Disclaimer: Why

Disclaimer: Why?! Why?! Why am I not the one who owns InuYasha!!

Chapter 1: Cornered

Walking home from her second job, she could feel herself slipping deeper. It was always like this. She would get her hopes up, thinking that things were finally getting better, and it would be snatched from her reach. Just like in the song she was listening to "…..running for the deadlights, tryin' to get my mind right, just before I grab it somebody reach out and snatch it….." This time it was the phone bill. She thought that she had a credit on her account that would carry her until the next month, but it had been used the month before. She was so pathetic that she couldn't even pay a thirty dollar phone bill.

It took both of her jobs to pay the nine hundred dollar rent on her one room studio. By the time she paid rent, phone, and utilities, she barely had enough left to feed her self for the month. Thankfully, she has no credit cards.

There also wasn't much in her apartment. A thread bare couch that also served as her bed stood in the farthest corner from the door. Directly across from the couch stood a sink and a small refrigerator; it didn't hold much, but she couldn't afford a lot anyway. A small table and a lone chair sat next to the fridge.

She couldn't believe her luck when she found the tiny table even though it was barely big enough for one person. Someone had gotten rid of it because it wobbled a little. She set the table up so that the wobbly end was against the wall and it was just fine.

A few feet from the table was her front door, with the toilet in a little, recessed alcove to the immediate left of the door. Her dresser, or rather the plastic bins she kept her few clothes in, had her phone sitting on top of it. Between the dresser and the couch was a lamp, the only source of light when the sun turned away from the dirty window. Oh, the window on her side was spotless, but there was nothing she could do about it on the outside being that she was on the third floor.

Unfortunately for her, there was no shower or closet in her tiny apartment. If she wanted a full body bath or shower she had to use the one bathroom that was shared with the other tenants on her floor, more than half of them male.

There hadn't been any sign of rain when she left the cafeteria where she did the nightly clean up of the kitchen. She decided to walk the fifteen blocks home instead of spending precious money on the bus. Sadly, she got caught in the rain again, becoming sufficiently drenched in the downpour. To make matters worse, a truck driver thought that splashing her with a huge, dirty puddle would be good for a laugh. She looked the equivalent of a twice drowned rat. She needed to get clean and was the muck out of her hair and the sink in her apartment wasn't going to cut it today.

Since it was past eleven, she hoped that everyone would be in their own apartments. She just needed to take a quick shower and get back to the safety of her own. She grabbed a change of clothes and her bathing supplies and headed in the direction of the shower room.

She passed one of her neighbors giving a slight nod of acknowledgement on her way. The woman nodded back as she continued into her apartment. There was a tall, burley man with black hair with the woman that looked Kagome up and down while leering at her. She did not like the looks of him and hurried on her way. When she heard a door close behind her, she let out the breath that she had been holding and continued on without looking back. If she had looked back, she would have seen that the man was on the wrong side of the closed door.

When she reached the shower room, she put her things down and turned to close and lock the door. Before she could close it, a boot clad foot stuck its way in. It was the same man she had seen moments before in the hallway and looked like he had only one thing on his mind. Kagome was afraid of what his look meant. She had never been in this type of situation before and didn't know what to do to get out of it. She said the first thing that came to mind.

"Excuse me, but I'm using this room right now. I won't be long, then you can have it", she said, trying not to let her mounting fear of him show.

"Oh", said the man in a gruff and grating voice, coming fully into the room and shutting the door as she backed away from him. "It's not the shower that I'm going to be using."

Kagome's eyes went wide as she caught his meaning and she opened her mouth to scream for help.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"