Thank you all for taking the time to read my story! I hope you enjoy it!

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Chapter 1: Caught Red Handed

Her breath began to come hard and her legs felt like they would fail at any moment. The wind was cold on her left arm where her pursuers had torn her sleeve off. She began to hear the heavy foot-falls of whomever it was chasing her. Her quickly weakening legs stumbled but she continued on. She no longer knew how long she had been running, but the surrounding area was beginning to look unfamiliar. She had to pray that either her pursuer would give up or they would lose track of her. So far, they had been able to track her as if by her scent alone. The streets she was running along not only were becoming emptier, but they were becoming wider, too. In a wide open space she had less of a chance of a miracle happening. She was having trouble breathing now. It seemed like her lungs just couldn't take in oxygen fast enough. The brick walls and trashcans and other paraphernalia were beginning to come into focus, and she realized that she was beginning to slow down. She had just enough blood reaching her brain for her to realize that her only viable option was to try and hide.

Looking around, she realized that she was finally in an area that was completely foreign to her. From what she could see, there were two options. Option one was a wooded area. Pro: trees are good for hiding. Con: She had to cross an open playground to get there. Option two was a partially hidden alley way to her right. Pro: If she had barely noticed it, perhaps her pursuer wouldn't be so lucky. Con: It might be a dead end or have some pervert down it. She quickly weighed her choices and decided that the alleyway would be her best choice. Ducking into it, she surveyed the alleyway. It was a dead end and practically barren. On the one hand, it was barren of people; so much for perverts. On the other hand, it was barren of any decent sized items to hide behind. There was the cliché dumpster, a few half empty garbage bags, and a corner covered by shadow. The garbage bags weren't filled with enough to make them suitable for hiding, and the shadowy corner, though dark enough was not large enough to hide all of her. The sound of footsteps reached her ears, and her breath and heartbeat quickened. Thinking quickly, she reached into the dumpster and flung out some garbage. She didn't expect this to fool anyone, but she had to at least try to make her pursuer think she had gotten in the dumpster. Finishing her weak attempt at deception, she sat down on the far side of the dumpster. She drew her legs up as close to her body as possible and ducked her head down into her lap, hoping that her pitch black hair would give her some sort of invisibility.

She heard the footsteps enter the alleyway, echoing off of the walls. So much for them not finding the alleyway. The footsteps came further in, and she started to tremble. They stopped in front of the dumpster. She could hear them sifting through the scattered garbage. She heard a deep and frustrated sigh, followed by a swift kick to the dumpster wall.

Time seemed to slow down to a creeping motion as she realized that the surprising kick as managed to extract a soft but audible squeak from her. Her eyes widened in horror at what she had done, and her head shot up. Looking up she saw for the first time the face of her pursuer. It was a man. He had long silvery-white hair and deep golden eyes. Without saying a word, he flashed a terrifying smile and reached down. She screamed and shot under his outstretched hand. Caught by surprise, the man was unable to alter his motion in time to catch her as she went by. Running as fast as she was able, the girl ran for the alleyway exit. She didn't get far though. Still ten feet from the main street she was tackled from behind. She went sprawling, scraping her arm and hands when she hit the ground. Besides the weight of the man on top of her, pinning her to the ground, she felt the painful sting of the gravel and dirt on her torn arm. She tried to struggle and squirm out from underneath of him, but he knew what he was doing and prevented it.

"Stop it! Let me go!" she shrieked. Tears of fear were running down her face as she struggled. Until now, she had thought that things like this only happened to people on television; certainly not to her.

The man sat onto of her, presumably to get something with hands, she assumed. Still she struggled, useless as it seemed to be. Her arms, free from restriction by his body, were clawing at the ground in from of her. He was sitting on her in such a way that prevented her from sitting up. At the same time, he was far enough back that she couldn't use her arms to strike at him is she bent them back. He grabbed her by her shoulder length hair and pulled her head up away from the ground. She felt him lend forward and then saw his hand and arm come around from behind her. The next thing she knew, there was a damp cloth pressed firmly against her mouth and nose. She breathed in a foul smell and began to cough. She had seen enough movies to know what the chemical on the cloth was. Fear griped her, and she resumed her struggles with new conviction. Her head began to feel fuzzy and her limbs started to weaken. The world around her seemed to fade out of focus, and she decided that she just couldn't fight anymore. She gave up, and as she blacked out, the ground rushed up to meet her.

Her jumbled dreams combined with millisecond moments of lucidity and confused her. She felt herself bumping up and down. Perhaps she was in a vehicle? The chloroform she had been made to inhale was messing up her thoughts. She couldn't seem to focus in on just one thought. Her limbs felt heavy, as if weighed down by a great load, yet they felt no strain. Part of her brain managed to piece together that she was swaddled in blankets, or some sort of similar cloth. The fatigue she now felt, presumably from her strenuous run, captured her attention, and she felt back into blissful sleep.

She aroused briefly. Just long enough to sense herself being carried down a set of stairs. Her injured arm brushed against something, probably a wall, and she cringed, drawing in on herself. The arms holding her tightened and the motion slowed. Sleep claimed her once more.

My throat, it's so dry, was her first thought as she came to. She tried to sit up, but soon discovered that this was a difficult task. First, because all of her recent memories came back to her in that instant and she felt dizzy from it. Second, because her hands were secured not only together at the wrists, but also around a metal pipe. The pipe appeared to run about a half foot off of the ground for the entire length of the room. The girl looked down and saw that she lying on a rag bed. It was made up of different scraps of cloth. There were all of different shapes and patterns. Some of them were course; some of them were soft. Other than the bright colors on the fabric though, her new site of confinement was nothing more than a dank and gray basement room.

The girl tried to slide her hands further down along the pipe so that she could get some sort of leverage and pull herself into a sitting position. As the lower half of her arms slid into view, she saw brightly colored cloth covering her left arm and palms. It seemed that her captor had at least been kind enough to bandage her arm for her. She pulled at the pipe, trying to sit up. She was almost up when her hold on the pipe slipped and she fell back down onto the rags. Several attempts and a couple sore wrists later, she was sitting. It wasn't the world's most comfortable position, but it was better than lying down with her face near the floor where who knows what had been. It wasn't long after that she heard a door open and shut somewhere across from and above her. Footsteps came at her down stairs. The door across the room open and the man from before entered. Without even glancing her way, he shut the door behind him, moved a few feet to the side, and began unfolding a tray table and metal chair. Pulling a roll of papers from the back pocket of his jeans and sat down in the chair. The girl narrowed her eyes. She could tell he was an arrogant type of man from the way he propped his feet up on the table and never once looked at her. A series of profanities directed at him, and certainly not suitable for reiteration, crossed her mind. He simply sat there, flipping through the papers. Tired of being ignored, she yanked her hands at their bindings, hoping the noise would get his attention. It did, but no more than a mere glance up in her direction before he was back to reading the papers. She yanked again. No glance this time. She blew at her bangs, trying to get them out of her eyes. He glanced at her again, but it was only brief. She yanked again. Still nothing. If her wrists and arm had been in better shape, she would have kept going, but the yanking was starting to be painful. The man seemed to sense this. The man, without looking at her, spoke for the first time.

"You shouldn't keep doing that, you know. You'll only worsen your injuries." He had an indifferent tone, but despite it, she though his voice was somewhat nice. Some people might even sense some kindness in it. Perhaps despite what he had done, this man was a decent person. He had bandaged her arm after all. The antagonistic side of her brain took over. Yes, he treated the injuries that he caused!

"Bite me!" the girl sniped back.

"No thanks. I think you might taste sour, and just a bit bitter." He was mocking her! How dare him!

"You know," he continued on, "you aren't a very interesting person, Kagome Higurashi. No, you're not very interesting at all."

"I won't even ask how you knew my name. This was obviously a planned assault. I'd bet money those papers you're reading are full of information about me. Am I right? Or maybe you're just some stalker-type pervert who's been collect information on me for the past few years." Kagome was sick this man already. She decided that if she had to be tied up, she didn't want to be tied up near him. She yanked at the bindings again.

"I told you to stop that. I don't want to have to re-bandage you. You were a bloody, bright red mess before; ruined a good shirt. They may be drugstore supplies, but those medical things certainly aren't cheap, and they're a damn pain to mess with, too. Besides, I'd have to put you to sleep again to do it. You don't want that, do you? No, I didn't think so."

"Maybe if you hadn't used duct tape to restrain me, there wouldn't be so much difficulty! Honestly, you couldn't afford handcuffs or something?" Kagome was not looking forward to getting duct tape off of her. It would be even worse than having to take a band-aid off.

"Oh please. I've seen the movies. Everyone and their grandmother can pick handcuff locks nowadays. And you're right you know. These papers do have information about you. Want to know what they say? They say you're clever. I bet you could probably figure your way out of worse than handcuffs." He began to read off of the papers he was holding. "Kagome Higurashi. Age: 17. Height: 5 foot 7 inches. Just for you, I'll pretend I didn't read your weight. I know how testy girls can get about that information. Family: One grandfather, your mother, and a younger brother whom you have been caught doting on. You father died in a car accident when you were younger, my condolences. You also have a rather large house cat by the name of Buyo." He paused to turn the page.

"What do you want from me?" she asked him. He continued reading.

"Let's see, what else. You're a decent student in school and are quite often surrounded by numerous friends. Despite enthusiastic demeanor towards the school community, you've only joined one extracurricular activity: the Archery Club." By this point, the knowledge that various people knew this much information about her gave her a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. He rocked back in the chair, balancing it on the back legs.

"Who are you?" Kagome demanded to know. He ignored her and continued onwards.

"Blah, blah, favorite places to hang out… Academic achievements: boring. Your favorite flavor of ice cream is vanilla. How convenient, that's my favorite, too. Maybe if you behave I'll share some with you. Blah, blah, blah, community services... My, aren't you the little goody-two-shoes." He spoke in a monotone voice, as if already bored with her.

"You coward," she muttered quietly. That simple, quiet statement was enough to unbalance him. Had he not grabbed at the table quickly, he would have gone sprawling backwards, possibly even banging his head on the wall behind him. He looked at her. His facial expression was calm, but she could see an angry glint in his eyes. That unsettling glint made it very difficult to salvage her own annoyed look.

"And what makes you say that, may I ask?"

"You won't answer any of my questions! You won't even tell me what to call you! You must be afraid that you'll feel bad about what you've done if you actually talk to me! Conclusion: you're a coward!" Kagome felt her checks go red, realizing she was scolding the man who had kidnapped her.

"Not likely. I've felt bad about much worse things compared to this. Why can't you just stay quiet!" he replied.

"Why can't you just give me a name! You have so much information about me already. It seems only fair that I should be allowed at least one piece of information about you. Like a name?" She was trying to sound as confident as possible, but the truth was Kagome was so scared she thought she might wet herself.

"So, if I tell you my name, you'll be satisfied?"

"Yes."

"Alright then, it's a deal. I'll tell you my name."

-End

Author Notes:

1: I'm not one of those lame-o people who believes in "No review, no updates."

2: On the other hand, that doesn't mean I don't want reviews. I love them. They make my day, even if they're negative. Questions are always welcome, too.

3: I hope you'll come back for chapter 2!

4: Update times: Honestly, this chapter took about 2.5-3 days to complete. I'm at college. I'll update when I have the time, but school work comes first. Let's estimate the next chapter update for about 2 weeks from now. It's not very far away, and if I finish sooner, lucky you! Two weeks also allows me enough time to think about the chapter. I don't want, and I think you might all agree with me, the content to suffer because I'm rushing to finish.

5: Content Policy: Again, I'll update whether I get reviews or not, but reviews are helpful. They allow me to make the story better. Perhaps if you have the time, you'd like to share what you're favorite part of the chapter was? Your least favorite part?

6: I DO NOT DO LEMONS. Don't even ask.

Chapter Notes:

1: Evil laugh How many people can guess who kidnapped her? I've narrowed it down to two possibilities for you all. Which one could it possibly be?

2:I want to make this story interesting. If you have any suggestions for something you'd like to see in the story, please tell me! I can't guarantee it will happen, but it will give me something to consider! However, I will ask that you respect AN#6 and keep the rabid fan girl-ness to a minimum.

Good examples: I want Kagome to stab Inuyasha in a desperate escape attempt!

Make them have a heart-to-heart! They can share secrets!

She's got to smack him! At least once!

whistles innocently What? Me give away future events? Why ever would you say such a thing?