Chapter 13- Gone

"HE. DID. WHAT?!"

I didn't hear that right. Casey did NOT just tell me that Donnie took Sensei while I was asleep! I run to Master Splinter's room. Don wouldn't take Sensei away! I open the door to his room-Sensei's gone. Okay, so, maybe Donnie does have him, but he wouldn't TAKE Splinter anywhere, away from the rest of us.

"Mikey, listen, jus' try ta calm down an'-"

'He's in his room. Or his lab. He has to be.'

I check Don's room. Empty again. His work space is bare, too. What is going on?

"Where's Raph? Raph!"

"Mikey, he goes topside all th' time now. Ya know that."

This is Casey trying to be funny or something, right? It's just a bad joke. Raph's probably in on it, too, everybody except me's a part of it.

"Raph, Don's missing! WHERE ARE YOU?!"

'Cell! That's it, I'll just call Donnie on his shell cell and he'll pick up and say he's just out to get some kind of boring tech stuff!'

It's not ringing. He NEVER turns it off. It must be dead. Raph! Raph was here last night, so his is charged. It's ringing! But it's echoing... Like the cell is somewhere in the lair.

'He left it here... Why would he leave it here?'

"Leo!"

I charge over to his room. He HAS to be here. I know HE didn't leave... Casey's trying to say something to me. I'm too busy being shaken. Leo's room is empty, too!

"WHERE IS EVERYBODY?!"

"Aw hell. Don't tell me-."

"You've been here! Didn't you see him?"

"No! I been watchin' everythin' fer hours and didn't hear or see nuthin' til you got up!"

This isn't happening. I've just gotta figure out where Don is and he'll find Leo and Raph. Don can find anything.

"What about Donnie? What'd he say to you? Didn't you try to stop him? WHERE DID HE GO?!"

"Look, Mikey, I wasn't here! All's I know is that April told me Don left, an' took Splinter! Me an' her have to take turns watchin' her store. April said she tried talkin' ta Don, but he wouldn't listen. That's all I know!"

He's not joking... He's being serious. It's real, like that first time the four of us went down to Atlantis and everybody just started disappearing. Before Casey can stop me, I run out of the lair, charging into the tunnels toward the closest exit to the surface.

'They didn't leave. They wouldn't do that. I've just gotta find them.'

I start running across rooftops, checking all the dark corners and alleys I pass. Raph will be somewhere in one of them, beating down on some kind of gang. I make my way over to where the Professor lives with his other homeless friends, expecting to see Don talking to him about some kind of cosmic equation, or proving Einstein wrong or something. But he's not there. And I don't see any sign of Raph.

'Raph must be on his bike. If I listen for it, I can find him, and then I'll know where the others are and...'

I don't even know where I'm headed anymore. I'm just moving for the sake of it. I've always been the fastest of the four of us, but until now, I haven't felt like doing much with it. I feel like running now, though, because I'm frightened... I don't know if I'm still running or not, but I realize it now. They really DID leave. They're not waiting somewhere for me to find them, they're all gone. They all left the lair by choice.

'Sensei, Leo, Donnie, Raph... gone.'

I don't remember being out in the city all night. I don't remember how I got to April's apartment or why. I'm just there, and I'm by myself on the sofa, trying not to fall asleep.