Facing Your Demons (Titans/Plot Thread)

A new city, a new school and a new house. Again. Readjusting was hard, but Carrie was getting used to it at this point. She paused and stared at the curled wooden railing that would guide her up the stairs. She did her best to calm her breathing, but she knew what was coming. Although her mother did her best to hide it, Carrie saw her sneak off to the next room. She was on the phone with Dr. Benson, her latest psychiatrist. The newest theory was that if they could create a living space that she could perceive as 'normal', then maybe her...problems would stop.

Her hands were visibly shaking. She knew it wouldn't work. Nothing kept him away. She knew that once they would find out that the theory wasn't right, her mom would have to cave in to the doctor's original recommendation: constant care, separated from school, her mother and her friends. She knew she didn't want that, but maybe that would be the only thing that would make him leave...

Carrie reluctantly sped up the stairs to her own floor, showered, brushed her teeth and got dressed for bed. Her new room was mostly bare since they had just moved in. It was large, with a single window on the right side, a medium sized wardrobe on the left and a queen sized bed pressed up against the far wall. Her heart was racing. For some reason, she could feel it. He would be waiting for her tonight.

While a sigh, she pulled back the covers and tried to calm herself down and allow herself to drift off to sleep. She had to overcome her demon, for her mother, for normalcy and for herself.

---

Carrie found herself in her bed, but things were different. The door was gone, the window vanished and her sheets felt heavier than before, as if it was tying her to the mattress beneath her. Instantly she knew what was happening. She could feel it coming. With a nervous twist, Carrie looked to the wardrobe at the side of the room. The doors were wrapped in huge iron chains, the doors pumping outward as He was attempting to escape.

The doors burst from the frame, pieces of wood flying throughout the room, the chains shattering and clanking to the ground. Out emerged Carrie's nightmare, flailing its arms in a twisted dark manner and letting out an ungodly roar.



Carrie found herself once again frozen in terror as her terror leaped towards her, arms extended with ferocious desire in its eyes. Carrie could feel her body convulsing outside of the dream, but felt completely defenseless. She knew how this dream usually ended, her nightmare with its hands around her neck and her waking up in a cold sweat, seizing. Not tonight, though. Tonight had to be different!

Just as the terror dove towards the girl, she dove out from the sheets and onto the floor ahead of her. The monster slammed into the back wall and turned to face Carrie. Its inky face was undefined but, somehow, Carrie could tell that it was smiling. Like this was what it always wanted. Scrambling to her feet, Carrie tried to rip the door open, but she found that it was locked. The monster flew through the air, its claws aiming for Carrie's neck, inches away.

---

As Carrie's body convulsed in reality, an inky shade began forming around her body, completely engulfing her form and changing into the monster that she had dreamed of so many times. "GRAAAAAAA!!!" The black beast reared back and howled as he lunged to the window, crashing through it and the wall madly.

It was free now, and it wasn't going to waste any time to feed its hunger for destruction. With an animalistic pounce, it jumped from car to car, crushing each one as it raced to the downtown area. Police units swarmed to action in attempts to bring the beast down, but as it found itself surrounded by skyscrapers in downtown Jump, it yanked one of the speeding cruisers right from the street and chucking it through a glass wall of a bustling bar. Screams filled the streets as late night bar hoppers bolted from the restaurant as flames filled the building, a few still covered in flames.

A group of officers emerged from their vehicles and rained fair at the beast to no avail. "Please," it muttered arrogantly in a craggly low voice as he grabbed another cruiser and threw it high towards the fourth floor of the building above them. An officer dangled from the vehicle and began screaming for help.

Quickly, to avoid the annoying bullets, the monster turned to another street and began climbing a rather large skyscraper. After climbing to around the eighth floor it banged its chest and let out another scream. An obvious news helicopter distracted its climb though as it caught footage of the calamity. With a mighty lunge, though, the monster plucked the helicopter from the air and jammed it into the side of the building, flinching as an unexpected explosion followed, causing it to fall and take a moment regain its composure.

As the monster found itself landing in the middle of the 6 lane street, it was surrounded by fires, scrambling, screaming citizens and police cruisers frantically trying to contain the chaos. It reveled in the calamity, swinging its arms behind its back and looking to the sky. "GRAAAAHTTT!!"

Soon, the beast was met with opposition but not the kind that it expected. An impossibly fast blue haired blur flew through the scene, all the way up to the beast's perch and then smacking it in the face before it could react. As its head flung back slightly from the impact, it tensed up its body to preemptively sustain through the following blow to its knee. A clawed arm blindly swung to try to catch the weasel, missing entirely as it was too fast. It grumbled lowly as it didn't seem to phased by the boy's advancements. It probably wouldn't be able to catch it freely, but the boy didn't seem quite strong enough to be able to hurt it though conventional means.

Quickly afterward, the boy was met by another. He was blonde and built, but still running towards the beast like a regular person, catching it off guard. The beast stopped tensing and waited to see what the kid had in store. With a quick combo, the boy hit much harder than the beast expected, knocking him back a few inches and stunning him briefly before he could regain his composure. These people hit much harder than expected. They should be able to whittle the beast down over time, but it would definitely take more than that.

Feeling confidant, the beast was about to go on the offensive when yet another boy appeared, this one still casual but with dark hair, holding a long wire like piece. He quickly jumped to an advantageous position and wrapped the wire around the beast. "GRAAAAAAAHHHH" The beast wailed in agony as intense heat flowed through the chord, inviting ridiculous pain. "Please, no..." a weak feminine voice broke through for a moment as the beast's eyes changed from angry to a sort of pleading, before breaking straight back into the angry gaze. Blindly flailing his arms, the chord snapped, giving the beast a chance to dash.

The beast jumped and grabbed the nearest ledge of the skyscraper beside him. "Ahhh!! Please someone help!!!" A voice distracted him as his gaze was directed towards the police officer that was still dangling from his car that was jammed into the side of a fourth story window. "Please! I'm slipping!"

Deciding to take the moment as an advantage, the beast dashed around a corner to distance itself, creating two problems that the crew would have to choose between. Upon finding itself on a new street, the beast gladly hoisted a parked car above its head and chucked it at a floral window shop, creating a huge explosion and another fire starting. It then ran to the other side of the street and ripped the fire hydrant straight out of the ground, sending a wild stream of water up into the air and into a second story window, shattering the glass and surely filling that room with water.

The beast would then turn to await its pursuers.

---

Carrie dove down to the ground, allowing her nightmare to crash through the door frame and down the stairs. "What do you want from me!?" she cried, yelling down after the beast.

"BLOOD." The beast spoke back in its low gravelly voice.

It flew up the stairs, the wallpaper seeming to peel as he passed through. With her heart racing, Carrie attempted to punch the beast square in its jaw as it came. The beast grabbed her arm before contact, though, and threw he down the stairs. Fiercely driving her eyes shut as she thudded down the stairs, she opened her eyes curiously as she realized that she felt no pain. Landing on her back at the base of the stairs, she slowly came back to her feet and stared in awe back at her nightmare. As she brought up the will to fire something back, she suddenly felt a huge hit to her face and knee, followed by blows to her stomach and then fierce burning around her body that sent her to her knees, writhing in pain. What was happening???

The beast slowly sauntered down the stairs and let out an arrogant smile. "Please, no..." she muttered as the beast brought its face inches away from her's.

"I will teach you to fear." The beast growled.

The beast reeled at the Titans' ensuing attacks, but met each move with a comeback. After recovering from the metal boy's close ranged strikes the beast grabbed him with intent to chuck him as far away as possible. All of this scrambling was distracting to it as the beast was trying to enact its will on the town.

The beast grunted, with an annoyed scrunched up face as yet another being arrived onto the scene; a small wolf that made him feel uneasy with a stare that ran for miles. He didn't realize what the wolf was doing, but he knew it was bothering him. As the Titans took a moment to regroup, the beast attempted to go on the offensive. With a lion-esque run, the beast dove towards the general group, attempted to land on top of them, crushing them below its weight.

---

Carrie panted heavily as she was somehow able to escape the beast for a moment. She had scrambled down the stairs and ran into a closet that had a door that let slits of light slip through. Taking a moment to catch her breath, she realized that she didn't have much of a plan to drive away her nightmare. For some reason, she thought that if she faced it head on, then it would disappear, but that obviously wasn't the case.

Suddenly, a huge pain exploded from her torso, driving her down to her knees. Why was that happening? It was as if being in the dream itself hurt her. If she couldn't survive at all just hiding, how was she going to be able to defeat the beast.

Wait what was that thing it said? 'I will teach you to fear'? What if fear was the key? It wasn't much to go on right now, but it was a start. Suddenly, although she didn't know why, she could feel the beast closer. Quieting her breath, she waited for it to pass. The beast walked slowly in front of the door, breaking the light that shone inward.

"I can taste it...You can't hide from me...I will ALWAYS. BE. HERE. WAITING FOR YOU."

The monster tore open the door and let out a roar into the air, inspiring a blood curdling scream from Carrie.