Disclaimer-I own nothing.
No Escape
Chapter 36
Ichigo carried Momo into the house and got her settled in Rukia's bed while Renji went over the various medication she was suppoed to take with Rukia. The poor woman was exhausted and white with pain by the time he tucked her in.
"Are you sure they shouldn't have kept you a couple more days?" he asked her.
Momo shook her head. "No insurance. I'll be fine once I take the pain pills."
"I'll get them," said Ichigo.
He left the room and found Rukia in the living room with Renji, who held a white paper sack.
"Momo could use some of her pain meds," he said.
Rukia nodded. "I'll take care of her. You can go now. I don't want to hold you up."
Ichigo felt a little more of the ground under his feet slip away. He was stalling. First, he'd told himself he needed to fix Natsuki breakfast. Then he wanted to help get Momo taken care of. Now he was telling himself he was needed to make sure she got her pills.
They didn't need him for that. He was looking for reasons to stay. Time to suck it up and act like a grown man. "You're right. I should get going. Long drive." To where, he had no idea. There was no place for him to go anymore. All he knew was that he couldn't be anywhere near Rukia or he'd end up right back here like some kind of deranged stalker.
"I brought you a snack for the road. Cookies," said Renji. He held the sack out to Ichigo.
"Thanks," said Ichigo, taking the sack.
Rukia walked to the door and opened it-a clear sign she was asking him to leave now.
Ichigo could take a hint. He walked to the door, paper sack in hand, but got only as far as the threshold. Rukia was only a few inches away-so close he could smell her. His stomach tightened as if preparing to take a punch. He took a deep breath, and knowing he would later regret it, he leaned over and kissed her.
She went stiff, but only for an instant. Her mouth melted under his, opening for him. His body trembled with the force of his need to pull her against him one more time. He barely resisted but managed to hold back at least that much.
He pulled away, and her cheeks were wet with tears. This was as hard on her as it was on him. That was the thought that finally got him moving. He didn't want her to suffer. He loved her too much for that.
"Good-bye," he whispered.
Her exotic eyes were a luminous violet, and he knew he'd never forget exactly how they looked right at this moment. "Take care of yourself... Ichigo."
"I will." What choice did he have? There was no one else to do it for him.
Renji's hard slap on his back jarred Ichigo's gaze away from Rukia's. "Thanks for all your help." He stood next to Rukia and put an arm around her. Ichigo wanted to break it off and use the bloody end to wipe the smug smile from the man's face.
"Don't worry," said Renji. "I'll take good care of her when you're gone."
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Rukia took a quick shower while Renji was still here to watch over everyone for her. Besides, it was the only place in the house that would muffle the sounds of her crying. She thought she'd be stronger-hold it all in until Momo was well and Kon and Natsuki had started to heal-but she'd been wrong. The pain of losing Ichigo was overwhelming. Too much to bear wearing a smile on her face.
Five minutes of tears left her tired but better able to focus on what she needed to do. People needed her now, so she would throw herself into that. Thank God she had the distraction to keep her from dwelling too long on how lonely she was, or how it felt when Ichigo's Mustang had slid down her street, carrying him out of her life for good.
She dried her hair with a towel, not wanting to take the time to blow it dry. It didn't matter how she looked, anyway. There was no one around for her to try to impress anymore.
When she came out of her bathroom, Momo wasn't in bed. With those pain pills running through her system, she should have been out like a light. Maybe she'd had to use the bathroom and gone upstairs because Rukia had been in this one.
Rukia felt guilty for taking so long in the shower.
She went down the hall, into the living room, and stopped dead in her tracks. Momo was tied to one of her kitchen chairs, as were Kon and Natsuki. They were all gagged with duct tape. Momo's head fell limply from her shoulders at an awkward angle. Natsuki was white and trembling. Kon's skin was red with rage, and his eyes darted from her to the kitchen door over and over.
He was trying to tell her something. Whoever had done this was in there.
Panic jolted through her, making it hard to breathe. Hard to think.
She had to get to a phone. Call the police before she gave away the fact that she was also home.
Rukia turned around to go back to her bedroom to use the phone and ran right into Renji. He steadied her, keeping her from falling.
"Someone's here," she whispered to him. "I've got to call the police!"
"No need, Rukia. We won't need them for a while yet." His voice was soothing, gentle, and way too loud.
She covered his mouth. "Shh. Quiet! They'll get you!"
His grip on her arms tightened. "They? You mean the bad guys who broke in here and tied everyone up?"
A sick sense of understanding slithered around inside Rukia's stomach. Renji was smiling. Relaxed.
Why wasn't he afraid? Why didn't he... Oh, God! He was the one who'd done this. Tied everyone up.
Rukia nearly doubled over under the pain of betrayal. It didn't make any sense. "Why?" she asked him, unable to think of anything else to say. "Why are you doing this?"
He gathered her hands behind her back, and she felt the cold metal of handcuffs bite into her wrists. She was so shocked that Renji would harm the people she cared about, it hadn't dawned on her to fight back until just now. Too late.
Whatever Renji meant to do, it wasn't good. She had to escape.
Rukia shoved her knee up into his groin as hard as she could. He twisted and caught most of her attack against his thigh.
Renji grabbed a handful of her damp hair and wrenched her head back so far she could hardly breathe. "Don't make this harder on yourself than it has to be. I know how much you're hurting. I'm going to make it all better."
He carried her toward a chair facing the rest. Rukia kicked but couldn't find a target. Her toe slammed into the wall, making pain shoot up her leg. He dropped her into the chair and she popped right back up, trying to run away. Her balance was off because her hands were locked behind her, and she hadn't made it more than three steps before Renji caught her and put her back in the chair.
He sat on her, pinning her in place while he wrapped ropes around her body. Rukia leaned forward and bit his shoulder, tasting blood. She wasn't sure what happened next, but when she woke up a few seconds later, she was staring at the ceiling. Her head pounded and her arms throbbed.
From somewhere nearby, Rukia heard Natsuki's muffled sobs of terror and Kon's furious grunts.
Renji picked her and the chair up together and put them back in place. A few quick tugs of the rope and she was locked against the chair. Rukia screamed. Her legs were still free, and she kicked out blindly, hoping to hit something, anything, to make him stop.
Behind her, she heard the sound of tape ripping from the roll. He grabbed an ankle and tapped it to the leg of the chair, then did the same with the other. All that kicking and she hadn't landed a single blow.
Rukia screamed louder.
"Now," said Renji. "I know you're scared, but you don't need to be. It's almost over."
Fear chilled her to the bone. That mockingly gentle tone he used was more frightening than if he'd been raging at her. "Let me go, Renji!"
He shook a bottle of pills in front of her. She couldn't read the label, but she was pretty sure that whatever was in there wasn't going to be good for her.
"You're going to be good and do exactly as I say."
"Screw you!" she shouted.
Renji frowned his displeasure. "That's no way for a teacher to talk. I expected more from you."
"Prepare to be disappointed, then, you demented fuck!"
Renji walked to where Momo slumped. He grabbed a handful of her hair, pulled her head up, then let it fall back to that awkward position. "She has the right idea. Don't fight it. Just let go."
Rukia couldn't tell if she was still alive. She couldn't focus long enough to tell if Momo was still breathing. Please, God, don't let her be dead!
"Why would you hurt her? What has she ever done to you?"
"I didn't hurt her. I freed her."
Freed her? He wasn't making any sense. How was she going to reason with him if she didn't even know what he wanted? "You're insane! What are you talking about?"
Renji's mouth tightened, and his eyes glittered with unshed tears of sympathy. "The pain. Poor, sweet, Rukia. I know you're hurting. I can see it in your eyes. They're all red and puffy from crying, so don't try to deny it."
"Why do you care if I cry?"
"Because I love you. I loved all of them. That's why I had to help them."
All of them? "Who?"
He frowned like she was stupid. "Our brothers and sisters."
It took her a moment to untangle his meaning, and when she did, a cold lump of dread swelled up in her gut. He'd killed their friends, not Yammy. He'd killed the children they'd grown up with. He'd staged the suicides while pretending to be her friend the whole time. "I TRUSTED YOU!"
"I know. That's why it was so hard to wait to free you. But you had to let Ichigo stay here and make yourself unavailable. He was the only one who had a prayer of trying to stop me, but he's no longer an issue."
Ichigo. Thank God he got away free. At least she'd managed to save him by driving him away. It made the pain of losing him insignificant. "When he finds out about this, he'll hunt you down!"
Renji knelt before her. His brown eyes blazed with a ferocious, insane light. He was mad. Completely bonkers.
He put a comforting hand on her knee, and Rukia strained to get rid of his touch, but she couldn't move.
"Ichigo's already gone, sweetheart. I don't know if I believe in an afterlife, but if it comforts you to think you'll see him again, then by all means, do. I want to make this easy on you."
Ichigo gone? No! It couldn't be. Surely she'd know somehow, deep down, if he'd died. "He's not dead."
"If he's not yet, he will be any moment now. One bite of those cookies is all he needed to help him escape."
Ichigo's cookies were poisoned. Just like her tea. It hadn't been Yammy who'd done that, either.
"You're wrong! Ichigo's stronger than I am, and I survived the tea you poisoned."
Renji gave her a condescending smile. "I never make the same mistake twice. I assure you I was more careful in choosing my poison this time. And the dose."
Rukia refused to believe it. If she did, her world would implode and she wouldn't be able to get them all out of this mess. Ichigo was alive. Safe. He had to be!
"You're not going to get away with this. I saw you touch the sack. Your fingerprints will be all over it."
"I don't plan to get away with anything. After I've helped you, I'm finally going to be free myself."
He meant he was going to kill himself.
The whole situation shifted into something darker. It was bad enough that they were all tied up, worse that he wanted them dead, but now Rukia had no way to reason with him. He was a man with nothing to lose, and there was nothing more dangerous than that.
She had to save the kids. "Please, let Kon and Natsuki go! They have nothing to do with this!"
"I admit I hadn't intended to include them at first, but now that I have a bettter idea of what their lives have been like, I don't see any other option. I could never forgive myself if I left them here to suffer-orphans alone in the world."
"What do you care if they go free? You'll be dead."
"What kind of man would I be if I used that as an excuse not to do what I know is right? Those children are suffering the same way that you and I have suffered for years. Kon would probably end up a suicide before the year was out, anyway. Why should he have to endure all that time when the end result is the same? And Natsuki. Once Momo is gone, she'll end up back with her father."
"No. The courts would never grant him custody. Momo had his parental rights terminated."
"It won't matter. I've seen decisions like that reversed before. It might happen again." He went to Natsuki and stroked her cheek. "You'd rather go to sleep forever than go live with your daddy again, wouldn't you, honey?"
Natsuki trembled, and her eyes were huge with fear. Rukia saw her look grow vacant as she retreated into herself.
"Leave her alone! I'm the one you want to kill. Not her."
Renji stood and an angry snarl twisted his face. "I'm not killing anyone. I'm helping them. Do you think planning all of this has been easy for me? I've sacrificed so much to help all of you! You have no idea!"
"Please, Renji! Please let them go! They'll be fine. They'll take care of each other the way we did." She nearly gagged but managed to say the words, "The way you're helping me now. Give them a chance."
"I'm glad to see your protective instincts are as strong as ever. It'll make things easier on both of us. The others were easy, but I don't think I could bring myself to hurt you again. I love you too much."
"If you're not going to hurt me, then let me go now. I can take care of the kids. You know I'd never let them suffer."
"That's not what I mean. I just mean that in your case, it won't be an act. It really will be suicide."
"I've got too much to live for to ever kill myself. Your insane if you think otherwise."
He gave her a sad smile. "Don't worry. I'll help you do the right thing." He took a glass of water from the table nearby. "You're going to swallow this entire bottle of pills."
"No. I'm not."
A look of disappointment crossed Renji's face. He took a pillow from the couch, calmly walked to Kon, covered his face with it, and began to suffocate him.
Shock froze Rukia in place for a moment. She couldn't believe this was really happening. The man she'd thought her friend since she was a child was killing her son.
The beaded fringe on the pillow shook as Kon thrashed against it, trying to breathe.
"Renji, no!" She struggled against her bonds until she heard a loud pop in her shoulder followed by blinding pain. Blackness inched over her vision, but she fought it. She had to stay awake for the kids. Had to save them.
She didn't want to die, but she'd do anything to protect Kon. Anything.
"STOP!" she shouted.
"Are you going to cooperate?"
"Yes! Just let him live! Let him go!"
Renji nodded and set the pillow in Kon's lap, keeping it handy in case he needed it again, she was sure. Kon's face was blood red, and he sucked air in through his nose, making a horrible, sickening sound.
Rukia ached to go to him. To help him.
Renji opened the bottle of pills and poured three into his palm. "Open wide," he said.
"You promise to let him go?" she asked.
Renji shrugged. "Like I said, he's not going to need me to help him."
He was wrong. Kon wasn't going to kill himself. He was stronger than that. He was a survivor.
Rukia swallowed hard, trying not to throw up. Her shoulder throbbed, but at least the pain wasn't going to make her pass out any longer.
Enraged, frightened tears streamed over the tape covering Kon's face. His eyes were pleading with hers not to do this, but she had no choice. "I love you, Kon. None of this is your fault. You stay strong for me. You hold on."
Kon shook his head, telling her not to do it, but she knew it was the only way.
Rukia opened her mouth.
Hard, bitter pills hit her tongue, then Renji held the glass for her to drink. She swallowed them, hoping she'd just drift off rather than suffering like she had the last time Renji had poisoned her.
"Only seventy-two more to go," said Renji in an almost cheerful tone.
Another handful of pills went into her mouth. Rukia swallowed those, too. She had no choice. She was trapped. No escape.
AN
I know things seem bleak, but don't give up. I promise this isn't one of those stories that seem great and then Rukia ends up dying and they wrap things up. I hate those! No, I promise you there is a happy ending despite the horror genre. In fact, I've just about finished writing the next few chapters so it will be easier for me to post them over intervals of one or two days apart. Review please!