Beast
Chapter 3
=============================
Souta groaned in pain as he opened his eyes. Something wet and sticky was dripping from somewhere above him, beside him, somewhere......he couldn't tell.......his head hurt so badly. He was laying prone on a large cobblestone floor, green ooze gushing from between the stones, puddles of some indiscernible substance pooling up in the gaps where mortar once lay. Once again he tried to open his eyes completely, wincing in pain as the dim light from a barred window above him filtered into... into, whatever he was in.
He tried to move his arms, only to hear the rattling of chains, heavy and cumbersome. Shackles were on his feet, and it looked like he had been dragged down a gravel road by a car. His hands were covered in open abrasions, and his arms looked like spaghetti and meatballs, muscles exposed from shattered flesh, bones protruding in shatters. Gasping in pain, he tried to sit up, only to have more....of the sticky liquid, no, blood pour down from a large gash in his forehead. His dark brown hair was matted with thick clumps of dried blood and his clothes were torn and dirty.
Looking around, he vaguely recognized his surroundings. He had been taken to one of the old syndicate cells, dirty and musty from lack of use. There was no telling what kind of things grew here, or how long he would be imprisoned. What had happened to him? Why was he here? All he could remember was Inuyasha, and then... nothing.
Yelping in pain, he tried to finish the action of sitting up, hoping he could reach the nearest wall to prop himself up against. But once again, he was foiled. His feet were anchored into the ground with large chains, each one encircling his feet. His shoes were torn, and his socks were gone. Each and every one of his toenails had been torn off in some means of cruel torture. Crying out in despair, his thoughts rushed to his sister, at home perhaps? What if.....what if Inuyasha found out about her?! Sobbing, he realized he had failed on the one mission he had set out to accomplish.
Looking up to the small vent of light in the wall above him, he screamed his anguish,
"Kagome...KAGOME!"
Collapsing, he fell on the floor, blood beginning to gush again from his shattered arms. Whimpering in pain, he laid there...darkness falling on his cell. This was the pit of despair.....the hell hole of all hell holes........and Souta suffered, lying there, in pain. Realizing that he had met his end....and his sister would soon meet hers.............
=====================
Kagome sighed in contentment as Hojo opened her door for her, allowing her to step out of the limousine with ease. Smiling at him, she took his offered arm as the two of them made their way into her building. The doorman nodded to them both, and Hojo tipped him profusely for holding the door. Kissing her temple, Hojo escorted her to the elevator, where he pushed her into the plush walls, sitting her on the bench below him as he kissed her exposed neck. Giggling, and quite happy due to the many glasses of champagne she had drank that night, Kagome teased him, trailing her fingers up and down his neck, blowing in his ear.
The two stumbled out of the elevator somewhat disheveled when the bell rang for the eighteenth floor. Laughing, Hojo picked her up and twirled her around, loving the sound of her tinkling laughter in his ear. He set her down gently at her door, smiling in delight at the beautiful angel below him, loving the way the one dimple on her left cheek shone out when she laughed.
"Do you need anything else, my lady?" he whispered.
"I think I'm fine, my lord." she giggled.
He dropped down on one knee, kissing her hand gallantly, watching as she opened her doors and walked in, and never even noticing that they were already ajar. She turned around quickly, rewarding him with the slightest of butterfly kisses.
"Goodbye Kagome. I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Yes Hojo. Same time?"
"Of course. We've got a shoot tomorrow, remember?"
"Yes Hojo, I remember."
"That means you have to look your absolute best baby." he said to her, watching her blush at his pet name for her.
"I will Hojo, I will." she said, a slight laughing tone entering her voice as she shook her long black hair from its large messy bun. "Good night." She blew him a kiss and shut the door, shutting her eyes as she listened to him walk down the hall. She placed a hand to her chest and positively beamed. She had a rich designer boyfriend, and made over forty thousand dollars for every picture that was taken of her. She was popular, she was rich, and to top it all off, she was young AND beautiful. Life couldn't get any better.
Sighing she leafed through the mail she had placed on the kidney shaped coffee table earlier that day. She, once again, threw away another movie script. She might be a model, but that sure as heck didn't mean she could act! Unless they wanted to cast her for an extra, she wasn't going to have anything to do with it. Throwing away another credit card offer, she took a bottle of water out of the ice chest underneath her humongous salt water aquarium, waving hi to one of her clown fish, and sticking her tongue out at a large moray eel. Opening it, she plopped down on the couch and read through an issue of 'Cosmo' that featured her on the front cover, dressed in a low cut black corset shirt with red lacings. A rose was tucked behind one of her ears, and her oriental eyes were shimmering with gold glitter. Large silver hoop earrings dangling from her ears were intertwined with pieces from the silver hair net like piece she had been wearing. It had dropped over her long hair coming down to rest above her eyes, dangling small semi-precious gems. Dragons drooped from the side pieces, falling through the large hoops. Her midriff slightly showed, her belly button sporting a silver and blue hoop stud. Her low slung pants were made of black leather, laced together with red. She had to admit, she was hot.
Looking down at the outfit she wore now, she had to agree that the standard she presented on the magazine was well kept up. Tall lace up dark purple boots with spike heels went up to her thighs, followed by ribbons that laced all the way up under her skirt. Her skirt was mauve purple, sheer silks of different shades giving it a full flower petal look. The bodice of the outfit was loose, long bell sleeves dropping down to her knees, the midriff sheer up to her bust line. From there on up, the shirt became a dark sexy purple, tied with a matching choker-like ensemble around her neck. Earrings with amethyst inserts dangled down to her bare shoulders, their silver color twinkling in the light from her nearby lamp. Her face was painted in exotic designs, her eyes surrounded by globs of gorgeous light pink. The overall effect was absolutely gorgeous.
Giggling, she put down the magazine and reached up to take her earrings off as she turned to walk down her hallway. She walked into her bathroom and turned on the lights, revealing a large sauna like tub with mirrors surrounding it. A large counter area was covered in makeup, and clips from her various shoots. She placed her earrings in a cat shaped holder, and took off her choker, laying it in the same place. Undressing as she went, she walked towards the tub and began to run a hot bath, wiping her hands on a nearby terry cloth towel. Standing in nothing but her boots and undergarments, she reached over to find her bath bubbles, opening the lid and delving into the delicious sent of Bath and Body Work's Cucumber Melon. She turned the bottle over to begin pouring a cap full into the tub. Frowning, she watched as only a small sliver of soap came out from the bottle. Placing the bottle down, she grumpily stood up, walking out into the hall again, and down to her room so she could retrieve another bottle from her stock. She paused, almost swearing she had just seen something out of the corner of her eye. Something black..... She turned, walking cautiously into the living room and looking around. Shaking her head in annoyance, she returned to the hall.
Slightly scared, and in her haste to retrieve her bubbles, she didn't even bother to turn on the lights as she sped down the hall towards her room. Walking straight to her closet she opened the door and reached towards the shelf where her bubbles lay waiting. Just as she had gotten her bubbles, she heard a freakish gurgling sound from behind her. Whirling, she almost screamed as she heard the muffled sound of someone else breathing in the room besides her. Foot steps shuffled towards her, and she backed away quickly, feeling for the switch on the wall that would shed light on the situation before her. Suddenly she tripped over something, and it groaned in pain. Squealing in fear she threw her hand backwards, the bottle of bubbles colliding with the light switch. It was an action she would always regret doing.
Before her, a bloody massacre had been played out. What she had tripped over was a mutilated body, blood gushing from numerous slashes down its back. Another body dangled from the chandelier that hung suspended from her vaulted ceilings, its grotesque bloated features slacking to the sides as blood dripped from its mouth and nose. Screaming she stared at the bloody hand prints that littered the wall, blood dripping and oozing from the ceiling. The gurgling sound came again, and she whirled, seeing Hojo standing there, his arms open, eyes dazed.
"Hojo!" she screamed, throwing herself into his arms "I don't know what happened, these people, these people......." she faded off into silence as she gaped at the huge hole in his skull, exposed brain leaking onto her boots as he toppled on top of her. Screaming in horror, she turned in circles her eyes almost rolling back into her head as she made her way to the nearest door, which happened to be her closet. Opening it, she found a bloody hand hanging from one of her many sets of panty hose. She began to vomit, the overwhelming sent of blood and flesh assaulting her nose. She could vaguely hear water pouring down the hall as the water in her bath tub began to spill over.
Screaming, she ran from the gory scene, slipping in the hallway on the large amounts of water pouring out of her bathroom. She winced in pain as she felt her left ankle snap, her high boots had prevented her ankle from shifting when she fell, resulting in the break. Crawling, sobbing, she squelched her way down the hall, blood washing down her legs as it began to leak from the ceiling above. She made it to her door, reaching up as high as she could to try and reach the ever illusive doorknob, her escape from this bloody nightmare.
Footsteps sounded behind her, splashing in the water that was ever steadily coming towards her. She tried to turn around, but slipped falling face first into the floor, yelping in pain as her ankle twisted more in its already broken position. She reached again for the doorknob as an eerie laugh echoed behind her, its sound echoing off the walls of her apartment as a violent growl. Her fingernails dug into the door as she reached again, whimpering as she felt the vibrations of the footsteps coming closer, and the splashing of the pooling water behind her, blood mixing with the water around her.
Screaming for help, she began to beat on the door, the foot steps slowing to a halt as heavy breath began to heat her neck. "Going somewhere baby?" it whispered, licking her ear. Kagome froze as the heavy handed beast began to reach it's hands around her neck. Whimpering in fear, her face still in the water, Kagome struggled against him as the hands tightened, cutting off her air supply. Gasping for breath, she began to turn red, and then blue as the hands continued their murderous onslaught on her young throat. Her eyes began to glaze over as she lost consciousness, and then, no more.
=============================
You have NO IDEA how close I was to stopping there!
But I know I would've gotten heck for it, so I continued.
=============================
"We've got her, Inuyasha!" Ginta exclaimed as he opened the doors to the large black stretch limo. "Inuya...." his cries were cut off abruptly as he and the burden he carried in his arms were unmercifully dragged into the expensive vehicle, Ginta thrashing in terror as claws began to cut into the sides of his neck, drifting precariously close to his jugular.
A face crept out of the darkness inside so quickly that Ginta ceased his struggles prematurely, allowing the creature full access to his throat. Whimpering in fear, Ginta slowly blinked his large eyes, their green structure clashing with the red color of his face.
As abruptly as he was grabbed, he was thrown, his burden relieved of him in one fell motion. The girl was laid down carefully as with a quick back flip, his master effectively shoved his face into the tinted back window of the limo. "Do you mind?!" a voice hissed viciously. Ginta squeaked as he was shoved into the floor underneath the human-like foot of his master, the monstrous proportions of the owner of his very existence coming into view as he bent completely in half, his features becoming more and more defined in the murky darkness of the interior of the vehicle. "You just practically blurted out to the ENTIRE street that we were kidnapping her! Did anyone ever teach you any couth, any sublime interest in keeping this entire project a secret?! Do you want to blow my cover as a business man? I've got to keep a low profile! I know Higurashi is now our prisoner, but that does NOT give us the ability to go SCREAMING in the streets about how nicely we completed a mass murder and kidnapping! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!"
Ginta whimpered a sound that remarkably resembled a squeak, which Inuyasha mercifully took as a yes. This project had gone well, and he did not want to alert Sesshoumaru of his whereabouts. His brother was too interested in the properties of the sword he now called "Tetsusaiga" and he would do anything to get it. Sesshoumaru in turn had betrayed one of his most loyal compadres, Souta Higurashi. Higurashi would never see the light of another day after tomorrow; depending on the cooperation of the girl...yes...the girl...
Shaking thoughts of his beautiful captive from his mind, he walked towards the front of the limo, leaving a bruised and shaken Ginta behind him. With a snarl he rapped on the window keeping the driver out of his view. With a whoosh, the window dropped, and a small, twitchy little man appeared in his view.
"Yes, Inuyasha?"
With a growl of annoyance, Inuyasha turned great golden eyes upon the man, pupils contracting as they focused solely on him.
"Drive on, Myouga."
=============================
Two large wooden doors adorned with a large gold dragon shimmered in the moonlight sifting through tapestry covered windows, the large ornate door handles made of melted gold in the shape of flames. The eyes of the dragon were made with large elaborately crafted and cut rubies with a sapphire set in the center. The entire dragon was covered in beaten jade, placed on so thin the gold shown through, moonlight rainbows shining on the many walls of the surrounding corridors, their dark cherry hardwood shining with elegance.
Large silk curtains hung over the windows above, falling over a hundred feet from the cathedral ceilings to the floor. Flying buttresses adorned with vicious gargoyles doing an endless sentry duty over the halls of their might home, sentries that would never say a word. Not even about a young black haired beauty who limped through those doors, a long vibrant red dress adorning her figure, dragons leaping, flames charging over the soft fabric. Cautiously, she approached the edge of her range of vision, carefully looking in both directions. Her left leg was twisted oddly, its swollen edge protruding from the bottom of the gown. This girl was our abducted, Kagome Higurashi. She did not know who had changed her clothes. All she knew was that she had to get out of this place. come hell or high water!
Once she was sure the coast was clear, she began to hobble as fast as she could down the hall, her slight whimpers of pain echoing throughout the large building. She had made sure to shut her door, but was quite sure that her captors would hunt after her as soon as she was discovered missing. Unsure of her whereabouts, she whirled down the nearest flight of steps, dragging her useless leg behind her as she tried not to slip on the moldy surface. She had descended what must have been over a hundred steps at a slow crawl as she desperately tried to find a way out of this infinite labyrinth.
Vaguely, she could hear the sounds in the corridors above and around her, and listening she heard what must have been her own doors slammed open. Voices began to shout, and she heard footsteps descending on the stairs behind her. Stumbling, she fell, tumbling down the vast number of stairs, trying not to cry out as her already punished body was put to one of the most brutal beatings of its life.
When she reached the bottom, her model's figure was torn to shreds, cuts seeping blood onto the cold coble stones below her. Hearing the footsteps echoing at an even quicker cadence, she dragged her body towards something that only the most desperate person would see. Not even the guards who patrolled the corridor knew of its existence. A door.
This door was covered in thick mold, its rusty handle barely protruding from the wall, and not enough for good traction. Dragging her beaten self towards the exit, she could have screamed as De Ja Vu bit her in the butt again. Once more, her ankle prohibited her from reaching the only means to escape the situation, but this time, Kagome was in luck.
Her desperate, searching fingers found a chain linked around the door handle, disguised well against the dark floor due to its coloring. She grabbed it fiercely, pulling her tiny body upright as she reached for the handle, wrenching it open and disappearing into the depths on the other side. The heavy door shut quickly, slamming her into darkness, wet things dripping all around her, startling her.
As her eyes adjusted, she panicked. All around her were bones and rotting bodies, their decomposing stench filling the rotting air, permeating it with its nauseating fumes. Gagging silently, she tentatively crawled further into her hiding place, its aura of death slightly un-nerving her. The darkness would not allow her to see the boundaries of the chamber she now resided in, so she never saw the gaping hole before her, barred and grim. Once again, Kagome reached forward, her sense of touch the only thing that could guide her in the inky blackness of her tomb.
She toppled forward as her hand slid through the slimy mouth of an opening, screeching in fright as her hand encountered something solid in the darkness. Her arm was caught, hung in between the bars of a large box like opening, her circulation being cut off as she desperately tried to retrieve her wayward limb from its precarious position.
=========================
Souta groaned as he heard a scrambling noise above him. Loud and raucous, it was the sound of someone trying to get away from something. He opened his blood shot eyes from his now rotting body and stared as bright eyes illuminated the darkness before him, an arm was hanging from an opening above, elaborate traces of fabric gracing its feminine proportions. Some of the pieces were torn, and a substantial gash was visible on the hand of the arm.
The noise was someone above him trying to retrieve their arm from the gap in between the cell bars, the same ones that had once given an eerie glow to the death chamber of his soul. A panicked screech came from the above said person, sobbing as they yanked and pulled at the bars, their worried thrashings probably alerting the nether-things that still lived in the depths of the cells around him, species of creatures long forgotten, who would take this new comer as a snack, desperately needed for their insatiable stomachs.
A flash of light echoed throughout the cell doors, as the guards made their rounds for the night, and Souta stared, as the face above him, tear stained and dirty was illuminated in the darkness, his almost dead eyes tearing as he saw the face of his most dear companion, his sister Kagome.
=========================
The light went away as fast as it had come, the frightened girl wary of the darkness it once again exposed her too. As she groped her way back upwards towards the bars, striving to get her hand out of its trap, something grabbed onto her hand. Screaming in fright, she yanked backwards, screaming again when a yell came from the hole below her. What had grabbed her was crusty, and dripping of a wet substance that was slightly sticky. As she dug her fingernails into the foreign object she was startled to hear the voice of her brother echo from the depths below her, like a spirit from the realm beyond, returning to warn of some ominous future.
"Kag...Kagome... " it rattled, death evident in its very tone.
"Sou...SOUTA?!" she clamored, tears dripping from her eyes and down her face as she clung tightly to the arm below her, sobbing as she looked at the poor boy. He was covered in blood, his eyes half opened, lying in a pool of his own bodily secretions and fluids. Pus poured from the arm she held, the pressure she placed on it causing a large abscess in his exposed flesh to pop.
Crying out in pain, Souta cried too as he saw that his sister, his beloved family member, was still alive, still safe, despite the bruises circling her thin neck, and the scratches and scrapes that gored her once flawless skin. "Why? How? Are you okay?" he croaked, worries lifted off of his young shoulders as he saw that his sister was indeed alive, and somewhat safe.
"I don't know, I woke up here! Souta, oh Souta it was awful! Hojo...he, he... "she sobbed, the tears from her cerulean eyes so great that they began to pool around his immobile feet, his sideways-cocked head watching her from a position of utmost vulnerability. Souta began to coo soft condolences in her direction, the sound of her musical voice already refreshing his tired ears, ears that had been ready to give up on hearing ever again. But now...now he had her once more. His baby angel had come back to him.
He listened to her sob, and suddenly he realized that this was fate! That he must warn her of her impending brush with Inuyasha, coughing bile out of his sore throat he began to open his mouth as she clung onto his hand, her desperate silent cry for help and protection giving him the strength to resist this torture once more. He had opened his mouth, ready to tell her everything, when it happened.
The door that Kagome had opened earlier swung open violently, a shadowed figure dashing into the room as the door swung shut, its form barely visible in the shadowy light of the doorway. It quickly faded into nothing as Kagome clung tightly to her brother's arm her breathing becoming the only noise in the room, echoing off of the walls as she panted, the exertion of dragging her torn body into this room, and the elation she felt over finding her brother, although he seemed to be on death's door, had used up the last reserves of her ever dwindling strength.
Something swooshed behind her, touching her backside lightly as she squeezed her eyes tightly shut, in avoidance to the realities that surrounded her. It bumped her again, like a shark, testing out the taste of an unknown source of food, causing her to yelp.
"Who's there?!" Kagome shrieked, her black hair falling in her eyes as she clung to her brother's mutilated hand through the bars of his cell.
"My, my...what have we here?" came a raspy whisper.
Shrinking in fright, Kagome's eyes widened to the size of saucers, trembling, as a monster stepped out from the shadows. Claws hung unsheathed from slender fingers, warped with chemical burns, slitted golden eyes shining at her in the darkness, the entire form of the creature swathed in the elegant red she had found in the chamber she had awoken in earlier. It crept down to her level, the clawed hand grabbing her chin, holding it still as she was examined by it, long silver tresses falling onto her barely clad bosom, the thin red material hardly the exemplary fabric of the modest. Teeth protruded from its mouth as it came closer to her, a sharp nose coming into sight, stripes of burgundy streaking its cheeks, the eyes staring her down almost hungrily.
She was frozen, still clinging with some desperate sixth sense to her older brother's hand, enjoying the minimum comfort she found in his beaten body, even though he could no longer protect her. "Who...Who are you?" she whispered, tears still dripping down her cheeks in a silent mantra of despair.
"I am Inuyasha, master of this place." came the sinister reply, like death, calling for its next victim.
"Then why is my brother imprisoned here?" she gasped, as his hands began to drift from her neck downwards, her caught arm preventing her from running, but she wouldn't have tried to get away anyways.
"Your brother?" he continued, ears protruding from the top of his skull in an interested manner, catching her gaze, keeping her preoccupied as his hands continued their laborious run down her sides, distracting her. "Let's just say your brother owes me." he growled, the vibration rocking the floor below her in its intensity, bones crashing down from above and around them, as the man, wait, no the animal, before her raised its hackles like a dog, its nose sniffing for the rotting stench of his prisoner.
"Owes you?" she chattered, the cold air of the dungeon giving her goose bumps, the thin, sheer fabric of the dress barely allowing her room to breath, much less warmth.
"Yes, that's why he's here wench!" he snarled, demonic red creeping into the amber eyes that now lingered on the hole where her arm resided. "In fact, I believe he has lived long enough." he chuckled, breath steaming from his face as he drew a large sword from a sheath on his back, the glow the sword gave off reverberating off the walls as she stared in awe. He brought the sword down in an arc, aiming directly for the cell below her, regardless of whether he took her with it or not. Just as the sword neared the floor, its large body swirling with clouds of blue, she screamed.
Inuyasha froze, teeth glinting off of his gums as he turned, open mouthed at the audacity of the bitch before him. His hand raising backwards as he unsheathed his claws to their full extent to strike her, his arm whistling as he slammed it towards her. She threw up her tiny right hand, the one that was loose, to block it, screaming as he broke her fragile arm. Sobbing as she fell into a broken heap.
"No...." she cried "You mustn't! Please don't hurt him anymore!" she wailed, the pain throbbing throughout her body, joining the pain of her ankle, her cries echoing in the dungeon, bouncing off the walls, eerily making it sound as if the countless dead bodies had returned to life, screaming their endless anguish to their killers. Inuyasha froze, staring angrily at the girl, this girl, sobbing before him, this girl who was broken .He turned, swearing, sheathing his sword as he began to walk away from her, leaving her to rot in the same prison with her brother, a useless bitch with two broken limbs, and one jammed in a pair of old rusty bars.
He opened the door, silhouetted against the dim light from the hall, reaching for the lever to pull it shut when she cried out for him. "Inuyasha!" it came, soft and yet loud in the stillness, as death once again began to befall her brother below her, his one hope for escape, his lovely flower blossom of a sister had been hurt. He knew there was a good possibility that they would never leave this place alive and he could never forgive himself for her death here as well as his.
He would never know why he replied, perhaps the fates were once again returning to their wheels, snipping at wires and strings to fulfill the worldly balance of life. "What?" he said, coming out as a growl as he turned again to look at the forlorn figure behind him, gore surrounding the body he had told a servant to clothe earlier in one of the finest robes available for any woman in his compound.
She looked up at him, the blue eyes shining with a crystalline like liquid, rolling down her cheeks in streams as she gasped in pain. "Please...please my brother is sick, he is dying! You MONSTER! You can not leave him here!" she cried.
"And why not? You have nothing to offer me wench. You have two broken limbs, and after lying in these bodies for god knows how long you stink. If you had just stayed put, everything would have worked out in your favor." he turned again, his large back filling the narrow doorway, muscles protruding from his arms as he made to shut the door again.
Wrenching her left arm violently, she managed to retrieve it from its trap, the gaping bars, leaving her dying brother below as she crawled towards the beast before her. "Wait......." she called again, her black hair covering her exposed shoulders, blood dripping from a small gash above her eyebrow "Take...take me instead."
"Perfect..." Inuyasha growled.
======================
Uh oh! Kagome made a boo boo? Maybe, maybe not! There's no telling what's gonna happen next in Beast! Thank ya'll so much for the wonderful reviews I've gotten so far. I'm open to all suggestions, but no flames please, unless you're ready to get flamed back, lol. Trust me, I'm writing far better than I feel right now. I have the worst cough/runny nose/pounding head ache/fever and I'm gonna stay home from school tomorrow with my me maw. It's taken me almost a week to write this chapter...and it's been hard! I had to write over certain parts and take other parts out. It should be longer than the previous two chapters, at least I think it is.
I'm also thinking about writing an Inuyasha/Kagome fic based on the movie Sleepless in Seattle. I saw that today on the Superstation as I lay in my mom's gigantic bed with my cats, Booger and Cody, a bottle of water, and a giant bag of the new flavor of Hall's, non-mentholated cough drops. I love my cats, lol (wait, it hurts to laugh....shoot). Well I gotta go, here's your preview for next time.
Revised on 5/6/2004 :P
Chapter 3
=============================
Souta groaned in pain as he opened his eyes. Something wet and sticky was dripping from somewhere above him, beside him, somewhere......he couldn't tell.......his head hurt so badly. He was laying prone on a large cobblestone floor, green ooze gushing from between the stones, puddles of some indiscernible substance pooling up in the gaps where mortar once lay. Once again he tried to open his eyes completely, wincing in pain as the dim light from a barred window above him filtered into... into, whatever he was in.
He tried to move his arms, only to hear the rattling of chains, heavy and cumbersome. Shackles were on his feet, and it looked like he had been dragged down a gravel road by a car. His hands were covered in open abrasions, and his arms looked like spaghetti and meatballs, muscles exposed from shattered flesh, bones protruding in shatters. Gasping in pain, he tried to sit up, only to have more....of the sticky liquid, no, blood pour down from a large gash in his forehead. His dark brown hair was matted with thick clumps of dried blood and his clothes were torn and dirty.
Looking around, he vaguely recognized his surroundings. He had been taken to one of the old syndicate cells, dirty and musty from lack of use. There was no telling what kind of things grew here, or how long he would be imprisoned. What had happened to him? Why was he here? All he could remember was Inuyasha, and then... nothing.
Yelping in pain, he tried to finish the action of sitting up, hoping he could reach the nearest wall to prop himself up against. But once again, he was foiled. His feet were anchored into the ground with large chains, each one encircling his feet. His shoes were torn, and his socks were gone. Each and every one of his toenails had been torn off in some means of cruel torture. Crying out in despair, his thoughts rushed to his sister, at home perhaps? What if.....what if Inuyasha found out about her?! Sobbing, he realized he had failed on the one mission he had set out to accomplish.
Looking up to the small vent of light in the wall above him, he screamed his anguish,
"Kagome...KAGOME!"
Collapsing, he fell on the floor, blood beginning to gush again from his shattered arms. Whimpering in pain, he laid there...darkness falling on his cell. This was the pit of despair.....the hell hole of all hell holes........and Souta suffered, lying there, in pain. Realizing that he had met his end....and his sister would soon meet hers.............
=====================
Kagome sighed in contentment as Hojo opened her door for her, allowing her to step out of the limousine with ease. Smiling at him, she took his offered arm as the two of them made their way into her building. The doorman nodded to them both, and Hojo tipped him profusely for holding the door. Kissing her temple, Hojo escorted her to the elevator, where he pushed her into the plush walls, sitting her on the bench below him as he kissed her exposed neck. Giggling, and quite happy due to the many glasses of champagne she had drank that night, Kagome teased him, trailing her fingers up and down his neck, blowing in his ear.
The two stumbled out of the elevator somewhat disheveled when the bell rang for the eighteenth floor. Laughing, Hojo picked her up and twirled her around, loving the sound of her tinkling laughter in his ear. He set her down gently at her door, smiling in delight at the beautiful angel below him, loving the way the one dimple on her left cheek shone out when she laughed.
"Do you need anything else, my lady?" he whispered.
"I think I'm fine, my lord." she giggled.
He dropped down on one knee, kissing her hand gallantly, watching as she opened her doors and walked in, and never even noticing that they were already ajar. She turned around quickly, rewarding him with the slightest of butterfly kisses.
"Goodbye Kagome. I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Yes Hojo. Same time?"
"Of course. We've got a shoot tomorrow, remember?"
"Yes Hojo, I remember."
"That means you have to look your absolute best baby." he said to her, watching her blush at his pet name for her.
"I will Hojo, I will." she said, a slight laughing tone entering her voice as she shook her long black hair from its large messy bun. "Good night." She blew him a kiss and shut the door, shutting her eyes as she listened to him walk down the hall. She placed a hand to her chest and positively beamed. She had a rich designer boyfriend, and made over forty thousand dollars for every picture that was taken of her. She was popular, she was rich, and to top it all off, she was young AND beautiful. Life couldn't get any better.
Sighing she leafed through the mail she had placed on the kidney shaped coffee table earlier that day. She, once again, threw away another movie script. She might be a model, but that sure as heck didn't mean she could act! Unless they wanted to cast her for an extra, she wasn't going to have anything to do with it. Throwing away another credit card offer, she took a bottle of water out of the ice chest underneath her humongous salt water aquarium, waving hi to one of her clown fish, and sticking her tongue out at a large moray eel. Opening it, she plopped down on the couch and read through an issue of 'Cosmo' that featured her on the front cover, dressed in a low cut black corset shirt with red lacings. A rose was tucked behind one of her ears, and her oriental eyes were shimmering with gold glitter. Large silver hoop earrings dangling from her ears were intertwined with pieces from the silver hair net like piece she had been wearing. It had dropped over her long hair coming down to rest above her eyes, dangling small semi-precious gems. Dragons drooped from the side pieces, falling through the large hoops. Her midriff slightly showed, her belly button sporting a silver and blue hoop stud. Her low slung pants were made of black leather, laced together with red. She had to admit, she was hot.
Looking down at the outfit she wore now, she had to agree that the standard she presented on the magazine was well kept up. Tall lace up dark purple boots with spike heels went up to her thighs, followed by ribbons that laced all the way up under her skirt. Her skirt was mauve purple, sheer silks of different shades giving it a full flower petal look. The bodice of the outfit was loose, long bell sleeves dropping down to her knees, the midriff sheer up to her bust line. From there on up, the shirt became a dark sexy purple, tied with a matching choker-like ensemble around her neck. Earrings with amethyst inserts dangled down to her bare shoulders, their silver color twinkling in the light from her nearby lamp. Her face was painted in exotic designs, her eyes surrounded by globs of gorgeous light pink. The overall effect was absolutely gorgeous.
Giggling, she put down the magazine and reached up to take her earrings off as she turned to walk down her hallway. She walked into her bathroom and turned on the lights, revealing a large sauna like tub with mirrors surrounding it. A large counter area was covered in makeup, and clips from her various shoots. She placed her earrings in a cat shaped holder, and took off her choker, laying it in the same place. Undressing as she went, she walked towards the tub and began to run a hot bath, wiping her hands on a nearby terry cloth towel. Standing in nothing but her boots and undergarments, she reached over to find her bath bubbles, opening the lid and delving into the delicious sent of Bath and Body Work's Cucumber Melon. She turned the bottle over to begin pouring a cap full into the tub. Frowning, she watched as only a small sliver of soap came out from the bottle. Placing the bottle down, she grumpily stood up, walking out into the hall again, and down to her room so she could retrieve another bottle from her stock. She paused, almost swearing she had just seen something out of the corner of her eye. Something black..... She turned, walking cautiously into the living room and looking around. Shaking her head in annoyance, she returned to the hall.
Slightly scared, and in her haste to retrieve her bubbles, she didn't even bother to turn on the lights as she sped down the hall towards her room. Walking straight to her closet she opened the door and reached towards the shelf where her bubbles lay waiting. Just as she had gotten her bubbles, she heard a freakish gurgling sound from behind her. Whirling, she almost screamed as she heard the muffled sound of someone else breathing in the room besides her. Foot steps shuffled towards her, and she backed away quickly, feeling for the switch on the wall that would shed light on the situation before her. Suddenly she tripped over something, and it groaned in pain. Squealing in fear she threw her hand backwards, the bottle of bubbles colliding with the light switch. It was an action she would always regret doing.
Before her, a bloody massacre had been played out. What she had tripped over was a mutilated body, blood gushing from numerous slashes down its back. Another body dangled from the chandelier that hung suspended from her vaulted ceilings, its grotesque bloated features slacking to the sides as blood dripped from its mouth and nose. Screaming she stared at the bloody hand prints that littered the wall, blood dripping and oozing from the ceiling. The gurgling sound came again, and she whirled, seeing Hojo standing there, his arms open, eyes dazed.
"Hojo!" she screamed, throwing herself into his arms "I don't know what happened, these people, these people......." she faded off into silence as she gaped at the huge hole in his skull, exposed brain leaking onto her boots as he toppled on top of her. Screaming in horror, she turned in circles her eyes almost rolling back into her head as she made her way to the nearest door, which happened to be her closet. Opening it, she found a bloody hand hanging from one of her many sets of panty hose. She began to vomit, the overwhelming sent of blood and flesh assaulting her nose. She could vaguely hear water pouring down the hall as the water in her bath tub began to spill over.
Screaming, she ran from the gory scene, slipping in the hallway on the large amounts of water pouring out of her bathroom. She winced in pain as she felt her left ankle snap, her high boots had prevented her ankle from shifting when she fell, resulting in the break. Crawling, sobbing, she squelched her way down the hall, blood washing down her legs as it began to leak from the ceiling above. She made it to her door, reaching up as high as she could to try and reach the ever illusive doorknob, her escape from this bloody nightmare.
Footsteps sounded behind her, splashing in the water that was ever steadily coming towards her. She tried to turn around, but slipped falling face first into the floor, yelping in pain as her ankle twisted more in its already broken position. She reached again for the doorknob as an eerie laugh echoed behind her, its sound echoing off the walls of her apartment as a violent growl. Her fingernails dug into the door as she reached again, whimpering as she felt the vibrations of the footsteps coming closer, and the splashing of the pooling water behind her, blood mixing with the water around her.
Screaming for help, she began to beat on the door, the foot steps slowing to a halt as heavy breath began to heat her neck. "Going somewhere baby?" it whispered, licking her ear. Kagome froze as the heavy handed beast began to reach it's hands around her neck. Whimpering in fear, her face still in the water, Kagome struggled against him as the hands tightened, cutting off her air supply. Gasping for breath, she began to turn red, and then blue as the hands continued their murderous onslaught on her young throat. Her eyes began to glaze over as she lost consciousness, and then, no more.
=============================
You have NO IDEA how close I was to stopping there!
But I know I would've gotten heck for it, so I continued.
=============================
"We've got her, Inuyasha!" Ginta exclaimed as he opened the doors to the large black stretch limo. "Inuya...." his cries were cut off abruptly as he and the burden he carried in his arms were unmercifully dragged into the expensive vehicle, Ginta thrashing in terror as claws began to cut into the sides of his neck, drifting precariously close to his jugular.
A face crept out of the darkness inside so quickly that Ginta ceased his struggles prematurely, allowing the creature full access to his throat. Whimpering in fear, Ginta slowly blinked his large eyes, their green structure clashing with the red color of his face.
As abruptly as he was grabbed, he was thrown, his burden relieved of him in one fell motion. The girl was laid down carefully as with a quick back flip, his master effectively shoved his face into the tinted back window of the limo. "Do you mind?!" a voice hissed viciously. Ginta squeaked as he was shoved into the floor underneath the human-like foot of his master, the monstrous proportions of the owner of his very existence coming into view as he bent completely in half, his features becoming more and more defined in the murky darkness of the interior of the vehicle. "You just practically blurted out to the ENTIRE street that we were kidnapping her! Did anyone ever teach you any couth, any sublime interest in keeping this entire project a secret?! Do you want to blow my cover as a business man? I've got to keep a low profile! I know Higurashi is now our prisoner, but that does NOT give us the ability to go SCREAMING in the streets about how nicely we completed a mass murder and kidnapping! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!"
Ginta whimpered a sound that remarkably resembled a squeak, which Inuyasha mercifully took as a yes. This project had gone well, and he did not want to alert Sesshoumaru of his whereabouts. His brother was too interested in the properties of the sword he now called "Tetsusaiga" and he would do anything to get it. Sesshoumaru in turn had betrayed one of his most loyal compadres, Souta Higurashi. Higurashi would never see the light of another day after tomorrow; depending on the cooperation of the girl...yes...the girl...
Shaking thoughts of his beautiful captive from his mind, he walked towards the front of the limo, leaving a bruised and shaken Ginta behind him. With a snarl he rapped on the window keeping the driver out of his view. With a whoosh, the window dropped, and a small, twitchy little man appeared in his view.
"Yes, Inuyasha?"
With a growl of annoyance, Inuyasha turned great golden eyes upon the man, pupils contracting as they focused solely on him.
"Drive on, Myouga."
=============================
Two large wooden doors adorned with a large gold dragon shimmered in the moonlight sifting through tapestry covered windows, the large ornate door handles made of melted gold in the shape of flames. The eyes of the dragon were made with large elaborately crafted and cut rubies with a sapphire set in the center. The entire dragon was covered in beaten jade, placed on so thin the gold shown through, moonlight rainbows shining on the many walls of the surrounding corridors, their dark cherry hardwood shining with elegance.
Large silk curtains hung over the windows above, falling over a hundred feet from the cathedral ceilings to the floor. Flying buttresses adorned with vicious gargoyles doing an endless sentry duty over the halls of their might home, sentries that would never say a word. Not even about a young black haired beauty who limped through those doors, a long vibrant red dress adorning her figure, dragons leaping, flames charging over the soft fabric. Cautiously, she approached the edge of her range of vision, carefully looking in both directions. Her left leg was twisted oddly, its swollen edge protruding from the bottom of the gown. This girl was our abducted, Kagome Higurashi. She did not know who had changed her clothes. All she knew was that she had to get out of this place. come hell or high water!
Once she was sure the coast was clear, she began to hobble as fast as she could down the hall, her slight whimpers of pain echoing throughout the large building. She had made sure to shut her door, but was quite sure that her captors would hunt after her as soon as she was discovered missing. Unsure of her whereabouts, she whirled down the nearest flight of steps, dragging her useless leg behind her as she tried not to slip on the moldy surface. She had descended what must have been over a hundred steps at a slow crawl as she desperately tried to find a way out of this infinite labyrinth.
Vaguely, she could hear the sounds in the corridors above and around her, and listening she heard what must have been her own doors slammed open. Voices began to shout, and she heard footsteps descending on the stairs behind her. Stumbling, she fell, tumbling down the vast number of stairs, trying not to cry out as her already punished body was put to one of the most brutal beatings of its life.
When she reached the bottom, her model's figure was torn to shreds, cuts seeping blood onto the cold coble stones below her. Hearing the footsteps echoing at an even quicker cadence, she dragged her body towards something that only the most desperate person would see. Not even the guards who patrolled the corridor knew of its existence. A door.
This door was covered in thick mold, its rusty handle barely protruding from the wall, and not enough for good traction. Dragging her beaten self towards the exit, she could have screamed as De Ja Vu bit her in the butt again. Once more, her ankle prohibited her from reaching the only means to escape the situation, but this time, Kagome was in luck.
Her desperate, searching fingers found a chain linked around the door handle, disguised well against the dark floor due to its coloring. She grabbed it fiercely, pulling her tiny body upright as she reached for the handle, wrenching it open and disappearing into the depths on the other side. The heavy door shut quickly, slamming her into darkness, wet things dripping all around her, startling her.
As her eyes adjusted, she panicked. All around her were bones and rotting bodies, their decomposing stench filling the rotting air, permeating it with its nauseating fumes. Gagging silently, she tentatively crawled further into her hiding place, its aura of death slightly un-nerving her. The darkness would not allow her to see the boundaries of the chamber she now resided in, so she never saw the gaping hole before her, barred and grim. Once again, Kagome reached forward, her sense of touch the only thing that could guide her in the inky blackness of her tomb.
She toppled forward as her hand slid through the slimy mouth of an opening, screeching in fright as her hand encountered something solid in the darkness. Her arm was caught, hung in between the bars of a large box like opening, her circulation being cut off as she desperately tried to retrieve her wayward limb from its precarious position.
=========================
Souta groaned as he heard a scrambling noise above him. Loud and raucous, it was the sound of someone trying to get away from something. He opened his blood shot eyes from his now rotting body and stared as bright eyes illuminated the darkness before him, an arm was hanging from an opening above, elaborate traces of fabric gracing its feminine proportions. Some of the pieces were torn, and a substantial gash was visible on the hand of the arm.
The noise was someone above him trying to retrieve their arm from the gap in between the cell bars, the same ones that had once given an eerie glow to the death chamber of his soul. A panicked screech came from the above said person, sobbing as they yanked and pulled at the bars, their worried thrashings probably alerting the nether-things that still lived in the depths of the cells around him, species of creatures long forgotten, who would take this new comer as a snack, desperately needed for their insatiable stomachs.
A flash of light echoed throughout the cell doors, as the guards made their rounds for the night, and Souta stared, as the face above him, tear stained and dirty was illuminated in the darkness, his almost dead eyes tearing as he saw the face of his most dear companion, his sister Kagome.
=========================
The light went away as fast as it had come, the frightened girl wary of the darkness it once again exposed her too. As she groped her way back upwards towards the bars, striving to get her hand out of its trap, something grabbed onto her hand. Screaming in fright, she yanked backwards, screaming again when a yell came from the hole below her. What had grabbed her was crusty, and dripping of a wet substance that was slightly sticky. As she dug her fingernails into the foreign object she was startled to hear the voice of her brother echo from the depths below her, like a spirit from the realm beyond, returning to warn of some ominous future.
"Kag...Kagome... " it rattled, death evident in its very tone.
"Sou...SOUTA?!" she clamored, tears dripping from her eyes and down her face as she clung tightly to the arm below her, sobbing as she looked at the poor boy. He was covered in blood, his eyes half opened, lying in a pool of his own bodily secretions and fluids. Pus poured from the arm she held, the pressure she placed on it causing a large abscess in his exposed flesh to pop.
Crying out in pain, Souta cried too as he saw that his sister, his beloved family member, was still alive, still safe, despite the bruises circling her thin neck, and the scratches and scrapes that gored her once flawless skin. "Why? How? Are you okay?" he croaked, worries lifted off of his young shoulders as he saw that his sister was indeed alive, and somewhat safe.
"I don't know, I woke up here! Souta, oh Souta it was awful! Hojo...he, he... "she sobbed, the tears from her cerulean eyes so great that they began to pool around his immobile feet, his sideways-cocked head watching her from a position of utmost vulnerability. Souta began to coo soft condolences in her direction, the sound of her musical voice already refreshing his tired ears, ears that had been ready to give up on hearing ever again. But now...now he had her once more. His baby angel had come back to him.
He listened to her sob, and suddenly he realized that this was fate! That he must warn her of her impending brush with Inuyasha, coughing bile out of his sore throat he began to open his mouth as she clung onto his hand, her desperate silent cry for help and protection giving him the strength to resist this torture once more. He had opened his mouth, ready to tell her everything, when it happened.
The door that Kagome had opened earlier swung open violently, a shadowed figure dashing into the room as the door swung shut, its form barely visible in the shadowy light of the doorway. It quickly faded into nothing as Kagome clung tightly to her brother's arm her breathing becoming the only noise in the room, echoing off of the walls as she panted, the exertion of dragging her torn body into this room, and the elation she felt over finding her brother, although he seemed to be on death's door, had used up the last reserves of her ever dwindling strength.
Something swooshed behind her, touching her backside lightly as she squeezed her eyes tightly shut, in avoidance to the realities that surrounded her. It bumped her again, like a shark, testing out the taste of an unknown source of food, causing her to yelp.
"Who's there?!" Kagome shrieked, her black hair falling in her eyes as she clung to her brother's mutilated hand through the bars of his cell.
"My, my...what have we here?" came a raspy whisper.
Shrinking in fright, Kagome's eyes widened to the size of saucers, trembling, as a monster stepped out from the shadows. Claws hung unsheathed from slender fingers, warped with chemical burns, slitted golden eyes shining at her in the darkness, the entire form of the creature swathed in the elegant red she had found in the chamber she had awoken in earlier. It crept down to her level, the clawed hand grabbing her chin, holding it still as she was examined by it, long silver tresses falling onto her barely clad bosom, the thin red material hardly the exemplary fabric of the modest. Teeth protruded from its mouth as it came closer to her, a sharp nose coming into sight, stripes of burgundy streaking its cheeks, the eyes staring her down almost hungrily.
She was frozen, still clinging with some desperate sixth sense to her older brother's hand, enjoying the minimum comfort she found in his beaten body, even though he could no longer protect her. "Who...Who are you?" she whispered, tears still dripping down her cheeks in a silent mantra of despair.
"I am Inuyasha, master of this place." came the sinister reply, like death, calling for its next victim.
"Then why is my brother imprisoned here?" she gasped, as his hands began to drift from her neck downwards, her caught arm preventing her from running, but she wouldn't have tried to get away anyways.
"Your brother?" he continued, ears protruding from the top of his skull in an interested manner, catching her gaze, keeping her preoccupied as his hands continued their laborious run down her sides, distracting her. "Let's just say your brother owes me." he growled, the vibration rocking the floor below her in its intensity, bones crashing down from above and around them, as the man, wait, no the animal, before her raised its hackles like a dog, its nose sniffing for the rotting stench of his prisoner.
"Owes you?" she chattered, the cold air of the dungeon giving her goose bumps, the thin, sheer fabric of the dress barely allowing her room to breath, much less warmth.
"Yes, that's why he's here wench!" he snarled, demonic red creeping into the amber eyes that now lingered on the hole where her arm resided. "In fact, I believe he has lived long enough." he chuckled, breath steaming from his face as he drew a large sword from a sheath on his back, the glow the sword gave off reverberating off the walls as she stared in awe. He brought the sword down in an arc, aiming directly for the cell below her, regardless of whether he took her with it or not. Just as the sword neared the floor, its large body swirling with clouds of blue, she screamed.
Inuyasha froze, teeth glinting off of his gums as he turned, open mouthed at the audacity of the bitch before him. His hand raising backwards as he unsheathed his claws to their full extent to strike her, his arm whistling as he slammed it towards her. She threw up her tiny right hand, the one that was loose, to block it, screaming as he broke her fragile arm. Sobbing as she fell into a broken heap.
"No...." she cried "You mustn't! Please don't hurt him anymore!" she wailed, the pain throbbing throughout her body, joining the pain of her ankle, her cries echoing in the dungeon, bouncing off the walls, eerily making it sound as if the countless dead bodies had returned to life, screaming their endless anguish to their killers. Inuyasha froze, staring angrily at the girl, this girl, sobbing before him, this girl who was broken .He turned, swearing, sheathing his sword as he began to walk away from her, leaving her to rot in the same prison with her brother, a useless bitch with two broken limbs, and one jammed in a pair of old rusty bars.
He opened the door, silhouetted against the dim light from the hall, reaching for the lever to pull it shut when she cried out for him. "Inuyasha!" it came, soft and yet loud in the stillness, as death once again began to befall her brother below her, his one hope for escape, his lovely flower blossom of a sister had been hurt. He knew there was a good possibility that they would never leave this place alive and he could never forgive himself for her death here as well as his.
He would never know why he replied, perhaps the fates were once again returning to their wheels, snipping at wires and strings to fulfill the worldly balance of life. "What?" he said, coming out as a growl as he turned again to look at the forlorn figure behind him, gore surrounding the body he had told a servant to clothe earlier in one of the finest robes available for any woman in his compound.
She looked up at him, the blue eyes shining with a crystalline like liquid, rolling down her cheeks in streams as she gasped in pain. "Please...please my brother is sick, he is dying! You MONSTER! You can not leave him here!" she cried.
"And why not? You have nothing to offer me wench. You have two broken limbs, and after lying in these bodies for god knows how long you stink. If you had just stayed put, everything would have worked out in your favor." he turned again, his large back filling the narrow doorway, muscles protruding from his arms as he made to shut the door again.
Wrenching her left arm violently, she managed to retrieve it from its trap, the gaping bars, leaving her dying brother below as she crawled towards the beast before her. "Wait......." she called again, her black hair covering her exposed shoulders, blood dripping from a small gash above her eyebrow "Take...take me instead."
"Perfect..." Inuyasha growled.
======================
Uh oh! Kagome made a boo boo? Maybe, maybe not! There's no telling what's gonna happen next in Beast! Thank ya'll so much for the wonderful reviews I've gotten so far. I'm open to all suggestions, but no flames please, unless you're ready to get flamed back, lol. Trust me, I'm writing far better than I feel right now. I have the worst cough/runny nose/pounding head ache/fever and I'm gonna stay home from school tomorrow with my me maw. It's taken me almost a week to write this chapter...and it's been hard! I had to write over certain parts and take other parts out. It should be longer than the previous two chapters, at least I think it is.
I'm also thinking about writing an Inuyasha/Kagome fic based on the movie Sleepless in Seattle. I saw that today on the Superstation as I lay in my mom's gigantic bed with my cats, Booger and Cody, a bottle of water, and a giant bag of the new flavor of Hall's, non-mentholated cough drops. I love my cats, lol (wait, it hurts to laugh....shoot). Well I gotta go, here's your preview for next time.
Revised on 5/6/2004 :P