Hello everyone!
I'd like to welcome you to my new Teen Titans story!
If some of you read my other story 'Life is about to get stranger' you will have already known about this story being published (as this story is technically a prequel to 'life is about to get stranger' set several years before it. )
Now, something important, just like 'Life is about to get stranger' this story IS NOT CONNECTED TO 'YOUNG JUSTICE DARK', my Young Justice story containing Abigail Constantine (the first and prime-version of the character) this story is set in a separate continuity, with a different version of the character which differs from the one you see in 'Young Justice Dark'
This story is set in the Teen Titans (2003 animated series) continuity, with some DCAU thrown in.
This first chapter is set before the episode 'Go!' before the Titans have formed, but don't worry, it is coming!
Some Trigger warnings for this chapter include: Physical Abuse, Parental Abuse, and Suicidal Aspects, just letting you know up front in case this is a problem for any readers.
It wouldn't be too long now.
That was what she thought sniffling as she brought a hand up to wipe away the dripping mucus from her nose. Her puffy reddened blue eyes were focused on one thing and one thing only, the entrance to the house across the street.
She had been waiting for what felt like hours, and for all she knew, it had been. Bringing a hand up, she brushed a stray lock of blond hair out of her face as she kneeled down further behind the large skip bin that rested in the alley way, her head peeking out just enough to look across the street.
It was dark now, darker than it had been when she'd first chosen this spot to sit and wait, though the street lights were on, there was still spots which they couldn't reach, like where she was now for example, though that was the idea, she didn't want to be seen.
She couldn't let him see her.
A sudden noise made her look up just in time to see the aforementioned person exit the front door, he was a grown man who looked terribly unkempt, his blond hair matted and what had once been a usually kept amount of stubble had grown into a full mass of facial hair now adorning the man's face. His white button up shirt was untucked and covered in various stains, two shirt buttons were done up in the wrong hole and a barely knotted tie was hanging loosely from his neck.
He stumbled down the steps, almost falling completely before catching himself on the rail and shakily stepped down, the tan beige trench coat he wore was only half on as he tried several times before finally slipping his left hand through the arm hole, grumbling to himself as he looked around the mostly empty street expectantly.
He was still drunk, that was for sure.
The young girl had by now hidden back behind the skip, being sure not to make a single sound as she did so. A few minutes passed like this before she heard the sound of a car pulling up on the damp pavement, she could hear one of the doors shut loudly, and glanced out ever so slightly to see a black cab, it was still for a few moments before pulling out and driving along up the road.
She waited for a minute, just to make sure that it had left the street entirely, before coming out from behind the skip and walking out into the street slowly, glancing up the road in the direction the car had gone, along with its passenger.
Her father
Now that he was gone she could go back inside without any worry, glancing across the street and back the other way once more, she began making her way across as fast as she could.
Which wasn't too quickly, given the limp in her left leg, but she made it over without any trouble, opening the door and quickly shutting it behind her.
As soon as she did, she let out a breath she had been holding and leaned back against the door.
She knew this couldn't last however and after a few seconds moved over to the stairs leading up to the second story, stepping around an empty bottle of whisky on the floor as she did.
Stepping through the open bathroom door she walked over to the sink and began filling it with warm water waiting until the basin was full before stopping. She splashed her face lightly, which caused her to wince slightly.
Looking up into the mirror above the sink, she could see the bruises on her face, both fresh and older. Her right eye was blackened and a dark bruise had formed on her left cheek, not to mention the marks on her neck.
The water made it seem like her face was throbbing, but she splashed herself once more before reaching for a wash cloth, wetting it before gently patting her face, making sure to run it across the split in her lip to clean it out.
After doing so she placed the washcloth in the water and reached down, slowly pulling her long sleeved shirt up, again wincing slightly at her bodies protests before tossing it to the side.
Her eyes starred back at the reflection in the mirror before glancing down at her upper body, there were patches of bruises of different colours littering her skin, a particularly large patch of purple was spread across her left side where her ribs where located.
Her arms and neck had bruised markings where she'd been grabbed and dragged by force, as well as other signs of injury.
Closing her eyes she tried to suppress the tears that were welling up in her eyes as a sob erupted from her throat, leaning down on the sink she let out another harsh sob as her tears dripped down into the water, disappearing from view like a drop of rain in the ocean.
Sniffling loudly she tried to pull herself together, standing back up and looking back at her reflection again.
She wasn't sure how long her father would be gone, from previous experience he would most likely be gone for a few hours, but there was always the possibility he could come back earlier.
And she couldn't be here when he got back.
Looking down at her pants, she slowly reached down to her waistband and gripped it as she tried to steady her breathing as her shaky hands slid her pants down.
She tried to softly kick her pants over near her shirt, but a sudden jolt of pain shot through her left leg causing her to stumble, she had to grab the sink to stop herself from falling over completely.
"Argh!" she cried out, shakily holding onto the sink as she tried to right herself.
Pulling herself up on her feet, she placed a hand on her left leg before gritting her teeth before looking back at her reflection one last time before turning and limping over to the shower.
She was going to quickly wash herself, then grab everything she needed before leaving.
Abigail Constantine was not going to risk coming back here again.
Abigail now stood in her room, having washed quickly and dried herself she now was clothed and laying out several bags, some backpacks and rucksacks of different colours, as well as a large tan backpack with many several zippers and sections.
Picking up one of the backpacks, a purple one, she walked over to her wardrobes and began pulling out her clothes and jamming them in without concern, stuffing many articles of clothing into it, though the bag didn't seem to be struggling to hold the large amount of clothing, despite it being rather small on the outside, she kept shoving clothes into it.
Placing it back on the bed she then moved on to an dark green bag and walked over to a large bookshelf in the corner of the room and raised her right hand, it flashed a golden amber colour before the bookshelves slid to the right, seemingly disappearing into nothingness and revealing another set of shelves with different books, some were old while others were newer, a few were large leather bound tomes, an assortment of languages and different texts marked the various books as she began quickly depositing the books into the bag, just as the bag with the clothes, this one was able to fit all the books into it without any issue, without any increase in size outwardly.
Afterwards she exited her room, and with the bag in hand made her way to her father's room.
As soon as she opened the door it came in contact with several empty glass bottles on the floor, pushing past them she saw the room was in squalor.
Looking around, she got to work.
Abigail had by now gotten everything she wanted from her father's room, all the books and items she was looking for, as well as items and books belonging to her mother from around the house.
Not all of them went into the bag however, as she sent some to the cottage.
However one item in particular she held onto tightly. It was a small bronze pendant with etchings all around it, in the centre of the pendant was a glowing purple circular jewel. She stared at the jewel for several seconds, her eyes tearing up before she clenched them shut again.
"I'm sorry Agregor" she whispered before stowing the jewel in the tan backpack before turning to the other bags.
She placed the various bags inside the tan backpack; the bag like the others was able to hold all the items within it without any trouble.
After this, her bed had only a few framed photos on it, and a single article of clothing.
Picking up one particular photo, Abigail looked at it with painful nostalgia.
In the photo it showed a younger Abigail, smiling at the camera with her mother beside her, who had an arm around her. On Abigail's other side was an older girl with Caucasian skin and bright blood red hair, she was grinning and one hand was ruffling Abigail's hair.
There was another girl at her side, shorter than Abigail and with long brown hair, next to a dark skinned girl whose arms were folded, both of them smiled happily into the camera.
Behind the red haired girl was an older man with matching red hair, save for a single streak of white, who was standing with his arms behind his back, a small smile gracing his face.
Next to Abigail's mother was a tall dark haired man; beside him was a younger boy with matching black hair and wearing a pair of sunglasses.
Abigail's hand slid across the cracked frame of the picture, a few tears had already dropped down upon the glass before she opened the bag and placed it and the other photos inside.
Placing it down on the floor she than turned to the last remaining item on the bed.
It was a red jacket.
The bottom of it went down just below her waist and it had a zipper going up to the collar, it also had two lapels and two pockets on its sides and two vertical zip pockets going down the breast area.
Her hands picked up the jacket slowly, looking it over before bringing it to her chest and hugging the material.
(Flashback)
Six year old Abigail looked at the jacket her mother had placed on her with a smile.
"This is a very special jacket Abby" Zatanna said as she ran a hand along one of the arms, before tugging slightly testing the material once again.
"It's got magical properties and spells interwoven into it that I put there myself"
Abigail's eyes lit up as she looked at her mother. "Really!?"
Zatanna chuckled lightly as she smoothed down the back of it as she leaned down to her daughter's level.
"Yes, it's just like Jenny's one" she said as she placed her hands on her daughter's shoulders.
"Which means it will grow and change with you, so even when you're older it'll still fit. It's also very durable and strong, it can protect you from being hurt" Zatanna said seriously.
"Wow" Abigail said looking at the jacket with renewed wonder. "This is so cool; I'm never taking it off!"
"Never ever?" another voice suddenly spoke up.
Abigail and Zatanna turned to see a thirteen year old girl standing near the doorway in a school uniform, her backpack placed on the floor. She had bright green eyes and blood red hair, and was tall for her age.
Her accent was primarily British, but there were traces of American that could be heard.
"Jenny look look!" Abigail said running over to her, stopping in front of the older girl and twirling around, showing off her jacket.
"Very stunning" Jennifer said as she picked her up and held her in her arms.
"You gotta put yours on!" Abigail proclaimed.
Jennifer chuckled at her little sister's enthusiasm. "I just got back from school, give me five minutes and I'll go get it"
They both found themselves wrapped in a pair of arms as Zatanna gave them a hug, pulling them closer as she gave them a loving smile.
"My girls" she whispered as they lent into the embrace.
(Flashback End)
Hugging the jacket tighter, tears now flowed freely down her face.
"Mi dispiace Mamma…"
Slowly slipping her arms into the jacket, she pulled it on and zipped it up, it was a perfect fit….as always.
Picking up the backpack she slid it on over the jacket and turned towards the door, walking slowly as she took in the sights around her. It would be the last time she would be here, so she made sure to take in the details of her room.
Stepping out into the hall, she took one last glance into her room before closing the door and turning back, heading towards the stairs.
As she reached the stairs however she saw something that made her freeze.
It was small patch of dried blood on the bottom of the handrail going up the side of the stairs.
(Flashback)
Abigail let out a cry of pain as she was dragged along the floor towards the stairs; her father's grip on her hair was unyielding as he pulled her along harshly.
"N-No!"
"Shut up!" he growled out drunkenly as he ascended the stairs, not bothering to slow as Abigail tried to find a foothold, only to be roughly pulled up the hard stairs, letting out pained sobs.
"Daddy please!" she cried out, trying to pull her hair from his grip, only for him to roughly yank her head around, causing her face to slam into one of the wooden balusters.
"Arrrrggghh!" she cried out, knowing her nose was surely broken followed by a spurt of blood coming from her nostrils as she exhaled.
"Get your arse up!" her father exclaimed, not caring for her obvious injury as he continued to drag her up the stairs and towards her room.
(Flashback End)
Clenching her fists at her side she willed herself to move forward, step after step the door become closer and closer till she was standing right at the door.
Taking a deep breath she exhaled before opening it and stepping out onto the street, making sure to close it behind her she immediately turned and walked.
Going down the street as it was now empty of anyone, it was late now and she knew there would be no one around, save for people coming home from a late night.
Though as she got far enough down the street where she could no longer see the house when she looked behind her, she finally felt more at ease, just being out of sight of it made her more relieved.
Turning back around, Abigail took one more glance around before leaning down onto the ground and thrusting upwards, her body taking off and flying up into the air and off into the night.
As she soared higher and higher, she closed her eyes and simply allowed the night air to whip past her as the lights of the London streets shone bellow parallel to the stars above.
Three months
Three months since she'd left her home, the time had flown by so quickly.
Abigail had left England immediately that night and gone to France; from there she traveled through Europe and the surroundings continents and countries, though she had stayed away from Italy.
She had trekked down to Bulgaria through Switzerland, gone back up to Germany and into Poland and the Ukraine.
She'd gone to so many places in the past three months, but nothing changed.
Abigail still had the nightmares every night; the guilt was eating away at her mental state every moment both awake and asleep, not even able to escape into her dreams from the dark void she'd found herself trapped in.
Her eyes had dark bags under them and her hair was a tangled mess, her clothes were rumpled and covered in dirt as she hadn't bothered washing or changing them the past few days.
She'd made sure the day after leaving home to take measures to prevent being found, placing wards, charms and spells on her in an effort to prevent herself being tracked, through psychic means or scrying, locator spells or other means, it wasn't particularly easy process, nor was it painless. And she was still constantly paranoid about being found, and thus hadn't spent too long in one place at a time.
She didn't want anyone around for what she planned to do.
Originally there was a glimmer of hope that perhaps her travelling would bring some semblance of catharsis.
It hadn't
Thus her plan would go through.
She was currently seated in a forest, a campfire in front of her with a small pot atop it. Peering into the pot she could see the black liquid within was bubbling slowly.
Moving over to a large log, she reached into her tan bag and brought out a stack of paper and a packet of envelopes, reaching back in and bringing out a pen she sat and placed one piece of paper flat on the log and began to write.
'Dear Jennifer…'
Sealing up yet another envelope, she turned it over and wrote on the front in the black pen.
'Twilight'
Upon doing so, she place it next to several other sealed envelopes on top of one marked 'Tefé Holland', before bringing her hand up to wipe her tear soaked eyes. She had spent the past few hours writing letters, some being written and re-written several times, others taking so much longer.
The final letter however, she knew exactly what she was going to write.
Taking the final piece of paper, she flattened it out and after a moment of staring at the blank page, brought the pen down and wrote six words.
'Father
.
.
.
I'll see you in Hell'
Starring down at the letter with unwavering eyes, she folded it three times before placing it inside the envelope, sealing it promptly and turning it around before writing on it once more.
'John Constantine'
Turning the letter around she placed it with the others, gathering them up into two neat piles, reaching into the bag once more she brought out the bronze medallion with the glowing jewel.
Starring at it for several seconds she placed a light kiss on the jewel before placing it on top of one stack of letters, making sure to secure it to the top letter with a rubber band.
Placing her hands on top of both stacks, Abigail's hands glowed for a moment before it transferred to the letters as she whispered a chant. Removing her hands, the letters stilled were surrounded in a dim glow.
'Twenty Four hour delay before the letters are transported to their recipients' she thought before standing up once more.
She walked back over to the pot and removing it from the flame, Abigail stood still as she starred down at the black bubbling concoction.
Her strong grip did not waver as she held the pot up below her chin before raising it up to her lips and taking the liquid into her mouth, filling it before gulping down the cloggy mixture.
As soon as it hit her tongue she gagged, but continued to ingest it, her body crying out protest but she overpowered it, drinking down more before finally letting out a choked gag and dropping it to the ground, the small amount of liquid remaining dripping out onto the ground.
"Aurghh!" Abigail groaned out as she stumbled back, her hands beginning to shake as she moved away from the camp and towards the spot she knew was near the tree line.
Each step quickly became an increasing effort, but Abigail continued on, her stomach began constricting and a sensation began to rise up inside of her that she hadn't felt in a long time.
It was burning…
Gritting her teeth as saliva was spat from her mouth; she looked down at her hands, all the while continuing onward. There were black markings beginning to show up in her veins, looking down at her neck she saw several spreading down from her throat as well.
"Guurrkkk!" she heaved as her steps became stumbles as she reaches the tree line, her insides now screaming out as she moved.
Abigail let out another gasp as she lost her footing; her body fell forward and would have hit the ground if she hadn't grabbed a low branch to steady herself.
"Urrrhhhkkk Auuughhkkk" she heaved as a mouthful of dark blood filled bile ejected from her throat and out onto the tree she was leaning on, the rest dribbled down her chest as she stumbled ahead.
Her eye sight was beginning to blur and her breathing was labored, her muscles were burning along with her organs now as she stumbled out from the trees and onto a rocky ledge.
The ledge was high up, the edge of a cliff overlooking another stretch of forest far below and across, a lower valley full of green.
But immediately, far far below her current position was nothing but rocks at the bottom of the high cliff.
She already knew that though.
Her vision was blurring at faster intervals now, and just standing was hard as she let out another cry as she lurched forward, vomiting out more dark blood, this time it was nearly black.
The liquid dripping from her nose as well as she took a slow step forward till she was right on the edge, the soft wind and gentle sounds of nature surrounded her as she found the strength to stand up straight once more.
'My penance be paid'
Another step was all it took as she pushed off the edge of the rock and let gravity take her.
The rushing wind blew against her falling form as Abigail's vision blacked in and out, all the while the burning pain coursed through her body.
Her left shoulder caught against a lower ledge on her way down, making her body jerk and tumble around in the air before her face was now starring up at the sky.
Abigail's last remaining sight was of the sky above before the blackness overtook her vision for the last time.
This time the darkness she had endured would take her indefinitely.
There was no coming back.
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"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"
So, there is the prologue!
There was many things brought up in this chapter, which will be explored as it goes on.
I know I made John Constantine out to be a completely deplorable asshole in this chapter, and that was intentional ( I love the character, but for the sake of this story, he had to act that way) there will be explanations of his behavior and shown in flashbacks the events leading up to it.
If you have any theories or thoughts, please let me know I love hearing readers responses (if they're not flames!) constructive criticism is one thing, flames are another.
And on that note, be sure to review and let me know what you think, reviews are greatly appreciated and help me keep writing.