Thanks to those who have reviewed (a special note to DB... I'm beyond stoked that you're a reader. You're my fav!) The next chapter is well underway, so you shouldn't have to wait long for an update. And as always, I own nothing.
The silence in April's bedroom was total.
The bed was overturned, her grandmother's hand-sewn quilt torn and bloodied. A table lamp lay shattered among shards of glass from a broken window. There was blood drying, rusty brown, on the hardwood floor. The air smelled like sweat and blood and fear.
Raphael stood like a stone, fists clenched, eyes distant. Leonardo could see that he was stunned to silence, swimming in a simmering rage that was waiting for a spark to ignite it. Leo moved forward to grasp him by the shoulder, but stopped short as his eye caught a glimpse of white beneath the crimson-stained splinters of Don's staff. A scrap of paper. He stooped and snatched it up, eyes quickly scanning the Japanese characters. "The game begins. Your move," he murmured.
"What does that mean?" Mike stood at Leo's elbow, eyes wide, face pale.
"I don't know." Leo's chest clenched, a pain radiating up from his stomach, and he blinked quickly to banish the tears that were burning his eyes. How could this be happening?
"What kind of sick fuck thinks this is a game?" Raphael's voice wasn't much more than a ragged whisper. Leo couldn't answer and only crushed the paper in his fist, hand shaking. "What the hell is going on, Leo?"
"It's Bishop." Leo and Raphael both turned to Mike, whose quiet voice was filled with realization, and with fear. "A chess game. It's Bishop."
Raphael's eyes flashed. "I'll kill 'im," he growled, hand on sai, and he moved toward the door. But Leonardo stopped him with an upraised hand.
"We're not going to rush in, Raph. That's what Donny did, and look now. We have to do this cool, use our heads." Leonardo ducked his chin to catch Raphael's eye, and Raph acknowledged his comment with a little growl. "What I don't understand is why. Why April?"
"To draw us out, Leo. She was bait," Raphael snapped. "He knew we'd come after whoever killed her." He turned toward Mike, but stopped short when he saw that his younger brother was no longer there. "Mike?"
Michelangelo was now crouched by the wall, gathering up the broken pieces of Don's bo. Both fists were full, but as he picked up one piece, two more would fall from his hand back to the floor. He wasn't trying now to stop his tears, letting them run free down his cheeks and drip to the floor. "Mike." Leo knelt by his brother's side, reaching to run a hand over his arm. "Come on."
"S'my fault." The words were muffled, mumbled.
"What? Why?" Raphael stared down at Mike with a wrinkled brow.
"I knew." A small, catching sob.
"What did you know, Mike?" Leo cast a warning glance at Raphael as he saw the tendons in Raph's neck throb once with tension. "What do you mean?"
"I knew Donny wanted to find the guys who killed April." Mike looked up at Raphael, over at Leonardo. "We talked about it last night. He's just so angry; I've never seen him like that before. But I never thought…"
"Why didn't you say anything?" rumbled Raphael. From the twitching of his jaw muscles, it was clear that he was trying valiantly to keep his temper in check. "You should have told somebody."
"It's Donny!" Mike protested. "I thought he was just coming here to clean out the apartment, not that he was looking for trouble! Donny doesn't do things like this! You do!" Raphael narrowed his eyes but didn't contradict his brother. "I thought he was just talking!"
"Something changed in him after April died." Leo shook his head. "He blamed himself. He thinks it's his fault." He didn't look at Raphael. The words he was swallowing down didn't need to be said. There would be time for finger-pointing later. And there would be finger-pointing.
"So he's trying to fix it?" Mike ran a hand under his eyes, swiping away his tears and snuffling once.
"Or he's punishing himself," Leo replied grimly.
"So now what, Fearless?" Raphael forced himself to relax his fists. "We know Bishop's got him, but where?"
"His labs, obviously," replied Leo, standing and clenching his own fists. "That's what he's wanted all along. He's obsessed with figuring out the mutagen, with what made us. But Donny walked right into his hands." Leo looked down at the blood on the floor and ground his teeth. "Dammit."
"We have to go get him." Mike stood, pressing a few splinters of the staff into his palm. "Now."
"We will, Mike." Leo spoke around clenched teeth. "We'll get him."
Together the brothers silently filed out of April's bedroom, the things that they had seen there seared into their memories. Raphael was almost vibrating with rage, eyes wild and jaw muscles jumping, but he kept was obviously trying his damndest to keep control. Mike had slipped a few pieces of Don's bo into his belt, blanching at the gummy blood they left on his hands.
Raphael led the way out the window, standing for a few seconds on the fire escape and looking out over the street, taking in a view that he suddenly felt he might not see again. There would be no reason to return here, to April's, to see her street, to hear the neighbors, to smell the smells of the restaurant on the corner. There wouldn't be a point. Because April was gone.
As he felt the presence of his brothers behind him, Raph began to climb toward the roof, setting his jaw. They may have lost April, but there was no way in hell that they were going to lose Don. There was going to be blood today.