InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Smokes and Mirrors ❯ Shock Wave ( Chapter 18 )

Smokes and Mirrors

 

 

Chapter 18: Shock Wave

 

The first thing Kagome did was lock herself up in her room. It wasn't exactly a good idea. Her window was open and through the opening she could clearly hear all the people in the courtyard. She slowly approached the open glass and peered outside. The entire shrine ground was filled up with people, every single one of them holding a camera, microphone, tape recorder or note pad.

 

Kagome was frozen in her spot. Where did this public come from? Why are they here? Why won't they leave her alone? Their excitement was hard to ignore. She wondered for a minute if her misery was really that pleasant to watch.

 

A flicker of light caught her eyes, and soon a whole set of flashes were going off. Someone had spotted her and inadvertently alerted everyone else. Questions were yelled out to her and long microphones were outstretched to catch her words. The reporters moved as close as they could, the interrogation never ceasing.

 

Kagome couldn't take it anymore. They probably had thousands of pictures of her by the time she snapped out of her stupor. She stepped back, as far away from the intruding echoes as possible. She was pressed against the far wall opposing the window, yet the voices still kept coming. Running to the opening, she quickly shut it.

 

It didn't stop them. On edge now, she slowly backed up to the wall again, her hand covering her ears. She sunk down to the floor, ducked her head, her hand forcefully pressed against her head.

 

“No. No, no, No, NO!” She shook her head, wanting the questions out, the protruding noises to stop humming her away to insanity. “Go away…” She was loosing her internal battle. Even with the window closed tight and her ears covered, she could still hear them.

 

Lifting her head, unshed tears filled her eyes. She decided that was enough. She was going to drown them out. She turned on her stereo and jacked the volume to the max. She made sure to sit near the speakers as they boomed to life. She closed her eyes, leaned her head back against the supporting wall, and let the music wash away her worries.

 

Too bad it couldn't stop the voices in her head.

 

***

 

The first thing that caught his eyes was the blood stain on the wooden floor. Next, it was the metal ruler held in a death grip, the rim covered in the red liquid gore. Looking up at the hand owner's face, a set of glassy lifeless, yet scared eyes stared back at him. It took a moment before it clicked in his mind that she was the girl they were supposed to protect.

 

Kagome's grip loosened on the small ruler, letting it fall to the floor with a high pitched clunk. Following the instrument was the girl in question. Panic briefly took over Sesshoumaru's brain before he came too and rushed to her side. Switching to `life saving' mode, he checked for a pulse. It was erratic, but still there. Good. The girl had obviously gone into shock and harmed herself in the process. Not good.

 

Ignoring the loud music, Sesshoumaru picked her up bridal style, her head rolling backwards, and moved her to the bathroom. He had to clean her wound before it got infected and possibly try to stop the bleeding. Getting out his pocket knife, he cut the left sleeve of her hooded sweatshirt off. His shock was beyond obvious. The girl managed to get two gashes and was working on a third.

 

It must have hurt. She must have screamed Bloody Mary for all he knew. However, such loud music would have easily drowned out any noise. With all of this not a single tear marked her pale skin.

 

His hands automatically worked in cleaning and covering the wound. He didn't even realize what he was doing. He simply stared at her for what seemed like an eternity. He could not imagine what must have passed through her head at the time and he was afraid to find out what such a fragile mind could conjure up.

 

“Sesshoumaru? Sesshoumaru!”

 

His father's voice brought the young cop back to earth. He realized he dazed off to another world during his `tending of the wound'. The music was no longer playing. The effect of its volume left a buzzing noise in his ear. He ignored it. His father sounded urgent.

 

`He must have seen the blood.' He mused for a second. “In here.” He finally called out.

 

Seconds later, Toga appeared in the doorway. His eyes automatically fell upon the unconscious girl leaning against his son. “What happened?” He immediately assessed the situation. From her wrist to her elbow, Kagome was bandaged rather well. However, spots of red were slowly making their way to the surface. Turning his eyes to his son, he waited for an answer. “Well?” He encouraged impatiently.

 

Sesshoumaru seemed to not understand his father's language for he just sat there staring at her face again. While unconscious she looked so innocent, as if not a single fiber in her body could cause the slightest bit of harm to anything, let alone anyone. The young agent was shook out of his reveries.

 

“Sesshoumaru!” Toga was furious. “What happened?” At this point, he was no longer looking at his son. He was attending to the wound girl.

 

Seeing this, the boy did nothing, said nothing. He didn't need to. The old man would figure it out once he was done ripping the cloth off the girl's arm. The two gashes were once again visible to the viewing audience, the red liquid poring out more freely now. At the sight of the injury, Toga growled something similar to fucking Hell, but Sesshoumaru wasn't sure. He wasn't paying that much mind to the older man. Toga set about cleaning the cuts and that's when Sesshoumaru noticed the severity of the two first. They were deep, too deep for them to even think they might be able to stop the bleeding.

 

“She used a steel ruler.” Sesshoumaru voiced as way of explanation, his voice cold and unemotional. “I'd say a good half hour before we set foot on the sacred grounds.”

 

The words registered somewhere in Toga's brain, but he heard none of what was being said. His full attention was on the girl before him. She was pale from blood loss. He put some pressure to the cuts with one hand and dug out his phone with the other. Comprehending his father's intent, Sesshoumaru plucked the mobile device out of his father's bloody grasp.

 

“Send the paramedics a-sap, second floor bathroom.”

 

Sesshoumaru didn't bother waiting for a reply, knowing the sergeant downstairs would know what to do. With practiced ease, he gently laid Kagome down, mentally kicking himself for not thinking of calling the medics sooner. He stood up and searched through the shelves for anything of use. Hand towels. Perfect. It was just another expense to add to the broken bedroom door and all the cleaning products necessary.

 

Toga kept the girl's arm up while putting pressure to the wounds. It helped, but very little. He took the offered towels from his son. The cloth he'd been holding was soaked and didn't help in stopping the blood flow. At this rate, she would die of blood loss. The towels were better; very little of the red liquid made it through. It would have to do until the paramedics arrived.

 

A bunch of footsteps were running up the stairs and round the corner. Sesshoumaru went to the door and called out to them. The two Taka were relieved of their charge as the medical staff took over. Toga fell on his backside and backed away, giving plenty room to the professionals. They swiftly went to work, cleaning the arm some more and placing temporary stitches in place. Within minutes they were done and carrying the girl downstairs and out to the awaiting ambulance.

 

Toga hadn't moved from his spot. Blood smudged the bathroom floor and a bit of the walls. His hands and part of his clothing were covered by the liquid gore. Looking at his hands brought flash memories of his first encounter with that girl so long ago. Red was the main theme that day. Closing his eyes, he willed those painful memories to leave.

 

It took him weeks to wash away the images of the gore painted on his hands back then. He wondered how long it would take to wash this set of memories off his hands. Fisting the offending appendages so tight, Toga could feel his trimmed nails leaving crevices in his palm, his knuckles going deathly white.

 

Sesshoumaru watched from the doorway. His father wasn't handling this well. Not that he was doing any better. For a moment, he pitied his old man as a wide range of emotions flickered across his face.

 

Shock, sadness, pain, rage…

 

Those were but a few. He recognized, though, he had no right to feel pity for the guy. At least, he let his emotions come in play after the important events have been taken care of, unlike Sesshoumaru who recently seem to freeze on the spot.

 

Soft crying reached his ears. He heard voices from the first floor. `I guess she just found out.' Sesshoumaru thought, thinking back to how frantic the woman had become previously. Someone was surely there with her, someone with experience. That someone excluding the grandfather. They would probably take her to the hospital as well to treat her for shock. Besides, there was no doubt Anna would want to be near her daughter.

 

The young Taka sighed. He approached his father and crouched down beside him. His own hands were a little stained and most of his shirt ruined, but he didn't care. The woman's sobs slowly died away as both Taka stayed seated; one with his eyes shut tight, the other with his glazed over as he stared at the bloodied floor.

 

***

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A.N.

 

Sorry for the late update. I didn't have my laptop and that's where my stories are all typed down. Now that I've got it back, there you have it. What did you think? BTW, a-sap is quick for a.s.a.p. without having to say each word one by one. I don't know if I wrote it correctly or not (MSWord spell check didn't say it was wrong…) and I'm no expert when it comes to treating injuries, so pardon me if what I wrote doesn't make sense. Anyway…

 

Shout-Out (I'd put an `s', but damn… 1 review… geez, I feel loved…)

 

Miaa_hiaa: Thank you so much for shouting out your mind. *huggles back at you* ^_^ I'm a big LP fan and their songs help me speak my mind. Most of my chapters were done thanks to them!

 

Well that's it… I'll see if I feel like updating on Tuesday (like I usually do), but I'm really discouraged here people! Talk to you next time, c-ya.

 

Quote: Ill is easy to do; it is easy to do harm; hard indeed is it to do helpful and good deeds. - Buddha.