Hi it's been a long time, I'm once again trying to get back into writing. Here's a Halloween fic… in November…

For some reason I have this idea in my head. If it's been done before I'm sorry or maybe it's an episode that I faintly remember but for some reason I can picture the boys going up top before they reached 15 and getting scared because it was Halloween and there were scary monsters everywhere.

Basically I'm running with this innocent idea and making it more dramatic than it probably needs to be.

Enjoy x

Fright Night

It was a cold, misty night on October 31st 2004.

The four brothers were 7 years old, now they believed this meant they were older and much more mature than their Father gave them credit for.

Of course, they had asked him first, all four knelt before him and pleaded for a trip to the human world above.

He had kindly said no. He knew they were simply not ready yet and the memories of his last family were still painfully fresh.

No, his boys were too young and innocent to be going up yet.

The four boys had sulked together in the pit for the remainder of the day.

Raphael was the first to come up with an idea.

"I think we should prove dad wrong" He nodded, looking to the eldest for back up, "If we go up there by ourselves, he'll see we're ready!"

"No Raphie" Mikey grabbed Donatello's arm and shuffled closer, "Daddy said it's too dangerous, what if something bad happens?"

"Nothing bad will happen you big baby!" Raph rolled his eyes. "Fine, you can stay here and the rest of us will prove we're ready"

"It would be cool" Donnie looked up at the ceiling worriedly as he thought about the repercussions of leaving without permission, "But... what if dad's right? What if we're not ready?"

"We are!" Raph snapped back, Donnie and Mikey shared a scared look.

"You don't know that! We don't know what's up there!" Donnie tried again but this time Leonardo stepped in.

"How will we know if we don't try?" The eldest shrugged, "I think we should head up and see what it's like, if we're ready then great and if we're not... well... we'll come home and wait until father tells us we can start going up"

Donnie and Mikey shuffle on the spot.

"We'll wait until bedtime" Leo continued when he saw Raphael's excitement. "Then we sneak out together"

"But Leo-" Mikey whimpered.

"C'mon Mikey, we can't leave anyone behind! We're a team!" Leo smiled gently, "I promise Raphie and I will protect you both"

Mikey deflated a little but nodded in agreement, his brainy brother however still looked sceptical.

"You two won't rush off and leave us behind?" He raised an eye ridge,

"Of course not" Leo frowned.

"You both promise you will stay with us the whole time we're up there. No tricks, no pranks, no running off?" Donnie pushed.

"We promise" Both big brothers nodded.

"... Fine" Donnie conceded, "But one more question"

Leo sighed, he really hated Donnie sometimes.

"What is it now, D?" He huffed.

"What makes you think we can sneak passed Splinter?" He deadpanned, "He's a ninja master with the hearing of a rat"

The brothers look at their second youngest. They hadn't thought about that.

"I think he retires to the dojo" Leo shrugged, "So we can easily leave as long as we hop over the turnstiles and don't walk through 'em"

"I thought he watched TV" Raph scrunched up his beak, "Does he never watch TV?"

The others shrugged, they would just wait and see.

Leonardo stood in his bedroom doorway, surveying the living area. No sign of his father yet, no sign of his little brothers either.

He heard quiet padding behind him and knew it was Raph.

"Is he nearby?" Raph asked, hardly able to contain his excitement.

"Nope, coast is clear" Leo smirked, they fist-bumped. "Donnie, Mikey! C'mon!" He whisper-called.

Raphael peaked into Mikey's room and turned to the eldest,

"He's not in here" He frowned, Leo slipped over to Donnie's and peaked in to see both little brothers hiding in the dark holding their breaths.

For just a moment he felt guilty, his brothers shouldn't be made to do something they were afraid of.

But Leonardo was only 7, he was no leader yet. He still had much to learn about the duties of the eldest brother so he allowed himself to be selfish.

"Stop hiding you two" He called, "Come on or I'll send Raph in there to get you"

Raph smirked as he heard a squeak of fear, the two youngest shuffled out to join them.

"I still think this is a bad idea" Mikey whimpered clutching his teddy,

"You should leave him behind" Donnie soothed as he pulled the bear from Mikey's grasp, "You don't wanna lose him"

Mikey stayed silent.

"If you get scared just hold onto me" Donnie offered, "We'll stick together"

Mikey nodded and immediately latched onto Donnie's arm.

"C'mon scaredy-turtles" Raphael mocked, he watched as Leonardo took the lead.

"Follow me and stay quiet" Leo hushed.

The four boys crept out of the lair and through the sewers, none said a word until they found a manhole.

"I guess this is the way up" Leo nodded and immediately started climbing, Raphael was quick to follow.

"I don't wanna" Mikey watched his eldest brothers.

"I don't either but if we stay behind, they'll be mad at us" Donnie sighed, "C'mon"

Donnie followed his brothers upwards and kept looking back to make sure Mikey was ok.

Leo and Raph had to push the manhole aside together, they crept out to find themselves in an alleyway. They turned and helped the other two out and to their feet.

"Wow" Mikey gasped, "It's so cloudy!"

"It's mist" Donnie cleared up, "It's not usually like this"

"How would you know?" Raph asked in surprise.

"If it was the TV would show it but in our cartoons it's always clear" Donnie replied as he looked out of the alley.

"What now Leo?" Mikey shuffled on the spot; it was chilly.

"It's colder than I thought" Leo frowned "I guess we just head out and see what happens?"

"What about the humans?" Donnie asked as the four brothers left the alley.

"They won't be able to see us properly in this mist" Raph smirked.

The four brothers wandered down a side road towards the main street, they could hear crowds and cars but wanted to take just a quick peek.

They reach the street and their eyes widened in horror, there were hardly any humans around! Instead, there were monsters, ghouls and creatures.

"Wh-what?" Mikey whimpered. "Why are there werewolves? Donnie, you said they didn't exist!"

Donatello stared; he had never seen anything like this before. He knew for a fact that half the creatures before him weren't supposed to be real yet here they were just wandering around New York.

He was so confused,

"Th-They don't" He gulped, "Everything I've ever read said so!"

The brothers felt chills.

"Well..." Leo shook his head, "Your books also say nothing about mutant turtles so... maybe they're friendly?"

"What? They are not!" Mikey whimpered but Leo and Raph were already heading towards a group of monsters. "Donnie!"

Donatello held Mikey's hand as they followed their brothers.

They walked towards a werewolf, witch, fairy and zombie who were chatting animatedly. Little did the boys know these were just teenagers in costume.

"Um... Hi?" Leo waved as he and his brothers looked up at the group.

"Aww! Hi there!" The fairy grinned, "Don't you four look cute! You guys ok? Are you lost?"

Mikey decided he liked this fairy. She was dressed in a blue, glittery dress with big white wings, her long blonde hair fell forward as he bent over to speak to them.

"Um..." Leo was about to continue when the werewolf and Zombie roared at them and stomped towards them.

The four boys screamed and scattered as they ran in terror.

They didn't hear the boys laugh or the two girls scolding them for their cruelty.

Unfortunately, they didn't realise they had separated in their panic either.

Leonardo skidded to a stop once he was back in the alleyway, he panted. That had been close! He turned to face his brothers to make sure they were all ok but froze.

He was alone.

His head spun as he thought about if they had been caught by the werewolf, he realised he had definitely seen them all turn and run but he didn't know where.

He swallowed his fear and set out to find them.

Raphael he found easily. He had just followed the sound of him yelling the other brothers' names.

"Leo!" He cheered in relief and ran to his brother. "You're ok!"

"Yeah, you ok?"

Raph nodded before turning sad.

"I don't know where Donnie and Mikey are"

"I don't either. We promised we would stay with them and protect them" Leo bowed his head guiltily, "Yet the minute danger appeared we abandoned them... we're lousy ninjas"

Raph frowned before looking up in panic.

"What if a human found them?"

Leo felt his stomach go cold.

"What if they're hurt" He added. Both brothers shuddered, they felt like crying but were too proud to do it in front of each other.

"What do we do?" Raph looked to his older brother fearfully. Leonardo felt a strange surge of courage, he was the eldest so it was his job to make sure his family got home safely.

"We stick together and we go find the others" He nodded once, "C'mon"

He turned and lead his only remaining brother back into the fray.

Meanwhile Donatello was lost in the crowd. He had run blindly further down main street and was now surrounded by monsters; he was too afraid to even cry.

He just shuffled passed them all trying to look as small as possible in order to avoid being attacked again.

Now, all parents know that leaving a child unattended was a dangerous thing. There are a lot of bad people in the world who wanted to do bad things.

Halloween was no exception, if anything these bad people loved to dress up and wait for the perfect opportunity to find a lone child.

One such man had just spotted Donatello; he did a quick check around before heading towards the small boy.

"Are you ok little one?" Donnie glanced up at the police officer and froze, this one was actually a human!

He backed up in fright, ready to run but the officer quickly grabbed his arm.

"It's ok! It's ok! Are you lost?" The man soothed but Donnie couldn't hear him through the pounding in his ears, it felt like his heart was going to shoot through his plastron.

"Let me go" He whimpered and tried to tug his arm free. "Please, I just wanna go home!"

"I can take you home" The man hushed, "It's ok"

Donnie shook his head and started yelling.

"Leo! Raph! Help!" He cried as he struggled. This got the attention of the people nearby.

"He's my son" The man chuckled. "He's just upset, you know how kids are"

He turned to the boy.

"C'mon now, we're leaving" He nodded, Donnie screamed as he was lifted up.

The poor boy had never been so afraid.

Leonardo and Raphael were further up the street and heading down another side road, they figured their little brothers were hiding somewhere.

"Help" They froze at the whimper. "I wanna go home"

The brothers looked at one another before following the sound, they glanced down an alley to see a small boy sitting on the ground.

"Donnie?" Leo called; the boy's head shot up.

"Leo?"

It was Mikey.

"Mikey!" Raph called, the two older brothers hurried towards the youngest but froze at the scene.

Little Mikey was sitting down with big tears rolling down his cheeks, scattered next to him was broken glass. Their eyes finally reached Mikey's knees, both of which were bleeding.

"What happened!?" Leo gasped,

"I was just trying to find somewhere to hide! But I came in here and I tripped and- and-" Mikey began sobbing again.

"Raph" Leo looked to his hot-headed brother. "Stay here and I'll get Mikey"

Raph nodded numbly, he hated seeing Mikey hurt.

Leo inched around the sharp mess until he reached his little brother, he was quick to lift him into his arms and carry him to safety. Once away from the glass Leo knelt down to take a closer look at the wounds, he frowned when he saw some shards in them.

"We need Dad" he looked up at Raph, "but we can't leave without Donnie"

"Where is D?" Mikey asked fearfully.

"We don't know" Raph admitted, "We haven't found him yet"

This made Mikey cry harder.

"We shouldn't have come up here! I want Donnie!" He sobbed,

Leonardo focused on gently pulling the glass out of his little brother's knees, he figured he'd gotten all of it and used his mask to wrap one of the wounds. Raphael passed his mask over for the other knee.

"Can you walk?" Leo asked gently, Mikey shook his head. Leonardo lifted his brother and placed him on Raphael's shell so he could be carried piggyback style.

"Just be brave until we find Donnie" Leo soothed, "Can you do that?"

Mikey nodded.

"I want Donnie back" He sniffed.

The three brothers set off once again.

Donatello thought he was going to be sick. The man had lifted him up and taken off down a side street towards a black van.

This is what his father had warned him about, humans didn't like things that were different! He was being taken away to be experimented on!

"LET ME GO!" Donnie screamed but the man kept running, he arrived at the van and threw open the doors in the front and shoved the boy in. He closed the door and locked it.

"Stay here, be quiet. I'll be back soon" The man frowned, "There's candy in the cup holder"

Donnie pounded on the glass windshield as the man ran back, the van was just out of view from the lights and crowds.

"At least none of the monsters will find me here" Donnie sighed sadly; he missed his brothers terribly. He glanced around himself, he decided not to touch the candy.

There was just one bench seat, enough to sit three people, the candy in the cup holder and a sponge in the driver's side seat, he checked the windows but the roller cranks were broken off.

Donnie glanced at the steering wheel and quickly shuffled closer, he glanced at the stick with strange letters on it, then at the pedals below his feet. He placed both hands on the wheel.

He'd seen enough TV to know he could honk the horn but he hesitated, the man would surely hear this and come back! God knows what he would do to him then!

The young boy bit his lip. He didn't know what to do, he didn't know where his brothers were or if they were ok. For all he knew they were in the back of the van!

He sat in the seat, hands over the horn debating if he should honk it.

At that moment he glanced up through the window and had to do a double take.

His brothers were walking past the mouth of the street. Donnie was concerned when he saw his younger brother being carried with masks wrapped around his knees.

"GUYS!" He yelled, he leapt forward and pounded the window with his fists but his brothers couldn't hear him "LEO! RAPH! MIKEY!"

He felt tears well up as his brothers kept walking, he glanced down at the horn.

He wondered if it would just scare them away. He glanced up and they were nearing the other side, they'd be gone any second so he took the chance.

He leaned his full body on the horn.

The volume of the horn startled even him but he saw his brothers' jump and their heads snap his way, he released the steering wheel and waved his arms before pounding on the glass again.

"GUYS! IT'S ME!" He screamed, desperately.

His brothers had already seen him and were running towards him.

"DONNIE!" They called as the hurried to the van, Leo leapt up onto the step and looked through the window. Donnie scurried over and grinned.

"You guys are ok!" He called, Leo smiled and nodded.

"What're you doing in there?" He frowned, Raph pulled himself up next to Leo so he and Mikey could see and hear.

"A human caught me!" Donnie explained, "He locked me in here! He's gonna be back soon and he's gonna take me away"

The boy was struggling not to cry, he needed to make sure his brothers understood his predicament.

The three brothers' eyes widened, they needed to free the fourth.

"How long has he been gone?" Leo asked hurriedly.

"Couple minutes" Donnie sniffled. "I wanna go home Leo! Don't let him take me away!"

"I won't Donnie! I won't let him anywhere near you ever again!" Leo promised, he tugged the van handle but it was no use.

"Is there no way you can unlock it from in there?" Leo asked as he glanced inside.

"I don't know!" Donnie cried, "I don't know how vans work!"

Leo's heart broke as his brother sobbed fearfully; he could see he was searching for anything that might free him but didn't know what he was looking for.

The brothers didn't know what to do.

Donnie looked up through the windshield and saw a figure heading towards them down the alley.

"HE'S HERE!" Donnie screamed; he threw himself at the window where his brothers were. "YOU GOTTA RUN!"

"What!? No!" Leo scowled, "We're not leaving you!"

"You have to!" Donnie stressed as he cried, "He'll get you too!"

"Leo, Raphie do something!" Mikey cried, "We can't leave him!"

Leo and Raph leapt down from the step and lightly placed Mikey behind a trash bag.

"Stay here" Leo commanded, "You can't fight like this, let me and Raph handle him"

Mikey nodded; he watched the two older brothers hurry to the front of the van. He wasn't about to just sit there so he struggled to his feet and hobbled back over to the van, he pulled himself up on the step and peered at his distressed brother.

"Leo and Raph will save you" He promised, "But I'm here D! You're gonna be ok"

Donnie put on a brave face for his baby brother.

"Ok... thanks" He nodded and scooted closer to the window.

Leo and Raph fell into a fighting stance as the figure crept closer through the mist.

At this point the brothers didn't have their own weapons, they had only been practicing with wooden blades and rubber batons. They didn't know much about fighting yet either mostly just self-defence.

But they would rather die or be captured right now than leave their brother to this man's mercy.

"Let my brother go!" Leonardo commanded with fake confidence, "Or else!"

Raph was impressed, he was terrified but he wasn't going to run.

"Boys?" Came a familiar voice. "Leonardo?"

"Dad!" Leo and Raph exclaimed, the ran to their father and hugged him.

"Where have you been? I told you boys not to come up topside and you-" He stopped when he felt his two sons sobbing. He took a deep breath, it wouldn't do to scold them now.

He still didn't know where his other two sons were and his bravest two were clearly distressed.

"It's ok" He stroked their heads, "I'm here, you are safe now"

Leo shook his head and backed up.

"We need your help! A human took Donnie and now he's trapped in a van! We don't know how to get him out and the guy could come back any minute!" He stressed as he pulled Raphael off his father. "Follow us! C'mon!"

Splinter hurried after his sons and his heart seized at the sight of poor Donatello peering through the window, he and Michelangelo looked pale and shaken.

"Daddy!" Mikey cried in relief but didn't leave the van step, instead turned to face Donnie, "Look D! Dad's here! We're gonna go home!"

Splinter hurried over and gently lifted his youngest off the van step, he could smell blood.

"Who's hurt?" He asked, Mikey shook his head.

"Me but it can wait! We gotta free Donnie before the human comes back!"

Splinter wasn't too worried, he could easily kill the human who dared touch his son. He looked through the window.

"Donatello, are you ok?" He asked.

The boy just nodded.

"The man didn't hurt you?"

"He grabbed me out in the street and carried me here" Donnie explained shakily, "He just locked me in here and left"

Splinter breathed a sigh of relief.

"Ok, go sit on the other side" he commanded gently, "Lean forward and cover your head with your arms"

Donnie quickly does as his father says.

"You three, stand well back" He nodded, Leo and Raph drag Mikey safely away.

Splinter simply grabbed a trashcan and smashed it against the window, it shattered causing all four boys to flinch at the sound.

Donnie hurried over and Splinter lifted him through the broken window, he cradled his shaken son gently.

"You're ok" Splinter could feel the boy trembling, "We're going home now, you are safe"

He turned to the other three and placed Donnie with them, they quickly latched onto him.

"Come" he beckoned. The four boys followed their father home.

Once back in the lair Splinter patched Mikey up properly and listened to their tale, he explained they had gone up on Halloween and all those monsters were merely humans in costumes. He then decided to explain that the man that took Donnie sounded like a kidnapper rather than a scientist, this led to him explaining what a kidnapper was.

The boys were truly shaken up by the end.

All four were pale, teary and trembling, they gripped each other desperately and their father took pity.

"When you are older you will head topside and learn that the world is not full of evil. While there are bad people like that man there are also plenty of good people like the fairy you met" He explained, "The difference is you boys aren't like them and have never experienced humanity, you could never have known any of those things would happen. When you are older you will understand more and I'm sure you will protect those good people"

The rat looked over his poor children.

"You weren't ready but one day you will be"

"I don't wanna go back up there" Mikey sniffled.

"No, I'm sure you won't for a small while" Splinter nodded, "But the fear will fade with time and experience. One day you boys will be powerful enough ninjas that you will be able to easily defeat such people"

The boys nod but clearly aren't convinced.

"Until then you four are safe down here. Together" The father watched as this time the boys look up at him and agree.

The four brothers did eventually go topside again and every Halloween they would patrol the streets ensuring no children were hurt like Donatello was so many years ago.

Leonardo and Raphael became better brothers and protectors while Donnie and Mikey learned to trust them.

They all had a harsh lesson that night but ultimately became better and closer from it.

None of them forgot that night for the rest of their lives but none of them ever told their friends about it either.

And a few years later they got their revenge on the terrible man who hurt them.

But that night they ended up curled together in Leonardo's bed, taking comfort that all four of them came home safe and sound.

Please leave a review! I know I'm a little rusty x