Chapter 20: The secret tale ...
The wind rustled in the air but to Kagome's face, it felt like the fiery breath of devil himself. Disorientated, she did not know where she was running but only to keep moving for every step she falters brings her pursuer closer and closer.
It was an agony lifting each foot, what felt like lead and heavy steel dragging her down with each step.
Her heart beat pounded in her ear, the guy was approaching closer and closer. A shadow loomed ahead of her – "I am here…." A dry voice rasped...
"Kagome, Kagome wake up!" Kouga yelled shaking her to stop her violent trashing.
Kagome screamed snapping her eyes open. The deep brown calmness of Kouga's eyes quietens her but nevertheless, she was still shaking from the memories of the dream.
Breathing harshly she threw the blanket back and got out off the bed unsteadily. The floor swayed around her feet rushed up to her face as she collapsed on the floor coughing.
Kouga was by her side in an instant.
"Kagome, what wrong?" He asked anxiously.
Kagome closed her eyes. The familiar pain growing in her chest was fading slowly.
"I am fine Kouga; can you get me a glass of water please?" She asked still coughing.
She sat down heavily on the bed watching Kouga as he ran out of the room in search for water. The pain was fading but in it stead, fear grew.
She had thought her illness was gone when the coughing disappeared. Two months passed since she stopped using her medication and now-
"…Kagome here." Kouga passed the glass of water along with a bottle of pills.
Kagome stared at it and then at the guy in front of her.
"How did you know?"
"Your mom told me everything after you left."
She was silent for a while and then nodded.
Kouga sat down beside her while she gulped the pills down winching as the bitter taste filled her mouth.
"Why are you here?"
"To pack my things and leave."
Kagome looked at him in surprise.
"Why?"
Kouga smiled, the expression not quite reaching his eyes.
"You are here now; there is no point in staying in this house. It time I go back and pick up what I have left behind."
Kagome looked down, guilt racing through her heart. "I am sorry-" She began.
"Don't be, as long as you are happy now." Kouga spoke sadly.
"W-we can still be friends Kouga. I am sure of it!"
"Can we?" He said quietly.
No we can't, Kagome realized. It no longer the same as before, too much have happened since then.
She smiled sadly and reached for his hands.
"Kouga, there is still Ayame. She has deep feelings for you for a long time now."
Kouga turned and grabbed her hands, his sudden action startling her.
"It not Ayame I want, it's you KAGOME!"
Inuyasha cursed as he leaped off the bed, he was going to be late for his meeting with Kagome.
Leaping down the stairs, two flights with each step Inuyasha ran to the door and threw it open crashing into Kikyo.
"Inuyasha!" She cried as she fell back and was caught by him in the last second.
They lay there stunned for a second before Inuyasha came to his senses.
"What the hell are you doing here?" He yelled getting up from under Kikyo.
"To tell you that I need you Inuyasha. What I said before I did not mean it but, I cannot live without you, do you understand?" She cried.
He eyes widen in surprise. "I am sorry Kikyo." He replied stiffly his eyes shadowed. "I cannot return your feelings no matter what."
"No even when Kagome no longer wants you?" She cried harder.
Inuyasha paused unable to watch the girl in front of him.
"Not even then." He answered quietly.
Kikyo grimaced then chuckled as she rose from the ground.
"It ironic isn't it Inuyasha?" She laughed anger showing clearly on her face. "Two years ago you would have being asking if I was hurt instead of why I am doing standing outside your door."
"What-" Inuyasha took a step back wary of her attitude. What the hell is she doing? He growled to himself.
"Naraku was right Inuyasha!" She whispered her eyes shadowed. "Someone like you cannot be trusted."
Kikyo laughed approaching him. "If you want something done you should do it by force. Am I right Inuyasha?"
"What the hell is wrong with you Kikyo? What did Naraku do to you?" Inuyasha yelled shaking her shoulders violently.
"Don't touch me Inuyasha." She said menacingly. "I will show you the pain you have caused me. I will show you what it feels like to be betrayed by those you love until the day you wish that you life is no longer worth living and then you will come crawling back to me-"
"I WILL NEVER DO THAT!!" Inuyasha yelled at her.
"Oh but you will Inuyasha. You see, Naraku has being helping me a lot lately. He helped me discover some rather interesting things about you or should I say disturbing?"
Inuyasha looked at her anger clouding his thoughts.
"What are you talking about?" He growled.
"Why are you no longer polite anymore Inuyasha? You use to be so sweet to me-"
Inuyasha slapped her. So hard that the impact made Kikyo stagger back with pain.
"I never treat those who deal with Naraku kindly. Something you should have already realized before you went to him." He snarled.
Kikyo narrowed her eyes clutching the side of her face. "I will make you pay for doing that Inuyasha."
A malicious grin filled her face. "What am I saying?" She laughed. "I already have what I need to make you pay Inuyasha."
Still clutching her face, she pulled out a package from her bag and threw it in front of him.
"In there is evidence for the crime you did four years ago with out anyone knowing-or that's what you had thought."
"There is enough evidence there to proof you guilty and more to send you to jail." Kikyo chuckled and continued- "Inuyasha! If that's not enough, we've manage a way to connect it to Kagome, isn't Naraku smart eh?"
His hand shook as he reached for the package. So this is what Naraku planned for him, not only that but to make it worst, he manage to drag both Kikyo and Kagome into this.
"If you do not want Kagome to get hurt Inuyasha, I suggest you listen and agree to what we say. Or else I WILL NOT HESTIATE EXPOSING YOUR CRIME INUYASHA!!"
..Inuyasha sat in the corner of the dark room, the pile of information from the package scattered around him.
Naraku had revealed something not even he wanted to know about, the secret he had kept for a long time…
His secret tale…
.
…Hanaki was a girl I meet before I had even realized the existence of Kikyo. She had filled my desolate heart then with warm and for once in my contemptible years of existence I found happiness and peace within myself, yet like everything else in my life, that kind of feeling was not to be…
…Untainted and adoring she was, though one was not without their secrets and she had one that was very much her own…
…The moments we had together was pure bliss and as time passed away quickly and eventually so did our happiness…
…Hanaki was from a rich family and like every rightful family's heir, she had obligations to meet and that was to marry Yoshima, the first son of the second richest man in the district…
…That day…
.
"Inuyasha…" She cried as we hugged under the sheet of cold that was the rain. She finally found the courage and told me her story, the whole story about the lonely life she had to withstand while living with her father…
.. .it included the terrible secrets she had kept hidden inside her heart for a long long time…and this was the story she told me…
..Her father was a beyond comparable insatiable man and the sole reason he marry her mother was because of the money her family processed. As planned, as years went by he killed his wife and inherited her riches but was too late to stop the birth of their child who her mother had named Hanaki.
The child who was cursed by her very father on the first day of her life. She was a pest, a nuisance he did not need in his goal to conquer to business world and become richer and richer. The year Hanaki was three; too young to comprehend what she was witnessing yet the image still remained in her mind.
The body of her mother on the ground surrounded by men who was covered with her blood and there in the middle stood her father.
Her hate for him grew but so did fear, fear for a man who could kill his own wife so carelessly but she was lucky because her father thought little about her daughter and with the newly possessed money from his dead wife, he began setting he eyes on the riches elsewhere.
Slowly, his empire grew and so did his allies along with enemies.
Takoshi was one man who matched Hanaki's father's ability and power in the field of business and schemes. He was one man who he could not defeat so stead, he decided to unit with him.
What better way to do that then to marry his beautiful daughter with his greedy lustful son? So the engagement was set and the wedding planned.
The two men rejoicing in their own brilliance, both were enjoying their triumph of ridding a possible treat to their dominance.
That was when her nightmare began. Yoshima came and tormented her every night. He was under restrictions from his father, not allowed to touch her until their wedding day yet he found other ways to satisfy his needs…
.
…As I sat listening to Hanaki's story, I realized my own pain and trouble were pitiful when compared to her. I could only try and quest the terror she live through spending her life with a father who had killed her mother in front of her…
…I decided to help her…without realizing what wrong I was going to commit…
…Hanaki and I decided to elope but to our horror her father found out…
…On that day, he sent twenty men to kill us. Somehow the guy to who Hanaki was engaged to found out and also came along making to group twenty-one…
…My memory failed me from that bit onward for my brain have no longer wished to store the details on the incident that happened that day. The only thing I remembered and the only thing I wish I didn't was that…
.
…my hand was filled with the blood…
.
…One was the guy I loathed because Hanaki was engaged to him- Yoshima and…
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…the other was Hanaki…
.
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