InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Blazing Hearts ❯ Chapter 31

Blazing Hearts

Disclaimer: Alas, I do not own Inuyasha or company; I merely toy with them for my own twisted amusement.

Chapter Thirty-One

He stepped out of the shower and grabbed the fluffy blue towel to dry off his red, raw skin. The blood was still there, he washed it off in burning water and coconut scented body wash, but it remained all the same. He could see it. He could smell the metallic scent beneath the mask of coconut.

Kikyo's blood had seeped through his skin and now resided with the blood of every other victim Suikotsu had ever taken. His hands were nothing but sponges that collected the memories of each death he had caused. No matter how vigorously he scrubbed, the blood would never be cleaned from him. It would remain as a reminder, seen and felt only by Suikotsu... that he'd destroyed yet another life.

Leaving the bathroom, he looked at the mess with fresh eyes and looked away immediately. Feeling the urge to vomit again, he knew he wouldn't be able to clean this mess up. He didn't want Kagome to come home to this—to her living room bloodied by her own cousin's corpse. He had wanted to make everything as clean and perfect as it had been when he snuck into the apartment.

This wasn't what he'd wanted. He hadn't meant for this to happen. He just wanted to spend a little while in the home he and Kagome had once spent long and perfect nights. Then that part of him... that... that demon came out. It got out. It was angry. And it demanded that he take everything out on her.

And now he was leaving. Like the coward he was. Too afraid to stay. Too afraid to get caught. Too afraid to clean up and get more blood on his hands.

He ran out of the window. If someone had heard the noises caused by Kikyo, no one had been notified. No sirens sang through the sky and no cops banged at the door. Suikotsu was able to slip out without notice.

**********

No words could cross her mind as she stared at the carnage that lay in her living room. Blood splattered on the walls and her carpet... her coffee table broken with her own cousin's corpse carelessly and brutally thrown on top of it.

Kagome couldn't talk. She could barely feel when Inuyasha pulled on her shoulder and ushered her out of the room. Everything was very surreal at the moment... when the police came and asked their questions, she answered them, slowly returning to reality. She looked at Inuyasha as the policemen allowed the coroner to remove Kikyo's body. She frowned and tried to form the question, “Are you okay?”

Inuyasha blinked at her in surprise, “I thought I should ask you that...”

“You were probably closer to her than I was,” she admitted. “She and I didn't really have much to talk about it after Junior High, we had a falling out,” she told him, now saddened over losing so much time for such petty reasons.

He sighed, “Half of me don't believe this is happening.”

“And the other?”

“Wants to find out who did this and make them pay,” he growled out.

“I already know who did this,” she said gravely. “It was Suikotsu.”

Inuyasha nodded, “It smells like him.”

“He was in my home... this blood... it was supposed to be me. He was here for me...” she cried, tears finally falling down her face.

Inuyasha pulled her into his arms, “I'll keep you safe. Don't worry, baby.”

Kagome nodded and wiped her face, “But it shouldn't have been her.” She frowned at that moment and her brows furrowed, “What was she doing here?” she asked him.

“I don't know.”

“I-I have to call Mom... and Grandma...” she said, pulling out her cell phone and then walked away from him.

Inuyasha nodded and let her go. As she walked and spoke on her cell phone, she broke down and cried more. He watched her in misery and contemplated her words.

Suikotsu had been here. He'd been here waiting for Kagome.

Kikyo just happened to show up at the wrong time—the worst possible time. This... all of this... was it meant for Kagome? Did Suikotsu want revenge for her calling the police and sending him to the institution? Or was Kikyo just unlucky enough to infuriate him as he waited?

Protective anger and worry swelled with the hanyou. Remorse and sadness rose for Kikyo as well, but now he had to focus on protecting his love.

She hung up and walked back to him, her eyes puffy and red, mascara smeared underneath her eyes and streamed down her flushed cheeks. She sat down and leaned her exhausted head on his shoulder. “I'm scared,” she whispered in admittance.

He was scared too.

Kikyo's death proved that Inuyasha was running the very real risk of losing her too. His heart wept for his ex. It did. His love for Kikyo was something that could have rivaled his love for Kagome in the days he and Kikyo were happy. But while those feelings dwindled greatly after meeting and falling in love with Kagome, he still cared for Kikyo. Despite what she put him through and despite the petty reasons she had for putting him through it, the caring never stopped.

His love for her was once so great that he could never be apathetic to her pain... and certainly not to her death.

Finally the policemen finished their questions and Inuyasha gave them his address and phone number—Kagome would be staying with him for now if they needed to contact her and let her know anything.

“Why was she there?” she asked as she got into the car.

Inuyasha looked at her, but said nothing. He didn't have that answer.

She leaned her head back against the seat and closed her eyes. “She never comes to my home…”

Inuyasha furrowed his brows and looked onto the road. Kikyo once came to him when she found out that he was with Kagome… because she thought that it put Kagome in danger. “Kikyo loved you. And she worried about you,” he began. “She probably didn't show it well, but she did. If she didn't usually come over to see you… she had to have had something important to tell you. To warn you of…” `But what was it?' he wondered.

“What could it have been?” Kagome voiced his own internal question.

He sighed. He didn't have that answer. He didn't know how to get that answer. Kikyo… she couldn't tell them now…

**********

 

Abi stepped inside the lab and looked around. It was late and the lab was very barren… she felt a chill go up her spine.

Shaking her head, she scolded herself to just get what she had come in for. She'd forgotten her cell phone earlier that day and she hadn't realized until after she'd gotten home. Heading towards She froze.

Naraku sat in a chair, the blue light of her cell phone screen glowed against his face… highlighting a sickening grin.

“You've been a naughty girl, Abi.”

Yay, yet another chapter down and the ending ever so near. Hopefully you all enjoyed this one—written in my management class. Something about getting to class an hour and a half early with an empty notebook and nothing to do just compels me to write chapters.

“Don't you disrespect me, little man! Don't you derogate, or deride! You're in my world now, not your world, and I've got friends on the other side...” - Dr. Facilier (Keith David) - The Princess and the Frog