A few people have told me that this game DARK FALL: THE JOURNAL sounds interesting, and they wish to know more about the game itself. Well, I'll tell you a little about it during each chapter, okay? Now, first you'll wanna know what system its for. DARK FALL is for PC, or the computer, if you don't know the acronym PC. It is strictly a puzzle game, though. You can't die, and there are no enemies. But… that doesn't keep it from being scary as hell, trust me. The game itself can be found in Wal-mart, on the row of PC games that are like ten dollars or less. Yep. It's a cheapo game, but it's foreign, so it's not exactly brand-spanking new. It's from England, so be easy on it. But, just make sure you don't play it in the dark for too long… heh… I don't own Teen Titans.

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RAVEN'S GAME

Part 2: Lussa

Raven groaned, holding her head. She felt as though she were falling… falling in darkness with no hope of stopping. Her stomach was doing flip-flops and just as she was sure she would be ill she came to a jerking halt. "I'm… home?" she whispered. In front of her was, in fact, Titan's Tower. "Wait… something's wrong…" Raven said aloud. "It doesn't feel right." She gently probed the letter-shaped building ahead of her, feeling for anything unusual. "Oh no…" Raven couldn't even say it. The building was completely dead. There were no life signs inside, the power was off… it was a dead cell.

She turned to look at Jump City, to see if it was the same there. Raven couldn't see past the mists of night. The heavy fog blocked the city from her view, and she sighed heavily. Turning back to the cold, dry building Raven pulled her hood up. She was going to have to do some investigating. Some dumb old building wasn't going to scare her. She lived there! She approached the huge double doors, reaching and touching them with one hand. She hissed a little, as though in pain, quickly drawing back. They were cold. Ice cold. Using her cloak as a buffer for the cold, Raven heaved against one of the doors. She grunted, pushing harder until –!

Both doors burst open, throwing her backward like a rag doll. Raven landed with a cry, quickly standing to face her attacker. But… there was no one there. It was dark beyond dark inside, and even Raven's eyes couldn't pierce the blackness. She quickly approached the doorway, peering inside. "Mmm…" she mumbled, unsure of herself.

Suddenly a massive, horrid screeching blasted out of the building! Raven cried out as her cloak, hood and hair were all blown back at the incredible sound. She braced hard against it, her hair flapping like a banner. It was colder than the doors had been. She squeezed her eyes shut, her arms over her face as though she were in a blizzard. She took a step forward and it only grew more horrible. The screeching became a hellish scream, a thousand people all at the same time. Raven's ears had never heard such a haunting sound, and she took another step as it only grew colder. Temperatures plummeted dangerously, and Raven threw herself past the threshold.

The screaming stopped. The wind stopped. The temperature went back up, and Raven lay there trembling. Was it from fear, or from the horrible cold? She breathed out steam one last time, sprawled in an odd position. Her cloak was bunched up around her, making it hard to even move. She rolled over to face upward, and forced herself to sit up. She held her head with one hand, massaging her temple. "That was definitely… not normal." She muttered. "Something is here… but what?"

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"Maybe she's just gone to her café for the day, Beast Boy." Robin said, barely looking up from his paper. Beast Boy had gotten bored with his comic, and had gone looking for someone to have fun with. And, as always, Raven was at the top of the list. Whether it was annoying her, trying to make her laugh, playing a prank on her, or just interrupting her meditation to see what she would do to him… it was always something fun to do.

Robin wasn't worried about Raven, but Beast Boy spoke up again. "But the last time I saw her, she was making tea!" he said, growing frustrated with Robin's lack of interest. "She wouldn't go out in a storm like this to go do something she was doing here in the first place!" Beast Boy suddenly turned into a green dog, ready to track her down.

"Friends!" Starfire had entered the common room, looking a little worried. "Have you seen friend Raven? I had planned to join her for meditation today at the usual time, but… she is not in her room." Her usually happy face had wilted slightly, looking upset. Of course, Starfire's distress got Robin's attention.

"Well… if she's not in her room and she wouldn't go out in the storm, where would she be?" Robin asked, folding his newspaper. "She wouldn't just vanish without a word. Maybe Cyborg knows where she is…?" he stood, and the other two followed him to the garage.

As expected, Cyborg was under the T-car making minor repairs from their last car chase. "Hey ya'll." He said, seeing their feet approaching from where he lay. He was laying on a skateboard of sorts, and rolled out from under the car. "What's up?" He was holding a wrench in one hand and had a magnifying glass on one of his eyes.

"Have you seen Raven?" Robin asked. "She's not in her room, and we can't find her."

"Have you checked the roof?"

"It's raining, dude." Beast Boy said. Cyborg had been in the garage most of the day, so he hadn't gotten wind of the storm yet. "She meditates by the window in the living room when its storming, remember?"

"Oh yeah…" Cyborg said. "Hmm…" He sat up, grabbing a spare rag and getting a little bit of grease off of himself. "Well… what about the basement? Have you looked there? It's dark and scary, like her." Beast Boy shot him a glare for that one, but they moved as a group to go see if she was there.

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It didn't take long for Raven to realize that the tower was abandoned. There were pots and pans out in the kitchen area, and ingredients for one of Starfire's alien dishes were laying around. She had no idea what half of them were, but they all looked cold, stale, and unusable. She looked the refrigerator, but found the light didn't work. "Of course the power is out." Raven muttered. "Why wouldn't it be?" she searched slowly through the living room, looking for any signs of recent activity. None.

The Gamestation that never stayed off enough to get cold looked as though it had been off for years. Raven inspected it closely, and found dust on it. No one had played it for a long time. Robin, Cyborg, and especially Beast Boy couldn't live without their precious games… if they were still alive at all, that is. Raven twitched visibly, squashing that line of thought. Of course they were still alive. They were the Teen Titans. Were. Raven flinched again, standing erect and turning to the couch.

The was a large groove where Cyborg usually sat. Beast Boy's couch pillow was still ruffled, too. A deep ache suddenly grew in Raven's heart, and she futilely tried to surpress it. What in Azar's name had happened while she was gone? How long had she been gone? Where the hell had she gone to? The last thing she remembered was being sucked into that vortex while holding the disk of Dark Fall. She suddenly gasped. That was it! Her powers had been set off by the lightning, and she'd been sucked in! "Looks like…" Raven whispered. "Looks like I'll be playing after all. This looks real, though… I gotta find a way out of here." she knew she would have to be careful, and tried to remember everything she could from the games she had seen the boys playing. The game itself must've been twisted to fit the Titan's Tower, so it wasn't the same as the original…

Fighting games didn't fit. Neither did racing. Or shoot-em-ups. Raven strained her memory, half-afraid something would blow up. This was unlike any game the boys had played. It was dark. It was cold. And… Raven found herself smiling. "My kinda game." She murmured. She suddenly stopped. Most games had one thing in common, and even Raven knew that one thing. Items. She quite suddenly realized she had no pockets. Starfire's purse was on the kitchen counter, and Raven went over to it. It was pink, but it would have to do. You could tell a lot about Starfire by the contents of her purse, but that's not what Raven was looking for. She unzipped all the zippers and turned it upside down. Money, make up, some playing cards, a picture of Robin, and some ticket stubs fell out. A tube of lipstick fell open, splattering the stuff everywhere. How had it gotten warm enough to be liquid? Raven tried not to think of blood as she watched the red make-up make a puddle on the counter.

Slinging the purse on her shoulder and feeling like an idiot for using something pink, Raven started forward. The message on the answering machine was from Beast Boy, so why not start in his room? Raven came to the elevator, and remembered that the power was off. "No elevator… yet." She'd helped Cyborg rebuild his car on one occasion, so Raven knew her way around mechanics here and there. But… the controls to the elevator were in the basement. Wasn't that where Beast Boy said they'd found… whatever it was? Raven made the logical decision and took the stairs… upward, to Beast Boy's room. Simply levitating up the stairwell, she found the right floor easily and stopped in front of the door.

She pushed it open and found the hall. It looked normal enough, just… elderly, like it hadn't been touched in ages. To her surprise, the emergency lights were on. The pricks of light were in pairs, one on each side of the hallway, all the way to the end. Raven stepped out the stairwell, looking around carefully. Beast Boy had been taken from his very room, so whatever it was that had gotten him wasn't limited to the basement.

Two emergency lights at the end of the hall went out. Raven noticed immiediatly, coming to a halt. Two more, closer, went out with a soft whir. She braced for battle, clenching her fists and ready to blow the whole damn hallway up. Whatever got her friends was not going to get her! Another pair of lights went out, even closer. Raven held her breath. The two lights right near her went out, and she was left in a horrible, silent darkness. She could hear herself breathing… She could hear her heart beating….

"Haaaaseeeeoooohraaaaaaseeeeeeeth….." it didn't make any sense at all, a whisper… coming closer… closer… closer as though it were a person walking down the hall as it spoke. "Raaaaaashaaaaaa eeeeeeeeenooooooossssss…." Raven's heart was starting to beat harder, pounding against her ribcage. The horrible, haunting hiss was something that would haunt her for a long time… "Ranakaaaaa!" The whisper was right in her ear, and Raven recoiled with a cry of fear! Her powers went off, exploding in every direction.

Raven roared a battle cry and went full-auto on the hallway itself! Even if the enemy was invisible, it wouldn't survive her onslaught of deadly magic. Bolts of black energy pierced the roof, the floor, and every inch of wall. Giant pieces of plaster and stone were falling this way and that, destroying the hallway entirely. Raven yelped, backing into the stairwell.

A wave of dust hit Raven and she coughed heavily. Her hands still black and her heart still racing, she peered into the hall when all was quiet. She licked her dry lips anxiously, waiting for any sign of movement or sound. After a long time, the dust settled. Raven gasped aloud, running back into the hallway.

The hallway was fine. As though she'd never lifted a finger.

Raven felt sweat trickling on her brow, and quickly wiped it away. She pulled back her hood, getting a closer look. The entire hall had… what…? Repaired itself or something? What kind of game was this? She suddenly remembered she truly was in a game. Most games didn't have permanently destroy-able environments. Thoroughly shaken, she edged forward a few steps. The emergency lights suddenly came back on, and she jumped. Every single light broke with a brilliant spray of sparks. Raven shielded herself from it with her cloak, only getting more upset. She emerged, and found them all repaired again. Sighing in frustration and with just a hint of fatigue, Raven warily approached Beast Boy's room.

Her heart still pounding, she prepared for the worst and shoved the door open. Raven was met with a sight that she'd never expected upon entering. The pizza boxes were gone. The banana peels picked up. The bed was made. The carpet was visible. It was… clean. "What's wrong with this picture?" Raven whispered, still on edge from the whispering thing in the hallway. She still didn't know what haunted the tower… but even if it was all a game, Raven didn't think she could take that for granted. It was real enough to her. If she died in the game, or got taken by the whispering thing, or whatever, she suddenly knew… she'd be trapped there forever. But… if she won the game, would she be set free? Or… would she just have to start over again? In an endless loop forever?

Trying not to think about it that way, Raven stepped into the room and carefully closed the door. A huge, black symbol was scratched into the door, and she squinted at it. "Oh my…" she couldn't even finish the sentence, for she'd already recognized it. It looked like crosshairs that you would see on a gun sight, but… the space within the circle didn't have the little plus in it. Raven recognized it… oh yes, she did. "A binding symbol…" she whispered, touching it. "Wax…" she recognized the texture of what had made the mark. Raven saw Beast Boy's desk was strewn with papers and wittled down black crayons. "He was trying to hold it back…" Raven whispered in amazement. "Keeping it out of his room long enough to call for help…" She went paler than normal, looking at the walls of his bedroom. Almost all of his posters had been hastily torn down, tossed into the trash... to make room for more binding symbols. They were all over the walls, varying in size and intensity. But, all of them were black. Beast Boy had figured out to draw a binding symbol? How…?

She suddenly saw the culprit on the desk. One of Raven's books, taken from her room by the green teen, was lying on his desk. She went and picked it up, reading the title aloud, "Ancient Alchemy Explained." She squinted, putting it back down where she'd found it.

Raven sifted through the papers on his desk. This looked like the sort of thing Robin would be doing. Desperate research, scribbled notes… all in Beast Boy's terrible handwriting. She sat on his bed, heaving a sigh and wondering what to do. She leaned back on her hands and felt something hard beneath the comforter. It was… another book? "How many books did he take from my…" Raven fell short, looking at the title. It read 'Garfield Logan.' Who was that? Raven didn't recognize it from her own collection, so she opened it. Her eyes widened in realization and she stood quickly. "Beast Boy's diary… his real name is Garfield Logan!" she whispered. The quick, light scrawl was his, and the dates were recent.

Dear Diary, Today I was sure I was gonna beat Cyborg at Super Racer 5000, but he tailed me and ran me off the road –

Raven knew that wasn't what she was looking for, and flipped ahead.

Dear Diary, Raven is so damn hot. Her cloak keeps her body hidden, but when she moves I can catch a glimpse of her legs –

Raven flushed, knowing that wasn't what she wanted either. She'd have to speak with him about that later. She looked down at herself. Well… her outfit didn't have any pants legs… she quickly got back on track, flipping ahead again.

Dear Diary, We stopped Mumbo Jumbo from robbing the bank today. He's kinda weird, but we stopped him no problem! Starfire was all, "Joy!" And Raven was all, "Hmm." And Robin was all –

Raven flipped a few more pages, and noticed the handwriting had changed. It seemed quicker, more messy. As though he'd been in a hurry writing it.

Dear Diary, Each entry could be my last now. We let it loose. We didn't mean to! Honest! How were we supposed to know our house was sitting on some kind of shrine thingy! It got out as me and Cyborg were running out and slamming the stone door switch. Just long enough for it to get out…I'm scared… I wish Raven was here. She'd know what to do. Robin doesn't look like he believes us, but Cyborg and me hafta do something. We can't just let it run free in our house! I heard the whispering at my door about an hour ago, trying to get me to come out. I stole one of Raven's books and looked up a binding symbol. That should keep it out for a little while. It musta lost interest in me or something, because it left pretty quick. Maybe it was the binding symbol? The book I borrowed said it would work as long as the door was closed…

Raven knew that the last statement was true. One of the first rules of barrier magic. Have a physical barrier in the way as well, so the magic can work with it to form an effective barring. She bit her lip, sitting on the bed again. Beast Boy's voice was almost in her head as she kept reading. She shuddered slightly, going on to the next entry.

Dear Diary, Starfire saw it. I can see it in her eyes. She looks older now, like it sucked the happy out of her. Robin thinks she's sick, and yelled at me when I mentioned the thing again. What the hell is it? What does it want from us? Is it a ghost? No… it's something else. Something way worse. Cyborg and I know its real, and Starfire tried to convince Robin too. But… he doesn't believe us! Why? With all the other crap we've faced down as super heroes, why not this? Does he thinks its some kinda prank? I don't think we can fight this thing normally, though…. It's a different kind of evil. Like 'Wicked Scary' kind of evil.

Raven looked around the room, glancing at the emergency light near the doorway that was lighting the room. Licking her dry lips again, she sat cross-legged before continuing. Finding the start of the next entry, she went on reading…

Dear Diary, I went back to that shrine. It looked old. A mean really old. I looked for anything that might help us stop it… and I actually found something. Robin's no help. I hate him for that. He still hasn't run into it yet, so he's not buying anything we say. Cyborg's been all over the Internet looking for stuff on dark spirits, but he came up with nothing. Starfire spent most of the day in Raven's room with the door open, looking through her books. She says that some of them are in Azar, Raven's home language. But… I found something. Down in the shrine's hallway...I knew it was important, because when I picked it up it glowed. It was a piece of vellum. Do you know what vellum is, Diary? It's skin. Animal skin. Aside from being sick to touch it, I looked at it, and you know what I found? Symbols! At the very top, real big, was the binding symbol that I'm using on my door. That piece of vellum is the key. Robin won't be any good unless he runs into the shadow thing itself, and he refuses to go into the basement and look. Stubborn jackass. So, I took the vellum to Cyborg and Starfire. We decided to break it into pieces, and hide them so the shadow thing wouldn't get them. They're the symbols to bind it back where it belongs. We researched for a long time, and Starfire found about half of them in Raven's books!

Alchemy symbols, Raven knew. If it was on vellum, then it was more than five thousand years old. They must've had lyrics, or words, to go with them. Reciting them in the right order would probably seal the creature-shadow-thing up again. The teenage girl suddenly saw her goal, and read the next entry:

Dear Diary,

Its awful. Just… awful. It got Starfire. We found the twelfth symbol's meaning today after so much work, and we were on our way to the shrine… together. Stafire went to speak with Robin in the common room, to try and convince him one last time. He didn't believe her, and she was in tears. She rushed away on her own…… and that was the last we saw of her. We went to her room, and it was a big mess. Robin believes us now. We've gotta get to the shrine and recite the spell that goes with the twelve symbols. Remember, we split them up. Speaking them aloud would be powerful magic, one of Raven's books said. I hid them all in great hiding places… and hid the meanings to each one nearby to the symbols that went with them.…Just in case we fail. I sent for help today, and I hope it arrives before we have to go down there. Robin is angry and confused, and Cyborg is just really quiet. I don't know what to do but wait for Raven. If anyone can save us from this thing… it would be her.

Raven paused, her lip actually trembling. He'd been counting on her… and she hadn't been there. Now that thing had them all… and it was her fault. One of her tears hit the page, and she saw there were only a few sentences left in the entire book to read.

Last Entry, Raven's smart enough to find all the symbols, I know it. One's in my room. I left it behind one of my posters… the only one still on the wall. I've been drawing binding symbols everywhere, trying to hold it back as best I can with crayons. It's probably laughing at me… whatever it is… down in that hell hole it calls a home…I'm all alone, Diary… all alone… I hate this. I HATE IT SO BADLY! Why did it take them? WHY! Cyborg, Robin, and Starfire are all gone… I can't find them anywhere, and I'm scared to go down to the shrine on my own…… oh Raven… where are you…? Uh oh… I hear it coming… I better call Raven before it's too late…

That was it. Raven bent forward slightly, clutching the book in her hands. Her hands shook and she squeezed her burning eyes shut. They were gone. All of them swallowed by the whispering darkness. Remembering she had something to hold useful items in, she put the diary gently in the purse. It didn't seem to be such a bright pink anymore. "The poster…?" Raven saw, as she'd seen earlier, one poster had stayed on the wall despite the binding symbols all around it. It was a poster of a T-rex, one of Beast Boy's favorite animals. Swallowing with a dry mouth and throat, Raven stood. She walked slowly to the poster. The T-rex seemed to be staring at her… she shook the uncertainty out of herself, reaching up with trembling hands. She tore to poster down, tearing it in half in the process.

A dark, harshly drawn symbol had been scratched into the wall with black crayons. It looked like a Christian cross turned sideways, with a little hook on the long end. Raven's eyes narrowed, and she reached to touch it. Suddenly, it glowed with all the colors of the rainbow! She jumped back, listening for the whispering shadow. She heard no whispers, and the glow was gone just as quickly as it had come. "Okay Beast Boy… I found it…" Raven whispered. "What's the word that goes with it?" she looked around the room for the lyric, the word that would tell her the meaning behind the symbol. The binding symbol had no word to go with it, since it was merely a single symbol spell. According to Beast Boy's diary, she needed to find twelve symbols. Heaving a frustrated sigh, she sat on the bed again. She stared at the dark, bold symbol on the wall. "If I were Beast Boy where would I put it…? He said the lyrics were nearby to their symbols…" She suddenly saw something she hadn't looked at before. The poster she'd ripped off the wall had writing on the back. Falling to her hands and knees, Raven turn the poster pieces face down and brought the two halves together so she could see the back as a whole.

A single, huge-lettered word greeted her.

LUSSA (Luss-ah)

"Lussa?" Raven mumbled, not recognizing the word at all. The symbol on the wall suddenly glowed brightly, as though in response to its own name! Raven gave a start, and soon it faded back to looking like black crayon again. "What the hell is all this…?" Raven whispered, holding her head. She sat on the bed as she did so, heaving a sigh.

Suddenly, a soft whisper made itself known from the one place Raven never would've guessed. The air vent. The whispering shadow… it was coming for her! Raven stood quickly as a terrible black mist began pouring into the room...

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OMG! Is Raven already in trouble? Will her friends ever figure out where she, or are they connected to the game too? Does anyone like this fic at ALL? Review and let me know what you think! Thank you for your reading time!