Neighborly: Chapter 9 (A SessKag fanfic)

~*~ Chapter 9 ~*~

       The grainy sensation of her dry tongue rubbing against the roof of her mouth nudged her back toward consciousness. Her mouth felt like it had been filled with warm sand, course and arid. Swallowing, trying to call forth any kind of relief to her parched throat, Kagome wrinkled her face before cracking her heavy eyelids open to reveal a blurry sliver of what looked like her own bedroom. Her eyes slid closed again, and she willed herself to regain control of her senses and go investigate. But as she opened her mouth to take a bracing breath of air… nothing. Kagome’s eyes shot open again as she frantically fought against the sticky duct tape plastered over her mouth, only to find that her hands were also immobile and unresponsive. She began to panic. Even with the use of her nose, she still felt like she was suffocating in her bounds and flailed desperately to free herself. Even just one breath of air would be enough. Just one…

       Suddenly, activity from her left caught her ear and she whirled on the noise, causing herself an intense bout of dizziness. ‘That’s right… needle…’ she remembered. Kagome now lay face down in her own bed, taking a few deep breaths to calm the violent spinning in her head and focus. There was an attached bathroom located off the side of the master bedroom, and the door was slightly ajar. Shadows moved on the floor in the wide band of fluorescent light that the door provided, making the woman’s blood run cold. Whoever was in there was her attacker, and she could barely hold her head up, let alone defend herself or...

       Her eyes grew wide with panic. ‘Oh Kami.. oh no… Ship… Shippo…where…?’ Trembling with anticipation, she carefully scanned every inch of her bedroom looking for any sign of her little boy, her breathing coming through her nose in tattered exhalations. But there was nothing. Other than a foreign duffel bag, the bedroom door was closed and the only other person she could detect was the one in the bathroom. She suddenly lost all concern for the threat that was lurking just a few yards away, her mind completely engulfed in ascertaining Shippo’s whereabouts. Still weak, she wormed her way across the plush surface of the bed until she reached the edge nearest the door, voluntarily tumbling over the edge with a loud ‘thump’. A throb of pain bloomed in the shoulder that took the weight of the fall, compounded by the soreness of having her arms tied behind her back for several hours. But it all faded from her senses when the noises coming from the bathroom stopped abruptly. The remaining color drained from her pallid face, and she scrambled with all her might for the door, hooking her chin on the cool hardwood floor and propelling her body forward with her knees. The patter of soft footsteps sped steadily closer, but Kagome was determined, almost tearfully, to outrace them until a warm hand wrapped firmly around her upper arm.

       Her body was hauled up like a heavy ragdoll and re-deposited on the bed, and she saw his face. Hojo’s face. Kagome blinked, glaring at Hojo more in confusion than in anger, trying to confirm reality. But as he smiled that sickeningly sweet smile down on her, she knew it made perfect sense. It was Hojo that had drugged her… snuck into her house… And he had to know where Shippo was. His hand rubbed her reddened shoulder in an effort to comfort, and Kagome felt suddenly naked in her navy blue nightgown. Instinctively she jerked away from his touch and leered at the man, who had the audacity to look completely shocked and confused.

“Kagome… please don’t move around so much; you’ll hurt yourself,” he said with pleading eyes. Kagome felt a wave of disgust wash over her. He reached behind her back and frowned, taking note of the angry red welts that the ropes had enflamed on her wrists.

“See? Look, you’ve hurt yourself already with all this struggling. Calm down, alright?” the man pleaded. She only narrowed her blue eyes on him and spat a muffled obscenity.

       Hojo sighed before taking a seat on the bed beside her. Without much ability to protest, Kagome was pulled onto his lap and cradled in his admittedly strong grip. He only held her closer the more she squirmed, burying his face into the crook of her neck and sighing contentedly as he inhaled the sweet smell of her hair. Her stomach lurched forward at the unwanted contact. They stayed like that for quite some time, Hojo reveling in the feeling of her in his arms. But even through his bliss, he wasn’t blind to her agitation. The brown-eyed man pushed her to rest her head on his chest, and he planted a kiss on the top of her head before resting his cheek there in a loving gesture. He began gently stroking her soft, dark hair as he spoke.

“Kagome…” he smiled serenely, “you don’t know how long I waited for a day like this. I know this isn’t exactly the way I planned, but… but I promise you will understand.” His arms circled around her smaller frame even tighter, and he gave a short laugh that sounded almost desperate.

“I love you so much, Kagome,” the man said in a soft whisper. Beneath his warm, smiling face, Kagome’s eyes stared expressionlessly ahead, her body shivering with terror and rage.

“I know you’re upset about all this… I didn’t want to do it this way, believe me! But you… Well ever since we met in high school you never gave me the chance I needed to prove myself to you, Kagome,” he admitted with a hint of defeat.

“See, if we can finally spend time together like this… just us two… you’ll finally see that we were the ones who were meant to be together.” Kagome did not miss the shakiness in his voice, and his ever tightening grip caused her to wince in pain as the ropes cut deeper into her bruised wrists. Hojo ignored her yelp of discomfort and continued.

“You just have to give it a chance, Kagome. I’m a nice guy. I only want your happiness. I just know that you’re only going to be happy if you’re with me… just like no other woman in the world would ever be able to fill the space in my heart like you do, Kagome. It’s fate. We’re fate. If you would have just loved me from the start, we wouldn’t be in this situation!”

       Catching her off guard, Hojo grabbed her by the shoulders, forcibly twisting her to face him and looking her square in the eye. For a second his eyes held an intense hatred, then softened to an expression so serene she wondered if she was even looking at the same man.

“But it’s alright, my Kagome. You’re going to fall for me, and you’re going to finally be mine… every part of you,” his voice dropped to a husky murmur that made her skin crawl.

       Fiery tears burned their trail down her cheeks as he kissed them away tenderly. Hojo had lost his mind, and Kagome didn’t know if she would even live to tell about it.

~*~*~*~*~*~

       Kagome awoke once more, groggily mumbling and shifting her bodyweight in an effort at mobility. The clean rays of natural light flooded the large bedroom, signally that the sun was fully up in the sky by then, though she wasn’t sure of how much time had passed, only that it was either dawn or dusk. She only remembered his blurred face, though she couldn’t differentiate whether it had been a memory or a nightmare.

       The man’s arms stopped her from straying too far. She became acutely aware of the sensation of his chest against her back, his entire body flush against hers as she fought weakly to peel herself away from him. Kagome felt a deep nausea resurface in the back of her throat.

“Ah, I see you’re awake again, sweetheart,” he cooed, alerted by her movement. “I’m sorry I had to put you down again, but I couldn’t have you scrambling around and hurting yourself the rest of the night,” he explained, Kagome mumbling an irate response under her breath. Hojo shook his head slowly.

“I’m afraid I have some bad news…” he said with a heaviness in his voice. Her breath hitched, anticipating whatever new horror he had in store.

“The day is nearly over already… and I know we don’t have much time before someone will come and ruin our little honeymoon,” he said, absentmindedly running his hand over her stomach. “It’s bad enough I already have to keep an eye on Shippo… that’s not very romantic...” Her eyes widened instantly at her son’s name. ‘Does that mean he’s okay…?’

“Anyway, you’re going to need a little more pushing so that you will warm up to me faster, love,” he said, waving the used syringe in front of her face nonchalantly.

“Putting you to sleep has been great for cuddling with you, but we can’t really make progress in our relationship with you unconscious, now can we?” he joked, setting the needle down on her carved wooden nightstand. Kagome shot him a look of confusion over her shoulder. ‘Continue our relationship…?’

“I know, I know. It seems like we’re moving too fast. But to be honest, we had years for this, Kagome. It’s your fault that we have to do all of this in one day now,” he said teasingly as he kissed her cheek. His kisses then moved down to her neck, and the woman felt her stomach churn.

“We’re going to take this to the next level now…” he whispered in a raspy tone, trailing his hand up her thigh.

       Kagome turned to stone. Her eyes blinked repeatedly, almost as if if she did it enough times, she would wake up from whatever nightmare she was in. She struggled to process what he had said. Terror took her, and adrenaline surged. ‘I have to get out… I have to find Shippo and get out before Hojo…’ Kagome shook her head at the horrid thought. Now was not the time to think, she had to act. With a new surge of vigor she lunged forward, trying to reach the edge of the bed and find some kind of weapon. Before she made it far, Kagome was slammed back down and pinned under the schoolteacher and his menacing grin. She felt a prickling line of pain at her throat and watched with dread as he pulled away a razor sharp pocket knife with a tiny sliver of crimson blood lining the blade.

“I expected you might act this way… I don’t want to hurt you, Kagome, but I will. Don’t force me to hurt you,” he threatened in a low voice, narrowing his brown eyes on her. “Look what you made me do…” he said, chuckling softly as if amused with some child’s antics.

       Hojo leaned forward and Kagome felt the warm, wet sensation of his tongue swiping over the line of blood on her throat, his saliva making the cut sting even more. Getting carried away, he continued kissing where he had left off. Kagome only stared dumbly at the ceiling. She was going to get him for this. She wasn’t going down without a fight. She fought back the moisture wavering her vision. He would pay. Hojo moved up to her jaw as she fixed her eyes indignantly ahead. He cupped her face in his hands, the glinting blade pressed firmly against her cheek as he did so.

“I… I want to kiss you, Kagome…” he confessed with an almost boyish air of nervousness about him. She could see how flustered he had become in just a short amount of time. His face was flushed and he had even begun panting lightly. Her thoughts began to converge.

“I want to take this off of you,” he said, pointing with the knife to the tape around her mouth and her bound wrists squashed painfully beneath their bodies. “We can start with the tape, though. After the first time, I could untie you if you want, okay?” he bargained. Kagome tried to reign in her disgusted expression.

“It’s not like I want to torture you or anything… I want it to be enjoyable for you, too. But you have to promise you won’t yell or make trouble, or I’ll have to hurt you, okay, Kagome? Just trust me and cooperate, and I promise it will be the best experience of our lives. Can you do that?” he asked. She nodded quickly, causing Hojo to smile with genuine happiness.

       As gently as he could manage, he began to peel the thick tape away from her mouth. Even in the state she was in, with her various scrapes and bruises from struggling against him, she was still a breathtaking sight to him. He couldn’t tell exactly what the look in her eyes was, but he could feel there was love there. Love, for him. Kagome loved him. As he uncovered her soft lips finally, his heart swelled with anticipation of what she would say to him. How she would confess her feelings for him.

“Where is Shippo..?” her dehydrated, underused voice rasped as she took in precious air. Hojo frowned.

“This is about us, sweetheart. The boy is fine. I told you that I checked on him, didn’t I?”

“Hojo, I need to – ” Kagome was interrupted by the cold touch of metal resting against her lips.

“Now, now. You said that you would be good and do what I said. Now you can either take my word for it that Shippo is fine, or you can stay tied up in here and I will go check on him myself… but if I do… well I won’t be too happy with him,” he said smoothly, rotating the knife for emphasis. She closed her mouth slowly, coming to a decision.

“You… you’re right. I guess I’m just so out of it I can’t let myself relax. I’m sorry, Hojo– ah, Akira…” she said sweetly. The man’s face reddened at her use of his given name.

“I knew it, you know. I knew after a little time you would warm up to me,” he said happily.

“Oh, Ho– Akira… my arms are really hurting me… do you think you could let me up?” she pleaded.

“I can’t say no to that face,” he replied with a warm smile. He lifted himself from her and watched her hoist her body into a sitting position on her knees.

“You know, Kagome, I can’t wait to – ”

       Hojo felt a lightning strike of agony jolt through his brain as Kagome reared back and launched her entire upper body at him with all of her weight, slamming her skull into his head with a sickening ‘crack’. His vision flashed white and then faded black, only registering Kagome’s body sliding onto the floor and wriggling toward the bedroom door before he lost consciousness.