“WHAT LIES IN LITCHBURG GRAVEYARD.” Mal is haunted by the ghost of a Civil War-era slave hunter.
What Lies In Litchburg Graveyard
The Teen Titans travel with their benefactor, Loren Jupiter, to his ancestral home, Twin Oaks. Jupiter has come home to pay his last respects to his dying Aunt Hattie. Mal Duncan is astonished to discover that Aunt Hattie is black. Hattie whispers the word "moojum" over and over, while she dreams of the past. Her father, Ned Jackson, had been cornered on a frozen river by the slave master, Ahab Barstow. Jackson had secreted his daughter among the rocks lining the river bank.
The young Hattie clutched her moojum doll, a straw man given to her by Old Mose. Hattie begged the doll to protect her father. Upon awakening, Hattie gives the doll to Duncan, then dies. Jupiter, along with the Teen Titans, attend Hattie's funeral. Duncan drops the doll into her grave. That night, Duncan sees Barstow, and his hounds, drawing near to Twin Oaks, in the mist. The Teen Titans chalk the occurrence up to Duncan's imagination.
That afternoon, Duncan is hiking in the woods near Twin Oaks, when Barstow, and his hounds come for him. Duncan barely makes it back to the safety of Twin Oaks. Still, the Teen Titans are reluctant to believe Duncan's wild stories. Duncan awakes, from a dream, to find himself in shackles. Barstow's ghost drags Duncan toward the open window. Robin, Speedy, and Wonder Girl, burst into Duncan's bedroom, and grab hold of him. Duncan slips from their grasp.
Jupiter fires his grandfather's gun, severing the chain connecting Duncan to Barstow. Duncan flees, crashing down into a tunnel beneath Twin Oaks. The Teen Titans pursue. When the tunnel splits, Jupiter and Robin follow one path, while Speedy and Wonder Girl take the other. Jupiter trips over an old, weatherbeaten box. Inside, Jupiter finds manacles, a picture of Jackson, and Hattie's diary. Jackson is the spitting image of Duncan. Robin reads passage of the diary, aloud, to Jupiter.
Duncan exits the tunnel, but the hounds are nearly upon him. Speedy tries to shoot the hounds, but his shafts burst into flame before they can strike. Robin, and Jupiter, also exit the tunnel. Both men began frantically digging up Hattie's grave. Uncovering the moojum doll, Robin commands it to aid Duncan. The doll grow to ten feet in height, and lumbers off in the direction of the baying hounds. On the frozen river, the doll engages Barstow, and his hounds. The straw doll catches fire, as it subdues the hounds.
The doll sinks beneath the river's surface. Barstow closes on Duncan, only to be grabbed by the doll, and dragged down into the icy depths of the river. Barstow's ghost has perished as Barstow, the man, once did. Decades ago, the doll had come to life to protect Hattie's father, drowning Barstow in the river. Jackson was forced to flee further up North. Jupiter's great grandfather took Hattie, via the Underground Railroad to Twin Oaks, where she lived with Jupiter's family until she died.
Upon his death, Barstow swore he would return for Jackson. Barstow's ghost fixated on Duncan, due to his great resemblance to Jackson. Unseen by either Jupiter, or the Teen Titans, the moojum doll comes to rest atop Hattie's tombstone.
Her Brother's Keeper
Lilith Clay is drawn to a young boy, Ned, who is being attacked by vagrants. Clay helps Ned fight off the vagrants. Ned seemingly possesses psychic abilities, when he is able to sense a hurled knife coming at him from behind, and evade it. With his red-hair, and potential psychic abilities, Clay believes Ned may be her brother. Ned's amnesia, though, prevents Clay from looking too deeply into his mind. Clay takes Ned on the road with her, in search of his family... and possibly her own. Upon entering one town, Ned becomes extremely distressed.
Ned remembers that his family sent him away to military school. Ever since that day, Ned has resented them. Continuing their journey, Ned is accidentally knocked from the back of Clay's cycle, and thrown into the river. Clay rescues Ned, only to see the red fade from his hair. Ned is actually a brunette. He dyed his hair red when he fled the military school.The blow to the head has also cost Ned his psychic abilities. Clay is crestfallen at the realization that she shares no familial connection to Ned. The next morning, Ned awakes to a horrific scene.
Clay was attacked by a rattlesnake, during the night. Though she managed to crush it with a rock, it bit her, and she succumbed to the deadly venom before sunrise. Ned weeps over Clay's dead body. His grief allows Clay to penetrate the last of his psychic defenses. Clay reveals that she merely faked her death, to draw information out of Ned, while he was in a highly emotional state of mind. Clay takes Ned home to his parents, then resumes her quest to find her own parents.
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