Living Nightmare: Leonardo

"It's all my fault."

"Meditation session is over now, my sons. You can open your eyes slowly."

As Master Splinter talked, Leo's eyes opened. He was in the dojo and his Sensei sat in front of him. He looked to his right side, where he found Donnie and Mikey. Then, he turned to his left side to see Raph, who immediately checked his t-phone. Leo closed his eyes one more time and took a deep breath, enjoying the peace at the dojo, until a voice broke it.

"Sensei, that was a very soothing meditation session. My soul feels relieved."

"I glad to hear that, Raphael, but what are you trying to achieve with that comment?"

"Well, Casey texted me and his asking me if we'll go out tonight to patrol the city so…"

"Raphael, it's pretty late and tomorrow we'll have a training session at 6:00 AM."

"Sensei, I could really use some air."

"Yeah, I would really like to go out too, Sensei." Mikey supported.

"At night is the only time of the day that we can actually go outside." Donnie spoke up.

"Don't worry about us, we promise we'll be up for training." Leo smiled.

The only thing that Splinter could do was to give them a serious look and sighed with resign.

"Don't be late."

As soon as Splinter pronounced those words, the turtles stood up and ran with joy out of the dojo.

"See you later, Sensei!" Leo said goodbye.

Once he did, he followed his younger brothers outside of the sewers, they climbed one of the buildings and started jumping from roof to roof with freedom. Leo felt somehow guilty after leaving his Sensei alone, but, just as his brothers, he was tired of training all day and they really needed some time to relax. They will continue training the day after, but right now, he felt alive outside and that was what mattered.

"So, where are we going to meet Casey at?" Leo asked.

"We're going to his house." Raph answered.

"I thought we were going to meet him outside." Mikey spoke up.

"Yeah, me too, but he bought a new videogame and he's been obsessed with it all day long. We're going to force him to leave his console at least for a while and come with us to fight some crime."

"Ugh, boring. Why don't we go to April's instead?"

"Donnie, for the tenth time, she told us that she was going to have a week full of exams and school projects and told us not to bother her. Give her some space." Leo replied.

"Wait a second. If April's having a week full of tests, wouldn't it mean that Casey has the week full of exams too?" Donnie questioned with suspicion.

"Donnie, we all know that Casey doesn't care much about school. He prefers to sit on the couch all day long than to study for stupid exams." Raph answered.

"That's good news! Maybe we can try Casey's new videogame." Mikey smiled.

"No. We convinced Master Splinter to let us out so that we could actually go outside, not go to Casey's to play videogames." Leo interrupted.

Minutes after, the turtles arrived to Casey's apartment. They got off the roof and walked to the fire escape stairs outside Casey's apartment. Raph knocked on his window. The whole house was dark.

"I'm coming!" They heard Casey shout from the living room.

"Just pause the game, Jones!" Raph yelled.

Seconds after, they saw Casey, who opened the window.

"Guys! You have to try this new game. It's so metal!" Casey exclaimed euphorically.

"Casey, how long have you been playing this?" Leo asked with concern.

"What does it matters? It's one of the best games I've ever played!"

"What game is it?" Mikey asked intrigued.

"It's the new Chris Bradford battle game! It's so good! It's just like the original cartoon, but with lots of new attacks and broken bones everywhere! Wanna give it a try?" Casey smiled.

Before Leo could even open his mouth to talk, Mikey's exited voice interrupted him.

"Absolutely yes!" He exclaimed as he entered Casey's house and followed him to the living room. "Raph! Come and fight me if you dare!" He yelled to his brother from the inside.

"I absolutely dare to beat the hell out of you!" Raph replied, getting inside the house too.

"But…" Leo started.

"Maybe I'll play a round too." Donnie talked, immediately receiving a furious glance from Leo. "What? Internet says that it's been rated as one of the best games of the year." Donnie spoke as he entered the house.

"Raph, I thought that we were going to get Casey out of his house so that he could fight crime with us!" Leo shouted, still from the outside.

"Well just play one or two rounds! If you wanna leave and go to sleep with Master Splinter, be my guest!" Raph responded from the living room.

Leo sighed. Why did his brothers always disobeyed him? He was his leader. All he wanted was to get some air before continuing with training sessions, but now, all of his brothers were inside Casey's apartment. He thought about leaving to patrol the city alone, but he was sure that if he wasn't there to put some pressure in his brothers, they would never stop playing that game. He rolled his eyes and he decided to get into the apartment.

"Casey, isn't your father or your sister at home?" Leo asked, entering the living room.

"No, they're out of the city. My sister had a dance competition at Florida and my father decided to go with her. They won't be back until tomorrow night."

"Wow, I didn't knew that your sister was into dancing." Donnie said with surprise.

"Yeah, well, anyway, who will be the mighty warriors that will fight first?"

The turtles and Casey began playing. Surprisingly to Leo, it was a very good game. The graphics were fantastic, and it was very fun to play and to battle the other players. The night kept going on and on. Leo knew that they had to return to the sewers, but they were all having so much fun. It had been a while since he had laughed that much.

After some hours, Casey decided to order some pizza. The pizza arrived, they ate and continued playing. With the full stomach, the late hours and a whole day of training, the turtles started feeling sleepy, as well as Casey. Hours kept passing and, without even noticing, they all started falling asleep, one by one.

Leo heard an alarm ringing. He tried to open his eyes, but he was still too sleepy. He closed them one more time. The alarm kept ringing, but Leo just ignored it, until he heard Casey's sleepy voice.

"Ugh… what? No way!" He scram, quickly getting up from the couch where he was sleeping. "My calculus exam starts in 5 minutes!" He continued yelling, waking the other turtles up.

That's when Leo remembered. They were supposed to have a training session with Splinter at 6:00 AM. He snapped his eyes open. He had fell asleep sitting on the floor, with his back laying on the couch. Mikey was using his leg as a pillow and he was lying on the floor. On the couch, Donnie fell asleep in the middle of Raph and Casey and finally, Raph had his feet on top of Donnie's legs and his head was lying on one of the pillows. The floor was covered in pizza boxes and the two controls of the console were nowhere to be found.

"What time is it?" Leo asked altered.

"It's almost 8:00 o'clock!" Casey responded, grabbing his backpack.

"We were supposed to be training with Splinter 2 hours ago!" Donnie yelled.

"Shit, you're right!" Raph exclaimed.

"He's gonna kill us!" Mikey said with fear.

"Guys! I'm going to school! If I don't get there in three minutes, I'm doomed!" Casey notified, opening the door and leaving the apartment.

"Aren't you even going to change your clothes?" Donnie yelled.

"No time! Wish me luck!" Casey scram from outside.

"He's not going to pass that test." Raph talked.

"Whatever, we have to get to the sewers now!" Leo ordered.

In no time, the turtles left the apartment and ran to their lair, where they were sure that his master would be waiting for them and ready to scold and punish them.

"What if we tell him that we got into a very intense fight with Shredder and that we passed out?" Raph kept asking.

"There's no way that he'll believe that! We're not even dirty!" Donnie spoke.

"I have an idea! We can tell him that…"

"Mikey shut up! There's no way that he'll believe anything we say." Leo interrupted. "Besides, there's no more time to think of something."

As Leo finished talking, they arrived to the train rails outside their home, where the Shellraiser was parked. The four of them stopped running and looked at each other with fear. They took a deep breath and decided to enter their home, then, something made them stop once more.

They all looked their surroundings. The lair was a disaster. Everything was out of place. The TV was broken, and its pieces were all over the floor. The game machines were all lying on their sides. The pillows they had at the living room were now just cotton and fabric pieces lying all over the floor.

"What happened here?" Raph murmured.

"Why is everything broken?" Mikey asked with concern.

"What if someone came and attacked Splinter?" Donnie asked.

His Sensei. Where was his Sensei?

"Splinter!" Leo called. No one answered.

He immediately ran to the dojo, but something made him stop right away. Was there blood dripping from the stairs? Leo stood there watching, praying for that liquid not to be blood. Then, he took a deep breath and entered the dojo. For a moment, time stopped.

The carpet of the dojo had a thin red trail that grew wider and wider as it got to the center of the room. Stains that at the entry of the dojo were just red spots, turned into a giant pool of blood in front of the tree that had always given life to the dojo. From above, the morning sunlight entered the dojo, lighting up the horrific scene that was taking place in front of Leo. The body of his beloved Sensei had been laid down in a sitting position, with his back resting on the trunk of the tree, but there was something missing. His father's head had been ripped off.

Leo wanted to scream, but he couldn't. All he could do was stand there in shock, unable to move a single muscle. He felt his legs starting to tremble, until he fell in his knees. Tears started coming out of his eyes without him even noticing. It couldn't be happening.

The only thought that came to Leo's head was 'Shredder'. He must had found their lair and attacked his Sensei while they were out the night before, playing videogames at Casey's. He promised his father that he would make sure to return early with his brothers so that they could go to sleep and be ready for the next day's training session. If he had kept his promise, Splinter wouldn't had been alone that night. They could had been there to help, but they were too busy playing games and eating pizza. Now, his father was dead, and he could do nothing about it. It was all his fault.

Leo covered his face with his hands and started crying. The rage inside of him would have taken over him, but that wasn't the only thing that he was feeling. He felt guilty and his mind and heart were wrecked. He couldn't even lift up his head again. He knew that if he did, he would find the lifeless corpse of his father, surrounded by a pool of blood. His eyes couldn't take staring at that nightmarish view no more. It was too much to take.

Suddenly, his mourning was interrupted. He heard something going on outside of the dojo. His brothers. They were screaming.

Immediately, Leo stood up and, without even looking at he headless corpse in front of him, he ran to the living room. He found his brothers, with their weapons out, bruised body, some gashes and with rage on their faces. Mikey was lying on the ground and Raph was kneeling by his side while Donnie was on the back of the living room, fighting against Shredder himself.

"Leo! Where the hell were you! We've been calling you!" Raph asked furiously.

Leo wanted to talk, but no sound came out of his mouth, so he decided to avenge his master. He would kill The Shredder himself. As soon as he was ready to run and help Donnie, he noticed that he couldn't move a muscle. He completely froze. His heartbeat accelerated as he started to panic. His brothers needed him. Why couldn't he move?

He saw how Shredder's blades cut through Donnie's plastron, and how he kicked him away, making his shell crash strongly against the brick wall.

"Shit, Leo! Do something!" Raph yelled.

Leo looked at him and he noticed the reason why Mikey was lying on the floor. He had a really long and deep wound in his left shoulder that had lots of blood coming out. Raph had grabbed some of the broken fabric that was left from the pillows and was trying to stop the bleeding. Mikey had his eyes tightly closed and was clenching his teeth, trying not to scream in pain. Meanwhile, Raph had two big gashes in his forehead and had blood sliding down his face.

One more time, Leo tried to move or to scream. He couldn't do either. He saw Shredder walking to where Donnie was laying and pulling him up, dragging him by his arm. Donnie was still awake, but his efforts to keep fighting were useless. He was too weak now.

As soon as he saw that, Raph stood up and, without even thinking about it, he pounced towards Shredder with his Sais ready to pierce his neck and end him once and for all, but Shredder punched him all the way into Donnie's lab.

"We meet again Leonardo. How does it feels to see me end with everyone you've ever loved? I had such a great time ripping the rat's head off his body and leaving the corpse as a present for you to find. Now, I'm going to murder all of you, but I'll leave you for last. That way, you'll be able to see them all die." He claimed with an evil grin on his face.

"Leo!" Mikey managed to scream. "Stop him, now! Before he kills Donnie!" He cried from the floor, barely able to speak.

Leo tried one more time and one more time he failed. He felt tears running down his face. He felt so frustrated. He didn't wanted his brothers to die too, and all because of him, but he couldn't do anything to stop it.

"What's wrong? You can't move or talk?" Shredder laughed. "I own you now. You're mine, but I can make a deal with you. If you tell me how were you created and where do you come from, I'll let your ugly brother live."

All of the sudden, Leo could talk but he still couldn't move.

"No… Leo don't… Don't tell him." Donnie could barely beg.

"If I don't, he will kill you." Leo cried.

"I'll give you 5 seconds turtle. 1…"

"Don't." His brother murmured.

"2…"

"I have to!" Leo scram.

"3…"

Donnie looked at him. Leo knew he was begging him not to tell Shredder.

"4…"

"I love you, Donnie!" Leo cried and closed his eyes.

"5."

A sound of Shredder's blade stabbing Donnie's throat was followed by the sound of Shredder dumping Donnie's body on the floor.

"No!" Leo yelled.

"Okay turtle, let's try again." Shredder talked as he walked to where Mikey was.

"No! Stop it, please!"

"Only you can make it stop Leonardo. You just have to answer my question." He said as he kneeled to where his brother in orange was and placed his blade on his throat. "You have 5 more seconds. 1…"

"Shredder, don't!" Leo begged.

"2…"

"It's okay bro." Mikey smiled.

"3…"

"No! You can't die too!"

"4…"

"Just don't tell him anything." Mikey asked.

"5."

Leo saw how Shredder pressed his blade against Mikey's throat and how life flew away from his body.

"Now, last turtle." Shredder chanted as he walked into Donnie's lab to pull Raph out of it. He saw his brother, trying to fight as Shredder dragged him across the room, until he saw the lifeless corpse of his two younger brothers.

"No! Shredder, you monster! Why them?" He cried. "Leo! Why didn't you fought him? You let them die!"

"No! Raph, I can't move!" Leo explained with frustration and tears in his eyes.

"Of course you can't, freaking coward! It's your fault they're dead!" He yelled with rage.

"No! I just couldn't help them!"

"Alright Leonardo, time for your last brother to die, unless you answer my question. You have 5 more seconds. 1…"

"Are you going to let me die too?" Raph shouted.

"2…"

"Just tell him what he wants to hear!"

"3…"

"I can't, Raph!" Leo cried.

"4…"

"It's all your fault!"

"5."

"Wait!" Leo yelled before Shredder could slash Raph's throat.

"Speak." Shredder ordered.

"We used to be turtles and our Sensei used to be a human. The day he bought us, he founded some aliens that call themselves 'The Kraang' and when they attacked him, the substance that they were carrying dropped in all of us and in our master, turning us into this." He spoke.

"Keep going."

"It's called mutagen. You can only find it in Dimension X. That's what turned us into mutants."

"Dimension X?" The Shredder asked.

"Yes. It's the dimension where the Kraang come from."

"So, there's no way to find the substance that mutated you here on Earth?"

"No."

As he was done pronouncing that word, everything went black and he went unconscious.


I'm back! Now that I haven't been going to school because of COVID-19, I decided that I needed to spend my freetime in something else and now that I've got plenty of it, I'll keep writting this story until it's over. I think that there's only a few chapters left to finally end this and I'm exited, so please keep reading. I'm going to continue to upload a chapter every week.

Anyway, I hope that you liked the chapter! Make sure to favorite this story and don't forget to leave a review to tell me your opinions! I love ya! It's good to be back!