Chapter Three: Waking to Darkness
Sango moaned as the throbbing in her head brought her back to consciousness. She reached one heavy hand up rub at her temples, and was surprised when her fingers came back wet with what she assumed was blood. The girl forced her eyes open, but quickly shut them against the bright light.
"Sango? Hey Miroku, I think she's coming around!"
"Shippo?" The demon exterminator mumbled. She opened her eyes again, more cautiously than before. After a moment, she was able to raise her eyelids enough to let in small slits of light, and she could almost make out the form of the little kitsune huddled over her.
"How are you feeling, Sango?" asked a new voice.
Now the brown eyes slid open the rest of the way. "Miroku, are you all right?"
Miroku smiled down at her, wincing slightly. There was a gash on the side of his face, but other than a few bruises, he seemed unharmed. "I am fine, Sango. I'm glad that you are finally awake." He kneeled next to her, the firelight casting sharp shadows across his features. It was still dark enough for a fire, but the night sky was lighting with the approach of dawn.
A thought crossed Sango's mind, and her eyes widened for a moment. "Wait, have you been watching-"
Shippo laughed, and Sango turned as she heard Kilala squeak next to him. "No, Kilala and I have been watching you." His young face saddened slightly as he continued, "we sent Miroku over to Inuyasha. He's hurt pretty bad."
Sango looked puzzled for a moment before the events of the night came rushing back to her. "Oh no! Kagome-?"
The monk shook his head, hiding his blue eyes. "She's gone."
The demon exterminator sat up sharply. The quick movement sent the world spinning, but her determination won out and she was able to remain upright. "They got her?" She waited until the monk nodded reluctantly. "Damn. What about Inuyasha? You said that he was hurt?"
"He took a sword through the gut. He's very lucky to have survived this long, in his human form. I'm sure that he will be all right once the sun rises, but until then we have to keep him from moving. If he agitates that wound, I'm sure he will bleed to death."
Sango nodded, knowing from her past battle experience the severity of the wound. She motioned for Miroku to help her up, and the monk obliged silently. He knew better than to argue with her when she got that look on her face. She moved so that she was kneeling next to the hanyou, who had fallen next to her. Sure enough, he was covered in blood. Thankfully, the bleeding seemed to have stopped, due to a crude bandage that Miroku must have applied. She nodded her approval of the battlefield dressing, and quickly went about double-checking the monk's work.
"You did well, monk. But we'll need to have extra bandages ready for when he comes around; he'll almost certainly try moving right away and reopen that wound."
Shippo volunteered to search for clean bandages while Sango and Miroku tried to make the hanyou comfortable. Dawn was fast approaching, and they knew that as soon as he was healed, Inuyasha would want to begin searching for Kagome. Until his transformation occurred, however, the pair wanted the hanyou to stay asleep. If he woke now, there would only be pain, and they wished to spare their friend from as much as they could.
They did not have to wait long. The sun rose quickly, and Inuyasha changed back into his half-demon form. After his body had returned to its normal state, the half-demon began to stir.
"Kagome..."
"Inuyasha, keep still. You're badly wounded, and you need give your body a chance to heal," Sango said quietly to the hanyou as she ripped a piece of cloth Shippo had recovered.
Golden eyes slipped open, searching the faces that crowded close. She's not here, he thought as he let his eyes close against the faint light of dawn. "What happened, Sango? Where's Kagome?"
"They've taken her, Inuyasha. I'm sorry." Sango hung her head for a moment as she remembered her failure to protect her friend. Suddenly a memory surfaced, and she quickly looked back at the hanyou. "But I know who took her. It was that lord, the one that we ran into yesterday. I saw him just before they knocked me out."
"That creep has Kagome? Great. If we don't find her soon, there's no telling what he'll do to her!" Inuyasha growled as he forced himself into a sitting position. The pain was lessening as his body healed itself, but it would most likely take the entire day for him to be able to move comfortably again. Unfortunately, Kagome probably didn't have a day for him to sit around and recover.
"Come on, we have to get moving. The tracks are fresh enough that we can follow them, and hopefully we'll catch up to them before nightfall."
No one wanted to argue with Inuyasha, and so they grabbed their gear and prepared to move out. Sango managed to convince Inuyasha to ride on Kilala with everyone else, telling him he would be of no use to Kagome if he was bleeding. Once the hanyou agreed, the group set out after the missing girl.
Darkness surrounded Kagome as she drifted toward consciousness. The emptiness around her was almost comforting, wrapping about her like a warm blanket. The feeling disappeared, however, as a rough hand shook her.
"Wake up, wench!"
The voice was a low hiss in the darkness, and Kagome sought to ignore it. But the shaking persisted, and so the girl reluctantly opened her brown eyes. At first she could see nothing; the blackness behind her eyelids seemed to have enveloped everything around her. As her eyes adjusted to her dim surroundings, shapes began to come into focus. A man was grabbing her arm, trying to shake her awake. There were more behind him, but Kagome could not yet make out how many.
"She's awake," a familiar voice rang out in the darkness, and its cold tone brought back memories of her abduction.
"Where am I?" Kagome asked.
The girl could see the faint silhouette of the man who had spoken, and she watched as he motioned for the others to leave the dark room. "It doesn't matter where you are anymore." Kagome heard a sharp sound, then had to shield her eyes as light filled the room.
Her kidnapper stood in the doorway, holding a lighted torch. Kagome could see him clearly now, though she already knew his identity. Yojikin smirked at the girl as he glared down at her. "You are mine now, woman. Do not even think of trying to flee; no one ever escapes from my prisons."
Kagome stood, noticing as she did that she was in a tiny cell. She put her back against the cold stone wall farthest from the door and stared defiantly at the lord. "First of all, I don't belong to anyone! And second, my friends will come for me, and when they do-"
"You're friends? Oh, yes, I remember them." The lord took a step toward her and reached into his robes as he spoke. "They weren't even worth the effort of killing."
Kagome fought to keep her composure as an image of Inuyasha, struck down and soaked in his own blood, came to mind. "No! They aren't dead! They've fought things worse than you, and still lived. I know they're alive!"
Yojikin pulled something from his robes and threw it at Kagome. Cautiously, she bent to retrive the item.
Oh no...it's Inuyasha's haori! And it's soaked in blood!
Yojikin watched the girl's expression change as she recognized the piece of cloth. Good...fear is the first step to submission. "I took the liberty of pulling that from your friend's corpse. Maybe it will keep you company in your new home," the lord's victorious smirk faded, and Kagome pressed harder against the wall as a flat, evil expression transformed his face. "And maybe it will remind you of what happens when my orders are disobeyed."
Yojikin decided to leave Kagome with that final thought. He disappeared through the small cell door, and the rusty metal door slammed shut behind him. As the cell plunged into darkness once more, no one saw the single tear that fell onto a battered, bloodied piece of red cloth.