Chapter 3 – H(a)unted
"So, it only ever has said, 'Michelangelo, I want you.'?" Donatello questioned.
I sat on a chair in front of his work table, while he grilled me with questions. I nodded my head miserably.
Butting in, Raphael added, "That's not the only thing it's said. When I started hearing it, I heard it say something like 'beware' or 'be wary' or something." He had been standing just behind Donatello.
I shook my head, "But what about just a few minutes ago, in the junction? I distinctly heard it say, 'Michelangelo, I want you.'" I put up my hands and began making 'Ghost Fingers.'
Raphael shook his head, "Nope. It said 'Michelangelo is brainless.'"
I looked at him for a second in surprise, and then rolled my eyes. "It did not."
Shrug. "It said, 'beware.'" He said.
"And then you saw a glow just a few minutes ago?" Donatello asked.
Both Raphael and I nodded.
I held up my hand, like a little kid in a classroom. "Donnie, can I go to bed now?"
Shaking his head, Donatello answered seriously, "We need to figure out what is happening. I want to look up what you're describing on the net. Maybe I can pull up some info…"
He walked over to his computer and began typing.
Leonardo had been listening quietly in a corner, some form of deep contemplation showing on his face. Actually, whenever I see him with that look on his face, I become much less worried. It's a weird brother thing I know, but it's because that look means he's coming up with a plan. And I sure need a plan right now. Because if I don't die for the uncontrollable shaking in my shell that I've been doing, I sure would die because of a heart attack! Either way, I felt a little more comfortable seeing that expression on his face.
He spoke up. "I think we need to talk to Master Splinter about this."
"About what, my sons?" Came a voice from behind all of us.
Ok, maybe I take that back. If Master Splinter ever sneaks up on me like that again, I am going to have a heart attack! We all jumped, and personally, I think I completely left my shell behind.
Once we got calm, and collected our wits again, Leonardo explained the problem. Donatello looked up from his computer to see the look on Master Splinter's face as Leo unfolded the story before our Sensei.
At first there was a look of slight amusement to see that his students had taken so fondly to the competitive game of skateboard dueling (especially me!), but then grew troubled at the description of what both Raphael and I saw and heard. That, combined with a reiteration of how I had been hearing things this morning sent our Sensei's whiskers a-quiver.
After Leonardo had explained everything, Splinter inhaled, and turned toward me. He walked up to me with an unsteady look in his eyes. And without any sort of explanation, he grabbed hold of my right wrist, and pulled my arm straight. I muffled a cry of surprise and watched as Sensei muttered a few words—sort of a chant in a monotone—trailing his fingers up from my wrist to my inner forearm. A tingling sensation filled my whole arm, which changed to a dull ache—which then without warning violently burned!
"YEOWCH!" I shouted, and tried to pull away.
But Sensei merely held on, and watched my arm. Faintly at first, but then more and more prominently, a mark appeared, something that resembled a Japanese symbol, yet it wasn't any sort of letter I was familiar with. It had a vertical T sort of mark, but with a longer stem, with two curving slash marks through the stem going from the bottom left side to the upper right. In the little angle on the lower half, there was a single dot. It glowed a strange sort of light blue.
Sensei closed his eyes. "Yasha." He muttered.
All four of us looked at each other in confusion. Especially me. See, even when Sensei is speaking in the same language, I sometimes have a hard time understanding him, so when he decides to go mutter something unintelligible, my head starts to spin.
"Yasha?" Leonardo asked.
Splinter opened his eyes. Letting go of my arm, (while I took the opportunity to massage the new, and very creepy mark on my inner forearm) he looked at us very seriously. "My sons, there are some things about the multi-verse that no one can explain, or know. In my life I have come across some things that no explanation can even come close to describing the reality."
There was something in the tone of Splinter's voice—something strained and altogether frightening—that made us all slowly gather around him. Even Donatello—who had been half-focused on his computer, and half-focused on what Sensei had been doing—tore himself away from his computer to listen, knowing that whatever it was that Splinter was about to tell us, he wanted to hear it with both ears. I shivered, and my skin crawled with people-bumps.
Splinter looked at me with intense eyes. My own eyes locked with his, and I found myself unable to even move, much less look away.
"Michelangelo appears to have been Marked. It's is not merely a physical mark, and no explanations can successfully explain the many planes that being a Marked One exists upon. It is physical, spiritual, temporal, transcendental, and rare. Inescapable".
His hand began to shake. He steadied it upon his walking stick.
"I saw it once, a long time ago…" His voice trailed off, and his eyes became distant, as if he were reliving something from his past. By the look on his face, I could tell that it hadn't been a pleasant experience.
"Sensei?" I asked, trying to snap him out of it. He was really creeping me out!
Donatello, sensing my discomfort, also asked, "Where did you learn how to do that, Master Splinter? That thing with Mikey's arm, I mean." He leaned over to look at the Mark. It had stopped glowing, and now looked like a black tattoo. I yanked my arm away.
"Don, could you not do the techno-geek thing just now?" I said, my tone a little more snappish than necessary.
Donatello grinned that sheepish grin of his, the one that says "I just can't help it!"
Splinter, coming out of his reverie, looked at Donatello, "My son, there are times when telling a story would help. This time, I'm afraid, would only cause problems to the situation."
Raph spoke up, "But Sensei, what exactly is the problem?"
I looked at him, "You mean, besides having a weird tattoo on my arm that I didn't put there to begin with?"
Leo added, "And what is Yasha?"
Splinter let out a shaky breath. I could tell he was very troubled, and that he was much calmer on the outside than the inside. Being family members, we all had the ability to sense a family member's inner turmoil. We all felt it coming thick from Master Splinter. Whatever it was he had to say was going to be very difficult to hear.
"Futari Yasha are Demons. They are not from this world, or even from this plane of existence." He said slowly, and—growing with each word he spoke—with anguish. "The Japanese first discovered their existence, as they were the first people to be Marked by the Yasha. Those who were marked…" He paused.
"What Sensei?" We all asked him.
"Died."
I furrowed my eyebrows, not really getting what he was saying. "Are you saying that I'm gonna die?"
Splinter's eyes had a pained look. "Within days of the Mark being discovered upon their bodies, they would die. There isn't any record of someone… surviving." He whispered the last word.
I looked at him through wide eyes. Was he being serious? He couldn't mean that… I mean, there just wasn't any way! I mean, I just couldn't…
I burst out into laughter, the sound startling everyone for it seemed out of place even to me. But seriously, all this was, all it could be was some sort of grandiose joke meant to frighten me out of my wits. "You can't be serious."
They all looked at me. Raph had a look of shock on his face, Leo's face was disbelief, and Donnie's face had a mixture of both. Splinter's face was deadly serious, and even tormented looking. No one answered.
I tried to defend my position, "I mean, Raphie boy here has also been hearing things too! Why don't you do that little mumbo jumbo on him! What if he's Marked too?"
"So what if I am?" Raph challenged.
I paused. Good question. Maybe it was because I didn't want to be alone in all of this. I didn't answer.
Master Splinter looked at Raphael through serious eyes. He seemed hesitant to do his little hocus pocus number on him, maybe because he was afraid of the outcome. However, he walked up to Raphael.
Raph backed away, now frightened as well, "But Sensei, I wasn't… I didn't—"
Splinter swiftly grabbed his arm, and muttered the chant, once again trailing his fingers up from Raph's wrist, to his inner forearm.
We waited a few seconds.
Nothing happened.
I deflated. No. It couldn't really be… just me?
Donatello seemed hesitant to ask, but of course, he just had to. "So, Master Splinter… do you know what's going to happen?"
Master Splinter nodded. "It will hunt. It can only do this at night, when the sunlight is not touching the soil upon which the soul it haunts stands."
"H-ha-haunts?" I stuttered.
"Futari Yasha, or a singular Yasha needs fear. It's only this emotion that ties it to this plane."
"Fear?" Leonardo asked.
Splinter nodded. "Another unexplainable phenomenon. Perhaps, because the Yasha itself is a creature that seems to be made of fear."
"But didn't it start hunting Mikey this mornin'?" Raph asked.
Leonardo said, "We were probably up before the sun. It is January after all."
I shook my head. "I don't like this game. It's like having a staring contest. Only, it's some creature trying to make me afraid, instead of blink, and the grand prize is my life." I looked around at all of them.
"Then do not fear." Splinter counseled.
I sighed. "You say that as though it's even possible, Sensei."
Splinter lowered his head, "I'm an optimist at heart, my son."
Have you ever watched those Hallmark videos where someone is told that they have cancer, and are going to die in three months? There's always that period of denial. After Splinter wisely advised us to go and sleep, and after I lay down in my bed, I found myself thinking about everything that Sensei had revealed, and everything that I had been experiencing. And I found myself rubbing that Mark on my arm, almost willing it to just disappear.
And I came to a conclusion.
If I didn't believe it, and if I just refused to acknowledge that anything could be wrong, and if I just refused to let it be real, I would win. Being a champion prankster, I knew that the prank was a dud if the one you pull it one doesn't react to it. I smiled, as I pulled the covers up over my body. Just let someone try to tell me I'm being haunted. I mean hunted! They were definitely in for a surprise.
I would win by being in a state of utter denial!
The next morning came, and instead of waiting for Sensei to wake me up as I usually do, I jumped out of bed, waiting to see the surprise on their faces when they saw the smile that was on my face. Because, I had come to the conclusion that nothing had happened yesterday. Absolutely nothing!
I flipped from the top level to the bottom, landing smoothly, and headed to the dojo. I had even beat Leonardo there. I don't think I've ever done that before.
I even broke out into whistling as I stretched. It was that really annoying tune from Snow White "Whistle While You Work," that somehow always gets stuck in my head. It attracted attention too. Everyone came into the dojo, and stood dumbfounded as they watched me happily stretching and whistling.
"Um, Mikey, are you feeling all right?" Donatello asked, rubbing his head in confusion. "I mean after last night, I thought we'd have to drag you out of bed this morning…" He trailed off as my whistling grew louder.
I smirked, and looked up at him. "What happened last night?"
I couldn't help but chuckle at the extreme and utter mystified expressions on their faces. Master Splinter actually looked the worst of all. He seemed to have not slept at all. I guessed he spent the night in meditation. After a few more seconds of silence, I went back to whistling.
That broke the spell, and Splinter directed the others to join me in stretches. I think Raphael was the only one that seemed to get it though. I watched his face go from confusion to understanding as we stretched in silence. Well, almost silence, anyway—I was still whistling.
Then it came. My resolve almost deteriorated right there, when I heard that bone chilling, fluty, whispery voice say, "Michelangelo…I want…you."
But I absolutely refused to let it get me.
I saw Raphael look up at me out of the corner of my eye, and he furrowed his eyebrow ridges. "Um, Mikey, did you hear—"
"Nope!" I interrupted. "I didn't hear anything at all!"
With that, I jumped up, ready and waiting to begin practice.
Leonardo and Donatello still looked rather lost at my newfound attitude.
Ok, so I admit I might have been taking it a little overboard… but then again, when my life is at stake, nothing is overboard!
Splinter once again began our training session with sparring. But this time he paired us up. I wound up facing Raphael.
I pulled out my chucks, and initialized the spar with an immediate downward stroke. Raphael dodged, and counter-struck with a right hook from his sai. Prepared for that, I whirled my other chuck around, intending to disarm him. He pulled his hand back in time, and also caught my chuck in his left sai. We circled and pulled apart, looking for an opening.
"Michelangelo, that swing should have been higher, which would have circumvented it getting caught in your brother's sai." I heard Sensei critique.
"Yeah, Mikey," Raphael said as he came toward me, spinning the sais. "I could see that one coming from a mile…" His voice petered out. But his lips kept moving.
I lowered my chucks. What? I thought, confused.
Raph had stopped talking at the look of confusion on my face. I looked around. Sparring, Donnie and Leo hadn't noticed that Raphael and I had stopped, and Leo brought his katana down onto Donnie's bo. But where the clunk of metal on wood should have been, I heard absolutely nothing.
Raphael turned me around to face him. I could tell he was saying my name, but I couldn't hear anything he said!
I spoke, "I can't hear!"
It sounded as if I were underwater! I could barely even hear myself.
Then it came once more. Except for this time, I could see it.
Over in the corner of our dojo, which I had thought was unoccupied, now was filled with a bright white light. Its light slowly spread as I turned to look at it. It filled my vision, blocking out my brothers. Blocking out Splinter. And finally, blocking out the lair itself. I was surrounded in white, bathed in it. I couldn't see.
I heard it; the only thing I could hear. "Michelangelo, I want you…"
My heart pumped hard. I could feel adrenaline pumping through my body. I was starting to succumb to fear.
I stuck out my chin, refusing to give up. "You can't have me, creepazoid!"
Then I heard it chuckle. Well, not really heard, but more like, felt. It was like some sort of vibration that emanated from its direction.
It was a white light with an attitude!
Something moved in my vision. Unable to really see anything other than white, when that thing—the Yasha, or whatever it was—moved, it was like looking at an outline, really I couldn't make much out. I could feel it come closer.
I tried to back away, but something prevented me from even lifting up my feet.
My heart began to beat faster, and my breathing came quick.
No! I told myself. This is just an overglorified… this isn't happening… it's…
My denial wasn't working!
It came closer, and slowly became less of a vague outline. The first thing I could see was its eyes. Creepy things, black, and as big a saucers for teacups. They shifted, and glittered. It spoke once more.This time, I could feel it when it talked, like the vibrations from its voice were caressing my skin, making my skin prickle.
"Welcome, Michelangelo…" It said, the voice whispery, and fluty. It slowly came closer. "I wanted you here…"
"What do you want!" I cried, shivering, a cold feeling washing over me.
"I am hungry…" It was close, and I could make out a pale arm reaching for me.
"What do you want!" I cried once more.
"I want…you…" It touched me. It touched the Mark on my arm, its translucent and almost unreal fingers reaching into the mark… slowly they retracted, bringing out a blue and silvery looking substance from my arm… from the Mark.
It hurt! It felt as though some sort of electric current were running through my body, and out of my arm. It felt like my whole body had fallen asleep and was now waking up with pins and needles. Like it was draining me…
Suddenly, a scream penetrated my whole body. But it wasn't me screaming. It came from the Yasha. A horrible, and high-pitched shriek of pain. I heard words in the scream.
"AAAIIEE!" The shriek persisted, "…sunlight approaches! Damn the Dawn!"
It withdrew.
Darkness came, darkness drowned out the unbearable light, darkness soothed my skin.
I crumbled to the ground, breathing heavily.
Slowly, my vision returned, and slowly, I began to hear once more. The darkness became replaced with the familiar electric lighting of the dojo, and I could feel hands on my arms. Slowly, very slowly, I could hear…
"…Mikey… "
"…Michelangelo, are you…"
"Can you hear me, my son?"
Splinter's voice came through the impenetrable the loudest to my ears.
I was kneeling on the ground, my brothers surrounded me. Leo had one of my arms, and Raph had the other, supporting me, keeping me from falling completely to the ground. Donatello had a hand on my shoulder, and Master Splinter stood in front of me. I looked up at him, shaky.
"M-master Splinter…" I croaked. My voice sounded hoarse.
Splinter knelt down in front of me, and laid a hand on my shoulder.
"Master Splinter," I whispered, "It found me."
