Face Down
Panicked fingers spilled her make-up containers all over the porcelain bathroom sink as she shook violently. Bloody hands gripped onto the sink as she put her weight onto her palms, trying to steady herself. Her phone started vibrating in her butt pocket, and she tore it out of her pants pocket, glaring at the intruding device. His name was on the receiver. She trembled as she opened her flip-phone.
"Yea?" her voice sounded hoarse. Her eyes bore into the silver faucet, hoping she'd learn a new trick of throwing daggers with her eyes.
"Hey baby. You know I love you right, baby?" She was silent. "Now, don't be that way, baby. You know if you just did things the way we talked about, I wouldn't have to do that to you."
"Yea..." she muttered, a look of hate clouding her blue eyes.
"You going to be at home when I get there tonight?"
"You wouldn't have it any other way," she growled softly.
"There's my girl. I'm just going out with the guys, and I'll be home when I'm home. You know I love you, baby."
"Yea, me too," she said, finally tearing her eyes from the faucet and looking at her image staring back at her in the mirror. She hung up her phone and dropped it, unceremoniously, onto the floor.
How many times had she told herself it would never happen again? How many times had he told her it would never happen again if she only did things right? Why did it always have to be her fault? He was normally so good at keeping the bruising on easily hidden parts of her body—her breasts, legs, arms, chest, back....but lately, he didn't seem to care. He hit her in the face, split her lip, and choked her for extra emphasis. He didn't want her to have friends—she had none. He wanted her to work—she worked 40 hours a week. He wanted her at home when he got home—she was home early every day. He wanted to have sex whenever and where-ever he wanted—she complied, usually, but her modesty wouldn't allow her to have blatant open sex in public. That is what started it this time. He ended up raping her in public anyway, after beating her until her eye started to swell, her lip and nose bled profusely, and she forgot how to struggle. He came inside her—something she hated—and then left, cursing about being late. Then he came back and hit her a few more times for making him late. She had apologized mutely until he left.
She looked at her image in the mirror, disgusted with herself for letting herself lose control...for allowing herself to put up with this crap. She spit blood at the mirror, and for extra emphasis, punched it, breaking the glass. She ran the water, watching with diluted eyes as the blood swirled around the drain.
A knock at the door had her jumping, despite herself. He never knocked...who could it be? She finished wiping the blood from her face and moved to the front door of their apartment. She peered out the peephole and saw his brother standing there looking rather bored. She panicked. None of his or her families knew that he beat her....no one knew. She drew in a deep breath and opened the door partially.
"Can I help you?" she asked softly, her voice hoarse from her throat being choked earlier that night.
"That idiot brother of mine left his laptop in my car," he growled, holding out the leather laptop bag to her. She shut the door slightly, unbolted it, and opened it to him. "I would appreciate if..." She froze when he silenced as she opened the door more to face him. "Kagome, what happened to you?" His concern made her heart clench. She had been taught long ago not to cry, so cry she did not. She looked him dead in the eye, with a perfect rendition of his perfect poker face.
"I fell."
"Bull-fucking-shit!" He growled, pushing the door open. Kagome stepped back into the apartment, suddenly realizing the living room was still a mess from her trying to escape from having sex with her boyfriend. "What the hell happened here? Were you robbed?"
Kagome shut the door, taking the laptop bag from her boyfriend's brother and setting it next to the kitchen door. She avoided his eye as she returned to the bathroom to take a shard of glass from her knuckles that she had missed before.
"Kagome," his voice growled in warning to her to spill the beans. She turned angry eyes to him.
"What? What are you going to do if I don't tell you? Beat me? Trust me, it won't work!" She snarled passionately as she turned from the shocked face of the tall-white haired man before her.
"What....what do you mean?" He followed her to the bathroom, and a sharp intake of breath told her that he saw the broken mirror and blood all over the counter.
"What do you think it means, Sesshoumaru? Inuyasha beats me. So what? I can't fight back. I'm weak. I do things wrong when I try to do them right. I can't leave without him beating me even more, so I'm stuck trying to be perfect." Kagome's voice softened, ending at only a whisper. She clenched the white porcelain as his large hand took her shoulder.
"Kagome," he said sternly. She turned her head from him. "Kagome!" he insisted, turning her to look at him. Her angry sky eyes swirled with anger and pain. "You don't deserve this. I'll talk to him..."
"No!" She moved from him, taking his arm and pulling him from the bathroom and towards the front door. "He told me never to tell. If you come up to him, he'll know I said something, and then I'm dead. You can't say anything. You two don't get along anyway. Every time he comes home after talking to you, he's extra rough," her voice choked in her throat as he stilled. She instantly felt guilty, her anger diminishing. "Oh, Sesshoumaru, I didn't say that. Please, please don't be mad at me," she begged, cringing. Sesshoumaru's hand came up and gently cupped her chin, his thumb softly caressing her skin. Kagome was taken aback by the act of kindness.
"My only regret is not realizing this situation earlier. He instigates fights every time he is around me, always as if he was happy to do it. An idiot, I allowed it, and fed into it. I never knew he came home and did...this..." he whispered, his golden eyes bearing down into her swirling seas. A pressure built behind her eyes, an unfamiliar but familiar pressure, that gave way to tears that fell from her eyes down her cheeks.
"What am I going to do, Sesshoumaru? If you stay here, he'll be so angry. He'll know you were here, you have to leave..." Panic rose in her voice as she started trying to break away from his grasp. He let her go, unwilling to hold her and cause her to panic more. She fidgeted, pulling at her nails as she tried to get him to leave.
"Kagome, calm down. You are going to tell him that I stopped by to drop off his laptop, and you will tell him that I came and went without another word. If anything happens, call me," he told her, taking his business card from his pocket. He took out a pen and scribbled something on the back. "My cell phone number is unlisted. I wrote it on the back of here for you. Inuyasha doesn't even have this number. If anything happens, call me, and I will be here to protect you."
"Protect me?" Kagome stopped moving, looking at him. The look of utter confusion on her face had a small smile pulling at Sesshoumaru's normally stoic lips.
"Yes, protect you." Kagome continued to look confused. "Protection is something we offer those we love."
"Love?" Sesshoumaru just smiled his little smile, took her by the hand, and placed his card in it.
"You are practically family, and as such, I am obligated to protect you, even from my brother. You will call me?"
"If I need to," she finished, a small smile gracing her features for the first time in a very, very long time. He nodded, content for now, and turned and left the apartment without a backwards glance.
Kagome looked at the phone number in her hand, and then ran to the bathroom to grab her cell phone and enter it in, just in case.
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As soon as Sesshoumaru was clear of the stairwell to his brother and Kagome's apartment, he flipped open his cell phone. Holding down the number 7, he waited impatiently for the person on the other end to pick up.
"Moshi Moshi Sesshoumaru-sama. How are you today?" The cheery voice of his business partner did little to sway his emotions. Not like it ever did.
"Miroku, I need you to look into something for me." On the other end, his black haired, violet eyed friend got a mischievous smirk on his face.
"Now, Sesshoumaru-sama, this wouldn't be about a girl now, would it?" Miroku had asked this particular question millions of times, and never once had the stoic man on the other line answered in the affirmative.
"Actually, it is. I need you to look into where Inuyasha goes, who he goes with, what he does, and everything else in between." Sesshoumaru opened the door to his vehicle, slid into the leather interior, and shut the door numbly behind him. On the other end, Miroku's eyebrows furrowed together in confusion.
"A girl? But why am I following Inuyasha?"
"It is his girlfriend I am doing this for," Sesshoumaru answered after a moment of silence. There was no hope to keep this information away from the all-brilliant computer hacker, especially once he had been promoted to lead investigator for Sesshoumaru's business. Miroku was so good at his job that the United States Intelligence Bureau had been watching him for sometime in order to find out if he was a threat or not. Fortunately for them, Miroku was more interested into hacking into the mall security's video system to watch the girls changing in the dressing rooms than hacking into Area 51 and stealing national secrets.
"His girlfriend? That girl with the nice ass, Kagome right?"
"If that is how you insist on remembering people..." Sesshoumaru muttered, rolling his eyes. He could practically hear Miroku's cheesy grin.
"It is a curse, I'm afraid," Miroku's trademark declaration of innocence didn't fool the solemn man driving back to his condo 5 miles away from his brother's apartment.
"You will trace Inuyasha and report back to me as soon as humanly possible, is that understood? Her life may depend on it." He could hear the furious sound of typing come over the line.
"I will get back to you as soon as I have a hit," Miroku's voice was devoid of the playful cheerfulness it had only a second before. Hanging up his phone, Sesshoumaru knew he had gone to the right man.
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Kagome had finished cleaning the living room hours ago, mopped up and cleaned up her face, the mirror, and the bathroom—leaving it devoid of blood and smelling of bleach. She had been waiting in bed for Inuyasha to get home, but it was almost 2:00 am, and she had work in the morning. Deciding to finally try to get some sleep, Kagome turned onto her side and glanced at their nightstand in the dark. The angry red of the time stared back at her, as if in warning, that her time was drawing to a close. With a sigh, she put her back to the time and shut her eyes, waiting for the first instances of sleep to take her mind away.
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Sesshoumaru sat motionless in front of his computer. The images flashed brightly into his golden eyes as he watched video of his brother in clubs, taking drugs, drinking to excess, fucking random women, hitting waitresses, prostitutes, and other men that got in his way.
"When did he get so violent?" Sesshoumaru asked out loud, not caring that he was on speaker phone with Miroku at the time.
"I don't know. I found evidence of his violence dating back at least 5 years ago...before he and Kagome were together. How long have they been together now?"
"I don't know. She was at the last Christmas party at my father's home, so I would assume over a year." Sesshoumaru estimated, rubbing a tired hand over his exhausted face. How long had he been watching these videos? He felt sick to his stomach knowing that Kagome got even worse treatment.
"Are there any videos with Kagome in them?" Sesshoumaru was afraid to ask, but he had to. The sound of furious typing came over the speaker of the phone.
"Mmh, none of him being violent, yet. Here, I'm uploading one from a jewelry store." Miroku clicked the send button, and waited for the minute to pass as it uploaded it's stream from his computer to his friend's.
Sesshoumaru watched as the couple entered the store, Kagome on his arm, as he boasted loudly (from what he could tell—as there was no sound) to pick out whatever she liked. Kagome looked around with bright eyes as she went from case to case. One of the girls at the counter came to give her assistance, and Inuyasha leaned onto the counter, his stance insinuating flirting. Kagome looked away, oblivious, as she continued to look around. The girl behind the counter leaned onto the counter, displaying her cleavage to Inuyasha, who watched hungrily. Kagome turned around, and the look that crossed her eyes made Sesshoumaru's heart ache painfully. She had opened her mouth, an excited sparkle in her eye that made him want to investigate whatever it was that made her smile, and then her face dropped, her mouth snapped shut, and her eyes turned dull, as if the passion in her eyes had been doused with water. Sesshoumaru watched as she walked over to Inuyasha and pulled on his arms, watching the girl behind the counter with distrust. Inuyasha followed Kagome over, his head inclining back to the girl behind the counter. Kagome noticed quickly, made an angry face and stomped from the store. As Inuyasha went to follow—his face red in anger—the girl gave him a piece of paper, and Inuyasha grinned foolishly.
"One more," Miroku stated softly over the phone. "You won't like this one." A second screen popped up, and it was of the parking lot of the mall. It was directly after their argument in the jewelry shop, and Kagome was getting into the drivers seat of the car. Inuyasha ran up to her and pulled her out of the car, throwing her onto the ground. Sesshoumaru growled in anger as Inuyasha yelled at her and slapped her across the cheek. Kagome looked up at him in fear, her eyes wide in shock, her hand holding her cheek. Inuyasha grabbed her shoulders and shook her a few times, then embraced her harshly. His actions became calmer, gentler. He helped her up, and into the passenger's side of the car, before getting in the driver's side. He backed the car out of the spot, and drove away—but not before Sesshoumaru saw the tears falling down Kagome's cheeks.
"I'll kill him."
"You can't do that, Sesshoumaru. Use this as evidence, put him in jail for abuse." Miroku spoke calmly. He could hear the agitation in Sesshoumaru's voice, the scrape of the chair along the tile floor and the rustle of clothes as he started to pace.
"If we do that, you will be brought onto the stand to testify, and your skills will be made known. Japan will not sit quietly once they finally have their illusive hacker," Sesshoumaru reminded. Miroku sighed.
"Well, we have to do something!" Miroku insisted.
"We will do nothing. I will kill him," Sesshoumaru stated clearly. Miroku rolled his eyes.
"Can't we at least put his abuse on file? Notify the police to our worries? They can handle it, right?"
"You forget he is a Taisho, and as such, he has money, connections, and networking. Even if he is a terrible, abusive, little fucker who should be disowned immediately, it is not my call. I need to bring this before my father before being able to do anything else. Although I want to help, Kagome is not my right to protect. She is not mine. She is his. And until she expresses the desire to get away, I can do nothing."
A heavy sigh echoed through his room as Miroku tapped lightly on his computer.
"I will look to see if there is anyway to get more witnesses to his abuse of her—but his violent behavior should be enough evidence to get him into jail for at least the weekend, if not the week before he bails out. We can use that to our advantage if she calls you for help."
"Not if, Miroku. There will be no if's in this. When she needs help, and when she calls me, we will help her. I will help her."
"Do you want me to send these to your father?"
"No, I will do it. I need to call him in the morning anyway. If I send an email of these videos, he may accuse me of tattling on my brother for no reason but to put a leash on him. Once I explain that it is about Kagome...maybe he will listen."
"She really is a wonderful girl. How did she ever get stuck with that prick?" Miroku wondered out loud.
"I have no idea," Sesshoumaru admitted before hanging up the phone and then setting his mind to work about how to approach his father about their situation.