The 31st Night
Tria A Nox Noctis
Chapter 6: Luxuria
Raven was hurled back into consciousness after a night of torment. Her dreams were fanatical whimsies that sank lower and lower through the darkness. Screams and monsters and… fear.
She exhaled a vapid breath and brushed the blankets aside.
It was the morning.
And Robin would be hunting her down soon. No doubt to keep her to her word.
She wrenched a glance towards the clock sitting on her beside table. It was still early. If she was lucky she could get a shower in and stall for time.
A nice relaxing long shower. Tucking her messy hair back from her vision, Raven grabbed a new cloak and body suit from her closet.
Before she exited her room, she stood near her bedroom door silently. The last thing she needed was to open the door and find him. She needed time to consummate her thoughts correctly before talking to him.
The night's rest had given her no such peace.
There was no presence anywhere near her door. The closest one was Starfire, her radiant aura was swelling and falling calmly from a little further down the hall.
Raven slid her door aside and slipped out. The shower wasn't too far.
Nevertheless, she tread carefully and silently.
Robin was on alert. His mind had awoke long before the sun would stir, too early.
But the things that awaited the day were prominent. They buzzed in his mind and eased away the sleep.
When was the last time his own mind had allowed him the proper amount of sleep?
He couldn't remember. It didn't matter. He brushed his eyes, feeling the mask still there. In his contemplations, he had long forgotten to replace it.
There was a beeping noise that now drew his attentions. He pushed himself up, looking down at what he had been laying on. The keyboard.
The memory brought itself up. He had been… searching something. Online.
He wiggled the mouse to bring the screen in front of him to life. After a few seconds it kicked to life and brightened up.
There was pages of illiterate text from him sleeping on the keys. Robin rolled his eyes and closed out of the publishing document. He was about to shut down the computer when a minimized window caught his attention.
He clicked it, bringing up a search page
Superbia.
It was typed in the search box, the results scrolling below. It enraptured his curiosity. He didn't remember typing anything into search…
A sentence halfway down the page pricked that interest. It was bolded. "Superbia, also known as Pride…" He mouthed it aloud.
He clicked the link, a blinding white page loading up. Where had that word come from? It itched his brain. He had heard it somewhere before… somewhere…
The title of the web page read "Seven Deadly Sins". All seven were listed with their proper root name. Superbia.
Pride…
Raven?
Something clicked. Yes, she promised to talk to him this morning. Maybe she could explain this.
Robin book marked the page before hitting the monitor off button. There was a clean uniform hanging across his bed he had never gotten around to. Snatching it up, the boy hurried for the bathroom. A quick shower… and then Raven.
Robin couldn't help turning the ideas around and around in his head. Maybe he could raffle-shake them just right and come up with something.
He wasn't having much luck.
Padding into the bathroom, he swung the door shut, his hand moving to click the lock. His ears were attuned to the click… but it didn't come.
Placing his clothes down in a lumpy pile, he moved to the door lock, pushing it harder. Only after a minute of force did it lock properly. That's just what he needed, someone to walk in while he showered.
Cyborg would need to fix that later before it happened to someone.
Robin pulled his shirt up over his head, stretching in the same motion. His back arched up and curved, the shirt in his hands far above his head.
And then there was a foreign noise.
Raven wrapped a towel around herself, stepping out of the shower and sliding the glassy door behind her.
There was a half groan somewhere near her and Raven froze. She spun around, eyes searching for the cause of the alien noise.
Robin had turned at the same time, arms quickly falling to his sides and on guard.
And their eyes met.
Raven's violet hair was still dripping in stringy locks, droplets of water slid down her cheeks. The darkly colored towel was tucked tightly across her mid section, but did nothing to hide her legs.
Typically, Robin seen her legs quite often… but this was different. Very different.
It was but a second they stood frozen at each other, but the entirety of the situation drained into Robin's mental eye.
He was going to die. His heart was hammering painfully as if to prove the point. Raven's eyes narrowed.
To humans, the physical body meant something. She had seen the looks Robin sent Starfire. It was something Raven never quite got. How could the same basic anatomy make such… lust?
Her hand extended, the towel sliding slightly lower. Robin took a careful step back, hand reaching for the knob…
"Out!" She shrieked finally at him, whipping her arm forward. A wave of black magic came at him. It hit him before he could turn the knob and slashed him back through the wall and into the hall.
The landing must have been painful. If Robin had been paying any attention at all, it would have registered.
He slid to the floor in a slumping pile. He was alive.
With that memory.
He sat in that position a long time. There was no thoughts curling within his mind. There was shock setting in. Images kept bubbling beneath his eyelids.
Raven didn't come out of the bathroom, and he wasn't willing to check and see if she had phased out.
Instead he watched the wall quite blankly. That was something he never thought he'd see.
It was hard to consider Raven a sexual being. He had never really taken a thought to her being female and well…
Now she was. Clearly and obviously female.
His head thudded back against the way painfully. Never, never would he get rid of those images.
Raven laid on her bed. She stared at the ceiling a good long time.
That was… the most horrific thing to happen to her yet. Still, it wasn't tragic. Human placed too much important on the physical aspect of a being. No telling what kind of things were going through that boy's mind.
She hated to think of that. It had been her goal to seem as asexual as possible. She didn't need a demon child to further the Trigon legacy.
And now…
Hadn't he realized someone was in the bathroom? The fool.
How was she supposed to deal with him now?
Just on the bridges of her consciousness there was a headache blossoming.
Robin had ventured a knock on the bathroom door. His last set of clean clothes was still in there after all.
Not to mention it was probably a safe bet that Raven had fled.
There was no answer. Robin pulled a bird-a-rang from his belt intending to pick the lock
"Luxuria…"
The voice was familiar, but in the annoying manner of someone long forgotten. Someone with a misplaced name and number…
He spun on the spot, holding the weapon up to use the sharp end as a knife if need be.
The hallway was empty. He could feel the back of his neck prickling unkindly. It was the lack of beings that tensed the wave on his shoulder.
"Te spiritus…" It was behind him again and he turned to meet it.
"Devenio a mei." Behind him again.
Robin had made a complete circle, it still cooed just over his shoulder. Was he mad?
"What!" He shouted at it and spun around again. It was there, breathing hot against his throat. He swung and arm with the bird-a-rang over his shoulder to try and get at it.
The think stayed on him like a shadow. He could feel an abnormal prickling on his neck.
When he touched a hand there, it felt warm and gooey. Blood.
And then it came down on him. "Devenio!" Two sharp jabs punctured the flesh on the back of his neck. It was almost vampiric as he spun, a hand feeling the wound. He was bleeding, it was pulsing with his heart in a hungry rhythm.
His fear did not help the beat.
Instead of continuing to fight the invisible perpetrator, he ran.
His footsteps were messy and haphazard, but he started down the hallway, dropping the weapon and clamping the hand more tightly over the wound.
He was only halfway back down the hall when it jumped onto his back. The force and momentum tripped him up and Robin met the tiled floor hard.
Breathing was bloody. He had smacked his forehead and nose on the floor in a tragic manner. The thing was crushing his back and grinding him into the floor more. His spine cracked in places and his muscles were protesting.
Copper laced his tongue and his mind felt dizzy.
The blackness that had started on his back spread across his body, swallowing him whole.
"Have you seen Robin?" Starfire had ventured out of the kitchen with large oven mittens over her hands. There was a short apron tied around her waist with "Kiss the Cook" printed in scrawling print.
Cyborg raised an eye from the video game he was dominating to turn attention to the girl.
"Nope, but then again I haven't see Raven either."
"Oh." She sighed and fidgeted slightly with the mittens. There was a plastic spider dangling just above her head, having escaped its pasty web.
"Why? What have you cooked for Boy Blunder now?" Cyborg smacked a few keys to pull himself back into the lead. Beast Boy grunted beside him, wholeheartedly focused on the game.
She smiled a little coyly. "I have perfected the pie of pumpkins."
"Mmm." Cyborg mumbled in his throat. "Easiest way to a man's heart is through his stomach." He commented.
Starfire seemed perplexed. "That sounds most painful."
Cyborg took his eyes from the screen to give her a pleading look. "It's a figure of speech."
"Aah." She nodded. "What does it mean?"
"The surest way to a man's affections is food." Cyborg worded his answer carefully. He had learned long ago what dangers it was to be giving the girl an incorrect, or possibly interpretable, definition was.
Starfire nodded, feeling her cheeks warm. It was true she offered him plenty of her home-world creations.
Did he really appreciate it that much?
She hugged her arms around herself smiling a bit. "If you see him will you tell him I have made the pie?"
Cyborg stifled a smile and turned back to finish off the game. "Sure Star, whatever you say."
Raven drummed her fingers on the table. Everyone was seated down for dinner but Robin was still missing.
She didn't give much thought to the reason, he was simply avoiding her. Maybe that was the best course. After… this morning. Both needed a little space. A lot of space.
Starfire seemed worried though. For some reason she kept glancing at her perfect pie sitting on the counter. She had denied Beast Boy when he asked to have a slice. It was particular behavior for such a generous girl.
At least this way she wouldn't have to explain anything. By the time he got over whatever was going on internally, the spell would be finished. Then he wouldn't be able to blame any of the weirdness on her.
Only a few more days now…
She pushed the food around on her plate not at all hungry. No one seemed to notice or care. She passed up food often.
Her body needed little nourishment.
While her mind was wandering, her food mixing in a ghastly concoction there was a sudden spark.
Something sharp, a quick surging power pricked her senses. It was familiar, in a dreadful way. Her body froze as she concentrated on it. It was in the tower… a little ways off.
It pulsed malevolently. She needed to go see it immediately.
Raven stood, brushing her cape around her and sliding the chair back in. Cyborg gave her a sidelong glance but she wasn't paying him any attention.
"Raven?"
He called but she was already striding out of the room.
It was the aura again. But even as she grew closer it was falling away. She ran, but the spirit kept with her pace.
When she reached its pulsing point, the entirety of it had vanished. She was in the middle of a hallway. Her breathing was a little ragged.
She was just a few feet from the bathroom door now.
Something terrible was still fuming around in her stomach. Her and Robin had been here earlier. And she hadn't seem Robin yet.
Damn.
Starfire hummed as she cleared off the dinner table. The rest of the Titans had dispersed, leaving her with kitchen duty. Usually Robin would stick around and help her. She still hadn't seen him.
She missed his presence. Always just beside her, warming her skin with his presence.
She sighed and tried not to dwell on such occasions. It made concentrating on her task that much harder.
The girl dumped the used plates into the sink and turned on the faucet to warm the water.
"Luxuria…" Starfire had been caught up inside her mind, unnoticing of the hissing voice.
She placed the bouquet of flowers back into the center of the table, running her fingers across the velvet petals. Her pie was still sitting untouched on the table. A sigh escaped her lips as she moved to grab it. She'd have to put it into the refrigerator. But then it wouldn't be any good… the demon blue fuzz still dwelled there. And after all her effort.
"Spiritus… Devenio."
Starfire caught it this time, turning around with the pie in her hands. The living room was empty.
"Te saligiare…"
"H-hello?" Starfire took a step back, bumping back into the table.
"Te spiritus edo usurpo." The voice was stronger, alluring its victim.
Starfire was shaking, trying to find the source of noise.
And then there were eyes. It wept tears of blood as it came for her. Crimson streaks down ivory cheeks.
Starfire screamed, the dish falling from her hands. The force overtook her before it shattered the floor.
Luxuria: Also known as Lust. Robin and Starfire are guilty of these emotions. Robin for being male, Starfire is from a race of beings that are very physical.
Next chapter: Invidia
Translation: Lust… Your spirit, come to me. You are guilty of sin.. You belong to me.
Sorry this took so long, computer problems galore, it ate this chapter twice. Anger. Review please. And no yelling about couples or whatnot this is horror, not romance.
:Bloody Fae: