"Insurgence and all forms of evil in a society doesn't describes her as a failure, but vividly shows a lack of love for one another."
~Michael Bassey Johnson

"How can he possibly think that I'll do whatever that he will ask of me? Oh right, I forgot. He's my kidnapper and I'm the one being kidnapped. That's why."
~Ritika Chhabra, A Dark Love

–•–•–•–

"Guys! Get up!" Gar shouts. Everyone, being relatively light sleepers, immediately got up and ran towards his voice.

"What's wrong Gar?" Dick asks.

"When I woke up Raven wasn't in her room and her door is open! And so's the front door!"

"What?!" Dick exclaimed.

"Are you sure she's not in he house?" Vic asks.

"Yes!" Kori looks around and sees something shiny glistening under the table. She bends down to pick it up and to her disdain, it's a bloody fork.

"Umm, friends?" Gar saw the fork and he almost passed out.

"Vic! Please tell me your hidden cams were working last night!" Gar pleads.

"I dunno man! Last night was a test run! They could have been working."

"Then check them!" Vic quickly pulled out his phone and went into his own app he made for home security.

There were mini cams on the table in a water bottle that doesn't move, in the flowers on the side table next to the couch, and above the TV. Those are just the ones in the living room.

"The one in the flowers inverted the colors and the image was blurry." Vic states.

"What about the one in the water bottle?" Dick asks.

"I'm lookin'! Ugh... Its all snow and white noise."

"Crap! Try the TV!" Gar asks impatiently.

"Calm down G! Ok...haha! It worked! I am not a failure!" While he reveled in his non-failure-ness the others took a close watch on that camera feed.

The night vision was also quite helpful.

The feed was dark. Then when Raven walked in the night vision turned on. She weaved through the chairs and the table without a hitch, impressing the three. Then she grabbed the fork and opened the door.

Within seconds the fork was out of her hand and she was on the ground. They couldn't see her because she was hidden by the couch, and they couldn't see what she was attacking as it was still outside the door.

They waited intently for the person to come in. Soon they saw the fork fly back into the house and land under the table and a girl in a cargo jacket came in. She had a hood so they could see her face, but they knew by her movement and body shape that she was female.

She did a few off camera things with Raven and then looked the cameras direction as she held up Raven's hand and looked around.

She stated Raven's mantra and then they were gone.

"Terra!" Garfield was already in the back of the house throwing stuff off the terrace.

He stomps back into the house and slams the door.

"We have to call the police!"

"Dude, she has no records. The only record she has is being a murderer. You think they'll help?" Vic states.

"Oh yeah..."

"Friends we must find her! Where could she have gone?"

"Well Terra seems to be working with the thugs, so she probably took Raven to them." Garfield was trying to keep himself composed. If they did anything to her he swore to himself that he'd make them regret it.

"Poor Raven..."

"Vic is right. The police won't help and the thugs probably aren't out in plain sight."

"Maybe they are under the ground." Kori suggests.

"Nice thinking Kor." Dick says.

"Don't tell me we have to go...there..." Gar complained.

"In the sewers? Every cliché says so." Vic stated with shrug.

"Eww! Is there not another way? How would we even get into the sewers?" Kori asked disgusted.

"I know how..." Gar timidly raised his hand. "A few weeks ago, before Raven even got here, I was on the other side of the bridge and there was a completely abandoned manhole cover. I could tell because the road was abandoned too. No houses or anything. I used a stick to pry it up and it came up easily. Like someone was always using it."

"Why were you trying to lift up a manhole cover Gar? Why were you even on that side of town in the first place?" Dick asked.

"Well, you all were at school and I was kinda running from Terra at the time. I was only like a 5 minute walk from her house." Dick rolled his eyes.

"Ok I guess we'll go there." Vic stated.

"Should we not wear rain boots?"

"Kor, wouldn't it look a little suspicious if we walked down the street in rain boots on a day where it isn't raining?" Kori sighed at the fact that Dick was completely right.

Then all of their phones buzzed. It was their alarms the'd set for 7:00. School.

"Oh right. It's Monday. We have to go to school." Vic said.

"We can just call in sick." Vic says.

"That would work, of we all didn't have two tests and a quiz today." Dick reminded them.

"Ugh!"

"Jeez they're working you guys to the bone huh?"

"Gar, this is the one time you actually get to leave the house without me telling you. Please take advantage of it." Gar nods.

Then they all run to get dressed because the students in the house are late.

By 8 o'clock they had busted their butts out the door.

Gar gets his last few things on and he reaches for his lucky shark tooth necklace behind the mirror. He found Raven's necklace that he made for her. He sighed. She put it back together. He grabbed he gem off of his nightstand and snapped it back into place. Then he put the necklace in his pockets.

He left the house looking extremely badass with a purple shirt, a black leather jacket, jeans, sneakers, and his black, leather, fingerless gloves.

He was ready to punch some guy's face in.

To be specific, that "guy" is a girl, and her name starts with a T.

He locked the door.

"Not coming back without her." He tried to find the quickest way possible to get to the exact opposite side of down on foot.

–•–•–•–

She could only hear muffled voices, hardly making out words.

"Give...money!"

"You...get him! We wanted the...!"

"You didn't...him! You only...her!"

"Sorry Markov, but..."

Markov? Who...have I heard that name before? Raven's head was too blurry to process anything.

"That little demon stabbed me in the arm with a fork! I am not leaving without my money!" She could make out everything now. She tried opening her eyes. Her mind wasn't the only thing that was blurry.

She made out a group of large men and a younger girl with blonde hair.

She is so familiar. Where have I seen her?

As her vison cleared, she realized where she was. She was in the sewers. At least that's what it smelled like. She was in a room that has padlocked doors on each side. There was a balcony, which indicated that theres an upstairs. It all was extremely industrial and extremely disgusting.

"Nnn..." Raven moaned. The girl gasped. "You... you're the men from the docks! You tried to kill me!" Raven exclaimed. The girl then looked confused.

"Sharp mind."

"Not sharp enough." The girl mumbled.

"I heard that! You're lucky I don't know who you are kid! Or else you'd be in some deep trouble!"

"You don't remember me?" She asked.

"Well ya should. She tipped us off about you and your little pals."

"What?"

"Huh. Looks like she's forgotten boss." One of the men say.

"Perfect. Then this'll be easy." One of them grabbed her by her shoulders and threw her over his. That's when she realized she was chained at the ankles and wrists. The shackles were tight and heavy. She found struggling to be difficult.

The girl stood and watched as they sat her down in front of a furnace and pulled out a branding iron. As soon as she saw the symbol,

"Things aren't easy. Especially with these guys. You have to be prepared. I know they killed your mom, but they killed my entire family. At my first and last birthday party. I'm not letting that happen to anyone or me ever again." She was a year older than me, but her family was so poor because they had to stretch out a little amount of money over 10 children. She was the oldest and got her party first. But she made the mistake of not telling them about the gang. They didn't try to protect her and they never saw it coming.

They caught her that day. They made her one of them by threatening to kill me. Then they had her try to kill me. Why didn't see just backstab them? They branded her. Just like they did all of their members. She couldn't leave. They would find her.

She remembered Moone. All the things she had taught Raven were now once again in her head. The question is, did she trust herself enough to preform them? Did she have enough confidence in herself to even pull them off? Could she even dash the scared feeling that she had as the iron slowly got closer to her skin?

The iron was seething with the red, hot, burning intensity of fire from a large industrial furnace. The symbol terrified her.

She tried to struggle but it didn't work. She could feel the the heat on her skin.

It was the anticipation that killed her.

She tried focusing on something else. She tried to void all thought.

When the iron finally toutched her skin, it hurt, but she held in her scream and closed her eyes until it was over.

She opened her eyes frantically tried to heal her skin but nothing happened. The mark looked like a pole that had been mangled and twisted by a hurricane into some deformed swirl-like shape.

"Nice try kid. Chemicals, plus fire, equals no magic." She wanted to cry. She wanted to bawl and thrash about and throw a fit.

But she didn't.

Just as her nightmare, showing weakness was not a good idea.

Instead of being upset and hurt, she was paralyzed. With fear, courage, and insanity swirling though her head all at once.

She couldn't move. She just sat there. Waiting for the agony to come to her.

"What are we gonna do now boss?"

"Nothin' yet. Tell Markov to go."

"Stop calling me that! And I am not leaving without my money! I need it!"

"Sorry kid. Should've brought the boy like we asked."

"YOU DIDNT ASK!!"

"Get her out of here Boris."

They tossed the girl into the sewer water and shut the door on her.

While their attention was on the girl Raven tried to free herself, but the shackles didn't budge.

This reminded her of a horrible past experience that she prayed she wouldn't have to relive. But her past seems to keep catching up with her.

After her failed attempt of escape a juggernaut of a man towered over her.

He bent down and looked into her eyes as if he was looking for something.

He then stood up and shook his head.

"No?" The man on the far side of the room grins evilly.

Raven knows what the behemoth was looking for. He was looking for the little glint in the eye that signified fear. Everyone got it. He wanted to break Raven. Have her gritted teeth slowly turn into a quivering lip.

They were once again distracted.

"Azerath Metrion Zinthos." She whispered. She toppled over a steel girder onto Boris, the one who threw out the blonde girl.

Raven cuckles as he just barely missed the girder.

"Looks like you didn't stop all of my magic." She could control things beyond her reach. This would prove to be very helpful.

Surviving down here shouldn't be too hard. She thought. I just need to make it put until Garfield gets here. And he already knows where I am.

She had sensed him coming as soon as he put the gem back into the necklace. She doesn't know why, she just knows that's why. For all she knows the necklace means nothing to her. Regardless, he is coming.

"WHAT IS GOING ON IN HERE?!" A female voice bellows.

Ok, so maybe this will be a little harder than I thought.

She closes her eyes.

Please hurry Gar.

–•–•–•–

Hi guys! So you may or may not know that my birthday is in 2 weeks from Monday. I decided that I'm letting out a special chapter on my birthday. I want it to come out exactly on my birthday, so if I don't update the week before May 15th, that's why.

14 years old baby! That's my softball number too! Now it'll be lucky!

Also, I'm really suprised how much supposed this book has gotten so far. Thank you for over 700 reads!

~Rae💖