ATTENTION!

Before we start, I would like to warn that this chapter contains disturbing and potentially deeply upsetting factors. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!

CH 3

"You have reached the voice mailbox of…"

Sango frowned and tapped the red circle on her phone screen, ending her thirteenth call to Kagome. "What the hell?" She stared at Kagome's laughing contact photo, wondering why her friend wasn't picking up. Could it be something with Sesshomaru again? She went to her Messages and scrolled through their conversation. Well, the last part was more one-sided than anything, and that was what was so worrying.

Hey how did the div talk go

Earth to Kagome…

Hello

?

?

Kagome r u ok

Kagome ANSWER ME

KAGOME!

Pursing her lips, Sango made up her mind. "Hey, Kohaku, I'm going over to Kagome's," she shouted as she got up from the black faux leather couch.

"Yeah, I think you'd better," was the faint answer.

Her frown deepened. "What? Why?" When there was no reply, she ran down to the basement, where Kohaku was working out. "What do you mean?"

He blinked up at her, sweat running down his face as he ran the treadmill. "Rin sent me a text inviting me over to her house like two hours ago; said her mom just left after a huge fight with her dad. Usually her mom doesn't let her have any friends over after dinner, but she said that her dad probably wouldn't mind. Anyways, I'm not going. I don't really like her that much."

Sango gaped at him, only processing the last part of his speech. "Since when do you have Rin's number? I thought you knew not to hang out with that… girl! You know how she behaves at home! Haven't I told you enough horror stories?"

He shrugged, turning back to the dashboard of his treadmill. "She got my number somehow and has been texting me. I answer once a while, that's all."

She shook her head firmly. "No. I won't have you communicating with her at all." Then something clicked. "What?" she practically screamed. "Kagome left the house? She had a huge fight with Sesshomaru?"

"Apparently. Can you please leave now?" He turned up the music, effectively ending the conversation.

Sango's heart began to pound, louder and louder until her heartbeat was all she could hear. Where was Kagome? If the fight had been at least two hours ago, why wasn't she here? Where could she be? Her eyes drifted down to the phone clutched tightly in her hand, and she remembered the unanswered calls and texts. Could she… could she have run away? Her eyes widened at this possibility. No way… but there's no other answer! She must have decided to disappear somewhere!

Before she knew it, she was opening her garage door and sliding into her black Toyota. She stabbed her keys into the ignition and felt the engine purr in response. Biting her lip, she set course for Kagome's house… er, Sesshomaru's house.

In reality, the drive only took seven minutes, but it seemed like a hundred had gone by before she was pulling into Sesshomaru's driveway, Kagome having taught her the passcode for the security gate at the edge of the Takahashi estate. Sango quickly turned off the engine and jumped out of her car, practically running to the front door. Breathlessly, she rang the doorbell, and waited for an eternity until the door finally opened. Immediately, her expression of anxiety transformed to one of intense dislike.

Rin stood in the doorway, arms crossed over her maturing chest and hips jutted out in a defiant pose. "Where's Kohaku?" Her voice was petulant, and the scowl on her glossy lips irritated Sango.

"Out of my way, squirt. I need to talk to your father."

"He's not interested in a slut like you," sneered the teenager, one hand on the doorknob. "Good night, and I hope you get in an accident." She tried to shut the door, but Sango stuck her foot out and stopped it from closing just in time.

"Sesshomaru!" she shouted, ignoring the little banshee, knowing he would hear her with his demonic hearing. "Can I come in? It's Sango!"

"Shut up!" Rin hissed, eyes narrowed to slits. "And get lost!" She drew back the door and tried to slam it shut as hard as she could, but Sango seized the opportunity and darted inside the house, shoving past the shrieking obstacle.

She ran for the stairs, knowing Sesshomaru would be in his study. When she felt manicured talons snatching at her shirt, she blindly lashed out behind her with her hand, trying to slap the little bitch. A smack and a scream told her she had succeeded. Feeling the grip on her clothes loosen, she triumphantly dashed up the last couple stairs… and ran straight into Sesshomaru.

"Oof!" She fell back, but leapt to her feet instantly. "Sesshomaru!"

"What are you doing in my home?" he inquired coldly, staring her down.

She stared at him right back. Behind her, Rin was panting but immobile, waiting for her father's verdict. "I need to talk to you."

"It seems you are doing so now."

"In private." She stressed the last word with a meaningful dip of her head in Rin's direction. "It's about Kagome."

He blinked coolly. "In that case…"

She started forward eagerly.

"...you may leave."

She stopped in her tracks, hearing Rin crow delightedly behind her. "What?"

"Leave." He pointed an elegant finger down the staircase in the general direction of the door, as if she were an idiot. "Or I will forcibly remove you from the premises."

"No!" she snapped. "This is important." Without waiting for a rebuttal, she pushed past Sesshomaru and stalked toward his study, surprised when she only heard footsteps following her quietly. Entering the handsomely furnished room, she sat down in front of his desk and waited for him to sit. When he did, after closing and locking the door, giving her a look that said, you had better not be wasting my time, she started talking.

"Kagome hasn't answered her phone all night."

He merely blinked at her, as if to say, get on with it.

"Apparently, she left two hours ago. Is that true?"

"More or less. Is that all?"

"No. What exactly did you do to drive her out?"

"I showed her her place."

Now it was her turn to blink, but it wasn't on purpose. "What?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Are you simple?"

"No! What exactly did you do?"

"I showed her her place."

It was clear he would not elaborate, so Sango changed tack. "So what is her place, Sesshomaru? All these years you've been abusing her… what exactly is she to you?" She waited with bated breath for his answer.

He did not answer.

She stared at him, bottom lip trembling. What could this mean? Did he really hold Kagome in that much contempt? Had he been thinking about a divorce as well? With the way he was acting, he obviously didn't plan on keeping her around as his wife much longer. Her toes tingled, recognizing that the time was right.

Sango took a deep breath. This is it. This is my chance. She gazed calmly at Sesshomaru, thrilling at the way he was looking back at her. Those deep amber eyes… that beautiful silver hair… those gorgeous markings… and that ridiculously sexy body…

I can do this. I'm a damn lot sexier that Kagome ever was.

She reached down to grip the bottom of her shirt, and pulled it slowly over her head, dropping it to the wood panels below. He was still staring at her, hands clasped relaxedly on the desk, not saying anything, not moving to stop her.

Yes!

Smiling a little now, she reached back to unclasp her bra.

"What are you doing, woman?" His voice was quiet, but it was quite effective in making her freeze.

"What do you think I'm doing?" she replied, trying to be coy. Don't drop the ball now, Sango… You're almost there, girl! After so many years too…

Sesshomaru opened his mouth to reply, but froze when his cell phone rang; they both froze. With wide eyes, Sango watched him slide his phone closer. From her point of view, it was easy to see that it was Kagome. He looked at the screen, and then he looked at her. She looked at him. They stayed this way until the call went to voicemail, the tinny recording sounding deafening in the silence that filled the study. Slowly, Sango reached for her bra clasp again, but the phone rang… again. He was staring at her now, and she was staring at him, each daring the other to answer the call.

"She left," Sango said quietly. "She left the house."

"She did," he acknowledged. A predatory look entered his eyes, thrilling the animalistic past of her soul. "Do you understand that this is to be a single occurrence, never to be repeated?" He wasn't talking about the phone. Duh.

Sango nodded breathlessly, and with a smirk, Sesshomaru muted his phone, tossing it into a desk drawer.

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-oOo-

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Kagome spent almost two whole hours driving randomly through the streets of Tokyo before finally turning onto the highway; the full amount of time it took for her to stop crying.

At first, with the tears dry and stiff on her face, her whole body was numb, every inch of her flesh as unfeeling as a corpse's. Then, as the feeling returned to her struck cheek with a vengeance, burning and throbbing and tingling, all her self-pity and hurt slowly transformed into fury.

How dare he? How dare he strike his own wife?... Not that he considered her to be anymore, obviously. The bastard. The fucking bastard. For far too long she had quietly suffered under his abuse. Practically let him trod all over her. Well, she vowed to herself, no more. It all ended tonight. And in her fury, she didn't even hear the continuous calls and texts ringing from her phone.

Kagome gripped the steering wheel, urging her car to pick up speed. As she roared down the highway, edging dangerously over the speed limit, she realized something. The car was from him. One of many engagement presents. Suddenly, she wanted to jump out the window, glass or no glass, going ninety kilo per hour or not. The plush leather lining, previously so comfortable, was like a bed of rusty nails, and the safe, warm atmosphere was now a grim, oppressive one that weighed down her lungs with every carefully measured breath she took. She wanted nothing that had come from his wallet.

Her breathing became ragged as she realized that the clothes she wore had been bought by his money. Her purse and everything in it, which had already been inside her car when she fled. Her phone. Her jewelry. Her ring, of course. Her haircut, for god's sake. Her fingers twitched with the obsessive desire to strip naked and hack her hair into uneven chunks. Suddenly afraid of herself, she whimpered softly.

I need to get out.

She seized the opportunity that came in the form of a highway exit, and took it without even glancing at the sign. She wove through the streets for a couple more minutes, vaguely noticing that she was in Tokyo, then pulled into an empty parking lot.

Still wearing her seatbelt, she started stripping off her jewelry. Not that she had much on to begin with, but still, a Tiffany diamond necklace, a pair of custom-made sapphire earrings, and a Cartier watch found themselves tossed carelessly on the passenger seat, still warm from their contact with warm flesh. They were quickly joined by her Chanel vintage purse.

She was about to take off her wedding ring, then she hesitated. Maybe… just in case… She left it on and slid her wallet and phone into her pocket. She didn't want to take her wallet along, but she needed the ID cards. She had bought her phone with her own money. It was something she had insisted on, and she was grateful for it now. Taking a deep breath, Kagome got out of her car. Taking the keys out of the ignition, she locked the car with the remote and tossed the keys onto the driver's seat before closing the door with a final slam. She let out the breath she had taken, and took in another one, savoring the clean, fresh air.

This is what freedom tastes like, she thought with a smile. I am sad no more; I will be trodden on no more. I'm a new person!

As soon as possible, she would get a new phone and transfer all the information she needed onto there. Then she could ditch this phone, just in case he decided to track her, although she couldn't imagine why he would. As for her wallet, she would obviously be replacing it.

With a skip in her step, Kagome took off down the streets, her heart light with her newfound freedom… but it didn't take long for reality to come crashing down around her.

As she looked around, it was clear to see that she was in the slums of Tokyo. Paint peeled off of buildings and billboards, and cigarette butts littered the streets. On the corners stood huddled groups of men with tendrils of smoke trailing up from the mouths of their drawn hoods. The fact that it was nighttime made things all the worse.

Kagome swallowed hard. Oh, crap. Why hadn't she looked around before parking? This was definitely one of those 'don't go walking around here after dark' neighborhoods. She hunched up as she walked, trying to make herself a smaller target, but already she was attracting attention. Men were lowering their cigarettes and turning their hooded heads to stare at her as she walked quickly past. Starting to shiver, she made herself walk faster, the sound of her feet on the asphalt deafening to her ears. When she made it a couple of blocks without being intercepted, she began to have hope. Maybe she could make it to a library or something and crash there until morning.

And then a large hand closed heavily over her shoulder, spinning her around roughly.

Terrified, Kagome stared up into the grinning, scruffy face of a middle-aged man with badly dyed blonde hair. Greasy strands of natural black wove in and out of the scraggly yellow hair, making quite an ugly sight. But the ugliest thing about the man was the look in his squinty little piggy eyes.

"Let me go," she said loudly, swallowing her fear. "Let me go now."

He chuckled, and she felt a twinge of fear when his equally ugly friends began to emerge from the shadows, all of them leering at her with the same awful grin. "I don't think so, missy," he sneered, exhaling cigar breath into her face. "See, you're in our territory. So, you're ours." His friends chuckled and nodded, edging around their leader in an attempt to surround her.

A scream was rising up in her throat. Kagome let it out, a piercing shriek that echoed off the dilapidated buildings, and wrenched herself free from his hold with a surge of terrified strength. She turned tail and bolted down the street, running as fast as she could. The streets were deserted now. No witnesses. She found herself praying for a policeman on duty. Tears formed in her eyes when she could hear the sounds of pursuit behind her.

This can't be happening to me. No, no, no...

"No!" she screamed when someone tackled her to the ground, pinning her down with their heavy body. "Let me go! Help! Somebody help me, please!" A hand yanked at her hair roughly.

"Shut up, woman!"

"No!" She thrashed around like an eel, putting her whole heart into the effort, and by some miracle managed to unseat the scumbag sitting on top of her just enough so she could scramble to her feet. She started running again, but this time they were closer, and hands were grabbing at her.

Desperate, she turned left into an alley. Hurdling over a cardboard box, she turned right, ran, turned left, ran, turned left, ran, then turned right again. She looked down the length of the alleyway, and decided to hide instead of running more. Gasping for breath, she crawled behind a trash can, getting behind cover just as the gang skidded to a halt right in front of her hiding place.

"Where'd she go?" someone growled, and she knew they were looking down the length of the alleyway but couldn't see her.

"I can't hear her running," another said hoarsely.

"She's got to be hiding."

"Yeah!"

There was a chorus of general agreement, and they began to overturn boxes loudly in their enthusiastic search, and she knew it was only a matter of time until they found her. Sucking in a breath, she darted out from behind the trashcan and took off again, tears streaming down her face. They were shouting behind her.

Please, no, oh god please no, why me? Not me! Please not me!

Her side was burning, and her legs were tiring out. Her body was failing her. Just a little further, she promised her body. Please, carry me just a little further. She started turning left and right again in a dizzying pattern, hoping to lose the gang. But no matter what she did, they always managed to stay on her. And they were slowly catching up to her.

I don't want to die like this! Never like this!

Left, right, right, right, left, left.

She couldn't hear them anymore. Had she lost them?

She took one last left and ran blindly, not noticing where she was heading until she looked up and saw the worst thing she could see in this situation; a brick wall.

A dead end.

Kagome was close to fainting, and in her dazed terror she tripped over an ancient, rolled up newspaper lying in the street. With a cry, she fell, and as she fell, her phone clattered out of her pocket, bouncing hard against the ground.

Her phone!

She crawled frantically forward and snatched it up, holding it close to her face. She tried to turn it on, but it didn't respond. To her horror, she realized the screen was cracked. She pressed the home button, but it didn't turn on. The fall must have damaged it somehow.

Shit, shit, shit! She rapped the corner of the phone hard against the cement, glancing fearfully over her shoulder. She pressed the home button again, and to her relief, it turned on. But there was something wrong; almost half of the screen was black, with staticky edges. Lips trembling, she went to her Calls. On the dialpad, she tried to type in 119, but the 9 was one of the numbers that had been blacked out. In fact, most of the numbers had been; she could only access the 0 and the 1, plus the # if that actually counted. What the hell was she going to do? There was an emergency call button that went straight to 119, but she couldn't even see it, the damage was so bad. She held down her thumb on the 1, unable to stop her arms from shaking. She gasped when the screen went to the Calling screen. What…?

The speed dial. And her number one speed dial was Sesshomaru. She let the call connect, staring at the bright screen. Would he pick up? And if he did, if she begged him for help, would he come? He certainly could come in time; he could summon that orb of his and be here in seconds. He could rip apart her tormentors with a flick of his whip. But the question was: would he?

There was only one way to find out. She raised the phone to her ear, and the screen turned fully dark as her skin made contact with the screen, the brightness thankfully disappearing. She let out a shaky breath as she listened the the dial tones. As she waited, she curled up in the corner, hoping the shadows would conceal her.

Please pick up, please pick up, she prayed.

Drrrr…. Drrrr…. Drrr….

But he didn't pick up. She disconnected the call before it went to voicemail by clicking the power button on the side of her phone, which still worked, and dialed him again, and again, and again.

Drrr… Drrr… Drrr… She waited, and as she waited, she pulled her cardigan tighter around her, as if that would shield her from the gang. Drrr… Drrr…. Drrr...

But he didn't pick up.

She could hear their footsteps now, their braying, their catcalls.

Shaking, she dialed him again.

But he didn't pick up.

She could see them now, outlined black against the streetlight at the end of the alleyway.

Whimpering, she dialed him again.

But he didn't pick up.

They saw her now, and they knew she was cornered, They were coming for her.

Sobbing, she dialed him again.

But he didn't pick up.

They were standing around her, leering down at her while she huddled in the corner and wept.

Screaming, she dialed him again.

They were ripping the phone from her hand. They were grabbing her, pulling her up, touching her. Through tear-filled eyes, through her screaming and crying, she could see the screen of her phone, a tiny splotch of white in the darkness of the alley.

And she knew he hadn't picked up.

Now you see what I meant when I said last chapter that by the end of this one you would be wanting to "unman" Sess? Well... now that you have read this chapter,

please review! :3