I'm alive! I really tried to get this chapter out before Halloween, but the recent discovery that I'm now pregnant created some obstacles with getting this chapter done. Though my husband and I are so excited to bring this little one into the world, this baby has taken a toll on me with my energy, and I have been sleeping more than writing. But I'm still determined to get this story done before the baby arrives because we're ramping up to the big climax pretty soon, and I want to get this book done so that I can start writing my next one during my maternity leave.
But yeah, that's my recent life update. I want to thank you all for the reviews that have been coming in and for your support and patience during the wait between each chapter. I'm so happy you all are enjoying the story because I have been loving writing and developing this potential seriesI might continue with.
But enough with the sappy stuff, it's time to get to the creepy stuff.
Happy 'late' Halloween!
Chapter 14 – Into The Woods
The three of us went into the woods, and this time, I remembered to bring a flashlight with me so that I was not wholly blind while trying to find the cave's location. Thankfully, Rachel and Gar were with me to help me find my way back to the school if we got lost. At least both of them could fly, and one had night vision when he had turned into an animal.
I led the way, trying to remember the direction I took the first time I found the cave. This quest probably would have been more accessible in the daylight since all the trees surrounding me looked the same in the dark, and one could lose their sense of direction among the backdrop of black twisting trees. But I could not risk going during the day, for I was convinced that Dick had spies all over the campus watching my every move and was keeping track of where ever I went.
After five minutes of silence between us, Gar changed back into his human form. Four crunching footsteps against the snow had turned into two as he walked beside me. Rachel was gliding not far behind us.
"Are you sure you know where you're going, Kor?" Gar asked. " We have been walking for a while now, and I've yet to see any sign of caves nearby."
"It has only been about five minutes," I advised him. "And I was following Dick for some time before I came across the cave. I think it is still deeper in the woods. Please be patient and trust me. I know where I am going."
To be truthful, I did not know where I was going, but I did not want to tell them that. I knew we would eventually come across it.
Gar halted immediately and lifted his nose to sniff. "Stop!" He commanded softly.
I did as he said and turned to him. "What is it?"
"I'm smelling other people nearby," Gar continued sniffing the air, transforming into a dog. He trotted a few feet forward before turning his head back toward Rachel and me and motioned with his head to follow him.
As we followed Gar, I wondered who might have been wandering around the woods at this time of night. Could it have been other students from the school? Or perhaps the Elites and we were finally about to get the evidence we needed to prove they were up to something sinister?
Gar suddenly stopped and let out a low growl. His ears perked up as he listened intently. Rachel and I froze, our eyes scanning the darkness for any movement. Then we saw it—from the soft ruffling of leaves, I could make out the outline of those exact hooded figures I saw near the cave. They traveled in a single file line at the strangest and slowest pace I had ever seen humans walk.
We crouched behind some bushes, trying to stay hidden while still keeping an eye on them. I counted five of them as they continued walking in their bizarre cadence. It was as if I was watching a group of soldiers marching, but they were marching in slow motion.
"Well, my creepy meter is officially going off," I heard Gar, "We should follow them! Maybe they will-"
Gar was cut off by one of Rachel's famous spells, which involves covering one's mouth with fluid black tape. Gar responded by giving her an annoyed glare.
I knew why she had done it. Gar was talking too much, as usual, but I could sense that those five figures were not the only ones near. I feared that Gar might have given away our hiding spot to something other than what we could see.
"Ohhhhhhh, lookie at what we have here!" A female's voice shrilled in excitement from above us. "Are these more lambs to be collected?"
We spun around from where we were crouching, and immediately, the three of us got in our defensive stances, ready to attack.
A figure jumped down from one of the tree branches and landed smoothly before us. It then approached us slowly, but we remained still. Determining if this lone stranger in the woods was worth attacking.
"Aww, it looks like they might be students from that wretched school," she said. I heard that voice from somewhere, but it did not sound like it belonged to any students I knew. "Naughty! Naughty! They appear to be! If only their teachers knew. Ooooh, they would be in so much trouble!"
I did not see the point in her loud ramblings. If we were intruders, would she not attack us already? Or was she alerting the others we saw treading through the woods? I turned my head to see if the hooded figures were coming near us, but they seemed to have ignored what their accomplice was screeching about and continued slowly marching to the destination they were determined to reach.
I stood up in front of her. There was no sense of hiding anymore. "Who are you?" I asked her. "What are you doing out here?"
"I should be asking you the same thing, little lamb." She replied, taking a couple of steps closer to us, and that was when I felt Rachel and Gar both stand up and shuffle closer to me.
The mystery woman stopped only a few feet from us and finally lifted her hood from her head, revealing a wolf mask that had completely covered her face. The mask tilted to the side as it looked directly at me.
"But I know who you are, pretty thing," She leered. "Yes! Yes! You are the collector's favorite."
The collector! Finally, a piece of this puzzle might be mine.
"Who is this collector you speak of?" I asked, "And what are they collecting?"
The masked woman laughed manically. "The pretty thing wants to know who the collector is, does she? Well, why don't I just alert him that you are here?"
Just as she was about to bounce off her feet to run away, Gar turned into a giant snake and wrapped himself around the entire length of the woman's body so she could not run. She let out a little squeak in surprise and fell on her behind as she lost her balance from Gar wrapping around her legs."
"You would be an idiot to think you could get away that easily," Rachel told her. "First, you're going to tell us who you are and what your creepy friends are up to."
"We are up to no good!" The woman belted. "Is that what you want to hear, girl? So that you can tell your teachers what you discovered tonight? And then you would be a hero? As if, girl! They would not believe you! And besides, you would get in so much trouble if your teachers knew you were sneaking off school grounds in the middle of the night!"
"If you are not going to tell us who you are, then we will find out for ourselves," I said as I reached for her mask to pull it off. All my patience had been spent with these characters hiding behind their masks, and I needed answers.
Before I knew what was happening, I watched the masked woman's nails grow into long, sharp claws that sunk into Gar's green scales. Gar let out a yelp as he transformed into a human and fell back on the ground, holding onto one of his legs.
The woman took the opportunity to run as fast as she could away from us. My instincts told me to go after her, but my compassionate side made me hesitate to ensure Gar was not seriously injured. I turned to him and saw that Rachel was already at his side inspecting the wound on his leg. Even from the darkness, I could see the gleam of fresh blood running from his torn jeans.
"That bitch, nearly sliced my leg off!" Gar exclaimed.
"Stop being dramatic," Rachel told him, placing her hands over the gash. It's a deep cut, but nothing my magic can't handle. Kory, follow her. We'll catch up. We don't need her alerting more of those creep-o-zoides."
I did not argue with her. Every second wasted was one that the woman had run further away from us and would be closer to the person she was about to alert of our arrival. I was expecting that, but I wanted to keep up with her so that I would be there by the time she had reached them. Then, finally, I would be face-to-face with someone who would give me the answers I needed.
Luckily, I already had great endurance, and after training with Victor for the last few months, he had taught me to add speed to that endurance. In other words, I was able to catch up with her quickly. The unlucky part of my chase was that I had dropped my flashlight when we were hiding from the other cloaked figures, so now I was back to relying on the little light the moonlight could provide me through the clouds.
Just as I was close enough to the woman to reach for her cloak and try to stop her, she looked over her shoulder and laughed before dropping down to all fours and beginning to run like a dog—or a wolf, even. But somehow, that maneuver increased her speed, and she was now way out of reach from me and several yards ahead of me.
I growled in frustration and tried to lengthen my pace to keep up with her, but it was for naught. I had lost sight of her. But that did not stop me from running in the direction where she might be heading. I kept pushing forward in determination to find her until I found myself in an open field, and dark trees no longer surrounded me.
I stopped and let my eyes adjust to the new scene around me. I scanned the darkness, hoping to catch any movement from the one I was chasing. But there was nothing but a lone fire eerily burning in the middle of the field as it illuminated what looked like an old light revealed a structure that loomed like a ghost, its once-vibrant red paint now peeling, revealing gray, splintered wood beneath.
But the vibrancy and size of the fire had meant that someone must have been nearby to light it. I approached it carefully, fully aware that at any moment, someone may appear from the shadows of the night. I finally saw the masked woman still on all fours, lurking at the side of the barn before she let out a strange and unnaturally loud howl that should not have come from a human. Or maybe she was not even human at all.
I froze at the sound. This was not a howl to show off her impressive ability to mimic an animal. I knew it had to be a signal to whoever she was working with to come immediately to the place we were, as it echoed throughout the entire field, all the way to the line of trees that had surrounded the field. Once the echo had faded into silence, she made no other sound, remained on all fours, and disappeared into the darkness.
I should have gone after her, but what use would that do now? She had led me to where I might meet this mysterious collector. Or she had led me into a trap meant for my demise. I was not sure. But either way, I was ready to fight whoever challenged me.
The minutes I waited for something to happen felt like hours as I stood beside the crackling fire. Finally, I saw the same line of cloaked people appear from the line of trees. They moved at the same pace, not faster or slower, and did not seem alarmed by my appearance. But they continued to advance toward the same fire I was standing at.
They did not try to attack me. Instead, as they reached the fire, they moved out of their single-file line into a circle surrounding the fire and me. But the curious part was that they did not appear to be looking at me. I was beginning to think they did not even knowI was there. They were all facing directly toward the fire as if waiting for its direction.
"What is going on here?" I finally asked, moving closer to one of them to see if a face could be recognized in the darkness of their hood. Instead, I found another mask of a different animal this time. It looked to be the face of a snake, perhaps?
Again, nothing. The mask continues to stare right through me and into the fire. I almost wanted to strike at them to create some response. But that would have been against my nature to do such a thing. I only fight if I have to defend myself or others, and these strange people in the woods seemed to have no intention of harming me at that moment.
"The weapon is here, at last, " A woman's voice said from behind me.
I spun around to the voice that said that. "What weapon?" I asked her what I thought might have been her.
There was no direct response, just another voice responding to the woman's statement. This time, it was a man who spoke up. "But we have not received word that the weapon is ready yet. We must wait for the collector to tell us when it's ready."
"The collector is taking too long, " the woman's voice said again. I knew that they were refusing to address me, so I continued to listen. They might be able to answer my questions without an interrogation.
"He has had plenty of time with the weapon," the woman continued. "We should use it now to aid us with the next test subject."
"NO!" A strange but oddly familiar distorted voice reverberated around the circle. Then, the owner of that voice materialized right beside me. I gasped at his sudden appearance. It was the man with the skull-shaped mask that I saw at the cave, and for some reason, hewas in one of my dreams.
"Your orders were to bring the next test subject tonight." He told the cloaked figures as he paced slowly in front of them. He seemed to have ignored that I was there as well. "And I thought I had made myself very clear who that was to be. Why have you not brought him?"
"There has been a complication with the next subject." Another man's voice was heard from the circle. "We had lost him in transit here."
The one with the skull mask stopped before the one who said that. "You incompetent fools," He snarled. "Some of the students at the academy take better orders than you. And that's barely a compliment for them since they had messed up the last plan."
He had moved closer to the man he was reprimanding so that his masked face was inches ahead of his own. "Perhaps I will tell the all-knowing that your batch is defective anddispose of you all."
"No!" I blurted without much thought of why I was doing it. It was not like they were paying any attention to me anyway. At least, that was what I thought.
The man with the skull mask took two steps away from the one he was threatening. "Pretty kitty..." The demeanor of his tone changed to one that wasalmost soothing yet taunting at the same time. My heart nearly stopped once I realizedhe was now speaking to me.
"It's dangerous for you to be out this late at night." He said as he slowly turned toward me. He was on the other side of the fire now, but it did not make him look all the less threatening. "You...and your friends."
I gulped. How did he know about Gar and Rachel? Did the woman with the wolf mask tell him? Was this the collector she was speaking about? There was only one way to find out.
"Who are you?" I seemed to have been asking the same question repeatedly, but no one had yet to give me a reasonable answer.
I could hear the low chuckle rumble from his throat as he walked around the fire toward me. "You came all the way out here to see me. Yet, you still don't know who I am?"
I was getting tired of all these vague answers, but I suppose I had to ask more direct questions if I wanted real answers. "Are you the collector?"
"I prefer to be called by another name," He repliedagain without answering my question. "But if they..." He motioned toward the cloaked figures. "Choose to call me that, then I will have to deal with that."
"What are you collecting? If that is what they are calling you. And what is this weapon they are speaking of?" I continued to push. Even if I was in great danger, this was the closest I had ever been to figuring out the town's mystery. Once I get the necessary pieces, I will fight myself out if I have to.
"Curious little thing, are you?" He was now close enough to reach out to tuck a stray hair of mine behind my ear. "Have you ever heard of the phrase 'curiosity killed the cat'?"
I knew I should have backed away from him. And I probably should have swatted his hand away for touching me. But if the woman with the wolf mask said I was his favorite was true, I had to play with his attraction toward me to get what I wanted.
"I like to live life dangerously," I told him, hoping my low and more sultry tone would entice him enough to reveal more information. He was now also close enough to reveal his scent to me. But to my dismay, it was not Dick's. It was a scent I had smelled before, but it was mixed with ametallic smell.
He chuckled again. "Be careful for what you ask for, pretty kitty. Because you might get it."
He then turned from me and walked out of the circle, his black cape flowing behind him. He said nothing else, but I assumed it was an invitation to follow him, so I did.
I followed him to the barn, where he had disappeared inside. Was this the place where he was storing whatever he was collecting? My heartbeat increased at the thought of what I might discover as I entered the barn with him.
What I thought would have been mysterious treasures he was hidingwas only very old equipment that human farmers must have used at one point. But they looked to have been abandoned long ago, as most of these tools had already rusted over. The floor had been covered with straw, and several parts of the building had that straw stacked in tall mounds.
"This is just an old barn," I told him, disappointed by the lack of impressive quality this building held.
"Is it?" He asked when he stopped in the middle of the barn and turned back toward me. "This place is old and decrepit and seems to be of not much use at all. But would that not be the perfect place to hide something?"
"Do you mean to tell me that you are hiding somethinghere?" I asked. I heard floorboards creak behind me, and I turned around to see that the cloaked people were now entering the barn.
"Do not worry about them, beautiful, " the collector reassured me, for he must have sensed that I was about to attack them."They will not hurt you. They respond only to my orders, and I don't intend to harm one single hair on your pretty head."
I eyed them carefully for a moment longer and then hesitantly turned back to him. "What do you want with me?" I asked him. What he was hiding seemed to be no longer a concern. It sounded like this collector wanted to keep me alive, and I do not think it was merely because he thought I was beautiful.
He tilted his head to the side. "You are changing the subject now. I thought you wanted to know what I was hiding?"
"I do," I replied. "But you threatened the others with how you would dispose of them, yet you said you do not wish to harm me? What makes me different? I do not even know who you are."
"You don't?" He challenged. Not moving from the spot he was standing. "I'm disappointed that you don't recognize me."
"How am I supposed to know who you are when you are wearing a mask and your voice is being modulated?" I retorted. "Take off that mask. Or are you afraid to show me who you are?"
He chuckled again. "If you join me, I'll remove the mask and tell you everything."
"And become one of your test subjects," I told him. "I think not."
I glanced to the side of me to see if his subordinates were getting closer to me, but instead of coming near, they were locking themselves in shackles suspended from the barn's wall.
"What are they doing?" I asked. My voice shook slightly at the pure confusion that was bestowed onme. I was uneased by the fact that these people would lock themselves up at their own will.
"I said not to mind them." He consoled me. "You do want answers to the mysteries and the dark secrets that this town hides, don't you? They won't lead you to what you want to know."
"Tell me then!" I commanded. "Enough with this dancing around the point you are trying to make."
"Have you ever heard about the underworld, pretty kitty?" He asked, and I heard the thrill in his voice when he asked this. "It's often told in stories as a mythical place where demons reside and darkness reigns all power. Well, I can tell you the underworld where I come from is not a myth, and it's very real. In fact…it's literally underneath your feet."
"What?" I asked softly as I tried to understand what he was saying. I let my eyes fall to his feet. Under his black boots was what looked to be a hatch that led to a cellar underneath the barn.
"Ah, you figured it out." He cooed. "Perhaps you are more clever than the others make you out to be."
"Is what you are collecting underneath this barn?" I asked.
"It's everything you want to know. All the answers that you have been looking for. Who's behind this little project…the dirty secrets of the town and school. It will be exposed once you look at the world underneath." He paused to lift his head as if to challenge me. "But sadly, you won't go through this hatch to find out."
"What do you mean 'I won't'?" I tested.
"You want to be a hero, " he shrugged. "And I'm going to give you a choice between their lives," he motioned toward the cloaked people now dangling from their wrists in shackles. "Or you can escape through this door and see who runs the town and Titan Academy."
"Escape? What do you..." And my question was answered before I was able to finish it. My masked stranger had pulled out a match to light it and flicked it in one of the straw mounds behind him. Once it landed, the straw instantly caught fire and rapidly spread throughout the barn as it slowly crept to the motionless humans who had locked themselves up in shackles.
"The choice is yours, pretty kitty." He told me before flickering out of my vision. Undoubtedly, he transported himself to safety to leave me alone to decide whether to save these lives.
Innocent or not, I was not about to let these humans die on my hands, and the choice was clear in what I had to do.
I ran to one of them and shook them roughly, "Wake up! What are you doing?" I yelled in their mask, but it was in vain. They were utterly unresponsive behind their masks. I was about topull off their mask to slap some sense in them until I heard...
"Kory!"
It was Rachel as she rushed into the barn and immediately started to cough from the smoke.
"What the hell happened?" She managed to get out between coughs.
"I will explain later!" I told her quickly. "First, help me get these people out of this barn before it burns down!"
"Gar!" Rachel cried out to the open barn door. "Get your ass in here and help me put out this fire!"
A green donkey came galloping into the barn and transformed back to Gar. "With what?"
"Some snow is still left on the ground that might help slow down the spread. Kory, do you think you can break those chains?"
"Oh, right," I replied dumbly. That should have been my first attempt at freeing them instead of trying to wake them up. I could have broken those chains seconds ago instead ofwasting the time I did.
I grabbed the chain holding the person closest to rapidly spreading fire and pulled down as hard as I could. I could feel the metal stretching apart, but it was taking longer than it should. It was as if the metal was reinforced for this exact purpose. I have snapped many iron chains like this several times that were much larger in size, so I could not understand why this was causing me to put in more effort.
The flames were close enough now that even I could feel the heat. I could hear the structure creaking from above, and I feared that the barn would collapse on all of us. Why would these chains not break? Frustration over not being able to break these bondages turned into anger, and I gritted my teeth as I pulled even harder. I prayed to X'hal that she would lend me some extra strength to set these people free.
And then a miracle did happen.
I felt a strange energy flow through my fingers. The metal seemed to have melted away, and the captive person's arm had dropped from the wall. I caught them before they fell toward the fire, and then snowballs rushed past my head and extinguished the bit of flames that almost touched us.
Gar was the one to throw those snowballs, and then he rushed up to me. "Kory! You got one down! But I don't know how much longer we can slow down the spread of the fire. A lot of the snow has melted already, and this fire is too big now to stop it with the little snow we have."
"It is fine," I reassured him swiftly. We did not have time for a lengthy conversation. "Get this one to safety. I will get the others down."
"On it!" he replied before transforming into a gorilla to sling the now-freed person over his shoulder and then carried him out of the barn.
I ran to the next oneand tried to recite the same prayer in my head before pulling on their bondages. I pulled as hard as I could again, and that same feeling came throughonly quicker this time. The chain broke in my hands, and then another one was saved.
I did the same thing for the three that were left, and with each one, that energy came faster to melt away those chains. I did not know what this energy was, but I could only assume it was another gift from X'halto save these people. It sounds a little crazy, I know, but it was my only explanation.
Once I freed the last one, I noticed thebarn roof was starting to cave in. I knew I only had seconds before the building was about to collapse, and withthe last of my strength, I pulled the last cloaked, ragdoll figure with me out of the barn just as the rest of the entire structure had engulfed in flames.
I dragged my last rescuee to Rachel and Gar, who were inspecting the others lying motionless on the ground. Only now were their masks off, finally revealing who they were.
"These are just random people from the town," Rachel said what was running through my mind. "But they appear to be okay, for the most part."
"Besides the fact, these people are part of some creepy cult that wanders around in the woods at night," Gar remarked.
I gently laid the last one on the ground and then turned back to the burning building, which was now falling into itself. Strangely enough, the fire was now dying down, and perhaps in a few hours, it would be completely extinguished. By the time the sun rose, the building would be reduced to mostly ash, and my one way to find the secrets to this underworld was now buried beneath it.
"Kory," I heard Rachel's voice call to me. "Are you okay?"
"Yes," I told her. "I am just now fatigued from using all of my strength."
"What are we going to do about these people?" Gar asked, motioning tothe unconscious line below us.
Rachel sighed. "I have a teleportation spell I can use, but I don't use it often, so I can get them somewhat closeto town. It's better than leaving them in the woods to freeze to death if they don't wake up soon."
"You can do teleportation spells?" Gar asked admiringly. "I'm learning something new about you every day, it seems."
"Yeah, yeah," Rachel droned. "But can you fly Kory back home? She looks like she is about to pass out at any moment."
She was right. I was quite tired. But I was preoccupied with everything 'the collector' had told me, and I might have missed my one chance to learn all the secrets that the Elites were hiding from me. I was happy that I could save everyone; I should have rejoiced in that, but I felt like this venture was for nothing. We had risked our lives, but for what? More questions would be raised, and I would have to search for more answers.
Perhaps I will wake up tomorrow, and this will be nothing more than another dream.
Sorry, no Dick in this one (heh), but he'll be back in the next chapter.
And I need help! If I decide to continue with this series and write stories that fans would enjoy, I'm wondering what stories from the comics you would like me to revise in this alternative universe that I'm creating. Right now, I have been taking a lot of my inspiration from the New Teen Titans comics from the 1970s (or 80s?) and obviously from our favorite 2001 TV series. But I'm struggling to find stories I like in the modern comics.
Yes, I'm picky because I prefer stories where Nightwing and Starfire are together. And I know I can try to research those stories myself, but I want to know what kind of stories from the comics you would like to see brought to life. And it doesn't have to just be those two as the focus. I'm looking for inspiration for the other characters as well because I want them to have rich and juicy side stories, even though this series will primarily focus on Dick and Kory's relationship and their leadership over the Titans.
For my second book, I want to focus on Terra's story, but that all depends if ya'll want me to continue once this one is finished.
