Chapter 10: The Nightmare Returns
Richard raced down the empty street looking frantically for Kori, "Kori! Kori! Where are you?" 'I have to find her! She's got to be close; she couldn't have gotten that far.'
Roy drove down the quiet streets. He was the only one on the road this late at night. Roy rolled his windows down to let the cool night air in the car and shut off the radio. Today's racing gave him a pounding headache. Inhaling deeply Roy looked out the window as he drove down the deserted neighborhood street.
Suddenly hearing a horrifying scream he made a sharp U-turn and pulled his car into a vacant parking lot. Jumping out of the car Roy raced back down the street.
"Robin help!" A large cold hand roughly covered her mouth and pushed her to the hard, wet ground.
Kori felt her head slam against the concrete as she fell. She closed her eyes for a few seconds to try and get rid of the throbbing headache she had.
Sitting up slowly she looked up at the man through tear filled eyes. "Pl-please please, don't hurt me, I'll-I'll give you anything you want." She stuttered slowly backing up against the hard, damp brick wall.
The man smiled and stepped forward, "what I want," he said with a grin, "is you."
Richard froze, he couldn't make out what the person had said when they screamed but he recognized the voice-her voice. Turning around Richard ran in the direction of the scream.
The man lifted Kori up by her forearms and slammed her into the wall. Leaning in close to her he ran the cold edge of the knife along her neck.
"I haven't seen you in years," he said absentmindedly staring into space and running the knife along her neck without leaving a single cut. "We had so much fun together Kori; I don't know why you would leave. I remember when I first saw you, at the bar, in downtown Jump City. Boy have you moved up in the ranks."
Kori turned her head and closed her eyes and she listening to him and tried to move as far away as possible. His grip on her arms was so tight that she could feel them becoming numb.
Pulling her towards him he pulled her head up and pressed her lips hard against his. Feeling her fight back he pulled away and slammed her into the wall once again, this time harder than the last.
"I told you not to fight me you little bitch." Kori whimpered from the pain in her head and at the threat in his voice. "When I first saw you at that bar, man could you dance" he said in a far off voice, "you were gorgeous, still are." He replied running his hands up and down her body as she tried to wriggle from his grasp.
SLAP! Kori felt the burning heat on the right side of her face as his hand came across it in once swift motion.
"I knew from that moment on that I had to have you, and if I can't, I won't let anyone else have you either.
"Thanks" Raven said to the cab driver as he pulled up in front of her house. "No problem," the driver replied as he pulled out the last of her suitcases from the trunk. Hopping back into the drivers' seat he speeded off down the block. Raven picked up her suitcases and headed up the stairs to unpack.
Her editor loved her new book, hopefully so would the public. Considering everything went so well today she decided to change to an earlier flight. She was really supposed to come back tomorrow but why prolong the inevitable. She'd have to come back to this city eventually and face all the drama waiting for her here. So why not just get it over with, maybe things would be clearer in the morning.
After all, she'd been up since yesterday morning working on getting everything organized for her meeting and thinking about her whole fight with Kori.
Putting her suitcases on the hardwood floor by her dining room table she turned on her light and sat in one of the chairs. 'How could she have lied to me like that? Why would she do that and then have the nerve to give me hell because of what I did by accident. I just don't believe her, I always thought we could trust each other; we could be there for each other. Well that's never going to happen, that lying bitch should drop dead!'
Dropping her head into her hands Raven closed her eyes and felt the tears run down her hands. "How could she do this to me?"
Roy raced down the block and into the alleyway. There he could see a girl cowering from a man holding a knife to her neck. But not just any girl, "Kori!"
The man's head snapped to face Roy. His eyes narrowed as he roughly slammed Kori to the ground.
Kori could feel her skull crack as her head hit the ground. She heard an ear- splitting shot being fired before her eyes closed.
Kori could feel herself being pulled up and rested against the all too familiar brick wall. "Wake up, beautiful, wake up," he cooed grabbing her face and moving it side-to-side.
Kori groaned and slowly opened her heavy eyes. "I didn't want to have to have to shoot anyone, really I didn't, but I had no choice." He explained running his hand through his dark brown hair. Kori blinked and slowly looked up, her head felt as if it was being pushed together.
"Who, who did you shoot?" she whispered slowly. Bringing his face closer to hers he whispered back, "no one important." "Who did you shoot?" she asked again.
"I said no one important!" he screamed digging his nails into her check. "You should know better than to talk back." Holding the knife to her arm he slid it down slowly watching the blood flow down it.
"Now it's just you and me, Kori." Kori looked up and began to thrash in his arms. Breaking free she started running down the alleyway.
"Not so fast!" He screamed pulling the gun out of his back pocket. Without wasting anytime he raised the gun and fired.
Richard ran down the block checking each alleyway. He had an idea of what might have happened to Kori…
He just prayed that he was wrong.
Kori fell to the black cement putting her hand out to protect her face. She was burning; it felt as if she was on fire. The left side of her body, it burned! She knew he had shot her in the shoulder; she could feel it becoming numb as the blood rushed over her shoulder and down her back and arm.
"Out of bullets, shit!" he yelled throwing the gun to the ground. He never expected to use it. He only loaded it with only five bullets in case things got messy. He'd missed that man three times and hit him on the fourth. He was able to shoot Kori on the first shot, which was good for him, because it was all he had left. He only hoped that man was dead, he was still breathing a little while ago, if that man was alive…without a gun, he'd be in trouble.
"You should know by now Kori you can't run away." He spoke slowly as he walked up to her and leaned over her. Grabbing her bleeding shoulder he turned her on her back.
"Ahhhhhhh!" Kori screamed as she arched her back in pain. Flickering her eyes open she looked up into his black eyes.
Holding the knife out to her face he sigh, "I didn't want to shoot you Kori; I especially didn't want to shoot you. But you just do these things; you make me do it Kori you make me do it!" He screamed slicing the knife over her stomach. He watched with satisfaction as blood seeped through her shirt.
Flipping the knife over he held the hard, thick metal back over her already battered body, "now, we can have some real fun."
Richard ran his hands over his face and through his hair. 'Where is she, I have to find her. I'm running out of time.'
Richard froze, he could hear the screams, they're so close. "Kori!"
"No, No please!" she begged, the pain was unbearable. She could feel the back of the knife as he slammed it into her skin, into her body. "You're begging to stop already; we haven't even gotten to the best part yet." He smiled.
He put the knife on the ground and leaned back, he chuckled as he watched Kori lean to the side to cough up the blood clogging her mouth. "Please, don't do this," she spit out.
He laughed, "Kori, Kori, Kori, I haven't done anything yet."
Before he even knew what he was doing, Richard had grabbed the man's shoulders and slammed him back into the wall. "Leave her alone!"
Flipping the knife over the man slammed it into Richard's forearm. Falling to the ground Richard gripped his arm. Wiping his bloody hands on his shirt Richard stood up.
"Leave her alone." He said again. The man's black eyes narrowed as he pointed the bloody knife at Richard and ran towards him.
Backing up, Richard kicked the knife out of the man's hand. Grabbing the knife off the ground Richard skidded across the alley and shoved the knife into the man's leg. Immediately, the man fell to the ground. Richard took this opportunity to slam the man in the head with his leg. After seeing the man fall to the floor unconscious, Richard ran down the alley.
"Kori! Kori!" Leaning down Richard wiped the damp hair out of her face. "Kori" he breathed. Resting his fingers on her neck he sigh with relief when he felt her heartbeat. It was shallow and slow, but it was there, he just didn't know for how long.
"How could I let this happen to you?" Gently lifting her head off the cement, he rested it on his knee. Richard squeezed his eyes shut at the pain emanating from his forearm.
Removing his hand from under her head to grip his arm he froze. His fingers we covered in blood, Kori's blood. Her head was bleeding. 'If I don't get her to the hospital soon, she'll die.'
"R-robin" she whispered almost inaudibly. Reaching up a bruised and bloody arm with what looked like all her strength she rested her fingers on his cheek.
Richard rested his hand on top of hers, "I'm here Kori, I'm right here. I'm gonna get you help."
Kori smiled slightly. Richard watched as she closed her eyes and her hand slid off his cheek and fell limply to her side.
"Star! Starfire!"