"Rob, man? You OK?"
The voice was Cyborg's. He frowned. His head was pounding.
"I feel like we've done this before," said Robin. He saw Starfire and Raven exchange looks. "Did I… Did I wake up before?"
"You were awake about two minutes ago," said Raven. "We were talking in the hall. Then you just passed out."
Robin remembered clearly now. Everything that happened. Of course. He'd been talking to Raven. He started to walk away when he began to feel woozy. And then, he supposed, he passed out.
Cyborg reached a hand to help him up. "Think you can stand?'
Robin put a hand to his head and tried to do just that. His legs felt weak and heavy beneath them, like someone had filled them with cement or…
"You look a little wobbly there," said Beast Boy, taking Robin's arm around his shoulder as Cyborg supported his other side. "You doin' OK?"
"Perhaps he should eat more, yes?" said Starfire.
Robin frowned at her. She was blurry, but he could tell that she was wearing…
"Why are you in your wedding dress?" he squinted further. "And why is it streaked with—"
"Robin!" Starfire exclaimed, covering herself. "It's bad luck to see the bride before the wedding!"
"How's the luck about seeing a corpse before the funeral?"
All the Titans, confused, turned to look behind them. Terra stood at the end of it, goggles on, pointing a gun. She didn't pull the trigger, but there was a small sound, like a little girl's gasp. They turned to look again, and it was Raven, little Raven. She was dressed in white and doubled over. She looked at her hands and Robin was surprised to see blood on them. Little Raven had been shot in the stomach.
"Hey Raven, I think you've got something on your shirt," said Cyborg.
Beast Boy shrugged. "Don't worry, it shouldn't be too hard to get out."
"I've washed blood out of my clothes before," said Starfire, and Robin turned to look at her now. Her neck was bleeding all over her wedding dress, but she kept speaking. "All you need is a little bleach."
All of a sudden, Robin was pinned to the floor by the Raven in the red dress.
He found himself in the old mansion by the grave yard. Raven was straddling him, pinning his shoulders to the floor, a look of grave intensity across her features. Her long hair fell in front of her face and Robin could feel it tickling his cheeks. She looked down at him and smiled.
It caught him off guard because she was particularly beautiful. All her makeup was perfectly in place. Her eyes were warm. Robin opened his mouth to speak, but she put a finger to his lips.
She leant in slowly to kiss him. She tasted like cinnamon. She smelt of lavender.
He felt at home. He felt relaxed. He felt… strangled?
Raven's hands were around Robin's neck. His mouth was open, trying to find air. Then she pulled a bottle of bleach out from behind her and poured it down his throat.
"Starfire was right," said Raven. "All you need is a little bleach."
Robin found himself waking up with his friends around him. He felt an odd sense of déjà vu.
"Rob, man? You OK?"
The voice was Cyborg's. Robin felt very confused. His head hurt. He groaned.
"Have we done this before?" His voice seemed to echo.
Starfire was within his vision instantly. "Robin! You are not well."
"None of this is making any sense…" Robin said, groggily. There was a thumping in his head, like jungle war drums.
"Of course it doesn't," came Cyborg's voice from somewhere. "You've been unconscious for four days."
"What?" Robin looked around and blearily noted that he was in the medical wing. His heart sank as he remembered. He became afraid. "No… No! No, don't touch me!"
He sat up immediately and his head began to spin. He laid back down. Then it occurred to him. He could move. Just to check the reality of this theory, he flexed his fingers. He looked up at Starfire, frightened. "Don't… Don't let them hurt me, Starfire."
The girl's eyes widened with pain and worry. She stroked his hair and wiped the sweat away from his brow. "Oh Robin, what has happened to you?"
"His vitals look good," came Cyborg's voice again. "Running a few more tests. I'll be right back, gotta get the results from his CT."
"Where have you been dude?" Beast Boy asked. It was then that he realized Beast Boy was even there. Everything was going so fast. Bright… The lights were so bright. Robin felt nauseous. And this time, it wouldn't go away.
He turned away from Starfire and vomited on the floor. There was silence.
"Ew."
The deadpan voice could belong to no other but Raven. Robin could barely make her out, standing in the corner. She slowly floated over to the table.
"But don't worry about it," she said, equally expressionless.
Starfire was still stroking his hair, but her speed had increased. Like if she'd stopped, then she would lose him again. "Robin… where have you been?"
"What?" said Robin.
"You left without a word…" tears were welling in Starfire's eyes. "In the middle of the night…"
"Well, he didn't leave completely without a word," Raven pointed out. She favored him with a rare, albeit sarcastic smile. "You informed us we're out of milk."
"You wouldn't believe the hours the police spent pouring over that note!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "As though it was a secret code or something." He laughed. Robin welcomed the laughter, even though it was obviously done out of nervousness.
"We found you in a coffin," Raven said, and for some reason her voice saying it bothered him more an anything. "All… tuxedoed up like you were going to a wedding."
"Or a funeral…" Robin didn't know why he said it. Neither did his friends.
"We searched all over the city for four days," said Starfire.
"Straigh," Raven added.
"And when Raven couldn't find you with her mind powers…" Beast Boy started, but trailed off.
"And when we found you in that coffin…" Starfire said.
"Let's just say we thought the worst," Raven finished for both of them.
"But then, Cyborg said you were breathing," Beast Boy explained.
"And that you had a pulse!" Starfire added.
"In short, that you weren't dead," Raven said.
Robin squinted up at Starfire. He caressed her cheek. He sighed with relief.
"Thank God…" he said, smiling. "Thank God it's you."
Starfire blushed, but smiled at him.
"And thank God it's you!" said Raven. "We really thought we'd lost you there, Robin. You still haven't told us. What happened to you?"
Robin closed his eyes and shook his throbbing head. "No, no, no, I don't know…"
"There are too many questions. We must let him relax." Starfire was not asking, she was insisting. "We shall let him alone until Cyborg returns with the results of his tests."
But Robin's arm shot out to grab Starfire. "No!" he
exclaimed. "No, Starfire, please don't leave me."
Starfire looked at Raven and Beast Boy, then down at Robin. "I believe Cyborg
said you needed rest…"
"Guys?" The voice belonged to Cyborg. He must have just entered the room. "Can I talk to you outside for a moment?"
His voice sounded grave. Robin didn't like it. Starfire looked down at him and placed her hand over Robin's, which was still clutching her other forearm. She gave him a warm smile.
"We won't be long," she whispered, soothingly. "I promise."
Robin held his hand tightly and shook his head, dead serious. "I swear, Starfire… I don't know what happened to me, but I'm…" He'd been through so much, he didn't care what she thought of him. He sighed. "I've never been more scared in my life and what's worse, I don't know why. I don't like it. I don't feel like I'm in control anymore. Something's going on, Starfire, something bad."
"Hush," said Starfire, kneeling down to look him eye to eye. "You are safe now."
"I know…" said Robin. "I know, and thank God you found me, Starfire. Thank God I'm here."
She smiled at him and squeezed his hand, before rising to her feet and meeting the others outside.
Robin sighed as he lay on the hospital bed and stared at the black ceiling. He closed his eyes and felt the relief wash over him. Even his headache seemed to fade away. He took a deep breath and felt like he was beginning to smile.
But when he opened his eyes again, he was lying in the middle of the black and white tiled floor in the mansion by the graveyard.
And all the memories came flooding back. Raven's death. Starfire's stained wedding dress. Terra the executioner. The corpse. The bleach. The cinnamon kisses… Lavender and Mango…
No.
No!
Robin was screaming. He was in a loop of nightmares that he couldn't crawl out of. Even when he felt for sure that he'd found his way out he'd somehow slipped back in again. All of a sudden, he couldn't help it. He began to cry with frustration. He knew now that he had to be dreaming, it was the only explanation. He just needed to wake himself up. But how?
Staring up at the vaulted ceiling, he realized he had another, more immediate problem.
Hanging from the rafters like a bat was a large, angry, demonic raven.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In case you read through that whole thing and realized there was something familiar-- or in case you were bright enough to realize this chapter was a repeat and skipped to the end of the page to see if it changed, good on you. One of my favorite Stephen King lines is "Hell is repetition." The truth is, Robin's in a loop. And every event that happened in the last chapter could have looped. In fact, I allude to that a lot. Hence the purpose of this chapter. Yes, every word (but the author's note) is identical to the last. You may call it superfluous, and flag the authorities (I'd rather you tell me first). But this repeated chapter was not a glitch. It had a point.
I wouldn't have explained this, except I knew I would have gotten a lot of comments about the "repeated chapter."