Okay, this story is based on a book called "Companions of the Night"...duh. Anyway, if any of you have read the book, then you're probbably all book worms like me, but that's okay, NERDS ARE COOL! my mommy said so... Anyway, i will be changeing A LOT of the story, but the main plot is the same and most of the wording, although i will be adding more swear words just for a certain hanyou we all love.

Disclaimer: I do not own "Companions of the Night" or...turns to lawyer guys in black suits..do i HAVE to say it...can'tyou just let me be in denial?lawyer guys NO! SAY IT ORWE'LL GIVE YOU SHOTS AND TAKE AWAY YOUR CELL PHONE! i cringe NOTCELLY! ...(sigh)fine, fine...i don't own Inuyasha either...(quietly)..yet.

"" talking

italic letters thinking

NOW ON TO THE STORY!

Chapter 1: Floppy

When Souta came into Kagome's room to ask a favor, it never occurred to her that her eight-year-old brother could ask her to do something that might get her killed.

"What kind of favor?" she asked sticking her finger in her book to keep place.

It was almost eleven o'clock at night, her second period literature teacher had promised a test tomorrow, and she still had fifty pages to go, with the author seeming in no hurry to wrap things up.

"I left Footy at the laundry," Souta said. Footy was Souta's stuffed koala bear.

"Souta," Kagome pointed out- the same thing she'd pointed out the instead he'd entered her room- "it's the middle of the night. You're supposed to be asleep in bed. I'm supposed to be asleep in bed, mom is asleep…."

Souta's bottom lip began to tremble, and Kagome rested her forehead in her hand.

"Don't cry," she said. Ever since dad left, Kagome couldn't take it when Souta cried. "Maybe you forgot him at Shippo's"- Souta started shaking his head-"or in Mom's car?"

"No," Souta said. "I was playing under the counter where you fold your stuff. You know the pink stripy one that doesn't match the others?"

Kagome didn't know, but she nodded to keep him going.

"I was using the laundry cart as a fort. I know that's where I left him under the pink stripy counter. Can't you go and get him?"

Kagome shook her head. "I've only got a learner's permit, so I'm not allowed to drive unless there's somebody who has a license with me," she explained. "I'd get in trouble with mom and the police. Footy will be fine one night without you. It'll be like a campout for him."

If Souta had thrown a tantrum, he would have been easier to resist. But he stood there silently, tears running down his face. Then, very quietly, he said, "It won't be like a campout. Somebody will steal him."

"Souta, munchkin, the kind of people who go to laundries in the middle of the night are not the kind of people who steal ragged little koala bears."

"Footy's not ragged," Souta said. "And if it was Corny, you wouldn't leaver her."

Kagome looked to her dresser at the unicorn she'd had since she was two. Now that Kagome was sixteen, Corny rarely traveled farther than from the bed to the dresser, but Souta had made his point.

"All right, all right." Kagome took her finger out of her book. "But you stand by mom's door and make sure you hear her sleeping, or I'm not moving. And if mom wakes up, tell her…" Tell her what? What story would she possibly believe? And what am I doing coaching an eight-year-old to lie? Hadn't there been enough lies in this family in the year before dad moved out? "Tell her I'll be back soon," she finished.

She shooed Souta out of the room and pulled her jeans on, tucking in her IF IT'S MORNING DON'T TALK TO ME night shirt. She'd be wearing her jacket, and anyway, she thought, if anybody stopped her, she was going to be in too much trouble to be embarrassed by what she was wearing. She pulled her hair back into a ponytail without even checking in a mirror.

This was all her father's fault. They wouldn't even have to go to the laundry if her father hadn't abandoned them, moving from Brockport, New York, to Somwhere-or-other, Florida, to study to be a private investigator- and only one postcard since. He had left the car because the woman he left with had a better one, but he'd taken the washer and dryer.

What kind of father leaver his family, letting his kids run the risk of losing their koala bears in laundries? Kagome asked herself. It was a dangerous question, because the answer was easy: a father who doesn't like his kids.

Still, once Kagome had tiptoed out of the hous- and not counting the fear of getting stopped by the police- it seemed such a simple, safe little task.

Five minutes later, Kagome pulled up in front of the Quick-Clean Laundry. The street was dark but not deserted. Next door the Strand Theater was all lit up. The movie must have just ended because there were people still coming out. Down the other way was a pizza place where the college kids hung out. She could smell the tomato juice and hear the music.

The laundry, of course, was always open. In a college town where half the kids lived off campus, there had to be a twenty-four-hour laundry.

Her mom hadn't taught her parallel parking yet, and Kagome ended up a good three feet from the curb and overlapping two parking places. That left half a space behind her car before the corner, and a parking space and a half before the last of the cars from the movie crowd, but she told herself she was only going to be here a sec and didn't need to worry about getting ticketed.

As she opened the door, she was greeted by the smell of warm wet soap. All the lights were on-she'd seen that from the street because the place was half windows-but nobody was there. Not even the little guy who ran the place, the one who made change and sold overpriced single-wash boxes of soap and fabric softener if you forgot to bring some from home, and yelled if he caught you leaving without cleaning out the lint tray. Kagome had known that the little guy couldn't be there all twenty-four hours that the place was open, but she was amazed there wasn't somebody around to make sure people didn't come in and pry open the money boxes. She felt creepy being there all alone so late at night.

Grab Footy, she thought, and then get home. Fighting a yawn, she realized she was way too tired to tackle her literature project. She'd just have to bullshit her way through the test.

She glanced around the shop and immediately identified the counter Souta had been talking about. The counters were all white with gold speckles exceopt that one, last remnant of a previous décor or an addition from somebody's leftover something-or-other. She thought, Wel,l that was easy.

Except, of course, Footy wasn't there.

"Stupid bear," she muttered.

She crawled under the counter just to make sure. There was a paper pamphlet-probably one of the owner's Bible tracts that he was always trying to pass out-and maybe Footy could be hidden behind it. The floor was gritty with spilled soap that stuck to the palms of her hands and, when she tried to wipe her hands clean, stung where she'd bitten the skin near her nails. She poked at the paper, wondering what the changes were of mice lurking around a place like this.

No Footy, but at least no mice either. Only a razor blade, which someone had probably brought to open the boxes of detergent.

Idiot! Kagome thought at whoever had dropped it, remembering how Souta had been crawling under here. Carefully she picked the blade up an backed out from underneath the counter.

Her good deed paid off, for it wasn't until she put the razor down in the ashtray on the desk with the cash register that she noticed Footy sitting on top of the pile of religious pamphlets.

"You mister," she said, picking up the bear and shaking a finger at him. Then she dropped her voice to a whisper because the only other soud was the hum of the fluorescent lights. "you are in deep trouble, and you're grounded until you're thirty-seven. Whatever that works out to in bear years."

She hadn't even lowered her finger when the back door burst open.

The owner, Kagome thought as she whirled around to face whoever it was that was making such a commotion coming in. Mr. Quick-Clean. He must have stepped out to get a cup of coffee or a slice of pizza and then realized how long he'd left his place unattended.

As she turned, Footy smacked against the cash register and slipped from her fingers to the floor. Instinctively Kagome bent down to pick him up, knowing even as she shifted her balance, that this was the last thing she should do. She should call out, "Hello," step forward, let the owner see that she was here, look like a paying customer- or at least like someone who had a legitimate reason to be here and not like someone trying to hide or break into the cash register.

But before she could straighten, she saw the people coming in through the door: four men, three of them dragging one who was- Kagome felt her heart stop, then start again at a frenzied pace- gagged and bloodied, with his hands tied behind his back.

Kagome dropped to her hands and knees under the desk.

A drug deal gone bad, she thought. Or a gang fight. Not that there was much of that sor of thing in Brockport, but she'd seen enough cop shows to guess.

And she was caught right in the middle of it.

One of the men kicked the prisoner behind the leg so that he dropped to his knees and his face was momentarily on a level with Kagome's. Young, she saw, and scared, which was natural enough. It took a second for his dark brown eyes to focus on her, and then one of the men jerked him backward by his long black hair so that his back was to one of the stainless steel laundry tubs. They began tying his already bound hads to the thick steel eg of the tub.

Then the one who was doing the tying looked up and saw her. "What the hell-," he started.

And in that moment, which Kagome recognized was probably her last chance to get to her feet and run to the front door screaming for help, she was too scared to move.

The prisoner tried to break away while their attention was diverted, but the man in front knocked him back so that his head cracked against side of the tub. The third man reached over and grabbed hold of Kagome's arm while the one with the rope returned to tying.

Still holding on to Footy, Kagome was dragged out from beneath the desk and hauled to her feet.

"She one of them?" one of the men asked. "Or just a thief?"

"No," she whispered, unable to take her gaze off the young man, who looked on the verge of passing out. They were going to kill him. And then they were going to kill her for seeing them kill him. "I- I- I… "

"Get the blinds down, you idiot," the other man said. "Do you want anyone passing down Main Street to see what's going on?"

"I-", Kagome said as, behind her, she heard the blinds crash down, one after the other, then the other doors being locked, both front and back. "I-"

The one holding her pulled her in for a closer look...

YUP, i'm ending it here...y, well, first off, i don't think anyone will review if i continue. Second, i haven't figured out who each character is yet, but u guys can probbably figure it out from descriptions. And third, cause i can and i'm a sadistic botch...i must go now, much pocky to be eaten and no time for all of you but i promise that if u give me at least 5 reviews i will add more in...hmmm, how's 3 days sound? If it seems too far away, well then too bad, i have a life u losers...BWAHAHAHAHAHA!