Chapter four

Blood Stains on the Carpet

"In-u-yasha? What's wrong?" Kagome asked as she sank down on the ground beside him.

It took him awhile to settle down, but Kagome just sat there, whispering soothing words as she rubbed his back.

"H-how could she do this? I loved her! What about the kids? How could she do that to them? How-...," he trailed off, staring down at his feet. He wanted nothing more than to just curl up in a little ball right now, and hide from the world. From Kikyo, his brother, and Kagome. He didn't want her to see him this way.

"Inuyasha, everything is going to be all right. You'll see. Shippo and Rin are doing just fine."

Inuyasha stared off into space, not crying, hardly even breathing.

"Never marry out of love, you'll only end up getting hurt, Kagome." He said quietly as he stood up. He grabbed the handle on the trash can and pulled it down the small hill in the front yard.

Kagome just sat there, looking after him.

'He's never... ever said anything like that! Damn Kikyo! If she ever comes back, then I'm going to kill her, if she hasn't already drunken herself to death.'

Kagome would have followed Inuyasha, had it not been for the fact that he didn't look like he was in the mood for talking, and because she had left her car on in the middle of the road.

'I'm such an idiot.'

She stood up and walked to her car, where she got in and then drove the rest of the thirty feet to her house. She got out and took one last look at the house next door and then stepped inside.

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The boy with long brown-black hair that was tied into a pony tail, and dark chocolate brown eyes, stared at the young woman in front of him. They're looks matched each other's, noting that they were brother and sister.

"What are you doing here, Kagome?" He asked.

She sighed lightly and put on a smile.

"Is it so bad to see me? Today is visiting day."

He just nodded his head and looked out the window. Kagome tried to keep her eyes off of the other people in There, but she couldn't help but sneak a peek at them right now, when there was nothing else to do.

She looked around the plain, cream colored room. There were small round tables with chairs on the hard, tiled floor, and a couch and some chairs that surrounded a

T.V. in the carpeted corner of the room.

Most of the occupants wore robes over their pajama's, and some actually got dressed in their clothes. There were only a few family members spread out at the tables, who were visiting their sons and daughters.

"What are you looking at?" Her brother's voice cut in.

She didn't even think before she answered.

"Why don't you like for us to visit you?" She asked seriously, her eyes watering up slightly as she turned to look at him.

He turned back away from her and she thought he wouldn't answer her. He almost never did.

"Because... I know it... hurts Mom."

Kagome bit down on her lower lip. That was the most he had ever said to her since he started living here a few months ago.

"It hurts her even more when she can't talk to you or see you. She loves you, we all do, Kohaku."

He could tell that she was about to cry, but so was he. He hated being there, and he hated himself for what he did. Why? Why did he have to do that?

"Kohaku, we forgave you a long time ago."

Her little brother looked up at her, tears falling down his cheeks, as he got up and hugged her. He started to cry in her arms.

"It's okay, Kohaku. It's all going to be okay. I promise."(she says that a lot, doesn't she?)

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Kagome went home awhile after that, and found the house to be empty. Everything seemed to bring back memories, even the hallway when she stepped into it.

She walked down the dark hallway, passed the family portraits, passed her parents room, and finally stopped at one door. It was white and plain, like nothing of interest was held behind it. She grasped the gold painted handle and turned it.

The room was stuffy and had dust floating through the air. Everything had been left the way it was when her brother had last been in there. Nothing had been disturbed.

No one had been in there since that night.

She could still hear her mother's scream as she sat down on the bed. She could see her mother falling to the floor and picking up her brother who lay face down into the carpet, and turning him over onto his back.

His eyes were closed and he was barely breathing. Blood was flowing steadily out of his arms, where three large gashes had been made. A bloody blade still rested in his hand.

Her mother just held him like that for long moments, after she had screamed for her dad to call an ambulance. They took so long to get there, that they thought he would die before then.

The ambulance arrived, and he was carried off on a stretcher. The blade fell from his hand and still rested on the light blue carpet beneath her feet.

Blood stains still remained as well.

Kagome stood up from where she was sitting and left the room. She closed the door behind her and hit her head on the door.

Why didn't anyone know that he was cutting himself?

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The next day, Kagome got up and got dressed for school. She pulled on a pair of white socks that went up to her knees and put on her blue plaid skirt, and white button down shirt. After buttoning the sleeves, she put on the red tie and blue jacket with her school's monogram on it. Then she slipped into her black loafers.

Her high school uniform.

She hated uniforms.

She grabbed her bag on the way out and got into her car. She was early, so she decided to go pick up something to eat for breakfast.

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After grabbing a bit to eat, she made her way to school. Today was a Monday. How she hated Monday's. She really didn't want to go.

'Maybe I'll skip.' She thought.

Then something else slipped into her mind.

'Kouga would be so mad with me... oh well, he can get over it.'

She passed by her school and headed towards down town. She didn't really know what she was going to do, but she just wanted to get away from people.

Now that she thought about it, she knew exactly where to go.

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After parking her car, she headed down towards one of the paths. Her feet carried her past parents and their children at the park, the small man made pond, and finally past the open field that was used for various sports.

She found the small creek and jumped down onto the clay molded stairs that led to under the bridge. She walked underneath it, staring at the graffiti and broken glass bottles until she came to the other side.

It was small, and grassy, but surrounded by trees. She plopped herself down onto the grass after discarding her jacket. So what if she got grass stains on her shirt, she knew how to get them out by now from doing this so many times.

"I should have brought a book." She said to herself.

Instead of kicking herself in the butt for not bringing something to do, she started to think about everything that had been happening for the last couple of months.

She loved Inuyasha and the kids and she hated what Kikyo did to them. She understood how he felt about some of it, but she couldn't comprehend all of it. She'd never lost anyone she ever loved. But she can close enough to it.

That reminded her of Kohaku, and how she had almost lost him. Her parents started to act strangely after he went into the hospital. They were distant, and shadows of their former selves. Then, she talked to them, and they started to act like themselves again. Carefree and friendly. Even though, sometimes if she caught them alone, they would just sit there and stare off into space. Not that she didn't mind them not being... intimate, but it kind of scared her to see them like that sometimes.

Before she knew what she was doing, she felt hot tears rushing down her cheeks.

She just laid there and cried. Cried for everything that had happened, and for things she had never cried about, but felt like she needed to.

'Will things ever be the same?' She thought to herself quietly.

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Uh, took me long enough, i know, but I'm having some problems of my own. So, you're just going to have to wait, if you actually like this story.

Sorry,

robin