A/N: I don't own the DS ip, nor the Worm Series, please support the official release and their creators. I know I love my copy of dark souls.
Putrid
Undignifying
Rot
The words flashed in Taylor's mind within seconds of being shoved into a confined coffin filled to the brim with used feminine products. She retched all over herself, the only thing keeping her focused was the laughter coming from the exterior of the locker door.
The Trio
Her mind hissed the words with hatred.
"Let me out…" she managed meekly.
"Did you hear something?" scoffed Sophia walking down the hall with both Madison and Emma at her sides.
Taylor listened, as each step brought her mind to race faster, and her breathing to become sharp and ragged.
The world began spinning, she cried and shrieked to be let out but it was the end of the lunch hour in the hellhole. Slowly it stopped spinning the world became darker and she tried breathing more as her lungs cried for fresh air. She remained as calm as possible but her front was broken and she was out of options.
The edges of her vision became hazy, whether that was her glasses having fallen or her conscious slipping she didn't know, but what she did know was that this was it.
Nothing the trio did could seemed to have topped the fact that they took her mother's flute and now this happens, she couldn't take it. Her body couldn't take it.
She tried to retch again but her body had nothing else inside it. They didn't let her have a last meal, her bag had been taken and her lunch flung onto the school grounds.
She stopped moving and laughed bitterly. She would have wanted a PB&J, especially if her dad had made her lunch that day.
Her body began to shiver, despite the warmth of all the "waste" around her, she shivered. Her body began locking up.
She tried to breathe only to find herself asphyxiated by the scent, she could not turn to the opening on the locker door all she had to look at was the filthy interior of the locker filled to the brim with smells and barf, and other refuse.
She finally went stiff and felt herself take on last breath before the fog completely covered her eyes.
Cold
Her thoughts echoed. "Maybe today it can finally end?" she said to herself.
Dad
Her mind centered. She felt a gate in her mind open. And she saw millions of worlds as two creatures communicated and connected in a way she could not begin to fathom. The millions of worlds turned in all directions as the creatures looked for something on themselves. They sifted through the different worlds till they found one and she found herself in a freefall towards the world, her world, she saw all. The blue orb become bigger and bigger till she saw a bird's eye view of the school. And landed in her own body.
Her mind reeled as she tried to process what happened. And the more she tried to remember the harder it became. Her mind was under so much strain she convulsed and lost consciousness.
?
Her eyes darted open as she looked around to find herself in a graveyard of a sorts, she still had her clothes and most everything she had with her when in the locker, save for her glasses. The odd part was her vision was near perfect here.
She looked at the old tree near the open coffin and it hit her that was most likely hers till just a while ago. She didn't want to think about that too much. She ran towards a little area filled with water and notices a knight sitting at a well.
"Hello! Can you help me?!" she called from a distance.
"What is this place?" she asked as she approached the knight. She looked at him and noticed how worn his armor was and his sword was on the ground near him.
It dawned on her, in moments she felt true fear as she stared at the corpse in this forsaken place. There were other corpses near it covered in black blood, they had most likely died very long ago. She made her way through the graveyard till she saw a glow on the ground near an opening in the canyon looking graveyard. She made her way through ruins and rubble and was very confused as to where she was.
It opened to a cliffside ledge and she realized that she was in a mountain graveyard. She looked out in awe as the mountain had a castle uptop and in the distance she could see another castle. The view was simply spectacular with a bright shine over a blue sky that went on for miles as castles topped two mountains, and for a second she thought she was in heaven before remembering the corpses of some sort of cult. Or maybe something else, but a cult made the most sense, as they all dressed the same together. She made her was hugging the inner mountain to find a sword stuck within the ground atop a lit flame. She kept going forward winding through the twisting mountain routes till she eventually found a large open door to an arena.
To her horror when she peeked inside she found a massive corpse of a black snake that coiled around a massive knight's body. A massive halberd abandoned nearby. She saw another door on the other side, not wanting to take her chances she ran across afraid it could wake up again.
The other area was very strange a sort of lighthouse on a mountainside, that was certainly not something she expected.
She continued exploring till she made it within the light house. It was a massive chamber that opened too several large thrones. Candles maintained the place a lit and had been there for very long, as well as sunlight filtered through openings up top and near the sides. She made her way down the stairs. Till she made it to the center where she found a coiled sword skewered into the ground.
Her curiosity got the better of her as she went to touch it.
A soothing warmth came over her as her entire body relaxed and she sat calmly without a care in the word for a moment.
Then a thought got in her head, if she could keep this sword it would bring her warmth for as long as she needed it. She stood and tugged at the sword, noticed it would come out and she struggled with it mustering all her strength, suddenly it came with a snap and Taylor falling straight on her ass.
Laughter rang throughout the chamber as Taylor quickly curled up clutching what she thought to be the sword, only to find the hilt.
She looked to the source of laughter and saw a man with a chainmail headpiece, in very strange black, blue, and red armor with large knee padding and a large sword sheathed on his back.
He was looking at her and laughing. The laughter was forced and rather dry and embittered.
"What a joke." he hissed to himself. "They expect us to conquer souls of lords, when we're not fit to even kiss the dust on their boots."
"May I inquire, what has happened Sir Hawkwood?" asked a soft and welcoming voice from the bottom steps from where Sir Hawkwood was sitting.
"Another one of your unkindled has arrived in grand glory!" he said with much sarcasm.
"I was not aware more than one was to arrive so soon." said the lady standing and dusting herself off.
She walked over to Taylor, by some amazing sense of direction. As her eyes were completely covered by a decorated circuit.
"Welcome to your new home...Unkindled One?" she asked her last night visibly wondering to herself.
"What's the matter?" asked Sir Hawkwood
"It seems she is but a mere hollow." answered the lady.
"Is it not a Fire Keeper's job to welcome all hollows to this senseless quest?" asked Sir Hawkwood genuinely confused.
"Yes but she seems, to be more a mirage, a phantom if you will, than a hollow of this realm." answered the Fire Keeper.
"Hollow? Quest?" Taylor found herself asking.
"Yes all hollows are recruited to a senseless quest to gather the Lord's cinders and relight the flame." said Sir Hawkwood glaring at the fire keeper.
"What are hollows?" asked Taylor shyly, wanting to know more about this world.
"They are marked with the curse, to forever live on no matter how many times they have died. Many go insane with constant death and roam looking to fulfill their last desire, or command." answered the Fire Keeper.
"That is correct Fire Keeper, hollows are rampant but some out of many come to become Lord of Cinder such as myself." answered an old man covered in ashes perched atop one of the giant thrones. They all looked up to him.
"But I haven't died." said Taylor clutching herself looking towards the sword's hilt.
"Well that would be the only way that you could be here." said Sir Hawkwood lamely.
"Little Ludleth, would you provide some guidance in the matter?" Asked the Fire Keeper kindly.
"If she has a mark you may confirm it." answered the Little lord.
Turning to her the Fire Keeper held out her hand towards Taylor. "Touch the darkness with me so we may confirm this." Taylor took her hand and felt a void come over her body. For moments before it receded back.
"Interesting she seems to be a faux Hollow." said the Fire Keeper.
"What," said Ludleth and Hawkwood in unison. "That would mean she was given the curse purposely, maybe a way to reverse it exists?" finished ludleth.
"Sadly the only ones who'd have a clue as to how to take advantage of this have stowed themselves away." said the Fire Keeper.
"A true shame." said Hawkwood looking at Taylor.
She could not believe what these people spoke of immortals that went insane from a curse, then her thought process went to something worse, This was her power, was she essentially a zombie for the rest of eternity.
"What can I do?" she said tearing up with a shaky voice.
"You may Know soon, but may I ask, what was that sound earlier?" said the Fire Keeper.
Taylor flushed hiding the hilt behind herself.
"Little Miss faux Hollow, fell in love with the bonfire and wished to keep it for herself." answered Hawkwood earning him a fearful look from Taylor.
"Yes the coiled sword is now missing it's hilt." continued ludleth.
"I..I..I…..I'm very sorry!" she stammered looking at the people around her.
"Worry not Hollow, it is a small matter as the bonfire will remain as long as I give it energy." said the Fire Keeper softly "You may keep the fragment, whenever you wish to return focus your mind to it as it will take you home."
She looked to it thinking what her home was really, it hopefully was not this place. She looked at it intensely and gripped the hilt firmly feeling it light up and transport warmth around her, pulling her into a void.
Time later.
The school bell had rang and all the teachers had dismissed their classes. And as a janitor went about his business, a teacher came running towards him.
"You have a key to all the lockers!?" the teacher yelled.
"Is a student hiding drugs in their locker again?" the janitor asked bemused as that would make it the fifth incident this month.
Winslow students can never learn their lesson it seemed.
"I hope…" gulped the teacher out of breath.
When they got to the locker, they noticed all the students seemed to be avoiding. They knew something was off. The locker smelt of old blood, sweat, barf, and other scents that should not come from a locker.
"Oh boy, I really hope this isn't another prank I have to clean up." glared the janitor at the teacher. "Getting to scrub a stomped down sandwich off the hallway was a great way to start the morning."
He pulled out his keys and rustled through them till finding the lockers master key. "Stand back who know what'll fall out of door number 1!?" he joked bitterly to the teacher who winced at this.
When he opened the door, both him and the teacher stood in horror as a tall, thin, pale body fell out of the locker along with dozens of used feminine products. A stain of barf ran along her shirt down her pants, and even covered her shoes. There was brown spots all over her along with bruises on her arms and forehead. When the smell got to the janitor he couldn't hold his lunch and dropped it into the mop bucket.
The teacher had fallen back on their ass and stuttered. "S..S..She was absent to mm...my fifth p..p….period."
The janitor quickly picked himself up to notice the group of students forming around them with their phones out taking pictures and such. He quickly went to her and checked her pulse. He blanched and yelled "Someone get the paramedics!"
?
She stirred in her sleep, that's what she'd call it, she felt all around her, but many things were wrong, she couldn't smell anything, she couldn't taste anything, and she couldn't see anything.
Sound came like a train to her, hearing it at a distance that was being closed very fast and roughly. Her eyes darted open and she could only see a blur and she made out vague shapes. Many people were around her, she could not make any sense of what was going on as the people backed away from her. An annoying ring accompanied the whole situation.
She screamed at them "Is This how you get your kicks, was the locker not enough for you!"
"Miss please calm down" said a soft voice.
She noticed the figure moving closer. She didn't know but she was sure they were going to touch her. She quickly reached out and caught a wrist, with a loud yelp and a small clink.
She blinked, and felt in front of her and found a pair of glasses, she felt along the rims and the glass itself, noticing all the splinters in the glass and odd angle that the glasses had been bent. Usable but most likely uncomfortable, she didn't hesitate to put them on.
Finally the world made sense to her. She looked around to see two paramedics and a nurse whose wrist she had in a firm grip, she also looked to be in pain. They all were backed away save for the nurse that was pinned down.
"Please let go." said the nurse softly.
She let go of her wrist and the nurse immediately recoiled behind one of the paramedics.
"Okay am I crazy or do you hear that ringing as well." asked Taylor trying to comprehend what was going one at the moment.
One of the paramedics opened his mouth to speak. But was interrupted by Taylor. "Do you have anything to drink my throat is parched?"
One of the paramedics nodded to the other and went around Taylor from within the Ambulance and grabbed a water bottle from behind her and turned off the monitor. With that the ringing stopped.
Taylor downed the entire bottle greedily before putting her attention on the people around her. They all looked at her wearily. She looked down at her hands and noticed they were paler than usual. Then stopped in horror and turned to the monitor which had been ringing. The ambulance slowed down as the idea had dawned on Taylor.
"H.. long was that going on?" she asked in an almost whisper.
"A couple minutes," answered a paramedic as a matter of a factly. She turned to focus on him, making him wince. "We tried many different things, because you were still showing brain activity, but your organs would only resuscitate for so long before you went into cardiac arrest. Then you started moving, we had to stop trying to help when you dented one of the bars on the stretcher."
She looked towards it, her eyes opened to the size of saucers when she saw it bent unruly, out of the usual handle the thing was meant to be.
She tried to take a deep breath to fill her lungs, but while she mimicked it perfectly. Her body was solid within her, she could not feel her lungs or even her own pulse.
"What is this?" she said her voice breaking.
"It's okay you could be a parahuman." answered the nurse quickly.
"Yeah you can be a ward or something." continued one of the paramedics.
Her mind froze, the hit was large, she became a parahuman, someone with powers, someone that could make a difference. She turned to look at that paramedic, his face not letting up a determined look.
"You're right." she let herself relax with a smile breaking down. "I can help people."
They looked at her and relaxed knowing that she wouldn't hurt them with parahuman abilities.
One week later.
Taylor sat in the class as he drone of the teacher continued. She'd been let out of the hospital a couple days later as they could not measure if she was healthy or not, memories of her time within the lighthouse can to her but what she most remembered was the void she'd been pulled into several times. First being her trigger second being her trip home.
The bell rang interrupting her thoughts as she picked up her things and sat at her desk for a minute debating whether or not it was worth finishing the day at Winslow, or not. She picked up her bag and pulled her hood over her curly hair and tried to cover her face as much as possible.
The halls were loud and a mess, but at least wherever she went she had a group of people clear way for her. That also came along with the whispers and rumors, all about her. What had happened to her, when it happened to her, why it happened and other things, but everyone knew who did it. That was the worse part no one ever spoke up, everyone avoided her, and for her part she was glad, it had been an uneventful week. No beatings no stealing her bag, almost nothing.
She bumped into someone and was taken out of her thoughts only to realize her mistake to late.
"Who the fuck…" said Sophia whipping around to look at Taylor "Oh, well look at what dragged itself from the trash! How you been Hebert? You don't look so well, should probably go to the nurse." laughed Sophia.
"Yeah crawl out of here and find somewhere to die already." said the redhead next to Sophia.
"Nice one!" high fived Madison.
The Trio, thought Taylor, Sophia, the muscle of the group, tall dark, school's trackstar very well built. Madison, the schools little queen, with a tiny cutesy frame no one would believe she could hurt a fly. And Emma, her best friend since childhood, now an absolute bitch, a redhead that's also a local model. By comparison to a very thin, pale girl with curly and glasses that was Taylor.
How am I gonna get away from this? Thought Taylor.
"Hey don't space out on me." snapped Sophia at Taylor.
"Her brains are probably rotted from her little locker incident." continued Madison, bearing a cutesy grin, like she'd just done the world a favor.
"Yeah you know trash belongs in a can." glared Madison.
A pain came to Taylor's eyes, making her reel over covering her face. Her nape set aflame with a burning sensation. She clenched her teeth.
Memories of digging in a dumpster till sunset came to her, she never did find her mother's flute.
"Let me go," she growled under her breath.
"What was that?" said Sophia putting her hand over her ear and bending down slightly to listen to Taylor "Is that Talk back?"
Taylor straightened her back to stand at a full 5'6" and took a fighting stance, which came to her naturally, lifting her fists to her ribs and taking a step forward to balance herself. She pulled her hood down over her eyes.
Sophia laughed, "So you finally grew some dignity and want to stand for yourself. Fine."
"Look a beat down!" called Madison getting the attention of some nearby students.
"Are you ready to eat shit Hebert?" asked Sophia overflowing with pride.
Since Taylor simply stood there with her hands up not even guarding her face, Sophia took a right jab at Taylor's face, making her back up a bit.
"You're still too weak!" called out Emma.
As Taylor spat blood from a cut lip.
Sophia, hadn't noticed earlier, but she hadn't held back with her punch and it actually was beginning to hurt her hand. She'd finish quickly anyway.
As she pulled her hand back to swing another punch at Taylor, she noticed a subtle shift in Taylor's stance. When her cocked hand moved forward Taylor had caught it with her left hand and moved the fist aside throwing Sophia into disarray. Sophia had to stop and think about what just happend before Taylor's hand had punched her in the throat. Sophia fell to her knees clutching her throat as she gasped for air, she noticed, Taylor's eyes underneath the hood, as they flashed with a menacing Orange color, then became a bright glowing red, when her right fist connected with a dynamite punch straight to the nose. Sophia's head snapped back as blood gushed in a large streak from her nose. Leaving Sophia seeing stars in her eyelids.
By this point Taylor's eyes were burning in rage, and the pain was receding, along with the pain on her nape.
The entire hall was silent and they watched Sophia fall in a heap, her shirt covered in her own blood, done in by none other than Hebert herself. She stepped on something on the ground and grinded her foot into it, lifting it to reveal a blood spot. Then stepped Away from Sophia and kept going down her route to the exit of the school, no one giving her any shit.
The students had left and the school's principal, Blackwell was talking with the Teacher that had found Taylor and the Janitor.
"Why did you call me over don't you know I have a lot of trouble to deal with." exclaimed Blackwell.
"Well, as you know Ms. Hebert fought Ms. Hess in this spot." started the teacher.
"Don't you think I'm already filing reports to…" went on the Principle only to be interrupted.
"You know, Blackwell, the Heberts are a poor family, my cousin got a job a month ago with the dockworkers union." said the janitor.
"Yes and this matter's why?" the Principal looked at the janitor.
"Well, you see I did a little research on certain diseases that can come from contact with rotted blood." this earned him a look from both the Teacher and Blackwell. "Woman, look I had to clean that locker out, and you don't give me that look Mister I'm a good teacher. There are some diseases that infect the bloodstream, and well if you look." he pointed at the ground. "This brown blood is all dried normally, and that spot tiny black spot right there is Ms. Hebert's."
"What kind of things does that suggest,"asked the teacher.
"Have you noticed any changes in her behavior?"
"Well she's always been reserved in my class almost never speaking with anyone, she's become more aloof, and doesn't even attempt at her classwork anymore. To say that she was depressed before is correct, but now it's almost like she's lost her will." answered the Teacher hesitantly.
"Now what does that have to do witht the fight?" asked Blackwell frustrated.
The janitor sighed "The bacteria can be eating her inside and be possibly fatal."
The principal looked at him with disgust, while the teacher showed some concern.
"If you think about it, the fact that she was out of the Hospital so fast after having such a harsh thing means, she probably couldn't afford treatment."
Blackwell gave him a bitter look before stomping off.
"Please tell me that's not a possibility." pleaded the teacher.
The janitor didn't look him in the eye.
"It makes sense that she hides herself now." said the teacher crestfallen.
"With the way things look she might not get to see the end of the year."