Chapter 51: Ravenous Hunger

                                    

                                          

Raven woke up early one morning to a gentle shaking. As she sleepily peeked her eyes open to see that the sun still hadn't risen yet. So she was confused and instinctively alarmed to see Peter wide awake, knelt down beside her bed, smiling affectionately at her.
"Hey, you." He said fondly.
Raven furrowed her brows in confusion and immediately sat up. 
"Peter." She said, sleepily. "Wha--? What is it?" Then her eyes widened. "Are we being attacked!?"
Peter held his hands out defusively. "Woah woah woah. It's okay. It's okay. No trouble." He replied with a kind, reassuring smile. 
"Oh." She shook her head, rubbing her eyes with a stressed sigh. "Sorry, I just... I'm a little on edge."
"Its okay, I think we all are." He replied with a light hearted, chuckle. "Is it the nightmares?" He replied expectingly.
"No." She shook her head with an annoyed groan. "Still nothing."
"THAT'S even weirder than the nightmares themselves." He replied, jokingly.
Raven gave the slightest of smirks in response, but she before long she was staring off, distracted by the mystery of it all.
"How many days has it been since Slade's attack?" She asked, concerned.
Peter was put off by the question and looked off for a moment. "Uh... Like five days, I think?" Raven looked off again, even more concerned. "Why? What's wrong?" 
She looked back at him. "I haven't had... ANY nightmares... since the attack."
Peter opened his mouth to speak, but when he started to think about it, he was stumped. It was assumed that Trigon's attacks would've become much more aggressive after that day. It was as if they were in a cold war with the demon.
The possibilities only served to make Peter share in her dread.
He gave a nervous gulp and looked around. "Uhm... So... what does that mean?"
"I don't know." She replied with a shake of the head. "I keep expecting it to become more intense. I EXPECTED it to be harder to control myself, so... why do I not feel any different?"
Peter thought about it in silence for a moment, but he was stumped.
He shook his head at that and threw his hand up. "I've got nothin." He shrugged. "Maybe Slade's just a shitty sorcerer. Who knows."
"No." She shook her head. "He DID what he was supposed to do, but... ever since then, things have been a little too... easy. Know what I mean?"
"Yeah." He nodded, then pointed at her with a playful grin. "That IS weird." he hummed in thought. "Even I'VE been having nightmares."
Raven's eyes widened at that as a guilty feeling stabbed her in the gut. "You have?"
Peter smiled and waved it off. "It's fine."
"Not it's not!" She protested. "You're telling me Trigon's giving YOU nightmares and not me?"
He shrugged at that with a sheepish grin. "Guess so. Like I said, though, it's fine. Scary dreams aren't exactly NEW for me at this point."
This defused her guilt just a bit. "I know, but still."
He placed his hands on her shoulders and stared affectionately into her eyes. "I wanna show you something."
He turned and started across her room and Raven followed close behind. They walked through the darkened halls of the tower, until they reached a small chamber in an isolated corner of the tower. When they got there, she was confused to see a massive blast door in place of their standard door. She watched as Peter pressed a button on the wall, and the door opened wide, revealing a small room with high tech equipment along the walls as well as magical runes in between, covering the entire room.