Winter Hearts by Scarredbride

Winter Hearts

Prologue

Blood Red Snow

They fought valiantly in the snow covered field. Yet as the sun started to set, Sango, Miroku, Shippo, even Kirara. Dead, laying in blood red snow. Killed by Naraku.

Kagome could only watch in paralyzed fear, when the unexpected attack happened. 'My friends' she thought.

Suddenly she was lifted by Inuyasha who had been fighting off the lesser demons coming her way with Testugia. The snow was falling heavily even in the darkening woods. Inuyasha's footing suddenly slipped on a patch of ice. He knew he was caught, but he had to protect Kagome. Setting her down in behind him, he turned to face Naraku, Testugia in hand, but it was too late. Naraku released one of his tentacles and pierced Inuyasha's heart by surprise. The sun had set and the new moon had risen when the tentacle withdrew from his blood soaked chest. Surprise was registered on the hanyou's face.

Inuyasha's body dropped in front of Kagome. He was dead. He had turned human while Naraku injured him. No words of goodbye, no secret love revealed, nothing. Just glazed over eyes, dead, like everyone else. Silence. Suddenly she heard screaming and felt warmth running down her cheeks. It was her, she was crying and screaming with pain.

"Ku, Ku, Ku. Kagome. I told you I would come and defeat you all. Everyone is dead. As soon you will be too. Yet not by my hands. A slow death is what you will suffer, you have no where to go, and no one to take you in. Your death will be one that every night you dream of everyone and everything you have lost." With that Naraku vanished into the night.

She hunched over Inuyasha's lifeless human form, whispering how she was a fool. How she loved him and wished she told him. A howl was heard in the distance, she didn't care. 'Let me die. Everyone was gone, I want to be with them.' Naraku was right, she had no where to go, even the well to her time was destroyed two years ago during another battle with the evil hanyou.

"Oh, Inuyasha! I'm sorry! Sango, Miroku, Shippo, Kirara. I am sorry I didn't help you, I am sorry I couldn't save you. All I did was stand there in fear. I was so weak." A strange warmth suddenly surrounded her, she knew not where it came from. There was a faint very familiar voice above her.

"I love you Kagome. All is forgiven. Now run." Inuyasha's voice filled the air around her.

"Inuyasha? Inuyasha!" But Kagome knew it was gone, he was gone. He told her he loved her and all was forgiven. Was it true? Or was it just her imagination. Yet, he told her something else. He told her to run. Why would her imagination tell her to run? Looking up she saw a wolf pack beginning to surround her. Snarling, drooling and hungry. They looked insane almost.

"RUN KAGOME!" She heard the voice again, louder this time. She did as she was told, running so fast and blindly through the woods. Running away from the carnage and her friends. Tears flowing down her face freely, causing everything to look surreal. She could hear something following her as she jumped over a log and ran into the dense thickets, her skirt and shirt ripping, branches and thorns tearing into her flesh all over her body.

'There! A hollow tree' her mind thought. She ran and fell into it, curling into a tight ball, afraid whatever was behind her was still there. Minutes passed. Silence. She turned to see where she was, everything was dark but still lighted by the moon. From the winter night everything looked still, everything looked quiet. Almost like frozen in time, or dead.

Bleeding, crying and cold, Kagome closed her eyes. 'Please God take me. Let me be with my friends and love. Don't leave me here alone.' Everything went dark.