My Best Friend

Author Ishi Tatsu

Chapter 6

All I could do was watch as Leo stormed out. Raph glared at me as I was repacking the first aid kit. "You believe I did it too don't ya'?"

I wanted to trust my gut despite the evidence. "I would like to say with absolute certainty, no. What would help is if you walk me through what you do remember."

"Oh I get it," He said his eyes harsh, "Poor little Raphael is to violent of a psycho head-case so he's gonna be the one cuttin'. Thanks but no thanks I don't need your pity." The last part almost came out like a hiss.

Panic stricken I hastened to make myself understood, "I didn't mean-"

Raph cut me off with a sweep of his arm in the air as if to ward me away, "Whatever, come on Mikey."

As Raph reached for our youngest brother, Michelangelo pulled away, "Uh.. I was gonna help Donnie with...that thing..right?" His eyes were pleading, this seemed to make Raph more angry if the teeth grinding and muscle twitching was any indication.

"Right Mikey, but lets check the bathroom first," I said catching Raphael's glaring eyes. Something was wrong with him. He's been angry before but not... obsessive angry. It was the only way I could put it. I'm sure Leo had noticed it as well, this odd behavior towards Michelangelo ever since that acursed house.

Walking between Mikey and Raph did not feel like the safest place, but with Raph's attitude lately I held my ground. Opening the door, our youngest brother saw the room first and his scream had the two of us rushing past into the small enclosure in his defense -weapons drawn.

The mirror was smashed by a force so great that large jagged pieces were jammed into the brick wall opposite, a few shards glistened with red edges. My insides twisted at the thought that I missed something. I re-sheathed my Bo and grabbed Raph's good shoulder spinning his back to me. He gave a protest, tried to turn around but I held fast telling him to be still. What if he was hurt worse than at first glance? That wouldn't do at all, if he had anything hidden under his arms, around his shell, anything, I'd find it. My fingers felt along the inner edge of his shell, up to his neck, down the shoulders and under the arms. I didn't find anything else beyond the initial cut.

I started on his head when Mikey spoke up, "Man Raph. What did the mirror ever do to you?"

That seemed to snap our red clad brother out of his shock. Slapping my hands away he growled angrily, "I didn't break nothin' and I didn't cut myself. Why won't you believe me?"

I needed time to analyze the room and Raph was not helping. If I could only piece together the scene then I could surmise what event had transpired earlier. Then I could tell Leo that Raph didn't cut himself, that something else was the cause, that something that was nasty enough to embed glass into a brick wall was the culprit and we could beat the shell out of it for trying to turn us against each other. "You were alone in here right Raph?"

"That's what I've been tellin'ya all along!"

Good thing I was so used to Raphael snapping at everything or I might have taken it personal towards his out burst when he reached back and swatted my shoulder. "Okay," I rubbed at the new sore spot that stung just a little, "It might be… It has to be…"

"Be what?" Mikey blinked curiously looking up from a piece of glass in the wall he was messing with.

"Well… it might seem strange but, I believe you Raph."

"Gee thanks," was the sarcastic reply.

"Lighten up Raph, I'm trying to tell you that it's possible that a particular event had just transpired and you have no memory of it."

"But how-"

"I don't know, but I intend to find out. I need some time alone here…" there was only one way I could think of to get the space I needed. "Hey Mikey I have a sudden craving for your world famous ice cream cookie pizza. Raph could you help him?"

The youngest turtle's eyes got huge in excitement. After the near burning down of the Lair two years ago he was not allowed to cook very often. So anyone asked to help him always got the full puppy eyes. "That was a little too random for you Donnie, but that's okay, I forgive you. Raph, can we? Can we? Pllleeease?"

And right on cue those huge eyes turned pleadingly on Raphael. Our fiery brother glared at me, silently telling me he knew what I was up to and that it was not random -I just needed the room cleared of distractions. "Sure Mikey," he grumbled.

I watched them shuffle out, with the pair gone I set to work. First order of business was to examine the fragments of glass more closely. Applying my scientific scrutiny, I realized what was wrong with my initial impression.

There were no fragments on the floor. How could this be?

No big pieces, no shards… nothing. The floor was immaculate; whatever was not still half hanging in the frame of the mirror was in the wall on the other side of the room. And with even the minimum velocity that would be required at impact to give the force but not shatter the glass would have left a lot less blood on the shards. There would have been a mess on the floor, and most importantly it would have caused the whole room the shake, there would have been a deafening cacophony but there had been none. It was an enigma.

I searched the rest of the room, trying to find anything else that was out of place. A tooth brush, a towel, the towel wracks, cracks in the toilet, anything but all I found was the spare compact left behind from the last time April came to visit. The tiny mirror inside had broke, webbed cracks lined through out the face but all of the glass was still in place until I moved it from the perch on the counter it was on, then all the tiny shards simply crumbled down.

I wanted to tell someone anyone about what I had just seen. Stepping out of the bathroom I saw Leo coming home, "Leo you got to check this out." I didn't want to influence his perception with my findings. I needed someone to confirm just how strange everything was when seeing it with out interruptions.

"What is it?" he asked looking around probably for the others. "Where's the others?" I love it when I'm right.

"Mikey's on Raph duty?" I smiled, he nodded and half smiled back. "But I want you to inspect this room then join me in the kitchen."

He nodded again and I went to see how far the catastrophe had spread. With Leo on his own to check out the evidence, I was free to make sure that the kitchen was still in one piece, or at least in fixable pieces.

In the hall way I saw a little flour that soon became a thin coat. Obviously Mikey was having fun with the flour from the sound of Raph's coughing and choked plea to actually get it into the bowl and not on him. The laughter that was traveling up my chest caught in my throat. I felt cold all of the sudden and a bit dizzy as if I had taken an extra step on a stairwell and there was no stair to find. Down, buried in the powdered flour that sprinkled across the floor… I saw small foot prints. Small, bare, human, foot prints.

Didn't Mikey say something about a little girl that wasn't there?

To be continued...