Chapter Three: Immortal Tears
Inuyasha opened the door to his apartment and was immediately hit with the nauseating scent of blood. He covered his sensitive nose with his sleeve and looked around for his little sister only to find her bundled up on the couch. She looked up at him with bloodshot eyes and gave him a weak smile. There were no lights on, unless you counted the light from the street lights coming from the now open blinds of the window.
"What happened? I smell blood," he asked gruffly looking around and shutting the door behind him with his foot.
"Oh I just stupidly cut myself when I was cooking earlier, it's no big," Serenity said quietly, snuggling her head deeper underneath the blankets.
"Feh," he grunted, turning on a lamp at the other end of the couch before plopping down beside her.
She was watching the IMTV channel which was currently playing "45" by Shinedown, but it seemed she wasn't paying much attention to it. He heard faintly the sound of music coming from her and with a sigh he pulled a bit of the blanket away from her face as she sniffled. Her eyes were puffy and red as she stared at the floor sadly, while a pair of white headphones was placed in her ears carefully that was right now flattened on her head. Her face that once always held a cheerful smile now seemed darkened by some hidden pain. For a moment he looked down on her pitifully.
"Serenity what the hell is going on?" he asked, his voice showing his concern. "You've been acting strangely ever since you came home. Why won't you talk to me?"
"People change brudder," she replied still not looking at him.
"Yeah but they don't change as much as you have," he said frustrated. "You used to always tell everyone to look on the bright side, to cheer up and now you're all "woe is me don't talk to me because I'm going to be a bitch.""
"Shut up, you know nothing," she growled. "That girl you think you knew died a long time ago. She's gone, Inuyasha. I'm sorry, but she's gone," she finished sternly, trying to keep her voice steady and her lip from quivering.
"Then tell me what the hell happened!" he replied raising his voice.
She glanced over at him and then shook her head, grabbing the fluffy black blanket and pulling it back over her head. With a frustrated growl Inuyasha stood and stalked off to his bedroom, slamming the door behind him. Serenity sighed and sat up to turn off the lamp and the TV, before she stretched back out on the couch.
"I'm sorry Hiro, but I can't do this on my own," she whispered placing a hand over her lower stomach and looking out the window at the moon already halfway across the sky.
Silently a blood red tear escaped from her eye as she fell into a restless sleep, still listening to "My Immortal" on her iPod.
The street was dark in the broken part of the city where the homeless lived in houses that had been condemned but the city left them to rot anyway. Careful eyes looked to the street sign at the four way stop which told him he was at the corner of Ritzu and Fifth. The Slums is what they called this place that lay on the outskirts of town, past the red light district, but the man with the careful eyes continued on down Ritzu Street until he reached a house that seemed particularly broken down. In the light of the street lamp it looked as if it may have once been painted white and red and built in a traditional style, but quite a few of the shingles were missing while the rest of them had faded in color and the paint had long since chipped off. Given that, the house also was covered in graffiti, many of the windows were broken, bottles of booze lay strewn across the yard, and that was just on the outside. It seemed if the outside was that bad then the inside must be worse, but the man strode purposely up to the house casting glances around at the shadows that began to encompass the place. About to turn the knob of door to the front of the house he listened for any movement from inside.
"Hiro," a young woman laughed. "Hiro stop! Oh, you're making my sides hurt! Would you quit already!"
"Aw, but it's so much fun to watch you laugh, Serene, not to mention the torture benefits I get from it," a young man, presumably Hiro, answered, laying on top of her on the twin sized mattress they had set up in the living room floor.
"Good Lord," she giggled; "you're a sadistic little demon aren't you?"
Hiro growled and gave her his best intimidating demon look that he could muster, before he began to bite gently at her neck. She moaned and pushed him over so that she was on top as their lips met passionately. Outside, the man at their door listened patiently, careful not to move so that he didn't alert the inhabitants. He waited until they finally said their goodnights a few moments later and soon they were asleep. With a cruel smile which revealed all of his deadly sharp teeth, he fully opened the door and silently slipped inside.
Serenity was about to fall asleep, when she felt the grip of Hiro's arm tighten around her waist. She was about to say something when she opened her eyes and saw a shadow pass in the light of the street lamp that was coming in from the broken window and the hole in the sliding shoji door. Hiro's breath tingled in her ear as he slowly moved so that at a moments notice he could move to lunge at the person who dared enter. 'Lord help us, someone has found us,' Serenity thought.
"Yes, indeed someone has found you, but unfortunately there is no Lord to help you," the intruder said gleefully, when he slid the door open. "Well, well, well, this certainly is fitting. The two pathetic crossbreeds holed up here in a dump of a shack, just like the trash they are. Oh, and look they have another little bundle of filth on the way, isn't this just so romantic."
Hiro growled and jumped up from the bed, grabbing the sword they always kept beside their bed since they were forced into running away. "Shut up, Takigawa."
"Oh do be careful we wouldn't want you to accidentally run that sword through your pretty little wife there," Takigawa said mysteriously.
"I would never," Hiro growled.
"Don't be too sure."
By this time Serenity had raised herself to her feet and was standing cautiously behind Hiro. She was sleeping in only her bra and a pair of stretch pants so her slightly rounded stomach showed her four month pregnancy. She glared at Takigawa, he was one of the most despicable and evil person she had ever known, second only to Hiro's stepfather. He was a master illusionist as well as a mind reading demon; however it seemed his real passion was for the dark arts which he practiced diligently on innocent people. Just as Hiro had taught her, she carefully blocked off her mind to his probing.
"Serenity, be careful," Hiro said, not taking his eyes off of Takigawa, "he's got us surrounded."
"Ah, yes it's about time you realized that," Takigawa said, placing his arms behind his back. "Trust me they're ready to have some nice fresh meat, but if you hand over the item you stole I'll be more than happy to actually consider calling them off, on the other hand if you refuse they'll tear you limb from limb and devour your innards. Isn't that a lovely image, hm?"
"It's just beautiful," Serenity replied sarcastically.
"Oh, the beauty has a mouth to her self now does she?" Takigawa chuckled. "You will die last after I've had my fun with you sweetheart."
"Wow, never heard that pick up line before. I bet you use that on all the pretty girls," Serenity said folding her arms over her chest trying her best to cover herself despite the black sports bra she wore.
"Only the ones I like," Takigawa replied, matching tic for tat.
"Serenity stay out of this," Hiro warned readjusting his grip on the sword in his hand. "You need to get out of here."
"How do you think she's going to manage that? You know you're surrounded, so you might as well give up," Takigawa scoffed.
"Not until the last breath has left my body!" Hiro snarled as he charged the man in black.
Takigawa dodged Hiro's first swipe at him but on the next swipe he barely made it out and Hiro cut his shoulder. Takigawa stumbled and Hiro used it to his advantage to drive the sword through Takigawa's chest just below the collar bone pinning him to the wall behind him.
"Serenity RUN!" Hiro shouted, looking behind him for a brief second, but she wasn't there, instead it was Takigawa standing there with his usual twisted smile.
Hiro suddenly realized that if Takigawa was standing there then…
He looked at the person he had stabbed and saw Serenity looking at him with her tears of blood slipping down her face and even more blood dripping from her shoulder down her arm and down her chest and over her stomach until it dripped to the floor.
"Oh God," Hiro gasped as he stood there starting to shake. "What have I done?"
"Tsk, tsk, I told you to put that thing away now didn't I?" Takigawa said sarcastically walking up behind Hiro so that he could whisper in his ear. "Now, who do you think will die first? The woman or the disgusting thing growing inside of her?"
"No! This can't be real!" Hiro muttered his eyes filling with tears.
"Oh, but it is real, Hiro. You've just tried to kill me. How could you? I thought you loved me?" Serenity said as her blood still flowed.
Hiro was about to respond as he loosened his grip on the sword that pinned "Serenity" to the wall, but she used that moment to plunge her hand through his abdomen. Suddenly the roles of people in the room switched again and Hiro realized he had been tricked. The real Serenity behind him screamed for him as she saw the bloody hand come out the other side of his back. He cried out from surprise before the pain had even set in. With a slight gasp Hiro, set his pain aside and turned the sword sideways so that it tore at Takigawa's flesh all the more.
"Serenity, leave now. Get out," Hiro said sternly, through clenched teeth.
"Hiro, no! I can't leave without you!" Serenity pleaded.
"You have to! God, just make this a hell of a lot easier on the both of us and get the fuck out of here!" Hiro yelled at her.
True tears of blood fell down her face as she nodded and backed away from him slowly, until she reached the hallway where she turned quickly and ran down the hallway to the back door that was through the kitchen. Beside it was a black duffle bag that they had kept packed there near the exit for a quick escape. She grabbed it without stopping, still using her super human speed; she left the house and was at the top of the hill looking down into their ghetto within seconds. She waited there a few moments as she watched the shadows encompass the house she had grown to call home for the past few months. Silently, she prayed that Hiro would be okay and come running out of there any moment, but he never did. She could only watch helplessly as there was a bright blinding white flash of light followed by a burst of pink that caused all the windows that were left in the house to be blown out mere seconds before the house itself went.
Falling to her knee's Serenity screamed.
Inuyasha woke groggily to the sounds of cries and whimpers from the living room. As his mind came more into focus so did his senses and he sat up with a start to the smell of two things; blood and fear. Racing into the living room he found Serenity on the couch with her face covered in blood, twisted in her blankets as she thrashed about. She was moaning and whimpering about something but even with his sensitive hearing he couldn't discern what she was saying. He knelt down beside her on the floor and gently grabbed her shoulders so that she wouldn't hit him; from there he noticed the blood was coming from behind her closed eyelids. He paled as he realized she was crying tears of blood. Leaning close he heard her mumble "no" several times before whimpering about some one leaving, or not leaving, he couldn't tell.
"Serenity," he said trying to rouse her. "Serenity, wake up."
"No Hiro!" she screamed sitting up so quickly that Inuyasha had to let go of her.
She shuddered as she hung her head with more tears falling from her face staining the blanket beneath her. Sobs racked her small body and Inuyasha reached out tentatively to try to comfort her, but when he touched her she recoiled as if he had burnt her instead. Frantically, she jumped off the couch but almost fell to the floor from the sheets that were still tangled around her, but he caught her and pulled her close to his chest. Very few times before had he been as scared as this moment as she fought weakly against him, still living out her dream, crying out in terror.
"Serenity, calm down, it's just me," he said his voice breaking slightly; "Come on Serenity, it's me your brudder. Calm down please!" he was pleading now, holding her much like he would a baby.
Finally Serenity realized where she was and that the man holding her wasn't Takigawa, like she had thought. She stopped fighting him and looked up into his clear gold eyes that held clear tears at the edges, although he would deny it later, but most of all she saw the complete fear in his eyes. He was scared for her. Her lower lip trembled and finally feeling she was completely safe for the first time in a long time she sobbed, letting out all the bottled up emotion she had carried with her since their mother had died. Inuyasha held her close as she buried her head into her chest and cried, rubbing her back and every so often running his hand over her hair, like he did when they were young. Their mother tended to work late trying to keep up with everything and often Serenity would wake up with her nightmares, but he was always there to soothe her back to sleep. Oh, how she missed those days! The days when everything was so much simpler and all she had to worry about were the imaginary monsters under her bed. What had happened to her? Was this really what she had been reduced to? She had to get out of there she needed to go and have some time to think. She really needed to eat too.
"I've got to go," she said quickly jumping up from his arms so fast that he barely had time to react.
"Serenity! Wait!" he called as she ran for the door and fumbled with the locks for a brief moment before running out. "Wait!"
Serenity ran to the elevators just as Kagome stepped outside the doors and quickly pressed the lobby button, before Kagome could even process what was happening. She was stunned at the sight of the small woman's face still covered in her bloody tears. The doors shut just as Inuyasha got there and so out of anger he punched one of the stainless steel doors causing it to dent.
"What's going on?" Kagome asked worriedly.
"Hell if I know!" he shouted back. "I wake up to find her crying blood and screaming, but when I try to get her to fucking tell me what the hell is going on she fucking runs out on me! God, she's such a stupid bitch!" he exclaimed kicking the same door for good measure.
"Inuyasha calm down or you're going to wake up everyone in the building!" Kagome hissed stepping closer to him.
He started to growl at her but stopped when he took a look at her face. She had a small cut above her right eyebrow and there was a bruise on her right cheek along with what looked to be like claw marks on the area around her throat and collar bone. Seeing that he was studying her face Kagome quickly looked away.
"I think the question now is what happened to you?" Inuyasha asked, lowering his voice so that he wasn't shouting anymore but still was pretty loud as usual.
When she didn't answer him, he grabbed her arm and led her back inside his apartment. She didn't need much leading, but she let him do it anyway. She was too tired to fight him anyway, not that she even wanted to. She didn't even know why when anything went wrong, he was almost always the first who came to mind when she wanted someone to help.
"Where's Shippo?" he asked as he let her sit on the couch while he went to the bathroom for the first aid kit.
"With my mother," Kagome replied, slouching down and toying with the lace on the hem of her yellow cotton night shirt that came with the matching kapris. "He wanted to stay the weekend with Souta."
"What happened?" Inuyasha asked sitting down on the couch with a small white box and a warm wet washcloth. He set it all on the coffee table before opening the first aid kit and then adding, "Don't you dare try and run away too."
"I'm sorry."
"For what?" Inuyasha asked gruffly. "For Serenity running out on me? You can't control her, hell, mom couldn't even control her."
"No, I'm just… You've got enough to worry about, I shouldn't be here," she said putting her head down sadly.
"Kagome, just tell me what happened," Inuyasha said flatly, reaching behind him to turn on a lamp.
"Um, well Koga and I were drinking," she started.
"That bastard did this to you!" Inuyasha asked his voice rising again.
"He didn't mean to, I'm sure of it! We were both a little drunk, I mean so it's kind of my fault too yanno?" Kagome said quickly, beginning to grow nervous.
"That doesn't matter! You're still completely sober and that cut is fresh!" he growled.
"I'm sorry, okay!" she shouted back.
"Sorry for what? Sorry that I'm going to kill that bastard ookami?" he asked. Kagome didn't reply, but just looked away. "He has no fucking right to lay his hands on you like this, Kagome! In fact, he's the one who should be sorry."
"He always says he is," Kagome whispered.
"He's done this before?" he growled lowly.
"No, it was never this bad," she said quickly, now looking down at her hands.
"Kagome you better start talking, now," his growl still staying dangerously low.
Giving him a quick glance to be sure he wasn't going to hurt her as well she began to tell him everything. Koga had apparently been hitting on her for sometime now, even a few times in front of Shippo, but Koga had always apologized right afterwards, except for this time. This time he had been drunk and the hitting went further than the usual slap across the face. This time when she wouldn't put out for him in his drunken state, he tried to make her. She had to use her miko powers on him and had left him lying in the middle of the living room floor on the coffee table which he broke when he fell. She talked as he cleaned her cut and put some antibacterial ointment on it.
"Ow," she hissed.
"Oh don't be such a baby," Inuyasha replied tossing the ointment back onto the table and grabbing a band-aid.
"Shut up," Kagome sighed rolling her eyes at him as he opened the band-aid.
"Hold still," he commanded placing the gauzy part of the band-aid over the cut and then removing the strips of paper on each side of the sticky parts so that the band-aid attached to her forehead. "We're going to go back to your place and you're going to pack what shit you and Shippo are going to need long enough for a couple of days, which will be long enough for us to get a restraining order against him. Then we'll go with a big truck and get whatever else is yours out of there in one sweep. What you don't need or what can't fit, here will go into a storage unit, but you and Shippo will stay here until you can get back onto your feet."
"Inuyasha, I could never ask that of you," Kagome protested as he started putting the Neosporin on the cuts on her neck area too.
"You didn't but I'm telling you," Inuyasha replied flatly. "Serenity apparently needs help and … well I'm not exactly… Mr. Sensitive, so it's not like… forget it your staying here so I can be sure that damn ookami can't lay another finger on you!"
Kagome's eyes filled with tears for a brief moment before she blinked them away and smiled. Inuyasha was offering to protect her. She suddenly felt the long repressed crush that she had had on him since high school come fluttering back to life within her chest.
"Thank you," she said softly.
"Yeah well, don't be too thankful, this just means I don't have to pay the maid to come here once a week anymore," Inuyasha replied gruffly.
"Well I suppose I can't stay here for free," she replied her sudden joy at him actually wanting to just protect her deflating.
"Damn straight," he said tossing the first aid kit back together and heading off to his bedroom to change.
The cold bit into the small girl's face as she ran with her superhuman speed to a park not too far from Inuyasha's apartment. She stopped and collapsed on a park bench in front of a beautiful fountain, and though she didn't have to breathe as often as most, she panted, shaking not from the cold which didn't really bother her but from the memories that were still going through her mind and the memories that were still trying to resurface.
"I had heard that you were back in town," a cold emotionless voice said approaching her from the left.
Serenity looked up at the white haired man, glaring at him, "What do you want Sesshomaru?"
"Why would you assume I'm only here because I want something from you wench?" Sesshomaru replied, narrowing his eyes at her now only a foot away.
Serenity didn't replied, but looked away from him now turning her heated gaze onto the fountain, continuing to rock back and forth still shaking.
"You reek of blood," he stated, sitting down beside her and folding his leg over his knee with his ankle resting on top.
"And you smell of hospital," she replied.
"Yes, Rin had a false alarm," he answered.
Serenity looked at him and stopped rocking, "Is she okay?"
"She and the baby are fine, the doctors ordered her to be on bed rest for the rest of her term," he replied unbuttoning his gray suit jacket so that it didn't bunch around him.
"That's good," Serenity said quietly.
They sat in an uncomfortable silence for a few moments. Sesshomaru looked up at the stars and Serenity stared at the fountain. Silently she stood and walked to sit at the edge of the water. Sesshomaru watched with his usual stoic face and even more passive eyes as she dipped her finger tips into the water.
"I'm staying at Inuyasha's right now, so if you guys want to come by sometime after the baby is born then, I'm sure Inuyasha wouldn't mind," she said her voice still quiet.
The wind shifted slightly causing her long hair to fall over her shoulder. Normally a person dressed like she was in just a thin black tunic and black cotton stretch pants would be shivering, but the cold didn't bother her much. Sesshomaru shifted and then stood to walk so he could stand behind her. She sighed and turned to face him.
"All right enough with the third degree, I'll tell you everything!" she said sarcastically.
"I hadn't asked you to say anything," he replied looking down at her coolly. "In fact I wouldn't care if you said anything at all."
Serenity was about to make a smart comment when a strange smell came to her sensitive nose, "Sesshie, do you smell that?"
Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes and lifted his nose to the air, "Someone's been fighting."
"Yeah and unfortunately it's our stupid brother," Serenity added, standing up on the edge of the fountain. "Well, how about for old times sake we go bail him out?"
Sesshomaru didn't answer, but just took off into the direction of the source of the smell. Serenity smirked and took off after him. She kept up with him easily which normally was almost impossible, so it didn't take them long to reach the nice one story house where Inuyasha's BMW convertible was parked. A very angry Kagome came stalking outside with two bags apparently full and threw them into the backseat of the car, before she noticed Serenity and Sesshomaru walking up to her.
"Oh, what are you guys doing here?" Kagome asked, leaning against the car so she could re-do her low pony tail.
"Well, we were in the neighborhood.," Serenity started sarcastically.
"Where is that ignorant half-breed?" Sesshomaru asked.
"Hey, I resemble that remark," Inuyasha called walking out of the house, wiping the blood from his nose and lower lip onto a dry washcloth.
"We're getting my stuff out of here," Kagome explained, when Serenity looked at her brother quizzically. "Koga wasn't too happy, but Inuyasha took care of it."
"Okaaaaay," Serenity replied, crossing her arms over her chest, now looking at Kagome. "Why?"
"Kagome!" a man growled from the front doorway. "Kagome, get back here!"
"No, Koga," Kagome called back, "I'm done. Go find your self someone else."
"Heh, that's just like you," Koga said staggering forward, obviously still tipsy; "you're just going to give up so easily, just like you gave up your bed so easily…"
Koga wasn't able to finish off his derogatory statement as Inuyasha rushed at him, but his fist stopped just short of Koga's face. Serenity heard the sound and it took her a moment to register what had just happened, but within seconds she was beside her brother as he stumbled backwards. Koga stood there with a satisfied smirk holding a steak knife that he had apparently grabbed from the kitchen.
"You bastard," Inuyasha growled holding a hand over the now bloody hole in his stomach.
Serenity looked down at the blood covering her brother's hand only for a brief moment before her eyes turned a deathly pale blue. Her K-9 fangs elongated and she snapped her attention to Koga who still stood there triumphantly. Kagome screamed, and ran to Inuyasha's side.
"You pathetic wolf, how dare you?" Serenity growled lowly stepping towards Koga, who took a step back.
"What? He was trying to steal my woman," Koga replied simply, tossing the knife aside.
Inuyasha moved to try to step between his sister and the wolf, but Sesshomaru merely laid a hand on his shoulder to prevent him, while watching as Koga backed away from the slowly advancing Serenity. Before anyone saw Serenity had Koga pinned to the wall behind them just beside the door. Her claws slowly dug into his neck which caused small trickles of blood to begin to flow down his neck.
"Think before you act stupid, Kagome wasn't marked by you therefore she wasn't yours to begin with especially when you begin to place your hands on her unrightfully," Serenity growled, before punching him swiftly in the stomach and then letting him drop to the ground where she kicked him in the face. "Remember this wolf, if you ever lay a hand on anyone akin to me you better be prepared to receive the same treatment you showed them," she ended, then using her claws she tore a large gash into the man's abdomen while he tried to regain his breath.
The wolf let out a howl as Serenity twisted her claws inside him before she pulled them out and then stood, watching him pant in pain. With the blood of the criminal on her hand she stood and watched him for a moment as he twitched and grunted, before she smirked and turned away. Her eyes were still slightly aglow when she walked past her brothers and their mutual friend.
"Serenity," Sesshomaru called, causing her to stop at the end of the sidewalk, but not face them.
She had done it again. She had become the monster that she was so desperately trying not to be. She knew the time had come for her to explain everything, because there was no more hiding the truth.
"Meet me back at the apartment, and I will explain," she said and then turned to face them her vampire features still showing, "only this time, I won't skimp on the details."