The smell of smoke and loud beeping of the fire alarm nearly scared Kagome out of her bed. It was still pitch dark, maybe 4 in the morning, so she tangled with the sheets that wrapped her half-naked body and woke straight up, only to see that half of her room was on fire, spreading closer to her bed. If she was fully awake, she would have run out with at least a bathrobe on, but she panicked and ran out of her bedroom and through the front door of her small apartment in the bed sheet.
"Oh shit oh shit!" She watched as the fire trucks arrived and started to spray water on her apartment. It took her a few seconds to realize exactly what went wrong.
Kagome was in the middle of cooking her 1 year anniversary dinner when she saw Hojo's name scroll across the front screen of her cellphone. She put her frosting-covered spatula on the plate and happily answered his call.
"I'm almost done with our dinner!" She squeaked.
"Ah, about that.." She heard his voice go soft and frowned.
"What is it?" She answered, and waited for him to say something back but all he could hear was heavy breathing and moaning.
"I...hee..can't..umf..make it. I-I thINK we should go our SEParate waYS! Hah-Ayumi stop!"
Then the line went dead.
Kagome stood there, phone still to her ear, in shock. He was cheating on her. While talking on the phone with her.
She slammed the phone closed and threw it on the counter, causing the back plate and battery to pop off and bounce onto the frosted cake.
"I can't believe it." A few tears slipped from her eyes, but she was more angry than upset. Her work phone beeped, letting her know she received a message. She typed in the password and read what Hojo sent her.
"It's most definitely you, not me. I've never been with such a dull person like you and I can't believe I actually spent a year with you. After you blew me off because I suggested we take a trip to Hawaii for our anniversary and your reason for not going was because of that damn cat and your fear of flying, I knew I had enough. That was your last chance, so I went with Ayumi, you know, your co-worker. You never want to go anywhere or do anything. Live a little, I think it'll help with whoever you end up with. Sayonara, Kagome Higurashi!"
"That stupid bastard! I do live a very busy life! I can't help that I have phobias and care about my 15-year-old cat!" She threw her hands in the air with exasperation and noticed the two bottles of wine on the dinner table.
"Live a little, huh?" She smiled and walked over to the dinner table to open the both of them. After she finished chugging the first bottle, she remembered that Hojo left a half pack of cigarettes in her room.
Two bottles of wine, 5 shots of tequila, and a smoked half-pack of cigarettes later, Kagome found herself bending over the toilet in tears. Buyo, her cat, walked into the bathroom and rubbed against her legs. Kagome wiped her tears and bent down to pet him; he purred and walked back to his comfy kitty bed.
"Thanks Buyo," she whispered and flushed the toilet," I can't even hold my liquor..I guess I am dull and boring to be with.." Her face found the cool toilet seat, which helped her decide to strip down to her undergarments. She moaned and hobbled to her bedroom and just fell on it, instantly hitting dreamland.
"I left the stove on! Oh no, BUYO!" Kagome tried to fight her way past all the firefighters and police, yelling 'my cat!' over and over, but they held her back.
20 minutes passed before she received the okay to go back to her burnt apartment. When she reached the place where a door was supposed to be and peered inside, she lost it.
"Everything I owned was in here, even my cat!" She screamed to the high Heavens. A firefighter came out of the rubble and tapped her on the shoulder. Kagome turned and gasped.
"Miss, we found this near the corner of the living room." He handed her a stainless steel collar with 'BUYO' etched on it. She whispered a thanks and wiped her ash-stricken tear-stained face. She looked at her watch and saw that it was almost 5, an hour before she was supposed to work.
'Maybe mom and dad won't mind me using their shower..'
As she arrived at the front of the Higurashi Shrine, she noticed that her father was getting into a taxi cab. She paid her taxi driver the moneys he found in her bra and ran out to see what her father was up to.
"Dad! What's wrong?" She yelled.
"Oh, Kagome!" he glanced at her sheet and shook his head," is this some new fashion trend you are trying to start?" He finished loading his bags in the cab and started to get in but Kagome stopped him.
"What are you doing?" She demanded.
"I'm leaving your mother. Our divorce was finalized this morning."
Kagome stopped him from closing the door and angrily yelled "What divorce? Nobody mentioned to me that you two were getting divorce!"
"Well, there's your mother's fault again. She always forgets to tell people things. We'll talk when I arrive in New York. What perfect timing! My 2 month business trip starts today! See you around Kagome!" He slammed the door closed and off the cab went.
"What the hell?" Kagome turned and ran up the steps of the shrine to go meet with her mother.
"Finally! I'm so glad! Good riddance"
She heard her mother yell from the outside. She watched her mother enter the house and throw more stuff outside and repeat the process.
"Mother!" Kagome ran over to the pile of mostly broken objects and noticed it was her father's stuff.
"Kagome, there you are! Come and help me rid of your father's stuff! He just left it all here, which means it's not staying here!"
Kagome stopped her mother from going back inside and looked her straight in the eyes," No one told me that you were getting a divorce. When did this come up?"
"Oh. We didn't want to worry you and Souta. This divorce was in the making since Souta was a few months old. Why do you think that you two rarely saw him? He was always on long business trips, putting that stupid job before his family." She turned around and headed back in the house for more stuff to throw out.
"What else could possibly happen?! Fucking tell me!" Kagome entered the messy house and went upstairs to take a bath and visit her old room.
"Everything is the way I remember it.." Her pink bedding was neatly placed on her back, her desk was all straight, with her books still stacked. She exited and went across the hall to take a bath.
"Maybe a nice hot shower will help my feelings." She turned the knobs on the shower and stripped down to her birthday suit before entering the very warm shower water.
"I wonder if any of my old clothes still fit?" Kagome walked over to her closet and pulled the doors back to reveal and array of clothes she hadn't worn since she left 5 years ago for college. After trying on basically everything, the only things that fit were a pair of short jean shorts, a black button-down long-sleeved blouse, and black lace up knee boots.
She glanced in the mirror beside her bed and sighed,"I don't think this is work appropriate but I just edit and nothing else. I don't even get paid until next Friday. That reminds me.." She walked over to her bed and pulled the mattress up to see if her money was still there.
"Yes! $20! Enough to get to the other side of town!" She stuffed the money in her pocket and walked down the stairs to see her mother gone.
"Both of them are stupid for not saying anything.." she mumbled and looked down at her watch.
"It's 7:08. I'm a little over an hour late for work..." Kagome ran out of the house and down the shrine steps to catch a cab to Tetsaiga Magazine.
It was almost 8 when Kagome arrived to the office of TM. She took the elevator to the 20th floor and ran to the door of the magazine's office, opening it with both hands and bowing as low as she could because she was a little over 2 hours late.
"Higurashi. My office." That icy voice reached her ears and she cringed. Head still down, she passed her coworkers' desks and headed into Boss Sesshomaru's office.
"Sit down, Higurashi. And hold your head up." He sat down as well and folded his hands in his lap. Kagome did as told and waited to be spoke to again.
He cleared his throat and proceeded,"Now, will you please tell why you are 3 hours late?"
"Actually, it's just a little over 2 hours...sir" her voice quieted as she noticed his eyes narrowing on her face.
"It might as well be three. Give me your reasoning."
"It's a long story but I'll gladly shorten it for you. It started at about 11 last night when I received a call from my fiancé who said he wanted to break up. He was also cheating on me. I fell into despair and got a little drunk so I feel asleep with the stove still on because I was making our 1 year anniversary dinner. I woke up this morning at about 4, maybe a little after to the smell of smoke and saw my apartment was on fire. I also lost my really old cat in the fire. So, I went over to my parent's house to shower and ready for work and found out that their divorce finalized and my dad left for a 2 month New York business trip. These are the only clothes that fit me and I arrived here a little over 2 hours late." Kagome bowed her head again and waited for the icy voice to say something. When he did, it was nothing like she expected.
"So, to summarize your story, it's your fault you're late. Oh, how original. Never blame anyone but yourself, Ms. Higurashi. You could have at least had the decency and professionalism to call and tell me you were going to be late so we could have someone else work on the needed edited articles. Sorry for your losses but business is business. You are fired."
Kagome looked up from the floor and gazed at Sesshomaru," What?"
"You. Are. FI-RED. Now, we have serious business going on, so please gather your things and leave." He shifted in his chair and opened his laptop up.
Kagome, feeling like jelly, stood up from her chair and touched the handle on the door.
"And Ms. Higurashi, please pull your shorts down a little. Show respect to this company."
Kagome gripped the handle of the door and swung it open, making it slam once it hit the frame. She headed over to her desk and pitifully looked at it. All that she kept at her desk was a picture of her and Hojo, a picture of her cat, and her lucky pen that she edited with.
"I have nothing." She whispered to herself. She picked up her 3 items and walked away from the work area and back out towards the elevator. The lobby button was pushed and her body hit the floor of the elevator, along with the pictures and pen.
"I really have nothing. No family. No job." Her mascara ran down her face, as she tucked her chin under her knees.
Suddenly it hit her.
"I..have nothing, which means, I have nothing to lose." She picked herself up off the floor, just as the elevator door opened to the lobby floor. As she walked out of the building, she threw her 2 pictures and pen into the trashcan outside and smiled.
"I'm free." She started to jog, which then turned into a run. She ran all the way to the outskirts of town, where she knew a biker bar was. She found the motorcycle that fit her the best and sat down on it and waited. She waited for the guy who owned this motorcycle to take her away, far away, from everything she has ever known.
At about 20 minutes until 9, she saw the guy that she knew would take her away. Out of the group of guys coming out of the bar, a guy of long silver hair and ochre eyes striked her as her saviour, the owner of this dark red Harley-no the owner of freedom.
"What the hell, wench'? What the fuck are you doing on my bike?!" He yelled.
"Just ride." Kagome's voice trembled a little and she hoped he didn't notice.
"The fuck?" His gang walked closer behind him as he approached her.
"JUST RIDE!" Kagome screamed.
"Shit! Okay." The silver-haired demon put his helmet on and mounted his bike, Kagome grabbing onto him. He started it and off they went, on that open road.
Freedom was here.
How are you guys doing? It's been a while and a lot of personal things have happened. This story was inspired by those things and this chapter was actually written on a limb and took only a few minutes to write because it poured out of me (so there might be a few mistakes in time and such but I'll fix everything, I promise!). I know it seems bumpy now and a little confusing, but it will work. I have a lot of inspiration for this story and I want to continue it, if you will hang with me.
Leave your comments about this and just stick with me if you believe it will work! :)
Have a great rest of the week!
