Chapter 4: Start making connections..
"Donnie! What the shell?!" Raph shouted as he barged in through the fire escape, leading to Dai's bedroom. His elder and younger brothers followed close behind as the brother their attention was focused on was hanging a flag in the same colors as dai's pin.
"We called you thousands of times! What the fuck?!" Raph shouted again in rage.
"Did you get any information? Leo asked,
"Food?" Mikey excitedly questioned as his stomach growled.
"One at a time, jeez give a turtle a break." He finished hanging the flag on her wall. Staring a little proud and happy, it's not as bare as before.
" Don, why are you hanging up..whatever that is? " Leo raised an eyebrow.
"It's a lesbian pride flag, I sat and watched some show with her while talking. She's going to the store to get a mattress."
" She lives with her brother in this tiny ass apartment with no mattress? "
"That's the thing, Her brother lives at the school he's going to. She also just moved in less than 24 hours ago, she practically threw everything out of her suitcase and onto the ground. Figured while she's gone, I'd clean..maybe something in her suitcase can help us?" He looked to his brothers, they seemed annoyed, but in agreement with this option to figure out more.
"But, one suitcase?" Raph began " What's that going to tell us? "
"You never know..worth a shot, what about you mikey?" Leo looked around, seeing their youngest of the clan had disappeared. "Mikey?!" Leo shouts, hearing a response almost immediately.
"She has pizza!" He cheered as they all groaned.
The 3 remaining brothers stared at the bare room before raph spoke yet again, less agitated than before.
" So, why are you putting a lesbian flag in her room? "
"She's lesbian, this was in the bottom of her suitcase. Figured I'd hang up some of her decor for her."
" Alright, where's the case? " Raph began walking to the door
"Living room, can't miss it. It's a mess."
"More so than your lab? " he asked as he rushed out the door. The others following him and looking over the mess that is her living room. Mikey was hidden behind the lid of a pizza box as he ate a few slices, Raph ducked down and lifted up articles of clothing, while Leo looked in her large storage box.
"Does this girl wear anything other than black?" Raph asked as nothing seemed to have an ounce of color other than maybe some tie dye, faint white, or deep purple.
"I don't know..but look at this." Leo holds up a tapestry of a strange symbol. A star in the middle of a circle.
"Is- is that a pentagram?!" Raph yelled, his eyes widened with surprise and he picked up arm fulls of fabric and accessories.
"Creeppyy..." Mikey said as he looked at the black and red blanket. Coming over to feel the thin fabric.
"Guys, there's another with the yin yang symbol." Don said as he pulled it from the front area of the large case.
" Anymore? " leo asked, "Check the corner over there."
Mikey went to her nest-like corner, where her and Donnie sat not too long ago, and held up another one of these large artworks. It seemed home made.
"Strange.. " Donnie started "These seem to be different Buddhist and Pagan symbols, old ones, All fit onto the space and sewn by hand."
"Is this blood?" Mikey asked, pointing to a red spot.
" I think I'm going to be sick if it is. " raph hurried to the bedroom to fold clothes and put them away.
"Paganism isn't as scary as made to be online, and she was wounded during the fight..her blood may have come off onto that. So don't touch there." Donnie explained. "I'll hang these up."
"Alright, Donnie you handle decor, Mikey you look through the case, Me and raph will handle clothing and such. "
Immediately they went to work, Donnie took some thumbtacks she had in the front pouch of her bag and hung up the Pentagram tapestry in the bedroom, Raph giving weird looks but let his brother be. Worrying about folding her very strange style of clothing. Fishnet, denim, leather, soft cotton, long dresses, corsets that are meant to be worn outside, spikes, so many things that generally annoyed raph as it was a pain to properly fold.
Donnie hung up the Pentagram right across from the lesbian flag on the other wall, then the yin yang right next to the multicolored flag, and then the tapestry of the multiple symbols where the head of her bed would go.
"Uh..bros.. Look at this." Mikey called as his three brothers gathered around him, holding a strange doll, it looked eerie, buttons for eyes and red dots to represent blush. It had bright red and gold fabric wrapped around it's small body and straw sticking out of the fabric of its arms. It seemed as though the insides were a mix of straw and stuffing, soft and floppy with only a little fluff of feathers on its head.
"It..seems like some summoning or voodoo doll. Look" he pointed to 2 pins, one white on the right side, and one black on the left side.
"What the hell is this girl.."
" Well, a girl can't have her own belongings? " a female voice sounded as they all jumped, Raph Grabbed his sai and pushed her on the wall with a loud bang from the impact of her skull. He had it to her throat now, but all she did was smile. "Do it." She whispered through maroon lips. Catching him completely off guard..she wanted him to hurt her?
"What is all of this?" He asked in a lethal tone.
"The clothes, flags, Tapestries, stuffed animals, what are you referring to?"
" the cult shit! " he shouted, a vein popping slightly from his neck in rage.
"It's not a cult! "
"Then what the hell else could it be?!"
"Tapestries of the symbols of my beliefs, as well as my parents." She looked past him to the Orange clad turtle. "Be careful with that, my mother hand made it. It was handed down to me as a young child."
"Raph, put her down!" Donnie cried, and raph obliged. Least he got an explanation. She walked over and with a warm smile, gently took the doll from the terrapin's grasp. "Things such as these are seen as evil and threatening, but to me, only If used as that." She set the doll on her counter top.
"What about the pentagram? Isn't that a sign of the devil?" Mikey asked, only knowing so much about religion.
"In quite a few religions, yeah. But In others it's a symbol of protection, a pentacle. My mother had them all over my room to try and hope it would help me."
" You seem so young..why are you here? Instead of with her? Leo asked, Donnie quickly looked at him and shook his head trying to signal to not talk about her family.
"Meh..she's..not around anymore." Was the only way Dai could put it. " Would any strong mothafuckas like to help with a mattress? Or some bags? Nobody's around in the halls. "
They all looked at Donnie, since he was now the closest to her, maybe not knowing much.. But he was spending the most time with her. With an internal sigh, he follows her out.
"I can probably get the mattress, but can you grab the bags so we can make this as quick as possible?"
"Are you sure you can handle the mattress? Is that a queen? "
"I've moved many mattresses, I'll be fine." She smiled and with surprising strength, she lifted the mattress just a few inches off the ground, her body near the center, and brought it into the small apartment. Donnie watched her a little impressed, she struggled, letting out a few sighs as she tried getting it through the door, but made it work anyways. He heard the large soft mattress fall onto the floor with a thud in the bedroom over 20 feet away.
He grabbed the bags, quite a few of them were heavy. But he put his hands through the plastic handles and put the rest in the crook of his elbow, close to his chest, making them in and on the small kitchen counter in one trip. She came out and quickly shut and locked the door. Looking to the group.
"I may have only been here for about 12 hours, but from what I've read and saw on my way in here it's probably just elderly couples and a couple singles without kids. Any people should either be working or still sleeping, it is a little early."
"It's like 8am! " Mikey exclaimed..early was a little different to them, since they would be up and training by now. And typically this is the time most people are awake.
"Hey, you get older and low on energy, you have a little too much to drink the night before and got a hangover, or your body just feels too heavy to move it out of bed, either way, I'm pretty sure people off work sleep quite later than this." She started unpacking the bags, it was mostly food, a few boxes of berries, apples, some popcorn and microwave ramen, lunchables, and paper cups and plates.
Raph stared at her, blood stains in a line down her shirt were faint, hardly noticeable unless you really took the time to find it.
"Are you sure that's enough food for you? That seems a little low..even for one person."
" I'm on a diet. " she quickly responds to Donnie's concerned stare.
"Even so, you need more food than that." Leo explained.
"I'm a tiny girl."
"If you're so tiny then, why do you need a diet?"
"Not tiny enough." She smiled to raph and took out more items, sheets for the mattress, completely black, and some bottles of different drinks. She seemed to like fluids more than solids..
"Want any help?" Leo offered " I could put the sheets on the mattress. "
"Sure, thank you. I can set up the laptop and maybe we could watch some stuff, if your father isn't too concerned about a curfew."
"He's pretty chill." Mikey was stuffing his face with another slice of pizza, Leo grabbed the package of sheets and left for her room, fitting them neatly on the bed.
"So..why did your family have those symbols?" Mikey asked finally, breaking a small moment of silence.
"My grandfather was Buddhist, mother was pagan, and my father was atheist. Didn't have much of a relationship with either, but I did hang around my mum more. Grew up with her teachings but she didn't want to push it on me. She handmade that doll and placed a protective spell against it."
"And your grandfather? "
"Only man I was close to, I guess I developed a mix of both beliefs.." she dropped her gaze to the counter as she poured glasses of drinks for her new friends.
"But all of that is the past now."
" You can't leave your family in the past though. " Mikey said, and the response was another warm smile.
"Who said they were really family? They were a blood family..But not true." She handed everyone a glass, including Leo when he had returned. She jumped up on the counter and sat facing them, raising her glass.
"To new connections?" She looked at all of them, they looked at each other and raised their glasses as well, connecting theirs with hers with a small tink.
"Mikey..you have that look.." Donnie said cautiously as he caught Mikey on his phone, suddenly more music was playing just like in the restaurant. It was back to the さくらの血 playlist, as he bobbed his head along to the song. It was a popish/alt song called "prey" where a friend of hers featured for a rap verse.
"Mikey, I swear you have some obsession with them." Raph said, causing Mikey to flush red.
"No I don't! She just has good music."
The doorbell rings, all of them jump in alarm.
"Shit what if we're seen?"
"Calm down, like your ass depends on it." Dai said. "Hide behind the counter or something, I'll handle this." They jumped behind the counter, silent, scared. Worried that they'll be exposed.
"Jasmine, it's so nice to finally meet you in person." The door was opened and she was talking to seemingly a neighbor, Mikey took a small peek, from what he saw the woman was a little taller than Dai, with platinum blood hair in a pixie cut. Beautiful blue eyes and a white tank top and simple cargo shorts.
"I think I might've received your mail, big suitcase? Black with spikes?"
" Oh, Shit, so sorry. "
"It's alright, it's nice to finally meet you as well, if you ever want to come over I live down the hall."
"That would be cool, better than just chatting over instagram." They laughed a little, this time it was dainty and small.
" Your suitcase is right out here, I'll catch you around? "
"Yeah..catch you around." There was a sound of footsteps growing distant as Dai rolled in the large suitcase. Wheeling it to the living room and setting it on its back as the four boys revealed themselves.
"Who was that?" Raph asked as she unzipped her case.
"The woman who recommended this apartment, she helped me get it."
" What's in that suitcase? " Mikey popped his head over in excitement.
"Won't know until we open it."
"Didn't you pack it? You have no idea what's in there after you packed it?"
"Busy chick, Training to be a-"
"Musician?" Leo guessed, based on what Murakami had informed them of.
"Uh..yeah, and a medical physician."
Donnie perked up "Wait really? What college? Would you need any help?"
"Oh great, you've pressed the nerd button." Raph groaned
"I'm doing it all online, so I may need help. It's the Oregon Health and Science university."
"Wow..all the way there? Why did you move here if your school is across the country?"
"Just really love New York city, I guess." She bent over to unzip the large bag, Raph took notice of the tattoos on her calf, It was a dagger wrapped in thin, blood soaked bandages. On the other calf was a caged bird.
"So uh..when'd you get those?"
"Right before I moved, an 18th birthday present from a friend." She swung open the case and dug through more clothing and blankets.
"Huh...lovely," He said, staring at them. "You have a thing for blood and chains?"
"uh..grew up with it i guess."
"You grew up with blood and chains?"
"Welcome to my world." She pulled out more clothes, tossing them on the floor, a couple more stuffed animals such as a monkey, black dragon, and puppy with a rose in the mouth. Then she pulled out a small box. "Great!"
She pulled out a microphone that has a cord to attach to her mic and a mic filter.
"Huh, so you're gonna go to medical school, but not even realize how much you're bleeding?"
She tensed, the others did as well, looking at him with another smile. "I didn't realize turtles could sense a girl's time of the month."
"Gross, I meant your chest."
"It's still bleeding? What about the bandage?" Donnie asked,
"I'll handle it later."
"It could be infected-"
"Then it'll get infected."
"You really don't care about your health?" Raph asked, putting her to silence, failing to realize Leo's panicked expression.
"We need to go, sensei sent an SOS, footbots got in the lair."
"Ugh, again?" Mikey groaned
"Yes, again! Let's go ninjas!" Everyone started leaving, Donnie turned to Dai.
"I'll see you again, right?" He asked,
"Absolutely, after all, can't let a possible threat loose, right?" With that, Donnie fled from the small apartment, back to their home. He looked back, it was like some force of an unknown habit. Then followed his kin back to their master's aid.
She sighed as the silence settled again, the sounds of sirens and people racing through the city streets creeping in the small space. She stripped off her shirt, looking at the blood. it's truly amazing how much you can bleed out without realizing it, simply because you've pushed aside yourself for so long you don't care.
She took a cloth and washed off the dried blood as best she could. The laptop's screen showed an incoming video call. She knew where this would go based on who was calling her, it had been the same every day. So she grabbed a bang energy drink. She took off her pants and made a video for a dear 'friend' of hers..what a way to start the day.