Kaitlyn glanced at the vacant spot in the recreation room where there used to be a pool table. There was an ornate lamp hanging directly over this spot, only today it seemed out of place. It wasn't really illuminating anything other than the floor. It no longer had a purpose.

Thwack

A blindfolded man was throwing darts. He was doing reasonably well, too; he could certainly play on par with the other Sanctuary residents. But darts were not his forte. This man was one of the greatest pool players that ever graced the Sanctuary with his presence. This man could do most of the trick shots shown on television with ease, and often put playful little variations on them during actual games of pool. This man could probably be a pro if he wanted, or at least, so he said, but he was content with putting on a good show for his fellow mutants. When Kaitlyn accidentally blew up the Sanctuary's pool table several days ago, this man was likely affected the most.

The girl wanted to avoid him, so playing card games or watching TV in here didn't seem like a very appealing way to spend her time. Especially since somebody was watching Jeopardy. What a boring show.

Backing out into the rec room's entrance, she glanced down the hallway at the entrance to the library. She just wasn't in the mood for reading today, really. A person could either be in the mood for reading, or not, and she decided that she was not. So, what was she going to do with herself?

I don't need the rec room, and I don't need the library. I can make my own fun. There was one particular corner of the Sanctuary's bottom levels that she hadn't yet investigated. With good reason, too: those warning signs on the door were kinda off-putting. Other children usually weren't adventurous enough to enter rooms with the words "DO NOT ENTER" written on the door. Kaitlyn, however, was feeling particularly adventurous today. As that insipid Jeopardy jingle played on the fancy TV's speakers, the kid ambled over to the stairwell.

Worms was very content. He was in a genuine leather couch with extra pillows, watching a very large TV, of which he'd just recently won the remote of in a semi-wrestling match with a few of his fellow mutants. Normally Worms would not have gone to such desperate measures to watch TV, but in this case, he'd do almost anything.

It was Jeopardy time.

As the intro song started to play, something more interesting then even Jeopardy caught his eye. It was Kaitlyn. He'd heard things about that young girl. Very amusing, interesting things. Such as Bosslady Lori was very protective of her. That she'd blow up practically every single room within the Sanctuary. Things like this intregued Worms. Even more so then Jeopardy.

Worms saw the young girl leave the Rec Room. He waited a few seconds, then with a sudden sly slide suiting to a slimy, sinister sleazebag like Worms, the man fallowed. However, the first question of Jeopardy had begun.

"This Agatha Christie novel shares its title with a children nursery rhyme?"

Worms stopped, halfway out the door, and said "What is One, Two, Buckle My Shoe?"

"What is One, Two, Buckle My Shoe?"

"Correct"

Worms grinned. He was always right.

The mutant crept down the stairwell, singing very softly to himself.

"One...two...buckle my shoe...."

Worms saw Kaitlyn just turning the corner, and smirked. His target was close.

"Three....four....knock at the door...."

Touching the wall lightly with a hand, his palm flat against the concrete, Worms slowly licked his lips as two of his worms slithered out of his stomach and up his sleeve, crawling on the wall. Leaving a telltale trail of slime, the worms moved their way up, onto the ceiling. Worms then continuted forward, his body turned slightly so that his back was facing the wall. Each step was soft, slow, stealthy...

"Five...six....pick up sticks..."

As he stalked the child, Worms thought of his past. Worms had never had experiences like that as a child. All his childhood was almost bedridden or close to it. He was always sick. A deep, dark, depraved splinter of his soul craved such childish times. A part of him wanted it all to go away, and leave him with time on his own. Put such was not the case. Worms was Worms.

But still...Worms.....was Worms...

Rushing down the stairs, Kaitlyn stopped for nothing and thought only about her objective. Why, she had always wondered, was nobody supposed to go into this room? What could make it such a big deal that they had to put up a "DO NOT ENTER" sign? Was it dangerous? Was it a secret? Reaching the bottom floor, she pushed open the door and made her way through the basement's dimly lit corridors.

Maybe they were keeping something valuable in there, like a bunch of gold. Or maybe it was something dangerous, like a crazy mutant who was so powerful and uncontrollable that they had to keep him locked up. Perhaps it was some sort of secret laboratory, with awesome stuff like death rays and jetpacks and clones. The kid walked purposefully, moving as swiftly as her little legs could carry her without jogging. Her heart thumped as she turned the corner and saw the signs on the door: "DO NOT ENTER," and "DANGER: KEEP OUT."

A nervous grin found its way onto her face. She stopped in front of the door. Fingers gripped the doorknob. This is it. I'm finally going to find out what they're keeping in here. A quick glance over her shoulder, just to make sure nobody was around to see the little girl going where she wasn't supposed to. It looked like she was the only one down here. Good thing, too; if this door weren't here, this hallway would just be a dead end. Now to turn her attention back to the matter at hand...

The door wouldn't budge. It was locked. Kaitlyn tried jiggling the doorknob, but that was just as ineffective. She kicked the door in frustration.

Lame.

Worms was about to round the corner when Kaitlyn looked behind her. He stopped, holding his breath, not making a sound. She hadn't seen him. Worms heard a doorknob jiggle, and a small thump as Kaitlyn kicked the door. With a huge smirk, eyes wide, Worms slowly stepped forward and turned to face the back of the little girl. Above him, his worms slithered towards the door, still stuck to the ceiling. Two other worms crawled down his pants and towards the little girl, sticking the walls. Keeping the final worm inside of him, Worms said softly, in a tone that reeked of creepiness.

"And what might -you- be doing?" Worms asked, taking slow, slightly exaggerated steps towards Kaitlyn, the pause between each one a bit too long to be normal. His eyes were still wide, almost bug-eyed, his teeth yellow beneath a crooked nose.

Kaitlyn turned to face the newcomer very slowly.

She had seen strange things in the Sanctuary before: a man whose head is usually engulfed in flame, another man with eyes on his fingertips, and a lady whose tongue could lash out and catch flies like a frog's, to name a few. That said, these giant worms things were just plain creepy, to say nothing about the guy who appeared with them. The kid had never seen him before, but those worms definitely had something to do with a mutation. Probably his.

The girl tried to look as innocent as possible, even managing to force a smile. See this smile? Little girls who get caught doing things that they aren't supposed to be doing do not smile. "N-Nothing," she answered his question a bit too hesitantly, "I'm just... uh..." Okay, there was nothing that she could be doing at the end of this hallway other than trying to enter the do-not-enter-room. She didn't complete her sentence, choosing instead to keep standing there smiling at him like an idiot with her looking-more-forced-by-the-second smile.

Worms smiled sweetly as he walked towards the girl, taking out two red wrapped Tootise Pops from his jacket. Reaching Kaitlyn, he crouched down, now even height with her. Granted, Worms' version of sweetly was still utterly creepy, but added a slight twinkle of some sort to his eyes as he unwrapped one of the suckers and put it in his mouth. Suckers were one of the only form of candy he could have. Most others were solid, while suckers dissolved in your mouth.

"No need to answer, dear. You're just having fun, yeeeees?" Worms nodded, understandingly. His worms slithered down, all five on the ground now. They circled the two mutants, clicking softly, a ring of slime building up around them.

Worms offered the second sucker to Kaitlyn, saying in a rather hushed voice,

"Want some candy?"

There was something weird about how this man was acting.

Kaitlyn chalked it up to just being a mutant. She lived around mutants 24/7, and this guy definitely wasn't the only one who acted strange. Some mutants are weird, but that's just how it was. When you get past the weirdness, most of them are actually kinda nice. Like this guy. Sure, he had a way of hissing out his 'yes,' and there was something unsettling about the way that those worms were circling them, but he was nice. He wasn't going to do anything about her attempted rule-breaking. He was offering candy.

"Sure," she said.

As she unwrapped the tootsie roll, the girl stared at the circling, giant worm-things. "Are those yours?" The child politely tried not to show her disgust.

Worms nodded, and put an arm around Kaitlyn's shoulder, smiling. As he did, the fifth worm slithered out of his sleeve, clicking rather maliciously.

"Indeed they are...do you like them?" Worms petted the worm under it's horrible mouth, the monster wrapping around Kaitlyn and over Worms' shoulder. He turned to coo at his friend, then looked back at Kaitlyn.

"They like yoooou..."

Candy or no, it was getting harder and harder not to look disgusted. That thing was crawling out of his shirt... He was walking around with that -thing- in his shirt!? And that mouth... and he's petting it!

>>"Indeed they are... do you like them?"

Kaitlyn didn't answer. It might seem rude if she said 'no' outright. The worm was covered in slime, and it was wrapping around her, getting some of the slime on her shirt. Eew. It was okay to be a mutant and have a gross mutation, she decided, just as long as they stayed much farther away from her than this.

>>"They like yoooou..."

With an expression that fell somewhere between a grimace and a nervous smile, the child tried to withdraw from the man's -- and worm's -- embrace. "It's getting slime on me."

If she could, she wanted to get away from the circle of giant worms. And this guy.

Worms gave a light hearten laugh.

"Oh, that's just their way of saying hello. This, on the other hand, is mine."

Worms stood up as the child pulled away from him. The worm wrapped the rest of its length around his chest, covering him in its slime. Worms ran his hand through his hair, transferring the slime from it to his hair, as a gel. He then offered the clean hand to the girl.

"My friends call me Worms. I hope that's what you call me too. What's your name?"

His worms started to tighten the circle, crawling faster and faster in their path. The worm around the two mutants clicked happily. Happily, as in hungrily. Worms' friends were always hungry.

Kaitlyn decided that the man's way of saying 'hello' was much better than the worms'. His hand soon engulfed hers.

Worms's hand, rather. The guy called himself 'Worms.' Kinda like how Aura had that name because of that pink glowy stuff that she could make, which she called her aura. Certainly made a more sense than Meld, the half-metal lady. "Kaitlyn," she said, giving her own relatively normal name. The child briefly wondered how these people's parents were able to come up with names that matched their mutations before the mutations actually showed themselves.

The circle-worms were acting weird, now. Getting closer, moving faster, making strange noises, all of it was making them even more unsettling than they already were. With an unsure glance at Worms, Kaitlyn ended the handshake and tried to step over the massive wormse and out of the circle. "Scuse me."

As Kaitlyn excused herself and tried to step over the ring of worms, one of the worms lifted it's head, clicking and staring blindly at the child as well as blocking her path. Worms walked up behind her and said,

"Sorry, but I was hoping you'd...show me around? I'm new here, and I'm suuuuure you've been all over this place....haven't you...Kaitlyn..."

Worms put his left hand on her right shoulder, looking down at her while his sickening sweet smile again. The worms behind him stopped their circling and slithered towards him. The man knew the child was close to Lori. The more he could influence her, whether it be fear, anxiety, or even friendship by some odd happenstance, the more Kaitlyn could help Worms establish himself within the Order. The key to the bosslady Lori was Kaitlyn, and the key to the Order was Lori.

Kaitlyn felt trapped. Trapped in a circle of creepy wormy barriers with a comparably unsettling person.

He wanted her to show him around? Sure, she could do it... but she didn't really want to be anywhere near this guy. Kaitlyn felt a bit too uncomfortable to even remove Worms's hand from her shoulder, as much as she wanted to. She didn't return his smile, nor did she even look at his face when she spoke.

"I... can't. I don't think I'm... uh... supposed to show you around. Lisa could. It's her job to tour people."

Now the worms had stopped their circling. All that needed to happen now was for Worms to let go of her shoulder. Then she could just walk away.

"Well, I asked Lisa, but she seemed all hissy. I'm sure you'd do a muuuch beeetter jooob, yeeeees?" Worms said, turning the child around to face him as he let go over her shoulder. Two worms crawled up his back and rested on his shoulders, clicking down at Kaitlyn. Their slime dripped onto the floor as their master stood over two feet above the young mutant.

Worms insisted. Kaitlyn tried not to grimace as a a few more worms crawled all over the man. She needed to come up with a reason why she couldn't tour him around, even though he gave her candy. The candy was good, by the way. It didn't make him seem any less unbearable, but thinking about the candy made her feel a little obligated to do something for him.

At the same time, Worms was creepy, she -really- didn't want to do this, and she certainly didn't have to.

"Uhh... I still get lost in here sometimes," she lied as she slowly backed away.