This was the failed chapter eight of A Heart Like Winter, my AU InuYasha fic. This will now be an alternate chapter.

Warnings: This will make no sense if you haven't read Winter. Really. Also, there is mention of violence and implied attempted assault. Consider yourself warned.

Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha, or any of the song quotes used. I have listed the respective owners of the quotes below. InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi.

Thank you all so much for reading.

"When I looked in the mirror

I swore I was seeing you

There were even wings on my back."

-Hitomi Shimatani, "Angelus"

"I'll miss the winter

A world of fragile things

Look for me in the white forest

Hiding in a hollow tree (Come and find me)"

-Evanescence, "My Last Breath"

A Heart Like Winter

Alternate Chapter 8

Scars

(Kikyo POV)

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For me, dream climates are always cold. I never have a dream where I am standing on a warm beach or walking down a sunny street.

I'm always surrounded by bitter, freezing air.

But no matter where I ended up in my dreams, I could simply wake up and forget about the details immediately.

The dream I had on the second night that I slept in that apartment was not so easily forgettable.

I stood in front a large mirror. I stared in fixation at the scars that covered by entire body. They were harshly accompanied by bruises old and new, and I looked unrecognizable.

I could hear that familiar wailing in my ears again, Kaede's screams from the last time I had entered my childhood home.

The night of the terrible incident that I never thought about.

That night started to play out in the mirror in front of me, as my reflection faded away.

I had escaped from the house late at night to go to a party with Naraku. Everyone there was much older that me, and knew that I was a minor and had probably never been in such a place before. But Naraku told me that his friends were great.

After my first few drinks, I started to believe him.

I was never much of a party-goer, nor had I drunk before.

Before I met Naraku, I was different. I was normal. I got good grades, had a few friends. Always ate my vegetables,said my prayers, and used my manners. Just like I was expected to, as my mother's daughter. Everyone in our family seemed to be an overachiever.

That night, when I came home, stumbling through that door, I was covered in blood that was not all my own, with tears rolling down my face.

I could hear my sister's horrified screams, my mother crying and saying over and over: Where did I go wrong?

Of course, I left with Naraku the next morning before anyone was awake.

What had happened that night was so awful, that I didn't want to tell my family about it. I was ashamed and I wanted to forget it as fast as possible.

As I was saying, I had drank a bit too much, and I wasn't exactly sure when or how, but at some point that night Naraku disappeared from my side. I went looking for him, then stumbled into this guy, who assured me that he was a friend of Naraku's, and had seen where he went.

The guy led me towards the back of the house, through the throngs of party-goers until we were alone. When I turned through the haze of my vision to ask him where we were going, he hit me in the head, and everything went black.

When I woke up, I was behind the house, on the ground, and he was there. He fumbled around in the darkness.

I know now what that guy had been about to do, but I was disoriented at the time. However, he never got the chance.

Because then Naraku showed up. He was running around the side of the house and yelling, and before I could ever realize what was going on, he was yelling and beating the guy senseless right in front of me. I had thought for sure that I wold die there.

But Naraku had saved me, and when I left with him the morning after, the majority of the night's events blocked out by the amount of alcohol I had consumed, he told me who the guy was. Someone with a name I've already forgotten who had competed against him in... something that he couldn't tell me about. Someone who hated him. Naraku said I wouldn't have to worry about that guy again. He said that he would protect me because he loved me.

I assured him that the incident was already out of my mind.

Three months later, I was the one being beaten.

But I had insisted on gong back to my house after the party that night, and the most frightening thing about that night for me was seeing the lights all on so early in the morning, knowing that they knew I was gone.

Hearing my sister screaming when she saw me.

That was the last time I heard her voice. The last time I walked through that house.

But it didn't matter at the time, because I could be with Naraku. And the way he told it, he was the only one who really loved me.

I blinked, and I was back in front of the mirror again. The cold was back.

But I was different now. All the scars were healed, and I seemed to be glowing.

I looked much more like-- much more like Kagome.

It was as if I had become an angel.

There were even wings on my back.

And yet, I couldn't stop crying.

"Hey?! What's your problem?! Wake up!!"

Suddenly my eyes sprang open.

I was on the floor next to InuYasha's sofa, where I had slept. The blankets that I had been using were knotted in a pile at my feet.

InuYasha himself stood over me, an alarmed look on his face.

Then there was a knocking on the door.

Sango's voice came form the other side.

"What's going on?!" I asked in alarm.

InuYasha looked at me blankly.

"Then you weren't at all aware," he said, shaking his head as he spoke, "Of just how loud you were screaming...?"

Screaming?

I stared up at him, as Sango continued to knock frantically on the door, asking what was wrong. Neither of us made a more to answer her.

He looked at me with a question in his eyes. A question that I knew he did not want answered.

Just what happened to you?

CH.8/END

Thank you all so much for reading this!

I fixed up the spelling mistakes that were left over from the original post.

Please leave a review and let me know what you think of this, and the new chapter eight!

~Massie