I felt Inu-Yasha disappear all around me and collapsed in a cold forest, missing his warmth, his love, and his voice. My father came up behind me and placed a hand on my shoulder. Tears slipped down my cheeks, but they were neither hot nor cold. They held no warmth. They held nothing… They were dead, just like me…
"Kagome…" my farther began, but a pushed his hand away, running forward. I needed to get away. "KAGOME… RUN! RUN IN THAT DIRECTION FOREVER!!!!" My father's voice echoed after me. Was he banishing me? If so, then to where?
I squirmed on the cold hard earth and opened my eyes, the sunlight blinding me slightly. Wha'?
I sat up strait, looking around wildly. The breeze played with my hair and I blinked. My hand went to my chest and I breathed in. My heart pounded silently.
Footsteps sounded behind me and, without even thinking about it, I jumped up and ran a short distance to a forest. I hidbehind a tree, the bark digging into my back and making me squirm slightly. I heard voices and blinked. Why the heck was I hiding?
I listened intently, my brows knitting together. I didn't even realize I was bleeding from the wound in my side and back and Naraku had inflicted. "Where… Where's Kagome Sama!?" Miroku's voice echoed slightly and I shivered. Sango piped up. "I don't know…"
"If a demon or an animal even TOUCHED her body, I'll kill them," Inu-Yasha's voice hissed and I shivered. "Calm, Inu-Yasha. We don't even know if anything touched Kagome Sama's body… For all we know, Kaede Sama was here and brought it back to the village. We ARE close to her village, after all. And if you don't control your emotions…" "I have the tetsaiga, ok!?" Inu-Yasha snapped back, and I could almost see him glaring at Miroku.
I shook my head. I shouldn't be hiding… I really shouldn't be. They were my friends… they were worried about me.
A branch cracked under my foot and a teetered dangerously as I stood before them. They all looked up at me and I tried to smile, but couldn't. I was too tired. Too hurt.
Blood, my blood, soaked the dirt around me and I teetered again. Inu-Yasha cried out and raced towards me, but he was only a few feet away before I finally fell. He caught me and I clung to the light as long as I could. "Kagome… Don't give on me… Please, don't…"
I woke up a few hours later in the arms of Inu-Yasha. I groaned and squirmed in his clutch, at first unsure of my whereabouts, but when my eyes fluttered open, I relaxed as I saw Inu-Yasha's head looming over me. "I…" I took a deep breath before trying to continue his name. "Inu-Yasha?"
He grinned at me, obviously happy that I was ok and alive. "You… You lost a lot of blood and…" He trailed off and smiled. My chest rose and I breathed in the morning air. "Was… was it all a dream?" He shook his head, white hair falling over his shoulders and falling near my own raven hair. "No. Eight years is too long… And you look just like you did when you…"
It hurt him. I could tell. I had killed Sango and Miroku, and he thought I had been killed before his very eyes, and when he comes back to life, I'm dead. Then I appear to him in his dreams and explain everything that happens, he becomes determined to follow me into the netherworld, and when he comes to bury my body, I appear, alive, and faint. He must've been worried sick that I would die again.
I sat up, but groaned and fell back into Inu-Yasha's grasp. I lifted my head and began to say something to the affect of "Inu-Yasha… I'm so sorry" but I never got to even begin. He leaned down and kissed me on the lips. I started against him, but closed my eyes and kissed him back, happy, truly happy, for the first time in eight years.
