Conflicted Love
It was dark. Chris was standing in a room. He heard something and looked over his shoulder. Raven was standing underneath a light with her back to him. "Oh, Raven. Thank God. You scared me for a moment." He walked towards her but she was moving away from him, still with her back to him. "Raven?" He started moving faster. She matched his pace. "Raven!" He broke into a full sprint. The stopped moving as he reached her. He turned her around. "What's wrong?" he asked. He pulled back her hood and jumped back in horror.
Raven was not underneath the hood. A young woman with black lipstick stood there. Her black hair was covering half of her face. A large red stripe obscured her eye. She smiled, but not a reassuring smile. A sinister smile. "Hello, Chris."
Chris woke with a start. He woke up in his room. It had been a few days since he was with the Titans, and since then he was having the same dream. But this time, he actually saw the person under the hood. He turned on the light and looked around his room, wishing Raven was with him. A Green Goblin poster hung above his bed with a framed picture of the Hulk next to it. He recently quit his job because he had enough money for school, so he'd go to the Titans first thing tomorrow. He'd tell Raven about the dreams. Feeling nothing was amiss, he went back to sleep.
"Friend Pretender! Welcome back!" cried Starfire, strangling him in a hug. "Thanks Star. I missed you too," he said, trying to breathe. He walked into the main room and shook hands with Robin and high fived Beast Boy and Cyborg. "Where's Raven?" asked Chris. Beast Boy motioned behind him. "She's meditating." Chris caught the Titans up on his life since the last time they were together (except the dream) and then went to Raven's room.
He knocked on the door. Nothing. He knocked a little louder. "Go away, I'm meditating," she said dryly. "Okay, I'll come back later," he called through the door. He turned his back to the door and stood there. Five, four, three, two, one. She opened the door. "I'm sorry Chris. I was deep in my meditation. I didn't realize it was you." She hugged him and kissed him gently on the lips. "How have you been?" she asked.
The smile on Chris's face faded. "I need to talk to you in private," he said quietly. "Okay," Raven replied, a little concerned. They walked into her room. Raven sat down on her bed and Chris sat down next to her. "What did you want to talk about?" she asked. "Well, I've been having this dream. I'm running down a dark room after who I think is you, only to find out that is an ex-girlfriend of mine."
"What does she look like?" Raven inquired. "She's about my size. Black hair with a red stripe," he described. Oh no, thought Raven. "What was her name?" she asked with a worried expression. Chris gave her a nervous look as he replied, "Kristen Vanness. She was the Goth girl I used to go out with." Raven's jaw dropped in horror. "What is it?" Chris asked, terrified now.
"Oh Chris, I don't think you realize how much danger you are in." Chris looked scared and confused. "Kristen is someone we've dealt with before, known as the Temptress. She gets a boyfriend and keeps him for a while. Then for false reasons, she breaks up with him. A year later, they begin having dreams about her. Really unpleasant dreams. If they see her face, that is when the situation gets dangerous. After a few weeks, the person goes mad or…" she broke off. "Or what?" Chris asked, shaking her. "They take their own life out of sheer depression." Chris's eyes widened. "This happened to some guys I worked with. They both went out with this girl. One of them, Eric, is in a padded room in Arkham Asylum. The other, Mike…" He stopped for a moment. "He drove over a cliff." Raven looked at him. "It could be a coincidence," she said. Chris shook his head. "No. They were both talking about Kristen an awful lot before it happened. I should have realized something was up then." He fell back on the bed.
"What do I do?" he asked, staring up at the ceiling. "Well, the only way to stop the spell of the Temptress is for her victim to… kill her before the two weeks end," replied Raven quietly. Chris's right arm began shaking. "I have to kill her? I've never killed anyone before!" He could not believe what he was hearing. "Chris, you are a valuable asset to this team. And you are important to me as well. I don't want to lose you," Raven said through tears forming in her eyes.
This can't be happening, Chris was saying to himself. "You'll have to get together with her again," Raven said quietly, as if she did not want to believe it. "What?" asked Chris, in shock. "You'll have to try to get together with her again!" she cried, tears streaming down her face. "When the opportunity arises and the two of you are alone..." She broke off. "Kill her. Until then, you'll have to do whatever she wants you to do." Chris took a deep breath. "Even…" he started. "Yes, even that," she replied hesitantly.
Oh God, he thought. "You have two weeks before this happens. I suggest you put your acting to the test," she said rather coldly, not facing him. "Raven, you're not jealous, are you?" Chris asked. "No, of course not," she cried as the contents of a dresser spilled out onto the floor. Chris gave her a raised eyebrow look. "Raven?" he asked again. She turned around and buried her face in his chest. "Yes I am!" she cried. "I know she doesn't mean anything to you, but still… I don't want you…" He brought her face up to meet his eyes. "I assure you, you will always be the only girl for me. It'll all be just an act anyway. No matter what happens, I will always love you," he said, looking deeply into her eyes.
She looked into his eyes as well. She leaned in and gave him a kiss on the lips. A kiss of passion. One which she did want to end. She wrapped her arms around Chris as she eased him back onto the bed. She began to undo her cape but Chris stopped her. "I'm sorry Raven. I want this more than anything, but I just can't do this while the threat of insanity or death looms over my head." Raven nodded. "I love you Chris. I won't force you to do something you don't want to do," she said as she pulled Chris up. He got up off the bed and walked to the door. "Well, I better get ready." Raven got up as well. "Ready for what?" A small grin appeared on Chris's face. "I'm going back to school."
Not only do I have to go back to school, he thought. I need to look Goth. He looked through his room. He had a lot of black shirts, mostly stuff he bought from Hot Topic, but none of those extra-wide legs pants or five-inch metal spike chains. He also didn't have any black make-up. He pulled out his CD collection and looked at his CD's. U2, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Aerosmith, Weird Al, Jane's Addiction, Smash Mouth, Barenaked Ladies, White Stripes, Guns n' Roses, Coldplay, They Might Be Giants, Weezer, Jimmy Eat World, Puddle of Mudd, 311, OAR, Alien Ant Farm, Gorillaz, REM, Tenacious D. He had three Ozzy, two Linkin Park, and one System of a Down CD and that was about it. Nothing incredibly dark or heavy. He wrote a list that consisted of: Make-up, big pants, spikes, and darker music. I think I can get all of that at Hot Topic, he thought.
He went down to Hot Topic the next day with his list. He looked through the music first. I've never heard of any of these people, he thought, looking through the music. I need to find something I can actually listen to. He saw the CD Appetite for Destruction by G&R. I've been looking for that. He picked it up and continued with his search. Hmmm, Lest We Forget: Best of Marylin Manson. I can listen to this I think. He took it as well. Until the End by Kittie. That's Kirsten's favorite band. He picked up their CD. Okay, I think that's enough. He walked over to where the pants were. As he walked past, he saw a thing of black eyeliner and picked that up. He saw a pair that was black with red lining and little things that looked like bookbag straps near the knees. The waist was the right size and the legs went down to his feet. The even went so far as to tent his feet. He slung the pants over his shoulder and walked to the register. He saw one of those spike bracelets and picked up one of those. "Will that be everything?" the multi-pierced girl asked from behind the counter. Chris nodded and got out his frequent buyer's card. Whoo, four more stamps. He got his bags and went out to the car.
Okay lets try one of these things out, he thought as he opened the Kittie CD. I think this one is their single he said as he selected the song Into the Darkness. A guitar introduced the song.
I feel helpless waiting
Okay, he thought. All of a sudden a raspy female voice shrieked:
Could all this be the end?
He immediately pressed stop on the CD player. Oh God that was frightening, he thought. Women shouldn't shriek like that. It's almost… inhuman. He drove to the costume shop and bought a black wig and drove home, listening to the radio. He pulled in front of his house, but he did not stop for long. They won't understand, he thought. He ran inside not saying hi and picked up some t-shirts and jeans and ran back out to his car. He took the scary CD out of his CD player and put in Appetite for Destruction. He pressed play and drove off to Jump City. Once again, he was greeted by a guitar solo, this one more recognizable than the first one. As the song Welcome to the Jungle played, Chris mouthed along as he drove to Titans Tower.
He walked inside and was surprised when he was not being strangled by Starfire or having the wind knocked out of him by Cyborg. Robin and Raven were also missing. "Hello? Does anyone still live here?" Beast Boy was on the couch, reading a MAD Magazine. "Oh, hey Pretender," he said. "Where are the others?" asked Chris. "Robin and Starfire are at the movies, Cyborg is at the auto mechanics. I think he's there just to laugh at them." "And Raven?" Beast Boy thought for a moment. "I think she's meditating."
Chris went to his room in the tower and laid out his clothes on the bed. His t-shirts read: You're an Inspiration to Idiots Everywhere, I'm Just Like a Superhero With no Powers or Motivation, My imaginary Friend Says You Have Mental Problems, and There are no Stupid Questions; Just Stupid People. He also had the one he was wearing: a Piranha Plant that says underneath it, Byte Me. He took a look at the calendar. School starts tomorrow, he thought. He walked to Raven's room and knocked on the door. She opened the door. "Chris, what's wrong?" she asked. "Could you help me look more Goth?" he asked a bit awkwardly. Raven smiled and nodded.
They walked into his room and he got the wig out. It went down to the base of his neck. "Is there something you can do to make the wig stay on my head?" Raven put the wig on his head and placed her hands on top. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos," she said quietly. She lifted her hands and Chris pulled on the wig. "OW!" She took a comb off of Chris's dresser and combed the wig the way Chris's hair normally was. When she finished with his hair she took the eyeliner out of the bag. She outlined his eyes and then made a small thin line underneath each eye, almost like a small tear stream.
"Well, you look much darker than you normally do," Raven said as she finished her work. Chris got up and looked in the mirror. When did Manson show up, he thought. "It looks great, Raven," he said. "Thanks." He kissed her on her chakra and she left the room. Okay, Chris. Get ready to roll.