Taylor Hebert and the Worm Eater
...
It's a bit morbid but I often contemplated what my death would be like. My life was shit, everything sucked, a victim, neglected, really it should have never come as a surprise that the concept of death held such fascination to a girl who seemed to have a target carved into her back by the world. When everyday is not just a chore, but a punishment for the crime of existing, you find your fantasies taking a turn for the morbid.
Would it come quickly? Slowly? Would it hurt? Would I even know that I'd died? And the after life, would it be any better? Would I burn, would I be sent back in an endless cycle of rebirth? How would I even die anyway?
So many thoughts, so many fantasies. Being a hero who saves the world at the cost of her life, a true paragon. A villain most despised, dying only after carving a path of terror and destruction into the annals of history itself. Maybe even just a normal life, dying old in a bed peacefully in my sleep. And in some of my more depressing episodes I could see myself being the victim of a violent crime being smashed aside by one of the many villains in this city or just gunned down by the gang members.
I didn't really think it'd end like this though, naked and alone shivering in a small metal coffin bleeding and crushed to death.
Since the locker I though I'd seen the worst they could possibly do to me short of murder. The hour I'd spent in there before I was able to jimmy open the lock were amongst the worst of my entire life. The worst part, the absolute worst was despite my cries, despite how many people were around that could have helped, not a single one lifted a finger. Since then everything seemed petty I comparison. I guess they felt so too, two months of it had let me build up the confidence to mouth off to my own personal Judas. She did not take it well.
And so as I left school for the weekend, I found myself grabbed from behind and a strong smelling rag shoved over my face. When I next awoke it was in the confines of a trashbin, naked and tied up. I heard them giggling and kicking the can. After a few more insults they'd left, but not before giving some parting words.
"Right were the trash belongs, Taylor. Hey, if you're lucky maybe one of the bums will find you and let you out if you do him a few favors. Tata~"
I spent the whole night there shivering and crying. I could call out with those words in my head, this city was a hell hole, and anyone that would find me here was more than likely to be the kind of monster to take advantage of finding a naked girl already tied up.
On the second day I was sure that I was going to die there, from the cold or from thirst. I had no faith in those three monsters returning to let me out. After all they'd done, getting away with murder was sadly a real possibility. By the second night I didn't even have the strength to call out even if I wanted.
I'd simply been sitting there in my waste waiting to die when it happened. A screech and suddenly my entire world was pain. Pain and chaos. A car, in some sense of irony had of all places wrecked into my little bin. I was pinned under it as was evident by the slowly collapsing walls.
It took me far to long to realize I'd stopped hurting. I tried to lift my head but couldn't budge it, I tried to feel with my hands and barely got a twitch. I tried to kick with my legs and remained motionless. Everything below my neck felt like static.
"No...please, please no…" I was panicking, looking for something, anything..but there was just crumpled metal, tiny holes in it barely letting in light from the outside.The soft groan of metal as my makeshift coffin served a constant reminder of just how little time I had left.
Words failed me in the face of my looming mortality, something so big I couldn't fully grasp the concept. I didn't want this. I couldn't accept this. I couldn't die! I didn't deserve to die! I wanted to scream, I wanted to rage. I was terrified, I was angry, I was so many things in a jumble, trapped in my own traitorous body. The blood pooling in my lungs turned my my shouts into raspy whispers, I couldn't even move my hands to beat them against the walls.
Paralyzed, trapped...I might as well have been dead at this point. Either I'd drown, I'd be crushed, or if by some miracle neither of those I'd no doubt die from exposure.
"No... not like this," I didn't know how I would have preferred it, or if I would ever have made such a choice, but to die like this... "I don't... Someone, anyone help me!"
I struggled as much as my body allowed, casting dignity aside. I felt my mixed phlegm and blood dribbled down my throat as I continued to try and shout, my own tears and mucus mixing with the solution. I didn't care that as I felt something give way inside me, I didn't care as my own lungs were able to take in less and less breath as I drowned in my own mess. I didn't care care as the edge of my sight began to fade.
Just another second, just one more second of precious life and existing. I could feel the looming specter of death approach and I would do anything to evade it.
"God, anyone..." I begged, desperate for someone, heroes, witnesses, God, just for someone to help me.
But nobody come.
Just like always... why should I have expected my death to be any different?
My vision went black.
---
It was vast, something that was so far beyond me that its mere attention felt crushing.
Destination.
Formless it slithered about, every motion of it's titanic form levying the strength to destroy everything I'd ever known.
Agreement.
It came from beyond the furthest reaches beyond the world I knew.
Trajectory.
I felt like a leaf caught in a hurricane under the weight of it's approach.
Agreement.
A piece, a shard, a fraction of a fraction of an infinitesimal piece, broke away and speared towards me like a falling star.
Re-
It did not slow in the slightest as it tore through the colossal mass of flesh that stood between us. The shriek it released as it was impaled traveled not by something so meager as sound but echoed through my entire being with enough force I felt as if my body and mind would shatter.
And then it began to collapse into itself.
The sight could not be described in words as the mountains of flesh began to flow inwards at tremendous speeds before eventually imploding into humaniod shape even smaller than myself. I found myself staring up at a leisurely floating redhaired woman.
"Aaaah, Well well, if this isn't a familiar scene," She grinned down at me. She flexed her hands, "Oh, it feels so good to finally have a body again, can't wait to break it in."
"Who..." For a fleeting moment I had thought I'd been saved, but the deranged and blood thirsty look shot me crushed any notion that my precarious position had been resolved.
"Am I?" She finished for me, "Why, Just the most powerful being to ever grace your pathetic little mudball with it's presence. Killer of worlds, waster of Gods, The one and only Master of Death and Destruction Devourlord Revya. Rejoice little worm, I'm not usually one for showing mercy."
I didn't need any clarification on what it meant. For all it looked human, the thing in front of me was as far beyond my as I was above a gnat. It's presence radiated not only power but the image that surrounded her was one of a woman who reveled in dealing suffering upon others. That in any other circumstance not only would it have killed me but would have crushed me slowly, enjoying every agonizing moment until my body and spirit broke before destroying husk that was left.
And it was sparing me. I could feel my stomach drop. Why?
"Hoho~ Smart one, not that it will help you. You see, after a certain TRAITOROUS BITCH! robbed my of my body that day I've been in something of a bind. Since then I've been trapped, unable to give the world what it deserves, unable to purge the rotten maggots that infest it's disgusting shambling corpse. Why, I couldn't even vent, as the Cow would put me back to sleep the moment I awoke. Eons, and I couldn't even scream... That is until, one day, it stopped."
The creature approached, descending to be level with me. The deranged look had left it's eyes, leaving something somber. It appeared almost too human.
"But then I was alone. I don't know what happened, maybe her soul finally broke, maybe she'd finally realized that her friend was dead. In the end I was left in the darkness with nothing. Not a soul to torment, not a world to kill, not even her disgusting lullabies. Just me, bound alone in the dark, utterly isolated from anything... Until now."
She placed a hand on my shoulder, floating in close and ignoring my personal space. I didn't resist, I couldn't resist, some macabre curiosity forcing me to stay silent and unmoving. She smiled reassuringly at me and I felt myself relax even as she ran her hands up my neck to cup my face.
"But now I have you..." She cooed, her smile became a grin and grew wider, "Such a nice, lovely, healthy, fresh set of limbs!"
I couldn't move, not a single muscle. It was different from before where there was not a single sensation below neck, as if my body had ceased to exist, now I could feel my efforts, all my straining, and how it amounted to nothing. Not a twitch, not even a blink, I was no longer just a prisoner inside my body. My body had become the chains that held me down. I couldn't even look away from the monster in front of me. This was worse, so much worse.
"Mmm~ It's a bit snug, not as choice as I'd prefer, and beat to hell at the moment but that can be fix. Beggars can't be choosers, and honestly it's not near the worst it could be."
"Wh-what are you talking about," I have no idea how the words were spoken when I couldn't move my jaw but at the moment I couldn't care less, "Are you... going to kill me?"
The creature gave a mocking giggle.
"Kill? Oh no, that would completely defeat the purpose of letting you live in the first place. I do need a vessel after all, and it'd be rude to just torment the soul of the one who released me. Instead I'll just... erase your soul, it'll be quick and painless, you won't even have to watch as this sinful world burns. Just peaceful, calming, nonexistance. It's the least I could do for you letting me come inside you, what do you say?"
This was it, after a parade of tragedies, over a year of constant torment, even only moments ago just barely avoiding it, this was how my life would end. I remember during my darkest moments over the last year contemplating what death would be like. I wasn't very religious, and with what my life had been like I just couldn't buy into the idea of pearly gates or fluffy clouds waiting for. If I was reincarnated, I wondered what my next life would be like, better or worse, or would my karma be so terrible as to be born again as bug? Would I just be met with a black nothing where I would spend eternity? Or... would I burn in a pit of fire for not believing in the right version of so many contradictory gods?
But in the back of my mind the one that scared my the most, the one that haunted me more than visions of eternal suffering was nothing. At my darkest hours, when I just wanted everything to stop hurting what stayed my hand from just ending it all wasn't hope but fear that I would cease. That everything that I was would just... disappear forever. No heaven, no hell, no purgatory, no second chance, I would be gone and that would be it.
In that moment, more than any other point in my life, I felt true terror. I forced my body to try to move, to flee, to struggle. Every ounce of will I could muster, all of my determination, went into my muscles. I pushed so hard that were my restraints physical I believe I'd my own bones under the strain.
"I refuse!"
In the end it all amounted to nothing.
The creature gave me a look of mixed pity and annoyance, looking down on me like a rowdy toddler who'd been told no.
"Kid, weren't you listening? DID YOU REALLY THINK YOU HAD A CHOICE?"
It opened its mouth and descended as if to swallow me whole. And in the black gaping abyss I saw death.
And just as I was about to touch oblivion the abyss was repelled. By some unseen force the creature in the skin of a woman was thrown back violent and gracelessly. The power that held me in place faltered and I collapsed onto the floor in tears at the emotional roller coaster that was the last half hour of my life. I felt... drained.
"Damn it," The thing quickly picked itself up, shaking in palpable rage, "Damn it! No! I was so close! So close to being released from this gods forsaken place!"
She began to make her way towards me again, though nowhere near as easily as before. It was a titanic labor, every inch struggling against some imperceptible force holding her back. At an iceberg pace she advanced screaming and ranting mad, I didn't move to escape. The shackles that held me were gone but so to was my will, I felt too emptied to care about the slowly approaching death.
"After all this time, after all this time you left me alone now you act. To refuse me my salvation!" She was mere feet away and every bit more appeared exponentially more difficult, "Danette! Is this how you repay your friends Danette!? After all we'd been through, after all I've done for you!? You filthy traitorous cow!"
Now less than a yard from me she reached forward with a shaking hand.
"I..."
The hand was less than a foot from my face.
"Will not..."
It was mere inches from me.
"Be..."
The hand lowered and hovered just above my throat. She grinned madly.
"DENIED!"
The claws only barely touched my skin when the girl slipped, the slightest of twitches, and all the force upon her broke through the singular crack. Again she flew back.
"Damn it!" She jumped to her feet radiating fury, "Damn it Damn it DAMN IT ALL!"
She pulled out the long sword tied to her hip, and in a flash, swung it at me. From the blade came a swath of darkness far eclipsing anything I'd ever seen in size and so black as it appeared to devour the ambient light that touched it's edges. It crashed against the force protecting me and split. For a full second I could see nothing until it died away, when it did I saw the girl glaring murderously.
The white orb that had been behind me disappeared without a trace.
She screamed, no longer able to even articulate her anger. With a wordless roar she swung again, downwards towards the blue and white ball that floated peacefully beneath us. The shadow didn't cover the whole of it, just a half, and when it passed it snatched away that portion as well.
The girl was giving labored breaths, whether from exertion emotional or physical I didn't know. After a minute, she stopped shaking and appeared to cal down. She turned, the look on her face no longer filled with amused confidence but twisted into an ugly scowl and her eyes filled with unveiled contempt.
"Fine, we'll do this the hard way," This time when she moved forward she met no opposition, her gait was steady and only stopped when she hovered directly over me, "Since I can't simply take what I want I guess I'll make you a deal with you, Trash. I should have known this would be a pain in the ass, but nothing worth doing isn't worth crushing everything in your way for.
"Here's my offer, one you can't refuse, in exchange for letting me enter you I'll give you a bit of my power. Not much, just a tiny fraction of my might not even worth paying mind to. For me that is, for you however, just that speck will elevate you far beyond your mongrel peers. Think about it, you can play queen bitch of the trash heap and at practically no cost at all. That should be more than enough to keep something as pathetic as you happy for the rest of your short miserable life. Hell, I'll even throw in a freebie and fix up that trashed out body of yours, can't have my vessel dying too soon after all."
"And what do you get out of this?" I stood up, feeling my will and confidence return as the situation became more manageable. This sounded too good to be true, meaning it definitely was. I ignored the fact that this thing could probably end me easily with a thought, that to refuse was to die. I couldn't do anything about those facts, but I could do something about this. This was something I could control, "I don't seem like someone who'd settle for just being a spectator. Do I sell you a bit of my soul every time I use your 'Gift'? Will it go away the moment I refuse to do what you say?"
It chuckled, a surprisingly lighthearted sound was coming from the 'Devil' of this deal.
"Ho ho! You really are a sharp one, I like that. A very admirable quality, as fitting of my Soulmate~" I stepped back in shock at the use of the term. The way it said was both mocking and affectionate, a mix of pride tinged with regret. I could feel it inside me the cocktail of emotions that flavored that single word. She... It smirked and began to coo, "See, we're bonding already. Heh, while your body may be ill-fitting there's no doubt we're cut from the same cloth, we fit together perfectly, a matching set. Maybe this was more that a simple accident then, for us to meet, what more like this. I guess we really are Soulmates, kid.
"But back to your questions, while it's smart you don't trust me I assure you that what I said is what you get. A gift of power in exchange for room and board, I'll even be good little guest and not mess around with that bit upstairs, not that I can without permission. Oh, I might be a bit rowdy, but that's all it'll amount to, the terms of the deal would mean I have no control of you or that gift after I part with it. Use it to protect your family, slaughter your enemies, hell you can become a fucking farmer and never touch it for the rest of your natural life. Become the savior, destroyer, or a simple observer of your world, I'm not going to stop you. That gift is enough to guarantee you almost anything your pathetic little heart desires..."
She gave a mockery of a grin, showing every single one of her teeth.
"Almost. I know how you little mongrels think. You'll be content enough at first, but then you'll run into a problem you can't easily crush. Or maybe you'll simply just get a little too greedy. That's when you'll come to me. I could lend you all the strength to kill a God with ease, at a cost of course. You get a little more power, I get a little more control over our body. Tit for tat, you scratch my back I break yours. And little by little the interest will add up until one day... hehe~. So, pretty sweet deal don't you say?"
"You won't get a single thing from me."
"What ever you say kid. But if you ever change your mind, my offer never expires. See you soon, Soulmate."
And then it was all over. The world around me began to come back into focus.
I found myself staring up at a not unfamiliar ceiling, soft blips and whirls filled the air, and the scent of antiseptics burned my nose. The hospital, I was in the emergency room. I shot up in my bed staring down at my body. My uninjured body.
I was shaking. Relief, fear, and every single emotion I was holding off on came flooding out. I don't know how long I sat there, even after my eyes ran dry, I just felt grateful to be alive. I'd dismissed the horrible images I'd seen to a dream, a nightmare brought on by exposure.
That is until my eyes began to search the room and landed upon an eerily familiar black blade.
"No... Nononono."
I didn't want to believe it but in the back of my mind I could hear laughter.
"I'm sorry is this a bad time, they said you'd woken up but... I can come back later if you want?"
It turned suddenly and in the door stood a woman in a slightly iridescent black and green costume.
Battery, one of the heroines of the local Protectorate branch, was standing in the door of my hospital room.
[X] Yes, I'm sorry but can I have a couple minutes to myself please?
[X] No, it's fine come in I was just... feeling a little panic.
[X] ...
