Loosely based on the short story Empathy by Brian Hodge

Just a note for you all. On the time thing Japan's a.m. and p.m. is reverse to the U.S. due to the different times zones. So 3 a.m. is actually 3 in the afternoon in Japan not 3 in the morning. Just an FYI.

I give you this as a Christmas gift if you do that sort of thing. Happy Holidays and will see you soon. Much love for you all. Keva

xx

It was just another day in the life of one Higurashi Kagome as she slid the key into the lock of the antique book store. Another day of the mundane; opening the store, turning on the lights, setting up the till, putting books away that didn't get put away the night before, checking the shipping and receiving log, and checking for any phone messages. Today like every other day was just the same; dull, boring, monotonous, repetitive and any other adjective that described her life. Hence why she worked in the book store.

Here in this dusty old store; where the scent of old paper permeated one's senses, she could get lost into the world of fantasy and pretend that her life was exciting. One hour she could be Marie Antoinette; ruling France, indulging in the extravagances of an eighteenth century life, and dressing in only the finest clothing the era had to offer then being put to the guillotine for treason. Okay so maybe not that part of her life but the rest was interesting.

Or perhaps she could be Joan of Arc. Leading an army, pushing out the English, fighting for her life, and all by the time she was seventeen years old. At seventeen she was just an average boring high schooler, with average grades, and few friends to speak of; where Joan of Arc had a whole army at her disposal… although she too had a rather nasty demise.

It didn't matter one way or the other how they died; what did matter was that their life was so interesting and exciting they managed to live on in the history books. No one would write a book about her life; nothing exciting ever happened to her nor would she ever dare take the risk to make her life exciting… it was much to frightening; the world outside her little bubble.

Kagome looked up from her book on Lady Jane Gray when she heard the small tinkling sound of the bell. "Good morning." She stated politely to the man; that reeked of danger and excitement. She watched him through her lashes and wondered what kind of man he was? His dark inky black hair braided straight down his back to his waist. His dark eyes; so dark they nearly matched the raven color of his hair. She could easily see his powerful muscles shifting and moving under his shirt as he wandered around the store searching for who knew what.

As dark and dangerous as he looked his clothing said otherwise for the most part. Dark blue levi's following the curves of powerful legs, heavy black boots adorning his feet, and a white tee shirt conforming to his broad upper body. She had to admit that he was very attractive in that deadly dangerous sort of way.

She blushed slightly when he glance over at her and quickly ducked her head back into her book; pretending to read and hoping he didn't catching her gawking at him like a piece of meat. She silently cursed her luck when she heard the sound of heavy booted feet come to a stop in front of the counter; then his deep rich baritone voice hit her ears and she was sure she was going to die. It was so rich and thick; it felt as if it had curled around her entire being prickling her flesh like a million little spiders crawling all over her body.

"Excuse me Miss."

She looked up at him and smiled a small shy smile. "Can I help you?" Her voice sounded distant and strained to her ears; causing her clear her throat in an attempt to bring it back to herself. "I mean can I help you?" She repeated as she locked stares with him.

Naraku smirked at her. "Do you have a book on the ancient art of tattooing?"

Kagome's eyes widened slightly before she shook her head to clear it of her sudden wandering thoughts on whether he had tattoos and if so where on his body they were located.

He watched her shake her head and sighed in annoyance. "Well do you know where I could find one then?" He questioned with an agitated drum of his fingers on the counter.

She shook her head again. "No… I mean yes." She mentally slapped herself for being acting so stupid in front of him.

Naraku narrowed his eyes upon her. "Well which is it? Do you or don't you know where I can find one?" He bit out darkly.

"I mean yes we have a few over there in the ancient arts section." She stepped off of the bar stool, smoothed out her navy blue skirt, and led him to the section. She skimmed the shelves until she found what he was looking for. "Right here." She pointed to the third shelf from the top of the bookcase. "We have three for you to choose from."

Naraku looked down at the rather plain girl, with her plain navy blue knee length skirt, plain white button down shirt tucked into the skirt with a plain black belt around her thin waist. Plain black hose adorned her legs; which were obviously long, with plain black pumps on her small feet. Her hair was pulled up and slicked back tightly into a plain bun; not a single strand out of place, and held together by a plain black rubber band. Hell even her face was plain; not an ounce of makeup to accentuate a single thing; and her voice, it was as plain as water. Had he been walking down the street and passed her by he would have never noticed her as she seemed to blend into the blandness of life.

"If what you are looking for isn't here I can do a search for it in our database and have it shipped to you if you would like."

He gave her a curt nod and watched her make her way back to her seat at the counter. Heck even her walk was plain and boring. He snorted to himself then turned to the books on the shelf and scanned the three books she had pointed out.

A deep evil grin pulled on his lips when he found exactly what he was looking for and it only took seven stores to find it. He plucked the book from the shelf and made his way to the counter where little miss plain Jane sat with a her plain ol' nose buried into a book. She was so dull and seemingly withdrawn that he was certain he could walk out of the store without paying for the book and she would do nothing to stop him nor would she even bother calling the cops. To throw such a wrench into her plain old life would most likely scare her to death.

He set the book on the counter and waited for her plain brown eyes to look up at him.

"Will that be all?" Kagome questioned as she closed her book and set it aside.

Naraku gave her a curt nod and watched her rather intently.

Kagome felt a shiver shoot up her spine with the way he was looking at her and decided that she wanted him out of the store as soon as possible. "That will be 4247.64 yen."

Naraku arched a dark brow as he pulled his wallet out of his pocket and handed her his credit card. "Are you the only one who works here?"

Kagome shook her head as she yanked the receipts from the machine. "Iie the owner and his wife work here in the evenings and on my day off." She handed him the two receipts with a pen.

"Day off?" He questioned as he quickly scratched his signature across the top receipt before handing it back to her.

Kagome gave a small nod. "Mondays" She answered then stuck his book into a brown paper bag and handed it to him.

Naraku didn't take the book right away; he just stared intently at her for a long moment.

"Um…" Kagome whispered as her brows knitted slightly. She watched as he plucked a white card from his wallet, wrote something on the back, then slid the card across the counter before taking the bag from her hand.

"Be there at three tomorrow afternoon. I do not tolerate tardiness." He stated darkly before he walked out of the store.

Kagome watched him go and spotted the hint of something brownish; seemingly creeping out of his shirt up the back of his neck. Was it one of his tattoos? She shook her head then looked down at the little white card on the counter. Picking it up she read the quickly scratched out kanji on the back. 'Sundown Café 3 a.m.' She flipped the card over and there was his name in big blood red letters. Naraku Kobayashi; owner operator of Blood Inc. Tattoos.

Everything about the card made her shiver nervously; especially the whole blood theme of his business, it just felt way too dangerous for her simple life. She dropped the card into the garbage can and went about the rest of her day like nothing happened.

xx

Kagome sat up in her bed at six in the morning like she did every single day and slid out from under the cream colored sheets to begin another boring day. She went through her typical routine of making a hot cup of tea, watching the news for about an hour, getting into the shower, getting dressed, having breakfast; which also was rather boring. An egg white omelet with nothing in it, a piece of wheat toast, and a glass of orange juice.

Once she finished her breakfast she cleaned her dishes, grabbed her purse, and headed off to work for another fun filled day of old books. As she slipped the key into the lock of the store she sighed a small sigh then entered the store; going through the same routine she did every single day. "Turn on the lights." She whispered to herself then walked to the back office. "Ready the till." She opened the safe, grabbed the till Kenshi-san prepared for her the night before and closed it; spinning the lock.

She made her way to the register and punched the buttons; causing the drawer to slide open, and slipped the tray in before closing the drawer. She glanced around the store and sighed. "Put the book away."

Walking over to the table she picked up the three books that had been lying there since she left the day before she put them away in their respective area on the shelves then walked back to the office. "Check the log." Flipping the book opened she noted that there were no shipments coming or going. So with yet another sigh she flipped the book closed and turned to the answering machine.

"Check messages." She punched the button and waited.

'You have one message.' The computerized voice stated. "Probably just another wrong number as always." She stated plainly. 'Received at 2:13 p.m.' Kagome stared at the machine. "Who would be calling here at two in the morning? Most likely a wrong number"

Suddenly she blanched then paled as she fell back; thankful that the chair was behind her, otherwise she would have landed on the hard floor on her bottom.

"Three o'clock. Do not be late."

She would know that voice anywhere; it was the tattoo guy. Did he know that she wasn't going to go? Impossible; he was just some strange guy that wanted her there so he could do something horrible to her; like rape her or kill her.

That's what he wanted. To have her meet him in some public place, charm her into leaving with him, then take her somewhere where he could do all kinds of horrible things to her. She could easily see herself lying in a pool of blood in the middle of nowhere, half naked or all naked, displayed pitifully for any that happened upon her.

She jerked and nearly fell out of the chair when the phone began ringing and she reached a shaking hand to answer it then jerked back when the machine picked it up.

Her breath caught in her throat and her heart began beating madly in her chest when she heard his voice in the machine.

"I know you're there. Do not think of not showing; unless you prefer your plain Jane life in that little bookstore. Living the life of someone who will never be known or remembered."

His voice suddenly dropped into a low deep whisper that sent a freezing chill up her spine.

"The fantasy world you dream of can be real." Then he was gone with a click and a dial tone.

Kagome slowly came back to herself and stared at the machine for a few seconds before reaching out a shaky hand and hitting the delete button. She wrapped her arms about herself and tried to rub the warm back into her body with a rub of her hands on her upper arms. She was frightened but at the same time had a thrilling tingle throbbing in her gut demanding that she meets him.

No; she wasn't going to do it. She was happy and content right where she was in her life. She left the office and stared around at the many shelves filled with old books. Yes she was happy here in this old bookstore with all these old books to keep her company each day then going home to her empty apartment with nothing but her tv and bed waiting for her to come home and not caring if she didn't make it home.

If she were to never make it home; who would even notice? If something were to happen to her one day it would be almost a full day before anyone noticed she was missing; namely her boss. She had no friends here; her family lived almost a day away in Tokyo, no pets, and she definitely had no boyfriend to speak of. She had nothing or no one here.

Yet this was her life and it was the life she chose to live. She made her way out to her seat behind the counter and picked up her book. Yep living in the fantasy world of fiction was just fine with her.

Or was it?