Hello, peoples! I have returned… but, I am different than the last time we spoke- er, well, what could we call it? I write, you read… Well, you get the picture.

Anyways, I have changed since our last encounter. For as of today, I am sixteen! Cool, huh? And my baby sister nearing her first year as well now.

But I shall not dwindle on with this; I have a chapter to write, after all. Oh! I almost forgot. Remember how last time I said I have the total number of chapters awaiting you this time? I'm proud to tell you that, like it's predecessor, this story will have fourteen installments- only four more to go after this!

So enjoy!

Disclaimer: Much to my disappointment, I have yet to receive a notice in my mailbox that entitles me as the new owner of the TMNT.

Disclaimer 2: Spirits of the Dead is the work of Edgar Allan Poe, not me.

&&&&&

Never in his life had Leo felt so agitated. He couldn't sit on the bed anymore, so, after Raph had left, he'd gotten to his feet and paced the floor.

Finally putting a halt to this task, Leo stopped at a wall and gently placed his head against it, closing his eyes and letting the slight chill of the bricks ease into his forehead. With all of this sudden anxiety, he felt very hot right now.

After a few minutes, he sighed, turning around and sitting down on the floor, feeling cooler. Logan's parting comment could not evaporate so easily, however.

We're not the same. Leo kept on telling himself. Raph says I'm not even like him, so how can we be the same?

But Leo knew how. Even in his distressed mental state, logic still prevailed. Since the real Logan was dead, after all, the Logan in Leo's head could be nothing more but his own creation.

For a split second, he was surrounded by darkness once more. Logan grinned right in front of him. "Bingo."

Immediately, he was back in his room. But the abruptness of that episode, its beginning as well as its end, was enough to rattle the blue-clad turtle, especially since he had yet to experience anything like it.

Folding his legs into the lotus position, Leo tired to calm down. It too quite a while, but eventually, his breathing returned to its normal pace.

Still, his mind remained restless.

Getting back up, the teenager glanced at his alarm clock. It was nearing two; Leo hadn't realized how long he'd been up at this.

Frowning, he walked back over to his bed, bending down to the floor to retrieve his discarded coat. After moving over to his bookshelf, he placed it on a little hook that was placed on the other side of the shelf. That done, his eyes lingered back to his books, quickly locating his current reading material laying on one shelf horizontally in front of the others, which were neatly arranged; his own personal library.

The book brought a little smile to his face. Apparently, after he left, one of his brothers had been kind enough to return the book to his room, saving him a trip downstairs to the place he'd originally left it.

In hopes that some of Poe's verse would settle him down a bit, Leo grabbed the book and sat down on his bed, turning to the page where he'd left off.

His reading went over well for a good thirty minutes. This section of the collected works had been made by Edgar Allan Poe while he was still in his youth. Though the man's works had undoubtedly only flourished as his years went by, these pieces were still very good.

And then he came to Spirits of the Dead.

Thy soul shall find itself alone

'Mid dark thoughts of the gray tombstone-

Not one, of all the crowd, to pry

Into thine hour of secrecy.

Leo heart nearly stopped its duty of keeping him alive in that first stanza. Immediately, an image of Logan's grave popped into his head, as real as it had been when he'd last saw it, just hours ago. Like before, this figment derived from his catatonia appeared and left him in such a short burst that it sent shivers down his spine.

But he couldn't stop reading.

Be silent in that solitude

Which is not loneliness, for then

The spirits of the dead who stood

In life before thee are again

In death around thee, and their will

Shall overshadow thee: be still.

Leo did just as the last line commanded, though not out of obedience to it. Again, it had struck a chord, delivering another picture to mind- of Logan this time. A spirit of the dead, before him again.

The night, tho' clear, shall frown,

And the stars shall not look down

From their high thrones in the Heaven

With light like Hope to mortals given;

But their red orbs, without beam,

To thy weariness shall seem

Hopelessness. Oh yes, Leo had been feeling that quite a bit lately. And the fear that come with it was growing stronger…

As a burning and a fever

Which would cling to thee forever.

Now are thoughts that shalt not banish-

Now are visions ne'er to vanish;

From thy spirit shall they pass

No more, like dew-drops from the grass.

Another flash of darkness. Logan mouth was grim. "Do you hear that, Leo? Forever. Because you seem to want it that way."

The blue-banded turtle shuddered. He couldn't get rid of these thoughts, these mental pictures. But why?

The breeze- the breath of God- is still,

And the mist upon the hill

Shadowy- shadowy- yet unbroken,

Is a symbol and a token, -

How it hangs upon the trees,

A mystery of mysteries!

With the conclusion of the poem, Leo was finally able to release it from his hand, hurling it across the room. His breathing was once more heavy; his hands were shaking.

The shadows of his mind- unbroken. And without an explanation. This was scaring him.

"I don't want it like this." He mumbled.

Darkness. "Yes you do." Logan said. Leo shook his head. "What's wrong? Am I not the only one anymore to tell you something you don't wanna hear?"

Back to his room. Leo sniffed and lay down, pulling the blankets above his head like a child seeking cover from the bogeyman of their nightmares. "Go away…"

For a while, he was safe. But then, Logan jumped in again. In the darkness, he whispered in his ear. "Never…"

Not knowing how long exactly time went by, Leo spent what seemed to be an eternity in and out of his catatonic hell. Mostly, Logan made him see bursts of that day ten years ago, the blood dripping from his nose, or the body in the water; the grave and that feared zombie that hadn't, until now, really made an appearance.

But other times he'd talk to him. "What're you afraid of, Leo?" When he wouldn't answer, instead whimpering, trying to get away from these thoughts, Logan continued. "No pain, no gain, remember?"

Getting up, Leo paced his room again, placing his hands over his head and squeezing his eyes shut. "Stop-"

"Can't." Logan said, coming back. "Not 'til you realize what's wrong."

"The only thing that's wrong with me is you. Go away."

"Once again," the boy said, shaking his head; "you're speaking from the wrong place. Jeez, you still don't know what you want."

When his room appeared, Leo slid down the wall, rocking slightly. "Yes I do. I want you gone."

The null darkness, the whisper in the ear. "Then why am I still here?"

More pictures, more flashes. Leo couldn't think. Dry sobs slowly racked his body. With great difficulty, he got back up.

He had to make it stop.

Slowly, the ninja realized he'd forgotten where he'd last put his katanas, not remembering that they were still on his back. Due to the catatonic flashes, his progress was slow.

At the end of the stairs, Logan was speaking again. "Don't do it."

He came back to reality to find his face against the hard floor. Pushing himself up, he clambered around in the darkness, trying to find the dojo. "Shut up…" He whispered.

"Are you always gonna run from your problems?" Logan asked him. "Are you really such a coward?"

"Shut up." He said again. Finding himself at the door to Donatello's lab, Leo pushed it open. He suddenly couldn't recall which way the dojo was…

Unfocused, Leo entered, the dim light hurting his eyes. He felt along the counters, knocking over a few bottles and other items, but otherwise found nothing. Leo didn't even really know what he was looking for. But he had to keep himself busy.

Throwing the drawers open, Leo rummaged through them, finding magazines and newspapers, wires and microchips. And then in the third drawer, which contained Don's medical supplies, he found a scalpel.

The darkness was back. A flash of Logan's dead body. Wet, and with blood flowing from his nose and head, where he'd hit the wall on his fall into the drainage junction, he spoke to him. "Do you really want to end up like this?"

"Shut up!" Leo hissed. Scared to death, he rested the scalpel on his wrist; the only thought occupying his mind was to make this stop.

Before it could sink into his flesh and split his precious vein, however, someone leaped at him from behind.

&&&&&

Through snippets of conversation he'd heard topside, he'd come to learn of workaholics at a young age; the people of today who ate and slept at their place of work more often than at their real homes. And though he wasn't nearly that bad, Donny could relate to the sleeping at the workroom part. Forty percent of the time, he'd wake up in his lab, accompanied by a very sore back.

This was one of those times. And while he usually disliked the habit when he awoke the next day, for once, he was grateful for it.

Donatello had been sleeping over some notes, his back and legs making an uncomfortable right angle, when he'd heard the sound of something hitting the ground. Make that several somethings, a few of which shattered upon impact.

Confused and groggy, the purple-clad turtle lifted his head to find Leo in the room, going through some of the things that had been arranged on the counter. His hands were shaking badly.

Trying to figure out what exactly was going on, Don watched him as he went through the drawers. At the third one, Leo pulled out a scalpel.

Heart nearly leaping out of his chest, Donny shot up from his chair, about to yell something to his brother, when Leo froze. After seeing this several times in the past eight months, Don immediately recognized it as a catatonic episode. Sighing in relief, he figured this would give him time to get the blade away from Leo before he could hurt himself.

He thought wrong.

By the time the turtle was around the table, Leo was back to the real world. "Shut up!" He heard him say lowly. And then he put the scalpel to his wrist.

Wasting no time, Don rushed at him, making sure that when he hit him, it wouldn't cause the knife to sink into his skin. Leo landed on his side, watching the blade spin out of reach.

Knee keeping him pinned to the ground, gripping his shoulder tightly; Donny made his presence known. "What are you doing?" He shouted at him.

Leo turned his head up to him. Instantly, he knew that the situation was worse than he'd realized from the look in his blue-clad brother's eyes. He looked terrified and was hyperventilating. "I can't make him stop…" He whispered. Closing his eyes, Leo sobbed without tears.

Frowning, Don spoke to him a little more gently this time. "Who, Leo? Who are you talking about?"

For a while, Leo didn't answer him. But finally, the eldest of the turtles explained. "Logan…" He opened his eyes. "He won't leave me alone. I just wanna make him leave me alone."

Oh God… He'd known that there was something odd about Leo's behavior lately. He just hadn't realized how bad it was.

"Leo," Donny said, "how long has this been happening?" When Leo didn't respond, he asked him again. "C'mon, bro. I need you to tell me what's going on."

Whimpering, Leo finally gave out the information he'd obviously been concealing for so long. "Since the beginning… every time." Cringing, the ninja put his hands over his head. "Please make him go away. I don't want to listen to him anymore."

After a few more attempts, Don figured out he wasn't going to get anything else out of Leo while he was like this. All his big brother would do, in between two short, yet apparently frightening, catatonic episodes was ramble off pleas, to him as well as Logan, to make the dead boy leave him alone.

His next objective became to calm Leo down. On the verge of panic himself, Don scanned the floor, finding the bottles that had fallen to it during Leo's search. Leaning over, he grabbed one of the ones that hadn't broken and read the label. Recognizing it as one of the safer ones, he grabbed one of the square cloths that had also fallen and poured some of the liquid onto it, being careful not to breathe any of it in.

Placing one hand behind Leo's head, he brought the cloth below Leo's beak, he spoke softly. "Okay, bro. Here, I want you to breathe in. Can you do that for me?"

Whether he'd heard him or not, Leo did so. Within thirty or so seconds, he was unconscious, his breathing returning to normal not to long afterwards. Limp, Donny gently eased Leo's head down and got off of him.

Once he was sure Leo was all right and not going anywhere, Don let out a long breath and held his head in his hands. This is not good…

&&&&&

Raphael was stirred violently out of sleep by one of his brother's shaking his arm. Groaning, he paid the person no mind and turned on his side. The next thing he knew, he'd briefly felt two hands under his body through his hammock and was then on the ground.

Growling, the red-clad turtle sat up, ready to pound the crap out of whoever else was in the room. However, when he turned to see who it was, he was halted in his thoughts by Donny, who was a little paler than his regular olive-green.

Raph looked at him, sensing the seriousness of this unknown matter. "What's wrong?"

Sighing, Don looked at him for a few seconds before coming out with it. "Leo just tried to kill himself again."

"What!" Raph shouted, jumping to his feet. "When?"

"About ten minutes ago." Donny explained, following his brother as he left the room. "He's in my lab; don't worry, he's all right. I gave him an anesthetic to make him sleep."

Slowing down a little, Raph turned around to him at the top of the stairs. "Why the hell was he trying to do this again?"

Shrugging slightly, Don sounded exasperated. "Raph, I don't even think he completely knew what he was doing. All he'd say was that he wanted him to go away-"

Realizing he'd been left out of the loop on something, Raph looked at him, confused. "Who're ya talkin' about?"

"That's the other thing." Don said. "I know what's been bothering him now, though it must've just now gotten to be far too much for him to handle." Starting off towards Mikey's room, Don told him. "There's more to his catatonia than the dark side. When he's there, Logan is too."

Suddenly recalling how just a few hours ago, he'd come to understand that there had been something that Leo had been hiding about his attacks, Raph still couldn't believe that this was what it was.

Catching up to his brother, Raph stopped in front of him. "You mean he's made some sort of evil imaginary friend?"

Don nodded, opening Mikey's door. "Exactly. And from what I got, they really aren't getting along."

In their youngest brother's room, upon resisting to wake up, Mikey got the same treatment from Donny that Raph had, being dragged out of bed.

He took the news harder than the rest of them though. Once he knew where Leo was, he was down the stairs in a heartbeat, checking on him. Raph was in the room only seconds after him.

Despite Don's assurances that Leo hadn't damaged himself, Mikey checked both of their brother's wrists, making sure he hadn't gotten the smallest scratch. "What do we do when he wakes up?"

Sitting down beside him, Don looked over Leo as well. "It depends on what his mental state is like. If he's as distressed as he was earlier, we're gonna have to be patient. But if he's calm, we need to figure out exactly what he hasn't been telling us. And then we're going to do everything we need to do to help him."

Raph shook his head. "When I talked to him, he was fine. I mean, he looked a little upset, but he was okay. Did he just snap?"

"I don't think so," Don said, "but we can't be sure. I'm going to check his room." Nodding, Raph followed him, as did Mikey, eventually.

Leo's room was a mess. Not in a lazy-teenager sense, but you could definitely see something had gone on up here. The bed sheets weren't just wrinkled; they were mostly off the bed.

And against one wall, Leo's book lay facedown and open. When Raph picked it up, many of the pages were bent, and the spine was dented in one spot where it had hit.

Now, Raph wasn't that big on books, but he knew the unspoken law of the neat and orderly literature fans; you did not, under any circumstances, harm a book. Especially like this.

It seemed like Leo had read something he didn't quite like.

After flipping through the bent pages, hoping that they would reveal the poem or story that had gotten under Leo's skin, Raph thought he'd found the one. Spirits of the Dead touched on a just a few sensitive spots; there were probably even more that his brother had found.

They searched the rest of the lair, in case there had been other places where Leo had had his problems, checking on Leo every so often. The search took about two hours, and they hadn't found anything else.

And then they went back into the lab. Breath caught momentarily in his throat, Raph was reminded of that day eight months ago.

Leo was gone.

&&&&&

(claps) Suspense! Isn't it lovely? (runs from sharp, pointy objects that are hurled towards her) Please don't kill me! I'm too young to die!

Well, despite the fact that I left you with a horrid cliffy, I'd appreciate a whole bunch of reviews! Seriously, it'd really cheer me up. While my family I don't celebrate birthdays, I am kinda upset that my dad is down at Disneyland right now with my stepmom and three of my other siblings. Who cares about school anyways…

So please review!