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Chapter 4: Don't Let Me Down
Izayoi had been out that night taking in a late show at the theatre with a few of her closest friends, and was eager to get home. She was a woman who enjoyed the finer things in life, and appreciated a comfortable lifestyle. She had been born into a middle-class family, but had married well and become quite the successful woman. She was beautiful at the age of twenty-eight, and she still had a youthful vitality and thirst for excitement and fun. It was why her husband, Touga Mataki Inu-Taisho had married her years ago. Her most notable and striking feature was the thickness and richness of her black hair, which reached a length well past the small of her back now. Her laughter was infectious and her smile heartwarming. The only fault of hers would be that of a detachment from her previous, less affluent, life. But underneath a materialistic exterior was a genuine, caring woman who had a great capacity for generosity and kindness.
As her Mercedes Benz drove through the colorful streets of New York, Izayoi Inu-Taisho preoccupied herself by reading through an expensive magazine and adjusting the sunglasses on her face, even though it was almost midnight. She required wearing the dark sunglasses that covered the majority of one's face. She was married to a very wealthy, very influential, and very famous man and the paparazzi were always itching to find out more about his family. They constantly bombarded her with questions when she was caught entering and leaving venues, but it was all ignored with grace. They loved to question the swiftness of her marriage to Inu-Taisho, even though it was almost ten years after they tied the knot. Still, it was so soon after his divorce that many thought she had been having an affair with him.
On this cold night, her trusted driver coasted through the winding streets, Izayoi took notice of how deserted it seemed to be. Shrugging, she blamed it on the frigid weather and the fact it wasn't that busy of a neighborhood. Sighing, the housewife relaxed into the black, leather cushions of her seat and crossed her legs at the ankle. Her head fell back against the headrest behind her and for a moment, the tired woman allowed her eyes to shut. It wouldn't be but another thirty minutes until they arrived at home, so a light snooze would have to suffice. Suddenly, she felt her body violently jerk forward as her driver let out a yelp, the sound accompanied by tires screeching. Almost falling out of her own seat, Izayoi struggled to get back up from the floor of her car, her fine clothes and hair becoming a mess.
"Tom! What was Hell?!" She asked shrilly, instantly put off with his erratic driving. But the sound of a door slamming was her only answer. 'Why did he leave the car?' She wondered. Her curiosity got the better of her though, and after guickly shrugging into her beautiful black fur jacket, Izayoi shuffled out of the expensive car and made her way around to the front. The biting winds instantly nipped at her ankles and shins, and for a moment she felt a shudder pass through her body. Rounding the side of the vehicle, Izayoi was confronted with a heart-stopping scene. Tom was kneeling beside a small body, his hands reaching out to touch her, but shaking so much that he couldn't get within two inches of her crumbled form. His erratic breaths came out in white puffs and all color had disappeared from his face. Izayoi quickly snapped out of her shock and raced over towards the two, her heels scrapping against the rough surface of the ground with each step. "Oh my gosh! Is she alright?" Kneeling beside Tom, Izayoi took in the appearance of the girl before her. She was obviously homeless upon inspection, and reeking of a horrid stench. If the anxiety and stress of the moment hadn't been so violent, Izayoi would have gagged at the attack on her senses. But her motherly instincts and humanity begged her to help the girl.
Without thinking twice, Izayoi reached into her pocket and pulled out a small Nokia phone and dialed the emergency number. With a surprisingly controlled voice, she gave the operated the necessary information while also never taking her eyes off the girl. "Please send an ambulance as soon as possible." She spoke into her phone with a hasty voice, then noticed something; Tom's jacket would make for an emergency blanket for this girl that they could not move or even touch. Doing so could put her at greater harm. Tom was still in stunned silence and frozen with shock, his hands trembling and eyes wide with fear. He'd never before made such a grave mistake. There was a painful slap to his arm that woke him from that state and he looked over at the furious face of his mistress. "Give her your jacket! She looks half-frozen already."
"O-Of course ma'am!" He stuttered softly, his voice wavering from either his emotions or the coldness seeping into his bones. Shrugging out of his uniform jacket, he covered Kagome with it and hoped it would do some good. "Ma'am, you should go wait in the car. I will stay here with her." He tried to maintain their professional relationship through all this, and Izayoi reluctantly agreed. Tom went to sit beside the girl's head, his hand resting atop her's as Izayoi returned to the car as they awaited the ambulance. "It's going to be okay, little girl. I'm so, so sorry." He spoke to Kagome softly, hoping that it would calm her if she was somehow awake through all this. The empty streets remained as such, eerily so, and the incident went without witness.
The drive that followed the glowing lights and incessant wail of an ambulance was awkward and quiet; neither passenger knew what to say to each other. Minds were preoccupied with thoughts of consequences of what had just occurred. Questions like 'what sort of trouble will this cause for me?' and 'I wonder if that girl is going to be okay.' kept them from speaking to each other. They were following the emergency vehicle to the nearest hospital, and Izayoi's husband would join them there as well. The phone call that Izayoi had to make to her husband, which had woken him from a very pleasant sleep, ended with her crying into his ear and him rubbing his eyes due to frustration and fatigue. The once refined lady was in near hysterics as she thought of grim outcomes for the girl; Tom, however, worried for his job. Sure, he was concerned for the girl's wellbeing and prayed that she wasn't in pain or in danger, but he depended on this job as his only source of income. When both vehicles arrived at the hospital, Izayoi watched through her window as the ambulance went through the emergency entrance.
"Tom, let me out here while you go park the car." She said hastily and barely waited for him to put the car in park before letting herself out. The worried mother hurried towards the men who were pulling the gurney out of the ambulance, with a small girl laying atop it. Izayoi had nothing to say as she followed them inside the hospital doors, but did her best to keep up with them as they raced through the hallways towards the trauma center.