AN: Rape in the context of this story but not descriptive nor detailed.
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Chapter 1
Penelope's poison.
The cold winter air blew in as the door swung open. Her father staggered in. Her mother could smell the stench of alcohol on his breath. In his alcohol rage he started beating her while Kagome cringed in the corner, hands covered over her head as the sound of fist meeting face rang loudly in the young girl's ears. She heard her mother's whimpers and pleas for him to stop. It only made his rage worse.
Shaking her head, the tears flung wildly about landing on the tile floor. "Daddy stop! Stop it!" she screamed, still cowering in the corner.
Silence.
His footsteps thundered as he approached her little form. "No! Please not her!" Her mother begged. A hard back hand sent her meek body flying towards the cupboards, killing the unborn child inside. He hoovered over the little girl and grabbed her by the arm. "Got a smart mouth do ya little ungrateful bitch?!"
His hand meeting her tiny face sent her neck almost 180 degrees by his hard force.
The next thing she knew, they were standing outside the door as the snow poured down.
Her mother banged on the door, begging and pleading for him to let them in. The loud sounds of the TV drowned out her voice.
Shivering in the cold winter weather, they trucked themselves up the snow-covered dirt road to find shelter for the night. An abandon warehouse was were they spent the freezing night.
The next day, as her mother held her hand to walk them back 'home' again, she noticed a little plant. She saw the pretty red berries and picked it. She clasped it in the palm of her hand all the way home. Keep breathing...She told herself.
It had been a while after the night in the snow and her berries had grown into a small plant.
She called it Penelope.
She had Penelope on the window sill when her father's blood splattered over the leaves, soaking into the dirt she'd planted it in. Her mother had shot him with his own shot gun.
Her mother had had enough.
Kagome was five.
Keep on breathing...she reminded herself.
It was a fall evening when the door to her bedroom creaked. The smell of alcohol on his breath. The rustling of her blanket as he climbed into bed next to her medium form. "Daddy needs to be warmed up." her step-father cooed. He invaded her virgin path and she felt the trickling of the red blood soaking into her sheets as he had his way with her young prepubescent body. Mute, she stared at Penelope sitting on her window sill. The tears trickled it's way down her face. It was not the last. Keep breathing...she said again.
Kagome was ten.
Their house a shamble when she came home from school, her mother's lifeless body lying on the floor. Her throat slit and her blood oozed into the bottom of the pot that held Penelope. The roots soaked her blood. The police said someone had broken in and her mother had surprised the culprit, leading to her death. Keep on breathing...she said to herself as they lowered her mother's casket down into the dirt.
She was fourteen.
She never trusted anyone in foster care. Whenever someone was hurt they'd take it out on her. As long as they didn't touch Penelope. She kept on breathing. Her own blood dripped off her leaves and soaked through the dirt. They came, they used, they abused, they left. She kept breathing as she left the group home.
Kagome was eighteen.
Thanksgiving came around the corner quickly. Kagome came home with groceries and prepared the meal. There was no cranberry sauce. She braved the winter chills and ran out to get cranberry sauce while her husband entertained their family and guests. She had married young.
Kagome returned and went looking for him. The house was loud and boisterous with laughter and cheers. The muffled sounds of moans made her chuckled. She kept breathing when she saw through the crack of the door that her husband was fucking her 'best friend' whom she met from work.
She carved the turkey, then grabbed Penelope and picked her precious little berries. Kagome crumbled it, mixed it with the cranberry sauce. Her special ingredient, she chuckled.
They sat around the table. Her husband, her best friend, her step-father, and unbeknownst to her, the man that killed her mother as well. The noise and laughter died down as she closed her eyes, intertwine her fingers to say grace. She bowed her head down. She breathed.
"Consider it all joy, my brethren (fellow believers), when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing James 1:2-4"
They all tried the cranberry sauce first. She watched and smiled as she slipped her own spoon full of Penelope's poison into her mouth. The trick was she kept on breathing.
...........
Specialist of the Poison Control Center, Sesshoumaru Tashio was called in for his expertise on a matter of a murder-suicide at a resident. It was the very faint beating of her heart that caught his elfin ears. His speed brought him to her in less than a second. He felt for her pulse and if he hadn't been a DaiYokai, he wouldn't have known that she was still alive. But she was.
She's still breathing, he thought as he lifted her up and carried her toward the ambulance to be saved.