Lost Genius
Chapter 1: Good-bye, Friend
Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. God, my chest is heavy. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. Wow, the pressure's gone.
If only my hand would move. Well, at least I can breath easier now. Hum, I wonder if I can move my head.
Pain goes shooting through my body like hot knives slicing my insides.
"Damn it," I said through clenched teeth. I forced my eyes open and I looked through watering eyes up at the night sky. When the pain had subsided, I closed my eyes.
Ok, that hurt. But why? Why did it hurt so badly?
I open my eyes again. I strained my ears to hear the sound that had caught my attention. There. A low moaning sound. Closing my eyes, I slowly turn my head to the right. A pounding headache begins but that is all. I smile and open my eyes. My smile disappears.
"W-what happened?" My own voice sounded strange just like the unknown place I'm laying at but it's not as strange as the sight I see.
Burning rubble everywhere, bodies scattered every which way, and a huge chunk of something about twice the size of a house was part burnt and part burning. The moaning! I rolled onto my right side slowly and stopped to breath when I was laying on my arm. Pain with every movement was close to overwhelming. Controlling my trembling body and running breath, I finally get to my hands and knees. Two purple strips of cloth fall over my right shoulder as I shiver slightly. I take the two strips of cloth into my left hand as I shift my weight on my right hand and feel it. It felt familiar but I just couldn't figure out why.
Not knowing makes me so frustrated.
I chuckled at that. That seemed so true. Dropping the cloth, I shift weight to my left hand and follow the cloth with my right to a knot on the back of my head. I followed the cloth with my fingers and stopped when my fingers were in front of my face.
So I'm wearing a purple bandana but why? Am I part of a gang or something similar to that? No. I'm something-someone-else. But who? What?
I sat down and ran my left hand along my right side. My fingers ran over something and I turned to see what. Strapped to my shell was a stick by a brown belt around my waist. Slowly, I pulled the stick free, wincing as the pain grew. Breathing a little harsh, I began picking the dry blood off the stick as I looked for who-whatever had moaned.
A branch snapped and my head snapped towards the sound, earning myself a wave of nausea, dizziness, and pain. I closed my eyes, trying to control my stomach and pain. Another branch snapped and I opened my eyes. In front of me was a human who was holding their side. Something was telling me to run and hide while another thing was telling me that I need to help. Using the long stick as a crunch, I made my way to the wounded person who was now on the ground. When I was a few feet away, I noticed that the person was a girl around 14-15 years old. I knelt by her and gently rolled her over. My stomach lurched and I almost lost the contents in my stomach. The girl had a gash across her stomach and a piece of metal was sticking out about 3-5 inches from the left half of the gash. That wasn't what made me close to throwing up. Well, all of it at least. Her right eyelid as well as about an inch of skin above her eye was missing, revealing bone, the bottom-left half of her lip was missing as well as patches of skin on her left cheek. Her left arm was burned as well as the far left of her body. Her right arm was broken a few inches below her elbow. How I could tell was that there was a hint of white in that area, like the bone had moved and had gotten through the skin, revealing itself. Her right leg was a bit deformed and I turned away, loosing control of my stomach.
"A-are you ok?" a dry, weak voice asked.
I looked at the girl in front of me. She was looking at me but her eyes looked like they were looking through me.
"I am blind, friend, that is why I look a far," the same voice said. I looked around. "I also speak through my mind, friend. I was never able to speak through my mouth."
I looked at the girl a little puzzled but I accepted her state. She lifted her left hand to my cheek and ran her hand down it.
"Your mind is clouded, friend," the girl said. "All I can find is a name."
"My name?" I asked, praying it would help me remember why I'm here.
"I am not sure but I will tell you friend but after I say mine," she said. "Is that all right?"
"Of coarse," I said. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"I am close to leaving so I will say what I need to and not what I want to," she said. "When you meet the one named Leonardo, tell him 'Shian has moved on'. My name is Shian and the name within you is…"
She fell silent as a tear made its way down her cheek.
"The name is Donatello," She said.
"Thank you," I said, trying to keep my disappointment at bay. Hearing the name didn't bring anything from the darkness.
"Good-bye friend," Shian said.
"Good-bye…friend," I said, choking down tears. "I will give Leonardo your message."