Heroes In a Half Shell

I

I cried out as I landed on the bottom of the sewer. My foot had given out from the impact and twisted slightly to the side. I quickly grabbed my ankle. Tears started to well up in my eyes. Hesitantly I released my ankle and moved my one hand onto the wall beside me. I gagged at the slimy stuff my hand met before forcing my body up into a standing position. It took a bit, but finally I was able to get off of the ground. I just couldn’t put my bad ankle fully on to the ground. I had to keep it up in the air and my hand on the wall so I could hop along.

“I hate my life,” I whimpered. A second later I tripped for no reason and fell forward on to the ground. I cried out as my face smacked against the ground. A crunch came from my nose followed by blood that splattered out on to the ground, my face, and the white shirt and pants that I wore. My body started to shake whilst I got back into a sitting position. I delicately put a hand on my face and wiped at some of the blood that had decorated my face. The tears that were in my eyes were now fully running down my face, combining with the hot blood. I pressed my hands against my eyes and wildly shook my head. I had to look terrible. Luckily there was no on around to see the disaster that currently was my face. I probably looked like I came out of a gory movie or something.

“Hello?” a young male voice called out to me. 

I froze completely. Who the heck could be down here? With my hands still covering my eyes, I peeked through my fingers for the voice who had spoken. Not too far away from where I sat I spotted a dark figure. He looked really small, though. I continued to stare. It couldn’t possibly be a kid, could it? Now thinking about it, even the voice had sounded like it belonged to a child. But what could a kid possibly be doing down here to begin with? 

“Is someone down here? I thought I heard something,” the voice asked, heading a little bit in my direction.

I pressed myself up against the wall until my fingers were digging into the wall. I could feel the slimy stuff get into my fingernails. I had no idea who this kid was, if it definitely was a kid, or why he was even in the sewers to begin with, but I couldn’t risk getting caught again. I needed to find some way to get back to my family without getting caught. A difficult task considering I live in Pennsylvania and am currently stuck in New York.

I sighed through my nostrils softly. Besides, the kid would probably hate me as soon as he figured out that I wasn’t fully human any longer. It probably wouldn’t take too long for him to figure it out.

I glanced back to where the kid was to figure out how much time I had before he discovered me…only to find him gone. I slowly moved away from the wall confused. I gave a frown. The kid was there not even half a minute ago. I wasn’t thinking that long, was I? And even if I had been, wouldn’t I have notice him wander back the way he had come? 

I put a hand to my forehead. I was finally losing it. I bet there hadn’t been a kid whatsoever. My mind just made the kid up as an illusion so I could freak myself out to the point of going insane from paranoia. That kid’s voice sounded so real, though. But then again, in all seriousness, what parent would allow their child to go underground into the sewers? No sane parent, that’s who.

“Whoa. That’s a lot of blood there, dudette.”

From fright, I jumped at least a good few feet in the air. My mother always used to make fun of how high I could jump when given a good scare. I once even jumped into my best friend’s arms once when she forced me into a haunted house with her.  Anyway, I spun around to find the kid from earlier kneeling next to me with a wide grin on his face. My eyes slowly widened as I took in his features. Usually I wasn’t one to openly stare…but for once I couldn’t really help myself. He was green with a shell on his back and a plastron where his stomach and chest was. Like a giant turtle…but he looked humanish too oddly enough. Freckles were speckled across his cheeks and he had an orange bandana or something across his eyes to cover them like a mask. Across his waist was a brown leather belt.