"Leo! Block! Block! Block! Now crouch! Oh use your X-Ray!" I watched in dismay as Mikey's character blocked Leo's X-Ray attack and used his own to finish him off. Leo sighed, accustomed to being beat by his younger brother. Donnie watched, complaining occasionally about the graphics or how unrealistic the scenarios were. Raphael picked up a controller with a grin.
"Alright, add me in."
"I dibs Raiya!" Mikey yelled. His brother only snorted and selected his character. Mikey grinned at me.
"It's you and me girl, we got this." I fist bumped him.
"Alright, this is my last round guys." Leo was up first and I dispatched him easily, but when Raph replaced his fallen partner and started wailing on me, I tagged Mikey in. But even with his blazing karate and sharp brimmed hat, he couldn't defeat him. He did take enough hits to fill up the meter though, allowing me to unleash my X-Ray attack once I was tagged back in. Mikey whooped and quickly hugged me while my character pummelled Raph's for a few seconds. But he recovered and swiftly handed our asses to us.
"Jeez, this guy's insane," I said.
"I know, try living with him. He's been the reigning champ since we were eight!" I spun around to Donnie, who leaned against the arch behind the couches and he immediately shook his head.
"Nope. I tried once. It's impossible."
Leo laughed and whispered in my ear, "I beat him." Donnie sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Video games can also make your eyesight worse," he added. Raph snorted and stood up, flicking his brother's glasses lightly.
"Right, cuz we don't need you anymore blind." He looked down at me. "We headin out?" I nodded and waved goodbye as I left the living room.
"I'll see you guys tomorrow night!"
"See ya beautiful!" Mikey called. I laughed and followed Raphael to the exit. I looked up at the door in the wall and sighed.
"You guys need to make like a cute little doggie door for me so you don't have to toss me up there every time. Or an elevator, that would be nice." He grunted in agreement and swung the door open before kneeling down and knitting his fingers together. I stepped into his hands and pulled myself into the doorway. He followed and locked the door behind me, then we walked silently through the sewers.
"So what's your favourite colour?" I asked, uncomfortable in the silence. He raised a brow at me.
"Is this your poor attempt at a conversation?"
"Yep. It's red, isn't it?"
"How'd you know?" His voice was thick with sarcasm. I shrugged.
"An educated guess. What's your favourite movie?" He remained silent for a few more moments before giving in with a heavy sigh.
"Friday the Thirteenth." I grinned.
"You like scary movies?"
"Yeah, I haven't seen many though."
"Have you seen The Conjuring?" He shook his head and my jaw dropped, "noway! Okay we're totally watching it later."
"Isn't rewatching a horror movie boring?"
"Yeah, but if you watch it with people like my sister who scream no matter how many times they've seen it, then it's worth it." I swore I heard him laugh.
"That's Mikey. Just don't sit near him or he'll hug you the whole time."
"Noted," I caught sight of the daggers hanging at his sides. I nodded to them, "what are they called?"
"Huh? Oh," he took one from his belt and spun it in his hands, "they're sai." To my surprise, he held it out to me. I took it from his hand in astonishment,
"These things are huge." I ran finger down it's blade.
"Try not to cut your hand off, I just sharpened it." At that, I quickly removed my finger and handed it back to him, shivering with the reminder of the memory I relived earlier. He grinned and placed it back on his belt, but his smile faltered when he saw my expression,
"So what happened in that exercise you and Sensei were doing?" I rubbed goosebumps from my arms.
"I relived a memory of having my hand cut off."
"Really? You saw it and everything?" I nodded.
"It was weird. Before, I was just reliving short flashes of other things like forging weapons or something. But now, after that," I shook my head, "I never want to do that again."
"It was that bad?"
"I died. I relived the death of another person, Raph. I felt it, I saw it, everything." After a moment of silence, he spoke again.
"You're gonna have to do it again." I sighed.
"Yeah, I know."
••• 影の秘密 •••
That night, I couldn't sleep.
I kept seeing it, I kept feeling it. It wouldn't go away. It was like a video on repeat that I couldn't pause. Finally, I just gave up. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and pulled a hoodie on.
I need to get my mind off it. I opened my window and poked my head out. I didn't see him at first, sitting on the roof and leaning against the outer wall of my room, focused on something in his hands. I climbed out into the brisk air and hugged my hoodie closer to me.
"Raiya?" He hissed, the ease disappearing from his stance, "what the hell are you doing out here?" I sat down beside him.
"I couldn't sleep," I mumbled, bringing my legs closer to me and resting my chin on my knees. I could feel his incredulous gaze on me but I could care less.
"Oh so climb out onto the roof, that'll help." I squeezed my eyes shut and sighed, barely taking note of the frustration obvious in his tone. My wrist twitched and I rubbed a hand over it, making sure I still had all my appendages attached,
"I keep seeing it. It won't go away. So I figured it would help if I got my mind off it." I tilted my head to look at him and caught a flash of something pale in his hands. I squinted through the darkness, momentarily forgetting about my dilemma. "What is that?" It immediately disappeared from his hands, but I'd seen it, and my curiosity wasn't so easily deterred. "Nope. Once I see something you'll need an army to keep me from it, let me see." I reached my hand over and blindly searched for what he'd been fiddling with.
Raphael gave in with a sigh and held it up for me to see. I squinted at it through the darkness.
Is that a rock? I took it from his hands to see it better.
"Don't give yourself a splinter," he warned.
Rocks can't give you splinters. I was confused until I realized it was wooden, and shaped kind of like a disproportionate Y. My mind flickered back to my tour of the lair the other night; of the little figurines scattered across the organizer shelf in their room.
"Oh! You carved all those little wood statues in your guys' room!"
"Yeah," he said, voice dry as if he wasn't proud of his creations.
Why would he not be proud? Carving's so cool!
"What's this one going to be?" I asked, handing it back to him.
He took it from me. "You'll see." I frowned in disappointment when he lowered the roughly shaped wood to the roof beside him and slipped his knife back into the strap of leather crossing his chest.
"Can I watch you carve it?" I asked hopefully. He paused in surprise, then let his hands fall from his knife as he thought.
"Only if you do that memory thing again," he decided, looking over at me with an almost mischievous glint in his mysterious green eyes. I recoiled in surprise.
"What? Why?" I couldn't go back to that field littered with bodies; to that evil, victorious smirk and that drowning feeling of doom as he approached my wounded body. I squeezed my eyes shut against the image, desperately warding it away.
"Because if you don't then you're just going to grow more and more afraid of it until you never do it again and then it'll start to consume you. So just do it once." To my immense surprise, his voice was laced with a barely detectable ribbon of concern. Nonetheless, I opened my mouth to protest but he cut me off, "I'll be right here, you'll be fine." He watched me expectantly, waiting for me to give in. I looked at him defiantly and I clenched my teeth together in anger, but it evaporated when I grudgingly realized he was actually right. I exhaled in defeat.
"Fine." I sat up straighter and closed my eyes, trying to relax despite the obvious fact that he was staring at me. My exhaustion must've helped because before I knew it, I was whisked back into the trance I knew so well.
AN: I kinda feel like my writing is a bit rushed? Does it seem like it's lacking detail and rushes through everything too fast? Please let me know what you guys think of my writing so I can fix it if I need to!
