Chapter 19-The Dungeon's Tormentor
The turtle brothers continued to look around the hall for another entrance until they had found an opening above a solid wall next to a caged doorway.
"Mikey, do you think you can get in there and unlock the door for us?" Leo asked.
"Yeah, sure…" Mikey volunteered, even though he was feeling nervous on the inside.
"Up ya go then, bro…" Raph replied as he cupped his hands and crouched into position to give Mikey a boost up the wall.
Mikey stepped onto Raph's hands before he was boosted up by the red-banded turtle. Mikey then jumped down the other side of the wall and got to work with unlocking the door.
Click!
"Ok, it's open…!" He announced as soon as he turned the lock.
"Nice work, Mikey…" Leo praised before he, Raph, and Donnie entered through the door.
However, when they had entered and looked around the room, the turtle brothers could not find another door anywhere.
"Ok, so dat's one problem solved…We've now got another one; there's no other door after dis one…!" Raph observed in frustration.
"Actually…When I landed in here, I found a hole through this wall. I looked through it, and I saw another room with lit candles in it…" Mikey announced as he pointed at the long open hole in the wall nearby.
The older turtle brothers looked at each other before Donnie decided to assess the hole for himself.
"Mikey's right; there's another room past this wall…!" Donnie said in surprise.
"Then, let's go check it out…" Leo replied before he headed over to the hole and began squeezing through it, with his younger brothers following his lead.
It was a tight squeeze, but the turtle brothers had eventually managed to access the room next door through the hole in the wall. They were faced with a long corridor and decided to walk down it to see what was up ahead, and it wasn't long before they had discovered a staircase leading down somewhere unknown.
"Looks like we can continue on this way…" Leo said as he looked at the staircase.
"We should proceed with caution, though; we don't know what's down there…" Donnie insisted.
When they had reached the bottom of the stairs, the turtle brothers had discovered that the room was dark, so the three older brothers switched on their flashlights, with Mikey being given a spare one by Donnie.
A moment later, their eyes widened in horror; the floors were covered in splattered blood and a mutilated human body was tied up by the limbs and hanging on one of the metal barred doors.
"Oh, man…I-Is this a torture room…!?" Mikey questioned fearfully.
"It's actually a dungeon, Mikey, though it could be both…" Donnie corrected before he shivered when he felt a chill run down his spine.
"Well, whatever it is, it's beyond sick…" Raph said whilst shaking his head in disgust.
"Look, there's a door over there…We should be able to get out through there…" Leo pointed out when he spotted a metal barred door ahead of him.
The turtle brothers walked over to the door and tried to push it open, but it wouldn't budge.
"We're gonna need to find a key first, though, Leo; the door's locked tight…" Donnie announced in disappointment.
"Oh, brilliant…another key hunt…" Raph groaned.
"Come on, everyone…The quicker we find the key, the sooner we can leave…" Leo told his brothers.
Despite their reluctance and fear of the dungeon, the younger brothers nodded and joined Leo in the hunt for the key.
During their search, Mikey had found an old journal near one of the hanging bodies. He picked it up and read through the pages before he suddenly paled and became scared.
"Err, bros…? I-I don't think we should stay in here too long…" Mikey said, breaking the silence.
"Why? What's wrong?" Donnie asked as he walked over to him.
"…We're not alone in here…Look at this…" Mikey answered in a scared tone before he presented Donnie with the journal.
Both curious and confused, Donnie took the journal and read the entries before he too became nervous.
"What does it say, Donnie?" Leo asked when he noticed Donnie's change in facial expression.
"These notes are talking about a servant who was known to be a torturer and tormentor of the castle…" Donnie explained.
"Torturer…!?" "Tormentor…?" Mikey and Raph questioned nervously.
"Yes, and it says that he had once served the Salazar family, who they saw him as 'special' for his cruel actions…" Donnie told them.
"Salazar family? That Ramón's last name is Salazar, so he must be a member of the same family!" Mikey realised with widened eyes.
"I think we already know dat, Mikey…" Raph grumbled.
"So, is there anything else about the servant in the journal?" Leo questioned curiously.
"Well, it says at the end that he had been taken to this very dungeon to be locked away, but for what? I don't know; the person who wrote this was too scared to explain it since being the servant's caretaker had driven him mad and fearful of his time here, to a point where he had left the castle altogether…" Donnie explained with a feeling of uneasiness whilst he read through the last page again.
"Oh, shell…I don't like this, not one bit…" Mikey said in a more scared tone as he wrapped his arms around himself.
"Calm down, Mikey; I'm sure this servant is no longer around…Besides, there's no way he could've survived for so long down here…" Donnie assured his little brother soothingly.
"Anyway, let's continue on with our search for the key, so that we can get out of here…" Leo told his brothers before they all resumed their search for the key.
As they walked further into the dungeon, the turtle brothers kept hearing rattling sounds below them, as if there was something trying to free itself from its chains.
Then…
Rooooooaaaaaarrrr!
The turtle brothers jumped and froze when a distant but loud roar was heard coming from below their feet.
"Gasp! W-What was that!? D-Do they keep animals down here too!?" Mikey gasped in fright.
"I doubt it, Mikey…but whatever it is, it can't get us whilst we're up here…" Donnie told him reassuringly.
The turtle brothers continued their search until they came across a prison cell with another deceased body of a male human. They got closer to it when they had noticed something shining in reaction to the torch light. After inspecting the body, the quartet found a key in his pocket.
"This must be the dungeon key we need to open the door…!" Donnie confirmed as he examined the key more closely.
"Great! Now, let's get dat door open and get outta dis horror show…!" Raph replied in relief.
The others didn't need to be told twice, and they all started leaving the prison cell. But suddenly…
SNAP! "Waaaaaah!"
The wooden flooring gave out from underneath Leo's and Raph's feet, and they yelled as they fell through the floor.
"LEO!" "RAPH!" Donnie and Mikey cried out in horror as they watched them fall.
/
Leo's and Raph's side…
"Waaaaaah! Oof!" Leo and Raph continued yelling as they fell until they landed hard on the ground.
It took a few seconds for the duo to come around from their fall, and they stood up slowly with a groan.
"Raph? You alright, bro?" Leo rasped.
"Yeah, m'fine…" Raph mumbled as he rubbed his sore plastron.
"Grrrr…"
Leo and Raph froze when they heard something growling behind them. They turned around slowly to see what it was before they gasped and stepped back when they saw a mean-looking face. However, upon closer inspection, Leo and Raph saw that the face was surrounded by a masked helmet, and the eyes were sewn shut.
"He can't see us…" Leo observed in shock.
"Rooaaar!" The humanoid creature roared and tried to break away from his chains, which the turtle duo discovered to be keeping his body and long bladed claws restrained against the wall.
"But he can hear us…" Raph added as he stood in a fighting stance.
"Shh…Stay quiet…" Leo whispered.
After spotting a corridor, the turtle duo quietly walked away from the clawed man, but neither of them noticed the dangling chains ahead of them until it was too late when Raph accidentally touched a few of them.
Rattle, rattle, rattle!
"Roooooaaaaarrrr!" Snap! Snap!
The turtle duo looked at each other with dread on their faces when they heard the sounds of roaring and chains snapping far behind them.
"Uh, oh…" Raph said in horror.
"Run!" Leo shouted before he and Raph ran through the rest of the corridor until they had reached a large dungeon room.
Seconds later, the clawed man charged into the room like a raging bull and stabbed his bladed claws in the air. Luckily, Leo and Raph were nowhere near him due to using his blindness to their advantage and hid behind some wooden boards.
Leo assessed the clawed man's form before he spotted something familiar on his back; it was an embedded parasite, which might be what was causing the clawed man's aggressive behaviour. He then waved to Raph to get his attention.
'There! On his back!' He mouthed without making a sound as he pointed at the parasite on the creature's back.
Raph nodded silently in understanding before he aimed his shotgun at the creature's back and fired. The bullet struck the parasite, causing him to roar in pain and run towards the source of the gunshot before slashing the boards to pieces.
Leo and Raph were able to dodge the attack after predicting the clawed man's movements, and they kept their distance whilst doing their best to avoid touching the dangling chains around them. Leo then used his handgun to shoot at the parasite again, causing the clawed man to roar in pain and charge towards the blue-banded turtle.
"Watch out for his claws!" Leo alerted Raph before he blocked the slash attacks with his katana swords and dove away from the humanoid creature.
"Already doin' dat, bro!" Raph replied as he dodged and parried the clawed man's attacks when he turned on the red-banded turtle after hearing his voice.
Just then, the clawed man charged towards Raph and tried to strike him, but the red-banded turtle quickly dodged him and the creature impaled the stone wall instead, causing him to become stuck.
"Now's our chance!" Leo shouted before he and Raph aimed their guns at the parasite and fired in unison.
The impact caused the parasite to explode before the clawed man roared out in agony and slowly collapsed to the ground. The turtle duo took a moment to catch their breaths and calm their fast-beating hearts down before they checked the creature's body to see if he was dead.
"Is he…?" Leo started to say, but didn't say the last word in his sentence due to not wanting to jinx him and his brother.
"Yep…He ain't gettin' back up…" Raph confirmed after shoving the body with his shotgun and receiving no movement from it.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Leo turned away from the body and looked around for a way out of the room. He then found a large metal portcullis ahead of him and saw a turning handle next to it.
"Raph, over here! This is our way out!" Leo called red-banded brother over.
"Thank shell…" Raph said in relief as he hurried over to Leo who started turning the handle to raise the portcullis up.
As soon as it was completely raised, Leo and Raph exited the dungeon room and found a ladder which they climbed up to find a door with a familiar deceased body tied to it.
"This must be the door leading back to the top floor…" Leo speculated.
"And ta Donnie and Mikey…" Raph added in a hopeful tone.
"Cough, cough, cough, cough!"
Leo and Raph froze when they heard coughing sounds coming from the other side of the door.
"Is dat Mikey?" Raph questioned worriedly.
"Sounds like it…Come on…" Leo answered before he and Raph hurried towards the door and opened it.
"Whoa!" "Aaahh!" Donnie and Mikey screamed when they saw the door open suddenly.
"Hey, it's ok!" "It's just us!" Leo and Raph instantly said reassuringly to their younger brothers, both of whom had calmed down as soon as they saw them.
"Oh, thank shell you're alive…!" Mikey sighed in relief as he rushed over to them and engulfed them in a tight hug. Leo and Raph accepted the hug before Mikey released them a moment later.
"What happened down there? We heard sounds of roaring and crashing…" Donnie questioned.
"Nothing for you both to worry about, you two…What matters is that we've found the dungeon key…" Leo answered reassuringly before he took out the dungeon key and started unlocking the door.
"Oh, that's great!" Donnie breathed out in relief.
"Yeah, and ya were right about da animals, Mikey…" Raph added with a smirk.
"Really? What kind of-Cough, cough, cough!" Mikey was about to ask Raph about what type of animals were down in the dungeon when he suddenly went into another coughing fit. Donnie was immediately by his side holding his little brother steady.
"You ok, little brother?" Leo asked in concern.
"Y-Yeah, I'm fine. Well, for now…" Mikey breathed his answer after his coughing fit had stopped, though his hand and the edge of his mouth were covered in blood again.
"Hey, yer gonna be fine, Mikey…We won't let anythin' happen ta ya…!" Raph countered, placing a firm but comforting hand on Mikey's shoulder.
"Yeah, but still, let us know if you start to feel unwell at any time…ok, bro?" Donnie told Mikey firmly but caringly.
"I will, Donnie, I promise…" Mikey swore reassuringly whilst wiping the blood off his hand.
"Good…" Donnie replied in relief.
"Alright, everyone, let's get out of this place…" Leo replied before he and his brothers left the horrors of the dungeon behind and climbed a ladder ahead of them to get to the next part of the castle.