When I talk 'little black imps' think those little thingies (though they weren't black – but bear with me) who Sesshoumaru killed when they tried to take Rins soul. Them type thingies.
Spiraling into the Realm of Hatred
Chapter 12
Inu-Yasha ran as hard as he could . . . struggling through the choking mist as he tried to figure out where exactly he was going . . .
Why he was going . . .
What he was doing there in the bowls of hell . . .
He only remembered holding Kagome in the rain . . .
How he had heard her voice call to him . . .
How he drifted off to sleep and then stepped into her nightmare . . .
She called to him . . .
She brought him here . . .
So, Inu-Yasha thought with a bit of hope . . . If it was her who had brought him there then perhaps there was some hope left in her troubled soul . . .
Still the little black imps bounced around, laughing at the torment, following him like gnats . . . poking at him . . . pinching at him . . .
There was certainly fear within him . . . he could feel it welling up inside of him . . . a despair he had never felt before . . .
But, it didn't feel like him . . . it felt like another emotion . . . from outside, creeping to his heart . . .
He pushed it away, refusing to listen to it as he struggled, avoiding the magma that threatened to burn him, though as it splashed upon him it was no more than boiling water. He could handle it . . .
A frightened sob caught his ears . . .
Another rosy sparkle drifted before him through the mist and fog only to fade into non-existence . . .
"Kagome!" he cried out suddenly, his eyes still trying to see where a bit of her soul had vanished. "KAGOME!"
The crying rose louder, but he could hardly hear it over the shrieks and shouts of the hell-creatures that followed, striking their claws onto the blackened earth, their pointed tails lashing about as they laughed . . . rolling in laughter . . .
A feeling of utter hopelessness befell Inu-Yasha as he blinked through the mist to see a shuddering shape upon the ground, sobbing into the ebony stone . . . trembling against all that haunted her . . .
It did not even look like Kagome anymore. This girl was small, completely overtaken by fear and emotion that he knew very well Kagome could not have possessed such as this. No, this was some other poor fool who's life was drying up within their hearts as they clamored for the top of their mountain of life only to slip ruthlessly into a canyon, never to come out again . . .
Only . . . this was no stranger . . .
It was indeed Kagome.
Her hair was a mess, mussed about her head in knotted wreaths as she hid her face from him . . . hid her face from herself . . . sobbing pitifully as if it were the only thing in her life worth doing . . .
Again, loneliness knocked at his heart as he watched her with saddened eyes . . .
It wasn't his own emotion he felt . . . it was Kagome's . . .
"K . . . Kagome?" he questioned softly, afraid that his very voice would send her sprinting away from him again.
And if she were to do that, he realized as a pink bit of soul escaped from her body to die, he would lose her forever.
"K . . . Kagome . . ."
She stopped, turning ever so slightly until he could barely see her glistening, tear filled eyes. "W . . . who . . ."
But they were the only words that escaped her lips before she fell into a burst of shaking, forgetting she had even said anything at all. Kagome pulled away from him, looking back at him as if he were satan himself coming to steal her away.
He was dumbstruck. "Please, Kagome . . . It's me . . . Inu-Yasha . . ."
"Who?" she shrieked, leaping to her feet. "Don't come near me! Please! Don't hurt me!"
The way she had said it . . .
The fear that glittered in her eyes . . .
Inu-Yasha felt so weak . . . so helpless as he watched Kagome climb to her feet, too tired to keep running, trembling all over, writhing her hands in utter fear . . .
Her eyes did not register him . . .
"But . . . Kagome . . . it's me . . ." he tried again, forcing a smile to his face, reaching out for her hand with his. "Please . . . come back to me! Please don't leave me, Kagome! Don't you remember me?"
She didn't answer.
How he lied to her!
Betrayed her!
Hurt her!
Killed her!
"That wasn't me!" Inu-Yasha shouted, anger mounting in his voice as he felt all the thoughts that panged Kagome's beaten heart. "None of that is me! I've never hurt you, Kagome! Never!"
You liiied . . .
You betraaayed me!
"That wasn't me, Kikyou!"
Kagome eyed him cautiously, her eyes squinted as if she were trying to think.
"I never hurt you! I never did anything to either of you! It was all a misunderstanding." But the feelings he could sense emitting from Kagome never waned, only strengthened with every word that came from his mouth.
Why didn't she understand?
A shadow lurked within the mist, tall and slender with long black hair.
"Kikyou." Inu-Yasha snarled as the woman in question stepped forward, pale and silent.
"She wont respond to you anymore, Inu-Yasha." She sneered. "This young double of me is too far gone. Her soul is now within me . . ." Kikyou reached out her slender hands to the misty hair, gathering bits of rosy soul that exploded from Kagome, gingerly accepting them back. "I missed my soul . . . with it now I can live again."
The hanyou bristled. "That's not fair, Kikyou!"
Her eyes were hurt. "Not fair? How is it not fair? The way I was brought back to this terrible, horrible earth only to wander in a lifeless state fueled by my hatred of you? How I relive my death every day? Not fair, how this woman has taken my soul from me, harboring it within herself and refusing to give me back what is rightfully mine."
"The Gods have cast your soul to Kagome . . ." Inu-Yasha began harshly, the words to remind the dead priestess that she should no longer be walking the earth were held at bay. He clenched his fists. "Please, let Kagome go."
"I can't." she shrugged slowly. "This is beyond me, it was bound to happen anyway."
Inu-Yasha glared furiously, his amber eyes befalling Kagome as she trembled like a fall leaf in a speedy gale, her hands clutched around her shoulders as she shivered from the cold.
Kikyou watched her one love for a long moment where he had not taken his eyes from Kagome. "You love her.'
He snarled. "Stop this, Kikyou! This isn't right!"
"You love this girl over me?" she questioned, approaching him slowly, her eyes fixed upon him. "You truly want this girl over me?"
The hanyou clenched his jaws shut, refusing to allow any words escape.
Kikyou was dead . . . but she was still Kikyou . . .
"I will be alive once again in a few moments, Inu-Yasha. Then we can live together as we had planned . . ." Kagome crumpled to the ground as Kikyou said those words, her dark eyes fixated upon Inu-Yasha's, seductively stroking his cheek with her soft, cold hands. "You had once said you wished to be with me, Inu-Yasha. Does that still hold true?"
"I . . . I . . ." he stammered, afraid of his own words . . . afraid of the touch that warmed his skin.
Emotions stirred within him that he could not longer explain . . .
"Inu-Yasha . . ." Kikyou cooed. "Stay here with me . . ."
Kagome whimpered, clutching her stomach as she curled into a little ball of pain.
"It's too late for her . . ." the priestess continued, her lips inches from Inu-Yasha's, her eyes consumed in his. "Now you shall have me forever."
She gripped his arm . . .
He gripped hers . . .
*** Uh oh . . . there's a twist I didn't expect. No, seriously, that sort of happened on its own. AAAH! This was supposedly the last chapter – wrongo! Oh well. What's another chapter? I hope you enjoyed! PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!***
