And now folks, the chapter you've all been waiting for! But be warned: graphic descriptions of torture and brutality are inside! Viewer discretion is advised! NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART!
Need I say it again? I don't own the TMNT or their sensei. But A.J and the plot are mine.
The next night was a tense one. Donny was so nervous and shaky that Leo, Mikey, and even Raf decided to help him out with his interrogation of their new redheaded friend. So when A.J. woke up and came into the living room that evening, she found all four turtle brothers and Master Splinter sitting around the table, their faces grave.
"What's going on?" she asked.
The boys looked at each other, trying to find the words to say, but Master Splinter spoke for them.
"I know this will not be easy for you, my child, but we need you to tell us exactly what happened to you. It is of the utmost importance that you tell us everything, because that will make it easier to track down those responsible for the crimes against you. Will you do that for us please?"
She looked at them as though they'd asked her to walk down a path of hot coals without shoes.
"Now?"
"Yes, please."
There was a pause, and then she said, "Can I eat first?"
They boys looked at each other again, and Mikey burst out laughing. The others joined in, and Master Splinter smiled.
"Well, that wasn't the reaction we were expecting," said Donny, grinning widely.
"What were you expecting?" she asked as Leo came over to pick her up and carry her to the table. "Screaming and fainting?"
"Maybe not that extreme." He opened the fridge and pulled out the milk and yogurt. He poured her a glass and got her a spoon, then set her breakfast down in front of her. She dug in happily.
"Glad to see your appetite is returning," he said as he put the milk back into the fridge.
"I've been starving," she said. "My appetite has always been here." She stopped to let them laugh, then said, "How long will it be until I can eat food besides soup and yogurt?"
Donny thought for a minute, then answered, "About a week. Let's see how you're doing then. If there's an improvement, we'll move on."
She rolled her eyes, and finished up her milk. When she was done, she looked around at the faces at the table. She raised her eyebrows.
"Ready?"
They nodded. Master Splinter took both of her hands in his.
"We need to know the entire story, start to finish. Think back to the very beginning. Can you remember what day that was?"
She twisted her mouth around, looked up at the ceiling, and put her tongue between her teeth.
"June…5th, I think. Yeah, because it was right after exams."
They looked at each other, and Leo looked at the calendar that was pinned to the wall by Master Splinter's door.
"August 28th," he said. "Almost three months ago."
A.J. turned pale.
"I've been gone that long?"
The boys nodded.
"Oh my God."
Suddenly, her eyes went out of focus, she took a deep breath and her bottom lip quivered. They were afraid she was going to cry, but there were no tears in her eyes. She only stared at some point behind Master Splinter's head. His voice was very gentle as he spoke.
"What happened, my child?"
Her voice was soft, and very weak as she answered his question.
"I was coming home from school. It was the last day, and I was pretty excited to get home and do absolutely nothing. It was about noon, and I'd just gotten off the bus at my stop, and I was heading home. The stop's pretty far from where I live, and I have quite a ways to walk. I was about halfway there when I realized that I was being followed. I looked behind me, and saw that, sure enough, there was a man about twenty feet behind me, watching me.
"Quickly, I weighed my options. I figured that, because he was so far behind me, I could probably outrun him, maybe give him the slip, and sneak back to my house, where I could call the police. I didn't want to go straight home, because then he would find out where I lived, and we couldn't have that. So I decided that my first option was the best one, and I went with that. I took off running, and turned down a different street than I usually go down, and it ended up a dead end. However, there was another street that crossed it, and I turned that way. I looked behind me to see if I had lost him. I didn't see him, and was just thinking that I was home free when someone grabbed me around the waist, pulling me clean off my feet. A wet rag was pressed over my mouth and nose, and I blacked out almost immediately."
"Chloroform," said Donny, and they all looked from her to him.
"What?" Mikey asked.
"The rag was soaked in chloroform," Donny repeated. "Its fumes cause unconsciousness. An effective tool for kidnapping. They probably used it to prevent you from struggling when they took you. Cowardly dogs."
She managed a weak smile at the name, then continued.
"I don't know how long I was out. When I woke up I was in a dark room, and I could feel a cold cement floor under me. There was absolutely no light; I couldn't see my hands in front of my face. I wanted to know where I was, but I was too scared to move. So I sat up and curled up in a ball, tucking my knees under my chin, wrapping my arms around me.
"Again, I don't know how long I sat there. It must have been hours, because soon I began to get hungry, and I had to go to the bathroom. It occurred to me that maybe I should call for help, but my rational mind told me that either no one would hear me or no one would care. So I kept quiet, and waited for whatever fate had in store for me.
"Sometime later, a slot in the door opened, and a tin plate was tossed into the room. In that brief window of light, I managed to get a glimpse of where I was. I saw there was nothing in the room except a toilet in the corner. As I could see, I had no means of washing my hands, so I ate first, then relieved myself. I don't know what it was I was eating. The taste was disgusting and the texture was even worse, but I was too hungry to care. When I was finished I went to the toilet, and found that it even flushed, which for me was quite a relief. I would have hated to be living in my own refuse. I wondered why my captors even bothered with a flushing toilet and food, no matter how repulsive. I couldn't imagine their purpose for keeping me alive and somewhat healthy, but, as the hours passed, I began to wonder if maybe I didn't want to know.
"I lost all track of time in that cell. My captors had taken away my bag, and my skirt doesn't have pockets, so I didn't have my cell phone, or a watch, or any way to tell what time it was, what day, or even what month. I could have been in there for hours, days, or weeks. Maybe I was in there a month before they came for me.
"There were four of them. Four men in between mid-forties and mid-fifties, who wouldn't have looked threatening if you saw them on the street in broad daylight. They looked like your average, middle-class American dads; you'd never know they were sick to the head. That is, until you're lying in a small, dirty, bare cell and they're standing over you with their hands in fists.
"That first beating hurt so much I probably cried for hours. I remember lying on my side where they left me, sobbing until my throat hurt, and the sounds that came out of it no longer sounded human. I remember tears running down my face, and blood running out of my mouth. For once, I was glad it was dark. I didn't want to see what they had done to me."
"Did they rape you when they beat you?" asked Master Splinter suddenly. Jerked out of A.J.'s horror story, Leo realized that the temperature in the room seemed to have dropped about ten degrees, and that the gentle old rat's voice had brought the warmth back to the air. Powerful thing: the imagination.
A.J. shook her head.
"Not that first time. I think that first time was to teach me a lesson; to show me who was boss. The rape came later, when I was weaker."
The room temperature dropped, or at least it seemed to. Leo shivered.
"The next time they came for me, they took my virginity with them. They hadn't been feeding me much, and I was half-starved by that time. They came into my cell again, and one of them had a lamp or a flashlight or something, so they could see what they were doing. The last time they came in, they left the door open. This time, they shut it.
"There was one: I'll never forget him. He seemed to be the one in charge, because he told the other three what to do. I had gotten to my feet, knowing that, though I couldn't fight them, I would make them knock me down. I wouldn't just lie there and take it. I would face Hell on my feet.
"The leader guy punched me so hard he knocked me sideways into the wall, were I hit my head pretty hard. Dazed with pain, I didn't remember falling down, or anything else that happened. The next thing I knew, I was lying on my back, my skirt was pushed up around my stomach and…"
"We get it," said Mikey quickly, much to everyone's relief. The boys didn't want to hear the details, and A.J. didn't want to describe them. But the tears sparkling her eyes told them that the memory was still very clear in her mind.
"It hurt so much. You can't imagine the pain. It felt like…a huge metal bar was being wrapped around my head, crushing my temples, tighter and tighter."
She put her hands around her head to show them. The boys looked at each other, eyeridges raised. As none of them were girls, they couldn't imagine what it must have been like for her. Leo felt sweat beginning to run down his face, partly from embarrassment, mostly from anger. She was so small, so helpless, and so beautiful. To listen to what these men had done to her; how easily they had taken advantage of her, was breaking his heart. He clenched his hands together, and bared his teeth.
How dare you, he thought furiously. I will find you, and when I do, you will curse the day you arrived into this world.
He slowly released his breath, trying to suppress his anger, his mind wandering back to Master Splinter's early teachings. He had taught them that they must control their anger, or it would control them. And Leo had seen firsthand what happens to someone who is controlled by their anger: he saw it in his brother. He looked over at the red-masked Raf, and saw that there was no emotion in his face. He was as cool as always, leaning back against the chair, arms crossed over his chest, the ankle of one leg sitting on the knee of the other. Leo could hardly grasp the fact that Raf could be feeling nothing for what he was hearing. But he didn't have much time to reflect on it, because A.J. began speaking again.
"After a little while, the pain went away, and I couldn't feel anything at all. Not the temperature of the room, not him, not the floor beneath me. It was if all the nerves in my body had shut down. I remember looking up, and I think I saw myself staring back at me, kind of like I was looking in a mirror, but not quite. I'm not really sure why. Maybe I was looking at my innocence, or a manifestation of it, because I thought I looked several years younger than I was, like maybe nine or ten. Kind of creepy. Anyway, the vision vanished, and I felt everything again. The pain, the cold, everything. And then I came to my senses.
"He had finished with me, and motioned to someone else. I realized what was happening, and rolled over to try and crawl away. It wasn't very easy going: I was really weak from lack of food, and my underwear was somewhere around my knees, tripping me up even more. I didn't get very far. The man he had motioned to grabbed me by the hips, and the leader walked over and stepped on my hand."
There was a hiss as everyone sharply drew breath through their teeth.
"So that was how your fingers broke," said Donny. She nodded.
"I heard the bones snap, and I screamed for the first time. The original beating hadn't made me scream, neither had the rape. But that…that did it. I didn't scream from the pain alone. I think it was because I realized what was happening to me: my virginity was gone, I was trapped with no hope of escape, nothing more that a toy for these cruel men, and I was too weak to defend myself. I think it was the feeling of utter hopelessness that made me scream more than the pain of my broken fingers.
"After that, I just gave up. I remember my cheek pressing into the cold concrete, and that was it. I shut them out, and I don't remember when one was done and the other started. I just pretended it wasn't happening. I guess you could say I went to a 'happy place,' and I didn't leave it until the door closed. Darkness enveloped me, and I became conscious of my surroundings.
"Even when they were gone, I didn't move. I just lay there, my eyes wide open, staring at the blackness in front of me. I felt weightless and empty. It felt like they had taken my soul with them, leaving behind nothing but an empty shell. I wondered if I would ever come out of this spell that seemed to have taken hold of me: I couldn't move, I had no desire to eat. I don't even remember blinking, though I'm sure I did, because my eyeballs would have dried out.
"I lay there for a long time, until the slot in my door opened and that nasty food was pushed through. My stomach growled, and I realized that I had to eat, or I would die there. Right there on the floor. It wasn't until after I'd eaten that I realized that maybe dying wouldn't be such a bad idea. It was also then that I realized that I wasn't alone."
Everyone, even Raf, leaned forward.
"Every now and then, I would hear screams coming from other parts of the building. Women's screams. I realized that they were not only doing this to me, but to other women as well. Somewhere, where I couldn't see them, other women were being raped and beaten just like I had been.
"This terrified me more than everything else I had been through, and would go through. Sitting in the dark listening to those screams…" she hugged herself, and shuddered. For a while, she couldn't speak. The tears were falling now, leaving wet trails behind them, and her nose and cheeks turned red and blotchy. The boys looked at each other, no one knowing what to do, then Leo reached over and began to rub her back in a feeble gesture of comfort. She shivered again, and broke down completely. She began to sob, and buried her face in her hands. She leaned over towards Leo, a desperate plea for help, and he accepted. He scooted his chair closer until they were sitting right next to each other. He pulled her gently into his arms, and she didn't resist. She fell against his chest, still covering her face in her hands until he wrapped the other arm around her, and then she clutched that, burying her face instead into the crook of his elbow. Her tears flowed hot and wet against his arm, and the scent of her hair was in his nostrils as she pressed her body as hard as she could into his plastron, as though she could somehow disappear through it. He continued rubbing her back with one hand, and patted her head with the other. He stroked her hair; it was tangled because she hadn't had a chance to brush it that morning, but still it was soft, and unlike anything he had ever felt before. Having lived under the streets all his life, he had been cut off from most human contact, so it was only understandable that he would have no idea what a human's hair felt like. There had been a few instances when he had grabbed people by their heads so he could knock them into a wall or the ground, but that was nothing like this. He may as well have been touching silk, so soft and smooth was her hair. It was longer than it had been a year ago, and it wasn't as thick or shiny due to her lack of nutrition, but all the same, he couldn't take his hands off it.
Which, given the circumstances, worked in everyone's favor.
He looked around at his brothers, hoping for some assistance. They weren't looking at him though, too occupied with A.J.'s crying fit. Donny's eyes were gentle as always, full of compassion, and Mikey looked on the verge of tears himself, biting his finger around the knuckle. Master Splinter had his hands folded in front of his nose, his face grave above them, staring hard into the table. Raf had an unreadable look on his face. Behind the red mask, his brown eyes were fixed on the sobbing girl in Leo's arms, but exactly what the expression was he could not tell. He had one arm sitting on the table, and he was hunched over it, his eyes narrowed. His brow was furrowed as though in thought, but there was something in his eyes that suggested otherwise. Leo held A.J. tighter. For some reason, he didn't like to look on his brother's face.
After a few minutes, her sobs began to lessen, the tears stopped, and she was left breathing hard for air. Donny got up and poured a glass of water from the sink, which she drank down without hesitation or complaint. She pulled out of Leo's embrace so she could sit up straight, and he heard a couple of bones pop along her spine. She didn't go far, though.
"Sorry guys," she said, wiping her face on the backs of her hands and her sleeves.
"It's fine," they all said as one.
"I just… I just can't stand the fact that there are other women out there who are going through the same thing I was, and no one knows it. No one can hear them screaming, and no one will. And the worst part is, there is nothing I can do about it. I'm totally helpless; I can't help them. I can't save them."
"You can, my child," said Master Splinter gently. "By telling us everything that happened to you, you provide us with information that will help us catch those responsible. And, when your strength returns, you must inform the police immediately, telling them exactly what you've told us. If what you say is true, I fear this may be a bigger operation than just a crime against you."
"Unfortunately, there isn't very much I can tell you," she said sadly. "Like I said, I was unconscious when I was abducted, so I never saw where they took me, and I spent the rest of the time in a cell with no windows or any way to see outside. I don't know very much at all, so I'm really no help."
Without thinking, Leo placed a huge hand over her tiny one. His three fingers curled around it, gently.
"You're more help than you think you are. Your captors think you're dead, so it's very probable that they were careless. I'll bet that, since they figured you were going to die anyway, that they didn't bother disguising themselves when they…you know…hurt you."
Master Splinter beamed at him.
"Good thinking, Leonardo. Can you remember what they looked like?" he asked A.J.
"I'll never forget it," she hissed, gripping Leo's hand.
"Wonderful. You can do that later. But now, tell us what happened next."
"Like I said before, I had no way of knowing what time it was, or how long it was before they came back. I fought back as well as I could, but they beat the snot out of me again. They beat me hard too. I was amazed nothing was broken. My hand was hurting me big time, and there were many times when the pain alone was enough to make me cry. I cried a lot those first couple of times. But after they raped me the third time, there were no more tears left.
"The third time was the worst. It was also the last time I had the strength to fight back. I somehow managed to wiggle free from them, and I made a wild leap for the door. But I was not fast enough. One of them caught me by the arm, and pulled me back so hard that he dislocated it. Then they fell on me. They…they…"
She faltered, and looked like she was going to cry again. Leo rubbed her hand with his thumb. She looked up at him, and he met her eyes, encouraging her. Master Splinter reached across the table for her other hand, the one with the broken fingers. He patted it.
"You don't have to say it," he told her gently.
She sucked in her breath, and looked up.
"No. You have to know what they did to me."
"But…what if we don't…want to know?" asked Mikey uncertainly.
"Then leave," Raf snarled. The brother he had addressed looked around to see if anyone else was with him, but found none, so he stayed. They all leaned forward despite themselves, dreading what they would hear next. It took her a few minutes before she could speak.
"They made me take off my clothes. The leader…he had a gun, and he pulled it out and told me that if I didn't take my clothes off he would shoot me though the kneecaps so I would never walk again. I was so frightened, so I did what I was told." She hugged herself with her free arm, covering her chest as though the robe she was wearing was not there. "When I did that, they made fun of me. They told me my breasts were too small, my ass was too bony, I was too pale, my ribs stuck out, and that fucking me was like Rocky Road. You know, the ice cream."
If it hadn't been for the circumstances, the joke might have been funny. Still, it hurt Leo's ears to hear her curse. Her voice seemed too soft and sweet for such language.
"Well, maybe if they'd fed you more it wouldn't have been such a bumpy ride," said Raf.
Leo's eyes flashed.
"That is not funny, Raf," he said, but A.J. squeezed his hand.
"But it's true. If they had fed me…it doesn't matter. I think they liked making fun of their victims. They enjoyed it. It made them hard."
There was an uncomfortable silence at those words. Then, Master Splinter said very quietly, "Despicable."
"Sounds like that was the only way they could get any um…action," said Donny with a slight smile. "Raping defenseless little girls…pathetic."
The others smiled nervously, but she didn't. Her eyes were deepset with fear as she spoke the next words.
"They all came at me at once. All four of them. The leader put the gun to my head and told me he'd shoot me if I bit him. He forced himself into my mouth, while the others went between my legs, behind me, and even between my breasts using some kind of ointment. Vaseline or something."
All of the boys' eyes had gotten wide as dinner plates. None of them had believed it was possible for four men to have one girl at once, but now they had just been proved wrong.
"Ouch," said Donny after a minute of stunned silence.
"I think I'm gonna be sick," said Mikey, his hand to his stomach. Raf's eyes had narrowed so much they were nothing more than slits behind his bandanna. At last, there was some emotion in his face.
Leo on the other hand, was quivering with fury. A.J. must have felt it through his hand, because she looked up at him. He couldn't meet her eyes. He bent his head to his knees, his eyes squeezed shut, tears forming behind the lids. Good God. How had she survived? How could she have endured all of that, and not come out messed up? How could she still smile, laugh, and look shyly at them? They were boys. How could she even stand to be in the same room with them?
Maybe it helped that they were not human boys.
"I was covered in their…their product of our 'love-making.' But I was too weak to do anything, and I was still dazed because of my arm. I just lay there, and I thought I was going to drown. I choked when he came down my throat, and he punched me in the eye. They laughed, finished with me, and left me curled up naked on that dirty floor, coughing up come, and crying. That was the last time I cried. After that, I had nothing left. They had beaten all the strength out of me. I realized I had no defense against these men, and I was doomed. When they came for me again, I offered no resistance, and just lay there like a corpse. It was time that they decided I was no fun anymore, and that it was time to get rid of me.
"When they came for me again, they didn't bother beating me or raping me. They just grabbed me and dragged me out of my cell. I couldn't stand by this time, and I flopped around like a rag doll, complete dead weight. They took me out of the building to a van. They threw me into the back, slammed the doors, and we drove away."
"Darn," said Donny softly. The others looked up at him, confused. "Where we found her was nowhere near where she was held captive," he explained. "Was it?" he asked her.
She shook her head.
"I don't know. We needed a car, so you're probably right. Anyway, we drove for a while, then we stopped, and I was dragged out of the car. It was just the leader this time, and me. He took me into the alleyway, where he covered my mouth and took me again. He needn't really have bothered; I wouldn't have screamed. I don't think I had the strength. When he was done, he got off and pulled out his gun and a crowbar. I don't know where the crowbar came from. He'd probably pulled it from the van when he dragged me out. He held the crowbar above his head and said, 'No one's gonna miss you, bitch.' Then he cracked me over the skull."
She touched the bandage on her head.
"The next thing I knew was the pain of Donny resetting my arm. I opened my eyes and I was in the sewers with four mutant ninja turtles."
She had meant the last line as a way to lighten up the dark way her story had come to a close, but no one laughed. No one even smiled. Everyone was staring at her in spellbound silence. She looked from one to the other.
"Well for heaven's sake, guys. Say something."
"How utterly, unabashedly cruel," Donny finally managed to spit out. "Knocking you out so you couldn't call for help. And then he shot you in the shoulder, so you wouldn't die immediately. What a…a…there aren't any words in the English vocabulary to describe it! I cannot believe anyone could be so heartless! Thank God we found you when we did! In a few minutes, you would have been dead."
"Actually, it was me who found her, thank you very much," said Mikey. She smiled.
"And I owe it to you. All of you."
She looked at Leo.
"And you probably want your hand back."
He wanted to tell her that she could hold it as long as she wanted, forever if she felt like it, but she had already let go. His hand suddenly felt cold without hers in it, but he resisted the urge to snatch it back. No sense in encouraging false hopes. He would have liked to believe she was clutching his hand the way she had because she was beginning to have feelings for him too, but that was foolish. She had been clutching his hand because she was frightened, and needed something solid to get through her story. He had just happened to be holding her at that moment.
"There's something else, too."
They all looked up. There was more to the story? Hadn't they heard enough for one night?
"When they dragged me out, I caught something on the side of the building. I don't know if it'll be any help or not, but I'll tell you anyway."
"What was it?" asked Leo.
"A drawing of a lit candle in a candle holder."
Donny sat up.
"Could you draw it out for us?"
"Sure. I mean, I'm no good at drawing, but it was pretty basic. I don't think I'd have a problem drawing it."
"I'll get you some paper and a pencil."
Donny disappeared into his lab, then reappeared carrying said items. He set them down in front of her, and in a few minutes, she had drawn up a simple, two-dimensional picture of a candle in a candle holder, the old kind with a tiny handle that was big enough only for one finger.
"Any specific colors?" Donny asked when she showed them. She shook her head, and he took the drawing and held it up.
"Look familiar to anyone?"
They all shook their heads. Their purple banded brother frowned.
"Hmm. I'll have to look it up later. Right now though…wait." He looked down at A.J. "Can you describe what your captors looked like now, or have you had enough for tonight?"
She shook her head.
"If there's anything more I can do, I want to do it."
"Do not push yourself, child," said Master Splinter gently. "If you do not think that you can handle any more…"
"I'll be fine," she said firmly, but she quickly added, "sir."
"She'll be all right, Master," Donny assured, bending down and picking her up out of the chair. "If it gets to be too much for her, I'll stop it."
"Thank you, Donatello," said the old rat. "And now, I could fancy a cup of tea."
"I'm goin' out," said Raf, getting up out of his chair. Donny, with A.J. in tow, disappeared into his lab, and Leo and Mikey were left sitting at the table.
"You wanna spar?" he asked.
"Sure thing, bro," Mikey replied, and followed him into the dojo.
As you can see, very unsettling for our little heroine. I'll say it now, just so no one asks me about it later: I have never been raped, so what has been said in this story is only what I can imagine the poor young ladies who suffer this go through. But, that metal bar description is exactly how it felt my first time, though I don't know about anyone else, so there is some truth to my words, I hope. I have been also been caught in a situation where I was powerless to do anything, and that, ladies and gentlemen, is probably the worst feeling I have ever felt.
Okay, I don't think that it really is possible for four guys to get at one girl at once, but I didn't think about the physics until after I'd written this out. And anyway, I just threw it in there for the gross factor. So to anwer your question, yes, she has been through hell and back.
