From The Shadows || TMNT 2012 FanFiction (BOOK 1)

Chapter 8. Glow-In-The-Dark Stars

     "Good. I think we should-"

     "I know exactly what you're thinking, Donnie." Leo shakes his head, cutting off his brother. "We are not doing that."

     "It could show us what might be happening." Donnie frowns.

     "Not after what it did to April."

     April sighs. "To be fair, it wasn't Donnie's invention that caused me to... uh..."

     "Try to take over the world and kill Dee?" Mikey finishes April's sentence.

     "Yeah.. that.." April says.

     "No. We're not doing that. This is different. I will talk about it with Master Splinter later," Leo orders.

     Donnie shrugs. "I don't know why everyone is so against science."

     Leo turns towards Carrie. "Will you be alright?"

     She nods as everyone else begins to file out of her room and disperse back into theirs.

     "Do you want lights?"

     "Lights?" Carrie looks up at the turtle.

     He nods. "Yeah. I know how these things can be. I have a box of lights you can have — to help you fall asleep if you need."

     Carrie's cheeks flushed. She was embarrassed. She was embarrassed about how scared she had become and how scared she still was. She hated that he asked this of her. Instead of being confronted about her fear, Carrie wished he would've just left. She certainly would've fallen asleep eventually. But, she couldn't resist the urge to take him up on that offer. After these two experiences, she feared the night and dark more than ever. A nightlight wouldn't hurt. After all, Leonardo seemed to understand her situation quite well.

     Carrie slowly nods. "That would be nice," she whispers.

     Leo offers her a slight smile as he leads her to his room. She follows him into his room, noticing the neatness of it. His isn't as bare as the room she occupied, but not meticulously decorated with much either. The one thing Carrie did notice was his ceiling. He had those glow-in-the-dark stars that stick to a wall, or ceiling, wherever you decide to put them. The sight amuses her and the corners of her mouth slightly rise.

     He opens a foldable door — that Carrie assumes to be his closet, although it's not filled with clothes (for obvious reasons) — and he pulls down a box from the top shelf. Leo sets the box down on his bed and opens the container. Inside are smaller boxes of nightlights and some packages of the same stars that decorate Leonardo's ceiling.

     "I like your stars," Carrie mumbles.

     Confused at first, he looks up. He grins. "Thanks. You can take whatever you want."

     "Where did you get all of these?"

      Leo shrugs. "We found them a while ago when we were younger. Mikey and Raph used to get pretty bad nightmares, so I kept all of these."

     Carrie takes a couple of nightlights, thinking of changing them every night, just for fun. She also takes two bags of the stars, hoping to be able to stick them to her ceiling too.

     Leo locks the lid back onto the container and returns it to the top shelf.

     "Can you help me put these up?" Carrie asks, holding the stars up. She doesn't look at Leo as she asks this, being too embarrassed.

     Leo nods. "Yeah."

     The two walk back to Carrie's room with the lights she had chosen. Carrie hands the stars to Leonardo. He steps up onto the bed, opens the bag, and begins to stick them onto the ceiling.

     Carrie plugs one of the nightlights in and turns it on. Her easy work is done. All she can do is wait for Leo.

     She sighs and sits at the end of the bed. "I didn't see the same thing," she confesses.

     Leo looks down at her but continues sticking the stars onto the ceiling. "I know."

     "I'm scared.."

     "I know. You don't need to tell me anything."

     Carrie shakes her head. "I have to."

     "What did you see?"

     "I saw myself fighting you. I was wearing this... this armor... and it had some sort of foot symbol around the sash."

     Leonardo holds his breath at the sound of this, but he continues to listen intently as he places the stars around the ceiling.

     "You guys — we — were arguing. You kept trying to convince her to stop, but she kept fighting you. Eventually, you threw your weapons to the ground and refused to fight her. But she just wouldn't stop... She... I... killed you. There was no mercy... no compassion... no guilt." Carrie looks down at her hands. "Damn, and her eyes... they weren't normal. When she killed you, they became darker. And when she looked at me... completely black."

     Leo sighs. He finishes sticking the last couple of stars to the ceiling. With the job done, he sits at the edge of the bed, a couple of feet from Carrie.

     "I understand why you didn't want to tell anybody."

      Carrie shuts her eyes. "You think I'm evil."

     "I don't, actually."

     Carrie looks up at him. "Why? These... nightmares... they could be showing me what will happen to me. And what I'll do."

     Leonardo sighs and shakes his head. "I know what Master Splinter told you. Sometimes these things project your worst fears."

      "But Master Splinter talked about... dark planes... and visions... and-"

     "I know," Leonardo says. "I've been there."

     Carrie sits in silence.

     "What you're experiencing happened to me a while ago." Leonardo looks down at the ground. "The Shredder had taken my brothers, dragged them off into the darkness. I couldn't help them. Nothing I did could save them. But he wouldn't... he wouldn't take me. He wouldn't kill me. In those moments of fear, in those dreams, I wished he had."

     Carrie glances over at him, feeling sorry for him. "Those are your worst fears?"

     Leonardo nods and shrugs. "Not too surprising though."

     "And what I'm seeing are my worst fears?"

     "Possibly. I wouldn't rule out the dark planes Master Splinter informed you about. What you're experiencing seems much more real from any of my experiences."

     "So... what do I do?"

     "These things are preventable. They're oftentimes warnings." Leonardo smiles. "I know it's terrifying, but these nightmares may be preparing you for something."

     Carrie offers a slight smile. "Thank you."

     "Of course." Leonardo stands and walks toward the door. "If you need anything else, you know where April is, and you know where I am."

     Carrie nods and allows the turtle to leave her. She returns to her bed, laying on her back, and stares up at her new stars.