Out of My Shell

Chapter 8: Troubled Minds

--Chapter 8: Troubled Minds

Donnie's head was spinning. Why was Raph so adamant about this? It was like he didn't care about the consequences or that Sensei hadn't come in and interrupted... whatever that was. His hands tightened into fists. Raphael was his brother! This was weird, disgusting... and... and wrong! Someone would find out. Sensei almost did. His heart fluttered and he cursed his weak body. He had other things he should be thinking about... like finding a new retro-mutagen... finding Metaldroid... There was no way he could let his brothers come to harm again like they had tonight. Not if he could help it. He should be inventing something right now, something that would help aid them to defeat it, or at the very least keep them safe. ...But no, instead he was standing here caught, head spinning, knees knocking because Raph...
...wanted him. That's what he'd said. The words turned over and over in his head, turning him inside out. He shouldn't be thinking about this.
...Raph had been so gentle, almost uncharacteristically so.
What was he supposed to do?
.....Maybe he just needed sleep tonight... try not to think of Raph. The last thing he needed were any more dreams about him.
--
Raph rounded the corner of the hall towards his bedroom when he heard a strange wisping sound, almost as though something were crawling behind him and he froze to listen.
Nothing. Perhaps he was imagining things. He took another few steps towards his room and and he heard it again, a tiny almost scurrying sound. Raph's eyes hardened and he pulled his sai out from dangerously from behind him.
"Show yourself," he growled.
But again his calls were answered by silence. Then it became a low whir right behind his ear and from the corner of his eye he saw a flash of red light and a piece of his red mask fell limply to the floor. Raphael leapt to one side and dashed over to the light switch, throwing it on.
But no one was there. The warm light washed over his home and everything was as it should be. His bright emerald eyes flickered over every detail of the room, making sure everything was in place. The sink dripped in the kitchen beside the can opener, the wires on the game counsel hung haphazardly from the television from Mikey's last game.
There was even a bit of gauze dressing beside the couch from when he had dressed Donnie's wounds.
Raph then checked beneath the couch on hands and knees, scanning his home for any sign he wasn't alone. Finally he picked up the cut piece of red fabric from the floor.
"Show yourself!" he challenged again.
But still nothing was there.
The longer he waited the more tired he became. He tried to relax a little as he flicked off the lights, but he just couldn't. Something had cut his mask. Something just had to be there.
How was nothing there?
...Raphael took in one last backwards glance. Master Splinter always told him to be alert, but he also warned him that sometimes the mind could play tricks on you especially in the shadows and Raph turned around and headed back to his room. He shut the door and threw the torn piece of mask aside. He had to get some sleep. He had no time to be paranoid. Raph turned the lock on his bedroom door, pausing one more time to listen for any sounds, but only the hollow night sounds of the sewers answered him back.
It was time for him to think of other things. Things that didn't have to do with creepy crawly stuff in the sewer or the way Donnie had looked at him...
No, he definitely shouldn't be thinking about that. Nope... Now was time to think of other important things like how he would kick Metaldroid's ass tomorrow.
He SO would too. He swore it. He was going to rip every one of those sorry tentacles straight from its body and tear him a new one. No one would even know what it had looked like before, he'd wreck it so bad... and then he'd go after whoever the asshole was that was behind it. It was probably Baxten Stockbreath or whatever his name was.
Fuck that guy. He oughta stab him in the face too. That'd teach 'im.
Such violent thoughts eased his mind and soon had lulled him asleep.
--
Scritch.... Scritch. Scriiiiiiiiiitch.
Raph stirred.
Scritch scritch scritch...
It was a terrible sound, like nails being dragged painfully over concrete and steel.
Raph tossed restlessly in his bed, but the sound continued to rake against his sense and finally he just couldn't ignore it anymore. He rolled out of bed, lumbering angrily towards the door and threw it open.
"WHAT?!" he roared.
Nothing. Everything was empty and quiet. He looked left and right down the dark empty tunnels but no one was there.
"I must be goin' insane..." He slammed the door and dragged his feet angrily back to bed when he heard the blood curdling scream of who could only be Michelangelo.
Jolting instantly awake, Raphael bolted down the hall to his bedroom and heaved the door open. "MIKEY!"
Leo and Donnie were right in tow, throwing the light on behind him.
Their youngest brother was curled up in a fetal position at the front of his bed, holding his skull, his normally bright blue eyes struck wide with terror.
"Mikey!" They instantly scrambled to his side.
"What's wrong? What happened?!" Raph rushed.
Mikey was positively shaking with fright, as he lifted his eyes to his big brother's. "I thought you said there weren't any monsters in my room or under my bed!" He looked almost as though he were about ready to cry.
Raph lifted the hand that was firmly plastered to his head, and saw a huge cut, running with blood, and another fresh gash on his arm.
"Tell us what happened," Leo said.
"Donnie's right! There really is somethin' in the sewers! And it tried to saw my arm off! And then my HEAD! And... my head is one thing but I really really really need my arm for stuff!"
"My sons what is wrong?!"
Leonardo turned to their father in the doorway. "Something attacked Mikey in his sleep!"
Mikey gripped his sheets to his chest as he told his tale. "It had red eyes... and... it was crawling all over my ceiling... and under my bed... and over my comic books... and then... all over my..."
"Mikey! Stay focused!" Raph said impatiently.
"And then it, like, dangled from the ceiling like a spider and tried to saw me in half!"
Leo and Donnie both began scanning the room carefully for the monster, or anything that looked remotely out of place.
The problem with that was everything in Michelangelo's room looked out of place. He rarely ever cleaned. It was like playing a brain-straining game of I-Spy. Leonardo could have sworn he saw that same pizza slice hanging from his radio a month ago.
But there were obvious slash marks—huge ones that ran over the ceilings and floor. It had cut through everything from concrete to comic books and anything else that had gotten in its way.
"Do ya think it could have been Metaldroid?" Raph asked him seriously.
"I thought Metaldroid was bigger..." Mikey muttered and he turned to Sensei, his voice rising to a squeak. "I'm freakin' out."
Donnie studied the long abrasions on the floor. "The marks are exactly the same as Metaldroid's," he confirmed.
Leo followed a set of particularly large marks that ripped through the ceiling and had splintered through the doorframe. The ninja's eyes narrowed and he walked further to investigate, discovering sure enough the gauges continued outside the room and down the hallway. From over his shoulder, Donnie saw it too.
"It could... still be here somewhere," he fretted.
Leo unsheathed his swords from his back and stood battle ready, scanning the hall. Whatever it was, it was there, threatening them and he was going to find it now before it hurt any one of his brothers again. Donnie was about to go after him but he looked back over to Mikey.
He had his knees pulled up to his chest and Raph wrapped his arm around him to comfort him. "It's alright," he assured, his teeth gritting in rage at whatever had hurt him.
Donnie put a kind hand on his shoulder.
"I'll stay with Mikey, you go with Leo," he said firmly.
Raph didn't need to be told twice. That was where he wanted to be in the first place. He nodded once and briskly went off to catch up with Leo.
Donnie watched him go and Master Splinter turned to him.
"You go too," he ordered. "Keep an eye on your brothers.... I will stay here in case it comes back."
Donnie nodded. Master Splinter was the safest place for him to be anyway.
"I'll be right back," he promised Mikey and then he too, ran off to join the hunt.
It wasn't until he had made his way deep into the hallway and turned the corner that the lights suddenly went out.
'As if tonight couldn't get any worse.'
Donnie gripped his staff tightly, his brown eyes searching the darkness, listening for any sign that his brothers were close.
"Guys...?! R-Raph? Leo?"
Strange drips and echoed and bounced back at him down the narrow halls. Little odd lights shimmered in and out, casting strange shadows over the waters, but Donnie trudged through.
Every little noise was a potential sound of danger. It almost seemed to mock him.
"I'm not saying I'm scared or anything but this is kind of really freaking me out! ...T-The back-up generator should have kicked in..."
Then he heard a sick, growling sound from behind him and he whirled around, staff ready. "...Guys...?" he called.
But all he could hear was his own heart pounding in his chest and he turned, running for the main entrance, relieved to see the dark shapes of the main room. He searched around wildly, calling out to his brothers even louder.
"LEO, RAPH WHERE ARE YOU?!"
And then he felt his scales stand on end. He turned his head and there was what he could only describe as a shadowy figure with deep-set red, glowing eyes, cogs in its mouth, drooling something green and sick.
Donatello froze in terror. But instead of attacking, the creature stayed perfectly still, narrowing its sinister eyes and then it disappeared into the shadows as though it were never there.
Donnie shook in his shell, the dim back-up lights of his lab revealing something that made his eyes go wide.
His last canister of mutagen lay broken on the floor, smeared into a set of deep horrible scratch marks.