What?

Chapter Nine

I bolted upright and gasped.

I was shaking to the point that I couldn't ever remember being so scared from waking up. Not even yesterday's panic attack could measure up to the way my heart was racing now. My fingers crumpled up the sheets like thin pieces of paper. I shut my eyes telling myself, 'They are alive. They are NOT dead...And you are still in one piece.'

I bit my lip and focused on breathing. Despite the obvious signs that it had all been a dream, it felt too real for me. I just wanted to shut it out, but every time I tried to forget, I couldn't. Flashes of the dream ran ramped through my mind. Being happy, us laughing, being told I was his, them falling, me failing...and his laughing. Him laughing at me was the worst of it. He just stood there laughing at my misery, laughing at my inability to do anything to help, laughing at his captured prey.

I shut my eyes and brought my knees up close to my chest to hug them tight. 'It didn't happen. You can't think about that. Don't think about what you might be doing at Titans Tower. All that will do is make your stay here worse.'

That laughing wouldn't stop.

Why did it bother me so much? Other villain's laughter just made me roll my eyes because they thought that they would win. But his was cruel. And not just cruel, it was reserved. It was reserved for unique and certain occasions. Times of slight amusement that usually seemed to be at the downfalls of others or the misunderstandings of others, mainly me and my failures. He never laughed at the other Titans like he did me. Every time he laughed it felt directed at me. But it wasn't because I was in his control. So why was it?

It took a long, daunting while for me to get that laugh to stop ringing in my ears. I finally laid back down and felt my head against a pillow. My brow furrowed for a second and then I bolted up staring at the bed and then the pillow cover. It had that 'S' emblazed on the cover. 'How on earth did I get in bed? And not just the bed, but this bed? I distinctly remember going to sleep in the corner so how did I...?'

I gasped and tumbled out of the bed, not at all landing very smoothly, "Ow."

Did he do what I think he...? I looked at the bed just thinking, 'He put me to bed? He put me to bed. HE, Slade, put ME, Robin, to bed last night?" I felt very dirty all of a sudden and backed away from the bed, when the door snapped opened. The old man once again stood in the doorway carrying a tray. It was smaller then the one last night. He looked down at me, probably wondering what on earth I was doing on the floor scrambling away from the bed, and then he stepped around me and put the tray on the nightstand.

He lit the candle to get more light in the room and then faced me, "Your breakfast. Eat it all. After not eating all of dinner last night, I'd suggest you maybe even dare to ask for more."

"Why?"

"It's not to quench your hunger, but some else's annoyance," At this he looked again at the bed to me, "Why are you on the floor?"

"I...uh, fell out of bed," I replied.

"Last night?"

"No, um... just now," He shook his head at this. The man then held out his hand and I took it. Once I was on my feet, he walked over to the dresser pulling out one thing or another and placing it on the top.

"Finish your breakfast, get dressed and be prepared for hand to hand combat practice in the main room when I come to get you." I nodded in understandment and with that he left the room. Again just as the door was shutting I remembered that I had to...

"Sir, wait, what's your..." Again the door shut and was locked. I turned back to my food and rolled my eyes. 'Nice, Robin, really. I can't wait to hear all the names you'll be calling him for your however long stay at this place! Let's see, "sir", "excuse me", "um would you", "hey man". Pretty soon you'll start talking like Beast Boy and be calling the old man "dude". And you'll never actually know his name.'