-sigh- I honestly feel that I could have made this chapter a whole lot better. Ah well. The thing is, if I did change it, you probably wouldn't get this chapter for another week or so. You see, tomorrow my family is leaving to go on holiday. I won't be back until next Wednesday.
So yeah, I hope you enjoy this chapter and sorry again for the late update last time.
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha
Knock, knock, knock…
"Kagome?" Inuyasha called out. "Are you there? It's me, Inuyasha!"
It was cold outside and he hadn't bothered to change out of his pyjamas—Kagome's mysterious phone call had scared him. He had managed to grab a nice fleecy sweater, but it did little to protect him from the icy winds.
"Kagome?" he called out again. This time he could see a figure walk over to the door. With a click it opened, but before he could say anything she was in his arms, sobbing into his jumper, her body shaking.
"Inuyasha… I thought… I thought y-you weren't going t-to come…" Tears were still streaming down her cheeks and it was hard to make out what she was saying, she was sobbing so much.
"Ssh…" he whispered, smoothing out the mess her hair had become since he left. She must have been sleeping. "It's okay. I'm here."
Somehow he managed to pull her through the front door without unwinding himself from her tiny frame, locking the door securely behind him. Now that they were in the light he could see how pale she was.
"What happened?" he asked, sitting her down on the sofa. His hands were still entwined with hers.
The tears had started again. He held her closer, running a hand through her hair. Even now at its absolute worst it looked beautiful, the blue tinge adding colour to the stunning dark locks.
"He was there… I was alone and he was there… he killed him… I was screaming… I couldn't stop him! And there was so much blood…"
Inuyasha's arms tightened around her. "What are you talking about?" he asked.
"He killed him…" Kagome was still whispering, "He killed Souta; he killed him and all I could do was stand and watch…"
She stopped talking, her sobs muffled by Inuyasha's shirt. Slowly he lifted her chin so that he could look into her eyes, red and puffy now from crying.
"Let's get you into bed, okay?" he said softly.
-
-
Upstairs it was cold and draughty, as though someone had left a window open through the night. It turned out that the source was actually the dozens of holes and cracks dotting the walls, letting the icy winds creep inside. No wonder Kagome was so scared.
Inuyasha managed to tuck her in one-handed, the other hand clutching Kagome's, occasionally rubbing soothing circles on her skin when she gave an involuntary shudder. The crying had quietened now and, although she sniffed now and then, mostly she lay staring at him with those beautiful blue-grey eyes.
"I'm sorry, Inuyasha." she said after a while.
"Sorry for what?"
"Dragging you down here. It was stupid, I'm sorry."
"Kagome, please. There is no place I'd rather be than right here with you. Now please tell me what's going on." Inuyasha's voice had taken on a pleading note.
For a moment Kagome hesitated. Then she rolled over so her back was facing Inuyasha, the hand not clasped in his reaching out for the familiar photograph. Instead of staring at the smiling faces like she usually did, she passed it straight to Inuyasha, watching his fingers trace the figure of the grinning boy beside her with gently fingertips.
"Who's this?" he asked softly.
"My brother."
"I never knew you had a brother."
"I don't. Not any more, anyway."
He stayed silent, waiting for her to continue. With a sigh Kagome began talking again.
"Souta was nine when it happened… I was thirteen. We were really close; closer than any other siblings I know. I couldn't even imagine us separated back then. Then just like that he was gone. I was staring at his body and he… he wasn't there any more."
Inuyasha let go of her hand and for a moment Kagome panicked, frantically searching the duvet with her fingers. She stopped when she felt him lie down next to her, wrapping her in that warm, comforting embrace.
"Tell me everything," he whispered, "Don't shut me out. You can trust me."
"I know." Kagome whispered back. And then, with a deep breath, she began her story.
-
-
"Come catch me, Souta! Come on!"
"Why am I always it, Kagome?" a seven year-old Souta wailed.
Kagome simply tossed back her head and laughed. "Because silly, you never try! If you don't try then you'll never catch me!"
"But my legs are so much shorter than yours!" Souta complained.
"Fine, I'll slow down. But you have to try, okay?"
"Okay!"
Souta and Kagome had spent the entire Saturday afternoon playing games in the garden. It was a nice garden—not necessarily normal, but beautiful all the same. Unlike most gardens filled with flowers in neat rows with the occasional trimmed hedge, the Higurashi garden was filled with trees and led into the surrounding forest. There was no white picket fence, but out the back the siblings could play around the river that weaved its way from the mountains far away. Kagome loved it, as did Souta.
The two continued to run around the yard, cackling with glee as they stumbled across uneven grass and tripped every so often over a hidden stone. Korari was watching them from her position at the close line, smiling at their childish antics.
"Careful, Kagome!" she chided when her daughter dashed past, nearly knocking over the basket of wet clothes.
"Sorry, mom!" she called back, not daring to stop as Souta followed close at her heels.
They were still running when the sleek black car pulled into the driveway and a man stepped out, running his hand through his wavy black hair as he sighed wearily.
"Daddy, daddy; help me!" Kagome shrieked as she ran straight at him, hiding behind him before Souta could catch her.
"No fair!" the boy complained.
Kagome stuck her tongue out at him.
Without a word their father moved to step away from both of them. Kagome shrieked again and held onto his legs tighter.
"Don't go, daddy! Souta's going to catch me!"
"Let go, Kagome."
"Nooooo!"
"I'm going to catch you, Kagome!"
"Eep!"
"I SAID LET GO!!"
Both children shrank away from their father's angry outburst. Kagome's arms untangled themselves from his legs and he walked off, slamming the front door behind him.
That was the day everything changed; the day their father lost his job.
-
-
It took a few months for Kagome to work out that things weren't going to get any better. No one dared to laugh, talk or even smile in their father's presence. He would snap at anyone for the smallest things, like how soft the peas from the night's dinner were. Now and then Kagome would lay awake in the dead of the night, listening to the unmistakable cries of pain coming from her mother downstairs.
"Kagome?" Souta had whispered the first night the beating began.
"Yeah?" Kagome whispered back.
"Can I sleep with you tonight?"
"Sure, come here."
And so the tradition began; every night their father had one of his angry outbursts Souta would sneak into Kagome's room. Sometimes Kagome would sing—softly of course, so their father couldn't hear her—or she would read him a story. Anything to drown out the noises coming from downstairs.
-
-
Three weeks after Souta's eighth birthday, he and Kagome were gathered in Kagome's room, building a kite. There was a kite-flying competition the following week and the siblings were determined to build the best kite of them all. Together they managed to scrounge up all the material they needed, save for one item; glue.
The reason neither of them had any was because of the glues position—in their father's office. Eventually Kagome caved to Souta's whining and agreed to go and get it.
And so, with her heart beating a thousand miles an hour, she crept through the door; cringing when its hinges squeaked noisily. The office was small and messy—their father had never been one for organisation. Kagome had to dig beneath a massive pile of folders to reach the objects scattered across the desk.
Finally she found it, in one of the desk's draws underneath yet another stack of papers. She gave it a victorious flourish and turned to hurry back to her room when she heard footsteps.
The footfalls were too heavy for it to be her mother and Souta always ran, never walked, so it could only be one person—her father. Just before the door squeaked open she flung herself behind the big metal cabinet beside the desk.
"Stupid woman…" her father was muttering, "Always arguing, always something wrong… a bunch of idiots, the lot of them."
There was a rustling as something was pulled from a plastic bag, followed by the click of a cigarette lighter. Soon the room was filled with a horrible smell, burning away at Kagome's nostrils and throat like strong acid. Before she could help herself, she coughed.
At his desk, her father stood up. Kagome could hear his slow, steady steps as he walked toward her hiding place. Her blood ran cold. With tears in her eyes and her fingers pinching her nose, she closed her eyes.
"And what do we have here?"
Before Kagome could do anything her father had grabbed her by the collar and flung her across the room. There was a loud snap and Kagome cried out—she'd broken her arm.
"Brat! What are you doing in my office?!"
"I'm sorry! I won't do it again!" Kagome squeaked. She was shaking badly, clutching her broken arm tight to her chest.
"Too right you won't!" her father snarled. He was carrying a black pipe, which turned out to be the cause of the horrible smell. It was pumping disgusting gray smoke into the surrounding air.
Kagome tried to make a run for the door, but her father was too quick. He threw her to floor again and began kicking her, not caring where he hit, ignoring her desperate pleads for him to stop.
"Kagome…?" Souta asked, scared, as he peeked around the corner.
"Get out of here, brat!"
As worried as Souta was about his sister, he knew better than to be caught up in the fight. He scurried off, leaving father and daughter alone once more.
Grabbing a handful of hair, Kagome's father lifted her up so they were at eye level. His breath reeked like the smoke still wafting throughout the room, only more concentrated. If Kagome hadn't been so terrified she probably would have gagged.
"If I ever spot you in here again, you'll receive more than a couple of bruises." He hissed. Then he threw her toward the door, momentum making her slide and land against the opposite wall. With tears sliding down her cheeks she watched him slam the door behind him.
"Kagome…?"
She didn't look over. Her whole body was shaking and her heavy breathing refused to slow down.
"Kagome, are you okay?"
Slowly she turned to face Souta. His face was pale, his eyes glistening with frightened tears. That was all it took; Kagome's vision blurred from the tears and she broke down into shaking sobs, flinching when Souta came and wrapped his arms around her.
"It's okay, Kagome," he was saying. His voice was a little too scared to be of comfort, but Kagome let him help her to her feet and limp to her bedroom.
-
-
"I'm not sure when exactly, but after a while we stopped calling him 'father' and began calling him by his first name instead." Kagome's voice was croaky from crying and her mind screamed for the painful memories to stop, but she couldn't stop talking. Inuyasha looked on with solemn eyes; never saying a word, just listening. "Not to his face; that would have just made him angrier. But to our friends at school he was always 'Naraku'."
"He started to get into some nasty stuff—you know, drugs and all that. He had these friends, guys like him, who didn't care about other people. They'd go around the city at night… I don't even want to know what they did. Sometimes Naraku wouldn't get back until the wee hours of the morning. He'd wake everyone up, too; he was all about big entrances."
"And then he somehow got into this big trouble, and know that when I say that it was big. So big we had to pack our things and leave at 3 in the morning. We got in the car and drove here. He said that they wouldn't find us here; not that we knew who they were. I still don't. Whoever they were, they didn't keep Naraku from doing the usual. He still got his hands on all the drugs he needed and even made some more friends who would go with him and cause havoc during the night. I remember that the police searched the house at one point… for the drugs, I mean. They didn't find anything. Naraku hid them all under mine and Souta's beds."
"But after a while his head began to mess up. The drugs made him go all weird; paranoid, like everyone was out to get him. The beatings got worse. You could hear mom screaming every night. He thought she was cheating on him."
"Sometimes he'd come into our bedrooms, too, and beat us up for no reason whatsoever. I told everyone at my new school that the bruises were from being clumsy; that I fell over a lot. I don't think they believed me at first, but eventually they came to accept it."
"And he got worse. We watched as he became crazier and crazier until one day he just… snapped…"
-
-
"See ya, Kagome!"
Kagome waved goodbye to her friend and ran over to her front door. Naraku wouldn't be happy; she was late. Her only chance was to sneak upstairs and into her room without him noticing, but if he was near the doorway…
She heard the screaming before she was inside. Souta's screams. Without a thought she raced upstairs, ignoring the heavy thumps of her footsteps, knowing Naraku wouldn't hear her as the beating continued.
Souta's bedroom door was open. Kagome could see her brother making a desperate dash for it, terrified tears streaming down his cheeks. He didn't even make it to the doorway before Naraku grabbed him.
That was when she saw it. Clutched in Naraku's hand was a knife, serrated and glittering dangerously in the dull light.
"What's wrong Souta? Daddy wants to play a game. You like games, don't you Souta? 'Play with me, daddy!' You used to say that and I would always say, 'No Souta, not now, daddy's busy'. But daddy's not busy anymore. So come play!"
"Stop it!" Souta shouted. His arms flailed madly, pounding against Naraku's chest, doing little to improve his situation. Kagome could only stand in shock. She couldn't speak, couldn't move, couldn't do anything to help.
Then the knife was raised, still glittering, and sliced across Souta's throat. In an instant the boy stopped struggling and dropped to the ground like a stone, blood pooling on the floor around them.
"That's right, my boy," Naraku crooned, "Let's play dead."
At that moment, Kagome found her voice. She screamed. The bloodcurdling sound would have reached all the way down the street—there was no chance of Naraku missing it. He turned to her and grinned that maniacal smile she hated so much. Knife raised once more, he began advancing on her.
"Kagome," he was cooing, "My sweet, sweet Kagome."
"Get away from me!" Kagome shouted. As fast as she could she ran downstairs, tears still streaming down her cheeks, straight to the front door. Locked; he had the key. Sobbing even harder she sprinted around to the laundry where she knew the back door was.
He was already there, knife raised, grinning manically. He grabbed her wrist, throwing her to the floor. She cried out—her wrist was broken.
"What's wrong, Kagome darling?" he cackled, "Why are you running?"
As he lunged, Kagome scurried from the corner, feet slipping on the tiles, her broken arm dangling uselessly. With her good arm she wrenched open the door and ran through the backyard, still screaming as she jumped over the fence and sprinted down the street. People were gathering outside their houses, anxious to see what the noise was all about. None offered her any assistance. She continued to run, sobbing and screaming until she reached the park and dropped to her knees behind some of the leafy bushes. The pain in her arm was excruciating, but nothing could compare to the hole that had formed in her heart. Souta was dead. Souta was dead. Souta was dead.
Sobbing, tears streaming freely down her cheeks, she fell into an uneasy sleep.
-
-
She woke screaming when someone grabbed her arm. The man shouted out, trying to calm her as she punched, kicked and bit in her wild frenzy. It took a while for her to calm down enough to tell that it wasn't her father but a policeman, his car lights flashing red and blue nearby. He hugged her as she cried and ordered one of his companions to get a blanket from his car, helping her to her feet, supporting her weight as they walked to the vehicle.
-
-
"The policeman told me everything. They caught my dad. He was… he was walking down the street, calling my name. He tried to kill one of our neighbours, but another saw it and called the police… they put him in a mental institution. Mom came to the police station… we waited for them to… to… c-clean up S-s-Souta's body…" she was crying, her head buried into Inuyasha's chest as he held her and rocked back and forth on the bed. "We wanted to move, b-but we h-had no money…"
"Oh Kagome…" Inuyasha whispered. He hugged her even tighter, his hand locking into her hair and holding tight.
"I miss him. I wish… I wish he was still here…"
"Sssh…"
"If I'd just done something! Anything!"
"Don't blame yourself."
"How? How can I do that? It's all my fault! Souta's dead because of me!"
"NO!"
Kagome stopped arguing, looking up into Inuyasha's angry gold eyes. "Don't you dare say it was your fault. It was him; Naraku killed him. You were the victim, Kagome. I can't believe someone would ever do that to their child… and to think I let you stay here by yourself so many times…"
"B-but it isn't t-that bad…"
"Not that bad? Who are you trying to fool? I'm never leaving your side again. If no one else is going to protect you, then I refuse to leave your side for as long as need be!"
Kagome opened her mouth to complain, but closed it when she realised she had nothing she could say. Inuyasha's hands were crushing her against him—not that she minded. It felt nice, safe; like nothing could happen while she stayed in his warm embrace.
"Do you mean that?"
"What?"
"You know; staying with me."
"Of course. I won't go back on my word."
Despite herself, Kagome smiled. "Thank you." she whispered.
And that was how they fell asleep, with Inuyasha's arms locked around her, her hair spilling around the pillow like black ink beside his, whiter than bone. Nothing could make Kagome stir; not even the disturbing rustling of the trees or the howling of the wind. She was safe, safer than she had ever been.
Naraku couldn't reach her here.
Oh my goodness! So many reviews! -faints-
Thank you soooo much to everyone who reviewed! It's your comments that keeps the story coming! :)
...Reviews...
Daeth101- Fox version: Hope the update was fast enough! :)
Kattana: Lol the situation with Kikyo... well, basically they have broken up, Inuyasha just hasn't gotten around to telling Kikyo yet xD; There should be more about that in the next chapter... I'll make a note of it. And thank you, I've always thought black people were really pretty in this natural kind of way... and I should probably put more of Mrs. Micheals in before people forget all about her xD;
TiffanyM: None of my friends like him because he doesn't sing pop songs :( I say stuff them! I LOVE YOU JUSTIN NOZUKA!
Sassybratt: Lol yeah in my last story it got quite hard because I had all of the couples in the limelight... InuKag, MirSan, AyaKoug and SesshRin! It's easier concentrating on one couple in a story... I learned that the hard way.
Diamond369: I know! I was looking at your name and theirs thinking... woah... lol I had to look at it twice to make sure I wasn't seeing double.
Kitkatka101: Sorry about the cliffy :( but hey! Look on the bright side! At least you didn't have to wait for another week for this chapter! :)
brokenchaos: Haha or perhaps you may have been right. Who did you think it was??
Sesshomaru's Megumi: Hope I didn't take too long!
Softly Spoken Words: THANKS!
xxRockerElla: Lol I'm glad you're eager!
Vampire Knights: Yeah, having a friend like Rin would be pretty cool. It would be pretty interesting, too... xD
JoBrosCupcakeSwirl: Lol hope you liked it!
phoebe4448: Hope you lasted long enough to read the chapter! :)
Say0mi Saki: I reckon! When I grow up, I'm going to be a billionaire and live in a mansion... and be proud of it. ;p