WARNING: home invasion, stalking, mild violence, psychological manipulation, toxic mindset.
WORD COUNT: 4.019
The light switch flicked on with an audible click, and you found your apartment strewn with party favours and celebratory banners. One of the banners read, "It's a boy!" Another featured a multi-level cake with candles and the words, "Happy Birthday!"
From behind the couch, Leonardo jumped up and sang, "Surprise!" He was flapping his arms back and forth in a rapid series of waves as he said this.
Once he was finished, Leo leapt over the couch and sauntered to you with his arms crossed. "I ordered pizza to celebrate my return." His arms unfurled and thrust themselves into the air. "You're welcome!"
You dropped your bag on the floor and your keys on the nearby table, which landed with a clank and a rattle. "How did you get in here again?" you asked, in terror.
Leo outstretched his arms and turned his palms to the ceiling, extending his thumbs and narrowing his eyes. "You always leave your windows unlocked." His tone was a mixture of condescending and proud as if he were stating the obvious, and he raised his voice with a chuckle. "It's practically an invitation!"
You stamped your foot forward and leaned toward him. "No, it isn't! Because I live on the sixteenth floor!" Taking a breath, you allowed a hint of disbelief to slip into your voice. "The only people who could make it up here are track stars."
Leo closed his eyes and ran a hand across the top of his head, smoothing the ties of his headband as if it were slick hair. "Or a super-handsome ninja turtle." He then shoved the tip of his katana through the rug and rested his forearms on the hilt.
You watched the fibres of the rug split as the metal penetrated the wood beneath it, and the thought of your skyrocketing rent as soon as the landlord noticed the new hole in your floor was worthy of a wince.
Upon leaning sideways on his katana, Leo turned his head away and looked askance at you with a smug kind of smile. It drew a twitch from your eye and caused a vein in your forehead to bulge, which he acknowledged by moving off his katana and spinning it into its holster.
"What is it? Am I too early again?" This moment of curiosity passed as quickly as it came when Leo raised his arms as if to stretch, only to intertwine his hands behind his head and rest them at the base of his neck.
The tails of his headband flopped as he strolled to the back of the couch. A plop sounded as Leo hopped over the couch and landed on the cushions, with his feet coming to prop themselves on the coffee table.
He reclined on the soft fabric and closed his eyes, but the smile never left his face. "Don't worry! We'll have that pizza here in no time."
You stamped to the side of the couch and said through closed teeth, "I don't want pizza. I want you to leave!"
Leo flipped himself over the back of the couch and landed on his tippy-toes, leaning forward so that he could set his arms on the headrest. "Okay, grouch," he chuckled, placing a humorous emphasis on the word "grouch." "You're in a mood today."
A shallow wind flowed into the room as Leo reopened the nearest window. He pushed one of his legs through the gap, but his eyes remained on you even as he shook his head. "I'll be out here when you change your mind."
* * *
Many an hour spent sitting on the steel bars of the fire escape passed until night had fallen across the city. Doors had opened and then closed throughout the day, but the curtains had been drawn to prevent Leo from peeking inside.
Finally, the glow of the full moon caught his eye and dragged a long groan out of him. Leo opened the window at his back and climbed onto the ceiling of the apartment, finding nothing but darkness and an empty couch.
The front door opened, but the human who entered was not you. This wiped the smile off Leo's face and weakened his grip on the ceiling for a moment. His grip then tightened again as the stranger closed the door and locked it.
Buddy approached the back of the couch, a rusty brass key glinting in their palm. The smell of fresh pizza was like the softness of linen sheets to a weary traveller. Their stomach grumbled, so they reached to flip open the box.
As soon as the pizza was uncovered, the scent of hot pepperoni and steaming cheese flew into their nostrils. "Thanks," mumbled Buddy, their attention drawn to the act of choosing a slice and taking a bite of it.
A couple of slices were missing from the large pizza, but they dismissed it as poor service by way of a hungry delivery person. With a slice in their hand, Buddy walked into the kitchen and searched for a plate.
"That's not for you," whispered Leo, the taste of the pizza still lingering on his tongue. He observed Buddy through wide, disbelieving eyes that soon narrowed. His mouth fell into a straight line as he wondered how this person had gotten a hold of your key.
The thought of you lying somewhere, bruised and mugged, was more frightening to Leo than the most monstrous foe. It took what meagre restraint he had to avoid rushing the supposed burglar from the ceiling.
Instead, he retreated to the shadows, waiting for Buddy to grab a napkin and set the pizza slice on a paper plate.
Buddy had started to return to the couch when the lightbulb above his head flickered. The bulb droned and buzzed, and its light had a faint blue tinge that reminded Buddy of insect observatories.
A noiseless plop was the sole marker of Leo's descent, the rug having cushioned his feet. Leo stood upright and turned his head with a rapid twist of the neck. His white eyes gazed into the kitchen as he raised a hand to the top of his carapace, and a soft ring echoed in the living room.
Under the dim light creeping from the kitchen, a blade glistened.
Buddy extended their hand and tapped the lightbulb, but it merely swayed at their touch and continued to flicker. They blamed an outdated lightbulb and turned to leave the kitchen.
As their hand groped for the light switch, three long fingers burst from the darkness and enveloped the length of their forearm like a cuff. The grip squeezed them with the enthusiasm of a boa constrictor crushing a small animal, clutching with a strength that was impossible to sever.
The centre of the living room was engulfed in a halo of blue flames after a slash echoed in the apartment.
The cries of protest that streamed from Buddy's lips were not allowed to be completed, for a push from behind sent them tumbling headfirst into the circular fire.
Seconds later, once the portal had vanished, there came a single knock on the front door. "Hey, could you let me in?" you asked, your voice carrying a twinge of concern.
Leo's heart rate soared as he looked at the key he had plucked from Buddy's pocket. He dashed to unlock the door and noticed that you had no visible injuries, which calmed his heartbeat and prompted him to sweep you into a spinning hug.
* * *
"And then they threw me out the window!" Leo spread his hands out from his face before falling backwards onto a bean bag. With his eyes shut, he crossed his arms behind his head and turned his nose to the ceiling.
Michelangelo, who had been sitting cross-legged and bobbing back and forth, lost his smile and acquired a grimace. "What?!"
A sprinkle of irritation crept its way into Raphael's frown, and he narrowed his eyes in confusion while curling his lip to expose a sharp tooth. "They threw you out the window?"
Leo waved him off, opening an eye long enough to sink deeper into the bean bag. "Relax! It was a trust fall, and I landed on my feet."
The beeps of commands being entered on a keyboard drew his attention to the sight of Donnie walking past the group. His eyes were focused on the virtual screen projected to him by his gauntlet, which prompted Leo to jump to his feet and outstretch a hand. "Hey, Don! You up for a story?"
No sooner than a moment after Leo touched his battle shell did Donnie extend its mechanical legs and allow Leo to fall onto the ground as he failed to rise with it. Donnie landed a few steps away, and he turned to confront Leo with a certain bitterness.
"Oh, no! I am not squandering any more tech on this fruitless endeavour!" He turned away and crossed his arms, watching Leo from the corner of his eye. "You still have not returned my skeleton key."
Leo rolled onto his carapace and looked up at Donnie. "I still need it!"
Donnie cast his eye elsewhere.
An exaggerated mix between a sigh and a groan escaped Leo, and he clambered to his feet. "Fine, I'll do it myself."
After turning with an eye roll, Donnie marched to his laboratory and plopped onto a swivel chair. The blare of techno music filled the lair as Donnie cranked up the volume of his subwoofers, which popped and clapped in the common area before quieting when the door to the laboratory slammed shut.
Leo hummed in discontent at the door. After a couple of seconds spent rubbing his arm, Leo strutted through the common area and stopped at the main entrance to the lair. "Well, I'm off to secure the friendship of a lifetime!"
Mikey lifted one of his hands to give Leo a thumbs-up, and with the other hand, he cupped the side of his mouth to accentuate his voice. "Good luck, big bro!"
Leo turned with a swish of his headband. "Thank you, Mikey." He placed his hands on his hips and looked in the direction of Donnie's laboratory, his smile growing teasing. "At least some of us are here to see me win!"
The techno music intensified until that part of the lair began to vibrate. Over the din of synthesised drum beats and electric keyboards came the muffled yell of Donnie. "Not listening!"
Raph glanced at the door to Donnie's laboratory before he approached Leo, eyes downcast and a wrinkle in his face where a pronounced frown was sitting. "Are you sure about this, Leo?" He scratched the back of his head. "I mean, it sounds like they're not the biggest fan of you's."
Leo dropped his smile in favour of resting a hand on his chest. "Of course, I'm sure." His voice then rose to a cheerful height, one that caused Raph's eyes to cringe further. "And they are the hugest fan of me! They leave their windows open for me every night!"
Like a stylus knocked off a disc, the techno music skidded into silence. A large door opened with the sounds of machinery cranking and clunking, and Donnie leaned out of his laboratory. "I'm sorry, what?" He dragged out the word "what" for several seconds.
Raph faced Leo with a wide-eyed stare. His shoulders were slumped, and his pupils had shrunk to black dots.
Mikey paused his devouring of a pizza slice, the flimsy slice dangling in his grasp until bits of hot cheese and pepperoni splattered the floor.
The blade of a katana rang out as it was pulled from its holster and spun in a vertical motion. "We have pizza parties, and it's great." Leo turned and slashed the air into the shape of a circle with his katana, which erupted in a flash of brilliant, blue flames.
He then rested his katana on the top of his carapace and raised a hand in farewell. "Buh-bye!" shouted Leo over the unearthly warble of the portal. After he walked through the wall of blue fire and vanished without looking back, the portal closed with a definitive whoosh.
Donnie exited his laboratory and moved to stand beside Raph. "Are we to ignore the proverbial elephant in the room?" came his ill-humoured question, his nearly closed eyes watching the place where Leo had stood mere seconds ago.
With his fists clenched, Raph lifted his hands toward his face and looked down at the sharp ridges of his knuckles. "Raph knew something didn't sound right!" His snaggletooth protruded from his upper lip as he dropped his left fist into the palm of his right hand.
Mikey hurried past his two brothers and stopped at the edge of the common area, pulling his hands to his head before swinging them at the tunnel of darkness that led to the surface. "We gotta go after him!" he cried, whipping around to show Raph and Donnie his fearful eyes.
Raph looked at him with as much confusion as he could express without the risk of discouraging Mikey. "But how? He used one of his portals." Raph then gazed at the sewer tunnel to the surface, a hint of worry seeping into his tone. "He could be anywhere in New York by now."
A beep sounded from beside him, and Raph turned to see Donnie typing a command into the gauntlet perched on his left forearm. "No matter," mumbled Donnie, his voice rising as soon as he lowered the gauntlet and peered into the darkness.
"I'll simply triangulate the position of his subcutaneous tracker."
Mikey narrowed his eyes at Donnie, pouting his lips and shaking his head in disapproval.
Raph cocked his head with a gobsmacked frown. "His what?" he bellowed, which earned an uneasy chuckle from Donnie.
The gauntlet produced another beep as if it were a microwave announcing that it had successfully warmed a piece of food, and Donnie raised it to his eyes while leaning forward slightly to better read its results. "Gentlemen, we have a bite."
* * *
In the faint darkness of the fire escape, you saw the outline of a blue-grey shell wiggling on the guardrail to the stairs. A pair of red stripes came into the light on a green face, and the wrapping of blue around the eyes flexed with the strain of its wearer.
A hand with three fingers clamped the bars of the steel gratings as if they were rungs in a ladder. The fingers were long and wide with flat ends, their green skin partially obscured by black wrappings that stretched just past the elbows. They shook along with the rattles of steel until finally falling silent when Leo sprang from the dark and flung his arms onto the windowsill.
"Coming to greet me? We are making progress!"
You planted your hands on the exposed spot between the top of his carapace and the top of his plastron and squeezed, yanking him through the open window and dropping him in your living room.
Leo sat up and placed his hands on the floor behind him for support. He lowered his eyelids and spoke with a deceptively innocent tone. "Well, hello, neighbour! Got any crimes to report?"
Crossing your arms, you looked down your nose at him. "Yeah, one. What did you do?"
He peered at you in silence for a moment before slumping and blinking each eye at different times. "I ran a marathon to get here, so I'm actually quite exhausted." His face drooped. "Do you have water?"
You lurched forward and grasped the front strap of his katana holster, tugging Leo off the ground and pulling him closer to your strained face. "Leo!"
An awestruck look washed over him. "Wow, you called me by my name! You usually just yell at me to get out." The smile on his face remained until you whirled around and pushed him toward the window from whence he came.
"Get out!"
Leo threw his hands up, gesticulating wildly. "See!" His voice dropped to a surly mutter as he looked at the floor and narrowed his eyes. "Here we go again."
He shook his shoulders with a leisurely chuckle, his eyes sweeping the room. "Your kitchen light is flickering." Leo shared the fact as if it were known to everyone in New York City.
A moment was spared to glance at your kitchen before your gaze snapped back to him. You watched him like he had been a stranger until that moment, and he met your silence with a growing bead of sweat that started to confirm your thoughts.
Leo stood still, his chest inflating and then deflating with a slow breath. He seemed to be inhaling through his nose, as his mouth was closed in tight resolve. The leather straps of his katana holster, which looped around his upper plastron and carapace, stretched with a hiss.
"I sent Buddy to get something from this apartment, and they didn't come back."
Bobbing his head, Leo closed his eyes just long enough for a dry laugh. "Buddy?" His eyes narrowed. "We're buddies."
The reign of silence was brief as not a speck of humour dipped into your pursed lips. "You're the reason they didn't come back, aren't you?"
Sweat was rolling down his head like a waterfall. His fingers alternated between tapping the floor and clasping the rug, and his feet swayed in an itch to stand. His eyes began to dart around the room, with his lips opening and closing as tightly as possible.
Finally, a loud exhale burst forth as if he had been holding his breath underwater and had just made it to the surface. "They looked like an intruder!"
"Eating pizza?"
Leo jumped up and outstretched his arms. "They had your key!" he pleaded, shaking his hands and enunciating with slight movements of his fingers. "I thought they beat you up and stole it!"
"Leo," you murmured, "where are they?"
He stared at you as if he had offered some witticism. The reality of the question had caught him off-guard, and he was yearning for either a sudden gush of mystic awareness to knock the back of his head or a reason to deflect your suspicion entirely.
"Leo, bring them back."
There was a marked tension in his jaw. His gaze flitted between the lamp and the adjacent wall, and the corners of his mouth quivered. "I ... I can't."
He lifted his head to look at you. "I sent them to the worst place I could think of."
The tension in your shaking fists and gritted teeth was released in a wave of shock, but hidden there, in the way your scowl fell and your eyes widened, laid a degree of understanding.
Of all the many worlds and environments Leo had found himself visiting, the chances of survival in the worst of them were low even for a trained ninja.
A gust of cool autumn wind rushed into the apartment from the dimly lit outside. It howled and swirled like the spinning of helicopter blades and summoned the appearance of a trio of humanoid turtles.
The trio spilled into your apartment in a flash of red, purple and orange, and they came bearing a variety of weapons.
A wooden staff was brandished in the hands of the one who wore a purple headband.
A pair of metal sticks fastened to chains hung in the grasp of the one who wore an orange headband.
The one who wore a red headband was a hulking figure with spikes all over his body, and he held in each of his hands a forked blade.
Raph pointed one of his sai at Leo, his fingers curling into the spaces between the blades. The tails of his headband fluttered in the breeze emanating from the propellers on Donnie's jetpack, which slowed to a stop after generating a high-pitched hum. "This needs to stop, Leo!"
Leo pressed his heels together and stuck out his arms. A treacherous smile stained with sweat crawled onto his face, and his eyes were squinting so much that they were barely visible. "What needs to stop?"
Upon lowering his sai, Raph softened his glare. "We heard everything."
The colour drained from Leo's face as his blood ran cold, colder than the icy waters in the Arctic. It passed within seconds when he shrugged and flashed a pretend smile. "So what do you want me to do?" he asked, dismissively.
Raph lifted his sai and directed its sharp ends at Leo again. "I'll tell you what we're gonna do. You open a portal to wherever you sent 'em, and we go and get 'em."
Leo grappled with the urge to break out in laughter at what seemed a hopeless thought, his mind filling with the horrors of the world he had imagined as the destination. "You can't be serious!"
There was no wavering in Raph's eye. "I am," he said, grimly.
After his entire body drooped, Leo slowly reached behind his back for one of his katanas. "Fine," he groaned, stretching the length of the word until a slash from his katana opened a circle of fire at his side.
A rat-a-tat came from the front door. "Pizza delivery!" called a voice from the outside corridor, muffled by the sealed door and thin walls separating the speaker from the apartment room.
Mikey whirled around to gape at you with the glee of a small child. "You ordered pizza?" he squealed, bending his knees inward and clutching his hands close to his cheeks. His white teeth shone like pearls as he drew his lips back, and stars sparkled in his eyes.
"Mikey!" snapped Raph, his head turning slightly but his gaze not daring to wander from Leo. "We'll eat later."
Mikey inhaled and pressed a fist to his chest while reaching out his other hand to the front door. "Another time," he croaked, his voice strained and cracking as if heartbroken.
You scoured your pocket with a sweep of your hand, only to find nothing but space. "My key!" As you kept your head down and bumped it against the door, your voice fell to a hushed exclamation of worry. "If I have to ask for a spare, my landlord's gonna kill me!"
Raph turned to you, his expression unchanged. "Nobody's killing anybody!"
With his brows furrowed and his eyes half-shut, Donnie raised a thumb over his shoulder and pointed it at Leo. "It would appear Nardo has beaten us to the punch in that regard."
Leo arched his back like a hissing cat and flailed his arms at Donnie. "It was an honest mistake!"
You stomped toward him and seethed through closed teeth, "Sending my best friend through a death portal is not an honest mistake."
Leo shrank away from you and was refusing to see anything other than the ground when your word choice hit him like a slap in the face. "Wait." He looked up, his eyes wide and his tone brokenhearted. "Best friend?"
The pale light of the portal fell upon Raph's face as a shadow when he approached it, and he fixed Leo with a stern glare. "Not the time, Leo!"
As Mikey and Donnie leapt through the portal, Leo walked backwards into its glow. "Okay, okay!" He shook his arms in front of his chest and shut his eyes as if clearing the air of that part of the conversation.
Despite this, his hands came together and started to point back and forth between the portal and you. "But maybe after I save this person's life, you and I can talk about my status as your bestest friend?"
Raph showed his teeth and grasped the top of Leo's carapace, pulling him into the portal as he marched through it himself. "Don't worry. We'll bring 'em back," promised Raph, who offered as much of a smile to you as he could muster given the stress tugging at him.
Leo's yelp at the sudden force was cut short by the closing of the portal, and the room collapsed into darkness.