Lost In Shadow

Chapter 9

Don picked up the phone almost as soon as it rang. He glanced over at the ghost... she looked busy playing cards with Mike.

"Hello."

"Don... its April... can you guys come over?"

"Sure... how did it go? Did it go okay? Are you okay? Did you get to speak to him...?"

"Okay. Yes. Yes. And yes..." April interrupted him. "Listen Don. I don't really want to speak over the phone. Can you come over?"

"All of us?"

"Yes."

"Okay. See you soon." Don put the phone down. Splinter, Leonardo and Raphael were all staring at him. He shrugged at them.

"Let's go see April."

"What did she say?" Raph murmured.

"She wouldn't talk over the phone. She wants us to go see her." Don grabbed a coat. Leo pulled one on and looked over at Mike.

"Mikey! We're going to see April...."

Mike grinned. "Okay. See ya later."

"... doh..." Leo rubbed his forehead. "Come with us Mike! She hasn't seen you in ages!"

"Hmm? Okay." He stood up, and then turned back to Suzie. They could see him speaking to her.

"Nah, I'll pass. You know... this might be the last chance I get to hang out with Suzie before she leaves. You guys go, I can always see April another day."

Splinter frowned. "Michelangelo, I insist that..."

A sudden force pushed them all out the door. They found themselves sitting in a heap outside the entrance to the lair as the door banged shut.

Raph scrambled out from under Splinter, and then helped him up. "That's it. I've had it." He pushed at the door intending to storm back in, but it wouldn't budge. He kicked the door in anger.

"We had better see what April and Casey found out..." Splinter looked at the door of the lair anxiously.

"Mike'll be alright, sensei..." Leo said. "Suzie likes him... she won't hurt him."

"It'd better not..." Raph punched the palm of his hand.

"Let's go..." Don stared at the door with a worried expression for a moment, and then turned towards April's.

April and Casey refused to speak until they'd made them all a very strong coffee each and sat them down.

"Where's Mikey?" April asked suddenly.

"He won't come." Raph said abruptly. "Are you going to tell us what happened, or just give us caffeine poisoning?"

"Did it go okay?" Leo asked.

"It went fine." Casey beamed.

April gave him a black look. "It was nerve wracking..."

"We got in okay... they thought we were family. No problem there. Even Sullivan didn't give us away... though he was pretty confused that we were there." Casey said. "We asked if he knew Susan and he kind of... went pale..."

"... He blanched!" April's eyes widened. "At first we thought it was because he'd killed her and he thought we knew... but it turns out Susan was a horrible kid, manipulative, selfish, vindictive.... and completely obsessed with him. She wouldn't leave him alone no matter what he did. She had a knife and threatened to kill Sullivan's girlfriend... Susan got stabbed in the struggle and was going to blame it on the two of them... accuse them of trying to kill her. Danny pushed her into the sewers to try to scare her into changing her mind... but when they went to let her out she'd gone. They assumed she'd gotten out and was too humiliated to show her face again. He doesn't know she bled to death down there. He thinks she's alive. He thought we were friends of hers and that she'd put us up to seeing him, just to upset him and his wife. He married the girl Susan tried to kill."

Leo was stunned. "Are you sure he didn't make it all up to cover himself...? I mean... this all happened nearly thirty years ago... a grown man in his forties still scared by the memory of a teenager?"

Casey shook his head. "He was completely on the level, Leo... whatever they went through with her back then was enough to scare the crap out of them... and he's not a murderer... he's in there for petty theft."

April nodded. "Casey and I have gone through it over and over; we're convinced he's telling the truth."

Leo shook his head. "Oh no... and I invited Susan into our home... She's... evil and it's entirely my fault."

"I don't know if she's evil, Leo..." April frowned. "She sounds like a real nasty little bitch. But I don't know if evil is the right word."

"She's out to cause trouble at home..." Don said. "She was going to destroy my computer again when I rebuilt it... But she's all nice with Mikey... and Leo at the moment..."

"But she's hates me and Don..."Raph said, darkly. "Not that we ever liked her to begin with."

"Why?" Splinter asked. "Michelangelo and Leonardo seemed quite taken with her at first."

"The part of the sewers she haunted..."Don said thoughtfully. "It was horrible. It had a real nasty atmosphere, really nasty and creepy. I didn't like her the moment I set eyes on her... especially that night Leo and I found the bracelet."

"Yeah... and it stunk... worse than the rest of the sewers... really foul... it was disgusting." Raph pulled a face. "And I can always smell it on her."

Don nodded... "Yeah, I can too." He wrinkled his nose.

Leo raised his eyebrows. "I never noticed that."

"Yeah well, you were too intent on poking your nose in..." Don began, and then paused. "Sorry Leo."

"To be honest..." Splinter began. "I did not like her either. The bracelet and the smell which accompanied it made me feel extremely uneasy."

April sighed. "So what are you going to do?"

"I'm worried about Mike..." Leo said. He looked at April. "Suzie's really taken to Mikey... he likes her too... they're hanging out all the time. She practically threw us out when we tried to get Mike to come with us."

"What do you mean, Leo?!" Raph exclaimed. "She did throw us out. We couldn't get back in."

April looked startled. "She threw you out?"

Don nodded. "Telekinesis... or something."

"Yeah... we'd better go back... make sure Mike's okay." Leo said. He was beginning to get very anxious thinking about Michelangelo.

Splinter hesitated before he pushed at the door. It swung open without any problem and they entered their home cautiously. It was dark and eerily quiet... The only light came from the TV... pictures flicked across the screen, though no sound came from it. The walls appeared to move as the broken light from the TV danced across them creating pools of moving shadow. Leo felt clammy, and a sweat broke out on his forehead.

"...Mikey?"

He glanced at Splinter, whose ears flicked listening for a response.

"Mike, are you okay?" Leo struggled to keep his voice steady, he felt sick with worry. Glancing at his brothers and Splinter he knew they felt the same.

Don looked at Leo, and then he reached for the light switch, his hand shaking as he did so. Raphael swallowed past a lump in his throat.

"Mike! Where are you?"

Mike's head appeared over the back of the sofa.

"Hi guys!!" He grinned broadly. "You weren't gone for long."

Leo breathed out... a sigh of relief... only just realising he'd been holding his breath.

"Mikey... give a guy a heart attack." Raph went over and sat on the sofa with him. "What? Did you fall asleep?"

Mike nodded munching on some peanuts. "It was a bad movie. How did April and Casey get on?"

"Good... Sullivan was very co-operative..." Raph looked hard at Mike. "Where's Suzie?"

Mike shrugged. "I told her off for throwing you guys out." He frowned. "I can't believe she did that to Master Splinter... So anyway... either she's sulking...or I'm sulking. I don't remember." He beamed at Raph.

"Listen Mike... there's something we need to..." Leonardo paused. The skin prickled at the back of his neck... he could swear he even felt a breath. He was suddenly very cold... and now there was the smell... the evil, rank smell he'd smelt all those days ago in the sewers when he'd dug out the bracelet. He'd never felt so sick, he felt it invading his pores and had to force himself to turn. The ghost stared at him, her pale grey eyes boring right through his own. He felt himself flinch but Mikey's voice brought him back down to earth.

"Suzie, you said you'd apologise. Apologise to my brothers and Splinter."

She smiled at them and nodded. "Sorry."

Leo balked at her obvious insincerity. All of a sudden she seemed much more grotesque than before. She wasn't a cute fourteen year old blonde... she was a vindictive, sour faced dead girl, and looking at Raph and Don he knew they couldn't see any difference. It was what they'd always seen. His head suddenly felt clearer, the mugginess in it was gone.

"There ya go!" Mike grinned. "She's sorry. Problem sorted." He picked up the remote and flicked the channel over.

Leo sat down beside him. "Mike, this Danny Sullivan... he didn't murder Suzie... not intentionally."

Mike gazed at the TV. "I know. Suzie told me before you all got back. She hated his girlfriend and tried to kill her in a murderous rage so she could have him. She was stabbed accidentally in the process and was going to blame them for trying to kill her." He munched on more peanuts still gazing at the TV. "She says she's sorry though... so everything's okay."

Leo glanced at the others... this wasn't good...

"Mike... are you feeling okay?"

"Mmm." He smiled and nodded.

"You're not disturbed that she tried to kill someone?"

Mikey looked puzzled a moment. .."I don't think so... I mean I was... but I'm not now." He grinned again.

"Mike stop grinning like that... you're freaking me out..." Don edged around Raph and gave Mike a worried stare.

"Sorry!" Mike said cheerily.

Leo turned back to Suzie. "I think you should leave. Now." He snarled.

She shook her head and spread out her arms. "Home." She smiled.

"Our home!!" Raph shouted.

She shook her head. "Ours." She pointed from herself to Mike.

They felt the force again, only much stronger this time, start to push them from the room once more.

"Oh no you don't!!" Raph lunged for the sofa, but missed and they found themselves sitting outside the door in the sewer water again.

Splinter leant his chin on his hand and tapped his nose impatiently. "We need a plan."

Raph leapt up and pushed at the door, then tried kicking it, punching it... and finally hit his head on it. "What's it done to Mike?!"

"He's gone all... dozy..." Don hugged his knees, not bothering to get out of the sewer water. He frowned, a million thoughts going through his mind at once. "It's also more powerful..." He looked at Splinter. "Sensei... you don't think she's feeding off Mike?!"

Raph yelled and kicked the door again.

Splinter gave Donatello a troubled look.

"She made me go ...'dozy'," Leo frowned. "It was hard to think... I did stupid things... like I walked through the streets in daylight without a disguise when I went to see April. Now I think about it... I felt kind of drained... I couldn't stop thinking about Suzie... I was obsessed with wanting to help her."

"How did you get out of it?" Donatello asked, standing up.

"When I knew her history... and realised she wasn't the helpless victim I thought she was..." Leo's brow furrowed. "Then when I saw her in there just now, she was just like you guys said... and she stunk..." He looked sick. "She was pretty gross."

"At last!" Raph nodded.

"All that time I thought you guys were being... well kind of... unfair. But I guess you were actually pretty patient with me and Mike."

Don glared at the door. "Perhaps we shouldn't have been..."

"But Michelangelo knows her history now, she has told him and he hasn't been shaken out of it." Splinter murmured.

Leonardo tried the door again and it swung open, they exchanged looks.

"Here we go again..."