InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Statues Without Eyes ❯ Prologue ( Prologue )

 

A/N: Hey everyone! Kassie here. Well, I've always wanted to write a mystery/horror/paranormal/romance, so here it is. lol Anyway, tell me what you think.

Oh, and be sure to read it to the end. There's a little unexpected (I hope) twist at the end. (((EDIT: If you've read this before, I've made a small - yet rather important - change to the end. See if you can notice it. lol)))

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, its characters, or its plot and I write this fanfic with the highest respect to its creator. I do however own my own original ideas, plots, and characters.

Dangerous Nights:

How It Began (a.k.a. The Prologue):

 

A lone feminine figure walked down the sidewalk. It was much too late for her to be out. Much too dangerous for her to be out. But she couldn't say no to her boss when he had asked her so sweetly to finish up for him so that he wouldn't be late for his date. Hey, if she couldn't have a decent love life of her own then, by gosh, she was going to do her best to help everyone else with their's.

Even if the people she was helping happened to be her former crush and a very snotty actress. But hey, who was she to judge?

So, she had stayed late to finish all the paperwork, tidy up just a bit (since no one else in the office could), make sure all the computers were shut off, and anything else she could think of.

Now she was questioning her sanity in agreeing to stay late - even if it was a favor to a good friend who just happened to be her boss. She had forgotten that her walk home took her through the most dangerous part of town. That was why she always left work early. Especially on Friday nights.

That was when the gang activity was at its worst. Plus, there was something else out there too. No one knew what it was, but it had killed before. She defiantly didn't want to see what it was. No one that had seen it had survived as of yet.

The young woman sped up her pace, almost breaking into a run. There was someone behind her. Step, step, step. She discreetly reached into her purse, debating on grabbing her keys or the mace that she carried. Her hand wrapped around the can of mace. She kept her hand in her purse though. It had a long strap on it, so it wasn't a completely unnatural position for her hand to be in.

Next to her hand she felt something vibrate. She reached her other hand into the purse, making sure that she never let go of the mace. It was awkward, but it made her feel a little better at least.

“Moshi moshi,” she said into the cell phone.

“Kagome! Where are you? Did you forget that tonight is our weekly horror movie night?! Miroku and me have been waiting for two hours! You're sooo lucky that I had a spare key to your apartment or else I'd be reeal angry right now.”

Step, step, step.

“Okay, okay Sango, I'm sorry. But Inuyasha asked me to stay late tonight. He and Kikyo,” she said the name with a faint trace of bitterness, “had a date tonight. He needed someone to finish up for him, and apparently, I'm the only one he trusts to be in the office alone.”

“How kind of him. Does he even know that you have to walk through such a dangerous part of town to get home at night? By the way, Kagome, you better have that mace I gave you with you right now.”

“I'm holding it right now, Sango. Anyway, I'll be there soon. Did you get that movie we've been looking for?”

“Yup,” Sango said triumphantly, “I found it at that old movie rental place next to the pizza shop.”

“Cool.”

“Get home soon. And safe.”

“Don't worry, I'll be there sooner than you can say…,” she paused, looking for a suitably long word, “the name of that town in Wales, Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.” Amazingly enough, she got the pronunciation right. Maybe because she had memorized it out of a travel magazine she had found in the break room during lunch today.

Step, step, step.

She heard Sango laugh, “Okay, bye.”

She hung up the phone, but didn't really want to put it away. Whoever had been following her was still there; she could hear footsteps behind her.

She put the phone back into the purse, still not letting go of the mace. Her hand was starting to fall asleep. She had heard on TV that you were supposed to turn around and look your attackers in the eye. Show them that you weren't an object, but a person with a mind of your own and all that. For some reason, she thought that would only serve to amuse her attackers if they were who she thought they were.

The gangs had been becoming more and more of a problem lately; something was causing them to become bolder. They were going about committing atrocities beyond imagination. Even stooping so low as to kill a young child. The community was in an uproar.

Step, step, step.

But, there was something else out there too. It had been going about killing any who crossed it path. Rumor was, there was supposed to be a pattern to its killings. It had killed gang members and civilians alike though, all of differing races. Perhaps it had to do with the people themselves. Who knew? Only the monster itself.

And it was a monster. It tore its victims apart, limb by limb, and ripped out their throats. Every murder had been more grisly than the last. Whenever the police talked about it on TV, they were always very pale. That alone was enough to make you scared.

“Hey, girlie,” a masculine voice slurred behind her. It wasn't a drunken slur, though. It was more like the type of slur that resulted from an attitude, or just having no class. It screamed `uneducated and violent'. She sped up, breaking into a run.

She wasn't fast enough. He caught up to her and stepped in front of her.

“Hey, I just wanted to ask ya a lil' question, no need to run. Though, now you have made me kind of mad, sooo…” The man towered above her, but she couldn't make out his features because it was so dark. The streetlight above them was broken, and even though there was one not too far away, it did no more than illuminate his silhouette.

“Um, sorry I didn't hear you. Actually, my friends are expecting me so…” she turned around and ran. She passed by several stores, but they were all closed. There was no one else out, and the roads on this side of town were almost always empty except for the occasional cop car. Unfortunately, there was none to be seen. So, she kept running, surely she must be near her apartment by now.

She looked around at her surroundings. And realized that something was very wrong. She had missed a turn and now she wasn't even sure she knew where she was. And there was no way she was going to turn around. The man was still chasing after her.

She began to breathe harder and harder, panting as she tried to keep her pace. Her legs were trembling from the effort of running so far. She really needed to exercise more.

She took a turn, hoping that she would see someone. When she turned the corner, she slowed slightly, allowing the man to catch up to her. He grabbed her wrists just as she remembered the mace. Why hadn't she thought to use it?

“Ahhh!!! No, No, NO!!! Someone, help!!!” she screamed, over and over again.

He pulled them into a nearby alley. There were other people in there. She was trembling. What would they do to her? Did she even want to know?

“Somebody help me! Please, somebody -” The man that was holding her covered her mouth with his hand and slammed her against the wall, hard, knocking the breath out of her. He held both of her wrists in the other hand.

“Now, now, we wouldn't want anybody ruining our fun now would we?” Tears were starting to form in her eyes, both from fear and from the pain. She could hardly even feel her arms anymore, he held such a vice grip on them, and her back was pounding. She struggled to breathe; his hand was not only covering her mouth, but her nose as well. She tried to kick him, but he just stepped out of the way, laughing.

Another man picked up her purse from where it had fallen. She hadn't even realized she had dropped it. “Well, well, well,” he said, “looky here.” He was holding the mace. They all started laughing. What was so funny about mace? Or was it the fact that she had it and hadn't used it that they found funny? The fact that she could have protected herself had she not been so frightened and therefore hadn't thought clearly.

“Hey, what do you think you're doing?!” shouted a husky voice at the opening of the alleyway. She tried to turn her head, but couldn't. The man's grip was too strong. She was starting to wonder if she had hit her head when he had slammed her against the wall. She was becoming dizzy, unfocused.

“And just who are you?” one of the men asked - she wasn't sure which one. Her ears were ringing.

“Detective Kouga Wolf, Tokyo PD. And I suggest you hand the girl over.” She heard a metallic click. Was it a gun? Whose was it? Her mind was becoming so foggy. She couldn't think. She must have hit her head; there was a stream of something wet traveling down the back of her neck. Why hadn't she noticed it before that moment?

“Hey now, we don't want no trouble,” she heard the man holding her say. At least, she thought it was him. The world was narrowing in on her, becoming a black tunnel.

Suddenly she was on the ground. He must have dropped her. She tried to crawl away. She knew she wouldn't be able to stand - she was too dizzy. Her hands grabbed at the ground around her. It was getting hard for her to see.

“Hey, are you okay?” asked a worried voice above her. She assumed it was the cop. She just could make out his shape kneeling down next to her.

“Kouga, what are you? Stupid? Of course she's not okay! She's bleeding!” said a new voice, this one female.

“Ayame, what took you so long?”

“I was calling for back-up. Just in case. And, luckily for her, I called for an ambulance too.”

The voices kept talking above her, but they became muffled and she couldn't tell what they were saying. The world was becoming so dark…

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-X-x-x-x-x-x-x-X-x-x-x-x-x-x-X-x-x- x-x-x-x-X-x-x-x-x-x-x-X-x-x-x-x-x-x-X

“Hey, hey, are you finally awake?”

She tried to open her eyes, but the light above her was blinding. So, she put her hand above her eyes, shielding them, and asked, “Sango, where am I?”

“Don't you remember?” said her friend in a small voice, “you were…attacked,” she choked this word out, as if it was difficult to say. “That was last night. Oh, Kagome! I was so worried! They said that you had hit your head really hard. And that you were bleeding. And then you wouldn't wake up, I was so scared! Oh, I'm going to make Inuyasha pay for this!” Sango had thrown herself on the bed and was crying into Kagome's shoulder, hugging her.

Kagome patted her friends back, noting that there was an IV in her hand. “Sango, it wasn't Inuyasha's fault. And besides, I feel fine.” A slight lie, that last part. Her head felt like it was going to explode.

“Somehow I doubt that's true,” said a young brown-haired doctor, walking in. “You have a pretty bad concussion, so I'd expect you to feel pretty sore and have a killer headache right now.” Well, he was right about that. She felt like she had been thrown into a dryer for about a few hours. And she felt nauseous. “But other than that, you're fine. Just a few bad bruises on your back and wrists. Thank goodness we didn't have to put stitches on that cut on the back of your head. It was bleeding so badly that we thought we might have had to, but, once we got it cleaned up, it turned out to be smaller than we first thought.” He smiled.

“How long do I have to stay here?” she asked.

“Well, I'd rather you stay again tonight, just for observation. You worried us, you know. You were out for quite a long time.”

“What time is it?”

“Six in the afternoon.” Wow, she had been out for a while. Next to her, Sango had stopped crying, but was still lying next to her with no apparent intentions of getting up. Right at that moment she wished that they would all just go away. All she wanted to do was go back to sleep. Plus, the light was killing her.

“Who wants coffee?!” came the sing-song voice of Sango's fiancé, Miroku. Hmm, more like who wants the loudmouth to shut up?

“Oh, Kagome! You're awake! I'm so glad. We were worried about you.” He sat the coffee down on a table and came to sit in the chair next to her bed.

“Yeah, but I feel really tired, like all the energy just disappeared right out of my body. Actually, I feel like I'm gonna be sick too. Not sure though,” she said, leaning back into the pillow and cupping a hand over her eyes.

“That's normal,” said the doctor, “Actually, I think it would be best for you two to come back later, now that she's woken up. She needs her rest. Which means,” he said, raising an delicate eyebrow, “that she needs peace and quiet. It's part of the healing process. But first I need to ask her a few questions. Just to make sure that she doesn't have any serious brain trauma. And I want to schedule a MRI as soon as possible. We did one when you first got here, but I'd like another as a follow-up. Just in case. Your head was hit pretty hard so I want to take all precautions.”

“Completely understandable, doctor. And after you're done with her, I'd like a chance to speak with her. To take her statement about last night,” said a husky voice at the door. She knew that voice…it was…that cop. From last night. What was his name? She knew she had heard it. Ah, yes. Kouga. That was his name. She removed the hand from over her eyes. She hadn't been able to see him clearly last night, but today she could see him perfectly.

He was quite attractive. His ebony hair was pulled behind him in a pony tail. She couldn't tell, but she thought that, if he let his hair down, it would probably fan out around his shoulder blades. She found herself wondering what it would be like to run her fingers through his hair. It looked silky, and soft. Wait, what? She gave herself a mental shake. She was not thinking this about a complete stranger…who had saved her life.

“Um, thank you.”

All eyes turned toward her, but all she was looking at was his icy blues. They were quite refreshing to look at, like the postcard with the picture of the Caribbean her mother had sent her when she went on vacation there. Very expressive too. She could tell this was a man that communicated as much with his eyes as he did his mouth. Maybe more. And right now he was looking at her, smiling not only with his delicious looking lips, but with those entrancing eyes.

“You're welcome. I only wish I could have caught those men last night. But I'm sure you can help me with that. You must have gotten a good look of at least one of them, right?” he said hopefully, smiling at her heartbreakingly kindly.

“Actually…no. I'm sorry,” she said, looking down at her lap. “The streetlight was broken. All I remember is that he was really tall. And muscular,” she said, wincing at the memory of being shoved against that wall. She heard footsteps walking toward her and felt his hand cup her chin gently, making her look up at him.

“That's more than enough, sweetie,” he said, looking into her eyes. She could feel herself starting to blush. He had called her sweetie. And…hey! Wait just a minute! She hardly knew this guy. Granted he had saved her life. But it was his job. He was kinda hot though. And it wasn't like she had a boyfriend. But there was no way she was going to be acting like some lovesick schoolgirl.

Someone coughed, and she realized that they were still staring at each other. And she noticed just how close their faces were. He released her and turned around to look were the cough had come from, at the door. Was he blushing? Or had that been her imagination?

“Kouga, I'm surprised at you. Couldn't you at least have waited until you were off the clock to start flirting with her?” a playful voice said. This one was familiar too. Was this the girl from last night? The other cop? She couldn't remember much about her, besides her voice. She looked past Kouga and saw a petite girl with long red hair pulled into two pigtails standing in the doorway. She was wearing a police uniform much like Kouga's.

“Oh, come on Ayame. Since when have you been a stickler for the rules?” Ah, so that was her name. Was she his partner? Did she like him? She felt a small pang of jealousy.

“Oh, I'm not. I just thought you'd like to know that that monster has killed again. Right near here too. Chief wants us to take a look at it,” said the petite girl. Was it her imagination, or did he just growl?

“Again? When is this beast going to stop?” he sighed and turned around. “Well, sweet, I must go now, but I will see you soon. And, perhaps even after that if you would allow me to escort you to dinner once you're feeling better.” He had an endearingly sweet and hopeful look in his eyes. She heard a snort, presumably from Ayame.

“I'd love to,” she said looking up at him and smiling. He smiled back and got up, following a smirking Ayame out the door. Just as he walked out the door he turned back and winked at her. And then he was out of sight.

“Well, um, you get your rest Kagome. I'll come back a little later to check on you. Oh! But first those questions.” The doctor was clearly a bit uncomfortable. He sat down in front of her and asked her simple questions like what day it was, who she was, what she did for a living, and a few math and history questions to make sure she still had her wits about her. After proclaiming that she was fine he rushed out, promising to come back later.

Next to her on the bed, Sango had yet to move. She would have forgotten that her friend was there had it not been for the small amount of available space on the bed.

She looked at her friend to make sure she was still awake, only to find her smirking at her. She looked at Miroku and saw that, he too, was smirking at her.

“Oh, no,” she said, dread apparent in her voice.

Her fears were confirmed only a half-second later when both of them erupted in song. “Someone's got a crush, someone's got a crush,” they sang like children in a playground.

“Shut up, shut up,” she said flatly. They both were laughing, and soon she joined in. Even though she felt crappy, it still felt good to laugh. Though it did make her headache a little worse.

“Seriously though, Kagome, we're really glad that you're okay. We were so worried when you didn't show up. And then we got that horrible phone call from the hospital when they finally thought to look in your purse. We had called everyone we could think of and still couldn't find out anything,” Miroku said, looking at her.

“Yeah, I had to hold him down to keep him from going out there and searching for you himself. I kept telling him that it wouldn't do any good for anyone if he got himself mugged or killed. Oh Kagome, I'm just so glad that you're okay,” Sango said, starting to cry again.

“Yeah, I'm kinda glad too,” she said, putting a sore arm around Sango's shoulders and laughing softly. But the laugh turned into a yawn, and she realized just how tired she was.

“You know what, Sango? I think we should leave and let Kagome rest a bit.”

Sango looked at her, “Yeah, you're right. We'll see you soon, Kagome. I promise.” She leaned down and gave Kagome another hug.

“Bye, and thanks for staying here with me.” They both hugged her this time.

“No problem. Just don't scare us like that again,” Miroku said. She nodded, even though it wasn't like she had done it on purpose. After a few more minutes of saying goodbye and promising to have their movie night once she was out of the hospital - neither of them wanted to leave her just yet - they walked out and shut the door to her room. Finally, she was alone.

She thought back to what had happened last night and shuddered, thinking of how much worse it could have been for her. Then she thought of Kouga and started blushing. They hardly knew each other, but she kinda liked him. He was polite and attractive, plus he was the type that she was sure would treat a girl right. Exactly what she needed right now. She hadn't had a boyfriend for a while, so she was defiantly looking.

She thought back to what Ayame had said though. There was another murder. Another one. This thing was on a rampage. She wondered if it would ever get stopped. Was it a serial killer? No, it was a monster. An actual, real, live monster. She was sure of it. Maybe she could help somehow. She had helped the police before. She vaguely wondered how come she had never met Kouga or Ayame before, but brushed the thought off. Maybe they had just transferred or something. Plus, it had been a while since she had helped the police with anything.

Her powers had gone on a little vacation it seemed. So, maybe it would be a little harder to help than she thought. Just as she thought this, her eyes clouded, becoming completely white though she saw nothing through them. Instead, she heard.

X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X

A woman was crying. The room around her was echoing and sounded wet - water was dripping. It just sounded so cold in there, the way the air moved and the woman breathed. So so cold. Somebody help. Please. Somebody. Anybody. The woman stopped crying quite as hard; now she was just sniffling. Heavy footsteps. Someone had walked in the door.

“Get up. He wants to see you now.” A harsh, deep male voice said.

“I WON'T DO IT!!!!” the woman screamed. How did she have enough strength? She seemed so weak.

A loud crack resonated throughout the small cell. The man had hit her.

“Witch! The master has commanded you to do as he says! Obey or you shall face the beast that you created!”

“You people forced me to make it! I had no choice,” she said, voice breaking.

X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X

Her eyes cleared as she looked around here, fully expecting to see the small cell. Instead she saw the hospital room. She picked up the phone on the table next to her and dialed a number she had long ago memorized.

“Hello…Yes, it's Kagome…Yes, I've had a…vision… I don't know, but I'd like to try…Well, you see, I'm in the hospital right now...Yes sir, understood.” She hung up the telephone and called in the nurse.

“I think I'm going to need to get out of here a little sooner than tomorrow.”

 

A/N: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is the name of an actual town in Northern Wales. Google it if you don't believe me. And no, I've never actually been there. Just read about it is all.