In The Dark [Worm/The Darkness]

[Wolfwood]

Chapter I

Taylor drew in a breath, and followed the Undersiders inside the warehouse.

It seemed silly... scratch that, it was silly, but she was feeling nervous for no good reason. She had sent the swarm inside first, of course. They had gone throught the whole place, and there was nothing. Well, no people, anyway. She really doubted somebody could have slipped throught the senses of the bugs, or even detect them in time to hide. And If her bugs had be interfered with in any way, she would have know. Of course, there was still the possibility that they knew they were coming and that some power or piece of Tinker tech would have managed to hide them from her swarm. There were so many powers that she couldn't really say it was impossible. But still, even though there was that chance, she was reasonably sure that wasn't the case.

Well, it wasn't like her nervousness had anything to do with logic. No, she just felt an uneasiness deep down in her bones. Like the place itself was dangerous. Or like there was something too dangerous for them inside. Even after they all had gone throught, she still felt like that.

It must be the stress. The things they had to do, which had only grow even more dangerous as time went by. Trying to kept Tattletale from finding out her real intentions. That she was getting slowly less sure of her intentions in the first place. Oh, and Brian. That too. Yeah, it had to be all of that, because usually she wasn't like this. She understood that. Still, she couldn't quite shake that feeling off.

The inside was badly illuminated by the moonlight streaming throught the windows; at least, it was good enough to walk around. They advanced silently throught the darkness, alert and prepared for a sudden conflict. As they did so, she kept investigating the place with most of her swarm. The rest was reverted to looking for people wanting to ambush them, so they could hopefully react before they would do so. Her strange feeling probably was nothing, but there was no harm in being careful.

Her own breathing, and the barely audible set of four footsteps. Well, six. For a few minutes, that was all there was. Then it changed. Suddenly, without warning, she felt some of her bugs die. She hadn't' even be able to find out what killed them exactly, which was a waste, but at least this was confirmation that they hadn't come here for nothing. Tattletale probably knew the gist of it, since she was directly behind her, but still, she told them. Silently. They had developed hand signals for this kind of situation.

Taylor didn't felt any calmer. Her bugs were normal, as far as their constitution went, so it didn't exactly take much to kill them. But still, it had be done so fast, and the rest of the swarm hadn't caught even a trace of that which had killed them. That, adding to her previous uneasiness, made her even more wary.

She took a deep breath, then she let it out. What a joke. There was no real reason to be nervous, but, even if there was, it didn't matter. Backing up meant returning to her normal, miserable life in which nobody wanted to help her and her father, the only one who wanted, couldn't. Backing up meant having committed those crimes for nothing at all. She just couldn't do it, regardless off what would happen.

Something was dropped, right in front of them. She stared at it dumbly for an instant. It was just that, but the slight hesitation determined the outcome. The black smoke coming from the stone spread quickly, and by then it was already too late to get out of the way. She held her breath, but it didn't do any good.

Pain. At first it was only a slight ache, but it extended throught her whole body. She coughed, tears of pain brimming in the corner of her eyes. Blood welled up in her throat. She felt on the cold, hard floor. She could barely breathe. Every time, it hurt so much like her heart was constricted by... something.

Get away. She had to get away from this place quickly, or she would die right here. She forced herself to stand up. It hurt even more that breathing, but she somehow managed it. She ran forward. It was bad, but she couldn't quite remember why it was so anymore. She just knew she had to run. So she did. She ran and ran, until, she fell down on the ground.

When she raised her head, she realized she wasn't in the warehouse anymore.

She was out in the streets, and it wasn't night but the day. A thick smell filled the air. The smell of blood. In front of her, there was a red car. She knew at a glace that she was looking at the scene of a traffic accident. She stood up on her shaky legs. The pain had stopped, but she realized that only in a back of her mind sort of way. She approached the remains of the tragedy.

That was her. Without a doubt, it was her. Taylor couldn't even remember her appearance, she had be too young, but it was clear it was her. It would be clear to anybody that they were related.

Annette Hebert looked like she was sleeping. Yes. Except for her neck, twisted at an unnatural angle. Except for those empty, dead eyes. She was staring up at the bright blue sky. Had that be her last sight? Taylor's hands went for her head, and clenched, clenched, clenched. She threw her head back, and screamed. Her scream was drowned out by the sound of glass shattering.

Darkness visible. Hands on her, pushing her around. In a circle. A circle of three people. Julia, Madison, Sophia. Then the voices, the insults. Anything and everything they could throw at her. That nobody liked her. That she smelled like. That she should just kill herself. That she was vomit inducing ugly. They even scorned for things they had caused in the first goddam place, rubbing in that she didn't have the power to stop her, that nobody cared. That those people would start caring if she killed herself, and only enough to try to wash off the ugly stain it would leave in Winslow High, that cancerous mass that didn't even deserve to be called a school.

But now, she had one a way to fight back.

The resignation faded with that thought. She called on her swarm, and made it attack them. The void was filled with their cries of pain. The thousands of insects and arachnids swarmed over and around the three girls, completely covering them. Biting, stinging. Entering throught the wounds. Under their eyeballs. She felt everything, and although the sensations were mostly disgusting, feeling like she was causing their pain so directly was wonderful.

Their desperate screams slowly died down. As if they were now, they didn't even have the presence of mind to scream. Their whole world was pain. Well, even if they had, she wouldn't have done anything. Their words would be insincere, driven only by fear. Sure, they wouldn't even so much as look at her if she let them go, but they didn't deserve that mercy. Besides, she wasn't interested in what they would have to say, anyway. She only wanted those stuck up bitches to felt the pain, and make them disappear from her life forever.

It didn't take them long to die. Ah, what a joke. They believed themselves superior, removed from the 'common people', but in the end, they were all talk. She was the one with the power here. Was this a crime? No, if anybody was to blame for this situation, it was them for hurting her in the first place. This was justice. Still... it wasn't enough. Just this much wasn't enough at all. Shaving away the skin, ripping off the flesh, and dislocating the bones. She poured all her bitterness and hatred into those three unmoving corpses, because... this was the truth. She was doing for her own satisfaction, so she would continue even at this point.

...I'm like this?

Over and over. Until they were so distorted that nobody could tell their gender, until one could hardly tell if they had be human to begin with. They might as well be badly made, broken dolls.

Do I desire this?

Taylor threw her head back, and laughed.




The void vanished. The corpses vanished and the warehouse came to life around her once again, as if it was being painted over that terrible nightmare. It didn't hurt at all anymore. She couldn't taste blood, nor did she felt it welling up in her throat. She was breathing heavily, and her body burned from fatigue. But that was all. Then... it didn't even need to be said that those sensations had also be produced by whatever hallucinogen had be in that thing.

She stood up, while trying to calm down her breathing. They were not there. She wasn't even in the same place. That was clear enough because the illumination was significantly worse, but what she sensed from her swarm didn't leave any room for doubt. Somebody was here, and they had used that to separate them, so...

A large part of her swarm suddenly died, so fast that more that killed, it was like they had be shut down. Leaving a quarter of the swarm in front of her to protect herself, she send the rest towards the figure streaking towards her in the darkness. There was something in it's hands. A Japanese looking sword, that was surrounded by a viscous, dark substance. The slightest contact with that strange substance killed her bugs, so she had to be extra careful when attacking, directing them to dodge the long sword. Still, no matter of well she did it, a few of her bugs died with each strike. The only question was how many died. Moreover, she could only call on the swarm fast enough and... if it reached her, she was as good as dead. Her heart understood faster that her mind than that was the truth.

She didn't have much in the way of cover, and the space was rather tight. Just in case, she send some of her bugs, divided in four groups, to search for the rest. She was going as far as she had with Lung, because she had be forced to do it, but the man barely slowed down. It was like he couldn't felt any pain at all... or worse, that he could just shrug off that amount of damage. He started laughing, as if the whole thing was amusing to him. That reminded her of that hallucination, the vividness of each bite and sting and that feeling of pleasure she had got for all of it. She wwas suddenly sure that he himself was intoxicated with that substance, that he might even be just a victim.

There. Right in front of her, his massive sword upraised. He cleaved throught her defenses with one strike, and stepped up to kill her. She took off the combat knife, ducked low, and stabbed her enemy in the knee. The sword fell under the light, and with that, the liquid darkness coating it faded as if it was an illusion. Then, for the first time, the man's face twisted in pain. He let out howl of agony.

Taylor stared, frozen, at the enemy writhing under the moonlight like he was dying. That darkness. That was what gave him such power. Without it, he might as well be a normal human. She didn't want to let him die, but she clearly remembered the requirement of the boss of the Undersider's. That any at all opposition from those people had to be cut down.

She couldn't stand by and let this happen, but still, what could she do? She couldn't return him to the darkness, because that would also make him regain his power, and she only knew the basics of first aid. She couldn't dealt with such poisons, even if she would have had the resources for it at hand. So she couldn't do nothing but stare.

After some time, she heard the door opening behind her and the rest coming inside. How long exactly she didn't know. She just knew that the man in front of her was already completely unmoving. She hadn't gathered the courage to check if he was alive. She felt disconnected from herself, as if her soul had be ripped out of her body.

"Wow." Regent whistled. "You really did a number on this little bastard." he idly poked him with his foot. "Still alive, though."

"Then take care of him." Tattletale callously said.

That surprised her. She didn't thinking she would be capable of doing something like that. Sure, she used what information she had ruthlessly, but she hadn't though she would be quite that ruthless. Regardless of the boss's orders, killing this one was clearly unnecessary. He was no a threat anymore, and, in any case, he wasn't going to last. Would saying something about it reveal her intentions?

"Is this necessary?" Taylor said. "Without that sword, he's just a normal human."

"That's where you are wrong." she sighed. "Look, I don't like going around killing willy-nilly. This is necessary. We can't hold back against these people."

"I'm assuming you're not going to explain what does that meant, exactly. " Grue said.

"I don't think you need precognitive powers for that." Regent said.

"Just kill him already." Bitch barked.

"Sure."

Taylor turned towards Regent just in time to see him take off a knife. She took a step forward, unsure of what to do, what she could even do. She hesitated. The knife drew a ragged line across the man's throat, ending his life messily but quickly. She grimaced. Sure, she had carved out Lung's eyes, but this and that were different. She didn't have any other choice. Tattletale was saying the same thing, but it wouldn't sit right with her until she found if it was the truth.

She took a deep breath, and released it.

What's done is done. She regretted many things, but she couldn't do anything to change them. All she could do was carry that weight with her, make those things worth it.

It wasn't much, but it was all she could do.