Full Summary: The snow always brought back painful memories; it was the cause of all her misery. The snow was there when her misery started over and over again. It was the repetitive cycle of humanity's cruelty. The only thing she believed she could do was end her, Kagome Higurashi's, existence. That is, until he came along...

Author's Note/ WARNING: Lot's of stuff... I believe it's quite emotionally tumultuous- is that the right word?- troubling, in lame man's terms; slightly... disturbing...

Take your pick of ALL possibilities...

General Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha.


Part I

It was late. The afternoon was quickly turning to night, and the sky was all ready very blackened beyond normal.

But today was not a normal day.

Out on the snow-coated ground, close to the middle of nowhere, was the hunched figure of a girl around the age of eight. She sobbed brokenly- openly, curling her bloodied, chubby fingers in the white frozen slush. Her blackish- blue hair and face were smudged with some combination of muddied snow and blood. The girl paid no heed to the disheveled state she was in, but continued to cry while banging one of her fists repeatedly into the snow. After what seemed like half an hour, the child's crying subsided. Her red, puffy eyes looked up into the darkened skies and seeing few of the glowing orbs she loved so much, she turned her head away.

Mother; Father; baby Souta... No, you are not gone. They cannae leave me behind! The little girl thought harshly.

When she calmed down, the girl looked over one of her shuddering shoulders to the wrecked heap of metal. Her snow- covered tresses swished sloppily against her frail back, as she turned in her sitting position. The wreckage was unbearable; the little girl didn't have to see it and she positively didn't want to see it. She closed her eyelids trying to let the pain fade.

As she tried to wash it all away, her mind's eye saw all too clearly the scenes of a mere hour ago flash like a black and white movie. The fragments were horrifying- her mother's and father's pleas to cover the faces in safety; a crooked gash suddenly releasing a dark, maroon liquid from her father's forehead; baby Souta's wails as he tried to curl into a fetal position in his car-seat; the airbag popping open, upon contact, and crushing her mother's expanded lungs from screaming.

It hurt; the pain and too-intense flashbacks were scraping into the soft flesh of her memories. She grasped the mangled hair at the sides of her head, crying as a desperate attempt to forget.

It's all a bad dream...

But when she looked back up, she saw the bent-in-half and scrunched up car with her mother's lifeless right hand hanging out of the shattered front passenger window.

Everything felt like it was pounding down on her; it was as if everyone had left the entire world's problems to deal with on her own. The burden was exactly that-a burden; it was too much to handle at once. She was only eight.

Her life had been all smiles, hugs, lots of sunshine, and big happy rainbows until this night. The little girl remembered one of her mother's friends; Izayoi-san, was what people commonly called her...

"Kagome, dear! Come here! We-I- would like a keepsake photo of you! You're so adorable; and you don't let anyone put you out of place. I'm quite jealous... But of course you're so irresistibly lovable!" A woman equal her mother's age squealed in delight.

Miss Izayoi; Izayoi-san...

"But Izayoi-san, miss, I don't like piccies. Daddy sayses they can take your- um, sooelle?" A five-year-old Kagome spoke quietly. Turning to face a young man in a suit shirt and slacks, she asked, "Daddy? What was it that you said piccies did to peoples?"

Deep brown eyes, swirled- disturbingly- with midnight blue and rimmed by grey, stared innocently up at the tall man she called her father. Dark azure eyes flecked with grey glistened in amusement and happiness down at the young figure. His smile grew wider as he thought of the best response. Suddenly he bent down and scooped an irrepressibly giddy girl up into his arms and twirled her around in the fresh afternoon air. When they finished, the young man held onto the little Kagome.

"Kagome..." He began. "Your auntie," he said in a funny voice, "wants to take your 'piccie'. That's all, not your soul; it's only a superstition." He looked into confused eyes. "It's just make-believe, sweetheart."

"Okay, Daddy! If you say so," and with that, the five-year-old squirmed out of his arms and ran toward Izayoi.

"Izayoi... Take care of Kagome's soul if it gets stuck in the 'piccie'! We can't let it get ruined, or we'd have an icky, soulless daughter," the man called.

"Oh, Higurashi! Shut your trap! Go back to your wife and unborn son while I play with the Kagome-angel," Izayoi-san shot back with a smug grin on her lips as Kagome trotted up and spun around to wave at her father.

Mr. Higurashi just stuck out his tongue playfully and spun his back on the two females that were joyously dancing 'Ring Around the Rosie'. He shook his bottom tauntingly when they stopped to watch him. He laughed gaily as he returned back to his wife's side and patted her swollen stomach in anticipation.

"Kagome is both of us; she acts like me, but has all of your impeccable skills. This boy though- he'll be all me!" He laughed when his wife scowled and she lightly punched him. "Yes, Kagome has my love's skills..."

Before the happy group of four left the grand central park, Izayoi-san found a young and handsome man, with silver hair, little older than herself taking photographs of the lake and scenery. She, shyly, inquired whether he would mind taking a few photographs of their gang. Before he responded, though, he held up his camera and in less than a second had taken a very great picture of Aunt Izayoi.

The young man smiled coyly at Izayoi and agreed, taking her camera and getting into a comfortable standing pose. The group gathered in front of the camera and posed each with wide smiles. He took three slightly varying pictures and when he handed the camera back happily, Izayoi snapped two quick photos of the still smiling- but shocked- man.

"It was to get even," she stated matter-of-factly with a nod of her head. "I'm never beaten, out-witted, or out-matched."

He laughed and asked her out, to which she happily complied. Kagome ran up to Izayoi-san and hugged the older woman, smiling brightly at the man. He returned it whole-heartedly and said Izayoi was lucky to be related to a pretty young lady.

After that, it was all downhill. Even though they weren't really related, the mysterious 'photographer-slash- businessman' was still happy to know the spirited Kagome. Her Aunt Izayoi and the man got married within the year. Kagome found out that the man all ready had two sons; one was five years her elder and the other was two years her elder.

She never met them, never saw any pictures of them, and never got to hear their names. They were always out of the city when she was visiting Touga and Izayoi...

The pictures were developed less than a week after the encounter and she had a framed copy of them in her bedroom. It was one of those 'perfect photographs' that every professional dreamt about.

It was of Izayoi-san with her parents and herself...

It's in my room... How am I s'posed to go back? She thought despairingly. Izayoi-san was the only person of which Kagome could come to save her and protect her now that she didn't have a family. Izayoi, as far as she knew, was the last resort.

Suddenly she remembered her parents' cellular phones. They were somewhere in the car! Her small frame shuddered as the snow began to come down harder, while a night breeze blew past. She crawled on her scraped hands and bloodied knees forward, and moved aside a large piece of crumpled metal (supposedly from the door). After a few intense searching of digging through the car's interior, Kagome yelped with a half-hearted happiness.

She knew the ultimate number that could save anyone...

"Hello- operator lady? I need help; my mommy and daddy and baby brother are dead. Our car got hurt too..." The little girl waited for a response, and barely nodded before saying yes to something. "I can't see any buildings, ma'am, but we're on the side of a gigantico cliffy thing... and there's lot's of metal."

"Do you know where your parents were headed, sweetie?" The operator asked.

"Mommy said something about an Okinawa shrine..."

"And what's your name?"

"Higurashi Kagome... Kagome... Higurashi," she responded cautiously.

"I'll send people over right away, dear. Hang on tight, and stay safe. Good-bye."

It'll all be over soon; this bad, bad dream... And Mommy and Daddy will make all the pain go away...


Author's Note: So... I don't know 'bout you guys, but I thought it was sad. But then again... I wrote it.

Reviews are much appreciated.