In honor of the actual presidential election FINALLY being over with...Chapter 12!
(Also to make up for that awful mini filler chap that was Chapter 11)

The rating was upped to PG-13 a while ago, and I did it just for this chapter. I am well aware I will receive death threats at the end of this chapter, either due to the fact that it's a songfic-ish chap or the fact that I just devised one of the most evil cliffhangers imaginable... --gets out fireproof--...crap, I don't have anything fireproof...uh oh...

Erm...please don't kill me!

Besides, if you do, you'll never know what happens!

BTW- The song is "Tourniquet" by Evanescence.

'Ships: Kagome/Inuyasha, Sango/Miroku

Chapter Title: The Musical Irony

Chapter Teaser: will give a heck of a lot away...

Notes: "words"- means speaking; 'words'- means thinking; italics- emphasis on words

Dedication: To Rozefire, Pline, and Rogue Pryde

Chapter Twelve: The Musical Irony

Three years ago...

Naraku insulted Kagome and tried to kill her with stress pills, claiming he was "helping" her. After she passed out, her parents paid attention to her. So she took them again and again, until she nearly overdosed.

Two years ago...

Kagome tried to kill herself, but was saved an awful fate by Sango and Miroku, who showed her who truly cared. Naraku tried to manipulate and degrade her again, but she ignored him.

One year ago...

Miroku and Sango started showing "oblivious" affections for each other. Kagome felt somewhat alone during this time and spent most of the days in the library. Naraku cornered her in there one day and hit her, repeatedly. He followed her to different rooms on different days and continued to abuse and assault her. Both physically and verbally. He told her to tell her parents it was her then-boyfriend, Hojo. She dumped Hojo and he, with the help of his father's tabloid, spread nationwide rumors about her. Kagome never got romantically involved with another boy again.

Now fast-forward to here and now, Kagome felt the exact same amount of pain she had over all those years when Naraku tells her he sent the assassin. That he would have done the world a favor. Done her friends a favor. As if she had friends! He spoke, his voice raspy, an insane grin lighting his features...

"You are scum. Low-life. You don't deserve to live. Do you honestly think anyone will miss you? Inuyasha was sent by his father's assistant to sell your horrid little life to the tabloids. He used you to boost his father's campaign. You are nothing more than a toy to him..."

She ran from him, as fast as she could until she hit her room. She slammed the door behind her and leaned against the door. Sobbing. Thinking. Realizing. Kagome silently stood and walked into the bathroom. She flipped the light switch and blinked as the bulbs along the mirror came to life. Stepping over to the bathtub, she made to move the pink curtains along the shower rod, but instead wrenched them down completely. Tossing them aside, she switched the knob all the way to hot --as far as it would go-- and pulled the water handle on full blast. Sticking the stopper into the drain, she stood up, trying to keep her balance.

She went to the closet and pulled out her Americana pajamas and changed into them. Slowly, she brushed her hair, staring at herself in the mirror, hating the reflection. Upon impulse, she brought a fist forward and smashed the glass. The tinkling crash of glass was music to her ears and she didn't even bother to mend her cut and slightly bleeding hand. After all, nothing seemed to work in mending her heart. Inuyasha had lied to her...She would never forgive him as long as she lived, which, considering her desperate circumstance, wouldn't be long...

Kagome exited the bathroom, leaving the hot water running. There were dried tear tracks on her cheeks, but she didn't care. She walked over to her stereo on the stand outside the bathroom door, and switched up the volume halfway, not really caring what was on. She was going to play a CD anyway. Somewhere under the heavy metal guitars playing on the radio station, she heard a noise. A voice. Deja vu...

"That song sucks."

Kagome looked up, and wanted to cry even more...

Inuyasha sat on her balcony.

She tried desperately to ignore him and put a CD in and hit 'play'. A haunting melody played, but just as the song began, she stopped the song and fast-forwarded a couple of tracks. Then she hit the triangular-shaped 'play' button again, this time on a different song.

Inuyasha made his way into the room as a woman's voice began echoing throughout the room. He looked around and noticed speakers under the table, and another pair across the room, on a shelf above the bed.

I tried to kill my pain,

But only brought more

(so much more)

Already, Inuyasha didn't like this song. It was depressing. Depressing wasn't good for Kagome. That reminded him why he was here. Though the next line in the song did pretty well in reminding him too.

I lay dying

And I'm pouring crimson regret and betrayal

I'm dying, praying, bleeding and screaming

Inuyasha shuddered. He looked around to see Kagome, sitting on her bed, hugging her knees, lip-syncing the words. He walked towards her and realized, with some horrific clarity, that her hand was bleeding. 'What the heck?'

Am I too lost to be saved?

Am I too lost?

"Kagome..." He whispered. She hated it when he whispered. It made her feel so much frailer, as if he were speaking to her on her deathbed. Well, he would be soon, but that wasn't the point. If he knew, then he would try to talk her out of it. If he didn't, then he had found out about her cutting, and was trying to talk her out of that too. No doubt Sango and Miroku let him in on it. It didn't matter anymore. Nothing mattered anymore. Naraku had seen to that. He spoke again. "Kagome, what did you do to your hand?" Looking down at her right hand, she expressionlessly examined it. "I smashed my mirror." She replied tonelessly, gesturing with her unharmed hand towards the bathroom, where the door was ajar. Inuyasha craned his neck to see and saw pieces of shattered glass clinging to the backing of the mirror and in the sink and on the floor. "Why?" He asked. Tears pricking the corners of her eyes, Kagome responded, "Why should you care?"

My God, my tourniquet

Return to me salvation

She hugged her knees closer to her chest. He came and sat on the bed next to her. She dared not look into those eyes. Those golden eyes that she knew would be filled with so much compassion, she wouldn't be able to bear it. She wouldn't be able to bear her conscience telling her not to believe it, but a small part of her overwhelmed at the fact that he might actually care for her. She'd never really been loved. There was her parents' love, but that seemed to have waned since Daddy became president and was displayed in public. "I do care." He said softly, grasping her injured hand lightly in his. "You used me." She laughed, but it was hollow-sounding, "Here I was thinking someone cared and I find out I was being used. Unless he lied," Her voice grew somewhat hopeful, then stern as she continued, "Were you sent to sell my past to the tabloids?" Inuyasha looked down at his lap, almost afraid to speak. "Were you?" She repeated, squeezing his hand.

"Not exactly..." He let out in a breath.

"Inuyasha! I trusted you!"

"Yeah? Well that's what you get for trusting complete strangers!" He said angrily.

"I thought you were different! I felt like I could trust you!"

Kagome dropped his hand. Inuyasha started to talk again, "Kagome, listen, it started out that way, but..." He tapered off, watching her as the tears she struggled so valiantly to hold back began to fall. She honestly didn't need this... Nobody deserved to be hurt so much. He silently vowed to kill Kouga and Kikyo, (Yes! I mean...oh, no.) but first, he had to speak.

"I... I love you." Inuyasha whispered. "I-I don't know why or how or what, but it happened. You were just supposed to be a way for my father's campaign to seem better. I wasn't supposed to fall in l-love with you, but, I did."

Do you remember me?

Lost for so long

Will you be on the other side?

Or will you forget me?

Kagome gasped and looked up at him, yet not meeting his gaze. Her left hand covered her mouth as the tears brimmed her eyelids, threatening to spill once more.

Had she anticipated living past this point, this last encounter, she might have regretted her next action. She put her damaged right hand up to cup his cheek, still determinedly not looking into his eyes. But finally she realized she had to, to know, and she did. Her brown eyes met his golden ones. Fear and isolation and hopelessness met compassion and love. Now, without hesitation, she kissed Inuyasha, full on the mouth, pouring her very being into him. Saying goodbye in her own way. Of course, Inuyasha did not know this.

She certainly caught Inuyasha off guard. He didn't want it to end. This was how it was supposed to be. How he had wanted it to be. He never anticipated falling in love with her, nonetheless in a chick-flick movie sort of timeframe, but somehow it happened. And somehow he knew it wasn't just because she looked like Kikyo. That was one of those weird, unexplainable things he couldn't help. There was a sweet innocence in her kiss, but he also sensed a dire need for love, almost hopelessness. He wasn't going to move away from her, not when he felt she might break if he let her go. 'I will hold you for eternity if I have to.' He promised himself. But at the next line he heard in the song, his eyes popped open, and he slowly widened the gap between their faces.

I want to die!

Kagome saw another look in his eyes, this one of fear and determination. She realized that he knew what she was going to do. Or at least had some idea. She also remembered the bathtub water was still running. Using that as an excuse, she ran to the bathroom, leaving a shocked Inuyasha staring at the radio. But he was forming a plan. In a rush, he left the room in search of Miroku and Sango.

My God, my tourniquet

Return to me salvation

The water was filled to the brim of the tub. Kagome shut the water off and checked the temperature. It was still steaming hot. Almost too hot to stick her finger into the water. But it had to be agonizingly hot. She reached into her medicine cabinet below the broken mirror and pulled out the box of razor blades. "One last time," Her voice seemed to let out in a whisper. She took one out with shaking hands and placed it on the side of the tub, the cardboard strip protecting her from the sharp end of the blade- for now, anyway. She peeked her head outside the door. Inuyasha was gone.

My wounds cry for the grave

My soul cries for deliverance

A panic rose in Kagome's chest as she backed into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her. 'What if he's gone to tell someone?' She'd had this planned for four years! Ever since Naraku began insulting her! The perfect solution for everyone! What she never counted on was Inuyasha. She never expected to fall in love with him, like he didn't expect to fall in love with her, and she hated to leave him, but this could not be helped. It was destiny for her. As there was no real way to lock the door, Kagome shoved the straight-backed chair from the corner under the doorknob; the top rung of it keeping the door in place.

Will I be denied?

Christ, tourniquet

She couldn't even bring herself to do anything as the CD, obviously a little scratched, began skipping, repeating the last line of the song over and over.

------------------------------------------------

Inuyasha reached Miroku and Sango, gasping for breath. They stared at him, but all they had to do was to take one look into his eyes and hear him say, "Kagome..." to get them running. He ran back as well, even though his legs were protesting painfully. They ran incredibly fast up the stairs and threw open the door to the Rose Room. Sango and Miroku began banging on the bathroom door, hoping to hear an answer. Silence. Finally, in a rage, Inuyasha pushed them out of the way, rammed the door, and broke it down.

He stopped dead.

The first thing he seemed to register was a music video he had seen recently, with Kagome. A Britney Spears video. And how eerily similar this looked to it...

Kagome lay in the tub, still in her Americana pajamas, completely submerged in bath water. Water that was tinged with a sickening red; water that was clear enough that you could see the blood still blossoming from an undisclosed location; water that held Kagome Higurashi captive, razor blade held limply in her glass-shattered hand. A tiny bubble floating near her mouth popped on the surface of the water, signifying that there was no breath.

And all the while, that infernal CD was stuck, skipping, repeating the last line of the song continuously...

My suicide...

My suicide...

My suicide...

Talk about irony hitting you hard.

On a very serious note...

Disclaimer: Do not try and re-create any of this, please. Kagome's supposed resolution is not the answer. If you feel overwhelmed by a problem or problems, talk to a friend or loved one. Or call 1-800-SUICIDE (1-800-784-2433) for help. Please, this is just a story. This is exactly why I did not directly state how Kagome did this. I love and appreciate all of my readers, so please, if you had this resolve already, take my advice and get help. Thank you.

The disclaimer was posted at the bottom to not give any information in the chapter away and because I felt it was appropriate to give that warning.

Seriousness aside for a moment...
Reviews! I got three for that icky chapter, so I'm thanking ya'll!

XxDemonic-PrincessxX: Thanks for making me feel better about the length! Happy belated Halloween, lol.

partalien0: Yes, I need to give you an Inuyasha tutoring session...Narakubad. Inuyashagood.

Mizz Moo: Interesting pen name...Thanks for stumbling upon my story and reviewing! I hope you never do understand that concept...Stay happy!