Dry Your Eyes [2/? PG-13]

[Leia Avenrose]

Disclaimer: I?m only going to repeat this for the next ? two chapters. *smiles sweetly* I do not own Inuyasha and the cast. I own? well, let?s see? my computer, as it is my precious *strokes her computer*, and the pencils and papers on my desk. Title to the chapter is from Breaking Benjamin.
Dedication: Ice Princess, Iron Dog, Lady Casper, Mellie, & Noko Marie.





Dry Your Eyes
By: Leia Avenrose
Rating: PG-13
Warning: A bit of violence... nothing too drastic?. *ahem*


Chapter Two ? Broken Soul

Her fist smashed into the side of his face, snapping his head painfully to the right. She shoved at him, trying to push him off of her, her nails digging into his shoulders. Souta tested his jaw, wriggling it from side to side, staring at her. He continued to firmly stand his ground. For a moment, and at this she thought she had been clearly mistaken, or that the tumble brother and sister had taken had distorted her eyesight a tad; she could?ve sworn the color of his eyes had shifted, the skin along his cheeks and jaw rippling.

Thunder shook the shrine walls.

?Get? off of me, Souta,? Kagome growled, beating a fist against his shoulder. His lower torso pinned her down into the ground. She was too caught up in trying to get to the well to even notice the bugs scurrying along the earth.

There was a nagging at the back of her mind, the sort that subtly forewarned about impending disaster. She continued to squirm beneath him, trying to kick her legs out, but that proved ineffective. Souta didn?t seem as though he was going anywhere, his knees digging further into her legs.

?I can?t let you go down there, Kagome,? her brother murmured, watching her. She stared up at him, silent, putting a halt to her struggles. He used her silence to continue, ?You can?t go back, you don?t know what?s there waiting for you. Seven years, Kagome; things have probably changed to a point where they aren?t as they used to be.?

Lightning flashed outside, lighting up the inside of the shrine brightly, followed immediately with a ground-shaking clap of thunder. She kept the look of horror from her face, her eyes widening in the slightest at what she saw within the shadow of lightning that had been cast across his features.

This wasn?t her brother; it couldn?t be.

Realizing, in the back of her mind, how true his words were, she bit the inside of her cheek, quickly lowering her eyes. What if things had changed? What if everyone had forgotten about her? What if they had moved on? How was she going to get through those boards? The hammer had to be somewhere nearby?

Again the dreaded feeling returned.

Kagome lifted her eyes, and then cast a glance around, trying to ignore the fingers digging into her arms now. She was too vulnerable trapped like this, she had to get out from under him and be prepared for what was to come. It was only then did she notice the bugs. She shrieked, her face paling even more, and gave a mighty shove. Caught off-guard, Souta fell over with a large sickening crunch. Kagome jumped to her feet, frantically brushing at the front and back of her clothing, and gasped out.

The hammer lay just in front of her, in easy reach, tucked beneath the small flooring. Now if only... Immediately, she bolted for it, nearly losing her footing on the loose dirt.

Souta rolled quickly, scrambling to his feet. He ran for her, his long legs carrying him easily over the covered well. Kagome slid to her knees along the soil, not caring if the skin was scraped raw off her knees and calves; her hand dived beneath the flooring, grasping the heavy wooden handle.

A hard hand clamped down on her shoulder. Digging his fingers into her skin, bruising her, he yanked her to her feet roughly, reaching to grab her other shoulder and spin her around to face him. Kagome turned the handle in her hand, and swung at him, closing her eyes as she did so.

===============================================

The Higurashi house was quiet. No lights lit the windows; the lightning did that for the tenants. From the inside, two figures stood in waiting, their eyes glinting deep red as more lightning filled the skies, lighting up the room they both occupied. At the sharp scream that pierced the night only to be drowned out by the thunder, the pair looked to each other.

Their gazes met, held, then wandered back to the window.

?He can handle her.?

?How can you be so sure??

The one figure to the right, a female with short brown hair, creamy pale skin; looked to her companion. ?He handled the half-breed, did he not?? She looked back out the window, squinting through the lacy, semi-transparent curtains.

The man on the left, his skin weathered, old and darkly tanned, nodded curtly, his knobby hands clasped behind his back. ?That is correct.?

Another scream filled the night. They looked to each other, and then made their way slowly for the door. Sliding it open, they both stepped out into the rain, heading towards the shrine.

===============================================

Kagome stared in horror at the body before her. The second blow had hit his neck hard, snapping it, while the first had grazed his temple. Looking to the hammer still clenched in her hand, she saw the dark blood coating the metal and sucked in sharply at the mere sight of it. Of course, long ago, she had seen her share of gore, blood and everything else imaginable, but it was the fact now, in the present time, that she had just struck her brother with a hammer, killing him that chilled the very marrow in her bones.

??Souta?? she whimpered, her eyes moving back to her brother?s unmoving corpse. She crouched, holding the hammer in front of her as a weapon in case, and reached out with trembling fingers to touch his hair, but pulled her hand back, biting her lip.

He was dead; there was nothing she could do to change that.

Is he really? her mind seemed to purr in question. Absently she nodded, standing slowly. The bugs darted out of her path, as she moved to where the well stood. It seemed as if it were all just a dream, a bad one.

It was now or never. She had to know what was beyond the boards, what had become of a place she had grown to call her home with him by his side, with her friends close and safe.

Bringing the hammer up over her head, she cringed, feeling the sharp painful tug in her chest near her collarbone, but she ignored it. Getting to Inuyasha was far more important then some small cut. The head of the hammer smashed through the boards, and feeling the adrenaline flow through her veins, she quickened her task, breaking through the wood easily.

As she began to break the edges off to make the passage safer, Kagome gradually came to a halt. She lifted her head, hastily pushing her hair out of her face and blinked, nearly dropping the hammer into the well.

Kagome stared at the pair that stood in the doorway of the shrine. Their faces were impassive, their eyes as brown as hers, as guarded and thoughtful. She studied them a moment, then exhaled heavily, almost feeling relieved, and lifted a hand to wipe the back of it along her brow. Unconsciously, she began to shift the hammer in her hand in a nervous gesture.

There was a soft shuffling from behind. Suddenly she screamed out in fright, feeling the fingers fasten around her ankle. The hammer slipped from her fingers, hit the side of the well and, to her dismay, was swallowed up by the darkness that peered up at her. A hand came up into view, grabbing onto the edge of the well. Feeling faint, Kagome tried to stumble away upon seeing her brother?s face come into view. The blood clinging to the side of his face was disturbing, his hair matted to his forehead; had she really caused him to bleed like that?

?This isn?t happening,? she gasped, her eyes fixed on her brother?s face. He glowered at her as he was pulling himself up, his hand creeping higher up the length of her leg. His fingers bit into her skin, and Kagome kicked at him, failing to hold back the startled shriek, as the skin on his face began to tear and melt away, revealing what was really underneath.

Things couldn?t get any worse?

[Lara Winner]

Oh dear... Kagome's really gotten herself in a pickle now.

And there are so many ways this fic could go. They said he took care of the hanyou, so does that mean he killed Inuyasha? Or did he convince Inu to block the well from the past? Or... nope I'm going to keep my guesses to myself and try to wait patiently for the next chapter (ie...check back every five minutes.)

Excellent chapter!

[Katisha888]

I'm getting a bit confused. Are you talking about the Souta version A who she hit with the hammer and who she thought was dead, rising out of the well? Coz I re-read the last couple of paragraphs, and I thought his corpse was somewhere down on the ground while she was hacking away at the cover of the well. Now its either the guy she hacked has risen up and grabbed her ankle, or he just popped out of the well... :-?

[Noko Marie]

And then it all turns out to be an attack of dyspepsia due to overripe pickles from one of the shrine families::not::

Thank God she has that hammer! And, if she bleeds, Inuyasha!

You can tell I'm all over this

[takisha16]

woah......creeepppppyyy.
If I were kagome, I think I would have died already! jjaja
I hope she turns out to be alright! Man, if my "brother" did what souta just did....I'd be totally freakin out.
Nice ch., it conveyed pretty good the events that were told, like it made you feel as if you were in kagomes shoes.
nice job!

[Leia Avenrose]

Katisha: She had struck her brother with the hammer; his body falls at her feet. She crouches down to examine it, rethinks that idea, then moves from the body to the well. The body HAD been down on the floor while she was hacking at the well. Souta just, with the shuffling, moves to where Kagome is at the well, grabs her ankle with one hand, while grabbing onto the side of the well to pull himself up off the ground.

Not out of the well, sillies.

"A hand came up into view, grabbing onto the edge of the well." (Sorry if that confused you. The hand comes up from behind, grabbing onto the edge of the well, basically; it didn't come OUT of the well... hehehhee! In other words, as she looks down to where the hammer fell INTO the well, the hand from behind comes into her line of sight, grabs the side of the well, et viola. :):) )

[Mellie]

*screams* Leia! Is that how you end a chapter? . Wonderfully done. Absolutely held me once again. It was very suspenseful and I was glued to the screen waiting to see what would happen. I love this story. So much going on in it. I hope to see more chapters out soon!

[ice princess]

what...in the...sAm HiLL....is goiNG....ON?!?!?!?!?!?!? KAGOME, WHERE ARE YOU?!?!?!?!? (over here!! sorry, scooby doo reference) No really, is she in some alternate reality or something??!?!? Are her family dangerous or do they know something about the past that she doesn't (well, that's obvious, duh) and they're *oh-so-benevolently* trying to keep her from her ultimate doom??? The action is giVing mE A HEART-ATTACK!!!!!! I'M HAVING...CHEST PAIN!!!!!

Great, now I need to invest in the "Life Alert" system, especially designed for geezers and Leia Avenrose's fanfic readers.

Good Holy Lord, I love your writing. This fic is dark, dark, dark, and I love, love, love it. The darker the better! Mmmm, dark! Darky, dark, dark! Whoa, that sounded like a very bad racial epithet.

I'm going to stop while I'm ahead (Poor Souta! Sorry, I said *ahead* and thought of Kagome and her swing-happy hammer-wielding hand) and just say...wow. This fic ain't so bad!

~ice princess

P.S. You don't know how much it means to me to read your response to my...response. Since I really do nothing but read and read some more, it makes my heart go pitter-pat when I see that my silly comments make my authors' day. Thank you!

[ice princess]

Oh, and when I saw that the title of your fic is indeed the Breaking Benjamin song, I realized that you are just plain cool (because I apparently never realized that before? false!). I ADORE that song because, since the very first moment I heard it I thought of IY. It practially SCREAMS 'songfic', but surprisingly I see it in a SesshyxKags fic (my favorite couple). Really I just associate it with a fic I read with that alt. pairing that was equally dark but in an entirely different way. But, I prattle. This *short* note was just to say, excellent choice of song!

~ice princess, again

[Eden]

All that I can truly say is Wow. You have me compleatly at the edge of my seat with this ficcy. I have absolutly no idea what will happen and I love it ^^

AMAZING work on this! I can't wait to see what else you have planed ^^

~Eden