The tables had turned, and now it was Inuyasha's turn to raise his weapon to her, threaten her life and watch the tears cling to her lashes. It was her turn to die at his hand. Her turn to cry. Her turn to suffer. Now she knew what she had put his through. A living Hell.
"Oh no. No...Inuyasha." Kagome murmured, wavering hands rising to trace along the side of his face. He caught her hand, clenching it in his deathly grip, tearing a sharp gasp from the girl's lips. "Inuyasha." She murmured his name once more, struggling to keep her trembling eyes trained on him. She wanted to run. Of course she did. She was in danger of him, and she could tell he meant to hurt her.
Nothing, not even the blood that trickled down her neck, could put aside the happiness she felt to see the life that flowed through the hanyou. He was alive, he wasn't dead. Her guilt was barely starting to lift, her broken shoulders starting to heal.
Her words couldn't reach him or pull him back. He was stuck in what she had been captured by but a few hours ago. And what had happened between those hours? The ones while she lay on the leafy forest floor, her eyes blank and unseeing? What could have happened as she sleep? What could have urged his heart to beat once more?
"It's me. Don't you remember me? Kagome. My name is Kagome!" She urged, her other hand shooting up to cup over his cheek. She flinched at the hiss that seared around his pointed fangs. He wasn't going to listen to her. Her words were reaching his ears, she could tell, but they didn't alter the path he was set to follow. He was dead set on having her blood coating his hands.
Kagome broke away, tears blurring her sight. It was alright. It only hurt to see his narrowed eyes, not matter how much she wanted to see him. She wanted to be in his arms, but if she allowed that to happen, she would be dead before her head lay on his chest.
So what was left to do accept her fate? Miroku and Sango couldn't help them, and she was more than sure that she only slowed them down. Inuyasha couldn't understand her, couldn't heal her pain, only create more of it. She didn't want to hurt him anymore. She wanted to kiss him, hold him, and if that meant dying as she did so, so be it. It was meant to be.
But maybe, maybe, this didn't have to be the end. She could survive, bring him back to someone who could help. She could hold him again, she could love him and be loved by him as if that arrow had never struck his chest.
At the thought, she turned on her heels and began to run. If she could just lure him back to the village, back to Kaede, back to someone who could possibly help at all, maybe everything would be alright.
She ran, as fast as her cut and bloody legs could take her. She was getting weaker, but she forced on, her bare feet slapping over the pointed sticks and rocks that littered the forest floor. His blood was dripping across her face, down over her lips so she could taste it along with the tears that just couldn't hold back any longer. This was the boy she loved, out for revenge on her.
Dark, looming trees whizzed past, her shadow monstrous as it trailed behind her, running just a second later than her, just a second slower. The hovering branches snatched at her clothing, the blood soaked haori that shrouded her small form as she stumbled through the frightening woods. Without a clue, without a head towards where the village was, where her friends were. And the possessed hanyou was right on her tail.
Crisp leaves crunched beneath her raw and bloody feet as she listened to Inuyasha behind her. He was gaining on her, fast, faster than her heart could beat. The fear was a large, hard lump in her throat she was unable to swallow down. She knew this could be the end of her, and now her legs were starting to shake. She felt as though she was falling as she stumbled clumsily.
The sounds around her were blurred to her ears, her tears whipping away with the wind that pressed against her red face. She was so scared, so doubtful, the glass-half-full Kagome long disappeared with the last beat of the hanyou's heart. She just could push down the fact that she was no match, and the darkness had swallowed her whole, leaving her without a trace on where neither she nor Inuyasha was.
Kikyou's lips curled into an evil smile, her eyes filled with hatred as she spread her legs over the thick branch she rested on. Her eyes fluttered closed, eyes moving beneath the lids as she watched the two in her head. It had been so easy, slipping those three shards into Inuyasha's chest, now all she had to do was think it, and he would obey. He had no choice, just like Kagome had no choice when she had triggered that arrow to plunge into her dear hanyou's heart.
He was hers to manipulate.
The priestess guided him through the looming trees, his pace just a second slower than the miko's. Just how she wanted it. Her brows raised, her eyes still closed as she forced the hanyou to hide amongst the trees without speaking a word or laying a single hand on him.
"Time to die, Kagome."
Kagome's shoulders heaved, her tears stung her eyes, washing away the dots of the hanyou's blood as they trickled down her face. She trembled, casting her eyes wildly around the forest. Lost. She was lost. Everything was silent, and the trees seemed to close in on her, their branches stretching out to her.
Her dream, so long ago, played across her mind. The tree, Inuyasha pinned to it, her running, all the blood. It had been a warning. And she hadn't listened.
The miko turned in a slow circle, eyes casting around franticly. Another second, and she could be dead, lying at Inuyasha's feet, her blood on his hands. No matter how long, how hard her eyes searched, just the darkness glared back at her, forcing her hope down and her fear up. Around and around in that tight circle, the only one who could watch her back was herself now, and she wasn't a reliable friend for that.
Kagome's breathing quickened, along with the racing of her heart as she began to remember the place she stood. This was where Kikyou was attacked so many years ago. The seeds of trees had scattered over the ground, the foliage sprouting now. And she stood on the same spot where the priestess' blood was spilt.
"Sit." She muttered, trembling hands moving up to run through her hair. "Sit!" She screamed against. Her knees felt weak, her skin prickled, rushes of cold fear spread through her, jabbing at her warm flesh like icicles. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end, prickled like pins and needles.
"Sit!" She repeated, her voice growing weaker as she muttered it again and again, arms wrapping around herself as a personal suit of armour. It was no use. She could remember it now. Every second of the night before rushed through her mind at once.
Kagome gently kissed his neck as he had done for her. She smiled at his near panic. It was something even she thought she would never do as she lifted the subduing necklace from around his neck, brushing against the tips of his alert canine ears. They flicked and flattened to his skull, his chin lifting at her kiss as she set the prayer beads aside.
The subduing necklace was gone, and now he was free to do as he pleased. She couldn't stop him, couldn't hold him back from ripping apart her flesh. That one word had long since grown distant to his canine ears. He didn't know the meaning of it anymore, and it couldn't hurt him any longer.
"Sit..." She murmured one last time before the sound of crunching leaves filled her ears. Her eyes shut tight, tears clinging to her lashes as she struggled to pull herself around to face the hanyou that just couldn't be himself.
Even before she could turn around, face him for the last time, she felt herself falling forward. Even before she felt the pain, she could see her own blood splattering in a thick sheet to the ground. Even before she hit the ground, she knew she was going to die.
Her right shoulder dove into the ground, and the pain shot through her. Kagome lay there, letting the blood stab through her shoulder and down her back. She let the blood run over her pale skin as it began to become cold. She blinked, her eyes trailing behind her at Inuyasha, how he stood tall and proud, his hand covered in her crimson blood.
It was all so familiar, and she knew where she had seen it before. This was Kikyou's revenge. She just wanted to show them that she, Kagome, 'stupid wench', couldn't change a thing. At one point, she had thought she could, and that she really could save the hanyou. Now, laying there in the same position, same time, same place and Kikyou one lay, she knew she had been wrong.
Kagome waited, watching as Inuyasha's eyes narrowed, his claws rising for another attack. The final blow that would end her life, just as she had ended his. Her eyes shut tight, and she waited for her fate.
He snarled, blood spitting from his trembling lips as he growled menacingly. His fingers clenched inward, knuckled cracking in a sick way. Red eyes gazed down at the miko. She looked so scared, weak, dead. Was she dead? Inuyasha wavered, stumbling slightly on his feet, his hand dropping slowly. He stopped, breathed out a raspy breath, and obeyed the sharp commands that stabbed at his mind.
The hanyou raised his nails, a sudden, stubborn, cry ripping from his throat. He stood, legs apart, eyes locked down on the bleeding girl. That wound was fatal, the very wound that killed the miko before her. His claws clicked against each other as he blinked harshly, his ears flattening to his skull to block out the ghoulish commands he was destined to follow.
'Kill her! Kill her!'
She was supposed to die. Inuyasha was supposed to kill her. He couldn't control his hands any longer, his ears trying to hard to block out the voice of his former lover. He trembled, another forceful scream tearing from his lips. His eyes clamped shut, his claws rising higher to rip down, harshly, on his target.
Three slivers of a pinkish stone tumbled to the bloody grass below, followed by the hanyou's knees as his own blood ran down from the three gashes across his chest.
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Well...that may have been rather confusing...sorry.
Hope you guys liked it. I doubt it, though! Things aren't looking good, are they? Well. Not much to say this time, so just stay tuned, another chapter will be up soon.