Hey everyone! This is my first attempt at a horror/thriller, so I really hope that you all like it! Please leave a review if you have the time. Your feedback is incredibly important!
I do not own anything, so please enjoy!
Chapter 1: Alive
Titian awoke slowly with a pounding headache and a foul taste in his mouth. The lights from a number of flickering computer monitors shone dully over the enclosed space, bathing every item in the room a light purple hue. He lay flat on his stomach, his cheek resting in a puddle something wet that smelled of moldy cheese, garlic and spoiled eggs. Fighting back his gag reflex, he pushed himself up on his elbows, and looked around him, taking in his surroundings. The laboratory was a mess, shards of glass and plastic littered the floor, tables were overturned and bits and pieces of various electronics lay scattered, broken beyond repair. Damn, Titian thought to himself grimly, the egghead won't be very happy when he sees the state of his precious laboratory.
He pushed himself unsteadily to his feet, stumbled forward a step and grabbed the edge of a table to regain his balance. His body trembled from the strain of keeping himself upright and Titian breathed heavily through his mouth as he continued to orient himself. Wha-What the hell happened? He squeezed his eyes closed and tucked his chin into his chest,trying to alleviate the pounding behind his eyes. Th-The mutagen... but how...? He swallowed hard, trying to bring some moisture to his dry throat. He would have to look into this matter further later, but for now... He looked down and uncertainly ran his fingers over the skin of one thigh, then of the other. Legs… I have legs...
Titian took an experimental step forward, every thought in his mind focusing on making his movements steady. Taking another deep breath, he carefully put one foot in front of the other, using the edge of the table to support his shaky weight. Titian smiled as he reached the end of the overturned table and allowed himself to release the edge and stand on his own. He swayed slightly, but by quickly adjusting his feet, he balanced his weight to where he could stand tall on his own. Boldly, he took a sure step forward, buckled, and then took another step, his confidence rising with each new movement.
Titian looked down into his hands. As deformed as they were, they were among the most beautiful things that he had ever seen. Turning them over and over, he worked his fingers, clenching them into fists and stretching them as straight as they would go. What amazing things that I could do with these hands… He dropped his hands to his sides and raised his head, his eyes sweeping the broken remnants of the room.
He froze when he caught sight of a floor length mirror that hung on the wall. Something had been thrown against it and had cracked it straight up the middle. Titian, his legs growing stronger with step, approached the mirror, his eyes fixed on the fractured image standing before him. He blinked, slowly taking it all in. What a surreal feeling to have a form; to be solid, not just a thought or an idea. Titian ran his hands over his own face and watched as his reflection mimicked his motions. Not taking his eyes from the face before him, he turned his head slightly to the right, then to the left as he took in every detail. He prodded the thin face and frowned heavily. Scrawny little bastard, aren't you? Clicking his tongue in distaste, he turned away from the shattered reflection.
He struck something small and round with his foot as he stepped forward. Frowning curiously, he looked down at the floor and saw a patterned cellular phone. He picked up the phone and hit a button, illuminating the screen. A girl's face appeared, round and freckled, smiling pleasantly up into the camera. April. His breath caught slightly as he gazed into the deep blue eyes of the image and willed her to look back, to acknowledge his existence, but the beautiful eyes stared past him as if he were nothing. Titian wanted to throw down the phone and shatter the image, but thought better of it. Instead, he looked past the photo of April and focused instead on the digital clock numbers. 1:38. Damn, the egghead really doesn't know when to quit. He set the phone down on the floor where he had found it and looked towards the small wooden door on the far wall.
Well, the night was young, and Titian wanted to see what the world outside of this dreary hole in the ground looked like. What was the point of living if you can't enjoy it? He knew of the surface and the innumerable possibilities that arose from that place, so damn it, he was going to go out there to see what he could find to validate his sense of being.
He spotted a long brown trench coat and a ratty felt fedora hanging on a hook near the door. What could he possibly want with those ugly things? Something in his brain warned him that his appearance could be dangerous on the surface, and a disguise may serve him better. Better to be safe than sorry. He snatched the coat off the wall and slipped it on over his shoulders, tying the strap closed. Pulling the fedora over his eyes, he looked over his shoulder into the cracked mirror. I look like a fuckin' idiot, he thought to himself stepped back from the light and was pleasantly surprised that the hat masked his features almost completely and the trench coat concealed his strange physique. He may look like an idiot, but at least he wasn't going to be an idiot that anyone would ever know again.
Titian cracked the wooden door open and peered up and down the darkened hallway carefully. Of course, there wasn't anyone there. The only sounds that he could hear was a deep rumbling snore coming from a room further down the hall. It sounded like a grizzly bear with a bad head cold, and that didn't help Titian's headache at all. He had the sudden urge to permanently silence the source of the noise, but pushed it aside. He had to exert some semblance of self-control if he wanted his existence to be kept secret from the turtles for the time being.
He sneaked down the hall and down a set of stone steps, making as little sound as he could manage. The living area was in even worse shape than the laboratory. Video cassettes lay tumbled in a heap beside an old milk crate and a dozen grease-stained pizza boxes were stacked haphazardly around an active television that played an old infomercial that tried to sell the world's most innovative vegetable peeler. Titian wrinkled his nose at the smell of sweat and stale pizza that hung in the air like a poisonous fog. The curse of a lair full of teenage turtles.
Something groaned and shifted slowly on the couch. Titian froze, his heart seizing in surprise as he fixated on the peaceful rising and falling of a patterned shell ridge that peaked over the back. Cautiously, he crept forward to get a better look. The turtle slept on his side, his orange mask slipped up on the side of his face, covering one closed eye. A slice of congealing pizza hung limply from one hand as he mumbled incoherently in his sleep. What was his name again? Titian pondered as he looked over the turtle's round, freckled face. Oh yeah, the egghead called him Mikey, I think. God, what a stupid name. A sharp snore brought Titian out of his abstraction and he backed away from the couch as the mumbling grew louder.
"But Donnie, I don't wanna tap dance with Fishface…"
The mumbling grew quieter and regressed into uninterrupted snoring. Titian suppressed an inner urge to face-palm as he turned away from the couch. Taking the steps two at a time, he effortlessly hopped over the toll towers and sprinted with silent feet down the subway tunnel.
Titian had no idea where he was going, and the tunnels seemed to stretch on for miles, yet he felt at home in the damp sewer. Allowing his intuition to guide him, he turned right, then left, then two more rights before reaching an iron ladder that was bolted into the wall. In his rush, Titian splashed through a stream of raw sewage as he bolted toward the ladder. A disgusted grimace deformed Titian's face. Ugh, I cannot believe that he purposefully decides to live in this filth. If it were up to him, the family of genetic misfits would be living like kings in the up on the surface, not secluded in some abandoned subway station like scared rats. They could have done whatever they pleased; which of the cowardly humans would have had the balls to confront them? Why not just take what life was offering them? Titian shook his head sadly as the wasted opportunity. He wouldn't be making that mistake.
Grabbing the first rung of the ladder, Titian stared up into the inky blackness of his passage to the surface. He was giddy with nerves, his excitement for what was to come radiating from his core. He felt like that guy escaping from Shawshank Prison, and he wouldn't be surprised if when he reached the surface, there would be a downpour in progress that would wash him clean of the stains of his captivity. Titian had been a different type of prisoner, to be sure, but he was ready to taste freedom and experience the sights and smells of the city above for himself.
The rungs of the ladder were cold and clammy from the damp air. Titian grunted slightly as he hoisted himself up each step. Within a couple of minutes, he was balancing near the top, thin beams of light from the holes in the manhole cover shining down on his face. Positioning his feet securely on the ladder, he pushed the cover upwards. It was easier than he expected and he lifted up the cover an inch to get a good look at the surface world. He peered out into the night. The alley that lay before him was deserted, just a large green dumpster, a wide stack of cardboard boxes and an assortment of street trash that was strewn about and rustled by the wind.
He inhaled through his nose, the odor of the sewers mingling with the clouds of car exhaust and the smell of rotting garbage. With as little noise as he could manage, he slid the manhole cover off of the rim and slid it across the ground, giving himself room to climb out. A spooked cat yowled nearby and scampered out of the alley, making Titian start in surprise. He adjusted his coat and hat tentatively before turning to look towards the street. He caught his breath when he saw a woman in a little tight miniskirt stood underneath a streetlight.
Titian's eyes widened as she shifted uncomfortably on her tall cork wedges and adjusted the large bag slung over her shoulder. Her tight miniskirt hugged her ass suggestively and the light movement drew his attention to it even more than the cut of the skirt. He felt heat rising in his face as he stared at her slender curves. I have to get closer… just to get a better look at her. Treading on feather soft feet, he stealthily crept out of the darkened alley towards the woman, who seemed to still be quite unconscious of his presence.
She checked her watch and looked around the empty street. He couldn't take his eyes off of her as she glanced up towards the starless sky. She was pretty, her long red hair fell loosely around her shoulders and she only wore enough makeup to accentuate her features, rather than hide any imperfections. She smelled of lavender and vanilla and her pale skin glistened with a light sheen of sweat, brought on by the heat of the late summer.
Titian felt his heart rate quicken as his wandering eyes drifted down to the tall, pale column of her throat, settling on her perky breasts as they rose and fell gracefully beneath her clinging top. Titian took a deep breath, steeling himself. This has to go perfectly, he thought to himself as he opened his mouth to speak, hoping that his voice wouldn't crack under the pressure.
"It's awfully late for you to be out here all by yourself."
Thank you all for reading!