To Tame a Hanyou

It was so dark. Kagome stood there for a moment and waited as her
eyes adjusted to the dimness of the room. The only light came from
the square hole near the ceiling on the far side of the room.
She felt around on the wall next to her for a switch. Finding one,
she flipped it. A small light lit up part of the room, the one she
was in. On the floor were beads...hundreds of dark colored beads, some
the size of marbles, some the size of baseballs, and all sizes in
between. Mixed with the scattered beads were what looked like fangs, or
teeth of some sort, probably youkai, maybe some sacred animal. They all
stopped at a rounded borderline a few feet in front of her.
Her field of vision lifted from that borderline and froze. It took a few
seconds for her mind
to comprehend the gruesome scene. The wall was smudged with
what looked like blood. There were gashes, no, deep claw marks in the concrete.
There was a mattress, or what had been a mattress, close to the wall. It had
been ripped to shreds, tufts of cotton fluff spilling out of it and all over
the floor.

The floor.

It was covered in...blood? Pools of it were everywhere. White mattress
guts stained dark red were soaking up the rancid gore like a sponge sucks
up water. The coppery smell of fresh blood mixed with the putrid stink
of dead blood, making her dizzy with nausea.

Suddenly, the shock hit hard and her knees felt like jelly. This
was...was....

She couldn't describe it. It was so...so...horrible. Kikyo couldn't,
wouldn't allow something so barbaric, so...cruel.

Something caught her attention, something in the far corner.
It was a lump, a human
sized lump. She stared at it for a few seconds, wanting so badly to
run over there. Was that him? What if he was hurt so badly he couldn't
move? What if he was dead?

Kagome carefully walked to the barrier line, the line where all the
tooth and beads stopped. If she crossed that line, she would be in
terrible danger. She could die.

Yet, the more she stared at the lump, the harder her heart pounded.
She was scared, so scared. Not for herself....but for him.

Kagome stepped over the line.

Carefully, she eased closer and closer, the dim light adjusting
more and more. There were round beads, beads the size of tennis
balls, covering the lump, not just
covering but wrapped around it. The lump moved a slight bit and the beads
crackled with sparks of lightning white current. The lump groaned. It was
him!

She eased up close so that he was right below her. Then, she knelt down.

Kagome, trembling, maybe with fear, examined the creature
before her. The youkai was on his stomach in a near fetal position. The
large black beads, covered in fresh and dried blood,
were tightly wrapped around his entire bare body which was also
dark with clots of filth and gore.
He had long hair but she couldn't tell what color for it was
soaked in blood and plastered to his back and most of his face. His
hands were beneath him, under his stomach. God...he looked dead. But... he
had moved.

Swallowing her fear, Kagome reached out, not knowing exactly what she
was doing or even noticing the tiny plip plops falling to the
floor from her cheeks. As she touched one of the beads, a tear fell on it.
Without a sound, the beads fell from his body to click clack on the bare
concrete floor. They rolled in all directions as Kagome, startled,
fell back on her rear.

Sitting there, Kagome didn't move. The youkai in front of her slumped
to the floor as a long sigh of air escaped him. Now flat on the floor,
he moved in slight jerks and spasms, groaning long and low in agony.
"Mother...." His voice was slured.

Kagome reached out again. "My name is Kagome. I...I want to help."

His body began to shake as he quietly wept. "I...couldn't...break them...
Mother....Now she'll know...Help me....Take me home."

He was speaking out of his head. Delusional.

Kagome could feel the tears
running down her cheeks this time.

When he moved his hand out from under him, Kagome felt her skin prickle with
numbing shivers.

The hand was human.

.

.

.