Chapter 5

It was still dark out when they heard the shrill high pitched scream. Kagome bolted up, her body struggling against the large arm that had been tossed over her slim waist. Her body protested at the movement, more than willing to stay curled up into the source of warmth that was plastered against her back.

Sometime during the night Sang-Wook must have fallen asleep and snuggled up to her, his larger from spooning her smaller one, his arms wrapped firmly around her small waist, one hand under the fabric of her shirt dangerously close to her the underside of her breast.

Not that she had any real chance of realizing it as her body snapped into motion, old habits flaring to life, she rolled onto her feet and was stumbling towards the door, throwing it open as her eyes seared at the light that met them.

"Help me please someone anyone!" The pure terror in the voice made her heart lurch and flashes of burning villages and the spray of blood flashed in her mind's eye.

Sang-Wook could only curse as he sat up, his mind muddled and confused, watching the raven hair of his previous couch partner flutter behind her as she ran like the dogs of hell were nipping on her heels. He was on his feet in an instant running after her, cursing himself for falling asleep. His body moved groggily yet he willed it to move faster, his muscles aching at the sudden shift from relaxed warmth to cold hard adrenaline.

Practically tearing the door to the stairwell off its hinges he did his best to catch up with the small spit fire of a woman that his body longed to pull back into its embrace.

Kagome was moving on pure instinct, adrenaline rushing through her veins as the sobbing cries grew closer, deafening as many others joined its chorus in her head. All the blood and chaos of the past few hours had stirred to life memories and feelings she thought had left behind.

With them came the dull ache of failure, of a need to make up for all those that she had let down.

Let die.

The scene she stumbled upon made her heart freeze, there huddled on the ground was a school girl, no older looking then she had been when her own innocence had been ripped from her, she was on the ground one hand wrapped around her ankle as her other was held out in front of her as if it would make the lumbering female stop its advancement.

The monster was female in stature, its body hunched over, blood stained greasy spools of black hair covered its face as it inched closer, its joints creaking with every jerky movement it made.

"Huuuungry!" The shrill shriek was garbled and sounded so desperate and longing that it made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. She ran her aura over it, feeling that sick tainted feeling that was so entwined with its aura. That was then that it hit her. This thing...it had been human, but it had come down with the same sickness she had seen in the security guard...hell it hadn't just given it.

It had welcomed it, merging fully with it...

Yet it was still human at its very core, just different, more primal and dark and...

She was pulled from her thoughts as the school girl noticed her and let a dry heaving sob. "Help!" Her body moved on its own, racing forward to get between the young woman and the...female. Wrapping her arms around the trembling form she threw up a barrier, there was a very large chance that her powers would be useless at keeping this creature at bay, just as they had been useless at purifying the other monster that had almost killed her yesterday, because no matter how dark it felt or how twisted it had become it was still very much human.

The sheer killing intent as it came barreling towards her made her body tense, this was it. This was how she died? After everything she had been through, everything she had overcome, demons, curses, and a very bitter sentient jewel she would be killed by a mutated human...the irony wasn't lost on her.

The sound of flesh cracking into cement echoed in the hallway.

Snapping her eyes open she was relieved to see Sang-Wook. His dark hair lightly messed from his run, his breathing a bit ragged as he glared down at the hole in the wall where the female laid, its body twitching and jerking as it tried to get up, its jaw opening and snapping as if not realizing it had yet to sink its sharp pointed teeth into her flesh and tear it from the bone.

Sang-Wook merely kept his gaze on the thing that had almost tore into the stupid woman behind him, his blood churning as the familiar rage settled over him like a loving embrace. Again and again he delivered brutal kick after kick yet the damn bitch kept moving, its movements jerky and awkward.

Yet moving all the same.

Why wouldn't the bitch stay down? She had taken more hits than men that were twice her size and yet she was still moving. Yeah, he knew people were turning into monsters but still! She looked to be less then one hundred pounds before turning yet she was hanging in there like a champ.

Narrowing his gaze he angled his foot so that the heel of his shoe shattered its nose, the shards being sent into its skull. He knew for a god damn fact that it was a killing blow yet all it did was make the bitch go still for a moment before trying once again to get up, her jaw still snapping open and shut.

Realizing that there was no real sense of danger anymore Kagome let her barrier fall and pulled away from the school girl who scrambled away from her as if burnt to huddle in on herself in the corner by the door. Kagome moved closer to Sang-Wook, cautiously leaning on the wall to watch as he kept kicking, it was almost comical the way his dark brooding gaze watched his foot pull back and lash out, like he wasn't the one doing it, one hand in his pocket as if he had better things to do then cave someone's head in.

Deciding to use this time to study the newly classified human monster she shifted closer to him, his body heat making her suddenly cold body shiver, angling her head to get a better view of the hole the monster was trying to pull itself out of. While it didn't look human anymore it felt human, be it far more twisted at its core...She was half tempted to reach out and touch it.

To see if her powers had any effect on it, maybe her interaction with the less human looking monster had been a fluke? Sang-Wook's dark grumble made her freeze as she tore her gaze from the monster to glance at his deeply scowling face. "What are you doing? Don't touch it stupid." His words were exasperated as if he couldn't believe she was about to try and touch the monster that had moments ago been about to kill her.

Huffing at the insult but letting it slide because she knew it wasn't coming from a place of malice she leaned into his side, bumping it with her shoulder in a teasing manner. "Just curious, don't know about you but I don't know a lot about these things..."

He snorted, pausing his kicking spree to stare down at her as she moved her blue gaze to meet his. "Don't gotta know nothing about them except that they want to kill us. Seems pretty straightforward to me."

Eun-Yu could only stare at the two, her eye twitching, as they not only bantered but flirted with each other not at all caring that a monster was right there, what the fuck was wrong with these two? Sure, they had saved her but honestly...she knew something had to be wrong for them to react this way and she did not want to get pulled into their crazy.

Gritting her teeth she pulled herself into a standing position, biting her lip as her already abused ankle screamed and throbbed in pain. At this rate she would never be able to slip on her ballerina shoes and it was a sad sobering thought that helped her bury the screaming pain of her sprained ankle.

Hobbling on her feet she tried to place more weight on her injured ankle, hoping the adrenal and need to move would help numb the pain. It did not, she couldn't hold back the small whimper of pain as hot searing needles flared to life in her abused flesh. Knees shaking she slumped to the ground a dry heaving sob as her vision flecked with spots of black.

Pulled from her light bickering with Sang-Wook about whether or not she was being stupid Kagome could only frown as the school girl let out sharp pained breaths, her gaze any where but on her and Sang-Wook. The fear and embarrassment was almost palpable to her. With two quick strides she was kneeling before the younger girl a small friendly smile on her face.

Eun-Yu refused to meet the blue eyed woman's gaze, her nose turned up as if she wasn't sitting on the floor just trying to focus on how to remember to breathe and not the searing pain that shot up her leg from her ankle into her very core. She was a prideful creature, after all it was one of the only things she had left.

"Hey, you okay?" Kagome's voice was light as her blue eyes ran over the school girl, she had scrapes and bruises but what really concerned her was the deep purple and green flesh peeking out from the hem of her sock. Judging by the color of the flesh it was not a fresh wound but one that was weeks, if not months, older and this tumble had more than likely undone any and all healing the abused flesh had managed to achieve between the initial injury and now.

Eun-Yu scoffed, her eyes looking at the empty space by the other woman's head. "I'm fine, just leave me here. Go on, shoo." She tried her best to look relaxed as she laid on the cold cement ground.

Kagome was hard pressed to not let out a small chuckle, this young woman was acting very much like a stubborn half demon she had once held dear to heart. She was pulled from her thoughts as Sang-Wook moved away from the wall, the monster no longer moving, and moved to step over the fallen girl. Scowling deeply at him she whacked his shin making him pause to stare down at her and arch a brow. As if asking her, 'what?' Ignoring his unvoiced question she shook her head at him and instead reached out her hand, letting it graze the abused flesh tearing a pained groan from the girl.

Quickly before the young woman had time to react Kagome let her powers burst forth, they quickly sunk into the abused flesh healing and mending like it was their sole purpose in life. Feeling a bit light headed from the amount of energy it took to heal the flesh back into a nice healthy shade of pink she leaned against Sang-Wook's leg, glad that he merely shifted so that it was bearing more of her weight as he stared down at her as if used to seeing her use her powers already.

Sighing through his nose at the school girls gaping face he could only shake his head at Kagome. "You really should warn people that you're a magical girl..." His voice was dry yet she could hear the hint of humor in it. Rolling her eyes she looked up at him and stuck her tongue out at him.

They quickly fell into another round of bantering, flirting and the normalcy of it made Eun-Yu's head hurt. Just what the fuck was going on? Had she hit her head and fallen into a really weird fucking coma? That had to be it right? Cuz there was no way in hell monsters were real and magical girls were running around with their yakuza boyfriends beating up said monsters...

"This can't be happening..." Her whispered words made Kagome pause and turn to her a small sad smile on her face.

"I'm sad to say this is very much real..." She knew how the younger woman felt, she had the same mini break down after everything had calmed down after she had been pulled into the well, freed InuYasha and had the jewel ripped from her side.

It was a humbling if not terrifying feeling, to have everything you thought you knew torn from you and turned on its head. She was only a child then, barely fifteen for more than a day when she had to face that and honestly she was still suffering from it. So it was with a small understanding smile that she reached out, hoping to make it easier on the girl staring up at her yet she knew it wouldn't be enough.

It was never enough.

Yet she would never stop trying.

"So, what's your name? Mine's Kagome and this brute over here is Sang-Wook." She stifled a laugh as Sang-Wook gave a low grumble.

Eun-Yu could only shake her head at the two, part of her wanted to laugh at how normal if not cringe worthy their banter was. The other wanted to latch on to it and pretend that everything was and would be fine. "What's wrong with you guys?" The words slipped out and a light flush dusted her cheeks as Kagome gave a light laugh, not at all offended by the whispered words.

"Ah, well a lot to be honest." She was hard pressed to not roll her eyes at Sang-Wook as he reached up to his breast pocket to no doubt pull out another cigarette. Did he have some kind of magical pack of them tucked in there? While she wasn't a smoker she knew there was no way that smoke companies were able to fit that many cigarettes into one single pack of smokes...the man almost always had one in his mouth or his fingers and she had yet to see his pack run dry...

"I'm so huuuuungry!" The loud screech made them all jerk, cursing Sang-Wook turned on his heel, Kagome tumbling to the ground from the sudden loss of his support, pissed at himself for letting his guard down enough for the should be dead bitch to not only pull herself from the hole but launch itself at them. He raised his arm ready to take the hit so that the two women behind him could get away yet he could only watch with morbid fashion as the female was suspended mid air by what appeared to be sharp pointed metal skewers?

Fresh hot blood misted the air as the monster screeched and withered on the skewers, trying to dislodge herself from them to get to them. As if it wasn't impaled and spouting blood like a damn fondue fountain.

"I hear yooooouuuuu!" The deep male voice echoed from the top of the stairs and Kagome could only curse as the 'blind monster' shambled down a step, almost falling as it missed the one after the initial step. It was far too focused on the wiggling prey impaled on the tips of its fingers to notice or care.

The female snapped her head towards its attacker, as if just now realizing that he was keeping her from gorging herself on their flesh and she renewed her struggle, lashing out as the blind monster raised its other hand, it's fingers lengthening and sharpening to dig into flesh and cement.

"Fuck, run!" No sooner had the words left her mouth did Kagome shove and urge the still stunned Eun-Yu to her feet. Her own arm being grabbed in a bruise grip to drag her up and behind a panicking Sang-Wook.

Time seemed to slow down to a crawl and the two monsters began to fight each other, blood, claws, and teeth flying this way and that.

The three non monster humans were tripping over themselves to avoid being caught up in the fight. Kagome could only cry out as she tripped over her own feet, her body jerking with the motion, yanking her arm from Sang-Wook's grasp. She saw stars as she slammed into the door of the stairwell landing behind her while Eun-Yu and Sang-Wook continued to move down the stairs to the landing below.

Hissing in pain she met semi panicked brown orbs, she could tell, just tell he was about to bound up the stairs and grab her yet as much as the idea made her heart flutter with hope she knew she could not let him do that. "Keep going! I'll catch up!" The words that fell from her lips didn't even fool herself yet she pleaded with her eyes, hoping that just this once the stubborn male would listen to her.

In that one instant he was once again that young teenager, listening to his father tell him to run. The fire licking at his face as the thick plumes of smoke and the scent of burning flesh made his stomach churn.

Helpless.

He was fucking helpless all over again and it made actual bile want to crawl up his throat. Yet he somehow found the will to shove it back down and with grit teeth he met her deep blue gaze and promised himself right then and there that he would never let himself be so weak that he had to turn his back on her again.

Roughly grabbing Eun-Yu's arm he tugged at her, almost yanking her arm out of its socket as he dragged her small form behind him. His gaze on the door ahead of him because he knew that if he looked back he would run right up those stairs to Kagome, consequences be damned.

Relief and pain flared to life as she watched him drag a protesting Eun-Yu behind him onto the floor of the landing they were on. Shoving the feelings down she knew she had to focus on herself, scrambling to her feet she barely avoided being impaled, her body twisting to the left as she turned the handle of the door. Her body fell into the hallway, a mess of sweating and burning limbs. She scrambled to her feet, slamming the door shut behind her yet even through the thick steel she could hear the two monsters fighting.

She forced herself to move, her body screaming as she rolled into a semi crouch, she had to get some distance between her and the two monsters before they grew tired of fighting each other and came after her.

She'd barely caught her breath, swaying on her feet, when she heard it.

Screaming and crying for help.

Letting out a frustrated if not exhausted groan of, 'fuck', she forced her legs to move towards the sobbing cries of children.