Pain, hate, suffering

Chapter 10



"ooohhh...Sango..." breathed Kagome, tears running down her face as she hugged her best friend, now departed from this world, her soul locked within the mirror of the void demon, Kanna.



The sounds of approaching footsteps reached her ears, but Kagome did not turn away from looking at Sango's face to see who it was. Grief consumed her, and guilt, for yet another person who was close to her had died, killed by her sworn enemy, and she had let it happen. Again.



"Sango! Sango!" yelled Miroku, and Kagome heard him. She heard when he came to a dead stop, his heart stopping along with his footsteps, his eyes going wide and his face becoming pale.



"Sango..." whispered Miroku, approaching slowly, his arm held out, reaching to grasp Sango's face. His eyes twitched, before he closed them and held his head down. His hand retracted, and grasped his staff, both hands holding it in a death grip.



Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, but only lasting a few seconds, his head came up, and his eyes opened. Finally, Kagome turned her head away from what used to be her best friend, and her eyes, heavy with grief and sadness, grew wide when she saw the expression on Miroku's face.



Pure hatred.



"What did you do to her?" he demanded, his voice laced with the pain and anguish that she was feeling, but also with anger, and thickly with accustation.



The accusation in his voice cut into her heart almost as deeply as Sango's departure from this world.



"Miroku?" Kagome asked, seeing the expression on his face, and for the first time since Naraku's castle, concern for her own well-being entered into her mind, and she backed away from Sango, leaving her body laying on the ground.



"Get away from Sango!" he yelled, lashing out with his staff, striking Kagome across the face. The miko flew backwards several feet, crashing onto the ground.



He ran to Sango's side, and setting down his staff, grabbed Sango up into his arms.



"Sango...I'm so sorry, my love, my beloved, I'm so sorry..." whispered Miroku, holding the body of his future wife to be, before he buried his head into her chest and finally let loose the tears of pain that he had held back into his body until this point.



Kagome laid still where she had fallen, pain racing around her head. Yet it wasn't the physical pain that kept her from moving, it was the emotional pain. Miroku hated her now. Worse, he thought that she had done this to Sango.



"Kagome...Sango..." came his voice, the voice of her one true love, Inuyasha, as he entered into the clearing.



Her one hope.



Gathering her thoughts and emotions into herself, Kagome found the strength in her love to turn over and sit up. She opened her eyes and saw Miroku clutching Sango, heaving himself dry of tears, and her own tears freshly flowed from her face. She turned to face Inuyasha, and what hope she had evaported from her.



His eyes, Inuyasha's eyes. Although he said nothing, moved nowhere, and just stood there, his eyes were a swirl of emotion, as they shifted from Sango to settle on her.



His eyes, the pain swirling through them, disappeared, to be replaced by the same hatred she saw in Miroku's eyes. Then, he spoke, his voice coming out cold and nearly emotionless.



"Leave."



With a sob, Kagome complied with his request, standing up and running into the forest, leaving the clearing behind. Inuyasha watched her retreating form for a while, until he could no longer sense or smell her, then he turned to where Miroku was holding Sango, and his eyes softened.



* * *



She ran, she didn't know for how long, but finally her physical body could go no longer without breath, and so she stopped, gasping in lungfuls of air. Her clothing was torn and shattered, after falling down numerous ledges, after breaking past many branches and thorns, her beautiful and delicate skin cut and bleeding in numerous places.



'They hate you.' entered a new thought into her mind. One that felt familiar to Kagome, but she couldn't place it. It was not one of her own thoughts, but one that she focused on, none-the-less.



'Miroku, Inuyasha, even Sango.' continued the voice inside her head. Kagome shook her head side to side.



"No." she said, whimpering as she collapsed to her knees.



'Yes. They think you killed Kohaku, killed Sango. They hate you.' countered the voice, adding a cruel laugh.



"They can't." Kagome whimpered, collapsing onto the ground now, tears streaming down her face anew.



'They do.' the voice in her head said, the finality in it finally breaking through Kagome's emotions.



"They...hate me..." she whispered, the tears stopping.



'Yes, they hate you.' reinforced the voice.



"Everyone hates me now..." Kagome continued, her eyes narrowing.



'No. Not everyone hates you. I don't.' said the voice.



"Your a liar. Everyone hates me." she countered, her eyes closing.



'I don't. I love you, Kagome.' professed the voice.



"Your just a figment of my imagination." she chuckled to herself.



"No, I am not." came the voice, real this time, from in front her.



Raising herself up onto her arms, Kagome gasped as she saw Naraku standing there, wearing his white ape outift, although the head was off. His eyes, red as they were, held such pity..and love.



"You..." Kagome began.



"I love you, dear Kagome. Come, come to me, and everything will be all right." he said, holding his arms wide open.



Naraku had offered the one thing to her that she now lacked, the one thing that helped her to move on in this world. Kagome didn't want to die, she wanted to exist. She needed the one thing that he was offering her.



Love.



With a sob, she stood up and ran into his arms, hugging him, crying uncontrollably.



"Oh Naraku." said Kagome, finally feeling at peace for the first time in a long time.



"There there Kagome," he said, patting her head as he hugged her. "Everything will be all right. Everything will be all right."



The smile on his face became wicked.



'Yes, everything will now be all right. As they should be.'