Chapter 29
No matter how much someone can sneak around, ninja or not, when it's the dead of night things always tend to sound much louder than they normally would. I sat and watched the tiny backyard from my position in the alleyway, scoping the address out in case this chick claiming to be Elena's sister actually wasn't.
She sounded way too calm in my opinion when I spoke with her on the phone, saying that Elena was safe, but passed out on her couch. She had searched through her sister's phone and saw my name as the last person she had messaged, so decided to give me a call and let me know she was ok.
Even Donnie smacked himself for not asking me if she had her phone on her or not. I'm sure I'd get a decent lecture from him later. I guess it just goes to show you that even smart people are stupid sometimes. Nah, I had to give him some credit. We all tend to start thinking of the worst possible situations, so simple things could fly by our heads sometimes.
Anyway, this chick had given me her address and said she'd watch over E until I got there. The place was a decent distance from the bridge, but judging by just how fast Elena could move now I figured it wouldn't have taken her long.
I scaled over the short fence, not wanting to risk any noise from the gate creaking, and walked up to the back door on the porch. The light was off, but I could see inside lamps on through the curtains. I lightly knocked on the metal storm door and jumped back a few feet as I heard loud barking from further inside the townhouse.
"Dammit! Will you two shut the hell up!" I could hear the same voice from earlier scold the dogs as she walked towards the back door, the sounds of their paws following her as her figure turned the corner.
"Sit down, you idjits!" the girl hissed out as she reached the door, unlocking it and flipping the light on. I took another step towards the shadows as she opened the wooden door on her side and squinted into the backyard.
"Who's there? Um, is that you Raphael?" she questioned lightly as she held her hand above her eyes to shield them from the outdoor light.
"Um, yeah, it's me. Could you turn the light off though? Lots of windows nearby."
"Oh yeah, sure," she apologized as she flipped the switch off, bathing the area in darkness once more. "Sorry, I didn't realize you would show up at my back door, too."
I could hear the deep rumbles of growling from the two as I stepped out from the shadows and into the small pool of light that escaped from inside onto the back porch. Her eyes started down at the ground on my feet and made their way up to finally take all of my freakishness in.
Most people, when they first see us, freak out and either faint, run away, or scream…often at the same time. But Anya just looked at me critically for a few neverending moments before opening the storm door, allowing me entry into her home.
"Come on in, don't mind these two lugs, they just look and sound scary," she welcomed as she held the door open for me. As if on cue both dogs stood and backed up a few steps, their entire butts and tails wagging in glee at the prospect of someone new. The moment I stepped inside the home the Dobermans could no longer contain their excitement and ran up happily sniffing at my legs and thrusting their heads under my hand for a head pat.
"See what scaaaaaary guard dogs they make. This one is Lupin and the smaller one is Padfoot, and yes go ahead and get your Harry Potter jokes in now," the younger girl chuckled to herself as she closed the door behind me. "You want something to drink? I've got some coffee on right now for whenever she wakes up." Anya walked over to the counter and grabbed a couple of mugs from the cabinet and began pouring the hot liquid. She looked tired, and I guess it made sense considering what was dropped in her lap tonight.
"Where is she? Is she ok?" my voice cracked slightly as I shifted uncomfortably in the small kitchen. The dogs, satisfied with their owner's acceptance of me, ran off deeper into the house leaving the two of us alone.
The blonde walked over and handed me the warm cup, "Oh, yeah…sorry, forgot you'd probably want to know about her first thing," she motioned her hand to indicate me, "my mind is still trying to process just what the hell is going on still."
"C'mon, follow me," she began walking down the hallway attached to the kitchen. We passed a few rooms and stopped at the entrance to the large living room. Sprawled out on the couch in the middle is Elena, her arms and legs hanging off the furniture, fast asleep and snoring.
When I looked over to her sister she shook her head and sighed. She leaned against the door frame as she looked from her sister to myself, "she's passed out," she whispered. "Showed up on my doorstep, which is kind of funny to me now since she also came in through the back like you…then she drank all my booze and fell asleep right there."
A moment of silence passed between us as I kept my eyes on E. "Dude," she chuckled quietly, "I had a lot of booze in here. Next time I'll take her to a drinking contest and she'll wipe the competition…we'll be rich."
I followed her as she continued down the hallway to the adjoining den. It was a bit smaller, but well furnished like the rest of the house so far. A few easels were set off to the side, some paintings half finished upon them. Both dogs had their beds in here and had already stretched out next to each other. The sister tucked her legs underneath and settled back into the comfortable cushions; I just sat and held the cup of coffee in front of me as she watched.
"So," her voice interrupted the silence that had permeated the area, "I guess this explains all these years with her fascination of turtles now. It kind of makes sense," the sound of her chuckling reminded me of E's. "The whole family tried to figure out why the fascination popped up out of nowhere."
I tried smiling, but the fight E and I had gone through earlier kept replaying in my head.
"So how many of you are there?" the question was simple. "Like, is there a whole underground city of turtle people the world doesn't know about? Should we be afraid of an impending disaster, complete with bad actors and fake CGI?"
Anya took a sip of her coffee as I snorted at her question. Yup, I could tell they were sisters. The sarcasm and jokes were the same.
"I mean, you gotta give me something here," she continued. "I just had my sister, who was supposedly dead, come into my home as some sort of mutant thing, without really telling me anything, and then met her ogre sized human turtle friend. Please tell me this isn't just some sort of bad dream, because I had sushi for dinner and if it made me hallucinate I'd really hate to give that up." A split second passed before she gasped slightly, "Oh man, I didn't eat your family did I? Are you here to kill me in revenge now?"
A genuine laugh escaped me as I relaxed on the chair in front of her. Her reaction reminded me of the first encounter me and my brothers had with Elena so many years ago. The smile on her face showed she was happy at succeeding in making me more comfortable.
We talked back and forth, going over the details of the past years. I explained my brothers and dad, and our first chance meeting with E. She asked questions, genuinely interested in us and how we lived, explaining that even though she was also kind of interested in the same things Elena was, she never had the passion her sister did to actually studying and traveling.
In truth, she was more of a black sheep to the family than even E considered herself. Whereas their brother had gone on to follow the same path their father had, Anya realized she didn't find school in her best interest. She took her trust fund for college and instead bought her home and invested the rest on the stock exchange. The help from her father paid off as she had enough to live on while pursuing her talents as an artist, which is how she met her boyfriend.
An hour or so had passed with our conversation before we both became silent, our histories exposed. "So, um…" she stared down into her empty cup, "I guess we should address the large turtle in the room. Just how did my sister end up like this? She refused to say anything about it before she passed out."
I sneered as a picture of Brad crossed my mind, though the sounds of both dogs reactively growling snapped me out of my brief memory. I apologized and leaned back again before going into the history of their relationship as I had known it. She listened intently as I explained the hospital and how we found her, though I decided to keep her nightmares and other issues out of the conversation. A frown adorned her face as the information filtered through her head, and I could see the white on her knuckles from her clenched hands.
"That…that asshole," she scowled as she got up to pace the room, "and to think that was the kind of guy my dad kept pushing on her, trying to get her settle down and be all 'normal'…" She used her fingers as quotations as she emphasized the last part of her statement. "Jesus, I had no idea. I mean, I know dad had no clue as to how he really was, but still. Always trying to get us to conform and shit. I knew she was mad at him the last time we saw each other, but I had no idea he could be capable of that."
She stopped her pacing before turning back to look at me, "So, wait…Is there a way to change her back? Mom and dad would want to know she's still alive…"
I shrugged my shoulders slightly, "We still don't know. One my brothers is smart and is trying to figure out if there's a way, but we'd want to go about it safely. We don't want to hurt her more or risk killing her."
The girl nodded as she processed the information. Her fingers had curled in on themselves as they tapped them against her mouth in thought. "Was she even planning on telling my parents?" her next question came quietly.
I exhaled a breath I didn't realize I had been holding. "You know, I don't really know." I reached my arm up and rubbed the back of my neck, feeling uncomfortable talking about what E could have going through her head. "She's just got a lot of stuff going on right now, and I think she'd rather wait until the time was better."
"What, so they don't have a right to know their daughter is actually alive?" Anya blurted her question out, but quickly waved her hand apologetically. "Sorry, sorry…I get that it's her decision to tell people, and I'm glad she came to me, though I feel it was more because she didn't have anywhere else to go…"
My eyes lowered to the floor in shame as the small blonde came to sit on the ottoman in front of me. She paused a moment before reaching forward and taking my large hands into hers.
"Look, piecing together what I could understand from her earlier and now listening to your side of…current events, I know there's something going on between you two, and she's going through something I can't even fathom right now. It kills me that I can't understand or really help her get through this and…dammit she's my sister for Christ's sake."
I looked up to see the tears brim in her eyes, threatening to fall. Quietly she continued, "I just want to say thank you for being there for her when she needed someone. You and your family have helped her in so many ways, and even risked your lives saving her. There's nothing I can do or say that could ever repay that."
I froze at her actions. I've never been good with girls, much less crying girls, and especially ones that I just met.
Anya quickly wiped away any wetness from her eyes and stood up to retrieve both empty cups of coffee. "I can make some more, and if you'd like you can stay in one of the guest bedrooms while she sleeps this alcohol off. Think we should move her to a bed?"
I stood up quickly and realized I could see a slight lightening in the sky beginning outside; it wouldn't be long before the sun began to rise and I needed to be back at the lair by then.
"Nah, I think I'm good. She and I, uh, had a disagreement before she came here, and I don't want her to get all pissy waking up to me if she was tryin' to avoid me in the first place."
We walked towards the back of the house and I glanced once more into the living room where I heard E's loud snoring. She looked kind of peaceful sleeping there on the couch. I didn't want to mess that up by trying to move her.
"She'll be fine here," Anya's soft voice drug me from my thoughts; her light hand on my shoulder, "It'll definitely be interesting when Trev comes home in a couple hours, but I can handle him. I'll text you as soon as something happens."
I nodded and we said our goodbyes before I headed back to my bike in the alleyway. For some reason I felt more tired and heavy than I had felt in awhile, and this even included after Elena was taken in the park. Maybe it had to do with just how broken she was inside, and there wasn't much I was able to do to help her. Her outside shell, yeah we can handle that, maybe even turn her back to normal, but there wasn't anything I could really do to help her mind out. She had been royally fucked over these past few months and I couldn't just go flip a switch and make her better.
Maybe that's what pissed me off more about the situation; that I was really helpless. I had been through so many situations, and even then my brothers and I could usually figure out a way to come through.
Elena turned to her sister and risked everything because of a fight she and I had. And it wasn't even really a fight at that; she just didn't like me saying how I felt even though it was true.
Dammit, I hated this feeling of not being able to do something.
All of my family were still up by the time I walked back into the lair; but I ignored them all as I walked back to my room. I guess I had a pissed off look on my face, commonly referred to as 'resting bitch face' per Elena, because no one really asked me anything as I made the way to my bedroom. Even Mikey had decided to leave me alone, and here I had all planned out on different ways to tell him to go fuck himself if he insisted on bugging me.
Man, I guess we had all grown up a little in the past few years. Good for me today though, as I was in no mood to play around.
I flopped down on my bed and rolled around trying to get comfortable with no success. Even if she had her helmet with her to cover her head and stuff I seriously doubted she would try to come home in the daytime. I'd just have to suck it up and try to get a little bit of rest until then.
If she decided to come back.
