Chapter One
Taylor rubbed herself, sending a shiver of pleasure up her spine. Her hand shook as her muscles tensed, her legs straightened and her back curved with the slightest arch. A moan whispered from her mouth as her mind focused on the things that made her body tingle. They were minute little things, tucked deep in the confines of her subconscious and they were hard to find. But when she did find them, boy did it feel so good.
On her back, she opened her eyes for a moment just to catch a glimpse of her ceiling. A moan opened her mouth and closed her eyes at the same time, putting her mind back in darkness. Even the sounds from outside seemed to be blocked out; the birds chirping, the wind blowing the trees, cars rolling down the highway. Everything was just a blur of heat and sweat as she continued.
She felt it coming. The pressure. The sweet, sweet pressure. It had her backed against a cliff side and was threatening to push her over the edge. She wouldn't mind. She wanted it. The wave of pleasure was coming and she didn't want to wait. She wanted it then, so her hand tried to do the work. It was going and going, like a machine or a hummingbird's heart. She felt it coming closer and closer. It was pushing harder now, forcing one foot to dangle over the cliff. Then it was…
"Taylor!" There was a voice from outside of her door. Pleasure was quickly replaced by panic. "Are you up, dear?" Taylor's hand flew from her shorts and was immediately tucked under a blanket, wiping all trace from it. She needed to speak, but her throat was dry; bone dry. It seemed to crack when she tried to force a word out. Pulling her hand from the blanket she sprung up from the bed, the sheet sticking to her for a moment before relinquishing its grip.
"Taylor? Are you oh…" Taylor opened the door, revealing only her head. She might have worried about the frizzled hair on her head, but considering how she usually looked when she got up, she knew it wouldn't be a big deal. "Oh, you're up." Her mom sounded disappointed, or maybe it was more of a worried tone.
"Yeah, 'just woke me up."
"I'm sorry, hunny. I just wanted to let you know your father brought home breakfast, so if you want it hot come and grab it."
"What'd he get?"
"Burger King, of course." Her mom gave a shy smile and Taylor returned it before nodding her head. After a small moment of awkward silence, Taylor's mom turned and walked towards the kitchen, which is when Taylor let out a large sigh. It wasn't entirely a sigh of relief, it had hints of disappointment on the surface as well. Cause she was disappointed; majorly disappointed.
I'll finish later, she told herself, stepping out of her room into the hallway. She could smell the Burger King and even if it wasn't very good for her, she still loved it. She didn't mind health to begin with. No matter what she did she couldn't seem to change her lanky figure. Tall, pale and lanky, was her nickname during junior high and sometimes it even came back now that she was a junior in high school. It was something she had come to accept but not fully embrace. It's hard to embrace what you don't love.
Her bare feet scuttled across the carpet until they reached the cold tiles of the kitchen, that's when she held out her hands in front of her like a child asking for something. Her mother gave a little smirk, but her father didn't seem quite as amused.
"Just come and get it. You're not a little girl anymore." Taylor felt a little hurt. Well, ok, maybe more than just a little.
"Steven!" Her mother exclaimed. "She was just playing around."
"Well, I'm sorry. I just expect a bit more maturity from my own daughter."
"Sorry, dad," Taylor kept her voice low as she stepped over to the counter, grabbed her plate of food and headed for the stairs. She heard her mother saying something about children as she descended into the cold, furbished basement, while her father kept blowing the same horn. Their conversation faded out at the same time she flicked on the light switch. The room instantly bathed in light revealed the new carpet, the support beam setting smack dab in the middle of the massive room, the old couch and the brand-new television.
Her heart was still racing from her previous activity, but she didn't even notice as she took a seat on the couch, placing her plate down next to her (she just wanted to forget). She began to eliminate the food as she flicked on the T.V. SpongeBob filled the screen and Taylor let out a chuckle, but still quickly changed it to the auxiliary channels. She wanted her Xbox on and she wanted it on right at that moment. She found that her pleasure normally turned to the anxious desire to kill some form of virtual foe whenever it was cut off from its goal. Maybe it was just a good distraction.
The Xbox flicked on as Taylor pressed the guide button on the white controller that was setting by her plate. Grabbing a few hash browns and stuffing them in her mouth, Taylor watched the usual screen go by before being taken to the dashboard (her tiny avatar waved as it appeared and Taylor jokingly waved back). And with a few flicks of the stick, and one press of a button, she was watching Halo Reach load up.
She finished up the hash browns before the screen prompted her to press start. She chose multiplayer and then opened up her friends' list, knowing the one person who had to be on. "ZooBear" was the one of fifty-four online and Taylor sent an invite, knowing they would accept. They did almost immediately, their voice coming over the T.V speakers with their greeting.
"Sup, Tay?" Taylor rushed to grab her mic and plug it in. "Oh, I see. Don't have your mic." The voice joked, following the sentence with a girly giggle. Taylor smiled as she plugged the mic in, the giggle coming from the headphones now instead of the speakers.
"Oh shit! You caught me." The girly giggle filled Taylor's ear again, and again she smiled. "So I hope your morning was cooler than mine, Zoe."
"You know I keep it ice cold wherever I go." That time it was Taylor to do girly giggle and Zoey to smile. "No, but it was ok. My dad's just been bugging me about this stupid ball."
"Ball?"
"Yeah, like a dance," Zoey said. "His work is throwing one and he said he has to bring the whole fam."
"A dance, eh? That sounds like a whole batch of fun."
"Oh yeah, tell me about it. Dressing up just to sit around and smile at all my dad's bosses; sounds like a ton-o-fun."
"Oh shush, you'll have a great time. Turn some heads, break some hearts, you know? That old Zoey shtick." Zoey laughed at that one, not bothering to move her mouth away from the mic so that Taylor's ear was filled with rough static.
"Psh. Ain't no heads gunna be turnin'," Zoey said, butchering a southern accent.
"Yeah right, girl. You be turnin' my head anytime." They both laughed and Taylor went ahead and started searching for a match.
"Oh, so that's how it is? Well let me just say, little missy, that you ain't so bad neither." By then the laughter was starting to die down, but they still giggled as the server racked up a few more players for their game. "I had the oddest dream last night, Tay. It was like I was Soap, from Modern Warfare you know, and I was running the roof tops in south America."
"That doesn't sound weird. It sounds pretty awesome really."
"No, no, no! You didn't let me finish. Instead of being chased by terrorists or whatever, it was the zombies from Resident Evil 4, and they kept yelling things in Spanish at me."
"Yeah, I suppose that would be a bit scary."
"It was just weird as hell."
The lobby filled up and their voices got hidden beneath the yells and whelps of the other players. There were the normal assortment of people; screamers, yellers, old men, little boys and now Taylor and Zoey were a part of the statistic. There was a little boy and one of those deep-voiced, older guys arguing about age. It was the same old game, nothing had changed.
"Shouldn't you be at school?" The deep voice said. "It's Friday." A few of his supporters laughed as the boy tried to speak up.
"No, it's a teacher's institute today, so we got the day off." Taylor felt bad for the kid, cause there was no way for him to come out on top. Douche-bags like the deep-voice and his cohorts were quick to insult and slow to get rid of. Zoey's silence told Taylor that she felt the same.
"Oh!" There was a batch of laughter. "Oh! Teacher's institute. Little boy gets to stay home for the day." The laughter made Taylor's anger boil up.
"You know, that kind of stuff probably happened when you were in school," Taylor's voice stayed calm, which surprised her because usually when she's angry it's obvious. "You know, like a year ago."
"Wha…what's this? Another little boy!" The guys laughed, spitting static into everyone's ears. Taylor swore she heard Zoey say "Oh boy, Tay," and that made her smile.
"Yup, just another little boy, being annoying and making your life so, so hard." Taylor made sure to put her feminine charm into the latter half of her sentence, then she opened the dash and invited Zoey to a private chat. That didn't stop her from hearing the reactions, which included laughter, yelling and all around chaos. Both girls thought it was so hilarious that they could put any lobby into disarray just by speaking so when the private chat connected they were both laughing.
"Did you hear that guy!" Zoey said through her chuckling.
"Did you hear him after he found out I was a girl?" They both burst into laughter but Taylor's was cut off abruptly as her mother stepped down the stairs. Taylor removed her headset quickly and turned towards her, knowing her father would be accompanying. She didn't know why, but her father didn't like it when she wore her headset, as if it was a crime to talk to one of her only friends.
"Taylor?" She asked, knowing that Taylor was down there (who couldn't have heard her laughter?).
"Yeah, mom, I'm here."
"Your father wants to say something to you, dontcha dear?" Taylor watched as her father, a tall, bulky guy, walked around her tiny mother into the light. He had his hands in his pockets, which always meant that her mother had forced him to do something. This time the 'something' was to apologize to his own daughter. Taylor almost wanted to laugh.
"Listen, Tay. I'm sorry for snapping." His voice was a bit hesitant, but he got it out.
"That's ok, dad." Taylor said, lowering her gaze to the carpet.
"It's just that I had a hard day…" A noise on the mic caught his attention. "I just had a hard day at wor…" The noise again. Taylor knew it was just static, but she could see that her father wasn't thinking the same. "I just had a hard day at…" The noise came through again and this time Taylor saw that her father didn't have the patience to try his sentence again. She felt her heart sank.
"Why do you even have that thing in?" His voice was trying to stay calm, but it wasn't working.
"I was just talking to Zoey…" Taylor's voice was little more than a whisper.
"Why do you have to talk to her on that thing? Why don't you just invite her over so that I can actually talk to you when I need to?"
"Cause she doesn't live around here." Again, little more than a whisper, because she knew how her father felt.
"Oh, so it's one of your little," His mind paused to find the right word. "Little online friends, is it?"
"Yeah, dad."
"You know how I feel about that."
"I'm sorry, dad."
"I just don't see why you don't go out and make some friends." That's when Taylor felt she was being treated like a child. And when she felt like that, she got defensive.
"I do go out and make friends, dad. It's just eight o'clock in the morning on a day off of school, which means everyone is still sleeping."
"Oh really, you do? Like who?"
"Like Sarah, and Pepsi! You just don't know them because you're never home!"
"Oh! So that's what this is?" Her father's voice finally rose over the normal talking level.
"That's what what is? You're the one that started pickin' on me!"
"Oh, I'm sorry if you can't handle our little talks."
"Dad, shut the fuck up." Taylor had never cursed in front of her parents before, but at that moment in time she didn't care. Anger had her in its rigid clutches and it wanted to take her for a ride.
"What'd you say to me?" He wasn't yelling, his voice was too stunned. Taylor's mom had went up the stairs already and was now probably crying upstairs. Thinking that made Taylor feel sorry, but it was too late.
"I said shut the fuck up! Cause that's all you do! You're never here when we need you, you're always working! But when you come home it's your way or nothing! You pick on me, you insult my best friend, you say I don't have any real friends!" Taylor was tearing up now. "What the hell is wrong with you?"
"With me? With me!" Steven stood up, fire engulfing his eyes. "What's wrong with you? Where's your respect? Where's your dignity? Don't cry! You're not a little kid anymore! You can't just cry and get away with whatever you want! You're an adult now!"
"Dad! Shut the fuck up! This is what I mean!" The tears were falling from her eyes now, drenching her cheeks with their sadness. "I'm not crying to get you to stop! I'm crying because you hurt me! That's all you do! You just hurt me! And you're hurting mom, too!"
Taylor turned from her father and curled up on the couch. Her eyes were only slits filled with water, but she could still see that her Spartan was in a game, the score completely lopsided due to her disappearance. She thought of Zoey and felt embarrassed and cried some more.
Her father didn't say anything, he only stood up and looked down at his daughter with eyes that could have been sad or unforgiving. Then he turned and went to the stairs. Taylor tried to muffle her sobs and it worked for the most part. Her tears slid out silently, but her chest and back still shuddered. Steven stopped at the stairs and turned back to his daughter before saying:
"I just want you to be tough." His voice was calm, more so than Taylor had ever heard it. "The world has teeth out there, and I don't want it to eat you." Then he climbed the stairs to go to his wife.
It took about ten minutes, or the time it took to finish the match, until Taylor was able to sit up and dry her eyes. She slipped on the headset and let out a breath into the mic to signal that she was back. Zoey smiled and somehow Taylor hear it. It made her heart rise up a bit. It made her lips curl at the edges.
"Sorry 'bout that."
"Bout what? Not finishing that match? Yeah, you best be sorry." Zoey's normal, smiling voice was all Taylor heard.
"I mean my father."
"What about him?" Taylor felt a bit perplexed. There was absolutely no way that someone could have just not heard their fight.
"Uh…"
"Did he say something while I was gone?"
"Oh, you were gone?" Taylor's heart dropped all of its weight, rising to the surface for the first time that morning (except when she was touching herself, it had gotten pretty close then).
"Yeah, I had to talk to my dad about that stupid ball. I have to get ready after this last game."
"Oh, that sucks. I'm gonna be stuck here all day." Taylor tried to push the argument behind her, she could think about it later.
"Isn't there a football game at your high school tonight?" Zoey sounded excited, as if she couldn't wait to go to the game, even though there wasn't a way she could.
"Yeah, but I'm not going there alone."
"Oh, psh! If I was there I'd go with you."
"Yeah, well I'd go with you too. That'd be one hell of a game." They both laughed, Taylor feeling much better than she had a couple minutes ago.
"Oh snap! Vote for Boardwalk! I love that map." Taylor could hear Zoey scrambling for something on her side of the mic, so her voice came out more strained than she had wanted it to. It made Taylor laugh and she voted for Boardwalk.
"So what're you wearing to this ball?"
"Oh, it's so cute! I wish I could show you! It's green with this white…" Everything went black.
"Fuck!" Taylor erupted, not even expecting it from herself.
"Hunny? Are you ok?"
"Yeah mom."
"The power went out, your father's going to check the breakers."
"Kay." Taylor relaxed back on the couch, feeling a bit depressed about how the morning had turned out. The failure in her bed, the food was good, her father being her father, not getting to hang with Zoey much; it was a big mess of mix-ups. Somehow it made her a feel a bit better to know that Zoey was probably feeling bad about not getting to hang with her as well.
Unless she thinks I ditched her, she thought. But then just shook her head. There's no way that Zoey would be that paranoid of their friendship. I love her like a sister. Taylor had a sister, but that's a story for another day.
She let out a sigh before standing up in the basement, which in the dark reminded her of the nightmares she used to have as a child. It was a scary section of house too, it wasn't just that she was a child. The corners were absolutely drenched in black, and the walks looked like they were moving in the minimal light, the ceiling felt lower and the carpet didn't even feel like a carpet. They were all just tricks of the mind, but they worked, very well I might add.
Turning to the stairs, her life changed forever. Standing there, where the stairs used to be, was a door. It was large, wooden, smooth; it looked like an antique that her grandmother might buy and store in her basement, never to use. The handle was silver and it shone through the darkness that was her basement. There was no keyhole, which was just something odd she realized immediately (Taylor didn't know why, but her eyes always seemed to pick up the oddest, minute details before anyone else could).
She stepped over to it and noticed that it was paper thin. The frame was missing, leaving only the door and its hinges, but she just knew that it could open anyways. She didn't know where it would go, but she knew it would open. For all she knew it would just lead to her stairs, but something in her brain (instinct maybe) told her that wasn't so.
It felt cold to the touch as she ran her fingers across the polished wood, from the top all the way to the shiny knob. She grasped it in her finger and felt a sense of overwhelming force. It covered her brain, like a headache but sweet, pleasurable. It was knowledge, but it was locked away in some large wardrobe in her brain and it needed several keys. Of course she didn't have any located in her own brain, so it just felt like an extra weight up there.
Looking around the door, her hand still on the knob, she saw that her stairs were still there, leading up into the living room. That's when she noticed she had a choice, one that was already made long before she saw the door, only she didn't know it. She didn't know it, but her destiny had laid itself out in front of her and it was kind enough to give her the option of passing it up and going upstairs. The knowledge locked away in that wardrobe told her that if she didn't open the door she'd regret it for the rest of her life. Not only that though, it also told her that what was behind that door was amazing, beyond her comprehension.
"You'd have to see it to believe it," a voice spoke to her inside of her head. She hardly heard it, staring at the top of the door now, reading the writing that was inscribe don it.
"The Leader," it read. "1of 5."
On the surface of her brain, she had no idea what that meant. But deep down, locked in the wardrobe of knowledge, she knew that it was powerful, that it was important. She knew that she had to open the door, so she did. And take her first steps into a new world she did.
I hope that opening wasn't too much for all of you, and I hope you liked it. Remember to read and reviews, especially if you were a reader of the original. Tell me how this compares, what you like and don't like. All of that cool stuff that helps me out. =] Thanks again for reading!