InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Learning to Live Again ❯ Coming Undone ( Chapter 18 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Thank you so very much for your review KitsuneforlifeYokoschick!!!
A/N: Happy Easter to those of you who celebrate it. Have a good weekend to everyone else. This chapter is contains character death, some graphic imagery and a little gore.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Inuyasha.
Chapter 18: Coming Undone
‘Kikyo, I’m sorry. Come home.’ Sesshomaru’s voice whispered in her head. She knew she was dreaming, because he wouldn’t apologize to her.
She was in that weird place in sleep where you knew you were dreaming, but were awake enough to think and know you were dreaming.
And she was shaking.
“Kikyo.” No. She wasn’t shaking. She was being shook. “Kikyo. Hey Kikyo, wake up.” The feminine voice was cutting through the layers of her much needed sleep and taking her closer to the world of the awake instead of the place where Sesshomaru’s voice had spoken to her for that brief instant.
Green eyes fluttered open to look into the blue ones hovering so close to hers. The face that was said to be a near copy of her own was so close their lips were almost touching. “Go away.” She muttered as she tried to roll away from the girl gripping her arm. Her eyes closed as she decided she could sleep with Kagome looming over her.
She had slept in worse places with worse people near her. The night before she had slept on the floor with Naraku in the room. While he was out cold for the night, thanks to Kanna, it was still unsettling to be trapped that close to him for so long. Kagome, while a pain in the ass sometimes was pretty much harmless.
Unless you happened to be wearing a necklace of enchanted beads. Which Kikyo wasn’t.
She forced back the grin that wanted to shift her face when she heard the girl growl under her breath.
“Kikyo, please, wake up.” Kagome’s voice was a frantic whisper as she shook Kikyo harder.
“If you don’t cease the shaking, I will be forced to break your pretty teeth.” Kikyo gritted between her own clenched teeth as she jerked her arm away.
“Kikyo.” Kagome whined again.
“What?” She sat up so quickly she nearly bumped heads with Kagome.
Too bad. That would have taught her not to hover over people when they were sleeping.
Or at least trying to.
Kikyo sighed. It wasn’t much past dawn. She guessed it was okay though. She had to get back to Sesshomaru. Running from him would solve nothing. She suddenly knew why Kagome had woke her up. She wanted her gone as soon as possible so she wouldn’t be near Inuyasha.
That jealous little twit!
“So, you woke me up to kick me out?”
Kagome jerked back and shook her head. “No. I need you to help me.”
Kikyo couldn’t have been more stunned if Kagome had kicked her. “What?” Kagome asking her for help was certainly shocking.
Kagome shoved a pile of her clothing into Kikyo’s stomach. It was then that Kikyo noticed what Kagome was wearing. Her hair was tied back in a white ribbon and she was dressed in the red and white clothing of a priestess. “Put this on.”
Kikyo studied the clothing. There was a pair of blue course pants, a soft heavy white shirt, and two things she couldn’t identify. She looked at Kagome. “What?” She frowned. She had been saying that a lot lately.
“I have to go back to my time. I have a really important exam. If I don’t take it, I won’t be able to graduate. Inuyasha would throw a fit if I told him I needed to go back. This is the only thing I could come up with, please Kikyo?”
Kikyo studied her carefully. She knew what it took for her to ask her for help. While the animosity might be gone, it didn’t mean they were friends. She had no idea what it meant to graduate, but it seemed to mean a lot to her.
Kikyo looked around the room. Kaede and Sango were still silently sleeping while Inuyasha was snoring so loud that Kikyo was amazed anyone could sleep through that. She noticed the wolves were gone.
“You want me to pretend to be you.” Kikyo found the situation terribly bizarre and considering some of the shit that had happened to her since that hot autumn day, that said much.
The other nodded. “Yes. Please?”
Kikyo nodded and Kagome explained to her in detail how to put on the two pieces of clothing Kikyo couldn’t identify. “Sure,” Kikyo said, pulling all her clothing off and let it fall to the floor. “I’ve already betrayed Inuyasha several times, right? What’s one more?”
“Don’t look at it like that.” Kagome’s eyes fell away from Kikyo as she dressed herself quickly after donning the bra and underwear. “I’m leaving as soon as I’m done. Hopefully, I’ll be back before twelve and he won‘t even know.” Kagome pulled off her waterproof Velcro watch and put it around Kikyo’s wrist. Then explained how to tell time with it. “Come with me to the well.” The two snuck from hut, through the village, and into the forest.
“I understand that you are using my lack of scent to your advantage by giving me your clothing that has yet to be cleaned…”
“Not the underwear. They’re clean. I would never give you dirty underwear. That’s just gross.” Kagome made a face and once again Kikyo had no idea what she was talking about.
“However, our voices while similar are different and our eyes are not the same color. Surely, Inuyasha is not that dense. He has to at least recognize one our eye colors.”
Kagome stooped and shrugged the bag from her shoulder, after digging around in it for while she produced two black things. She handed one to Kikyo.
“What is it?”
Kagome opened her thing and put it on her face. It shielded her eyes.
“Can you see me?” Kikyo waved her hand in front of Kagome’s face.
“Duh. I can totally see you. These are called sunglasses. In my time, we wear them to protect our eyes from the sun.” She smiled when Kikyo put on her pair.
Kagome told Kikyo about her time and her family. The girl was still reserved about some of the things she shared, but Kikyo understood that. It seemed like no time had passed at all since they had left the village, but now, the well was in view.
Kagome shrugged the bag from her shoulders and sat it on the edge of the well. “You’ll need to take this and carry it with you. And you’ll need these.” Kagome stepped out of her boots.
“Don’t you need this stuff?” Kikyo asked her, puzzled by the fact that she would give her all these things.
“Nope. I have everything I need at home. I’ll even bring another pair of boots back. Thanks Kikyo! I’ll be back soon.” She leapt from the edge of the well and Kikyo stared over the snow covered meadow and wondered what she had gotten herself into now.
It couldn’t possibly be as bad as some of the things she had done before, could it? Surely doing this one small thing for Kagome wasn’t going to be the worst thing she had ever done.
She sighed as she stepped into the boots, dug through the bag and found what could be used as a hair tie, pulled her hair back and shrugged on the awkward bag.
“Hello, you two.” She smiled as Ryu and Sakura flew toward her. They flew around her, taking in her strange scent and changed appearance. She smiled and stroked their heads when they realized for sure that it was her.
Since she had to wait for Kagome to come back, everyone else was sleeping, and Ryu and Sakura had found her, she decided she needed to collect a few souls. She’d be back long before anyone ever knew Kagome was gone.
!$%^&**&^%$!!$%^&*
She looked at the time keeping device Kagome had put around her wrist and called a watch. It had only been about thirty minutes since she had left the well when she entered the meadow the other side of the forest. She had sent Ryu and Sakura to find Sesshomaru and lead him to her.
“No.” She shook her head in disbelief as she recognized the scent of smoke and the screams of terror coming from nearby. “No.” She started to run, something that was difficult with the weight on her back. She let the bag drop from her in the middle of the path and moved faster.
Despite the snow that had fallen the night before, the forest surrounding the village was set a blaze. Kikyo could see where the shrine had been earlier that morning, but it was nothing but a smoldering pile of ash now.
Flaming huts lit up the morning and acrid smoke made her cough, but it was the bodies that held her transfixed.
They were everywhere. Some had their insides torn out, others had no heads, while some had been lit on fire. As she walked through the burning, lifeless village, unable to control her ragged sobbing, she noticed that other had been torn limb from limb. The manner of the villager’s demise was gruesome and horrific.
She rushed to Kaede’s hut, one of the few that wasn’t on fire, and ran inside. No one was there. Where were they? What the hell was going on? She left the hut and continued through the village.
Blood was so thick in some places that it had melted the ankle deep snow. Kikyo tried to ignore the sound of the blood beneath Kagome’s boots as she froze in the middle of the village. Every now and then a scream would pierce the air over the sound of fire.
Her lips parted in shock as she realized some people were still alive. Some had been nailed, with their arms stretched to their sides, to the sides of the few huts that weren’t on fire. Others were tied to posts with their feet dangling under them.
Without being told, Kikyo, dressed as Kagome, knew this was her fault. She knew, deep inside, that Naraku was behind this. This was Naraku’s way of getting back at her. Destroy the village that meant so much to her. She knew he would retaliate, but she had never thought this would be the way he would do it.
A glint of metal caught Kikyo’s eyes and she flinched as she picked the dagger up from the puddle of blood, next to a woman with her throat ripped out. She needed to free the people she could.
“Thank you, Lady Kagome.” A man’s voice shook as she slashed the dagger through the rope and released him.
She nodded. “Hurry! Run away and don’t look back!” She hurried the man away.
“Kagome!” Kikyo let out a small shriek when the small fox demon landed on her shoulder.
“You’re not, Kagome.” He pulled back from her and eyed her suspiciously.
“I know. She went home and didn’t want Inuyasha to know, so she asked me to switch places with her. She’s safe, Shippo. She is as far from here as she could be.” She whispered to the traumatized child. He huddled closer, afraid to let go of a person he knew. “What happened? Where is Kaede?”
“Everyone was sleeping. I was still in Kagome’s sleeping bag when Naraku came in. I don’t think Inuyasha sensed him, because the first night is so soon. He hit Inuyasha in the back of the head with a rock and knocked him out cold. He had some men tie up Sango and they drug her off. Inuyasha too. Naraku took Kaede to the Tori gate, by the shrine. He…”
“Shippo, I need you to do something for me. She’s coming back today. She didn’t want anyone to know that she left. Run! Run to the well and hide there. Her yellow bag is on the way. Don’t stop for anyone thing. Don’t come out for anyone. Run and hide! Go now! You’ll protect Kagome from this Shippo. Now, go!” She watched as he jumped from her shoulder and vanished in a flash.
That coward, Naraku had attacked while everyone was asleep. Instead of fighting Inuyasha, he had knocked him out and drug him off somewhere. He attacked a massacred a sleeping village.
There was nothing Kikyo could do about it now. She needed to find Kaede, then go find Sesshomaru.
She ran to the Tori gate where Shippo had told her Kaede would be.
Kikyo halted at the sight before her. Kaede was tied to the right post of the gate.
“Kaede!” She screamed. Then walked closer. “Kaede, I’m so sorry.” She stood in front of the elderly woman.
Kaede’s eyes fluttered open and she turned her head to look at Kikyo. “Kagome, child, ye must flee from this place.” Her words were slightly slurred and Kikyo could see the blood at her sister’s right temple.
Kikyo nudged the sunglasses down her nose enough to show Kaede her eye color. She noticed her sister’s face grow even more shaken and her name silently crossed her lips. Kikyo nodded, but said nothing else as she cut the ropes tying Kaede to the red post. Kikyo eased the old woman to the ground and held her hand, afraid to hurt her more if she cradled her.
“I love ye, child. The gods blessed me when you entered my life again.”
“I love you too, Kaede.”
“Don’t blame yourself, Kagome. This has never been, nor will it ever be your fault. I’m proud of you, Kagome. The way you have grown since you found him. The way he has changed since you’ve been in his life. I’m so happy for you.” Kaede smiled, knowing exactly whom she was talking to.
Kaede knew Naraku was around or she wouldn’t be calling her Kagome.
“Thank you, Kaede. You mean so much to me. Since the moment I first met you, you have meant so much to me, Kaede.” Kikyo tried to be brave, but was failing miserably. Tears poured from her eyes, under the dark lenses, as she lifted her sister’s hand to her face and rubbed it against her cheek.
“You need to get away, Kagome,” she told her. Then the hand in Kikyo’s went limp and Kaede was gone.
“Kaede.” Kikyo bent down to kiss her cheek, squeezed her hand one more time, and rested her arm against her stomach.
She stood up, knowing Kaede was right. She had to go. She couldn’t let Naraku capture her. She turned to hurry from the village.
She had taken two steps from Kaede when a sharp pain registered at the back of her head. ‘Oh shit. He got me.’ The snowy ground grew hazy as it rose to meet her. ‘I’m so screwed.’
And the lights went out.
**Next Chapter: Kagome and Sesshomaru have to work together to save the ones they love and they don’t have much time since the night of the new moon is upon them