I do not own anything relating to the Teen Titans.

Opening the Closet Door a Crack – Chapter 10

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The next morning, Raven, Starfire and Cyborg each left their tents to reenter the main tent where the titans assembled most mornings when they were traveling. It was generally large enough for them to meet if it rained or snowed. The cooking was generally done outside. However, they had some refrigeration in the main tent and, most importantly, a coffee maker. Being that this is where they left their two compatriots the previous night, their hope was that they were still asleep. Their fear was that they had woken up and were resuming their fight. What greeted them was something in the middle.

Robin and Beast Boy were both awake, the gas having worn off. Both were sitting at the table eating. Both were sullen. Both were pointedly ignoring each other. This did not bode well.

Cyborg motioned Starfire to silence before she began her normal morning greetings. "Uhh, morning guys."

"Morning," both mumbled. Silence descended again.

"Ok, anyone want to discuss last night?" he continued.

Both shook their heads.

Starfire could contain herself no longer. "I am most sorry that you both hate each other now." The look of sadness on her face was heart wrenching.

"I don't hate him." Both said simultaneously, then turned to glare at each other.

"Well, last night it seemed as if you were trying to kill each other."

"If I wanted him dead, he would be." Again both said this at the exact same moment. At this, both rose and started what appeared to be a rather deadly glaring contest at each other, looking to see which one would back down.

"I do have a question for you Robin. Beast Boy said you have a 'hard on' for me. Neither friend Cyborg nor friend Raven would answer my question last night and you have always helped me understand human behavior. What does this mean?"

At that, both teens visibly deflated. Robin turned a bright red and Beast Boy hunched his shoulders in embarrassment.

Under his breath, Robin muttered to Beast Boy, "I am SO going to kill you."

"Dude," also under his breath, "would it help if I said I'm sorry about that?"

"No."

"Didn't think so." Speaking in a normal voice, Beast Boy said, "Hey, Starfire, you know, we've got to meet with Dr. Warren at 10, shouldn't we start getting ready?"

"Beast Boy, we have well over two hours before our meeting with Dr. Warren. Do NOT think to distract me with such an obvious request. I want to KNOW what you meant last night."

To Robin, again under his breath, "Well, I tried."

You could practically see the sweat pouring off of the two boys. Raven looked at them with a combination of enjoyment and embarrassment. She turned to face Cyborg, expecting to see a grin at the predicament their teammates had been backed into. Instead, he looked almost as nervous as they were. She decided to use her empathy to see what was going on. The three boys were mortified. It was apparent that they would prefer ANYTHING to explaining this to their naïve teammate. Robin was actually stuttering as he tried, somehow, to even begin explaining this.

"Oh for Azar's sake! Starfire, I said I would tell you in the morning. Why don't we go to your tent so I can explain it in private." She then turned to the two boys. "You two owe me BIG for this." The gratitude that extended to each of the teenagers' faces at Raven's offer was remarkable. If they could have they would have been groveling thanks on their knees. Raven took Starfire outside and they made their way to the princess's tent.

Beast Boy turned to his team leader. "How fast do you think we can clean up, change and get out of here before they come back?" Robin looked at the changeling.

"Not fast enough."

"Still worth a try," he replied. At that Robin and Beast Boy looked at each other and broke for the door, running for their respective tents.

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Remarkably, either the two teens were far faster than they had anticipated, or the explanation took longer than expected, the five teens did not meet again until they were on their way to meet with Dr. Warren. Cyborg looked comparatively normal, although still a bit uneasy; Robin and Beast Boy were hesitant, furtively looking around as if waiting for disaster to strike. Raven was looking daggers at Beast Boy, with her usual anger at being roped into a situation that she did NOT want to be involved in.

Of all people, Starfire seemed the most complacent regarding the situation. Once again, she was flabbergasted by the rather bizarre taboos and restrictions that humans put on perfectly ordinary functions and relationships between people. What was the problem? The mystique and convoluted boundaries that humans put on basic functions was puzzling, to say the least. If she lived to be ten thousand bumfords, she would never understand it. So, as she usually did, she put it aside until later, when she could discuss it in private with the people she wanted. Or waited until events revealed themselves in such a way that it made reasonable sense (admittedly, given human behavior, something that was few and far between).

So, the five made their way towards the administrative building. During their comparatively short walk, they passed by the library. There were several trucks outside the building, many with signs for security work. Silently to himself, Robin thought, 'thank you Alfred'.

Promptly at 10, the titans presented themselves to the secretary to Dr. Warren and announced themselves. As, this time, the secretary had been alerted to the appointment, there was no delay in ushering them into the president's office. As with the previous day, Dr. Warren was seated behind his desk. Unlike the previous day, however, a great deal of the warmth had evaporated. While he did not look particularly pleased to see them, at least he did not appear ready to have them arrested.

Before any of the titans could start, he said, "First off, I'm relieved to see that repair work on the library has begun. I stopped by on the way to the office and it seems that much of the damage has already been corrected. Right now, upgrades to the electrical system are being put in for what appears to be a significant upgrade in the security and preservation system of the library. In speaking with the foreman, all of the repairs and upgrades will be completed by mid-afternoon. So, thank you for that."

"However, that does not address the destruction of the Necronomicon page."

At that Robin spoke up. "As we discussed yesterday, I believe that if we were to track down Dr. Carter, he would be the most likely candidate to be able to locate a copy of the page. As you said, it would be for the most part impossible to find a copy of the entire book as a replacement."

"To that end, we plan to continue our search for Dr. Carter. From what I understand, his next move after visiting the library was to investigate Innsmouth. Yesterday when we mentioned that name, you seemed concerned."

"Innsmouth," Dr. Warren began, "Innsmouth….Innsmouth has a very odd, unsavory reputation. The town is largely deserted now, probably no more than a hundred residents. At one point, roughly two hundred years ago, it was a good sized port, almost a city. But, some strange things happened there and back in the 1920s, during the time of Prohibition, the US government went in and cleaned out the entire area. Claimed they were looking for rumrunners. However, they also torpedoed the nearby reef, Devil's Reef, or so the rumor goes. The feds never did fully explain what they were doing and still won't release info on the matter. The area residents have their own opinions. "

"If Carter was going there, well, he must have suspected something. Most folks won't even talk about Innsmouth, let alone go there."

"Is there anything you would be willing to tell us?" inquired Raven.

Dr. Warren hesitated again. The silence dragged on as the president considered the request. Finally, he appeared to come to a decision. "Look, I'm a local boy, born and raised in Dunwich. You DON'T talk about Innsmouth." More quietly, he continued, "in fact, there are many things we don't talk about."

"Still, I can give you some of the basics. The town, as I said, was a significant port for a time. Round 1840 or so, the marshes and bogs became so thick that the town became practically sealed off. Always plenty of fish around the port and, for a time, the town was largely dependent on Marsh Refining Company for its economy. They produced a number of gold jewelry and industrial gold. No one knew, exactly, where the gold came from. The major town figure was Captain Obed Marsh, a sea captain around 1840 when the town withdrew into itself. He started the refining company after he gave up actual captaining. He was actually powerful enough to get an extension to the rail line into the town. Still, the town declined. The rail fell into disuse, the new line never went through. Even now, there's no direct interstate nearby, just a few county roads. The people are reclusive, don't even leave the town much. Occasionally, you see one of the younger people leave, but not often. The townspeople have a 'look' about them. And I think that's all I'll say on the matter."

Robin started to question the doctor further, but he interrupted, "No. Titans, this isn't the big city, this isn't even small town America. This is the Miskatonic Valley, one of the oldest regions of the country. There are secrets here that people don't talk about, even among themselves. I've probably revealed more today than you could get in a year questioning hundreds of people."

"Now, I think it's time you left." The five teens made their farewells and turned to go. Before they left, Warren said, "Remember, titans, there are secrets and mysteries here in this area that have remained buried for hundreds of years. There's a good reason why they remain buried."

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The titans silently made their way back to camp considering the parting words that Dr. Warren had made. Packing up their tents and supplies, they placed everything aboard the T-Jet and lifted off for the short flight to Innsmouth. As the town was only a few miles away, it would not take long.

Leaving the comparatively upscale Miskatonic University campus and bucolic Arkham, the titans flew over various forests and farms. Crossing the Miskatonic River, the T-Jet made its way towards the ocean. As they did so, the scenery began to change. Farms began to disappear, the forests began to thin out and were replaced by bogs and marshes. There were roads to follow, but they looked half abandoned, unkempt. Potholes were numerous and at one point, large sections had been washed away by the marshes. As the jet made its way cautiously towards the shoreline, a town appeared. At least, something that resembled a town.

It was more a large collection of dilapidated buildings. On the outskirts, many were in ruin. These were smaller buildings, homesteads. Many had boarded up windows. Some simply had fallen into disrepair. As the titans neared the center of town, the buildings were larger, at one time richer. None the less, these too were largely in ruins. Nothing appeared to be well kept, nothing appeared to be inhabited. There were no signs of life anywhere.

The T-Jet circled the town once to scout out the area and look for a place to land that was close to the center of the village. Surprisingly, even after a sweep around the area, no one came out. It can't have been that the sight of an ultramodern jet was so familiar that it aroused no interest. Yet, there were no people out to see what was making the noise.

"Man," exclaimed Cyborg, "where IS everyone? I don't see any signs of life anywhere."

"Cyborg," ordered Robin, "check for heat patterns, maybe we can determine where everyone is." Cyborg looked at his screen.

"There ARE people down there, a few here, a few there. Couple of things seem odd, but they're there."

"Robin," interrupted Raven, "there's a clearing over to the west, a short distance from the town center. Looks like a good place to land without disturbing anything."

"What's to disturb?" piped up Beast Boy, "The wreckage? Looks like a good sneeze will bring the whole town down. Dudes, this is one depressing place. Can't imagine why ANYONE would even come here, let alone live here. You sure Carter was coming here?"

"That's what his notes said," answered Robin. "He wrote that there was an unusual cult located here, the Esoteric Order of Dagon, that he wanted to investigate."

The titans made their way to the clearing that Raven had spotted and landed the ship. While they were going through the landing procedures, Robin laid out the plan of action.

"OK team, this is a simple investigation. First we'll head for the hotel that Carter was staying at to see if there are any clues remaining. Afterwards, we make our way to the Esoteric Order of Dagon and see if we can pick up any idea of where he may have gone."

Powering down the T-Jet, the titans opened the hatches to their compartments.

"Uggghhh, MAN! What a smell!" exclaimed Cyborg. "That's going to put me off of my lunch."

"What is that aroma?" asked Starfire.

"Fish," replied Robin, "This is a port and Dr. Warren said that the area was heavy with fish. Most port towns tend to smell this way. Not quite as strong though."

"No." responded Beast Boy. The other titans looked at him. He looked faintly sick to his stomach. After a few more seconds, he looked more ill. You couldn't tell how sick because he was always green. This time however, it became obvious. The changeling ran over behind the T-Jet and was rather noisily ill. The other titans looked at one another. Beast Boy's senses were quite a bit more enhanced than the rest of them. Something was disturbing him. Raven hurried over to where he was. The teen was starting to get back to his feet from being on his hands and knees. She put his arm around his shoulder and helped him back over to the others.

"No," he repeated. "It's not fish, well, at least it's not entirely fish. There is a strong fish presence here. Cod mostly, but a good deal of bluefish and bass. But, there's something else here too. Something foul." He practically spit that last word out in disgust. "There's something…unnatural, blasphemous here."

"I didn't even know you knew the word blasphemous," a stunned Raven replied, "even so, that's a strange word for you to use, considering I'm a half-demon."

"Naw, your scent is normal, natural. This is….I can't come up with a word bad enough for it. No wonder there are no animals here, nothing would put up with this."

"What do you mean there are no animals here, green bean?" asked Cyborg.

Beast Boy looked at him in amazement. "Can't you tell rustbucket? There's no noise, no normal animal sounds. I can't hear ANYTHING around us. I can't even smell anything underneath that, well, for lack of a better word, fish smell."

The titans all paused. After a moment or so, Robin responded, "He's right, I can't hear anything. Even in a normal environment, you hear birds, small animals, something."

"Dude, NOTHING will live here."

"Friend Beast Boy, will you be able to accompany us on our investigation? It would be most upsetting if you were not able to join us."

"Yeah Star, I'll be able to go. Just need a second or two to get used to the smell. Maybe a year or two actually. Actually, I'll never get used to the smell. Still, you won't get rid of me that easily." He said with his trademark grin.

Locking up the T-Jet, the titans made their way to the center of town. It did not look any more appealing from ground level than it did from the air. In fact, it looked considerably worse. You could see the evidence of decay and decrepitude everywhere. Nothing had been kept up. Windows had been boarded up, mostly on the second floors of buildings. What few sidewalks existed were broken. Most of the street was not even paved, just dirt.

"Man, how do these people live? No pizzeria, no burger place, no video store. Come to think of it, I don't see anything other than that one grocery store down the road there." Said Cyborg.

"I'm not interested in pizza for the moment," answered Robin. "Let's head over to the hotel there and see what they can tell us about Carter."

The titans made their way to the hotel. It was a large building, not quite as dilapidated as the other buildings, but still obviously not well kept up. There were five floors, although most of the upper stories had their windows boarded up. The front windows were dirty, not having been cleaned in decades. The porch was bare of furniture. The paint had peeled years ago. There was only a single light bulb to illuminate the front after dark. If you were not certain that it was open for business due to the small vacancy sign in the dirty window, you might think the building as abandoned as the rest of the town.

The titans went into the Gilmore House.

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Well, I warned you that updates would be more sporadic as I'm currently in my busy season. Still, at least I got them to Innsmouth. I seem to be having trouble with my e-mail connection with FanFiction. For some reason, I'm not getting messages from them, so I apologize if I've not responded. My thanks to my readers, as always, for their attention and interest.

And as always, my eternal thanks to my reviewers.

Thingone – Well, remember, it's the other titans that are suspecting the leadership issue. That doesn't necessarily mean that's where I'm going (oooooh, wasn't that sneaky). Still, you are quite correct, there is, and should be given their comparative histories, a bit of resentment between the two.

Downward Spiral 1 – I acknowledge, it IS slow to build, as is most of Lovecraft's longer works. Each of the four arcs will build upon each other and the pace will increase. This second arc will be a little different as there are a number of clues necessary in order to get to the third arc (where the action really starts).

TheForceIsStrongWithThisOne – THANK YOU. You recognize that there was more posturing between the two than actual fighting. Remember, these two are still friends. They don't really want to hurt each other (much).

Soulseekerthe13th – All Right, a fellow Lovecraftian. Yeah, I took some liberties. Did you notice that I had one of the volumes in Princeton? It's actually in Harvard, but that's too close to Arkham and I wanted them to go right to Miskatonic. Hadn't thought of the Norms, I was aiming for the Fates. Still many scholars believe that the Norse Norms were heavily influenced by the Greek concept of the fates. And I'm not done with them.

Novus Ordo Seclorum – Hah, I really enjoyed that myself. The followup is here (which I also really enjoyed). Just because there is horror here doesn't mean I can't put in some comic relief. Glad you enjoyed it.

Crimson Black – Glad you are enjoying this as well. As I said in the beginning, each Titan will have a key part to play in the storyline. But you have hit on WHY Starfire will be the final key.

Until next time my friends, sleep well.