Chapter Three: Hollow's Eve

October 20- October 30

To say Victor was pissed off at Richard was an understatement. Not even Hades could muster up half the rage that Victor had. After Victor found out that Richard had abandoned Kitten - causing the team to loose a hundred dollars for their new uniforms- he was on a prowl to make Richard suffer.

Richard did everything he could to avoid Victor but he knew they would meet at practice, and when they did, Richard almost lost his hearing. He ended up promising Victor to raise the rest of the money that they needed. Halloween was just around the corner.

It was just like him to plan these things; he would have fun while raising money. All week Richard and Gar were putting up fliers all over the school that advertised Richard's Haunted House Party. It was enough to satisfie Victor.

Everyone was talking about the party, admission was only 15 dollars. It was a sweet deal too, a dance with a haunted mansion.

The following weekend Richard got Rachel, Victor, Karen, Gar, and Terra to help set up his godfather's mansion into a haunted one. Kori and Xavier were also there.

The mansion was huge; it already looked like one of those from scary movies, with booming thunder, lighting and all. Tall pillars that were covered with dark green vines, held up the large building. There were gargoyles carved at the top of each pillar. The backyard was three times as big, Richard decided that their haunted house was going to need a maze as well.

"Dude!" Exclaimed Gar, as everyone stepped out of Victor's car. "Why can't you just pay for the uniforms if you live in a place like this?"

Almost everyone else nodded in agreement. They were all curious, except for Rachel. She just waited patiently for them at the front door.

"Because, haunted houses are more fun anyways." Was his reply. They didn't question him because he had a point. What better way to celebrate Halloween than going in a haunted mansion? "Bruce said he'll supply what ever we'll need so we have to brain storm ideas. Who has any?"

The teens began to speak together at once. Richard grinned from ear to ear, this was going to be fun.


There was another person who Richard was more successful at avoiding, Kitten. The big talk of the week was how Richard abandoned Kitten in the middle of the dance. The girls were amazed by his escape, and they guys were wondering how the hell he managed to get out of Kitten's grasp. He was considered a hero among Kitten's previous boy toy obsession.

Unfortunately on Friday, inside one of the library's cubicle was Richard looking over a terrible doodle - that he dared to call them blue prints- of their haunted mansion that he didn't notice Kitten sneaked up behind him.

She tapped his shoulder and as soon he turned to look at her, her hand smacked against his face. It echoed in the library, every head turned in their direction.

"What the hell was that for?" He hissed, the red mark on his cheek stung. Richard cursed under his breath.

"Don't play innocent. No one humiliates me like that! Where did you go?"

The nearest librarian shushed them.

"Screw you." Richard replied before he turned back to the blue prints.

Kitten crossed her arms. No one humiliates her and gets away with it so easily. "You were with that slut, weren't you?" She had stricken a nerve, and she knew it when Richard's back became tense. "Hmp, am I too much of a challenge?"

Richard stood up so fast, his chair fell beside him. He held Kitten's arms then glared at her. "You're the only slut I know. Don't you dare talk about Rachel like that!"

Another shush.

Richard saw the fear in Kitten's eyes, it was too pathetic so he let go of her. Instead of letting his anger take him over, he packed up his things. It was almost time to meet up with his friends anyways.

"Oh!" Kitten began to whine again as her hand was placed where Richard had held her before. "That really hurt."

He continued to ignored her, Kitten didn't like it one bit. She glared coldly at him as he exited the library.

"You better watch out if Fang ever finds out what happened between us!" She said more of a threat than a warning.

Richard was already past the doors that shut behind him. "Who?" But wasn't able to hear Kitten's answer. Instead he bumped into a tall skinny boy with shaggy brown hair when he turned around.

"Hey, buddy."

Richard could feel the strangers' breath on his face, noticing how close he was. He took a good look at him once again, it looked like he hadn't shaved for quite a while.

"You Grayson?"

Richard stood as tall as he possibly could, barely meet eyes with the stranger. "What's it to you?"

Bam!

Richard's face collided hard against the strangers knuckles, who apparently was stronger than he looked. He howled in pain, holding his hands up to his nose.

"Keep touching my Kitten again and next time you'll wake up in a hospital." He simply walked away (1).


"And that's what happened? Her boyfriend hit you?"

Victor, Terra and Gar were roaring with laughter.

"Ouch, easy Rae!" Rachel ignored her nickname. Richard winced as the frozen bag of peas was pressed over his nose and left eye. "How the hell was i supposed to know she had a boyfriend? She's constantly chasing after me."

"Just let it go, Dick."

"Only if you kiss it better." Richard teased. Rachel rolled her eyes. The laughter wasn't going to stop any time soon.


October 31st, Friday - Halloween


At the main gaits of the Wayne mansion were a couple security guards and a little booth for people to by their tickets to the haunted mansion. Automatically the group that helped Richard set it up was given the privilege of going, not only first but also for free.

Richard stepped into the house, he were amazed. He couldn't get over how incredibly cool the dance floor looked. They had used their large spacious living room, all around the room was fake spider webs. The floor had blood splattered stains and there were two silhouettes of a bloody murder against the walls. What was normally used for Bruce's bar was now filled up for drinks that minors can have, that didn't mean someone wouldn't sneak in some beer. The DJ just finished talking to Richard about the music he would play. After he agreed, the DJ walked away to set up his booth.

From the far wall were stairs that ascended to the second floor but Richard had to keep it closed with Police tape and just to add to the effect, a warning sign that said 'KEEP OUT'.

Bruce suggested using the rooms on the east wing of the mansion for their haunted house, the rooms were almost pitch black minus the light green and red glow. Each room had their own special theme, the challenge for each one of them was to set up the most scary room. It was only a friendly wager but all the guys took it seriously.

Everyone soon arrived, each couple hand in hand. Including the newest of them, Kori and Xavier.

"Ready?"

Kori gripped on to Xavier's, she smiled at him and he nodded in response.

Gar grinned and Terra giggle beside him. "Hell yea!"

Victor wrapped his arms around Karen, whispering something about protecting her when she replied. "As if, you the one who's gonn' come cryn' to me!" They all laughed as Victor face held a darker shade of pink.

"Let's do this then." Richard smile mischievously.

(2)It started with Gar and Terra's room, they choose a killer clown theme. They asked Bruce to hire a few men and women to play clowns with bloody knifes and tools that would chase and follow anyone who walked into their territory.

Then it was Victor and Karen who decided to go old school, together they choose zombies. Different body parts were scattered, the more collected manikins looked like they were attacking people and devouring their brains and guts. Their special trick consisted of kidnapping people one by one, until everyone re-appeared in a different room.

That was followed by Xavier and Kori's idea that was out of this world. The room they had set up was dripping with weird green and purple goo, dirty abandoned space crafts were scattered across the room, keep in mind that these rooms were extremely huge. Strange markings were on the wall with blood, in the center was a table that held an artificial body that was being dissected. The 'Aliens' would try to attack and cut them open, they had a stunt person for each group that went in that would be attacked by shadow like creatures. Their role would be getting capture then somehow looked like they were cut up, guts pouring out.

Rachel and Richard's haunted portion was last and led out side. It was a mirror maze leading out to a cemetery that was filled with demons and classical monsters like vampires and werewolves.

As they all stepped out, they were commenting on each others work. They were also laughing and reminding each other of their scared expressions. Rachel was the only one who insisted that she wasn't scared. That was until she had noticed that Richard was no where in sight.

"Very funny, Dick." She said, catching the other's attention.

Gar raised an eyebrow. "Where is he?" They all began to look around, calling for him.

Suddenly, they hear him scream. The ran together back through the cemetery towards the house of mirrors.

Rachel was the first to stop when she spotted a figure over Richard, trying to get a hold of him. He was a tall muscular man clad in all black, minus his mask that was half orange and half black(3). In his hand was a knife that was stained with deep red blood. It looked nothing like the artificial one they saw earlier. That's when she notice his blood stained shirt.

"Run! Rae-" The man then covered Richard, finally in his grasp.

Rachel's heart began to race, ready to panic. The tall figure pulled Richard back, threatening with his knife on Richard's throat. His multiple mirror clones began to fade as the group stood back watching in horror, their bodies frozen.

Another blood curling scream from him finally made Rachel move. She kept running into her reflection, the rest soon followed her lead. She found him leaning against the mirrors, a dark red puddle began to form around him. His hand was over his stomach, his breathing was shallow. "Rae..." He could barely manage to speak.

Rachel kneeled beside him, then took a hold of his hand. "Dick... Richard, please be ok." She was pleading, she wasn't going to loose him. Richard gripped her hand, and then it went up to caress her face.

When he saw that tears were starting to form in her eyes, he smiled. "Damn you, Bruce. You made her cry." Richard chuckled. Rachel let out a small scream as someone tapped her shoulder. She turned to face with the orange and black mask. Then she hear a familiar muffled chuckle.

The man tugged his mask off, revealing a sheepish looking Bruce. Rachel was confused, she turned her attention back to Richard, who was now standing as if he wasn't hurt at all. He wiped the sticky blood on his shirt, not looking at her in the eyes.

The rest of their friends finally caught up with them, looking equally as confused as she was.

"Dude!"

"What's going on?"

"You ok, man?"

The three boys spoke at once, while the girls stood by Rachel's side.

Bruce laughed, and so did Richard. "I'm sorry, Rae. I didn't mean to make you cry." He embraced her, not even caring if his fake blood stained her clothes. After all that was his shirt she was wearing. "Bruce decided to play a little joke on you guys, he didn't think you would actually fall for it."

As soon as they all figured out what was going on, they let out a relieved laugh. Rachel decided to pout instead, he loved it. He knew that she always did that whenever she was embarrassed.


It was almost time for them to open their haunted house, people would start to show up soon. By now Bruce already left to a party held somewhere else and the mansion was filled up with costumed teenagers in no time.

Rachel was barely changing into her Halloween costume, a small giggle escaped her mouth as the thought of her friends drifted into her mind. They were an odd bunch; a robot holding hands with a bumble bee, an alien girl stood next to a black figure with half a skull mask, and a green veggie -who kept insisting he was a zombie- with a rock climber.

Rachel was the last one to step out, dressed as a which. Her skirt was knee length, at the end looked like it was shredded. Her shirt was a black layered and off the shoulder sleeves with shredded cuffs that ended barely past her elbows. The rest of her arms were covered with black fishnet fingerless gloves under the sleeves. She messed her hair and added fake hair clip-ons or purple and blue, also applying a small amount of white make up to make her look more pale than she usually looked.

She looked around for Richard, her other odd bunch of friends already on the dance floor but she still didn't know where her best friend was. He was only begging for his death wish if he planned on playing another prank on her.

Someone from across the room caught her attention. He was sitting at the bar, a cocky smirk plastered on his face. She wasn't sure if he knew she was staring at him when his head turned slightly towards her direction. It was hard to tell since his eyes were shielded by a mask. A small flat hat was on top of his head, and a long cape also hid his body. Zorro. She could recognize him but not the person under the mask.

Zorro stood up, his hand gripped the sword by his waist, then headed towards her direction. She pretended to look for Richard again. Her attention turned back to Zorro, he wasn't walking towards her at all. He wasn't in front of her anymore.

"Alone?" She felt his breath on her neck but she didn't move away. If she was surprised that he was behind her, she didn't show.

When she turned around, she tried to look past his mask that concealed only his eyes. His identity was a complete mystery. He wrapped his arms around her waist, but she didn't care. His lips found hers, giving her a jolt of excitement that ran down her back but it disappeared as he pulled back. "Dance with me."

Zorro took Rachel's hand before she could protest. This guy was crossing the line already, but she followed anyways. She didn't know why, but she trusted the masked stranger. Maybe it was his gentle touch, or his calming voice. What ever it was, she didn't mind it one bit.

Tonight was time to party. She would forget her parent's constant arguing that had been getting worse this past week, and avoid getting home early. This was her chance, she didn't want to think about her parents little charade of a happy family. They weren't fooling her anymore.

Rachel turned her attention back to Zorro when he stopped in the center of the dance floor, no one around them was paying much attention to them. That was fine with Rachel, she began to move to rhythm of the music along with Zorro. Time passed faster than it seemed, another song changed, this time it was a slower song. More than words.(4)

Zorro didn't hesitate to, once again, put his arms around her waist. Rachel wrapped her arms around his neck, wondering how did a song like this get mixed with Monster Mash. But she wasn't really one to complain at the moment. She was enjoying her self. The only thing that was nagging her all this time was the stranger who so, easily made a fast move on her. When the song ended, they stopped.

The music was still playing, but Zorro looked like he was about to kiss her again. She raised her eyebrow, and pressed a finger against his lips. Then her other hand rose up to his face as well. Both of her thumbs now tucked under the edge of the mask.

Rachel saw him swallow in the dimly lit room, his body was tense. Zorro lifted his hand to stop her but before he placed his hand on her wrist, someone cleared their throat.

Victor stood behind Rachel. "Mind if I cut in?" Rachel, who had been debating whether to pull the mask off, was confused. Then she remembered she was standing in the middle of the dance floor. Victor words finally sunk in as she understood why Zorro had taken a step back from her.

"Good night, Senorita." He took her hand, and then gently kissed it before disappearing into the crowd.

[Long]A/N: Mystery that is Zorro. :) I was planning on posting it on Halloween but i had some difficulties with my laptop... So i hope you guys enjoyed the longer chapter.

So if you think im crazy, just go to my profile and i'll have the link posted somewhere towards the end.

1) Well thats one way to get rid of Kitten. She might show up later, she might not. Who knows ;) Buahahaha :)

2) I apologize for not making it so scary but i didn't feel like writting scary scenes here. So in a way each couple that decorated the haunted house had a little bit of the titans' thing. Like Gar -with terra-, being the joker/clown. Victor -with karen- and his artificial parts and Kori -and Xavier-with the alien theme :) lolz im creative aren't i?

3) Think Slade. XD

4) More Than Words by Frankie J, can't remember who made the original. just threw it in there for the heck of it. :p bite me

Please review!

First come, first served...

Samira: I hope i didn't disappoint you, im just not that kind of writer XD not comfortable enough to go into detail lol well i hope you enjoyed this chapter instead :) I did put in a little bit more fluff in here just for you.

ABeautifulDeath: Im curious as to your name having anything to do with 30 Seconds To Mar's song, a Beautiful Lie... lol sorry i just like that band a lot :) anyways, thanks for the review! I hope you liked the update!

Alena-Chan: You have no idea how happy your review made me, im a fan of yours :D How exciting lol Thanks for reading and reviewing, im glad that im able to show the birds friendship, it means a lot to me. Just a heads up, this fic will mostly contain Rich/Rae fluff but it doesn't mean their feelings wont develope ;) -ha there i go, giving stuff away, im terrible :b- so i hope i don't dissapoint you too much.

RaeRob: Thanks, im glad! Ah i hope you enjoyed this chapter as well :)

RaeRob4Ever: Ah yes, the not-so-original part of Teen Titans High School fics, but this time the violence isn't towards her (at least they're trying to keep her out of it). But what some parent's dont realized is that no matter what, their child(ren) will be affected by their problems as well. Thanks for also checking out City Boy :)

Yellowlightning: Thanks a lot, hope you enjoyed the update! :)