(A/N: yo my hoes!...not really...just a joke...don't walk away! I'm sorry! Anyway, guess what guess what guess WHAT!? I almost have 100 reviews!! Whoohooo!!! keep up the work my minions!! MUHAHAHA!!!...-ahem- sorry, you're not my minions...-mumbles- not YET anyway...)

DISCLAIMER: I don't wanna have to repeat what's already been said in the OTHER 8 chapters...

Old Or New?

Why?

Inuyasha lay on his bed, hands behind his head staring at the ceiling. He smiled when his eyes found their eyes to the dent that his head had made. Baka cops. Don't they ever learn that my F.O.B. neighbor is just overreacting? That's the third call this month!

He sighed and rolled over to turn on the radio. P.S. Shock The World by Less Than Jake (AWESOME BAND!!) happened to be playing. Fitting...

It's never been so crystal clear

That I've been dying six months a year

Arguing with strangers about why I'm still here.

No on lets me forget questions about my relevance

And I'm starting to believe their arguments

In my self-defense

It's just my self-destructiveness

And always wasting all my breath

And it's still a mystery

To me why I'm doubting all my dreams

All the things that I say

Will someday fade away

When the message in the songs

Has kept me sane all along.

The years hit like fist to face

And some days I've tried to replace

This person with the same god-given name.

Some days I shake till noon

I've tried to explain to overcrowded rooms

Across these states my narrow point of view.

But what can I do?

It's just my self-destructiveness

And always wasting all my breath

And it's a mystery to me why

I'm doubting all my dreams

All the things that I say

Will someday fade away

When the message in these songs

Has kept me sane all along.

He liked this band, he decided. This particular song was almost a match to his life. It's a good thing the song I wrote for Kagome was really easy for me to memorize... he sighed. He was just about to drift off into a fitful sleep when the shrill cackle Avril Lavigne calls a voice came pouring out of the speakers. (No offense to her fans...I just can't stand her...XP)

"How the hell someone like her got to be famous I'll never figure out..." Inuyasha grumbled angrily as he turned the radio. He touched his lips. He could still feel her soft kiss on them. I wonder how Kagome's coping right now? He tried to get her from his mind, but no matter what he thought about, she still haunted his mind.

After much tossing and turning, sleep finally wrapping him in a scratchy yet safe blanket.

ZZZZzzzZZzzzZZZZZzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZzzzzzZzzzZZZZZzzzZzzzzzZZZZzzzzzZZZzzzzzZZZZZzzzzz

Oh shit, oh shit oh SHIT!!! thought Kagome. She was full on freak-out mode. She was back at her apartment, scrubbing herself like crazy in the shower. She had insisted that Inuyasha dropped her off two blocks away from her apartment. She raced inside, extremely relieved to find that you-know-who wasn't there. She through her clothes into the washer and then step into the shower. She wanted to get every trace of Inuyasha off of her so you-know-who didn't find out about him.

Once she had spent a good ten minutes scrubbing herself with her vanilla and sakura body lotion, she was satisfied that his scent was gone. She stepped out and noticed how eerily silent it was. She walked out into the living room and turned on the stereo. Putting it on as high as it would go, she let the music envelope her. It also helped that it was one of her favorite songs playing, The Great Escape by Boys Like Girls. (Also one of my favorites too :3.)

Paper bags and plastic hearts
All are belongings in shopping carts
It's goodbye
But we got one more night
Let's get drunk and ride around
And make peace with an empty town
We can make it right

Kagome sang along with the words while getting dressed.

Throw it away
Forget yesterday
We'll make the great escape
We won't hear a word they say
They don't know us anyway
Watch it burn
Let it die
Cause we are finally free tonight

She sighed. How she desperately wished she was free from Naraku's unrelenting grasp.

Tonight will change our lives
It's so good to be by your side
But we'll cry
We won't give up the fight
We'll scream loud at the top of our lungs
And they'll think it's just cause we're young
And we'll feel so alive

Ah, to feel to feel alive again. But wait...I do feel alive...with Inuyasha, that is.

Throw it away
Forget yesterday
We'll make the great escape
We won't hear a word they say
They don't know us anyway
Watch it burn
Let it die
Cause we are finally free tonight
All of the wasted time
The hours that were left behind
The answers that we'll never find
They don't mean a thing tonight

Throw it away
Forget yesterday
We'll make the great escape
We won't hear a word they say
They don't know us anyway

Throw it away
Forget yesterday
We'll make the great escape
We won't hear a word they say
They don't know us anyway

Throw it away
Forget yesterday
We'll make the great escape
We won't hear a word they say
They don't know us anyway
Watch it burn
Let it die
Cause we are finally free tonight.

Kagome sighed with misery. She new that until Naraku was dead, she would never be truly happy, not ever again. She nearly pounced on the stereo when she heard Avril Lavigne's ugly voice come blasting out, singing her most hated song, Girlfriend (man, she's seems to be everywhere tonight XD) The eery silence crept up on Kagome again. She sighed and went to her room.

Her room was as extravagant as her kitchen and living room. She had a plush bed, a walk-in closet, a high-tech computer with high-speed internet (damn am I jealous...I have dial-up...grr...) and an electric and a base guitar. Not to mention a balcony that let her look out at the city known as Tokyo.

Walking up to her closet, she looked behind, to side, as if Naraku was somehow hiding in the shadows. She slipped inside and quickly shut the door. She knew she had to act quickly. She dug behind her clothes and underneath her shoes. There, was a loose floorboard with only one purpose. To hide her digital camera. Other cameras, they held pictures of family, friends, loved ones. Not this camera. This held evidence of her torture.

Kagome turned it on, lifted up her shirt to expose her back, took the picture, then almost frantically threw everything back inside. She already had two one-gig memory cards used up and was about half-way though the third one.

One gig's worth of memory held about 350 pictures.

She had taken a picture about once every night.

That meant about 875 days, or just under two and a half years.

Two.

And a half.

Years.

She stepped outside on the balcony and shivered as the wind blew past her bare arms. She gripped the hand rails and was almost amazed how people could so oblivious. She felt like screaming at the top of her lungs, "ARE YOU PEOPLE BLIND?! CAN'T YOU SEE THE BRUISES ON MY BACK AND SHOULDERS?!?!"

It was hopeless, she knew it. Inuyasha, Miroku and Sango wanted to help, and she appreciated it. But in the end it would be useless, and they would just get hurt badly, either physically or emotionally. She knew Naraku was a master at diabolical plots like that. And as much as she was pained to do so, Kagome knew the only way to keep her friends from such pain and torment was to push them away. It's for the better. They don't deserve someone as corrupted for a friend anyway.

Though she tried to hold them back, a few tears fell down her cheeks. WHY?! She thought angrily. Why does this have to happen to me?! Why can't everything go back to the way they were?! Back before I met Naraku!! She fell to her knees and held her head in her hands. Why did they have to die? Why is this all my fault? Why couldn't I just go with them? She asked herself for the up-teenth billion time. She choked out a sob. The one word circled around her mind, taunting her. Why?

Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?

Well? Thoughts? Feelings? Hateful words wanting to be thrown at me? Then I suggest writing it in a REVIEW!

The button's down there...just wanting to be pushed...