The Dark by Anaknyte

Chapter 1

Warning: This is not a happy one-shot. It is about rape, and the way it can destroy a person. Read at your own risk. 18 and up recommended. You have been warned.

He had tricked her, plain and simple. She should have known, should have suspected, been stronger. She should have been able to STOP it damnit! But she couldn’t. And so now, here she was, laying naked, torn, bleeding, and alone in the abandoned cave she had foolishly allowed herself to be led into. Perhaps she should be cold, but she was too numb to feel. Emptiness was her refuge, though she couldn’t even feel the relief she vaguely thought should be there. Nothing. Just the horrible, horrible memory of what occurred. There was a sense of self-hatred floating around, just strong enough for her to recognize and have her float in a sea of grey, but not strong enough for her to do anything. Yet.

The young priestess had fallen into the naïve assumption that, while she knew rape happened in this era all too often, she was somehow safe from the danger of it. And that had been proven thoroughly wrong. Now she was tainted, dirty, used. She was unworthy of love. After all, she wasn’t strong enough to stop THIS, so what good was she?

‘Kikyo would have been able to stop it.’

That one thought was all it took for her mind to start working. Suddenly a sob tore from her throat, and she frantically started scrubbing at herself, hardly noticing when her nails tore deep trenches in her skin, adding fresh blood to what had already been collected on the cave floor.

‘I need to get clean! So dirty! SO DIRTY! SO DIRTY!’

All at once, she flew from the floor, fleeing the cave, trying to find… what, she couldn’t recall. Something… It was something that would clean her, something that would take away the taint…

‘WATER!’

A stream suddenly appeared in front of her, and she flung her naked, torn body into the cold stream. It was, after all, winter. Her mind hardly noticed the cold, and instead she focused on rubbing herself with the tatters of her uniform that clung here and there. Over and over she scrubbed her body, but no matter how many times she did it, she still felt dirty, was still unclean. The horror of never getting the grime off of her made her pause, cleared her mind, and her feelings for a brief moment. Enough that she was able to notice how cold she was, how raw. The hands she had been using were bleeding and shaking. Still, she couldn’t leave, she needed to get clean.

‘I just haven’t tried hard enough yet!’

As she went to start scrubbing herself, a pair of arms suddenly twisted her around. She screamed. A long, bloodcurdling, ear rupturing scream. On and on it went, though in the back of her mind she could recognize who it was that was holding her, she’d been with him since nearly the moment she arrived here, and that he was slapping her to try and bring her back to herself. It didn’t help. That scream had been held inside her chest for far too long. Since the moment Naraku had shed the skin of the man he had pretended to be. He had made her believe his wife had gotten injured and needed help to save both her and her unborn child’s life.

‘Inuyasha was right. I’m just a stupid, ignorant fool.’

By the time she had finished screaming, her throat now just as bruised as the rest of her body, the rest of her group had arrived.

“Inuyasha! What’s wrong with her?”

Though he would never admit it, he was scared. He had no idea what had happened, and the dead look in the young girl’s eyes tore apart something inside him. He could see his feelings reflected in the eyes of those around him.

“I don’t know! When I found her, she didn’t respond to me at all, no matter how many times I called her, she just kept scrubbing herself! So I grabbed her and she started screaming!”

He looked off, back where he could smell her scent coming from, and glanced at the demon slayer.

“Look, here, just take care of her until I come back. Maybe I can find out where she came from and what happened.”

Before anyone could say anything he was gone, and Sango immediately went to the freezing girl.

“Kagome? What are you doing? Why don’t you get out so you can warm up?”

When her arms started to reach for her, Kagome backed up quickly and shook her head in quick jerky movements.

“No! I can’t, I have to clean myself. I have to get all it off. I’m so dirty, so dirty…”

She slowly trailed off, resuming her scrubbing. Sango gave a frightened look to Miroku right before they heard a fierce howl split the air. Seconds later, the half demon boy was back, yanking the naked girl from the water.

“Did you have SEX with NARAKU?!”

His eyes were slowly seeping red, but the look of absolute horror made him pause. He reigned in his demon blood, and slowly came to the next, and more sensible, conclusion.

“He raped you, didn’t he?”

Even though her eyes opened, she couldn’t say anything. Then a tear fell, and then another, and before anyone could do anything, she had collapsed onto the ground, sobbing. Inuyasha draped his robe over Kagome, and picked her up. Slowly, the group made their way back to camp, which had already been packed up, and continued on towards Kaede’s place.

No one spoke, for what could you say in that situation? Instead, they walked along, with the girl’s tears as their soundtrack. It was many hours before they made it back, and thankfully Kagome had cried herself to sleep. As the rest went into the hut, Inuyasha left to take the young priestess back to her time, to her mother.

When her mother answered the door, her face drained of all color, and she quickly ushered him inside.

“What happened?” Was all she asked as she gave his robe back to him.

Her daughter was upstairs, dressed in her pajamas, and resting in her bed.

“Naraku somehow got to her. He… He r-raped her.” He barely choked it out, but it was there, in the open.

A look of absolute hatred crossed the mother’s face, scaring him. There was more than a little directed at himself.

“And where were you?”

He gulped. This was what was slowly eating him alive. Why, for the rest of his life, he would hold himself responsible.

“With Kikyo.”

He never saw the slap coming. Even if he had, he would have let it happen.

“You get the HELL out of my house! I don’t want you near my daughter! You SWORE! SWORE you wouldn’t let anything happen to her. That you would protect her! LIAR! OUT!”

There was nothing left he could do. He left.

As the mother went back upstairs, she sat on her daughter’s bed and slowly pat her hair back. She had seen all the bruises, the cuts, everything. Never had she had to help someone through something like this, but she would do the best she could. Whether her daughter could make it through this, only time would tell. But she would be here for her none-the-less.

A.N. – This one-shot was something I felt like I had to do. A couple months ago, I was raped, and if it weren’t for my best friend, I wouldn’t be here right now. Rape is something that too many people ignore, or blame the victim for. It is not their fault, and if someone tells you what has happened, don’t ignore it. Talk to them, try to help them, even if you need to force it on them. Even if they say their alright. They aren’t. Rape isn’t something fun or exciting, and you shouldn’t want it for a ‘kinky dream’. Most of all, and I can’t stress this enough, if you’re having a bad day, DON’T take it out on someone. Even if it’s online. I had that happen to me, which is one of the reasons I wasn’t on for a while. Someone found out what had happened, and made a lot of really disgusting comments about how it was probably my father and that I had begged for it (neither of which are true), ending with telling me I should kill myself. I almost did. Being online isn’t a game. Telling someone to kill themselves isn’t funny. This is real life, and real people die.