A/N: Here we go… This chapter is pretty intense so… I hope you guys are ready.

Chapter 12:

The words repeated over in her head, just once before she realized she needed to run. "It was my job to kill you. If I would have just done it, they would not have attacked you. And they won't stop until you're dead. They won't stop until I do my job."

As she jumped to her feet, grimacing in pain, she remembered his hands on her body, his mouth on hers, his eyes locking hers in a loving gaze. The click from childhood to adulthood. A tear leapt from her eye as she spun away to run for the stairs. Out of the corner of her eye she saw it land on Inuyasha's chest. She saw him look down, a flicker of the new fire in his eyes, and realized this was her chance.

She ran up the stairs, but he was only a heartbeat behind. As she reached the top after taking the stairs two at a time, she briefly felt his fingers brush her injured shoulder, then grabbed the door handle and flung it shut in his face. She heard him yelp in surprise and then bellow in anger as he fell backwards down the stairs.

Kagome then reached gently, carefully, for her shoulder. She pat the bandage gently with her fingertips and sank down to the floor with her back leaning on the door to the basement. When she drew her fingers away, they were drenched in her own deep red blood. She drew a deep breath, the pain draining from her body after her previous exertions. She took on second to think, and it was her biggest mistake.

Inuyasha had seemed to love her. She would have bet her life on his genuineness. Yet that had been his exact act with any other girl he assassinated. He was practiced to perfection on conning girls. "I love you," meant nothing to him. If he was able to fool the other girls with those words, he definitely could have fooled her. And he had. And what hurt most is she loved him.

Just as that last thought danced through her head, a loud splintering sound echoed through the abandoned house and the door she was leaning on shook. It repeated. Again, again, and again. And finally the sound was directly beside her head. She whimpered and her eyes flickered to the sound to find a long, sharp knife pointing out of the wood of the door. She leapt up, stumbling in pain, and started running again after glancing back quickly to she Inuyasha's eye peering out of one of the knife holes.

"No!" she screamed in anguish more from her heart than from the excruciating pain in her shoulder. Her arm was drenched in thick, red blood from the shoulder to her fingernails where the blood was already drying and becoming a crusty coating on her fingertips. The thickness horrified her, and it wasn't stopping.

Then she ran. She knew her destination, now. She ran out of the house, down the front path, and to the road waving frantically. Blood was spewing out of her shoulder, drenching the walkway, the grass, the road, and her. Her long dark hair was in warm, wet clumps from the blood. And she shook and waved, she felt her body fading, losing consciousness and going into shock. Yet no car approached her. The street was desolate, and the wind was rustling softly through the tree leaves was the only movement or sound.

She savored the peace for a moment too long. Then came another movement and sound. One that made Kagome's blood run cold. The front door flinging open, and the angry, bloodcurdling scream from deep in Inuyasha's chest emerged from his mouth as he ran towards her, knife in his hand. Kagome backed off the curb, tripping into the road and falling on her back. She screeched in pain, her eyes squeesed shut in pain and her back arched in pain. She tried to reach to massage her back gently as she attempted to stand and run, but her arm wasn't working. The arm of the injured shoulder was completely paralyzed in shock. Tears were streaming down her cheeks now. A puddle of blood was forming underneath where she was laying on the pavement. The thick red liquid was rippling down into the gutter and spreading around her, seeming to engulf her. And a sob escaped her throat as she saw all the blood leaving her body. And then she realized she was dying.

"I've got you know, love," came the voice that she had once loved but now haunted her. He was right above her. Hovering. Looking down at her, grinning evilly with the knife raised beside his head.

'Why can't I just let him kill me…' Kagome questioned herself. Her body was dying as it was. But she knew that she did not want to die this way. With a final ounce of fight she kicked out at Inuyasha's ankles and her foot make contact. Inuyasha tripped backwards from the force of Kagome's kick and Kagome leapt to her feet and began running down the block. Her destination had been a hospital, but with no one around to rescue her she would never make it with Inuyasha running after her, especially because she was injured.

But the next loud sound she heard assured her that Inuyasha would not be running after her. The wheel of his Ferrari screeched out of the driveway and sped towards her. She didn't have time to think. She didn't have time to feel pain. She didn't have time to cry or scream or shriek. All she could do was run anywhere she could to get away from him.

She knew the only place she would be safe would be with more people. There, Inuyasha would not be able to kill her. Not with witnesses. She ran down the block faster than she had ever run in her life. Yet she was no match for a Ferrari. No match for any car. Especially not the car of a vicious murderer with her in his sights. And then she realized that she was running past houses. Homes of people who might be home. People who could save her. The closest house had two cars in the driveway and one on the street. That seemed like someone definitely had to be home.

She ran to the door and pounded on it with all of her strength, her eyes not comprehending the small white sign on the front door with a small child's handwriting on it. She pounded for ten seconds straight, heard a car door shut, knowing in was Inuyasha who would be behind her in a matter of seconds. So she read the sign.

"Party In Back!"

"Party in Back?" Kagome whispered, her shock preventing her ability to think straight. And then she realized, just a second in time. She remembered her childhood parties in her yard when she would happily make a sign telling people to head to the backyard for the party.

She ran just as Inuyasha reached her. His hand gripped her arm, but she was slicked with blood, moist and slippery and she easily slid through his grip and ran. Looking down she saw that her entire body was drenched in blood, warm, wet blood. And as she ran through the white picket fence leading the backyard, her hands leaving bloody marks on the white. But the second she set foot in the yard, she felt salvation and relief greater then ever before in her life. And she saw Inuyasha shrink back. She heard his words...

"I'll get you."

And then she walked into the party. With a small yelp, she watched a dozed heads wearing cone-shaped party hats turn to stare at her. She heard at least five little children start crying at the same time. And as she fell to the grass she saw the puddle of blood underneath her already and her head crashed to the ground. But as she watched three adults run towards her, motherly concern on their faces, she knew she was safe, even though she saw the final glimpse of a killer glaring at her from the from yard before running out of sight.