Chapter Seven: Dark Shadows at Midnight

Kagome stared into the golden orbs that shone like miniature suns in the dark, and Kagome could feel her heart pounding in her chest. She blinked hard… and then, the eyes were gone. She sat bolt up-right, staring around her room in terror; breathing hard, she didn't see anyone else.

She got out of bed and ran to the light switch and flicked it on. Her room was suddenly bathed in light, but there wasn't anyone else there but her. No way… maybe she was sicker than she thought.

Maybe she was starting to hallucinate? Even if there WAS someone in this room with her, there was no way that they could've escaped so quickly.

She went to her open window and stared down at the streets. She looked up and down the street, but she couldn't see anything in the low light. Scared, she shut the window and locked it tightly. Shaking, she crawled under her covers, and curled up… leaving her light on.

She tried to calm herself, but the idea that someone else could've been in her room scared her so badly that she couldn't stop trembling. She just clutched her blankets close to her and kept her eyes fixed on the window for the next few hours.

She didn't know what she was expecting… a criminal with a knife knocking on her window? Luckily, the only thing that she saw after a couple hours of constant staring moved outside was a few leaves falling onto her windowsill.

But around 3 in the morning, her eyes began to droop again. She didn't know what was causing her sudden sleepiness… and what was that smell? It smelled sweet, and soothing… what was it?

Whatever the scent was, it caused her to fall back into a dreamless sleep.

*Outside*

Inuyasha was cursing himself from up on top of the roof. Damn it! She saw him! How was he supposed to know that she was still awake? If he didn't run when he did, things were going to get even more complicated than they already were.

As he stared down into her beautiful brown eyes, he felt a pure terror fill him. This was something that he didn't understand… he had lived for so long and had fought all sorts of danger.

He had been shunned all his life… both before and after he became a vampire. He had nothing. And he had struggled for as long as he could remember to pull his life out of the gutter. No one helped him, not even for one minute… he had his back against the wall ever since the day he was born…

He had to fight just to live to see the next day… and here he was… afraid of a girl? He had to get out of here, and he took his chance when he saw that she was going to blink. As soon as she shut her eyes, he flew to the window and jumped.

Now he was up on the roof, right above her window. He watched as her bedroom light came on and she stuck her head out to look up and down the street. He waited until she stuck her head back in and he listened to her ragged breathing.

He continued to wait for her to fall asleep again, but after a few hours, and no signs of her drifting to sleep again came… he reached into his kimono and pulled out a few leaves and a lighter.

He clicked the lighter and a tiny flame appeared; he burned the edges of the leaves and let them fall onto Kagome's windowsill. This was a leaf from a special plant that he used when he wanted to sneak around and not have to worry about being spotted… when this leaf is burnt, it lets off a fume that puts humans into a deep sleep.

And they wake up feeling like a million bucks a few hours later.

He listened again, and in no time at all, Kagome's ragged breathing was replaced by calm and deep breaths. He knew that the plant had done its job and she was asleep.

He quietly climbed down off the roof and to her window. He noticed that the window was shut and locked, not that it was a problem for him. He used his claws to easily slid open the locks and quietly opened the window.

He stepped back into the room and walked over to her bed. There was no need to be worried that she would wake up this time. The leaves would insure that she would be out for a few more hours…

He looked down at her sleeping form; she was clutching her blankets tightly to her chest and was curled up into a ball. He frowned… he could smell the taste of fear in the room. He knew he must've really scared her.

He bit his lower lip and made a decision. He wouldn't take any blood from her tonight. The least he could do to make up for scaring her… and the truth was…

She had every reason to be afraid of him.

He bent down low over her and gently moved her into a more comfortable position on her back and covered her more with the blanket. Did she seem to calm down a little more at his touch? She relaxed almost instantly as soon as his hands touched her own.

He shook the thought out of his head as he shut the window. Kagome would be even more scared if she saw that her window was unlocked. No, he would leave through her brother's window.

He quietly snuck out of Kagome's room, leaving the light on and shutting the door behind him, before heading across the hall to where he knew Sota was sleeping. He wouldn't touch the boy however. One person being attacked by a vampire was enough for this family.

He silently slipped into her brother's room. He smirked at the sport posters covering every square foot of the blue walls, the toys and games that were littering the floor, and the sleeping boy snoring loudly on the bed.

He shook his head again as he went to the window and leapt out into the night.

*In the Morning*

Kagome opened her eyes to a bright sunshine through her closed window and she sat up instantly. The first thing that she noticed was that she felt better than she had since Halloween morning.

She felt good. No, she felt great! She felt like she could conquer the world today… that nothing could stop her… She felt like a million bucks!

She got out of bed and went over to her mirror to get a look at herself. She smiled widely when she saw that her skin was back to its creamy color, her eyes were shining and full of life, and her body was shimmering with health.

She stood up and stretched, enjoying the feeling of being out of bed and not feeling like she was going to be sick. Whatever she had, it looked like it had passed, and for that, she was grateful.

She went to her closet and pulled out her favorite shirt and jeans and went to the bathroom to take a well-needed shower.

*Later*

After she washed her hair and taken a shower, she felt nearly back to normal as she went skipping downstairs and into the kitchen.

Her mother, who was frying some eggs, looked up in surprise to see Kagome skipping and humming a tune as she sat down at the table.

"Morning mom!" Kagome sang as she reached for some orange juice.

"Morning Kagome," her mother said in a surprised voice as she went over to Kagome and felt her forehead. "You look like you're doing so much better."

Kagome nodded as she drank her entire glass of juice. "Yep! I feel great! I guess whatever I had passed over."

Her mom sighed in relief as she went back to her eggs and put some on a plate for Kagome, "Thank goodness. You had me worried sick. Now that you're feeling better, you need food. You haven't had anything to eat all day yesterday. You need to make up for that."

While Kagome and her mom talked merrily to each other, Sota came into the room, rubbing his tired eyes and saying a hoarse voice, "Morning."

"Morning Sota," Kagome said through a mouthful of egg.

Sota blinked in surprise to see Kagome sitting at the table, looking as if nothing had happened. "Hey sis," he said as he took his seat, "You look 100 times better than the last time I saw you. I guess all that sleep did the trick right?"

Kagome could only nod as she continued to eat. She couldn't lie; she was starving. She felt like she could eat a horse… or at least a small cow.

Once everyone had eaten, they all gathered in the car, and mom drove Sota and Kagome to school like she did every school day. The way that everyone was acting, you never would've thought that Kagome had been looking like a walking corpse just yesterday. That is until Sota had to open his mouth.

"Too bad you didn't get sick today," said Sota from the backseat. "Then you could've missed school!"

Kagome shuttered, "No thanks. I rather be in school then feeling as sick as I did."

Thankfully, Sota's school came into sight and Sota jumped out after giving his mom a quick kiss on the cheek. "Bye mom, bye Kagome," he said and ran out to find his friends.

The ride over to Kagome's school was quiet, and by the time that they arrived, Kagome was more than ready to get out and get some fresh air. She gave mom a quick kiss and jumped out, "Bye mom!" she yelled as she enjoyed the air for the first time in days.

*Inside*

Kagome was busy doing some last-minute homework that she didn't get a chance to finish due to her being sick. If she hurried, then she might get it done before class starts…

"KAGOME!" cried out Eri's voice.

Or not.

She looked up and saw Eri, Ayumi, and Yuka running towards her. "Hey Kagome," said Yuka giving her a quick hug.

"How're you doing?" asked Eri.

"We were getting worried when we didn't hear from you all weekend," said Ayumi.

Kagome sighed as she put on a fake smile, "Yeah, sorry about that," she said. "I was sick all weekend. I think I caught something from the party last week. But I'm feeling better today! In fact I feel great!"

Homework forgotten, she spent a few minutes talking to her friends, that is until the bell rang. Mentally swearing to herself, she worked as fast as she could on her worksheets, praying that the teacher would forget about collecting it.

No such luck. As soon as her teacher came into the room, the first thing that he asked for was the homework. Sighing grumpily, Kagome passed her half-way finished homework forward. That was one F that she knew she was going to get.

The rest of the day went by quickly and by the time that she got home, she felt like she only just got up to start the day. She didn't know how she was going to get to sleep tonight, but as the evening drew on, she could feel the energy she had this morning slowly fading away.

She stayed up later than she normally did, and finished all the homework that she needed to catch up on. By the time she finished, it was nearing midnight.

Sighing, she turned off her computer and trudged up to bed. Before she changed, and crawled under her covers, she made sure that her window was still locked. Smiling slightly, feeling safer, she went to bed, thinking that tomorrow was going to be better.

But as sleep slowly overtook her… not only did a dark figure appear outside her window… she began to dream of a pair of golden eyes.