𝑆𝑂𝑀𝑁𝑂𝐿𝐸𝑁𝐶𝐸 (𝐵𝐵𝑅𝐴𝐸)

(3) 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛

She doesn't want to do it. Raven doesn't want to go to sleep. No, she is afraid of going to sleep.

When she beat Trigon, Raven felt like she'd gained mastery over herself. But now, she understands she can never truly be free from her mind, even if Trigon is no longer present there to torment her. The memory of him is enough.

Raven's chest rises and falls, as she attempts a breathing exercise, though she's not sure with how shallow her breaths are if the exercise is succeeding. It doesn't seem so.

Raven's room is still darkly illuminated, and the environment is comfortable, thus her head begins to grow heavier, her eyelids likewise. She tries to shake herself awake, but she experiences something else entirely.

The moment her eyes close, her body freezes. Raven barely registers the bout, even her subconscious dismisses her body's inability to move entirely as she almost immediately falls asleep, though even then, some tiny part of her cannot help but notice she can't move her arms to hug her pillow.

Blood. Her hands are covered in blood. Raven sits on her knees on the empty road, the night sky dark as ever as the scarlet moon lights the lifeless Jump City. Bodies litter the landscape, blood flows in the sewers, the gutter water now red.

"What happened?" She whispers. She's not sure, but her bloodstained suit and hands are enough proof she's to blame.

Trigon's voice confirms her fears. "I'm proud of you."

Raven glares up into the sky, her eyes burning with tears and a hard scowl on her face. "What did you make me do?"

"Make? Make?!" Trigon laughs. "You did this, Raven. You let your fear get the better of you; I merely played a little trick, and you quickly became a murderer."

Raven tightly curls her hands into fists. "What trick?" She demands harshly.

"Look at you, trying to be brave." Trigon says. "For whom? The alien who's guts you pulled out, or the machine you tore apart? Maybe it's him..."

"Raven-" Robin gurgles blood. A stab decorates his midsection.

"Robin, let me-"

"Stay away from me!" He warns, and holds up a gun. Raven looks at him with tearful eyes, her hands trembling.

"Stop this madness." She yells at her father.

"Why'd you do it, Raven?" Robin asks.

"Do what?" She questioned weakly.

"Why did you kill Beastboy?"

Another gasp, tears locked behind her eyes, legs immobile, and Raven's mind begins to panic. Not because she hasn't gotten used to it, but because this time, she can't feel her arm.

It's gone to sleep, so far gone Raven fears she might never move it again.

She calms her heartbeat, and after a few seconds, opens her violet eyes, tears leaving them in quick excess. She sits up, but does not gain balance, face-planting into her carpet. Her cheekbone burns in pain and she lifts herself up.

Using one arm she begins to rotate the other, trying to get her blood running through her veins again. Finally, her efforts bear fruit.

Raven clutches the amethyst treses atop her head in desperation, dense tears dripping down her face.

"What is happening to me?" The empath whispers. She slowly, in an almost zombie like fashion, walks over to the bathroom. The light flashes on, and she notices a dark, blue bruise decorating her porcelain face.

Raven doesn't want to sleep, it goes without saying. The nightmare, the aftermath, it haunts her, running like a hamster on a wheel in her brain. She glances up at the chakra, her gaze formed of abhorrence, frustration and fear mingle into a truly emotionally unstable concoction that a sixteen year old girl should not be consuming.

The fear that wracks her is too much this time around. Raven realises her head is heavy, her eyelids droop and she sways dizzily for a second.

No, sleep can't come, not until and unless she is able to free herself of the demons that hold her nightmares hostage.

She turns on the shower, and fully clothed, Raven sits under the cold water, hugging her knees close to her chest, and gagging herself with her shirt to avoid her sobs echoing around Titans Tower.

AN:- i'm crying like alot. alot, alot.