The adrenaline was killing him. Sneaking out every night, returning separately. As the Boy Wonder crept into the unlit kitchen of the Tower, he breathed a sigh of relief. Safe, again.
But sometimes we relax too soon.
"Where were you?" The lights in the room suddenly flickered on. The cloaked figure turned from where she had been standing, gazing out the window, to look at him.
"I - I was -" Amazing how he could never lie to her. Robin cursed the part-demon's perception.
"You were with her. With Starfire." It wasn't a question, but a statement.
"No, I wasn't, I -"
Raven cut him off. "I've see the way you look at her." She whispered. "And I see.. everything. That joy beyond words, the life that sparkles in your eyes. I don't understand how she can do that. You never look at me that way."
"It's not the way you think it is." Robin tried to step closer to her, but she retreated.
"Then why are you avoiding me?" She asked. Her eyes held no tears, but there was such.. pain. "Do you even love me anymore?"
"Yes."
"You're lying." Raven whispered, and suddenly her voice rose. The anger was evident in the words. "Do you think lying to me will make it all better? If you think that I'll just smile and let you do this to me, then- guess what? You're wrong!"Robin pressed his hand against her cheek and she slapped it away. "Don't you touch me!" Tears should have come now, small diamonds trickling down her cheeks. But they didn't. Years of trying to control her emotions held them back, like great stone dams. "I thought you were my friends. I guess that I should never have believed it." How long would it be until the dams started to crack? How long before she injured someone? How long before she hurt herself? She laughed, a cynical twisted chuckle. "No more 'friends' for me. I've learned my lesson." Her eyes no longer showed any emotion. They were cold, empty. Holding nothing. It was like looking into the eyes of a porcelain doll. And then she was gone - teleporting to her room. To seek refuge in the shadows.
She had lost it all. Her mind, her emotions, her control. There was the sound of a mirror cracking. Screams of Nevermore. Her feelings were dying, and her with them. Raven's eyes turned, darkening slowly. From once sparkling lavender, to dark empty purple. but they were not done, yet. They kept changing, slowly turning to a deep red. A blood-red that was full of hatred. Pure, terrible, evil hatred.
Control was slipping, slipping away. The dam was cracking. In her mind, voices whispered.
"He never loved you."
"No one loves you."
"No, no. Go away."
"He used you."
"No one cares about you."
"Leave me alone... just go away. Please... please?"
"You're weak. Useless. Pathetic. Disgusting. An embarrassment."
"No wonder your friends abandoned you."
She was sobbing now, long since fallen to her knees. The tears had finally come. Pleading, crying, begging, falling, drowning. "Please.. please. Just go.."
And then, the strongest voice of all sounded in her head. The words seemed to echo, growing louder and louder until they deafened her, blocking out all the senses. "Kill him. Kill them both. Kill everyone. They hurt you- now hurt them. Do it!"
Turning to her cabinet, she pulled out the silver dagger. Staring into its polished blade, Raven studied her reflection. Strange how in a few hours she had changed to a walking ghost. Her skin was pale, clinging feebly to her bones. Her sunken crimson eyes gazed out of her skull. If eyes were the windows to your soul, then she didn't have one, not anymore.
A smile rose to her faded lips. No longer the ruby-red blossoms Robin had once kissed so passionately. She was just an echo of what had once been. An echo, a shadow, a reflection.
A dead Raven.
Walking, she quietly made her way to Robin's room. She wanted to kill him. She wanted him to feel the pain he'd put her through.
They were both there, asleep. Tangled sheets and intertwined limbs. They were smiling, looking so happy. So innocent. So perfect for each other.
A gleam of control crept back into her eyes. She remembered smiling like that, once. A far-gone time, long ago.
Raven slowly chanted a favorite poem;
"From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen
As others saw; I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I loved, I loved alone."
She couldn't go on living like this. Loving - pretending to love - a man that didn't exist, and never had. A man who she would never be more than a- a friend to. A comrade-never a lover.
"Then- in my childhood, in the dawn
Of a most stormy life- was drawn
From every depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still:
From the torrent, or the fountain,
From the red cliff of the mountain,
From the sun that round me rolled
In its autumn tint of gold,
From the lightning in the sky
As it passed me flying by,"
It was them or her. They could be happy without her, but then she would have to die. Because she could never be happy while they were together. Or- she could kill them. With only a moment to decide, she finished the poem.
"From the thunder and the storm,
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view."
And she thrust the knife deep into her own chest. As her tears mixed with her blood, two angels slept silently on- ignorant to the death of a demon. No one would cry, and the sun would soon rise.
A/N: So? What did you think? I wanted to do a one-shot Teen Titans, and this was the result. R&R, please. The poem is 'Alone', by Edgar Allen Poe. Note: Rewrote 2/27/05.