Here's my first submitted attempt at something that isn't a comedy or a oneshot. I'm pretty optimistic about it, so please read and enjoy!
Disclaimer: Takahashi has everything and I have nothing.
"He's catching up to us Inuyasha!" They were running through an overgrown field. It was midnight, but lightning lit the sky every few seconds. The rain poured, making it nearly impossible to see or move through the wet brush. Grass slapped at them as they ran and weeds and their feet tangled in the knotted weeds and brambles. It was cold, but neither registered the temperature as they made their escape.
"Just keep going. I'll hold him off if he gets any closer!" Inuyasha growled. He was running alongside his companion, but when she stumbled, he stopped just long enough to pick her up and throw her recklessly over his back, then continued running. They could both feel the darkness that pursued them; every time the lightning flashed it highlighted the enormous silhouette that followed them. The thunder almost seemed like laughter.
Eventually they had to stop and face their pursuer; he was just too close. Inuyasha stepped forward, sword brandished and held solidly to challenge the advancing evil. "Naraku," He growled, eyes narrowed.
Naraku chuckled darkly as he slowed, his prey sufficiently cornered. Now he was close enough that the lightning gave shape to his features. Dark crimson eyes peered at them and teeth flashed white when he smiled. His human form was gone, and he now appeared to them as a weird mutant, a cross between himself and some huge clawed and tentacled beast that slowly closed in on them. "Give her up, hanyou, and I'll spare your life."
"Don't make me laugh! Bastard…" Inuyasha snorted derisively and raised his sword for the first strike…
But it came too late. Before he could even land the blow, one of Naraku's writhing appendages shot forward and impaled the young girl. She gasped, shocked and breathless, then collapsed as the tentacle withdrew.
"NO!!" Inuyasha's fury was his undoing. He swung repeatedly, blades of light and energy sinking and disappearing into Naraku's protective shield. Naraku only laughed and began to slink back into the rain-soaked darkness. "We'll meet again soon, hanyou."
Only when the monster that was Naraku had completely disappeared into the night, did Inuyasha give up his attack and rush to his companion's side. "Kikyo…" His voice trembled as he gathered her carefully into his arms. She was shaking, gasping for breath, holding her pale hands to the gaping hole in her stomach. Blood covered both of them and stained the ground they were huddled on. "Kikyo…" He spoke again, but this time it was more of a whimper. They both knew this was the end, but he refused to acknowledge it, instead holding his hand over hers in effort to staunch the blood flow. It was a useless attempt. "Kikyo, hang on. It's not that bad. I'll get help, it'll only take a minute…" He was trying to keep his voice strong for her.
Kikyo looked stunned more than anything. The cold rain on her face made her blink repeatedly as she gazed dazedly up at the young man holding her. Her love. Her soulmate. How had this happened? She'd known she was not meant to lead an ordinary life, but to die this young and in such a violent manner stung. But it shouldn't have been so surprising. They fought an evil that would destroy the world if they did not give their lives to the cause of stopping it. She had known there would be sacrifices to make for winning.
But the small bit of innocence left in her, the part of her that was a normal young woman of nineteen years, who was interested in life and love, didn't want to die. She wanted to live. But a larger part of her knew it wasn't to be. It had come upon her suddenly, but this was her time to go. But Kikyo, the most powerful priestess the modern world knew and Naraku's potentially deadliest opponent, would be damned if she let it all end here.
"Inuyasha," She whispered. It was getting harder to breath, but her words were important. He leaned forward, canine ears cocked forward to catch her faint voice through the din of the storm surrounding them.
"The jewel…it's safe…but you need to find it again." Kikyo coughed, and blood colored her lips. Inuyasha lifted her a bit more, in hopes that it would help her. He looked confused. "But you have the jewel. Why do I need to find it?" He asked, afraid to make the conversation carry on and weaken her further, but needing to know the meaning of her words before it was too late.
"Silly Inuyasha," Kikyo smiled slightly. There was no more pain, only numbness. It wouldn't be long now. "It has to go somewhere. Somewhere safe. I'm sending it."
Inuyasha shook his head mutely, fighting tears he was still ashamed to show, even now. "No…" He wasn't sure what he was saying no to. No to everything, really. This wasn't how it was supposed to have happened. "D-destroy it." He suggested halfheartedly. The jewel was a powerful asset, but now it seemed worthless. Was the jewel worth the life of the only one he'd ever loved?
"No…someone will carry….on…" She could barely speak now. Her vision had darkened. She felt warm, secure in Inuyasha's arms. He was trembling, and she wanted to stay, but the pull was too great, and her energy was waning. She had one last job to do, before it was too late.
"No. No! You have to carry on!" Inuyasha's voice was choked. He was helpless, and it was the most horrific and surreal feeling he'd ever experienced. But he could see his words weren't reaching her now.
"I love you, Inuyasha." Her soft voice penetrated his remaining barrier, and he broke, clutching her limp body tighter. For a moment she glowed bright and a strong pulse of miko energy loosed itself, sending shudders through his frame. And then she was gone.
A few hundred miles away, another girl was fighting with every breath to live. Her will was strong, but her body refused her pleas to survive. She was bruised and broken, her life hanging on borrowed time. She had no remaining family, so the doctors had informed her few supporting friends that this was the time to say their goodbyes.
Kagome Higurashi had been a normal seventeen-year-old girl up until two days ago. She was three months away from graduating from high school, kept decent grades, and made ends meet by working odd jobs after school. On weekends she helped out at one of the shrines in her neighborhood. It was in the family after all, to be a priestess, and even though she no longer lived in a shrine herself, it made her feel better to keep that bit of tradition alive.
She lived in a small one bedroom apartment in an older part of town. She couldn't afford anything better, but really she didn't need that much anyway. Her neighbors were young and fun-loving newlyweds Sango and Miroku Hiroke. Sango was a gym teacher at the local junior high school, and Miroku was just starting med school. They'd taken her into their fold the day she had moved in, not asking many questions about why a high school girl would be moving into an apartment all alone. They kept her from being lonely.
And they were here with her now. Sango held her hand tightly, eyes filled with unshed tears. Miroku sat in a chair at the foot of the hospital bed, head in his hands. There were no words that either of them could think to say; everything seemed to be unspoken but already understood. The beep of the heart monitor and hum of various other machines kept the room from being completely silent.
It had happened on her way home from work, late at night. She currently had a job as a receptionist for an auto mechanic, and they had all been working after hours, reorganizing the filing system. One of the mechanics had offered to give her a ride home, which she'd accepted. It was raining hard, and she'd forgotten her umbrella as usual.
He'd seemed like a nice enough guy at work, and she'd known him the whole three months she'd been employed there. But five minutes into the ride and his hand was roaming over her while the other one steered. She pushed his hand away and told him to pull over. Although Kagome was young, she wasn't stupid. She'd been fending for herself for some time now, and she felt no obligation to let the guy cop a feel in return for a ride. He pulled over to appease her, since she looked like she might do something dangerous if he didn't. Without even a goodbye, she'd gotten out of the car and he'd started to tail her, asking her nicely to get back in. She ignored him and wearily she set off to walk the rest of the way home. It wasn't such a long distance, only annoying because of the rain and the cold, and because the guy had taken a short detour from her normal route home, in order to prolong the time with her alone in his car.
There was no other reason she would've been walking along the side of the canal then.
She'd only been walking a few minutes when the car struck her. Her only warning had been a screech of tires behind her, a blaring horn and the loud crunch of metal, and suddenly she was airborne, then lodged tight. Her memories were patchy after that, just snapshots of spinning lights and pavement and glass and inky water, then darkness. Now it was the monotonous beeping of a machine next to her, the soft tones of people speaking in the room, familiar voices and a warm hand holding hers tightly.
Despite her semi-conscious state, something in her grasped the seriousness of her situation and refused to let her float off like another part of her so deeply desired. She knew her life was in the balance, and she'd fought too long and hard to stand on two feet to let herself fall now. Her friends needed her. And she needed them. But it was too hard. Gravity was pulling her down, and she couldn't even manage to open her eyes. Sleep was dragging on her like a hundred lead weights.
And it hurt. The pain was dull, but she ached like nothing else. A permeating physical ache that sometimes made her ill and other times made her want to bang her head against the nearest hard thing, just to try to beat the pain right out, if such a thing were possible. If only she could actually move.
Sango got the call a short time after midnight that night. She and Miroku were Kagome's emergency contacts. Miroku had already gone to bed, but she'd woken him up in an instant as she was hurriedly pulling on her boots and jacket. Miroku was out of bed and ready even before she was. She didn't remember the ride to the hospital; all that was going through her head were memories of the short time she'd known Kagome, and how close they'd become.
It was hard being married at such a young age. She loved Miroku to death and he was madly in love with her as well, but their personalities grated against each other often. They were living in their first apartment together, trying to pay Miroku's school bills and get by at the same time, and things were a bit strained. When Kagome moved into the apartment next to theirs, it was as if her presence gave them something else to put energy into. Kagome was young but wise, independent but needing. Sango was only a couple years older, and they'd hit it off right away, becoming like sisters. Kagome warmed up to Miroku nearly as quickly; he'd groped her on their very first meeting, but after that incident had been sorted out, his cheerful personality and harmless flirtations won her over.
And now it could all end. Sango had had people close to her die before, but she was a bit surprised at how deeply this was affecting her. Because Kagome wasdying. She was struggling as hard as she could, it was obvious, but maybe this was better…
"Sango…" Miroku's soft voice startled her out of her reverie. She looked up, blinking the tears from her eyes. "You should…" He trailed off, but she knew what he was going to say. She switched her gaze over to Kagome, to her pale face with the cuts and the bruises and the broken nose, the tubes and tape and stitches, and opened her mouth to speak. Kagome could hear, they already knew she could, so it was better this way. At least she could understand how much she meant to them.
Kagome's fingers twitched and moved slightly in her grip, and Sango lost whatever courage she'd mustered up to say what would possibly be the last words. "I can't, Miroku," Her voice was thick. "She's fighting, I can tell. If she wants to fight, then I'll fight with her."
So they stayed. Neither slept, afraid to even leave to get coffee or use the restroom. A few minutes after one, something strange happened. There was a brief flash, and Kagome jerked, hard enough to actually pull her hand loose from Sango's. This immediately stirred Sango from her light doze. "Miroku, did you see something?" She mumbled, looking around in confusion.
"Probably lightning. It's been coming down pretty hard out there for a while." Miroku stood up to stretch. "How's the kid?" He used the term fondly, even though Kagome was only four years younger than him.
"She looks okay. Maybe the flash just startled her. She moved really fast there a second ago." Kagome was now as motionless as she had been before. The couple stared silently at her for a moment, as if something was going to happen. But nothing did.
More time passed and the two settled in again. Kagome was quite the tenacious spirit; her vitals were weak but they didn't falter as much now. Miroku had dozed off again with his head in his arms on the bed, and Sango eventually followed, burying her face in the crook of her elbow, head barely resting against her friend's shoulder.
Well. There it is. I tried to make it a little longish, since I prefer chapters with at least 2,000 words. This is my nanowrimo brain-baby, so expect some kind of crappy writing, but a lot of updates for this month at least, haha.
Some notes about the chapter:
1) All my medical scenery I get from watching reruns of House and ER. I'm not going to throw in a bunch of medical jargon, and if I do, I'll do some research on it first.
2) This was the first time I've written a death scene. I didn't cry while I was writing it, nor was I even very sad, but I'm not an emotive person. Hopefully I managed to convey a bit of feeling.
3) If this fic resembles a certain Minnie Driver movie to you, that's because it is kind of. Don't expect a play-by-play of the movie, because obviously there's a bad guy, different situations, etc. I just used the old plot as a springboard of sorts.
Please tell me what you think! Be constructive, and I don't have a beta currently, so if anyone is interested and thinks they can help, please say so. I'm pretty confident in my grammar and spelling though, so a beta would be more help in directing confusing scenes and aiding with the plot a bit.
I'm doing the review dance. Can you see it? I'm over here looking ridiculous, so go ahead. Click on that button. It calls to you.