Ch. 3. The Demon Gang

They continued traveling into the night. Sesshomaru sent Jaken off to get food.

Finally it was time to go to sleep. Sesshomaru found a soft patch of grass. Jaken laid down near the dying fire. Sesshomaru pulled Julie with him. He laid down and pulled her to him.

"Don't," said Julie.

"You're sleeping with me," said Sesshomaru.

"What do you think you are? My lover or something?" growled Julie.

"That can be arranged," said Sesshomaru sarcastically. "Would you like me to send Jaken off?"

"No," said Julie quickly.

"I have no desire for a relationship with a women at this time anyway," said Sesshomaru coldly. "I merely want you close to me at night so you can't sneak off."

He put his arm around her. She was so close to him, she could feel him breathing. With his arm over her, the big sleeve of his kimono was almost like a blanket. He shifted his left leg so it was on top of her legs. That would certainly make it hard to sneak away from him.

And even if she could sneak away from him, where would she go? She had no clue where they were really. Somewhere in Japan. Somewhere. Where?

Inuyasha and the others were probably looking for her. But they obviously hadn't found her yet.

Jaken had long since fallen asleep. Julie shifted her head slightly to see if Sesshomaru was awake. He was looking right at her. Julie quickly turned over on her side. Sesshomaru kept his leg on hers and his arm around her.

Julie thought back before all this had happened. Her and Rosemary had read all the manga books they could about Inuyasha. Julie had always loved Sesshomaru. Now that the wish they had made came true. And Sesshomaru was a cold demon.

She couldn't believe that all this stuff was true-Inuyasha, Sesshomaru, everything.

She certainly didn't love Sesshomaru anymore. He was just a cold-hearted demon who wanted to kill her earlier. She wanted to escape, but she couldn't.

She could tell Sesshomaru was asleep now. He shifted in his sleep and slid his other arm underneath and held her closer. He didn't even realize what he was doing.

Julie knew that if there were a time to escape, it would be tonight. If she could get away while Sesshomaru was asleep, she could be miles away by the time he got up and realized she was gone. But there was a problem: Sesshomaru was practically lying on top of her. There was no way to get him off her without waking him up. This morning, she had only managed to move two inches before he felt it.

She decided to stay awake to see if an opportunity would present itself to her.

The time dragged on. Sesshomaru shifted once but only a little.

She smirked. Sesshomaru did do one thing: he kept her warm from the cool night air.

Suddenly Sesshomaru rolled onto his back. Julie froze. It was too good to be true.

She sat up. He didn't even notice the relieved pressure on his right arm. She looked at him. He was just lying there, fast asleep, his white air spread out on the soft grass. His left hand rested on his chest. The crescent moon mark on his forehead stood out in the moonlight.

He looked kind of cute lying there. Then she remembered how he had kidnapped her for some plan and the hate for him welled up inside her.

She looked at Jaken. He was out cold like stone.

She carefully stood up and began to tip toe away.

She went through the trees, carefully creeping along. Once she thought she was far enough away, she broke into run.

Twigs crunched under her feet as she ran like a cheetah through the forest.

She ran and ran and ran. She took short breaks now and then to rest her legs and catch her breath. Then she ran some more.

She ran for a long while, wondering where she would go. What would she do for food? How would she find Inuyasha and the others?

She had no answers to these questions. She was just glad to be away from Sesshomaru. She had finally succeeded! She had escaped! And (provided Sesshomaru didn't wake up early and see that she was gone) she had several hours more to get even farther away.

She ran for a bit and then slowed to a walk. She was extremely thirsty. She walked for a while and finally came to a stream. She drank out of it and felt much better. She took her shoes off and went into the water to cool off. She felt hot after all that running and walking.

She stood in the water for a few minutes and then she got out and sat on a rock for a while to dry.

Dawn came and she found some fruit and nuts to eat. She ate a good breakfast and then loaded her pockets with stuff to eat later.

She walked around all day, resting occasionally. It rained and she found shelter in a small cave that led to nowhere and was empty except for a few spiders. She was lucky to find more fruit that night and she ate plenty.

She found a dark spot under a tree near some bushes. She laid down behind the bushes to go to sleep.

It was a little chilly that night. She almost wished she had Sesshomaru to keep her warm. But she scratched that thought. She didn't need or want him anymore.

She fell into a deep sleep. Several hours passed. She woke up later. She sat up and looked around. It was still dark out and the sky was like velvet black with glitter sprinkled on it. The moon was like a large pearl quietly sitting up there. It felt very late still and she thought she would go back to sleep.

She was just about to lie back down when she heard something rustle in the trees. She froze. Was that Sesshomaru? Had he found her? She sat very quietly, hardly daring to breathe. More rustling. Maybe it was just an animal. But that thought didn't seem to comforting. What if it was a dangerous animal?

Then she thought it might be demons. She hadn't seen any demons today while walking, but that didn't mean there weren't any.

She thought she heard whispering in the dark. Somebody was around.

Suddenly she heard louder rustling and something jumped out of the bushes and landed right in front of her. She screamed as more things landed around her and grabbed her.

She was taken (kicking and screaming) to a cave where there were fires lit.

She was tossed onto a pile of hay. She looked around. There were several demons. The demons had pointed faces like foxes and fox like tails. They were fox demons, but they were very different from Shippo (who is a fox demon).

They wore clothing like humans and there were some females who wore kimonos and necklaces. There were children too. One woman was holding what looked like a sick fox demon child.

"Look what we found, boss," said one fox demon.

A slightly larger fox demon stood up from another pile of hay.

"Oh, a human girl," said the boss. "What strange clothing." He walked right up to her. Julie stepped back. The fox reached out to pluck at her shirt. She slapped his arm.

"Oooo!" said the boss. "A feisty one. Well, she'll make a good meal."

"WHAT?" shrieked Julie. "I'm not food!"

"Yeah, you are," said the boss. "Were gonna' cook you up. Humans taste best. Especially there blood. It's like wine."

"Uh, you don't want me!" said Julie, thinking how disgusting these demons were. "We humans are full of gristle and were absolutely terrible for your health."

"Don't even try," said the boss shoving her down. "You're going to make a nice meal. Get the knives!"

A nasty looking demon brought over a sharp, jagged knife. A female brought over a pot. "You can drain her blood in this."

"THAT'S DISGUSTING!" bellowed Julie.

"Not for us," said the demon with the knife. "Get her."

A bunch of the males moved forward and held her down on the hay. Julie couldn't believe it. She had escaped Sesshomaru only to get killed and eaten by a bunch of fox demons with disgusting tastes.

"NO! Let me go!" shouted Julie. "How can you do this?"

"Easy," said the demon with an evil grin. "Like this."

The knife came hurtling down toward Julie's chest.