That Which Prowls in the Dark of Night
The TMNT belong to Mirage and other people not me.
Chapter 1 The warning.
It was just midnight as Raphael finished gearing up for a night above ground. He had been waiting for this night for over a week. Master Splinter had given him permission to spend the night and the day with Casey. He and Casey were planning on bashing thugs all night then watching movies during the day until nightfall when Raphael was scheduled to come home.
He placed one last shrunken in his belt, and added a thin metallic rope. He grinned thinking that Casey would have needed a whole duffle bag for his overnight paraphernalia. His packing done, Raphael left his room, eagerly anticipating the evening's events.
He passed by Leonardo's room, but Leonardo was absorbed in a book of ancient samurai strategy. Donatello had fallen asleep at his desk in his room again, the remains of some project or other were scattered about on the weather beaten wood. Michelangelo was also asleep, but as Raphael passed by he noticed that his brother's rest was not peaceful.
"No, no, don't go there. Raph come back!" Michelangelo muttered as he tossed and turned, wrapping the sheets around his body.
Puzzled Raphael peered deeper into the room to make sure Michelangelo wasn't awake. "Mikey?" He asked tentatively.
Michelangelo didn't answer him, instead he paused in his tossing, and began to speak in his sleep again. "No Raph get away from him! He's going to get you! NO GET AWAY RAPH! RAPH!"
Raphael frowned, but he entered the room anyway. Half the time this was one of Michelangelo's pranks, but on the other hand Michelangelo did have nightmares frequently, and sometimes they did get out of hand.
By the time he got over to Michelangelo Raphael knew that it really was a nightmare. Michelangelo's eyes were open, but he really wasn't seeing anything in front of him. He was half out of his bed reaching for his belt where his nunchucks should have been. They were under the bed instead of being on his belt at the moment, and Raphael was grateful. If Michelangelo had kept them closer he might have actually attacked Raphael before he fully woke up.
Raphael grabbed onto Michelangelo's hands, and restrained him as gently as he could. "Mike! Mikey! Wake up, your having another nightmare!"
Michelangelo struggled in his brother's grip. "No! Go away! Leave him alone! Get away from him! Raphael!"
"Mikey!" Raphael called giving him a hard shake. "I'm right here! Wake up for crying out loud!"
"Raph!" Michelangelo began then suddenly he blinked, and relaxed all at once. "Raph? That you?"
His voice sounded exhausted, and frightened. Raphael took Michelangelo's hand, and held it, so Michelangelo knew he was there. "I'm right here, Mikey. You okay?"
"Raph?" Michelangelo said, sounding still frightened, but more relieved. "I thought...I thought he got you?"
"Who, Mikey?" Raphael asked. "What were you dreaming about?"
"There, there's this thing, outside," Michelangelo began hesitantly. "It's after you. I could see it, but nobody else could. It was like hunting you or something. It wanted you for the blue plate special!"
The more he spoke the more frantic he became. His breathing was shallow and rapid, and Raphael could feel Michelangelo's pulse throb under his fingers rapidly. Concerned Raphael shook him again this time gently. "Easy, Mikey, it was just a dream. Nobody is making a dinner out of me."
Michelangelo still looked worried. "But, Raph, I can feel it. It's out there right now, looking for you!" Michelangelo yawned and blinked sleepily, but his hand tightened on Raphael's. You can't go out there, Raph. It's waiting for you."
"Mikey, it was just a dream," Raphael reminded him with more patience than he usually displayed. "Go back to sleep. I'm okay."
Michelangelo was fighting sleep, but soon he drifted away still mumbling. Raphael sat there for a few minutes wondering if Michelangelo had been fully awake to start with, and if not, would he remember this dream tomorrow. Once certain that Michelangelo wouldn't wake again, he softly crept from the room, and went downstairs to go to Casey's house.
At the elevator door he stopped. For a long time he simply looked at the door, and thought. Raphael then sighed, pulled out his shell cell, and dialed Casey's house.
"Hello," Casey's voice came over the phone.
"Hey Case," Raphael said.
"Raph! When are you getting over here?" Casey said happily.
"Um yeah, about that," Raphael said. "Casey, can you come pick me up in the morning instead? Something came up here, and I want to stay home tonight."
Concerned, Casey asked, "Is something wrong?"
"Not exactly," Raphael said, as he took as seat on the sofa. "It's kinda a long story. I'll tell you about it in the morning."
"Okay, I'll pick you up around seven," Casey said. He sounded confused, but willing to go along with it.
"See ya then Case," Raphael said. He heard the phone click off. He placed his shell cell back on his belt. He turned on the TV making sure to keep the volume low, but he really didn't pay attention to what he was watching. Instead he allowed his memory to flow backwards to a time when they had been very young mutant ninja turtles.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Some time in 1997:
"Come on baby!"
"I'm not a baby!"
Raphael was teasing Michelangelo again. For some reason Michelangelo had nightmares almost every other night. Splinter, who had been trying to give the growing turtles their space, had again taken to laying with them until Michelangelo had fallen asleep. Raphael, who was resenting the extra attention Michelangelo was getting, had taken to teasing about it terribly.
"Yes you are. A grown turtle doesn't need his sensei to sleep with him!" Raphael said mercilessly.
"Raph, leave Mikey alone!" Leonardo insisted. As much as Michelangelo's nightmares bothered the others, they didn't feel it was right to tease him especially when he was in tears almost every night.
"What for?" Raphael said as nastily as he could. "He is a big baby. I'm sick and tired of him crying every night."
"That's because you don't have enough imagination to have nightmares!" Leonardo shot back.
Donatello backed Leonardo up. "What would you do if you had dreams about giant spiders that were trying to eat us?" He asked.
"I don't have nightmares!" Raphael insisted. "Nightmares are for babies!"
"Nightmares are for people who have a brain." Leonardo said snidely.
That was enough for Raphael. He launched himself and Leonardo and the two began to fight on the floor.
Donatello went over to Michelangelo's side. "I think Leo's right, Raph doesn't have enough imagination to have nightmares." To his relief Michelangelo grinned slightly.
Raphael and Leonardo were rolling around on the floor fighting. Suddenly a piece of the floor gave way under Raphael. Instantly Leonardo rolled off of his brother, but held tightly to his hands, trying to keep Raphael from falling.
Leonardo braced himself against the ground, but he could feel himself being slowly dragged into the hole with Raphael.
"Leo!" Raphael called panicked. "Don't let go!"
"Don! Mikey! Help!" Leonardo called behind him. He didn't need to. As soon as they saw their brothers in trouble both turtles ran to help.
"Grab his legs!" Donatello said. "Pull!" Between Donatello and Michelangelo they managed to pull their two brothers from the gaping hole. For several minutes they all lay there panting, thinking about what a close call they had.
"You two have got to stop fighting," Donatello finally said. "One of these days one of you is going to really get hurt."
Leonardo sighed deeply. "You shouldn't tease Mikey like that Raph. Now you know how scared he feels during a nightmare."
"But this was real at least." Raphael shot back, but he sounded a bit subdued anyway.
"Nightmares feel real when your having them." Michelangelo said.
"Are we having a nightmare now?" Donatello asked.
The odd question, and his tone made the other three look up at him. Donatello had suddenly gone very pale, and was trembling slightly. "I don't' think so," Leonardo said. "What's wrong Donny?"
"Didn't Mikey say in that dream he had last night a giant spider was going to eat you and Raph?" Donatello asked.
"Yeah," Raphael said. "Why do you see one?"
"Actually, I do!" Donatello said uneasily.
"Where?" All three of them began looking around the walls for the spider.
"No guys look at the hole!" Donatello said. As their eyes began to focus on the broken floor they saw it. The cracked broken planks looked remarkably like the silhouette of a giant spider.
"That...that's it!" Michelangelo said. "That's exactly what the spider looked like in my dream!"
"And it did almost swallow Raph and Leo." Donatello said still sounding shaky.
Raphael felt a cold chill run down his shell. How could Michelangelo's dream be real?
Leonardo took in a deep breath, and made his tiny voice sound as business like as he could. "I think we'd better go find sensei."
Later all four of them had surrounded their father, and sensei and told him about how Michelangelo's nightmare had come true.
"Indeed," Splinter said with great interest. "Yes I have heard of such things happening before. That type of dream is called a premonition."
"Does that mean all of Mikey's dreams are gong to come true?" Donatello asked.
"I do not think so," Splinter said. "It may be that some of his dreams will come true, but not all of them."
"I don't want any of them to come true! " Michelangelo said emphatically. "They're bad!"
"They may be warnings." Splinter explained. "As the dream you had today was. I do not think you can stop your dreams Michelangelo, but we can heed their warnings, and take note."