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By Medeah
Disclaimer: I don't own the Turtles, and have no intention to make money from this.
Author Note: This fic is based on the 2003 TV series.
II.- Nightmares
When he woke up, the room was completely dark. The lights were still turned off.
After rubbing his eyes, yawning and stretching, he stood up. Probably it was really late; he might have slept for hours. It was completely silent out there.
Even as he got out of the library door, his eyes were still half closed.
"Hey, guys?" he looked around. The living room was empty, there was nothing but darkness.
He called everyone, went into every room. There was no one, nowhere. Nothing.
Where the hell is everyone? he wondered, still sleepy. Maybe something happened, an emergency, an unexpected attack. Something.
"No," he said out loud. "If that were to happen, they would wake me up, wouldn't they? Unless they couldn't … no, I don't think so. Maybe …"
He moved into the living room; the television was turned off, the couch cold. No traces of garbage food or plastic wraps that said his brothers had been there. He was getting more and more nervous.
"If this is a joke, it is not funny!" he yelled, but nobody answered.
He tried to turn the lights on but the switch didn't work. Then it came, an unpleasant sensation on the pitch of the stomach that indicated something really wrong was happening.
Wandering from room to room one more time, he found nothing new. Without notice from his part, he went back to the library's door and stopped there lost on his thoughts, looking at the floor.
Should he go on their search? Where? There was not a clue that pointed where his brothers could be. He looked up sighing, and his heart came to a halt.
Just a few meters in front of him was a small girl, standing up motionless.
Her hair was long, really long and black. She had not shoes. He could barely see her face, but her skin was so pale it seemed to glow in the darkness.
Almost specter-like, he thought, to immediately toss that idea from his mind.
She was wearing a light colored dress, but it was very dirty and torn apart. Leo realized she probably tumbled into an open manhole and walked till finding this place; she could be hurt.
The girl should have noticed him by now; however, no sound came from her, not a scream of surprise or fear or anything at all … she didn't even move from her spot. Leonardo was the one that seemed more shocked by their encounter.
The girl was looking at the floor, her naked feet against each other, and she nervously wringed her hands. She seemed so defenseless … might be too scared to react, he told to himself.
Leo observed her a few more seconds, silently …
There was definitely something peculiar with her. Something worrisome.
But she was just a girl … a little girl, lost in a foreign place, away from her parents, facing a strange green creature.
Yes, that definitely was explained it all. He was not as nervous anymore. But there still was a problem: where did she come from, and how could he return her to the place where she belonged?
Leo had to force himself to open the mouth.
"H-how did you arrive here? Where are you from, little one?"
There was no answer.
Her gaze was still nailed to the floor. Leonardo reasoned that, if he was startled by her presence, she had the right to be petrified at the sight of a giant turtle. He tried to get close, but something prevented him from moving; it was as if his feet were nailed to the floor, too.
Something in the sparse part of her face that could be seen made him abruptly discontinue his approaching attempts: the old and well known feeling of danger went from cero to one hundred in just a few seconds, forcing him to set himself on alert, even when he couldn't understand the reason of it.
Each passing second in front of the little girl made his worry increase …
Attack her! Attack her now that you have a chance!, a little voice screamed on the back of his head.
He shook his head. She was just a little girl! He could not attack her.
"Little one, are you okay?" There was no answer. The child was just there, immobile. She wasn't even looking at him; and, somehow, she didn't want him to look at her either.
He got the nagging feeling that one more second in front of her would drive him to flee, and pride could go to the hell.
Then he saw something.
Something crossed hurriedly behind him. Leo could felt its presence prior to seeing it. He smiled.
Whatever it was, it had no idea about stealth; while trying to remain hidden, its own maneuvers betrayed it.
So that meant someone else was on the lair. Too many strangers on this place tonight, Leo though.
All his body was on guard; he avoided sudden motions, only his eyes moving while he searched, side-glancing.
At his left; there it was.
It moved again, like a shadow. Leo remained at his place, his hand slowly moving towards the sheaths on his back.
Yes, just as he though, there was a man: a tall guy, dressed in black. Leo could barely see him with the dimming light, but it was enough to confirm he was there and moving … to and fro?
Leo frowned at the man odd actions. At first he believed the man was trying to get close to him, but that wasn't correct. The fellow was going from wall to wall on his side of the room, dragging his feet, very slowly. Prowling.
His arms, hanging by the sides, were large enough to surpass the knees … they almost touched his ankles! His head was tilted to the side, keeping the face hidden.
But if Leo was aware of the stranger's movements, the stranger was aware of Leo's.
What is this? What the hell is this? The voice on his head was talking and talking; he tried to ignore it and remain focused on what was to come next.
The guy stopped. As if reading his mind, he ceased every movement, just stood motionless right in front of him, without looking up.
Leo didn't made a move either; he simply glanced at the other, his arm still but heading for the sword, ready to tore it out of its sheath at the first sign of movement from the stranger.
The silence and the stillness were unbearable. His muscles were tense and his body ready to jump, but the voices in his head, the stampede of sickening ideas made it difficult to focus. Where are the others? Where are the others? His own breathing buzzed on his ears.
Then, the stranger started to move.
With a slight gesture and very slowly, the guy in black turned the head, without moving the rest of the body. His face was a black blur on the room darkness, a shadow that looked directly at him.
Leo felt his body chilling. The way how the stranger moved his body, sinuous, slowly; it was impossible to predict what he would do next.
He decided to attack the man, and turned to face him.
It was then when he understood that the man was not looking at him. He was looking at the girl.
Leonardo had almost forgotten about her; the disturbing girl that remained standing behind him; the one that materialized out of nowhere. The one that had her eyes fixed on his back.
He could feel her gaze.
Leo knew that he will do it, but still he didn't want to; he didn't wanted to look at her, but he couldn't avoid doing so. His body was already turning.
In one single movement, he took the sword out of its sheath and turned to face the girl. He was aware of his own breathing, the beats of his heart, a buzz on his ears, the cold sweat. He was scared and he still didn't know why.
Inevitably, his eyes found those of the girl.
The sword fell from his hands; he felt his knees wobbling while backing down …
There was nothing.
On the girl's eyes, there was nothing … just two empty sockets, like two deep wells, looking at him.
Then her mouth was open, with a smile. There was nothing in it, either; as if the nothingness had put on a mask. He looked inside, and it was falling into an abyss, falling in the deepest well without air and without light. Suffocate.
The child started moving backwards, getting into a tunnel he couldn't remember existing. She moved away until the shadows engulfed her.
Leo just watched on her direction, mesmerized.
He couldn't take his eyes from it even if there was nobody there anymore. For a moment, he forgot everything else. Those empty sockets; that profound and endless blackness …
But he wasn't alone yet; the man was still there. He could hear him breathing.
Leo turned to look at him; he wasn't as far away as earlier.
Now he was right by his side.
Somehow, he moved without Leo noticing, and now he was so close; within reach. He was smiling.
That was all that could be seen on his face, a heinous and static smile. There was nothing else.
Leo flinched.
"You are dead," he said, and its lips didn't moved, its smile didn't faltered. "You all are dead; dead. Dead."
Leo ran away.
He would have screamed, but nothing came from his throat; he could barely breathe. He ran, purposeless, waiting for his heart to shoot out of his mouth any moment now. Next thing he knew, he was into Donatello's lab.
Leaning onto the workbench, he tried to control his ragged breathing.
Then he remembered dropping one of his weapons.
"What's going on? What the hell is going on here!" he asked himself out loud, with a shaky voice.
A shell-phone ringed. It was really close.
He found it under the table. He answered, to deal with a voice that almost was a hysteric howl.
"Leo! Is that you? Help us, please! T-this is horrible! Oh, God … don't …" it was as if the voice was doused on nervous stutter.
"Donatello? Where are you?"
"He is going to kill us! We are not alone … nooo! Oh, my God! No … Mikey, don't!"
The next was a watery sound, some kind of splashing and a drowning scream.
"Don! Donatello!"
He turned on his spot; there was only darkness in front of him. Running without really knowing where he was going to, he returned to the place where he first found the little girl. He stopped, searching on the floor, but his katana was not there anymore.
He didn't stay to ask for answers, his only thought was to found them.
Drawing out his other katana from its sheath, he got into the dark tunnel. Where did this tunnel came from? It really didn't matter; somehow he knew that was the correct path.
He didn't have to walk too much. There was a light at the end, a turn on the tunnel that was illuminated.
Get close slowly; make sure you are doing not a noise.
The light came from another tunnel that joined the one he was following. He stopped at the entrance of the light up tunnel, listening. Nothing.
Then he got inside.
It only took a couple seconds to take on the sight. He collapsed when his knees couldn't support his weight anymore, his face altering to a grimace both of frighten and horror. He would have done anything to be able to tear his eyes away from what he was looking at.
"It's a shame you couldn't make it," a childish voice said behind him. "We were waiting for you. They were waiting for you … but it took you too long."
Thick branches had arisen from the tunnel's ground, like a tree growing from the center of the earth thru the sewers, trying to get to the surface.
Its trunk was completely covered with terrible thorns, conical, pointed … and his brothers were hanging there, pierced. The blood ran down the trunk and all over the place: the walls, the ceiling; there was blood everywhere.
"R-Raphael …" but he couldn't answer; his heck had been stabbed, his blank eyes looking at the nothingness.
"Oh, my God …" Next to him was Donatello. His body was torn apart, suspended there, like a trophy.
The blood. There was blood everywhere, even on his hands, on his legs.
An agonizing scream came from his throat.
When he was able to take his eyes away and stand up again, his voice was still bouncing on the walls.
With tighten teeth, he slowly turned, the katana on his hand.
The girl was there, with her empty eyes. Michelangelo's head was on her hands, his features frozen on a dread grimace.
"Where do you want me to put this?" the childish voice asked.
When he opened the eyes, the scream was reverberating on his ears; he could barely breathe. Leo looked around.
He was on the library.
"Nightmare," he said, swallowing air. "It was a nightmare, that's all." Touching his face, he found it wet. There were tears on his eyes. "But it was so real …"
The anguish took a hold on him. With a jump, he got up and ran to the living room. A relieved sigh escaped his lips: the TV was turned on, and Michelangelo's nape could be seen over the couch's back.
He rubbed his forehead. For a moment he thought …
He walked to the couch.
"Eh, Mikey; what are you watching?" Mikey didn't answer.
"Are you sleeping in front of the television again?" Leo went around the coach, stepping in front of it.
Michelangelo's head rested on a mountain made of cushions, over the coach. That was the only part of him. Leonardo walked backwards, stifling a cry, tripping with the coffee table. He fall down, landing on his back, and his eyes were directly looking at Donatello, hanging from the ceiling with a rope around his neck.
On the floor, Leonardo was trying to get away from the body that oscillated; left to right, left to right …
"Look what I found!"
He scrambled to his feet at the sound.
Raphael was on the couch, sitting beside Mikey's head and looking at nothing. Master Splinter was behind Raphael, holding a katana. Out of instinct, Leo searched for his swords, but none of it was on its sheath.
The Master swished the sword over his head. In one swift motion, he took hold of Raphael's head, pulling it back and exposing the neck. The katana's edge cut it cleanly; the blood flowed.
"WHAT DID YOU DO!" Leo yelled, not believing what he saw. The Master was smiling wickedly, eyes unfocused and his face that of a madman. At Leonardo's question, he let go a hysteric laugh, dropped the bloodied sword and ran away until he was out of sight.
Leonardo's eyes were fixed on Raphael's body. With an effort he moved away, until a wall stopped him. He dropped to floor level, covering his face with the hands.
"No, this can't be happening. This can't be real." He forcefully closed the eyes. "This has to be a dream; I'm still dreaming, I'm still dreaming, I'm still dreaming …"
He opened the eyes again.
There was nothing on the couch; Donatello was not hanging on a corner, Raphael had not been decapitated.
Everything was back to normal. There was not a blood covered katana.
Leonardo got up slowly.
"What … what's going on?" he asked to the air. "What's going on!" he screamed to the top of his lungs
There was no answer.
He tried to walk, but his legs were shaking too much. He looked up; an incessant sound was growing and growing, getting closer by the second. Pounding on wood.
He looked for the source. In the middle of the room was a black door, a black wooden door he haven't seen before, and yet seemed vaguely familiar.
Someone on the door's other side was banging it with all his force, making it almost jump out of its hinges.
"He wants to get inside," a soft voice said, close to him. He didn't recognize it, and was afraid to see.
Besides, he didn't know if he was truly hearing it or it was only on his head. The weight of a hand on his shoulder gave him the answer.
Even then he didn't turn to look, his eyes nailed on the door that soon would explode on a thousand pieces.
"What's going on?" he asked, and somebody laughed at it.
"He wants to get in. And it's your fault, you let him."
"I did?" There was no answer, but the hand remained on his shoulder. "Where are my brothers?"
"Dead …" Leo took the hand and pulled it hard enough to snap. He turned to face the stranger, just to find he was in front of his own image.
He was facing at himself.
"… or soon they will be," his replica continued. Leo felt he was two steps from losing sanity. His image was smiling.
"Look what I found," there was a katana on each of his hands. "Easy, you are safe. From me, that's it." The image extended the weapons, and Leo took them without thinking.
"But they will take you nowhere. You will never leave this place," he added. Leo was about to hit his copy, but it was not there anymore.
"But we," the copy's voice said, "we will have fun."
One more time, he was alone on the middle of the living room. The black door had disappeared too, but the beating could still be heard somewhere around.
When he opened the eyes, the thumps were still reverberating on his ears, and he found himself facing the library's floor.
"Nightmare," a voice on his head said. "It was a nightmare, that's all."
Slowly, he looked around. By his side was a ringing cell phone. He picked it up.
"Leo! Is that you? Help us …t-this is horrible! Oh, God … we won't get out of this alive …" slowly, the cell slipped from his hand and fall to the floor.
TBC
Translator Notes: This was translated with permission from the authoress, Medeah, code 347592; she is proficient in English but has not much time to translate her own works, so I was allowed to give a try on this. The original story, in Spanish, is stored under the code 2158172. Go look at Medeah's bio! She has a couple fics in English, and some of you might like to practice your Spanish reading her interesting stories. THIS IS CHAPTER TWO OF FIFTEEN.