Since obviously cliffies don't sit too well with you all, I may not try it again… Though that one was strictly by mistake! Haha! Not much to comment on, besides the fact that I want to thank you for all your comments and support! THANKS!

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha & crew or "duck and run" by 3 doors down. I also don't claim Patrick and Kat. I also don't own the song "From Yesterday" by 30 Seconds to Mars.

Duck & Run

Close Call

Her breathing came in uneven heaves and she watched him slip out the door and disappear, leaving her in the room with her dead mother and that man. He had his grubby hands around her small waist and she could feel his excitement growing, along with her disgust and despair.

She squeezed her eyes shut and prayed in her head, 'Please let it be just a beating. Please just a thorough beating, please just hit me hard. Please don't do more.' And as her silent prayers continued she decided she would do something to at least hold off his attempts to defile her.

She rammed her elbow into his gut and knew he hadn't been expecting it when he bent over in pain and let go of her, stumbling to balance himself against the wall. Before he had the chance to regain his ground she ran away from him and towards the door, slipping once in a pool of blood and falling, letting out a whimper while she tried again to reach the exit to the room.

He was too fast and grabbed her by the ankle and yanked her back towards him and thankfully for her, he looked very angry. She thought that many who had been abused were frightened by that look of anger in their abusers face, but to her, it meant safety. Anger meant he wasn't lusting after her at that moment. Anger meant he would just deal out a good beating and maybe, if she was lucky, just stop there.

She felt the kick into her side and she curled into herself slightly to soften the blow a bit, like she'd learned to before. When he swung his leg back to aim another kick she scrambled to her feet and reached the door knob, where she found that it had been locked securely. And then she realized that this must have been how he had drawn her mother, such a strong woman, to her feet.

The man had locked her in and given her no hope of escaping whenever he did those horrible things to her. She quickly turned to face him and found that he was within a foot of her face and breathing heavily. He shoved her violently against the door and grabbed her hair and using it as a source of leverage to batter it against the wooden door a couple times before he brought her forward to look him in the eye.

She felt the overwhelming sense of nausea from the trauma that had been dealt to her head and she felt her world spin around her in a triangular motion, his ugly, pining face at the point. Her eyes spoke ferocity when they usually spoke of dread and anger that had no place for revenge. She knew by the way he snarled at her that he, too, knew that he would no longer have a hold of her.

His voice creeped out, like slime upon a low pond in winter, "What's wrong, daughter of mine? Where's that lovely bit of fear in your eyes? Where has it gone off to? It did compliment your face well. Did you know your mother looked at me as you now look, except she had fear in her eyes? She begged for her life. She told me I could do anything to you, as long as she got to live."

He was coming up with lies to present to her and weaken her determination, and for once she didn't believe the things he said. She dared to come closer to his face and snarl, "False."

That had really pissed him off and he threw her head hard against the door before punching her viciously in the face. She could have sworn her cheek bone should have shattered, but for some reason she knew that it would hold up just fine. The feeling was normal for her and so were the blows he continued to rain upon her. Luckily she hadn't received any broken bones yet this time. It was always harder to explain them to the people.

And as the abuse continued she slipped off into her other conscious. Settling for the unreal as she dug deep down to withstand the long haul. Knees shaking the words of a song blanketed her thoughts from anything else and she hummed to herself beneath her breath and the silent screams.

He's a stranger to some, And a vision to none. He can never get enough, get enough of the one.
For a fortune he'd quit, but it's hard to admit, how it ends and begins. On his face is a map of the world, (A map of the world), On his face is a map of the world, (A map of the world). From yesterday, it's coming! From yesterday, the fear! From yesterday, it calls him, But he doesn't want to read the message here.
On a mountain he sits, not of gold but of sin, through the blood he can learn, see the life that it turn. From council of one, He'll decide when he's done with the innocent.
On his face is a map of the world, (A map of the world). On his face is a map of the world, (A map of the world).
From yesterday, it's coming! From yesterday, the fear! From yesterday, it calls him, but he doesn't want to read the message here, but he doesn't want to read the message here, but he doesn't want to read the message here, but he doesn't want to read the message here.
On his face is a map of the world. From yesterday, it's coming! From yesterday, the fear! From yesterday, it calls him, but he doesn't want to read the message here. From yesterday, From yesterday, From yesterday, the fear. From yesterday, From yesterday, but he doesn't want to read the message here.

The song disappeared from her lips and she realized the pain was getting too much and she had found herself on the floor and he was kicking her. She didn't have the strength to resist him any longer and found herself uncurling herself on the floor. She was lying open to his whipping now also and could find nothing to distract herself from the painful slaps on her back.

Blood seeped through the blouse she was wearing and she wished to everything that she was wearing her normal clothes. Those would have at least shielded her from some of the hits. Soon enough she felt his strength abating and he was panting. Finally he stopped and smiled down at her easily.
He looked around at the chaos he had reeked on their small house and smiled then said nonchalantly, "I'm worn out for today. A murder and a harsh beating, wow, it's almost been too much happiness for one day! Why don't you clean up this room and I'll dispose of this body. Good thing we're out in the country! I think down by that little tree and in your herb garden would do well enough. Fertilizer for this spring, right? Oh yes, Kagome, I noticed you planting. I notice everything you do. Well, I'll be off!"

She looked at him in horror and fought back a gag reflex, thinking of her mother being a fertilizer for her plants. Her mother's body should provide beautiful flowers for a grave, not herbs. Not for a garden. Her eyes watched, half open, as he slung her mother's dead body across his shoulders and began to walk out of the door.

He stopped half way out the door and looked back at her, "Oh yes, in our bathroom there should be a bucket and a mop. You might as well burn those sheets. Remember what a wonderful job you did with the mess your father had made? Sure, I had to convince you to do it, but you learned well enough. Now do that for me sweetheart, and maybe I'll reward you afterward." An evil grin appeared across his face and he gave her a disgusting wink.

And then he was gone and she was left on her side, in that horrible smelling room. After a few minutes she shoved herself up off the floor, shaking, and went to the bed first. He'd killed her on her comforter, so that the blood had barely soaked through to the mattress. That was good for her sake, because last time he'd just bought a new mattress and given her the bloody one.

She used the bloodied sheets and comforter to mop up most of the blood on the floor and then she shoved them all into a trash bag before going to the bathroom, limping slightly in pain. Her whole body was shaking with the physical and emotional pain and she almost lost her self control for once. She drew the bucket into the bathtub and poured the bleach and floor cleaners into the bucket before filling it up with water. As she lugged it out of the bathroom she grabbed the mop and dipped it in.

Plunge it into the water, squeeze, drop it on the floor, mop. The feeling was repetitive and she continued her work until she'd gotten up all that she could from the room and had to resort to a scrub brush, which she used quickly so she could hurry her job along. Nothing seemed to register with her, it was all mechanical.

The bedroom was done and she dragged her work out into the hallway so she could mop up the drippings on the floor and then start to scrub the ceiling. She had to climb onto the railing to reach the ceiling and she knew she would probably fall, either down the stairs, or onto the short drop to the floor.

Somehow she kept her feet in place as she furiously scrubbed at the one word she hated most, the one style of writing that had meant the end of her world forever. And then she reflected back upon her mother, and she knew nobody would notice her disappearance. Nobody but Souta and herself, and of course her stepfather. Her mother had rarely traveled outside of the house since they had been there for a month or so.

Scrub and cry. Scrub and cry. Her memory flashed back to her doing the same thing when her father had been murdered by the horrible man. And the thing she knew, was that she could never tell anybody about it all. Not only would few believe her, but even if they did and he was put away in jail, she knew there were others to come and finish his dirty work.

After an hour of work she dumped out the bucket and then cleaned the mop and scrub up and returned them to his bathroom. She slowly dragged the bag of sheets outside and stored them in the cellar, where she would retrieve them the next day and burn them in daylight, because it would be less noticeable.

She hated herself because she had to be as proficient as a murderer as he. She was assisting him and there was nothing she could do about it. They would find her, no matter where she went, she knew that much. Memories of trying to run away with Souta always ended out badly, with both of them knocked up so badly that neither of them barely lived.

It took her another few minutes to pull herself together and drag herself up the stairs the dreaded hallway. Before she went into her own room she checked to make sure Souta's door was locked and she went to the hallway bathroom they shared and turned the knob, only to discover it locked. She cursed when she read the note: Why not take a shower in my bathroom? Since you're the only woman left in this house. Scrumptious idea, right?

She shivered and fought back the urge to vomit and she hurriedly made her way to her room, opening the door and then closing it quickly, locking it tight. She would wait until tomorrow at the camp grounds until she bathed.

She tucked herself into her bed and stared at the ceiling in a silent misery and felt her heart breaking. It was holding on by barely anything and she felt her sanity slipping from her, edging to the point where she would feel nothing at all. She didn't want to cry anymore, she never cried. But her mother… Her mother was dead and that was just another cut string of her heart.

Now her heart was hanging on by only a choice few strings. Precariously close to falling, and into what, she did not know. She didn't wish to find out what her heart so dangerously dangled over. Without even thinking hard about it, she knew her heart was held on by two people. Her younger brother who she had cherished her whole life and sheltered, and then the other one who she hadn't known but a month.

She couldn't comprehend the reasons behind her love for Inuyasha, but she knew it was strong. The whole day had suddenly hit her with the fact that she loved yet again, which she chose so rarely to do, and she regretted it. She regretted falling for him because she knew he didn't love her, and she knew that even if they were miraculously together, something would happen to destroy it.

Already she was threatening his life by just befriending him. If her stepfather ever found out about him, then she would be in serious trouble. She would lose everything she had gained with him, and she would lose the strongest string holding her heart up.

Souta was another strong string, but for some reason Inuyasha seemed closer to her heart in a different, more intense way then her little brother. And then she thought back on Inuyasha and found herself drifting off into sleep, clutching her blankets to herself as she dreamed about him.

And then she was lost in a dead sleep and could only faintly wish that she would wake up in time to make their departure to school.

Her internal alarm clock woke her up and she got slowly out of bed, more sore than she had been in ages. She looked at the clock in her room and found out that it was only 5 o'clock and that they didn't have to be to school until 7:30. That would give her time to go to the camp site and wash up.

Her body was sore and complained about every movement that she made as she opened her drawers, finding to her horror that there was barely anything but that odd school uniform that she was still wearing. Deciding that she couldn't help it, she grabbed the uniform and some other things into her bag and opened the latch to the secret crawl space that went through the house.

Before she would have used the hallways and just gone quietly throughout the house, but she knew she couldn't withstand another beating so soon. When she reached Souta's room she found him already awake and ready, balanced on the edge of his bed with a vacant look.

Instantly she knew her brother had heard what happened last night and had probably seen the blood on the ceiling and she made her way over to him, kneeling in front of him and grabbing his hands delicately. He looked down at her with tear filled eyes and she said in a small, sad voice, "Oh, Souta!"

He was crying and latched onto her, trying to keep himself quiet as he hiccupped and balled his fists in her still blood soaked uniform, "Kagome, why'd he do that? Why mom? Why won't he just leave you alone?"

She looked over his shoulder at the wall and just stared a bit before she whispered quietly, "I don't know Souta, but it will be ok. It's always been ok, hasn't it? We still have each other, and that's all we've ever needed."

He hiccupped and quieted himself because he didn't want to wake their stepfather up, "I know she was a horrible mother, but she was still our mother. How could anybody do something like that?"

Her mouth twitched in her restrained emotion as she rubbed his back, "She wasn't really like that, and she was actually a wonderful person. She loved you so much when we were little, but he changed everything. It wasn't her fault. And I don't know how he could, but he did." She pressed the pocket knife into his hand, "She wanted you to have this. Now I know its hard Souta, but we have to go."

He nodded and gripped the pocket knife tightly before standing up and grabbing his backpack. They both knew what they had to do to escape their house and made their way to the secret crawl space. They checked to make sure that both their doors to their rooms were unlocked so he wouldn't find their secret way out.

Then they made sure the doors to the passage were all locked and hidden and then they preceded to climbing down the old ladder to the bottom section of the crawl space. Once they finally reached the outer flap they snuck outside and stretched their legs.

Both siblings carefully hid the outer door and then fell to their old routine of walking quickly towards the camping sight. Both seemed at peace beside each other and Kagome barely realized her injuries as they moved silently through the early morning air, crisp and chilling.

Once they made it to the camp sight Kagome looked towards Souta, "I don't want you sitting outside in the open, it's too cold. You can come in with me, so I can make sure nobody comes and hurts you." She grabbed him in a fierce hug and kissed the top of his head before she led him into the women's restroom then closed and locked the door.

Souta eased himself onto the bench and laid out, pillowing his head and quickly falling into a relaxed sleep beneath the fluorescent lights of the bathroom.

She went into one of the shower stalls and undressed, throwing her cloths in the trash in the bathroom. Without another thought she turned the shower on and let the warm water wash over her sore body, caressing it and healing it.

Everything seemed perfect for a few choice moments before she started flinching at the stinging on her back. Her hands snaked around her back to gingerly touch the welts on her back from the belt. The raised skin stung with every drop of water and she hissed in pain, deciding to rush her shower a bit. For once she didn't feel like cutting herself, and just felt like accepting the pain she had already been dealt out.

Surely she could hold out with not punishing herself once, right? After a while she was able to forget about the pain on her back and the rest of her body and she just let the whole bathroom steam up with the heat from the shower.

Once half an hour had passed she gripped the silver shower handle and turned it off, drying herself then wrapping the towel around herself and stepping into the main part of the bathroom. The warmth of the shower had caused most of the bathroom to become similar to a sauna and she breathed easily.

She knew that the peacefulness wouldn't last long and she was just waiting for the depression to set in so she could get on with her regular life. But despite herself she couldn't feel depressed, as she should. Without really realizing it, she felt her fathers and mothers presences nearby her.

Sighing, she dressed in the odd school uniform, inspecting each piece of clothing carefully. The skirt was a plaited hunter green that only reached halfway down her thighs, and the blouse was airy yet form fitting with a green tie around the top and green cuffs. She slipped on knee high socks and then without a second thought slipped on her converse. They completely clashed with the outfit and she knew it, but somehow she felt comfortable in it and decided against changing.

From around the corner Souta was getting restless and bored since he'd woken up after her shower and had been sitting there for another half hour or so. He shifted restlessly on the bench and stared at the clock, "Kagome! It's 6:45, we'd better head out!"

Without another second she grabbed her bag and things up and then went around the corner to hug him gingerly, "Ok, lets go!"

She was already pulling him towards the door but he stopped and looked at her, a little worried, "Hey sis… Your cheek is really swollen, even if you covered it up with make up, you can still really see that somebody hit you. How are you going to explain it?"

This made her pause and she placed a hand on her cheek before letting go of his arm, "Give me a second and I'll fix it. Thanks for telling me."

Rushing to the mirror she was thankful that her hair was still wet so that she could brush over some of it over to the side with her swollen cheek and hide it with the parting of her hair that way. She considered this style of hair the 'emo' type hair, but didn't care at the moment. It served her purpose justly.

Only five minutes had passed and they were out of the bathroom and headed towards Souta's school, in a companionable silence. When they reached his school she hugged him and told him to wait for her after school and lie low.

Then she headed towards her school and what she could already tell was going to be a long day. The walk was already taking its told on her beaten body and she could feel a few of her welts opening a little a oozing blood. Oh well, it couldn't be prevented.

By the time she made it to her school it was already 7:20 and the first bell rang to dismiss them to their first hour. The stares she got from everyone were unnerving, and she knew it was because her different clothes, and the way she walked with a slight limp.

She was beginning to prepare herself to enter her first hour when a growl was heard from behind her and she looked to see Inuyasha, glaring at her, "Kagome. What happened?"

Her eyes latched onto his, alarmed, as she tried to find out feasible excuses when she realized he had no proof that anything out of the usual had happened. Her eyes changed to more annoyed as she glared slightly, "Nothing, why do you ask?"

He snarled and lightly gripped her arm, "Don't try to lie to me, I know something is wrong. I could feel it all last night, and now that I can see you I know if for sure. I can smell the fear and the blood on you, you wreak of it. I'm surprised the whole school can't smell it."

She shrugged and brushed his off with an effort, "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm perfectly fine. Maybe a little tired since it's Monday, but that's reasonable, isn't it?"

Weird, she commented to herself. She was actually arguing back with somebody after one of her beatings. Usually she just hid herself and curled into herself but today she felt angry at the world. She supposed she'd never argued with somebody over her well being because nobody had ever asked her about it before.

"You're hurt and I know it. Don't try and hide it from me. I'll get to the bottom of this later." He looked down at her with worry and frustration written all over his face as one of the teachers hurried him on to his own classroom and she went into her own.

She drifted off into an uneasy stupor and stared at the window at nothing in particular for the next hour, misery finally beginning to sink in. But it wasn't depression; it was misery, an unending feeling of doom.

Woo, its over! I can't wait to get into more happy chapters soon… SOON! Hahah, maybe another chapter or two of real angsty stuff.

Maybe possibly another 10 reviews? That would be nice!

Katara11: Bingo! Well, close to bingo anyways!

Topazchick08: Thank you!

The-Darkest-Abyss: THANK YOU! I think you made me blush! Such a nice review!

Marufan: And I have reason to be intimidated by this pet sock because…..? Maybe it smells? Haha

Demented Angie: Thank you! I think I will continue! WOO!

Pay Backs a Bitch: Yes, definitely creepy. I was watching CSI while writing it. Good inspiration, eh? Haaha

BlackParade: Sadly, you will have to wait for fluff… I wish I could just throw it in, but I can't. It would ruin the tone. Yah know? But don't worry, its coming!

Kouga's Archi: Thank you! Usually I'm not talented on cliffs, but I guess I created one without even realizing it.. Haha

Shippo700: Aww! Sorry! But I'm glad I'm not the only one tearing up to my story! Cuz that makes me sound full of myself... which I'm not… but the subject is just a sad one and ill stop babbling now!

Neko-Angel666: Wow, when I first started reading your review I thought it was a flame and I felt bad! Hahah, but then I realized what it was and then decided to update since it sounded so urgent! Haha.

To this world I'm unimportant Just because I have nothing to give. So you call this your free country, Tell me why it cost so much to live, Tell me why. This world can turn me down But I won't turn away, oh no I won't turn around. All my work and endless measures. Never seem to get me very far, Walk a mile just to move an inch Now even though I'm trying so damn hard I'm trying so hard. This world can turn me down but I Won't turn away, And I won't duck and run, cause I'm not built that way. When everything is gone there is Nothing there to fear. This world cannot bring me down, No cause I'm already here, oh no! I am already here, Down on my knees, I am already here, on no, I am Already here. I must have told you a thousand times, I am not running away. I won't duck and run I won't duck and run I won't duck and run No pass away. This world can turn me down but I Won't turn away And I won't duck and run, cause I'm not built that way. When everything is gone There is nothing there to fear. This world cannot bring me down No cause I'm already here. This world can turn me down. But I won't turn away, And I won't duck away Cause I'm not built that way. When everything is gone there Is nothing there to fear. This world cannot bring me down, No cause I'm already here.