A Turtle's Journey Beyond

A.N: Hello! I apologize for the long wait. As the chapters get longer, there's more to spell check and look for grammar errors, not to mention fanfiction.net was having upload file problems and I got strep throat! Bleh. I really appreciate all the feedback and I hope everyone is enjoying this as much as I am writing it! By the way, I figured out how to change certain text to Italic, but other features won't work such as strikethrough words and special fonts (the text from the dream journal is supposed to look like cursive writing!). Maybe that's something fanfiction.net will fix as they improve their web site. Oh, well. Anyway, enough chatter. On with the story!

Chapter 3: Anyone Home?

The cement path was a long and twisty one as the six traveled up to the house in a slow, moving pace. The top of the hill gave them a wonderful overlook of the surrounding wilderness as well as a better view of the exterior of the house. From the rooftops high above to the little garden patches far below, it was a monumental sight to see, leaving each of them slightly breathless.

"Wow, a country estate. The architecture is gorgeous." Don stared upward in awe. "The paneling on the door frames, the woodwork on the windows, and the red brick walls tells me this house has to be from the 19th or early 20th century."

"Would you stop it already!" Raph smacked the back of his head.

Don recoiled with a frown. "Stop what? What'd I say?"

"Enough to piss me off!"

"Well, excuse me!"

"Enough, the two of you!" Shadow scolded, feeling like a mother even though she was the youngest out of all of them. "Roxanne thinks I came alone, so remember, keep the noise level down, okay?" Leonardo felt a nudge on his shoulder and gave a side glance to her. "Try to keep them in control, if you can."

"That's if." He responded dully.

Turning their attention back to the path, they noticed it divided in two directions. One path continued to the front end of the house while the other path made a sharp right to the east end of the house. Leonardo suddenly thought of Robert Frost's poem, The Road Not Taken as he and the others looked both ways.

Mike placed his hands to his hips. "Which way? Left or right?"

"We could take the front entrance," Shadow pointed, "but then, Roxanne would see you guys."

"Hmm." Don started to walk farther down the right path to get a good look around the corner of the house. "I can see a patio and a back door over here. We could go this way while you go meet up with Roxanne."

"All right, but wait for me to come to you." Shadow warned, knowing how great they were to agree to something and then do the exact opposite. For as long as she had known her uncles, it was their sensei whom always gave them orders and no one else. If only she could, she'd bet big money they weren't going to listen to her.

"Be careful." Mike tapped her shoulder, then suddenly clutched it. "Oh, and see if you can get some food. I'm starving!"

Shadow cocked her head to the side. "How am I going to do that? If Roxy sees me carrying a large amount of food outside, she'll think I'm giving a hand-out to some poor, begging forest creatures." A smile lifted. "Oh, wait, I'd be doing that, anyway-- "

"Hey!" Mike went to give her rear a love tap, but she quickly darted away behind a large tree planted in the center of the twin path. "Oooh, your butt's gonna be begging for mercy, little miss! You don't call me a poor, begging forest creature and get away with it--"

"Hehehe, I call it like I see it!" Shadow covered her mouth to hide the giggles. Michaelangelo stopped to pretend as if he had given up the chase, watching her slowly emerge from behind the tree. "Sorry, I couldn't resist, you know that was too easy--eeeee!" He started to chase her again. Shadow jumped behind another barrier, one named Leonardo, and giggled like a child. "Noooo, hehehe!"

"Michaelangelo!" Splinter hissed and the turtle quickly paused.

"Shadooooow." Leo turned to her in shame. "Maybe I should try to keep you and Mikey in control, if I can."

"Yeah, enough, the two of yous!" It was Raph's turn to scold, yet he happened to have a smile on his face as he said it.

Shadow waved with a smirk. "Okay, okay, I'm going now, and I'll see what I can do for food."

"Fine, but until then," Mike showed her his hand, "you'd better watch your back...side!"

The rest continued down the right fork until they reached the small patio with some potted plants and lawn furniture. It looked like a nice little spot for enjoying a sunny afternoon with a good book or to marvel at the serene view of the forest in the distance. Once they reached the back door, Donatello was the first to detect a faint beeping sound coming from it. The others watched as he approached to examine an object stuck to the door knob. Not only did it beep, it also flashed and spun around like some child's toy. Peering closer, Donatello found a little red button and pressed it. *click* The beeping stopped, the clamp lifted off the knob, and the young turtle was now staring at a new, and very simple-looking, gadget.

"Found something, bro?" Mike asked as he walked up to him.

"It's something all right." Don turned it over and over with fascination. "I know what it is, too."

"Then, tell us, oh, One-Who-Knows-All." Raph said sarcastically.

Don gave him a look before continuing. "Okay, well, back when the Stonetape Theory was a way to--"

"Wait," Mike interrupted, "the what theory?"

"Ahem!" Don paused and started again. "The Stonetape Theory was an early method scientists used to gather audio from a spirit of that particular area." The four looked to each other as he lifted up the object. "Over time, technology improved, and devices such as this were created to pick up their tonal residue."

"Tonal residue?" Raph squinted as if he ate a lemon.

"Yep." Don nodded. "I guess this little gadget was left on the door to..." He glanced over to it, "...detect a ghostly presence."

"Ooookay." Mike calmly took a huge step back away from the door. "Let's change the subject, shall we? My, what lovely plants these are!"

"We're not even in the house and already Don's starting with his smart-talking attitude." Raph whispered to Michaelangelo who agreed.

Continuing forward on the main cement path, Shadow reached the steps to the front porch. To the west, she could see a two-car garage and the dirt road they would have stayed on if her poor Suburban didn't submerge in the lake. Also to the left of the house was a wide patch of more pine trees and another clearing. She could see that, according to the adventurous turtles, an exploration was waiting for both inside the house and outside among the spooky wilderness.

"Well, here goes nothing." Sighing, she turned to climb the steps to the porch and knock on the stained glass door. "Hello? Roxy? Are you home?" Shadow then turned to look in the mailbox on the right, finding an unopened package from her company, Bio-Psi Technologies. She felt strange opening up other's people mail but figured it might be something of importance. A letter from Joe was the first thing she found and read quietly:

Hi, Roxy. Enclosed is the new oscillator you asked for. We've adjusted the input per your instructions. The folks in the lab thought it was an interesting idea to put up the range a bit while they were at it: You'll have to let us know how it works out.

Anyway, it should fit right into the unit just like the last one. If you have any problems with it, give me a call. (Hell, call me after your first trial no matter what; I'm dying to know how it goes!)

Regards,

Joe

Beneath the letter in black Styrofoam was a small, ribbed, cylinder-shaped object. Shadow picked it up and stared at it. "Hmm, her old oscillator must have stopped working. Better hold on to it." She placed it in her pocket and tried the door knob next, finding it unlocked. The door swung open with ease, revealing to her a dark, unwelcome hallway. Upon entering, she plunged into a very dark room, save for a red power light coming from the second floor landing.

"Hello?" Shadow repeated again, getting no answer. It was pitch black and very quiet. "There's gotta be a light switch somewhere." Her fingers began to brush along the wall, running over a double switch flipped up. "The lights were on before. The main power source must have blown a fuse. Great."

"I'm getting bored, not to mention I feel kinda useless just sitting here." Mike twiddled his thumbs as he sat on one of the patio chairs.

"It wouldn't be the first time you felt that way." Raph grinned, but in secrecy, also felt useless. He looked to Leonardo and thumbed up at the door. "Why don't we just go in? It'll be from the back. No one will see us."

"We could, but," Leo looked up to the door, "we already promised Shadow we'd wait out here."

"Yeah, but as I recall, we didn't say anything to her." Mike started to sit up. "So, technically, we didn't promise we would stay out here!"

"Still," Leo crossed his arms, "that doesn't make it right of us to go against her wishes."

"So, it's better we stay out here, be bored out of our skulls, or go inside to do some sneaking around?" Raph waited for an answer. Leonardo only shook his head, not wanting to agree to this. Splinter was giving the same gesture. "Hey, if all five of us can hide from people in April's dinky little apartment, I'm sure we can get away with it in a huge-ass house!"

"Fine, Raph, you've made a point, but we should make it a mutual agreement. Don?" Leo needed help from the silent turtle. "What do you think we should do?" Donatello pulled back from looking in the side window, blinking in deep thought. "Come on, it's not that hard to give an answer."

"No, that's not it." He looked in the window again. "I don't think anyone's home. There's no lights on."

"What?" Leo walked up to him, leaned over the plants, and peered inside. Although the window's glass was made up of bubbly and thick square tiles, he could plainly see the room inside was both dark and empty. "You're right. That's odd."

"Oh, and you want my vote, Leo?" Don lifted a brow. "I think we should go in, not because we're bored or feel useless," He started to climb the steps to the back door, glancing to Leonardo one more time, "we should go in and make sure Shadow's okay."

"Then, it's unanimous." Leo waved a hand for the others to follow behind him and Donatello. "Let's go."

Like Shadow, they were also greeted by total darkness. With their trained night vision, they easily shuffled through the first room, which they quickly discovered was the kitchen, and past through a squeaky swinging door.

"What was that?" Shadow whispered. "Who's there?"

"Shadow?" Don called out from somewhere. "Where are you?"

"Hello?" Shadow's heart began to thud faster as she turned from the main hallway into the room on the right, slamming her hip into something rather hard. "Ow!" Cursing to herself, she slowly walked through an entryway on the left. This room appeared dark like all the rest, but the glistening crystals from a chandelier told her she had entered the dining room. Shadow tried to be careful, but again, her poor self slammed into another hard object. Thinking it was the dining table, she reached out for it, coming in contact with arms reaching for her. "Aaaah!"

"Whoa! It's okay! It's us!" Don said as he grabbed both her shoulders. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just wouldn't make a good burglar." She coughed out a little and rubbed her side. "What are you doing in here? I thought I told you guys to wait for me outside." Her gaze dropped a little. "No, I know I told you guys to wait for me!"

"Mike felt useless waitin' outside." Raph said from somewhere within their dark mass. "Can't have my bro feelin' that way."

"We're sorry we didn't wait." Don could see, even in the dark, her face looked upset. "We just wanted to make sure you were okay."

"Oh." Shadow nodded, and suddenly, the angry feeling of being disobeyed subsided. "Well, unless Roxy went to bed early, it seems as though there's no one home. Much as you guys are used to the dark, I need the light to find my way around in here. Don't want to injure myself at every turn I make."

"There should be a main power switch in the house somewhere." Don told her softly. "Did Roxanne tell you where it is?"

"Yeah, but I need to get back to the main hallway. Follow me." They each linked hands and headed back toward the hallway. Shadow recognized where she was when she saw the stained glass door frame and the red light near the stairs. "Okay, there's the door I came in. The back door must have led you guys into the kitchen. I vaguely remember the floor plan Roxanne showed me."

"What's in here?" Mike wandered off into a room on the left, banging into a large object with a heavy thud. "Ow! Jeez, who put a sofa in here?!"

"Someone who likes furniture?" Raph asked, biting his lip.

"Be careful, guys. Don't wander off too far. I'm going upstairs to look for the main switch." Shadow started to walk forward to the staircase and the red light, glad to see that there was some light in their dark nightmare. Leonardo followed inches behind and saw her pause abruptly.

"What's wrong?" He whispered.

"Nothing." She whispered back. "Roxy said the switch was located in the room she made into her office. I was going to look upstairs for it, but," Leonardo suddenly felt her latch onto his arm, "I don't want to go alone!"

"Ah." Leo nodded and tapped her arm. "Don't worry. I was going up with you, anyway."

The two crept up the stairs while the others waited on the first floor, bumping into objects or just deciding to stay put. Donatello noticed them going up and followed behind with eager thoughts of finding more gadgets. At the top of the stairs, they found themselves looking at a few rooms, two of which on the left-hand side had their doors closed. Leonardo crossed the landing and opened the first door on the far left, peering inside with a squint.

"What's in there?" Shadow asked, feeling safer when she stood under the red light.

"Bathroom." Leo stepped over to the door on the right of the bathroom, twisting the knob. A sudden surge of energy quickly went through his hand and up his arm, making him gasp and pull away. It felt as though he put his finger between the prongs of an electrical plug, getting a major zap attack.

Shadow stepped forward in concern. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Leo looked to his hand, watching it shake like a leaf. "This door's locked."

"Maybe for a good reason." Don said as he walked into an open room next to the locked door. "Hey, I think this is Roxanne's office." Though in the dark, he could see outlined forms of computer equipment and modern machines all around. On the far wall, he spied another glowing red light with a large switch directly below it. The switch was up, indicating all power was shut off. "Huh? Hmm." Reaching over, he threw the switch down, and, in a flash, the entire house became completely illuminated. The machines began to hum to life and every dark corner was now greeted by the new light. "Found the power!"

"So, I noticed." Shadow said, blinking to the sudden lights blaring everywhere. Entering the room, she found him standing by the large switch, looking quite pleased with himself. "You also found Roxy's office."

"Wow, look at all of this." Don eyed around the humming machinery with its multiple green lights flashing. His eyes fell upon a computer with a sticky piece of memo paper attached to the monitor. It read: "Crashed at Line 10 1548" with a little bug sketched below the words. Roxanne stuck many notes on the wall behind the computer, a lot of which he couldn't understand: "Get more ram," "Talk to Frank about spaghetti dream," "decrease impedance on headgear electrodes," "Who is was Mandy?"

If Donatello wasn't confused now, he certainly would be after shifting his eyes to another set of weirdly worded memos: "If wave= 12, plus=?" "Call Glen about hole in garage," "What is it about the 40's? Find triggers." The last two memos he read also didn't seem to make an ounce of sense: "Scan needs a manual!" and "Prepare OBE\NDE lecture."

"Looks like Roxanne's been busy..." Shadow said from somewhere in the background.

"Indeed." Don agreed as he looked over a framed photograph by the computer. The picture was nothing but a cluster of dark tree branches with an unusual orb of light looming in the hazy blue skies. A black crow knick-knack sat against the frame, staring to the left with hollow eyes. "Interesting." He turned on the monitor next, hoping to get some, or any, information out of it. To his dismay, only one word appeared on the screen, one he couldn't answer. "Password. Shadow? What's the password on Roxanne's computer?"

"Huh?"

"The password. I-- hmm?" Don looked to the left of the computer and saw an 8mm tape lying there. It looked like an ordinary tape, but it could quite possibly contain something worth viewing. He quickly pocketed it and turned around to discover Shadow wasn't there. "Where'd you go?"

"Up here." Shadow called down below. Donatello craned his neck all the way up to see her on a high balcony. He then looked to the spiral staircase she had to climb to get there and let out a slight chuckle. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing. I just find it amusing how you got up there so fast."

"Yeah, well, I guess curiosity was the cause of my fast action." Shadow scouted around near a stack of books and a small reading table where her eyes instantly spotted a strange-looking object. Picking it up, she watched the screen turn on and beep to attention. "Ooh, I think I found something."

"Yeah?" Don looked up again. "What is it?"

Shadow said nothing as she continued to look it over. It was a simple device consisting of three LCD-style buttons, all of which gave her information of their current status. She pushed the middle button first, getting the words: 'BAR off-line: BT cams unavailable.' Shrugging, she tried the next button on the far right, also not getting many results: 'AMBER unit incomplete. Unable to register.'

"Shadow?" Don asked, now with growing curiosity.

"Wait a sec." She said, finally pressing the left-most button. A blue flat line appeared with the words, 'Tonal residue ready' typed out below it. Shadow glanced to the button marked 'Play' below the flat line and pressed it, getting the voice of a rather frightened man beating on a door:

"Open the door! They're coming! They're coming! O--*bang*--PEN THE--*bang* DOOR!!!"

"Aaaack!" Shadow pulled back in surprise, almost falling into a comfy, black leather chair.

"Shadow? What was that?" Don continued to stare up at her. Not getting an answer, he turned and flew up the spiral staircase, reaching her side within seconds. "Are you okay? What was that sound?"

"It-- it came from this thing." She said in a shaky voice as she passed him the object.

"Oh, you found the PeeK reader!" Don sounded very pleased that it was in their possession.

"The...PeeK reader?" Shadow repeated.

"Yeah!" Don said with joy. "You know what this is, right?" From the look on her face, she obviously didn't know. "Okay, do you remember that one movie we rented about the man setting up all that equipment in a haunted castle? He was a scientist on a quest of new discovery, wanting to catch a glimpse or whisper of paranormal activity." She nodded, but still wasn't following. "He used large pieces of complicated machinery, many of which had to be rolled in on wheels and set up with various outlets. The PeeK was invented for the exact same purposes. The only difference is it's smaller and easier to hold. It's a very useful tool."

Shadow crossed her arms. "How do you know all this?"

"I learned a lot from the books you were recommended to read." He smirked before pressing the left button, staring at the flat line and the words, 'Tonal residue ready.' "The audio has already captured something."

"Yeah, that's where I heard the man's voice." Shadow grabbed his hand hovering over the dreaded 'play' button. "Don't play it again!"

"I won't, I was just seeing which button was which." Don pressed the right button instead, getting the status of 'BAR off-line. BT cams unavailable.' "This button tells us no signals are being made to the BAR, nor are any BT cameras turned on." His eyes immediately locked to a small video camera in the upper corner of the room, staring right back at him. "Those must be the cameras."

"But, what about the audio clip I heard? How did it get on there?"

"The scanning device..." Don thought to himself as he stared at the play button, wanting to hear the clip more closely. "The only logical explanation is the PeeK's wiring signals are connected to the door knob device."

"The what device?" Shadow asked, eyeing around his pockets.

"Oh, you weren't with us when I found this outside." Don pulled it from his pocket to show her. "Remember when we read the chapter on the Stonetape Theory? Inventions like this were made to gather tonal residue of spirits." Shadow nodded a little. Don looked to the PeeK again as if he found another fabulous, brand new toy. "We can scan door knobs and play the sounds on the PeeK, like you did just now. This will become very handy for us."

Shadow sighed with a smile. "Great, then I'll leave it to you to play with. I don't know how to use it."

"You don't?" Don sighed. "I'm afraid I did more studying of this equipment than you!"

Shadow made a pout to that. "Can you can the lecture and just get it to work?"

"Lecture is my middle name, but if you insist..." Don lifted the PeeK to her, pushing the right button. "Okay, for the moment, it's telling us the BAR is off-line and the BT cams are unavailable. You remember what the BAR was, right?"

"Yeah." She nodded again. "The psionic wave machine that picks up paranormal activity in a house."

"Right, now do you remember the proper settings to run it?" Shadow went to say but stopped, grinning broadly. "I...guess not, and how unfortunate we left all of your precious notes at home."

"Sorry!" She continued to grin with an added shade of pink to her cheeks.

"Hey, like you knew you were going to need them here." Don pushed the middle button last, dropping his brow all the way down at the words that flashed across the screen. 'AMBER unit off-line.' "Did you see this one yet?"

"Yeah, I did." Shadow also dropped her brow. "Do you know who Amber is?"

"We're talking machines here, Shadow. It's not a who." Don gazed back down at the words, shaking his head. "It's a what."

"So, tell me what it is!" Shadow started to get antsy. "What's Amber?"

"I...I don't know." Don swallowed heavily. "This is something Roxanne hasn't gone over with you yet."

"Oh, come on! You must know something!" Shadow persisted, watching him lower the PeeK and close its screen. "Wait, there's gotta be some notes she stashed away somewhere. Help me look." Her voice trailed off as she backed away and trampled down to the first level.

In a corner next to the stairs was a small writing desk with more of Roxanne's notes scattered upon it. Donatello climbed down and stared at the surface of the desk, looking to a black Bio-Psi Technologies coffee cup, a pyramid-shaped 'Ask Me' paperweight, and a large piece of scribble paper in the center of the desk. More notes, he thought, more weird notes and with weird pictures no less! A stick figure of a woman with curly hair was drawn next to a name with a question mark next to it. Donatello peered closer and read the name aloud.

"Who's Margaret?"

"Who? Oh, I don't know." Shadow was staring at a photo-covered bulletin board next to the desk when she turned to him. "None of this stuff is very helpful. Let's look in here." Donatello watched her crouch down at the desk and pull open the top black drawer. "Oh, here's something. It's a user's manual on the BAR!"

"A draft copy to be exact." Don stepped over to take a look. "This will tell us how to run the BAR and what settings are best for it to work." Flipping it open to the first page, the Table of Contents, he noticed red pencil markings all over from where Roxanne had corrected Paul, her tech guy. "Wow, this must be the very first draft. Look at all the typos. Whoever did this book must have been a computer engineer."

Shadow laughed. "Yeah, those guys usually do a lousy job when it comes to professional typing." Donatello shot her a dirty look. "It's true!"

"Yes, but that's something we usually don't like to hear..." Don cleared his throat and flipped to the Introduction on the next page. Still upset about what she said, he began to read the welcome page very slowly. Knowing she wanted answers right away, he could see it drove her crazy. "Congratulations on your purchase of a Bio-Psi Technologies BAR device." Don looked to see Roxanne had already wrote in one of her little correction notes in red:

"It's just BAR, don't add 'device' after it."

"Okay, just call it BAR, no device after it." Don continued on, hearing a slight groan. "Your new BAR (Bulbic Activity Reader), provides you with: auto-linking to BT video cams for monitoring remote sites, settings for level, gain and frequency modulation." He felt a slight tug on his sleeve but ignored it. "This manual will describe each feature in detail, as well as offer some tried and true tips for how to get the best results."

"Uncle Don, you really don't have to read that part." Shadow went to reach for the book but he pulled away, grinning rather evilly. "Come on, just skip to what we have to read!"

"You mean, you don't want to hear about the Overview of this wonderful machine?" Shadow gave him a steely glare. "Okaaay, you don't. Here we go. On to Chapter 1...for Level settings...Page 2...paragraph 1--"

"Faster!" Shadow shouted.

"Now, now, kiddo." Don said sternly but with a clear hint of playfulness. "It's always best to read such things slow and steadily."

Shadow narrowed her eyes and raised a fist. "Yeah, but if you don't crank up the tempo, I'm going to beat you fast and heavily." Such a doll. Donatello could only smirk to her cute and angry face and continued to read on...a little faster. "All right, here's what it says for Level: 'To help you hone in on a specific wavelength of electromagnetic energy, you may adjust the 'level' setting on the BAR...' again Paul typed in device and got corrected! Oh, well. Heh."

"A low level setting causes the BAR to register activity from all sources, including living beings. A low setting would therefore be appropriate for uncongested areas with a very weak signal. Conversely, a higher setting will screen out interference from living animals and focus the BAR on stronger signals." Don lifted his head and gave out a laugh. "You know, not meaning to quote from one of your favorite movies, but, this book reads like stereo instructions."

"And this book is going to take all night to get our answers." Shadow sighed, almost ready to plop down in Roxanne's desk chair. "It's been real quiet out there; I'm starting to worry about the others."

"Yeah, we should take this book with us and go check up on them." Don closed the manual and gazed down to her very tired and distraught expression. "Don't worry." He patted her shoulder. "We'll figure this out."

In the meantime, Leonardo walked around in Roxanne's bedroom, checking it out carefully and cautiously. For all he knew, someone could lunge out of the closet or an alarm could go off if he touched a certain object. Although he was unsure of what to expect, the room itself had a feeling of comfort and warmth from the furniture and knick knacks she had added to it.

The first thing he noticed was a soft, quilt-patterned bed, perfect for a quiet read, a bit of channel surfing, or a long, blissful slumber. Two night stands stood on either side of the bed, one of which had an amusing mechanical man puppet toy. To the right of the door, he looked on top of her bureau where he spotted two white vases, both of which had funny cartoon faces drawn on them. Opening the closet by the bureau, he found typical coats and shirts on hangers. So far, everything appeared normal. It was when he opened the night stand drawer beneath the mechanical man that made him more intrigued. It was a simple notebook with a spiral bind and a line sketch of a naked woman stretching her arm. Above the picture, Roxanne wrote out these words with a black sharpie pen:

Dream journal #23

Leonardo, though feeling slightly nosy, opened it up to see she had kept a personal diary of her recent dreams. He read the first page with its interesting hand writing. It also looked as though she scribbled it in a hurry.

8am-
Last night I dreamt that a man showed me a new house. It was a lot bigger than the one I have now. I didn't like the house, but I liked the property...there were lots of flowers.
The man came outside and became angry that I had gone outside. He screamed at me continuously for the rest of the dream. I hate having this kind of dream. Crying steadily in my sleep, waking up exhausted.

Leonardo frowned and turned the page, reading the next one on the reverse side:

Another one from last night:
Frank and I are on vacation together. He has been away on business of something. We are very happy, at a beach; I think it was the ocean. Frank starts running and I run after him, laughing. A car backfires somewhere. A plane flies overhead. The dream switches to a school party. I have forgotten my dress. Frank says he doesn't mind and we dance.

"Very strange." He mumbled as his eyes moved over to the next page:

Tuesday night 2:30am
A lucid dream! Just like last time, the technique has worked. This time, I was dreaming that I was in a car race, just me and some friends racing on an old back road. I looked down while I drove and saw that I was wearing my new leather pants. Something clicked: like the pants reminded me of my real life. I realized I was in a dream the colors got brighter, I felt such power. I know I had control of the dream, that I could do anything, so I drove the car up into the air and all of us just flew for miles on end.
It lasted like that for a few minutes (it seemed!), then just as suddenly as it had started I lost concentration and woke up.

"Hmm, I wonder if any of this has to do with what's been going on here." Leo shrugged as he turned the page, frowning again to the way the text looked as if a drunk person wrote it with the sentences appearing to slide down the page:

2nd dream
at a party I know everyone. A little boy walks up and gives me a glass of water.
Too sleepy to remember anything else.

Leonardo flipped to the last page and read it closely. This one really got his attention:

Thursday 6am
I was back in high school in my room, very bored and looking for something fun to do. I roll my hair into a French twist with the ends sticking out the top like a fountain. I get up and dance around laughing. When I stop twirling I see a man on a ladder looking in the window at me. He scares me. I scream and wake up.

"Wow." Leo said as he closed the notepad. Poor Roxanne seemed very disturbed ever since she set foot in this house.

"Found any clues, Freddie Jones?" Don appeared unannounced in the doorway.

Leo paused as if caught and looked up to him. "If you don't consider a diary a clue, then no." He calmly tossed it back in the drawer.

"You read from a girl's private journal?" Don gave a look of shame to him.

Leo cleared his throat and attempted to save himself. "Don't worry. There was nothing too secretive; it only contained some vivid dreams Roxanne experienced."

"That sounds like something I would want to keep a secret." Don said innocently.

"Yeah, maybe." Leo looked toward the ceiling. "I just figured anything we come across might help us in finding out where she disappeared to."

"Yeah, right, Leo." Don nodded, not believing a single word of it.

Changing the subject, but mostly out of concern, Leo asked, "Where's Shadow?"

Don twitched his neck backwards. "Bathroom. I offered to go with her, but she doubts anything 'out of the norm' would happen in there."

Shadow flushed the toilet and rose to wash her hands. As she stood at the sink, she began to think about Roxanne and this rude absence of hers. Where was she? It was so unusual for her to be nowhere in sight.

"Roxy, I don't know where you are, but you should have at least called to let me know you'd be gone!" Shadow turned off the sink faucet and paused, still hearing the sound of water running. Opening the glass door to the stand-only shower, she looked in to see water flowing down into the drain. Shadow quickly reached over and turned the faucet off, startled to still hear water running. "What the...!" Someone or something turned the sink faucet back on, this time causing steam to rise and fog up the mirror. With a moan, Shadow twisted the faucet several times, unable to turn it off.

"All right, I'm officially scared out of my wits!" She told whoever was doing it. "What is it you want?" A high-squeaking sound came from above her head. Eyeing up warily, her heart began to beat faster as letters started to form upon the fogged mirror, giving her a terrifying message:

Join Me

"Aaaahhh! Shadow rushed for the door, smacking into it first, and then running out into the hall. "Oh, guys!" Two startled turtles immediately turned around as she stopped short in front of them. "Oh, come quick! You gotta see this!"

Don dropped his brow. "See wha-- whoa, hey!" Shadow grabbed his and Leonardo's arm and pulled them with all her strength back to the bathroom. "Shadow, what's gotten into you?"

"This place is what's gotten into me! Look! It..." Shadow gasped as she saw the mirror was still fogged, but now only revealed a blank wall of glass. Looking to the sink, she could also see the faucet was turned off all the way. An explanation was needed but, she suddenly had this dreaded fear they would think she was off her rocker. "Oh, no! It disappeared! It's gone!"

"What's gone?" Leo sized the mirror up and down. "What was it?"

"Uggh!" Shadow started to pace and gesture of her usual routine. Taking in one full breath, she rambled without stopping. "Okay, I was at the sink washing my hands, I turned off the sink, I heard more water flowing, the shower faucet turned on by itself, so I turned it off, but then the sink faucet turned on by itself, fogged up the mirror, and then this invisible something started writing these words on the mirror!" Gasping for air, Shadow paused in her speech and reached over to spell out 'join me' on the glass. It felt strange seeing the words once again on the mirror, but this time, she knew she did it herself.

Leo frowned. "Join me?"

"Yes!" Shadow spat. "And I think if I stayed in here any longer, it would have come for me!"

"The mirror wants you to join it?" Don started to chew at the side of his lip.

"No! Not the mirror! Whoever or whatever wrote the message!" Shadow puffed a breath and rested against the marble wall. "You guys don't believe me. It never fails when one person sees something and they end up looking like a damn lunatic! You think I've totally lost it."

"Now, we didn't say that, Shadow." Don stepped forward, putting a hand on her shoulder. "We're just trying to think logical. Maybe you imagined it."

"Some logic." Shadow huffed. "I know what I saw and I wasn't imagining it."

"We believe you, honey, we really do, and that's what worries us." Leo sighed and shook his head. "Just to be safe, we should take stronger precautions on the simplest occurrences. From now on, I would prefer you not going off by yourself unless you're accompanied by Splinter or one of us."

"Even to the restroom?" Shadow looked to Donatello but also caught Leonardo nodding 'yes' in the corner of her eye. "Oh, terrific, there goes my privacy right out the window! Not that it really matters since a ghost was in here with me and staring with invisible eyes!" Shadow didn't like the sentence she just said and gave a noticeable chill. "Sorry, I can be real shy at times."

"Hey, it's not like I would have stood and deliberately watched you!" Don told her with a roll to the eyes. "That wasn't the point of me accompanying you in here. Besides, something worse could have happened than receiving some cryptic message and we wouldn't have been able to get to you in time."

"Yeah, I know." Shadow shrugged. "I guess now is not the time to be modest."

"No, not when we're being toyed with by unknown forces." Leo looked over to the door and out into the hallway. The silence coming from it made him a little concerned about his brothers and sensei. "Come on, we should go check on the others." Shadow walked out of the bathroom first, feeling a hand lightly pat her shoulder as she left. Leo looked to Donatello closely. "She was right about one thing. This place is certainly going to keep us on our toes."