Ooh, trick or treat!

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I Love You So Much

It's Scary

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Running had taught him a lot about life. Each day, each moment he had to take one step at a time. Each day might very well be his last. Each hardship taken in stride. Still, no matter how fast he ran he couldn't escape the pounding of his broken heart. Kagome. Pure, innocent, ever forgiving Kagome condemned him as it turned out. Not because he was a hanyou. Oh no. That would've been a bitter pill but one he could've swallowed. Something he'd learned to handle and brush off. She condemned him to her friends for his actions. Actions that were mostly true - although taken out of context. And she never explained the context. How could she really? Still she must've said all that more than once. Enough times for her friends to assume the worst in him. They too weren't blaming his demonic heritage. They knew nothing about it. They condemned him for who he was. What he'd done. They condemned him like he was a man like any other. And that was something he didn't have the skill set to handle.

As he ran in those uncomfortable shoes which weighed him down, his feet hit the cement which sent shockwaves through his entire being. His lungs heaved like the air was acidic and every part of him felt like it would break if he didn't stop. It was time to run. To escape. To try to work through his pain. That's all his body knew how to do. Be strong and keep going when his mind was broken beyond repair. It was the only way to know his heart kept beating even when he wished it would stop.

It was all too soon when he realized he'd made it to the correct destination. The putrid scent that clung to the boy hanging heavy in the air. There were dozens. He could tell by the scent. Everywhere too. They avoided the tracks and the station but he could see their movement in the dark. His heightened senses allowing to take note of things that would've been missed by the limitations of human ones. It confused him why they'd avoid these areas. Their scent did cling to the station itself. They'd come in here at one point or another. Why were they avoiding the well lit, blaringly white tile floor of the station?

"Come out you bastards!" InuYasha bellowed hoarsely - his voice cracking with desperate emotion, "Come and get me!"

He'd never been afraid of death before. Everyone dies eventually so why fear it? But he'd never wished for death. Not like he did now. He wasn't lying when he said losing Kagome would destroy him. The only person who'd ever accepted him...or rather that he though accepted him for all his faults turned out to despise him just like all the rest. She... she said she loved him. And he dared believe she felt more than just a fraction of his deep love for her. He'd had such dreams. Had been so happy. Felt at peace for the first time in his long and lonely life. And just like everything, there were only brief pauses of joy before the cruel hammer of reality slammed down on his soul.

"COME GET ME DAMMIT!" InuYasha screamed with a tone of heartbroken desperation as he drew his sword and Tessaiga transformed in his hand, "YOU COWARDS! COWARDS!"

"The sword," crooned an all too excited voice as a ghostly translucent woman appeared just beyond the station. She was older. Withered and worn. Transparent with cruel eyes and disgusting features.

"You have it. Give it to me," the ghostly apparition crooned demandingly as she began to glide over the earth, "It is ours. Ours and no others."

"Like hell," InuYasha ground out as he watched the ghost with weary eyes. Did Tessaiga work on spirits? Claws surely wouldn't. Before he could articulate a way to destroy them a second figure suddenly materialized next to him making him nearly drop out of his skin. At first the ghost was no more than a chill in the air, a shimmer of mist, diffuse, before it congealed into a form, a small child with brilliant white eyes, a silver skin and the smile of a predator. Then the ghoul spoke, and not with the voice of a child but with the rasping tones of an old fifty-a-day smoker.

"Have you come to play?" the unnatural child crooned as he smiled up at the hanyou with a maggot filled smile that slowly drained into a sad little pout when the hanyou regained his senses and put himself in a better defensive position.

If InuYasha had been from the modern era, he would've found the small child's worlds surreal and like something straight out of a horror movie. The child's clothing was similar to that of children InuYasha had desperately wanted to play with as a child. Antiquated clothes even for his present natural point in time. The small child cocked his head to the side as he regarded the hanyou before a bright smile suddenly blossomed on his cheeks and recognition sparked in his eyes.

"I...I remember you. From before. Are you that half-demon boy from the Honsei clan just outside of Musashi?" the boy asked softly as he took in the silver hair and the twitching ears, "You are. I never...How'd you get here?"

Blinking stupidly at the child, Inuyasha's brain officially flat lined as the magnitude of the simple statement hit him like a ton of bricks. He hadn't even told his new friends that bit of information. Hell, he wasn't even sure Totosai or Myouga knew that name.

"How do you know that name?" InuYasha finally asked after a long moment as he cast a weary glance at the elderly woman who seemed to be just as surprised and confused as he felt, "Who the hell are you?"

"I'm Emperor Antoku," the child responded in a warm hoarse tone as a brilliant maggoty smile grew in his tiny face, "Before...before...I knew I'd met you. It has to be you. I wasn't supposed to play with you, remember? I was visiting and they had you in the back. I wandered away from my vassals. Didn't like the people in your clan. No offense but only because they acted so formal. You didn't though. You were nice. You treated me...treated me like any other kid. Better even. It didn't matter to you I was royalty or anything. And you...you...We played with that red ball of yours. I had forgotten..."

"What the fuck?" InuYasha whispered under his breath as he thought back. He did remember a small boy who played with him once. Once. It left an impression to be sure. The only child or adult or anyone for that matter other than his mother who ever dared play with him. They played for hours and distantly he remembered someone coming to fetch his new friend. An adult who didn't argue when the small child said no. That in and of itself had blown his mind. Not to mention the kid never seemed to care about who or what he was. He too was just a child much like any other. He saw him. InuYasha. As an equal. Never in a million years would he have expected that child was actually the Emperor. Much less that he would be remembered. They'd only met the one time.

"You wouldn't have hurt me back then. You...you were kind. Unafraid of me. Even though they said you would hurt me because of what you are, they lied. You were like me. No one liked us or played with us because of how we were born," the boy sighed with no lack of awe and affection then as he turned to have grandmother and looked at her pointedly, "Let him be. It's not our sword. My sword never did that anyway."

Furrowing his brow in confusion, InuYasha almost died from shock when the elderly woman nodded once and drifted away - the corpses following after her.

"Uh, thanks?" InuYasha asked at a loss of how to proceed as he placed the fully transformed over his shoulder, "So, what were those things?"

"Grandmother has been collecting them," the opaque boy sighed wearily as he cast a glance at the retreating figures, "They're people she's killed. She's waited for centuries and I'm too weak to stop her."

"You can't tell me you've been dead for centuries and not be bitter," InuYasha snorted as he rolled his eyes and pointed at his ears, "Shit, I was locked in a dark abyss for 50 years and before that I've always been alone. If I'm bitter as hell then I know you gotta be."

"In a way," the boy sighed as he poured and his hauntingly disfigured face fell, "I just want to cross over. I don't hate everyone though. Not really. I just want to go home."

"Listen," InuYasha sighed after a long pregnant pause, "I don't want to hurt you. I don't but I can't allow you guys to keep killing. It's not right."

"I know," the young ghastly boy sighed heavily, "Could you do me a favor? As my friend?"

"Uh, sure?" InuYasha responded absently as he was sent into bitter shock once more.

"Please save me. If that means I can go home, do it by any means," the boy murmured sadly, "I don't... don't want to be this way anymore."

"I... I don't know how to do that," InuYasha responded honestly, "And I figure she probably doesn't want to go anywhere."

"There are a few others who might help us. They want to move on too," the boy continued ignoring his statement before clarifying when InuYasha turned his attention back to the boy, "They won't fight you. And grandmother... grandmother and a few of the others might."

"Others, huh? How did you guys get like this?" InuYasha asked curiously as sympathy waved through him over his overwhelming confusion and distrust, "and how am I supposed to believe that shit?"

"You probably shouldn't and you can't so I dunno what to say," The small child chuckled darkly as he rolled his eyes, "I may have been Emperor in life but now she's in charge. She thinks that sword is the only way to set us free and she'll do anything to get it back. Some humans trapped us after an ambush. Killed us and then a demon cursed us. She hates everyone anymore. Killed the others and stuck them like this too. She needs to be stopped and none of us are strong enough to beat her."

"This whole thing just sucks and it's been a bitch of a day," InuYasha responded crassly to which the boy giggled before disconcertingly vanishing in front of his eyes as a train pulled into the station. InuYasha could still feel that cold presence nearby as a breathless, puffy eyed Kagome flew out of the train.

"I'm sorry," she sobbed as she hit his chest full force with enough effort to make him grunt but not move, "I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

A part of him wanted to stay angry. Wanted to call her names and tell her how much that encounter had broken him. He wanted to simultaneously never see her again and keep her in this awkward embrace forever.

"I didn't mean it. I was...there's no excuse," Kagome continued to sob as she gripped that black shirt for all it was worth, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Please forgive me."

For the third time that night, InuYasha was utterly speechless. Unable to come up with a response and emotionally exhausted. For a few tense moments, he merely let his arms stay in the position they were in before dropping the sword clattering onto the ground and pulling her into him with all he was worth. Burying his nose in her hair, he closed his eyes and inhaled deeply.

"Why'd you do it?" InuYasha finally managed to ask in a hoarse tone as he found his voice, "Why didn't you say anything back there?"

"Because I'm stupid," Kagome mumbled miserably as she tightened her hold on him and sniffled, "Please forgive me. I love you. I do. Promise."

"Aw," came that hoarse smokers voice as the boy materialized, "Is this your wife, InuYasha?"

Eyes opening wide, Kagome stood on her tiptoes to try to see the figure that made the noise. The second her eyes found the transparent child - instead of acting rationally, she screamed.