Chapter 9: Nobody's Home
Inuyasha's POV
I felt myself flinch when I saw the wreckage.
Charred, smoking ashes, scraps of burnt wood, and blackened bricks littered the area where the front and back yards and house had once stood. Smoke billowed up into the sky. The origins were a few still-flickering embers, which were quickly put out as I scooped up a handful of snow (A/N: yes, it's winter) and patted it down heavily over the glowing amber sparks. A shrill hiss filled the air, and a reeking combination of smoke and steam bled through the melting snow.
I sucked in a breath and turned to the house, examining it fully, and my ears flattened into my hair. I flinched again as though I'd been struck.
The roof to the house, and ceiling to Sango's room—nothing but rotted black wood stinking of smoke—had collapsed in on itself, and the walls quickly followed, crumbling into black ashes and clumps of granite before what remained sturdy enough tipped over onto the roof. The chimney, overgrown with now withered, black vines and moss, had fallen apart during some part of the fire.
I was only now aware of the wailing sirens and several police cars and fire trucks. Firemen and policemen were gathered around what once as the front yard and had roped off the remains. Policemen held back terrified and worried neighbors while the fireman dug and poked about the wreckage.
I scanned the remains, trying to picture how the house had stood before collapsing, before I shot through the crowd. I snapped the warning tape blocking the neighbors and forced my way past the police. Firemen shouted at me, but I ignored them and bounded away. I leapt over the wreckage and landed on the patio. I couldn't tell at first what it was, until I jabbed around with my toe and scraped my skin across soot-covered brick.
From the patio I looked up, and pictured Sango's window above my head just a few feet to the right. From the window, which just about marked the halfway point of her room, I turned further right and shot to the gate. The gate and fence seemed about the only thing remaining intact. It was covered in ashes and a few sizzling embers, and it wavered and cracked beneath my touch, but was otherwise fine. I followed the gate until it ended and joined the corner of the house.
This was the corner she normally hid in when her father was extremely drunk and violent.
Nothing but ashes, soot, and withered, black wood.
/Well, I couldn't tell you
Why she felt that way? She felt it everyday
And I couldn't help her
I just watched her make the same mistakes again/
I silently cursed myself. I should've said something… I should've said something when she first told me…
/What's wrong, what's wrong now?
Too many, too many problems
Don't know where she belongs
Where she belongs?/
--
/She wants to go home but nobody's home
That's where she lies
Broken inside with no place to go
No place to go to dry her eyes
Broken inside/
I moan escaped my lips.
Where…where am I…?
The acrid scent of smoke filled my nostrils, and burned my throat. I tried to sup my hand over my nose, but I found I couldn't feel it. I tried to turn my head, but I couldn't do that either. I turned my eyes down, and saw my arm pinned beneath a massive, charred piece of wood. I tried to pull my arm out from under it, but my muscles exploded with pain as I strained my arm, which stubbornly refused to move.
I heard distant voices, and slurred words I couldn't understand. I did catch one word, which, for some reason, was repeated over and over: house.
Yeah…house…home…
Where is the house…?
The burning in my throat enflamed my mouth and I let out a rasping cough.
/Open your eyes
And look outside to find the reasons why
You've been rejected
And now you can't find what you've left behind
--
My ear twitched.
I heard it. Faint, but still there. A cough. I tried to pinpoint the sound, and traced it to a pile of burnt ruble. I raced the debris and began searching.
--
My head began to throb.
My lungs filled with stale, smoky air, and choked and sputtered weakly. My heart beat weakly. I could feel it. Dark colors—the gray ash and grayish-white snow smeared with black—swam in front of my eyes in a messy grayish blur.
/Be strong, be strong now
Too many, too many problems
Don't know where she belongs
Where she belongs?/
I heard some wood rustle, and chunks of bricks clattered away from the debris. Ashes shifted and slid down my back. For a moment, the pressure on my arm increased, sending pain so sharp coursing through me I went numb. Then the pressure ceased, and a shower of soot sprayed my face. I wheezed painfully as the soot forced its way down my throat. A throbbing pain exploded in my head, and then slowly ebbed away, taking my consciousness with it.
/She wants to go home but nobody's home
That's where she lies
Broken inside with no place to go
No place to go to dry her eyes
Broken inside/
--
"Sister…where are we?"
"…"
"You don't know…"
"Ask mother."
"Mom…where are we going?"
"Home."
"This doesn't look like the way home…" The boy paused, glancing out the window. "I don't recognize anything."
"How would you know?" an older man's gruff voice challenged. "You can't see anything through all this rain."
"That's what worries me."
"Don't be smart, Kohaku," his mother said. "This is a shortcut."
Kohaku turned away from the window. "Sister… I'm scared."
"Why? There's nothing to be afraid of."
"You're not scared…?"
I remember pausing. "Nah. There's nothing to be afraid of."
/Her feelings she hides, her dreams she can't find
She's losing her mind, she's fallen behind
And she can't find her place, she's losing her faith
She's fallen from grace, she's all over the place, yeah/
Kohaku wasn't reassured.
"Put your seatbelt on."
"Sister…?"
"Just put it on."
Kohaku began to fumble with the seatbelt. A clap of thunder overhead made the strap slip from his fingers. He reached for it again. I could feel the dread in me slowly rising. "Hurry, Kohaku." Kohaku grabbed at the seatbelt and started jabbing it at the buckle. As it began to fall into place, there was a screech of tires.
The car swerved wildly over the water-slicked road. He turned the wheel frantically, trying to regain control of the car. The tires twisted desperately on the road. There was a thump, and clumps of grass and dirt sprayed up from beneath the wheels.
The car began to fall down a steep hill.
The front tipped forward and the back of the car rose off the ground. The car pitched forward, and the roof was smashed in with a fierce crunch. I saw Kohaku slam back against his seat. His head hit the windshield. A crack seeped with rain and some of his blood appeared on the glass. He went limp.
The car rocked violently, and picked up speed. As it flipped over again mother's head found the dashboard. His forehead hit the wheel repeatedly, and blood streamed onto hi seat.
Something hot and sticky ran down the side of my head. I put a finger to it. Blood. The window beside me was cracked, broken in a few places. The jagged end of a shard of glass at the origin of the crack was red with blood. But sheets of heavy rain washed it away quickly. Water soaked my skin.
The car lurched to a sudden stop. The front of the car was smashed in with a deafening crunch. The blurry shape of a tree swam in front of my eyes. The shock of the crash slowly filled my body, and the pain ebbed away. I saw Kohaku crushed beneath the badly dented roof of the car, and mother collapsed on the dashboard, bleeding heavily form a wound to her forehead. He was hanging halfway out of his shattered window.
/She wants to go home but nobody's home
That's where she lies
Broken inside with no place to go
No place to go to dry her eyes
Broken inside/
I felt myself go limp. I fell against the battered door of the car. It clicked open. The door swung open, and I collapsed onto the ground. The ground sloped gently down from here. We would've kept going…the tree stopped us. I shifted positions as the fierce gales forced me away from the car.
I turned onto my left shoulder. A dagger of pain seared my flesh. I saw a streak of lightning flash. The tree that had crashed us exploded into color. Crimson lights swarmed around the high branches. Sirens wailed, distant to my ears. The world flashed. Then nothing.
/She's lost insides, lost inside
She's lost inside, lost inside…/