This short story is loosely based on the Warner Brothers/Detective Comics/Cartoon Network animated series Teen Titans. For the uninitiated (and where have you been?! :-P ), this show is about five teenage superheroes who protect the fictional Jump City from its more cruel and unusual threats (aliens, mutants, criminal masterminds, etc). The major arc of season two concerned a new member of the group, Terra, who eventually turned out to be a spy for the arch-criminal Slade: after lots of unpleasantness, Terra eventually redeemed herself through a series of actions that resulted in her being turned into a statue (but of course...). In the very final episode of the series, the Teen Titan known as Beast Boy (who, fittingly, could turn into all kinds of animals) believed he'd seen a newly restored Terra: in the end, we never found out how she returned or even if this was Terra at all, but because the episode was about dealing with past troubles (just to make things extra complicated, Beast Boy and Terra were on the verge of a romance when things went bad in season two), that was kinda the point.
Anyway, this short story picks up the issue a few months later, when all is once again not so well...
Life Story
This fall, this storm of snow, it would kill you in the blink of an eye. And at nighttime, like it is now, it might not even need that.
Strange to think, this is California. In these tumultuous times, times of El Nino, global warming, climate chaos, maybe such unpredictable weather is to be expected.
This is a cemetery. That’s all there is to say about it. This is a cemetery, and it looks like a cemetery should. Headstones lined up on short-mown grass, the way Stone Age tribes built sacred monuments for their gods and ancestors. Gravel paths breaking up some of these lines, themselves bordered by tall streetlamps. The orange light from the bulbs seems to spread around them like a globe, as if the falling snow is being set on fire. A few trees are scattered about, some in the middle but most not, their leaves all gone at this bitter cold time of year. The whole place, at least a square mile, a high redbrick wall runs around the edge, topped with curls of barbed wire.
Outside the cemetery, city buildings rise high all around, or at least they would if you could see them through all the snow. But even on a clear day, a gentle summers’ day, the surrounding metropolis doesn’t seem to intrude here, in this serene place. Even if full-scale Armageddon was breaking out beyond the redbrick walls, you wouldn’t notice.
The cemetery protected from the city outside. Like the bodies protected from the dirt and the worms and the rats.
Even on a clear day, you wouldn’t see any more than two or three people pass through the main gates. But tonight, with the snow falling thick as fog and the wind roaring like a monster on some Jurassic plain, not even a bird would be dumb enough to wander through a place as open as this.
Though something clearly is dumb enough. It’s not a bird, but a fox, running across the snow-covered grass. There’s so much snow, it’s almost having to swim through it. Foxxie paddle, if you will.
The snow-darkened night makes everything seem in black-and-white, but you can still tell that this fox has green fur.
The fox makes its way through all the headstones, all the ancestral monuments, somehow looking like it knows exactly where it’s going. Which is because it does. Only a minute or so after it squeezed through the giant cast-iron gate, it reaches its destination.
A headstone. Nothing spectacular, nothing fancy. Just a headstone, one in the middle of many others. Most of the headstones in this cemetery are new, but this one looks especially so. Truth be told, it’s only been here for about three months.
You can barely read it amongst all the snowfall, but the inscription is
TARA MARKOV
APRIL 16TH 1989 – OCTOBER 5TH 2006
“THE GOOD ONES, ALWAYS TAKEN SO YOUNG.”
Nothing spectacular, nothing fancy. Just enough to show you care.
The fox stares up at the headstone for a while. It tries to shake off the snow that’s collected on its back and chest, as if that would make any difference.
Suddenly, there’s a blur, and the fox is gone. Instead, a teenage boy is standing on the snow. This green-skinned, black- and purple-coated boy, the people of this city would know him anywhere. And they wouldn’t expect to see him here, especially not tonight.
Beast Boy, one of the five Teen Titans who protect this city, Jump City, he wraps his thick winter coat tighter around himself. He pulls his hood further down over his head and tightens up his goggles. Even then, he still shivers as if he’s having a seizure. His teeth still rattle so hard they hurt.
Doing what he intends to do tonight, it could very well kill him. Frostbite, hypothermia, pneumonia, any one of a thousand ways you can die sat out in the cold. But he knows that if puts this off, this sacred task, even one more night, death will be a certainty rather than a distinct possibility. It would be mental death rather than physical death, but it would still be death.
Which is worse?
Beast Boy sits down in front of the headstone, legs crossed like he’s in a school assembly. The snow’s piled up so high that his eyes are exactly level with the name of
TARA MARKOV.
Beast Boy and
TARA MARKOV,
looking at each other from across the mortality divide. In these international times, times of mass media, multi-culturalism, globalization, maybe this is the only true divide left.
Beast Boy clears his throat, wraps his arms round his chest. Clears his throat again. He pauses for a second or two.
“Terra.” His voice is a whispery croak, the kind of voice you’d use through a veil of tears. He’s too cold to cry, but his body’s going through the motions anyway.
In this bellowing wind, he has to strain just to hear his own voice. But that doesn’t matter. The girl he’s here to talk to, she’ll either be able to hear him even if he whispers, or she won’t be able to hear him even if he screams.
Which is worse?
“Terra. I never meant to kill you, Terra.”
This much is true. No one ever truly means to kill. Defending themselves. Making money. Getting revenge. Sending a message. Having fun. Whatever the motive, it won’t be killing just for the sake of killing. Even with the most unreasonable of people, there’s always a reason. It might shock and appall us, but that’s not the point.
“I’m sorry, Terra. I’m sorry I’ve hurt you so much. I never meant to, but I did. If you’re still out there, Terra, then I can understand if you don’t want to listen. But you’re the only one who can understand me. You always have been, and you always will be. I guess some things don’t change.”
Only a foot away from him,
TARA MARKOV
just stares silently back. As silent and as accusing as a grave. All she has to say is
“THE GOOD ONES, ALWAYS TAKEN SO YOUNG.”
As if she would be saying anything else.
“I’ve got no right to talk to you, Terra, I know. But I have to talk to someone, and no one else understands me as well as you do. I have to tell my story, Terra. I have to explain. This mess sitting in my head, I have to explain it. It’ll destroy me if I don’t. You’re the only one I can talk to, Terra, even if you don’t want to listen.”
This is a widely known phenomenon, but only if you’re a policeman. It’s one of their better-kept trade secrets.
Everyone needs to tell their story, to explain their presence in the universe. A killer, the only person they can tell their story to is their victim. The only one who won’t judge them, who will understand what they went through.
Even though you didn’t truly mean to do it, killing is still tough. Even an animal, something you can just step on, it’s still the toughest thing you can do. It still leaves a mark on you, forever.
A story like that, it needs telling more than others.
What the police do is, wherever the body was buried or dumped or dismembered, they’ll stick a hidden microphone or two. They’ll sit and wait until the killer comes back, to tell their story, then they’ll pounce. They’ll wait for years if they have to, because it always works.
Because the thing about us humans, the thing that makes us special, is that we need to tell stories. To explain things. In these individual times, times of alienation, mass apathy, social death, maybe this is the only part of human nature that hasn’t changed since Prehistoric times.
Which is worse?
“Move on, and start a new life. Everyone said it. Even you said it, Terra. You of all people. But why should I?”
Again, this much is true. At first, he’d been willing to accept that the newly-restored Terra would never be the same as the Terra of old. The cheerful, smiling, effortlessly cool earth-mover.
Crucially, the Terra who was madly in love with him.
At first, he’d been willing to let go. To move on, to start a new life. To leave the new Terra to her own new life, a life of high school, friends and family. A life of peace that a petrified statue or even a Teen Titan could never have.
After all, she deserved it.
“Why should I move on? Why should things change? Why shouldn’t we try to keep hold of things? Accepting change is just rolling over, Terra, letting things sweep by you. It’s accepting defeat.”
A Teen Titan never accepts defeat.
“Terra, you of all people should know that.”
The “at first” stage, the begrudging acceptance stage, it only lasted a few months. Maybe not even that.
“I couldn’t forget about you, Terra. I tried, I really tried, but I just couldn’t do it. Even the times when I managed to keep you out of my thoughts, I still couldn’t keep you out of my dreams. Awake or asleep, you were still on my mind. But I loved you, Terra. How could it be otherwise?”
Sat on the freezing snow, more snow settling on his head, Beast Boy knows he’s doing the right thing. Out there, somewhere, Terra is listening. Not
TARA MARKOV,
but Terra. The real Terra. She might not want to listen, but she is. She knows she has to listen, same as Beast Boy knows he has to talk.
He’s sure of this. After all, how could it be otherwise?
“I just wanted to see, Terra. To see if you were still okay.”
He watched her. When she was at school. When she was at home. When she was with friends. When she was with family. The fly on the wall, always sat there, always watching, always listening. When he wasn’t fighting, when he wasn’t being a Teen Titan, he was by her side. Just being there, where he felt he needed to be.
For his own peace of mind, you understand.
Terra, she didn’t mind. Truth be told, she didn’t even know. Sat in the classroom, working on the Math test they hadn’t revised for, who would suspect that the fly dozing on the windowsill was taking notes?
If she was happy. If she was sad. If she was angry. If she was lonely. If she was scared.
For his own peace of mind, you understand.
“I loved you, Terra. I still love you. You think we should just forget about those we love?”
Which is worse?
“You were never meant to know. It would’ve only hurt you, Terra.”
At the time, he didn’t really think about this. All he thought was, if Terra found out he was watching her, he was a dead man.
Stalker. Killer. Lunatic.
As it turned out, all three were true.
In these “me first” times, times of greed, self-obsession, self-importance, maybe Beast Boy’s actions aren’t so surprising.
As it turned out, she cottoned on anyway.
It was early July. In a few weeks, school would be over for another term. The long summer holidays would begin. Six weeks of fun and frolics in the warm sun.
It was about this time that Terra got a new boyfriend. No, not Terra, but
TARA MARKOV,
technically speaking. But Beast Boy wasn’t about to stand on technicalities.
Terra, she had a good life. A loving, caring, wide-embracing family. A big house in the rich Salisbury suburb. Half-a-dozen close friends, who would be right by her side for what little remained of her life.
All this, Beast Boy could accept. Be happy about, even. Terra was happy, content, so Beast Boy was happy, content.
A boyfriend, though, Beast Boy couldn’t deal with that. It meant that she was moving on, that she was living a new life. That she wasn’t Terra anymore, she was
TARA MARKOV.
It meant that she’d forgotten him.
Beast Boy, he couldn’t be having with that.
“I’m sorry, Terra. I didn’t mean to hurt you like that. But you shouldn’t just leave things to one side. Things shouldn’t have to change if you don’t want them to. I just wanted you to see that.”
What the new boyfriend’s name was, what he looked like, where he lived, Beast Boy couldn’t remember. Even after he’d followed the guy to his house and beaten the living shit out of him, he still couldn’t remember.
In these violent times, times of guns, wars, hatred of all things, maybe this is something you’d do. Your own do-it-yourself jealous-ex hobby kit.
On reflection, this was where it all started to go wrong.
Sat on the freezing snow, more snow settling on his head, Beast Boy shivers. He’s cold. That one time, not so long ago, when he went to Siberia to fight some monsters, he’s even colder now than he was then.
This cold, it’ll kill him if he stays out here any longer. But he has to finish. He has to say his piece, because he can’t hold it forever.
Which is worse?
“Your boyfriend, Terra, I’m sure he was a nice guy. He probably didn’t deserve what I did to him. But it wasn’t fair on me, you know?”
The boyfriend, he didn’t report his beating. When a guy with green skin turns into a bear and puts you in hospital for three weeks, it’s not so hard to work out the who and why of things. But he didn’t tell anyone, not even the police.
The police, they have a tendency to protect their own.
He didn’t even tell his girlfriend. Then again, Terra was never exactly slow on the uptake.
Beast Boy didn’t have police swarming outside his door. He wasn’t done for GBH or anything like that. Instead, Terra just took him to one side and had a quiet word in his ear.
His dedication to her, it was all very flattering, but it had to stop. She wasn’t the woman he was in love with. She might never have been. He would just have to accept that. Move on, like she had.
And if didn’t leave her alone, she would be calling the police.
Nothing spectacular, nothing fancy. Just enough to say her piece.
Of course, Beast Boy took no notice.
“You can’t just tell someone to not love you anymore. That’s not how it works, Terra.”
So he continued to watch.
At first, he made sure he was more careful. He didn’t do anything, he didn’t say anything. He just flew around after her, small and ignorable as a little insect. Flies were best, though having the odd newspaper swiped his way was a problem.
Terra, she has less of a clue than last time. She was bright, very bright indeed, but there was no way for her to know.
“If you’re thinking that I blame you for all this, Terra, then you’re wrong. I don’t blame you for anything. It’s my fault, Terra. It’s just me, my own head.”
In these confused times, times of no directions, multiple identities, mass migrations, maybe his own head is more important than he thinks.
Like the first time, it didn’t last. He lost discretion, replaced it with stupidity. Like last time.
Which is worse?
This time, at least he didn’t beat anyone up.
This time, he sent letters, pictures, videos. All the remnants of Terra’s old life, he sealed them in envelopes or parcels, sent them to her door. Anything that reminded him of his lost love, it might just remind her too.
“That’s when I got to thinking. What you had, Terra, it was just amnesia. Plain old amnesia. Something you can reverse, you know? If you could just see, hear, watch the right thing, all your memories would come back. There’d be bad things, sure, things no one should have to remember. But, Terra, you’d remember how much you used to love me. You’d remember the way things should be.”
It didn’t work the first time, but that was no reason to lose hope. In these pessimistic times, times of depression, futility, passive acceptance, maybe hope is the one thing we need the most.
At least, that’s the point Beast Boy was trying to prove.
After the first few times, Terra didn’t even bother opening the parcels. When the police searched the house after her death, they found twenty-seven of them in the trash. She hadn’t even lifted up the corners of the tape.
She didn’t report any of this. She didn’t even have another quiet word. She just ignored it.
The worst thing she could have done.
“I wanted you back, Terra. I wanted you back so much it hurt.”
If Terra still loves him, he’ll never know. From now until the end of time, all she can tell him is
“THE GOOD ONES, ALWAYS TAKEN SO YOUNG.”
Maybe this is true. Maybe it isn’t.
Which is worse?
Even with all these unopened parcels, Terra didn’t know that Beast Boy was still following her. She suspected it, because how could she not? But she didn’t know.
Though, eventually, she got her proof. Beast Boy got stupid, took to following her in person rather than in fly.
A guy with green skin ain’t exactly hard to spot.
This time, she didn’t have a quiet word. She finally made good on her threat, called the police.
As her boyfriend predicted, the police swept it under the carpet. But Robin still had his own word with his colleague. Needless to say, Robin wasn’t impressed.
“That’s when I finally realized. You know, Terra, I never meant it to come to that. But you gave me no choice.”
No one ever truly means to kill.
It only took a few days of planning, then another few days of following.
Terra went to the cinema with her friends one night. Sure that Beast Boy had been taken care of, she walked home alone. A cry for help lured her into an alleyway, and a gunshot made sure that she only left it two weeks later, in a zipped-up bodybag.
When an ambulance drives without sirens, that’s probably because there’s a dead body in it. Just one of those things.
Nothing spectacular, nothing fancy. Just enough to see her dead.
A crime like that, the police never thought to pin Beast Boy’s name to it. With her phone and wallet gone, they just filed it away as one of Jump City’s many muggings. A tragic incident, but still a common one.
Thinking about it, perhaps
“THE GOOD ONES, ALWAYS TAKEN SO YOUNG”
says it best.
“Terra, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for hurting you. But at least you can’t change anymore. Now, you’ll always be the same as you were on that night.”
“With the new Terra dead, I can love the old Terra. We’re both at peace now.”
APRIL 16TH 1989 – OCTOBER 5TH 2006
“THE GOOD ONES, ALWAYS TAKEN SO YOUNG.”
2 comments:
Ok, Matt. There's no reason for me to read this again, but just so you know, the first time I read it, I cried. yes. I cried about a tv show/story. Oh well, things do that to you I guess. This one's beautiful.
Matt H.
Brilliantly executed. The symbolic snow storm set the mood beautifully, even if, as far as I can gather, it was all in Beast Boy's head. Which makes sense, because you present Beast Boy as a total psychopath. And you did it perfectly. Intelligent, profound; good work.
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