The Shadow's Secret│TMNT

03 || Some Crazy Inspiration

"What's yer name, girlie?" The oily European voice bounces off the buildings around me. My pulse quickens.

"Ever been to Europe?"

I clench my fists and look around, expecting to see him.

"Watcha lookin at?"

He's behind me. I whirl around, tense to strike, but I see nothing. The ghost of a cold blade presses against my throat.

I feel his hot, rotten breath wash over me as he speaks into my ear, "you'll be worth a pretty penny."

My blood boils with rage and I move to knock the knife away but my hand passes through air. A cloth is yanked harshly across my mouth and is pulled back, dragging me with it. I scream into the gag and struggle against my attacker. They stop dragging me and I crumple to the damp pavement. His malicious laugh runs sharp through my ears.

I look around. The alley is empty. But how?

I get to my feet and look closer. Behind the graffiti painted dumpsters. On the fire escapes. In the shadowy nooks. Behind the shattered glass of a window.

"Lookin for me, girlie?"

I turn. My foot slides on something and I fall to the ground, narrowly avoiding nosediving into a deep pothole of cloudy, brown water. I glance back to see what I slid on. A neon blue highlighter.

The school supplies I had in grade seven are strewn across the length of the alley. It's as if they'd just popped into existence in an attempt to trip me into a pothole. I look down into the murky water and freeze.

My breath catches in my throat.

Words die on my lips.

My heart stops.

Alpha stares back at me through our reflections in the pothole water. He stands right behind me, wearing the same clothing, the same switchblade in his pocket, with the same hair and beard and the exact twisted smile I last saw three years ago.

"You gon be worth more now, girlie. You grown up to be quite a flower."

My teeth grit together and I tear my eyes away from his reflection. But when I look behind me, he's not there.

There's a sharp tug on a strand of my hair. I gasp and whirl around in a desperate attempt to identify my attacker. The hood of my jacket is yanked, causing the collar to bite into my neck. My pockets are pulled at as if invisible hands are searching desperately for something.

"Where's yer phone and money, this time?"

Another tug on my hair. Then on the sleeve of my yellow jacket, making me stumble. I growl in annoyance and swing my fist around, daring to hope I'll hit my assailant.

"Angry, girlie?"

You do not want to know how angry this girlie is. An ugly cackle rings out across the alleyway as ripples flow across the surface of puddles. Then it's black.

The cackling abruptly stops in surprise. It's as if a light switch has been flipped, plunging the dreary grey alley into utter darkness. I can barely see my own hands before me. I hear a grinding, like metal on pavement.

And then the blade with it's accompanying voice is back at my throat.

"Don't you try nothin! She's mine! Ya hear!?" He calls out.

I try to push the knife away, but my fingers and palm are sliced this time.

"Best not wreck them pretty hands," he snickers and locks my arms behind me.

The blood is sticky and warm as it runs into my palms. I struggle against his incredibly strong hold, making him laugh more. I decide to change tactics. I open my mouth to yell but a gag is shoved inside, pulled so tight that the rough cloth chafes the corners of my mouth. In fact, I begin to smell and taste the metallic of my blood. I feel it run down my chin and drip onto my yellow raincoat like hot, red tears. It stings as if salt were poured onto my wounds. My eyes start to tear, blurring my vision and making it that much harder to make out the silver blur barreling toward me through the darkness.

It knocks the knife away.

He yells in surprise and I slam my foot down, intending to smash my attacker's, but I'm shoved to the ground.

"Get 'way from me!" He yells shakily. Loose chunks of asphalt pebbles become lodged in my sliced hands, sending sharp stings zipping along my fingers and palm. I bite back a gasp and wipe the tears from my cheeks and blood from my chin. I claw at the gag but I can't feel it beneath my fingers, yet I feel it on the soft skin of my face.

"She's mine!" His almost canine growl isn't enough of a warning before I look up to see him sailing towards me through the air.

He slams into me and we fly backwards. My head cracks against the pavement, sending stars across my vision. His rank breath suffocates me. I yell through the gag and desperately try to kick at him and smear blood from my hands into his eyes. He pins my hands above my head and leans his face closer to mine. My heart is pounding almost as painfully as my head as I try to move away from him.

He jerks to a stop. His grip on me loosens. His mouth parts in a silent 'oh' of surprise before he's yanked off of me. The gag falls away.

It's him. I scramble to my feet. That silver blur, that was him.

But I don't see him. I try to speak, but my voice is nonexistent. I turn and come face to face with those blue eyes again. He came.

I can't form words. They're too thick and heavy in my throat. He came to save me again.

Then he's gone. And I'm alone in the vastness of impenetrable darkness.

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