Don let the phone go to voicemail for the fifth time. "Hey, Kait, it's me. Please, please call me when you get this. You have me worried sick."

He ended the call to her voicemail and instantly flipped through his contacts and started another call.

After three rings the phone was answered. "Milo Evans." Came the man's automatic response.

"Milo, it's Don. I'm worried about Kait. It's been three hours and I haven't heard anything from Kait yet. Has she called you or anything?" He knew his voice was anxious, but he couldn't help it.

"No, she hasn't. I can go to the vet's office and check on her. But it shouldn't have taken this long. I'll call you when I find something out."

"Thank you, Milo."

Milo hung up the phone and walked quickly to the vet's office, looking for Kait or any sign of her. But in the ten minute walk, there was nothing. When he pushed open the door, Dr. Ortega was already waiting in the office, her face contorted in worry. Dr. Ortega was Milo and Kait's favorite vet. She always knew how to handle their spunky and often difficult pets, much less their owners. Milo also joked that that Kait liked going there because Dr. Ortega made her feel tall, the latter woman only a few inches over five feet tall. She had her dark hair up in a bun, a few strands sliding out, and her skin was paled in tiredness as she looked at him, disappointed.

"Where's Ms. Dawes?" she asked, her voice a combination of exasperated and worried.

Milo's breathing hitched as he tried to come up with an excuse on the spot. "She had to, uh…" It was too late at night for him to be conniving. "Handle something with a family friend." That sounded believable. "She sent me to make sure Cujo was alright."

Dr. Ortega was having none of that. "She didn't even tell the receptionist. She went out to take a call and just never came back in."

"Uh, yeah…" Milo fished. "That was the friend…the family friend…that she had to go deal with." He pointed out the door; his nerves making him play a game of charades.

She came around the counter and stood face to face with Milo, her little self intimidating. "If something happens, I will call the cops. They deserve to know if something happened to her. If you care about your friend, you would too."

Milo violently shook his head. "Dr. Ortega, please, you've got to believe me that's she's okay. She just isn't where we all thought she would be. The cops are the last ones that would be able to help us. So please, just tell me how Cujo is doing and I will be out of your hair." His hands had come up in front of him, almost pleading with her as his heart thundered in his chest.

With a deflating sigh, she nodded. "She's fine now. We had to pump her stomach. Not sure what she ate, though, so we'll keep her for tonight. Ms. Dawes can come get her in the morning, if she's where you think she will be by then." The point of the comment hit home in Milo's pulse.

He gave her a nod and a mumbled thank you as he backed out of the office, back to the street, his phone already coming out of his pocket to dial Don.

"Don."

"Yeah, it's Milo. She isn't at the vet's." Milo sighed, hating to be the bearer of bad news as he trudged back to his house.

"What?!" Don let out before he could control it. Milo heard him take a deep breath. "I'll get groups to go looking for her. Please keep your phone on in case she tries to call you." He could hear a slight shaking in Don's voice.

Milo nodded, even though Don couldn't see it. "Of course." He breathed. "Keep me posted. I'm as worried about her as you are."

"Alright." Don ended the call and left Milo with static in his ear.

Don dropped the phone onto the desk, running his hands over his head in frustration. Slowly, he stood from his chair and shuffled into the living room, where the rest of his family was sitting, nervously waiting for the news about Kait.

"We don't know where she is." He mumbled, dropping himself onto the couch.

Leo nodded. He was the calmest of them all. "Then let's get groups out to look for her." He stood, walking up the stairs to take his swords off the wall of his room.

Despite Don's panic, Leo's certainty calmed him a little and he followed his brother's example and took his bo out of his room and waited in the living room for everyone else.

When all four were congregated, Leo assigned them into two groups: Mikey with himself and Raph with Don. They would separate to scour the borough to find her.

It had been two hours, and there was no sign of her anywhere along where she could be, even where she wasn't supposed to be. Don wanted to keep looking, but a downpour pulled him back to the safety of the sewers with his brothers.

She could hear the rain pounding on the stone building around her. She could hear her own breathing. She could hear them talking outside of the room. She could feel the ropes around her wrists, bound behind her back, the rope around her ankles, the cold stone beneath her, and the sack over her head. She couldn't see anything in the dark of the room and beneath the sack and she couldn't understand the voices.

Kait wasn't a very religious person, she never really had been, but she felt the need to begin praying in hopes that anything could help as she sat in what she thought was the lair of the Foot. Her mind was surprisingly forthcoming as she dug through her memories to remember her childhood prayers.

"Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help or sought thy intercession, was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins my Mother…"

She would have kept praying, more of a whisper to herself and what might have been listening, but she head a dragging, sliding sound somewhere in the room. She paused for a moment, holding her breath to create silence in the room. When no other sounds permeated the still air, she continued.

"To thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful; O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer them. Amen." Even in the pitch black, she closed her eyes, wishing it wouldn't do any harm to hope.

There was a harsh cackle in the room with her, almost making Kait scream and jump off the floor. The laugh was the embodiment of every witch she had ever seen in a movie, the sound alone making Kait's skin crawl. "How dare you call to our Blessed Mother!" A sandpaper voice shouted in the darkness. "How dare you defile Her prayer with your filth, you harlot!"

Kait would have retaliated, but she was too terrified as she sat trembling on the floor. She wanted to protect her honor, so to speak.

As scared as she was, though, the witch gave her a clue. She was among fellow Catholics.

Long, thin, cracked hands grabbed Kait around her upper arms and dragged her to her feet, pushing and pulling her simultaneously out of the room, or so Kait assumed. She could suddenly see light on the other side of her hood as she stumbled out of what had been her corner of the world. The voices were louder and closer, allowing Kait a clearer sense of the conversation, but still no words could be understood. She listened closely until the witch suddenly pushed her down, her stomach dropping as she crashed to the floor. Kait couldn't help but call out as her arms and hips took the brunt of the impact.

"I have brought the monster's mistress." The witch called to someone else.

Kait couldn't help but assume they knew she was sleeping with Don. "He isn't a monster!" she shouted out of reflex, fighting for Don despite her nerves and fears.

She heard a man laugh somewhere to her right. Despite the sack still being over her head, she turned in his direction. "I did not believe them, did not believe that suck demons existed and that they could tempt someone of the Faith into their berth. But then they showed me pictures that were undeniable evidence of your sin."

"The Foot." Kait hissed. They were a day early.

The man laughed again. "Yes, they did mention that they were from the Foot."

The hood was yanked off her head and she was exposed to the harsh light of hundreds upon hundreds of candles. As she blinked her eyes to adjust to the light, she saw an old, dilapidated church come out of the glare. She was surrounded by old women—witch a still very apt description-innun get ups as well as an aging priest, who currently leaned over her.

"Hmmm…" the priest rumbled to himself, looking at her. "I wouldn't be surprised if she seduced the demon herself!" he shouted to his congregation.

"He's not a demon!" Kait tried to shout back, but her voice was broken with fear.

The priest kneeled down to her level, smoothing out her hair. "Are you sure?" he murmured, like he spoke to a child. "How can you deny that he told you lies to bed you, to corrupt you, to spread his seed in you?"

"They can't have children." She shot back, bitter. Don had told her the entire story behind Emily's capture, so she knew the sad truth about their quasi humanity.

The priest leaned even closer. "Did he tell you that before he took you to bed?" he whispered to her. "What will he tell you when he meets you at the gates of Hell?"

Suddenly, his hand was around her throat as he dragged her to her feet. "Tie her to the cross beam!" he shouted to the congregation around him.

Two of the witch-nuns grabbed her arms and dragged her across the main room. The voices were getting louder, and the women were chanting a familiar prayer. "Saint Michael, the Archangel, defend us in battle." Kait was forced onto her knees and her arms extended. "Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil." She heard the grunt of women and the screech of a heavy weight on stone. "May God rebuke him, we humbly pray," The weight, a wooden beam, was pressed against her shoulders. "And do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God." Ropes began to wrap tightly, painfully, around her upper arms and wooden beam. "Cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls." She was thrown onto her back, fastened to the beam. "Amen."

Don, in his last ditch attempt at trying to find his love, climbed up the fire escape to her apartment. He let himself in through the window into the dark and empty apartment. Most of her things still sat there, only her essential belongings lived with her in the lair.

He looked around him, not sure what exactly he was looking for, but having a feeling in the pit of his stomach that something was there.

And then he saw it, a note stuck to one of Kait's beautiful paintings. Scrawled in perfect Japanese was a strange note, which he read quickly.

It is about time that your family answered for itself. That includes the new woman you have claimed for yourself. Did you know she was christened Catholic? Let her faith decide her fate.

Don shoved the paper into a pouch onto his belt as he went running out to the roof and down the escape to reach his family. He already had an idea of where she could be. A few years before even Emily had met the boys, there was a cult that had discovered them. They were exuberant Catholics that chose to focus on the fire and brimstone of their religion. The boys had dismantled the cult, sending most of the members to the hands of the police on charges of torture and attempted murder. But the priest that led them, as Don remembered as he ran to the lair, had a younger brother, also a priest.

He burst through the door once Mikey opened it, panting from his long run. "The cult." He gasped out, trying to catch his breath. "The Foot gave her to the cult." He handed the note to Leo to disseminate the information to the others.

His older brother nodded, handing the note to Splinter, who had come out to main room to wait for Don. "Do you think they're arrogant enough to still be at the old church we found them at?"

Splinter nodded. "I think they are pompous enough for that, my son." He looked amongst his brood of sons, seeing their strained emotions. "We will search tonight. Bring your weapons, expect a battle." His voice was calm and quiet as he laid down the family's decision in one fell swoop. He walked calmly to his room and took his own staff off its place on the wall before he rejoined his anxious sons. "Let us leave now. Tell Casey to take Emily tonight. We have no choice any longer."

Don nodded and pulled out his phone to call their human comrade.

Kait heard them approach her secluded corner of the church, chanting in Latin. At this point, what must have been several hours after they tied her to the beam, she knew what was going to happen to her. She knew what was to be her fate. And as they came for her, she couldn't help but begin to cry, the tears sliding down her cheeks and side of her face.

They pulled her to her feet, having to mostly hold her up as she shook under the weight of the beam that weighed nearly the same as her whole body. As the Latin continued, they led her to the crumbling altar. Erected in front of the Crucifix was a tall wooden pole.

It was nearly midnight when the family found itself outside the crumbling church from which they had pulled the cult four years before. As Splinter had predicted, the main room was flooded by candlelight. With a signal from Splinter, they all moved in, pushing through a broken door.

A few of the more spry nuns pulled her onto the altar, in front of the pole, pushing the beam against the upright. The Priest climbed up with her, wielding a hammer and a long nail, which he drove through the beam into the upright. Kait's tears picked up to a downpour as his chanting grew in fervor and volume, almost shouting in her face.

A witch handed the priest another nail. The tip was put in the palm of her left hand.

Don heard a woman's scream. Bloodcurdling, pained, terrified. In the pit of his stomach, and in his heart, that it was Kait.

But they were still a room away from the candlelit cathedral room.

Another scream, equal to the last, came a few moments later.

Don was running now, breaking from his family.

Another scream.

And then another.

There was silence when Don pushed open the door into the main room, running headlong towards her.

Kait heard the door fling open behind her. And she knew, in the pit of her stomach, and in her heart, that it was Don.

"Don!" she screeched, her voice garbled by pain.

Don ran straight to her voice, straight past the cult members, pushing them to the side. He pushed the priest out of his way as he reached the altar.

With blood dripping down to the floor from her hands and feet, her head pressed back against the wood in pain, nailed to a wooden cross, was his Kait, barely hanging on to the threads of consciousness.

AN: I'm back!

And so is Kait, well, kinda….

And chaos has in sued! Mwahahaha! Sorry…

So, I know the end is choppy, but it's supposed to be. You know, symbolism and all. Stress makes for lack of coherency.

And more is to come, of course. But in the mean time, questions, comments, and concerns are loved.

Oh, and if I offended any Catholics cause I made the cult a bunch of Catholic psychos, it was not intended. I picked the religion because I am Catholic so I know the prayers and stuff.

Sincerely,
C M