Chapter Ten

Leo spent a few hours moving across the rooftops above the city, though he didn't really pay attention to what was going on below. He felt strangely vibrant and alive, and leaping from building to building was effortless. He was keenly aware of the feeling of night around him, as if it were a living, breathing thing; the sounds, the smells, the wonderful darkness of it.

It seemed a shame to head below ground, especially with those horrible smells, but he was hungry. The funny thing was, he had no desire for pizza, or anything else he normally ate; he kept picturing things that were red and juicy, like berries. Funnier still was that this craving he couldn't quite name wasn't for anything that was sweet, tart, or remotely berry-like.

"The psycho returns," Mikey said caustically as Leo dropped into the den.

"Up yours, Mike."

Splinter shot him a warning look. "Leonardo," he began lowly, "I think that-"

"You know what?" Leo interrupted, temper suddenly flaring hot as fire through his center. "I don't give a crap what you think. And I don't give a crap what he thinks-" he pointed at Mikey, "or him, or him," he finished, pointing at Raph and Don, who were gawking at him like he had lost what was left of his mind.

Raph recovered first, his face turning stormy. "There are a lot of things you don't do around here," he said in a very low, very dangerous voice, "but the number one thing no one does - ever - is talk to Master Splinter like that."

"Didn't I just say," Leo began, just as low and dangerously, "that I don't give a shit about you or your opinion?"

"That's not an opinion - it's a fact."

"Kiss my ass."

Raph lunged for him; Leo dodged easily. Then, almost as an afterthought, he swung his foot up and kicked Raph in the gut. Raph stumbled and fell on his hands and knees, where he coughed and struggled for air.

Behind him, Don had his hands on Mikey's shoulders, looking torn between helping Raph and taking Mikey and running for cover. Mikey looked too angry to run, but he also looked too stunned to do more than stare. Don looked angry, but he looked scared, too. He stared at Leo like he was a stranger.

Splinter was staring too, his expression all too clear. He was shocked and deeply disappointed. Leo snorted and shook his head.

"Oh, so I make a few mistakes and suddenly I'm not good enough?" he sneered, his tone sharp and accusing. "I can't mess up like everyone else around here? Well, I've got news for you; it wasn't my idea to make me leader. Nobody ever asked me what I wanted. So if I've turned out to be a lousy choice in the end, that's your fault, not mine."

Mikey and Don were gaping like they couldn't believe what they were hearing. Leo could scarcely believe it himself - but at the same time he felt elated. It felt good to get all his dark feelings out in the open.

Splinter looked so stunned, and so hurt, he almost felt bad about it...almost.

On the floor, Raph had finally got his breath and was struggling to get up. "That's it," he coughed. "You're asking to get your ass handed to you and then some."

"Let me know when you find someone who can do that," said Leo, before calmly nudging him with his foot.

Well, nudged was probably the wrong word. A mere nudge wouldn't have rolled Raph across the floor until he crashed into a table. While table and contents crashed on the floor and his brother, Leo turned away emotionlessly and climbed out of his home. As he darted down the dark tunnels, it occurred to him that if he kept this kind of thing up, it probably wouldn't be his home anymore.

He didn't care. He had Arella. He would be perfectly content if it were just the two of them. Maybe he could talk her into moving to Japan soon. Or maybe back to the homeland of her ancestors. As long as they were alone and together, he would be happy.

When he reached her apartment, the ladder was resting outside the open window, and candles burned inside. The fragrance was heady and welcoming, like she had been expecting him. Brimming with love, Leo hurried inside, kicking the ladder down and closing the window behind him.

"Just a moment," said Arella.

Leo turned and noticed that a curtain had been pulled around the back corner, where the toilet and sink were. Arella was moving around behind it, and he heard the sound of water running. "Take your time," he said.

He sat down and let his eyes wander. It was small, but he had come to love this place. It felt more homey than home these days. He looked over at the new painting, the one Arella had been working on earlier today.

It was of an elaborate fountain, with green grass stretching in front of it and trees growing nearby. Behind it was a blue-gray sky and tall buildings. Like all her other pictures, there were no people around, though it was clearly a public place.

"Where's this supposed to be?" he wondered.

Behind the curtain, he saw the vague outline of Arella raising her arms and wiggling into something. "Grant Park, in Chicago."

"Chicago?" Leo echoed in surprise. "You've been there?"

"Several times. I've been all over."

Leo felt himself smile, affection swelling inside him. "My little Rey is so well-traveled."

Arella chuckled - that liquid velvet sound that made him shiver pleasantly. He had to remember to make her laugh more often.

Things grew quiet behind the curtain, and Leo looked at the painting again. Something about that name - Grant - reminded him of something, but he couldn't think of it.

Arella suddenly pushed back the curtain, and then all thought vanished from his mind.

She was dressed in a tiny slip of a nightie; pearl-gray with a scalloped hem and string-thin straps. It hung just past her bottom and shifted around her like flower petals as she moved. It was fairly sheer in the candlelight and he was pretty sure she wasn't wearing anything underneath.

Smiling coyly, she tapped his nose as she floated past him. "Bedtime, Little Leo," she purred.

Leo wasn't sure if that was or wasn't the invitation it sounded like, but he didn't care right now. Arella paused to latch the window, then bent to turn the bed down, and Leo all but dove onto the mattress and rested his head comfortably on the pillow. Her smile a little sly now, Arella crawled up beside him and stretched out across him, resting on his plastron as she straddled him.

Her soft curves brushed him through the thin fabric of her nightie, making him shiver as he ran his hands down her back. Her mouth felt firm and hungry as it sought his, and he shut his eyes and let himself be swept away to wherever this was taking him.

Arella's lips and hands moved all over his face, shoulders and throat, whisking his breath away with her haste. She kissed and nuzzled the hollow of his throat before drifting to a spot a little higher.

Leo felt his head spin, like the world had melted away and he was falling freely. Falling to a place where nothing else existed; just him and the girl he loved. He longed to go to such a place, and he vaguely felt the shape of his own arms as they grappled for Arella, pulling her closer as he clutched at her curls.

And then a sound shattered the moment like a goblet crashing to the floor. Leo let out a startled cry; all of a sudden he was in pain.

His head spun and the world was like a blinding pool of color before his eyes, and the revelation suddenly came to him that he had been in pain the entire time. He just hadn't noticed. Not until Arella pulled away and sat up. She looked down at him with eyes glittering like green fire and lips stained like she had gotten a little too carried away with a jar of cherry preserves.

The sound came again; knocking. Someone was knocking on the door.

Leo opened his mouth to scream - for help and for the sheer insanity of what he was seeing. Arella slapped her hand over his mouth with such force he saw stars and felt the impact rattle painfully through his neck.

Arella's smile was sweet and sadistic as her eyes bore into his. Something dark lit within them, something ancient and feral. Why didn't he see it sooner?

"It's late, Jim," Arella called out calmly. "What do you want?"

Jim belched, and he sounded tipsy as he spoke. "Just wondering if you've seen Rick. He hasn't been around in a few days."

Arella's red lips peeled back into a delighted grin, revealing two pointed teeth, long and curved and slender as a cat's. "No, Jim, I haven't seen Rick."

She placed the faintest emphasis on 'seen', followed by drawing her pink tongue over her lips.

Jim left, and Arella ran a delicate fingertip over her mouth, wiping it clean. Leo watched her slide it over her tongue, thinking about how he had always thought those little hands were so delicate, so fragile. The hand clamped over his mouth and pinning him down to the mattress was none of those things.

She felt and looked airy and insubstantial, straddled on him like that, but he was suddenly filled with the knowledge that he couldn't have thrown her off if he tried. And he couldn't try; he felt dizzy and weak, the same way he had when he woke up this morning, only much, much worse.

Now he knew why.

Arella 'tsked' at him. "Poor Little Leo," she cooed. "Is your little fantasy all broken to pieces?"

Her tone was taunting and cruel. She knew he was in pain - both physically and emotionally - and was mocking him for it.

He didn't want to face this. He wanted to wake up from this nightmare or just die and be done with it. And he was alone - completely alone. He had burned too many bridges at home to expect anyone to help him now.

Arella chuckled - it didn't make him shiver in delight this time - and withdrew her hand. Leo's head rolled to the side, where he lay limply, watching her out of the corner of his eye.

"I've come across easy prey before," Arella noted, sounding amused, "but you..."

She gave her head a shake. "You were downright ridiculous. So lost and lonely, you may as well have handed yourself to me with a little pink bow around your neck."

She laughed a second later and rolled off him, curling up at his side with her head propped on her palm.

"You're really quite pathetic," she mused. "All that whining...it really got tiring to listen to. And you really couldn't tell that I was only humoring you all this time? Some ninja you turned out to be."

I'm going to die, Leo thought. He had survived so many battles, beaten so many odds, and this was how his life would end. And he would die, he thought bitterly as tears stung his eyes, with his family believing that he hated them.

And then another thought struck him, one so horrible it made his eyes dry as they widened.

Maybe death wasn't in his future after all, but something...else. His sudden sensitivity to light, and that energized feeling he got after the sun went down, and that craving for something red...

Arella pursed her plump lips and tapped his nose. "I'm not interested in keeping you, Little Leo," she told him coldly. "I was never interested in making you my pet. You would need to be a lot more special than you are for me to give you that privilege."

Leo caught his ragged breath; had he been thinking out loud without knowing it? No, he was so weak he couldn't talk. No, she had been listening to the one thing no being, living or otherwise, had any business listening to; his thoughts.

It was with a chill of horror that he realized she must have been peering into his mind the entire time, looking into the place she didn't belong and playing off his worries and fears. Arella smiled jovially at him, clearly amused that he had finally figured it out.

"You'd almost make a fun pet," she allowed, drawing her hot hand over his face. "But that isn't what I want from you."

Leo's senses and muscles pulled tight, knowing what was coming. Somehow - he wasn't sure how he managed it - he pulled together the sliver of strength he had left and rolled off the bed just as she tried to strike.

He hit the floor with a painful thump and staggered to his feet. He didn't stop to think or look where she was; he grappled for the window and tugged. It refused to budge and his addled mind remembered the latch.

He fumbled at it in vain - his fingers were too numb and uncoordinated to work it - before giving up. Seizing the chair, he swung with all his might. The window shattered and he threw himself into the air even as the glass fell.

He tried to grab onto something to slow his fall, but there was nothing to grab. He hit the pavement sharply, the impact rattling his bones and knocking the wind out of him as the glass cut into his skin. Nerves burning and lungs heaving, Leo scrambled to his feet and took off running.

He truly tried to run. He tried with all his might, but with his body drained - literally - and his feet torn on the glass, all he could manage was a limping shuffle. Panting, he lumbered for the grate - in desperation he was hoping that he could outmaneuver her if he was in the sewers - and felt ice water shoot through his veins.

The Dumpster had been moved. It now rested squarely over the grate, blocking it completely. Leo knew he could move it - but even if he had all his strength, it would still take him several long pushes to shove it out of the way.

He didn't have that kind of strength, or that kind of time.

Behind him, he heard a sound. A soft, quiet sound, like a nail scratching across stone. His tired heart pounding in his ears, Leo turned slowly.

And felt everything he knew to be real and right in the world being ripped from its foundations.

Arella was clinging to the wall. Not in the way that he had, fingers and toes gripping at window ledges - no. She was clinging directly to the brick, descending headfirst toward him - like a lizard. Like a spider. Her arms and legs were bent at inhuman angles.

That's because she is inhuman, a voice inside him said. She's a...

He couldn't think of the word. He knew it, and he was sure that he knew it - knew what Arella truly was - but it was like someone had placed a cover in his mind, hiding it. He couldn't form the word in his mind - or with his mouth.

Arella's own mouth was open, lips pulled back in a feral grin as she peered down at him through the curls tangled around her face. "Go ahead and run, Little Leo," she called, voice soft and lilting. "I greatly enjoy this part of the hunt."

Leo started to move, but he still couldn't run. Fiery pain shot through the bottoms of his feet and up his legs, and he left streaks of blood in his wake. He could feel bits of glass still stuck in his skin; he probably needed stitches.

He didn't care. All he cared about was getting away, getting to safety. But where was it safe? Where could he go where she couldn't reach him?

The answer came to him amidst the jumble of memories swarming in his mind, memories of old books and black-and-white movies. He doubted any of what he had ever seen, heard or read was true - a thought that almost made him laugh out loud hysterically. He had never believed that any of it was true, yet here he was. Trying to escape something that by all rights shouldn't exist.

Still, his mind focused on one bit of lore that hinted at truth; Splinter had told Arella she wasn't welcome in their home, and she had immediately left. And she had never come back, instead waiting for him to go to her.

That was where it was safe. He had to go home. He had to go home and warn his family.

Behind him he heard a soft thump; Arella dropping from the wall and landing quietly on the ground, gentle and light as a cat. He suddenly had an image of a slinking panther, like he had seen in nature films, prowling through the shadows as it stalked its prey. No doubt Arella looked the same as she followed him.

Leo didn't stop to look. He kept on going, dragging his near-useless feet with him, wincing and grunting with every step. He bumped into and knocked over a trash can; it banged and rolled across the ground, making a dog bark in the distance. Arella chuckled quietly.

Help me, Leo thought silently, desperately. Someone, anyone, help me...

A silent plea that was both a desperate cry and a prayer. That was what he was doing now; praying for his life, his very soul.

Leo didn't often look to a higher power - but he had never faced something that was altogether evil like this. And that was what Arella was. Evil.

She chuckled again. Her voice was close - much too close.

"That's right," she cooed. "I'm like nothing you've ever faced before. And go ahead and yell for help if you want; it would be interesting to see what would happen when the neighbors come running out and see you and me together. Who would they help, I wonder?"

"Get out of my head," Leo hissed.

"Never bothered you before."

Grunting and panting, Leo stumbled off the sidewalk and onto the empty street. And then his eye fell on something that made his veins fill with relief and hope; a sewer lid.

It was several feet away, and it would take a minute to pry it open. Too late, he thought, body aching with exhaustion and terror. He would never make it.

As he staggered toward the lid, he looked over his shoulder. Arella was still standing on the curb, her face hidden in shadow. The shape of her eyes shone in the darkness - a yellow-white glow. The eyeshine of an animal who could see in the dark.

"Go on home," Arella said calmly. "I'm not going to chase you."

"Liar," Leo spat as he knelt and fumbled for the lid.

Everything she had ever said to him was a lie. Everything.

"Not everything," she corrected. "The story of my history was the truth. It's not my fault you thought I was joking."

"Stay out of my head!"

"You're a little fool, you know that? I can't go where I'm not welcome. I'm in your head because you want me there."

"I don't," Leo said desperately as he managed to lift and roll the lid aside. "Not anymore."

She laughed musically. "Too late," she said sweetly.

She was mocking him and enjoying it, but she didn't move, even as he gripped the edge of the hole and tensed to drop down. He knew that she knew as well as he did that she couldn't reach him once he was inside his home, so he didn't understand what she was waiting for.

"It doesn't matter," she said, answering his thoughts. "I'm satisfied for tonight. But I'll come for you tomorrow," she added, her soft tone full of warning. "I'm going to call you, and you're going to come to me. You're going to give me what I want."

Leo braced himself; the impact when he landed was going to hurt. "Never."

He dropped below the street and hobbled home through the pain, with Arella's twisted laughter echoing in his ears.