A/N: Happy Halloween! Here's an almost classic-like Halloween story for you! So not that much fun and fluff, I'm afraid, but since it's the season I think it should be safe for everyone to read… it's just Halloween-dark after all! It's not real! (Whereas everything else I write is, of course, completely real….-_-)

I hope you enjoy it… it's a bit silly…

Danger Inside

The October rain was pummeling Jump City, making the dark night almost pitch black, drenching the electric lights, as well as all sounds but the drumming on the windowpane. Slade glanced out and then back to his book again, glad to be in his apartment, even though his lover was not there… the man didn't blame him, though… he didn't think even the promise of a night with him would make Robin go out in this weather.

Only a few minutes later there was a knock on the door, however. Maybe his assumption has been wrong, after all…?

After checking the security camera he had installed, Slade unlocked the door, seeing a bedraggled, drenched, Robin slumping against the wall outside. The teen's uniform looked torn and there were dark stains on it which the man could have sworn was blood.

"Are you gonna stand there and gape much longer, or can I come in?" Robin muttered, his voice haggard, matching his appearance.

"Of course," the man snorted and stepped aside, gesturing the teen inside. "I'm just surprised you didn't climb through the window."

"This was… easier," Robin mumbled, clutching his side a little as he limped inside. "Elevator…"

"What happened?" Slade asked, helping the teen off with his soaked cape and gloves. "You're freezing."

"We-we're in trouble…Jump is… maybe… I don't know… it was…" the teen's teeth were clattering.

"You need a hot shower and some dry clothes," the man stated. He might not be much of a nursing-kind but it was clear that Robin was worse off than having a little boo-boo.

"No, I… need to tell you first…" the hero said, shaking his head.

"Fine. Start talking as you're getting undressed," the man told him. "I'm going to get you some towels."

"It… it all started last night…" Robin began, his voice shaking a little. "We were out patrolling and heard a scream coming from an alley… we went to investigate-"

"Of course you did," Slade interrupted him with a snort, his arms full or large towels. "What did I say about getting naked?"

"What you usually say? That I should?" Robin flashed him a quick grin as he pulled his tunic over his head.

"Exactly," the man purred. "So, what did you find in the alley?"

"A body… and a monster," Robin said quietly.

Slade busied himself by helping the teen undress while the hero obviously was thinking about what to say next, taking notes of the cuts and bruises he found.

"Is this a bite?" he asked, pointing to rows of red welts on the teen's arm.

"Yeah, it nipped me…" Robin muttered, looking a bit embarrassed, either at the bit or at the act that Slade was wrapping him up in towels like a child.

"Sloppy, Robin. So, what was it?"

"I have no idea. Alien or demon, I think. It looked like a… a… a mix between a monkey and a bat."

"Attractive."

"Not very. The skin was the gray-black of a bat, but it didn't have any hair… it wasn't very big either, it reached about up to here," the teen said and indicated something reaching him to his hip. "Rows and rows of sharp teeth, though, like a shark… and bright red eyes…"

"And the body?"

"A woman… as we them she was already dead and he was… feeding at her neck."

"Blood, meat or both?"

"Blood."

"So some kind of vampire-thing, then… that should narrow it down… and it got away? You need me to help find it?"

"No," Robin mumbled. "It… It didn't get away. I… I killed it."

Slade blinked once. It wasn't like Robin to kill, not even animal-like monsters.

"It was too strong and it attacked us. It was so close to sinking its teeth into Starfire's neck and… well... I… I did it. With a bird-a-rang."

"Good for you," the man shrugged. "But what's the trouble then… there's more?"

"I'm… not sure."

"Just tell me what happened," the man said and sat down on the sofa next to Robin. The teen shuffled up to him, pressing his shivering body to his for warmth and, maybe, protection. Slade frowned as he wound his arms around his lover and let him rest his head against his shoulder. Something horrible must have happened for Robin to act this way.

"We... we took the body back to the Tower with us. We all wanted to find out what it was… Cy took it to the sick-bay and put it on an operating table in one of the small treatment rooms, and then he started taking samples… blood… saliva… you know. To run a DNA analysis. He took them all to the lab next to the infirmary, and the rest of us went off to do our own research… I wanted to check our data-base, and others, to see if it had been spotted before. Raven went to research her books in case it was a demon or something magical, Starfire was looking up the alien lead and Beast Boy was going to look into research-facilities, mutants and urban myths that might be connected with this thing…"

"I myself can't help but think of the Chupacabra, the Sigbin or the Peuchen," Slade nodded.

"Yes, there are more myths like that, like some ape-monster in India…" Robin nodded. "BB was having a blast, I'm sure… I didn't find much myself, though I read until I was nodding off… I took a break to get something to eat, and then I went back to my room and decided to take a nap, so I had just turned off the lights, when… when…"

"When?"

"I heard BB yell… I ran there, and he said he'd gone to ask Starfire about something and her door had been open and… and…"

"What?"

"She…. she was dead. Lying on the floor, pale, bloody… there was a wound on her neck, classic vampire bite… Beast Boy was in hysterics, of course, we both were, I guess… I… I had to drag him out of there, it wasn't safe… I brought him back to my room… he was crying and sobbing and yelling… I had to calm him down, so I held him until he had quieted down and then I put him on my bed and told him I was going to get the others… I wanted him to stay… my room was safe, after all, so I closed the door and went to Raven… you have no idea how happy I was when she opened the door…" Robin took a deep breath and burrowed closer to Slade. "I had blood all over myself from Starfire, and I think she kinda knew what had happened before I told her…"

"But she hadn't heard anything?"

"Our rooms are pretty sound-proof… you knowthat…" Robin gave him another pale smile.

"You're right, I do," Slade smirked back. However inappropriate that might be considering the teen had just lost a team-mate, Slade knew that Robin tended to deal with really horrible things through jokes. "But you heard Beast Boy, didn't you?"

"Yeah, my door was open..." Robin nodded. "Raven… Raven had been reading but hadn't found anything much either. We decided to check on BB and take him with us to the sick-bay, but… when we got to my room…" Robin took a deep breath once more. "The door was closed and he was still on the bed, but… he… he was dead too. His neck bitten... blood everywhere… I… I'm not sure what happened next… I… I grabbed Raven, pulling her out of there… I know we had to get to the sick-bay, but she was screaming like Beast Boy had, sounding terrified… I dragged and pulled her along until she passed out from shock… I don't know how I kept going, but I felt it was all my fault... I had agreed to bring the creature to the Tower and clearly… clearly…"

"… it hadn't been as dead as you thought…" Slade muttered.

"Yeah… when we got to the sick-bay Cyborg was there, though… he had an apron and gloves on, covered in blood. He asked what had happened as I put Raven down just inside the door, but I… I couldn't tell him. Not yet, so I just said she had tried a spell and become exhausted. He was all over on the other side of the room, in the lab, so he couldn't really see the states we were in, I guess… I asked if he had found anything, and he said he had… that it was probably alien and its blood was filled with what seemed to be some kind of viruses, like rabies, and this might make it attack, he didn't know. I knew I had to stop it, no matter what, so I ran to the operating room and… and…"

Slade pulled the teen's body closer in a gesture of comfort.

"Go on, Robin… it's alright… go on…"

"It was still there!"

"What?"

"It was still there! The body! Still dead… more dead if anything, since Cy had more or less chopped it up…"

"So it wasn't alone then? Others followed you back… avenging their dead, perhaps?"

"Yes… yes, that's what I thought, so I hurried back to Cy and Raven but… when I got there… He was… he was kneeling over her… he looked up and his… his eyes were just crazy, and he started yelling at me… I couldn't even understand what he was saying, it was just… I saw that the screens next to them were showing security feeds… my room, Starfire's room… he knew where the others were… for how long, I don't know… and then… then he attacked."

Slade felt his lover tense and relax over and over, like he was convulsing, or trying to fight back sobs.

"Then what happened? You fought him?" Slade asked after a while when Robin seemed in a better state to continue.

"I… yes… I… he was crazy he was trying to kill me!" the teen told him. "He almost hit me with sonic blasts several times… I tried to get closer so he wouldn't be able to use his gun… I tried to calm him down, talk to him, but… he wanted me dead. He wanted me dead like the others… I had to fight back, I had to!"

"Of course you did," Slade calmed him down. "And you got away…"

"I… I think he's dead."

"You do?"

"I can't remember… just blood… I… I think… a bird-a-rang… think I must have hit him."

"It was you or him," Slade told his lover. He might not have appeared like it, but he was a bit shocked. He wouldn't be Slade if he was grieving for the Titans however… Robin was all that mattered. "But all this happened late last night, didn't it? Why didn't you come to me sooner? Or call?" he asked.

"I… I don't know… I… I couldn't leave…Couldn't just leave them…" Robin mumbled.

"I'll come back with you," Slade told the teen reassuringly.

"Okay… can we… can we just stay like this for a bit, first…?" Robin asked quietly, burying his face in the crook of the man's neck.

"Of course…" Slade told him. "You should have known it wasn't the monster from the start, though…" he then began to lecture the teen. "You couldn't have known that it had contaminated Cyborg, of course, but only two puncture-marks? Those don't look at all like… like the wound on your arm…" he trailed off. Slade looked down to see Robin glancing up at him, a wide, very sharp-toothed smile on his face.

"No… they don't... and I'm sohungry again," the teen smirked and lunged.

The End

A/N: -holds out plastic pumpkin bucket- I demand candies! It might have been as scary as a badly made plastic spider, but I want my treats damn it! Okay, reviews will do… ;)

If anyone was confused about what really happened in this story (although I don't think you are) here's a recap of lies and actual events:

Robin came to Slade's place, but, as he's a vampire he can't enter without being invited (love that part of vampire-lore!) so he makes sure he is… also the reason he knocked on the door… and being unusually cold… It was when he was in his room doing research the vampire-virus kicked in. He felt hungry and went for a Starfire snack. After that he went back to his room and continued to work, because, after all, he's still Robin… to a degree… When BB yelled, Robin, who had gained an improved sense of hearing, heard him, through his door… Slade might not have picked up on that but you might have: Robin was just going to sleep and had turned off his lights, so why should his door be open? Well, he ran to Starfire's room and 'discovered' her, and took BB back, so the changeling wouldn't alert the others… when "comforting" him, BB realizes something is wrong, but it's too late and Robin leaves his dead body on his bed.

On to Raven. She suspected something from the beginning, but didn't know until she saw BB. She was too distraught to gather her powers, however, and Robin managed to kill her while dragging her to the sick-bay. He left her body out of clear view from Cyborg, but he was suspicious due to the virus he had found and discovered the truth pretty quickly (Robin never went to check on the alien, he knew it was him all along). Cyborg attacked but met the same fate as the others. As the sun was coming up, Robin spent the day resting away from the natural light, of course, and then, when night fell, he went to see Slade, knowing the man would make a nice meal… now, whether his succeeded or not… well… maybe you'll find that out one day... I have an idea for it, but no ending, so… ;)