Taptaptaptap. Air rushed into lungs coughing for more oxygen, gasping and licking for it. Taptaptaptaptaptaptaptap. She scrambled haphazardly up the stairs of an apartment complex and was about to fling herself into the door when she halted. Clasping her throat she tried fruitlessly to slow her shaking breath and composedly but still recklessly knocked on the door. It felt like infinity waiting for him to open the door.

            Several thumps could be heard inside the room. Then a sudden loud click of the door and a black-haired boy appeared and glanced at the girl in front of him then froze.

            "Inu-kun, is it true?" Kikyou whispered desperately, her eyes watering with tears. Moist sweat covered her face and her black hair hung messily around her face as she stared pitifully at Inu Yasha. He blanched.

            "I wasn't sure at first, but then..." she stopped short of her self and her lips quivered helplessly. "Inu, you have...two sides?"

            Inu Yasha blinked. "...Two sides? What are you talking about, Kikyou?"

            "Two sides, two faces, of the same mind, the same soul!"

            He felt like ice had poured through his spine and numbed the back of his head. He staggered slightly from the shock. "You..." he stared at her in disbelief.

            "Oh, Inu-kun," Kikyou's eyes softened and he knelt beside him, resting her arms comfortingly around his shoulders. "It's okay, it's going to be alright from now on. It's just that...I never knew you could...become someone like me..."

            Kikyou gasped and gave a cry as she was flung violently backward. The cement grazed her hands and she hissed from the light sting. Inu Yasha stood up and towered over her as she eyed him with surprise. His face was contorted with emotion.

            "I will NEVER become like you!!" he screamed. "Do you even know what you are?? You're a monster, an incurable MONSTER!! You've always been a monster and you always will be!"

            She flinched and covered her mouth in horror at his menacing expression, but then let her face drop and her muscles relax. A small grin curled at her lips, followed by a chuckle. The chuckle grew louder and Inu Yasha's offensive aura fell into hesitation and confusion.

            "I'm just so happy!" she wheezed laughing, "Overjoyed! Elated! Absolutely delighted!" Her face grew twisted as it convulsed into a vicious expression of hatred. "Now you finally understand the pain!! The pain of not knowing who or what you are!!! This pain so horrible I was driven insane from it!! And although you say I'm a demon, you only scream so loud because you don't want to believe you've become me."

            His fingers shot toward her neck and her head clanged against the metal stair rails. Kikyou's gasped from the impact and squirmed under Inu Yasha's incredible grasp, using her own hands to claw at his. He glared at her with a murderous glint in his eyes.

            She managed a shaky grin and looked at him with fearlessness. "Go ahead, kill me. I'm sure your other half is dying to spill my blood."

            He inhaled sharply and abruptly loosened his hold on Kikyou's neck. She slumped unto the ground and coughed, gasping and clutched her sore throat. Inu Yasha's skin grew pale with sweat as he stared at his shuddering hands, then at Kikyou's recovering figure. His body convulsed and he cried out and clutched his head, seething through his teeth. Kikyou eyed him with a sense of foreboding dread.

            "Don't tell me..." she whispered under her breath.

            His hair shimmered under the low yellow-tinted evening light at the front of his door. Kikyou squinted under his looming figure while he squirmed and whimpered, shuffling on the concrete floor. She gasped. In his shadow she could see the length of his hair extend slowly, snaking it self down Inu Yasha's spine like jungle vines. She threw her head up to see a whole mass of sleek ghostly pale, silver mane masking his face. Suddenly, his struggles lessened and his hands loosened their grip. Deathly silence followed as Kikyou waited with baited breath, her heart hammering relentlessly inside her ribs. This was it: his other side.

            A slitted amber eye shot and icy glare through his veil of silver. "I heard you've been wanting to see me..." Kikyou's eyes widened. Inu Yasha threw his head back to reveal an unchanged face, but an expression of pure insanity and evil.

            "Do you like it? It seems to be the latest fad these days to get an alternate personality," he gave a humorous flick to his streaming white hair and laughed at Kikyou's speechlessness. "I mean, you're the one to started it, aren't you? You were always the trend-setter. Always perfect little Kikyou." He lowered his face to level with hers. "Who knew you were really a demon."

            She growled ferociously. "Those days are over! I choose to be this way, I choose this side of me to spite YOU! You were the one who ruined my life, you bastard!" A violent slap streaked across his cheek as blood trickled from the gashes she carved with her claw-like nails. He only grinned back, a crazy shimmer to his gaze.

            "Ha, I ruined your life? I? Listen, bitch," he gripped her jawbone tightly, "if I had never met you, I would've never become like this." He reluctantly released her.

            "You've lived with it all your life, like some sort of chronic disease, and you shriek about how much you're burdened with it," he shot her a piercing glare. "Have you ever thought what kind of pain it would bring me?"

            "How are you my fault?" she shrieked.

            "Because I loved you, idiot!"

            She halted and looked at him with surprised but softened eyes. Icy, rigid eyes stared back.

            "I loved you and that's why I became like this. You lured me into your trap like some sort of sick game. You put on the best act I'd ever seen, but you failed. I saw you for what you really were but by then, I'd already been stung by your poison and this is what has happened to me." He motioned to himself, his hair framing his face in the evening light.

            "I never lured you, I loved you, I loved you so much it destroyed me! When you betrayed me, I lost all my will to even live!"

            He stood unmoved, gazing down at her with an annoyed expression. "This isn't a confession of love, so silence yourself. I don't care whether I loved you or whether you loved me. In fact, I don't love you. I don't even think I like you."

            Kikyou stumbled on her breath and choked. "You can't NOT love me!!" she screamed in rage, "Your white hair is proof that you still love me! You said yourself that your love for me made you like this and I believe that love makes you stay like this!"

            She stopped short of her speech by a strike across her cheek. Holding her stinging face, she looked hurtfully at Inu Yasha's offending palm. "Stop your yelling, I find your voice rather annoying." He returned to his apartment and closed the door behind him, leaving Kikyou, shocked and stricken, underneath the evening light.

=======================================================================

The Past

            I never thought life could turn out so much like a nightmare. I kept on telling myself, it's going to get better, but it just never did. This is how I am now, a victim of trauma-induced split personality disorder.

            I wasn't always like this. I used to be a healthy, happy child with loving parents and caring friends. I lived like this for fifteen years, taking my good fortune for granted. My status in school was admirable: outstanding athletic ability, above average academic record, and a handsome face, everything you really need to soar through high school life. I had my share of teenage love, but I never thought I could fall so hard for anyone until I met her.

            She was the ideal girl of my dreams. She was like an angel with long cascading dark hair, pale porcelain skin, and full lush lips. Everyone either loved her or envied her, but no one could say she was hated. She excelled in every subject and the teachers constantly extolled her with the highest claims. She was a flawless doll of perfection, and as much as she was beautiful, she was untouchable.

            Needless to say, I really admired her. My friends often liked to gossip about her beauty in our lunchtime conversations. We even choose a table she often walked past on her way to her own lunch table. Somehow, every time she ambled past us, I could feel her gaze clinging to me, but by the time I try to catch her eyes, her attention is already absorbed by her clique of friends. Feeling foolish, I ignored the feeling, even though it tugged at me everyday.

            Then one day, she made her move. I'd been buried in the most recent sports magazine, when I felt a sharp tap on my shoulder. Thinking it was one of my friends and feeling rather annoyed, I turned and answered with a rude "what?" only to be so shocked I dropped my magazine.

            There she was, her rosy lips smiling down at me like a heavenly blessing, her hair flowing down from her face into two characteristic locks of black. I was speechless and humiliated, but she only laughed it off, inviting me to join her at her lunch table. My friends whispered noisily in the background and began to cheer violently for me, shoving me out of my seat. She took hold of my hand and gently led me away from my clan of primate-like band of comrades.

            My chest heated at her touch and I followed her like a docile puppy until I noticed we had just walked by her lunch table.

            "Ki-Kikyou...your table is—," I stuttered.

            She turned abruptly and quieted me with a single touch of her finger upon my lips, grinning mischievously result in a violent flush of crimson to my cheeks. We walked outside through a mileage of busy high school students and I could feel some of their gazes glued to my back as Kikyou led me to the grassy courtyard and sat down under the gentle shade of a tree. She patted the earth next to her and I settled down as well.

            I was still speechless from her beauty. She looked more heavenly the more I stared. And although I felt like a fool, with my heart beating in my throat, staring was all I could do.

            "Inu Yasha-kun, the more I look at your face the more I like you," she smiled at me. "Ever since the first day I saw you, I liked you. Your face, it's so delicate...like the sunlight..." Her hand brushed my cheek, each individual stroke of her finger sending lightening shocks to my heart. I gasped, tongue-tied.

            "So I tried to catch your attention by reaching for the highest rank I could in school, so I could be on your level...then maybe then you could love me."

            "Do you love me?"

            Her face drew closer to mine, her eyes fluttering and my heart fretting, as I melted into her lips and into the mess that would send my life swerving into disaster.

            Our relationship went smoothly from then on. It was like some sort of ethereal dream; I felt I was treading on clouds rather than ground. Kikyou had completely swept me away so smoothly and gracefully I didn't even have time to think.

            There were quirks to our seemingly perfect bond, make no mistake. Looking back on it, I realize I was a blind fool for not seeing, but Kikyou was a strange girl. Every month or so, she would become severely sick and unable to attend school. It was said to be an extremely contagious and her friends were forbidden by Kikyou's family to visit her during those few days. However, it'd become like an accepted tradition and no one paid much attention to it; and consequently, I didn't either.

            But one psuedo-ordinary day, I requested to study together at her house. It was a regular routine, since her mind far surpassed any academic subject that I didn't. I was running slightly late and so I drove a bit recklessly, all the while pondering valid excuses for my tardiness. When I reached her house, I hesitated; the house was pitch black save for a meager lamp in the living room. I ignored the small idiosyncrasy and gathered my things, heading for the front door.

            The sound of shattering glass echoed within.

            Now thoroughly alarmed, I refrained from pressing the doorbell. Another sound rumbled inside Kikyou's home, seeming like several dinnerware objects pummeling to the ground. My mind reacted violently. Was Kikyou's being robbed? Beaten? ...Killed?

            A screamed pierced the air.

            I leapt to the window with the single lamplight and was prepared to punch through the glass when I froze. A girl was sprawled on the ground, overtaken by fear, cuts and bruises scattered upon her body. The floor was strewn with broken drinking glasses and shattered ceramic plates and bowls. Household decorations (vases, photographs, figurines) lay in pieces like the aftermath of a massacre. A figure loomed over the frightened girl with a dismembered wooden chair in hand. Raven black hair hung unkempt over the pale of the attacker's skin.

            I recognized the girl on the floor as Kikyou's little sister immediately. I didn't really know the kid very well, but I'd seen her scampering about the house once or twice during my visits. Even though I clearly saw the life threatening situation she was caught in, I did not move. Something about that figure terrified me, chilling me to the bone, paralyzing my legs, and strangling my breath.

            It is then the figure lifted the wooden chair with a heave and threw it mercilessly upon the shrieking girl silencing her in an instant. I cried out in horror against my own will. I remember this second in time so well it scares me. I felt I could hear nothing but the sporadic beating of my heart pulsing in my brain, as the adrenaline taking over my entire body.  In that moment, I felt time slow down as the figure turned its head, the black veil of hair parting to the sides, the pale skin peering through the strands to reveal a horrible monster within.

            It was Kikyou.

            Still in the slow motion of my memory she stopped and looked at me for not more than a split second. Then her mouth curled in a terrifying grin and she took the blood dipped wooden chair and swung at the only lamplight in the house, sending it straight into the window I was spying from. I threw my hands up in defense as the glass shattered and the lamp projectile pummeled me to the earth. Glass daggers lodged themselves into my arms and legs; I ignored them and threw off the broken lamp. I breathed heavily and looked up to find Kikyou grinning and staring down at me from the window.

            "Oh, Inu-kun...Do you still love me?"

            I scrambled to my feet and ran. Her cackles erupted behind me, sending fear down my spine, forcing me to run faster. The sound of her corrupted laughing still haunts me in my sleep, grasping my heart and squeezing my soul.

            News traveled quickly afterwards. Kikyou's sister, Kaede, was sent to the hospital in an ambulance with several broken ribs, minor cuts and bruises, and a possibility for a concussion. Kikyou was apparently with her parents grieving and refused to face live television interview. Kikyou withdrew from school and last heard moving away to finish high school elsewhere. Before she left, she visited the school one last time and bid everyone farewell. Not knowing she was at school, she caught me by surprise. The moment I saw her, I fled. She called after me desperately, but I didn't listen. Later, I'd find out that she was screaming, the words "sorry" over and over again, tears streaming down her face. It wasn't as if I would have reacted any differently. I ran to the men's bathroom and threw up. Sweat drenched and overcome with traumatic fear, I skipped the rest of my classes and went home.

            Never could I forget her horrific demonically grinning face that night.

            Never.

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AN: AHAHAHAHAAAA!!! I have finished. Well, the chapter I mean. The story is far from over. onlookers gasp and scream and terror "THERE'S MORE??"

Kikyou: Muahahahaaa, being evil is kickass.

Inu Yasha: ...

Kagome: ...

Kikyou: ::busts out a bazooka blows up everything::

Everything: xX

Kikyou: I love bazookas.