Disclaimer: I have nowhere near the writing prowess possessed by the person who created the world, characters, and basis for this little deviance. I claim only the children of my own mind. I do not own Inuyasha or anything related to it, nor do I benefit in any way from this little fic.

Summary: His voice was like poisoned honey and she clung to it even as she felt its venom grabbing her heart. There is nothing for Kagome here, caught between life and death, waiting for the river of miasma to whisk her soul away. There is nothing but...nothing but him. Him and his words, those honeyed words, darkening her heart bit by bit.

Author's Note: This will be a rewrite (kind of) of a story I wrote years ago on my old account. It will be much better, much more thought out, even if I don't have much written beyond this first chapter. This will be good exercise for me, flexing my fanfic muscles again. So, that said, expect no happy endings yet (and no pairings either, until I decide if I wanna stick with the old ending or the new!)! Enjoy, darlings!

UPDATED 12/6/13


They Peel My Skin and Pierce My Soul

Everything, everything burned. She tried to move, but her limbs felt heavy, as if thousands of red-hot needles were pressed into her skin, weighing her down. She tried to scream, but her mouth flooded with poison and she only screamed louder. There was too much fire for pain, and too much pain for fear, and far too much fear to allow for any hope. She tried to claw her way up to the surface, but it was so far gone that she wasn't sure she could have made it no matter how hard she tried.

In a last desperate effort, she tried to reach for the power deep inside her, but her hold on it slipped as she realized that her heart was beating too fast. A faint glow filled her vision before it was snuffed out by the burning, which had surpassed her skin and now encompassed her entire existence. Her legs filled with nails and her fingers turned to ash and her heart began to slow, too exhausted to beat its last desperate song.

She wasn't sure when the pain became black numbness…or perhaps they had always been one and the same. She was floating, feeling nothing but a vague sense of relief at having somehow escaped the pain, and a strong urge to close her eyes and go to sleep. Everything was peaceful and her mind knew nothing but blackness. The nothing was so complete that she realized she didn't know who she was, but the desire to find out faded as her eyes began to slide closed.

She began to slip away, towards something that a long-forgotten part of herself knew to fear.

"Kagome."

She was startled out of her slumber, her eyes flying open as the name echoed around her. She fell harshly away from her peace, but she fell onto comforting darkness that hugged her and blurred her edges. The name repeated, rolling around her and her mind until she conjured a single response.

Yes.

The voice was not hers. It spoke her named with such affection, such intimacy, but simultaneously filled her with dread. But she knew…she knew it was right. She was Kagome. Ka. Go. Me. Knowing was a joy, a comfort, the only emotion that she could identify in the black nothing. If she could have, she would have smiled.

But… The imaginary smile faded early.

"Kagome…"

"But…who are you?" she asked, somewhat distressed she didn't know her savior, her only companion. She tried to reach for them, but her hand brushed against only the darkness. She realized in the back of her mind that she was dying. That was why she couldn't reach them.

"You know."

An angel, a voice in her head whispered.

A demon, another voice whispered back.

"Can you…save me?"

"I can."

She tried to think of every face and every voice she knew, but none had ever spoken to her like that. She had never known a voice to sound like that, and no face she could imagine matched. Giving up on faces, she instead thought of names. What name struck such fear in her heart and yet owned her so completely? Who would dare to speak to her in such a gentle tone, a tone she realized belatedly was that of a lover. Who alone had the power to save her from this death, which she could feel slowly creeping up on her and weighing her again with the desire to close her eyes and sleep until the eternities ended?

Who are you?

The answer came like lightning on a pitch black night, and a shiver ran through her. Her eyes would have widened if they could, and she imagined they did. She struggled against the darkness to see him, but found no escape. She felt a presence and was torn between the desire to flee and the desire to bury herself in its bright life completely. He was a bright beacon, hurting her imaginary eyes with his brilliant light, but he was far too faded and blurred to touch.

"My dear Kagome," he greeted, a smile twisting the sweetened words. His voice was like poisoned honey, and she clung to it even as she felt its venom coating her heart. But she knew it. She knew that voice, she knew his face, she knew his name.

It caught like barbs and burned like fire as she spat it up and it flew into the darkness with the precision of an arrow.

"Naraku…"


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