5.3 - Escalation (Patreon)

5.3 -Escalation

Madison

As soon as she asked the question, Taylor’s expression darkened, and Madison rushed to blurt out what she wanted to say before she was shut down again. 

“I- I just wanted to say I’m sorry!”

The words came out in a rush, tumbling clumsily in her haste and Taylor sneered. 

“You really think I’m gonna fall for that? You three have done the apology tour bit before. It’s old hat.”

Madison winced. Shit. Yeah… they had done that. 

Shit they really poisoned the well hadn’t they.

“N-no! Look I-”

But Taylor stepped forward, and Madison became acutely aware of just how tall the girl was, taller than even Sophia, though she never looked it back at Winslow. Too hunched over… too beaten down.

Here though, that wasn’t the case.

“And even if it is true: Fuck you!” Taylor’s finger jabbed into Madison’s chest hard. “Because if none of this happened. If we were still back at Winslow, if I didn’t reveal I was a cape this-” She gestured at Madison. “Wouldn’t be happening. We had to get transported to fucking insanity fantasy land before you grew a fucking conscience!”

Madison felt her insides twist. This was not going how she wanted it… though she had expected it. According to the Forums, beyond just a handful of exceptions like second Gen capes and a handful of heroes, Triggers were the lowest, most horrid day of one’s life, the mental scars and trauma from them were often times the reason you had a ration of 3/1 between villains and heroes. 

The fact that they’d done that… that they pushed her so much that some of the forum goers said they would rather die than ever experience that kind of moment again, powers or no powers- that she had helped cause it…

Yeah… she’d… expected Taylor to react like this.

She’d gone over the conversation so many times in her own head. She had… so much she wanted to say but now… now faced with the real genuine anger, that rage… it was all just one big blank. For the life of her she couldn’t remember what to say.

Desperate, she reached for the Tadpole, just as she’d done with Gale before. There was a pulse, the psionic link opening up as the Tadpoles clenched along their brains, like a muscle pulled taut, and Madison felt -physically felt- the instant Taylor’s mind slammed shut. Like great iron bars crashing closed and pushing her out

It almost made her lose the connection outright. The shock of the physical sensation and the feeling of her brain practically rattling in her skull making her focus nearly slip before she grabbed hold of it and tried to speak with all the sincerity in her.

“I’m sorry!”

“No you’re not!” Taylor didn’t even hesitate, and though her voice was flat and cold and her expression barely twitched the connection held, and through it, though she could barely ‘feel’ anything, she could feel the anger. Heat pressing against the inside of her skull. 

And then, there was a shift, like a snake uncoiling and quick as lightning she could feel Taylor’s metaphysical arms reach out, taking hold of the connection on Madison’s end and prying it open. “Go on then! Tell me. If we were back at Winslow, if none of this ever happened nothing would have changed, would it? Even after you people put me in the fucking hospital!”

Madison felt the tears prickling at her eyes  and she tried to hold them back. “I…” Don’t lie… Don’t lie. You can’t and it’ll be worse if you try.” “I don’t know-”

“BULLSHIT!” The sound of the insects around them rose and pitched, a million wings and claws speaking with one voice. “You three were already planning some shit! Barely even back one fucking day and already you were making plans. How much were ya’ll gonna wait before the next locker!? A month? Two? Maybe you’d have sprung it just after spring break. Just to really make sure I never enjoyed another vacation again knowing when I’d come back it’d be another tradition to put me in the hospital til you all succeeded in throwing me in a fucking grave!”

Madison couldn’t hold her gaze anymore, shame and guilt and disgrace just… mixed and amalgamated in her guts like a thick, miasmic soup that threatened to make her throw up.

“What’s wrong!?” Taylor pressed. “Just one conversation Maddie. It hasn’t been two fucking years! Can’t take it!? I stopped crying over the first few months…”

She couldn’t speak. And the silence was so oppressive it practically strangled her.

And Taylor’s mind pulled back, the pressure she’d exerted fading away like smoke on the breeze as the connection thinned and tapered out. 

“Unlike the three of you, I’m not a piece of shit.” She declared. “So I’m gonna do my best to make sure we all get home. But this isn’t Winslow. And I’m not going back to the status quo of being your stress ball or whatever sick shit I was to you. And I sure as shit aint gonna trust any of you. Or go sharing our stories- so you can try and use it as ammo later!” Madison felt her breath hitch.

That’s what she’d thought when she’d made the suggestion to the group earlier!?

Fuck… they really had poisoned the well so horribly… hadn’t they?

“So get the fuck out of my sight!” And Taylor turned away, stepping back out into the night.

She could have left it there. In truth, she almost did. Deserved or not… this was… not a pleasant dressing down and it was taking every fibre of her self control to not actually openly cry and sob like a little girl who’d just gotten scolded by her parents. 

But she pulled on her courage, mustered every fibre of steel she had in her spine… and she opened that connection again. 

It opened and for a brief instant she felt Taylor’s mind roiling with a complex, heady blend of emotions before those iron bars again slammed shut and Madison could sense nothing more. 

That was fine. She… didn’t need to read Taylor’s mind, she didn’t have the right too, probably never would after everything. “You… don’t have to trust me.” She said, “You… don’t have to like me or even talk to me again if you don’t want to. And… yes. It’s coming too late, and it never should have gone as far as it did but… I am sorry Taylor. And… And I didn’t suggest that we all share our histories tonight just to hurt you. I really was trying just to get to know everyone better and for them to know- well… us. Because… it kinda looks like we’ll be here a while.”

Taylor didn’t turn back, but with the connection open, At the very least Madison could take some solace in the fact that her apology was undoubtedly sincere at the absolute least.

And… if Taylor never wanted to speak to her again then… well… part of being sorry was accepting that too.

She moved to turn away, to head back to the barn and the others, ready to close the connection when something prodded through on Taylor’s end.

It felt like… surprise?

“Taylor?” She called.

The brunette was turning her head slightly to the right, Madison could just barely make out her expression. Brows furrowed in curiosity, lips pursed like she couldn’t quite understand something.

Then, abruptly. “Stay here.” And she started running off.

“Wha- Hey! Wait!?” On reflex, Madison followed right behind her, running off into the woods alone was a horrible idea, every horror movie said so.

They didn’t run very far, or very fast, after just a few seconds really that left Madison slightly winded, Taylor came to an abrupt stop at the rather steep edge of a hillside.

In the bright moonlight Madison could see the edges of the distant river they’d crossed that led back to the druids grove. “What’s going on?” She asked.

“I told you to stay.”

“S-sorry.” Madison answered. “But… I don’t know, what if you fell and broke your neck or something. You can’t just head off on your own.”

Taylor looked displeased, but soon enough turned away to look down the hill, squinting in the dark.

Madison followed her gaze to see… a spot of white?

Taylor sat down on the edge of the hill, and with a grunt, pushed off to slide down the edge. It was steep though, and the girl hit the bottom feet first tumbling into a roll. 

Madison looked around, and found another part of the hill covered in thick vines.

Running over, she began shimmying down the side, handhold by handhold..

By the time she made it down, her hands were crusty with dirt and dead plant matter, bushing it off with swipes of her palms against each other she turned to look for Taylor.

It didn’t take long to find her.

Or the thing at her feet.

“Oh my god!” Madison gasped, rushing forward. “Is that a dog!?”

Taylor nodded, but Madison’s question had been mostly rhetorical, because it was obviously a dog.

A very injured Dog.

There was a body nearby. A man, mauled and savaged, the Dog was whining, four horrid slash marks across its side and ribs, red blood had stained the white fur, and its breathing was labored.

Taylor fingered the collar on his neck, her hands now speckled with blood.

“Scratch.” She read, squinting in the dark. Taylor looked at the dog, her expression shifting to a grave one. “I… I think he’s lost a lot of blood.”

“W-we can save him right!?” Bring him to shadowheart.”

“Moving him might kill him.” And Taylor looked back at the hill. “And I don’t think we can climb that with a dog on us.”

Shit, she was right. 

“What if I go and-”

“I’m already calling them.” Taylor answered. “They’ll be here in a bit.”

“Oh, yeah, six hundred or so feet of range with her bugs. They might have been at the edge of it but Taylor could probably get a conga line of bugs to show the way here.

Taylor looked over the dog. “I think I… let me try something.”

Try something?

Wait.

Madison’s eyes widened, grabbing her book once again and flying through the pages until she found the one she was looking for.

‘Cure wounds’

It was a basic spell. One that would actually take ‘Mana’ not just a cantrip who’s mana consumption was almost negligible. 

She’d never tried it before, hell she’d never done any basic level spell, and Gale had assured her that few apprenticed ever learned the basics without months of study.

They didn’t have months. And Taylor was trying something now so who was Madison to not at least try herself. 

Even if it didn’t work- trying… it had to count for something didn’t it?

As Taylor stood up, and began moving in some sort of Tai-chi dance or something, her hands starting to glow green, Madison reached towards the dog, taking the whining boy’s head and placing it in her lap, hugging him close.

Please. Please work.

She reached for her magic once more, as she had with the cantrips. Pulling on it, trying to focus it as much as she could as hard as she could to try and heal the poor dog. 

The internal pathways of her magic, the veins of the energy burned, Madison’s fingertips felt like they were being charged with static electricity rather than healing magic, they tingled, they twitched, they hurt, but they were glowing green like Shadowhearts hands did. The dog was still breathing, so it wasn’t hurting it.

And then, Taylor placed her hands on the dogs wound.

Madison could see the flesh knitting, the dogs breathing getting stronger. She felt the good boy lick at her chin and Madison smiled and giggled and laughed, the tears coming freely now. 

“Tay I think we did it!” She laughed.

But Taylor wasn’t sharing in her joy, looking serious and stern  off into the darkness.

“We have to go.” Taylor said, petting the dog. “Hey, Scratch.” She said gently. “Please tell me you can walk.”

“Tay what’s wrong?” Madison asked. Ever since they’d arrived Taylor had rarely seemed scared. So whatever did scare her rightfully put Madison on edge.

“I think… there’s a Giant spider out here.”

That… wasn’t the answer she was expecting. 

“Huh? But… you control spiders.”

“Yeah. But it's the first time one has ever talked back!”