Forget Me Not 9
*~`9~*
She finds herself in the cemetery. Its so dark and creepy here but she dare not go during the day. She stops looking down at a grave marker. As she runs her fingers across it she finds herself falling to her knees sobbing. Suddenly she's choking as she sees two glowing yellow eyes. She tries to escape with her powers only to be slammed against the grave stone. The pain in her head is immense. She screams as the shadow with the eyes pounce on her. It chokes off her screams as she struggles to breathe.
Richard rushes over to the girl as she suddenly gasps for breath. "Wake up. Its just a bad dream."
She sits up suddenly looking around wildly as she realizes that she is back in the bedroom of the cabin.
"You were having a dream about being buried alive weren't you?"
Suddenly it all comes rushing back to her. As she realizes her hands have been freed from their bonds she pushes Richard away from her. "How could I be buried alive when I never died?"
"What? Then were have you been all this time?"
"I was going to her grave...Raven's grave when I was attacked by a shadow with four glowing eyes."
"Raven's grave?"
"Don't you get it yet? I'm not Raven. She was my twin sister."
"Twin sister? No she never said anything about that. We had a bond...I would have known if-"
"-She didn't know. Neither did I. Our mother never told me about Raven until she died. Raven was the portal for our father. My powers were a joke compared to Raven's but they thought if I knew about her that I would try to interfere with her destiny."
"You're Raven...you have to be."
"You must have loved her. Believe me I wish she were still here too...I would have loved to get to know her. Nothing either of us can do will bring her back. I can't be what she was to you just because I look like her."
Richard remembers the dream he had earlier. The girl he tracked down in the hall of mirrors looked like Raven but she was different and said that wasn't her name when he spoke to her. He remembers thinking just before waking that it was the hair that was different. He touches the long white strands of Raven's hair. "Your hair is different."
Ragen looks up at Richard hoping that he is finally starting to understand. "It has always been long and white."
"You hate tea and you can cook."
She nods.
Richard collapses heavily on the bed beside Ragen. Thinking back to the dream he had of Raven being buried alive he is forced to wonder was it Raven he saw gasping for breath or could Raven's spirit possibly somehow sent him the dream of what was happening to her sister so he could save her. He could swear that Raven lead him to where Ragen fell into the stream. "Could Raven have been trying to tell me you were in trouble with that dream?"
"What dream?"
"It would have been on the night you were attacked. You could have been the one in the dream not Raven and I just didn't see the difference then." He sits up suddenly and looks at Ragen. "You said the shadow that attacked you had four glowing eyes."
"It had to be more than just a shadow to attack like it did."
"It wasn't just a shadow." Richard mentally recalls what he thought about the shadow after researching Ragen's sudden appearance after Raven's death. "Raven defeated your father but if whatever was left of him is trying to reach out..." Richard gets up and paces around. "...if he wanted revenge why attack you too?" He stops and looks at Ragen. "Do you remember anything about being attack in the cemetery?"
"It felt like it was choking me. It was dark that night but it got darker...like it was closing in on me. It almost felt like it was sucking the life out of me."
Richard replays that last battle in his mind. Raven had clearly taken a bad hit from Cinderblock. Why hadn't her powers healed her though? They always did before. "You couldn't hold it off with your powers?"
"I can't do anything like Raven could." Ragen looks down at her hands before reaching up and feeling for the gem stone that should be on her forehead. "I could use them to do simple stuff like cleaning my room in moments. I couldn't heal anything more than a minor scrape. Right now I don't think I could do that."
Richard reaches into his pocket and pulls out the gemstone he found at the cemetery. "Would this help?"
Ragen looks at the gemstone he hands her. "I don't know..." She places the gemstone to her forehead and concentrates.
He watches as it magically seems to bind itself there. It makes her look more like Raven than ever and looking at her hurts.
She looks up at him and shakes her head. "My powers feel weak."
Suddenly it clicks in his mind Raven didn't heal herself because he couldn't. She was attacked when she was hurt and off guard. Trigon must have somehow drained her powers from her and when he found Ragen he tried to do the same to her. "Because they are what Trigon was after when he attacked you. He must have been interrupted and didn't drain them all. That means he is bound to come back for you."
Ragen shivers from the thought of that. She was lucky to survive the first time. She doubts that she will be so lucky if whatever her father has become returns for her.
"I'll protect you. I owe that to Raven."
"I don't know everything about my father, just that he is dangerous. I can't ask you to protect me."
"You're not...and I won't take no for an answer." He turns to the window as thunder suddenly booms in the distance.
