The Highwayman
Disclaimer: Garg. Don't own. Scquesh. Breh. x.x;
I would answer reviews here, but I have been grounded again from the internet. For not folding clothes. Wonderful life, ne?
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She twisted her hands behind her; but all the knots held good!
She writhed her hands till here fingers were wet with sweat or blood!
They stretched and strained in the darkness, and the hours crawled by like
years,
Till, now, on the stroke of midnight,
Cold, on the stroke of midnight,
The tip of one figure touched it! The trigger at least was hers!
The tip of one finger touched it; she strove no more for the rest!
Up, she stood up to attention, with the barrel beneath her breast,
She would not risk their hearing; she would not strive again;
For the road lay bare in the moonlight;
Blank and bare in the moonlight;
And the blood of her veins in the moonlight throbbed to her love's refrain.
Tlot-tlot; tlot-tlot! Had they heard it? The horse-hoofs ringing clear;
Tlot-tlot, tlot-tlot, in the distance? Were they deaf that they did not hear?
Down the ribbon of moonlight, over the brow of the hill,
The highwayman came riding,
Riding, riding!
The red-coats looked to their priming! She stood up strait and still!
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Kagome desperately tried to loosen her bindings, but it was no use. As small as her wrists were, there was no getting out of the ropes. But no matter the situation, human kind's strongest weapon is hope; and so she continued through the night, wiggling her hands, straining her fingers, jerking the rope. She worked so hard that she didn't notice the warm liquid flowing freely from her chafed wrists, and even if she did, she wouldn't have cared. There was only one thought on her mind. She had to warn Inuyasha!
Kagome was jolted out of her concentration by a loud bang. At first her heart stopped, and she thought that Inuyasha had been spotted and shot at, and it took her a moment to realize it was not a gun that made the noise.
In her distraction, the girl's foot had kicked out and knocked the bedpost, hard. She froze and looked around the room fearfully. Had any of the Rifles heard? Were they suspicious? Were they coming to check on her?
She waited a few minutes, but no one appeared in her room. Breathing a sigh of relief, Kagome realized that she would have to be much quieter. At any moment a Rifle could hear even the faintest scuffling and come to check on her. If they discovered her intent they might retighten her binds, or worse. She shuddered to think of what that 'worse' might be, and vowed not to find out.
In her pack across the room, her digital watched beeped quietly. Midnight. She had been here for hours, and yet it felt already like an eternity. Suddenly she had it. The trigger! Her finger rested on the trigger!
She swallowed nervously and lay back against her post, exhausted. But now she had her means of warning Inuyasha. Even if she couldn't free herself, surely the bang would alert him to the presence of the Rifles, or at least that something was amiss. And as long as Inuyasha was safe, what did she matter?
She closed her dark eyes wearily, and sat. She listened to the night sounds, knowing that this was probably the last time she would ever have the chance.
The soft creak of ancient tree trunks swaying to their ancient dance in the even older wind; the earthly rustle of leaves, quietly speaking to one another in their gentle dialect. The crickets, as they sung their ritual lullaby into the dark of the night. The eerie treeeeh, treeeeh of humming cicadas, once annoying, was now its own unique composition, unsurpassed by any human musicians.
The soft caress of the wind through the open window teased at her hair, played with her inky locks. Although it chilled her, it brought her hope and a new sense of life. She might end here, no longer knowing the wonders of the world, but all would go on after she was gone.
Many nights she had prayed in the sanctity of her room, and never before had she any proof that anyone was listening, but now she was certain that something was out there. Something comforted her now, reassuring her that all was well in the world. She smiled slightly, and opened her eyes, filled with a new sense of serenity.
Her straining ears caught a sound outside. Instantly her blood froze. It was Inuyasha. He was coming.
The quiet cree, cree, cree of his footsteps in the leaves outside was deafeningly loud in the silence, and she wondered how the Rifles could not hear him.
But now she knew what she had to do. She stood a little straighter, breathed a little deeper, and spoke her last words.
"Inuyasha…"
O-o-o-o-h, the ultimate cliffy! Yeah, I'm good!
Sorry for the shortness of the chapter, but this part isn't so very detailed. I'll make up for it in the coming chapters, so hold tight! And the next will be up soon, I'm sure. I'm on a brain-splurge, and writing is just poring out of me. Whether it's actually good or not is for you to decide. So please review!
And special thanks to the anonymous reviewer 'Inuficcrzy' who pointed out to me that the last chapter was all screwed up. Somehow the computer left in all the HTML tags, and it looked like CRAP!! So I reposted it, thanks to Inuficcrzy, because I probably would have never gotten around to checking it. Thanks Inuficcrzy!
