A/N: I'm surprised how quickly I came up with this chapter. Maybe being bored out of your mind in school really lets you think about what to do for fan fics. And the Teen Titans movie motivated me too. It was a lot better than what I expected, even though I don't like the Robin and Starfire pairing. Starfire can be cute at times, though. Okay, enough of my nonsense! Enjoy the chapter!
Disclaimer: I do not own anything Teen Titans. The rest is my own creation.
Chapter 14
Journal 4: Part 1
How could things go so wrong? One second I was happy and safe in Titan Tower's warm infirmary; the next I'm waking up to a total nightmare! I should have known. If you counted the times I've had a glimpse of hope in the past two weeks, every time its come crashing down when it is at its highest. It seems like my life lately has just been one, big rollercoaster. I'm either up or down. It's been driving me crazy!
Let me go back to the time I sent you my last journal. I was so tired at that point that I pretty much passed out the second I was done. It was kind of weird. I remember looking up when I was done writing and saw all the Titans looking in through the window at me. It was kind of funny when they all tried to hide when I spotted them.
I quickly took that small opportunity to send you the journal. It surprised me how easy it was to send it this time. I guess I'm getting better at my powers. But it was that second my portal vanished that I remember feeling really faint. The world was one giant fuzz ball, and I suddenly couldn't control myself. I passed out in seconds. I guess I was really that tired. Well, I did stay up all night.
At the beginning of my long, deep sleep, I remember some really graphic nightmares. These weren't normal dreams. They felt real, as if I was actually there. They were so vivid that I could smell and feel the things around me.
The dreams only consisted of short flashes of a scene. Most of them actually had Slade in them. Some of them I was fighting him while others I was running away. But I could feel the wind brush against my face and the cold sweat drip down my back as I pumped my legs to get away from Slade.
The ones I was fighting him I can clearly remember my high speed thoughts as the man came at me with a Staff. The whole time in those I had a chill in my spine. Both versions the whole time fear was shooting though me. That man seriously freaks me out. These nightmares weren't helping me get over my fear of him.
But some of the flashes consisted of a large, red four-eyed demon sitting on a throne. His throne was surrounded by hot, bubbling lava and black ash debris. Nothing was living in those visions. I was always running through the broken, fallen streets filled with crumbling buildings. The air was a mix of heat waves filled with smoke that wanted to make me gag. These somehow were more frightening than Slade himself.
After that long and painful line of visions, I plummeted into darkness. It was a welcoming feeling after seeing all those dreams of Slade, the demon, and the broken city. My shadowy surroundings weren't foreboding at all. I relaxed as I hovered in my dark space. I could just feel myself rejuvenate as the time slowly went by.
I don't know how long I was out. It seemed like days that I was sleeping. But finally I felt myself slip back to consciousness. I expected to wake up in the Tower's infirmary, but I was dead wrong.
My eyes slowly flittered open. I was very disoriented at first. I was sitting in a chair. That was all my brain could compute. It took a few seconds for my head put some pieces together. I remembered where I had passed out and concluded that this was definitely not that place. A flare of panic flashed through me.
I looked up with a gasp. I swore into the gag wrapped tightly around my mouth. I was in a medium sized, open living room. The floors were all wooden. A large plasma TV screen sat off to my right. Millions of DVD's surrounded the TV stand in a very messy, unorganized manner. The rest of the room had large leather couches. A retro, glass coffee table was placed next to the biggest couch, which held my captor. A half empty pizza box sat on it with an open laptop.
My captor was clearly sleeping. He was sprawled out on his expensive couch in some kind of black uniform with a red X on his chest, gray gloves and boots, and a skeleton-like mask. His head was leaned up against the couch's arm rest. His mask was pulled up so the only exposed skin I could see was his open mouth and his nose. He was snoring pretty loudly; that is how I could tell he was sleeping.
I was slightly glad that the person who had me wasn't Slade. But this guy could have been working for the man anyways. Whatever the deal was, I sure wasn't in control or where I wanted to be. Actually, my biggest question at this point was how I had gotten there or how long had I been out.
With my captor down, I was free to spend time putting some escape plans into action. It's amazing how quick I could think in these kinds of situations now. Lately, my brain has been opened up to a lot of deep thoughts. But at the moment, I had to deal with what was going on. I was tied down to a rusty, silver metal chair. My hands and also my feet were tightly tied to the chair. The person sure knew how to make escaping difficult. It got worse.
The second I tried pulling at the knots keeping my wrists together, I heard a soft click. My eyes flew open, and I leaned my head back to see what had happened. My tied hands were right in front of a motion detector connected to a large stereo system behind me. I could hear the CD changer click as it spun, searching for the right slot. I glanced at the volume and swore again. It was at full blast!
Seconds later, the room exploded in loud, surround sound rock music. I watched in despair as my captor was forced awake. He gave a sharp gasp as he sat up straight on the couch. He rubbed his chin and calmed himself down from his rude awakening. After a minute of staring at the clock on one of the walls, the guy yawned and picked up a remote from the table. With one click, the pulsating music stopped, and the room was once again quiet as a monastery. He had also turned off the motion detector.
"I'm never going to get this paper done," the guy muttered to himself. He glanced down at his open laptop with a long sigh then finally closed it up with another tired yawn.
This whole time my ears are ringing from the blasting music. I struggled some more in my ropes, but it was futile. The person who tied me to the chair was some expert boy scout or something. The knots only managed to get tighter the harder I pulled. They were starting to chaff my skin, almost to the point of bleeding.
"Awake, I see," my captor said as he looked up at me. I grunted into my gag as I unproductively pulled at my ropes again. The guy got up and walked over to me with his face expressionless. I glared coldly at him. A knot formed in my stomach as he bent down to my eye level.
I held my breath as the guy suddenly grabbed my chin with a gloved hand. He silently moved my head around with his hand on my chin and looked at me with his masked eyes narrowed. He finally let me go while tilting his head to the side, in what I guess was confusion. He then walked around my chair a few times, searching for something.
"What happened to all your bruises and scars?" he finally asked. He grabbed the rope tied to my wrists and pulled it upwards. I cringed as the ropes rubbed up against my skin. I glared back at him but then saw what he was talking about. My hands had gotten burn marks and scratches from the hot pavement in the theater parking lot a few days ago. When I saw my hands now, they were gone.
My captor let my hands go with a perplexed sigh. He walked into the middle of the room and pulled down his mask to cover his chin. He turned around and stared at me for a few seconds. I avoided his gaze while squirming in my holds. I was starting to get frustrated. I had so much energy from my long sleep, but I couldn't relieve it. I couldn't even let it out by yelling. The gag prevented me from saying anything.
"Don't worry, kid," my captor said suddenly, "you're in good hands till I sell ya'. The biddings are extremely high! It's amazing how much money some of these guys are paying for you!"
"What?" I yelled into my gag. My eyes flew open as I received this stunning information. I thought this guy was some hired assassin or mercenary for Slade because the Hive Five had failed. Now he was some auctioneer with me as the prize. I was already sick of being considered as an object more than a person. Now I literally was one!
I put my foot down right there and freaked out. I desperately struggled to get free. I didn't want to be bought as some high possession, destined to live in a glass box as a show case till who knows when. And what if Slade actually was the highest bidder? I didn't even want to think about that.
"Hey, he talks!" my captor said happily. "Calm down, kid," he told me when seeing me struggle. He rushed over to me and held my shoulders down to stop me. "Jeez, what did I say to make you freak out? Just calm down so I don't have to knock you out or something."
I shook my head and resisted him by shoving his hands off my shoulders. I managed to get one of my legs free. The second it was out of its binds, I kicked my captor in the shin, hard. He cried out in surprise and pain while backing away from me. I brought my foot up and used it to push myself up off the chair.
"No!" I shouted at the guy as he simply walked behind my chair and pulled it down before I could get my arms over the back of the seat. I cursed as my chair and I fell back and smashed onto the floor. My arms and hands took the full blunt of the hard fall. My head hit the wooden floor and sent stars exploding across my vision. Now I was staring up at the ceiling with my arms and hands pinned behind me.
"Calm down," my captor ordered. He looked down at me with narrowed eyes. He must have been pissed that I had kicked him. But I did what he told me anyways. I had to remember that I wasn't in control of anything at this point. He would be the one calling the shots. My freak out was done, and I was thinking clearly again.
My captor shook his head with a chuckle. "You okay now, kid?" he asked me as he bent down next to my head. "I'm not going to do anything to you unless you make me. I like playing nice thief, understand?"
I nodded slightly with a small wince. My arms pinned under my chair were aching and my shoulders felt like they were going to pop out of their sockets. I wasn't in the most comfortable position.
"Good," the guy said with a nod. He stood back up and walked over to tie my leg back to the chair again before sitting me back up in the up, right position. My captor stood in front of me and was once again looking me up and down. "I don't understand why anyone would be after you. It looks like you're only middle school small stuff. But if Slade wants you, you gotta be important."
I narrowed my eyes on him and shook my head vigorously. The poor guy had no idea what he was walking into. Even though he had stupidly kidnapped me, the dude wasn't like Slade. He wasn't out to torture me. He only wanted money, so he wasn't psychotic, just selfish. But he sure wasn't going to get any reward with Slade down my back, that's for sure. The thief was now a problem to Slade, and he would be dealt with. I felt kind of sorry for the dude…but not too much. He was my kidnapper.
"Have something to tell me, kid?" my captor asked. Curiosity was getting to him. He reached out to my gag then paused, thinking about what he was doing. He pulled his hand back and told me, "If I take the gag off, you need to promise me you won't cry for help and answer my questions. Promise?"
I nodded. Behind my back I crossed my fingers. If he wanted me to stay quiet that meant if I did yell, there would be others that would hear me close by. This must have been his first kidnap. No real kidnapper would just randomly take the kid's gag off.
My captor walked behind me and started to untie my gag. He was walking past me when I suddenly yelled as loud as I could, "HELP!" My captor jumped in surprise before rushing back behind me. I didn't even get to shout anything else. The guy had the gag back on me in seconds.
"Oh, you're a tricky one, kid," he hissed into my ear from behind. "How tight do you want this gag to be? I'll give you one more chance at this thing. If you screw it up again, I'm putting this gag back on you and leaving you here with nothing to eat for 24 hours."
Slowly, the thief took my gag off me again. I glanced up at him then back to the ground. I didn't know if I should have believed him when he said he would just leave me there for 24 hours. I liked pushing my luck, but I didn't want it to fall off the cliff.
"You have food?" I asked him hopefully. He looked down at me with a raised eyebrow, and I smiled back up at him. "I haven't eaten in hours! Get me some food and I'll talk."
"This is a trick, right?" he asked, suspiciously. He stood in front of me and folded his arms in front of his chest. "Or do you have mood swings or something?"
"You want to know the truth?" I whispered with a sly smile. My captor narrowed his masked eyes at me but leaned down to my eye level to hear it with a sigh. "I'm starving!" I yelled at him. The guy quickly covered my mouth with a gloved hand, fighting the urge to smash my face in.
"What is your problem?" he asked me in a harsh whisper. I could just feel the frustration coming off him. I understood where he was coming from. I was being so weird and random right now. If I hadn't freaked out a few minutes before, I'm sure my actions wouldn't have been so odd for him. I was kind of scaring myself with my strangeness, but this was just part of my plan to get him out of the room, even if it was only for a minute.
"I'm just hungry," I murmured.
"I hate kids!" the thief muttered. He let me go and started walking out of the room with an aggravated sigh. "If its food you have to have, then I'll get it for you. Just don't spaz while I'm gone." He then disappeared through the arched doorway that I guessed held the kitchen.
"Finally!" I muttered under my breath. I quickly went into action. I wiggled my feet around the legs of the steel chair, mimicking the technique I did before when I got that one free. It didn't take long for me to duplicate what I had done earlier. In seconds, both my legs were free.
I pushed off my seat with my feet and stood up on the chair. Carefully, I jumped off and tip-toed over to the other archway. I kept my eyes glued to the kitchen. The soft clatter of silverware was the only sound in the whole house. I was just thankful the place was new; therefore, my footfalls didn't make the floorboards squeak.
As soon as I was behind the wall of the other room and out of my captor's eye sight, I dropped to the floor and struggled to get my hands from behind me to in front of me by slipping them under my butt. It took some sweat to do so, but I was rewarded after a minute of twisting and pulling. I refrained from gasping for breath when I was done. I didn't know how hard just doing that could be.
I stood back up, trying to even my heavy breathing. It was at this time that I took in my surroundings of this new room. It was a weight room. It didn't take a genius to figure it out. A treadmill was in one corner. Small lifting weights were lined up in another corner. A bench pressing thing was right next to me, and the wall it was facing toward was covered with heavy, round weights.
Another small arched doorway was on the other side of the room, next to the treadmill. It led to a small, dimly lit foyer. I noticed the many locks on the door in the small room. I sure wasn't getting out of there through the front entrance. A window would be my best bet. But I hadn't seen one. Surely there had to be a window in this house!
A red haze whizzed by my head suddenly. I gasped in surprise and took a step back. The expertly thrown weapon lodged itself into the floor beside the bench press silently. I looked over to where the thing had come from, and my stomach did a flip. My captor had caught onto my little escape plan. Now he was standing at the doorway with his eyes narrowed into dangerous, white slits.
"No more games, kid," he growled. He took out three red X's from what seemed like nowhere. He held them in front of his face, ready to throw at a moment notice. This wasn't going to end well.
To Be Continued...
A/N: Some real sweet action is coming up! Red X and Gene go at it! I have it all planned out, but I can't give it to you because it would make this chapter WAY too long for my liking. And I want to ask you guys if you would go to my profile page and scroll all the way down to upcoming fics and tell me if you like that sum to my humor/mystery fic. Tell me if you would like to see it because I'm still unsure if I should post it. Thanks! And please review!