InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Running away ❯ Running away ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

I run. I run across the deserted streets stumbling and falling. I pick myself up once again and keep running. I have to. He is coming for me and I do not know how to escape him. I Have no idea how. Drops of blood seep through my wounds and fall onto the road. Leaving a trail onto the road for him but I keep running. Pain flashes through my side as I struggle to clear my head and keep running. First he was so sweet with me. Bringing me flowers and candy....

"You know you don't have to do this", I said blushing as I took an armful of flowers from him.
"My pleasure Kagome", he said with that coy, hidden smile that I used to love.

And giving me presents. first they were small like a pen or a case or a hairclip. Then they grew like his demands of me. It would be cars, expensive necklaces

"Oh my god!", I screamed as I saw my anniversary present standing in front of the shrine.
"You didn't have to do this", I said as he forced the key into my hand and motioned me to get into my very own new Cadillac

"Its beautiful", I said as I timidly touched the spine of a simple gold chain with a glowing pendant. The Shikon Jewel, he said. It cost about a million bucks
"Then its yours", he said dismissively and took the necklace from the case to fasten it around my neck.
"But-"
"Its yours"

and then....
He proposed to me. I was overwhelmed. I did like him but I had no idea whether I was ready for marriage. But I did say yes.
I will never know why I performed that insane act. Maybe it was because I was crazy and delirious.
Maybe it was because I was tired of having to worry about some one, about money. Worrying whether everyone was safe.
I had a family and we were quite small. My father had died when I was five of leukamia. My mother, Souta my brother, Grandpa my mom's father and finally me lived in a small shrine in the heart of Tokyo. The shrine had been passed down for centuries since the Feudal Age, I believe. Anyway the shrine used to attract an unusual clientele.
By that I mean youkai. They hated mikos and priests and it is very unusual in my world for someone to declare themselves a miko. Because they would be killed the next instant. And since our descendants were a miko and a priest, they believed me and my brother to have purifying powers. I have to be ready for anything at anypoint because of them. They ruined my life. Maybe it was because he protected my brother and me from the youkai. His family was a poweful member of them and they would definetly listen to his words.
Maybe I had accepted because I was drunk. It was my eighteenth birthday. He gave me a lot of alcohol and I foolishly drank all of it. He asked me then and I had somehow accepted. I have no memory of this just his word and his word meant a lot to me as they protected my family and me.
Maybe I shouldn't have. I've seen him in his raw, untamed state as he thrashs without mercy....as he kills without remorse. But my eyes were blinded by the faith that I had in him. That he loved me.
My leg gets caught in a crack in the road and the shoe gets wedged. I amd wearing sneakers. I try to pull them out but my hands were shaking....my palms were sweating. I gave up and untied my lace as fast as I could before getting up and running of once again.
My legs pain of the bruises on them. My arms ache as the marks of a claw grow black and blue. The wound starts to clot and I'm grateful, the pain is killing me to run.
My heart aches as I thnk of my mother and grandfather whom I had left back in the shrine. Tears flow down my face unbidden. I stagger to a stop as I pant falling to the ground of exhaustion. I do need a few minutes of rest. I would pay dearly, I know that. He was undoubtedly searching the streets for me after having seen me run out. He was coming. Coming to do the same thing that he had promised. That shakes me up and I push myself up ignoring my screaming muscles and aching body. I have to keep going. I have to go somewhere safe. But where was some where safe when you're on the run from a dangerous youkai ? You have nowhere to go.
I start to run at a faster pace ignoring my innumerable bruises. He had been jealous a lot after I had said yes. True, he was jealous before but at that point it was like he suspected me. I reasurred him again and again but he never believed me.

"You're not seeing someone else are you ?", he asked me.
"Of course not. What makes you think that ?"
"Nothing", he said shielding his face.
I looked at him concerned and he lifted his face up throwing his hair over his shoulder.
"Nothing at all", he said more strongly and I moved forwards to hug him.

He had never believed me. Never even trusted me with any of his secrets. He knew everything about me that was there to know. Well, more or less. But I knew next to nothing about him. We had argued mostly about that and that was when he started using his temper on me.

"Don't you know that I don't like chocolate ?", he said nibbling on my chocolate chip cookie
"Well I would know that if only I knew a bit about you", I flared back. I was frustrated after baking cookies and waiting all afternoon for him to come when he had told me that he would be there by noon.
"Shut up Kagome", he said putting down his cookie.
"You don't tell me anything-"
"Shut up!"
"about your childhood at all", I finished with dignity.
"I said SHUT UP", he had roared. Lucky or unlucky for me no one had been home. He advanced towards me menancingly and I backed up until I felt the oven at my back.
"I think I told you to shut up Kagome" he said his face close to mine.
"Uh...", I fumbled as I tried to push myself away from him.
"You should obey me or you may want to find out how I discipline people", He leaned and whispered in my ear.
"Do you want to know how I discipline ?Maybe I should give you an example ", he purred. Suddenly he drew back and I was thankful for it. I had only a little time to be thankful when he drew back his hand claws and all and hit me forcefully. On the cheek. I screamed for help as blood poured down my cheek.

He left me bleeding on my kitchen and turned to leave before giving me a kiss or should I say tryng to bite my lips off. Mama came a hour later and I had managed to clean up the mess. She took one look at me and her face paled as though she was going to faint. But my Mama is strong. She pulled herself together and helped me clean up my cheek and the kitchen. The next time he came over, she and he had a talk. I eavesdropped on it and she basically told him to keep his hands off mr physically as well as emotionally. He gave her a look before seeming to think about it. THen suddenly he snapped a no and left the house dragging me with him.
He pulled me to his car and forcibly took me to his house which is really a mansion. His family is pretty rich after all for a youkai and everything.
He dragged me to his room and threw me into it. He locked me up for a couple of days coming in every now and then, drunk to the bone....and violated me. It happened just once but that was enough to give me enough hatred for the species that calls itself male. The second time he came, I talked back and refused to go near him. He beat me up so badly that I was hardly but I managed to escape. I found a ventilator low enough to climb through without giving me pain and calmbered out and somehow staggered home...
Mama and Grandpa were stunned to see me, bedraggled, filthy, hurt to the point where I should be in the hospital but not crying. Souta just cried as he looked at me. Mama bandaged and tended everything, crying. Her tears splashed on my face as sheworked and that was enough to make me cry. We cried together for a while before Grandpa and Souta ventured into the room. We cried for a while together before returning to the matter. Mama and Grandpa were furious. They wanted to sue him and I agreed. We tried for a lawyer bu none would take a case against his family. THey were too powerful. But finally we found a female lawyer, Sango Houshi who was so moved by our story that she cried and agreed to take me on. And so I pressed charges against him for violent behaviour and rape. And they replied by saying that the trial would be held in court. My family was overjoyed and I was happy.
I think I should have known that it was too easy. That they hadn't done anything against me. Because the night before the trial, he blew my home with my family in it. I was out shopping against my mother's will because I was still weak and hurt but I persisted. I was climbing up the shrine steps when I saw it blow up. My home. My family. My place of safety and love.
I dropped my bags and sank onto the steps while he and his buddies stood laughing at the blaze. But he must have smelt me because he turned to look at me and I saw the delight in his eyes. He had enjoyed killing them and he would enjoy killing me.
I ran. And the rest you know. The bruises reawake like a phoenix from its ashes and I feel that each step is hard to take. I hear a yell in the distance and try to keep running but my body can take no more. I turn into an alley and hide behind the trashcans. My breath comes in pants and all I want to do is sink to the ground and sleep forever. I hold my urge and stay calm as a jeep squeals into the alley. He jumps down and his buddies join him as he comes into the alley. The alley is dark but I know that a smirk would be in his face. I crouch down even more.
"Kagome, Kagome, Kagome.... You underestimate me woman" and he chuckles. How I hate that chuckle. How I long to wipe that smirk.
"You do know that I can smell you, right ?"
I stiffen. I had forgotten that. He had followed me all the way from the shrine and waited for me to stop when he knew that he could catch me all along.
I feel a shadow fall over me and look up to find cobalt eyes staring at me. I hardly feel a rough arm yank me up and pull me up.
"We've got her Kouga", my capturer calls.
"Bring her here", he says and my capturer drags me to Kouga. I find myself face to face to Kouga Ookami's green eyes. Green eyes like a cat. I should have known that he was evil the moment I met him. But I was and am and will forever be a fool.
"Kagome....", he purrs and I resist his arm which captures mine in a vice grip.
"Ooh....Still feisty", he says coyly and his buddies laugh. I think that comment was the one which ovverode my rationalised thought. Because I found myself spitting on Kouga's face. A silence envelops as he looks at me and then wipes the spit and stares at it. I take advantage of that silence and wrench my arm of his grip. I back away and start running. The rest he had given me unknowingly is enough. I run like the Hounds of Hades are after me. I run like crazy up the alley ignoring the shouts from Kouga of
"Get her!"
I skid to a stop next to the car in which they came in but curse the Gods when I find no key. Instead I fumble and stagger and start running once again. Down the street, I run searching this time. Searching for a person who could protect me. I run in the center,searching and searching. I was always stubborn having been born under Taurus. But this night, I give up. I have searched for blocks but no one heeds my cries. No one wants to have the Ookamis on their bad side against them.
I suddenly fall onto the road in exhaustion. My heart is pumping like a pistol and I draw shuddering, heaving breaths lying flat on the ground. I am trembling and my body tingles with the weariness caused by the adrenaline puming through my veins. I give up. He's going to find me. He's going to kill me but before that....well there are things worse than death.
I sigh and try to push myself up but my body's too weak from injuries. My right side hurts like hell and the claw marks on my wrist, arms and legs bleed while the other older wounds turn black and blue and pulse. My eyes are weary and I feel like closing them and sleeping. Just for a while. They begin to close but I force myself to wake up with the thought that I would not let him find me out cold.
I pull my anterior region up and half-drag myself to the sidewalk where I sit in solitude. I imagine all the ways that he could make me suffer...beat me up..... I shiver involuntarily at the thought and my body goes into pain mode. The world spins a little as I take a few deep breaths. In and out....I concentrate on the sound of my breathing blocking out all other sounds. Imagine this, if you can....Me, Kagome Higurashi bent over clutching my right side in pain, my long black hair shadowing my face and making me look like part of the darkness.
"Miss, are you alright ?", I look up into the face of the person who talked, at the speed of light, so fast I nearly crick my neck.
A person with long silver hair, I might add and deep golden eyes which flashes in the night. Behind him stands a convertible with the top blown open. I turn to look at him and notice the ears like a cat's on top of his head. A hanyou. A half-demon.
"Miss ?", he asks. "What's wrong ?"
"What's wrong ?", I ask cynicaly with a bitter laugh.
"What's wrong ?", now it sounds hysterical.
"What's wrong ?", my voice is like a squeak and I feel that I cannot take it anymore. I burst into tears and stand crying alone in the road. Standing in the road with a stranger who asks me 'What's wrong ?'. A hollow laugh rises out involuntarily but it sounds more like a choke.
"Miss ?", he asks timidly. I have no reply to give other than throw myself at him and wet his shirt with my tears.

I look at the shivering, crying and bloody mess of a girl in my arms. I shrug my jacket off my shoulders and drape it over hers and this stops her shivering but she starts crying all the more. I sigh. I was just an innocent passer-by passing by incidentally when I noticed a girl shivering and sitting on the sidewalk doubled over in what I thought was pain. It turns out that it is pain so I'm a gentleman for once and I ask her what the matter is.
She became hysterical repeating what I asked her and then suddenly burst into tears and flung herself at me and is currently wetting my new shirt which my mother got me yesterday.
But that is the least of my problems for me Inuyasha Takahashi. I had previously noticed the pungent smell of blood on the road but had taken no notice of it. But the stench of blood rolls of this girl in waves. And she seems to be hurt.The pain is eminent in her scent.
The sound of her crying goes down and she draws back letting me look at her face. I am shocked. That I suppose is the only way to say it. Her face has an ugly bruise on the cheek and it has puffed up due to her crying. I grip her arms and she whimpers. I let go of it as though it is fire and lead her to the light to examine her wounds.
She has claw marks on her arms, cheeks and legs, looking at them through her rather short skirt. Ugly bruises formed here and there. She clutches her side in obvious pain.
My blood boils and my blood pressure runs off the charts. WHO did this to her ? Who on Earth would do something so vile to a young innocent girl ? Who ? And this is exactly what I ask her.
"Who did this to you ?", I demand taking her hands gently in mine. She looks at me as though she's sizing me up...as though weighing the odds of whether I was good or bad. Finally something seems to win and she looks at me with tired resignation and opens her mouth....
When we are cut off due to the loud noises of a car barreling towards. Her face pales and she seems to crumple and I catch her before she falls. She grips my shirt in shivers and winces. But she seems to have lost her resolve. Her strength. Now she looks resigned.....as though she accepts her fate. Which of course I cannot allow.
"Who is it ?", I whisper in her ear gently. She looks uncertainly at me.
"Tell me ", I say firmly. She nods and leans close....
"Who the heck are you and what the hell are you doing with my woman ?", a loud voice demands as I sense youkai move in from all directions around us.
I look at the speaker to find Kouga Ookami standing there. Of course...only he would have the nerve to hurt a girl so young...so innocent....so beautiful. I let go of her and move in front of her protectively. I am just itching to help this girl but see there's a catch. In my world of violent youkai, hanyous and humans there are seperate laws for youkai and humans.
And Youkai law forbids any youkai or hanyou to interfere in the personal matters of another youkai or hanyou unless asked for help from the victim or the torturer.
Otherwise I would have already ripped Kouga apart. Kouga recognises me, after all who wouldn't ? One of the advantages and disadvantages of being the taiyoukai's second half-demon son is that you're pretty famous. My father rules this land and none go against his word.
Panic flashes across his face before being replaced by a smug expression. Of course he remembers the law that our forefathers dictated.
"What do we have here ?", he says smugly and I clench my fist.
"A lonely little hanyou. Scared half-breed ? Want me to call your mother ?"
My claws dig into my hands and blood seeps through my fingers as all the other youkai laugh and the girl looks at me curiously.
"I don't have time to play half-breed", he says and I slowly pull my claws out of the holes in my hand.
"Get Kagome Ryu. The others, lets go"
Kagome stiffens and looks at me pleadingly. I look away unable to meet her eyes as the one called Ryu comes and takes her hand in a rough grip.
She gives me a last look, her soft voice falling away as my ears yearn to catch her words. Maybe.....
"Please....help me"
I was only too happy to.

I do not know what I said was wrong. But once I asked that nice guy to help me, he gave me a feral, wild grin. Kouga having heard howls in anger and snarls at me,
"What the hell-"
"Kouga....", a threatning voice interrupts and whats-his name moves so fast that he is a blur and hits Kouga with such a wonderful punch that I feel like cheering loudly and happily. I'm sure Kouga's nose has broken and nobody cannot be happier because of it.
Kouga touches his nose gingerly, winces and looks at the blood coagalated in it. Then he looks at his buddies then at my hero. He gives a tiny nod. Instantly they pounce on my knight in shining armor. He takes it very well but lets face it, who wants to be on the opposing end of ten youkai ? So much for my knight in shining armor.
One of them a wolf youkai, I think bites him and my guy howls. Taking advantage of his weakness, a bull demon charges into his midriff and he's thrown clear back into a wall in the alley. The ten demons follow him like wolves after flesh and Kouga advances slowly.
Me, I just sit. I sat down when I saw him being pounced on. So much for an escape of my fate. I sigh. Kouga notices me and his steps advance towards me quickly. I draw back and he grins. That grin makes my bones rattle.
I draw back as fast as I can in my injured state and he rushes forward to pin me to the wall by my throat with a crunch. I cry out involuntarily. I feel the blood wet my hair....I feel the pain of the wound. I whimper loudly as my body hangs limply in shock.
"You thought that Inuyasha could rescue you, didn't you ?", he says and I fight to concentrate on his words. But I lose my initiative. My resolve crumbles. My vision cloudens as Kouga mutters something incoherent.
I could see Mama again. And Grandpa and Souta and Dad and all of my dead relatives. I could be happy without any threat, any blackness in my life. I close my eyes and prepare to die.
I wait.....and wait as Kouga keeps muttering something and stroking my cheek. Then I felt the pain lessening and a trickle of strength. I feel the ache in my head lessen.
Death wasn't so bad, I think and I open my eyes. I still find Kouga there. Damn.
"So you're awake ?", he bites out. He smiles a cold, wicked smile. A smile I would see in my last moments. His claws inch towards my waist slowly...painfully......
"KOUGA!!!!", a roar echoes in the silent neighbourhood and I turn with much pain to see whats-his-name there. With his silver hair tinged with a light red and his shirt with a huge tear. But he is here. Still alive. Relief floods through me as he moves towards in the blink of an eye and knocks him to the ground.
Suddenly I feel the inhibition that I didn't want to see Kouga being beaten . Part of me wanted to. The other has had enough. So I close my ears and eyes to the roar and whimpers and howls of the spectacular scene of Kouga being beaten into a bloody mess.
I open my eyes in what seems eons later to the cool touch of a hand to my shoulder. I flinch and the hand moves back quickly. Whats-his-name. I open my eyes slowly and see him standing in front of me bent over me. I draw back the sight bringing back my worst memories. He looks a little worse for the waer but he smiles at me faintly giving me the conviction that he had enjoyed beating Kouga into a pulp. But I want Kouga alive. I want him to suffer in life for what he has done to me.
I smile back at him and try to voice a question but a scratchy,phlegmy sigh prevades. I try once again and a rasp issues.
"Kouga ?"
He smiles and looks at me before lifting me gently in his arms bridal stlye.
" Not dead. Left him alive", he says as my head rests against his chest.
"Good", I mumur and he chuckles. I have strength left for only one more word.
"You r ?"
"Inuyasha"
"Inuyasha.....", I cough slightly.
"Inuyasha...thank you", I manage before curling up in his arms, the steady beat of his heart lulling me to sleep.

I wake up from what seems like months later. I'm covered only in bandages and I feel the sensation of being in a big warm fluffy bed. Fluffy, I giggle slightly and this rouses slight pain in my side which brings me back to reality.
At first I thought I was in a hotel. Then the incredibly painful memories flood me. Kouga, his stalking me, what happened to Mama, Souta and Grandpa.....and Inuyasha. My knight in shining armor. I sit up as best as I can and notice a large room decorated in red with what looked like masculine touches. A walk-in closet stood to the right and a huge window lay to my left.
I look out the window eager to find the identity of my saviour. What I find astounds me . Inuyasha...I hope so, lives in the Castle of the taiyoukai! I look out at the vast grounds and the expanse of country ahead of me and remember what Mama told me about the tai youkai. She told me that he was a kind,gentle person. But my friends had told me that he was an oppresor and a torturer. Who was I to believe ?
I had run from the arms of one powerful and violent demon to another seemingly one. A single tear runs down my cheek unbidden.
Running away hadn't solved my problems. They had intensified them.