Disclaimer: I don't own the TMNT
A/N: Thank you for the reviews everybody! I'm on such a roll with this story here! Yes, I did realize that the paragraph in my last chapter was long, but forgot until I had already uploaded it. Hope that you enjoy this chapter!
Chapter 7
The Shadow
I scanned my home with wide eyes. The Lair was a complete wreck. Everything was in shambles. It looked like a toned-down version of what they did to my room. The couch was knocked over, the torn cushions scattered everywhere. Every single screen on our entertainment center was shattered, along with every CD, DVD, and everything else in that corner. I could see trash and broken dishes scattered around the kitchen and Don's lab had definetly seen better days.
The door trembled behind me.
Them.
Just as that thought entered my mind the door shoved itself open a few inches. Gasping, I pushed it back. I gritted my teeth and dug in my heels as the door to my room shuddered with the fury of their attacks. I had to keep them in. I could hear them thumping against the old wood. It sounded like pigeons flying into the windshield (one sound you never forget). I could hear their furious little screeches, their gnashing teeth. I was almost surprised by the strenght of their attacks. Then again, they did hold me down, tie me up, and drag me across the sewer system to hang me above a cauldron of death.
"Guys!" I called out as the monsters renewed their onslaught. "Hey, are you here! I could use some help! Are you alright? Leo? Raph? Don? Sensei? GUYS!!!"
I held the door for at least several moments before it dawned on me that my family was nowhere to be seen. I choked slightly and sagged to the floor. I was all alone. My family was gone, but to where? Did they walk out, or were they carried out? Were they even alive? The worst part about all of this was that I hadn't a clue. Any one of those things could've happened, but I didn't know. Even if I did, how could I help them? I didn't know where they were...considering that they were alive. Stop it! Don't think of that! They're alive, I know it...but then why do I feel so empty?
I don't know how long I sat there, but soon I realized that they were gone. The monsters. I had only been lightly leaning on the door, not enough to hold them back. I wonder why they left? Where were they going? Were they coming back? If they did, would it be for me? Even though it was against my best interest I turned around on my knees and with the tips of my fingers opened the door a crack. Warily I peered through the slit. Despite the darkness, I could easily make out the broken, destroyed outlines of what was left of my furninture.
No monsters.
Bodly I opened the thing up even more, enough to stick half my head through it. My skin tingled, half expecting a monster to land on my head and try to scalp me. No monster landed on my head, no monster waited by the door to dig my teeth out of my gums, no monster clung to the wall to pluck my eyes from their sockets. (Gruesome, I know. Product of one too many scary movies.) In fact, other than the destroyed furniture, the room was completely empty. The gaping hole in the back wall was eerily silent, the dripping water seeming to echo one too-many-times.
Slowly, with some disbelief, I pulled myself back. I half expected them to be waiting out for me here, instead, with little bowls to collect the blood from my severed arteries. I even squeezed my eyes shut. When I opened them the Lair was the same as before. Nope. No monsters.
Why would they have left me like this?
A sharp screeching sound echoed through the space, the sound ricochetting off the walls until I couldn't tell where it came from. It cut off abruptly. I couldn't help but shudder.
Sensei's right. Sometimes I ask too many questions.
I leapt down to the main area without a sound, afraid to talk even, as though the mere thought of doing so would shatter the utter silence so violently that I would be left in slivers. On hesitant tip-toes I walked on the floor, looking around at the familiar surroundings that now were somehow unfamiliar as well. The only sound heard was dripping water. It seemed to be so loud that the sound was almost deafening, causing me to shudder once more.
I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye. Nunchuku in hand, I immediately whipped around, ready to fight. Nothing was there.
Then I saw it again.
It was the pool. It rippled, as though something dripped in it. Only nothing did. The bridge arching over it was still realatively good condition, nothing had fallen into it. So far as I could see, there was nothing that would drip into it...
It rippled once more, starting near the center and fanning out in ever-increasing circles. Suddenly even the sound of incessant dripping of water seemed to fade as the pool approached closer. No, it was me approaching the pool. Why?
Man, this sure had an Alfred-Hitchcockian feel to it.
My feet moved of their own violition to the edge of the pool that lead to the river. Feeling dizzy, I sucked in a painful breath and squated at the edge. Releasing the breath I looked over into the water.
Leo stared back at me.
My heart hitched painfully and I gave a strangled cry as I scrambled away from it. I sat there, legs splayed, for several seconds panting heavily. My arms trembled as I slowly shifted position and started to creep towards the edge on all fours. I tried to say something-anything-but all that came out was a dry, painful croak. This couldn't be good.
Once again I reached the edge. Nervously, I licked my lips and took a steadying breath before I leaned over to peer into the water once more. This time, I didn't stagger back.
It really was Leo.
I could see him as though he were my reflection, like he were on the other side of the water peering back at me. He blinked his eyes, then stared straight into mine. A wave of coldness swept through my body, causing me to shiver. "Leo? Is that you?" My throat was so dry that it came out as a whisper.
Leo blinked again then stared at me with renewed recognition. "Mikey?"
His voice sounded...different. I wouldn't say muffled, exactly, but maybe staticy, in waves. Like the girl in the movie Exorcist when she got trapped in the TV, that's what he sounded like. (Yeah, I know, best description I could think of)
I couldn't help but grin. "LEO!" With a surge of happiness I reached out to touch him with my good hand. But as soon as I touched the surface of the water, it bent. As though it were covered in saran wrap. It felt like the surface of jell-o. As my hand touched the surface, I simply pushed it in. It stretched down, like rubber, offering resistance to my touch but never once actually breaking the surface. My heart twitched. The worst part was Leo. He started to dissapate, like anything does if you disturb the surface of the water. But I wasn't exactly disturbing it, it wasn't even acting like water! Either way I yanked my hand back, both from the odd feeling of the unbreakable water surface and to try to keep Leo's image.
Frantically I stared at the water. Leo was looking around, startled as his image broke up. As soon as I pulled back, though, he started to, uh...come together again. He looked at me again, an odd look in his eye. Straight to business. "Mikey, you can't give it to him, you can't!"
By now there was a ball in my throat and my eyes were beginning to burn. I choked slightly. "Leo, I - I don't even know what they want! What the heck they are! Let me help you, Leo! How do I get you out of there? What happened? Where are the others? Leo?" I wiped my eyes, resisting the temptation to reach out to touch my brother once more.
"No matter what, you can't give in!" He told me again, his eyes boring into mine.
I felt the wetness on my cheeks and wiped it against my arm once more.
"You have to promise! I mean it, promise me Michelangelo! Swear on your honor!"
I stared at him. He was so serious, so just like Leo. Biting my bottom lip, I nodded. "Alright. Okay, Leo. I swear. I swear on my honor I won't give it what it wants. Now let me help you, please!"
He shook his head. "No, not me right now. Find Splinter and our brothers. They'll need you. Only you can get us out of this." The water disturbed again, even though I didn't touch it. My eyes darted frantically over the water. I couldn't help but sigh in relief when his image came back together again. But what caused the disturbance in the first place?
"But I don't even know what's going on, how can I help everyone?"
He seemed to lean in, staring at me more intently in that way that he does. "Mikey, you'll have to-." Just like that, his voice cut off, as though someone just pulled the cord. His lips continued to move as he continued to tell me. It was like watching a TV show on mute-maddening.
If I had hair, I'd be pulling it out right now. Instead I grabbed the sides of my bandana, pulling at it. "Leo, Leo! I can't hear you! Leo, what's going on? LEO!"
Suddenly he stopped speaking, his mouth pausing in mid-sentence. At first I thought it was because he heard me, but it wasn't so. He looked around, alarmed yet cautious. Then he saw something that made him jump. He started coming at me in earnest, moving as fast as he could yet getting nowhere at all. His eyes were shocked and wide, his teeth set. Stretching his arm out, he reached for me.
Considering my experiences with him in the pool so far, I wasn't sure what I expected to happen. But I sure wasn't expecting this at all.
His fingertips bulged through to the surface, stretching it upwards in an odd, morbid way, never once breaking the surface. His palm pushed against it, pushing it out eerily. With a cry I tried to reach for him, but just like before the surface couldn't be broken. I tried to grab onto his finger but it was too slippery for me to get any purchase. His bulging eyes stared into mine as I tried but failed.
Then darkness edged the surrounding water, like someone poured ink into the edges of the pool. Like tendrils of thick, black hair it started to cover the water slowly. Leo screamed in his silent, open jawed scream as the blackness hooked it's dark fingers around his body. Abruptly he was covered in the blackness and his outstretched hand dissapated and dropped into the pool with a slight splash.
I couldn't see my brother any more.
"Leo? LEO!" Not completely aware of the tears on my cheeks I tore at the water with clawed hands. It splashed as water should, though was still the pure blackness that was impossible to see into. I didn't stop my frantic splashing, not immediately noticing as steadily it grew thicker and thicker until I felt like I was churning through mud. It began to be too painful to use my broken hand. I continued anyway, with just my good one. Leo was so close, so close, yet I couldn't do a thing for him. Somehow I just couldn't accept that. I just couldn't.
Then the water started to rise and I stopped. Because when I say rise, I mean rise. It was as though someone in a black sheet was being lifted out of the water, only it was eerily silent and the water still wasn't acting like water and as much as I hoped it to be it wasn't actually a person in a sheet. It was like a shadow, with unlimited depth and no shine or distinguishing mark. It rose until it was at least twice as high as I, thin and towering like a malnourished giant. I craned my head so far back that I toppled backward, slack jawed. On my hand and knees, I half crawled half crabwalked away from the thing, all the while my eyes bugging out of my skull. It expanded until it was wider then the pool itself and enveloped the bridge in a cloud of blackness. My knees trembled. Then it spoke.
Have you seen the movie Harry Potter when he's speaking in the snake-language-thingie? You know how it sounded whispery and seemed to echo off all the walls? That's how this thing sounded. The shadow thing arched its (back?) until it was halfway looming over me and whispered...
Michelangelo...
Michelangelo...
Give me what I want...
Give me what I want...
My jaw worked as I stared unblinking at the thing and it loomed closer. Suddenly the top began to have definition, substance. A milky white color swirled into it like creamer in a coffee and I could make out the definite characteristics of a face. Bold, white eyes flashed at me and it leaned even closer. My arm gave out and I flopped flat on my shell as sweat beaded on my skin.
The thing closed in until it was a scant few inches from my very nose. I couldn't stop staring. The face of this shadow was terrifying. I won't even try to explain it, you'll just have to use your imagination.Those inches closed in and that mouth, that silently screaming mouth, nearly touched the crook of my neck.
Give it to me...
I could almost feel that breath on my neck and I shivered. Suddenly I could see Leo's face in my mind. "No." I whispered.
It got away from me so quickly I was surprised I wasn't sucked in with it. It reared back to where it was before, towering over me.
Give it to me...
Leo's face was still pictured clearly in my head as I stared at the shadow monster. A new surge of adrenaline brought on some bravery to my lips as I snarled at it slightly and with a much stronger voice yelled "NO!"
The shadow trembled visibly and let out a long hiss, one that played on my skin like the coldest of breezes. Then it pulled from the pool and shot out of it, riding on an unseen wind.
I don't know exactly why, but I chased it. Scrambling to my feet fast enough to scrape my ankles really good I lunged after it. It shot to my room like a runaway balloon. Underneath the door, through the gaping hole in my wall, and down the sewer line. I accidently smacked my busted hand against the opening but I didn't care. It was after something important and I was going to find out what.
Bandana tails whipping, I ran faster than Forrest Gump himself as I chased that thing through various twists and turns through the sewers. Something told me that it's destination wasn't going to be good.
Sometimes I hate it when I'm right.
We were on my family before I knew it.
They were walking down the sewer, together but separated. It knocked Raph over with a strong, buffetting wind. He hit the sewer water with a grunt and a splash. Gasping in shock at the shadowy monstrosity, Don jumped back into the sewer wall, staring at the shooting shadow with bugged eyes.
We all realized the thing's target just a little to late.
"SENSEI! LOOK OUT!"
We all yelled this simotaneously, but as I said it was too late. Master Splinter, who was leading my brothers, turned around and saw what was coming at him just as it hit him in the chest. He was knocked completely off his feet. The walking stick and satchel he was carrying flew out of his paws. He was flung through the air like a rag doll and hit the sewer wall with a pained grunt. The shadow stuck around him like giant, thick, tarry chewing gum leaving only his limbs and head poking out.
All three of us rushed to him. He was so high we could barely reach his hands. We cried. "Sensei!" "Master Splinter!" "Father!" "Splinter, please!" "NO!" I stared into his eyes as searing hot rivelets of tears poured down my cheeks.
He coughed as though he was having trouble breathing. We clutched frantically at his tail, his legs, his feet, his hands, anywhere we could find purchase. Furiously we clawed at the black, gooey shadow that made him cling to the wall so, but we couldn't even get a grasp on anything, just rake our nails uselessly across it's surface. Splinter flailed his hands, trying to grasp ours even now. He started to sink into the wall. An odd look fell over his eyes, one of pain, both physical and emotional.
He continued to sink into the wall.
Tail thrashing, he clawed frantically at our hands. "My sons!" he somehow croaked out. What was it doing, strangling him?! "My sons! I-" His throat closed off for a moment. With a considerable effort he swallowed as he sank into the brick even further. Now he was into the wall up to his ears. His tail was no longer visible and his hands and feet flailed, looking odd without legs and arms to connect to them. The thick gooey-ness of the shadow was gone, now only blackened brick. "I-I love you all. Never for-forget th-that! I-ack!"
His voice was cut off as the base of his muzzle started to sink into the dingy sewer wall. He stared at us with bug eyes, tears brimming at the corners until all but his nose remained.
Then it was gone too.
A/N: This chapter was longer than I normally do but I have no problem with it because I love it so much! PLEASE tell me what you think of it! I'm not used to packing so much into one chapter and can't help but wonder if I went too fast. I wanted Splinter's, uh, dissapearance to be kinda quick and shocking. As the Leo thing. Hope I achieved it well enough.
Remember, if you read it, review it!
Toodles!