Psychosis
Chapter One: Bad Day
Disclaimer: I do not own the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Thank you AlexHamato for being my beta reader for the rewriting of this story and pushing me to achieve greatness.
Hello Psychosis readers! I decided that I was not happy with Psychosis and so I chose to rewrite all of my old chapters, starting with chapter one of course. Please, if you have already read chapter one, I advise you to reread it because something's are a bit different. I will update the summary (with a date) every time I rewrite a chapter so keep on checking! Thank you all for your wonderful support.
-ChatterBOXX
"Really Raphael, do we have to watch this?" I whined while flopping down on the worn couch in the living room. In my hand was a bowl of freshly popped popcorn, which I had intended on eating while watching the mega monster movie festival. Eyeing my brother, he seemed unfazed. His eyes were glued to the screen as this evening's breaking news filled the air.
Seeing as my first attempt to gain my brothers attention failed, I decided to try again. "Seriously Raph, I don't wanna watch the news tonight, it's always so depressing," I whined out, a bit louder this time.
"Quite Mikey, I'm watching this," Raph grumbled while turning up the volume. Sighing in defeat, I returned my eyes back to the flickering screen. I hope that this evening's story will not dampen my cheery mood.
After Adam Litmen filled us in about the sunny a clear skies we could look forward to all week, the screen jumped to Nancy Clearwater standing in front of a warehouse. The building was in extremely poor condition and there was a lot of activity as rescue workers evacuated tons of people.
"A few hours ago, a patrol officer received an anonymous tip. The witness saw a group of men dragging what appeared to be restrained people of various ages into this building. When Officer Black arrived on the scene, he knocked on the door and questioned the tenets. After a few moments Officer Black told us, he heard an ear-piercing scream that had appeared to come from a child, and he proceeded to force his way into the building. He immediately noticed the poor condition the house was kept in as well as the sheer amount of people, mostly children, which were cramped in the small room. What was even more surprising Officer Black shared, was that most of the people were nude or wearing very little clothing. Calling for back up and drawing his weapon, he attempted to keep the men at the scene of the crime, but they fled. They were later caught by police officers later at a local bar. According to police, this house is believed to have been a part of the major human trafficking business. This is Nancy Clearwater bringing you your breaking news."
"It never ceases to amaze me how humans will stop at nothing to make a quick buck," Raph growled at the television, "I mean did you see most of the people they were evacuating, they were kids!"
I sat in silence. I was still trying to process all of the information that was given to me; I never was good with things like this. As the news switched to showing pictures of past victims of trafficking, whose lives had been taken from them, my heart fell as I felt gurgling bile rise to the back of my throat. I don't know why hearing about human trafficking, or human suffering in general always has this effect on me, but I did know that I had to get away from the television. Seeing all of those sad eyes in the pictures staring back at me was haunting, and I felt as if they were all trying to tell me something.
Standing up, I gingerly placed the bowl of untouched popcorn on the table and swiftly flipped over the sofa. Turning on my heels to head to my room, I heard Raph shout my name. "Mikey, where are you going, I thought you wanted to watch that movie marathon." Pausing as he noticed the slight twitch in my shoulders, he continued on a little more cautiously, "you okay, you're not going to beat yourself up over what you saw are you?"
Sighing, I turned around. "No, I am fine, honestly and I did want to watch the movies, but dude, I am super tired now, I think I am just going to head to bed." With that, I quickly left and headed to my room before he could push the matter forward. As I was shutting the door, I heard him shout something about eating my bowl of popcorn. I honestly didn't care at this point.
Sliding down to the floor, my mind replayed the images of the past victims repeatedly in my head. I felt paralyzed as nauseating empathy coursed its way through my body like black sludge. "Why does it hurt every time," I whispered to my cold and cluttered floor, "it's been this way for as long as I can remember, I want it to stop." Suddenly, I felt the familiar surge of pain shoot through my head as another headache began to emerge. Not again, I thought to myself as I pinched where the bridge of my nose should be.
Slowly standing up, I began taking off my gear in order to get more comfortable. As I was taking off my belt, I heard the metallic clatter of something falling to the stony ground. Tossing my belt to the side, I dropped to my knees, searching for the noises culprit. As my fingertips lightly brushed a smooth circular object, I smiled in recognition. It was a small golden pocket watch that my father had found in his room and given me a few days back. I honestly thought it was the coolest thing ever because it looked like it belong in a Sherlock Holmes film or something.
The watch itself was golden with careful symbols carved around its delicate casing. On the inside, a glass covering protected the golden numbers and hands as they danced around the pearl face. Wait a second, the hands were ticking, they did not do that when my dad gave it to me, we thought it was busted! Slowly, I shrugged it off, maybe a good hard drop on the ground was all this thing need to give it a jump start. Turning the watch over, I was impressed with what I saw. On the back was an engraved message written in careful cursive that read, "To Jude Prezlocki, with love, mom." I am not sure who Jude is, but I thank him and his mom for this awesome watch that is now in my possession. Walking to my dresser, I gently cleared off a small space and placed it down.
Still feeling bummed out about the news, I decided that the best medicine for this malady that plagued me was a night session with my Gameboy. I bet Sora, Donald, and Goofy could use some help defeating the heartless. Grabbing my onyx black game system, I flipped it on and turned off the light. Carefully maneuvering through my cluttered room, I made my way to my bed and sat down with a satisfied plop. Speeding through the beginning credits, I wondered how long it would take me to beat the game; my best time was twelve hours…
You know how you get that feeling, the one where you just know it is going to be a bad day. Well, that is exactly how I felt this morning. I was lying in bed, somewhere in between slumber and wakefulness, nursing a killer headache when suddenly; a loud and rapid hammering noise filled my silent room. Each thump sent waves of pain rippling through my already hypersensitive head. At first, I must admit, I was startled out of my peaceful state of limbo, but I settled down once I realized that the loud noise was one of my brothers pounding their big meaty fist on my bedroom door.
Pulling a pillow over my head, I tried to drown the sound that was ricocheting in my room like a stray bullet, hoping that it will get lost in the downy material.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
No such luck.
I groggily peeled my exhausted eyes open, only to quickly close them. My brain screamed at me for exposing it to new sensory. Sighing to myself, it did not take me long to realize that today was going to be a long day, a very long day indeed.
Maybe I shouldn't have stayed up all night playing Kingdom Hearts, but then again I did beat my last time.
"Alright sleeping beauty, it's time to get your lazy butt out of bed. Good old Fearless wanted us to leave for patrol five minutes ago."
Ugh, Raph. He must have drawn the shortest straw and was assigned wake up duty. Maybe if I ignore him, he will lose interest and leave me alone. Come on, just ignore him Mikey, you can do it.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Or not.
"Raph, please stop knocking and go away, I don't feel so good, and I am too tired to do anything today," I groaned loud enough for him to hear me through the pillow. My plea was met by another rapid succession of knocks on my door, causing me to cringe away from the noise. My head honestly felt like it was mauled by a horde of angry mousers.
Aw, Come on Raph, make like a tree and leaf me alone! I really don't feel up for anything thing today, I thought to myself as his knocking began building up in intensity and frequency. I guess Leo must be riding Raph's ass about getting me up, either that or he seriously has no life.
"This isn't the Holiday Inn, you have to get up before the sun goes down! Leo's riding my ass to get you down, and I am not listening to another one of his dumb ass lectures. Get up before I make you get up!"
Well, I guess the first place trophy goes to me, Michelangelo, for totally predicting my brothers. You know, sometimes I really think I need to spend more time away from them. This routine that we have fallen into over the years has gotten so predictable that it isn't even funny anymore. Pressing the pillow tighter against my head, I tried to make my body as motionless as possible.
As I was, laying there in my bed listening to the mantra of calloused flesh striking dense hardened wood, I pictured Raphael as some sort of predator, like a bear and I was the next meal he was eagerly seeking out. From what I learned on Animal Planet, all I needed to do was lay silent motionless and maybe, just maybe he will lose interest and leave me alone.
I heard someone jiggling the lock and I couldn't help but to let out a small chuckle. If he thinks he can break through that lock he has another thing coming, Donny made sure of that.
When the pounding outside ceased, my lips cracked open to reveal a small smile of relief. "Success," I whispered to myself as sleep began embracing me once again, lightening my still aching head. I couldn't have been asleep for more than five minutes when I heard the menacing clatter of a lock unlocking. Damn, twice in one day I have been proven wrong, and not even fifteen minutes apart. I guess it is true; you cannot stop the eager.
I can't believe Raph could actually pick it, being that it was designed by Engineering Master Donatello himself.I remember that day as if it was yesterday. Donatello was running through the house tearing out doorknobs and replacing the locks with the ones he built because he was getting tired of some of us, who shall remain nameless, barging into his lab and 'testing' his electronics. Originally, he just salvaged a standard run of the mill lock for his lab, but after watching a few movies where people picked locks with common household items, he decided to alter it a bit, while also modifying a few others so everyone could have one.
When the door opened, I pressed my face against my pillow and braced myself for the fury that I knew Raph would dish out. Suddenly, I felt the covers being ripped away from my motionless form and Raph's frustrated eyes staring holes into me.
"Mikey," he growled low and menacingly, "I know you're there."
Remember he's a bear so play dead and he will lose interest I thought to myself as I slowed down my breathing giving my idea an honest effort. I felt my bed dip and creak and I heaved a strenuous breath when I felt extra weight on my abdomen. Crap, well I guess my idea didn't work after all, I cursed to myself as I felt calloused fingers roughly lift me from my bed.
"Mikey, get up!"
"Alright, I am getting up just give me a minute," I moaned out slowly opening my eyes.
Grabbing me by the shoulders, he swiftly sent me tumbling off my lofted bed to the stony floor below. My head and body met the unforgiving cold ground with a sickening slap of flesh that echoed throughout my small room. After that, I instinctively started cradling my head.
"Geez Raphael," I shouted as loudly as I could without disturbing my already irritated head, "what's your malfunction bro, I already told you that I didn't feel so well!"
"My problem is that I had to get up five hours before you, listen to Leo bitch and moan about why you haven't gotten up. Either he thinks you're up here dying, or he's stomping around like you're purposely disrespecting him. I don't know. I honestly think he is starting to get irritated because he has had to send one of us to drag you out of bed for the past few weeks. Please just get out of bed so I don't have to come back in here and do it myself."
Wow, some older brother you are you jerk, you do not even care about your sweet innocent brother writhing in pain on the floor!
After watching him walk out of my room, I decided that since I have already been wrong twice today, I did not want to go for a third. Carefully I sat up from the floor only to fall back to the floor again. The room was spinning and it felt as if I was having my own personal earthquake.
"Come on Mike, you can do this, a little headache can't stop the Battle Nexus Campion," I thought reassuringly to myself as I slowly stood, fighting through the spinning world as I put on all of my gear, the golden pocket watch, and gathered my nunchakus. On the way out of my room, I stole a glance at a small mirror on my wall. Wow, I look like complete shit! Moreover, that was an understatement. It looked like I haven't slept in days and my skin was slightly pale, well as pale as green skin could get.
Better pull myself together before the guys see me, I thought to myself while trying to make myself look more awake and alert. After doing a few jumping jacks, smacking my face a little bit, and rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I plastered a sewer famous Mikey grin and walked down to the ground floor as quickly as I could.
The whole walk down the stairs was torture, complete and utter torture. It felt as if my eyes were going to shoot out of my head with every heartbeat and my head felt heavier than the brownies that Leo calls himself baking.
When I finally made it to the ground floor and to the living room, I was greeted by three equally annoyed glares. "Nice of you to finally join us Michelangelo" Leo spat at me in his oh so famous leader tone of voice that we have all come to know and love. "Because it took you forever to get ready, we are late for our nightly patrol, which means we will be late getting back, let's get moving before we waste any more time".
When I failed to give some sort of response, Leo turned around and gave me a good long hard glance. Shaking his head, his gaze softened as he slowly approached me.
"Michaelangelo, you do not look so well, are you okay?"
Looking up, I could see the concern in his eyes. There was no use in hiding the fact that I was hurting because he already knew something was up. "I am just really tired and my I have a killer headache."
"You have been complaining about being tired and having this headache for the past few weeks Mikey, not to mention you have been very sluggish," Leo added with a bit of concern in his voice.
"Yeah…I don't know what's going on."
"You know, it's probably a result of you staying up all night playing your new video games. You are probably not getting enough sleep, which is causing your headaches and lethargy," Donny added, shrugging and adjusting his bag on his shoulder.
In that moment, all of my brother's eyes fell accusingly onto me. Gee, thanks for throwing me under the bus Don. Shifting back and forth on my feet, all I could do was flash a nervously guilty grin.
"Mikey, how many times have we told you not to stay up all night playing those games," Leo expectantly remarked, crossing his arms in front of his plastron.
Glancing back and forth between my brothers glares, my eyes ultimately fell on Leo's. As our eyes locked, he cocked his head to the side as if he was eager to hear what I had to say for myself.
Are they really trying to blame my headaches on my precious video games? How dare they!
"Well Mikey?"
Sheepishly, I began rubbing my head. "I dunno bro…I am guessing somewhere along the lines of hundreds, but I don't think staying up late playing video games night after night would cause a headache like this." Judging by the look on my brothers faces, I could tell that that was not the best response I could have given.
"How can it not be," Raph interjected his posture mirrored Leonardo's.
Sometimes, I really do not understand why those two fight a lot, they have so much in common, and they even stand the same way!
How can it not be, I thought to myself as my shoulders and mouth dropped. I guess I have to spell it out for them, and here I thought the reason was super obvious. "Because, I have stayed up before doing the same stuff and nothing happened. I swear, my babies, um well, games are not to blame!"
Finishing that statement, I sat down on the cold floor with a thud. I was exhausted, and trying to defend all that I hold near and dear was taking a lot out of me. Sighing, I looked up at my brothers, two of which were thoughtfully contemplating what I just said, while the other rigidly looked at the lair entrance, clearly anxious to begin todays training run patrol combo. Donny was the first to speak and I could tell by the look in his eye, that irritating shimmer he got when he was on to something that I was not going to like what he had to say.
"Fine Mikey. Supposedly, let's say the video games are not the case and it truly is some other issue. In order to deduce what could be causing these 'killer headaches', we should try to minimize all of the excess variables."
Minimize the what? Gosh, I really hate when he tries to turn life into a math equation!
"What do you mean?"
Looking to Leo, I noticed his eyes widen and then narrow as he caught whatever wave Donny was surfing on. "I agree with Don."
"Agree on what?"
"In order to exclude the possibility of your late night activities giving you headaches, we need to see if you improve without them," Donny stated, tightening the grip on his bag.
Gasping, I felt a deep frown forming on my face when realization began setting in. "Wait Donny, what do you mean?"
Advancing towards my sitting form, Leo stopped a couple feet in front of me. Looking up, I could not help but to feel like an ant getting ready to go toe to toe with a magnifying glass on a sunny day.
"What he means Mikey is for the next few weeks, we are going to experiment and see if these headaches are brought only by exhaustion alone, or if it really is something else."
"Experiment?" I spoke aloud, cocking my head to the side trying to wrap my head around what was being said.
"Yes experiment, for the next few weeks there will be no late night video games."
"What!" I shouted, well as loud as my head would let me.
"There will be no late night television."
"No, you can't be serious!" I felt my stomach drop.
"Oh, I am serious. There will be no late night comic book reading, or snacking."
"Oh my goodness Leo, please say it isn't so!" Moving to my knees, I slowly began knee walking to my oldest brother in blue. Holding on the bottom edge of his shell, I tried to channel my feelings of dread into his body through my eyes, but he stood there unmoving. Figures.
"Sorry bro, but it is. These late night activities are not good for your mind, body, and spirit anyway. From now on, you will also need to be in bed by no later than 10:00 pm as well."
That was the knife to the stomach, and I dropped my hands in defeat. Looking around at my other two brothers, I could tell that they agreed as well. This is so unfair, I thought, my eyes darting between Raph and Don, they stay up all night doing who knows what and they haven't been assigned a nighttime routine from papa Leonardo.
"Don't even think about trying to get us to go under the ship with you Mikey," Raph grumbled out as if reading my mind, "Our performance has not been affected by whatever we do at night."
Damn. Well, it was worth a thought.
"Alight, so it is settled. Now, let's get this thing started."
With that, he turned on his heels and headed towards the entrance of the lair with Donny and Raph following silently and obediently behind him. When he noticed I wasn't following them, he gave me a quick look over his shoulder. "Coming?"
"Well," I spoke, trying to sound as convincing as I could, "I just figured since we are trying to find the cause of my headaches, I thought it would be best for me to sit a few training runs out, you know just to eliminate all of the extra variables, plus I am tired…"
"Fat chance Mikey," Leonardo chuckled while turning around towards the lair entrance again. I sat super quiet and still hoping that he would forget that I am here, or something like that. Hey, maybe if he does not notice that I am not running with them, I can sneak in a few hours of epic video game time before they make it back! A smile broke across my face.
"You have ten seconds to join us Mikey, starting six seconds ago," Leo shouted from outside in the tunnel.
Breaking out into a careful trot, I caught up to my other two brothers. Darn, why is the world against me today!
When we all entered the sewer, Leo broke into a dead sprint, but quickly slowed down when he saw me struggling. Normally, this wouldn't have been a problem being the fastest of my brothers, but today I found it extremely hard to keep up, as if it took every fiber of my being.
My vision was blurry and my body was shaking. Leonardo and the others kept looking at me and slowing down, but you can only run so slow until it becomes painful. When we finally made it to the manhole of Leo's choice, I was already shaking and breathing hard. "He knuckle head, are you okay?" Raphael questioned, his voice showing a hint of concern. Slowly, I smiled and nodded my head; I did not want them to worry too much about me, especially over a headache.
After waiting behind with Raph and Donny why Leo went to the surface first to check and see if the coast was clear, I clumsily climbed the ladder after them and flopped out of sewer receiving an irritated sigh from Leo which probably would have translated to 'it's not the way of the ninja to flop Mikey'. After seeing the hurt on my face, Leo quickly remembered my situation and mouthed a sympathetic 'I'm sorry'.
Moving to the shadows, Leo started giving us orders about how tonight's patrol of the city should work. "Alright guys, we are going to do a quick run through the city, but towards the end, I want to make a stop down south to check to make sure the group of thugs we stopped a few nights ago are staying out of trouble. He continued giving us his plans, but I was only half-paying attention because I saw something moving on the other side of the ally.
"Guys, I don't think we are alone in this ally," I whispered while pulling out my nunchakus and slowly revolving them.
My brother's years of ninja training kicked in instantly, and they skillfully drew out their weapons and started moving towards where I was staring.
"Are you sure you saw something here Mikey"? Donatello's questioning voice asked me.
"Yeah dude, I am positive I saw something moving over there while Leo was talking"
"Mikey there is no one here" Leo spoke to me in a flat tone while placing his katanas back on his back. "I know you are tired and not feeling yourself tonight, but your mind has been elsewhere for the past few weeks, you need to focus, this is serious!"
"Yeah knuckle head" Raph spat, "you have been more spaced out than normal, cut it out will ya'"
Geez, where is the love in this family?
"Sorry guys…I guess made a mistake."
"Just don't make a habit of it tonight bro, you had us scared that we were going to get ambushed or something of the sorts," Donatello said, while placing a reassuring hand on my shoulder.
"Sorry guys my head has just really bugging me and I-"
"Mikey, your excuses may fly with Master Splinter, but they will not work with me now keep quiet and focus we are going to scale the north side of the city and then work our way to the south" Leo spoke clearly irritated at the amount of time being wasted.
Aww man, noooooo! That's going to take all night, and I honestly don't think I will be able to make it that long.
As if sensing my uneasiness, Leo turned around. His face lost the hardened edge that it held only moments ago and he gave me a slight smile. "We will take it as slow as we can, yeah," he added, even though more of a command than a question.
"Okay bro" I said giving him my trademark grin and with that, I silently followed him and my other two brothers up the nearest building. My head started rapidly pounding again, but I fought the pain.
While jumping from building to building I couldn't shake the feeling off that we were being followed, but every time I looked back I saw nothing.
Weird, my head hurting must have me jumpy or something…C'mon Mikster focus your already the under turtle today just focus, I mean if we keep going at this somewhat steady easy pace I should be fine, yeah, fine.
"Mikey, hurry up, we are picking up the pace just a little bit" Leo shouted quickening his pace.
Darn it,I thought to myself as I fought the pain in my head and body in an effort to keep up with my brothers, why do I get the feeling that this is going to be a long night…
A/N: So, here is the first chapter, (again!). For those of you that are new to the story, I hope you like what you have read so far, and for those of you who have already read it, I hope this chapter was a much better reading experience. As I said, when I rewrite a chapter, I will post it in my summary. Thank you all so much and please read and review, it always puts a smile on my face! Constructive criticism is also welcomed, as well as general advice!
-ChatterBOXX