Chapter 4

11:30 p.m. at night. A half an hour of Halloween left according to this side of the world. Leonardo marched along the sewer tunnels with his brother lagging behind. Both were extremely tired and now hungry since neither got to eat any food when they got home. Michaelangelo felt Raphael would have been doing this more than Leo, but when it involves innocent children mixed with the supernatural, he would be there at a moment's notice to stop it. He was right, too. He should have been more firm with her or better yet, told April while she was standing there. Michaelangelo must have felt Shadow would hate him if he didn't let her get her way. After all the fun they had tonight, it was too bad this was turning out to be a serious mission.

Elsewhere in the neighborhood, two girls were getting ready to open a portal to another dimension. Shadow watched in breathless silence as Jenalyn entered the bedroom with two white candles and some matches in her hands. Sitting Indian style, Shadow stared down at the famous solid oak board with its letters, numbers, 'Yes' 'No' and some more interesting pictures around it. Shadow tried to look under to see if there were any magnets or wires that cause the needle to move but Jenalyn told her the needle gets moved by the minds of the users.

"It has been passed down from my family so we won't be harmed."

How comforting to know. "What are those for?" Shadow asked as the candles were lit, bouncing off sparkling lights from her costume.

"We use candles to contact an entity, or spirit." Jenalyn said quietly. "White is used for good spirits, black or red is used for evil. We don't wish to contact anyone bad so we'll use white ones instead." Jenalyn then placed one candle each to the right and left of the board before sitting down across from Shadow. "Now, all we have to do is place our fingertips on the planchette." Both girls rested their fingertips on the needle.

"Now, what?" Shadow looked up.

"We wait. Let the board feel the energy from our bodies. The instructions say it works faster with a guy and a girl but I couldn't get a hold of my boyfriend. He's probably puking his guts out by now after drinking too damn much." Shadow curled up her lip as the two sat and waited a good length of time. 5 minutes rolled by and still nothing. Then, ten. Then, fifteen! Shadow started to feel her arms tense up from holding the position for too long. Jenalyn exhaled quietly to her uncomfortable muscles. Finally, the needle shot over to the 'Yes', making the girls squeal. "You did that!"

"No, I didn't!"

"Yes, you did!"

"I swear, I didn't, Jenalyn!"

"Please, Shadow. Just say you did it even though you didn't." Jenalyn begged.

"Okay, I did it."

"Really?"

"No, but you just told me to say that I did it."

Jenalyn sighed heavily. "Okay, whoever moved the needle, are you here with us now?" The needle stayed pointed to the 'Yes.' "Ooookay. Are you evil, then?" The two waited and a few seconds later, it slid over to 'No.' "We can't be too sure, though--"

"Trust it, Jenalyn, or you'll make it mad." Shadow snapped. "Do you have a name?" The needle didn't move at first but then started going around in circles, making up gibberish with the letters before stopping again. "I think I confused it. Are you male or female?" It slowly pointed to the letter 'F.'

"It's a female." Jenalyn said quietly. "We're in good company tonight."

"I'm so glad to know that." Shadow droned. "What's the first letter of your name?" The needle spun around in confusion but then slowly moved over the letter, 'J.' "Starts with a 'J' Jenalyn, same letter yours starts with. Looks as though you're the one in good company tonight."

"Can you spell out the rest of it?" Jenalyn asked. The needle turned and moved to the 'A', then the 'N', 'E' and finally 'T'. "Janet?" Shadow looked up, feeling a cold chill go down her spine. "Oh, my God. We got a name. Her name is Janet."

Shadow pulled her fingertips away. "Oh, my--"

"No, wait. Put your fingers back or we'll lose her!" Shadow sighed and put them back on as Jenalyn peered closer. "Um...did you live in New York, Janet?" Seconds passed before it moved to 'Yes.'

Shadow thought for a moment about the name. "Janet, did you have any siblings?" The pointer stayed on 'Yes.' "Is it a brother or sister?" The needle moved to the 'S' letter and stopped. "A sister."

"Is she still alive?"

"Jenalyn!"

"Well, I want to know!" The needle started to go crazy before shooting up to the word, 'No.' "No. Wow. That's too bad. But at least you're not alone...wherever you are right now." The needle did nothing but Shadow gave her a look like she was nuts. "What's your sister's name?"

"Jenalyn, maybe we should stop for now--"

"Are you kidding? This is the most I've seen the board being so cooperative! We can't quit now!"

"I can." Shadow looked away, wishing she hadn't when she thought she saw movement in the corner of the room. "Um, Jenalyn?"

"Not now, I'm concentrating." Jenalyn shushed her. "Janet? Give us the first letter of your sister's name if you can."

Leonardo rang the buzzer downstairs to the apartment building and waited impatiently. No one answered for several seconds. He buzzed it a second time just as Michaelangelo came panting up the sidewalk, all out of breath from running.

"What's going on?"

"They're not answering." Leo said as he buzzed it a third time. "It's almost midnight. Her parents must be in bed."

"Well, how are we going to get in?"

Leonardo glanced up to the fire escape. "I know a way. Come on..."

"Okay, it's still moving. It's moving. I'm getting something. Wait..." Jenalyn said as the needle spelled out another female name. "R....O....S....E.....T.....Roset?" The needle stayed on the 'T' a little longer, then slid to the 'A' where it stopped. "Rosetta! Her name is Rosetta!"

"Oh, my God. Janet...and Rosetta?" The names started to trigger in her brain of the two girls she MET earlier, making her start to gasp. "All right, I'm officially freaked out now." Shadow looked around the room. "Please, can we stop?"

"Wait!" Jenalyn shushed. "Can you tell us how old you both are?" The needle started to go haywire over both the numbers and letters. Shadow moaned as she knew it wasn't herself moving it, or her friend. It lastly pointed to one of the images of the sun. "Are you as old as the sun?"

"Oh, don't tease it, Jenalyn." Shadow warned. Both felt a cold breeze go by, making the candles flicker. "Do you have a window open?" Speechless, Jenalyn shook her head no. In the background, something sounded like it fell over in her room. "Oh, God!" Shadow pulled her fingers away again. "What was that--"

"Shadow, put your fingers back on here!" Jenalyn ordered as Shadow got up to look around. "Shadow, wait..."

"I think I've had enough of this game, Jenalyn." She told her with a shaky voice. "It's really starting to creep me out--"

"But, we were in the middle of finding something out about these girls!"

"I don't care!" Shadow yelped before turning to the ceiling. "Janet, wherever you are, if you're listening, make my friend stop this crazy game right now!" As soon as she said that, the board began to shake violently and the needle flew off against the wall with a bang. The girls looked stunned as a stronger gust of wind started to pick up in the room, blowing out both candles and plunging them into total darkness. Naturally, they screamed.

"Turn on the lights!" Shadow said as she bumped around in the dark. Passing by her bedroom window, she heard a light tap coming from the outside and saw a black silhouette from the curtain shade. "Aaaaaah! It's them! They're here!"

"Shadow?" A voice mumbled from outside.

"Aaaaagh, and they know your name!" Jenalyn said with a fright in her voice.

"Shadow, it's me, Leo!" The voice said more clearly, one she knew very well.

"It's my uncles!" Shadow gasped as she pulled aside the curtain to reveal Leo and Mike standing on the fire escape. Jenalyn rushed over as Shadow yanked open the window and literally tumbled out into Leo's chest. "Uncle--oof! Leo? Uncle Mike! Oh, thank God!"

"Shadow, are you all right?" Leonardo asked as she squeezed him tightly, burying her face into the fabric of his trench coat. "What happened?"

"The board.....we made contact..." She stammered, shaking uncontrollably in his arms. "...they came to us..."

Minutes later, an uneasy feeling was in the air as everyone assembled in the living room. The two girls sat quietly with their hands in their laps as Leo and Mike were seated across from them. Jenalyn's parents, meanwhile, were woken up and looking very tired as well as pissed off.

"So, this Ouija board of yours goes back how many generations?" Leonardo asked the mother for the second time, just to make sure he heard it right. The family played with it like it was a simple game of Monopoly. The two stunned turtles learned that the parents were raised in a strong religious background of practicing magic and sorcery, a lot of which had rubbed off on their youngest daughter. The friendship seemed so odd when Shadow was only a Freshman in high school and Jenalyn was a Senior.graduating next June.

"This isn't the first time this has happened. Jenalyn has been told not to play this game with people who aren't familiar with it." Her mother said sternly while fixing her robe string. "I'm sorry if we caused you two any trouble."

"No, I'm sure we can handle this." Leo said quietly, looking to the father. "We're the ones who should apologize for the inconvenience."

"I don't think they meant any harm, either." Mike shrugged. "I mean, it was just for Halloween fun."

"I saw you boys at the parade and I gotta tell ya, wherever you got those costumes, they sure look pretty damn realistic." The father said with an assuring nod.

"A-heh...right." Leonardo looked to Michaelangelo as if to say, 'that's our cue to leave.' "Well, we really should be going now." He looked down to Shadow with hands on his hips. "You got all your things?"

"Yes." She barely said.

After the good-byes and the door to the apartment building closed shut, Shadow thought for sure she was going to get heavily lectured by the two the entire way back. Instead, because she was so frightened, they decided not to give her a hard time. She learned her lesson about using a Ouija board the hard way.

Upon entering the lair, Shadow was wrapped in Leo's coat and being carried by Michaelangelo. Being scared almost half to death can make one very exhausted, he guessed. The lights were all out in the living room except for a small Japanese lamp set to dim, the TV was shut off, and the room was completely empty. Raphael was in his room plugged into a CD, Donatello was in his lab on the computer, and Splinter had retired for the evening.

"You can put her in the guest room, Mike, but don't leave her until she falls asleep." Leonardo ordered as Mike started to walk off.

Shadow lifted her head up. "Uncle Leo?"

Leo stopped and turned around. "What?"

"I'm sorry about tonight."

He smiled a little and patted her arm. "It's okay. As long as you're all right, there's no need to worry anymore. If you need me for anything, I'll be right out here on the couch. Okay?" She nodded as he reached over to kiss her head. "Goodnight, Shadow."

Long after midnight, Donatello sat up at his computer in a chat room. He was growing tired but he was too busy chatting to people about interesting ghost stories they all experienced. One hand typed while the other one occasionally pulled a grape-flavored lollipop stick from his mouth.

Next, he entered the living room to find Leonardo sleeping on the couch with the TV turned to some horror movie. Ahh, good old Halloween was still going strong on most cable networks. In his channel surfing, a repeat of the 11 o'clock news made him stop to watch what all happened during their Trick or Treat romp around town, including some footage from the parade they attended.

"And in local news tonight, the old Halloween tradition still goes on. Children all over the city went out to do their annual Trick or Treating, however, parents are on a strong watch as several cases flooded in of candy pieces being corrupted. One case detected a small needle stuck in a chocolate bar while another discovered chewy lollipops with traces of human saliva with the wrapper resealed." Donatello immediately popped the sucker out of his mouth with a low gag, causing Leonardo to stir on the couch. "The advisory board suggests all candy should be inspected thoroughly before consumption."

"Mm...Don? Are you still up?" Leo asked with a stretch.

"Yeah, but now I think I'm going to throw up." Don sat up and headed for the trash can to toss the lollipop away. "What a waste. I was just listening to this news report about corrupted candy pieces. Kind of regretted watching it."

Leo nodded. "I know. Mike and Raph dove right in without checking their pieces."

"It's sick." Don made a face.

"Tell me about it! They're little porkers!"

"No, I was referring to the news report. It's totally sick what people do out there to harm little kids...or just gross them out." Donatello returned to sit on the arm of the couch as Leo propped an elbow up on the pillow. "So, when did you and Mike come in?"

"Hours ago. We brought Shadow home with us." Leonardo turned away with a yawn.

"Is she okay?" Don asked with worry lines between his eyes.

"She's fine....a little shaken up from that stupid Ouija board game but she'll be okay."

"Did anything bad come of it?"

Leonardo paused for a moment, closing his eyes. "Actully, I lied. Shadow was completely terrified when Mike and I went over to get her. When we found her, she was hysterical. She kept saying something about making contact with spirits on the Ouija board and it scared her out of her wits."

"Whoa." Don looked surprised. "Did they hurt her?"

"No, but I didn't get to the worst part yet. Remember Janet and Rosetta, those two girls we met whom were going ice skating?" Donatello nodded. "Well, Shadow got to talk to them again."

"Really? How?"

Leonardo sighed before responding. "Through the Ouija board." Down the sleeping hall, they heard a quick yet low shriek noise.

"What was that?"

"Sounded like a scream." Leonardo jumped up and ran down the hall with Donatello in tow. The two entered the guest room to find Shadow sitting upright in bed, wide awake and clutching her chest. "Shadow, what's wrong? Why'd you scream?"

"They were here!" She whispered, breathing heavily. "They were both here in this room! They came to get me!"

"No...no....no, they weren't." Leonardo walked over and sat down on the bed, brushing the damp hair back from her sweaty forehead. "No one's coming to get you in here. It was just a nightmare."

"No, it wasn't. It was real." Shadow looked to him seriously. "I was wide awake and I saw them standing over my bed, right where he's standing!" She pointed to Donatello whom blinked and looked around him. "They were looking down at me with their angry faces....oh, nooo!" Shadow droppped her head into her hands, hiding her face from view. "I'm so sorry!" She whined with eyes tightly shut. "I should have never disturbed them. They're going to haunt me forever!"

Donatello looked to the two. "What should we do, Leo?"

Leonardo stood up and looked around, swallowing deeply. "I don't know, Don. I don't know."