Let The Night Begin

Chapter Four



xxxxx



Blood?



That was the first thing I noticed when I started to emerge from the cold depths of my mind. I knew it was everywhere. It was splattered all over me, dried and flaky. I could feel it's grimy texture on my skin, coating me thickly like dust. The smell was clogging my nostrils until it was the only thing I smelt. Sickening. Vile. Nauseating.



Why?



Why blood? Where was it all coming from, or were it all came from? It was so thick it felt like a glove on my already cold and clammy skin underneath. I couldn't remember anything. So many questions, yet no answers. My memories were too fuzzy. It put me in mind of water. No matter how hard you try to hold it in your bare hands, it still managed to drip between your fingers. That's how I felt right now.



Images, glances of a... nightmare. Was I having a nightmare?



No, not a nightmare. The reason behind all the blood. The blood was mine, wasn't it? The group of men surrounding me after I left the prom. Wasn't there someone else with me? Who? I couldn't recall his face, nor his name. Was it even a he? Who was this unknown person?



So many questions floating around in my mind, why can't I answer them? Why couldn't I remember? Maybe my mind was trying to keep the memories from resurrecting, trying to protect me from them. I knew one thing, whatever happened to me was terrible.



Wait, I remembered the 'who' it was. It was Inuyasha, wasn't it? Yes. It was him. We left the prom, it was a stupid event. While going to his car, we were ambushed. Ambushed by Naraku and the others. Drunken, angry grown men. They attacked us, but why?



Inuyasha was stabbed trying to protect me. I reached him, felt for a pulse. Felt nothing. He was dead, I was sure of it. But he was breathing. Felled by true monsters of the world. My fallen angel and protector.



Then what happened?



No, I don't... mustn't... I don't won't to remembered! I mustn't remembered, for if I do remember, then I will be lost.



The memories are coming, please, spare me this horror!



The memories flashed through my mind, even though I tried to stop them from rising to the surface. As I remembered what had happened to me, my heart and sense of safety were riped apart and destroyed.



I was raped...



Brutally gang raped and something happened to cause the man who was above me to slash my throat. What? What happened? Why can't I remember!? Wait, I do remember now. Inuyasha. Somehow he had came back. He was lost to me, lost to the clutches of death.



Death?



Am I dead?



Surely if I was alive, my body would be in agony, mind boggling pain. However, I felt nothing but peaceful content. No pain, no heart ache. I must be dead. If I'm dead, I don't have to suffer any nightmares, never having to look behind my shoulder to make sure that the men wouldn't come back and finish what they had started.



I'll just fade. Fade away to nothingness so I won't remember and suffer.



Yet, I'm breathing? Do the deceased breath? No, of course not. They're dead, they just rot away and leave nothing but bones behind and in time the bones turn to dust. But, if I'm breathing, why don't I feel pain?



Wait, Inuyasha. Something was different about him when he came back. Wasn't there? Feral, blood red eyes. Slashing fangs.



Fear. Yes, I had feared him. For the first time, I feared him like no other. My fear of him didn't even scratch the surface of my fear of my rapists. For if I had never seen what he had become, then I would have ever believed what he had became.



My name? Someone's calling out to me. Who? Is that... Inuyasha?



Inuyasha: friend, angel, protector... fiend, monster, undead... vampire.



I broke through the stupor I was in screaming. I clawed at the hands that were digging into my skin, even that the hands were no longer there. My nails left behind blood welts on my arms and legs as I clawed at them, desperate to get the hands off of me. Where was the blood? I could smell it. The scent was everywhere, but I didn't see any of the red substance.



I heard someone say my name, but I didn't listen. I felt something wrap around my wrists and pull them away from my bloody skin. With a yelp, I kicked out and the sound of flesh hitting flesh met my ears along with a grunt of pain. I was shoved on my back, a heavy weight slammed into me, pinning me down, crushing my lungs to the point it was hard to breath.



Fear, and terror warred at me as Naraku's face flashed in my mind. I opened my mouth to scream but a hand forced my jaw shut, almost causing me to bit off my tongue. No! I cried out to myself, it wasn't over. I was still trapped. Trapped in a nightmare that just wouldn't stop. A nightmare where Naraku was the devil and his henchmen the boggy men. And they were still attacking me, still trying to kill me. I drew up my knee and it connected with bone.



“Ouch!” The person above me yelped, I bit the hand over my mouth to the point I tasted blood. I instantly wished I hadn't. The blood rolled over my tongue and it left me felling strange. My skin felt flushed and tightly stretched over my bones. My skin broke out in a light sweat, it tasted like the best red wine I've tired when I was longer. Yet it was even better. It was intoxicating. My tongue slipped out and I licked at the blood pooling around my lower face.



I felt my stomach clench and unclench, a fire started to burn. It felt like I had a severe case of heart burn. The burn quickly spread out from my stomach to consume my limbs. My throat felt so, so dry. It felt like I've been eating sand all night and day and sandpaper was rubbing against it. I've been thirsty before, but it was never this bad.



I didn't even realize that I had bitten the person a second time when the blood flow had stopped. The hand was quickly removed from my mouth and I looked up into crimson red eyes.



I thought I felt my heart stop and I opened my mouth to scream. The eyes were those of a demon, swirling, red hot. Their heated gaze caused my skin to burn. My scream was shut off short when a mouth was crushed against my own. My jaw was forced open and a tongue invaded my mouth. Fear clutched my heart and I resumed my struggles. I needed to get away from who ever this was.



As soon as it began, it stopped. The lips were pulled away from my own and a rugged curse met my ears, it was more husky then a growl. I watched as the burning red eyes dimmed down to a golden color. I knew those eyes. My own left his eyes and my gaze searched his face.



I cried out in relief, it wasn't Naraku. It was my fallen friend. Wait, he wasn't fallen, was he. He was alive, his, gag, kiss was proof enough to me. Also he was pinning my to the ground. My eyes left his own and I looked around me. I was in a cellar, it looked like a barn cellar. Several large bags of oats were piled against the door to keep it shut and to keep others from getting in here, I assumed.



I stared in amazement.



Everything was so clear. It was like my vision was a hundred times better then it was the night before. Each speck of dust was beautiful to the eye. I stared in wonder, wondering why my vision was better. Not only that, but it seemed like my nose was much better too.



Now since I was no longer freaking out about the blood thing, I could smell everything from the dust specks themselves, to the oats and the foul horse shit. The smell of the wind at dusk was a tease to my nose, the scent of vegetation was thick in the air, along with the smell of wood rot and mice.



I turned my eyes back to Inuyasha and stared at him. What on earth was going on? My amazement was suddenly replaced with horror. The image of the blood splattered Inuyasha flash in my mind and I scrambled to my feet, my hand at my mouth. He watched me like a hawk, aware of each move of my muscles.



“What...” I started, I was halfway unsure if I truly wanted to know the truth, but I had to know. “What are you?” I finished lamely, halfway hoping that he would burst out laughing and pull out the contacts that made his eyes suddenly flash red once more, and pull out a fake pair of vampire teeth.



He did nether.



I waited. The pause made me twitchy, it felt like I had to move, to run, but I forced myself into staying still. He blinked slowly and took a deep breath. Pushing himself off the ground, I scrambled backwards, my sudden haste almost made me trip over my own two feet. His eyes bore into my own.



Slowly, as if afraid of startling me, he walked over to me, his pace non hurried. My left foot took a step back before I realized what I had done, angry at myself for my cowardice, I forced myself to stay put while Inuyasha came closer. Without speaking, he reached down slowly and took my hand. His touch burned my flesh and I tried to flinch away from the contact of his fingers on my own but he held me still.



He turned my hand over and placed it over his chest. I stared at his eyes, forcing them away from their honey suckle flow, the red had vanished once more. My eyes followed the sharp bone of his jaw, his skin was silky smooth looking, with a light tan.. I wondered why he was tan. My eyes lowered to his chest, which I realized that it was bare. My eyes didn't want to leave the sight of his bare chest, I swear that I had started to drool.



Right then and there, I wanted to smother his yummy looking body in a bottle of Hersey's chocolate and lick it all off before I jumped his bones. It was hard, but I forced my eyes to the back of my hand. It was lily pale against his copper color.



My hand was over his heart.



“What do you feel?” He murmured in his velvety smooth voice. Holy Moses, my ears must have been cleaned out because his voice made me suddenly want to melt into a warm gooey puddle. I shook myself out of my lustful haze and took in his question. I furrowed my brows and looked back up at him.



“I don't understand.”



A quick, crooked smile flashed over his features, suddenly disbanding the harsh set to his jaw and mouth. “You're making my question too hard, Kagome. It's not a philosophical or a metaphorical question, it's a literal one. What do you feel that's missing?”



I opened my mouth, going to ask him what the hell he meant but I snapped it shut. A literal question? I looked back at my hand. It was resting over his chest, right above his heart. Yet. As I waited to feel the pulse, I felt nothing. I blinked and took my hand back and grabbed his wrist and felt for a pulse there. Nothing. Nothing at his neck either.



A little confused, I felt for my own pulse, yet I couldn't find it either. Where my fingers numb, or had they just gone stupid at the touch of his skin. I looked up at his face, still a little bewildered.



“I don't understand.”



“Watch.” He said softly, “it'll make sense soon enough.” I watched as he lifted his hand and drew his nail across his palm. I gasped as a red line appeared and it started to trickle blood.



“You're hurt--”



“Watch.” He said once more, and held a finger up to my lips to hush me. I watched as the blood flowed freely down his arm, but it stopped. It was like watching something in reverse, the blood flowed back to the wound and I watched as it quickly sealed itself shut until a small white line was left. Even that too was gone in a few more seconds.



Mesmerized now—I wasn't sure if I would be able to look away he still looked the same as before. His arm was perfect, like there had never been a cut in the first place. I traced my hand over the long gone cut, more confused now then ever. I didn't see his hand move. One second, his left hand was hanging at his side, the next, his nail was digging painfully into my skin.



I let out a cry and jerked back, holding my hand to my chest as I looked down to survey the damage. Five crescent shaped cuts were in the top of my hand, I watched as blood welled up to the surface and flowed over. Horrified now, I watched as the blood returned to the five small cuts and vanished altogether.



I forced my eyes back up at him, I was close to loosing it, I could feel it. A sharp laugh escaped my throat, I was close to hysterics as well. “You son of a bitch, you cut me, why?” I snapped at him, glad that anger had finally made its appearance.



“Look at me, Kagome.” Inuyasha said when I looked back at my hand, now healed. I searched my arm for the scar from the car crash that I was in a couple of years ago, it was a jagged puckered scar, but it was gone now.



“No.” I said, well and truly frightened once again. I didn't know this stranger. I didn't know a thing about him, he was sick. A true sick fetish freak trying to convince me of something that's not true.



“Look, Kagome. I ask of you, please look me in the eye. I want you to know that I am telling you the truth when I say this.” He pleaded with me.



“No” I said with more force this time, I refused to look, he couldn't make me.



“Yes, you will look me in the eye when I tell you the truth. Look at me, Kagome.” He snapped, “or are you so afraid of me?”



“Of course I'm afraid!” I snapped back at him, “why wouldn't I be? I'm stuck in a barn with a crazed madman who just sliced his own wrist! Why should I believe you when you say you're telling the truth?”



Yet, against my will, I looked at him, making eye contact. I wish I hadn't look at him, for there was truth in his eyes. He honestly believed with his non beating heart in something that didn't exist.



“You and I.” He started, “We are vampires.”



I stared at Inuyasha for a split second. Laughter bubbled out of my chest and overflowed my mouth until I was doubled over in laughter. “Yeah, right!” I gasped between breaths. “If you're a vampire then that makes me Marilyn Marrow.” Wetness collected at the corner of my eyes as I tried to stop my laughter. Calming down, I stood back up straight.



Inuyasha was nothing but a crazed wannabe vampire. That probably explained the changing color eyes. He must have went and bought some high tech contacts or something, his so called fangs were also probably nothing but fakes super glued in his mouth.



“That's sick, you know that? And what's even worse is that I was starting to believe what you was telling me. Geez, you should have kept the 'v' word under wraps for a couple of more hours until you had me totally convinced you weren't human. Go ahead and take out the contacts.”



“Contacts?” He asked, bewildered. “Don't you understand what I have told you?”



“Yeah, yeah, I know. You're a vampire, undead, a bloodsucker, a leech, Nosferatu, a fake, a sick freak o with an even sicker fetish. Shall I continue or have I got it right? I bet you go around and stab people in the necks and suck them dry. Oooohhhh, scary.” I said waving my arms around a bit, I felt a little foolish, but this whole thing was probably nothing more then a sick joke.



If I hadn't knew Naraku and Inuyasha better, I wouldn't be surprised if they had somehow hypnotized me into thinking that I was raped stupid and that my throat was slit.



I wondered were the cameras were, they were probably laughing at me. Wait till I slap a lawsuit in their smug faces, laugh on that mother fuckers. I thought bitterly.



“Oh, wait, I did miss something. If you're a 'vampire', and I'm a 'vampire' then what's gonna happen? Am I gonna start running around in a Dracula cape saying “I shall drink your bloooood.” And, don't forget, “I... Am... Dracula!” I snorted in disgust, my friendship with this weirdo in the trash. As soon as I got home, I'm going to hire myself a lawyer and I am going to sue everyone who was involved in this sick joke.



Inuyasha sighed, interrupting my thoughts. I looked up at him, no, more like glared at him. I only wanted to go home now. I was just tried. “There must be a way to prove to you what I am saying is the truth. I am not lying, my dear, I am telling the truth. I am a vampire, and I know how to prove it to you.”



I snorted at that, “Oh, what? You gonna whip out a cape and do Dracula's line while flashing fake fangs super glued to your gums? Pleased, you sick bastard. You're going to get sued along with the others.” I looked back up at him but paused, when did he move? Striking a simple pose, he had his arms crossed across his chest and his ankles were crossed too. I stared at his feet, they weren't touching the ground.



I looked back up at his face, he was smiling a small sad smile. That's what I noticed extending from his back. Large, leathery black wings. I didn't even realized I had moved. I took a mad dash towards the door barred by bags of oats. They should have been too heavy for me to budge even in the slightest, but grabbed the door handle and pulled with all my might. The bags weighed next to nothing.



Not pausing long enough to take that interesting tidbit in, I raced towards the large double doors at the far end of the horse stables. The sound of leather met my ears and blackness surrounded me. Shutting off all sense of sight, leaving the sound of breath against my neck and the nervous tramping of the horses around me.



I gave a cry of pure, unadulterated terror.



Whimpering in fear, I struggled to free myself, but I couldn't move at all. Arms were wrapped around my shoulders and I felt Inuyasha's face against my neck, his chin resting on my shoulder. Darkness closed around me until the only thing I could see were the thin leathery wings surrounding me like a cocoon. “Shh.” He cooed like I was an child afraid of the fuzzy green sweater in the closet. “Don't be afraid. I won't hurt you, Kagome.”



I didn't believe him.