Updated 19/Jan/2020

Chapter 73

The Persecution of Pinocchio

Raven was still in a foul mood when she returned to her lodgings and laid on the bed, her feelings swimming around her head. Still, she kept the habit of keeping a lid on them. The Doctor was too busy taking notes and checking maps on the desk to notice her mood.

"Any luck?" The Doctor asked, asking about the investigation she was failing to do.

"I hate my life." Raven seethed. "No, I don't want to talk about it. I just want to go to bed." She climbed under the covers and buried her head under her pillow. She heard silence as the Doctor stopped tinkering, the squeaking swivel of his chair as he turned to her. Still, he said nothing and instead slowly turned back to his device, choosing to leave her alone.

That was fine by her. The Doctor would never understand. She was just a stupid, teenage girl who made the mistake of opening up and offering her heart to someone. God, she felt disgusting now and she was glad that mushy spell was finally over. She felt like she could see clearly now. She just needed to force these emotions down.

"You know, it's curious." The Doctor started to say.

"I don't care!" Raven said, her voice muffled by her pillow.

"The pool of psychic energy in the town was constantly being tapped." He said, "And yet the creature we found manifested in the woods, near the Devils Hump. Do you know what that suggests to me?"

It clearly doesn't suggest that I want to be left alone! Raven moaned in her head. If he didn't stop, then she was going to throw something at him.

"It suggests that our shimmering giant is not the only creature being generated. There might very well be another manifestation out there, and by the look of these readings it might be something more substantial."

"Doctor, what part of 'I want to be left alone do you not understand'?" Raven moaned.

"You never said it." The Doctor replied.

"Well, I have now!" Silence entered Raven's world, except for the Doctor moving around the room, putting the kettle on. Followed by a cup and saucer being placed on her bedside table. As the Doctor walked away Raven looked from under her pillow and saw the steaming cup of tea.

Again, Raven hid under the covers and sent one thought running through her head like a mantra.

I don't need boys, I don't want a boyfriend, I don't want a boyfriend, boys are horrid, they're all horrid, they're all horrid, I hate them!

I cast this spell, so I might forever be reminded.

That love and romance, is only for the weak-minded.

Those words sounded familiar, and she agreed with them. Love and romance are only for the weak-minded. From now on, her heart was cold and sealed, she wouldn't let another person in.

No matter how 'perfect' I think they are.

Morning came and Raven felt like herself again, cold and dead inside. The only ray of sunshine she'd even allow in were the Doctors playful antics, though she wasn't responding to them in the same way as she would if her soul was settled. He wanted to talk about their mission, but Raven wasn't interested. There was no danger as long as the Doctors device was running, they had plenty of time to sort it out, and right now what she was going to do today was more important to her.

After breakfast, Raven headed out the door and towards the Coffee Shop. Stage one of payback was to keep her 'date' with Russel.

She walked past the Doctors beetle car, but she stopped. She'd sensed something. Something just out of the corner of her eye. Standing in front of the car and looking at it she thought the bonnet didn't look right, it looked like it sat higher than usual, and the gap between it and the body of the car confirmed it. She placed a hand on it's curved bonnet and gently she pushed. There was an audible 'click' as the locking latch engaged. The Doctor mustn't have shut it properly. Good thing she did lock it, the last thing she needed was someone tampering with the inhibitor while she was in such a dark mood, and knowing kids the moment they saw that gem wired into the computer they'd certainly steal it.

Actually, she should check, but unfortunately Raven didn't have any keys to open the lock. Experimentally, she focused on where the release for the catch was and tried to pull it.

'Click!' and the bonnet of the car popped up a little. She opened it up. The crystal was gone!

Raven spun around and headed back to tell the Doctor. She may want to get back at Russel, but she understood her priorities.

Unfortunately, there was nothing the Doctor could do, he didn't have a spare crystal. So Raven was now truly back to 'normal'.

The Doctor was scratching his head as he inspected the car and found subtle scratches around the window above the doors locking latch. Someone had deliberately broken in. Yet, nothing else was taken, not even the money in the glove compartment. They'd broken in, popped the bonnet and specifically stolen the crystal and not shut the bonnet properly.

Locking the car, the Doctor gently closed the bonnet. There was a small 'click' as the main handle latch engaged, then a louder one as the main release engaged. Raven guessed the thief had tried to close it softly not realising it wasn't shut properly.

"Someone's aware of what we're doing." The Doctor had said, and Raven could guess who. The only person she'd told about what she and the Doctor were doing was Russel. It had to be him, it couldn't be anyone else.

He didn't love me! Said a voice in her head. I was being manipulated!

I'm gonna kill him!

Raven had to break away from the Doctor, telling him. "I'm going to get that crystal back, I know where it is."

Finally meeting with him it was difficult to maintain a 'pleasant, girly-Raven' persona now that she knew what she knew. His charm and smiles she now realised were just him trying to open her up more so he could stab a knife into her.

Dark clouds gathered over the town and a shower of rain hit the area. So much so they retreated into the cafe with Russel joking. "We'd better get inside, or our coffee cups will fill faster than we can drink them." She didn't laugh.

"Is something bothering you?" He asked, with obvious fake concern.

"I'll be okay," Raven said, "I'm just processing something."

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked.

"No." She said flatly. His charm did cause something in her head, but she resisted it. She would not fall under that spell again. Love and Romance are only for the weak-minded.

Antonia's plan required her to get Russel to the ruins of the old church and from there ambush him. Raven was relishing what they were going to do to him.

Turn on your own charm. She thought, Try to establish a little attraction so he doesn't get wise. But Raven didn't know if she could fake that. So instead she adopted one persona she knew she could pull off, a brooding teen. A brooding teen who just wanted company.

Russel talked about portraits and while it was raining they had nothing else to do. Raven may have been in a foul mood, but she wasn't going to get wet just to get her revenge. Russel seemed to be doing stuff to try to cheer her up, he even began drawing in his new book asking her to hold still. Rain, rain and more rain fell and they drank cup after cup of coffee and tea. The first drawing he drew was a full picture of herself. It was rather flattering. Then he drew something else and presented to her a drawing he'd plucked from his imagination, a picture of both him and her in a happy... in a 'romantic' looking pose, she guessed. Raven's gut churned at how soppy it was. Her girly self really loved it. But it just added to her anger knowing it wasn't real.

Another drawing, this time this did stir something in her. It wasn't detailed. It showed a girl, drawn in shadow, protected within a bubble, the bubble pushing so many people out, and yet there was kind looking one reaching in behind her. The girls head was slightly turned so she was aware of it, but she looked like she didn't want to take it.

Raven ground her teeth and her eyes rolled up to him. He was clearly the one wanting to reach in and pull her from her dark mood, totally unaware 'he' was the reason she was in this dark mood to start with. I wish it was real. But I am not weak-minded!

After the rain stopped they did leave the coffee shop and Russel was suggesting places to go hang out. But Raven had a specific place she wanted to go, and he was too happy to oblige if it made her happy that it was all too easy.

"Have you and your Dad found anything out about that thing in the forest?" He asked. Here came the digging for info and Raven decided to see how he'd react to this.

"Someone broke into my Dad's car last night." She said.

"Oh no, that's awful." Russel said, he made a good effort at being shocked, "They didn't damage or take anything did they?"

"No, they just wanted to listen to the radio." Raven rolled her eyes at such a silly question. "They stole a very special crystal that was keeping that creature from the town."

Russel looked around. "Are we in any danger? Shouldn't we do something?"

"We are." Raven said as they arrived at the ruined church. She lept up over the railing and began descending the wonky steps down into the destroyed foundations. "Come on." Raven motioned.

"I love a woman who takes charge." He said slyly. Raven's gut churned again at how thick he was laying on that act.

Down into the foundations they went. Raven took two steps forward before she began to feel something. Dizziness. Holding her head she tried to lock her legs into place so she didn't fall over. This wasn't Russel's doing, this was caused by residual psychic energy she was picking up.

"Destroy him!" Went a voice. "Then you will give your power to me?" The voice sounded rich.

"I will pass on my power!" Said a thunderous voice.

"Oh, thank you Azal, thank you!" Said the rich voice.

"But NOT to you!" It thundered back, "To him!"

"NO! NO! I don't want it!" Said a third voice.

Raven shook her head and pushed back on the assaulting images and her brain came back into focus. As it did she realised she was in Russel's arms. He'd caught her as she'd lost her balance and fallen over.

"Rave, Rave! Are you alright?" He asked snapping his fingers in front of her face. Her mind now focused she took his arms and removed them from herself.

"Don't call me, Rave." She said as she stood up.

"Have I done something?" Russel asked, clueless. No, 'acting' clueless.

Where were Antonia, Lisa and Sarah? They should be here.

"Raven, I..." Raven had finally had enough now.

"Drop the act!" She spat.

"Huh?"

"Drop the act! You're seeing someone else." Raven did not turn to look at him.

"No, I'm not!" Russel said indignantly. "What makes you say that?"

"I saw you with another girl!" Raven fumed.

A few seconds past, and Russel burst out laughing. It wasn't a laugh like someone had been caught, though her brain was trying to interpret it that way.

"A blond girl?" He asked, "So high" He mimed "Wearing jeans and a white top?" He was being very open about it. "That was just my niece."

Raven's anger faltered for a second. "But she's the same age as you!"

"I said I have an older sister." He said, "Kerry. She over thirty. That girl was Amy, my niece."

"I don't believe you." Raven said.

"Come, I'll show you." He turned to walk away, "I'll take you to their house, I'll introduce you. They live in the village." He as so confident that it was just a mistake, but she didn't want to. She felt angry and she felt like she needed to keep her anger justified. Anyway, she was too far into the plan now, if she backed out she'd annoy the girls. Russel clearly deserved taking down a peg and Raven was going to allow it.

"No, that shouldn't be necessary," Raven said coldly.

"So... are we good now?" Russel came closer to her, but was acting like a wary animal. He could sense something was wrong.

"Drop the act." Raven insisted, "I know who you are."

Russel's face fell, "You've been listening to Antonia, haven't you?" Raven didn't answer, she just gave the boy a look which said, 'yes', and she waited for the excuses. Russel's face went through a range of emotions, from worry, to hurt, to betrayal, sadness, then his eyes became as cold as hers. He sighed deeply, held up his hand as if to brush her away and he turned his back to her and began walking away from her.

"Where are you going?" Raven asked, she was confused, his behaviour didn't make sense to her. He should be making excuses.

"I'm going home." He said without looking at her.

Raven took a few steps towards him. "Aren't you going to defend yourself?" The weak fool.

"Why should I?" Russel looked back, his eyes as cold as hers, "You've already decided 'who' I am, will anything I say change your mind?"

No.

Yes.

No.

I want to hear it.

Raven couldn't help herself as she used her powers to grab Russel and she forced him to face her. He was obviously shocked at suddenly being forced to turn around by an invisible hand, he looked like he had questions, but Raven had her own.

"What is your problem with Antonia?!" She fumed, "What is your problem with her and her girls?"

"I don't have a problem with Antonia!" Russel fumed back, "I never have! She seems to have a problem with me!" Those words echoed inside Raven's head, down to her core. Raven wanted to become tender, to gently pull this out of him, but her darker side made her look uncaring and ridged in order to protect herself from his manipulation. Was it manipulation? Questions were starting to form in Raven's head. "Tell me." She said calmly.

"I don't know. Ever since we were kids she's hated me. Ever since we first met when I was ten, when she turned up on our doorstep in the freezing rain, lost. When she saw me she gave me an evil look like I was the devil incarnate." Raven could understand that, "The police came and took her home. Next thing I knew she was at my school, constantly trying to go after me. Constantly poking and prodding me until I lashed out, and then go crying to the teachers."

"What did you do to her?" Raven didn't buy that this malice wasn't justified.

"I don't know. I wish I did, maybe I could fix it. But she'd always stayed numb lipped, to me at least." Russel acted like this was deep psychological trauma. "The teachers wouldn't listen to me, they'd away's take her side, even if I had the bruises. I was just expected to take this abuse. If it were the other way around I'd be hung from the nearest tree. But no, because she was the 'helpless, poor little girl' and I was the 'big, bad, bully boy,' I somehow deserved everything thrown at me, whether it was deserved or not."

Russel wanted to say something, but he was holding back, a mixture of emotions running through his head. It was a feeling Raven eerily recognised. It was the thought of 'can I trust her to judge me fairly once I tell her?'

"I..." Russel looked to the ground. "I... Have you ever heard of Aspergers syndrome? It's something I was born with."

"I've heard of it." Raven said, her voice getting across that she didn't really understand it all that well. But some pieces felt like they began to fall into place.

Russel walked over to a loose boulder and sat down, his movements were slow, and he gave off the air of someone who was in great pain from within. It was so powerful Raven could actually feel it in the ether.

"It causes social deficiencies. I have it very mildly. Basically, my social skills are lacking. I don't understand body language or facial expressions all that well, at all. I'm mostly blind to it, both my own and others." Raven had never heard it put this way before. But what did it have to do with anything. "I know I can come off as rather aloof, distant, cold, or unempathetic. But..." He trailed off, not sure how to proceed.

Oh great, I was dating a freak. That's just my luck! Raven initially thought.

"What does this have to do with anything?" Raven asked. Russel sighed.

"Do you have any idea what it's like to have Aspergers and try to live a normal life?" He asked. "People think it doesn't sound so bad, but it's called a 'disability' for a reason." He looked like he was thinking. "Think of it like being born deaf." He paused and looked at Raven as if to check she was listening. "I can't communicate verbally, because I can't learn to talk, but I can learn sign language. But you don't understand sign language, and its frustrating trying to communicate to someone like that. Now imagine what it's like to be the deaf person, all you want is someone to communicate with you in a way you understand, but no one can be bothered. Instead, they resort to shouting at you, despite not being able to hear and when they get frustrated they come up to you and shove you to get your attention. But from your perspective, someone has come up to you and aggressively shoved you for no reason. Only instead of hearing, it's to do with body language and subtle communication. That's what Aspergers is like that for me."

"I can barely tell." Raven said. Could he be making it up? There was something in his manner which gave Raven the impression of falseness. But if he had trouble communicating through body language then could she really trust herself to read him correctly? If it wasn't for that doubt, she'd believe this was all some convenient excuse for his behaviour.

"I do something called 'masking'." Russel said, "It's not real though, it's like having a prosthetic limb. I wear it to look whole. It's like acting like a chameleon. Over the years I notice how people react, how they communicate through their body and I try to mimic it. All the stuff people usually communicate subconsciously, I have to learn to do manually. But when I get tired, I forget to mask, I forget to try to read people, and my Aspergers starts to show through." Raven remembered when he began acting strangely when he was tired. "It's the same when I'm ill. It's like trying to read a book when you're tired, your brain can't do it."

"What has this got to do with Antonia?" Raven asked.

"She doesn't buy I'm autistic. She thinks its a condition only children have. She thinks I use it to make excuses for being rude and distant." He sighed deeply. "She always seemed to be there, it's like she's shadowing me. Whenever I socially messed up, she'd appear and be the 'angel' to my 'demon', she won't accept I have autism and neither will anyone else in the village, to them I'm just a problem child, and I still am, despite not getting into any scrapes for years."

"You're a little weird, but that doesn't explain why people dislike you." Raven said.

"Doesn't it?" He asked, looking at her with eyes that hide his true feelings. "When they disapprove of something I say or do, they try to communicate it to me subtly. When I don't respond to that they try another subtle way, and another. They start to think I'm ignoring them, when I just can't 'hear' what they're saying. They get angry, they shout, throw things at me, ban me." Okay, now that he explained it like that she could understand why it'd cause problems for him.

"Okay. I understand that. But don't you learn not to do whatever it is they're mad at you about?" She asked.

"If they tell me what I did wrong. Then yes, I can learn. If they don't, and expect me to know, then no. But that's not the problem. The one thing I can't always learn is the subtly they communicated with, anymore than a deaf person can learn to hear. A deaf person can learn to lip read, if they concentrate, but even then, they won't understand everything perfectly."

"So, people kept trying to warn you about stuff repeatedly in a way you didn't understand, and people just got tired of it?" Raven asked. Russel nodded.

"It was easier for them to just exclude and shun me than it was learn to communicate on a frequency I could pick up." Raven still didn't know if she bought this. It sounded so unbelievable. It just felt so natural to pick up on these signals if she could see, hear and speak. Yet, Russel claimed he was blind to them. "You could give me a hundred and one warning looks just from your face, but when I look at that face, I might just see a face with an expression on it, I don't see disapproval. It'd be like trying to read a book in a foreign language. You can tell it's a book, but the meaning of it is a mystery."

Russel sighed, "People think I'm bad, that I'm wrong, that I'm broken." Russel looked away. "But I'm not 'wrong', I'm not 'broken'," he swallowed. "I'm just different."

Raven began to feel herself empathising with him. But despite him saying all this he stayed quite cold, this gave an air of falseness to his words. But under that cold mask Raven could see the cracks. Looking into his head Raven could sense a great deal of depression and negative emotions wanting to burst out, but he held it back, not because he didn't want to express it; but because he simply didn't know how, or at least how to express it without giving off the wrong impression.

"I feel like Pinocchio." Russel said at last. "I'm a wooden boy who just wants to be a real human. But I know I will never be a 'real person'. To the people of the village, I'm the village freak. I'm an alien on my own home planet, and I'm going to be stuck forever as an alien who can't figure out how to be a real human being."

"Why didn't you tell me about this earlier?" Raven asked.

Russel looked down, sighed, then looked back up. "Because I was scared. I was scared that if you found out, then you wouldn't like me anymore."

Raven swallowed. For some reason that echoed into the back of her head. She realised she felt the same way about her heritage. She was scared of tell him, not because she didn't think he'd believe her, but because she feared him hating her for it. The irony was not lost on her. She composed herself before saying. "I wouldn't have hated you."

The demon girl didn't know how to feel about this now. Antonia was so angry, she hated Russel so much. Could it all be a failure to communicate between two people. She was subtly trying to tell him something and he didn't get it. Or maybe Russel tried to communicate something to her, and she took it completely the wrong way. Russel could be blunt, Raven understood that, and even she knew bluntness can offend people. But what if bluntness was natural to Russel? It would be alien to everyone else.

It took a while for Raven to process all this and fit it into what she knew. Crack's had formed in her own, cold mask. Her frown was much more 'frowny', and her eyes had become a little more sympathetic and less accusatory. Though she felt sympathy, she wasn't about to let him off the hook. Just because he was autistic it doesn't mean he was totally innocent of wrong doing.

"What about Lisa?" Raven asked. Russel sighed again and ran a hand through his hair.

"I was ten, we all do dumb stuff when we're young, especially an autistic kid. Kid's are practically allowed to do dumb stuff because we don't know how to behave, its how children can be such a pain." Raven would agree with that, "I was caught and rightfully punished. It was explained to me why it was wrong, so I later learnt to stop doing it."

"And Sarah?" Russel sighed again.

"I was young. I was stupid. I liked Sarah, and we did begin going out. Unfortunately, I didn't know the first thing about talking to a girl I was attracted to, I didn't want to make a mistake. So I took advice from the one person I shouldn't have. My brother. I asked him his advice, he told me what to do. I did it, it didn't work, I messed up, it drove Sarah away."

"You didn't..." Raven motioned with her hands to indicate.

"NO!" Russel said in a raised voice, "I may be autistic but I was taught well enough to never to go that far. All I did was take advice from my brother on what to say to her to keep her interested. It backfired. My brother could boast about how he went out with all the girls he went out with at school, but it never occurred to me to wonder why he could never hold onto any of them. It was just bad advice that I followed, it didn't work so I stopped doing it. But Sarah, for some reason, still wants me to pay for just being awkward at flirting."

"Then why do you keep sending her threatening text messages?" Raven said, she was feeling sympathy for him and she didn't want to. She can't back out now, the girls will be here soon.

"Text messages? Raven, I don't even own a mobile phone." Raven's face dropped its cold mask.

"What?" That didn't make sense.

"I've never owned one. I don't like them. The ability to be contacted twenty-four-seven just creeps me out." Raven didn't know what to ask after that. Though she did think it weird how in all their time together he'd never asked Raven what her number was. True, she didn't own a mobile phone either, but still.

"Prove to me you don't own a cell phone!"

"How can I prove I don't own a cell phone? That's like asking to prove the Loch Ness Monster doesn't exist. You can't prove a negative." Raven didn't know what to ask. "Look," and Russel began turning out his pockets. Apart from a wallet, his drawing book, some pencils, a small book, some pocket lint, spare change and some candies there was no trace of a cell phone. He even turned out his pockets to prove they were empty.

There was also no crystal in his pockets.

"Then how does Sarah have texts from you?" Raven asked, expecting him to know the answer.

"I don't know." That wasn't good enough. Russel put the items back in his pockets and when Raven maintained that accusing look on her face he spoke softly and sadly. "I've told you the truth, I knew you wouldn't believe it." Silence passed between them for a good few seconds. Raven didn't relax her accusing eyes. Russel sighed deeply, his eyes betraying his deep sadness. Shame continued to ring in Raven's mind. Russel again turned around and began walking away from her. "Goodbye, Raven. It was... it was fun while it lasted." Those words just broke her steely demeanour.

"Wait!" She called, reaching out for him despite him being too far away. He stopped, but didn't turn to face her. "Please, look at me." Slowly, as if this was a chore for him, he did so. She needed to ask him about the missing crystal. He was the only suspect in that. "I get you have autism, and I believe you, but I..."

THWACK!

Russel fell to the muddy ground as Antonia had just smacked him over the head with a heavy branch.

Russel was dragged over to a wall and tied up with zip-ties to a loose pipe with his arms above him, his legs spread out underneath him on the soggy ground.

As they tied him up Raven was unsure if she really wanted to go through with this. Russel had put doubts in her head. She wanted to believe him, but she didn't know if she did. She believed Antonia and the girls, but she wondered if she should. A lot of the anger she'd felt that made her feel this was justified was now gone.

Was that girl his niece? She didn't know. He certainly didn't have a cell phone with him, and Antonia never did pinpoint an actual moment that she decided she hated Russel. Raven could understand trying to be social, making mistakes and having to pay for them for the rest of your life, but did that apply here? Or was Russel lying?

Better to let this happen, just in case. He'll get over it, maybe he'll learn from it, and Antonia and the girls will be satisfied. Maybe the creature Raven and the Doctor were hunting will be pacified. Surely, there was no harm in letting this go through from her perspective. If she stepped in and tried to stop it then she'd receive the girls wrath. She might be kicked out of the little group she liked. She had everything to lose by interfering, and little to gain except a boy whom she didn't know if she could trust.

Lisa held up the video camera and checked the tape. The three girls giggled and planned what they were going to do to Russel when he woke up. This didn't feel right to Raven. Something was telling her something was wrong, but she kept pushing that voice away, constantly reminding herself what she had to lose if she stood in their way.

It was a good few hours before he began to wake up, groggily.

"Where am I?" He asked and he spotted Antonia, "Oh no, why won't you leave me alone?"

"Rise and shine." Antonia hissed. Lisa rolled the camera. "It's time for payback."

"Payback for what?" Russel said, "I don't know what I did for you to hate me!"

Antonia smacked him across the face. "LIAR! You took everything from me."

Russel now realised he was handcuffed quite securely to the wall. He also realised he was being recorded, and he now looked to Raven. His face was pleading with her to stop this, but Raven knew it was just an act. She knew it was just an act, just an act. He was a horrid person, and he deserved this. He deserved this, he deserved it.

"Russel 'Hopkins'" Antonia said the last word to highlight it. "I wonder if you are related to the Witch-Finder General. I read that he was a bit rapey. I think it's fitting that we're here, where Mathew Hopkins killed dozens of women fearing them to be witches."

"I'm not related to Mathew Hopkins." Russel said, but Antonia didn't seem to care. Raven guessed it was kind of poetic justice, or it would've been if Russel was related to the old Witch-Finder.

Antonia, rather creepily, rested her hands-on Russels legs and slowly began undoing his shoelaces before gently pulling them off. Then she went for his belt. "Let the humiliation begin!" and sharply she undid his belt and pulled off his trousers, they were pulled inside out as she pulled them off him, exposing him in his underwear. All the while, the camera kept recording. They were going to send copies to his university and totally humiliate him.

They began squirting him with water, spitting on him, even throwing rocks at him. He was clearly in distress and it was getting harder for Raven to stomach this. He looked at her, pleading for her to make this stop. Her mask had slipped, she was showing concern, she knew. Did he really deserve this to happen to him? He wasn't the person the girls said he was, if he had at one time been like that then he had clearly changed. Which didn't make this punishment, it made it just vindictive revenge.

Looking at the girls, they clearly enjoyed this too much. Antonia then took Russels drawing pad, the one she'd stolen and made him watch as she lit a lighter and began burning it. When it was on fire she threw it into the mud and watch it shrivel away.

Looking back at Russel as he was helplessly assaulted Raven suddenly had a vision. A memory. Looking between the legs of many people, being pummelled by gym bags, desperately looking between the legs of her attackers at her 'friends' who stood and watched this happen. 'Why won't they help me?!' Raven remembered thinking, 'What did I do to hurt them? To hurt my friend's? To turn them against me?' Raven knew the answer was nothing, she'd done nothing. They'd just been manipulated by Dolores purely because the big bitch didn't like Rachel, Raven's counterpart. Her friends didn't step in, just in case the assault was deserved.

Just in case... Just in case...

The demon girl felt emotions radiate from him. Misery, depression, anxiety, thoughts of suicide. She caught a glimpse of Russel's face under the assault. He was crying. He was crying and the girls were pointing and laughing at his misery.

Raven's lower lip began to quiver. Oh god... No... Please no.

"Sarah," Raven asked out of Lisa and Antonia's earshot. "Can I see your phone. I need a little motivation before... before I do something."

Sarah looked suspicious, Raven had a shameful tone to her voice, but Sarah did as Raven asked and dug her phone out of her pocket. "One second, I need to send a quick text." After tapping away she handed her phone over to Raven on the messages. They were all nasty, vial, and would paint a very sinister, evil person.

While Sarah was distracted, Raven clicked back into the menu. Sarah had said she was texting someone, but no text had been sent recently. The last one was to 'Mum'. So what was she doing a second ago with her phone? Curiously, looking through this new phone no messages had been sent to Antonia. Also, rather oddly, Sarah had called Russel a few times herself. Why was she doing that? Raven felt fear grip her stomach as she went back onto Russel's messages. She now noticed the Russel contact had been misspelt as 'R-u-s-s-l-e' when it had been correct before.

"Is something wrong?" Sarah asked, she was moving like an animal about to be caught. What Raven did next she did too fast for Sarah to stop her. Raven hit the button to 'CALL RUSSLE.' Instantly, Sarah tried to snatch the phone away.

"Don't call him, I'll be charged." She screamed. Raven held the phone out of her reach, she had to know. She had to be certain.

Despite Russel not having a phone on his person a phone began to ring, both Sarah and Raven stopped fighting. "Sarah, why are you calling me?" said Antonia, who'd moved away to answer the call. The call to her own phone.

Antonia looked like a deer in headlights when she saw Raven holding Sarah's phone. Numbly, Raven pressed to cancel the call and the ringing from Antonia's phone stopped.

Raven's face fell, and the penny had dropped and with a horrible clang. She couldn't believe it. They were supposed to be her friends. She looked to Russel, he was battered and beaten. His tear-filled, bloodshot eyes met hers.

They'd lied! They lied about all of it... Oh God... What have I done?!

"He still deserves it." Antonia said, "Alright, we lied. But he really is the nasty piece of work we told you about. We just needed to push you in the right direction to get you out of his life."

Raven couldn't believe this, it was just such a stretch, yet Antonia, Sarah and Lisa were admitting they conspired to pull her and Russel apart through fair of fowl.

"But he's different," Raven said.

"It's an act, a lie!" Antonia spat.

"He admitted he made mistakes and learnt from them," Raven said.

"That's precisely what an abuser like him would say." Sarah said, "'Oh, I can always change.' But they never do. Eastenders taught me that, and Russel reminds me of Travor Morgan."

"You do know he has Asperger's syndrome, right?" Antonia laughed.

"No, he doesn't!" Antonia said, "That's just an excuse for his behaviour. I've seen autistic people, Russel is not autistic! It's just something he picked up from his mother!" It was an explanation, but Raven wasn't so sure it was true. She had felt a brain abnormality when she'd healed Russel last, and a lot of his behaviour was odd. "He's a grown-ass adult and should take responsibility for his actions, and what he says. He's not some autistic kid!" Raven looked unconvinced, but she felt pressured from the looks the girls were giving her.

"He tried to trick me too." Sarah said, "But I learnt about autism from Russel's mum, and Antonia helped me see how he couldn't have autism. He acts too normal."

"What about masking?" Raven asked. The three girls burst out laughing.

"That doesn't exist. Autistic people can't just learn how to be 'normal' they're stuck like that!" Antonia laughed, "I never thought you'd be so gullible." Raven, again had doubts, she might not understand this autism thing, but there was no guarantee Antonia spoke the truth. Russel made it sound like a condition nearly everybody misunderstood, could Antonia have wrong information?

Come to think of it, if this was something Russel was likely to claim about himself then why not mention it to her before? Tell her that Russel would claim to have Aspergers to win her sympathy. Why not tell her at the start? The answer came. It was because Raven would've further read up on the condition, and if she did then Raven would probably start forgiving the social mistakes he made; his odd behaviour, and thus make it more difficult to sway Raven to Antonia's side.

"I know what it felt like to be under his spell," Sarah said, almost patronisingly. "But trust me, you'll do better to get away from his lies."

"Did you... did you love him?" Raven asked Sarah.

"Yeah, I did, until Antonia opened my eyes to him. He's nothing more than a creep." That kind of cut close to the bone for Raven.

"He's not creepy, he's just different." She argued back looking down at him.

"Antonia showed me otherwise." Sarah said confidently.

"How?"

"She showed me a load of horrid messages he'd sent her." Alarm bells rang in Raven's head.

"But he doesn't have a cell phone." That shut Sarah up.

"Huh?" Sarah looked taken aback. She looked to Antonia, then back to Raven with regained composure. She clearly didn't believe Russel didn't own a mobile phone, if she accepted that, then she'd have to accept Antonia lied to her too.

"He's still nasty." Sarah said that as if it was the final word on the matter. Now Raven was feeling anger. She began to suspect something.

"Do you believe that? Or..." Raven's eyes moved from Sarah to Antonia and back again. It was a subtle movement, but that communication was enough to finish Raven's thought for her.

"Raven, shut up and piss off. You're out of the club, you are no longer our friend!" Antonia fumed. "How dare you take his side over ours, after everything we did for you!" Sarah and Lisa nodded in agreement.

"But this shouldn't be a question of loyalty. You lied to me!" But Raven knew that wouldn't convince them as she felt the knife stab into her. She'd lost her friends, again.

Raven's attention returned to Russel. She felt wretched. She didn't know if Antonia's hatred of him was truly justified. But Raven now knew the boy didn't deserve this treatment.

"Let him go!" Raven commanded. "I don't care what he did to you. This isn't punishment, it's just petty, childish revenge." The combination of those words irked Antonia. So much so Raven found herself on the floor, in the mud with a red mark across her face as Antonia had smacked her down into the mud.

"Bitch!" Antonia spat. The three kicked dirt at her and she shielded herself by curling into a ball. They threw things at her for a good while until they were convinced she was going to stay down. Then they left her and returned to torment Russel.

You just had to defend that mortal, didn't you? You idiot! She chastised herself. You just had to defend him, now you've lost your friends.

But what they were doing was wrong!

Was it worth losing your friends for that boy? He's a freak! You had three friends, and you've traded them in for him?!

It was still wrong.

The pain you feel is all your own fault. Your own, foolish fault!

No, I will not accept that!

Raven remembered the time she'd spent with Russel. She'd felt so happy, so secure. Raven couldn't believe she'd thrown it all away to be friends with someone who's bond of friendship was so fickle.

I've ruined it! I've messed it all up! All because I was paranoid.

Raven had not felt this wretched and betrayed since, since...

Since...

The demon girl stayed down feeling sorry for herself, until she heard Russel scream in pain. Her mind suddenly focused. Every strike, every scream of pain Raven could feel. Every laugh, every expression of joy from the girls just added to her anger. Just looking at what was happening made dark memories, long forgotten memories bubble to the surface. Her eyes narrowed in cold hatred, and a low growl of the evil inside escaped her vocal cords.

Slowly Raven stood, her hood now casting her face into shadow. As if to show what was about to happen dark clouds were gathering, but they weren't there by Raven's command, it was just the weather.

"Release him!" She said to the girls in a low, carrying voice. There was also the hint of a slight growl. The beast within wanted to attack, but she refused to let it unleash its full fury.

"Piss off you!" Lisa spat.

"Release him! Or I will make you!" Raven threatened. Lisa laughed and walked over to Raven, cracking her knuckles. She tried to look big and imposing, and Raven admitted to herself that Lisa was. But there was a hint of nervousness to the big girl, because Raven was not breaking eye contact, she wasn't blinking, and she was not backing down. "Release him and back off. I could bring you down with just a single word." Raven hissed.

"Oh yeah, you think words will hurt me?" She laughed, cracking her knuckles, "Sticks and stones may break my bones."

"No. I can't do it with a single word, you're right." Her eyes were like lasers drilling into this muscle-bound menace who called herself a girl. "I just need three." Lisa began to laugh. The big girl grabbed the front of Raven's hoodie to keep her still, Raven did not react to being grabbed and did not break eye contact. Lisa spat onto her knuckles and raised her fist.

"Give me your best shot. Then I thump you." Raven closed her eyes, she didn't want to, but Raven herself couldn't take on these girls, but 'the Monster' could. An ethereal breeze began to emanate out from Raven's core, and the temperature began to drop. Raven spoke her three words slowly.

"Azarath..." a dark aura formed around her. Her hoodie and clothes reformed themselves and became her usual attire, hood up.

"...Metrion..." Her cloak started to billow out in the ethereal wind. Her arms raised up into the proper positions to cast spells.

She opened her eyes, they glowed brighter than the sun, her voice became chillingly unearthly.

"...Zinthos!" Lisa's punch never came.

To Be Continued...

Authors notes: Another thing I wanted to do in this story was put Raven in the mirrored, opposite problem she faced while in the Land of Fiction when her friends refused to help her. So she can probably understand why they wouldn't help her and what was possibly going through their heads at the time. Only Raven here decided to be better than them.

It also is something sobering to happen to her, because sometimes we forget our moral lessons and allow things to happen purely because we are paralysed in fear of the social consequences of interfering. Some 'friends' will use the threat of removing the friendship if you refuse to do what they say. Those who can be twisted so easily can often try to dismiss injustices from our brains, purely because it's not happening to us, so why care. I reasoned Raven would not be one to suffer this because she knows what it's like to be someone's bad guy. Now she knows that though friendships feel good, you shouldn't be so thirsty for them that you end up drinking from a poisoned source.

This will also explain why it took so long for her to warm to her friends in the Teen Titan's origin episode. It took literal seasons to open up, because she was still unsure if they truly were her friends.

[EDITS 19/Dec/2019]: Altered some of the dialogue between Russel and Raven with regard to his relationship with Sarah, because I later realised I painted a picture I really didn't mean to paint.

[EDITS] 11/Jan/2020]: Edited in the bits about Russel being autistic.