Author's Note: HI GUYS! I'm back! I finally managed to write this chapter amidst truckloads of work from school. Thanks so much for all of your reviews, they're the only things that are keeping me writing! You guys are so awesome!

Chapter 17: Running Away

"Kagome?" Inuyasha asked with concern in his eyes, looking down at the girl he held limp in his arms. "Kagome, are you alright?"

She stirred faintly, not opening her eyes. A low moan came from her throat.

"Kagome," Inuyasha said again, in an almost sing-song voice. "Can you hear me?"

Another stir. This time her eyes blinked open. She looked around the room, then up at Inuyasha.

"Is...is someone there?" she asked. Her voice was hoarse and whispery, but it was still a voice. Inuyasha was immediately overcome with relief. He pressed Kagome against himself, wrapping her in a huge hug. She began to cough.

"Inu...Inuyasha?" her voice asked.

"Yeah," the boy replied. "Yeah, I'm here."

She smiled, and blinked her eyes again. "Then I'm safe," she said quietly. Her eyes closed again and Inuyasha heard the change in her breathing. She had fallen asleep.

He set her down on the bed-like thing that was attached to the wall. He wasn't quite sure how she had come to be here; he didn't remember how he himself had gotten there, and when he had woken up on the cement floor of the room, Kagome had been beside him. It hadn't taken long for his energy and good sense to come back. He hadn't been able to piece very much together; the only thing he knew was that he was trapped here. That, and the fact that it was Kouga's fault.

But what did Kouga want with him? He had no way of finding out.

He looked over at Kagome, sleeping peacefully on the couch. It was his fault that she was trapped here, with him. She hadn't done anything wrong.

He thought back to what had happened at the dance. The noise, the lights, him and Kouga fighting. All that he could remember was taking a nasty hit, and then he was in this room with Kagome beside him.

Looking at the girl, he found himself wondering what had happened to Sango and Miroku. Were they trapped somewhere, in another room similar to this one? Maybe they were just sitting at home, wondering where he and Kagome had gone to. Maybe they had no idea that they were even gone.

He began to pace the room, walking from one cement wall to the other, running his hands through his long white hair. What was going to happen to them? What was Kouga trying to do? How long would they be trapped in this place? Where on earth were they?

"Aaaauuugh!" he exclaimed, banging his fist against one of the cement walls. When he pulled away, a long crack marred its surface.

There were too many questions, and not enough answers.

"...Inuyasha?" Kagome's weak voice was enough to send him spinning back to reality, and away from all the doubt surrounding them.

"Yeah, I'm here," he replied, all roughness gone from his voice as he moved towards the bed that Kagome was lying on. He sat down on it, next to her. "Are you alright?"

She smiled dimly. "Yeah, I'll be fine," she said, trying to sit up. She managed to use the cement wall as a support, and when she was properly sitting, her hands went to her head. "Ugh, I feel like someone hit me on the head with a brick."

Inuyasha laughed a bit. At least she was feeling alright. "Can you see anything?" he asked, waving his hand in front of her face. She shook her head in reply.

"Nope. But I -could- see, just a little bit." She looked up at him. "I saw you. It was kind of weird. Everything was blurry, you know?"

"No, I can't say that I do," replied Inuyasha, whose vision was always perfect. "But I can imagine it." He smiled. "Ah, well. It's better than being blind, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Kagome said. "Yeah, it's a lot better."

The two of them sat together in silence for a few moments. Inuyasha opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the sound of footsteps echoing outside of the locked-and-bolted door.

"I wonder who that will be," Inuyasha muttered, sarcasm heavy in his voice.

"Oh, shit. Oh, this is definitely not good."

Miroku and Sango were at Sango's house. Inuyasha's foster parents were at the police station. They had ordered the two teenagers home; it was getting far too late for them to be wandering the streets. They had, of course, protested loudly and for a very long time; but, in the end, Sango's parents had been called, and the two of them had been forced to retreat to Sango's house, where they were now pacing the length of her bedroom.

"So, let me get this straight," Sango mused. "Inuyasha and Kagome have both been kidnapped by that Kouga guy. We have no idea where they are. They may or may not be together."

"They'd better be together," Miroku said. "He'll freak out if he thinks she's in danger."

"Yeah, and she won't be able to take care of herself," Sango agreed. "But we have no way of knowing what's going on."

Miroku sat down on Sango's bed, a sullen look in his eyes. "We have no way of finding them," he said sadly. "I guess that all we can do is sit here and hope."

Sango sat down next to him. "We'll think of something," she said. "We can't just give up on them like this."

"What can we do?" Miroku asked loudly, standing up and glaring at Sango. "Obviously we can't just up and give up, but would you rather us go out on the streets and get kidnapped ourselves? If we go out and look for them at this time of night, anything could happen! There are all kinds of weirdos, you could be-"

"Okay, okay, I get it," Sango said, also standing. She placed a hand on Miroku's shoulder to calm him down. He looked up at her, faint tears visible in his eyes. "We'll wait. Maybe the police will find something. We'll wait until morning."

Miroku blinked and all signs of tears were gone. "Okay," he said, sitting back down on the bed. "Okay."

Inuyasha and Kagome sat on the bed, listening as the footsteps got closer and closer.

"Who is that?" Kagome asked quietly. "Can you see anything? What's going on?"

"I have no idea," Inuyasha replied. "We can't see anything yet. Just wait a bit."

Kagome clung on to his arm, her eyes squeezed shut as if that would make the eerily echoing footsteps go away. Suddenly, they stopped, instead replaced by the clicking of locks on the other side of the door.

The door swung open and a draft of cold air hit the two of them. As Inuyasha watched, Kouga stepped through the open doorway and closed it shut behind him.

"Well, well, well," he said, in stereotypical evil-guy format. "The two of you have finally come to."

"What do you want with us?" Inuyasha spat. Kouga laughed. Kagome gripped tighter onto Inuyasha's arm.

"I'm just conducting an experiment of sorts," Kouga said. "Trying to see how much time will pass before something happens."

"Before -what- happens?" Inuyasha asked, looking suspiciously at the other boy. Kouga laughed, again.

"That doesn't matter much, now does it?" he countered, grinning widely. "Anyways. I'll leave you two to your own devices. Are you at all hungry?"

"No," Inuyasha growled.

"I'll just leave then," Kouga replied, shrugging. He exited the room. Inuyasha heard the various locks on the other side of the door click shut. The footsteps began to echo down the hallway again, except this time they were moving away from the two of them.

"Inyuasha, what does he want?" Kagome asked, looking in the direction of the door.

"I have no idea."

"How are we going to get out of here?"

"I don't know that either."

Kagome sighed and looked away from him. "You could try and break down the door," she suggested. "Or..."

Her face lit up and she stood from the bed, stretching her hands in front of her and walking straight forwards. Eventually she came into contact with one of the walls. She pressed her ear against it and knocked faintly on the cement.

"Help me out here," she said, gesturing in Inuyasha's general direction. "There might be some kind of hollow spot where it would be easier to break through."

She rapped her knuckles against the cement again. "Nope, this one's solid," she said. Inuyasha moved in front of her and took up a similar position, leaning his ear against the wall and rapping his knuckles against it. Kagome moved forwards along the wall, not realizing he was there, and ran right into him. He smiled and poked her nose.

"Way to interrupt me," he said jokingly. She laughed a bit.

"Sorry," she replied, moving away from him and making her way around to the wall behind him.

The two of them progressed like this until they had made it halfway around the room. "This is going nowhere," Inuyasha sighed. "There aren't going to be any bloody hollow walls."

"Sshhhh," Kagome replied, her ear against the wall opposite from the one that Inuyasha was listening to. "I might have something."

Inuyasha immediately ran over to her side of the room, pressing his ear against the wall and hitting it. There was a faint echo from the other side. He smiled widely.

"I can't believe it," he said. "You might actually have found a way out."

"Hey, I'm not stupid," Kagome replied, her hands on her hips. "You say that as if I'm good for nothing."

Inyuasha looked at her and laughed a bit. "You're not good for nothing," he said, smiling warmly. "But we need to focus on getting out of here."

"Right," Kagome said. "I'll get out of the way."

She backed away from the wall and Inuyasha prepared to break it down. He took a few steps back and then ran forwards, ramming his side into the cement.

There was a slight cracking sound, but the wall stayed solid.

He backed away from the wall again, took another running start.

The cracking sound was a bit louder this time.

He repeated this three more times, and a large crack finally appeared in the wall. He relayed this information to Kagome, who smiled.

"Just don't hurt yourself," she warned. "It's still cement."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Inuyasha replied distantly, sizing up the wall. Just one more good hit, right...there, he thought to himself, seeing the place in the wall that, when hit, would cause the whole thing to crumble down. "Stand back," he said, rather unnecessarily. Kagome was already backing away.

He took one final running charge at the wall, and hit it dead on the weak spot.

There was a loud crack, followed by a slight rumbling sound.

He stepped back from the wall, looking at what he had done with a proud expression on his face.

The proud expression faded away as cracks raced along both the wall and the ceiling. He looked up, suddenly very concerned. When he finally realized what was going on, he swore loudly under his breath. Dust and small pieces of rock began to fall down from the ceiling.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome asked nervously. "Are you sure everything's alright?"

"Get under the bed!" he shouted, running towards her. He grabbed her arm and half-dragged her over to the metal bed, helping her to crawl under it before following himself. "Please don't collapse," he whispered under his breath, looking up at the ceiling that was now lacerated with cracks. "Please don't crush us."

The walls, of course, didn't listen.

The first huge chunk of rock fell down right in the middle of the room. After that, bigger and bigger chunks began to follow, accompanied by the small stones raining down everywhere. From underneath their petty shelter, Inuyasha watched everything that was going on. He didn't need to tell Kagome what was happening; the constant thunk, thunk, crack of stone-hitting-stone told her all she needed to know.

"Way to totally destroy the room," she said, needing to speak loudly in order to be heard above the now-constant noise of destruction.

Once the ceiling was totally gone and they found themselves looking up at blue sky, the walls began to follow. They crumbled from the top downwards, their own weight forcing them to collapse. More and more rocks tumbled downwards. Inuyasha dared to poke his head out from under the bed for just a moment, to ensure that the wall above him and Kagome wasn't following suit.

Of course, there was no such luck.

"Kagome, we have to move," he said, taking her hand. "The wall above us is starting to collapse. We'll be crushed for sure."

Wordlessly, Kagome began to climb out from under the bed, aided by Inuyasha. One of the walls had almost totally crumbled; Inuyasha led her over to that one, moving as quickly as he could over the broken rocks that were littering the ground. More and more were falling; sometimes they just barely missed them, whizzing past their heads and taking a few hairs with them. Neither of them made any noise, too shocked to speak or to scream, as they ran together towards their only hope of escape.

"Ack!" Kagome exclaimed, losing her grip on Inuyasha's arm as her ankle fell into a hole between two rocks. Her momentum kept her moving forwards and she fell, her foot trapped between the rocks. Inuyasha swore again, running back to her.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he said to her, not noticing that the fall had knocked her unconscious as he pulled her up and into his arms. He barely avoided getting crushed by a piece of falling rock as he carried Kagome up and over the broken-down wall.

Once they were clear of the falling rocks, he looked back at all of the destruction he had accidentally caused. There were cement blocks everywhere. The whole room had totally collapsed.

Looking around him, he realized that he had no idea where he was. He was standing in the middle of a dirty street, with broken-down buildings lining the sides. From the recently destroyed cement room, he could faintly see stairs leading down into the earth, like some kind of tunnel.

Curious as he was about what Kouga was doing, he realized that Kagome needed some help first. Looking down at her, he realized that her ankle looked badly twisted. It might have been broken. He swore, again, under his breath.

Stealing one last look at the cement wreckage he was leaving behind, memorizing its location in his mind, he began to run along the street with Kagome in his arms, looking for any clue as to where he was.