Sorry it has been forever. Life is hectic. Please send me prompts if you have any :) Thank you!

L.L.A.P

~Laces

Chpt.44

"Livy, you don't seem like yourself." Carter stated when she had visited the man. Her smile was well removed from her face and her eyes seemed empty.

"Damian's hurt." She mumbled and Carter's eyebrows shot up.

"Where is he? Do you need a ride to the hospital? Is everything alright? Is-"

"He's in Egypt right now." Livy sighed. "Batman sent me a message saying that Damian was injured fairly badly. I mean I get that he just wanted to give me a heads up, but now I'm worrying. Will he be alright? How badly was he injured? What happened?" Livy shook her head and ran her fingers through her blonde hair. "I guess its karma, the amount of times I made Damian worry about me every time I left Gotham. Now it's my turn to be a nervous wreck." She said with a small chuckle but she clearly wasn't any happier.

"Cheer up Livy. Everything will be alright." Carter smiled weakly, and tried to think of something to do to get Livy's mind off of Damian.

Damian will be alright, she's just worried, which makes sense. But worrying like that is no good for anyone. What can I do with Livy to help her not think of Damian? Carter wondered but then it hit him.

"Livy, have you ever heard of Weird New Jersey? It's part of those Weird America books."

"Ummm yes, I have a little." The girl nodded slowly and Carter grabbed his laptop.

"Well, I'm gonna look up some stuff nearby and we can have an adventure." Carter's smile started to grow brighter but Livy's eyes widened.

"Isn't that usually paranormal stuff?"

"Yup."

"I don't mess with ghosts." Livy stated seriously while crossing her arms over her chest.

"That's only if you believe in them." Cater laughed but was met by silence. His eyes widened and he couldn't hold back another burst of laughter.

"Wait, Livy, you believe in ghosts? Like, dead people?"

"Of course! There's some creepy shit out there."

"But ghosts? I was just planning to visit these places with you and joke around but now that you believe in ghosts, we are definitely going!" Carter stated as he went on the Weird New Jersey website to look up where some closer locations would be.

After about two minutes of scanning the computer, Carter threw on his jacket and grabbed his car keys.

"Where are we going?" Livy inquired and Carter chuckled, throwing the girl her jacket.

"Well, they call it Hells Gates."

"I hate you."

~*~*~*~*~About Forty Five Minutes Later~*~*~*~*~*~

"I don't like this place."

"I think it's beautiful." Carter smirked, but he clearly was enjoying the way Livy eyed her surroundings uneasily. He pulled up to the side of the road to a large abandoned road tunnel that was closed down.

The tunnel seemed like a deep dark abyss that absorbed any type of light that made its way into it. It resembled a cave more so than a tunnel. On the walls inside of the tunnel were graffiti of letters spelling out Latin words and of dead goats and pentagrams.

The second Livy stepped inside her hair stood on end and she felt a shiver run through her body.

"This place is eerie."

"I guess." Carter shrugged. "It's Hells Gates. Apparently, a woman hung herself in here while holding a baby. Word is if you listen carefully sometimes you can hear a baby crying. There's also been word that Satanists summon demons here all the time." Carter grinned.

"Okay… maybe we should leave."

"Course not, let's sit. I've bought an Ouija board for this occasion." Carter smiled good-naturedly as he removed the board from his bag, and Livy nearly jumped back away from the board like it was a repellant.

"What?" Livy's voice reached a higher register than Carter thought it could.

"Oh calm down. We'll just try talking to the woman who killed herself."

"You don't know what you're summoning when you use one of those things." Livy whispered and Carter just laughed.

"What? You think Parker Brothers and the spirit world have some sort of connection? Does it get half their profits or something? Instead of feeding off of the souls of the company it feeds off of the souls of its victims?"

"No but those boards can be home made too. You don't know what you can bring about with those things. They're life-ruiners." Livy warned and Carter rolled his eyes.

"Fine, then I'll try to talk to them and you can watch." He huffed and started asking away questions. Livy's eyes darted around the tunnel anxiously and could swear that she was hearing whispering in her ear.

"Carter, we should be heading back."

"But… Livy, I'm actually getting responses." Carter stated. "What is your name?" he questioned out loud. His hands then moved to spell out S-A-T-A-N.

"No! No no no no no! No! No! Noooooo!" Livy exclaimed as she turned to run out of the tunnel, but Carter grabbed her while laughing.

"Calm down Livy, I was just pulling your leg. I was the one who spelled that out, not some ghost or demon." He laughed and Livy pouted at the man while she punched his arm.

"Don't do stuff like that." She grumbled but then stiffened when she heard something. Something that didn't sound right in the echoes of the tunnel. It was a high pitched eerie sound. And what more, they recognized it as a baby crying. Livy was petrified and Carter was stiff as a board as well. The crying continued until it sounded like the baby was screaming right in their ears.

Then they saw something hanging from the ceiling. The figure seemed to get clearer and clearer in their vision as the baby's cries grew louder and louder. Swinging back and forth from the ceiling was a woman.

One second they were in the tunnel, the next, the two had sprinted back to Carter's car.

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" Carter screamed.

"IT WAS A GHOST!"

"WELL NO SHIT BUT WHY?"

"WHY? BECAUSE YOU DECIDED TO PISS IT OFF!"

"I DIDN'T MEAN TO!"

"IT'S DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU DIDN'T MEAN TO, YOU STILL PISSED IT OFF!"

"HOLY SHIT! HOLY SHIT!"

"CARTER WHY THE HELL HAVEN'T YOU STARTED DRIVING!"

"BECAUSE I'M TERRIFIED!"

"I AM TOO BUT JUST DRIVE SO WE'RE AWAY FROM THIS PLACE!" Livy screamed. Carter sped off as far as he could get from the tunnel as possible. He parked his car at a Dairy Queen where he and Livy sat in silence.

"I need Ice Cream to make this better." Livy whispered. Carter agreed and quickly bought them two.

That night Livy ended up staying in Carter's apartment and they both slept on the couch together. Neither of them got much sleep, their minds replaying what they had saw.

Carter succeeded in getting Livy's mind off of Damian, but unfortunately, now both their minds were on their experience.

Damian had returned and looked fairly healed. He only had his arm in a sling from his previous injuries. Once Damian found that after a week, Livy was still sleeping in Carters apartment out of fear, he started to sleep with them. They had explained their experience to which Damian wasn't entirely impressed.

While cuddling close to Livy on the couch, making sure that she felt safe and protected, he looked over at Carter and huffed,

"Tt. I get myself injured and you two get yourselves haunted. Ridiculous."