𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐃𝐄𝐒𝐑𝐄 , nightwing

015 freak show.

𝐈𝐓 was late and dark by the time Dick pulled up by the house, just partly hidden away next to the woods up a small hill. Dick's leg wouldn't stop rocking and tapping, while Kory was staring off into space, her mind clearly elsewhere. Just as Dick reached for the doorknob, I jumped to calm them, or at least try to. "Wait-"

Dick and Kory both turned to face me for a moment, almost angry as their worry and fear and agitation had built up so much they were on the verge of snapping, Dick more so than Kory. Dick's gaze softened lightly as he came to realise that I wasn't the one he was angry at. "What?"

"You know how earlier I felt something with Rachel back when she blew up the convent?" I started, leaning forward, though nervously as to how the two would take this. "Well I could feel her earlier, and she seemed to be fine, just in the woods."

"What? Why didn't you tell me this earlier?" Dick grew frustrated as if I'd just given him the perfect chance to let loose all he'd bottled up on the drive over here and since Rachel had gone missing. "Have you seen or felt anything from her since?"

"No, but I'm sure she's fine-" I started, knowing Rachel was enough to take care of herself. She'd only just proven that at the nunnery not long ago with her escaping a situation where we weren't there to help her. At the thought of that, my stomach twisted. Dick had frozen in thought, his eyebrows furrowed and Kory talking over where Rachel could be now, though my mind was still there.

Back at the convent. I saw her. I felt her. Screaming in pain and terror in a room where she felt a sort of sorrow and darkness consume her and take over, a sort of protective nature against what I could only presume to be some exorcism the nuns took upon themselves to perform.

I closed my eyes for just a moment and-

There. I could see her plain as day back in a room that looked more like a cellar, with a bed surrounded by mirrors and crosses, locked away from anyone to possibly find, the only daylight filtering in from the high up barred windows. I felt her heartbeat quicken as she woke to find herself locked away, strapped to a bed screaming in fear.

And just when I thought my heart couldn't break anymore...

I felt her absolute sense of betrayal. She'd thought we had left her with the nuns to be locked away. Even if it been just a small fleeting moment of  doubt, it spoke more than words could ever convey. She'd replayed Dick trying to leave me and her behind back with Dawn and Hank over and over again as she also fought with only feelings of a disturbed nostalgia, the exorcist-style surrounding feeding her memories of a younger her plagued by nightmares and waking up to her room echoing with prayers.

"No." Dick cut through, stubborn and now only adding more to my sudden fear for Rachel. I'd been so sure she was okay earlier, but now even if she was psychically fine, I couldn't rid from my mind how she had doubted us. How she had doubted me. "No, you said this was a while ago right? So like a couple hours? A lot can happen in a couple hours, and I have a bad feeling. She was stranded  in those woods. Scared."

Dick trailed off and sighed before getting out of the car, me and Kory quickly following behind. As Dick knocked on the man's door, I felt a sudden rush come to my head, the darkness from before reflected yet again. But this time, the darkness wasn't in control, something else was trying to take control of the darkness. An even darker, more malevolent force.

The door opened up to a man I'd presume to be middle aged, slightly tubby and with a woodsman's typical style, fond of plaid. Though unlike a usual lumberjack feel, this man seemed painfully annoyed, the darks barking in the background only adding to his agitation as he leaned on the frame. Though, I'd be annoyed if a band of circus freaks knocked on my door late at night. "What do you want?"