Hello. *looks at reviews* YAY!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanx soooooooo much to u kind kind ppl for reviewing my first chapter. Yup-yup Thanx to gene-kitty, dearest, KenYasha, and Lunatic Pandora. ^_________________^ (okie, I'm just a wee bit hyper, ne?)

Disclaimer: Refer to chap. 1

Chapter 2

"I'm sorry, SO sorry . . . "

Kagome held Inuyasha in her arms, gently stroking his soft white hair, hair that was so much like snow yet tainted by the redness of freshly spilt blood. She desperately clung to him as if she could not let go and that if she did horrible things would happen.

Suddenly Inuyasha was gone, simply vanished into thin air. Kagome spun around and she found herself behind a glass, looking through a window into a forest. There were moving images on the far side that she couldn't quite make out, but the more she tried to see the clearer it got.

Before she knew it the image had become all too clear.

Kagome watched the girl with the ebony hair and familiar green uniform draw back her arrow and without a second's hesitation let it fly, the arrow embedding itself into the chest of a white-haired boy wearing a red kimono.

"NOOO!" Kagome cried out, pounding her fists on the glass windowpanes that just refused to break.

An unexplainable desire of bursting the damned glass began growing as energy shot through her body. Without thinking of the consequences Kagome surged forward, shattering the glass with her whole body. Falling through she landed on the hard ground. She looked up.

On the other side was . . . emptiness . . .

Kagome jolted into reality. The sun shown through a slit in her curtains, outside birds chirped cheerfully. All of this intensely disgusted the normally perky girl. She groggily sat up and roughly threw aside her blankets, hoping while she made her way downstairs that the sky would just come crashing down that day.

At the entrance of the dining room she stopped, watching the happy expression her little brother Souta wore on his face as he knelt on the mats chewing on a piece of bread.

Souta, feeling her eyes on him looked up, that same expression lingering a little longer before he frowned slightly and pointed out the fact that she was going to be late for school if she didn't get dressed soon. Kagome couldn't help but smile although the mere mention of the word 'school' increased her level of bitterness.

Yes, school, the place where she was terribly behind on all her classes (especially math) and the place where her friends were just bubbly empty-headed girls, and one specially annoying boy by the name of Hojo who doesn't know when to quit.

Kagome sighed heavily as she pulled on her green skirt, to complete the preppy ensemble. Glancing in the mirror she saw that the bloodstains were gone, she admired how clean it looked but at the same time remembered that it was Inuyasha's blood that had covered her clothes.

The all too familiar feeling of tears stung her eyes, but she swallowed hard and refused the oncoming flood. No! She thought fiercely, feeling herself trembling uncontrollably. If they see me cry they'll ask me what's wrong and then . . . they'll know. No! Kagome! Calm yourself. She took a deep breath and walked out.

~*~*~

Kagome barely heard the ramblings of her teacher as she sat at her desk. How she ever made it to school on her own was a mystery. She had felt sick and constantly wanted to turn back.

Worse, when she didn't think about settling the uneasy feeling in her gut her thoughts went to Inuyasha.

Once in a while Kagome snapped out of it and wondered why. After all, more than a month has passed since that dark day, yet she insisted on torturing herself. She often told herself that it wasn't her fault, that she had been under the control of another, and that she should be satisfied because revenge had been dealt.

Though she knew deep down all this didn't mean a thing compared to the intense feelings that were involved in the first place.

"Ms. Higurashi!" The teacher whipped the pointer down on Kagome's desk, only inches away from her head. She snapped straight up. "Have you been paying attention?" the woman fixed her with a look that indicated she knew the truth and that lying was not an option.

Kagome sank down into her chair and gazed up at her through half-closed eyes. To her own great surprise she found her lips turning up in a sneer. "If I may say so, I think you should spend less time minding other people's business and more on actually teaching something."

A buzzing silence settled on the room, thick tension hung in the air as everyone stared at her with wide-eyes wondering what had happened to the sweet and nice Kagome that they knew.

The teacher's reaction was no different at first but her face soon became contorted with anger. She gripped the stick tightly, her knuckles showing white. Her face flushed scarlet and her eyes bulged. "Excuse me Ms Higurashi but that is most disrespectful." Her voice was eerily calm. "You know what this means don't you?"

Kagome immediately packed her bags and stood up, carefully taking one defiant look at the angry woman before heading out the door, slamming it closed after her. Behind her she heard her peers bursting into speech. Though all that receded as she walked down the hall and once again re-entered her realm of dark thoughts.

~*~*~

Kagome raised her hand to shield her eyes from the sunlight. She strolled through the unfamiliar part of the neighborhood having decided at the last moment to ditch the date with the principle and just leave school all together.

She felt a little better now, not completely over her little episode back in the classroom but some of that bitterness had definitely drained away.

Kagome looked up and for the first time noticed her surroundings. There were beautiful houses standing all in perfect rows on both sides of the street. They appeared to be newly built, with rich colours that only new paint could provide. She wondered why she had never bothered coming to that side of the neighborhood before. It was pretty there and with an atmosphere of calmness that no other urban place could provide, except for the shrine of course.

Directly in front of her was a large moving truck that, because of its long body, took up that entire chunk of sidewalk. Kagome cursed mentally and tried to find a way across, either that or be run down by oncoming traffic. By the look of things several drivers passing by weren't too pleased with the truck either.

Finding no other way around it, Kagome sighed and prepared to step down and pray for her safety. Unfortunately just as she did so the sun decided that it was the perfect time to slide out from behind the giant mass of cloud it was hiding behind and shine directly into her face.

She immediately shut her eyes, forgetting where she was. There was a shout somewhere to the left of her but the blaring car horns and screeching tires to her right soon drowned it out.

All of a sudden, an unknown force knocked into her and pulled her to safety just before a car that drove all too fast was able to collide with her.

Kagome gasped, feeling the rhythm of her heart pounding against her ribcage. Her eyes were still shut tightly and she was faintly aware of the warmth she received from whoever it was who had just saved her from near-death.

Kagome opened one eye cautiously, then the other when she saw nothing but a sea of blackness. The person stepped away from her, releasing her from his protective embrace.

She looked up, the sun spotting her vision. Blinking it away, her vision cleared to reveal none other than the object of her heart's desire, the one person who had been giving her sleepless nights, and the one she so desperately prayed would see again every waking minute just to apologize and say three simple little words that means so much.

For a moment she stopped breathing.

Inuyasha . . .

__________________________________________________________

Okie, sorry 'bout this cliffhanger *bows apologetically* I'll try to update quick.

But see? It's getting better right?

*silence*

Right? -_-;

Well, stick around to find out what happens o.O