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Thirteen Hour Horrors
Chapter 4: 3 AM
3:01 am
Exhausted still, Robin paused. Raven's words rung in his ears. The room was silent, the three titans waiting for something…anything.
Finally a hacking sound drew their attention. In the dark Beast Boy had stumbled back a bit and proceeded to throw up.
"Not you too." Raven sighed and went to grab a towel. Robin moved over to the poor boy, he didn't know if it was nerves, or the reason he had those bandages that had made him so sick.
Raven returned a moment later with a hot mug and a towel. Without a word Beast Boy wiped his mouth and downed the soothing liquid.
"What happened to him anyway?" Robin asked when the boy had finished his drink, his eyes still looked slightly glazed.
"I don't know," Raven replied softly, watching the changeling. "I was gone for a moment and when I came back there was-"
"Glass." Beast Boy broke in, his voice was a little raspy. "Your mirror broke, and then there were flying pieces of glass…" His voice cut off and the green boy turned his head away.
"And he must have jumped out your window to escape." Raven added frowning.
Robin sighed, looking at his boots. "We should go try and find the others. You up to it Beast Boy?"
Beast Boy fixed his eyes on his leader for a second, empty. Then, "As long as you don't leave me alone." He let a small grin slid onto his face.
"First off," Raven straightened her cape and stepped closer to the two boys. "Do we have any more communicators?"
"Cyborg kept any extras in his workspace I think." Robin ran a hand through his still wet locks.
"We should try to get some, though finding Cyborg and Starfire is first priority. Where were they going?"
"They just said they were going to find you two since your time was up."
"And Cyborg knew I was getting batteries and then going to Robin's room. So we should check near your room." She had turned and addressed Robin more directly.
Beast Boy whimpered slightly and touched her arm.
"Don't worry," Robin tried to reassure him. "We'll just have Raven peak in the room to see if they've been there."
Grudgingly Beast Boy nodded, as the three of them turned to ascend the stairs.
3:11
Cyborg and Starfire had been heading back to the living room, unfortunately that is not where they ended up.
They had rounded a corner, expecting to see the staircase that lead into the living room.
Instead it was a hall, and not just any hall…
"This is where Robin's training and evidence room is," Cyborg pondered as the two paused. "That doesn't make sense, it means we've been going up."
"But have we not been descending the cases of stairs?" Starfire piped next to him.
"I thought we had." Cyborg looked back at his arm clock, feeling his anxiety grow. "Um, lets try and go back."
"Are you sure?" Starfire glowed a bit brighter for a moment.
"No, but goin forward isn't getting us anywhere." Cyborg turned around, his light filtering down the hallway they had just gone.
When the light moved down to cover the ground Cyborg gasped and inched back.
"Hm?" Starfire murmured before turning to see what he was looking at. Her eyes fell upon the hallway floor, and she took backed up, suddenly grateful she was hovering.
The floor was all broken up, large cracks splintered the floor as though it had gone through some kind of punishment. The floor hardly looked able to support a pound, let alone Cyborg.
"Star, let's not go back."
"I am most afraid that is not an option." Came Starfire's light voice, she was behind him. Slowly he turned his vision, to see her looking back behind them, the floor there was cracked as well.
The only safe place visible was where they were currently standing.
"You know, this could be an illusion." Cyborg commented, giving a hard look at the floor though his cybernetic eye. His readings came back a bit fuzzy, but they were negative, it seemed to be regular flooring.
"Should I try?" Starfire asked tentatively.
"I see no harm." Cyborg added, as the girl floated a bit over the cracked flooring.
Easing, with a precision Starfire lowered herself to a bit of the floor that seemed solid enough, she made sure to keep her feet away from the jagged cracks.
When her weight held, she smiled back at Cyborg.
"Try jumpin a bit." Cyborg requested, after all, he did weight a lot more than the petite alien.
"Okay." Starfire shifted her weight on the small area and sprung up a few inches. Her landing hadn't caused a thing. Next she moved over to another piece, avoiding the cracks. It held in place as well.
"Come Cyborg," She grinned and moved to another, half watching her footsteps.
"Alright." Cyborg was about to take a step when Starfire shrieked.
Her foot had twisted slightly, stepping on the chasm between two tiles, and the tiles she had been standing on gave out. She disappeared out the bottom of the floor, and Cyborg felt him heart hammer at her sudden disappearance.
Before he could worry, she floated back out of the hole, breathing heavily. "Do not step on the tiny gorges!" She warned, floating above the jagged floor.
"Can't you carry me?" Cyborg asked, not willing to participate in this game.
"I wish not to risk it, I am very tired, and the hall is too far." She rubbed her arm, and in the light Cyborg could see a faint bruise starting. Before he could ask, she had hovered further away. "Come Cyborg." She called, lighting her hands more brightly.
Sighing deeply, Cyborg stepped off his safety to follow Starfire, after all they couldn't just stand around all night.
When his footing stayed he looked down at his watch again.
3:19
Robin lead the trio through the dark, followed by Beast Boy, while Raven kept up the end.
Their movement was slow in the dark, Raven's powers didn't do much to illuminate their footing.
They moved up the stairs carefully, listening to their footsteps as they neared Robin's room. The closer they got, the slower Beast Boy began to move, before long he had almost backed right into Raven.
"Beast Boy," The telepath growled after almost running into him for the third time.
But the boy was not to be detoured, his eyes were now locked on the door they were approaching. Even unable to see through the darkness, she knew it said ROBIN.
"I'll be right back." Raven whispered when they stopped in front of the door. She muttered her mantra under her breath for a focus, before sliding in and through the wall.
Robin's room appeared different now. The glass was gone, and his closet mirror was intact, but the room was empty. Quickly, she moved over to the window, and pressed her hand against the intact window pane.
It gave her a strong rush of bad vibes, and she pulled her hand back as though burned. She turned over her hand in the moonlight, to see the small cut she had gotten earlier, it was bleeding again.
The mystic pulled her cape closer and backed away. Before she could think about it, she had thrown herself back through the wall and out into the hall.
"Empty." She breathed, the air out here seemed so much cleaner.
"Are you okay?" Robin had turned startled as her sudden lack of a graceful arrival.
"Fine." Raven murmured. "Now, where do we search?"
"Anywhere but here?" Beast Boy called a little further off, it seemed as though he had been inching away from the door.
"I agree, I doubt they would stay near by." Robin confirmed, glancing at Beast Boy.
"So where to, oh great detective?"
"We could try Cyborg's lab, we need to grab some communicators anyway." Robin suggested.
"Lead away." She deadpanned, and gathering Beast Boy the trio made their way back towards the lab.
3:22
Cyborg was making good timing finally. He had gotten used to maneuvering his feet in such a way not to touch any of the cracks, and the floor was supporting him.
He wasn't making it very far, but it was a start. Starfire had taken to leading, stepping along and trying to conserve her strength and energy.
The strange thing was (if there was a part stranger than the suddenly cracked floor) that although the hallway was recognizable, there were no doors where there should have been. The door to the training room was absent, and so was the space the evidence room was supposed to be.
And so they dragged on, for minutes using the careful dance.
Step on the cracks and your break your mother's back…
The strange little song had run through Cyborg's head constantly as he moved across the floor. It was irony in a way he didn't like. He had thought of bringing this up to Starfire to pass the time, but the concentration needed to explain a child's rhyme might make him loose his delicate footing.
"Do you see any end to this hallway?" Cyborg groaned after a few more minutes, how long had the been at this anyway?
Starfire leaned back, careful of her footing and launched a star bolt. The duo watched the flair of green cut through the darkness, and eventually fade away. It hadn't hit a thing.
Cyborg sighed deeply, and tried not to get frustrated. He still hadn't gotten his battery, and their light was dimming faster. If it went out they'd have to rely on Starfire's power, and she'd need all her strength.
"This is going to take forever." Cyborg commented, watching his foot move across a broken tile that was particularly small. He tipped his foot a touch sideways before giving it some weight and searching for his next move.
"Cyborg?" Someone called suddenly before he had moved. The voice wasn't Starfire's, it had sounded almost like…
"Robin?" He craned his neck back around, moving his light with it. He could hear Starfire pause as well.
He spotted Robin, not to far down the hall, Beast Boy was a little behind him, and Raven with him.
"Wait, no Robin!" It had just dawned on Cyborg that the three were standing in the direction him and Star had just come from.
But it was too late, he could hear the conviction of metal boots touching the ground. There was silence, where Cyborg bit his tongue.
He tried to move the light down to see the floor, the cracks ran right up to where Robin was standing, a small delicate crevice stopping where his boot had just touched down. He sighed, confused but relieved.
Just as he was about to look up, motion caught his eye.
The crack suddenly widened and grew, sliding under Robin's shoe. Cyborg felt himself want to lurch forward, a curse on his tongue. At the same him his foot moved.
Before the floor fell out beneath him, he knew he had stepped on a crack. He could hear Robin shouting as he fell as well.
Through the falling dark Cyborg could hear shouts and a scuffle, while he prepared himself to hit the next floor. The ground never came though, he just kept falling. He could hear the sound of Robin's grappling hook discharging, he saw the green glowing of an alien freefalling after him for the second time that night.
When Starfire was close enough she was reaching out a hand to him. He grabbed her arm tightly as she tried to pull up.
3:42
Raven had watched two of her team mated fall through the fragile floor, as the cracks continued to edge closer. She heard Starfire yell and fly down after Cyborg. She pressed Beast Boy further back, unwilling to take a fall herself, even if she could fly.
After a moment there was silence. There should have been something, hadn't they landed on the floor below?
"Beast Boy, we've got to go down for them." She dictated, still watching the hole where Robin had just disappeared.
The boy beside her made no comment, but transformed into a pterodactyl before swooping down into the hole before her.
"Back into the dark we go." Raven commented before summoning her power and stepping into the chasm.
3:45
Starfire couldn't stop her downward motion. She knew she had the strength to, but it wasn't working. She clung to Cyborg and kept trying to reverse, nothing was working.
She had heard Robin shoot off his grappling hook, and wasn't too worried for his well being. She hadn't had time, considering her condition.
"I can't stop!" Starfire cried down to Cyborg, as they continued falling in a spiral of fiery green light.
3:46
Robin's grappling hook hadn't worked. It had caught for a moment on something, and snapped immediately, he was falling.
He could see a flare of green a little ways off in the dark, as he twisted like a cat in the dark. He needed to get over to them, he wouldn't survive impact at this speed.
"Starfire! Raven!" Robin shouted through the dark hoping one of them would come to his rescue.
But he continued falling without intervention. For the second time, he would be nearing his death.
3:50
Raven had heard Robin yell from further down their bottomless pit. Pushing herself on she aimed for the sound of his voice, gathering speed as she fell.
Eventually she glanced a bright color in the sea of black and grabbed at it. Sure enough, it was Robin.
Raven tried to pull up, the boy tightly gripping her hands.
"Raven, stop!" Robin shouted over the rushing background.
"I'm trying!" Raven shot back, and tried more forcefully. She couldn't.
She sensed they were nearing some kind of substantial ground, and worried of the consequences. Raven tried once more, finding her center and clearly seeing her motion stopping.
Her speed quit immediately. Lightly, almost feather-like, she lowered Robin down the rest of the way. Sure enough, there was ground. Silent, Raven landed beside Robin and tried to fix her blown hair and cape.
"I'm not even going to ask what just happened." Robin groaned and almost sunk to the ground on wobbly feet.
"It's like that time with Larry, when none of the rules made sense." Raven said aloud, but thought it more in-depth to herself.
"Yea…" Robin looked around, unable to see anything in the darkness though. "Where are the others?"
"Here!" There was a sudden radiant light that illuminated a running Starfire and Cyborg.
Both looked wind blown and tired as they skittered to a halt.
"Let me guess, you guys nearly crashed too?" Robin asked looking at the two of them.
"Yeah." Cyborg pointed at Starfire. "She was able to pull up just in time."
"No kidding." Raven moved into the green light, a frown in place.
"Where's BB?" Cyborg asked after looking over their small circle.
"Present." Beast Boy stepped a bit from the shadows near Raven, he had grace enough to allow a small smile.
"Where do we go now?" Starfire asked, raising her arms to gather more light. Four blank faces looked back, making Starfire blush and look away.
"What about, where are we?" Raven inquired next.
Cyborg looked at the gauge on his arm, a deep frown suddenly blooming. "You're never going to guess."
Robin, who had been looking at the floor suddenly looked up, grim as well. His face seemed hollow behind his domino mask. "The basement again?"
Before Cyborg could confirm his answer there was a beep signaling the birth of a new hour.
Sorry if I confused anyone with the hour thing, there will be chapters until 6 am, an extra chapter that spans 6am-6pm (kind of a break time), then hourly chapters from 6pm-12am (13 total chapters). Most of the stuff only happens at night after all.
The last omen was…
Broken Mirrors: An ancient myth our ancestors believed was that the image in a mirror is our actual soul. A broken mirror represented the soul being astray from your body. To break the spell of misfortune, you must wait seven hours (one for each year of bad luck) before picking up the broken pieces, and bury them outside in the moonlight.
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:Bloody Fae: