Mind Trap

Chapter 8

Gar dropped the received onto its charging base. "I think he bought it."

"Are you sure?" Raven asked him, "If he didn't buy it, he may just get suspicious."

"He said that he thought you ran away. I don't think we'll have a problem."

Raven nodded, though she still looked worried. "Alright then, I guess we can go out."

"If you're still worried, we can just do something in here tonight, get some movies and a pizza or something."

"No, I've been cooped up way too much this week, I need to get out."

"Alright. Dinner and a movie then?"

"Not necessarily in that order, but yeah."

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Gar adjusted his shirt and stared at himself in the mirror. He was wearing a black and purple button up and a pair of black jeans. He borrowed, or rather stole, some of Dick's hair gel, and used it to spike up his unruly mop.

When the door opened he turned and gaped at Raven. She was dressed in a black t-shirt with long fingerless lace gloves, and a black skirt that fell just short of her knees. Her short hair was pulled back into a bun held up by a pair of chopsticks.

"Wow, Raven, you… you're… I think I'm under dressed."

"You look fine."

"Thanks, you look... beautiful."

"Thank you."

"You wanna get going? Our reservations are in twenty minutes."

"Reservations? You actually thought ahead."

"Yeah, I do that from time to time."

"I'm impressed." Raven and Gar walked out into the hall, and paused while Gar locked the door. "Where to?"

"Movie first, then dinner."

"Sounds good."

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Gar sat in his seat, not paying attention to the movie. His attention was constantly on the girl next to him. He glanced down at her hand resting on the arm between them. He lifted his own and almost rested it on Raven's, but lost his courage at the last moment and dropped it back in his lap. He forced his attention back to the horror movie on the screen. He almost screamed when a hand rested on his and pulled it onto the arm. He looked down at Raven's hand, her fingers entwined in his own. His raised his eyes and met Raven's as she smiled at him. They both blushed and turned back to the movie.

Gar and Raven walked out of the movie theater hand in hand. "So, did you like it?" Gar asked.

"It was okay, I guess. Not really my kind of movie."

"Oh? Don't like getting scared?"

"I don't do scared."

"I'm pretty sure I heard you scream near the end. Same time as everyone else."

"I did not scream."

"Alright, whatever. You don't do scared."

"Right. Where were you going to take me for dinner?"

"Well, there's this new little Italian place that just opened up."

"Italian."

"You don't like Italian food do you?"

"There's pizza."

"Yeah, pizza's Italian."

"I'm sure it'll be fine."

Gar pulled Raven into a small Italian restaurant. The host looked down at the disdainfully, "Do you have a reservation?"

"Yeah, two for eight o'clock under Garfield Logan."

The host looked down at his book, "I'm sorry, but there's no reservation under that name."

"Excuse me? I made it earlier today."

"I'm sorry, it's not in the book and we currently have no empty tables."

Gar gaped at him, "Check the book again, I know I'm in there."

"It's alright, Gar, we can go somewhere else."

"No, I mean I know I made the..."

"It's okay, Gar." Raven pulled him out of the restaurant and back into the street. "We can just go somewhere else."

"Alright, I dragged you to a movie that you didn't like, you pick the place."

"Alright, I know a little place that's open all light."

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The next in a long line of black clad poets mounted the stage and stepped up to the mike. Gar immediately blocked out the speaker almost immediately, the first one had depressed him enough. He turned to Raven, picking at her salad. "Cheery place."

"Hm." She dropped her fork onto her plate and picked up her mug of tea. "I used to spend a lot of time here. I haven't had the time since I started college."

"It reminds me of you, dark and mysterious."

Raven blushed. "I just like the tea."

Gar shrugged and dropped his fork on the plate, "Anywhere else you want to go?"

"I don't know. There's a little island just off the coast, you can rent boats to get there. The stars are supposed to be beautiful out there."

"I think that sounds great. Let's go."

Outside Gar quickly grabbed Raven's hand and smiled when she took a half step closer than they were walking after the movie. "So, which way is this island?"

"Just head for the coast and you can see it. There's a foundation on it, like they were going to build something, but that's it. Now people just row out and watch the stars or whatever."

Gar glanced at Raven as they walked. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a shadow detach from the building they were passing, but was unable to utter a warning before it swung something long and heavy at his head. A sharp pain followed by an all consuming darkness obliterated everything.

A/N: I know it's a short chapter, but I thought it was a good spot to leave it off. I like cliffies, so evil you just can't seem to stop reading the story if a cliffy is left.