I wake up, drenched in sweat.

I'm laying on the cold, hard floor of my prison.

The flames haven't heated the room yet.

I try to remember Artemis's dream.

But all I can remember is wanting to drink her blood and eat her flesh.

What the fuck?

I shake my head.

I don't bother looking around the room.

I know what will be there.

Nothing.

Darkness.

Black shadows along the walls.

Hisses from bleak corners unseen by me.

Hell.

"Hey, M'gan- Yeah, I know what I said. I know. I know I was rude. Thank you, I accept your apology. I'm sorry, too. I know, I know. Yes, I will help with the party. I can't leave my best friend hanging." Artemis smiled as she reconciled with the martian. "Yeah, yeah, I'll be right over and we'll get started. Okay, see you soon, bye."

Hanging up, she got up from the couch and went over to the fridge. She felt like she hadn't eaten in days. She glanced into the nearly empty refrigerator and remembered why she hadn't eaten in a while. Wally had always been the one to buy the food and stock the fridge because he was always eating.

Artemis had only filled the fridge once, and that was Valentine's Day, ten months ago.

Sighing heavily, she closed the door, no longer hungry and walked into her bedroom. She might as well get ready. A party to plan, a mission to go on, bad guys to fight, dreams to be had. A full and busy day ahead of her.

And to be honest, she wasn't looking forward to it.

"Gah," she groaned groggily as she moved through the bedroom, searching for her Tigress costume. She turned her head back and forth, popping her neck and picked up the discarded orange and black outfit. She shook it out and shrugged; it was clean enough.

She stripped her clothes off and threw them to the side, a light touch feathered over her stomach and she whipped around quickly. Nothing was there. But she had a feeling who it was. "Wally, i-is that you?" Silence greeted her. She swallowed back the discomfort and continued dressing. But she stopped suddenly when another touch glided over her back. "Wally, this isn't funny. Will you just let me know if it's you!"

She was growing angry. Scared, but angry. A slow buzzing began humming around the air around her; setting her ears and brain on edge.

Something pulled on her hair and she shrieked from being caught off guard, "Goddamit, Wally, this isn't fucking funny!" She hurriedly dressed and reached down to grab her mask laying on top of a black shirt.

As she looked at it, it came to life and transformed into the demonic face of Wally from her dream last night. She screamed, this time not taken off guard, or angry, but genuinely scared. She closed her eyes against the onslaught of gruesome images from her dream. "Leave me alone!"

Opening her eyes, she saw that her mask looked the same as it always had. She snatched it up quickly and set it over her head. Her breaths coming out short and panicked, she glanced around, looking for a sign from her boyfriend.

Dripping from the wall in blood was, "Wally will be mine. And so will you." Too scared to scream, Artemis stood there, staring at the ominous message. Her throat working against the fear, she barely felt a fingertip slip over the back of her neck. She shivered.

Something fell from a nearby table and Artemis snapped her attention toward the noise. A flower vase had fallen and the dirt was splattered around the floor. She bent down, still in shock, to clean it up. But as she went to sweep the mess away, it began moving on its own.

"Fuck me..." She sighed scared and figured she might as well wait for the message to be splayed out.

Slowly, the words began to spell out, "I wish." Artemis grinned because she knew this was Wally. He was there with her. "Get Dick. Dream. Talk. Now." The message was choppy and Artemis wasn't exactly sure if she knew what it meant. Why did she need to get Dick?

The dirt smear suddenly and then buzz stopped.

She was alone.

She didn't want to be alone anymore.

"Hey, Tigress, you ready for the mission?" Beast Boy asked her excitedly from his perch on the floor.

She glanced down at her green, animal friend and smiled softly, "I actually think I'm going to skip on this one, BB. I'm not really feeling up to it, so I'll stay here to help around the HQ. Nightwing and I have stuff to do anyway." She shrugged and ruffled the green hero's hair.

"Aw, that sucks!" He pouted and scampered off.

She smirked as he walked away and went in the opposite direction, she had to find Dick, Wally obviously wanted her to talk to Dick. But she didn't know what. Well, she supposed it was about the bloody message on her wall.

Yeah, maybe that was it.

"Artemis, hey, I thought you'd be out on the mission with the others?" Dick sounded more surprised than he should have been.

Instantly, she was suspicious. She looked around the room, trying to figure out what had her friend on the edge. A flash of a cape caught her eye as it disappeared through a closing door. She smirked, "Are you doing inappropriate things in the office, boss?" she winked.

He pursed his lips, not liking that he was caught. "I- uh- we were just- uh, you know. Discussing business." He crossed his arms defensive.

"'Business'." She put the word in quotes, "Right. Totally, I got you." She winked again and gave a thumb's up to him.

He shook his head, flabbergasted, "Anyway, what can I help you with, Tigress?"

She laughed, but let it go, suddenly turning serious. "I got a message. A couple of them. One from Wally telling me you and I need to talk and the other was written in blood on my wall not from Wally." She sighed sadly as the sensation of being watched crept up on her again.

"You, too, huh?"

"What?"

"Yeah, I woke up to a cryptic message on my wall."
"What the hell is going on?" Artemis was suddenly cold, she wrapped her arms around herself.

"I don't know, but we need to talk to Wally. The real Wally."

"DreamWorld here we come." She whispered sarcastically.

"I'll come over tonight." He touched her shoulder softly, "We'll get this all figured out."

"I hope so. I gotta go, D. I have to go, uh, see Megan about something." She bit her lips as she almost spilt the secret party.

He smirked, "Make sure there are balloons at the party would you?"

She knew she shouldn't have been surprised, but it always caught her off guard when he knew exactly what everyone was trying to hide from him. "You got it, buddy."