Request for the Raven

Darkness.

Suffering.

Death.

These were the thoughts that thrashed through the sobbing young man's mind as he approched the darkened alleyway.   His ghost white skin was clocked in all black and his strangely hair covered his eyes.   Nothing was right in the world.  He had no friends, and he felt his family had no interest in him.  The only person who had loved him was his girlfriend,  who was killed in a car accident just a few months ago.  He had lost everything.

He walked deeper into the dark alley until he saw an older woman, cloaked in pure white, standing in the shadows.  Her skin was even more pale than his and her eyes were an strange shade of violet.

"Are you the Raven, daughter of darkness?"  He asked.

"I am."  She replied turning towards him slowly, her violet gaze burning into the man's soul.

He shook his head, before meeting her gaze, "I've come to die."  He stated firmly.

Raven titled her head, "To die?"

"I have nothing left.  Please,"  The man's voice dropped eerily low,  "kill me!"

Raven looked over the man, "Slit your wrists, or jump off a sky scraper if you want to die."  She glared at him, before turning and drifting towards the end of the alley.

The man's eyes widened as he looked at the ground.  Her answer had been the same as everyone else's. He rushed towards Raven grabbed her cloak and fell to his knees.   She stopped and slowly turned her head towards him.

"Please, I beg of you!"  He cried, as tears fell from his pleading eyes, "I'm too scared to do it myself."  He gripped the white rag in his arms and hugged it tightly. "You must know how it feels, to have lost everything.   Otherwise, you wouldn't be were you are now."

Raven cast him a glance, not menacing or cold,  but soft and almost kind.  Yes she had indeed lost everything.  Her life span was twice as long as the average human, she knew it was.  Why else did she seem to be fourty when she was really closer to eighty.  First Beast Boy, then StarFire, Cyborg, and finally Robin.  She was the last of the Teen Titans,  and would be for many years to come.

Raven sighed, "Yes.  Yes, I know how you feel."

The man released her cloak and wiped his eyes, "I just don't know what else I can do." He whimpered, "I need help, I-"

From out of the blue a glowing female figure appeared and placed a finger upon his trembling lips.  The figure had diry blonde hair and crysyal blue eyes.  She wore a white shirt with a lace design embroidered around the collar.  Her beauty was completed with dark blue jeans and a necklace with a small sliver heart dangling from it.

"Hannah?"  a large smile stretched across the young man's face when the figure of his former girlfriend nodded, "Oh, Hannah I've missed you!"  He wrapped his arms around the figure smiling through his tears.

As soon as he released her, Hannah's spirit began to trot towards what seemed to be a portal.

"Wait, my love..."  The man sprang to his feet and followed her to the entrance.

She entered it and looked at the man expectantly through it's swirling blue, green entrance.  He didn't need to look far to discover it's origin.   Raven stood a few feet away, holding the portal open in a magical grasp.  Her eyes glowing the same shade of blue as his lovely Hannah.

The man looked at her one last time with a small smile, "Thank you."  Was the last thing he said before he entered the portal, following his girlfriend to the heavens.

As the portal closed as Raven collapsed.  The suge of power it took to open this portal had taken it's toll on the panting woman.  Sweat dripped down her pale cheek and slid down her limbs.  She felt her body reverting to her younger self, as memories of her friends flooded over her.  Her age fluctuating to a time of happiness.  She heaved a heavy sigh as the strange phenomenon ended.

"What has this world become?"  Raven muttered silently looking at where the portal of pure light had stod just moments ago, "What have I become."