A Turtle That Was Hidden (TMNT Book 2)

Mystery In the Sewer

The next day isn’t much to explain much to you about, so I’ll just give you the gist of it. We went on our nightly patrol and found Snakeweed hurrying through the streets again. And he got away, yet again. Raph and Leo were a little mad, of course. Naomi has been more jumpy than she ever has been. Because of that, she’s been pacing and going up and down from surface to lair. Everyone’s been worried about her, even Splinter and Mii-wa. It was crazy.

But that was yesterday. Today, though, Mikey’s in the kitchen, making something. Leo, Sophie and I are watching Space Heroes. Raph is sitting down, watching Naomi pace back and forth in her, now favorite, spot to pace at. Donnie was also watching her pace, twiddling his thumbs nervously and looking like he was about to go as crazy as she was.

I was trying to ignore Naomi, but it was impossible when her pain and worry seemed to fill the room up. It was all washed away when Mikey walked in, interrupting her thought process. Thank goodness.

“I have created a masterpiece!” Mikey exclaimed.

“And what’s that?” I turned around, looking at him.

“Well, we all love pizza and we all love milkshakes.”

“Ice cream to be precise, Mikey.” Sophie said.

“So I combined them,” he continued.

“Okay,” Donnie looked at him. “That could not sound any more revolting.”

Mikey showed us what he was hiding behind his back. It was a mixer with pizza colored liquid. “I call it, a pii-shake!”

I saw Donnie out of the corner of my eye nearly vomit, “I stand corrected.”

“Don’t tell me you’re going to try that.” Sophie moaned.

Without answer, Mikey tried some and I even had to look away. We all groaned as he gulped half of it down. “Where did I go wrong?” he asked. Then he tipped it again and drank the rest. For once, I was even revolted by him.

We all turned our attention back to what we were doing. Only now Naomi was calming down. She did this after nearly ten minutes or more of pacing. It’s been getting longer. She was in the shadows, trying to breath calmly, muttering to herself.

My attention tried to stay on Space Heroes, but Naomi was really beginning to bother me. Her eyes two nights ago were so pained and that wail… She’s never done that before, and I hope it will never happen again. Raph even asked me about it last night and I told him it was the first time I’ve heard of it.

Sophie seemed a little scared, but not out of her shell like the rest of us. I had asked her if Naomi had told her what’s going on with our leader’s head. She even had no clue, so Naomi has been keeping it to herself, which means that maybe if she talked with someone, she’d feel better.

So I came up to her last night, asking the nicest I could if there was anything she’d like to talk about. She was about to nod her head, but she quickly changed her mind saying, “Sorry, Mikito. This is my burden.” Although I didn’t understand, I let her be after that.

Now it’s the next day and I was really worried about her. It was ten times worse than it was yesterday. As I tried to keep my attention on Space Heroes, the channel flickered to Breaking News.

“An assault on a sewage worker happened last night.” it reported. Then a different clip came on and this guy was working in the sewer, explaining that the sewers weren’t really as scary as they seemed.

Suddenly, behind him, there was this giant mutant-looking creature and the guy paused, turning around. The camera flipped and fell on the ground. The guy got away, and then we heard a roar before the clip ended.

Reaction came over us and we looked at Raphael. He blinked and held his hands up, “Don’t look at me.”

“Well,” Sophie said. “We would turn to Naomi next, but she’s been out of it way too much to even remember what the last thing I did with her was.”

“I heard my name.” Naomi looked up from the shadows. “No, no…” then shook her head. She turned around, leaning against the wall.

“Leo,” Donnie said. “Rewind it. I thought I saw a tunnel number.”

Without complaint, Leo did rewind it, and sure enough, there was a tunnel number. “Alright,” Leo said. “Let’s go.”

As we headed out, Naomi came up behind me and was looking normal, for the most part. Everyone seemed to avoid her and keep their distance. I did as well, I can admit because her atmosphere around her seemed more uncomfortable than normal.