Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
And another short one for Friday the 13th.
Thirteen Hour Horrors
Chapter 1: 12 AM
12:01 am
Raven startled awake, and the second she did she knew something was wrong. She wretched her arm over and grabbed the clock, pulling it close to catch the hour.
It was just after midnight, a new day. That would make it…the thirtieth of May.
The girl blinked away her sleep and sat up, something was not right, it was pulling at her mind tauntingly.
She grabbed her cape she had thrown on the floor, connecting the broach with a quick snap. With that she slid out of her room soundlessly in search of the negative energies.
The hallways were dark, only a small emergency light still illuminating the way. She pulled her cloak closer around herself watching all around her for movement, there was none.
With light steps she went down the stairs, she could hear a faint noise and light coming from the living room.
Raven held her breath as she focused her energy incase it was something amiss.
She spotted the TV, illuminated, one of Beast Boy's games still in motion.
The girl breathed a deep sigh when she saw the player moving, it was only Beast Boy, still up with his precious Game Station 2. Still silent, however, she strode across the room to scold the boy for waking her up.
On the couch Beast Boy was snoozing, having fallen over onto the controller, his face as pressing the buttons down. Annoyed, she levitated a pillow and threw it at him.
The changeling snorted and bolted upright. "Hey! What's the big-" He stopped when he spotted a frowning Raven.
"You woke me up." She said simply taking in the large controller prints he had across his cheek, his hair was ruffled and he looked half awake.
"Uhh, sorry." He grinned looking over at his game that was in mid-progress. "At least I'm still winning." He grabbed the controller and continued playing.
Raven huffed and crossed her arms, was there any chance for sleep now?
"Anyway," Beast Boy continued, moving back and forth with the game. "The game couldn't have woken you up, your room is way upstairs."
Raven bit her lip. Well it was true, it just didn't help her conscience much. "I'm going back to sleep, maybe you should try it once in a while." Raven droned and turned to retreat.
On her first step, the power cut out. The two were drenched in darkness.
"Hey! That was about to be a high score!" Beast Boy whined from his position on the couch.
Raven felt prickling energy. "Tough luck," she added unenthusiastically.
"Why'd the power go out anyway?" There was the sound of Beast Boy moving off the couch.
Raven didn't respond to his question. "Why aren't the emergency lights working, they don't rely on the towers power."
"Weird." Beast Boy chirped somewhere in the darkness.
Raven grabbed the communicator always at her waist and flipped it open.
As she did the tower seemed to creak. It was a loud sound of grinding metal, as if something was pushing against the very tower itself. It was like a shrieking of nails along a chalkboard.
Raven cringed at the noise, and Beast Boy gave a squeak from the other side of the room. It lasted only a few seconds, but immediately Raven knew it had something to do with why she was awake in the first place.
She moved through the dark effortlessly, she no longer needed to call the titans, there was no way in hell they hadn't heard that.
There was a crash across the room that made her pause. Beast Boy groaned, "I hit the table." He whimpered.
Raven rolled her eyes, but refocused her attention when she heard near soundless footsteps on the stairs.
"Robin?" She called aloud, unwilling him to attack then in his over cautious state.
"Why are the lights out, and what was that noise?" He asked, moving carefully through the dark.
"No idea. I was woken up, came downstairs, and this happened." Raven breathed deeply, still watching the darkness incase something were there.
"We should watch out, all power is down, and that includes our security system." Robin added.
She felt a brush of wind as he moved past her toward the windows, a sliver of moonlight lit him slightly.
"Friends?" Came a timid voice closer to the stairs that could only be known as Starfire. Raven could see Robin turn slightly near the window. Before they could answer there was a muffled sound.
"Oof, oh, sorry." Came Cyborg's voice, he was over near Starfire, having just come down the stairs as well.
"It is no problem, but please, why are the light's out?"
"No clue, but the cities still got power." Robin had turned back to look out the large windows.
A sudden light lit the room, Raven turned to find Cyborg had activated his portable light. "Everyone good?" He called shining the light across each of them in turn.
"Dude," Beast Boy stumbled away from the table where he had knocked a variety of things to the floor. "This reminds me of that last time, you know with the Wicked Scary."
The four titans turned in Raven's direction. "Don't look at me." She commented waving her hands to expel her power. A black tendril moved out to grab a spilled salt shaker and replace it on the table.
"Alright, so have we shorted the circuits, or do we have an intruder?" Robin voiced still looking out the window.
"I'll go check the circuitry, anyone want to come with?" Cyborg looked across the three that were facing him.
Beast Boy and Starfire agreed to go, and followed him back up the stairs, the light fading as they left.
Raven took a few swift steps towards Robin. "Robin, this isn't right." She warned looking out past him at the glowing city beyond their island.
"Something does feel a bit…off doesn't it?" Robin's voice sounded almost amused.
Raven's confusion mounted as his calm state. "Robin?"
"It's strange something should happen today, don't you think? Very coincidental."
"What are you talking about?" Raven inquired again, she really hated when he got all secretive. It was as though he had the answers, and was waiting for someone to simply ask the right question.
"Today is the thirteenth, I believe."
"Yes," Raven agreed, "but what does that have to do with-" She stopped, a note on her calendar jumped into her mind's eye. "Today's Friday."
Robin nodded, his hands slack at his side suddenly fisted. "I should have known someone would pull something like this."
Raven stepped forward again, but didn't touch the boy. "Robin, I won't have you blaming yourself."
Robin ran a hand through his still messy hair. "Can't help it, it's tradition."
"Guilt won't fix this if someone has broken in." Raven reminded him.
"Yea," Robin sighed and finally turned back around, startled to see Raven so close. "Now what were you saying about this being wrong?"
"I was awoken for no reason."
Robin raised an eyebrow under his mask.
"It was a bad wave of empathy." Raven bit her lip.
12:36
Cyborg led Starfire and Beast Boy up the last staircase onto the roof. The wind was pulling strong, whipping clouds around and playing with the small amount of light overhead.
They moved close together across the rooftop towards the main generator.
"It is quite cold!" Starfire muttered against the wind rubbing her hands up and down her arms.
"Don't worry, just a quick tally and we'll be back inside." Cyborg flipped open the cover to the breaker box, and clipped one of his wired into the plug in to power the small computer.
It booted up instantly asking for his code.
Hitting in the numbers he was greeted by a welcome screen and an error message. "Output can not be detected!" It blinked in bold letters at him.
He pulled out the cord, and power died instantly. Instead he moved around Beast Boy to the generator looking for the output cord.
He followed the thick wire to find it still plugged in.
Upon further inspection Cyborg found all the wires to be plugged, snuggly in place.
He turned back to his two companions dejectedly. Starfire was bouncing on her heels while a green kitten was tucked in her arms bristling from the cold wind.
"I don't know guys, everything's hooked up, it should be working."
"M-may we retreat to the warmth?" Starfire asked timidly, squeezing the kitten a bit more for warmth.
Cyborg scanned the roof, for anything else out of place. His eye skimmed over something a little further down the rooftop. It looked like a pile of ripped out wires.
"Hold on…" Cyborg added walking toward them for a better look.
The wind whipped up, and Starfire had to pull back her hair forcefully to see Cyborg. He had said something but threw the force she couldn't make it out.
Suddenly the kitten in her arms twitched as if squirming to get out of her grip, it was watching where Cyborg had said he was looking.
Starfire dropped the cat and pulled back her hair, a soft cry fell from her lips as her eyes fell on Cyborg.
Cyborg took another step feeling the wind blast at him, those wires were so close…
And as he took another step, the roof top suddenly became hollowed and disappeared all together underneath his feet. He was falling.
Craning his neck, he came to find the roof was some three or four feet behind him. But how could that be?
Gravity was pulling him down fiercely now, so did it really matter?
Starfire dove off the roof after her quickly falling friend. Her subhuman speed was the only thing that let her catch him before the rocks did.
Cyborg felt weightless for a moment, as careful hands latched under his arms and halted his falling. He looked up to see a teary eyed Starfire pulling him back up.
When Starfire dropped him onto the roofs surface, a worried looking Beast Boy nearly floored him.
"What was that all about?" He shrieked pointing at the roofs edge.
Starfire sniffled and landed as well. Cyborg cast a look back. The wires were gone, and so was that part of the roof.
"There was…roof there?" Cyborg looked back at his two friends.
"I did not see this?" Starfire looked at Beast Boy who was shaking his head.
"No man, you were walking off the rooftop." Beast Boy knit his eyebrows watching Cyborg.
12:58
Raven and Robin had sat around the table impatiently by the time the other three titans lurched down the stairs. They looked worn, tired, and freaked.
"There's something weird going on." Cyborg declared pulling out a chair at the table and plopping down.
No one said anything as the other two seated and waited for Cyborg to continue.
"Turns out there's nothing wrong with the power, now a blown fuse, not an unplugged wire. And-"
"He tried to walk off the roof!" Beast Boy exclaimed as though the thought were burning him up inside.
This sharply snapped their attention.
Cyborg held up his hands. "I'm totally serious, I thought I saw wires on the roof, so I was going over to them, and the next instant the floor beneath me disappears and I'm falling."
"Cyborg, we did not see anything." Starfire said softly, her expression troubled.
"But you did?" Robin asked careful not to offend anyone.
Cyborg nodded and sighed deeply looking over the four of them. He stopped at Raven who was gazing at something across the room.
"Raven?" He asked, her attention stayed on whatever she was staring at.
"It's one o'clock." She chimed.
As she did there was a beep from Cyborg's clock. The lights flickered on an instant before dying.
The light on Cyborg still remained illuminated. The four looked wide eyed at each other before turning to Raven.
She watched the wall clock a moment longer before turning to the team.
Ok you should know the deal, one chapter for every hour, 13 hours. You'll figure out what that last hour is for later.
This is a Friday the 13th inspired piece, bad luck galore for our bunch. Possibly character deaths, I haven't decided yet. And there's a bad luck omen in each chapter (unless I run out), see if you can catch them.
My updates will come quick, maybe I'll finish it up by Friday. Please review.
:Bloody Fae: