Disclaimer: Most of the characters appearing here are not mine. They belong to others who are not me.
Note: I wanted to write a story using April and Splinter, mainly because I rarely ever use them, though I dunno why. This started out as kind of a Supernatural-ish story where I was going to use a ghost or spirit of sorts, but the more I wrote it evolved into something else. Mainly it evolved into a multi-chaptered story with slight hints at supernatural occurences. I'd aprreciate any comments or anything, because I've never tried to write something in this genre.
It's Not a Dream
Imagine yourself alone in a church sacntuary at night. The silence is deafening, and something about the room just doesn't feel right. Like there was something there, something not all together real, but not altogether in your head.
Now picture the way the shadows appear on the walls and ceiling. Feel that cool breeze run up your spine, a breeze that seems to come from nowhere. Something seems to be moving in the room, but nothing you can see. Of course it's all in your imagination. Right?
"April..."
She had to be imagining things. A dream.
"April..."
Her name again. The voice was oddly familiar, yet surreal. Not quite there but not entirely elsewhere. It had to be in a dream, just go back to sleep, nothing was there. Nothing. That cold chill that seemed to engulf her must come from an open window, that had to be it.
Walking to the window she saw it was closed.
Something was wrong, out of place. But what?
She'd go back to bed, it had to be her imagination.
"April...help me..."
The voice again, but this time it was more. Not just her name was said. She turned to where she thought she heard it from.
A mirror. Nothing else.
"Help me...please."
"Who are you? What do you want?" April thought herself crazy. Here she was a young woman, landlord over a fairly upscale apartment complex. Sophmore majoring in Journalism, the perfect example of sane, yet here she was talking to a non-existent voice.
"Help me..."
A loud crash behind her, she turned to see the mirror fall to the ground, shattering. The glass peppered the room, shards embedding themselves in April's exposed skin. Something was happening, and it wanted to get her attention. She had to let someone know.
Blood dripped from her multiple lacerations, leaving a path behind her from her room to the kitchen. She lifted the phone a dialed a number.
A voice came over the phone, "April? It's 1 in the mornin', what's the matter?"
She tried to keep her voice clear, hide the fear as she spoke. She tried and ultimately failed. "Cas...Casey...there's somethin..thing here. It's after...after me. She says she need...needs help."
"What is it April? What's there?"
She never got a chance to respond. The tone on a disconnected phone came through her receiver. She tried again, the same. Looking for her cell phone she tried to call Casey again. Nothing, she couldn't get a call out.
"April...he's almost here, I'm afraid of him. He..he's gonna do something awful."
The voice again. How did it know her name. What did it want her to do. She wasn't sure.
"What do you want with me! Who are you!" April collapsed into the middle of the floor, curled tightly in a ball. She was scared.
No response. The lights in the room suddenly flickered. April saw what she was talking to. Nothing, there was no one there. She was all alone in the room. The lights flickered this time and in the flashing of the lights, a figure.
A figure of a young girl, there for a moment, and then gone again.
April couldn't move. A cold hand seemed to have encompassed her. She tried to move, but found it impossible. Then everything went dark, and everything was different. Nothing looked the same. It was grainy, like a bad picture image, but she seemed to see through someone's eyes that were not her own.
She saw a man, or at least it looked like a man. He seemed to be looking at something, but April couldn't see what. Then the man looked at her...or was it her he saw? He came closer, he reached for her, she tried to get away from him.
He reached out grabbing her, his grip tight. She could feel her wrists burn, his grip was deadly. April felt her body, or was it this other person's body, being dragged across a cold, cement floor. She was lifted from the ground, and felt her hands being lifted over her head, as then chained to the ceiling. Her toes could barely touch the ground. She could do nothing, nothing but hang.
The man who had bound her, turned and left the small room. The room April could now make out. It was small and shaped like a square, maybe a basement of some sort. There were other chains around the room, some on the ceiling some on the walls. A drain in the middle of the floor, with a dark stain all around it. A horrid realization came over her...it was blood stains. But who or what's blood?
Nausea overcame her, she vomited. It was the blood of the others, He was going to do something awful. She cried.
Looking up through tear-streamed eyes April could see a mirror in front of her, and the reflection was not her's. It was that of a girl, a young girl, maybe 12 or 13, with dark purple hair, several facial piercings, and ratty clothing. April knew the face, a neighborhood girl...her name was Angel. Why was April seeing Angel like this?
What was happening?
Was she seeing something that was about to happen, or was it already happening?
Above the mirror was a barred window, cars passed by the busy streets. Across the street from the barred window was the remnants of a burned building. A building April recognized. The remnants of Second-Time Around, her father's old antique store.
The man came back down the stairs to the room. Walking towards April, no not April. It was Angel he walked towards, April was just seeing everything from Angell's eyes. He touched her face, and smiled, "A young girl like you shouldn't go ruin your beauty with all those nasty bits of metal and that makeup. If God wanted you to be born with bits of metal in your face, or painted up like a harlot he'd have made you that way. Oh but the way you girls all behave these days, dressing in short skirts, shirts that show your belly, constantly on your cellular phones. You probably don't care much about what God says. Or perhaps you are all harlots. "
April heard Angel speak, "What are you...what are you goin to..to do?" The voice filled with fear.
"That must be it, and there is only one thing to do with harlots. They must be punished. A shame really. God will forgive me, I'm only making his world a better place." The man slapped April/Angel across the face. Then April heard a pounding and then there was yelling.
"April! April! Where are ya!"
She felt her body, yes her body now, not Angel's, being shaken. Opening her eyes she saw a blurry figure holding her shoulders. The figure was tall and strong.
A second voice came next.
"Miss O'Neil, are you injured?"
The second figure much shorter and stooped. Something about it different.
"April. It's me Casey. Me and Master Splinter to."
"Case...Casey?" She had come back to her body.
"What ya doin' in here. And why are you bleedin everywhere?"
"Mister Jones, perhaps we should treat her first before questioning her. Something has frightened her here." the second figure came close, resting his grey-furred hand on April's shoulders.
April was not concerned with the wounds right now. She was more concerned with all she had just seen through Angel's eyes. "There's no time, we have to save her!"
"April it was just a night-mare. It's okay now," Casey tried to comfort her.
"No Casey! It wasn't a dream. She needs help before it's too late. We have to save her! NOW!"
"Miss O'Neil, who needs help?" Splinter spoke in his calm voice.
"Angel! He's going to hurt her! We don't have much time. Please...Casey, Master Splinter...we have to save her. I'm not delirious, I know it sounds crazy, but she needs our help."
"April are you sure your okay?"
"Yes Casey, I swear. Now we have to get to her fast?"
Master Splinter kept calm. Slowly he approached April, looking into her tear stained eyes, "Where is she?"
"I'll show you."
TBC