Well, here's another chapter, I think the next one will be out in two weeks, hopefully. That'll probably be the shortest update period, huh. I hope so! School's out in two weeks and there's not much snow, so I can't really go on a huge snowboarding trip, which is all good news for you guys.

If you guys have heard, I finally have proof that Fanfiction illegalized review responses in chapters, so I will not be doing them anymore. If I do, this story might get deleted. However, I will respond to you, whether you got a question, or you just left a really nice review. I'll just use the button "reply" they recently added, so my 'reply' will get sent to your email, instead of posted here. I think I already replied to some of you for the last chapter.

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Crawling in the Dark

Chapter Seventeen

"Because of you,

I never stray too far from the sidewalk.

Because of you,

I learned to play on the safe side,

So I don't get hurt.

Because of you,

I find it hard to trust,

Not only me, but everyone around me.

Because of you,

I am afraid."

- Because of You by Kelly Clarkson

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"That was actually pretty good ice-cream." Kagome smiled and followed Inuyasha out the door.

"Yeah, I told you this was the place," he got his keys out of his pocket and unlocked the door of his car. All of the sudden, Inuyasha froze, "Damn, I just remembered, I left my script at the scene."

"Oh no, you need to memorize some lines by tomorrow."

"Yeah, I'll go get it right now," Inuyasha opened the car door and got in.

"I'll see you tomorrow,"

"You too," With that, he left.

Kagome yawned, it was about 1am and she had a full day ahead of her. She better go get some sleep. Kagome checked her pockets for her keys. To her surprise, it wasn't there. "Where the heck did I put it?" she asked herself. Kagome went back into Ice n' Cream and searched around the tables. The keys weren't there either. She went back to look into her car, it was there, sitting on the driver's seat. "God, I can't believe it." Kagome had obviously just automatically locked the door from the inside when she got out of the car. This is the first time that this has happened to her, and great timing too. She checked her pocket for change, there was none.

Kagome tried for a few minutes to ask for a phone, since she forgot to bring hers, but Ice n' Cream wouldn't let her call without her paying, other stores wouldn't either. The hotel was only a few blocks away, walking couldn't hurt.

Kagome stared down the empty streets. The street lights were in bad shape and since she was on a small road, there weren't cars either. She sighed and started walking.

"Great, good job Kagome, perfect timing." She smacked herself mentally. When she got home, she would have to call a car agency to unlock her car.

All of the sudden, she heard shuffling noises behind her. Kagome looked back and saw three figures, it seemed like they were following her. She couldn't make out who the figures were; they were hiding in the shadow.

Kagome decided to ignore them and continue walking, this time, she fastened her pace. From what she remembered, she was almost at a main street.

"What's a babe like you doing all alone out here?" she heard a voice behind her. Kagome took in a breath and continued walking as fast as she could. Her walking turned into a run.

The footsteps behind her got closer and closer. Before she knew it, the three men surrounded her.

"Scared?" One of them teased.

"We were just asking you a question, no need to run away," the other one smirked.

"Oh, don't worry, we just wanna play." The three of them got closer and closer.

Kagome didn't know what to do, but run. She sprinted as fast as she could to her right, it was the only way. However, the only way was a dead end. Now, Kagome was surrounded, with a wall behind her and three men in front.

"Now we got you," the guy sneered.

Kagome backed up to the wall. "What do you want?" She asked, but from the tone of her voice, she sounded frightened.

The three guys got closer; they were about a few feet away. Kagome bit her lips, what has she gotten herself into? What was she going to do? She couldn't possibly fight off all three of them.

"Now be a nice little girl." One of the men grabbed Kagome carelessly around the wrist and got closer.

Not even thinking, Kagome slapped the guy across the face, making him let go of her wrist. Kagome made a run for it, but it wasn't enough. The other two guys caught her. Each of them grabbed one of Kagome's arms, so she couldn't escape.

The guy that Kagome slapped now got up close to her face and sneered, "Oh, you bad girl, don't mess with me." With that, he slapped her right back across the face. It burned; Kagome knew she was done for, what else could she do?

"Alright, you learned your lesson now?" His face was about two inches away from hers. She could smell his breath, he had just been drinking. The guy grabbed her sweater and tore it off, revealing a black tank top underneath. By this time, the two guys loosened their grips, getting ready for more.

Now, Kagome didn't know what else to do but struggle and scream, "Help! Help! Someone please…" Her words were cut off when the guy put his lips violently on hers, his tongue was urging for more action.

Kagome's scream turned into mumbles as she tried to escape. She kicked wherever she could to try to resist. The two guys let go unwillingly and Kagome punched the first guy in the face.

She had never punched anyone before; she could feel the cracking of bones on the man's face. Kagome gained her posture and tried to escape once again, but it didn't work. The two guys blocked the exit. This time, she was done. One of the guys walked towards her and punched her in the stomach, making her fall onto the ground, clenching her stomach in pain. Kagome tried to get up, but her body wouldn't let her, her body was going to give up.

&

Inuyasha turned off the radio while heading back to the hotel, the radio annoyed him at this time. It was pretty late, probably around 1:30am. He yawned, Inuyasha seriously needed some sleep.

As he passed Ice n' Cream, he noticed Kagome's car was still there. "What the hell? Why is she still there?" Inuyasha looked oddly at her car. "Maybe I should check if she's still there…" He pondered to himself, "But then why would I care? I need some sleep; she can go home whenever she wants." When he passed the shop, a sudden jolt of guilt ran through him, but he ignored it.

After a few minutes, his eyes were giving out on him. They wanted to close, and go to sleep. He needed to get back as soon as he could. All of the sudden, he heard a scream. Unaware of what was going on, Inuyasha slammed on his brakes. He looked around; there was no one in front of him, or behind. He heard the scream again, it caught his full attention. He turned his head towards the noise. In the dark alleyway, it seemed like someone was getting hurt, a girl possibly. Inuyasha squinted his eyes to get a better look, the girl looked familiar, but he couldn't quite see her face. The next thing he heard was a punch and a thud.

"God, I need to go get some sleep," he stepped on the engine and drove down the street. About two minutes passed and he was finally there. Inuyasha walked slowly towards the elevator and pressed the button. The elevator jerked open and he lazily stepped in.

In the elevator, Inuyasha couldn't get the scream out of his head. It seemed to be replaying over and over again. Who the hell was that girl? Why was she screaming? Inuyasha knew something bad happened to her, but he couldn't really place a finger on it. Maybe she was getting beat up? Or maybe she was getting raped? His mind seemed to be more focused now. Shame ran through his whole body. He should've helped her, she was in trouble! The elevator door suddenly opened, and without even thinking, Inuyasha ran out and headed towards the stairs. He sprinted as fast as he could down the stairs and dashed on to his car, driving speedily back to the street.

He stopped at the alley, it was completely silent now, no more screams, no more struggle. Inuyasha got out of his car and entered the darkness.

He saw a brick wall at the end of the alley. Just in front of the wall was a girl, lying limply on the ground. "Oh shit," he ran towards her and got ready to pull out his cell phone. Then, he realized who it was. "Kagome!" he gasped. How could it be her? Inuyasha took a good look at her face; it was covered with bruises and blood. What happened to her? It was all his fault, if he didn't leave her alone at Ice n' Cream, this would've never happened. To blame himself even more, if he had just got out of the damn car!

Inuyasha shook his head and scooped her up from the cold, hard ground. Her body lay lifelessly in his arms. Her body was ice cold.

"Damn it Kagome, hang in there." Inuyasha didn't know what to do. The first thing he thought of was to take Kagome to the hotel, so he did. Inuyasha carried Kagome back into his car and placed her on passenger side. He then quickly drove back to the hotel. The receptionists weren't at the front desk; Inuyasha searched around Kagome's pocket for her room keys, but couldn't find any. Maybe that was the reason she left the car at Ice n' Cream, she was going to walk home. Why couldn't he just have waited a few minutes for Kagome before heading off for his script? He was so stupid!

Now, there were two things he could do, call for help or take her to his room. Inuyasha chose the second one; it was his fault she was in this mess in the first place. He opened the door and turned on the lights. His room was a mess, clothes and movie stuff everywhere. Inuyasha made his way to his bed and placed Kagome on it, she was still unconscious. That's when he noticed Kagome was only wearing a tank top.

"God, what did they do to you?" He shook his head slowly in shame.

He then got an unused towel, rinsed it with warm water, and tried wiping all the blood off her face as gently as possible. He put the sheets over Kagome's frozen body.

Suddenly, Kagome started mumbling, "No…please…"

Inuyasha looked at her, "Kagome, it's ok, I'm here."

Kagome's eyes flew open; she looked around, "Where am I?"

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Hm…I seem to really suck at writing action scenes and the ending, god, it sucks, but I changed it so many times and this seemed like the best way to describe it. Hope you guys enjoyed it, it wasn't exactly the way I hoped it to be, but oh well. Leave a review to tell me what you think.