AN: Here's the first chapter of the story. The setting is 3 years after the prologue, so Kagome is now 21 years old. The beginning may be a bit long, but I promise you it's MUCH better by the end of the chapter. Chapter 2 has been written already and will be up in a couple days. Chapter 2 makes me laugh and I wrote it! So I know you'll enjoy it. .
Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha. That honor goes to Rumiko Takahashi. I do, however, own a pair of socks, this story, and the humming bird outside my window preying on a hibiscus plant.
Warning: This story is rated M for a reason. Language and sexuality to follow. Ye be warned.
A Whore's Life
Chapter 1: Super Studs and Users
The room was quiet, dank, dark, and smelled faintly of unwashed sweaty sheets. She wrinkled her nose at the stink, fully knowing who had used the room last, but wasn't about to complain and therefore sat motionless in the moth eaten, stained chair in the darkest corner of the small room.
After two years of working the public Kagome had been granted the right to privacy when she worked and had acquired a few regular lonely clients. But you had to be well off to get Higurashi Kagome, she was not bought cheaply, and for that she was eternally grateful. Her customers were fewer and she made just a tad more money.
Now that it was a year later she found herself in a time loop, caught in an endless cycle, incapable of escape. During the day she would sleep, rising only to pay off the debt her dead family left behind, shower, and eat. At night she would ready herself, physically and mentally, and then wait in one of the smelly, dirty, used rooms until she got a customer. She never usually had to wait long.
She heard a pair of footsteps in the hallway and her stomach immediately sank. Her wait was over, her long night had begun. When the doorknob turn and dim light filtered into the room Kagome put on her practiced sultry smile and waited for the pervert to enter.
She nearly flat out laughed when she saw a short, fat, balding, banker looking of a man enter the room, nervously pushing his thick bifocals up the bridge of his nose.
"Evening, sugar" She purred and uncrossed her legs. She stood, walked to her John and quietly shut the door behind him feeling the ever present eyes looking her up and down hungrily, taking in her form and mentally undressing her.
"I have but one rule, sugar. I never kiss on the mouth. That being said, what's your fantasy? What turns you on and makes you hot?" She flashed him another sizzling smile and traced a finger across his almost nonexistent collarbone, while walking around him in a slow, lazy circle, her heels clicking on the linoleum flooring.
"What do you do?" His voice was high and slightly squeaky, but he seemed harmless. But they never were harmless, were they? Kagome mentally frowned.
"I avoid most of the kinky stuff, but for the right price I'm yours to do whatever… whatever you desire." Kagome had his character down since he walked through the door.
A man like him was self-conscious and underappreciated and under loved. He was lonely, convinced he could never find a girl who would look past his squat, chubby, nerdy exterior and find the true "super stud" underneath. That's what Kagome termed these men, the "super studs". They wanted to be treated as if they were sex gods, amazing on the eyes and amazing in bed. In other words, they needed an ego boost.
Kagome frowned and remembered her second customer for the evening, one of the regulars. He came back every other Tuesday at ten. He was a "user". Their style was to get in, get on, get out. They were usually middle class men, all looking for a good time to just meet their needs. She called them the "users" because afterward she was left feeling completely used.
Kagome halted her train of thought and concentrated on the matter at hand, and more importantly the "super stud".
"I bet a man like you knows how to treat a woman." She started in low, sultry tones.
"I don't kn-know about that." He began gibbering. "I'm not too good with women. I don't have much experience."
Bingo. Kagome smiled knowing she was right in thinking he was a "super stud" customer. She leaned down and planted a searing kiss along his jaw making him gasp. "I'm not so sure I believe that, sugar." She mumbled into his thick neck. "I think you're the type of man that could make even a girl like me blush. I bet you're well equipped…." She trailed off.
Kagome's torturous kissing to his neck, her trademark, finally calmed the man, his nervousness vanishing in an instant. He grabbed her by the waist, pushed himself against her, and planted a scratchy kiss on her shoulder and a bruising hand on her breast. Kagome winced physically but let out a throaty theatrical moan. She felt his erection against her thigh and a wave of nausea passed over her. The nausea wouldn't leave until morning came. It never left before then. She had to suppress a gag when he began grinding himself against her and instead grabbed his shirt to lift it over his head. Underneath he wore a girdle to contain his mass.
"Sorry." He apologized and proceeded to remove the item.
"Don't worry about it, sugar. I think it's sexy. Here, let me do it for you…" And thus the night began.
A while later, once the pudgy little man was finally spent (he had a lot of pent up sexual frustration) he said his thank you and the typical "that was the best I've ever had" speech, while handing her a wad of cash. He changed and left, a large grin plastered on his face, leaving Kagome alone, naked on the bed.
Once the door shut Kagome jumped out of the bed, opened the window and vomited, unable to quell the nausea. It didn't happen often, but it happened whenever she was confronted with a sadist customer, which thankfully was only about ten percent of the time. "You'd never guess he'd be a sadist by looking at him." She said out loud.
She took the cash and hid it in the moth eaten armchair in the corner and popped in a couple Altoids she hid there as well to mask the sour smell left over from vomiting. She didn't bother to change and instead decided to lay on the bed once more, waiting for her regular, the "user".
The wait wasn't long and the door soon opened. A tall man, a foreign man, with blonde curly locks and dark eyes entered the room and eyed her hungrily. Kagome flashed him her usual smile and noticed he was already hard. He shut the door and undressed himself, then took her in one easy motion. He left just as quickly, tossing an even larger wad of money than the last John on the armchair as he passed.
He gave her the usual "I'll see you in two weeks" and she was left alone once more. The nausea returned, but this time she did not vomit. Instead, she stared at the ceiling praying to whatever God existed, if He existed, that this nightmare would soon end. It had been three years since the fire, and as each New Years came she made a promise to remove herself from the miserable life she led and find a man that wanted her for her, not her body. She wanted someone to treat her as a person and not just a whore, or the common Tokyo scum. But each year passed without any change.
Kagome got out of the bed and dressed quickly. She straightened the grimy sheets and sat once more in the armchair waiting for her next John.
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The night ended once the first rays of light began filtering in through the soiled window. A few cockroaches scuttled through a hole in the wall as Kagome robed herself and exited the room exhausted and sore. Other girls privileged enough to be granted rooms exited their own rooms and walked down the hallways to their benefactor's office exchanging gossip and horror stories from the evening.
They called him The Benefactor, but really he was their pimp. They gave him the money they made during the course of the evening and he would give back just a fraction. They called him The Benefactor because he readily supplied a good majority of the girls' drugs, needles, and alcohol… whatever made them happy and content to stay. Kagome never tried any of the drugs and never drank.
She would much rather live each day in misery than to live each day masking her true feelings and hatred for the place. She wasn't going to be there much longer anyway, she kept telling herself. Her family debt was nearly paid off and as soon as she saved some money she would be out of there. All she needed was a jump-start, or an extremely wealthy customer.
In front of her was a line leading to The Benefactor's office. All around her was the disgusting smell of sex, perfume, sweat, and god knew what else. There was a tap on her shoulder and she turned around.
It was Yuka. "Hey there, Kags. Busy night?"
Kagome shrugged as if it were no big deal. "A slow one, actually. I guess not too many people were willing to pay The Benefactor's price. Only five Johns. The first was a sadist and a "super stud". Kagome watched as Yuka rolled her eyes.
"I bet you still made way more money than me, you always do! You're so pretty it's no wonder Johns will pay almost any price to be with you."
The girl in front of Kagome was called into the office and the line moved forward. Two more of her associates, Eri and Ayumi, appeared next to them and they began to chat and laugh, exchanging stories.
Within minutes Kagome was called into the office where The Benefactor sat in a plush chair smoking a cigar. Kagome made a face as she entered the room. Cigar smoke was one of her least favorite smells.
"Let's see what the infamous Higurashi Kagome made this evening, shall we?" He flashed a toothy grin and looked her over, his eyes resting on her chest. It happened every time she walked into the office, and each time it made her feel like a piece of meat dangling in front of a starving man.
Kagome took out the wad of bills from within a pocket in her robe and placed it on the wooden desk. The Benefactor flipped through the bills and jotted down some numbers in the book he used to keep track of his finances. After punching some numbers into a calculator he counted back a couple bills and handed them to her. She pocketed them
The Benefactor made a dismissive wave, not looking up from his book, but Kagome stood rooted to the spot. Tonight she had the courage to ask. Tonight she would tell him she was leaving soon.
"Excuse me, sir, may I speak?" If she spoke out of turn or was even the slightest bit rude her chances would be dashed to ribbons. He didn't acknowledge her and instead continued to write in his book. Kagome's temper flared. The biggest scum on the face of the Earth, who sold young girls' bodies for a living, was treating her like trash. How dare he?
"I wanted to let you know that I'll be leaving soon."
The Benefactor stopped writing immediately and looked her in the eyes, his own narrowing maliciously. "What did you say?"
"I said I'll be leaving soon. My family debt is nearly paid off. I won't work here for much longer." She repeated cautiously, aware of the dangerous gleam in his eye.
"No you won't." He stated plainly.
"What? What do you mean?"
"You owe yourself to me. You are indebted to me, whore. You're not leaving."
"Excuse me!" Kagome balled her hands into fists as her anger bubbled dangerously close to the surface. "How am I indebted to you? How much do I owe you and why?" She ground out between her teeth.
Her anger seemed to cause The Benefactor endless amusement and he grinned. "That's right. You, oh prized whore of mine, owe me. I took you in, clothed you, gave you an apartment, and took every medical precaution on you to prevent disease and pregnancy. After two years I gave you privacy privileges so you wouldn't have to work the streets and go home with sick masochists and sadists. I've invested more money in you than most my other whores combined. You owe me a great deal of money."
"You evil, despicable, vile, revolting prick!" Kagome shouted. "I don't owe you jack shit! We had an agreement that I could leave whenever the hell I wanted! You told me that on the first night!"
"Do you have that in writing?" He grinned. "Because I don't recall ever saying such a thing."
"You asshole! You know you said that to me! I made sure we understood each other from the moment I met you! How dare you do this? You will let me leave or else!"
"Or else…what, exactly, whore? You'll call the police? You'll be thrown in the slammer with the rest of them."
"I'll take you down with me if necessary. I know too much about you. It'll be all too easy to take you down." Kagome threatened.
"And there, whore, lies the problem. Don't you fucking see? You know too much for me to just let you go just like that!" He snapped his fingers for emphasis. "You either pay me off real good, or you stay. Those are the only two conditions. Now leave me, whore. I've got work to do. Go back to your studio flat and take a fucking shower, you reek."
Kagome let out a strangled yell and released her anger on his desk by smashing a fist onto the surface. Sharp stabbing pain shot up and down her arm but she refused to let him see. She would not allow any weaknesses to show. So she left.
She huffed past Yuka, Eri, and Ayumi and shouted out "I'm going on ahead. I'll see you three back at the apartment," and continued down the hall to the room where her day clothes were. She quickly changed into her too large, baggy clothing and stuffed her soiled night clothes in a duffle bag before stomping down the hall once more an into the frosty night air.
Then, and only then, did she let the pain in her arm get to her. The duffle bag was dropped to the pavement with a soft thud as she clenched her already bruising hand. It shook terribly and the pain was horrible, but she did not cry. She winced greatly whenever it was jostled about or when she attempted to touch it, so she let it hang at her side and grabbed the duffle bag with the opposite hand before marching down the streets of Tokyo to the one room studio flat she shared with Yuka, Eri, and Ayumi.
Morning rush hour traffic was in full swing by the time Kagome reached the broken down building her apartment was in. She entered the building and fumbled around for a moment in order to find her key with her good hand and without dropping the dufflebag.
The lighting in the hallway was abysmal, flickering on and off. Bugs that had gotten trapped in the fixture lay dead, blocking the remaining light from illuminating the narrow hallway. Somewhere, most likely from the staircase to her right, a cat meowed and padded away unseen and almost unheard. A continuously tinkling bell from the cat's collar was the only indication it was ever there.
Sighing in relief – for these hallways always gave her the creeps – Kagome found her apartment key and shoved it through the lock and turned. The door opened with a squeak and she entered the room closing the door hastily behind her. She locked it and dropped the duffle bag on the floor and peeled her clothing off right then and there and then dropped the filthy clothing on the duffle bag.
Kagome walked the five steps to the small bathroom and turned on the shower, stepping in immediately, and shivered as the cold water flowed down her body as if cleansing her of her immoral deeds and memories. There was no hot water in the apartment, but Kagome was far too used to the cold to care.
She scrubbed her body meticulously, paying particular attention to certain areas. When she was convinced she was clean she turned off the shower, wrung out her hair, and exited the bathroom leaving her skin to air dry. They couldn't afford towels.
Making her way over to the bedroom/living area/kitchen Kagome combed her hair and scoured through the small, almost bare refrigerator for anything edible. Finding a yogurt and deciding it was suffice for breakfast and lunch she ate slowly, not caring that her still sopping wet hair was trickling small rivers of cold water down the curve of her back.
When her meal was gone she dressed herself in clean clothes and grabbed the grimy ones, a roll of coins, and the only book she owned. She left the apartment and walked down the streets of Tokyo once more to the Laundromat to do her laundry. She ignored the appreciative glances and flat-out stares from the men she passed and entered the building. She set about doing her laundry at once and sat in one of the uncomfortable chairs reading her cheap, cheesy romance novel for what seemed like the twentieth time. The book was so used and read the binding had fallen apart and pages were missing.
Kagome immediately lost herself in her novel; the fantasy of it warmed her bruised heart and took her to a place far away from the whorehouse.
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Stupid bitch is reading the same fucking book again. Doesn't she ever get fucking tired of it? Every day it's the same stupid routine. Go be a whore and get paid for having sex when you denied me the pleasure. Then you come home to your roach infested apartment, shower in that rusty shower of yours, and let yourself air dry like some goddess. Then you come here, to the freaking Laundromat to get the stink out of your clothes. And you read the same freaking book, every day while you wait.
But soon, love, soon you won't be reading that book anymore. Soon I'll have that revenge I promised you.
I'll do it slowly at first. I've waited far too long to get it over with quickly.
I'll play with your mind a bit… make you fucking paranoid and jumpy like a skittish cat. Then I'll take her down first. Maybe if you're lucky I'll let you watch!
Oh look, there's that man again. Ya know, the sixty year old pervert who comes to the Laundromat to stare at your ass every day. See? You're pulling your clothes out of the dryer and he's staring. I like it when you bend over too, love. It makes me hard.
Ooh! Booyah! The sixty year old pervert got caught by the ugly little fat wife! Ouch, that slap looked it like it hurt. Too bad it wasn't you being slapped, love. I would have enjoyed seeing that. Oh look, now the wife is dragging dear old hubby out by his ear!
So that leaves just you in there, love. Should I come in and say hi?
No, not yet. It's far too soon. There's still planning to be done, victims to choose, lives to destroy.
But maybe I should leave you a calling card at your house? Yeah, make you freaking paranoid and jumpy like a skittish cat, I will. Maybe I'll pull a move like out of the movie The Godfather and leave a dead horse head in your bed. But where would I get a horse from?
Okay, so maybe I'll leave you a taunting note instead… like pin up a poster of some porno star with the word "WHORE" written all over it on your front door?
Stupid bitch. You have no idea I'm here, standing right outside the crusty window of the Laundromat, smoking this cigar, thinking of you while you work. Blissfully stupid…blissfully beautiful bitch.
Let's just see how you like the present I'm going to leave you. Heh. But don't worry. It'll be the first of many gifts I'm about to give you.
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There was an odd prickling sensation that made the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stand up. There was only one other time Kagome could recall feeling like this and it was the day her life crashed down all around her… the day of the fire.
She straightened herself and looked over her shoulder, expecting to see some sinister being cackling manically from a dark alley across the street from the Laundromat or even just some old codger staring at her creepily from behind one of the dirty magazines the place supplied. But she was alone in the Laundromat, and there was no alley across the street.
The prickling sensation, like she was being watched, dimmed and eventually went away, but Kagome remained on her guard. The prickling sensation had left a foreboding after feeling, almost like she wasn't out of the woods just yet.
Quickly, Kagome finished folding the last of her clothes and grabbed her tattered novel in order to leave. She walked briskly back to her apartment, that foreboding feeling never leaving.
She reached her apartment building by eleven and climbed the stairs to her third story apartment. As she climbed the last flight of stairs a tangy smell reached her nose and she furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. It wasn't uncommon to smell sulphur in the building seeing as how the water wasn't the best, but the tangy scent was a new one.
Kagome rounded the corner of the hallway and stopped in her tracks, not entirely sure what the mass at the base of her door was. But whatever it was, it was the source of the tangy stench. A liquid was spread around it, soaking into the already stained carpeting.
She took a few steps forward and then jumped back, horrified… too horrified to let out even a screech of surprise.
There were a few voices behind her and she turned around to face her three roommates. Their chatting died instantly upon seeing Kagome's face.
"Kagome! What's wrong? You're as pale as death! You look like you've seen a ghost!" Ayumi raced down the hall and saw the mass on the floor. She made an odd choking noise and gripped Kagome hard by the shoulders lending comfort and taking comfort.
"What in the devil's name is that?" Yuka pointed. Eri took a few steps closer and inspected the tangy lump.
Eri was noticeably the bravest of the four, and the oldest at twenty-three. She serviced three years as an emergency medical technician but her license was taken away and her finances torn asunder when a greedy person filed a lawsuit against her, paid the right lawyer the right amount of money, and won a hefty sum.
"I think… that's Mr. Hokkaido's cat from the upstairs apartment. What happened to it? I can barely recognize it! It's like another animal tore it apart and the poor thing crawled back here and died!" Eri announced.
"Ugh! That's absolutely disgusting! That poor creature!" Ayumi cried out, hugging Kagome. Ayumi was the vegetarian in the group and couldn't stand seeing innocent animals hurt.
"Should we call someone, like the police or animal control? What about all this blood?" Yuka inquired.
"I think we should call the police," Kagome whispered. "I have never seen an animal look like that, even when it has been attacked by another animal. I can even imagine a rabid dog doing something so grotesque."
"I agree." Eri stated.
They called the police from a neighbor's phone and waited for them to arrive. The police called for animal control to clean up the remains and the cat's death was deemed as the result of another animal. There were claw marks and a canine was found in the bloodied mess.
But Kagome couldn't help but wonder about that prickling sensation and foreboding feeling. Surely it couldn't have been a coincidence, could it?
She shrugged it off and crawled under a blanket on the lumpy couch to sleep until she had to work that evening.
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AN: I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter. I think this story is going to be a really fun one to write. The next chapter will be up soon and I'll introduce Inuyasha and Miroku, though they won't meet Kagome. Their stories will provide much amusement… well, Miroku's will anyway. Until then.
