A/N: Hey again! Chapter 8 finally up! W00t! Yeah well sorry the last chapter was so short! Hopefully you will enjoy this chapter much more than the last! Thanks for all of the reviews! Over 400 already! THANKS SO MUCH! I really look forward to a lot of reviews and I love all the feedback you guys give me so please keep it up!!
Disclaimer: Last time I checked…nope.
Don't Say a Word
Chapter 8: Extreme Measures
Kagome could hardly control her self. Her hands shook rapidly as she tried to clasp them calmly together, which was futile in effort as the rapped painfully on the table. Kagome however, did not even notice due to the fact that what she was hearing was turning out to be even more disturbing that she had expected.
"We didn't have enough money…." Her mother went on softly, using hushed tones as if the house would crumble to dust if she spoke any louder. However Kagome's voice could not be controlled so easily.
"S-so they just kicked him out?" Kagome questioned, her voice rising to fill the hushed tones of the room.
"He been there for over a few weeks and after the heart attack there was nothing left they could do…without a fee." Mama sighed deeply, running her hands through her slightly graying hair, obviously from the stress that she had acquired over the last week or so.
But even through the truths and realities of what her mother was saying, Kagome was still not ready to accept it. "But there must be something we can do! Are you going to just let him di-"
"Do you have any idea how much that surgery costs?!" Mama stood abruptly, causing Kagome's eyes to open wide at her mother's sudden burst of passion.
Regaining her composure, her mother sighed softly and retook her seat at the table.
"Kagome….the surgery would cost thousands of dollars. Thousands of dollars which we don't have."
Kagome remained quiet. She still couldn't comprehend the events that had happened during the time she had been gone. It was as if as soon as she had jumped through the well to Sengoku Jidai, fate had taken a treacherous turn and thrown at her things, which she could not handle. Things that she did not want to handle. A week of her absence had caused everything she had known to go haywire.
"You should go see him Kagome….you shou-" Her mother's words broke off as Mama turned her back from her overwhelmed daughter, obviously overwhelmed herself.
Kagome shuddered slightly, wondering how Jii-chan would look, wondering if he would talk, or see, or hear. The thoughts and images that brushed through her mind almost made it too hard to bear. But Kagome knew that she had to go see him immediately. Almost as if she knew deep inside of her heart that he would not be around much longer.
Opening the Shoji to the hall way, Kagome left her mother who sat idly at the table, her face turned away to hide the truth that was written all over her face. Kagome however, ignored this.
Kagome crept down the hall, utterly disturbed by the stillness and dimness of the house that was once filled with light and cheer. Something that Kagome had not seen in a long time.
As she approached the door to her grandfather's room, a sudden overwhelming fear overtook her, causing her to pause before opening the door to his room.
Thousands of "what ifs" began to run through her mind, causing her to become even more coward than before.
'What am I so afraid of?' Kagome thought, moving her hand to rest on the doorknob.
'Nothing is wrong…. everything will be fine.'
Yet what Kagome would see when she opened the door would prove her lies wrong to an extent that she would have never even imagined.
The room was very dimly lit, the only light coming from the small lamp that rested on the bedside table, casting a grim shadow across her grandfather's sleeping face. Edging closer to the stranger more than the healthy grandfather she once knew caused Kagome to finally see the true effects the heart attack had truly had on him.
His face was very thin and pale, a large contrast to his usual jubilant and boisterous face. The blankets of his bed were tucked tightly around him, allowing Kagome to see how much weight that he had lost over that week's period. The difference was shocking. His breath came in shallow gasps of air, almost as if a large invisible vacuum was sucking the air around him, leaving the room a vast suffocating void.
Kagome felt her legs go weak, and used the last ounce of energy she could muster to stumble over to her grandfather's beside, where she collapsed beside his bed.
Kagome felt her eyes begin to overflow, allowing the tears and realizations to come forth, unmasking their terrible and cruel truths. Truths, which Kagome had been avoiding for so long.
"Jii-chan…It's all my fault…It's all my fault!" Kagome whispered, bowing her head in shame as the tears began to fall more steadily, realizing the magnetism of what she had done.
Her mother stood by the door silently; also allowing the tear's to fall slowly down her cheeks as she watched her daughter cry over her dying father.
Stepping back from the door quietly, Mama closed it, going unnoticed by Kagome who had not moved. Leaning her head against the wall, Mama sighed heavily as she wiped her eyes dry from there wetness.
Mama knew what had to be done.
****************
Life had gone on for Kagome, as it did for her Mother, and for Souta. What else could they have done? The little they could do for Jii-chan, whose condition had remained the same since the day that Kagome had gotten home, they could only do for themselves. This meant school, work, everything that they had been doing before the ball had struck home.
Due to the problems at home, Kagewa had been forgotten and had turned into a relic of the past. As much as a relic that Kagome would allow however, due to the fact that she could not rid the memories of the man that had caused her world to turn upside down. No matter how hard she tried, Kagewa was still stowed in the back of her mind, something that Kagome did not want to face just yet. But she knew that day would come, and had little idea at how fast it was coming, not really caring much for the matter anyway.
Luckily, Souta was not at home to see and be apart of the stress and on edge atmosphere that Kagome and Mama had to deal with everyday, due to the fact that Mama had arranged that he was to stay with a school friend for a week. Kagome thought that this was also the best for her younger brother, not wanting him to see Jii-chan so sick and frail to cause stress that the little boy would not be able to handle. This gave Mama and Kagome some sense of peace, knowing that things for the moment could not get any worse than they were.
Kagome had gone back to school, allowing some of the home pressure to be lifted for a few hours as she spent the majority of the day with her friends and classmates. Kagome could not help but to feel lighter and happier as her friends joked and laughed in the hallways. Kagome couldn't help but join in if it meant giving her heart a break from the heavy burdens that had been placed just recently.
Yet Kagome knew deep inside that this false sense of security would soon break, leaving Kagome to deal with the problems that had been on hiatus. But Kagome had other things to think about during this time, such as the many tests, quizzes, and homework assignments that had been assigned to her.
Yet this very morning, Kagome could not concentrate on studying for the geometry test she had that morning as she walked to school, and the futile efforts of cramming as much information as possible into her already tired brain was making her feel as if her brain would burst.
Leaning her head back to stare at the bright blue sky, Kagome's thoughts began to grow absentminded, and she allowed them to flow freely as the drifted to and fro on that bright spring morning.
'I haven't seen a sky so blue since the last time I was in Seng-' Kagome paused her thoughts, Inuyasha, Shippou, Sango and Miroku's faces briefly flashing in her mind.
It had been a few day since she had last seen them…. seen Inuyasha. As much as she knew Inuyasha had wanted to help her, she could not figure out if he had been acting on anger, or sincere concern.
'Well it's my problem…I have to figure things out for my self…by myself.' Kagome concluded, shaking her head to refocus on the study sheet she had meant to study on her way to school.
'Funny isn't it? Suddenly I thought that by handling everything on my own it would make everything better…'
'Turns out…….I think I was wrong.'
**************
It wasn't like him at all.
It wasn't like Inuyasha to sit back when he knew that Kagome was in trouble…hurting. Yet something was holding him back. Kagome's terrified, yet absolute expression as she descended down the well had stayed with him longer than he thought it would, leaving a small scar in his mind. He could ignore it no longer.
Then why wasn't he doing anything about it?
Inuyasha had realized that No, he couldn't just go in and kill Kagome's abuser. Yet this sheer fact was the thing that was driving him mad beyond belief.
Fingering the shard's he held tightly in his hand made him remember Kagome's true intentions. She wasn't intending on coming back. When Kagome had descended down the bone-eaters well, in her mind it would have been the last time she would see Sengoku Jidai.
It had been a few day's since he had seen Miroku and Sango…hiding among the trees to prevent from havening to explain to them what was really going on. He didn't think Sango and Miroku would be able to handle the fact that Kagome had gone back to her world for good due to the fact that Inuyasha wasn't intending on going back to fetch her…. to protect her. He knew deep down that they wouldn't take it lightly that Inuyasha was sitting around when Kami knows what was happening to Kagome. He just couldn't deal with that right now.
Leaning back on the tree he was currently residing on, Inuyasha closed his eyes trying to clear his head of the disturbing thoughts. They would not leave. The imagined images that flashed through his head of Kagome's abuse were nearly driving him to the edge, and the familiar feeling of when he had just found out about what was happening was starting to return to him.
Yet it was only until he imagined a particular scenario when it really hit home.
He had seen it so many times as a child, even now, only to ignore it. He had seen the violence, the bullying, the…. abuse. Wives being beaten by their husbands, children being beaten by their parents, as would a master to his animals. Like animals…
Inuyasha sat up suddenly, causing the branch to jolt beneath him. After all of the time wasted contemplating, he had finally come to a realization.
Inuyasha knew what he had to do.
*******************
Kagome rubbed her eyes, setting down her pencil to rest her brain from the extra hard geometry problem that she had been struggling with for the last ten minutes. Usually this problem would have taken her 3 minutes, but due to everything that had been happening the last few weeks, her grades were slowly going downhill.
Kagome glanced at the clock, the hand that pointed at the 9 sending her a reminder that she had a Biology report due the next day. She had no idea how she would even finish in time if it was only 9 o'clock and she was already this tired. Setting her head on her desk, Kagome concluded that she would just rest her eyes for a moment before finishing her Geometry.
Yet as predictable as ever, before she even had a chance to stop herself Kagome fell into a light sleep.
*******************
Kagome awoke with a start, her Geometry book falling from the edge of the desk to hit the floor with a thump. Rubbing her eyes hurriedly, Kagome glanced at the clock, somewhat relieved to find that it was only 9:20.
"Good thing I woke up…." She muttered to herself, bending to pick up the jumbled book that lay in a heap next to her trashcan.
It was then when Kagome realized that she was not alone.
"Why didn't you wake me up?" Kagome asked her mother, who sat at the end of the bed seemingly in a trance of her own.
"What?" Her mother questioned, shaking her head to respond to her daughter who looked at her with a questioning glance.
"I'm sorry but when I came in to talk to you and saw you fast asleep at your desk like that I couldn't bear to disturb you." Her mother continued mildly, almost in a nonchalant tone.
"Talk about what?" Kagome asked, leaning back in her chair and folding her arms across her chest to stare at her mother.
But her mother refused to answer, just smiling softly to stare out the open window.
"It's a beautiful night Isn't it?"
Kagome looked away from her mother's too "smiley" face to glance idly at the window, watching her curtains rise and fall as the wind brushed against them, creating a pleasant yet eerie aura in the room. Her mother's strange behavior wasn't helping either.
Yet in a split second the mood was changed abruptly, as Kagome's ear's connected with what her mother said next.
"Jii-chan isn't going to last much longer Kagome…." Her mother stated quietly, folding her hands together to place them on her lap. Amazingly this was the calmest Kagome had seen her mother in a week.
"He needs that surgery…soon. And I have come to a decision regarding Jii-chan's health…and our well being too. Kagome are you listening to me?" Her mother inquired, leaning forwards to peer at Kagome's apathetic face.
In the deepest pit of her stomach, Kagome could tell that what her mother had to say was not good, and the fear was growing by the second.
"Without the surgery Jii-chan will die Kagome. You, Souta, and I will be left alone. With no one."
Kagome squeezed her eyes shut tight. Her mother's words were starting to become incoherent and far away, mostly because Kagome no longer wanted to hear what her mother had to say. Was going to say.
"Kagewa and I are going to be married, Kagome."
Kagome's fists clenched tightly at the mention of his name, something she had not heard in a long time. He was like a disease…. something you just can't escape.
"It's for the well-fare of our entire family Kagome. Without a man in the house we will be left with nothing. Nothing Kagome. If I marry Kagewa…. we would have the money to get Jii-chan his surgery. We would all have a future Kagome."
But Kagome wasn't hearing this. The only thoughts that were running through her mind was all the pain and torment she had to go through because of this man. This…. animal.
"Please Kagome…" Her mother pleaded, standing to kneel before her daughter.
"Put your selfishness aside…"
But that was it. It was too late now. Kagome's mother had crossed the line, and Kagome would hear no more.
"SELFISH?!" Kagome exploded, standing so abruptly that it caused the chair to fall backwards.
"Get out." Kagome's voice was low…. dangerously low, something that Kagome's mother did not want to have to deal with.
Yet her mother did not budge.
"I said…GET OUT." Kagome's voice raised, articulating what she had been refraining from saying the entire time her mother had been in her room.
Yet there was nothing else to be said, and Kagome's mother had not choice but to leave. Turning to leave, Kagome's mother closed the door behind her, cracking it open again to say one last word to her daughter.
"Please…try to understand…."
The door closed with a click, leaving Kagome to stare at where her mother once stood second's ago, all the thoughts and emotions being left to ruminate inside of Kagome's troubled mind.
But Kagome did not cry.
She felt blank…empty. As if it was all said and done before. She felt emotionally and physically drained, yet lacking true emotions that she usually felt.
Walking slowly over to her bed, Kagome lie down stiffly staring out the same open window that she had been staring at earlier. Yet it was different. Different outlook…. different circumstances…. everything. Everything was different now.
But Kagome would not cry.
Could not cry.
*********************
A/N: Alright hope you all enjoyed it! I am really having fun writing this story so be prepared for more to come! That is if you………R/R!!!!!!!!!!!
