Disclaimer: NO I do not own Inuyasha. That awesome privilege belongs to Romiko Takahashi. Thank you!

GUESS WHAT? I got the bill paid so I get to keep my internet! Yay! I also find it amusing that the dreaded solitary is on chapter 13 lol.

Chapter 13: Blood and Tears

Kagome was wrapped in a blanket of darkness. There were no windows and the steal door had no cracks of light on the rim to elevate the darkness around her.

She was shivering, it was so cold here. Colder than the cages and cells, both of which she was used to. If she could see, she was sure she would be able to see her breath.

But she couldn't see in the pitch black that surrounded her. She felt like she had been buried underground and, for a moment she panicked.

Where would she get air? How would she get out? How would she even know if her hand was in front of her face?

She put her head against the freezing steel door and took deep breaths. Performing Sango's breathing exercises and counting in her mind slowed her heartbeat. Either that or she was going into hibernation in this cold.

It was only after she calmed herself down did she realize that her knees felt slimy. She reached down and touched the ground and her inner female wanted to squeal. Whatever was coating the floor was sticky and slimy at the same time, and it stuck to her skin so when she brought her fingers back they were still covered in it.

"Ew." She said wiping it on her shirt. Then she swore not to speak again. The dark abyss seemed to suck up the sound instead of echo it back at her making her feel more trapped, more alone.

It wasn't completely quiet. The rats were still squeaking like mad. Plus she could hear their scurried footsteps.

Kagome had never really been afraid of rats, but she wasn't their biggest fan either.

She cried out when she felt something run across her legs.

She turned around and pushed her back against the steel door and drew her legs as close to her chest as she could. She could still hear them running across the ooze covered floor.

Her breathing got fast again and she couldn't help but squeal again when another one ran across her shoes.

She looked around frantically in the black air but she couldn't even see the sheen of their eyes.

Her real shock came when she felt a tiny set of teeth sink into her leg.

She screamed and smacked at the place she felt the pain. For just a moment, her fingers found matted fur before she hit it off of her.

Only being able to see by touch, Kagome felt the spot the rat had bit and found blood trickling out slowly.

That's what happened to Sango, she thought in horror. She was eaten by the rats in this hellish place.

With no way out, the rats must have usually resorted to eating each other. Except when a human was thrown inside with them.

Another rat, she had no way of knowing it it was the same one or different, ran forward and sunk it's tiny fangs into her arm.

She gasped and hit that one off of her as well.

But the rats were getting bolder. They were hungry and she was the only source of food other than themselves.

Kagome felt tears of fear burning down her face as the braver rats started running forward and biting her. She couldn't see them coming and could only hit them away after they had already bit her and drawn blood.

Every time she hit one away and every time they touched her, more of the nasty, greasy, ooze got on her.

Desperately, she flung her arms around wildly, trying to keep them away before they could bite.

Her hands and arms encountered fangs and tiny claws that grazed her skin, some drawing blood others not. Deciding her shoe covered feet would be better for it, she tried to kick them away.

They ran around her legs, much more used to the darkness than she was, and sunk their teeth into her.

She cried out and hit them away or pulled their dirty bodies off her. But the tiny puncture marks would get worse when she did so.

Her tears were from pain and fear now.

The rats got braver and started running up her arms before biting. They were too fast for her to catch so they always got a bite in before she could throw them away. She had no way of knowing how many rats there were but it seemed like an army of them as they crawled and bit and scratched at her skin.

She wasn't a demon and her skin didn't heal so she was bleeding and getting who-knew-what infections from the ooze below her and from the rats saliva.

They started aiming for her hands and fingers once they discovered how she was keeping them from biting and eating.

But there were so many, she couldn't stop them all. Some not only got a bite but a few good chews in before she got them off.

Her mind was being overloaded from all the pain she was feeling on her body at that moment. She couldn't see and somehow that made the terror worse. Kagome didn't even realize that she was begging and crying out loud anymore.

It was made worse, impossibly worse, when one even ventured so far as to bite her face.

She really screamed then, her body flailed as she tried to keep the rats at bay. Her mind was filled with panic, her body was filled with pain, her eyes were filled with tears, and her blood was dripping, falling onto an ooze covered floor. A mix of dirt, blood, sweat, and tears of the other occupants of this room.

She didn't know how long she fought the little teeth and tiny claws. It felt like an eternity. If Hinazuka was a little slice of Hell than solitary was the entire cake.

When a guard opened the door after a few centuries, Kagome crawled out, crying, her eyes burning from even the little bit of light in the hall. She curled into a ball and wept as she heard the door shut behind her.

She was shaking and shivering, not from cold, but from fear and pain. She didn't notice when the guards picked her limp body up and dragged it outside.

She didn't notice anything except the burning light on her eyes increased.

She wasn't even aware when they brought her into the auditorium and threw her body onto the ground.