A/N: Long over due update but thank you to those who reviewed. Inspiration for this story struck then left me after I did the prologue. Now, it's back. Let's get this show on the road.

Thanks to the following: Titan linz, Dancing through the Storm, and Angelfeet. This chapter (way late update, I know!) is dedicated to y'all. XD

CHAPTER ONE

She woke and looked around herself, still lying down on her bed. It was raining. It had been raining for a week straight. She found that odd. But then again, she now lived in Bludhaven, a city that literally was haunted by the weird. For instance, Nightwing.

She rose from the bed.

Bludhaven had it's own hero. A vigilante who hadn't been caught on camera by anyone. Not really. Just blurs here and there. But by the voice of those he'd saved, this iconic figure had survived news hysteria.

The room shifted and she clutched her head.

A voice yelled. Not her own.

She heard laughter, spine chilling laughter.

Then it stopped.

She released her head and panted. These voices. They were getting worse. She really wasn't even safe in her own head anymore. As weird as that sounded, she wasn't. She rose. She wasn't going to get sleep anyway and made her way to her kitchen. She placed a pot on the stove to boil water. She glanced around her small place, the kitchen being connected to the living room, the largest room in the apartment. Dark decorations of even darker origins decorated the living room. Heavy literature books were miscelleniously placed here and there. They didn't seemed organized but to her, they were. She was currently majoring in literature. But not the common literature you'd think they'd offer in Bludhaven University.

The sticker indicator on the pot alerted her that the water was ready.

She sneaked a cup from her cup boards and poured the water. She took a packet of tea from the nearly empty box on her counter top and placed it in. she paused and braced her hand onto the counter top's edge. She bit her lip. With a foreboding feeling, she glanced at the cookie jar at the corner of said counter top. Where inside, laid her sleeping pills.

She got a headache just thinking about it.

Raven had gone to a psychiatrist since a small child.

Her mother – the father long gone as soon as he hear he'd fathered a child – had taken her to a specialist as a kid, speculating her cries of monsters and creatures in her bedroom as a case of misplaced attention hogging.

Whatever. That didn't make sense. Raven budged away from the spotlight as much as she could.

Since then, the psychiatrist had diagnosded her with a rare case of insomnia, causing her a weird psychosis of sort. The sleeping pills were the only thing that really granted sleep.

And peace from the voices.

But no – she walked away from the cookie jar and walked into her living room couch – she wouldn't take those again. They silenced said voices for a while, but then they came with a strength tenfold afterward.

And that wasn't worth it.

She took a sip from the cup.

Lighting flashed. The cup stilled at her lips. Thunder followed. She swallowed the liquid in her mouth. Robotic-ally, she placed her cup – more of a mug really – onto a small side table and leaned heavily against the couch.

She wasn't alone.

"What do you want?" she whispered, monotonously. A shadow on the corner shifted. Nothing was in the way of the light – from the lamp beside her – to cause said shadow. No furniture, not her own figure.

It was an entity.

She repeated her question. No answer. She stood. The shadow shifted again. She faced it and waited. Lighting struck and illuminated the form of a tall man, broad shouldered and very muscled. And ...in a black suit? Lighning went away and thunder struck. Not a suit, like a tuxedo suit, but... more of a type of scuba diving suit?

"Do you realize you're dead?" she tried. She maintained her voice low, void of emotion. She had to keep emotionally detached. Or they'd haunt her instead of being here for their intended purpose. Lights flashed outside then sharply followed by thunder. Only so loud as to shake the building.

It struck close.

She heard a whisper and placed a hand near the space of skin of her ear.

"I can't hear you," she clarified. That wasn't how it worked but visual aid usually helped.

The whisper got louder but she couldn't make it out still.

"What?"

Lighting struck, followed by thunder.

"I...AM...NOT...DEAD..."

Then the lights in her apartment went out.

A/N: creepy, weird, and fairly short. I know. But it has to start somewhere. This is solely for those reviewers who wanted this story continued. I hope I do good for you guys. :D thanks again!

- Inuyasharbd15fan09