Chapter Eleven
As soon as Leo half-climbed, half-fell down the ladder and into the safety of his own home, as soon as his torn and bloody feet hit the floor, Raph pounced him.
"How can you even think of showing your face around here after that shit you pulled?" he roared as he grabbed him and shook him.
He looked like he wanted to punch him, but Splinter was watching, so he settled for violent shaking.
Leo was trembling in pain and exhaustion and crying tears of relief. He fell forward, grabbing Raph's shoulders. He didn't care what had happened today - it felt like a lifetime ago. None of that mattered now. Just because he was safe didn't mean it was over. He had to protect his family from this threat - he had to tell them.
"You have to help me," he whispered, too weak to so much as raise his voice.
"Help you?" Raph spat. "You were a complete asshole to Splinter and now you want me to help you?"
"Raph, please," Leo begged, stumbling.
His legs didn't want to hold him anymore; as he continued to stumble forward, he pushed Raph back. Raph wobbled and nearly tumbled backward down the stairs. He let go of Leo to grab onto the railing; Leo continued to cling to his brother.
"It's Arella," he said desperately. "She's-"
"The reason you're acting like this," Raph growled. "You started acting bonkers practically the minute you met her, and-"
"Raph, please! You have to help me stop her!"
"Stop her?" Raph echoed, looking disgusted. "What'd you do, have a lover's spat? Like I give a damn."
"No, she's..."
Raph tried to push him away, but Leo refused to let go. He had to make him understand, but he didn't know how to explain it. Over Raph's shoulder he saw Don, watching them warily. Splinter was watching them too, but there wasn't any sign of Mikey.
He wanted to tell them - to say what Arella was - but he couldn't. The word was still covered, hidden from him, like a locked box he couldn't open.
I have to show them, he thought.
"This is Arella," he whispered, and put his teeth on his brother's neck.
Raph cried out in pain and shoved him away. Leo let go and staggered back, grabbing onto the ladder to keep from falling. Raph was clinging to the railing as he backed down the stairs, his eyes round as he put a hand on his throat.
"You're insane," he whispered. He lifted his hand and watched the blood trickle down his fingers. Leo watched with him, feeling his heart drop inside him; he hadn't meant to bite that hard. He had only wanted to show him what Arella was, what she had done to him.
"You're absolutely freakin' insane!"
Leo turned and fled back up the ladder. He stumbled to the secret corner - that place he and Arella used to meet - and curled up on a blanket and wept. Near his head was the radio; he punched it away from him, sending it clattering across the concrete.
His family couldn't help him now. He had destroyed what was left of his relationship with them. Arella was right; he had handed himself over to her. And he had done it gladly.
Like any predator, she had honed in on her prey's weakness, using her beauty, her gentle voice, her comforting words to lure him in. He hadn't even put up a fight.
"I have to stop her," he whispered out loud.
He couldn't let her get to his family, no matter how much they hated him right now. She had tricked him into believing that he hated them, but he didn't. He loved them with all his heart, each and every one of them. He would die for them - and probably would before this was over, he thought bitterly.
As he lay there in the darkness - which didn't seem very dark to him right now - he thought about what he was going to do. About how he was going to stop her. But he didn't have any idea where to begin, or which of the things he knew were and weren't true. He didn't even know if he was truly safe if he went home - he wasn't sure of anything.
His tired thoughts went around and around for hours, but he couldn't sleep. He was too scared - scared for his family and scared for himself. Sometime near dawn he got up and crept back to the ladder. Funny, he noted absently; his feet didn't hurt so much anymore.
When he got inside, everything was quiet and dark. The subway car was closed, and not even a single candle flickered in Splinter's room. Leo crept to his door - and felt like a fist was knotting in his stomach.
Splinter was curled up on his bed, clawed fingers clutching at a cushion as he dreamed. The fur beneath his eyes was damp.
Their master never showed much emotion when he was with them, always staying the calm center, the gentle force that their entire family was built around. And Splinter had known, Leo realized bitterly. He had known from the start that something was wrong with Arella, that she was dangerous. He hadn't known just what was wrong, so he had quietly done what he could to try and keep his family safe.
And he had tried to warn him. He had tried more than once to tell him that something was wrong - with him, with his life. Leo refused to listen, and now look what happened. His unshakable sensei had watched their family falling apart at the seams, fighting each other, attacking each other...and cried himself to sleep.
Leo felt tears flood his own eyes as he rested a hand on the doorframe. "I love you most of all," he whispered. "You've given me everything...and I won't let anyone hurt you."
He crept back up and sat with his shell rested against the wall, just outside the hole that led into his home. The sun rose into the sky, bringing with it a heavy sense of weariness and fatigue, but it also brought him a sense of relief; Arella shouldn't come for him until nightfall.
Or maybe his security was completely false, he realized with an icy chill. He had never met her outside during the day, but he had been to her apartment in the morning. That first time he met her there, the room had been aglow with morning light. She kept the blinds partly closed, but it didn't seem to bother her.
It sure bothered him. Even soft light seared his eyes. But if the stories were true, that had something to do with her age. She had been...what she was...for a while now. And he...
Leo shuddered and swallowed down the bile rising into his throat. It couldn't be permanent. This thing that was happening to him - this part of her that was inside him - just couldn't be permanent. It had to go away with time.
He struggled with his tired thoughts and tried to come up with a plan as the day dragged on. Below him, he heard movement as his family moved around, though they only spoke in low tones he couldn't hear. No one tried to come up, for which he was glad; he couldn't handle talking to any of them right now, but he didn't want to move. He wanted to stay close to where he would be safe when Arella came around.
It was just before sunset when he felt her. He didn't hear her or see her, but he knew she was somewhere close by. He felt a touch, though not a physical one. It was like a touch inside his mind.
Come here, Little Leo.
"No," Leo whispered out loud.
Don't be scared. I won't hurt you.
"You hurt me last night," he reminded her angrily.
That was an accident. Jim startled me. I would never hurt you on purpose. You know that, don't you?
He thought he did, but Leo didn't believe her lies anymore. "Just go away," he ordered tiredly. "You don't have power over me anymore."
Then why are you coming to me?
"I'm not."
But even as he spoke, he was getting to his feet. Walking to the nearest way up to the street.
That's right. Come give me what I want.
"I won't," Leo hissed as he pushed open a grate and crawled out.
The air outside was thick with approaching rain and exhaust fumes, and full of sounds; voices in the distance, vehicles rumbling, machinery humming, nightly birds and insects singing. It was all layered in a way he never noticed before. A nearby streetlamp flickered dully; Leo winced and shielded his eyes.
"Over here, Little Leo," came Arella's voice behind him. "The pain will all go away soon."
Leo wanted to scream, to fight, to run and escape. Instead, he turned and started in the direction of her voice, tears streaming down his face. The shadows were long and dark, but he could see her clearly. She was dressed in her boots and coat, the hood drawn back. She held out her hands with a smile; Leo reached out with his own, silently cursing himself the entire time.
"I hate you," he whispered as Arella closed her hands around his wrists.
Her smile deepened. "I know."
Her grip tightened painfully and she swung him around, slamming his shell against the brick of the wall behind him. She pinned his arms to his sides and struck, with the same fluid motion of a snake.
She didn't bother dulling the pain with mental illusions this time. This time, she let him feel it all; the sharp stab of her teeth, the burning feel of them sinking into his flesh. The heat of his blood as it oozed from his veins and into her waiting mouth.
He hated it all, and he hated her. He hated her even as part of him still loved her - or at least loved the illusion of herself she had made for him. That person wasn't real, he told himself. She had never been real. The real Arella - well, there probably wasn't even an Arella. He didn't know what her real name was.
It had all been a lie, and that was partly why he cried as she fed from him. It hurt to have that beautiful illusion destroyed. As his vision blurred as he teetered close to unconsciousness, he wondered vaguely about what hurt worse; that the girl he had loved so much was a lie, or that he had been so stupid as to fall for every last part of it.
Arella suddenly let go and stepped back, and Leo fell to the ground, gasping and trembling. Arella wiped her mouth as she knelt at his head. "You know something?" she asked casually, teasing the ends of his bandana. "I hate the way you smell."
"Sewer," Leo mumbled dimly.
"Not that. The other smell. You know..."
She pinched his nose. "Turtle. But that's all right; it's not the wrapper I'm interested in, it's the sweet, juicy candy center."
Snickering at her own joke, Arella stood and started walking away. "I'll be back tomorrow," she called over her shoulder.
Still lying on the ground, Leo's vision blurred and spun as he watched her boots retreat. "I won't come out next time," he mumbled.
She snickered again. "You will."
Leo wasn't sure how long he lay there, but it wasn't until a pair of curious and very confused winos started poking him that his senses returned to him. It was long after nightfall and though he felt weak as he staggered to his feet and ran past the yelping drunks, he knew it wouldn't take long for his strength to return.
Back beneath the streets where he belonged, Leo hurried home. In the tunnel outside the den, he heard the sound of a skateboard drifting back and forth. He rounded the corner and saw Don, absently coasting along while obviously deep in thought. Leo waited until he drifted back towards him before stepping out and grabbing him by the arm.
Don yelped in surprise as he was yanked off his board. Leo tightened his grip and stared at him hard. "I'm not asking," he said lowly, "I'm telling you. You have to help me."