She died during the battle with Naraku. She pushed me aside and one of Naraku’s razor-sharp legs ran across her stomach and separated her top half from her bottom half. She was nineteen years old. I was thirteen.

Narrated by a wickedly deranged Kohaku, Sango’s Bones by nhn is quite possibly the darkest, most fucked-up fanfiction I’ve ever read. It makes Stasis look like a Disney movie, for Christ’s sake. Horrifying as it is, I’ll be damned if it’s not also one of the most gripping, beautifully-written fanfics out there in the Inu-verse.

I first stumbled across this dark little gem many years back, when it beat out Frailty to win the IYFG Hidden Treasure of 2009 award. While I couldn’t help but be a little bit salty at the outcome, I couldn’t say I was surprised. With its depth of lore, its vividly graphic imagery, and of course its deft plotting and characterization, among all the nominees in that category it was clear that nhn’s tale smoked them all.

A hidden treasure, indeed.

Without giving too much away, Sango’s Bones is a canon-verse AR fic which tells the story of an eighteen-year-old Kohaku’s harrowing, abominable quest to revive his beloved dead sister, Sango. It’s a next-level Frankenstein tale of lust, dark sorcery, and twisted, spiraling obsession.

I’d be hard-pressed to think of a trigger warning that doesn’t apply to this fic. As nhn so aptly puts it: “Not for children, or even most adults.” Seriously–we’re talking murder, incest, mutilation, non-con and enough gore to gag a maggot. Even for a well-worn GM such as yours truly, I had to ask myself at times if I was man enough to keep reading this.

But if I haven’t chased you off just yet, let me reassure you: Man, is it worth it!

If you’re at all a fan of the works of H.P. Lovecraft, this is most especially the fanfic for you. Rife with mythic allusions to Japanese gods and sinister, forbidden magics, nhn creates an atmosphere of such oppressive, mounting dread and madness that you’ll feel it seeping deep into your bones as the story builds to its inevitable, terrible conclusion.

So, my fellow dark fiends, if you’ve got a thick skin and a strong stomach, I urge you to check it out. Just…brace yourselves, alright? 😉