The Hourglass
Chapter One: How Things Have Changed
April 17, 2004After standing shell-shocked for a minute at the abrupt disappearance of her best friend Kori had run as fast as her little legs could take her, which was pretty fast. She had tugged on pant legs and shirtsleeves to get attention from the adults, pointing frantically and yelling that Richard had fallen into the stream and she couldn't find him. Everyone had rushed out immediately to find the missing Grayson.
"Kori."
The adults had come back after a few minutes to regroup and send out search parties along the bank. He couldn't have gone far, even if he had lost consciousness and was floating along limply somewhere. The parents combed both sides of the strange stream, but with no success.
"Kori."
Richard was gone without a trace.
"Kori!" The girl in question started and looked around at all the expectant people around her. Her green eyes landed on her friend Rachel, who had been the one calling her name in the first place.
"Huh?" The other teenagers on the stage and behind the curtains laughed, a wave passing through the crowd. She turned pink and her drama teacher, Ms Rouge, put her hand to her forehead in exasperation.
"Kori Anders, please stop daydreaming and pay attention. We have but a month and a half to polish this play and we still haven't found anyone to play the Beast!" Kori nodded and looked back at the large stage.
The school's play this year was going to be Beauty and the Beast. Kori had gotten the part of Belle, not only because she said the parts well but also because she had a lovely singing voice. It was going to be a musical, with all the original songs from the Disney movie. After much pleading and begging, Kori had gotten Rachel onto the stage. Once she broke away from her ever-present monotone, she had been chosen as the singing voice for Mrs. Potts since the girl cast as the talking teapot insisted that she couldn't sing in the silly costume. Raven was allowed to back to her normal flat voice for her role as the narrator.
Raven's boyfriend Gar, being an animal lover and landing him the nickname 'Beast Boy' in fourth grade, had been filling in for whoever was to play the Beast. His hair was still spiked at the top like a porcupine and he got away with a light green dusting on top by telling the principal that it was for his costume. This was a lie of course. The real costume was heavy and a bit hot, due to the larger-than-normal mask. And Gar was already Lumiere, so he didn't really want to be the Beast and kiss Kori since she was his friend and nothing more. 'It'd be like kissing my sister!' was his protest when Ms Rouge had approached him with the idea. Luckily, there were many boys willing to try out for the role that got to kiss Kori. Unluckily, the drama teacher had deemed them unfit to play Beast, claming that they didn't have the right attitude.
Kori sighed as Ms Rouge began to chew out Victor for the spotlights being off. By an inch. Since Victor had been in an accident when visiting his parents at the labs, his left leg was prosthetic. He hid it by wearing jeans all the time, still doing well in sports. He didn't want the coaches to give him special disadvantages because of it, and was a bit angry with his father for getting him into the whole situation in the first place. However, he had learned a lot of mechanical and technological know-how from his dad, and was in charge of all the effects in the play. When Kori had asked if he was okay with working backstage, he had just laughed and reassured her that he 'didn't mind working behind the scenes. I'm not much of an actor.'
Xavier Redding was a very good actor on the other hand, snagging the part of Gaston, another boy known as Fang playing Lefou. He had brown hair that fell into his gray eyes made almost any girl melt, coupled with his somewhat 'bad boy' attitude. Kori didn't fall for him, even though she was friends with him. Rachel had introduced him to her when he had moved to Jump City in second grade. Kori had befriended him easily, and over the years Xavier had been thinking about asking her out. While Xavier was nice, he didn't fill the hole left by Richard's sudden disappearance. Kori had continued to think about Richard all her life, even though she hadn't seen him in twelve years. Which was exactly what she was doing right now.
He would have just turned seventeen a little while ago. He'd be taller, but his hair would still be a rumpled black mess, bright blue eyes glinting under his bangs. Broader shoulders, more muscular physique… Kori sighed dreamily. Ms Rouge snapped her out of it with a sharp yell.
"Miss Anders! If you continue to daydream during rehearsal I shall remove you from this play!" Kori shook her head vehemently, her ruby hair swinging around and hitting her face. Xavier leaned against a prop doorframe and chuckled quietly.
"I'm sorry Ms Rouge, it won't happen again; I promise!" She twisted her hands together nervously and bit her lip. Rachel rolled her eyes and came out from behind the curtains and tugged on Kori's elbow to pull her away. Kori looked at her, confused, while Rachel signaled to the teacher.
"One moment please." She dragged her best friend backstage and sighed quietly while Kori peeked back out at the rehearsal of Gaston's song. Every year, on the anniversary of Richard's vanishing, Kori would seem a little out of it. The three friends had deduced that she missed Richard more than she let on; the two had been almost inseparable. Vic had said that it was a pity that Richard was gone before he could tell Kori that he had felt more than friendship for her. Of course, back then they were little kids who still believed in cooties. This was assuming Richard did like her that way. Anyways, point is, Rachel had noticed how lonely Kori seemed and had made it a tradition that Kori slept over with the rest of the little 'family' at her house. This kept Kori's mind off Richard, or so Rachel thought. Perhaps Richard wasn't the only one with a crush…
The redhead winced as Ms Rouge began to bark at Fang's off-again-on-again girlfriend, self-proclaimed Kitten, for being off tempo with the other villagers. She had tried out for Belle as well, but Kori had been better. For this, Kitten had resented Kori and was quite rude to her. But then again, she was rude to almost everyone. Kori tuned out the yelling and looked at Rachel with a curious look on her face.
"What did you want Rachel?" The girl snapped back to reality and thought of what she could say. She had, being a girl, figured out how Kori felt about Richard and could tell that Kori was thinking about him again.
"Oh, um, just wanted to see if we were still on for tonight." She had been caught a little off guard. Kori, being the innocent girl she was, nodded and smiled.
"Of course! Why wouldn't we be?"
"Oh, no reason. Just checking," mumbled Rachel. Kori nodded, her mind drifting again when she noticed something amiss about Rachel.
Rachel was wearing plain jeans that covered her black sneakers. She worn a simple black shirt with white, ragged words that read 'I'm only wearing black until they come up with something darker.' Rachel was sometimes mistaken for a Goth, which was completely wrong; she just liked the dark colors and was more mature than half the schools population. Her dark hair was loosed around her shoulders, although Kori could've sworn it was in a ponytail a half hour ago. Kori squinted a little at something on Rachel's neck.
"… Rachel, is that a hic-" Fortunately for her friend, Kori was cut off when Ms Rouge began to nag Garfield about his long 'break'. The strangest thing; he had come out of the ajar closet looking very disheveled. As Rachel hurriedly pushed her onto the stage, the redhead realized what had happened and giggled silently to herself for the rest of the rehearsal.
------x------
"Alright everyone, I think that's enough for today." The drama teacher clapped her hands together decisively. "Now remember, you will have to speak loud, as there are 'special' actors-" Kori snuck a glance at Garfield and laughed quietly. He caught her looking at him and grinned at her.
"Don't give me that look Kori." Now her snickers were audible and the teacher glanced at her before continuing her long-winded spiel.
Once Ms Rouge announced that practice was over, there was a collective sigh. She frowned and said if they felt that way, then maybe she should have them stay a little longer. After that, everyone cleared out quickly. Kori had agreed to meet everyone at Rachel's house; she just had to stop by her own to pick some stuff up, among a few other errands.
She reached her own car after waving good-bye to her friends. Her car was a small, white, compact car and suited her needs just fine. Kori slung the backpack over one shoulder and began to root through it for her keys that always seemed to sink to the bottom. The lavender hoodie she had on was pulled up and little and she groaned, frustrated.
Kori was not happy with her choice of shirts today. Not happy at all. Her favorite purple tank top had been shrunk in the wash, the same week that it had been Komi's turn to do the laundry. Anyways, it had become a belly shirt and the only wearable shirt that day. So she had thrown it on and pulled her hoodie over that, but Kori hadn't worn it in a while and found out later that it was from the sixth grade. Every time she raised her hand or arms, the hoodie would lift up and expose some of the golden skin on her curvy sides. All day she had been constantly pulling it down over her purple miniskirt. Although, it was modest compared to some other people's, people who's name starts with 'K' and ends with 'itten.' Finally getting the keys, she reached down to pick up the books she had put down by her white tennis shoes with purple streaks on the sides. As you can tell, she loved purple.
"Aha!" She let out a small cry of triumph and pulled the key out of her bag with a flourish. Juggling her books in one hand, she used the other to push the key in the lock. She was caught unaware when Xavier came up behind her to relieve her of her books. She smiled at him gratefully once the door lock clicked open. "Thanks Xavier."
"No problem. Least I could do for a pretty girl like you." Kori just turned to grab her books off the car roof when Xavier had laid them, still smiling faintly. She cradled them in her arms in the classic schoolgirl position and looked at him.
"That's very nice, but I'm sure helping me with my books isn't the only reason you came over here." He put his hands up in defense, grinning slightly.
"Alright, okay, so I didn't." He took a breath and let it out, leaning on the car and staring at her intently. "I just came over to see if you wanted to go out sometime… Like, maybe tonight?" His gray eyes searched her face for her reaction.
Kori inhaled sharply, taken back. Did she want to go out with him? Kori didn't exactly feel that way about him, but she didn't want to flat-out turn him down. She bit her lip and looked at all the cars leaving, then back at Xavier. One little date didn't mean anything, right? It didn't mean that you were officially going steady, did it? She wanted someone who she absolutely couldn't live without; someone who would rob her of her breath and make her heart beat around wildly in her chest. So far, she hadn't met that one person.
"Well?" She was jerked out of her musings by the teenager's prompt. He looked a little unsure. "If you don't want to, that's fine, I could just–" Kori cut him off.
"No, it's fine. I'd love too." Okay, stretching the truth wasn't like lying, was it? Xavier smiled again.
"Great. How about tonight?" She looked away.
"I'm sorry; I told Rachel that I would spend the night at her house tonight. Would you mind Saturday?" That was tomorrow, and she could use some input from Rachel. Xavier nodded and inclined his head with intent to kiss her.
Now, there was something Kori did that all boys at school called 'The Cheek.' Whenever a boy tried to kiss her, she'd turn her head just in time so that they kissed her cheek instead. She was saving her first kiss for someone truly special, and that was why turning her head to the left was something that came naturally to her whenever a boy got too close to her face. So Xavier ended up giving her a kiss on the cheek that was intended for her lips. Kori giggled a bit uneasily moved back a little.
"So I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Yeah, I'll swing by around seven. See you later Kori." He walked off, and Kori hoped she hadn't made him mad by refusing his kiss. Politely, but refusing him all the same. She just wanted the date to get over with and find someone she really knew she loved. Kori sighed and leaned against the car door with her books pressed up to her chest.
"X'hal…"
What had she gotten herself into?
------x------
Parking the car, Kori pulled out the key to cut the engine. She slammed the door and leaned on the car for support, looking out at the scenery before her. The same forest that had housed the secrets of Richard's sudden 'departure.' Sadly, she sighed and looked behind her at Richard's house behind her. Perhaps it was best he was gone; the Graysons had died when Richard would have been eight and Kori didn't know how Richard would've taken that. It was just a series of unfortunate events, being in the wrong place at the right time.
A man named Tony Zucco, or Boss Zucco, had been posing as a taxman who had been 'collecting' money from Haly's Gym where Mary and John had worked. He'd actually been extorting the money, and the owner had gotten suspicious. She had asked to see his credentials but Zucco had refused, warning that if she prodded any farther into his personal business something bad would happen. Well, she hadn't heeded his warning, calling the cops. Once one of his stoolies heard that the police were coming, they told Zucco. Angry and wanting revenge, he loosened the screws on all the trapeze equipment so that the next person to use them would have a tragic 'accident', making the surviving family sue. Sadly, it didn't turn out that way.
The Graysons had never really recovered from the loss of their only son, and tried to keep a chin up. But they couldn't help the lapses of crying every now and then. They had been asked, the same day Boss Zucco had tampered with the ropes and such, to give a small performance for Stephanie Brown's birthday. She was one of their students and the girlfriend of one of their favorite pupils, Tim Drake. At times, Mary would comment that he reminded her of Richard, were he still with them. At that point she would begin sniffing and excuse herself. Anyways, Tim had asked them to do it as sort of a gift to his girlfriend. They had happily agreed, and were executing one of their most difficult stunts; one that took place above the hard wood floor instead of over the pit filled with foam blocks because they needed the taller and longer rings set up there. Once they started, gravity took hold of the ropes and the remaining Graysons had fallen to their deaths. Remembering when the paramedics had called her house and told her the crushing news always made her eyes tear up. And Tim…
Poor Tim had blamed himself for their deaths, as it was him who had asked them to do the stunt in the first place. Everyone felt guilt; the manager for provoking Boss Zucco, Stephanie for the fact that they had died doing the stunt that was a gift for her birthday. Even the cops had apologized for not catching Zucco.
Sniffing quietly, Kori brushed her cheeks with the back of her hand. Behind her was the Grayson's old house, aged and looking worse for the wear. The paint was peeling from the sides, and the large wraparound porch sagged with termite-ridden broken boards. Shingles were missing from the roof, and it could use a good amount of elbow grease and work to restore it to its former glory. The redhead sighed and slipped her house key over her neck, held there by a thin chain. Steeling herself to what she was about to do, Kori pushed herself off the car and walked into the entrance between the trees.
As Kori walked, the key caught the fading rays of the sun. It glinted and made her squint to look. A memory lanced through her mind as the light made the key shine, like the moon had done to her locket so many years ago.
"Yeah, yeah, in a second Star."
She continued to walk, shivering more as voices from the past drifted in and out of her mind.
"Mommy! Mommy! The water took Richard!"
Her sneaker-clad feet flattened the dewy grass. It muffled her footsteps, and every now and then she'd come across something lost during the mad search, be it a battery or a coin.
"Richard! Richard, where are you? This isn't funny young man!"
The sounds of the deceiving stream reached her ears, and she stood out on the bank. It was shallow, lapping at the tops of her shoes. How did the four year old disappear in the lazy current?
"I'm sorry… We can't find him anywhere. We've looked all over the banks. He's gone."
Kori closed her eyes and turned abruptly around. Her hair swished back and she stared sadly at the grove of trees where their last conversation had taken place. Had she known he was going to vanish, she would have done things differently.
"NO! I know what I saw! The water took Richard! He's not gone! He can't be!"
She did know what she saw. In fact, she was still convinced that Richard hadn't died from being lost in the stream. But after that… She didn't know what had happened. Kori desperately wanted to know if he was still alive somehow, or if he had died and could let everyone stop worrying.
"I'm sorry Kori. Richard is gone; he drowned."
But they had never found a body, and that small flame of hope that somewhere out there, Richard was alive and doing well. Imprints of her steps led up to the tree in the middle; the one that had glowed. Kori was positive it had.
"He didn't, I saw him fall! You're lying!"
Her large emerald eyes brimmed with tears and Kori ducked her head, her red bangs falling to cut her off from the rest of the world. The tree stood in front of her, the odd carving still there. It was the only tangible thing in little Kori's testimony. Stepping closer to the trunk, she placed her shaky hands on it.
The carving had stayed the same over the years; in fact, the whole thing had stayed the same. A few tears spilled over and ran down her cheeks. Sniffing, Kori ran her hand over the strange engraving, letting her fingers trace the grooves. Her necklace jingled and kept catching in the niches. An unusually strong breeze blew her hair over her face, making the crimson strands stick to the wet tear tracks. She frowned. Where had the wind come from?
The sun was still setting and everything was getting darker. Kori knew she would have to hustle to get to Rachel's house on time. The girl heaved a sad sigh and pushed herself up, the necklace continuing to become ensnared on the bark, right in the middle of the hourglass. Swearing quietly in her native language, she pulled it free and stood up. Looking around, it occurred to her that something didn't feel right.
Well, for starters, the wind was blowing at about fifty miles an hour and the tree trunk was gleaming again. Yeah, that was a bit strange.
Kori let out a frightened squeak and tried to move to grab something, but the wind guided her back to the edge of the water. Her eyes widened and she screamed, recollections of Richard's falling into the stream flashing though her minds eye like lightening and almost giving her a headache. Groaning, Kori tried to fight the wind and wishing for something to hold on to. No such luck.
The wind finally won the battle and shoved her over the edge and into the now-roiling river. As she thrashed and attempted to stay above the waves that tugged on her body and brought her farther down, a hazy thought crossed her waterlogged brain.
'Since when has it been this deep?' It was true; when standing above earlier, Kori had been able to see the sandy bottom and make out a few tiny fish swimming around. Now there were no fish, and the bottom that looked like it was a mile away was shimmering bright white. Her thoughts were oxygen-deprived, but she knew this wasn't normal. 'Am I dying? Is this what Richard saw before he died?'
Now totally underwater, Kori let the currents drag her farther under. It seemed like a cross between a whirlpool and a tunnel, and through her half-opened eyes images on the sides registered. People, it looked like. One heavily distorted scene played out before her quickly: A young child being beaten by a larger man that had an aura of creepy happiness radiating from him. The image stilled with the boy curled on the ground and the man's hand raised up to deliver a final blow. Suddenly, the blurry people on the side faded into silhouettes. Turing a deep black, they were taken away by the water on the sides.
Kori's vision did the same, her lungs crying for air. Her eyes squeezed shut as she passed through the white tunnel. She knew she would be unawake by the time she reached the surface. Letting her body go limp, Kori hoped that whoever found her floating in the lake would be kind enough to pull her out and not let her drown.
Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans (what fun I'd have if I did… xD) or Beauty and the Beast. This story is very loosely based off Both Sides of Time by Caroline B. Cooney, which I don't own, past present or future.
Thanks to those who reviewed: Tuskikage1213, naniya27, Agent of the Divine One, fluffbuff, and golfprincess. Thanks a lot:D
Authoress' Note: -smacks self- I cannot believe I just did that. I totally used the boring name for Red X! ;; Eh well, I'll try to keep Kitten from the dreadful 'stalker-crush-on-Robin' stereotype. That's not really what she is. For the most part. xD I'm going to attempt to keep out some things that are normally found in TT high school stories. I hope X didn't seem too wimpy, but he hasn't had any competition for Kori yet.
Why Beauty and the Beast? 'Cause I didn't feel like making it Romeo and Juliet or something else that's been overused. I think it's fits them pretty well. n.n I think Kori should be a good singer because of Starfire's little solo part in the theme song at the end of Trouble in Tokyo. And that part where Kori looked at Gar with the 'special players', that was actually something that happened between Tyler and me in band. Gar's line is exactly what Tyler said. …Yeah, I know it's kinda stupid, but whatever. xD
I like how this chapter turned out; rewriting a modern version of Robin's past was fun. Notice the other Robin cameos? ;D It's funny, sometimes I look over some portion of something I wrote, and I'm like, 'Dude, I wrote that? It seems better than anything I could come up with.'
For the record, I hate the title of this chapter. It majorly sucks, I know. I've changed it about three times now, before posting this. I like the title of the other one better.D And I'm in a really good mood right now; we had a Valentine's Day Dance at my school on Friday, and the kind and queen were both the nominees from my team! So, I'm super happy. It was awesome and I had tons of fun, considering that it's the first time I've gone to one. I crashed last night, but it was uber cool. Anyways, enough of my boring personal life. xD Review please!
Up next chapter: We find out what happened to Richard, and what had been told to him. How has our favorite bird been doing these last twelve years?
Until the next update, which should be soon,
- Christine
