Spiraling into the Realm of Hatred

Chapter Eight

     "You!" Inu-Yasha snarled viciously, his grip on Kagome tightened as Kikyou slowly stepped from the shadows in the rain . . .

     Silently like a ghost . . . her dead eyes meeting his . . .

     Sad eyes and yet they gleaned with contempt for him . . . "It is."

     "Why?  Why did you do this to Kagome?"

     Kikyou turned in the rain, though her hair only looked slightly moist as if the pounding sheets did not touch her . . .

     Of course, she wasn't alive to begin with.  Inu-Yasha bristled with rage.  "Why are  you doing this to Kagome?  Why are you . . ."

     "It is not my fault." The dead woman stated plainly, calmly . . . as if it were no more than a conversation about the weather . . . "It is the way things are.  She is a reincarnation of me and yet I live . . . that body to hold so close to your heart is me . . ." she frowned deeply.  "Only I wish it were me you held . . ."

     "Stop it, Kikyou.  Whatever it is that you're doing to Kagome, stop it." 

     The snarl in the hanyou's voice sent a shock through her, but Kikyou only turned away.  "I already told you, I cannot control what Kagome feels.  She is not herself . . . her soul, one forced back from the dead, I might add, is fighting back . . ."

     Kagome shuddered in Inu-Yasha's arms, she was no longer conscious . . .

     Inu-Yasha felt his heart race in his chest as he shook her to wake her . . .

     Breath barely came from her pale lips . . .

     "The only thing that kept her together, Inu-Yasha, was the feelings she had towards you.  My feelings . . . and when you had forsaken her . . . over and over again . . . her soul fell apart . . ." Kikyou grinned slowly as if it were some sort of joke.  "She was overwhelmed."

     "Then help her!" the hanyou pleaded, though he knew it was in vain.

     It was a long moment before Kikyou looked at him, her eyes so sad . . . so baleful that it made the hanyou's angry heart soften, but only a little . . . "So what you told her . . . it wasn't a lie then . . . just to keep her from killing you?"

     Inu-Yasha quickly averted his gaze from hers.  He could not believe that she heard that!  "No . . ." he found himself stating boldly, though the words had to be torn away from his tongue to bring them out in front of the one he had once loved.  "It was not a lie."

      A tear fell from the corner of the dead woman's eye as she turned away . . .

     And yet she said nothing . . .

     There was a long, uneasy pause.  The silence beyond that of anything real . . . the rain's relentless assault upon the earth hushed to whispered tones . . .

     "That girl . . ." Kikyou began slowly.  It was as if she were so uncertain of herself . . . not in what she was saying but why she allowed the words to pass her lips.  She didn't want the strange girl Inu-Yasha loved more than her to live . . .

     And yet . . .

     And yet she couldn't stand to see the pain in Inu-Yasha's amber eyes anymore . . .

     She wanted him dead . . . yes . . .

     But not this way . . .

     Not this horrible, terrible, agonizing way . . .

     "The girl will not live very long . . . my reincarnated soul is fighting to return to me." She smiled a slow, cool smile at the irony that presented itself.  "My soul is only partially in her body . . . there is still some left in this body . . ."

     Inu-Yasha tensed angrily.  "And?"

     "And if her soul isn't calmed within that eroding body then she will die and her soul will return to me . . . it would be as if she never were . . ."

     "What do I do?  What then, Kikyou!  What do I do to help her?" the hanyou bristled, anxious and desperate to hear what the dead woman had to say.  "Tell me!"

     She turned her dark eyes towards him, her gaze sodden and sad and yet twinkled with the gleaming rain . . .

     Or sadistic intent . . .

     "Wake her up."

     Inu-Yasha sat with his mouth agape.  "What?"

     But Kikyou didn't answer before the great glowing soul-stealing insects carried her away into the sky . . .

     Smiling . . .

     "Kikyou!  No!  WAIT!  WHAT DO I DO??"

     But the Priestess's smile only widened further . . .

     Inu-Yasha would try to save her . . . she knew it all to well . . .

     But would that soul in her body . . . Kikyou's soul . . . allow him to save her . . .

** SIGH PLEASE REVIEW!!!!  I SOOO had writers block for the longest time, and then my computer got the worm and crashed and I've been working on my new website www.leeraskycreations.com (not that I'm promoting it or anything grin, but I hand paint jeans and purses – I have tigers up, my dragons are coming this weekend).  But now all that initial stress is over and now that I finally am pointing my story in the right direction, I will be able to work on it steadily now.  YAY.  Please review!  Please.  Thank you kindly!!***