My Best Friend

Author Dark Closure

Note: Sfhlaadmoew needed some time off so you get another cruddy chapter by me. MISS HER!

Chapter 14

The room was dark, I couldnt see who was making the sobbing noise. "Hello?" I asked as I slowly walked towards the sound as I got closer I could see my brothers lit by dim candle light, their backs towards me as they stood with our father and friends, all of them crying.

Moving closer I tried to get Mikeys attention. "Hey Mikey whats going on?" I asked reaching for his arm, my fingers passing threw it. Whats going on here? Why couldnt I touch my own brother? I tried again, but the result was the same.

"If he had only listened to me!" Raphael growled. If who had only listened? What was going on here? I had to know. Pushing past my brothers I stopped as I saw the sight before me. My stomach twisting as I started to feel sick.

I was lying on the floor, lifeless, blood splattered around my body like oddly shaped wings. This couldnt be real, it had to be a trick…a bad dream…anything. Why was I there? Why was...? My body tilted back, shadow giving way as I fell back, there was nothing for me to grab a hold of. The air whistled past my ears deafening me from all sounds until the ground reached up and caught me with a thick wet sounding snap. My eyes were open at the sound, that wasn't part of my dream. Nor was the sudden hysterical fit of screaming and laughter that was fighting itself out of the same throat. My heart stilled at the sound, at the struggling body of my brother on the cold cement floor. With out thought I leaped over the back of the couch I was sleeping on, landing in a dash. I got to Raphael's side, his head was red, green skin broken open as blood seeped out to give a soft thick trail down over his eye. It caressed his cheek and beak as I slowly sat him up, Donatello's shouts were above me as he tried to calm Michelangelo down from his mental break.

"What the shell happened here?" I heard the wet snapping of bone as I helped Raphael into a sitting position, his arm in a sickly angle.

"It ain't his fault Leo," Raphael hiss through clenched teeth, holding his arm, his head fell back, breathing hard. "It ain't his fault. I screwed up... I screwed... up... every... thin'..." his eyes rolled back in his head and he was unconscious.

"Donnie," I shouted up, holding my brother closer to me by instinct, trying to be careful of his arm. "Donnie, get Mikey into the lab, I think Raph just went into shock!"

I managed to move my brother up to his feet and into my arms for better carrying. Raphael was heavier than the rest of us, it made sense due to how much he liked to bench press and use that punching bag of his. I was only glad that he wasn't that much heavier. With in moments he was on a table, arm being reset as I watched over our little brother. Something was so wrong, he was in the corner, rocking back and forth mumbling to himself that he was so sorry for what he had done. He would talk about how he meant it but it wasn't him that had meant to do it, he had enjoyed it yet he did not. He was counterdictering himself left and right, over and over again. This had to stop, someone just got savirly hurt. Scratches and claw marks were one thing but a full out attempt on someone's life was another. This had to stop, now.

"Mikey," I padded over to our brother who was holding his head, squatted down like a feeble child. "Mikey, look at me."

"No, no, I didn't mean to, yes I did, no I didn't. I didn't mean to hurt Raph, Raph's my friend, my brother. He needed to be hurt, taught a lesson because he can't go around mingling with people like that. No NO!"

My hand grasped his shoulder forcing him around, "Mikey snap out of it!" For emphasis I snapped my fingers in front of his eyes. His pupils dilated for a second before focusing on my hand. His thick fingers coming up to mine, lacing with, caressing, he was absolutely fascinated with my hand, "Mikey?"

"I had a bad dream," he deftly rested his head against my shoulder. I suddenly felt like I wasn't holding my brother, but someone's child. Why was I feeling like that? "I dreamed that daddy came home angry again."

"Uh, Mikey? You okay?"

"Who's Mikey?" He looked up at me, there was something different with his eyes, something... soul-less.

"You're Michelangelo, don't you remember?" It felt weird to talk to him, it was as if all the memories and self awareness was there but was hiding behind something, struggling to take control once more.

The sea-green turtle frowned, "That's not my name. I'm Jessica, don't you remember mommy."

A chill ran down the back of my shell, hissing with cold fingers. Usually I would think it was all a joke, just something dreamed up by the ever so working mind of our playful Michelangelo, but it was those eyes, haunting and bottomless with out life that made the lump in my throat form. He thought he was this "Jessica" and that I really was his "mommy". What world were those eyes seeing? What truths and lies were being told and shown?

"Okay," I took a long deep breath. I needed information, might as well try to get it out now, "Jessica, um... why are you afraid of 'Daddy'?"

The body up against mine quivered in genuine fear, "Daddy doesn't like my friends." Michelangelo shifted, wrapping his arms around my waist, burying his face into a yellow chest, "Don't leave me alone with Daddy."

I didn't know what to think, not until something shifted. It wasn't physical, it was something else, perhaps beyond the spiritual planes I was used to. My brother's skin became hot to the touch in a matter of seconds, his discomfort shown in his scrunched up face as he whispered for me to promise not to leave him, to never leave him. When I promised that was when I truly felt it, a sickening lurch in the stomach, bile churning at the feeling of maliciousness. Once blue eyes were black from pupil dilation, his once sweet smile twisted into a hideous grin as his grip on me became painfully tight his voice ragged, "A promise is a promise."

"Mike," I gripped at his wrists behind my back trying to get him to let go, it was getting hard to breath due to the grip that encompassed me. "You're hurting me, Mikey."

"You've broken your promise Jessica, over and over again!" he was shouting at me, spit speckling my face as he growled in that horrendous voice that was not my beloved sibling. "You always left Daddy behind! Well you can't do that again Jessica! I won't allow it!!" His voice became a mocking softness, "And I'll enjoy it, I'll even sing you a lullaby when I put you to rest. It'll be okay sweetie, we'll all be okay together."

"No, this," I gasped for air, "Isn't you." A thick cough as the air I just got into my lungs was squished out, "M-Mi-k..." too hard to talk, too hard to breath. My ribs were throbbing, threatening to give way to the powerful arms that crushed down upon them. The edges of my sight started to grow black as I heard the song of "A Mocking Bird" sung tenderly in my ear. Suddenly I could breath again, the small jerk of Michelangelo's body forgotten as I fell to the side greedily drinking in fresh oxygen. Suffocation while being sung too, not one way I wanted to go out in fact I had nightmares when I was little of that happening. Some big and scary guy finding all of us asleep while Master Splinter was out and decided it was best to put us out of our mutate misery. The thought terrified me to the point that it haunted my dreams, not until I was taught how to properly meditate did I manage to scare off the dreams and what they brought.

"Leo," hands were on my face and shoulder. "Leo, can you look at me?"

"D-Donnie?" I coughed hard, my lungs stinging, my sides throbbing, "Wha-what happened to Mikey?"

Eyes were wet from unshed tears brought on by fear of the unknown and terror of having his family attack one another. Donatello blinked a few times while sitting me up, "I-I gave him a tranq. He'll be out for a few hours. Leo, what... do we do? I mean, I have no idea what is wrong with him, why he would do something like this."

That was when it clicked, I quickly looked over at Raphael, his chest raising and lowering with each slumbering breath, his casted arm laid over his stomach. Raphael... he knew, he knew from the very beginning what was going on, he had... He had tried to take this all on by himself. Why didn't he say anything, why...

"Donatello," gave one last cough, my voice evening out. "I think... our answer lies in Raph."

To Be Continued...