Lost file: Corbin Love Subrosa

This is a spinoff of my story No Room Left In Hell. You may want to read it to know what's going on.

I'm not up to writing a real sequel to No Room Left in Hell. Sorry.

Chapter One: Sodom


The city had taken something from her. Not the city she was entering, but the one she was escaping. It wasn't the feeling of wrong that troubled her young mind, though. It was the fact that she didn't even know what she'd lost. But the tempest inside her head would have to wait. Another pressing matter had been plaguing her for hours. A familiar need. The need to feed.

She peered from the safety of darkness at what she hoped would help her quell that need. A young couple strolled along looking very out of place amongst the devastation that most called an alley and rats called home.

'Rats!' She would never look at those little buggers the same again, the girl thought as she watched the couple attempt to locate something. They were obviously lost and frightened. This would make her task even easier.

"You sure it's this way?" the curly-haired woman asked her companion.

"Just one more street baby, I swear," the man said, eyes darting from one shadow to the next.

"I think you're out of time 'baby,'" a new voice sneered with amusement. The eyes of the couple sought him out. Their faces paled.

"You know the drill. You pay a toll and maybe you'll see your mother again," the thug at the other end of the alley said. Two other equally dangerous looking men flanked him.

Jinx grumbled. Her prey had been stolen by other predators. At this very minute the young couple complied with the demands of the thugs.

'Oh, well. Probably didn't have much anyway,' she told herself.

"She's pretty cute," one thug said, eyeing the young woman. Fear overcame her features.

Jinx growled. 'Typical, predictable pieces of sh-'

"Hey, baby. Why don't you come party with us? This guy's no good for you. Look at the job he done protecting ya," the leader said, pulling the woman close to him and grabbing her rear.

"Please, no. Just let me go..." she began to cry.

"Leave her-" the man said and was struck down. He lay amongst the trash, out cold. The thugs dissolved into a fit of laughter. The woman screamed. There went her last chance of escape. How had it come to this?

"One hit! You the man!" one said to the other. In a flash and a gush of wind he was level with the man they had assaulted. Something had fell on him. That something turned her catlike pink eyes on the leader.

"What the-" he was cut off by a shot to the nose. Several blows followed, one to the chest, a knee and an elbow to the back of the head. Each felt like a steel bat greeting his flesh and bone. He fell, not to rise on his own strength for a long time. Jinx glared at the last thug who stood mouth agape. He didn't know what she was, and pride only clouded fear until he looked at his friends. She had dispatched them in less than a minute. Her inhuman glower made him think twice. He turned in place and ran.

Jinx stared at the wad of cash and change dropped during the fight. It was what she had originally been seeking. The material that could do away with her famished state. Knowing the terrified woman was watching her, Jinx just continued to stare at it. It was rightfully hers now. She had earned it! She was going to take it anyway and what could this petty human do to stop her?

"Um...Excuse me...?" the woman's soft frightened voice reached her ears. Still, Jinx was counting the cash before her with her eyes.

"You...you saved my life..."

Those words struck a chord with Jinx. It made memories ring like the bells of a doughty old tower. They flooded her thoughts. She did not welcome them however.

"Miss...?" the woman was directly behind her now.

"Here!" Jinx said, shooting a hand out at the woman, who flinched as if to prepare for a blow. Jinx only waited. When the woman opened one eye, she found money in Jinx's waiting hand. She was puzzled.

"No...no you keep it," she said to Jinx.

Jinx frowned at the money. Somehow it had lost its luster. Forces she could not understand tarnished its allure. Why was this happening? She was criminal! A damn good one. Now she was passing up free money.

"We'll, I don't want to argue," Jinx said, moving to walk past the woman in a very careless manner.

"Wait. What's your name?" the woman asked. Jinx turned and walked back up to her with a warm smile and patted her on the head.

"That's a secret," Jinx whispered in her ear. She then squatted and in a single bound, leapt onto the roof. She was out of sight less then a second after.

The woman watched wordlessly. She reached back to inspect a sudden itch disturbing her maroon, curly hair. Something was tangled in it. When her hand returned with the offender she found herself staring at the cash she had just offered her rescuer.


'Why did I do that?'

An hour later she was on another rooftop, a new situation to make her empty pockets wholesome presenting itself.

'I'm a criminal. Going soft doesn't get the bills paid. So to speak.'

The rumbling in her stomach almost blurred her thoughts. Her catlike eyes fixed on activity below. She was in a quite part of town surrounded by warehouses that no longer got much attention from the people who made them. The perfect place for underhanded dealings. A group of men working below seemed to have found use of warehouse number 1394. They had spent hours loading it up with what Jinx easily recognized as stolen goods. Mostly paintings. Jinx watched the men and formulated her plan.


Rico Lambast, reeking of cheap cologne and sweat from his shift, couldn't be more happy to be leaving his 'job' in the warehouse district. Every time he neared the place with his comrades, he suffered a fit of paranoia. A long life of crime had taught him the long arm of the law was never out of reach. Just because no one used this area didn't make it safe.

"Any spare change?" A voice came from out of nowhere. Rico jumped and whirled to face the stranger. His defenses fell and his anger rose when all he saw was some homeless person in rags extending him a chipped mug.

"Not for you darling," he spat.

"Sure? I don't like this answer. No," the woman's voice was strangely craggy, but it sounded deliberate. Something was wrong. Rico just knew it. "Try you're pockets again. I'm sure there's something you can lend an ol' girl down on her luck. A girl who's seen something she should not have seen?"

Their activity, Rico realized. She must have seen them storing their commodities. "You saying you want to rat on us?" Rico growled, reaching for her. He knew what he had to do with potential stole pigeons. The woman bounded out of reach. Her hood tipped up and unholy pink orbs burned in the darkness that surrounded them.

"How much is it worth to you for me to keep silent?" she shouted, sounding younger, but much more deadly. Her tattered cloak began to bellow. A gust of wind disturbed the trash at her feet. Pink-lighted creatures danced around her. She was a demonic sight if ever Rico had seen one.

"Wh-what do you want?" Rico cried now certain he was no match for whatever this thing was. Why him? He didn't want to die yet! He wasn't that bad of a guy, was he?

"I am from a thriving religious community, but funding for such a misunderstood culture is scarce. Even in this wonderful melting pot called America. Make a contribution?" the voice came out in a hiss and fought the wind now spiraling around them both.

"Ya want money?" was really the only part Rico's frightened mind connected with. He reached into his pockets and tossed his entire nights earnings before the entity.

"Oh, generous sir!" the creature cried, scrambling over the money and picking it up. "My lord Zoamelgustar(1) smiles upon thee!" She rose then sprung from the ground in a brilliant leap. She landed on the roof of a warehouse and ran off.

Rico was left to wonder if any of that really happened. The feeling it did was aided by the missing weight in his pockets. His eyes trailed to where the strange woman had been standing. Something was still there. She had left the money! Without caring for explanation, he gathered it up and left the district with haste. He later learned it was two thousand dollars. Only half of what he originally had.


Jinx crept back through her apartment window with a small degree of difficulty. Shuffling, a box of Chinese food, two Subway Sandwiches and a case of soda would give even the best of super-powered teenagers trouble. Jinx now occupied a rutty one-room establishment with what the owner claimed was a kitchen. In reality it was just a collection of old shelves near a sink and a stove that didn't work. Jinx moved her goods to the center of the creaky wooden floor and began to chow down. Her only company was gaudy pictures of boats that watched her from walls checkered with cracks. A brown couch with buff arm cushions was at her back, and behind that was a mattress and box spring. A desk and lamp waited in the corner. Along the same wall was the entrance and a small closet full of electronics that no longer were able to serve their purpose. The TV stand before her had a much easier life. It had no TV to burden it.

"Zaomelgustar," Jinx snorted with amusement.

As Jinx stuffed herself, quickly downing the contents of the white box embellished with its red dragons and then starting in on her sandwiches. Her feast was disturbed by an unwelcome presence. It had managed to find her every day since she left Jump City. Loneliness. It boomed at times like this; in silence when she was forced into being her own sense of companionship, and that was no companionship at all.

How had it come to this? What had she had before this? The organization! The Hive. She may not have had anyone she could truly call a friend, but there had always been someone to take her mind off herself. But she couldn't go back to them. She simply couldn't. She had an affliction for the very idea. She found no desire in the least to see any of them again. She liked being free. But being free seemed to have its cost.

Draining one more can of soda, Jinx tossed it on the floor and decided that she was done for the day. She rose in only a white tank top and thin cotton boxers. Her attire was the result of the season. It was the middle of summer and of course her "generous" landlord didn't have a working air-conditioner.

Jinx turned off the lights and lie down on her bed. Tonight she had secured enough funds to finance her current lifestyle for at least a couple weeks. Maybe even months if she really stretched it. But where would this lead? If she didn't become part of some organization, would this be it? Cooped up in this little room alone? Forever?


It was dawn. The light butting into the room was proof enough of that. It had been about a week. Jinx did the first thing she had done every morning since acquiring her bed and board. She turned over, looked at the mess she had made the night before, and turned back over hopping it wouldn't be there when she woke up later.


"You have got to get a hold of yourself," Jinx told the mirror. Her arms clasped the sides of the sink as she finally had it out with herself. "This can't go on! What happened to the party girl? The troublemaker? I'm just wasting away in this little corner of a roach nest called a city. So what are we going to do today?" Jinx waited for an answer. "Oh, Jinx you never were a smart one, so I'll tell you. We're going to join whatever villain softball team this city has going! Shouldn't be hard. You got stats. You got cred. You got a resume!" Jinx giggled at herself and left the bathroom. She was prepared to do what she had to do to keep herself happy and her sanity, which she believed was ailing.

She strode into the center of the room, noting the amount of light entering it from the window and the trouble it would cause her. She had been lucky none of the residents of Arizona recognized her so far, although all her errands had been run at night. It might be a different story if they got a good look at her.

"Gonna have to wait for the darkness..." Jinx said and collapsed before her couch. Sitting on it was out of the question. The burly big thing absorbed more heat than a solar panel and it was hot enough as it was.

"Note to self. Buy or steal a fan," Jinx said, fanning herself with her hand.

The hours trickled by in a maddeningly slow pace. Jinx never wanted to experience it ever again. Once she found her new crew she never wanted to be aloud to go bored again. This was somehow worse than prison. At least with prison things were going on around her. Usually Gizmo formulating an escape plan.

Finally. The sun was setting and Jinx was dressed up in her old Hive outfit. In about fifteen minutes she'd be ready to stalk the night again. Then something extraordinary happened. There was a knock at the door.

Jinx tensed and wondered if she had imagined it. Under the agreement she had with the landlord no one would ever knock. She dealt with him in person. She paid him in person. An arrangement many of his typical, unsavory clients liked. An arrangement she liked.

Another knock.

'What to do? Who the hell could this be? I'm not late. I paid that fat bastard for a whole month! So who could it be?'

She would never know what it was that had caused her to risk her freedom and open that door, but she would be forever grateful that she did.

"Raven?" Jinx choked.


Her pink eyes, filled with surprise, ran up and down the figure standing in her doorway several times. Standing there in pair of black jeans and a white shirt was indeed the female teen Titan.

Jinx took a step back and made a strange sound with her throat. Titan! Jinx thought. Her eyes darted to the window and back to Raven who had now entered her home.

"What a pleasant surprise," Jinx said out of habit. It should have actually been delivered with overconfidence and intent to throw her 'enemy' off his or her game as was the way with villains and villainesses. Instead it just hung in the air while Jinx looked like cornered rat.

"You say that but that's not what you mean," Raven observed. 'I should have know it would be this way. What was I thinking?'

Jinx waited for Raven to make her intentions clear. It wasn't happening. The Titan just stood there.

"So..." Jinx said. She looked like an animal ready to fight or take flight.

"Jinx..." Raven started. "You left before I could thank you."

Jinx was floored by this announcement. It was painfully evident as her jaw just hung open and no words formed.

"Ya wha?" Jinx finally blurted out.

"You saved my life," Raven said simply. "When I woke up, you were gone."

"Yeah, well. I was pretty sure you guys had a nice four walled room all picked out for me and a free pair of pajamas, but as it so happens stripes make me look fat!" Jinx said. Raven's head stooped slightly. It was true after all. She would have had to throw Jinx in jail if she had stuck around too long.

Jinx observed Raven's sadness, but had to push her interest in its meaning aside. She had her freedom to think of.

"So that's why you're here, right? To take me back?" Jinx said with a hint of bitterness.

"No..." Raven said. Shaking her head.

"What?"

"No," Raven said again. "I don't have the authority. The worth of my title is in jeopardy Jinx. With no city to protect..." Raven didn't finish.

"I...see..." Jinx said, realizing that that had to be a sore spot for the Titan. The loss of Jump City affected the hero more than Jinx had even thought to consider. When it was over run with the zombie infestation the government deemed it a lost cause and wiped it off the face of the earth with a bomb in order to protect the rest of the country.

"So I just wanted to thank you for saving my life. However many times you did," Raven said. Her eyes took a quick scan of the room before settling on the girl who owned it again.

"Um...sure." Jinx said. Silence ruled then.

"You tracked me all the way to Arizona?" Jinx asked.

"I find I have an awful lot of free time at the moment," Raven said.

"Oh..."

"And I had an idea which way you'd went given your circumstances. Well...I guess I'll leave you then," Raven said, turning to leave.

"Wait," Jinx said instinctively. After all, that is what you said when you didn't want someone to leave. Raven turned her sharp blue eyes on Jinx expectantly. Jinx had never felt this awkward in her entire life. She didn't want the Titan to leave. Part of her knew why, even if she wasn't ready to admit it to herself.

"You gotta long trip back. It's almost dark. You can stay here..."

"Looks...cozy..." the sarcasm Jinx had just now realized she missed tempted her.

"It's frig'n paradise now come on in!" Jinx said pulling the Titan into her abode.


(1) Slayers reference.