(2139 Words)
Fridays are normally a day teenagers celebrate. It's the last day of school for the week, plans are made for the weekend, everybody is happy and in a good mood. Most of everyone that is. In the morning Raphael wakes to an empty couch and a bustling apartment. It seemed like everyone was doing something everywhere. It was overwhelming to say the least.
As he pulled himself off the couch he feels his joints crack and pop, leaving him to only wince at them. Trudging to his room, he meets Donnie in the hallway. "Hey, would you mind not getting up in the middle of the night? I can't sleep when you do that." Donnie says quickly before dashing off to make his lunch. Mikey dashes out of the bathroom just for Leo to take it right after. "Sleep well?" Mikey asks, stopping only for a moment and bouncing on the balls of his feet.
Raph barely catches him glancing down at his arms, probably to look for fresh cuts after neither Leo nor himself had put the knife away last night. "Yeah, m'fine." Raph says grumpily. Everyone must've woken up late or else they wouldn't have been in such a rush like this. The only one that seemed to be going at a normal speed was Mikey and that was only because he already gets ready for school like a chicken with it's head cut off.
Raph walks to the kitchen and reaches for a package of bread but retracts his hand, looking over his shoulder quickly out of habit. The only person there was Donnie who was packing things into his backpack for the third time on the couch. Raph turns back and grabs the bread, shaking his head. He makes a couple pieces of toast and slowly eats them as he gets ready, getting dressed and brushing his teeth and such. Though he was going slow, Raph somehow gets ready in time to leave relatively close to the time he should've.
Of course, the others had left without him. Donnie needed to be to school on time, Mikey obviously needed to tag along, and Leo had to keep an eye on them. The last time those two went alone, Mikey got to school an hour late with his pockets literally filled with candy and Donnie had his hands covered in grease and oil. Turns out there was a broken down candy truck that had offered them all the candy they wanted if they fixed the truck. If they went alone, anything could happen.
Raph waves over his shoulder to Yoshi, who was setting up for an early morning class, and then is out the door. As soon as he's on the next street Raph gets a weird feeling. He felt suddenly like he was being watched. He whips around but nobody was there. Nobody suspicious anyways. There was the usual stragglers a good thirty feet behind him and a business woman on the phone who was just entering an apartment building, presumably having forgotten something.
Raph walks on, shaking his head. He must just still be thinking about what happened with Mikey. His odd question like he knew exactly what happened to him in the past. His mind must just still be on that. Who's wouldn't be? His little brother had essentially been kidnapped, of course he's still thinking about it. There was a lingering feeling of fear and forgetfulness. Like he had forgotten something that was really important and really bad.
While the feeling of being watched never wavered, Raph made his way to school untouched and unharmed. "See man, nothing to be paranoid about..." He mutters to himself. "Kore wa nani mo imi shiani." Raph mumbles. He wasn't as fluent as the others but Yoshi had been teaching him Japanese here and there.
According to Mikey there was going to be a day when they all only talked in Japanese but based on the other's reactions and how stupid that idea was, Raph rolled his eyes and ignored it. He wasn't told what the phrase meant but he was told to utter it when he wasn't feeling well or afraid. The others seem to know what it meant, Leo and Donnie nodding in solidarity while Mikey giggles every now and again. "I have to ask what that means..."
As Raphael walks the halls of the school he feels increasingly uncomfortable for two reasons. One, Yoshi saw him without his bandages while getting ready and told him he could keep them off now but he had to have his sleeves rolled up, making his forearms completely visible.
He could almost feel the looks he was getting. He kept sliding the sleeves back down but each time he ran into the Hamatos they reminded him to put them back up. The second reason was that there was someone new in the school staff apparently. Someone who seemed to be everywhere he looked but never really doing anything.
He was tall and thin, dark skinned and always seemed to be giving Raph dirty looks. He puts it off on paranoia but doesn't exactly let his guard down. He hadn't seen the Hamatos much that day either. Besides when he woke up on the couch and sluggishly got ready to leave, he only saw each brother once.
He saw Mikey in class and gratefully accepted the notes he handed to Raph under the table. It was an especially rough day and Mikey seemed to have been stocking up on extra notes for the past few days. He saw Donnie in the hall, awkwardly flirting with April. She just barely acknowledged him, giving him a glance and a tiny wave without really lifting her arm. He sat with Leo at lunch while Donnie and Mikey sat at friend's tables, glaring at Leo until he ate something.
He hadn't been eating until there was ten minutes of lunch left. "If you don't eat, I'm not staying clean, and I'm telling your dad." Raph had said. It was a good enough threat to get Leo to eat something. At this point Raph knew what was going on. He'd seen it before in other houses. Some teen would be trying to 'eat healthy', then they'd be exercising way too much, then heart problems. It tore families apart and Raph wasn't about to let that happen to his last chance. Every time he'd been kicked to the curb to take care of their real kid and they didn't have time to care for an extra child.
Though Leo had a deal to make as well. "Fine. But if you cut again I'm not eating and I'm going to tell my dad." After lunch Raph had watched Leo head straight to the bathroom. He spends half a second debating weather or not to go after him before dragging him out, having him claim he was only going to pee. It felt weird to be the one in the right for once. As Raph heads into his last class of the day, just wanting to get out of school and hide in a dark hole for forever.
Just before he gets into the class he feels a hand grab his shoulder and he jumps, whipping around to see a gap-toothed grin staring back at him. "Fucking hell man! You scared the shit out of me!" Raph says in a low voice, making sure his foul language wasn't caught by any teachers. Casey punches his shoulder lightly. "I am a pretty scary dude." Raph rolls his eyes and crosses his arms anxiously. "What do you want anyways? I was just about to go take a nap." He nods his head towards the class room and earns a chuckle From Casey.
Casey smiles even wider. "Well... You know how I'm just with my dad an' all right now, right?" Raph nods. "Well, he's outta town and my mom and sister are gonna try and video call tonight!" Raph lets a light smile fade onto his face. "That's great man-" Casey interrupts him. "An' I want you to come too." Raph raises his eyebrows. "Me? Why?"
Casey shrugs. "I just thought it'd be cool if you met them. My mom is super nice and would practically adopt anybody she met on the spot and my sister is such a little prick but adorable and sweet and shit. You'd love her." He laughs. Raph shakes his head like his friend was spewing nonsense. "Alright, but only because you're such a dork I can't say no." Casey fist pumps the air. "Alright! I'll see ya after school, we can walk to my place then." Raph gives a thumbs up and takes out his phone as he walks into the classroom.
He picks out one of the few contacts he has and sends a quick text. 'going to Casey's after school, staying the night.' He puts his phone back before he gets in trouble for having it out and readies himself for class. The hairs on the back of his neck tingle and stand up on end. Quickly he glances out the window just in time to see the new staff member pass the window. He shivers.
After class he sees a text from Casey. He had managed to get himself a detention so he'd be late getting out but he told Raph how to get in the apartment without him so he could wait there. He wasn't surprised, it would be odd if he didn't have detention. The second Raph steps out of the school two things happen. A weight lifts off his chest, and he suddenly feels much more anxious.
He wasn't around as many people but he felt open and exposed. He wasn't sure why, maybe it was just the fact that he had his arms out, or maybe it was just because he went outside after a long school day, but he didn't like it. He pulls his sleeves down. Nobody would know anyways, he was staying at Casey's so it's not like it mattered.
He speed walks away from the school in the opposite direction from the Hamato's towards Casey's apartment. It was in a slightly less safe neighborhood but it wasn't anything Raph wasn't used to. He'd lived in worse places. Going past each break in buildings, side streets, and alley ways Raph looks down them, expecting to see something but never seeing anything. He just had that feeling. As if walking alone at night on a deserted street.
Every time he passed someone he felt a small wave of calm wash over him, knowing there was another human there that didn't even know him and most likely wouldn't be trying to cause harm to him. Here and there Raph glances over his shoulder, feeling like someone was watching him but nobody was there. This should've given him some comfort but each time there was an empty sidewalk behind him he walks a little faster.
Finally he looks over his shoulder and catches someone dashing into an alley. At this point Raph was ready to bolt but thinks better of it. Though he hated the idea of it, he turns on a street that wouldn't take him to Casey's and instead towards the nearest police station. Unfortunately to make his way to the police station in the fastest way possible, Raph had to cut through three alleys. He made it through the first two okay, breathing heavily but keeping his pace even and not too fast, but the third one was a different story.
He had been hearing footsteps behind him for the past five minutes, since he started to go towards the police station, and they were getting louder. He didn't dare look behind him but he sped up more and more until he was in a sprint. He only stops when he's met with a fence that hadn't been there before. It seemed to be recently installed to stop people from cutting through privet property. Raph turns around only to be met with dark unconsciousness.
You saw things that shook your core
Things you've never seen before
Could've walked away instead
Ah
Now you got no one you can trust
Thinking you sold your soul unjust
Point your finger and deny
Ah
You can run
You can run
You can run
I don't mind
I don't mind
I don't mind
...
"You can run"
Adam Jones
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