A/N: Thanks guys. Glad you liked this little story. Thanks to:
blz1990 , Angelfeet , DeviantSupaSoldier , Regina lunaris , and Poison's Ivy .
Sorry for the late update. :D
CHAPTER THREE
She raised her head when she head a knock. Raven paused, closing a large volumed book nearest her. The knock came again.
"Raven? Are you there?" she released a breath she didn't know she was holding in. She rose from her couch and walked silently towards the front door. She undid the lock without peering into the peep hole and opened the old door. Her rare amethyst eyes peered downward.
"Melvin." A small blond head looked up, her murky eyes tired.
"Raven. Mind if we bunk at your apartment for the night?"
"Where's your mom?" she asked the familiar question, leaning on the door frame but allowing the door to fall back to allow the small child to walk inside. Soon afterwards, followed a small redheaded boy and his younger blond brother. Raven followed them inside with her gaze. Melvin grabbed hold of the smaller boy and turned to face her.
"Out. Hasn't been back since last afternoon." Raven scowled. Worthless mother. She didn't deserve the small kids. She sighed. Kicking the door closed, she took hold of 'Teether' as Melvin nicknamed him and leaned him onto her hip. She couldn't help the small pang of nostalgia that appeared in her chest as she held the small boy. A gesture she never personally experienced....Shaking the feeling away, she headed towards the kitchen.
"Ingested food yet?"
"Tried to cook them Mac 'n' Cheese –"
"Oh the stove?" she rose a brow. Melvin followed her steps.
"No, Crazy. On the microwave. The stove is dangerous. Anyway, I ended burning up the stuff."
"So no. You haven't eaten yet."
"No." Timmy followed his sister, the small blanket he held dear to his heart dragging behind him.
"Food?"
"Why don't you guys sit in the living room while I find something digestible in the kitchen?" Wordlessly, Melvin reached for Teether and ushered Timmy towards the room that served Raven more of a library than an actual living room. She shook her head and began to peer into her cabinets. She sighed. Just as she suspected, nothing worthy to feed the kids.
"..You helped people in another life time?"
"....DEFINE...HELP..."
The shadow's voice suddenly echoed in her mind. Define help? What had he meant by that? She turned and leaned her weight back onto the counter's edge, crossing her arms under her bust. First thing first.
He was having trouble communicating. That wasn't itself strange for a lot of spirits had trouble communicating. But he spoke cryptic. His messages didn't make sense. Or rather, she couldn't make sense out of them. Raven rubbed her forehead.
And those moves. Her hand paused in mid-movement. She was in no way a martial arts expert – except for her knowledge through cheap movie rentals when she had bad cases of insomnia – but she was sure that those moves were professional. His body moved with such fluidity it seemed flawless. The shadow had strength, being able to beat up that mugger like nothing.
And that was something else as well. The feeling that the spirit emitted when he had fought. A strange familiarity, like choreography, except this feeling of familiarity was worn. Raven's brow creased. Like he did the action on a regular basis –
"Raven?" She looked up from her thoughts and glanced down at Melvin. "Are you okay?"
"Yes," she stood straight and made her way to the fridge, apprehensively. Maybe something inside was edible. "Why do you ask?"
"You were groaning in pain. I thought you were hurt." Raven stopped and glanced back at the small girl.
"Yes...I'm fine." Melvin gave her a small cautious nod and walked back to attend her smaller siblings. Raven waited for the smaller girl to be a good distance away before she rubbed her temples. Now that Melvin had pointed it out, she did in fact hurt. Odd. She turned and faced the reflective surface of the slightly small fridge.
Suddenly, a shadow consumed her reflection. She spun. Nothing was behind her.
"Hello?" she whispered.
"Raven!" Melvin called out. Raven gave the kitchen a small look-around and hesitantly walked into her living room. Her face withdrew of curiosity and she quirked a brow at the small light-haired children on her couch. "I thought your television set was broken." Raven paused and looked up. The television set was in fact, on.
"I thought it was."
"Well, it turned on by itself. Weird huh?" Raven raised her chin apprehensively.
"Weird. Right."
"...In other news, firefighters rushed to the scene a few hours ago to the Marina, more specifically Dock 24, where a new shipment had barely arrived before it was sabotaged by an unknown gang. Reporter Melissa Lainez is at the scene. Melissa?"
"Thanks Jonathan. Both police and firefighters are giving it their all at the moment, as you can see," the camera shot on the slightly fuzzy television set, panned out from beyond the Hispanic reporter to a view of a – to some extent – burned ship surrounded by cops, CSIs and firefighters, "The ship itself is underway of being given the 'all clear'. Police have not given an official report of what was on the ship or their suspicions of who might be behind this. However we can report that a call was placed in an hour ago by an anonymous caller reporting the ship in Dock 24 was on fire. It was until the boat was safe that the police were able to deduce that some of the ship's cargo was taken. There is no word of the captain of the ship or if there was, its crew. We'll report back to you as soon as we have word of any newer news. Back to you in the studio."
"Thanks Melissa –"
"Sorry to interrupt, ladies and gentlemen," interrupted the newscaster's partner, "But it looks like Police Chief Preston Simonson is giving a report about the incident. Melissa? Can you hear us?"
"Yes. Yes I can. Police Chief Simonson announced that he was going to give an official report on this incident in just a few moments. There he is now," The camera panned out again and gave a view of a study older man in his Bludhaven's dark blue police uniform. He rose his hands to stop the bombardment of questions from the reporters. A silence rang out as he opened his mouth to talk.
"The Bludhaven Police Department have deduced the incident to the work of a local gang," he paused, "Their calling card seems to be burning what ever it is they stole from. In this instance, the ship.
"Chief Simonson! What was taken from the ship?!"
"My men are working on getting the exact list of cargo this ship carried as we speak. We will tell you once we know ourselves. "
"Chief! Who was it that stole the stuff and burned the ship?!"
"The department and I believe....we believe it to be the acts from the Wolfman Gang. The strategy of how this act was handled -"
Suddenly, the television set turned off. Raven blinked. Huh. Weird indeed.
"What happened?" Timmy asked, blinking cutely at the gray screen.
"Your television is like you Raven. Moody," Melvin pointed out. Through half lidded eyes, she peered down at the small blond girl.
"Thank you Melvin."
"No problem." She sighed. Although she didn't necessarily mind the small children, their did get bothersome from time to time. But she couldn't necessarily leave them alone. Their mother was a drug addict. She'd learned that by accident once when she had returned one day to find the woman twitching in the hallway, a few feet from her apartment door. The symptoms of withdraw were written all over her. Raven knew then the woman had kids too. She heard them crying from time to time again. Raven wondered if the woman even knew her kids came into her apartment. She scowled. Probably not.
"No tv?" Timmy asked, looking up at her. Raven remained silent. The television set. It had been broken for a while now. So, what had turned it on? Her back straightened. Or rather, who had turned it on?
"Why don't you guys get settled in my room? I'll bunk out here for the night." Wordlessly, Timmy helped Teether squirm out of the couch and took Melvin's hands. Together, the trio made their way around Raven towards her room.
"Good night Raven." Raven paused.
"I ran out of groceries," Melvin stopped at the doorway of her room, "I'll make some breakfast once I run out for food in the morning." The small girl gave a large smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.
"Thanks Raven." She followed her brothers into the room. Raven turned into the living room.
"Where are you?" she unfolded her arms from underneath her bust and made her away around the couch to sit down in it. The migraine in her temples began to emerge again. God. She placed a slightly clammy hand on her brow and leaned her elbows on her knees. She felt the prickling sensation of being watched and made a small effort to look up and towards the same corner where the man/spirit had first manifested. "Was that you? The one who turned on my television set?"
"...YES..." She straightened up and swallowed the pain making her eyes water.
"Why did you do that? What was your purpose?"
"...TO...SEE..."
"To see what? The report? The incident?"
"...YES..."
"Why?"
"....THEY..."
"The police?" The shadow, not currently in a defined form such as like when it had defeated the mugger out on the street, flickered, threatening to disappear. Though, she made out him shaking his head 'no'. "The reporters?" she tried again, "The gang?" The shadow seemed to stop flickering and want to solidify more. It must have taken out a lot out of him for him to have manifested enough energy to throw off that mugger and make the dead television set come back to life. She paused mentally and shook the later realization out of her mindset. "The gang?" she asked again.
"....YES..."
"What about them? Who are they?"
"...THEY..."
"They? They what? Why are they important?"
"...HURT....ME...." she felt a small feeling of cold seep into her spine. So....this...Wolfman gang people had hurt him? This man? She tried to mask her surprise and the foreboding curiosity from being exposed to him.
"Why?" The man's face solidified more and suddenly, for a second, she could make out his sharp, defined facial features. But his eyes. They were still shadowed, making his eyes eerily stand out and appear iris-less. He had strong cheekbones, and a strong sturdy chin. Nice lips. A sharp and almost sophisticated nose. She mentally rolled her eyes. What other girls might have called, handsome features.
His mouth opened to speak.
"Raven?" Raven abruptly turned and felt the man's attention turn to Melvin's pj clad small body standing near the diving doorway of the living room and the kitchen. "Who are you talking to?" Discreetly, Raven grasped the cordless phone from the coffee table in front of her and raised it up, using the couch's visual intrusiveness to hide the fact she was lying.
"I was on the phone, Melvin. Go back to sleep." She nodded and peered strangely at the general direction of the room's far corner. Then turned to go back to the safe haven of Raven's room. And with it, she seemed to take the small slip of reality with her. Honestly, Raven sometimes doubted that she was sane. Here she was, talking to "ghosts". But crazy or not , she turned to face the entity in front of her.
"Who are you?" She felt a sharp pang of caution emit from him instantly. "Wait," she mumbled, "You can confide in me. I won't talk if you have something to hide. I'm here to help." He raised his head and stared squarely into her own eyes. His eyes seemed to squint and study her. And in fact, she felt she was physically being studied.
"....CAN'T...SAY..."
"You say you aren't dead," she tried again, from a different angle, monotonously, withdrawing herself, "Say I believe you aren't. How will I know you're lost then? Without a name, I can't look for you."
"....NOT...LOST..."She bit down the frown and scowl she wanted to send his way. He wasn't helping matters much.
"So you aren't lost. You aren't dead. What are you?"
"....KID..."
"The children are fine. They're asleep in my bedroom." He slowly shook his head. "What?"
"....NOT...THEM..."
"Explain."
"....KID...NAPPED..."
Abruptly, he left the room. Raven felt herself withdraw from his essences and felt her breathing become a bit labored. She placed her clammy hands on her brow again. Such strong emotions. So overwhelming. Then his final words sunk in. Kidnapped. He was kidnapped? Or rather, was? By who? She swallowed and sneaked a glance at the cookie jar on her counter.
No.
She looked away and stood hastily, making her way to the bathroom to retrieve a blanket or two for herself.
"The Wolfgang," she mumbled to herself, "What did they do to you? Did they..." her hand froze at the small knob that opened the small closet inside the bathroom, where she had had her second encounter with him, "Did they kill you?"
A/N: I hope you don't hate me for another cliffhanger. My apologies. But this chapter was giving away too much already. :D hope you like what this chapter did reveal though. Forgive my lack of reporter skills. There's a reason I'm not one. ^^' Anyways, this chapter is a slight longer than the ones before it.
Hope the pacing of this story is alright with you guys. Thanks again for even reading this. Oh, and this is a brief cameo of the kids. Not sure if I'll use them again. We'll see.
Till next chapter.