Chapter 3: Filled with Darkness
Taylor stopped screaming when something gently pushed at her back. Startled, she snap her closed eyes open. The solid object was the ground and she was on another platform.
Looking up she didn't see the remanet of a crumbling plateau but this only confused her more. Taylor knew she fell. The glass floor exploding and grazing her face with shards. The panic as the glass barely missed her eyes.
But here she was again. Not a hair out-of-place to show for it. The only consolation is that in Taylor's hand was the wonder staff, as she dubbed it for now. It feel solid and real, a real comfort to her in some weird out-of-body experience way.
She and maybe, just maybe, the staff were real. Taylor glanced around nervously, she could only hope she got out before she started to talk to the staff. Or worse, it started to talk to her.
Shaking her thoughts back into focus she stared down at what was now very obviously a new platform. Taylor couldn't resist a small grin at the image. Alexandria, Eidolon and Legend faces stared up at her. The Triumvirate, the three of the most debated and well-known heroes of the modern world.
Each member a master in their classification. The invulnerable and strong: Alexandria, the man who could have any power: Eidolon and finally the hero who was light and hope himself: Legend. All their eyes bore into her. The life-like quality of the glass made it extremely unnerving. Taylor could have sworn Alexandria's eye moved just a little.
Taylor would rather be on this platform than her own one.
"Be careful! There will be times where you have to fight. Even here, there is darkness," her guide's voice suddenly said causing Taylor to snap to attention.
What did they mean by 'darkness'? Taylor frowned upwards but saw movement from another being for the first time since she came here.
Moving over Alexandria's face and then curving towards her Taylor spotted a flat shadow moving. Two beady yellow eyes was all she could make out. Then Taylor mouth dropped open as the shadow pulled it self into the 3rd dimension.
It was... kinda of cute really. It reminded Taylor of an ant. Its whole body was black except its eyes which were dim yellow. Besides the claws on each arm, Taylor kept an eye on them, the only other features it had where two squished antennas. The thing bobbed its head and the antennas twitched.
It was still pinging Taylor's cute radar when it lunged from half way across the platform. Thankfully it was slow in the air and Taylor quickly moved out the way of its flailing claws with a squeak. It landed with a tumble and then skittered after her.
Taylor in a panic swiped at it with the staff. The creäture didn't seem to see it coming or didn't care. The sound of a solid hit rang out and the shadow flew off the edge of the platform. Taylor took a quick few steps away and waited for it to come back.
That thing had tried to kill her. Taylor breathed in trying not to panic but her palms were sweaty and her heart hammered against her chest. A hero wouldn't have sweaty palms. A competent hero would chase after it or make a quip.
Taylor wasn't a hero. She was just a normal girl with a stick.
"Behind you!" The warning shot out at her from behind and Taylor whirled in time to see the shadow jump in to 3D and at her.
With barely enough time to raise the wonder staff up in a guard that blocked the shadows body from hitting her full on.
The sudden extra weight sent Taylor on to her back with the shadow on top. Its eyes were glowing now. Its claws brushed her skin as she struggled to push it off. Where it's claw tips brushed her skin a feeling of coldness follow.
Being this close to the shadow made Taylor panic to the extend she was yelling at it. There was a smell emitting from it and made her noise itch terribly.
With a surge of energy Taylor got her feet under it and sent it flying away from her. Breathing heavily she stood and gripped the staff with both hands and charged at the shadow.
This shadow had no right to mess with her. Not while her heroes watched from below.
It was bad enough she was hearing voices, trapped in limbo and wielding a mouse shaped weapon. Taylor was not adding 'getting killed by adorable shadow' to her bad day list.
With a yell, that she promised to never do again, Taylor swung the clunky club and with astonished eyes watched the struggling shadow vanish in an implosion of darkness.
Taylor hands shook as she slowly lowered the staff. She had won.
"Don't drop your guard. The darkness is always just behind you." The words echoed to her from above. Steeling herself Taylor turned.
Three patches of dark puddles spread across the platform. It engulfed Eidolon's face first then Alexandria's and finally Legend. Taylor saw her problem soon enough when she tried to keep walking backwards. Her foot felt empty air and she was forced to stop.
The darkness surged forward towards her.
"Please help me!" Taylor screamed to the heavens. The voice didn't respond. The light never stopped the darkness.
The shadows passed under her and for a second Taylor thought she might have overreacted. Then her feet suddenly sank down, going from room temperature to bone chilling cold.
Taylor flailed as the darkness swallowed her. She screamed as it pulled her in over her head. Taylor's eyes suddenly felt raw and cold, closing them out of natural instinct she tried to bat the darkness away like a bad smell and swim out but suddenly her arms weren't held down and heat returned to her.
Shaking she curled up into a ball. The staff clenched tightly near her chest. Taking a moment to calm herself, to reassure herself of safety she opened her eyes. Another platform.
Taylor choked a little on a sob. The image of the platform with her on it flashed in her mind. Taylor, curled around her mothers flute. Scared and weak.
Rubbing her nose she sat up. She was better than that. Taylor had survived Sophia, Emma and Madison. She survived the shadow and she was going to survive this place.
The mental pep talk made her feel better.
This platform was more harder for her to look at. Her father's sleeping form. Stress making lines appear far too early on his face. His expression in a state of eternal worry.
"Dad..." Taylor walked over and fell to her knees next to his face. She put her hand on the cool glass.
"I'll get out of here and I'll get home soon. Just wait for me," Taylor reassured the image.
"The time is so far off and yet so near. The time where you will open the way. But don't worry. Take your time."
Taylor gritted her teeth at the intrusion her faux private moment.
"What do you want? Tell me! I'm tired of these stupid games. I just want to go home, please." Taylor finished in a half plead.
Silence stretched on for a few seconds. Then a light flashed before and she was forced to look away. When it died down a door laid before her. A round frame curved upwards until it met a point, in laid with two steel handles. The door looked like it was made of soft red wood. Carvings of leaves and vines entwined the frame were at the top. the same pane glass the platform was made of, glimmered in the overhead light.
Taylor felt her insides buzz. It wasn't just her either. The abyss around her seem to...move.
But Taylor's eyes snapped back to the door. It was... beautiful and terrifying. Taylor's hand moved on its own.
She had to open it. Taylor had to open this door, nothing else mattered, not her, not her dad, not getting home or anything. Just the door.
Taylor dropped the wonder staff and it clattered to the ground.
Her heart. It was beating so hard in her chest it hurt. Her fingers clasped the handles and pulled.
It opened silently. Taylor couldn't breath. Her lungs seem to fill with lightness instead. The door parted down the middle and the most beautiful light Taylor had ever seen flowed out. It was so warm.
Taylor felt tears slide down her cheeks. She didn't feel like crying but laughing and she didn't know why. It didn't matter anymore. Taylor cast everything in her mind aside and walked through the door. It was so warm. It was so gentle. It was just like mom.
"It's too soon to open the door. You aren't ready yet. Don't worry, the time is so far off and so near."
Taylor resisted when something pulled her back but she felt powerless and couldn't struggle. With a cry she landed on her back on a solid floor, not glass. Something scraped as Taylor knocked into it. A wooden chair.
Taylor knew that sound. It haunted her dreams. It was the sound of a high school desk.
Feeling like she had just come off the best rollercoaster in the world she stood on shaking legs. Looking up she came face to face with Sophia Hess. Her face was blank, watching.
Taylor walked backwards into another set of desks. She knew where she was, this was Mr. Gladly's classroom. In a panic she turned, had she just fell asleep in class?
To her horror, Emma and Madison occupied the back two corners of the room. Sophia stood near the teacher's desk. All of them stared at her. No one said anything.
"I've got to go," Taylor mumbled as she edged her way to the door. Her heart sank when it refused to open. They had locked her in. She quickly turned with her back pressed to the wooden door in terror. Taylor expected they be right behind her with what ever plot they had in mind to torment her with but they weren't.
They weren't doing anything. They weren't taunting, smirking or teasing. The three girls just stood there. Sophia was the weirdest out of the group. Sophia was a predator, born and raised. At lest that what Taylor thought. Sophia was always watching, always observing. She saw through people in odd ways. Sophia never stopped moving, even a little. Her fingers drummed, her foot tapped, her nails clacked. Standing so relaxed and still was wrong.
Social rituals annoyed her, begging infuriated her, being challenged enraged her. Sophia wasn't observing her, she was waiting on her. Waiting on Taylor, her prey.
That was what tipped Taylor off. Tipped her off to the fact this was still limbo and this wasn't Sophia, Emma and Madison. It was a sad state of affairs when imposters made her feel better than the real thing.
Taylor slowly walked back to not-Sophia. Feeling extremely off-balance as she stared at not-Sophia's face. Seeing details of a calm and peaceful Sophia. Taylor didn't like it, the natural order was being disturbed.
"Hello?" Taylor said to not-Sophia. The girls eyes, empty things, turned to her.
"What are you most afraid of?" Sophia's voice said with the quality of a genuinely curious person. Taylor's mouth opened then closed. Swallowing her lunch she went along with sick game.
"You. I'm afraid of you, Sophia."