Author's Note: Well, after some thinking about this chapter, I realized that I still want to continue with this story. I love it, and have since I began it… So I'm going to continue. Please bear with me on the updates, though. I don't have much spare time. This story, I believe, is going to be my longest one yet. It's the Eleventh chapter already. Wow… Of course, I could wrap in up in only a few more chapters, but where's the fun in that? Okay, on with the next one. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I would if I could. I could if I would, but I can't so I won't.
My Will
Chapter 11: The Top Floor
"I haven't seen Kagome all day," Sango commented, peeking her head into InuYasha's room, "Have you seen her?"
InuYasha looked up from the broken, pink marble he twirled between his fingers. He raised curious amber eyes to Sango's face, tucking the item into a pocket of his jeans. "I haven't seen her either. She hasn't been in her room all day."
Sango sighed, stepping into the room and leaning against the doorway, "Odd… She never skips lunch, especially when she misses breakfast like she did this morning. She hasn't been in the cafeteria all day… Or the game room."
"Or anywhere," InuYasha added, standing up and walking towards the door.
The two began to make their way down the hall towards the elevator, InuYasha's gaze flitting towards Kagome's room on the way. He heaved a sigh as they passed, fingering the broken pink marble in his pocket.
"I'm worried," Sango confessed as they stepped into the elevator. She lightly pushed the main floor button, and the doors slid closed. "People around here don't just turn up missing like that… If she had left, she would have said something, don't you think?"
InuYasha shrugged. He didn't know what to think just then. His mind clouded with worry. He knew just as well as Sango how strange Kagome's disappearance was. But unlike Sango, he also noticed the odd behavior of the nurses. In the morning, no one had come to leave clean sheets in his closet, or to take the dirty clothes from the hamper. The few that he did see had seemed distant and troubled.
"Did Kagome say anything to you about what happened the night before?" InuYasha asked, turning towards Sango, catching her eyes with his.
"Well… She did mention that she had woken up in her room shortly after she passed out in the hallway." Sango stared intently at the glowing button on the elevator, "But she didn't mention anything else."
"She passed out in the hallway?" InuYasha raised an eyebrow at the woman.
Sango stared up at him in alarm, "You didn't know?"
The elevator doors opened then, revealing a nurse and two patients who had been waiting for it.
"Take the next one!" InuYasha called to them, pushing the door close button and then hitting the one for the top floor. "What happened to her?" He demanded.
Sango backed away a bit, but her eyes held defiance, "Don't snap at me," She growled at him.
"Fine… Just tell me."
Sango glared, but began to speak, "Well, I found her unconscious in the middle of the hallway the day before last. She wasn't breathing, but Miroku revived her. I don't think he ever figured out just what had happened…"
InuYasha's eyes widened, "But she didn't say anything about later that night? Nothing about trying to kill me?"
"Trying to kill you?!" Sango screeched in alarm, "She said that she couldn't remember anything from that night after she had passed out!"
The woman watched a look of dawning come over InuYasha's face. As memories passed before his eyes, he realized that there was something terribly wrong.
"I'm really sorry, InuYasha. I don't think I'll ever know what came over me…"
"But if she doesn't remember… then that wasn't her talking to me…" InuYasha mumbled more to himself than to Sango.
Sango stared at him, a little frightened, before realizing that she should have told him something, "InuYasha… Kagome told me that she heard voices. That was why she was here."
InuYasha turned to look at her, just as the elevator doors opened once more. They were on the special security floor. Also known by the patients downstairs as, 'The Padded Rooms.' This was the place where all of the destructively insane patients went; the ones that had committed a murder, or tried to commit suicide.
In the middle of the hallway, a commotion was growing. Doctors stood all around a single doorway, trying to grab onto a shrieking woman in a straight jacket. InuYasha couldn't get a good look at her, due to the doctors standing in the way, but there was something vaguely familiar about that voice.
Suddenly, the girl broke free of the gripping hands, and darted towards the elevator. In that moment, InuYasha recognized her in an instant. Although her black hair was matted with dried blood, and her face was red from sobbing, he knew it was Kagome.
"Kagome!" Sango called out from behind him, waving her arms in the air and holding the elevator door open. Dumbstruck, he simply stared in disbelief as the girl he once knew stopped in her tracks the moment she saw her friends.
The doctors tackled her to the floor then, yelling angrily to each other. One finally pulled out a needle, and stuck Kagome in the arm, through the straight jacket. The girl screamed in pain, and then went silent as her head slumped to the floor.
"Hey, you two!" The doctor's voice seemed far away even though he was just down the hall, "You aren't supposed to be up here! Get back downstairs!"
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InuYasha stormed out of the elevator the moment it reached the ground floor again. Sango clutched to his elbow, pulling him back.
"InuYasha! Don't do anything stupid!" She warned, but he pried her fingers off of his arm, and continued down the hall towards the nurse's station. There he halted, pounding angrily on the glass around the counter.
"I demand to know what's going on here!" He yelled at the man inside. The man spoke through the little holes in the glass, "I'm sorry sir, but you'll have to calm down."
"Like hell I'll calm down!" He yelled. Sango stood a few feet away, looking around nervously for doctors.
"I demand to know! What happened to Kagome Higurashi?! Where's Nurse Kikyo?!" Yes, he had noticed the nurse's absence most of all. She always came to his room in the morning.
"Sir," Rang the voice on the other side of the glass, "I'm afraid I cannot tell you that. Please calm down or I'll call the doctors."
"Tell me! I know you know!" InuYasha pounded on the glass again, his anger rising. The man behind the counter quailed in alarm when the crunch of glass cracking could be heard over the yelling.
Pushing a little red button in front of him, the man began to yell into the intercom, calling for someone to take away the crazy man beating on the glass.
Although terrified that she would also get in trouble, Sango stayed in her spot. She would never leave InuYasha alone in this state. It didn't take long for the doctors to arrive, most coming from upstairs. Sure enough, they grabbed InuYasha first, and then Sango. Hauling them both back to their rooms.
InuYasha was held down onto his bed and given a shot. It had taken three doctors to subdue him, and all three stayed there as they held him to the bed before the drugs took effect.
"InuYasha, we've given you a sedative. Try to calm down, alright?"
"Kikyo… Kagome…" InuYasha tossed his head back and forth on the pillow, sweat running down his face.
The doctor sighed, "You won't be seeing Nurse Kikyo any longer. Thanks to this Kagome Higurashi that you're so intent on finding…"
The words didn't actually process until well after the doctor had left, and the drugs began to wear off. InuYasha sat up, confused and disoriented. All that he knew for sure was that he had to speak to Kagome.
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It had taken a while to pick the lock on his door, but InuYasha had managed it in less time than it normally took him when they put him into lock down. Quietly, he stole towards the elevator, careful to stay in the shadows so that even the cameras couldn't pick up on his movement.
He took the stairs instead, in order to limit his chances of running into someone on the way. It would be a long run, but well worth it.
After a good while of stairs, he came to the door marked for the last floor. He carefully opened it, scouting the room with golden eyes before slipping into the hallway.
The man guarding this floor had his own station just like the one downstairs. It had glass panels all around it, with a counter on the inside. The guard didn't seem to notice InuYasha as he crouched out of view and passed the station with ease. It wouldn't have mattered, though, since the man had the TV turned up so loud that he probably wouldn't be able to hear a bomb go off.
InuYasha slowly walked to each large, metal door. Peeking through the small window on each one, checking for any sign of Kagome.
Half way through, he could hear soft sobbing coming from a door across the hall. Tip toeing over, InuYasha looked through the window. His amber eyes widened when he found Kagome curled up in the center of a bare, padded room. A straight jacket pinned her arms behind her, forcing her to shift uncomfortably every few minutes.
"Kagome…?" He whispered. Although the door seemed thick, she still managed to hear him. Picking her head up slowly, her eyes brightened with hope.
"InuYasha!" She yelled, getting up on unsteady legs and staggering over to the door. She collapsed against it. InuYasha could hear the rough cloth of the straight jacket sliding down the length of the door. Although he could no longer see her, the boy could still hear her choked sobbing.
"Oh, InuYasha…" She gasped, "I'm sorry, so sorry…"
"What are you talking about, Kagome? Why are you here?" He asked as gently as he could, not wanting to upset her any more.
"I found Kikyo… " Her voice grew softer, until the last sentence was barely a whisper that he had to strain to hear, "They think I killed her… She was dead, InuYasha. Dead."
InuYasha leaned his back against the cold, metal door. He could hear Kagome shifting against the other side; her quiet sobbing drifting to his ears. The boy sighed, fighting back the burning feeling behind his eyes. Slowly, he slid down the length of the door, landing on the tile.
InuYasha buried his face in his hands, shaking his head in disbelief.
"Kagome… What have you done?"
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Extra Author's Note: Still there, everyone? Go review! Thanx!