Open Window to Reality
Chapter 2: Taunt
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Ouch.
It was the first thought to pass Raphael's mind. A very appropriate and fitting word for what he was feeling right now. He immediatly tried to grip his left arm, the blood felt as though it was pounding through it. The stabbing pain that shot through his side nearly sent him over, and he gasped as he fell heavily on it. He tried to clear his mind as he lay on the floor.
"Where the crap am I?" he wondered silently, the thoughts screaming at him to get up and explore. He thought he remembered, but then again he didn't. His thoughts were a puddle of water, seeping away slowly and away from his grasp. He tried to absorb his thoughts, tried to suck they back in like a vaccum, but he couldn't...couldn't...remember. What the crap couldn't he remember?
The throbing ache in his head popped some sense back into his mind and he felt clearer for a millisecond.
"Concussion." he recalled, feeling bleary and like he wanted to retch. He hated concussions. You could never remember anything useful, except for the fact that you had a concussion. It stank. It just royally stank.
But it couldn't be just the concussion that had kept him out and confused. He'd had concussions before, and they'd never affected him like this. The aching and stiffness of his sore muscles told him that he'd been out for a fair amount of time. And something with that just didn't compute. Wow, big words. He, Raphael, could NOT be kept down. Not by a Dragon, not by rules, regulations, orders, Leo, Splinter, life, injury and certainly not from a bump to the head.
"Musta been hit pretty hard," he mussed silently until he took a good look at his arm and felt his upper arm carefully. It answered all his questions. There was a tiny puncture wound, hardly visible to the human eye, but he could feel the dull ache from where a needle would have been inserted and the contents emyptied into his system. He started out into the dark room, trying to adjust his eyes to the darkness. Their was pure silence and pitch black darkness, and he tried to place what had happened earlier. They were on a training run...maybe? Yeah, they had to have been, 'cause Leo had been a total pain in the rear about practice. They'd paired off in...two groups? Yeah, him and Don. Then they took off, and...
Wait a minute.
Don?
Good Lord, was Don with him when all this happened? Yeah, he had to have been. Memory was black after that. Then, where the heck was Don? Where was his younger brother?
Panic began to knot around his empty stomach as he gropped slowly in the dark, then faster when he felt nothing but cold air. Where was his younger brother? Had he been with him when...whatever the heck what happened? Had he gotten away? Was he safe? Where was he?
As indecision ran rampant through his muddled mind, he suddenly heard a definite click and whipped his head as fast as he could to where a crack of light was seeping through the black wall. A light that hadn't been there before. Raph closed his eyes in a half squint, in preperation for blinding white light that he was sure was coming. A voice, an unknown voice, echoed through the room.
"Good morning, little freak. Or should I say big freak? Yeah, definitly the second one..." Raph's head snapped up and tried to locate the sorce of the voice. A dark shadow at the end of the room that hadn't been there a second ago seemed to be the most likely source, right? Hoping his delirous mind was not playing tricks on him, Raph locked his eyes with the figure.
"Who the heck are you?"
The man, he assumed, just grinned. "Hey, that's no way to treat your new best friend, it is animal?" Raph's anger flared with a burning fire at the 'animal' refrence, and he guessed the man could tell because his erie laughter echoed through the chamber.
"Hey, don't get uptight," he chuckled with amusement. "You really don't want me to get short with you," he continued seriously, his voice taking on a more clipped and short tone. "Wouldn't want to have a unforunate accident with my other newest playtoy."
Already on the alert, Raph snapped to. Another captive? What? That meant...oh Lord no, that meant...
"Well, that knock to the head didn't hurt cha too bad. Think the drug still in your system, though, so don't think about gettin' up and attackin' me, 'cause you'll go back down twice as hard. Just don't even think 'bout it."
Not one to be challenged, Raph made a show of looking as nonpulssed as possible and snorting. "Yeah? So what if I do?"
"Then," the man grinned a knowing grimace, as though he knew something the teenager didn't. He reached from behind what Raph assumed was a door, and dragged a lump out. Raph's hazy mind worked quickly as it could to clear the fuzzy lines around it, but when it did, he nearly recoiled back in shock and fury.
The madman smirked, watching his captive's reaction. "Keep the 'smart 'alick head on your shoulders, boy, and I don't hurt him any more than I already have." He grinned again, considering his words to the turtle carefully. "Or, anymore than I already want to."
Raph tightened his fisted automatically, wishing to rush his captor, but his legs wouldn't work right. The man turned and dropped the body to the floor.
"See you boys later," he called back cheerfully over his shoulder, slaming the door with a defining click as he left. A small light flickered on at the top of the chamber. Raph's blurry eyes blinked until he felt his normal sight returning, and willed himself to look at the figure on the floor.
He nearly gasped aloud at the sight of Donatello, Donnie, lying motionless and bloody in a heap on the floor.
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A/N: Yes! I finally posted more for this story! I got so many lofty reviews and requested to keep going that I figured it was worth it. Sorry to keep my faithful readers waiting, and please give me more feedback!
