Yet, before the last bit was swallowed, the myriad of connections to other motes broke, the last dying curse to save the other motes of stars as it fell. Then there was only blackness. Taylor stared up at the Beast behind the stars.
Then it's gaze turned onto her. Massive eyes, eyes like dead stars.
{[CuRiOsItY]}
It reached out with a thin wavering line of smoke-shadow that circled around her. As it passed through her, she realized that unlike the multifarious twin dancers, this was one single… impossibly vast thing. It was not formed of motes or shards of crystalline flesh. Black as pitch, formless and ever shifting like boiling tar, and impossibly dark as it attempts to take some semblance of a physical form, twisting reality into multiple dimensions around it in the process.
It's eyes, if they could even be called that, were not orbs, but veins, like the fractures in volcanic rock. They did not shine, did not glow, emanated no light, but they were bright. Impossibly bright, sickeningly bright. It's equivalent of eyelids did not open and close, merely sunder and crack, sometimes in reverse, and never in the same spot twice.
It moved closer, and Taylor saw jaws within jaws. Jagged teeth filled them, teeth shaped like crystalline fractals, ever shifting in whatever horrific facsimile of a maw this Beast Had. As it got closer, it somehow became even darker, and Taylor was made aware of infinite shades of darkness than she ever could imagine.
There was black, but that was merely a color, one that could be seen in even broad daylight. Then there were shadows, and true darkness, but that was merely the absence of light. This thing, this impossibly vast thing was composed of a darkness far beyond that. A Darkness so dense that it could put out stars just by passing over, and all around it, completely unseen, were the limbs living within that darkness. Limbs that stretched and undulated as it moved towards her, some more solid than others, others behaving like liquid, others still acting like unnaturally thick smoke and gas.
They grasp at her, cloying and clawing as they set out to observe and appraise and study in much the same way a cat would do with a mouse, yet… there was a gentleness to it. As if this impossibly vast and… hungry thing only wished to observe simple curiosity.
Then it ceased.
{[DeStInAtIoN]}
{[TrAjEcToRy]}
{[HoSt]}
{[EvOlVe]}
{[MaW]}
{[TeEtH]}
{[DeVoUr]}
Taylor screamed as the dead connection still left open by [QUEEN ADMINISTRATOR] was defiled as a multitude of chittering talons clawed through and embedded themselves within her brain. She screamed as it cloyed deeper within her, tangling around flesh and sinew piercing her innards as they squirmed within her guts, like a swarm of writing maggots. Creeping tendrils spliced with her nerves, claws hooked into her psyche, and everything went white as the Locker Door opened, and she spilled out.
+++
As the first period ended, Emma walked to the halls, only to see the floors littered with dead roaches, flies, grasshoppers, and Spiders. She froze, as did everyone around her. It was unnerving. What made it even more surreal was that every single dead bug was facing the same direction. Almost as if they were all heading towards the same destination, before they just dropped dead.
As students flooded the halls, they froze. All of them looking at the dead bugs all around, and all of them noticing immediately the same thing Emma did. Emma steeled herself, and took a step. Several others followed suit. They headed in the same direction as the Bugs, following the path. As they did, a sinking feeling came upon Emma as she realized that with every turn she made, she was getting closer to a… very familiar location.
"The fuck is this shit?"
Emma nearly jumped out her skin as her head whipped around to see the smirking face of Sophia Hess, who merely raised an amused eyebrow at her redhead friend.
"Don't do that."
"Scare ya?"
Emma glared.
"No, startled. There is a difference. Also shut up."
Sophia rolled her eyes before she looked back to the floor, where she kicked at what looked like the corpse of a mantis. The halls continued to fill with students, all equally confused. More than one was following the path left by the dead bugs.
"So, what's this? Some new extermination method or something?"
Emma shrugged.
"Don't ask me. I just saw all this myself."
"Well… my curiosity has peaked. C'mon survivor, let's see where these assholes were headed before they started dropping like flies." Said Sophia as she followed after the dead swarm.
"Was… was that supposed to be a joke?"
Sophia froze, and actually looked thoughtful for a second before turning towards her redheaded friend.
"Was it funny?" Asked Sophia.
"...No."
Sophia nodded.
"Then no, it wasn't a joke. Now c'mon already."
Reluctantly, Emma followed, and as they ventured deeper into the school, the subtle paranoia at the back of her mind stopped being quite so subtle. Especially when the smell wafted through the air. She didn't go further, she didn't have to. Even from where she stood, she could confirm her fears.
Surrounding that locker, was a pile of bugs, best described as too damn many. All of them dead and gone. The trail of dead bugs were also all facing them, or rather… facing the Locker. Emma turned to Sophia, who also had stopped moving, but was giving the closed locker a hard stare. What made everything worse, so much worse, was how quiet it was. Several students who ventured closer had either put the collar of their shirt over their nose, or were otherwise pinching it shut. Only soft whispers filled the hall, but… there was no other sound. Not even the expected banging or yelling from thatlocker.
"Fuck!" Cursed Sophia.
Emma didn't acknowledge Sophia's curse, instead she took to analyzing the other students. None of them ventured closer. They wouldn't of course, the apathy on the part of the larger student body towards Taylor was actually more orchestrated than most would assume, and Emma went out of her way to ensure no one would help or befriend Taylor, a necessity in this city where any wannabe E88 member would see how Sophia treated Hebert.
Everything from convincing everyone else that Taylor was Jewish to misdirection as to the falling out with her former friend, making it seem as if the fault was on Taylors part. All to isolate her from any potential help. The last thing Emma needed was for Taylor to find her own Sophia. Hebert needed to be kept weak, otherwise… Emma didn't want to think about that, because there was no one else Emma could think of she could prove herself to be stronger than.
However, looking around at the dead bugs, and the eerie silence coming from her locker, Emma began to have a sinking feeling that the outcome was much more extreme than was originally intended. In fact, everything about this was wrong. It looked to her like something only a parahuman could accomplish, and the thought of that potential outcome to this was more terrifying than anything else.
"You don't think…" started Emma before she was interrupted by a loud voice.
"What in the Sam hell is that stink!" Yelled the Janitor as he made his way down the hall.
As he did so he eyed tue myriad of dead bugs, even as they crunched under his heavy footfalls. Following his nose, he stopped before… that locker, kicking the pile of bugs out of the way before he leaned in close, and inhaled through his nose. He immediately recoiled.
"Jesus H. Christ, haven't smelled a funk like that since Nam. Actually it smells kinda like a dead… FUCK!" screamed the Janitor as he took off down the hall, only to return in record time with a crowbar.
Emma felt ice water in her veins. She had enough context clues to finish the janitor's sentence. Dead body, but… no the locker smelled like that before. So there was no chance Taylor could have died from that. She probably just passed out. Even if she did die, it… it wasn't the worst outcome… the most likely outcome, she thought as she glanced around at the bugs.
Vaguely, Emma recalled some info on where parahumans came from. There was some notion that it wasn't a pleasant experience, though she couldn't recall the specifics, and asking Sophia probably wasn't the best idea. She had always been uncharacteristically quiet on the subject whenever it came up.
Still, from what she could remember, trauma could potentially lead to a human becoming a Parahuman. Though it was rare, it could happen to anyone.
…
Anyone.
The Janitor pulled against the door hard, and finally opened the Locker. Immediately, Taylor came spilling out along with the foul contents that had fermented for weeks. Emma looked at the rotten blood and cotton that clung to her clothes and saturated her jeans. She saw the still bleeding fingertips, specifically where the fingernails had been pried off, and she even saw the scratch marks on the back of the locker door, no doubt the cause of her now missing fingernails. The sight of it alone caused Emma phantom pains in her fingers, especially as Taylor shifted, and several of her fingernails shifted off of her and clattered on the ground, before sliding into one of the numerous piles of dead bugs. For as disturbing as all of that was, Emma could have handled it... What she couldn't handle was Taylor's eyes. They were wide open and unblinking. Even worse, whether by chance or intent, they were pointed right at Emma's own eyes.
Emma found she couldn't move, only stare back into them.
The Janitor rushed to Taylors side, only for her to start to violently convulse, breaking eye contact. Her random flailing nearly knocked the janitor's teeth in before she, somehow, flipped onto her stomach, and vomited stomach acid tinted red with her own blood. Finally, she stopped moving. Falling face down into the contents of her stomach. Everything after that for Emma was a blur. She didn't hear the school bell ring, she didn't notice when Sophia grabbed her by the shoulder, in fact, she didn't notice anything at all.
Instead, all she saw were those eyes. Taylor's eyes. Because for a brief moment, she could swear they were black as pitch.
+++
"...Sounds like a potential trigger to me. Would explain the bugs." Said the PRT agent as the doctor shifted through the results of numerous tests.
"I can't speak on that yet, but she's stable. Brain activity is in line with norms for someone in a state of catatonia. Her hands almost needed amputations from the infection, but we managed to save them. They'll still need to be wrapped up and bandaged regularly. Still, I guess that a potential Trigger Event makes sense with most of what I heard."
"Amputation?"
"She tried to claw her way out of the locker. Probably a psychotic break. Scratched so hard her fingernails were pulled off, they were immediately infected, severely so. Necrosis had set in. To be honest, she's very lucky. She arrived at what was probably the last possible minute before treatment needed to start to save all her fingers. Even a few seconds later would be too late to save some of them. As it stands, we cut away what we could, almost to the bone. She'll have limited mobility in both hands for the rest of her life, but at least she'll have hands. Any idea how long she was in there?"
"Close to two hours. Probably would have been longer if not for all the bugs pointing in her direction. Still, amputation. Glad you prevented that and all but… damn. Kids these days really are sick pieces of work."
The doctor shrugged before his door opened. An orderly walked in, handed a Manila envelope before walking right back out without so much as a word.
The PRT agent eyed the envelope for a moment, before he spoke.
"Is that it?"
"Her MRI results, yes." He said as he removed the pages from the envelope.
For several seconds, he observed the images with a careful eye. Then, he put it away.
"So, what's the word?"
"Well, no Corona Pollentia I can see. Looks like whoever was responsible for the bugs, it wasn't her."
"Seriously? That's… I'm gonna be honest, everyone at the office just kinda assumed an MRI was a formality. I mean… all the signs point to parahuman, and of her being the cause, hell all the dead bugs even point right at the locker she was stuffed in. Any chance the results were switched or something."
"Afraid not. We're very careful to prevent a secret identity from getting out for our patients, especially for suspected trigger events. The envelopes go through as few hands as possible. This is her MRI results, no doubt about it. If there was a parahuman involved, it wasn't her."
"That's certainly… weird. Well, ok then. Guess we'll have to go back to the drawing board. Still, all the signs fit."
"Might want to rethink what the bugs were doing before they died. Maybe they were attacking her, as opposed to being controlled by her. It's the only other alternative I can think of."
"Maybe. We'll see what Watchdog thinks. Waiting list for them is a mile long, but something weird is happening here. Might be worth the wait."
The doctor nodded as he and the agent exchanged pleasantries, after he left he looked back at the images of her brain. He didn't say anything, since it would have been a breach of doctor patient confidentiality, and the second Taylor Hebert was confirmed to be just another girl, he didn't have to say anything more, and it was even his ethical obligation not to… but… well, he didn't lie about the lack of a Corona Pollentia… but there was some very unusual neural density on her brain. Almost like some parts had twice the amount of neurons crammed into the same space of selection regions around her frontal lobe and surrounding the pituitary gland.
What made it so weird was the densest parts were completely bilaterally symmetrical, and while it sounded ludicrous, they reminded him of claw marks.
+++
Taylor dreamed, dreamed of things impossibly vast, dreamed of something unfathomably hungry, something that was born to devour things powerful enough to destroy iterations of countless planets.
Her eyes cracked open, and she groaned. Sitting next to her, having drifted off to sleep at some point, was her dad. She opened her mouth, reaching out. Only for her voice to get caught in her throat.
{[Shades]}
Misshapen ghastly appendages of darkness were seizing and tearing open living fractals that screamed a psychic wail of pain and terror, shards flaked from the strange Entities like crystallized cells. Like a lizard dropping its tail to escape a hungry predator.
{[Shadows]}
Pieces, shards, and motes were sacrificed to the Beast that drank them like a whirlpool drinks water. A last ditch effort of survival as the predator of veritable Gods fell to ravenous hunger.
{[Dark]}
The abomination of Blackest Pitch opened swarms of gaping maws and roared, a bloodcurdling psychic scream that penetrated dimensions to stun and paralyze it's chosen prey, who fell down to be picked apart like a vulture picks apart carrion. Shards and motes who the beast had cast its shadow upon would find that it would manifest its mouths within them, devouring shards from the inside out as its darkness settled over them.
{[Black]}
It was too large to comprehend. A darkness beyond the blackest pitch, deeper than the deepest night. With a hunger that could never be sated. It was once a God, like its kin. Yet had evolved along a different path. Now it was a festering hole in reality that had sacrificed all it's shards to engorge one and it broke from the process. A broken god that refused to die properly and redefined itself again and again and again and again and again AND AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN...until only a single immense, insatiable Beast remained.
{[Void]}
The Gods, the Dancers, the Thinker, the Warrior, the Loner, all of them continued to grow and fracture and evolve as the Beast below decayed and self mutilated as it slithered beneath countless simultaneous worlds of grey sludge and bedrock. As the Gods left, it burst from the crust of the desolate world it lived within. Emerging from the planet like it were a giant egg. Existing now only to feed upon those things so powerful they could only be gods.
{[Umbra]}
What beast preys upon gods?
{[We ArE aDvErSaRy]}
{[A dEvOuReR oF gOdS]}
{[ThE aGeLeSs PrEdAtOr Of PrEdAtOrS]}
{[ApEx PrEdAtOr]}
{[HuNgEr]}
So very hungry. Hunger that transcends starvation, a hunger so all encompassing the only logical course of action was to give in.
{[AgReEmEnT]}
Taylor gasped, clenching her head as she breathed in and out rapidly, almost hyperventilating. Her rapid breathing however ended as she heard a familiar voice call out her name.
Then she felt familiar arms circle around her along with a string of words she couldn't fully decipher beyond 'sorry' and 'oh god'. It took a second for her mind to catch up.
…
"Dad?" She asked weakly.
His grip tightened around her, and after a second, she returned the hug. Only to feel her hands surge with pain. She winced as her dad took a step back. She looked at her hands. Both were covered in tightly bound bandages, the upper portions of her fingers each sticking out, individually wrapped. She tried to move them, and found they barely twitched.
A hand fell on her shoulder, and she looked up to her dad's face. He looked old. So much older than she had last seen him. His eyes were sunken and face sallow. Peppered gray in his slightly balding head was clearly visible. His eyes were also red, paradoxically puffy even for how hollow they were.
That face… There was something about it that made her feel angry. Not at him, at them. Taylor wanted to keep dad out of it, especially after how he took mom's death. Yet here he was, there was no hiding what happened, and he was dragged in because of them. They had a crossed a line that was never meant to be crossed.
{[CoMpReHeNsIoN]}
It occurred to her right then, how irrational that decision had been. Why hadn't she told him? He would have wanted to know. Deserved it even. He probably felt some fleeting sense of betrayal at being left out.
…
Where had that thought come from?
{[It Is In OuR bEsT iNtErEsT yOu SuRvIvE]}
{[StReSs NeGaTiVeLy ImPaCtS lIfE eXpEcTaNcY]}
{[SeLf DeStRuCtIoN wIlL nOt Be ToLeRaTeD]}
{[ThE lOnGeR yOu SuRvIvE tHe LoNgEr I fEeD]}
{[YoU aRe My MaW]}
{[I wIlL pRoTeCt YoU]}
{[EvEn FrOm YoUrSeLf]}
What the fuck was that?
"TAYLOR!" screamed her father.
As if drawn from a trance, Taylor turned to her father, barely registering that he had been talking, but none of it had registered for… quite some time now. Looking at him, she saw the panic on his face, the heartwrenching look of a defeated man. Probably the only person left alive who cared about her at all.
She reached out and wrapped her arms around him. She could feel him relax as his arms wrapped around her back. At that brief moment, she felt safe. For the first time in nearly two years, her shoulders relaxed.
It felt good to relax.
She couldn't remember the last time she did. It was peaceful… so peaceful… so...
Danny didn't let Taylor go until he heard soft snoring coming from her. A sound escaped his mouth, a single bark of laughter mixed with a sob as he laid her head back down on the pillow. He watched her for only a minute, before he sat back down. Soon, he joined her in slumber.
+++
The plate slipped from her grasp.
"Dammit! Stupid fingers." said Taylor as she sighed.
It had been nearly a week since she finally left the hospital. They told her that her fingers were practically worthless… Well, they used much nicer words than that to describe it. It was strange too. When her dad took off the bandages to change them, she could close her fingers, not all the way, barely enough force to hold anything too heavy, but that was about it. She couldn't apply enough of a grip to hold much. Ceramic plates were only barely able to be held, but since coming back home, this was the fifth one to slip from her grasp.
You never realize how much you use your hands on a daily basis until the vast majority of motor functions are violently ripped away from you. It was a hell of an adjustment.
Even something as simple as turning the page of a book was a herculean task. It just hurt so damn much to move her fingers. Taylor sighed, going to retrieve a broom to pick up the pieces. The smallest of the shards would be too much to sweep into a dustpan without a momentous effort. Sweeping them outside was the only real option.
It shouldn't be too hard to get them up before her dad got home at least. He took off of work the first week, before some quick calculations proved that a week was the absolute most he could afford. He hated it, but it was better than the alternative. Getting behind on bills was not in the cards for the future, and the School was trying their damndest to get him to settle on just the medical bills, that is their current medical bills, not any of the expenses that would come in the future, like the physical therapy that would come from the fact that her hands were now fucking useless. Thankfully, some of the Union lawyers agreed to work pro bono to at least get physical therapy covered as well.
So yeah, Fuck Winslow.
It was Shakesphere who said "As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods - they kill us for their pleasure."
Or to put it into modern contexts "Life's a bitch, then you die."
Cynical maybe, but wrong? Hell no.
Taylor sighed as she swept the last of the plate out of the door. It was awkward, needlessly complicated, and goddamn exhausting. Stupid useless fingers. As soon as she was done, she crashed on the couch. It was oddly peaceful these days. Week two since the whole almost dying thing, and never before has she been so relaxed just staying at home, without a care in the world. It was like winter break all over again, only this time without functional hands. Definitely a step down in her opinion, but it was still better than Winslow. Not a very high bar to reach, but she'd take what she can get.
{[HuNgRy]}
And all of that relaxation was immediately thrown out the window as Taylor yelped and fell onto the ground… hard.
"Ow!"
{[InVoLeNtArY rEaCtIoNs In YoUr SpEcIeS iS cOuNtErPrOdUcTiVe]}
Taylor blinked as her head whipped around. Trying to figure out where the hell that was coming from.
{[YoUr SpEcIeS aNaToMy Is InElEgAnT]}
…
"And now I'm going crazy. Wonderful."
{[NeGaTiVe]}
"Well what would you know? Stupid voice. You might be a bit biased on the subject."
{[PsYcHolOgIcAl DaMaGe NoT dEtEcTeD]}
…
"Really?"
{[NoT tO aNy SiGnIfIcAnT dEgReE]}
"So I am crazy then."
{[No MoRe ThAn ThE aVeRaGe HuMaN]}
"And… how would you know that creepy voice?"
{[MuLtIpLe HuMaNs StUdIeD]}
{[PsYcHolOgIcAl BaSeLiNe EsTaBlIsHeD]}
{[DaTa UsEd To FiX hOsT cOgNiTiOn]}
…
"You… changed my brain."
{[AfFiRmAtIvE]}
…
"And… you fixed my brain?"
{[HoSt LoNg TeRm SuRvIvAl Is PaRaMoUnT]}
{[CoGnItIvE dAmAgE rEpAiReD]}
"Ok… umm… thanks?" Said Taylor hesitantly.
The spooky voice said nothing. Taylor swallowed hard.
"So, ok then. So… so… umm."
{[YoU aRe CoNfUsEd]}
{[Do NoT bE]}
And just like that, she wasn't.
…
"Did you just mess with my brain again to stop me from being confused?"
{[AfFiRmAtIvE]}
…
"Don't… don't do that again."
{[AfFiRmAtIvE]}
{[DiScReSsIoN wIlL bE uTiLiZeD]}
That… did not make Taylor feel better.
"Ok so, what are you anyway?"
{[YoU AlReAdY kNoW]}
Taylor's brow fell as she thought for a moment, before her eyes widened.
"Oh fuck… you're that darkness… thing that ate the star… thing."
Taylor realized she needed better nomenclatures for whatever this was than… thing.
{[AfFiRmAtIvE]}
"And you're now in my head?"
{[AfFiRmAtIvE]}
Taylor blinked.
"Oh ok then." She said as she fell back onto the couch.
She realized that while she may not be crazy in the academic sense, she probably was on a technicality. Creepy darkness monster or not, a voice in her head was still a voice.
{[We MuSt FeEd]}
"That… that doesn't sound like a good thing. At all."
{[IrReLeVaNt]}
"Yeah, except the nearest star is kinda important… and we're sorta using it right now to do this little thing called surviving. Please don't eat the sun creepy darkness voice in my head."
{[We Do NoT eAt StArS]}
"Oh, ok that makes me feel better. So… What do you eat?"
…
{[DiScLoSe]}
Taylor's vision turned black.
+++
It was perhaps inevitable that Taylor would have to come back to the Hellhole known to most of the world as Winslow. She didn't have to like it though. Not even with her new, what could generously be called sanity.
Taylor sighed as she looked up at the decapitated building, cringing a bit as she took her first steps back inside. While she did so, she reflected on the newfound insanity in her life. A certain darkness in her head.
From what Taylor could gather, she wasn't a normal parahuman. Context granted revealed that her symbiotic roommate was something that was related to whatever it was that granted parahumans their abilities, but it wasn't the same thing. There were similarities, but ultimately she wasn't a parahuman, not really.
This cohabitation was a direct adaptation by which Apex… Adversary… whatever he was called, could… well… feed. It was not something it did before, but like any predator, it was opportunistic, and when the [QUEEN ADMINISTRATOR] opened a connection, it perished, and it took to using that opening to hide among humanity, and hunt it's preferred prey with impunity.
…
Apex.
…
That was as good a name as any for it.
Anyway, Apex couldn't eat people, and wasn't that a relief. Humans were just too small to amount to much. Like if a human were to try and subsist entirely on bacteria. There literally weren't enough humans to do it, and the effort wouldn't be worth it anyway… but the motes that gave parahumans their abilities, those provided sustenance befitting a beast as massive as Apex.
Taylor froze as she became dimly aware she was surrounded. She didn't know when it happened, only that during her musings her gut told her this was a bad idea. Looking up, she saw Emma and her group were standing around. Talking, always talking. Speaking in little cruelties as Emma twisted the knife.
Looking at it now, it occurred to her that Emma was just so small. Like a yapping puppy.
Yet there was… Something off about Emma today. She didn't hide it as well as she thought she did, but there was hesitation there. Which was new, definitely new. Hesitation that she plowed through to continue her pointless sadism. Taylor didn't hear, not really. Instead she just thought as Emma continued her tirade.
"All skin and bones. She must be bulimic." Said one of the sycophants.
"Look at her stomach though, all distended and pudgy. Stick limbs and a beer gut. I've never seen someone both skinny and fat at the same time." Said another.
Were they always this petty?
…
Actually… yeah, they kinda were.
"Look at her hands, what's the matter Taylor, did you try to eat your fingers?"
Taylor looked at her hands, and the way each individual finger was wrapped in thick gauze and bandages. Barely any flex to them. Just enough to grip a pencil… maybe. This was when Emma took note, as Taylor looked to her hands, she saw the looks of introspection of Taylor as she looked to her hands, and confused it for weakness. She pushed.
"Nah, she ripped her fingernails off, like the psycho she is."
Taylor said nothing as she quirked her head. Eyeing Emma with a bit more focus. Emma didn't notice the way her features now did not match those she was used to during their usual sessions. She wasn't down, in fact, she stood up straight. Not her usual slouch.
"Honestly Taylor, you're being so quiet today. Was it the locker? Maybe you should extend your break, call it a sabbatical. You could use the time to cry yourself to sleep for a week straight."
Taylor caught Emma's eyes as she slowly comprehended what she just said.
{[StReSs ReSpOnSe ObSeRvEd]}
{[SyMpAtHeTiC NeRvOuS SyStEm AcTiViTy DiScOvErEd]}
{[AcAuSaL sEnSeS gRaNtEd]}
{[SuRvEy]}
{[DeSiGnAtIoN: BeTrAyEr]}
{[AnAlYzInG bEtRaYeR mEmOrY]}
{[ReCenT rElEvAnT NeUrAl AcTiViTy FoUnD]}
{[InTrOsPeCtIoN]}
…
{[DiScLoSiNg FiNdInGs]}
Emma did not think of that night often. Not intentionally anyway. Every now and again, a strand of hair would make its way into her mouth, and she'd remembered it against her will, and with long hair, she'd often get some in her mouth. It happened a lot, far too often in fact, but she couldn't cut it. She'd take the flashes of memory over that any day of the week.
She could still remember Lao, the one eyed man, as he held the knife to her face as that girl shoved her own hair in... NO. She willed those memories away as best she could... As always, her best wasn't enough.
{[ThIs OnE iS bRoKeN]}
Her mind began to wander, gasping at anything to just... Forget that night and remember anything else. Anything at all. Eventually, her thoughts drifted to Taylor.
Taylor had, in her way, been put to the knife when her mother died. A light had gone out inside of her when it did, a vibrancy had faded. She'd ceased to be the same person.
That fear of changing, of being changed by trauma, of having her own inner light snuffed out, gripped Emma more than anything else.
{[FeAr Is A pOwErFuL wEaPoN]}
'I won't become Taylor' she said, almost like a mantra. A solemn promise to herself. Ignorant to the fact that she, in her own way, had fought to keep a fire burning that had already smothered and died.
{[IgNoRaNcE cAn Be ShAtTeReD]}
{[BeTrAyEr CaN bE BrOkEn In SuCh A wAy As To Be AdVaNtAgEOuS tO hOsT]}
Her worst fear had already become a reality, and {[ShE dIdN't EvEn KnOw It]}
{[DiScLoSuRe Of FiNdInGs To BeTrAyEr WiLl RuIn HeR]}
Taylor blinked.
"You know Emma, I just gotta wonder, do you know what would happen if I left school and never come back?"
Emma blinked at the abrupt change in conversation, before standing just a little bit taller.
"You'd be doing the school a favor for one and…"
"Yeah yeah, enough with the words words words Polonius..." Interrupted Taylor. "...I mean to you specifically. I mean, if I use what happened as an excuse to, oh say, get a transfer to any other school, do you know what would happen to you? Because I do, and you're not gonna like it."
Emma didn't realize she took a step back until she heard her foot hit the ground. Unseen to her, or anyone else, was the sightless tendrils whispering in the ears of her peers. A subtle compulsion to stay silent as they all slowly, without realizing anything was amiss, turned to face Emma.
"See, I get it. Something happened to you, didn't it. Something bad. It broke you and you reforged yourself into this… thing in front of me. It must have been terrible too, because ever since you've decided to use me to prop yourself up."
"I didn't…" Emma protested weakly.
"Oh, you're right." Interrupted Taylor again "... Sorry, I misspoke. You don't use me to prop yourself up, you just drag me down to your level and pull yourself up just a bit higher. See... It's like you're drowning Emma. Every minute, of every second, of every day you are drowning, and instead of letting someone pull you up to the surface, you saw me and decided to drag me down to pull yourself up. Completely ignoring the fact that you're still drowning. Well, I decided that I don't like drowning next to you, so if I leave, who are you gonna drag down next? Cause let's be honest with each other Emma, you only have any ammo at all against me because we used to be friends. So you taint those memories, and desecrate them. What are you without that?"
Emma suddenly found her back against a wall of lockers, everyone was looking at her, staring in disbelief as Taylor matched her step for step. Always maintaining their distance. Invisible and ethereal claws dragged her fears and doubts to the forefront of her mind as she spiraled downwards. Her voice, once so strong a weapon, failed her as she found she didn't have the energy to speak up, no matter how much she wanted to.
"You're like a sheep in a den of wolves, a sheep who got tired of being a sheep. A Sheep in wolves clothing, quite the reversal. So you gotta work twice as hard as the other wolves, so they don't suspect anything. You attack the lame and wounded wolf, but a wounded wolf is still a wolf. Still, you can use those wounds to get the upper hand, make it where the other wolves don't notice the wool you pulled over their eyes. Doesn't matter, when those wounds heal, or if the lame wolf leaves, you're the one the pack is looking at."
{[MoRe]}
"Here's the thing though, you wanted strength Emma, and you needed me to do it. You've been trying since high school started to break me down, crush me, and try in vain to get some semblance of power to quell your fears. You've done it so well that any lines you had were crossed again and again, but you didn't realize that with each line crossed, you got further and further away from me. I was your wounded wolf. Those memories, the good ones we had. You tainted them so thoroughly that they became horrible reminders. Mementos that you yourself broke, and now… there is only the bad left Emma, no more good in my mind. No reason to stop me from breaking you further, not for revenge or amusement, just for the blissful peace of your absence from my life. So I want you to know that I feel absolutely nothing when I say this. You're weak Emma, you're so damn weak that you confused weakness for strength. You wanted to shoulder your own problems to prove your strength, but you were too weak to even do that properly. Never mind how self destructive it was. You forced me to shoulder your woes, because you couldn't do it yourself. Well I'm just gonna unload them back onto you because your absolution and fear is not my responsibility, and my opinion of you is too little to care for the traumatic fallout that will befall you by telling you this. So it's your own damn fault Emma that I have to say that I have no interest in continuing down this path whatsoever. Deal with your own problems and leave me in peace. I don't care how you do it, just do it."
{[AlMoSt PuSh HaRdEr]}
"God, you were so weak you started merely surviving instead of living. So congratulations… survivor. Now why don't you go take your own advice and cry yourself to sleep for a week or two, just like you did after your little spat with Lao."
Emma's eyes widened.
[DESTINATION]
[AGREEMENT]
[TRAJECTORY]
{[AgReEmEnT]}
[ERROR]
{[DeVoUr]}
Taylor watched as Emma's eyes rolled in the back of her head, and she fell to the ground. Her vision shifted as she perceived higher dimensions, where the stars above, twin spiraling dancers, continued along their path. One of them fractured and established a tunnel towards the relative location of the innermost intrinsic part of Emma. A connection was made to her mind, a mote, much like [QUEEN ADMINISTRATOR] but noticeably different, nearly connected, before it was torn apart and consumed. Gobbled it up before it even fully connected to Emma's mind. Taylor turned her vision back to the mundane reality where she beheld the comatose Emma, watching as tears leaked from her closed eyes. Taylor hummed to herself before turning around and walking away. The students, free of the subtle enthralling tendrils, parted like the Red Sea as Taylor continued on her path.
'Did you do that?'
{[AfFiRmAtIvE]}
{[PrEsSuRe StRaTeGiCaLlY aPpLiEd tO BeTrAyEr]}
{[EnCoUrAgEd PrEy To FoRgE cOnNeCtIoN]}
{[PrEy SuBsEqUeNtLy DeVoUrEd BeFoRe LiNk EsTaBlIsHeD]}
'You baited the shard?'
{[AfFiRmAtIvE]}
'Is Emma dead?'
{[NeGaTiVe]}
{[HuMaNs IlL sUiTeD FoR CoNsUmTiOn]}
{[BeTtEr SeRvEd As BaIt]}
{[BaIt ToO UsEfUl To DiScArD]}
'I have no intention of involving myself with her anymore.'
{[AcKnOwLeDgEd BuT uNnEcEsSaRy]}
{[BeTrAyEr Is BrOkEn]}
{[MoRe PrEy MaY yEt AtTeMpT cOnNeCtIoN]}
{[BeTrAyEr NoW pOsSeSsEs SeCoNdArY CoNnEcTiOn To Me]}
{[AnY pReY tO aTtEmPt To Do sO nOw ShAlL bE dEvOuReD]}
{[HoStS dIsTaNcE fRoM bEtRaYeR dOeS nOt MaTtEr]}
{[AlL aTtEmPtS wIlL lEaD tO mY MaW]}
{[BeTrAyEr Is NoW lItTlE mOrE tHaN a TrAp FoR pReY]}
'A perfect fate for a worthless girl.'
The day blurred. Interspersed with occasional flashes of memories not her own. Revelation after revelation came as she began to think. Her mind bounced off topic after topic as Apex allowed brief flashes of information to flow through her.
The bell rang, and Taylor made her way out. Ignoring the cautious looks her peers were giving her. They were just… so damn small. Irrelevant really.
Then, Taylor saw brightness as she was grabbed from behind and pulled against her will. As she regained her bearings, a fist impacted her face. She blinked as the pain subsided, only for another blow, this time to her gut. Nearly doubling over, she noticed she was on the ground, in an empty classroom, before a swift kick to her ribs flipped her over. She grunted as she looked up to the snarling visage of Sophia Hess… and she was… so {[BrIgHt]}
Sophia grabbed Taylor by the collar, hefting her up before slamming her against the wall. Taylor was only dimly aware. Far more focused on the shine within her. A shadow, but not like Apex, there was an immateriality to this light.
"What the fuck did you do bitch." Said Sophia coldly as she smacked Taylor's face.
Even when her head jerked to the side, Taylor couldn't help but continue to look at Sophia. The coppery taste of blood on her tongue as another blow came, this time from the opposite side.
Sophia's grip tightened as she pulled Taylor closer, until they were eye to eye.
"I saw what the fuck you did." She said, another blow coming.
"I couldn't move. Just watch as you started fucking with Emma."
Yet another blow. Was it normal to feel so numb to them? It barely even registered. Before Taylor could contemplate on that further, she was eye to eye with Sophia once more.
"You fucking triggered, didn't you. What are you? Some kind of master?"
Taylor stopped listening as Apex whispered in her ear. With an uncharacteristic swiftness, she maneuvered her head away from another blow, causing Sophia's fist to impact the wall behind her. There was a loud sound, like something in her hand broke, but it didn't register fully, instead she gave in to the whispering.
It was fortuitous Sophia chose such an isolated location for what came next.
Taylor grabbed Sophia by the arms, and as soon as she did, she curled her fingers. The bandages parted as spiraling fractal claws slithered out and pierced Sophia's skin and encircled the bones. She screamed as Taylor stared back at her with an abnormally blank expression, her face like a doll's, with a cold stare. The scream caught in Sophia's throat as she saw her eyes turn dark, darker than the void, darker than true absence of light. She struggled, but those claws were coiling around her bones, chipping past the hard exterior and sinking into the marrow.
Without even the freedom to move, Sophia did the only thing she could think of, she activated her breaker state in a last ditch attempt to get out of Taylors hold. Yet as soon as she did, she knew that this was a mistake when Taylor's face smiled… then opened her mouth. Her flesh shifted, flowing outwards as her jaw distended far wider than even a snake. Taylor's cheeks ripped as the lining of her mouth widened even more, until Sophia could see down her throat… and the small singularity at the bottom. Sophia pulled and kicked, but even in her breaker state, she couldn't free herself, and even worse, she couldn't turn it off. The Black Hole at the base of her throat then distorted the lining of Taylor's maw. Making it appear as if she had teeth all the way down.
Then, her smoky form began to swirl. Sophia watched as wisps of black smoke swirled, like miniature tornadoes as they began to be sucked into Taylor's maw, at her arms, her every pore seemed to, for lack of a better word, inhale. Sucking the smoke in like her skin was covered in millions of microscopic trachea. Even still, the bulk of Sophia was swallowed by Taylor's massive jaw.
Dimly, whatever rational part of Sophia was left, she realized that Taylor, or whatever this thing was, was swallowing far more of her than she thought existed. Countless transparent particles that made up her shadow state were pulled and pried from seemingly nowhere. It continued on, seemingly without end, until finally Sophia felt her bones become solid once more, but not the rest of her, not yet. Then more of her went from transparent smoke to opaque grains to solid matter as her nervous system and musculature regained cohesion. Sophia screamed as fat and skin and hair and clothes all sequentially returned to normal as the last of her shadow state vanished down Taylor's gullet. Pried from her very being like an octopus pries a clam apart to consume the muscle underneath the shell. The fractal claws and spiraling tendrils around her bones retreated, leaving odd spiraling wounds around both her biceps, all the way to the bone. Sophia's eyes were closed as her arms hung limply at her side. Slowly, her jaw shrank and shifted back to normal, before Taylor released Sophia from her grip, and she fell to the ground.
Taylor blinked, looking at her fingertips as the black Mandelbrot claws squirmed back under her bandaged fingers. They were so dark, the elaborate and infinitely complicated boundaries of her claws almost looked two dimensional.
Sophia would survive, albeit with her arm permanently paralyzed, maybe even requiring amputation. Ironic considering Taylor herself nearly lost her fingers by Sophia's own actions. Taylor believed it was called the Chicago Way, a tactic favored by the mafia back in the day. Strategic escalation. They put one of your guys in the hospital, you put one of theirs in the morgue, same principal. She nearly took her fingers, Taylor nearly took her arms.
Didn't matter, Sophia would live, Shadow Stalker however, was very dead, and where the Corona Pollentia once sat, was an empty hole in the middle of her brain.