Venomous Poison

When The Dead Live

0-oo-oo-oo-oo-0

It wasn't like I had planned for any of this, but it was just too tempting to decline. She had been wandering around looking as cute as ever, that innocent look upon her face as she attracted all of the men's eyes. I was no objection seeing as I was also a man, but it seemed that I had appealed to her, but in a different way than she had appealed to me. It seemed that all the men glared at me when she came walking over to me and we began to talk, almost like old friends who had just seen each other for the first time in years. Only we weren't friends, far from it in fact. I was evil, she was good, and that was a line that should never be crossed. But hey, I wasn't wearing my mask, and she wasn't wearing her armor, so as far as I was concerned, we were normal people talking to one another.

"Thank you for playing along. I'm not sure how much longer I could have stood all of those men staring at me," she said once we had turned the corner and started heading towards the park.

"It's was my pleasure. I try to make it a daily thing of helping out Cuties like you to pull my weight in helping out the community. Though I must say that you are by far the best Cutie I've helped out," I told her, a playful smirk adoring my features while she laughed. She didn't know who I was, but I knew who she was, and that made this all the more enjoyable yet nerve racking at the same time.

"Helping out the community? Well I do something else, but I guess what you're doing is a good thing. It saved me after all, right? So why am I best 'Cutie' you've helped out so far?" she asked, playing along with my game. It threw me that she would do this instead of looking at me oddly and asking what I had meant.

"Seems as though they were keeping more of her hidden than I thought," I thought, curious to find out what else was hidden behind her pretty face.

"Well usually by now the girl I helped out would have left without saying anything or would be all over me. You've stayed and haven't jumped my bones yet, so that makes you the best, Cutie," I said, looking over at her to see her wrinkle her nose in disgust (probably because of my 'bones' comment).

"Oh, well I'm glad to have met your standards," she said, smiling that brilliant smile of hers at me.

"Why is it that you picked me to go to for help? There was that nerd that was only a little ahead of me and you wouldn't have had to have worried if you had gone with him," I said and she laughed a little.

"That nerd was picking his nose, I have some standards too you know. Besides, the other men would have never believed that I was really 'with him with him' and they would have just beat him down. If I went with you, one of the only guys who wasn't staring at me as much, then they would believe it enough to think that I was 'with you with you' and leave me alone," she explained, though it was an odd way to do so.

"What about me would make those idiots believe we were together Cutie?" I asked. Even though she didn't know who I was, I was still curious to find out her opinion of me.

"Well you're good looking enough to have a girl like me, so it seemed believable and obviously it was since they left me alone. Seems we make a believable couple," she said with a shrug, acting as though she didn't just tell me she thought I was good looking. A sly cover up for her blush and nervousness.

"So now I'm the lucky one? You may be the best Cutie I've helped, but you're the oddest too. Maybe you're right and we do make a believable couple… you single?" I asked and she took it as a joke even though I was serious. What I really wanted to know what was going on with her and the tight-wearing-circus-freak.

"I guess you could say that I'm single, though I think this one really great guy likes me," she said, a dreamy look in her eyes as I held down my lunch.

"He's probably a bastard," I muttered, but she heard it.

"You've never even met him, so how would you know?" she asked, defending the guy who I knew wasn't good enough for her.

"I know more than you think," I said under my breath, but my mumbling just seemed to anger her even more.

"If you have something to say then speak up!" she yelled. I must admit that she was cute when she was angry. Her eyes got a dangerous spark in them while she placed her hands on her hips and attempted to glare at me. Ignoring her obvious displeasure with me, I quickly kissed her; leaving her shocked.

"You talk too much Cutie," I said with a smirk as she just gapped at me. "That should keep them off you for a while," I added before turning and walking away.

"Hey! Where do you get off kissing me and then just walking away? I don't even know your name and you have the nerve to-"

"Jason," I cut her off before kissing her once again, though this time I made it last. I nearly started to laugh from her expression when she slowly opened her eyes and tried to hide her blush by pretending to be angry (though a little of that anger may have been real). She had closed her eyes though and that was a good sign.

"Why did you kiss me?" she asked, the blush still tainting her normally tan face.

"I told you already: you talk too much. I needed some way to shut you up," I shrugged, and it was partially the truth; the other half just being that I'd been wanting to kiss her for a while.

"I still don't even know who you are though," she retorted.

"I already told you that my name is Jason and that's all you really need to know because you'll probably never see me again," I told her. It was true that she would probably never see me again without my mask on, but I was sure that I would be seeing her again.

"Well what if I do see you again?" she asked and I chuckled.

"I'm not the kind of guy you want to get yourself acquainted with," I warned her.

"Why not? Are you some drug dealer?" she asked, obviously not paying attention to my warning. Oh well, if she doesn't want to listen, it's not my fault if she gets hurt. I gave her a fair warning and that's all I can do without totally blowing my secret.

"If you don't want to listen to me that's fine, but I've got other things I need to do. See you around Cutie," I said before once again walking away. Just like the last time, I didn't get far before she was next to me again, though this time she didn't stop to yell at me. When she continued to walk next to me I stopped and turned to stare at her.

"What is it now Cutie?" I asked.

"I just wanted to say thank you," she said, smiling at me.

"You don't have to. Like I said, it's just my part of helping out the community Cutie," I told her before winking and once again beginning to walk away.

"It's Kory," she said.

"Maybe so, but I like Cutie. It suits you," I said before waving over my shoulder and turning down on of the separate paths. After walking a little further down the path (until the bushes had blocked off her sight of me), I cut across the path and peered through a small clearing in the bushes. What I saw made me smirk even more and look forward to when I would see her again tonight, only this time we would be fighting. She lightly touched her lips before blushing and running off and as she ran off, I turned from the bushes and continued my walk. Why run back home when it was such a beautiful day?

oo-oo-oo-oo-oo

"Stop!" Bird-boy yelled, but like always I just ignored him as I continued to jump from rooftop to rooftop. I felt heat go rushing past my leg and looked back to see a smoking hole in the ground.

"That almost hit me you know," I said, skidding to a halt and giving them time to catch up. As they prepared to attack me (waiting for Bird-boy to give them permission) I looked over the edge of the roof wondering if I could make the drop.

"Well Titans, this has been fun and all, but I've really got to be going," I told them before back flipping off the roof. The air was rushing past me for a moment, but it stopped when I grabbed onto the rail of a balcony and swung myself in through the window. It's a good thing that it was summer and the window was open because I didn't feel like wasting time breaking it. As I silently ran through the apartment, the owners didn't even seem to notice as they just keep sleeping away since it was nearing midnight. The moment I had gone jumping out of another window, I knew that I had to keep on my toes because it was most likely that one of the girls would be coming after me since they could fly and were overall some of the better fighters. It really was the girls that were some of the best fighters, and I didn't mind fighting them since one of them only wore a leotard and the other a skirt and top that showed off all of her stomach.

"Halt!" my favorite Titan demanded as I was about to start running towards the streets.

"You got me Cutie, I give up," I said, smirking as I slowly turned around and put my hands above my head. Something seemed to have distracted her giving me enough time to trap her against the wall of the building with one of the Xs.

"See you around Cutie," I told her with a hidden smirk before disappearing through one of the sewer drains. I heard the commotion of the other Titans running over to help her, but didn't have time to listen to the rest since I knew they would be coming after me soon. I ran a little through the sewers before finally coming upon the motorcycle I had left hidden for when I did need to run away. Revving up the engine, I went speeding down the tunnels and away from the five heroes. The drive was somewhat long, but it was normal for me. All the twists and turns didn't confuse me at all as I navigated under the city and towards my home. In truth, I'd probably spent a little less than half my life in these sewers, driving back and forth from the city. The tunnels began to get narrow, but I kept going for a little while further. When the tunnel did get to the point where I might scratch my bike, I slowed down until eventually coming to a stop and turning off the engine.

"At least it's a shorter walk than normal," I thought as I began to walk. It was true because usually whatever I had stolen would get in the way and I'd have to start walking earlier. Now, instead of the normal almost hour long walk, it would only be forty or so minutes. It was actually very convenient that I had found these sewer drains since where I lived was off in pretty much the middle of nowhere. The house wasn't even really mine, but more so my grandparents. They had died a year or so after I became a villain, but before they could read the will; I snuck in and altered it so that the house would be left for me. There was nothing much important on it except that they wanted the house to go to my whore of a mother who didn't deserve it. If anyone deserved it, it was me which was why I even changed the will. I knew my grandparents hated me since before I became Red X, I would always be running away from home, smoking, drinking, getting into gang fights, and I guess they heard rumor about me getting a couple of girls pregnant. That rumor was only correct once, and even then I tried to help her, but she ditched town. In sum, my grandparents thought I was the scum at the bottom of their perfect barrel, so in the will, they left nothing for me.

"Fuck them, they'll never know what it's like living with their daughter as she is now. That bitch was always using me to get what she wanted," I thought bitterly. My mother was pretty much the reason why I am who I am now: Red X.

Her parents, my asshole grandparents, were pretty wealthy, but instead of being a good girl and using the money to buy clothes, she used it to get drugs. Eventually she got knocked up by one of the dealers (she would do anything to get drugs) and nine months later I popped out of her. At the young age of five, she brought me out with her one of the nights as she scouted out some of the dealers. She was under the assumption that nobody would try to get with her if she had a kid with her, but that didn't stop her from hitting up a couple of guys a week. By the age of six, I knew exactly how babies were made (I wasn't considered a baby to her when she had me though, I was that unwanted bastard child), the different types of drugs, and all the swear words in the book. The teachers just loved me. So much that they made sure to keep me in during recess, eat lunch in the classroom, and hold me after school until my mother came to pick me up (which she sometimes didn't do and the teacher was forced to call her). I'm surprised they never reported her for child abuse (since I did come to school with bruises), but it seemed that a lot of the kids came that way and it was expected almost.

By the age of almost ten, I had learned the cost of the drugs and where to find most of the dealers. My mom thought this was great since she was too drunk most of the time to remember where they were herself. Soon I became a regular for them to see and they no longer held a knife to my throat asking why I was there when I found them, my mother not far behind me. In a weird way, they became my family more than my own mother and grandparents ever had. When I was in 11th, at the age of 17, I had sex with one of my classmates. She told me that she had had a huge crush on me (I was one of the better looking guys at school) and then that she wanted to know what it felt like to make love. Even with the hormones of a teenage boy (very cooped up hormones since I'd only hit up one or two girls for sex before her) I looked at her oddly and asked why she wanted to give it away. When she told me that she thought her father was going to rape her sooner or later and that she'd rather give her virginity to someone she liked, I wanted to kill someone for the first time in my life. To make her feel better, I went through with it (even though I didn't love her at the time) and the next week she came to school in tears telling me that her father had finally done it, but that she was glad I had been her first.

That night, I went to find the dealers without my mother following behind me since she was passed out when I left around one in the morning.

"I need a gun," I had told them and they laughed at me before asking why. I told them I was going to kill a man for hurting my friend which they seemed to understand because believe it or not, the gangs had a pretty close bond and looked out for eachother. Once I had the gun (and had practiced my aim a little) I headed towards her house which I knew the way to since that was where we had had sex. As I crept through the small window of the apartment, the gun held in my slightly shaking hand, I realized that I did love this girl and that that was why it drove me insane to think of someone hurting her. The moment I had realized it, my hand stopped shaking and my eyes darkened with hate. I found the man sleeping on the couch, the TV on as wrappers laid around him. He was much larger than I had thought he might have been which was good because now there was pretty much no chance I could miss.

"Jason?" she had asked, walking out of one of the doors in only a tang top and shorts. She saw the gun in my hands and took in a sharp gasp, watching in horror was I continued to walk towards her father with the gun pointed at him.

"He's going to regret ever touching you," I hissed before hearing the deafening sound of the bullet leaving the barrel as the gun was fired. The bullet had killed the man at once since it was a head shot and the minute all was quiet again, the girl collapsed to the ground in tears.

"Why'd you do it Jason? Why'd you kill him?" she asked through tears. I slowly walked over to her after hiding the gun under my shirt, the cold metal pressed up against my back as my belted pants held it in place.

"Because I love you Rachel," I told her. She looked up at me with her purple eyes, fear yet something else held in them.

"Come with me Rachel. Leave this place behind," I told her and she nodded which shocked me. Most teenage girls don't run away with the guy who killed their father, but hey, she was different. She went into the room and returned with a small bag filled with clothes, some food, and all of the money she could if in her father's room. While she was getting those things, I took her dad's wallet and pulled out all of his money. Rachel came back as I pocketed the money and I handed her a switchblade that had been in my back pocket.

"You probably won't need it, but just in case," was all I needed to say before we were climbing out of the same window I had used to enter and running down the streets. When we were almost three blocks away, I heard the police sirens and knew that we needed a place to hide. Home would be the worst place for me to take her since my mother would probably just report us (she really did hate me except for when she wants to know her way around) so I headed towards the guys who had given me the gun in the first place.

"Who's the broad?" one of them asked as I ran into their place.

"We need a place to hide," was all I told them before they understood just who Rachel was; the girl I had killed a man for. They quickly hid us in one of the back rooms (the same rooms they hid the drugs) and all we could do was wait. It seemed like forever before the leader of the gang finally entered the room alone.

"We can only keep you hidden for a while," he warned us and we both nodded, not really knowing what he had gotten ourselves into.

"I'd keep her close Jason, the men can be frisky," he then added before leaving the room, but keeping the door open, signaling that we could now leave the room. Once we were outside in the light and I could see Rachel, I remembered that I had killed a man and a wave of nausea washed over me.

"You okay Jason?" she asked and I only had time to shake my head before bolting out of there and into the ally way where I was reminded of what I had eaten almost a whole day ago. Wiping my mouth on my sleeve, I spit into the same gutter the rest of the mess had gone into before standing up.

"You know there's no going back," I stated, sensing her presence to my left.

"I know, but I don't want to go back. My life was going no where, but now I'm free," she said which caused me to laugh.

"You're life was going no where before? What you see now is how my life has been my whole life and as you can probably tell, I'm a nobody. Just some scum that has to steal to make a living and his friends are the drug dealers. You'd probably be better off if I had just let the police take you," I said bitterly which caused hurt to flash across her eyes.

"At least you had friends! I've been alone all of my life and then I meet you and I don't feel so lonely. If you had left me for the police, I would have broken out to find you because I'm not letting go of the one person that makes me feel like I'm not worthless," Rachel said before she started to cry. Never before in my life, had I had to deal with crying females. My mother never cried except for when she ran out of booze or drugs and even then I never had to really care. All I would do is either go to my room and blast music while she cried for I'd sneak out to go hang with the dealers. Now I was in a completely alien situation and I didn't like the feeling of not knowing what to do. It made me feel as if I didn't have control of the situation so I took control and walked over to her.

"I'm sorry Rachel. I wouldn't have ever left you for the police," I told her, holding her in my arms as she cried. I wanted to add that I was scared because I didn't know what was going to happen, but I kept that information to myself because I didn't want to frighten her any more than she already was.

"Where are we going after your friends kick us out?" Rachel asked once she had stopped crying.

"Well not back to my mother's place, but my grandparents own a place out in the middle of nowhere. We could make our way there and stay in one of the spare rooms since they're vacationing in Hawaii right now," I suggested since it was really the only thing that we could do.

"How are we going to get there? Hitchhike with random strangers? All you have is a switchblade since I know the gun doesn't belong to you and I doubt that will do any good to keeping us safe," she said, obviously not used to have to worry about herself since her father and mother (who had died a year ago) were usually the ones that took care of her.

"My grandpa was a hunter, so he'll have guns. Until then, we just keep a watch out. There's nothing else that we can do since we're now running from the law," I told her, not missing the tremor that worked through her body upon me mentioning that we were fugitives. We were able to stay with the gang for another month and the whole time that we did, I kept Rachel with me at all times except for when I went to get some money and then I left her with the boss. Rachel had had her 16th birthday while we were staying with them and to celebrate, I robbed a jewelry store and brought her back a necklace that was on a silver chain with a purple gem in the middle and small diamonds surrounding it. Of course she refused to take it since I had stolen it, but that night as I laid naked next to her I put the necklace on her. It looked beautiful on Rachel, the color slightly lighter than her purple eyes and purple tinted hair. The silver chain didn't stand out against her pale skin as much as a gold chain would have and I was happy that I had chosen this necklace. It was pretty funny when I went into the empty jewelry store with a gun pointed at them. Right away, all of the workers started to shake as I told them I wanted to see only their finest jewelry. It was even more fun when all I did was take that once necklace muttering that 'she would love it' before I left the store.

"You didn't have to get this for me," Rachel mumbled, obviously still kinda half asleep.

"I know, but I wanted to. You deserve to be treated well and have beautiful jewelry," I said before kissing her lips softly. Rachel smiled before she cuddled up against my chest and fell back asleep. I too was about to fall back asleep when I heard faint yelling from outside. Sitting up, I reached over to the desk and grabbed the gun (they decided to just let me keep the gun I had used to kill the man), waiting to hear more noise. The next noise that I heard was the loud blast of a gunfire which caused Rachel to let out a small scream and jump.

"What's going on?" she asked, shaking slightly as she sat up and held the sheets up in front of her to cover her bare chest.

"I'm not sure, but get dressed and then hide. Just don't hide anywhere near the boxes because there's a chance someone might be looking for the drugs," I warned Rachel before getting out of the bed and starting to get dressed. I had barely finished doing up the belt around my waist when the door slammed open. From the way the man was crouching down, I knew he wasn't one of us so I quickly shot him before grabbing Rachel and pulling her under me as I dove for the ground next to the bed.

"Hurry and get dressed and take any money you can. We're getting out of here tonight," I whispered before rolling off her and slowly making my way over to the door (the whole time I stayed close to the ground). Behind me I could hear Rachel's small whimpers as she quickly dressed. When I left the room, I silently closed the door behind me before heading towards the back exit to see if we could get out that way. Just as I had guessed, there were men out there waiting and they began to shoot at me when I opened the door to peer outside. Swearing under my breath, I ducked to the side as the fired bullets went flying at the place I had been sitting mere seconds before. Taking the opening as the men searched for where I had gone, I quickly took aim and shot at them. I knew that one was dead since I had shot them where their heart would be and he fell to the ground, but the other two were just hit in the shoulder and leg. All the same, I was relieved when they quickly left, dropping the guns as they did.

Grabbing their guns, I started heading down the back ally to see if Rachel and I would be able to get out. Everything was clear (since all of the fighting was happening on the other side of the building) so I ran back inside and headed towards the back room where I knew Rachel would be staying. Upon approaching the door, I heard yelling from inside, though none of the voices sounded female which meant they had either already found and killed Rachel, or she was still unnoticed. My breath hitched when I crept over to the door and discovered that they had found Rachel, but she wasn't dead yet. The reason my breath had hitched as that Rachel was being held by two men (one of them had covered her mouth which explained why I hadn't heard her) while another one pulled out a switch blade and slowly pulled her shirt up so that her tight stomach was exposed.

"Not much meat to work with, but that just means less work for me and more screams from you," the man holding the knife laughed, slowly running his hands along the blade of the knife. When he reached out to grab hold of one of Rachel's hips (probably to hold her still) she squirmed against his hold while trying to get free from his greedy hands.

"Now now, if you keep moving, it'll take longer for me to finish. You wouldn't want that, now would you?" the knife wielding man taunted and I could see Rachel's violet eyes widen in fear. I could only stare, paralyzed, as the man slowly brought the sharp point of the knife down on her left hip and cut across the pale skin, making it turn red with blood. I probably would have stayed paralyzed and unmoving where I wasn't if it wasn't for the fact that Rachel let out a scream of pain. That was my wake up call and I sprang to action, taking aim on the one that was carving into Rachel's stomach and then pulling the trigger. I felt a surge of power as the bullet left the camber and went straight into the unsuspecting man's head. It was amusing to watch the men's faces as he fell to the ground dead. Without giving them time to react, I quickly took care of them as well and they joined the other man in a dead heap on the ground. Trembling, Rachel sank to the ground as I quickly ran over to her.

"It's okay Rachel, they aren't going to hurt you anymore," I whispered, my own voice steady and strong even though it should have been trembling from killing those men. I felt no regret though. Taking their lives made me feel in charge and gave me a surge of power knowing that I was in control of my own life for once instead of just sinking further into the rotting hole my whore of a mother brought me into. Rachel looked up at me, tears still falling from her pained eyes, before looking back down at the three surrounding dead bodies.

"They won't hurt you anymore Rachel. Come on, we have to get out of here," I said before helping her to her feet. Rachel tried to walk, but left out a hiss of pain while grabbing the side that had been cut. I lifted up her shirt once again (since she had pulled it down after the three men wee dead) and saw that the wound was still bleeding heavily.

"Ah fuck," I swore, trying to think of a way I could slow the bleeding. My eyes hurriedly ran over the room until they landed on the bed. Feeling slightly stupid for having not thought of it before, I ripped some material from the sheets and used it to wrap around Rachel's cut. Tying it tightly, Rachel and I once again began to run from the room, one of my hands holding the gun out in front of me while the other held Rachel's hand and pulled her along behind me. It seemed that things had calmed down which meant that either my gang friend had won or lost. Either way, we needed to get out of there so I picked up the pace towards the back door. Luckily, we got out unseen and it seemed that luck just continued to be on our side since just down the corner, there was a man about to start up his motorcycle. I left Rachel behind a dumpster before approaching the man, the gun still held out in front of me.

"Get off the bike," I ordered as I got near him. The man quickly turned around and when he saw my gun, his eyes widened.

"Get off the bike," I repeated before the man slowly did just that. Taking the key and the helmet from the man, I threw him at the wall of a building before calling Rachel over. As she came near, the man saw the blood on her shirt and his eyes widened more, probably thinking that I was the cause of her injury. Handing the helmet over to Rachel (it was probably a little too big, but I didn't care at the moment. All I was concerned about was her safety and getting the hell out of here) I told her to get on before starting up the motorcycle. The engine roared to life as I felt Rachel slide onto the bike behind me. Her small arms wrapped themselves around my shirtless waist before I turned the bike around and started driving away. It seemed that the loud motorcycle and drawn some attention to us since I soon heard the sound of other engines start up and then the rubber of car tires skidding against the street as people hurriedly pulled out of the ally way and chased after us.

"Hold on!" I yelled to Rachel before speeding up. Soon, the people following us began shoot at us and it just confirmed my guess that my gang friends hadn't won. Rachel let out a scream when I made a sharp turn at a corner. There was another screech behind us as the cars made the sharp turn as well and continued following. Soon the buildings began to thin as I drove us further away from the city.

"Why are the cars still following us? They should have given up by now. What the hell is their motive for following us?!" I thought since I could still hear the sound of the cars following us. Luckily though, they had stopped shooting as us a while back and now they were simply following us… which was odd to say the least. Just when I thought the people tailings us were going to give up, they began to fire at Rachel and I again. Rachel let out a scream because of the noise that came from the loud guns as I began to swerve in the road (it was empty, so there wasn't anything to worry about) hoping to dodge some of the bullets. When it seemed I was doing a good job of dodging the bullets, I felt one get shot into my side and let out a groan of pain. My vision became blurred with tears of pain and soon I couldn't even see straight. The next thing I knew, Rachel was screaming and then the motorcycle collided into a tree, sending both me and Rachel into the air before I landed hard on a rather large rock that was off to the side of the road and then slid to the ground.

I didn't know where Rachel was, but my conscious said that she was dead since I couldn't hear her breathing, screams, or whimpers. The only sound was my own breathing, which was slowly fading, and the sound of approaching footsteps. Since I was lying on my side, one of the men that had been following Rachel and I kicked me over so that I was now on my back and looking up at them. From what I could see (which wasn't much since my eyes were partly closed, tears still lingered in them, and my vision was spotted and hazy) there were at least five of them, three of them carrying guns, but I guessed the other two had guns as well, just not out in the open.

"Well well, Jason Todd. Seems you're not so big and mighty anymore," one of the men spoke, his voice deep.

"W-who are y-you?" I asked, my own voice weak and hoarse since it was taking pretty much all of my energy just to stay conscious.

"That doesn't matter. What matters is that you killed a group of our men and now, you're going to die," the same man said, a smirk in his tone that I'm sure matched the one on his face. I wanted to ask them what the hell they were talking about since I'd never killed a whole group of men at once, but my words came out as nothing more than breaths that I couldn't afford to lose.

"Should we shoot him just to make sure he dies?" a different man asked, his tone unsure. I didn't even bother trying to look at the surrounding men anymore as my eyes slid shut and I focused instead on just staying alive.

"No, that would be too easy. Boss said to make sure he suffers and that's exactly what he'll do lying here waiting for death. Come on men, lets go," the first man to speak ordered before I heard their footsteps as they walked away. The car started up once again before driving away and leaving me in silence. Just when I was about to let myself slip into unconsciousness, I heard the sound of another car approaching. The only reason I knew it was coming was because I could hear the loud music which sounded like pop. I silently prayed that they would noticed the motorcycle crashed against a tree on the side of the road and just when I thought that I would go to hell for cussing out the gods that didn't answer my prayers, the car slowed down until it stopped all together. I heard the sound of high female voices and guessed that the people in the car were probably around my age. Not that that matter much. All that matter right now was finding Rachel and actually staying alive.

"Oh my God! There's a guy over here!" a girl yelled, her voice a lot closer to me than where I guessed the car was parked. I let out a grunt of pain, hoping that she would notice I was alive and I heard a scream.

"He's alive! Hurry up and get over here Carly! We have to get him to a hospital!" the one that had noticed me yelled to someone who I guessed was her friend in the car. There was the sound of high heels on street before I let out a rather large groan of pain when I was lifted from the ground.

"He's gonna get blood like all over my outfit!" a new voice, who I guessed to be Carly, whined.

"Will you quit whining?! This guy is dying!" the first voice snapped and I took note to thank her if I lived and she was still there.

"Well unlike you, I actually care about my appearance. How are we going to go clubbing if there is blood all over our clothes Sam?" Carly asked, her voice really starting to annoy me.

"We aren't going clubbing! Now help me get him into the back seat," Sam ordered before I was lowered onto a leather seat. It seemed the car was a convertible of some sort and probably rather new since it had that new car smell.

"R-rachel," I breathed out, hoping that they would hear me and go out to look for her.

"I think he tried to say something," Sam whispered to Carly as they got into their seats.

"Who cares. Just get him to the damn hospital already," Carly said, obviously mad at her friend for stopping at the side of the road to save my life.

"Rachel," I said, this time my voice stronger and louder.

"Rachel? Carly go check to see if there's anybody else," Sam said and I heard a huff.

"I'm not going back out there. I'll like break a heel or something," Carly said and I heard what I thought to be a whispered swearword that sounded a lot like 'bitch'. That thought made a smirk come to my otherwise pained face before I heard a car door open and then the sound of retreating footsteps. There was silence, for probably almost ten minutes before I heard footsteps once again.

"Where was nobody else out there," Sam said, her voice sounded curious yet saddened at the same time. Probably curious to find out who I was talking about, who I was, and why the hell I was out here. I don't know where the sadness came from, but it probably had something to do with my condition which I guessed to not be all that great seeing as I was shot and then crashed into a tree without a helmet. The last thing I remember hearing was the sound of the car starting up and then I felt darkness overcome me as I prayed that Rachel was alright.

0-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-0

So if somebody doesn't consider that I long chapter, I'm gonna go crazy. I worked my ass off writing this chapter, though most of it came pretty easy since I knew where I wanted to go with it. Note that the italic written paragraphs is one big flashback Jason is having while he's walking through the sewers.

This reminds me of my little contest. It isn't anything huge and multiple people can win. I simply want to know how many people recognize the name Jason Todd and if they do, where that name is from. If you don't know, that's fine, I'm gonna put a link at the end of chapter two when I post it. Anyway, whoever can tell me who Jason Todd is and where he's from will get to read a little preview of a story of their choice.

If someone does get it right, I'll give them a list of my stories and a brief summary before letting them choose which story they'd like to get a preview of. If the preview of choice is for the next chapter to When The Dead Live then it might take a while for the preview (depends on how quickly I start writing the chapter) but they'll get it all the same.

So anyway, I hope you enjoyed my super long chapter and flames are accepted. I only say that because I'm guessing some people won't be too happy about the pairing. One thing you've got to expect from me is weird pairing because I do get bored of the normal RobStar and RaeBB. I will mix things up and when I do, I will allow flames for those who are so one track minded they won't accept something different.

Anyway, please review and if you think you know how Jason Todd is, tell me in your review and if you're right, you'll get a reward. Just so you know, I have like over ten stories for the winners to choose from, so there are a lot of options for previews.

Please review!

Kattie