What Became of Ellie
Ellie crashed down on the hotel room's bed and wrapped herself up in its big, fluffy, white blanket, closing her eyes.
She'd found a hotel that was willing to give her a free room if she worked in the kitchens to cook for the guests eating in the dining room. Happily, she'd agreed. She could eat the leftovers the guests left, as well as get a free bed. At the moment, that was all she needed.
Plus, she was earning cash. Just minimum wage, but it was the most cash Ellie had ever earned before.
She worked all day, since she had nothing better to do, and then usually crashed right when she got up to her room. Today especially. She'd worked 12 hours straight today.
Doing the math in her head, she knew she'd earned $105. Not bad.
With that on her mind, she fell asleep.
**DREAM**
"Ellie." She spun around to see her father, in his double mutated form, looking at her with a frown on his face. She licked her lips. "You're coming with me, today."
Ellie didn't need to ask where. She knew where. To Shredder's Lair.
"I..I have school today, father," she tried telling him, even though she knew he wouldn't listen. Not that she cared about school. She had no friends, and she was the butt of everyone's jokes, there. But she would much rather go to school than go with her father to Shredder's Lair.
"You can make up the work tomorrow," was all her father said before leaving the house, expecting Ellie to follow.
Ellie left the rest of her breakfast on her plate and stood from her dining room table. Then, she took a deep breath and followed her father through the door.
Well, not exactly followed. Ever since her father was mutated, he tended to stay in the shadows, which meant he jumped from roof to roof or travelled through back alleyways. Ellie couldn't really do all that, so she always made her own path to Shredder's.
When she got there, her father was waiting for her at the giant front doors. Without saying anything, the footbots opened the doors and allowed the two to enter.
The giant doors lead straight into the throne room, where Shredder sat on his throne. It was a little dramatic, Ellie thought. Who used a throne anyway??
She stayed towards the entrance as her father walked up closer to the throne and bowed to his master. Xever was already there, standing.
"Bradford," Shredder said. His voice always scared Ellie, and she gulped. "I've decided that we should move Michelangelo."
A beat pause before her father asked, "Why?"
"Because his brothers already know that he's here in this building, as does Karai. If we move him elsewhere, they won't be able to find him, giving me more time to try and get the information I need out of him," Shredder explained.
"So, you'll be moving with him?" her father clarified.
"Yes," Shredder said. "You and Xever will accompany me with 100 footbots. Everyone else is to stay here."
Ellie's father nodded. "I'll get Michelangelo into a transportation container."
Xever, who had probably already been briefed about what was going to happen, said in his Brazilian accent, "I will get the footbots ready."
Shredder nodded to both of them, and then they dispersed. Xever disappeared in a door behind Shredder's throne, and her father started walking towards the door that lead to what Ellie called the Torture Chamber. It really didn't have a name, but that's basically what it was.
Ellie didn't want to follow, but knew if she didn't, her father wouldn't be happy. She sped after him.
The sounds of wailing and whimpering filled Ellie's ears when she stepped through the doors, and the smell of blood and sweat and who knows what else was everywhere. It was semi-dark in the place. You could see where you were going, and shapes around you, but nothing in detail.
Of course, her father could probably see everything 100% since he had night vision because of his mutation, but Ellie didn't. She almost tripped over some chains at one point.
She followed her father to the very last cell, where he turned around and said to her, "Go get a moving container from the storage room." Then he started unlocking the door.
Ellie walked right back out of the Torture Chamber, wondering who in the world they were moving. She felt like Shredder had used a name..but she couldn't remember it.
The girl entered the storage room where Shredder kept a bunch of fighting junk and other stuff that Ellie didn't even know what it was. It was a mess, and it took Ellie about ten minutes to locate the moving container her father had told her to fetch.
It was meant to hold something living, because it had holes poked in so whatever in the box could breathe. It was also average human-sized, and that was a big giveaway as to what it was used for. Taking a long look at it, Ellie knew that she couldn't carry it herself, so she called a few footbots in the storage room to help her.
They all dragged the box back into the Torture Chamber and to the last cell, where, to Ellie's horror, her father was mercilessly beating the poor guy in there.
She wanted to rush in there and scream for him to stop, but 1. The box was blocking the entrance to the cell, and 2. She knew her father would probably murder her.
Her father didn't even notice the box as he punched the guy in the cell across the face. The guy collapsed on the ground and curled up in a ball, crying. Ellie realized that he couldn't have been more than 16 years old.
Because the guy was no longer standing, therefore her father couldn't punch him without leaning down, her father started kicking him in the chest.
At first, the guy didn't cry out. But then, every time her father's hard, bony foot connected with his chest, the guy would scream.
Ellie wanted it to stop. Her eyes filled with tears, but she blinked them away, knowing that if her father looked up, he would see them.
"STOP!" the guy suddenly screamed. "PLEASE!" He was sobbing, and he sounded completely terrified.
Ellie took this as her opportunity to sort-of help. "Father..I got the box," she said in a quiet voice, hoping that he wouldn't be mad. His orangish-yellowish eyes pierced through the darkness as he looked at Ellie, and then the box.
She didn't know what his expression was, but the next thing he was doing was forcing the guy to his feet and pushing him into the traveling container, hissing, "Get in there."
The footbots and Ellie started carrying the box out of the entrance of the cell so her father could get out. Once that was done, her father lead the way out of the Torture Chamber and then out of Shredder's Lair. Shredder, Xever, and about 100 footbots were waiting next to a giant truck that was disguised as a Walmart Semi.
Some footbots that weren't carrying the box the guy was in opened the Semi's doors and allowed Ellie and the other footbots to put the box in there. Ellie tried to put it down gently, but the footbots didn't really care, and ended up practically throwing it in there. Ellie heard a faint yelp, and instantly felt guilty.
All the footbots then loaded into the Semi after the box, and Ellie followed her father, Shredder, and Xever.
Shredder sat in the shotgun, and her father was driving, so her and Xever were stuck in the back.
They rode for what felt like hours, with Ellie staring out of the window the entire time. They really only drove for about 15 minutes, but Ellie was terrible at keeping track of time, and she was so nervous about what was going to happen.
Why would Shredder risk this much security for one prisoner? Obviously whoever the guy was was important, but he was just a kid. Someone Ellie's age. It was terrible what her father and Shredder were doing to him.
The Semi arrived in front of an abandoned apartment, and everyone got out. This time, Ellie didn't have to carry the box, because some of the footbots did it all on their own. With Shredder leading, the footbots, Bradford, Xever, and Ellie went inside the apartment building.
The inside, however, was much different than the abandoned look it had on the outside. It looked like Shredder's Lair on the inside. Except this one was smaller. And less clean.
"Bring the box in here," Shredder instructed the footbots carrying it. He walked into a door that lead into another room, the footbots following.
The rest of the footbots spread out in the smaller replica of Shredder's throne room, and some of them disappeared out of it, probably going to guard the outside in case some unexpected visitors showed up.
"You go with Shredder," Xever told Ellie's father. "I'll stay here."
"You're not the boss of me, Xever," her father growled, but went anyway. Xever and him completely hated each other.
Ellie followed her father as they entered the place where Shredder, the footbots, and whoever was in the box, had gone.
The same semi-darkness at Shredder's lair engulfed Ellie and her father. Ellie could hear Shredder talking to the guy, who was probably now out of the box.
She and her father reached the room where Shredder's voice was coming from, and both entered. The lighting wasn't any better in there. Both of them went and stood at the corner of the room, as to not disrupt what was happening.
"...phone when we disarmed you," Shredder was saying. He was holding up an object, probably the phone he was talking about, to the guy. The footbots were at the other end of the wall with the box, and Shredder and the guy were at the center of the room. The guy's arms were tied above him, and the rope was connected to the ceiling. The guy was slumping, and Ellie felt sorry for him.
"It's what you use to contact your brothers and April, yes?" Shredder continued. The guy didn't answer, and Shredder punched him. Ellie flinched along with the guy.
"Y-yes," the guy whimpered. He sounded so young.
A bright light shone through the darkness, and Ellie guessed that Shredder had turned the phone on.
"Ah, I see Raphael's contact," Shredder said in a soft but menacing voice. "Let's ring him up, shall we?"
The guy didn't answer, and Ellie couldn't see his face, but she could imagine his panic. Whoever 'Raphael' was obviously close to this guy.
A careful but cautious voice filled the room, saying, "Hello?"
"Ah, Raphael. So good of you to answer," Shredder greeted.
"Where is my brother." Raphael, whoever he was, sounded absolutely furious.
"Right here," was Shredder's reply. He set the phone down on the ground, and Ellie heard Raphael take a deep breath on the other line to start talking, but that's when Shredder released a blade in his arm and dug it into the guy's skin.
The guy screamed, and Ellie wanted to cry. Her mouth dropped. How could someone do something like this to a teenager?
She could hear Raphael yelling on the phone, but couldn't make out what he was saying because of the guy's screams. She wanted the screams to stop.
But they didn't. Not for a long time.
When Shredder seemed satisfied, he sheathed the blade, and picked the phone back up. Raphael was silent, but Ellie knew that he was there and hadn't hung up.
"Oh, the fun it is to hear your brother scream," Shredder said.
"Stop. Stop it right now, Shredder, or I'll come over there, and I'll punch the living daylights out of your stupid self."
Ellie was impressed that someone had the guts to threaten Shredder like that.
"Raphael, I highly doubt you'll be able to find me."
There was a crash, a sound of something cracking and breaking, and then Raphael said, "I will."
"Such great threats for such a small, insignificant being."
"Put my brother on the phone." Raphael's voice was filled with so much hatred, Ellie felt threatened herself.
Shredder didn't answer Raphael, but instead asked the guy, "Would you like to speak to your brother?" in an almost mocking tone.
The poor guy was almost in too much pain to answer, "Y-y-y-yes."
Ellie watched in horror as Shredder dropped the phone and unsheathed his blade again.
"What are you--?" she heard Raphael demand, but the rest of his sentence was cut off by the guy.
"NO!" he screamed so loud that his voice cracked.
But, instead of hurting the guy, Shredder cut the rope that was holding the guy in place. Hands still bound and unable to stop his fall, the guy collapsed on the ground with a cry of pain.
"SHREDDER?!" Raphael yelled.
The guy slid the phone close to his face with his two hands and managed to say into it, "R-R-Raphie?"
"Mike?" Raphael replied.
And the guy lost it. He started to sob uncontrollably, and Ellie's heart broke at the sound of his sobs.
"Hey, hey, Mike. It's gonna be fine, 'ya hear me? You'll be alright." The guy, apparently Mike, didn't reply, and just kept sobbing. "We're gonna fine you, okay? And you'll be--"
"N-n-n-no," Mike suddenly pleaded. "Y-you c-c-can't."
"Can't...?"
"I-I-It's a t-t-trap, R-R-Raphie, y-you g-g-guys c-c-can't c-come--" Mikey was cut off when Shredder kicked him right in the chest, where her father had kicked him multiple times earlier that day.
He screamed, and that gave Shredder the chance to grab the phone and hang up.
"NO!" Mike yelled. "G-G-GIVE R-R-R-RAPHIE B-B-BACK!"
"I'm. Not. Going. To. Listen. To. You," Shredder said through gritted teeth. He lifted his foot one last time, and this time kicked Mikey's face.
Ellie could almost see the blood squirt out, and she squeezed her eyes shut. She wanted Shredder to just stop...
But he kept kicking, and Mike kept screaming.
After who-knows-how-long, Mike gave out one last yell for 'Raphie', and then totally blacked out.
"Well, that sure was dramatic," her father commented as Shredder started walking out of the room.
"Take him to the cell at the end of the hallway," Shredder instructed to the footbots. He turned to Ellie's father. "Bradford, you come with me." He turned to Ellie, and her heart almost stopped. "You--.." He seemed to not exactly know where to send her, so just said, "Help the footbots."
The footbots grabbed Mike's fallen body and started dragging it out of the room, and Ellie followed them, a sinking feeling in her heart.
**END OF DREAM**
Ellie suddenly opened her eyes. She didn't gasp or scream or anything like the movies, just opened her eyes.
But then, she started to cry. She didn't know exactly why, she just knew that she was fine one minute, and sobbing the next, hugging her knees tightly.
Everything was catching up to her now: Mikey, the Turtles, Tang Shen, April, her father's death...
She just wanted it all to end.