InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Fallen Part One: Downfall ❯ Voices ( Chapter 6 )

For those of you that are confused, don't worry! Things will clear up at some point ^_~. Can't tell ya when exactly because I'm just going chapter by chapter. But trust me it will all pull together.

Chapter 5:Voices

It had been two days since that fateful day when Kagome returned. Two days since they've seen her. Not that they could really blame her. Two days since Shippou died. A day since they laid him to rest. And through all of this neither Kagome nor Inuyasha had made an appearance. Frankly it was making everyone nervous. When Kagome and Inuyasha had separated it had not been on the best of terms; of that they were now sure. That is, judging from their reaction to one another. However, what exactly happened between them has still remained a mystery.

For now they had given up on the mystery. They had friends to find. Even if Sango still seethed at the fact that Inuyasha had attacked her sister, and killed the kit. They had to find them. If only for the sake of their piece of mind, even if it meant Sango killing or even maiming their inu hanyou friend. He did deserve it.

The next day they resolved to head out and search for their missing friends. Both hoped that they hadn't killed each other. With that thought in mind, both mounted the transformed Kirara. Just before the fire neko could take off, out of the shrubbery stumbled one of their two missing friends.

Looking blearily around, he looked almost dead as he locked his sightless eyes upon his friends. Whimpering in pain, the hanyou clutched his head, almost as if he were suffering a great migraine and promptly collapsed. Rushing over to their fallen friend they puzzled over his condition as their hauled his dead weight into Kaede's hut.

~X~

He was running through the woods. Something was chasing him. He was vulnerable. His demon blood abandoned him. Running. He was running. Blindly he continued on. Something wasn't right. He should have woken up by now. This had to be a dream. It just had to be.

//So, are you breathing?//

For a moment he had obtained a sense of lucid clarity, only to have it snatched away. He took it away from him again. Just who he was, he didn't know. All he knew was that he didn't like him. Something was wrong. His demon blood was missing. He needed to find a way out. Now. Before he found him again. Before he took him over again.

//So, are you breathing?//

It was catching up. His feeble human body couldn't carry him any faster than what it was. He hated this. The new moon should have come and gone already. It came, but it never left. A month of torture; the last thing he remembered was being pulled from the tree by Sango and Miroku. Something was missing.

//No, no//

Where was Kagome? Where was Shippou? Something wasn't right. He had to get out! He needed to find them. Tripping on a branch, or something, he couldn't really see too well, he fell to the ground. Blood flooded his mouth. A crushing weight landed on his back. The creature had found him.

//Are you breathing?//

Thrashing about he tried in vain to get free. He could feel his lungs about to burst. He couldn't breathe. The weight was temporarily lifted. He could breathe. Laughter echoed throughout the woods as he coughed and sputtered, trying to regain his breath.

//So, are you breathing?//

Slowly rising to his feet, he wildly looked about, trying to locate the source of the laughter. But, like always it was no use. There was no point of origin. It came from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Where was he? He never found him until it was too late. He never found him until his clawed hand was around his throat, choking the life out of him. This was the nightly ritual, as it had been for over a month. He's been trapped, between a rock and a hard place. Trapped inside his own mind. Oh how the mighty hath fallen.

//No//

Clawing at the hand around his throat, he was amazed when his human nails began to lengthen and sharpen. When his nails turned to claws. The figure holding him down hissed in pain but did not relent. As the sun miraculously rose over the horizon, ending the month long night, in a burst of power he obliterated the monster holding him down. He was free. His demon had returned to him.

//Wake up, are you alive
Will you listen to me//

With a gasp, Inuyasha awoke, eyes wide, as he looked around the familiar hut. "How did I get here?" he asked no one in particular.

"We brought you here," Sango stated from the far corner. She sat in shadow, the light from the fire flickering on her angry countenance, giving her an almost evil look.

"What happened?" he asked. "Miroku grope you again?" he asked weakly. Hearing an enraged demon esque snarl coming from Sango's general direction, he figured it was true. That is until he found himself held at blade point. Looking at the enraged Sango, he gulped slightly. She was scarier than Kagome sometimes, and Kagome was pretty scary.

At the thought of Kagome, Inuyasha began to see images flashing through his mind, images of Kagome and his brother. With a snarl he knocked Sango's blade from her hand and growled out, "Where's Kagome?"

//I'm gonna talk about some freaky shit now
someone is gonna die//

"What?" Sango asked startled.

"Where is that bitch?" he snarled again.

Recovering from her shock, Sango's anger towards the hanyou began to resurface. "She left. You chased her away, bastard." At her words, Inuyasha lost his scowl and looked thoroughly confused. Sneering at his confusion, Sango continued. "She ran away right after you injured her and killed Shippou." That really caught him off guard. Falling flat on his ass he looked up at the towering Sango and stuttered incomprehensibly.

//When you listen to me
Let the living die, let the living die
(say)//

"Sango, let the dead stay buried," Miroku, sighed softly from the corner.

"NO!" she snarled rounding on the serene Buddhist. "I will not! If he is going to stay in this goddamned hut, then he is going to hear what I have to say! If I have to tolerate this murdering bastard-," she raged, choking back a sob, unable to finish her incoherent sentences.

Collapsing to the ground she curled up into a ball and sobbed, occasional sentences coming out clear as day. "He killed him houshi… in cold blood… bastard… wanted to kill the only family I had left… couldn't stop him. Now she's gone anyways," she sobbed. Looking up, she glared at the still confused hanyou and screeched, "Don't try to play innocent! You know what you did! We all saw you anyways!"

//Wake up, are you alive
Will you listen to me//

"What happened?" he managed to choke out.

"You seriously don't know, do you?" the skeptical monk asked, as he rose to comfort the still sobbing exterminator. Kneeling beside her, he laid a hand on her shoulder, cringing when she flinched back from him. "Shh. Sango, please stop crying. You must be strong. For Kagome," he whispered soothingly to her. Sitting down next to her, he gathered her into his lap and gently held her.

"I wouldn't have asked if I knew!" the half-breed exploded.

//I'm gonna talk about some freaky shit now//

"Alright then," the monk sighed as he composed himself. "About a month ago, we found you pinned to a tree. After releasing you, we had to literally drag you back to the village. You were inconsolable for some reason or another. You would never talk. But we all knew it had something to do with Kagome. You see, she disappeared about the same time as you did, which was two months ago. She had gone running through camp that night tears streaming down her face. We figured she had seen you with Kikyou again so we let her go. As the night wore on she never came back, neither did you. When dawns light came--," he was cut off mid sentence by the irritated hanyou.

"Whaddya mean? I took Kagome into the woods to speak to her. I didn't get two words out before she and my brother attacked me.

//Someone is gonna die
When you listen to me//

"This is most peculiar indeed," Miroku stated. "Let me finish my story and then we will analyze the discrepancies," he stated firmly. Hearing the hanyou grumble his consent, he continued with his story. "Anyways, as I was saying. When dawns first light made itself known and neither of you had returned we became worried."

"Wait a sec! I was only ten feet away! How the hell did it take you a month to find me?!" Inuyasha roared.

"I was just getting to that, if you would be patient," the monk sighed. "Anyways, at that point we decided to search the perimeter. About ten feet in the direction you had both gone that night, there looked to be signs of a struggle. There was an evil aura hanging about the clearing, but none of us could identify it. There was no one there. So we continued our search. Seems that someone either masked your presence or had moved you, because a month later we found you in that exact same clearing on our way home."

"Ok, now what's all this talk about me killing the runt?" he asked, eliciting a loud sob from Sango. Gently stroking her hair, Miroku cooed softly to her, whispering softly in her ear comforting words until she calmed down before he continued.

//Let the living die, let the living die
(say)//

"Well after a month of you sitting in the same place in the hut, you suddenly moved to the doorway and began growling viciously. That was the day Kagome returned. Anyways, you ran in the direction of the well, so naturally we followed. Before we we were even half way there, we spotted Kagome running from you. You made a slash at her with your claws she tripped, which saved her life. She got away with some pretty nasty scratches on her back. Anyways, at that exact moment that you slashed and she tripped, Shippou jumped for her and got the brunt of you attack. He died instantly," he concluded, leaving a stunned Inuyasha.

//Are you breathing? No.
Do the wicked see you//

"Well then where's Kagome now if she's hurt?" Inuyasha asked in shock. He felt like a leaden weight had been dropped on his chest. He was in such a state of shock that he couldn't breathe. Standing up, his vision started to blur. He swayed on his feet. He had hurt Kagome. He had killed his unofficially adopted son. Then his eyes rolled into the back of his head as he fainted dead away.

//you're still grieving
you're making me numb//

He was running again. They were after him. This time it wasn't just one, but many. His demon abandoned him. Condemned him. He deserved to die. He injured the bitch he was courting, he killed the child he had come to see as a son. Abruptly he stopped. With tears streaming down his face, he stopped and waited. And waited.

//are you breathing? No.
Do the wicked see you//

Slowly the creatures of the night surrounded him. Methodically they circled around him, then they pounced. Laughter echoed throughout the area as the beasts rent him in half, throwing his torso across the clearing.

//you're still grieving..//.

Then like a VCR, everything rewound; only to begin again. This time he did not stop, voices and apparitions chased him. Phantoms grabbed at his clothes, pulling him back. "Kill them," a quiet, malicious voice whispered in his ear. "Kill them all."

//So, what's up, I wonder why
Do you listen to me//

Stopping, he looked around. The apparitions took shape. The shape of demons, enemies long killed, and enemies not yet faced. As his youki filled him once more, he flexed his claws. But the flow of his demonic energy did not stop when it was supposed to. It continued expanding and overflowing until torrents of it spilled over the edge. His eyes flashed red, and his demon markings took shape. Giving himself to the joy of the bloodlust, of the kill, he slashed, clawed, dismembered, disemboweled, and decapitated until there was no more. But, it was not enough. He wanted more. Howling he went off into the night.

//I'm gonna make you do some freaky shit now
Insane, you're gonna die//

Inside his human blood was screaming. This wasn't right. But it was brutally pushed aside by his raging demon. Nothing could stop him. Nothing. In the distance someone shouted to him. Called his name. Looking up he saw Kikyou, just as she was the day she killed him, the day she died. She stood atop a hill, arrow drawn, bow string taut. She let her arrow fly. And just as on that day the arrow struck and pinned him to a tree.

Only this time, it was Kagome who approached him. It was Kagome who retrieved the jewel. And then Kagome went off with his brother. Ripping the arrow out of his shoulder, he howled in rage and charged their retreating forms. He had lost his mind.

//When you listen to me
Let the living die, let the living die
(say)//

Then it began again. He was running. Running. Human again. But there was nothing chasing him. Odd. Stopping, he warily looked around until a soothing voice addressed him.

//What's up, I wonder why
Do you listen to me//

"Inuyasha," a voice called. It was her voice: Kagome's voice. She wanted him. What did she want? "Inuyasha," she called again in that eerily echoing voice. Gods! That was breaking his balls. He once heard her say that. He still didn't get it. Oh well. It conveyed the desired message, whatever that was. Really he just liked the sound of the phrase.

"What?" he called brashly.

//I'm gonna make you do some freaky shit now
Insane, you're gonna die//

"Inuyasha, I want you to do something for me," she called. "Please do this one thing for me."

"Anything," he replied. His eyes began to glow red as the possessive side of his demon began to take control. He didn't understand how it kept popping up like that. Especially when he was human right now. But take over it did, even if only for a few seconds. Looking around with his human eyes, he struggled to see her. To catch a glimpse of her.

//When you listen to me
Let the living die, let the living die
(say)//

"Kill them, Inuyasha. Kill them all. Then and only then will I be free to love you," she called.

"Kagome, I promise you! I will kill whomever it is that is haunting you," he growled. "Just tell me who they are!"

//Are you breathing? No.
Do the wicked see you?//

"Kill Sango and Miroku," she sneered, her voice gaining a malicious tinge.

"What?!" he shouted.

"I said kill them!" she snarled.

"Why?!" he cried.

//You're still grieving
you're making me numb//

"Because, they let you kill my Shippou. They could have stopped you!" she cried stepping into the clearing. "They could have stopped me too!" she screamed. Inuyasha gasped at the sight that lay before him. His beautiful Kagome stood before him, broken and tattered. Blood covered her form from head to toe. Tears streamed down her cheeks. Various pieces of her, that should really be internal, such as organs and bones showed through her flesh. Her heart could be clearly seen pounding in her chest through the hole that was rent in her rib cage. It was enough to make Inuyasha's stomach turn.

//Are you breathing? No.
Do the wicked see you
you're still grieving...//

"Please, Inuyasha, please. Do this one thing for me. You've never done anything else for me. If you do anything, ANYTHING, for me, please get revenge for my soul," she very convincingly pleaded. "Please!" she screamed when he hesitated.

//So, can't you imagine how good going through with this will make you feel
I promise, no one will ever know//

He spent a great deal of time sitting there. Thinking. His demon blood raged for a good blood bath. But his human side cringed. Those people are his friends. But his love demanded it of him. Begged him to do it. His demon side rationalized that his potential mate came before friends.

//There will be no chance of you getting caught
They never loved you anyway//

Besides, they were only traveling with him because Kagome invited them to. They were only with him to get their revenge on Naraku. But then why have they stuck with him for so long afterwards?

//So come on, be a man
And do what you are compelled to do//

Brutally squashing his doubts, created by his human side, he repressed his human with an inhuman growl. Looking up at where his bitch last stood, he snarled to see that she had vanished. Looking about the ethereal landscape with his red tinted eyes, he caught the trail and howled joyously. To the chase.

//Save me god//

He snapped awake for a second time that day. It was twilight. Looking around he noticed his exhausted friends and a withered Kaede sleeping soundly. With eyes glowing red he growled menacingly. Lunging for the demon exterminator first, Inuyasha was peeved to find Kirara in his way. Snarling viciously at her, he told her to move. Snarling back she proved that she had no intention of moving.

//I can hear the voice
But I don't want to listen
Strap me down and tell me
I'll be alright//

Smirking, the inu hanyou made to attack the saber cat, before he collapsed. Clutching his head, he whimpered in pain. Momentarily his eyes flashed golden before returning to their red hue. "No I don't want to do this," he whimpered and growled as the red slowly bled away.

Being the alert warriors that Sango and Miroku were, at the sounds of the growls from the two demons they began to stir. At the sound of Inuyasha's words they had awoken. Looking in confusion, they stared, bleary eyed at their companion, confused. Darest I say confused, because flabbergasted seemed a more accurate description.

//I can feel the subliminal need
To be one with the voice
And make everything alright//

"Kill them!" Kagome's voice echoed in his head, over and over. It was hopeless to resist it. Looking at his now awake traveling companions, Inuyasha smirked a devilish smirk before his eyes once again returned to their bloody depths. Satan had returned.

//I can hear the voice
But I don't want to listen
Strap me down and tell me
I'll be alright//

Lunging for the large fire cat, he slashed at her, catching her in the side as she stood firm. If she moved her mistress would die. Grunting in pain she snarled and lunged at the hanyou. Latching herself onto his arm, she growled. She refused to let go.

The haze of pain was enormous. He felt as if his arm would snap if she didn't release him. The red leaked slowly from his sight. Looking down at Kirara, all he knew was the pain. He had no clue what was going on.

//I can feel the subliminal need
To be one with the voice
And make everything alright//

"Please, Inuyasha! Please! Do this for me! Avenge my soul!" Kagome pleaded. "I thought you loved me!" she cried.

With her words, he snapped. Even with the fabled Tetsusaiga at his side, he would have transformed completely. All he knew was the thrill of the chase; the satisfaction of the kill. He faintly heard the wench cry out to her neko pet. He heard the monk run up to her and pull her away. He knew. Stabbing his lengthened claws through the heart of the fire neko, he pried her jaws loose and dropped her carcass to the floor of the wood hut. The old miko was of no consequence. If she was, he would just have to kill her later. She wouldn't be much of a challenge.

//Are you breathing? No.
Do the wicked see you//

He chased them through the forest that was his namesake. He toyed with them in very much the same manner that a cat played with a mouse just before it made the kill. But he was no cat.

//you're still grieving
you're making me numb//

Finally cornering them, he flexed his claws and snarled. The monk pushed the grieving taijiya behind him, taking a protective stance. Holding his staff in from of him, he awaited his attack. The bitch behind him sobbed, clutching the back of his robes.

//Are you breathing? No.
Do the wicked see you
you're still grieving...//

Time stopped. For that one moment just as Inuyasha raised his claws to slash the Buddhist to smithereens, time stopped. Then it went into sow motion as the monk braced himself for the impact squeezing his eyes shut. Turning his fact away, he professed his love to the sobbing exterminator. Then everything exploded in a cacophony of movements, sounds and sensations. The most prominent ones being the swing of his claws through the air, the sound of tearing flesh and clothing, and the sticky feel of warm blood as it washed over his hands.

//So, are you breathing
So, do you grieve//

He came back to himself once more standing over a sobbing Sango, hunched over a lifeless Miroku. Blood covered his hands. He must have been too slow to save him. But, judging by the blood on his claws he must have gotten the bastard. Denial. If he took a moment to smell the blood he would have realized it was indeed Miroku's.

//No, no//

Inuyasha was still in a state of shock, when an angry, nay incensed Sango rounded on him. "You bastard!" she shrieked. "You took away the only people I had left!" she cried, tears streaming down her face.

//So, are you breathing//

He was stunned. How could he have done this? How? Miroku was his best friend. Looking in utter shock, he dropped to the ground in a dead faint. Sango was left to mourn yet another loss on her own.

//So, do you grieve//

Curling around the body of her love, she cried bitter tears. This was not supposed to happen. She never got to tell him she loved him. She had been so cruel to him. Life was so unfair.

"WHY~?!" she screamed to the heavens. They were deaf to her loss, however, just as they were deaf to her grief. She was alone once more. The god's be damned she would have her revenge. She swore it. `Inuyasha will die,' were her last thoughts before she cried herself to sleep still curled around the corpse that would surely draw demons from miles away. If she stayed she would not wake to see the next day dawn.

//No//

~X~

DON"T KILL ME! Please don't kill me! I love Sango and Miroku! Really I do! But I had to do it! For the story's sake! Please don't kill me! ~ducks and dodges various flying objects, most of them pointed and sharp.~ Until next time! JA!