Sweet Dreams – 05

Chapter Five: Into The Leaves

Michelangelo sat on the front porch steps of the house with an ice pack on his head where a large white bandage with orange kitties on it could be seen. And that wasn't even the worst of it, he had multiple scratches and bruises littering his body, and a particularly painful welt on his bottom.

The catastrophic event that took place in the kitchen just twenty minutes ago had happened so fast, it was all a blur. Before anybody could register what was going on, they were either, lying flat on the floor for protection (April and Splinter), hanging upside down out of the window above the sink (Donnie), or with a bucket over their head (Leo).

Mikey referred to this as the result of a "mega freak out over a little baby spider". They knew Raph hated bugs, but seriously? Of course, after it was all over with and the spider was smashed into smithereens, Mike couldn't help but poke fun at his older brother, which got him the painful welt.

"What about you!? You freaked out like a little girl!" Raph had screamed at him.

Mikey huffed as he rested his chin on his hand, staring out at the forest on the other side of the dead grassed field. He had not freaked out like a little girl. Raph was the one who totally flipped, minus the girly screaming. He was probably screaming on the inside though. Had to have been.

The hothead was probably upstairs now, beating the crap out of something that resembled a make-shift punching bag. His way of pouting.

"What a hard case." He mumbled, lowering his gaze to the ground where hundreds of leaves littered it.

They had only been here a few days and in that time, nature had changed drastically. They were barely into fall and yet, it seemed like winter was on its way. But everything was too beautiful for him to complain about it. And the longer he looked at the leaves, the more he wanted to make a huge pile and jump into it. It was just so tempting.

He placed his ice pack down and stood up, the old wooden stairs squeaking under his weight. He jumped up and ran to the side of the house where he remembered seeing a rusty rake and grabbed it, making his way back to the front. Raking leaves was something he had never gotten the chance to do because you didn't get leaves down in the sewers. And even though some people considered it as work, he considered it as a great opportunity to have fun. A few times he did get distracted and broke out into dance with the rake to a song inside his head, but it didn't take very long before he had a nice, big, cushiony looking pile to jump into.

The turtle ran up the porch stairs again and climbed on top of the not so sturdy railing.

"Cowabunga!"

He leaped towards the sky with a goofy grin on his face and giggled when he landed and leaves flew everywhere. He had to do that again.

After a few more jumps his pile didn't look like much of a pile any more so he grabbed the rake again and fixed it.

Once more up the stairs and onto the railing. He bent his knees, ready to leap, but he lost his balance when the loose railing lurched forward, sending him hurling down onto the leaves. He hissed and rubbed at his sore bottom, not feeling so giddy anymore. He lied onto his back and stared at the cloudy sky, not feeling like getting up and jumping again. He would try and spot a bunny shape instead.

"You missed a spot."

Leo glared over his shoulder at April and poured the rest of the water out of his red bucket. "Don't even." He growled.

She snorted and placed another clean mug in the cupboard. "Is Mikey still jumping in the leaves?"

Don shook his head. "He's just laying in them now. He's so weird sometimes."

"That's not weird. He's just chilling out."

"Whatever you say. Should I put tea on?"

The red head nodded and sat down in a stool. "This house is so cool, I never knew there were places like this still around. I wonder who used to live here?"

"Probably some rich family that was around in the early nineteen hundreds." The purple clad said, "Maybe late eighteen hundreds even, but I'm just guessing."

"You're probably right...hey I wonder if we could research it and get the exact date it was built?"

Don's eyes lit up. "We should definitely do that! I'll run and get my laptop!" He disappeared down the hallway.

Leo rolled his eyes and turned the heat on so the kettle would actually boil since his brother forgot to in his excitement. "Never ceases to amaze me." He muttered.

"Why are you being such a Mr. Grumpy Pants?" April asked, frowning at him.

"Because, I spent an hour cleaning this stupid kitchen floor, only to be knocked down onto it, have the bucket full of dirty water land on my head, and have nobody help me clean it up!"

"Oh, is that all? Jeez, you really need to meditate more."

The turtle opened his mouth to retort, but all that came out was an angry snarl. He dropped the empty bucket on the floor with a loud clang and stomped out of the room. April giggled.

Don skidded into the room with his precious computer in his and hands and opened it. "Alright, let's do some research on this place." He sat on a stool beside April and started typing away.

I'm kinda cold...I should probably go inside now...yeah, maybe I'll go inside and-OH MY GOD IT'S ATRAIN!

Mikey grinned up at the sky and made noises like a train whistle. Oh yeah, he was so cool. It had been almost an hour, but the turtle would have never known that. He was having the time of his life picking out shapes in the clouds. But not so much that he didn't feel something slither along his shoulder.

He jumped and brushed at his shoulder. Just a leaf.

Another leaf was sliding along his right leg. He sat up to pull it off but it was unnecessary, it was already off.

He lied back down and closed his eyes, sighing deeply, enjoying his comfy bed.

Something grabbed his arm.

The ninja's eyes shot open and he screamed, looking at over to his right. A black and decayed arm was sticking out of the leaves and holding onto him so tightly it hurt. He grabbed the fingers and tried to rip it off, but it wasn't happening. The thing was glued on. He screamed again.

Another arm flew up out of the pile and wrapped itself around his throat, choking him.

He was forced to lie back on his shell as his air supply was cut off. He was unable to scream anymore and he could feel himself growing light headed.

Another hand poked up and held onto his legs with purpose. The dead limbs began pulling him down into the pile of leaves as he gasped for breath. Help me...