Author's Note:

Hello again everyone. If you missed it, this is a spin off of mine and my co-writer, Ravyne's, TMNT series. I had a really weird dream a few months back and decided that it was time to have a small, fun project for myself. So I wrote this myself since Ravyne has been backed up with TMNT fanart. Let me know what you all think.

-Katt B.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:

Bite in the Night

(TMNT Spin-Off)

Chapter 1:

The world has changed from the one you know. The apocalypse destroyed it—a terrible plague that turned humans into mindless animals that fed on the blood of other humans. The plague spread like a wildfire, passed by either coming into close proximity of the infected or direct contact with them…meaning a bite or scratch.

So the people were sent to bunkers underground, the amount of protection you received depended on how much money you were willing to pay. I'm sure you can imagine how that panned out, right? All the rich people were sent to those shiny bunkers where they were fitted with protective suits and personal body guards and twenty-four hour watches while us poor orphans were sent out to the flat country side to hide away like cockroaches in all the old, rotten buildings.

I've been here almost nine years, transferred after I was infected when I was six. My best friend had been bitten while she had been outside when she wasn't supposed to be—she was in the room with me when she had started to change, I was too close. The doctors didn't really have a reason as to why I survived, but I did. The only change I sustained was my dark brown hair had turned a silver-white and I was blinded in one eye.

From then on I was made fun of; called names like grandma, and oldie, and granny-pants. It was a nightmare, but I dealt with it.

Now I'm out here in the middle of nowhere, living in this old rotten wooden building, and waiting for the end of the world to find us. That is…until the night that the plague found me once again. This time coming to finish the job.

I'm fast asleep, enjoying a wonderful dream, when something pokes me…annoyingly. I know this poke. I've been dealing with it for weeks now. I'm just about sick of it. "Sana, go back to sleep," I groan.

"No," Sana, a young girl of ten, whimpers behind my shoulder. I'm not sure how a sixteen year old like me got stuck with a ten year old as a bunk mate. And when I mean bunk mate, I mean literally. All the small rooms only have one bed, so all of us are forced to share rooms. Sana shakes my shoulder quickly again, "Did you hear that?!"

"Sana, it's just the wind. We are living inside an old church tower; it's going to creak and groan sometime," I pull the pillow over my head, ignoring the stab of the itchy pillow case against my cheek.

"No, it was something else this time, I swear. We have to go get the teachers."

I shove the pillow off my head with a growl and sit up, the thin sheet we're forced to have as a so-called blanket falling away from my shoulders and the cold air making me instantly shiver. "Sana, you know we have rules: after the curfew, we're not allowed out of our rooms."

"But there's something wrong, I know it!"

"That's what you said last week and we got sent to our room without food for a whole day. I'm sick of starving for your alleged 'gut feelings'," I narrow my eyes down at the smaller kid clinging to my arm. Her big, deep brown eyes are wider than normal with fear as she keep shifting her gaze from mine to the door on the wall at the foot of the bed uneasily. The room is so small that the bed touches both corners of one side of the room, only leaving about a foot between the bed post and the frame of the door, and the rest of the space is barely enough to fit a tiny two-drawer dresser. A single window allows a meek beam of moonlight into the room above the head of the bed where we sleep, but even that light can't touch the darkness that has soaked into this old tower.

"But!"

"Oh, enough. If we go see the teachers just so they can tell you the same thing that I've told you and get us in trouble all over again, would you please go back to sleep?" I hiss.

Sana nods quickly, climbing over me in such a hurry that she nearly crushes my foot, "Yes, yes, come on!"

With a heavy sigh of frustration, I pull the sheet off of me and force myself out into the cold. The old tower we live in used to be an old bell tower for the church attached to it, later added to by the nuns that came to refurbish it with side rooms and extra chambers for the poor that came for shelter to stay in. After the plague hit, though, the place was abandoned and the years of neglect left the tower rickety and put of date.

The bell was locked away in the top floor of the tower to keep anyone from messing with it and getting hurt. Now the teachers use the second highest floor as their own. That's where we'll have to go in order to settle Sana's fears and possibly get me a few more hours of sleep.

Sana takes my hand and pulls me towards the door, pausing her hand on the door handle. I stare at her angrily, "Open it already."

Sana starts whimpering again so I push her out of the way and open the door. Outside our room, everything is silent…like the grave. I have to admit, it is eerie, but that's what happens when people go to sleep: no one is awake to make any noise.

"Okay, let's go," I tell her, motioning for her to come out the door.

She doesn't move, "No, something is wrong. Something is really wrong."

"Geez, Sana, the only thing wrong here is that you woke me up in the middle of the night to go talk to the teachers and now you're freaking out because you're afraid of the dark. The only thing wrong here is that I should be asleep. Thanks a lot."

"No, please, Ryu. Please, you've got to come with me. I can't make it up the stairs without you," Sana grabs hold of my night shirt tightly as if I'm going to disappear.

I sigh. I can't really be mad at Sana. The poor kid was really the only one to ever really take to me. Most people avoided me because they still thought I was infected, despite the constant assurance from the doctors that I was clean. Sana is the only kid to ever give me a new name, one that wasn't meant to be insulting, but instead be a symbol of my birth into a new person. A symbol of hope that maybe there is a chance to survive the plague.

She said my hair reminded her of her stuffed dragon doll that she sleeps with every night; its body made up of silvery-white fur and pretty amber eyes. And so I became Ryu to her. It's just stuck ever since.

"Okay, come on," I whisper with a sigh as I take her hand and lead her over to one of the many stair cases that zig zag like a maze from floor to floor all up and down the center of the tower. Each level of the tower is made up of a floor that circles the outer shell of the tower, leaving the center an open invitation for anyone to fall from. There are banisters along the edges but some places have rotted through and fallen, leaving gaps of dangers for all.

This would be our home until someone came to transfer us all. As if that's ever going to happen.

We tip toe our way over to the old stairs, flinching at each creak, and slip through the shadows as we pass through each level of the tower. Sometimes, Sana would pull on my hand and look off into a direction, but I don't see anything that stands out of the ordinary. Just ordinary dark shadows.

At the highest level open to us, Sana pulls me to a stop, "Ryu, please!"

"What now?"

"Something's down there. Something moved," her voice is lowered to almost a hush, her body has gone stiff next to mine. Her grip on my arm has turned her knuckles white.

"Yeah," I roll my eyes, "Maybe a rat. They're all over the place here."

"No, look there."

I follow the direction she points: a dark corner by a stack of crates. A corner so dark that no even my vision can penetrate it. Abnormal, that's what it is. Within those shadows, just slightly glowing, a pair of red eyes stares back at me…sending a cold shiver down my spine.

"R-rat. Just a rat. Like I said," I stumble, grabbing Sana's hand and pulling her towards the teacher's hall. We both shut the door behind us and press our backs against it, sliding down it to sit on the floor with heavy sighs. "Okay…well…that was weird."

"Weird?" Sana climbs to her feet. "We have to tell the teachers now. Weird doesn't begin to describe this. Something is really wrong here."

"Yeah, yeah, you've been saying that all night," I breathe, trying the slow down my breathing. My mind is still back there on those red eyes I had seen. Those were just rats, just rats, just rats!

"Ryu…"

I raise my eyes off the floor between my feet. The hallway is dark but I can still see Sana just fine from the dim lanterns hanging on the walls. She's staring into one of the four rooms in the hallway, body frozen solid in its place. My heart stops in my chest as I slowly climb to my feet.

"What is it?" I call to her. Around me, the hallway suddenly feels like it's becoming smaller on me. Sana's breathing is quick and shallow in her chest, her face has gone pale. Well, as pale as her pretty mocha skin can. She lifts a shaky arm and points into the room. My skin goes cold and clammy in my palms.

Going to her side, I look around the corner slowly, fearing what I'd find inside. The room is empty, the bedding thrown aside acrimoniously and there are a few articles of clothing scattered here and there. I breathe an exhale of relief.

"Geez, Sana, don't scare me like that," I hiss.

"Then open your eyes for once. You know as well as I that there has been some weird stuff going on lately," Sana hisses back. "Kids have been transferred out randomly in the night, never heard from again, the doctors have been in and out left and right. Shall I continue?"

"Chill out. I get it. Some things have been out of place these last two weeks but…" I stare into the empty room. This time of night, everyone would be asleep; no one would be outside of their rooms. I glance behind me into the other room opposite this one. The insides are similar to this one, trashed. The nervous sweat starts sliding down the back of my neck. Where are the teachers?

"Ryu?"

Something hits the other side of the closed door we had come through and we both jump with a scream. Something scratches the door. My eyes widen in horror.

Nails. Like fingernails.

Hiiiissssss…

Sana sucks in air beside me, getting ready to scream. I clamp my hand down over her mouth and pull her further down the hall and into one of the other rooms used by the teachers. I pull her into a seating position on the floor around the corner and hold her still. She whimpers behind my hand, "What is it?"

"I don't know," I try to catch my breathing, heart hammering in my ears.

"Where are the teachers?"

"I-I…I don't know."

Sana's body goes cold in the circle of my arm, "W-what are we going to do?"

I bite back my 'I don't know', swallowing it sourly. What are we going to do? What could we do? I really don't know. I look down into Sana's pale face and wide, scared eyes.

I can't tell her that, I think. I wrap my arms around her tightly, hugging her into my side, and kiss the top of her head, "It's okay. It's going to be okay."

Author's Note:

So I hope everyone liked the first chapter. Please let me know if anyone spots any mistakes. I was so excited to get this posted that I rushed to upload it up.

-Katt B.