To Be Named
Part 1
by cyde

Jane paused as she entered the basement of the Lane home. Ever since finding Daria in the condition she had, Jane had taken her in. Daria was the best friend Jane ever had, and as such, she felt she owed Daria at least as much.

When Jane found Daria, she was sleeping outside next to the road. Jane knew things had been going badly in Daria's home life, but had no idea things had gotten so bad that Daria would just let herself go like this, not even bothering to go inside to take a nap. Quinn, Jake and Helen were out of town, so Jane figured that no one else was around who cared enough to even try to rally Daria. The thought practically broke Jane's heart.

Daria hadn't even said two words the entire month she had been there, but that was okay. Daria and Jane had long since learned to communicate without words.

"You know, Amiga, you could at least take a bath," Jane muttered.

Jane winced at the look Daria gave her.

"Alright, I won't press the issue anymore," Jane said softly. "let me know if you need to talk or anything. I brought you another slice of pizza. Try eating this one."

*****

Trent paused in the middle of tuning his axe. That smell had been getting progressively worse. Not to mention Janey's behavior lately. Nothing really out of the ordinary, he supposed, but then again he didn't really speak to his sister all that often anymore. Their schedules just seemed to clash.

"Woaaah. Whatever that is needs to be cleaned up." Trent uttered as he walked toward the kitchen. Pausing at the basement door, he sniffed a couple times. Maybe an opossum had gotten into the basement.

Opening the basement door to investigate, the smell intensified. Holding his breath, Trent descended the stairs.

Looking back, it could be argued that Trent's reaction to seeing his sister trying to feed pizza to the rotting human corpse she was gently holding the head of was the most animated anyone would ever see from him.

When Jane gently caressed the corpse's auburn hair, causing some of it to fall out, Trent broke out of his stupor and noticed the green jacket and pleated black skirt. Trent screamed for a very, very long time.