14: Casey

A Little Thing Called Hope

A/N: The character Sadie is an OC created by the fellow author PentatonixBae. She is not my design. Enjoy.

"LEO! SLOW DOWN!"

My jacket almost catches on a tree as Leo and I fly above the forest, scanning for any sign of my red-clad buddy. I look anxiously at the sun. It's falling behind the hills. Leo's gonna be hungry soon. Then I'm really gonna be in trouble.

Leo starts flying higher. I feel like I'm gonna puke. Hey, there's a little person down there! I wonder what they're doing?

"THERE!" Leo suddenly yells. I quickly scan up ahead. Not far from where those people are is a giant open field of green within the trees like a meeting place. I see people in that giant field. There a flash of red.

Raphael.

Leo dives into the trees, careful not to scrape me against anything. We land softly on the ground. To my amazement, its warmer when Leo isn't holding me. He's ice cold instead…

Leo waves me forward and tells me to be quiet. We've only walked two steps when a voice calls out," Look, love, our Suide friend brought us a meal."

I whip to my left to see young women with flowing red hair and red eyes, looking at me like I'm a meal. She smiles and I see vampire teeth.

Oh, no.

She stands ready to lunge at me right as Leo jumps in front of me, growling," Back off, vampire."

"Don't get your feathers in a twist," the woman hisses. "I'm one of you."

I watch in awe as she spreads out snowy white wings but…not dots. Interesting…

Leo's wings ruffle. I'm in awe of him, too. He's not trying to eat me. That's awesome!

"Who are you?" Leo asks.

The woman smiles, "I'm Sadie. You must be Leonardo. That your meal or friend?"

"Friend," Leo says swiftly.

Sadie narrows her ruby eyes on me but does nothing else. Suddenly, a tan man comes running out of the forest like a force of lightning and stops next to Sadie. They smile at each other and give each other a sift kiss. The man has no wings but has curly black hair. Somehow I already know that this guy is a true vampire. A real flesh vampire. Now where are the werewolves? Somebody must have dreamt of Twilight! Never mind, I don't want to meet those vampires.

"Sadie," the vampire says," the clan is gathered. We're ready when you are." His accent sounds mid-eastern.

"WAIT!" Leo yells out. The man turns his attention to us, especially me. "Are you guys planning on hunting that group in that field a ways off?"

"Yes," the man says, eyeing Leo," We are, Hamato."

"You can't," Leo growls," my brother is in there. I have to save him. Hamato Raphael."

Now the man is paying attention. His red eyes wide, then says, "Follow us. We'll help you save Raphael."

With that said Sadie and the man takes off into the darkening forest. Leo chases after them, me not far behind.

When we reach the field, the four of us dive behind the stones. I peek out. Black soldiers are scattered everywhere, including the boy Aro, the Leondo character and-

"Hey," I whisper yell," That old lady, she tried to sell us Sai's!"

"The witch," the vampire nods," Yes, and her shapeshifter. We're all here, eager to drink them."

"Sir," Leo starts but is cut off.

"Call me Amun," the man says.

"Okay, Amun," Leo says," you swear you're clan will not hunt my brother."

"Yes," Amun replies, scanning the field. That's when I realize this whole field is surrounded by vampires, ready to attack.

"Oh, boy. I better stay down wind then," I say, half-jokingly. A question pops into my head. I turn to Leo, asking, "Leo, how did April know you cut and got abused?"

Leo doesn't look at me. I figure it's because he's trying not to want to eat me. "She..," Leo takes a deep breath. "She walked in on me as I was running a butcher knife along my collar bone. She freaked out, said she'd tell Splinter. I stopped her and told her everything. She promised to keep it secret and to help me through it. But he found out anyway."

Leo looks like he's on the verge of tears. I look away from him and look at my friend. If only he knew Leo's side of the story, maybe he'd be even nicer…

"There's hope you know."

Leo and I jump as Sadie speaks. She looks at us and smiles," There is always hope. My snowy wings are proof. I survived abuse of all kinds because, I moved my temper aside for my love, Amun, and he healed me, make me whole again. Showed me that love is true and real." Sadie and Amun look at each other, passionately, "Those are my wings, Leonardo. The wings of a survivor."

With that, they kiss once more.

I look up at Leo. Hope sparkles in his eyes. As if he sees a path to where he could become better.

I find myself smiling as I realize: Leo wants to get better. All he needs is the right person to help fix him.

The last drops of sun disappear, leaving the forest in shadow. Dogs in the field howl to the climbing moon-scratch that-climbing moons and the stars burn holes into the fabric of that black sky.

Amun looks up at the moons, then says," Shiver and Silver are up. Time to hunt. Ready to save Raphael, Leonardo?"

Leo climbs onto the rock, crouching in hunter's position. "Ready as I'll ever be, Amun."

"Good," Amun says," cause you're hunting with the biggest vampire clan in the dream realm."

I look up at Leo nervously. He looks down at me and mouths, "Stay here."

I nod. Leo's got Raph. I trust him. Now I just need to trust these vampires.

I peek above the rock again. That's when a dog see's me. It's about to howl an alert when Amun lets out a shrill cry and all hell breaks loose. Vampires sprint out, looking so hungry it causes me to shrink down and pray Leo can save Raph on his own.