SUPPORT

First off this is my very first posting to FF and my very first foray into the written word. So tear into it all you want. suggestions, grammar, anything.

Secondly I don't write all that often soooo…. Yeah sporadic updates at best.

Third, I edited this chapter. Fixed crapitalization, and added a Translations section at the bottom.

o0OXWX…..Taylor Hebert…..XWXO0o

Blearily I open my eyes to darkness. Where am I?

Then the smell hits me. O Scion the smell. Its the worst thing I've ever smelled. My body tries to double over, to better evacuate my stomach but I just end up smashing my nose into a metal wall. The pain is blinding, I think my nose is broken though I don't think I hit the wall hard enough for it to be fresh. And now I'm throwing up all over myself, and crying at the pain.

Great.

I try to rub my face. Feel my nose. Anything, but my arms wont move. A moment of panic, am I paralyzed? My fingers twitch so not paralyzed just… trapped. trapped, I'm trapped. why am I trapped? Whats going on? Panic is setting in… and then I scream.

o0OXWXVXWXO0o

I don't know how long I've been screaming, but it feels like an eternity. Finally my voice cracks and I lose a little volume. I know if I keep screaming my voice will break.

I don't care.

I just want out. let me out. Out. Out. Out!

I beat my hands and feet bloody against what I've just realized is the inside of a locker. There's not much room but my pace is frantic. And only becomes more so when I realize I can feel them crawling all over me. Biting me. Eating me alive.

Another wave of nausea hits me and I retch, though nothing comes up.

They're on the insides of my legs. I can feel it. Its worse than anything I've ever felt. Their on my face. In my mouth, My ears. I try to shake them off. Away from my eyes, but it doesn't work. I shake my head harder, and harder until I'm bashing my Skull into all four walls of prison.

They're inside my ears now. Chittering. Chewing. I can't hear my own screams over that God awful noise, Just the chittering of chitin.

Sophia came back. She banged on the door and called me prey. Told me to enjoy my weekend.

Shes lieing. They wouldn't leave me here over the weekend. It's winter and the schools unheated. I could die.

I can't hold myself up any longer, I slump, sinking only a scant few inches. My movement disturbs something and the insect activity redoubles. I try to scream for help but only a wet gurgling comes out.

My head feels light. I don't think I'll be able to stay awake much longer. I don't know why they haven't come back. Maybe… Maybe they did. Maybe I was already dead and I'm in hell. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have noticed the transition, though it doesn't matter now. I can feel the darkness creeping into my mind. I think being dead would be better… death wouldn't be so bad…

o0OXWXVXWXO0o

A bang on the door startles me back to consciousness.

"still alive in there Hebert? "

Blearily I moan, my head lolls back with a soft thunk.

"Good. Wouldn't want something pathetic like you causing your betters problems, would we?" Sophia hisses through the slits in my locker… prison… coffin door. "although maybe it would be best if I did do something about you." she hums speculatively.

Distantly my mind questions what she means by "doing something". Isn't locking me in here enough.

"yeeaahh. Can't have you spoiling my fun. " her voice fades as she walks away, and so do I.

o0OXWXVXWXO0o

Cold! So cold! Wet! What's happening? I try to move. Only I can't. Of course. Locker. Right. But… wet.

A pungent odor rises from the liquid. It burns my eyes and my nose. It's so cold but it burns. It smells like Piss. It is piss.

"Tougher than you looked ehh Hebert? I honestly thought you'd croak, day one." She chuckles. "I never actually had anything against you, ya know? I just wanted a toy, like a cat and it's mouse. Emma was always the one with the grudge. Always wanted to push that extra little bit. Said we needed to make you strong like us. Pshh… you could never be strong like me. Your unfit to be anything but a plaything… and I'm board with you. But, before I throw you away like the mangled rubber rat you are, I feel you should know something. It's like the icing on your personal maggot infested hygiene product cake, if you will." she takes a deep breath I can almost hear the sneer on her face. "I want you to know why you couldn't ever win. Why, even if you had fought back with all your might, you would have lost and there was nothing you could do about it. I want you to know why you are a loser and I'm a winner. Blackwell was protecting us." I can hear her take a slow step towards the door. She presses her forehead to my tomb and whispers just loud enough to hear "Because I'm shadow stalker."

And just like that my world makes sense. The reason I never got justice. The reason I've been bullied mercilessly, without end, for 18 months. Is because Sophia mother FUCKING Hess, is a ward.

But then my, admittedly foggy, mind crashes to a halt. Why? Why would she tell me? Why give up her trump card like that? Then it hits me.

I'm not leaving the locker.

She's gonna kill me. I'm gonna die. I start hyperventilating. Tears I didn't know I still had after two and a half days in a metal box well in my eyes. I let out a single racking sob. That's when I see the shadow pass through the locker door.

It lingers for a second then separates. Half becomes material and falls, striking me on the bridge of the nose.

I see stars and my ears ring for a moment.

"... ust dropped on you Hebert, is a bomb. A tinker bomb. I know, right? It's amazing what some of the Asian gang members can get their hands on in exchange for a little… play time? Not with me of course, but some of the weaker prey around here is easily… persuaded." she laughs for real this time. "You've got 5 minutes to contemplate just how pathetic you really are, and then, poof. No more sniveling Hebert." she walks away.

Five minutes. According to the cunt I only have five minutes left. Not so bad. I'll be out of the locker, and I might even see mom again. Mom. I smile for the first time in two and a half days. I wonder what she would say if she knew I was this OK with dying? Probably have some inspirational quote, Make it all better. Then me, her and dad would go out for Fugly Bob's. Dad… DAD…. DAD. I can't die here. If I die in here it would kill him. I can't kill dad. I can't get out… I'm gonna kill dad. He's going to die and it my fault. I killed them both. Their both dead and IT'S ALL MY FAULT. I black out.

o0OXWXVXWXO0o

Two massive being move through the void. Interwoven with each other into a helix. They resembled flat worms, if flat worms constantly shifted and changed in a pattern reminiscent of the animation of a Tesseract I once saw. They never spoke. There was no sound. Just certainty.

Destination. Agreement. Trajectory. Agreement.

Earth I could see it, they were going to.. O god I have to tell someone I have to…

o0OXWXVXWXO0o

I start awake. Images of… something, slip my mental grip. I shift and a small metal object clinks against the wall of my mental box.

Right… bomb… shit. How long was I out. I need to get out. Save my dad.

Someone... help...

I struggle weakly against my door.

"Noo yoo'll ne'er break th' duir doon loch 'at.(1)" a strange voice I can barely understand says. It has a strange echo too it. almost like it's coming from inside a tunnel, inside my head.

Oh thank scion. Help is here!

"help." I squeak. And then I think better of it. "no… run… bomb…"

"Whit abit yer faither, lassie?(2)" he scoffs, this time thankfully his voice is coming from outside the locker and sounds more normal. Though it's just as loud, shaking the locker around me.

"Althoogh, ye did summon me he'er. dornt ken hoo, but th' reason is obvioos.(3)" If he didn't speak with the force of a rumbling volcano I don't think my damaged ears would have caught that. I think.. I think that was supposed to be a whisper.

I hear a clanking thump, like in the old pirate movies where the grizzled captain only has one leg, so he walks with a peg. Only this peg sounds like it's made of metal. And the man sounds like he's made of bear.

"Close yer eyes lassie,unless ye want tae lose them.(4)" he says in a voice that wouldn't be out of place on a Bear.

I do as instructed.

There's the sound of screeching metal from over my head and I'm showered in metal shavings. Then the door is just.. gone. Free.. FREE.. FREE. I greedily gulp at the fresh air. First I've had in days. I'm so busy just breathing I don't notice as a huge pair hair covered arms scoop me up like I weigh

nothing.

"Whit in god's nam happened tae ye lassie?(5)" he whispers. Looking down at me. He has yellow eyes, And hair the color of Fire.

"b..m" I whimper.

"whit?(6)" he asks, leaning his head down.

"BOMB!" I shout.

The mountain of meat just gives me a half cocked eyebrow in response. Then a blinking shit covered metal sphere bounces out of the locker and goes 'tink' against his steel toed boot.

I get the distinct impression his brain just blue screened. And then the yelling starts.

"SHHHHIIIIITE!(7)" the odd giant exclaims Turning from my locker.

I never knew someone with one leg… I loll my head back and look down… yup one tiny leg and a… is that a gun?

I never knew that a one legged man could have beat any Olympic sprinter you care to name at the hundred yard dash, but now I do. We covered the 20 yards to the end of the corridor in record time. His rifle hitting the floor with a heavy thud..Rattle every other enormous stride.

"Which way is it, lassie?(8)" he asks with the most urgency I've yet heard from him.

I can't answer i'm beginning to fade again.

"Nae, nae, nae, nae, nae! ye gotta teel me whaur th' exit is!(9)" he sounds almost frantic now. More like a puppy than a bear my addled brain supplies.

" 'n exts a d'r slly puppy m'n.(10)" I slur.

"Aw Heel.(11)" I hear him swear. It sounds like he's ten miles away.

"Rest, noo, lassie. I'll make sure yoo're taken guid caur of." His voice sounds nice. Like going home.

The last thing I see before I'm reacquainted with oblivion is my rescuer lifting the massive rifle that is his left leg and pulling back a slide that's as big as my forearm.

o0OXWX...Translations...XWXO0o

1: No you'll never break the door down like that.

2: What about your father, girl?

3: Although, you did summon me here. don't know how, but the reason is obvious.

4: Close your eyes girl,unless you want to lose them.

5: What in god's name happened to you girl?

6: what?

7: shit!

8: Which way is it, girl?

9: No, no, no, no, no! you gotta tell me where the exit is!

10: an exit is a door, silly puppy man.

11: Aw Hell.

12: Rest, now, girl. I'll make sure you're taken good care of.