Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or its characters. They are the sole property of Takahashi Rumiko.

Kagome opened her eyes.

It made no difference. The darkness behind her eyelids matched the darkness that surrounded her. It was utterly quiet.

She inwardly cringed and thought to herself bitterly that there seemed to be nothing beyond death after all. She almost wanted to laugh, disgusted at herself and anyone else that had been foolish enough to have believed that there would be something. 'Stupid.'

She heard a shuffling noise coming from somewhere within the darkness and instinctively tried to turn her head towards it. The piercing pain she felt as the nerves in her neck screamed out against the sudden movement, tore into her, leaving her thoughtless for a few moments. She bit her lip, clenched her eyes closed, and tried to grab onto something; only managing to drag her nails across cold hard stone. When the pain died down some she became aware that she had been sitting and leaning back against it. 'Was she in a cave?' And when she opened her eyes again she saw glimmers of gold within the darkness, eyes she realized, and they were focused on her.

She let the darkness and silence continue to reign for a few moments and then Kagome spoke.

"Am I dead?" she asked, having convinced herself that he was somehow just her punishment in the afterlife. She had witnessed the bloodlust that filled those eyes with crimson and she had known she was going to die. Reliving that over and over again certainly sounded like the punishment of hell to her.

He didn't say anything in response but his golden eyes remained fixed on her. She shifted a little, uncomfortable against the stone and was struck with another wave of sharp pain in her neck. She whimpered.

"Do you feel dead?" His deep voice cut through her sharper than the nerves in her neck.

She was about to answer that she didn't know what being dead would feel like but then she considered how she could feel the cold surrounding her and the throbbing aches and pains that kept assaulting her at every turn. And she could certainly feel the heat from the deep penetrating gaze that he hadn't faltered in leveling her with and before she knew it she'd answered something different.

"No." her mouth answered for her, she didn'tfeel dead. She supposed feeling dead didn't even make sense.

"Then would it matter if you were?" He asked with a small amount of amusement that she probably wouldn't have caught if he wasn't the only thing that she could pay attention to in the darkness.

"I guess not." She murmured quietly, somewhat distraught that she'd come to the conclusion that it didn't matter if she was dead as long as she didn't feel it. It seemed wrong.

He laughed, low in his throat. It spread around the room and then into her. She shivered. It felt dark and empty and full of something else she didn't quite understand, something vital.

Slowly he sauntered towards her. Golden eyes grew closer and then lowered to her eye level. She could just make out the paleness of his skin. He reached out, clawed fingers raking against her cheeks as she realized they were wet with tears she didn't remember crying. They lowered to grip her chin.

"W-What are you doing?" she managed to ask as his face inched closer to hers, his gaze never faltering. She could hear her own heartbeat and thought that if it had been beating any harder it would have deafened her ears. Her eyes went wide as his tongue divested her face of the remnants of her salty tears.

"Hnn…" He said, unceremoniously dropping his hand from her chin, and drawing blood as he backed away, "I should have killed you."

Regret

Kagome realized.

His laugh had felt dark and empty and full of regret.

Word Count: 643