Prodigal
17. He stared at the number on the wall. Drool slipped out the left corner of his lips. His ruined mouth. The scar tissue was thick around the slackened half of his mouth, keeping it from closing. He ignored it, his entire attention taken in by the marked, dirty apartment number.
17. It transported his mind back, all the way back to that defining day four years ago. That was his age. A month prior, he had graduated from a sixteen year old boy into a young man. Oh, he had been young and enthusiastic, so full of vitality and youthful enthusiasm. And anger. There had been some of that, but it had only served as a thorny mask for the fear beneath.
17. The smallest, fastest hand on the clock had only to move that many times for his entire life to be changed. Incredibly, horribly changed. One slip, one misstep. One set of incidents chaining together into something unavoidable. Fate had claimed him in seventeen seconds. With everything that transpired, it was the longest time of his life.
17. Through these four years, he had traveled to that many countries. Everywhere hiding, barely existing. Running. Sometimes his rage would get the best of him and he would come to the aid of the otherwise defenseless. He couldn't help himself. But then he had to vanish again. Always running. Away from what he had left behind. Away from himself.
17. How many notches the clock had covered in its indifferent march. He stood there, immobile, unblinking. Unaware of the drool as it slid. Oblivious to the pain in the entire left side of his body. He would be unrecognizable to the man on the other side of this door. The other survivor who had chosen not to hide, not to run. He must open the door. He knew he was dying, and he couldn't go without facing him.
17. His heart beat out in extended time as he slowly turned the handle and limped his large bulk into the room. He saw him, wasting away on the couch, mutilated.
17. It finished, as he waited for the other to speak. "Raph?" Michelangelo asked.
AN: This was a little story I did when my sisters and I were doing a one page speed competition with each other. Part way through, I found out they were doing TMNT stories. I didn't want to be the odd one out, so I changed everything midstream. I made a couple of very small changes, but this is pretty much exactly as it was on paper. Thank you for reading. :)