Important message for fans of my writing at the bottom.
Flames must be intelligent or reasonable, otherwise don't bother.
I'm not planning on any pairings or anything like that, just pre-existing relationships. I may put a small spin on them, but it will be small.
The Price Of Death
Chapter 1: It Begins
He had been dead a long time. His skin had long ago grown cold as the air inside the warehouse, and his muscles had grown stiff. There is no blood, no sign of a struggle. Only the dead body lying among the boxes and crates. There is nothing left of the real him, only his shell remains. I try and pull my eyes from the corpse, but it fascinates me. That was once a person, living, breathing, laughing.
The eyes. The eyes are the strangest part. There is nothing behind them, no emotion revealed. Hollow. Empty. There is no soul for them to act as the window to, there is nothing to them, they are just orbs in his face.
I can feel unease grow in my stomach as I stare at those dead orbs, but that discomfort is not enough to pull my gaze. Like I said, the corpse fascinates me.
The worst part of all of this, is that I am responsible. It's my fault that his heart no longer beats, that his lungs no longer fill with air.
Sirens in the distance. The police are coming. The realization of what will happen if I am found here forces me to turn my back on him. Closing my eyes I inhale deeply. I will need to be calm, cool, collected, for when I face the others. I can't let them know I did this.
Walking away from the dead body I hope to hear the faint sound of breathing, the rustling of clothes, anything. I strain my ears for some kind of noise, but only the sound of my footsteps and the pounding of my heart can be heard. I can feel my heart beat in fear, pounding itself against my ribs, struggling to break free, as if it were making up for the dead man's heart.
I close the door to the warehouse, quietly so as not to draw attention. The cops still haven't shown up. Good. Letting a long, slow breath draw out, I find myself speaking aloud.
"You really did it this time Garfield."
Sighing again, I morph into an eagle, and take flight, to try and put the events of the night behind me. I suppose I'm still in shock, the impact not yet hitting me, after all, I killed a man tonight. And all I could do was stare.
Flying by the clock tower, I hear the gongs resounding in the calm stillness of the night air. Gong. Gong. Gong. What time is it? How late have I been out? Gong. Gong. Gong. I left at six. Gong. Gong. Gong. Nine? The team will be worried. Gong. Gong. Gong. Damn. Midnight. Everyone is asleep by now. Looking down at the streets I realize where I am. In this exact spot, far below the surface is Terra. It's late, they won't notice if I'm gone for a few more minutes. Circling low I prepare to touch down on the street, to go visit an old friend.
The match casts a faint glow all around her. Eerie shadows barely discernable from the inky blackness native here. Lighting all the candles I shake the match and toss it into the bucket of water with the others. The candles are scented, her favorite kind, her favorite smell. I do it as a kind of tribute, to show I haven't forgotten. That's why I come here, to prove she still has a place in my heart.
"I did something tonight, something unforgivable."
She did something like that once. That's why I come here to talk to her, she's like a diary to me. She doesn't judge me based on what I say. I can confess my sins to her, as she once did to me.
"There was a robbery tonight, at a warehouse. Someone broke in and was stealing everything of value. I was the only one there, since the rest of the Titans were stopping another criminal. Robin had forced me to stay behind since I hurt myself in combat practice that morning. When I got there I was surprised to find him. He wasn't like the other criminals. He looked genuinely poor. His hair was long and tangled, and his face was dirty and tired looking. He looked like he really needed to be stealing. I felt bad for him at first, and thought about letting him take a few things, until he spotted me."
The memories are a little fuzzy, jumbled. Hard to make sense of them, make sure of what happens when. Each word I speak to her makes them come clearer though. Swallowing hard, I resume.
"As soon as he saw me he panicked. I could see the fear and desperation in his eyes. He just panicked, I guess that's why he did what he did. Before I knew what had happened, there was a lamp flying at my head. For such a messed up looking guy, he sure had a good arm."
I look up to her face, expecting some sort of reaction I guess. Just that same old expression on her face, the one she wore until the very end. I can feel something from her though, something probing me to go on, to continue my tale.
"So I defended myself, and charged him as a bear. The guy just flipped out then, and fell to his knees, sobbing. He must have thought he was going to…."
Swallowing hard I finish that sentence.
"…Die."
Another glance to her face, and that same feeling striking my heart, encouraging me to go on.
"So I stopped, and morphed back to being human. I was surprised, he was so different than the other criminals out there. So I tiptoed towards him, to see if he was okay, trying hard not to spook him. He blindsided me then, hit me in the face with a painting. It was a trick, he tricked me. I yelled something at him, I don't remember what. He had taken off at that point, and I started yelling for him to stop. Needless to say he didn't, so I chased him down as a cheetah. When I got close, the cheetah's instincts took over. Seeing his back to me, running for his life, something took over, something primal. I lost control. I pounced on him, intent upon catching him, of stopping him, and I did. I hit his back full force, and his whole body gave way. He just fell, and hit the ground with a sickening snap."
"When I heard that snap, it was like ice water on my mind. I couldn't think. All I could do was morph human again, and stand off him. He didn't move, he just lied there on the ground. His neck was at an unnatural angle, his eyes had gone blank, the life faded from them."
That was what happened, the only thing left to confess is that snap meant.
"He snapped his neck when he hit the ground. I killed a man Terra. I killed him."
Cold tears dripped down my face, flowing like rivers of sadness from my eyes. It was so much worse to admit. If she were alive, she might have understood. She killed Slade, if only for a little while. If she were alive though, then she most likely wouldn't have killed him.
"Oh god Terra, what have I done?"
My head falls into my hands, the tears streaming through my fingers uninhibited. The coarse material of the gloves stings my face, as does the salt of my tears.
"What do I do Terra? Do I tell them? Should I? What do I do? This has never happened before, I've always been able to control the animal's instincts, to keep my mind human. Why was this time different? Why couldn't I keep control?"
I slam my fist into the ground in anger, my own weakness disgusts me.
Silence. She holds no answers for me. My last question haunts me the most. Every time I morph, some part of the animal fights for control. It's like having two minds, each fighting to satisfy its own needs. For certain animals it's easy to fight, for others it's hard. Cats never gave me any trouble, how ironic they would be responsible for this.
A Teen Titan. A Good Friend. Those are the words written on her plaque. She is a good friend, she's always here for me. She has no choice in the matter.
Pulling myself together, I stand up and face her eye to eye. It's time to go back to the others, to go home.
"Thank you."
Inching my face close to hers I plant a kiss on her cheek.
"Thank you for listening."
My heart heavy, I turn my back and begin the long trek to the surface. Standing at the door, I say the same thing that I do every time I visit her.
"We will cure you, I'll make sure of it."
For those that enjoyed my other story, and are sick of me writing one shotters, then hooray for you. This will be a full story, but don't expect updates as fast as the other one, I have a bunch of AP tests coming up. If you're familiar with those, then you understand. If not, they're just huge tests, that are really, really hard. And I have four, over the course of two weeks in May. Updates will most likely go faster after that.
If you read this, please do me a favor and review, it's really appreciated and can pretty much gurantee that you'll see another chapter.