1. Vision of Nightmares
Screaming. That is all Raphael could hear in the dark void in his mind. He was staring into blackness. The screaming of helpless souls continued, echoing in the corners of his mind. As the darkness seeped towards him, an unknown force, his aura, he realized, pushed back in white-gold light. It was the only light in the darkness.
The scene changed. What felt like a falling sensation took over in the pit of his stomach as he hovered in a clear blue sky, like a string was trying to pull him down to the Earth. But the sky wasn't clear anymore. There was a city, floating on white clouds, or at least it was. It was a city with beautiful white, gold, and silver buildings, and it was falling. The skies turned the color of blood, turning darker till it was the darkest of black. Stars were falling with the city. And for a moment, the mutant thought he saw a flash of wings, angel wings, within the stars.
And then he was falling, becoming another star.
Raphael awoke with a start, gulping down deep breaths of air. Sweat trickled down the back of his neck. His strong green hands clutching the bed spread like his life depended on it, like he was still falling. He had lost count on how many nights he had dreamed the same dream. How every time he closed his eyes, he would see the falling stars in an empty black sky. He was not the only one with these strange dreams. His brothers and father had the same problem. But they weren't all the same. There was a girl, a beautiful girl in his dreams with long fiery red hair, clear blue eyes, and grand white wings, the feathers gleaming in the white light she was surrounded by, the white clashing perfectly against her peach colored skin. Whom she was? Raphael did not have the slightest idea.
After a while of lowering his heart beat to normal, he swung his legs over his bed, sitting on the side of his bed with his elbows propped on his knees and his chin in on the palm of his hands. He closed his eyes in a fit to organize his thoughts and put more effort on trying to figure out why he was getting these dreams (or visions as Master Splinter called them).
'I've never had 'em before,' thought the teenager. 'So why now?'
He pondered more on this until he felt like his head was going to split open in half. How the shell did Donnie put up with this? Raphael will probably never know. He needed to think, but in his own form of thinking.
Raphael stood and dressed hastily in his gear, placing the red bandana over his eyes and tying it to the back of his head for support, and lastly grabbing his beloved twin sais from the top of his nightstand and heading for the door.
The poor sand bag shuddered with every strong punch and kick that was thrown at it. After years of being treated like this it had gotten used to the young mutant turtles practicing ninjitsu, the way of the ninja. It was used as a training bag and, apparently, a dummy to release anger, stress, or anything that Raphael would use it for.
Raphael panted as he kept attacking the punching bag, fists throbbing when they made contact, threatening to split open. At the last punch, he noticed the dark blotch of red that his knuckles left on the swaying red bag. The blood dripped both from his wound and the punching bag, landing with a plick plock on the red mat. He grabbed his injured hand with his left, pushing back a cry of both agony and frustration down to not wake his family, it was far too early. The wound burned like fire inside his clutched hand. He leaned down and knelled on the mat, in front of the small droplets of blood.
He tried to clear his mind-keyword: tried. Unlike his brothers, he couldn't clear his mind much with his throbbing hand, racing heart, the droplets of blood, and his rampaging thoughts. Leo had no problem with all the training, Donnie just tried to think of blankness, and Mikey had it easy, he didn't think as much. The thought nearly brought a smile to his lips, only that he would have until he heard the familiar sound of a tapping wooden cane against the stone floor.
Raphael turned his head to the side as much as he could, looking at his sensei and father from the corner of his eyes, following his master until he was standing right in front of him.
The wise old mutated rat stared down at his second born (adopted) son with love and curiosity. "My son, what brings you here at this hour?" asked Master Splinter.
Raphael sighed. He looked down for a moment, finding the best excuse to why he was there. He found none. There was no reason why he should lie to his father. Even if he did, Splinter would know that he is lying and leave the matter for later. He stared back up at his father and answered truthfully. "It's jus' the same dream, Mastah Splintah," he said, his Brooklyn accent hanging to every word that left his mouth. "I jus' don' get it. What does it mean? Why do I keep havin' it?"
The old master knew it was the problem. The same question had been buzzing around his head like a bug since the fist few nights. He was just as clueless about this as his sons. He had tried asking his master, Hamato Yoshi, about this, but even he didn't know what it was. He just hoped it was nothing bad. Looking into his sons gold eyes, he knew he didn't want anything that could put his families lives in danger. He would die first after putting his family in a safe place, and watch over them as a spirit. "I do not know my son," he answered the golden eyed turtle. The younger of the two dropped his head, looking at the small puddle of crimson beneath the old punching bag. Splinter searched the inner pocket in his robes, finding the roll of bandages. With the white roll in his hand, Splinter knelled down in front of his sons knelled form, taking his large green hand in his small and warm ones, inspecting the wound on his knuckles. "Why don't we just fix this up, hmm?" he asked quietly, wrapping the bandage around the injury. Raphael looked up at him slightly with his lips a bit puckered to a pout, showing that he was upset at the problem at hand and thankful for his fathers help, showing the soft side that not many witness or know of.
Ha, I told you all I could finish the first chapter today. So, wha'd'ya think. If Raphies accent is wring please tell me, its my first time writing it.
