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It's dark.
Taylor's no stranger to a little bit of darkness. He's wielded a blade with masterful precision in circumstances just as these with his ride-or-die right by his side.
Speaking of which…
"Link?" Taylor calls out.
Dead silence follows.
"Man, where you at?" he continues, turning on his heel to scan the area before he spots a figure turned away, fiery and warm and…
"Dad?"
Taylor can't place his finger on why, but a pit of dread starts to turn in his stomach and make him sick.
The figure turns, and it's Nicky Swift in all his glory, but he looks a little off. His gaze is faraway. Like he's not fully there. His shirt is unbuttoned, like always, but there's a little red stain near the bottom of it, just above his belt.
"Dad, you're…"
Bleeding.
The word dies on his tongue.
The stain gets bigger, and bigger, and blood drips from Nicky's torso into a puddle at his feet.
Taylor only watches in horror as Nicky's top half slides off, and his bottom half falls to the ground, punctuated with one thud after another.
It's red, red, red .
A scream builds up in his throat, but his mouth stays sealed shut, and the tears sliding down his face feel like acid with the way they burn.
He runs toward the body, but it feels more like floating than anything. Like his feet aren't even hitting the floor.
Upon glancing downward, he finds that they aren't.
Because they're not even there.
There's an excruciating ache in their absence, one that doesn't make sense.
Nothing but blank space where his legs should be, though not bloody, like his father's.
His father.
He looks up to where the body laid, but it's no longer there.
Instead, the flicker of a phone screen stares back at him, and the figure on the screen, it's…
" Mom! "
Relief makes its way into his veins, slowing his heartbeat just a little, but only for a moment, before his heart is squeezed so tight he can feel it burst.
She's screaming.
In the little pixels on the screen, Taylor can make out the bits of blood and ash her arm morphs into before falling apart completely and crumbling into nothing.
A sharp, stabbing pain makes its way into Taylor's own arm as he reaches out for her. Barely a flicker of a blade crosses his vision and his forearm is falling too, blood spilling out.
" Fuck! " he shuts his eyes tight. It burns, and it stings, and he thinks maybe he could live in the darkness forever, but his mom needs him, and she comes back into his vision in a second.
On the ground.
Forearm severed.
Bleeding out.
Her face is pale, and her eyes are wide, and Taylor thinks he might pass out, or throw up, or scream, but he can't do anything, he can't do anything, the pool of blood she's lying in is growing larger by the second and he can't do anything—
A splash shakes him from his thoughts.
Red.
Red .
He's sinking, and everything is red.
It tastes of iron, and it's scalding.
Taylor's chest constricts, and he tries to shut his eyes, but he can still see it.
It hurts so bad he thinks he might pass out.
At last, he hits the ground with a thud.
Past his blurred vision, he can see a figure he knows.
It's Link.
Oh, thank god.
Taylor isn't sure whether he says that out loud or not, but Link is turning toward him, and something twists in his stomach.
His face is distorted, but there's one thing Taylor can make out in his expression, though it doesn't feel right in the slightest…
…Hatred .
No, that's impossible. Taylor knows that's impossible. Link could never hate him.
"Link?" Taylor starts, slightly startled by the raspiness of his own voice, "Link, I don't know what's going on—I—I'm…"
Taylor sucks in a breath. And another. And another. It's like he's drowning again, but he's dry. It's too hot, he might be sitting on a stovetop.
And Link walks away.
Taylor tries to call for him, but all that comes out is a dying squeak.
He blinks, and sees the figures multiply. Normal, Scary, Hermie, Erica, Margarita, maybe more? They're distorted, and weird, and not themselves, and they've got the same look Link had, and Taylor's saying something, or maybe he isn't, he doesn't know anymore, but he's trying, and it's not working, and they're all leaving, and everything is too hot—
A blade strikes him at the neck.
And his head falls, and falls, and falls.
He sinks into the ground again, falling with a thud onto a hard surface, sobbing with hot tears of fire, and maybe this is how he dies.
He's suffocating, maybe it isn't much of a loss, considering how he hadn't been able to save his mom, or his dad, or anyone for that matter. Always hiding. All bark and no bite. Dying in a fire and choking on smoke, burning to a crisp, sobbing, and sobbing, and sobbing —
'Holy shit, Taylor!'
The light is blinding, and the fire is burning, and—
'Wait, you'll burn yourself—'
He's moving, he doesn't know where, or how—
'I don't care—'
His chest is on fire—
'Get some water—'
'He's hyperventilating—'
He's stuck. He can't move. He can't see. He can't breathe.
'Taylor.'
'Link, be careful—'
Link?
'Can you hear me?'
Is that Link?
Taylor doesn't know. The voices meld and mesh into one another.
He might be melting, or burning to a crisp, or—just— dying , in some way.
Something squeezes his arms.
Hands?
Link's hands.
"Taylor, can you hear me?"
It's him. Taylor hears it. His voice is loud and clear and it's Link .
But Link turned away.
Link left.
" Taylor ."
Taylor manages a nod.
Link is here.
"He's responding," Link says, and Taylor doesn't know why, but he nods again anyway.
"Can you open your eyes?"
Opening his eyes means seeing his dad cut in half. It means seeing his mom sinking in a pool of her own blood. He shakes his head.
"Okay, okay, that's okay, come here," Link says, and Taylor feels arms wrap around him and hold him tight.
"Can you try to breathe in?"
Can he? His chest is tight and his lungs are out of control. Everything is hot, hot, hot and it burns to even think about trying.
"Feel how I'm breathing," Link says. There's a slow rise and fall that Taylor can feel, though he's not sure why Link drew his attention to it.
"Good, just keep focusing on that."
Taylor doesn't know why Link wants him to, but he does.
A hand rubs his back, and another cards fingers through his hair, fingertips running along his scalp.
"You're doing great," he says, and Taylor doesn't think that's true in the slightest, though he also has no idea what Link is talking about.
"Link, let me heal you," someone says.
"Hold on," Link responds.
Why does Link need healing? Taylor wants to ask, but he can't.
A rush of cold air hits Taylor, and he shivers, burying himself further in Link's chest.
"Keep breathing," he says.
Taylor doesn't know when he got that ability back, but he does.
"It's okay, you're safe," Link says, and Taylor doesn't think it's true, but he lets himself fall into the fantasy of it anyway.
It's quiet for a while.
There's some chatter that Taylor can't discern, but Link stays quiet.
Taylor feels him kiss the top of his head, and he feels the mattress beneath him, and he doesn't know how he got there, or what he's doing, or what's going on, or—
"Wha.. happen…" he finds himself mumbling.
Link pulls away ever so slightly, and Taylor opens his eyes, looking up at him. Well, looking at him for a few seconds before his eyes droop back shut again.
"I think you had a nightmare," Link says, and Taylor opens his eyes again.
Maybe he did.
And then there's someone behind Taylor, and Link's arm leaves his back, and he whines.
"Just a second," Link says, and Taylor sees Normal holding his arm.
The skin is red and blotchy and damaged. Then there's a flicker of glittery magic essence encircling it.
"Why… your arm…" Taylor slurs, wishing he could talk in full sentences but hopefully getting the question across.
"They just got burned a little," Link says, giving Norm his other arm to heal.
"Why…?"
"Uh—well—"
"You caught fire," Normal answers.
" What!? " Taylor shouts, startling even himself with his volume.
"Hey, hey, hey, breathe, breathe," Link says, putting his hands back on Taylor's arms and running them up and down.
"Did I hurt you?" Taylor asks, and his voice is wet and wobbly. He can feel the hot tears sliding down his cheeks.
"It's not your fault, it's okay, I'm fine, I promise," Link says, and Taylor glances down at one of his arms. It's healed, but there's scars…
Taylor lets out a sob, and just as he does, Scary is there, handing him a glass of water with a straw in it.
His hands are trembling violently, so he just leans forward and takes a sip. It's freezing, and sends a shiver down his spine.
"I don't know what happened… I'm sorr—sorry," Taylor mumbles before taking another sip. Some of the tears fall into the glass, but he's too exhausted to care.
Everything hurts.
"Don't worry about it, Taylor," Scary says, sitting on the bed beside him. "Are you okay?" she asks, putting her free hand on his back.
Taylor isn't used to her being so gentle.
He nods, though his frown might give him away. If it does, she doesn't say a word.
Soon enough, Normal is sitting on his other side and wrapping him up in a side hug.
"We're here for you, okay?" Normal says, and Link and Scary hum in agreement.
"Okay…"
"You wanna watch something?" Scary asks.
"Mhm… okay..."
And soon enough, Taylor's sitting in Link's lap with Normal to his left and Scary to his right, all huddled around Link's laptop mindlessly watching AMVs until Taylor finds him falling asleep once more, safe in his friends' embrace.
༼ つ ◕‿◕ ༽つ⊂(･ω･*⊂)