I got the last chapter up quickly in the day (my day at least). That's good. And this new chapter should be up quickly too, seeing as I'm finishing it a couple days early. I'm going to try to get most of my chapters done early, so I don't fall behind again. Once you fall behind it's hard to catch up. That's why it's good to stay in the lead. Anyway, enough talking. You wanna hear me talk in the story, don't ya? Well, here you go.

Save Me From Myself

Chapter Fifteen: Trying to Understand

No one is ever willing to tell me what happened to me after I woke up. I didn't know if I wanted to know what happened, but I had to. If I didn't, I don't know if I could start to get better. It was like an illness that would kill those around me instead of killing me. Though, hardly anyone would stick around me anymore. I couldn't blame them, though. I could transform into a youkai and kill them at any moment. It wasn't something that you would want in a friend.

- - -

After burying the humans from the village, the group quickly set out to find a secluded place to stay and wait until Kagome awoke.

InuYasha ran, the blood on Kagome's clothes still a bit damp and soaking through his sleeves. They had buried all the humans from the village quickly, trying to make sure that Kagome wouldn't wake up to see what happened. That wouldn't just make her upset, but she would most likely transform.

The group went through the forest, straying from the path to avoid anyone that may be traveling. They didn't need to deal with that, and none of them had suffered severe wounds.

Soon enough, the trees started to thin a bit and they could hear the roar of a waterfall in the distance. The group found themselves at a small lake with a soft waterfall and a small river flowed from the pond. The nearly full moon lit up the clearing, adding a blue hue to the beautiful landscape. There was a nice secluded area for someone to take a bath in the lake, and they could even go over to the waterfall and clean themselves off there.

Once InuYasha indicated that it was there they were going to stay, Miroku, Sango and Shippo started to gather firewood for the camp fire. Kirara transformed so InuYasha could rest Kagome against the nekomata while he tried to figure out how to unroll and unzip her sleeping bag. The night was already pretty cold, and it wasn't going to get any warmer, seeing as it wasn't even midnight yet.

Finally, InuYasha managed to get the sleeping bag open enough to slide Kagome in. Relieving Kirara of holding her up, InuYasha picked up Kagome and put her in the strange, but warm, sleeping bag.

"Do you want to stay here with Kagome?" InuYasha asked Kirara. She made a strange sound, but InuYasha took that as a no. Not many people would want to stay here with her after she slaughtered a whole village, thought the hanyou.

"Fine, you go help the others out. I'll stay here with her," InuYasha said, dismissing Kirara with a wave of his hand. She walked off to find her owner, and InuYasha sat down next to the miko.

"You're causing me a lot of trouble, you know," InuYasha whispered to Kagome, glaring at the head poking out of the sleeping bag. The blood covered on her face reminded InuYasha of Kikyou, before she died. The blood was in the exact same spot, and if he didn't know better, he would have thought that he was 50 years in the past. But Kikyou was gone now, and only Kagome was here.

InuYasha sighed. He had tried to make sure that Kagome wouldn't get mixed up in this, but she was persistent and came back, and he wasn't any good at fighting when she wasn't there. Now look at what happened when she was here.

Who knew? Maybe this would turn out to be good for something, but InuYasha had his doubts.

The others came back with plenty of firewood and soon had a nice fire going. InuYasha decided that he needed to talk to them.

"Guys, I know you weak humans are afraid of what may happen with Kagome, but I need you all to try to act normal," InuYasha said harshly.

Ignoring his rudeness, Miroku said to InuYasha, "Why is that so important?"

"If she sees you guys acting like this around her, there will be even more chances for her to transform, idiot," InuYasha explained. Having gone through the same thing as Kagome before, he knew exactly what could happen.

Sango looked at the ground fire snapping before her. "It's not that we don't want to act normal around Kagome, it's just too hard. She could kill us at any moment..."

"I could kill you at any moment!" InuYasha roared, standing up. "Don't you realize how tough this is on Kagome? It may seem like she's a heartless wench when she's transformed, but she would never want to hurt you! What if it was one of you guys who this was happening to?"

"I'm trying my hardest, InuYasha!" Shippo yelled, glaring at the hanyou.

"For once, I'm not talking to you!"

Shippo looked shocked. I guess that Kagome isn't the only one that's changing from this whole ordeal, thought the kitsune as he sat back down after yelling at InuYasha. But InuYasha was right. Shippo hadn't acted much different at all. He was still afraid for Kagome, like the others, but he was there to support her.

InuYasha glared at the two humans. "I've been told by countless demons that humans are the most selfish, the stupidest, and the dumbest of all creatures! I've known that, but I also know that humans are loyal, trusting, and don't turn their backs on someone in need," InuYasha said, his voice calming down a bit.

"I don't want you two to be the ones to show me that I'm wrong," InuYasha finished, walking away from them and going towards the waterfall.

- - -

Almost precisely twenty-four hours after Kagome fell unconscious, she woke up, hardly remembering anything that happened. She remembered Naraku, but what about him was so important?

The transformations! Kagome's mind shouted at her. He was talking about what makes me transform. Emotions and... What else was it? Ehh... His influence? Was that it?

Kagome slowly pushed herself up and looked down at herself. Her clothes, covered in rips and blood. And her hands... And her entire body.

Kagome had no doubt in her mind now. Before, she didn't know if she could believe the others when they said that she transformed into a vicious monster. But seeing her clothes and body like this, she had no other option to believe.

Looking around, she saw Shippo, playing near the water's edge. Kagome got up and walked towards him, the ground crunching beneath her feet. She stopped next to the kitsune and asked, "Shippo... What happened?"

The small youkai turned around and looked at Kagome sadly. "The others wouldn't tell me, but whatever happened, I'm sorry for it," Shippo said.

Kagome blinked away the tears welling up in her eyes. "Don't apologize, Shippo. I'll just ask everyone else. Where's Sango and Miroku?" Kagome asked, her eyes stinging a little bit. Shippo pointed to the forest. "And InuYasha?" Shippo shrugged.

"Well, thanks anyway," Kagome said, walking in the direction that Shippo said Sango and Miroku would be in.

Kagome hardly made it to the edge of the forest when she heard two people talking.

Once she got closer to the voices, she realized it was the two she was looking for. She came into their line of vision, and Kirara mewed on Sango's shoulder.

"Kagome..." Sango said under her breath.

"Can you guys tell me what happened?" Kagome asked.

Miroku shook his head just as Sango was about to say something. "We arrived late. We don't know what happened. InuYasha was the only one who was with you," the monk explained.

"But surely InuYasha told you what happened," Kagome said, her voice almost pleading them to tell her the truth of her transformations.

Miroku shook his head once more and said to her, "No. He didn't want to talk about it."

Kagome sighed and nodded. She walked away, ignoring the pain in her heart.

Once she was out of earshot, Sango sighed. Her eyes were still fixed on the spot where Kagome disappeared in the distance, and she said to the monk, "Are you sure that was the right thing to do? We could have told her what happened. We should have told her."

"You saw how sad she looked already. If we told her, she may have transformed again, and we can't bring her back. That's why InuYasha should tell her instead," Miroku explained.

"That's not the only reason, is it?" Sango asked.

Miroku gave a sad chuckle. "You can see straight through me, can't you Sango dearest?"

"You were afraid that she was going to transform and kill us, weren't you?"

"...Yeah."

- - -

Kagome passed the fire that was still going in the middle of camp, and then passed the sleeping bag that she had just been using.

She had to find InuYasha, no matter what. She had to know what happened, instead of making imprecise guesses as to what may have happened while she was a youkai.

The miko passed through the clearing that served as their camp and went into the small stretch of trees that jutted out towards the lake. The night air felt cool against her skin, and the dried blood that was on her body felt itchy. She couldn't find InuYasha, and her miko powers were hardly acute enough to find his presence. Though, she would feel a twinge of his youki every so often, it wasn't enough to find him.

Kagome went through the trees far enough to reach the edge of the cliff that the waterfall went over. Behind the waterfall was a small opening that was hardly noticeable from her side of the waterfall, and she could feel a bit of youki seeping out from there. That must be where InuYasha is, Kagome thought, taking off her shoes and socks.

Leaving her shoes on the shore, Kagome stepped into the water, genuinely surprised at the warmth. Though the night was cool, the water was very warm.

Kagome's skirt floated around her as she got deeper into the water, and soon enough she had to swim in it because it was so deep.

The waterfall looked thick, but Kagome swam for it as fast as she could, holding her breath right before she reached it. The miko was pushed under the water, and she had to open her eyes to make sure she was making it through.

Kagome popped up and gasped for air, and found herself in a small opening, that looked to be smaller the farther you went in.

Apprehensively, Kagome swam through the cave, the floor underneath her slowly rising until she could touch with her feet, but the top of the cave seemed to keep going lower. About half way through, the cave expanded, letting Kagome straighten up and walk through water that only reached her ankles.

The darkness of the cave was hard to see through, but soon enough the light at the end of the tunnel caught her eye.

She exited the hallway and found herself in a huge room, with InuYasha sitting on a rock in the center of it. He had a fire going in front of him, and looked over at Kagome a bit surprised.

"I didn't think that you would come all the way," InuYasha said, indicating that he had caught her scent a while back.

"Tell me what happened," Kagome said, climbing up on the rock with him.

InuYasha couldn't help but notice that Kagome's bloodstained and ripped shirt still was see-through while wet.

"InuYasha," Kagome pressed. "I need to know what happened."

InuYasha sighed. He had no choice but to tell her. "Naraku's puppet caused you to transform and you ran away from us. I followed you and you went to a village, where you refused to transform back... I couldn't help you. You wouldn't change for me, and it's my fault that you..." InuYasha couldn't finish what he was saying.

"That I what? Tell me, InuYasha!" Kagome said, tears in her eyes threatening to fall.

InuYasha avoided eye contact and said, "You slaughtered the whole village, Kagome."

Kagome couldn't say a thing, or even react. Tears just fell down her cheeks, making her skin blotchy and her eyes red. Seeking comfort, she hugged InuYasha tightly around his chest, crying into his haori.

InuYasha looked taken aback at first, but then he hugged her in return, putting his hands around her head and back. Resting his head on hers, she heard him say, "Thank you for telling me, InuYasha."

"Yeah... Well, you would have annoyed me if I didn't, wench," InuYasha replied, getting a small chuckle from Kagome in return.

Chapter End