InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ As I Am ❯ The Truth Will Set You Free ( Chapter 4 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha© or any of it's characters.

 

 

I'd like to thank the few individuals who took the time to review my story. I really appreciate it…

 

 

Warning: This chapter is sort of angsty and dark. If you don't want to read it because of this, you'll have to wait for my next update. It will be more cheerful.

 

 

 

As I Am

 

 

 

Chapter 4

 

 

 

Inuyasha had never once taken so much as a sip of beer or whiskey in his entire life, and neither had he ever seen or felt the need to. He had been more interested in just sitting up in his room and watching a movie or messing with the model airplanes he had used to make with his mother back when he was just a kid. There had even been a couple of times when he had parked himself infront of the bathroom mirror and scrunched his cheeks together so that his lips were jutting out like a blubbering fish.

 

Sesshomaru had walked in on him doing that, most likely assuming that his younger brother had been masturbating, and had shut the door without saying anything. The next morning he had confronted Inuyasha and had gave him a lecture about how immature he was and how he needed to go out and make friends. He had called Inuyasha pathetic, Inuyasha had snarled something at him, and then Sesshomaru had knocked his head against the countertop.

 

The maid had been the one to find him unconscious in the bathroom. She had called the clinic first, bawling about how she thought Inuyasha had tried to commit suicide by overdosing on painkillers, and then had drove him to the hospital by herself. On the way there, she had called Sesshomaru, but he had been in a meeting and, as he explained later, could not take the call.

 

Inuyasha hadn't cared though.

 

Being alone had always held more attraction to him than going out and partying with a bunch of people who had never even liked him that much, or having his brother coddle him and tell him to be safe when he went out drinking with the guys. He preferred being alone and having the world revolve on without him. It was better that way, having no one to worry about or vise versa.

 

“Inu-Inuyasha?”

 

Inuyasha lifted his head, fighting back the urge to vomit all over himself, and squinted his eyes. It was hard for him to make out anything around him; the room was too dark. He couldn't even move forward to the person who was calling out his name because he had been bound to a chair, his hands forced behind his back and his legs secured a shoulder length apart.

 

The voice sounded familiar though. It was so soft and gentle and feminine…

 

“Kagome,” he called out to her. His head spun a bit, almost as if he really was drunk, when he tried to lean forward. “Is that you?”

 

“Yeah,” she said.

 

He could hear the terror and confusion in her answer, and it somehow managed to make his headache and the strange feeling in his stomach worse. He didn't understand how Kagome had got involved in this madness; it didn't make any sense.

 

“Are you okay?” he asked her.

 

It took the young girl a while to answer. Inuyasha could hear her breathing; it sounded ragged and too quick.

 

She's hyperventilating…

 

“In-Inuyasha?” she finally spat out, her voice barely above a whisper.

 

“Yeah?”

 

Inuyasha squinted his eyes more carefully. He could barely make out Kagome's slim figure taped to a chair a couple feet infront of him. Her outfit--a yellow summer dress and a thin, blue long-sleeved sweater--looked torn and was covered in something darker than the room itself.

 

“I…” Her lips had opened, but her eyes were shut. “Inuyasha… I'm scared.”

 

 

XXXX

 

 

Inuyasha knew that he had to find a way to get him and Kagome out of this mess, but how could he do that when he couldn't even move? The tape was bound so tightly around his wrists that he could feel it cutting off his circulation, and moving only made it worse, drawing blood and causing Kagome to become more frantic and desperate. She had told Inuyasha to stop several times -- Inuyasha had not listened, and Kagome had continued to cry out to him and to tell him to stop hurting himself.

 

She didn't understand that no one was going to save them and that they were as good as dead if they didn't struggle against it. Whoever had brought them here did not want to have a tea party with them, and Inuyasha was tempted to scream this out at Kagome so that she would comprehend what was going to happen to them -- they were going to die. There was no other explanation as to why they had been kidnapped and put in this small, dark room. Death was all Inuyasha could come up with, though he did not know what he and Kagome had did to deserve it.

 

Especially Kagome… She was too innocent for this. Inuyasha could see how badly it was tearing her apart, but he could not think of anything to cheer her up or to comfort her. He was too angry and -- as much as he hated to admit it -- afraid to lie to her and tell her that everything was okay. He was too far-gone to help her, and she was just going to have to learn all by herself that the rainbow was not made of out skittles, no matter how many times you bit into it.

 

Inuyasha lifted his head, still trying to squirm is arms out of the duct tape. He could see Kagome staring at him from across the room -- she was still crying.

 

“Kagome,” he murmured. There was something he wanted to ask her, something that he had confused him from the second he had seen her with him. “How did you get mixed up into this? I mean, I walked you home, and I was all the way across town by the time I… I was jumped.”

 

“I for-forgot to give you your jacket back,” she explained vaguely. “But, after I found you, I saw you struggling and I tried to help you and… The man who did this, he pricked me with a needle and I--I couldn't move. I… I watched him put you into the truck, but I couldn't move.”

 

“You saw the man who did this?”

 

“Sort of.” She worried her bottom lip.

 

“What did he look like?”

 

Inuyasha leaned forward as much as he could. He needed to know that he -- no, what they where dealing with, and the only way from him to find that out was for Kagome to speak up… She could save herself -- all she had to do was help Inuyasha, and he would make sure that she got out of this alive and that she lived the rest of her life as happy as he had used to be before his mother had been killed.

 

“He had black wavy hair and his eyes… I think they were a crimson color…”

 

“Inu-Inuyasha?”

 

“Did he have a scar below his right eye?” Inuyasha asked, his voice nearly a whisper. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. It was too much to handle.

 

Kagome worried her bottom lip again. “I--I think so…”

 

“You think so?! God, Kagome, just say yes or no!”

 

“Yes,” she replied, sounding more confident. “But how do you know that?”

 

Inuyasha laughed bitterly, before growling, “Because that's the man who killed my mother.”

 

 

XXXX

 

 

Kagome did not know what to say after having listened to Inuyasha explain what had happened to his mother and the man they had identified as her killer. Inuyasha had told her that it had taken the police a year to find a match to the blood Miss Izayoi Tiasho had spilled when she had raked her nails across his face -- the man's name was Naraku Narumi. They -- the police -- had tracked him down to an abandoned warehouse, but he had murdered five of their men and had escaped in one of their police cruisers. They had continued to search for him for about two more years, before then `throwing in the towel'.

 

Inuyasha had lived with his half-brother, Sesshomaru, when all of this had happened, though it was no secret that Sesshomaru had not been willing to welcome a traumatized orphan boy into his home. The only reason he had was because of the will his father and his second wife, Izayoi, had left behind -- Sesshomaru was to be responsible for Inuyasha if anything were to happen to them. And, seeing how Sesshomaru and Inuyasha's father had died of cancer, and Inuyasha's mother had been murdered, Sesshomaru had had no choice in the matter -- Inuyasha was his, whether he wanted him or not.

 

Which, in Sesshomaru's case, he had not. The only reason he had adopted Inuyasha was because he had had to, but afterwards he had refused to acknowledge Inuyasha's presence and had hung up on the police when they had tried to give him information about Naraku Narumi and the association he had had with Inuyasha's mother. Inuyasha had been listening from the other phone line, though -- apparently, Naraku was some kind of hit man, a low-life assassin.

 

Sesshomaru had punished Inuyasha severely when he had caught Inuyasha in his closet, the phone greedily pressed up against his ear. That was the first time Sesshomaru had beat him.

 

“He didn't care about me or my mom,” Inuyasha said, still absently shrugging his shoulders forward and struggling to free his hands. There was blood on the floor beneath them, and Kagome did not like having to look at it. It made her feel sick. “Bastard.”

 

Kagome searched Inuyasha's face for any sign of discomfort or pain, but it was all too blank and impassive. As if everything that had happened had left him numb -- something that Kagome could not even begin to comprehend: the state of being hollow.

 

“My daddy died of cancer, too,” she answered, thinking back to when Inuyasha had started talking about his father. “Lung cancer.”

 

“I'm sorry.”

 

“It's not your fault,” she giggled weakly. Her voice was starting to crack, and her throat was so dry that she felt like she was suffocating. “Daddy loved me very much, and he just wanted me to be happy. That's why… that's why I don't understand why someone would want to do this… kill your mom… and kidnap us. What's the point? It doesn't make any sense.”

 

“Because he's a physco jack-ass,” Inuyasha snorted. “And I don't care what the hell he wants, I'll make sure he leaves you out of it, okay?”

 

Kagome frowned. “But then you would be all by yourself.”

 

So?”

 

She shook her head, still frowning. “No, I won't let you do that. We're in this together, Inuyasha, and we're going to be fine. I'm sure the police are on there way right now.”

 

Inuyasha bowed his head, exhaling out from his nose.

 

“And if they aren't?” he asked. “Would you still stay with me?”

 

The thought of no one coming to save them was terrifying, and Kagome had to inhale and exhale to try and calm down. She didn't want to die, of course, but how could she ever just abandon him? He needed her, just as she needed him.

 

“Yes,” she replied.

 

He was silent for a couple of seconds, as if contemplating something. It wasn't until the sound of the door behind Kagome creaking open did he decide to look up and stare into her eyes, showing her just how thankful -- and angry -- he was for agreeing to stay with him. He was torn between wanting Kagome to help him and wanting to help Kagome instead.

 

“How sweet,” a voice murmured from behind Kagome. “Young love. It's so innocent and questionable… and even… painful…”

 

A hand pulled at Kagome's hair, causing her to scream and thrash wildly in her chair.

 

“STOP IT!” Inuyasha yelled. “YOU'RE HURTING HER!”

 

“Oh my,” the voice cooed. He released Kagome's hair, and Kagome whimpered. It had hurt so bad, and it terrified her to wonder whether or not he was going to do it again. “Clumsy me.”

 

“I had only meant to scare her… But, sometimes, I can't help myself. The sound of a woman screaming, it's so beautiful. Wouldn't you agree, little Inu-chan?”

 

Inuyasha snarled angrily. “You killed my mother!”

 

“Yes, I did,” the voice agreed. Kagome could feel him fingering her scalp and playing with her hair. She whimpered again, unsure of what to do. “Such a pretty thing, just like you, little Inu-chan.”

 

“Inu-Inuyasha?”

 

“Why? Who paid you to kill her?”

 

“Oh, it wasn't just her. No, I was ordered to kill you, too, but that mother of yours was so stubborn and she refused to play along. She made me very upset.” One of his fingers grazed the spot where all of the blood was coming from, right above Kagome's forehead.

 

“Who?! Who paid you?!” Inuyasha growled. He seemed to be growing more impatient with each finger Naraku placed on Kagome's scalp.

 

The voice sighed tauntingly. “No one in particular… Hmmm… let me think… Was it Sesshomaru? Does that name sound familiar, little Inu-chan? Yes?”

 

“Sesshomaru,” Inuyasha repeated, though it sounded more like a question.

 

“Unless I heard wrong,” the voice chuckled. “Yes, he was very upset with his father and your mother… and you. He did not want you… ruining his life and tainting the family blood-line.”

 

“But he was too afraid of being caught to do it himself, so he called me…”

 

The fingers left Kagome's scalp, and she watched as the man moved away from her and towards Inuyasha. She could not make out his features because of how dark it was, but she could see the knife he had in his back pocket and that he was reaching for it.

 

“No,” Kagome whimpered, her voice hoarse. “Inuyasha!”

 

“Why are you doing this?” Inuyasha demanded, ignoring Kagome. “Did Sesshomaru call you again? Did he want you to finish me off?”

 

“Well, I'm sure that's what he wants, but I am doing this of my own accord. You see, I don't like loose-end… no matter how pretty they are.”

 

He grabbed Inuyasha's hair and pulled it back, exposing Inuyasha's neck and the bulging veins inside of it. Then he pressed the blade of his knife against Inuyasha's neck, just below his jaw line and his right ear, and pushed against it. A drop of blood was drawn and it slid down Inuyasha's neck to stain his collarbone and his wrinkled t-shirt.

 

Inuyasha did not move, but he did speak. “Leave Kagome out of this. She hasn't done anything… I… I won't struggle, just don't hurt her… Please?”

 

“I'll think about it…”

 

Kagome jerked forward in her chair and screamed, “INUYASHA!!!”