Whoo, got three exams outta the way so here's a small update! Thank you all for your patience, support, and congratulations! :)

Chapter Twenty-Three:

Empty

{Karai}

I run pell-mell through the sewers, water splashing, seeping through my clothes with rotting stench and slime. The tunnels get darker and darker, and just as my vision adjusts to one, I have to go deeper, farther, lost in the concrete maze below the streets. I don't know where I'm going or how I'll get out, but it doesn't matter. I'll find somewhere to hide and wait. If worst comes to worst, I just won't find him. Or Raph will kill me.

One of those two.

I slide to the right and stumble down a new corridor. I'm not as fast down here—he'll catch me if I don't do something. Glancing around, I quickly spot some metal rungs lining the top corners of the tunnel. Sheathing my blade, I jump and hoist myself up, concealed in the darkness. I grip the metal with tight fingers, poised and taut. Closing my eyes, I start to quiet my breathing and settle my heart. He won't look for me forever.

Minutes pass—or seconds, or nothing—I don't know. The darkness is so quiet, the wet air hangs around me like a ghost, smothering me. I feel trapped; here, up there, everywhere.

Just find him, my thoughts bite. Find him, and then you can leave.

I wonder what he'll think. If he'll say anything or try to stop me.

Either way, it doesn't matter.

Water drips, echoing. My body thrums with the tension. I don't hear anything. Shouldn't I hear a big mutant turtle stomping around the sewers?

Where is he?

I lean forward, eyes grazing over the empty tunnel below me. Slowly, my fingers reach for the hilt of my blade. He's got to be somewhere—

Ka-thunk—

Something wraps around my ankle and pulls. I shout, slip, dragged down—my jaw cracks against the metal rung and I fall—

I hit the water and the concrete below. My vision spins, my head reels. I cough out the muck from my lungs and try to scramble to my feet, but I'm disoriented, and before I can gather my bearings, a foot connects to my gut and all the air is torn from my insides.

I try to gasp, but nothing comes—nothing but a torrent of fear, cold and thin—splinters pushing beneath the skin. My back arches, arms flailing. I manage to hit his shoulder, but it's not nearly hard enough to loosen his grip on me.

"You leave my brother alone," he spits. Green eyes flash, piercing me through. "You can't just come back here looking for him, after everything you've done!"

I suck at the air around me, but a crushing sensation around my throat becomes more noticeable as the adrenaline from the fall leaves my system. His hand is gripping my throat, squeezing tighter and tighter as he loses himself to the anger. To the sweet, thick pool of black and red and numbness, where it climbs down your throat and coats your lungs and organs and invades your blood and clouds your mind until everything means nothing and all the pain is gone, gone, gone.

I wish I was there. But instead, I'm here, thrashing around in the cold, muddy sewer as my vision goes in and out and my heart slowly crawls into my head.

"Just…let me…" I cough and sputter, losing my voice.

"Stop pretending to care about Leo," he snaps. "You're a little witch—everything you do is selfish and twisted, and my idiot brother is finally seeing you for what you really are. He doesn't want you anymore, Karai."

If I could feel any more pain, I'm sure I would. I'm sure my heart would crack, brittle as it is. I'm sure my mind would burn and scream and then drown itself in self-destruction and misery. But I got so full, I had to empty everything out. I'd feel pain if there was anything left.

I try to swallow, to find room for the hollow words drifting from my swollen throat.

"…I-I know."

His eyes widen, just enough for me to know he can see how little I am inside.

It takes so much from me to lift my hand and grab the one around my throat. The gesture makes him flinch.

"Please…" The word is squeezed from my chest, from the broken, splintered ruin of my insides.

The green shifts. Colors mixing and passing through, bright against the dark sewers. His gaze holds mine, and for a moment I think he might let me go.

But he bares his teeth and tightens his grip instead.

"No. There's no way in hell I'm letting you near my brother again. And if I ever see you crawling around down here, I'll—"

"Raph!"

He doesn't even have time to look behind him before he's smacked in the face with a large piece of driftwood. Taking my shot, I draw my knees up, knocking him off of my body while the blow sends him sideways. I cough and sputter and scramble a few feet away as he jumps to his feet, sais already swinging and meeting a clash of steel.

It's dark and my vision is still splotchy while the oxygen works its way back to my brain. Sucking at the air around me, I try to make sense of the familiar voice and the movement of the fight happening before me. I can hear Raph shouting, retreating further into the darkness—but I can't seem to move.

I should do something. I should move, run, fight—something, anything—but I'm just sitting here in the muck, holding my bruised neck and staring off into the darkness, hoping to catch a glimpse, just to make sure, to know it's him.

But I do know. I hear it in his voice, in the pattern of his steps, in the clanging of blades that echoes through the tunnels. Every movement resonates to my core; to the fractures of ice in my blood and bones. It's him—I know.

Leo.