"We've gathered our information about the RBMC," Dr. Faulkner starts. "The place they took Lexi when they kidnapped her wasn't their Headquarters. They knew that the turtles would come to rescue her, so they didn't want their central location to be exposed," he explains.
"Do we have any idea on where the headquarters could be located?" Mom asks.
"No," Dr. Faulkner admits. "They've pretty much sealed off all leads that may take us towards information on their Headquarters."
"The only reason we have this information is because we sent some spies down there to find out the basics," Donnie adds, shaking his head. "So we couldn't get that much information. Sorry."
"It's better than nothing," Mom decides, nodding her head at my siblings and I. "You three get back to work, please." I stand there for a moment after my siblings depart.
Lately Mom has been more urgent for us to get to work; especially after we have just been told something very important. It's as if I'm not allowed to ask any questions.
"Lexi what do you need?" she asks. I bite my lip and cross my arms.
"I need to ask Dr. Faulkner about something." I don't actually have something to ask; I just don't want to go back to work. What's she trying to hide from me? What doesn't she want me to know?
"You can ask me," Mom says. I set my jaw, narrow my gaze and abruptly turn on my heel and walk towards my desk. I don't like to not know what's going on. I know what I know but somehow that isn't enough. I feel like there's more to know and I'm not being told.
"Lex," A voice says. I keep my head down and fumble with my Profile Reports.
There have been more reports from the Foot Clan than usual and that has been really worrying me lately. I constantly keep in mind what the turtles repeatedly tell me about how Karai has been acting differently. At the Headquarters we'd actually managed to catch a few video clips of Karai and the Foot Clan, which has never happened before.
"Lexi." The voice comes again. By now, I know it's Leo. But I'm so stressed and confused right now; I can't even look at him. I hear a sigh and feel him take a seat beside me.
"Hey," he says, brushing a stray piece of hair behind my ear. I almost shiver at his gentle touch. I bite my lip and freeze a bit, staring at the desk and waiting for him to say something.
"I know you're upset. I don't why...but if there's anything I can do..."
"I don't know why things are being kept from me," I interrupt.
Leo's forehead scrunches together, and he looks confused.
"What do you mean?"
I bite my lip. "I feel like...I feel like my mom doesn't want me to be a part of something. Like...like she's hiding something from me. It seems like every time we do something important or talk about something that really matters, as soon as it's over, it's like she doesn't want any questions to be asked."
"She just cares about you," Leo insists, squeezing my hand. "She loves you and is very worried. She just wants you to be safe." I open up my mouth, like I want to say something to defend my point but I realize Leo is probably right.
"Yeah. Yeah I guess you're probably right. I'm just over thinking things..." I mumble, shaking my head. "Thanks for...thanks for being here." He smiles and ruffles my hair a bit.
"I should head home to check on Master Splinter. Noah should be there but last time I checked, he was sorting something out in Donnie's lab." He bends down and gives me a quick kiss. We have been dating now for two weeks and pretty much the entire Headquarters knows. Thanks to Rose, it isn't exactly a secret anymore.
"When will I see you again?" I ask, raising my eyebrows curiously. He chuckles and encloses his hand into mine briefly.
"I'll stop by the apartment tonight, okay? We can watch a movie."
I smile and nod. "Okay. I'll see you then, Leo. Tell Master Splinter I said hi."
He nods and squeezes my hand again before heading off.
I turn my head back to the Profile Reports and my eyes widen when I realize that they aren't really Profile Reports. After observation, I come to the conclusion that they are reports about the people that had been mutated back at the RBMC. I bite my lip and feel my forehead crease again.
"Dr. Faulkner," I begin, storming up to him. "I thought that you said you didn't know anything else." He's about to ask what I mean, when I hand him the papers. His eyes widen for a brief moment, and then he looks up at me apologetically.
"I'm sorry Alexandra," he apologizes. "I know that I should have told you about these. I didn't know they'd be delivered to you. We just...don't entirely know the stories on the mutants yet so we didn't want to give you incorrect information."
"Incorrect information is still information," I point out. "Do you not trust me?"
"Of course we trust you," Donnie begins, and I cross my arms, turning towards him.
"You knew about this too? Donnie!" I exclaim, shaking my head in disbelief. He sighs and looks at me firmly.
"Lexi...there are some things we can't share with you for your safety. We're still struggling to find the reason that they want you out of all people. We want to keep you safe," Don explains.
"Well I don't think that hiding things from me keeps me very safe." And with that, I turn on my heel and head back to my desk. I hate getting things kept from me. Hate it. I've always had trouble with that, but I can't help it.
I take a seat at my desk and my eyes trail over to the papers again. My fingers skim across the reports a few times. I bite my lip and feel my stare seeping into the papers. They had landed on my desk for a reason—I'm supposed to look at them. But somehow, when I pick them back up I feel like I'm not supposed to look.
I groan and toss the papers back onto my desk. My arms cross against my chest and I sit there glaring into the papers. What's the big deal? What would it hurt to simply skim the reports? It surely won't danger me in any way, will it? I bite my lip and let out a breath, shaking my head to myself.
"I'm way too stressed about this..." I mutter, putting my head in my hands. I sit like that for a good five minutes or so. I just sit there thinking. The part of me that really wants to look at the papers is fading away and the more I think about it, the more I want to shred the reports. They're making me angry.
So standing up, I take hold of the papers and place them on Mom's desk, which is empty at the moment. I'll let her look through them and then I won't have to worry about it. I don't know why I suddenly don't want to look at them. It might be just because I know I shouldn't...but it might be because of something else.
I'm afraid that Laney will be in the Reports. She still haunts my dreams constantly. In the dreams she usually doesn't do much to give me a reason to be afraid. In fact, most of the time she just stands there talking to me about things that I never remember once I wake up. Her eyes are never that black color in my dreams like I'd seen on her. I always feel fear-struck whenever she's talking to me in the dreams. This overwhelming feeling of fright fills me and I won't want to say or do anything because I'm afraid that if I do, then her eyes would turn black again.
My cell phone rings. I'm interrupted from my thoughts. Picking up the phone, I notice that it's Noah calling. Things are still a bit awkward between the two of us, but it isn't something we can't tolerate. We are still friends and we can still joke around. I don't know whether or not his feelings have faded away yet but I don't really mind that much, now that I'm dating Leo.
"Lexi," Noah says once I answer. "Okay, I've been doing some research on the Epidemic lately and I found some things that we didn't exactly know before."
"Like what?" I feel glad that he's telling me this. At least somebody doesn't feel the need to hide anything from me.
"Okay," he begins. I can hear some papers being shuffled around. "Do you want the bad news or the good news first?"
"Just give me the information you have." I really don't want to play that 'good news/bad news' game because no matter how great the good news is, the bad news almost always weighs it down and wins.
"The Epidemic is in fact contagious. And unfortunately, no matter how much of the cure we have, once you have the disease, there's a 95% chance that you'll get it again even after you're cured."
"95% chance?" I cry, shaking my head. "How can we fix that?"
"To my knowledge, we can't. There were hundreds of people that were infected with the Epidemic. Our studies have shown that after about no longer than three weeks, you are likely to get the Epidemic again."
"What on earth could the good news be then?" I wail, shaking my head. Hadn't we been absolutely positive that the cure was 100% affective? I feel like all of our hard work had been a waste of time.
"The majority of the time—put aside from those rare occasions—if you do happen to get the Epidemic, if you get it treated within an hour of getting it, then it won't return. We've actually had some really great survivor stories and the news is actually interviewing a lot of the people who recovered, asking them what it was like to be able to hear but not move."
"I think that's kind of rude of them," I admit. "I mean it's fascinating to hear about things like this and survivor stories, but these are people that were practically dead for a long time—they don't deserve microphones getting shoved in their faces. They deserve a reward or a Starbucks Gift card or something..."
Noah laughs from the other end.
"If only we could give out Starbucks gift cards to hundreds of people," he agrees, slightly teasingly.
"I would take it," I defend, crossing my arms and shrugging my shoulders.
"Of course you'd take it," he teases. "You'd take it and then demand a Barnes and Noble gift card, tickets to One Direction and a beach house just to top it all off." I laugh and roll my eyes.
"I would not," I disagree. "What would I do with a beach house anyway?" I can see Agent Serena giving me a look from the corner of the room. I bite my lip and mouth a 'sorry'. She's fine with me taking calls during work as long as they are brief or about important information.
"Anything else?"
"Uh yeah...you know how you said that Karai has been acting differently?"
"Yeah."
"How differently?" he asks slowly. I pause and think about it for a moment.
"Very different. According to the turtles, stealth was her middle name. Now, we've been getting clips of her, which never happened before. They keep saying that she acts really distant and loopy a lot of the time." Noah doesn't say anything. "Why? Did you figure out something else?"
"Um...Donnie and I were out the other night, trying to collect some more samples of the Epidemic. We ran into Karai and she was acting really distant and she was mumbling a lot to herself. She didn't even put up a fight—just let us go. But something fell out of her pocket. A bottle of medication pills."
"Medication?" I exclaim, raising my eyebrows. "What kind of medication?"
"It's supposed to treat schizophrenia," he says. "It only had one pill left, and the date said that it's over a year old."
"Karai is taking year old schizophrenia medication?"
"Apparently," he states. "We don't know if she has schizophrenia or not though. Her odd behavior could be her body's reaction to the medication, which she possibly shouldn't be taking. We can't ask her though."
"I wonder what happened...how did she get it?"
"We don't know," Noah says. "We're still doing our research on the one last pill that was in the bottle. We might turn it into a local Health Office and see if there's anyone locally that's purchased the pills." He sighs. "Okay well that's it for now. I just wanted to tell you about all of this."
"I'm glad you did," I admitted, sighing. "I'm glad that at least someone isn't hiding anything from me." I don't mean to say that last part aloud.
"No one should be hiding anything from you," Noah says.
"Thanks. Okay, I should go now. I'm going to tell Serena about this information, okay?"
"Sounds good, Lex." Before he can hang up, I stop him.
"Noah, will you please tell Leo about Karai and everything? He should know as soon as possible." It's a dangerous move to ask Noah or Leo to interact with each other. They can be polite when needed, but they don't particularly like one another. Noah's feelings are obviously still present and having him even think about talking to my boyfriend is a dangerous thing. But I don't care. They need to learn to get along.
"Sure thing."
"The Karate Kid," I say, kicking my foot up dramatically. "The real one." Leo laughs as I slide the movie in. The coffee table is piled with bowls of popcorn and slices of pizza. Grinning, Leo slides an arm around me as the previews start.
"What do you mean 'the real one'?"
"They made this newer version back in like 2010 or something and it was kind of the Karate Kid of this generation. A lot of the younger kids liked it, but I knew what was up. My family and I always liked the original Karate Kid better."
We talk at bit and then the movie starts. Every five minutes or so, I share a fact about the actors or a difference between the newer version, and this version.
"I take it that you've seen this movie many, many times," he observes. I glance over at him—with a mouth full of popcorn—and cock an eyebrow. He grins at my odd facial expression, leaning forward and letting out a laugh.
"What makes you say that?" I ask, but it sounds muffled due to the popcorn that's in my mouth.
"You don't really seem that interested in the movie—just in stating random facts."
I bite my lip and face the T.V. again.
"Sorry, I'll shut up," I apologize. He laughs again and takes hold of my chin, facing me towards him. His hazel-brown eyes dance with amusement as he shakes his head.
"I like hearing your voice. As long as I'm with you, I don't really care much," he insists, and I smile and put my head on his shoulder. We face the T.V. again and surprisingly, I manage to bite back the facts and comments for the sake of Leo. It seems like he's really interested in the movie and I'm extremely surprised that he's never even heard of the Karate Kid before.
The movie is almost over with, when my phone buzzes. I'm so tired that I don't even look up. Leo glances over at me and chuckles.
"Your phone buzzed," he informs. I groan and pick it up, looking to see that I have a text from Mallory.
M: Girl, get over here n o w.
L: I'M WATCHING A MOVIE WITH LEO, I NEED SOME LEXINARDO TIME.
M: i think it's amazing that you and Leo are spending time together. Lexinardo time for the win. *holds up a flag with the two of your faces inside of a heart* But when are you gonna be done? This is important.
L: IS IT A BOY? PLEASE TELL ME IT'S A BOY.
M: Ya gotta come and see. ;) Now answer me!
L: we're watching the Karate Kid. It's over in like 5 min but I was planning on spending more time talking to Leo...
M: I am your BEST FRIEND. You make-out with him any time you want. This i T
I slide my phone back into my pocket just as the movie ends.
"How'd you like it?" I ask, standing up. There is popcorn everywhere and half eaten pizza slices all over the coffee table. He lets out a breath and raises his eye ridges.
"That was really good," he exclaims. "Please tell me there's a sequel, though."
"There are two more movies after this with Ralph Macchio," I say, nodding. "We'll definitely have to watch them sometime."
"Definitely." After I pick up the popcorn off the ground, I catch him giving me a confused look. I sigh and toss the popcorn pieces into the garbage can.
"Mallory texted me saying that she wants me to come over pronto," I explain, crossing my arms. "I really wish I didn't have to go..."
"But she's your best friend," he finishes. I nod. "Have fun, okay? Be safe. Are you sure that you don't want me to walk you there? I really wouldn't want you to get kidnapped by the Foot or the Purple Dragons or something."
"I'll be fine," I insist. "If anything happens, I'll just press the emergency button."
Out of anxiety and fear that I'll get hurt, Mom had installed an emergency button on my phone, where when I press it, an alarm goes off throughout the entire Headquarters, all of my family's phones, and the Shell Cells. I begged Mom to just have the alarm be on the Shell Cells (to save me the embarrassment of having the entire Headquarters know that I'd been kidnapped) but she wouldn't listen.
"Okay," he says, embracing me into a hug. "I love you."
My heart stops (as does my breathing) and I begin to wonder if I heard him right. It seems like he tenses up right after he says it—like it isn't something he was planning to say. We have only been dating for two weeks...so if he feels comfortable saying it that shows that he's been in love with me for a long, long time. Just hearing him say it sounds so right. Pulling away, I look into his eyes and smile.
"I love you too," I say quietly. My voice sounds embarrassingly quiet and similar to when you are trying to speak while crying. But Leo doesn't seem to mind that. He looks surprised at first, but his surprise is soon replaced with a smile. He leans in to kiss me. With my arms still around his neck from the hug, I kiss back.
He loves me. Leo loves me.
Mallory's house isn't all that far from ours. It would take maybe ten minutes to walk if you took your time, but I manage to make it there in less than five. I feel like I have energy that could last for years. It's amazing how three simple words can change my entire attitude.
As soon as I approach the door, I hold my fist up to get ready to knock. But before I can do so, it's thrown open. Mallory stands there—her red spirals of hair all over the place, like she's been jumping around a lot.
"Good; you're here," she says, yanking me inside. The door is closed and she begins to drag me up the stairs.
"Why are you so jumpy?" I laugh as I say this.
"You remember that kid, right?"
I'm quiet and I give her a look.
"Which kid? There are lots of kids in this world including you!" I tease and she rolls her eyes and shoves me. Although it's just a playful nudge, she often doesn't know her own strength. She snorts when I wheeze and nearly fall off the chair I'm sitting on.
"Come on," she exclaims, crossing her arms disbelievingly. "That was nothing!"
"You're stronger than you think..." I grunt, rubbing my arm. "Now tell me what you're freaking out about."
"Justin Monroe."
"That guy that you've liked since like January? Didn't you say you went on a date with him and it went really great?" I ask and she grins, nodding vigorously.
"We went on more dates after that, and eventually he kissed me. We've kind of just been like...we know that we like each other but we hadn't really done much about it. Finally, today we went to go get ice cream together and walk around the park, and he asked me to be his girlfriend!"
"Oh my gosh! That's awesome, Mal!" I exclaim, grabbing her shoulders, and just to tease her, I narrow my eyes. "But when did he kiss you and why wasn't I told?"
"It was a few weeks ago...I wanted to tell you, but I thought that with everything going on like with that RBMC and with you and Leo and everything, I didn't want to bother you."
"Are you kidding me? Your love life is just as important as mine. I care and I'm so happy for you! Now when do I get to meet him?" I say, and she begins smiling again. Mallory hasn't had a boyfriend since she was sixteen, and that ended when the guy developed feelings for a girl in his Stats class. Mallory was heartbroken and ice cream became our go-to meal for about two months straight.
"Um...I don't know..." She thinks for a moment. "I'm meeting up with him tomorrow, so maybe Thursday?" I'm about to agree, when I remember something.
"I can't on Thursday," I say. "I'm going to the zoo with Noah."
Mallory cocks an eyebrow. "You sure Leo's gonna be okay with that?"
I groan. "Why does everyone keep asking that?" I exclaim, shaking my head. "Why?"
"He is your boyfriend," she points out. "And they aren't exactly best friends." Even though I agree with her about that, I shake my head again.
"Leo is is mature and wise and trusts me completely." It's entirely true, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't get jealous.
"You know very well that as much as he tries he's always going to get jealous. You know that, right?" Mallory verifies and I sigh, crossing my arms.
"We're here to talk about Justin Monroe, not Lexinardo problems," I state, which earns a slight chuckle from her. "Now tell me everything! What does he look like?" Her face turns from concerned to dreamy again.
"Well," she begins, playing with her hands. "He's really tall, like 6'1. He's got this cute dirty blonde hair that's all spiked up, but it has like these natural brown highlights. He's got these sizzling brown eyes and the cutest dimples ever."
"Sounds like the beginning of a Wattpad story," I tease, grinning. I gasp. "We need a shipping name!" I sit up straighter and think for a moment. "Hm...Justin and Mallory...Malustin? Ew, definitely not. Uh...Jallory? Possibly, but let's see if we have anything else. Um...let's see...Jallory Monkress should do for now I guess." Mallory begins laughing, her bright green eyes lighting up in amusement.
"Jallory Monkress?" She snorts. "That sounds like a poorly thought-out name for a laundry detergent."
For the next few hours, we spend the time laughing and watching youtube videos. We watch a few episodes of "The Twilight Zone" on Netflix, and it's almost one AM when I finally head home.
The walk back to my apartment complex seems longer than the walk to Mallory's house. Usually on a Summer night, the air is warm, but tonight it isn't. I feel all the laughter that had been inside of me suddenly fade away. I feel kind of alone.
The sounds of street lights have always really scared me. You know; that buzzing noise it makes, similar to that which you hear late at night when you're standing outside of a motel. The buzzing seems to block out all of the other movements and makes everything around you seem utterly still.
I wish that I'd asked Mallory to walk with me, but then I remember that she'd have to walk back to her house alone if I did that. I've never had to walk back to my place from her house so late at night. Usually at this time, if I'm not at home, I'm spending the night at Mal's. Even if there were a situation like this, Mom would never let me walk home at this hour. But since she's been spending so much time at the Headquarters, she doesn't know.
I feel cold all of the sudden. There's a breeze and I start to feel panicky. Glancing over my shoulder every five seconds, I try to pick up my pace. My foot keeps getting caught on a crack in the sidewalk every so often, but I keep my pace.
I try to think of the wonderful time I had with Leo tonight. We watched a movie, joked, talked...and he told me he loved me. That calms me down the slightest bit and makes my heart flutter. I feel like I want to just close my eyes, because I know that that will probably help me calm down. But in the streets of New York City at eleven at night, you need to keep your eyes open and alert.
Once I finally reach the point where I can see the apartment complex, I let out a breath of relief. I'm thankful for some people nearby partying, and for the cop cars that have rolled up to tell them about the noise complaints. I'm also suddenly pleased that the pizza shop, Tony's Pizza, across the street, is open until one. Any source of light that I can see makes me feel relieved. I'm not as scared.
It isn't until I have approached the apartments that I see something I hadn't noticed before. There is a man standing directly at top of the stairs of the complex. I freeze in my place. He isn't doing anything—just standing there. I'll have to pass him to get to my apartment, though.
You can't really see his face very well—it's hidden behind thick sunglasses. His skin looks pale white, but I'm not entirely sure if it really is, or if it's just the reflection of the streetlight that stands just feet away. Thoughts spiral through my mind.
Maybe if I call Mom then she could come down here and hit him with a baseball bat and we could call the police. No, Lexi, that is violence. Violence is exactly what we are trying to avoid. And I don't have my katanas with me—I didn't think that I'd need them. I was only planning on going down to Mallory's house. I guess I hadn't seen how late it was when I left: I was too focused on Leo.
The emergency button. If I just reach into my pocket and press the emergency button and stand here a little bit, hoping that he wouldn't do anything, then I would be safe.
Out of all of the reasonable possibilities and decisions I could have made, I choose the easiest but also the hardest one.
My feet slowly but confidently make their way up the stairs. I don't take my eyes off the man. I can't tell whether or not he's staring at me or not, through those thick, dark glasses. I swallow and just as I am about to pass him, I do another stupid decision: I stop.
I turn towards him. I'm right next to him now, and he still hasn't moved a single centimeter. Peering at his skin, I notice that it is pale white. The palest skin I've ever seen. The closer I look, the more it occurs to me that I haven't even seen him breathe. His body stands there as still as still can be. I reach out and slightly push the arm a bit. It's limp: doesn't move, doesn't hit me...just falls limp.
I feel a burst of laughter fly up my throat. He's practically a mannequin—a doll...anything but a human. I smile and feel my nervousness go down.
"I am so paranoid..." I mumble. Curiously, I get closer. Even though I can't see beyond the glasses, I try. I peer as close as I can into where the eyes should be. Never have I ever seen glasses this dark before in my entire life. I suddenly remember the first episode of Doctor Who with the ninth doctor: the one with the killer mannequins. I laugh again and take a step back, but I don't look away from the eyes.
Suddenly, I feel uneasy. It's like...although I can't see anything behind those glasses, I can't take my eyes off of them. Like I'm hypnotized. A feeling screams at me to look away. And I listen to that feeling.
I rip my eyes away forcibly and am surprised when my eyes begin to burn. It's as if looking away would cause me to be blind—it's like whatever is behind those glasses, is the most fascinating thing in the world and I suddenly want to take those sunglasses off.
I stare in through the glasses as close and long as I can, still not being able to understand why I find this so fascinating. After what seems like forever, I blink. Kicking the foot slightly, I find that it doesn't so much as budge a single millimeter. It's like the leg is screwed into the ground. I don't even bother to wonder why there is a mannequin screwed onto the top stair.
All I know is that after I have taken my eyes off of the face, I feel utterly uncomfortable. Without looking at it, I sprint up the stairs, down the hall and quickly unlocked the door, fumbling in. The lights are all off and I flick them on, shutting the door behind me and locking it. I swallow and take a few moments to recover.
Why is it that I feel so scared now, but didn't feel the least bit scared when I was actually standing in front of the mannequin? It's like an aftershock, almost. I shiver and let out a breath that I didn't even know I have been holding in.
I feel my legs trudge towards my bedroom. I throw my hair up in a bun, brush my teeth and lazily snuggle into bed. I take another deep breath and I don't even remember releasing it as I fall asleep.
"Hello?" I shoot up in bed.
The only thing I can hear is my heart beating against my chest. I blink rapidly and glance over at my clock. It's 3:03 AM. I had heard a voice.
"Hello?" The voice says again and I squeak. The voice sounds sing-song like...like a child.
"I'm here," The voice says again. I squeak again out of fright and shut my eyes tightly. Maybe I'm just dreaming. Or someone is playing a trick on me or something. Or something. I feel like I recognize the voice...but not completely. Like I've only heard it once or twice, but it already frightens me. Who wouldn't be frightened though, when waking up to a child's voice at 3 AM when there is no child in your household?
Five minutes of suspense have passed by and I don't hear anything after that. With my eyes still tightly shut, I throw the blanket over my head, in hopes that I'll fall back asleep and not wake up until everyone else is awake. But what seems like hours pass by and I still can't fall asleep. I check my phone to see that only ten minutes have passed.
Maybe I was just hearing things that aren't there. Maybe it was part of a dream that I had just been dreaming...a dream that I woke up to and don't entirely remember. It isn't an odd possibility that my mind is playing tricks on me; I faintly remember times in California when I would wake up in the middle of the night, still being able to hear the people from my dreams. It used to scare me a lot when I was little, but right now I really hope that that's the answer to all of this.
"There are no more of my kind, so your eyes should be like mine."
Laney.
I scream.