To love a Jaded one

Ch 1: To be Human again

Is this what life is? What…love is?

Lust…power…betrayal?

The room was dark; as it had already been…the sun…it seemed but a cruel myth now…there was no such power here. Smoke lingered through the room and stuck to its inhabitants like a second skin. This was where she now belonged, into a world of darkness and sin…she was a creature of the underworld…and this was her home.

Hiten

The name dripped off her tongue with hatred, it was because of him she was here…because of him that she was now just a mere toy used to satisfy the ceaseless lust of men…because of him that she had been ripped from the family she loved…because of him that she had been stripped of her name…her identity…her soul.

He was supposed to protect her…to love her…she was his wife, and he had owed her that much at least.

She was no longer Kagome Higurashi…she was a nameless face, who charmed men with her delicate beauty and piercing blue-grey eyes…but left them feeling cold and guilty with what innocence she had left in her.

"Wench!" a harsh voice called, opening the door to Kagome's cell.

Kagome closed her eyes tight. Please let me wake up…please let this be a dream…kami. Her stormy eyes fluttered opened as she found that kami and not been merciful…nor had he been each day that she had closed her eyes and wished that she was anywhere but here.

Kagura. The cruel and heartless madam, who would sell her girls just as easily as she had sold her soul to the devil…or so Kagome would frequently think to herself. She seemed to have a soft spot for Kagome…although that definitely wasn't saying much. Perhaps the youth and innocence in Kagome had reflected to Kagura what she had once been so long ago…but no one stayed that way for long in the Geisha house.

"You've been sold," she stated matter-of-factly," Count your blessings that I have been so kind," she spat. The young girl was simply a pitiful sight, her long raven hair clinging onto her sweaty body…the taste of man always on her skin…her eyes were dull, not full of life as they once had been. Kagura remembered the look of girl after her first night at the Geisha house. Her small body trembling…and her eyes…clouded with pain and fear, her innocence broken and her spirit shattered…it was enough for even a youkai with a heart of ice to shed a tear.

"Don't speak…do what your told. If they ask your name…never tell them…it is the one thing that they can not take from you," Kagura looked down at the young girl, so tainted by a world that she was not meant for, so jaded by the betrayal of her once husband.

"I have no name," Kagome stated dryly. Perhaps it won't be as bad as it is here…I'm sure nothing can be much worse.

A new sense of hope filled Kagome…a feeling so foreign that it made Kagome's stomach clench. Perhaps she would once again be able to see the sun…to feel its warmth…to once again feel what it was like to be human.