A thread for my first snippets. Here's hoping things go well....constructive criticism is welcome. I am so dang nervous right now. But I'm also really excited for actually posting this. There's just going to be one now, but I intend to add more...when I write them.
---The Dark Count---
Muddied shoes trudged down the sidewalk, their wearer bearing an expression matching the current weather. She was lacking a working umbrella-a savagely torn apart one was held in her left hand- her pants and hair were both stained with several substances, and the bag she was holding in her right hand was covered in them as well. Her entire appearance painted the image of a girl that had been having a horrible day and just wanted it to be over with.
The only difference was that this girl has had entire months of bad days, and she was beginning to doubt if it would EVER be over with.
Her name is Taylor Hebert.
And somehow, things are going to get even worse for her.
---
Taylor opened the door to her house, mumbling "I'm home" under her breath and not actually caring if her dad heard. She had a horrible day…as usual.
"They're never going to let up…" Part of her thought.
"If they could torment me for life, they would."
While usually, the somewhat-still present hope that Emma would become her friend again would stop these thoughts, that hope had faded.
It had been replaced by the hope that when high school was over, she could be free from the Trio's torment.
"Just a couple more years." She mentally repeated to herself as she walked to the kitchen to find her father…and her thoughts ceased as she saw her dad laying on the ground, bleeding.
The kitchen had been ransacked, with barely anything even slightly intact. Knives and other things were scattered everywhere, with a dirty one stabbed into her dad's heart.
"No…." She breathed. "No no no no no no!" Taylor ran over to her dad, trying to stop the blood still flowing from the wound. Her father was still breathing, but it was very slow and his eyes were starting to close.
"Tay…lor…." Her dad forced out, getting her attention. He looked at her, his milky eyes filled with sadness. "I'm….sorry….for not…being…able to do…enough…." With a shaky breath, his eyes closed, and Taylor's heart fell.
"Dad?" She weakly said.
"
He…isn't breathing….HE ISN'T BREATHING!!" With that thought, Taylor began violently shaking her dad's body. "
No…he…he can't…"
Then something in her snapped.
----
[TRAJECTORY]
[AGREE-]
*crack*
[CONFUSION]
[INTERFERENCE]
[AgREeeEEEmeNNNtt]
----
Then Taylor began to laugh.
"Heh….heh heh heh….
She slammed her hands into her father's corpse, coating her arms in blood.
"BLEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!"
During her mad laughter, various thoughts were running through her currently breaking mind. One single thought was the strongest.
"
Nothing matters anymore. I'm alone. Everyone that cared about me is gone. Mom's dead, Dad's dead, and Emma hates me. I…I can't. I can't live like this anymore. I just want all of this to END…."
Taylor's laughter died down as she finally stood up, a monstrous grin on her face.
"....then I guess I'll MAKE it end."
Taylor stood up and walked away, the grin still on her face as she laughed to herself.
"Bleh heh heh heh heh….Bleck!"
----
Sophia Hess walked alongside Emma as her fellow predator talked about something she didn't care too much about. Something about Hebert vanishing and her dad being found dead.
"
Some Merchant punk probably broke in and she ran screaming, like the prey she is." Sophia thought as she walked into the lunchroom.
A quick while later, Sophia was rather reluctantly eating lunch. For one, the lunch was-obviously for this school-horrible, and secondly, there was this odd girl she'd seen that just felt wrong to her.
She wasn't scared, but that girl in the hoodie lurking near the back of the room was putting her on edge. Like she was before a fight.
That feeling only increased when they looked at their wrist, smiled, and began walking to the front of the room, pulling something out of their sleeve. The girl passed by Sophia, causing her to see something that made her blood pump.
A dark blue mask with a red smile carved into it.
"Guess this day won't be so boring after all…" She mumbled under her breath before getting up. Before Emma could say anything, she whispered just loud enough for her to hear "Got work. Be prepared." Emma nodded, and Sophia walked right off.
First stop, her locker…and costume.
----
The girl stepped to the front of the room, a grin matching the one on her cardboard mask under it. Thanks to the hoodie, no one noticed the mask.
Finally, she drew the cane she had made from a metal pole she'd found and hit it on the ground with a loud clack. That got everyone's attention, and their faces paled when she drew her hood back, displaying her blue mask, red jagged smile, and dilated eyes.
"Hello, students and faculty of Winslow!" She said in a faux-polite tone, twirling her cane slightly as a teacher rapidly fumbled for their phone, obviously to call the PRT.
It didn't matter. By the time they got there, it would be too late for ANYONE in the whole school.
"Now then…I think it's time we start things. BLEH HEH HEH HEH HEH-"
Her mad laughter was caught off when she rapidly had to move to dodge a crossbow bolt shot by a familiar costumed figure.
"Shadow Stalker." She thought, her grin under the mask unchanging.
"Well, isn't this interesting." She said, taking note of Shadow Stalker mumbling something in a shocked tone under her breath. "Why would the Protectorate send a Ward to fight in a possible hostage situation? And so quick too…unless they didn't send you. You go to school here don't you?"
Her question was answered with another bolt, which she once again dodged. "I'll take that as a yes." She smirked. "Now, I'm going to make another guess. You recognize my voice, based on what you mumbled earlier, and while that doesn't limit my options too much…the fact I saw you leaving the room soon before you showed up in costume does,
Sophia." The girl then dodged another bolt, this one being broad headed and aimed for her head.
"…As expected." She said, her faux-polite tone now having a clear undercurrent of malice. "Now that we're done with the interruptions and proof, we can get to my real point." The girl threw her staff into the air, where it began to spin. Shadow Stalker turned intangible in preparation for whatever was about to happen…
…only for a pitch black void to form behind her and completely ignore her shadow state, dragging her in and making her assume her physical form again. From her rather pained screaming after she reformed, it was very painful.
"Nice try." The girl said, staring at the convulsing heroine. "Now, let's deal with ALL. OF. YOU." The girl turned to the crowd of students, who still hadn't tried to flee for some reason.
"
They're probably afraid of me using my power on them." She idly thought as she spread her arms. "Now, I'm quite certain several of you have recognized my voice, so I have something to tell you."
"There is no Taylor."
Taylor, as that who it was, spread her arms wide and the staff began to spin again, a huge void opening up and beginning to suck them in. She took some pleasure in seeing the terrified expression on Emma's face.
"There is only Count Bleck! BLEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH…BLECK!"
With a final scream, everyone was sucked into the void except Shadow Stalker. She bent down to the convulsing hero's ear and whispered
"Know that you lost to the remains of who you tormented. Know that soon, all will be nothing. BLEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH…BLECK!"
And with that, Count Bleck vanished.
