So before any of you is going to read this story, please search through your room and remove anything you could use as a possible weapon and place it in a very strong safe and throw away the key into a fire or a tank full of very carnivorous fish. Thank you very much, I feel much safer now.
Have fun reading this! Or not…
Chapter 7: suffocation
He electrified us again and put us into this weird ballroom kinda thing. It's large and high with these insanely long windows which are all covered up by something black. There isn't much here except for a small sort of cage of which the walls are made completely out of some sort of transparent plexiglass. Inside it they had strapped Mikey down to a table. He isn't awake yet and I'm glad for that. He would be down-right terrified if he knew what that crazy dude said just after I knocked him out. Damn it, it's just like how I feel now.
I don't know what to do. I keep hurting my baby brother and still he wants to stay close to me. That open trust of his makes everything even hurt more and it makes me so angry I want to hit him. But at the same time I want to hug him close and promise him no one will ever get his hands on him ever again. If I just wouldn't be such a weak coward and actually come up with a solution for us so we can get out of this hell house and back to our family. I wonder where they are.
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"Master Splinter! Get me the incubator, fast!"
I move my hands onto my older brother's plastron and push down on it. I silently count along in my head while I can hear quick but quiet footsteps coming closer. I bend over and hold my ear close to Leo's mouth, listening for a breath, trying to feel it against my cheek. Nothing. He has stopped breathing.
There have been seizures more times I can count the last few days, or where it mere hours? However, I knew there was something going awfully wrong and I was too slow to come up with a cure. Now my brother has stopped breathing and it took me a full minute to even come in action! Or where it mere seconds? It doesn't change that my brother could have been very dead because of my incompetence. He can still die, even now. He hasn't improved a bit and actually has steadily grown worse. Now he can't even breathe for himself anymore.
I pound on my brother's chest again when I finally hear a rattling sound escape his lips. His chest is moving up and down again and air I didn't know I had been holding, escapes through my mouth. I quickly turn around towards the machinery Sensei readied for me and take the tube in my hands. The procedure doesn't take me too long but after it I feel drowned.
I sink into a chair, staring blankly at Leo's still body being moved up and down because of a machine, not because he can do it himself. I feel like crying but can't. I've been crying too much lately and my tears have dried out. I feel a warm furry paw on my shoulder and turn my head towards a gentle smile. Master Splinter's eyes are sad but with a glint of proudness in them which makes me give him a watery ghost of a smile in return.
Without any prompting I stand up and collapse into my father's arms, relishing the warm hug I so desperately need right now. I don't know when and I don't know for how long. Years, months, weeks? But eventually my father releases me into a soft bed, my mind and body relaxing at the thought of my eldest brother being fine now he's on life-support. Well, not fine. He's far from fine and needs constant supervision. But at least now I don't have to worry about him suddenly stopping to live. At least one concern less. I close my eyes and feel my thoughts leaving my body, joining my three dream-brothers into a world of calmness, joy and family.
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"Turtle"
I look up but there's nothing but speakers. Nothing but the dark room and my brother lying knocked out in a cage not too far away from me.
"As you've seen your brother is in quite a… predicament."
I growl an almost feral growl but stand my ground. This guy isn't getting to me this easily. If I can just try again to keep my calm and to not unintentionally hurt Mikey in the process.
"There's a removable floor under the table your brother is currently lying on. When it opens, fire will come out and burn everything within its reach."
He what?! I immediately get closer towards the thing keeping me from Mike and start throwing punches against it. He isn't going to hurt him. He isn't. And he won't burn. No fire. Me, the ticking time-bomb of the family with his fiery passion, knows how dangerous that particular element can be. Without the control, it'll destroy everything you love.
"Keep trying, reptile, nothing is going to change the situation. On the other hand, it is you who can save the creatures life while he burns."
I don't want to, but still he catches my attention. I stop fighting and kicking and look into the direction the voice seems to come from. Save his life? Save it from what, because there can nothing be as bad as burning alive. Another time I silently thank every which entities for my brother still being asleep.
"You know, fire is a living entity in many ways. It feeds itself, reproduces, moves, it can die but also breathes. There are several ventilators inside his small cabin. If I turn them on, the smoke will be sucked away and your brother will be supplied with fresh oxygen. And this is where you'll come into the picture. You'll fight ten of my minions and for every one you floor, I'll push the button. Your brother's life is in your hands, Red, be careful with it."
There's some static going through the speakers before they turn of completely. As the dude already said, the floor panels were opening up. Suddenly the room is bright because of the orange flames. For a moment I cringe at the thought of my youngest and most innocent brother being devoured and hurt by his own colour. But the cringe soon turns into a look of absolute horror when Mikey starts to howl in pain because of the fire licking his arms, legs, shell and head. I inch closer towards him and look him into his bright blue eyes. He locks his with mine and I can see all the pain, fear and anguish going through them. I want to reassure him, hold him close, take his place, but I can't.
His eyes widen through his screams when a meaty hand grabs my shoulder, turns me around and punches me right in the face. The red angry burning I thought about earlier fills up my veins and clouds my head. I jump forward and fight like a raging animal. Every touch, every sound and every move is a reason for me to attack with the wild furry I didn't even know I possessed. It's like something else takes over my mind and there's nothing there anymore.
The redness disappears and I stand in front of a locked door with behind it my brother, my eldest brother who I just hurt in the worst way possible. I cut him with his own katanna just because he pissed me of. We are only ten but that doesn't mean I can do this to him. I only got so angry because he excelled in the kata Master Splinter taught us and I didn't. We are best buddies, the top of the class. Me and Leo can almost do anything and this time he dared to be better than me. But hurting him, that wasn't what I meant to do.
"Why do you always get so angry, Raph?" I stare up at my blue-clad brother who just got out of the infirmary with a bandaged right arm. I shrug and guiltily look down towards my feet. I can't control myself, I'm weak. "If you can control the fire inside that head of yours, you won't do things you come to regret later. I know that's difficult but you have to try." I smile a little at how easily Leo forgives me. He isn't mad. He gets how hard it is for me to keep myself together.
"I'll try Leo, I promise." A soft pad on my arm gives me the bit of courage I need. "I know you will, little brother. Focus and you'll get there. Focus on us, all of us. Focus."
"Focus Raph, Focus. You're hurting Mikey, Raph. Focus.
I blink a few times at the confusion. That wasn't part of the memory. Leo left after touching me on my arm and saying he knew I would try. He never mentioned to me I should focus. I look around. Men are lying at my feet, either dead or unconscious, I don't know. I don't really care either.
I feel dizzy and a nagging feeling is clenching my gut. There's something wrong but I don't know what. Focus on us. I swirl around, trying to find the voice, Leo's voice, but can't find anything but a small chamber made of plexiglass and filled up with smoke.
Mikey.
"No," I don't shout. I can't shout as my mouth is dry and my throat is squeezed together. "What did you do?" I whisper. Without even noticing I run towards the cell jamming my shoulder against one of the walls. I fall back however but try again and again. At one point I dislocate my shoulder and scream in agony, more for my brother than the pain in my arm.
"You did it, turtle. You killed your brother."
The ventilators are turned on and the room is cleared of all the smoke. The floor panels are long closed so no fire is searing at my poor baby brother anymore. I want to hurl at the sight in front of me though. His skin is a combination of red, black and blisters covering every inch of his back and even large parts of his cheeks and forehead. At some parts the skin had fallen of his legs and arms and the horrible look of utter and complete agony is still written clearly on his attacked face. The worst still is his still body though. His plastron isn't moving up and down and it's clear to me that Mikey, sweet little Mikey, isn't breathing at all.
"Your fault," booms through the ballroom.
And I drop to my knees and keep staring in front of me. My fault. Again. If I had just focused I could've saved him. If I just had listened. If I just had been a better brother. If it just had been me being stuck in there. Everyone but him.
Okaaaaaaaaay, I have the next chapter already finished and ready to update so…. See ya next week!
Gets into her jet and flies, wait no! I don't have a jet. Takes her parents' car and grabs the wheel to, damn it no driver's license either! Grabs her bike and paddles away as hard as she can. BYE!