. Souta had been too young when Uncle Yukio originally came to live with them to do anything. As soon as he was old enough and big enough though Uncle Yukio switched things around. Now Souta had to do all the chores and their uncles bidding while Yukio would pull Kagome off into a room by themselves.
It started with just a casual brush against her skin; so casual if Kagome hadn’t known better she would have thought it was just an accident. The unfortunate thing was that she did know better. She knew better simply because you can only accidentally touch so many times, and what her uncle did happened many, many times.
Kagome stared up at her uncle, her grayish-blue eyes looked murky with horror and sadness. “No more, Uncle, please.” Her voice was low, cracked from her many sobs over the past hours.
Yukio only sneered. “What the matter little one? Don’t you like the way it feels?” His voice, so like his eyes, was cold and sinister. She shook her head frantically and in the next instant a hard hand collided with the side of her head, making everything go black.

Kagome laughed as she ran around the garden, intent on catching the butterfly for Sou The The baby boy giggled as he watched his sister, rocking forward and catching his toes in delight. Their grandfather sat nearby under an old tree keeping his eyes on his grandchildren, smiling. The golden brown butterfly landed on a nearby bush, and Kagome cupped it gently in her hands. Souta squealed with delight as the seven year old kneeled in front of him, holding her hands open. Inside, the phone rang, and a moment later Kagome heard her mother scream and something break as the butterfly lifted out of her hands. Kagome rushed in the house along with her grandfather who had scooped up Souta.
“Mama?” Her voice was very small. “Mama, what’s wrong?”
It seemed to take forever before Mrs. Higurashi could meet her daughter’s eyes. “Kagome, baby.” She pulled Kagome into her arms and slid to the floor holding her as bright tears began to spill from her eyes.
“What has happened?” This came from Grandfather.
“Kaemon… he… he has disappeared, Grandfather. His car was… found… this morning. There was blood…they believe him to be…to be dead.” Her voice broke and she clutched Kagome to her, sobs racking her body.
Kagome couldn’t believe what she had just heard. no! no! It couldn’t be. Father couldn’t be dead. Not her Daddy.
A week later there was still no news. No body, only the blood. They held a quiet memorial service, in which they let a single candle, hoping that some day he would return to them. The very next day Kaemon’s brother moved in with them. He was very kind to them for the first few days. The fifth night of his stay Kagome had woken up screaming for her father; begging and pleading for him to come back. It was Yukio who came to her room to sooth her. The doctor had placed her mother on very heavy tranquilizers so she could sleep. For a long time that night Yukio had held the sobbing child in his arms and rocked her back and forth, soothing her until her trembling ended.
That was when everything had changed. His eyes had clouded over and he had slapped her, telling her to act her age instead of a sniveling baby. The next day when her grandfather, mother, and Souta had gone to get groceries he came back to her room. She lay on her bed quietly; sound asleep until she felt his hand on her. She had been dreaming at first; dreaming of her father coming home. Then a persistent feeling slowly tugged her out of her dreams. It was like a soft caress. Warmth trailed slowly up and down her sides. Then the touch moved to her chest and brushed her nipples. That was what had really woken her up.
Her mother had told her that little girls weren’t supposed to be touched this way. That if someone did that meant they were bad. Her eyes flew open and she gasped as her gaze collided with the stormy black eyes of her uncle. That was when she knew; this man was no uncle to her. He was the devil himself.