Om Mani Padme Hum
Taylor Hebert screamed as she clawed against the cold metal of her locker door, she screamed as bugs bit, gnawed, chewed, and ate at her flesh. She screamed as unspeakable fluids from the rotting tampons that had been stuffed into her locker slowly dripped into her wide open mouth, her bleeding wounds, and into her eyes.
She screamed as she heard the laughter of the bitches Sophia, Emma, and Madison. She screamed as her mind broke, whispers slowly growing in volume and number until reality itself broke apart.
Om Mani Padme Hum
Om Mani Padme Hum
Om Mani Padme Hum
Scene Break
Taylor opened her eyes with a gasp, she was sitting on a chair situated beneath a white pagoda that floated in an empty white void, across from a pale wooden table sat… Her mother?
Annette Hebert sat across the table, dressed in an immaculate white dress, a kind smile adorning her face.
Taylor opened her mouth and was about to ask the obvious question, but Annette just shook her head.
"In a manner of speaking I am your mother Taylor, but I am not Annette Hebert."
Taylor sat back in her chair, her eyes on the person who looked like her mother, sounded like her mother, and yet was not.
"Then who are you?"
The woman smiled, and Taylor felt a shudder of pure happiness, as though her life had just become perfect.
"I am the mother of all, I believe the term you use is God."
"What?"
The being who wore the form of Taylor's mother giggled, the familiar sound hitting Taylor like a gut punch. Once the older woman's giggles subsided, she spoke again, wiping one solitary, happy tear from her cheek.
"Its a broad and powerful term I admit, but that the closest to the truth that you would be able to understand. Now, I am here to give you an explanation, and a choice."
The being that wore Annette Heberts form leaned forward, an earnest expression on her face.
"Think of reality as stack of papers with entire universes rating on a single sheet. I am a resident of a higher universes, roughly twenty five sheets above your own. Normally, I, and beings like with me in the upper dimensions do not integer into the lower ones. Unless the lower dimension interfere first, and even then we are only allowed to redress the balance."
Taylor spoke slowly, her mind slowly coming to terms with all of what had been said.
"So… Someone interfered, and now your using me to fix it?"
The older looking woman nodded.
"
"Exactly, that is the essence of why I have brought you here. You have three options in front of you. The first is that you trigger like normal, and gain the ability to control bugs. The second is that you don't trigger, and I remove the memory of our meeting, but I tweak the future so that you and your father win the lottery and can live in comfort and safety for the rest of your lives."
Taylor looked pensive, the being that looked like her mother had given her two options, but hadn't told her about the third.
"What is the third option?"
Annette sighed.
"The third option is that I give you powers, powers that will allow you to compete with any person or thing on the planet, in order to fight, in order to gather allies, and to defeat the being you know as Scion."
Taylor looked at her mother in absolute incomprehension.
"Your saying that Scion is evil?"
Annette nodded.
"I am. The being that you refer to as Scion intends to wipe out the whole of planet earth."
Taylor swallowed dryly at the thought of the being that most considered the hero being evil. She seemed to think for an eternity as time passed on that pagoda, floating in the void.
Finally she spoke.
"What happens if I decide to just go back to my life?"
"This."
And with a wave of her hand, the being that wore Annette Hebert filled the void with images. Of capes strewn across cities turned into battlefields, of countries and continents burning, of the planet itself shattering into pieces and being consumed by some sort of…. Gigantic space whale? The fuck?
After another eternity in the void the images of death and destruction stopped, leaving Taylor deep in thought again. She finally spoke, her voice hesitant.
"I, I want to help, if I can."
Annette smiled, and again, that feeling of love, acceptance, and happiness surged into Taylor, from the her ears to the tips of her toes, she stood and then walked in front of Taylor, and still smiling leaned down and kissed her on the top of her head, and again the whispers rose.
Om Mani Padme Hum
Om Mani Padme Hum
Om Mani Padme Hum
And as the whispers rose to a crescendo, Taylor heard her mothers voice again.
"In order to fulfill my will on your earth, I grant you power. The power to protect the weak, the innocent, and the endangered with barriers as strong as your conviction,"
Taylors body hummed with power as walls of pure force erupted form her in waves.
"I give you the power to dive deep into the minds of your foes so that you might confront them with the worst nightmares, driving them from their path and onto a better one."
Taylors mind exploded with possibilities and power.
"I give you the ability to walk unseen, unheard, and unmolested by all so that you might better understand your foes, and in turn so that you might better understand yourself."
Taylors body flickered in and out of visibility and her mind continued to expand.
Taylors vision darkened as she heard one final instruction, the voice of her mother soft in her ears.
"And now, go my champion, go into the world at large, become the beacon that is needed for the world."
Taylor Hebert awoke to the beeping of a heart monitor, and the soft snores of her father.