Chapter 1.

"Kagome, come over here!" Inuyasha called.

I slowly walked over to him, flinching in pain from the bruises I had all over my body.

"Hey, what's up?" he questioned, having seen me flinch.

I put on a fake smile, every one at school was gonna know by the end of the day, why not tell him now?

"Kagome, what happened to you? When did you get all those bruises?" he questioned as he pulled me in closer to him.

"I did something wrong last night… at one of mom's fancy dinner parties. And then I slipped on a piece of ice. And hit a couple of tables and stuff…" I stated, knowing that he would see right through my disguise. But at the same time, I froze. Why? I don't know, but all I could think about was the way that she stood above me while she brought the belt down time after time against my bare skin. But my muscles had gotten to tough for it to hurt when she used her hands… so now she used a belt to get me to cry out in pain. And she needed me to cry out in pain.

Inuyasha shushed me by putting a finger against my lips. "Don't," he said, hugging me slightly, calming me down. "Don't say you slipped on a piece of ice. It's impossible to get so many bruises from slipping on a single piece of ice. Someone would have had to beat you with a belt!" he said, trying to tease me. But he saw the look in my eyes and froze. And as I gazed back at him, his amber orbs were starting to tear up. "why didn't you tell me?" he asked. Hurt.

"I don't know… I just didn't think that it was bad…" I started. But he shushed me again.

"Not another word from you unless you say you told someone. Like Sango or Miroku." He said, like if I said that I told somebody, it would ease his pain.

And no matter how hard I tried to lie to him, I new that he would know. "No, I didn't tell Sango. I'm sorry, but today I have to get away from my house… The school is gonna know by the end of the day… And moms' only beat me worse if I go home." I said, even though it was hurting him. And I knew that it was hurting him, so I hugged him closer to me, trying to ease both of our pain. "Look, I was scared! They just keep getting worse. When I was little, I could just say that I bumped my head or something. Now I can barely walk. Look at these."

I slowly pulled my sock down my leg, revealing some deep gashes and scars and bruises.

"Hey," Miroku said, running over to us behind Sango. "What's up?"

"Nothin' much," I said as I hurriedly pulled my sock back over my leg. But in doing so, I scraped one of the many large scabs off. It started bleeding, and my white sock was almost instantly red. "OW!"

Inuyasha smelled it; his demon senses could tell that it was really bad. "Hey, we need to get you to a doctor!" he screamed.

I felt woozy, like I was gonna pass out. Something was wrong. I collapsed, and Inuyasha had to pick me up off of the ground.

I shut my eyes, and let the blackness take over. I couldn't hear, so I couldn't hear my friends yelling my name. Desperately trying to wake me up.

"Kagome! Kagome! Kagome!"