Chapter 10:
Robin quietly opened the door and slipped into the room. Rhea was talking. He walked over to the bed and stood next to Starfire. Quietly, he reached over and, for a moment, squeezed her hand.
"Well, Beast Boy...It's complicated...but I'll give it a try."
"Don't fall off!" Roxanne shouted at Jimmy. She was always shouting at Jimmy.
"Dummy, I ain't fallin' off nothin'." Jimmy said back. He was concentrating on making it across the rotten two-by-four bridging the gap between two abandoned garages. It was our favorite game. It was getting dark, and we were worried that we would get home too late for dinner. But we had to wait for Jimmy.
"You fell off last time an Grandma got mad at me instead of you for not bein' careful. Even though you was the dummy for fallin'." Roxanne complained.
"Was not!" Jimmy made it to the other side. He was smiling. He had a really beautiful smile. It lit up his whole face, from his brown hair hanging over his forehead to the brown freckles that decorated his cheeks.
Everything about Jimmy was brown, brown jacket, brown shoes, brown eyes. It might have been depressing, but Jimmy was such a good kid he even made brown look happy. Made it happier than yellow, than red, than any other bright color, just because it was his favorite.
"Was too. 'sides, I'm suppose to take care of you, seein' as I'm older." Roxanne folded her arms and stuck her tongue out at Jimmy over her shoulder. He stuck his hands on his hips and scowled at her.
"You're not that old!"
"Am too. Grandma says I'm 'bout to be ten real soon." Jimmy was turning purple with anger. He was only nine.
"Yeah, well I'm 'bout to be eleven, so go jump on a nail, air head!" I said. Nobody ever swore around Jimmy. Even Michele, who was fifteen, would say "holy cow" and "darn it" when he was around.
"Am not an air head!" Now Roxanne had her hands on her hips and was turning purple. Jimmy always laughed when he saw her angry, which was often. Combined with her bright red hair and green eyes, she was a walking rainbow when she was mad.
"Are too! I can look in your ear an see out the other side, 'cus there's nothin' in between. Right Jimmy?"
"Uh-huh, I can't see nothin' either. You's an air head all right!"
"You're an air head, not you's!" Roxanne shouted.
"Fine, you're an air head!" Jimmy put his thumbs in his ears and wiggled his fingers at her.
"Am not! I'm gonna tell Grandma on you!"Roxanne grabbed onto a ladder that was attached to the side of the garage and jumped down. Jimmy and I followed.
"No you ain't!" He hit the ground before me and started running after Roxanne, who was almost out of the alley and on the street. I jumped down the last few steps and landed on all fours.
"Charming friends you have, Rhea," said a deep voice behind me. It sent a shiver down my spine.
I turned around quickly. I could see the outline of a man in the gloom. I took a few steps back, afraid to run, afraid to stay still.
"Who are you?"
"We have plenty of time for introductions later. You need to come with me." He stepped out from the shadows. His armor gleamed dangerously in the light of a lamp hung over a nearby back door. I stared at his mask, half orange and half black, with only one eye. I was terrified.
"Stay away from me! I'll scream!" I tried to step back further, but found I was frozen in fear.
He laughed coldly. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."
"Oh yeah? Watch me." I tried to sound brave.
"No, why don't you watch me?" I saw him reach for something in his belt. He pulled out a small flat screen and held it in front of me. I couldn't believe what I saw.
"Grandma…"
It was her, and the others, sitting under our tree in the park. I saw the food they had gotten for dinner. They were talking about their day, huddled together. They had no idea he was watching them.
"You see, I know who your friends are, and where you live, and what they do every day. And even if you manage to escape from me today, you will not be so lucky in the future. You really do need to come with me."
I thought. I really didn't want to go with him. I had heard about what happened to the kids who went with strange men. And this guy was definitely a strange man. I had heard that they had tricks like saying they knew where you lived and what you did…
…and who your friends were.
"Your choice." He put the screen back into his pocket and held his hand out to me.
I was done thinking. This was too real to be a trick.
I took his hand. Without a word, he led me towards the shadows he came from, away from the light.