Hell is for Children

Prologue

Usual disclaimer shit: I do not own Teen Titans, nor do I own the title of this fanfiction. Those credits go to Warner Brothers /DC comics and Pat Benatar, respectively.

This will not be a story for the weak-hearted. Contained in both the prologue and later chapters will be sex, graphic physical, emotional and sexual violence, and non-sexual exploitation of a child (I'm not THAT sick, thanks for asking though). Therefore, I expect no flames or hate reviews, and any received will be promptly ignored.

If you haven't seen "Hide and Seek" from season five of Teen Titans, I suggest you do if you're going to read this story.

This story will be Raven/Beast Boy. Once again, if this is not your thing, turn back now.

***

"Melvin, for the last time, Bobby will be just fine outside! It's summer, and teddy bears do NOT get cold!"

"Do too!"

Jessica sighed and shook her head, fixing her foster daughter with a strained smile.

"How about this… he can stay in the garage, but that's it. Deal?"

Melvin smiled and nodded, all the worry that had danced on her young features dissipating in moments. At eight years old she was the oldest of the three children Jessica and her husband Jonathan had adopted, followed by Timmy at four and Skylar, who the other two referred to as Teether, at just over a year and learning to talk. They had tried for years to have a child of their own, giving up their hopes in their early thirties in exchange for the chance to adopt those who had no homes. At the orphanage they had fallen in love with the three at once, which was a stroke of luck because the facility had been given strict instructions that one was not to be adopted without the other two.

"Good. Now, it's getting late, and you need your sleep. Tomorrow will be a busy day for you and your brothers, and you need your sleep."

"Yes, Jessica."

The young woman smiled, brushing a strand of Melvin's golden hair from her face so she could look into those beautiful blue eyes.

"Good. I love you Melvin."

"Love you too, Jessica."

She pulled the covers up over Melvin and kissed her on the forehead, making sure the night light was on before she shut the lights off and pulled the door around.

"Bobby again, huh?"

Jessica smiled at her husband and nodded, making her way down the hall to the next door on the left, poking her head in to make sure the boys were still sound asleep in their beds. They were, Timmy clutching his blanket to his chest with his thumb stuck in his mouth while Skylar slept, his breathing deep and steady, in his crib.

"Of course. It's natural for a child her age that's grown up with children so much younger than herself to still have an imaginary friend to clutch onto. Just don't call him an imaginary friend to her face."

Jonathan laughed, a noise that even after ten years of marriage melted her heart and brought a smile to her face. He moved forward to wrap his arms around his wife, kissing her softly.

"The children are in bed… the night is still young… why don't you go downstairs and get that bottle of wine from the fridge? I'll set everything up in the bedroom.

She grinned and smiled playfully, kissing him again, deeper this time and with the promise of a passionate night behind it, before stepping away from him and making her way to the kitchen. Her husband was a handsome man; tall and filled out in all the right places, with skin that seemed to be naturally tan despite his English background. He was tall, several inches over six feet, with dark hair and baby blue eyes that never failed to give her weak knees whenever she looked into them a moment too long or a little too deep. With her dishwater blonde hair that came to the crest of her back, her deep green eyes, her thick build, and her five foot seven he easily towered over, she felt they made the perfect couple and complimented each other quite well.

Her footfalls were almost silent as she moved down the stairs and into the kitchen, her hand reaching out to pull open the refrigerator door. Behind the children's' juice boxes, Sippy cups and bottles she located the sparkling red wine Jonathan had picked up from the store a week prior, and she set it on the counter until she had retrieve two glasses from the cupboard. Excitement flooded her senses at the idea of the romantic night ahead, and she headed up the stairs to their bedroom.

"Here I come, Jonathan…" she called out quietly, pushing their bedroom door open with her shoulder. A moment later her eyes widened and the wine bottle and glasses fell from her hands, shattering into a million pieces at her feet and sending liquid in all directions across the hardwood floor.

There, in a puddle of his own blood, lay her husband face-down on their floor. His neck was bent at an odd angle and a single bullet hole decorated the center of his forehead.

"No… no no no nononono…"

Her moan of shocked agony sounded like barely a whimper to her own ears as she sank to her knees, unable to take her eyes off the sight of her husband as her hands came up to cup over her mouth and bile, thick and heavy, rose in her throat. Only the feeling of cold steel against the back of her head and the terrifying "click click" of a barrel sliding into place kept her from vomiting, and a cold numbness infected her blood and left her shivering as a voice whispered, cruelly;

"Your husband wasn't very helpful, Mrs. Ferrier. Let's see if maybe you can be of more assistance. "

"… what do you want?"

"The girl. That's all I require. Direct me to the oldest child and you can be spared the same fate that befell your husband."

"What do you want with my daughter?"

The urge to protect her child, despite the fact that Melvin was not actually her flesh and blood, brought about a rush of courage and a steadiness to her voice that did not falter even as he grabbed a fistful of her hair in his hand and shoved her face to the floor roughly.

"Did I tell you that you could ask me questions, bitch? It's none of your concern what I want with her. All you need to know is that I'm here to take her, and we can do this the hard way or the easy way. Whichever path you choose, I'm taking her."

He hauled her to her feet and repositioned the gun at her lower back, starting to force her to the door. Jessica stumbled before him clumsily, her mind working in overtime. Somehow, even at the sacrifice of her own life, she would make sure that Melvin would not be taken. If nothing else, she was sure of that.

***

Melvin was not sure what exactly it was that had awoken her. She had heard the shattering of glasses in Jessica and Jonathan's room down the hall, but something before that had brought her out of the lucid dreaming state she had been in, the state that comes moments before the decent into actual sleep.

"… Jessica?"

She had whispered her adopted mother's name, for some reason feeling that raising her voice would not be the right thing to do. The floor was cold on her bare feet as she slid out of bed and moved to her door, wrapping her small fingers around the edge of it before pulling it open slowly. Voices met her; Jessica, panicked and terrified, and an unknown person she had no memory of meeting but for some reason feared with every fiber of her being. It took her only moments to realize they were talking about her, and she licked her suddenly dry lips before creeping into the brightly-lit hallway and sliding silently along the wall. The sound of footsteps suddenly approaching from the bedroom stopped her dead in her tracks and her eyes darted around frantically, seeking a place to hide. The only place available was Timmy and Teether's room, and all intentions of being quiet were thrown to the wind as she dashed for the open door. At the last moment her foot became caught in the plush rug Jessica and Jonathan kept in the hallway and she screamed in shock, tumbling forward and landing face-first on the floor.

"MELVIN!"

Jessica's voice caused her to raise her head just in time to see the strange man shove her foster mother off to the side, almost down the stairs in fact, as he trained a gun directly at her head.

"You're coming with me, Melvin. It's time we took you home."

Melvin opened her mouth to speak, only to find her words had been stolen from her, and as she turned blindly to seek shelter in her room she heard the gun go off, a bullet whizzing inches from her head. Once against she screamed and stumbled on the carpet, dropping this time to her knees and tucking her arms around her head.

"I have orders to bring you in alive, but if need be, dead will work just fine if need be. Cooperate with me, and no one will be harmed."

"LEAVE HER ALONE!"

What transpired in the next few moments, moments that seemed to happen before she could even blink, would forever be burned in Melvin's mind. The gun fired once more, rapidly and without mercy, but the pain she expected did not come. She dared to look over her shoulder, and instantly regretted it. Jessica had thrown herself between her daughter and their attacker, her body twitching and convulsing violently as he riddled her body with bullets. Once pierced the bone of her skull, the flesh of her brain, and came out the other side to send fragments of gray matter and bone shards across Melvin's face. She shrieked in horror, eyes wide and body rigid in terror as Jessica dropped before her, landing on her back with her eyes open blankly and staring up at Melvin with a look of agony locked on her features. The young girl turned away from the sight, pulling at her hair roughly, locking her body into a protective ball as the screaming continued, a reflective action she no longer could control nor was aware of. The house suddenly rumbled roughly as Bobby, her imaginary friend who was in fact quite real, burst through the garage wall, rushed up the stairs, and attacked the man moments before he could reach Melvin. She could hear his screams as her own faded, as her knees tucked up to her chest and her chin rested between them, as her mind shut down and buried her somewhere deep within her subconscious where she could block out all that she had seen within just these few short minutes.

In this position, ten minutes too late, was where the neighbors, who had heard the commotion and could not ignore it, found her.

***

Halfway across the country, it was three minutes after four am when Raven's communicator broke through the silence of the night.

TBC