Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Okay baby, last time,” said Shen, trying to set her son down for the fourth time that night. Little Mikey blinked up at her and smiled. “Good night little one.”

The door swung open behind her, and she sighed. So much for an easy night’s sleep.

“Sorry,” said Yoshi, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. “They wanted to say goodnight.”

Leo, Raph, and Donnie, her older children stood in the doorway. “Let me guess, they wouldn’t go to bed unless you let them?”

“Nope,” said Leo. His twin was quick to elbow him.

“Shh,” said Raph. “Was supposed to be a secret.”

Donnie looked at them with as much judgment as a two-year-old could manage. “Dumb.”

“Alright, go ahead,” said Shen.

“Night-night, Mikey,” they said before scampering back out of the room.

“I’ll try to get them down,” said Yoshi. “But I make no promises.”

She kissed him on the cheek. “If they're like this now, imagine what they're going to be like as teenagers.”

He shuddered. “My love don’t give me nightmares. Let’s just enjoy what we have now.”

Three children were manageable, but four were starting to become difficult. Little Mikey hadn’t started crawling yet, but he turned six months old tonight. It was really only a matter of time before he was joining his brothers in mischief.

Leonardo and Rapheal were only four, but they had already figured out how to get the child locks off almost everything and played with things they weren’t supposed to. Every time she spotted one of them standing on a countertop took at least five years off her life. Donatello was worse, and already smarter than Yoshi and her, playing distraction when his brothers were grabbing a jar of cookies from on top of the fridge.

Mikey cooed and settled into his crib, finally and mercifully asleep. Shen checked the baby monitor to make sure it was working. The power had been weird lately, lights flickering and the oven turning on and off at random. Thank God she finally got a hold of an electrician who was coming tomorrow to fix it. If Yoshi tried to fix it, he’d probably burn the whole house down.

She looked in Donnie’s room first. Fast asleep, drooling on a stuffed bear. She pulled the door closed behind her. Gently so that he wouldn’t wake up. Next was the twins room. Raph was sleeping soundly, and she could hear him snoring from down the hallway.

“Mommy?” And it seemed that little Leo was still awake.

“Yes?”

“Can’t sleep,” he said with a serious look on his face.

“Why not?” said Shen sitting down on the bed with him.

“It’s dark,” said Leo.

“You have your nightlight, my son. It’s not completely dark.”

“What if someone tries to get in? What if-”

Shen picked him up and set him down in her lap. “Musuko. I locked the door, the windows, and Daddy and I are right down the hall. Nothing’s going to hurt you.”

“Promise?”

“Promise. Now sleep,” said Shen. She waited for a few minutes before getting up, wanting to make sure he was actually sleeping. She tucked him in, kissed the top of his head and made her way to her own room.

Yoshi was face down in the bed, fast asleep by the time Shen got there. Because of course he was. She was certain he would sleep through a tornado if she gave him the chance. But she wasn’t much better. She fell asleep the second her head hit the pillow.

Mikey’s cries played over the baby monitor. “Yoshi? Your turn.”

She swatted at his side of the bed but found nothing but air. She sighed and rubbed her eyes, putting on the pink slippers that protected her feet from the cold floor. Shen stumbled down the hallway to the open door of Mikey’s nursery.

Her husband was standing above Mikey’s crib. In the dark she could make out his form, standing in silence.

“Yoshi? Is he hungry?”

Yoshi put a finger to his lips. “Shh.”

“Alright,” she said. Her own stomach had started to growl, and if she was going to be up, she might as well have something to eat. The hall light flickered as she turned it off again. It was really starting to get on her nerves.

She walked down the stairs to the kitchen, taking stock of what was down there in her head. The downstairs TV was playing some old war movie that Yoshi was fond of. He must have left it on by accident. As she reached the last step, she looked out into the living room.

There was her husband laying on the couch fast asleep, the dim light of the TV illuminating his features.

Shen’s heart dropped to her stomach, blood roaring in her ears. “Mikey!”

The pounding of her heart was the only thing she could hear as she raced up the stairs and back towards her youngest son. Whatever that man wanted, he was going to have to get through her first.
…

An ear-piercing shriek rang out through the night, and Yoshi bolted awake. “Shen! Love, what’s wrong?”

Without pausing for breath, he went straight towards his wife’s scream, stumbling up the stairs in his panic. He turned on the hallway light and rushed into Mikey’s room. He was awakened squirming and staring at the ceiling, transfixed by his baby mobile.

He couldn’t help but smile at his young son. “Hello, little one. Now where is your mother?”

Something was on Mikey’s face, a little red speck just above his eyebrow. Yoshi went to wipe it off, only for more of it to drop onto his hand. Had a pipe burst? He glanced up at the ceiling.

His wife’s cold eyes stared down at him. Shen took in a rattled gasp, blood dripping from her stomach as she was pinned to the ceiling.

“Shen!” he cried as the room burst into flames.

“Daddy?” said a small voice from behind him. Panic flooded his veins as Leo stared at him. Yoshi plucked Mikey out of his crib and handed him to Leo.

“Wake your brothers and take them outside!” Leo was still standing there, wide eyes looking straight at the flames. “Now, Leonardo!”

Leo nodded and took off down the hall, banging on his brothers' doors. Raph grabbed Donnie’s hand as they ran out into the night.

Yoshi reached up, trying to take his wife’s hand, only for searing flames to cover his pajamas. He smothered them. He couldn’t just leave her there. Shen had been with him for everything. She was there when his mother died, when he’d gotten a job at a dojo right in town.

He remembered the smile on her face when she told him she was pregnant. How she laughed when he managed to dump paint on his head when he tried to paint the nursery. This was his other half, his everything, the one thing that kept him smiling and laughing when it felt like nothing else could. But it was too late. He had always been too late.

The tears in his eye could have been the smoke or the hole in his chest where Shen once was. His sons, his boys, the only thing he had left of Shen were still standing on the front step. Yoshi pulled them into his arms and raced across the street. The windows shattered raining glass all over the front lawn.

The fire department came and bandaged the burns on his arms. None of his boys had anything serious, unless you counted the haunted look in Leo’s eyes. If there was a god, thought Yoshi, he wouldn’t let him remember this. Mikey was still asleep, and Donnie was just staring off into the distance. Raph was sniffling softly, as they sat on the hood of the car.

Yoshi made a promise right there and then. Nothing was going to stop him from killing whoever or whatever had the audacity to take Shen from him. He wanted blood, and God help whoever stood in his way.
…
Twenty Years Later

Orange pumpkins and dirty laundry decorated the apartment that Mikey shared with his girlfriend. Leatherhead was hosting a Halloween party, and he couldn’t turn down a chance to dance!

“Hurry up! We’re going to be late!” shouted Renet. She was dressed up like a zombie, a nasty wound on her chest courtesy of the special effects makeup. Her blonde hair was braided up into a crown to show off the bite effect she had done on her neck.

“Fashionably late!” said Mikey. “That’s the key difference!”

He walked out of the bathroom in his costume, a zombie to match Renet. Despite everything, Mikey still loved Halloween. He had every reason to hate it, but knowing it was all pretend made it much more fun.

“Oh, hold on!” said Renet rushing back into the bathroom. She came back. makeup brush and eyeshadow in hand. “I need to touch up your eye bags.”

“You’re incredible. What would I do without you?” asked Mikey.

She stopped applying the eyeshadow to give him a quick kiss. “Crash and burn my dear. Crash and burn.”

“Okay, I think we’ve kept them waiting long enough,” said Mikey. He held out his hand. “My dear.”

Renet blushed and took his hand. “Cut it out.”

They made their way to one of the frat houses on the edge of campus. The music was blaring to the point that it shook the foundations and the windows rattled. How they didn’t have any noise complaints was beyond him.

“Mikey!” said Leatherhead, slinging an arm around his shoulders. “Glad you could make it dude! Wasn’t sure you were coming!”

“Of course, I came, dude! It’s a Halloween party!” said Mikey, trying to make himself heard above the music.

“I guess we were a little too fashionably late,” said Renet.

Mikey rubbed the back of his neck and laughed. “Sorry about that.”

“Don’t worry about it,” said Leatherhead. “Let me get you a drink. Punch sound good?”

“What kinda punch?” said Renet.

“It’s non-alcoholic, don’t worry. I don’t need campus security on my ass for giving booze to minors. But I can get you a soda if you’d like,” said Leatherhead.

“Yeah, soda sounds good. Mikey?”

“I’ll have a punch,” said Mikey.

“Coming right up!” Leatherhead disappeared back into the crowd. They gathered on the back porch where it was just a little easier to carry on a normal conversation.

“Where did you get his punch anyway?” said Mikey.

“It’s one of my buddy’s recipes, pretty sure he just mixes a bunch of Kool Aid flavors together,” said Leatherhead. “Anyway, I hear that you have some pretty exciting news.”

“It’s not that big a deal,” said Mikey.

“Uh, yes, it is,” said Renet. “It’s a chance for a grant! It’s huge.”

“You must be the favorite child,” said Leatherhead. “I’ll bet your folks are proud.”

Mikey wanted to tell him. His mother had been dead for almost all of his life, and college wasn’t exactly what his dad wanted for him. Even if he did have a full scholarship for the Art Institute of Chicago, and grant money to paint to his heart's content. There wasn’t time to tell them that.

“We’re not the Tanners,” said Mikey.

“If I was you, I’d be bragging. Seriously,” said Leatherhead.

Mikey finished his punch. “Come on! Let’s just have fun!”

Mikey and Renet danced the night away, until their heads hurt, and their feet went numb. They stumbled home to their apartment and made sure to lock the door. They crashed on their bed and fell fast asleep.

The window shattered and Renet sat bolt upright in bed. “Mikey, Mikey.”

“What-”

“There’s someone in the house.”

Mikey’s blood was replaced with ice. He grabbed the baseball bat and crept into the next room. He could see someone there, as a shadowy figure standing in the dark.
He charged, bat swinging. The figure ducked, grabbing his wrist and twisting it. Mikey let the bat clatter to the ground and swung his legs, kicking whoever it was square in the chest. The figure stumbled backward, before gaining his bearings, and knocking Mikey to the ground, pinning him down.

“You’ve gotten, rusty little brother,” said the figure. Mikey spun around, pinning the intruder to the floor. “Or maybe not. Ow!”

“Raph!” said Mikey. He stood up and pulled his brother to his feet. “What are you doing here?”

“The question should be what are we doing here,” said Leo, walking out of the kitchen. “Your food selection sucks.”

“Stay out of my fridge!” said Mikey.

“Seriously dude, those veggies are starting to rot,” said Donnie. He tossed a handful of Lay’s into his mouth. “Chips are still good.”

“Great, family reunion! Next time, call me! Don’t break into my house!” said Mikey.

“If we had called, would you have picked up?” said Raph. He punched him lightly on the shoulder. “Besides, this is more fun.”

“You are an asshole,” said Mikey. The light’s flicked on.

“Mikey?” asked Renet. “Who are these people?”

“Right, sorry. These are my brothers. Leo, Raph, and Donnie. This is my girlfriend, Renet,” said Mikey.

Raph raised an eyebrow. “You have a girlfriend? No offense but she is way out of your league.”

Leo elbowed him in the side. “Be nice. It’s lovely to meet you, Renet.”

“We were actually wondering if we could borrow Mikey for a second,” said Donnie

Mikey had just about had it. First, they broke into his house, scaring the shit out of him, and Renet. Then they insult him and eat his food. Whatever it was that they wanted, they could tell him straight out.

“No. Whatever you want to say you can say to both of us,” said Mikey.

Raph looked at Leo and shrugged. “Okay, Dad’s on a trip, and he hasn’t been back for a few days.”

“So what?” said Mikey. “He’s probably working overtime on a Miller time shift. He’ll stumble back in. He always does.”

Leo looked to meet Mikey’s eyes. “Dad’s on a hunting trip. And he hasn’t been home in a few days.”

“Renet, do you mind giving us a minute?”

Chapter Text

“So, what, you break in the middle of the night and just expect me to pack up and leave with you?” said Mikey.

“What about Dad’s missing didn’t get through your head?” muttered Raph popping open the trunk of the car.

It was a blue 1961 Lincoln continental that Leo and Raph had salvaged from Honeycutt’s scrap yard. A passion project of the twins. Looks like they’d finally got it up and running.

“He’s always missing, and he’s always fine. Las Vegas, Sterling, New York. He came back after you had a panic attack over it,” said Mikey.

“This time it’s different, Mike,” said Donnie. 

“I told you guys that I was done hunting,” said Mikey.

“It wasn’t that bad,” said Leo. 

“You know what Dad did when I told him I was scared of the thing in my closet? He gave me a katana,” said Mikey.

“Well, what was he supposed to do?” said Raph.

“I was eight! He was supposed to tell me not to be scared of the dark!”

“Of course, you should be scared! You know what’s out there!”

Donnie rolled his eyes and looked at Leo. “Five minutes, and it’s already started.”

The cold night air was starting to get to him, and Mikey was starting to wish he’d brought a jacket. The streetlights weren’t quite enough to see too far ahead, but he could imagine the look on Raph’s face. 

Leo may have been his double, same tan skin, dark brown eyes and close-cut black hair, but Mikey had always understood how to tell them apart. Leo was the twin who would bail him out of jail. Raph was the twin who would be sitting right next to him, cussing out the cops. The only physical difference between them was a nasty scar that ran from Raph’s collar bone to halfway down his stomach, courtesy of a particularly vengeful spirit. 

“And then there’s Dad's obsession to find whatever killed Mom. It’s been twenty years and we still haven’t found it! He’s just been hunting whatever he could get his hands on,” said Mikey.

“And we’ve saved a lot of people doing it!”

“We were raised like warriors. Melting silver into weapons. Can you look at me and tell me that’s what Mom would have wanted for us?”

“Enough!” shouted Leo. “Look, I know you're not Dad’s biggest fan, but can we table this for five minutes? We have work to do.”

“What makes you think I want to come?” said Mikey.

“Because we can’t do this by ourselves,” said Donnie.

“Yes, you can. You’ve been doing it without me for the last two years.”

“We don’t want to do this without you.”

Mikey sighed. “Alright, what’s going on?”

Leo opened the trunk. There wasn’t a spare tire in the spare tire compartment. It was an arsenal. Shotguns, knives, shuriken, anything that could do damage to anything supernatural was kept in that trunk. “Dad went off on his own a couple of weeks ago, we were supposed to meet him at a motel. He never showed.”

“He let you guys go off by yourselves?” said Mikey.

“Me and Leo are twenty-four, and Donnie’s twenty-two. We’re not exactly kids anymore,” said Raph.

“Where was the last hunt he went on?” said Mikey.

“Odelle,” said Donnie. He pulled a stack of files out of the trunk. “Harris Campbell vanished in the middle of the night while he was driving home. Before that there was James Westcott in 2014, and Lewis French in 2009. At least ten people going back to the nineties.”

“We were going to let it solve itself but then, I got a voicemail,” said Leo, pulling out his phone.

“ Leonardo. There is something going on here. I need you to keep your brothers safe. Be careful my son. We are all in danger .”

“What’s with the static?” asked Mikey.

Raph rolled his eyes. “You really are out of practice. That’s EVP. Donnie cleared it up. Do you mind-”

“Yeah, give me a minute,” said Donnie.

“ I can never go home ,” said a crackling feminine voice. 

“Alright. I’ll go. But I need to be back first thing Monday,” said Mikey. “I’ve got an interview.

“A job interview? Skip it,” said Raph.

“It’s an interview for an art grant. This could be huge for me.”

Leo smiled at him. “Don’t worry, we’ll have you back by Monday.”

“I’ll be right back. I just need to pack a bag.” He walked back to his apartment and taped over the broken window with a sheet of plastic.

“It was nice to meet them, but can you tell them to knock next time?” said Renet.

“Sorry about that,” said Mikey. “I need to head out for a couple days, I’ll be back by Monday.”

“Is this about your dad? Is he okay?” asked Renet.

“He’s fine. He’s probably at his cabin with a bottle of whiskey. I just have to drag him back.” Mikey threw hoodies and shirts in his bag at random.

“What about the interview?”

Mikey kissed her on the cheek. “I’ll be back in time for that. Don’t worry.”
“I didn’t even know you still talked to your family! And now you're going to take off in the middle of the night on a road trip?” 

“Hey, I’ll be back in time. I love you.”

Renet rolled her eyes. “I love you too. But please hurry back.”

…

Odelle, Illinois

The dim glow of the headlights was the only brightness on this road. It was drizzling, not bad enough for the window wipers, but enough to mess with his line of sight. Greg drummed his finger on the wheel to the beat of the music. 

“Yeah, sorry babe I can’t come over tonight,” said Greg.

He could practically hear Lori pouting through the phone. “Why not?”

“Cause I have work tomorrow! And my dad’s going to kill me if he finds out I ditched,” said Greg. He glanced out the driver's side window.

For half a second he thought he saw someone. The radio started to fritz, so he hit it a couple times. No luck. Then there she was. Pale with greasy black hair, white dress torn almost completely to shreds.

“I’m going to have to call you back,” said Greg, hanging up the phone. He slowed to a stop in front of the woman. “Are you having car trouble?”

She tilted her head to the side. “Take me home?”

Greg’s mind was working at a mile a minute. Sure, picking up a hitchhiker was dangerous, but what harm could this woman truly do? “Yeah, sure get in. Where am I taking you?”

“Breckenridge Road.”

Okay, that wasn’t too far. “You uhm coming from a Halloween party?”

The woman looked straight ahead, not meeting his eyes. She was pretty too, with full red lips. A little like Snow White if he was being honest with himself. And it wasn’t like Lori was expecting him to go to her place.

“You know a girl like you really shouldn’t be alone out here.”

She pouted, pulling the skirt she was wearing a little higher on her thigh. “I have you. Do you think I’m beautiful?”

“Uhhh…” Wow, Greg. Smooth. He was truly a genius.

“Come home with me?”

That he knew the answer too. “Uh… hell yeah.”

Greg was certain he broke the speed limit, driving like a maniac down the road. When he reached the address, he wasn’t sure what he was expecting. A town house maybe. But no one had lived in this house in years. Vines grew through the open windows, and he could already feel the dust on the front handle. He turned to his passenger.

“Are you sure this is the place?”

She sighed. “I can never go home.”

“What are you talking about no one lives-” the passenger seat was empty. “Here.”

He swallowed the lump in his throat. She couldn’t be- what was she. Greg wasn’t going to stay here and find out. He threw the car back into drive. It wouldn’t start, he tried again, but the engine was only letting out pathetic whines. 

Invisible hands reached into his chest; the pain was blinding. He tried to shove it away, do anything but it was no use. The last thing Greg saw was his own blood spattered across the windshield off his car.

…

Mikey jolted awake to someone tapping at the window. “What the-”

Raph smiled down at him before throwing him a bacon and egg sandwich. “Breakfast!”

“How’d you pay for this anyway?” asked Mikey.

“With the wonders of credit card fraud,” said Donnie. “It’s not our fault they haven’t caught on.”

“Tell me, Donnie. It’s been a while. Did Raph finally update his cassette tapes?” said Mikey.

“Sadly, no. We’re still stuck with the greatest hits of mullet rock,” said Donnie.

“What’s wrong with my cassette tapes?” said Raph.

Donnie rolled his eyes. “Their cassette tapes. Would it kill you to let me put a Bluetooth in this thing? It is the digital age.”

Raph glared at him. “Over my dead body.”

“We are ten minutes from Odelle. Just ten. Can we keep it together until then?” said Leo. He switched on the radio, Back in Black by AC/DC blared over the speakers. No one could argue, if they couldn’t hear each other. An age-old Leo tactic. 

“Driver picks the music. Passengers shut their cakeholes,” said Raph.

Leo looked at him. “I’m driving.”

“Yeah, yeah. Not the point.”

“So, I called the hospital and the morgue,” said Leo. “There’s no one there matching Dad’s description.”

“That’s good I guess,” said Mikey.

The bridge going into town was surrounded by cop cars and covered in yellow crime scene tape.

“I think we need to pull over,” said Donnie. Raph riffled through the glove box before he pulled out four US Marshal badges.

“Okay, the picture’s all match. Let’s go,” said Raph. 

Leo pulled the car over and Raph handed out the badges. Mikey checked his. Agent Mercury. Raph had definitely made this badge.

“Find anything?” asked one of the officers. There was a sedan parked in the middle of the road, skewed at an awkward angle.

“No fingerprints, no blood. It’s almost too clean,” said another officer.

“This was your daughter’s boyfriend, right?”

“Yeah. Greg Kincaid. Good kid. Lori’s freaking out, she’s downtown putting up missing persons posters.”

“You guys had another one just last month,” said Leo.

The officer turned around hands on his hips. “And who are you guys?”

“Federal marshals,” said Leo, fake badge in hand.

“You look a little young for federal marshals,” said the officer.

Leo grinned. “Aww, I’m flattered.”

Raph walked over the car and looked inside. “You did have another one like this right?”

“Yeah. About a mile up the road. And a couple of others before that.”

“And you knew this victim?” asked Mikey.

It was strange how easy this was. Walking onto crime scenes like he belonged there, with a smile and a fake badge. Whatever. One case and he was back home with Renet.

“Everybody knows everybody here,” said the officer.

“Any connections between the victims?” asked Donnie.

“Other than the fact that they're all men? No.”

“What’s the theory?” said Leo.

“Serial killer? But we’re not really sure,” said the officer.

Raph rolled his eyes. “Well, that’s the kind of crack police work we expect out of a town like this.”

Leo stomped on his foot. Raph knocked him on the back of the head. Donnie grabbed Raph’s shoulders and steered him away. Mikey grabbed Leo’s arm before he could get any ideas.

“Thank you for your time,” said Donnie, rushing to get the twins back to the car.

“Why’d you step on my foot?” said Raph.

“Why do you feel the need to sass the cops?” muttered Leo.

Raph stopped. “It’s not like they know what was going on anyway?”

Two men in suits passed by them. It was a good thing that Raph hadn’t gone for the FBI badges. Then they really would have been screwed.

Leo smiled and nodded at them. “Gentlemen.”

They piled back into the car. Donnie pulled out his phone. “I think we should try to find Lori. Since the cops aren’t going to be much help.”

Downtown Odelle looked like a lot of small towns in the Midwest. The entire place felt like it was covered in a thick layer of dust and grime. Mom and pop shops lined the streets, complete with fading paint, cigarette butts and empty beer cans. Leo pulled the car in front of an optometrist office, and parked.

“Be on the lookout for a group of girls,” said Raph, getting out of the car.

“Up the street,” said Mikey.

A woman in her early twenties was wandering down the street, holding the hand of her friend. In the other hand, she clutched a stack of posters.

“If that isn’t Lori,” said Leo. “I’ll eat my left shoe. Raph, Donnie, you guys hang back. I don’t want to scare her.”

“We’ll go find a library,” said Raph, holding his hand out for the keys. Leo handed them over.

He walked up to the girls. “Hey! You’re, Lori, right?”

The girl took a step back. “Yeah. I’m sorry, who are you?”

“We’re Greg’s cousins. I’m Leo, and this is Mikey. He’s told us a lot about you.”

“He never talked about you.” She turned around and started to walk away.

Leo jogged to keep up with her. “Yeah, that sounds like him. Look, we're really worried about him, so I was wondering if we could ask you a couple of questions. There’s a dinner over there if you want something to eat. You look like you need it.”

“Lori, you do need to eat,” said her friend. “I’ll stay with you.”

“Thanks, Kayla.” Lori, nodded. “Okay.”

Mikey got in the door of the diner and the four of them sat down in a booth. Lori took hesitant bites out of the basket of French fries and sipped on a ginger ale.

“When was the last time you talked to Greg?” asked Mikey.

“I was on the phone with him a few minutes before he went missing. He said he would call me back. And when he didn’t, I started to get nervous,” said Lori.

“Did he say anything strange?”

“No, he was normal. It’s so weird I’m starting to think it was-”

Mikey looked at Lori. “Don’t worry if it sounds weird. Just tell us.”

Kayla spoke up. “Well, there’s this urban legend. A woman got murdered on the bridge, like forever ago. Some say she likes to hitchhike, and those she takes a ride with- well they don’t come back.”

That was as good a place to start as any. Whoever this woman was, she shouldn’t be too hard to find. How many murders could have happened on that bridge?

Chapter Text

Raph was about to lose his mind. He thought that internet had everything, but there was nothing about a woman who was murdered on that bridge. Raph was one failed google search from putting his fist through the screen.

“I don’t get it, there should be something,” said Raph. Donnie reached for the keyboard, and Raph swatted his hand away. Donnie grabbed the back of his wheelie chair and rolled him away from the computer.

“Spirits were born of violent deaths, right? What if it’s not a murder?” said Donnie.

Raph huffed. “Control freak.”

“Whoa.”

“What did you find?”

Donnie moved to the side so that Raph could see. “Turns out there was a suicide on that bridge. 1992, a woman named Daniella Robins, thirty-two, jumped off the bridge and into the river.”

“Does it say why she did it?”

“Here it is. An hour before she jumped off the bridge, she called nine one one. She left her kids in the bath and when she came back, they weren’t breathing.”

“Poor kids,” said Raph.

Donnie read part of the article out loud. “‘Our babies were gone, and Dani couldn’t take it.’ said husband Harold Robins.”

Raph looked at the photo included with the article. “Does that bridge look familiar to you?”

…

“You’re sure this was the bridge,” said Leo.

“Yes, I’m sure. We double checked,” said Donnie.

“Think Dad was here?” asked Mikey.

“Dad was chasing this story and we’re chasing Dad. And he’s good too, this would have been the first place he checked,” said Leo.

The sun had set, and Greg’s car had been towed. They still had to duck under crime scene tape and had to leave the car further up the bridge.

“Now what?” said Mikey.

“We keep digging,” said Leo.

“I told you guys; I need to get back by Monday-”

Raph turned to look at him. “Yeah, the interview. You’re really serious about this aren’t you? So what? You become an artist, get married and have two and a half kids?”

“Why not?” said Mikey.

Raph walked closer to him. “Does she know?”

“No,” said Mikey, “She doesn’t.”

“Well, that’s healthy.”

“Raph, don’t,” said Leo. “Not now.”

“You can pretend all you want, Mikey but you can’t hide from who you are,” said Raph.

“And who am I,” said Mikey.

“One of us.”

“No. I’m not like you, this is never going to be my life!”

“You have a responsibility-”

“To what Raphael. To Dad’s stupid crusade! If we didn’t have pictures, I wouldn’t even know what Mom looked like! Even if we do find it, Mom’s gone! Killing it won’t bring her back!”

Raph grabbed the collar of Mikey’s shirt and slammed him against the support columns. “You don’t get to talk about her like that!”

Leo grabbed the back of Raph’s shirt and dragged him back. “That’s enough!”

“Why? Because college boy thinks he’s too good for-”

Donnie spoke up. “Guys?”

“Right now, the only thing that’s important is finding Dad. If you want to settle this on your own time that’s fine. But right now-”

Raph cut Leo off. “Oh sure, take his side!”

“Leo!” shouted Donnie. “You have the keys, right?”

“Yeah?” The engine of the car revved up.

“So, who's driving?” asked Donnie.

“Run!” yelled Raph.

The car sped towards them. There wasn’t enough room on the bridge to outmaneuver the car, so that left one option. Donnie cleared the bridge and clung onto the railing. Leo jumped too, balancing on the edge of the bridge. Mikey climbed up the railing and stared down at the car. 

Raph still wasn’t out of the way. He shot off down the bridge, trying to outrun the car. A fight he was quickly losing.

“What are you doing man?” shouted Leo. “Just jump!”

Raph ran to the side of the bridge and grabbed the railing swinging his legs over. In a horrible second his hands slipped. And he plummeted into the river below. The car stopped; its mission complete.

“Raph! Are you okay!” shouted Mikey.

Raph swam through the water and crawled to the riverbank. “I’m fine!”

Leo popped open the hood of the car. “Whatever she did, it’s over now. Fuck you, Danielle!”

Donnie rolled his eyes. “Yes. Antagonize the ghost. That’s going to end well.”

“Shut up, Donnie,” said Raph, having climbed his way back onto the bridge. “Let’s go find a motel.”

“Put a towel down, you smell like a sewer,” said Leo.

…

They pulled up towards the only motel in town. Mikey could practically feel the grime on the cheap cotton sheets. Leo led them to the front desk and pulled out a credit card.

The attendant looked at the card. “Are you guys having a family reunion?”

“Excuse me,” said Leo.

“We had a James Nakamura check in about a month ago,” said the attendant.

Leo looked at Raph. “Yeah, that’s Dad. Do you mind giving us the keys?”

He threw the keys at him. “Knock yourselves out.”

Mikey knew they had the right room the second he saw the salt in the doorway. “Looks like he was trying to keep something out.”

The walls were almost completely covered in newspapers. Some about the disappearances, but others were just strange sightings. Cattle mutilations, weird storms, and at least five maps of the United States. Take out was still out on the desk, and by the smell, it had begun to rot.

“He hasn’t been here in a few days at least,” said Raph.

“Looks like he made the same connections we did,” said Leo, pointing to the picture of Danielle Robins. “But none of these guys have anything in common.”

“I think he figured it out,” said Donnie, plucking a sticky note off the wall. “She’s a woman in white.”

“Okay, so he went and burned her corpse,” said Leo. “Does it say where she’s buried?”

“No,” said Donnie.

“First thing tomorrow, Donnie and Mikey go to talk to her husband. Try to find an address,” said Leo.

“I’m going to shower,” said Raph.

“Hey Raph,” said Mikey. “I’m sorry about what I said-”

“Cool it. We're fine. And I don’t want to deal with all that ‘feelings’ shit,” Raph said.

“Asshole,” muttered Mikey.

“Dumbass,” said Raph, before slinking off to the bathroom.

…

Leo just wanted to get some air. He left bright and early the next morning, planning on getting some coffee and relaxing before everything kicked back into gear. The one thing he did not want to see was the cop car in the parking lot. And the way the door opened the second he walked into the parking lot. He quickly dialed Raph’s number.

“ You’re on speakerphone, ” said Raph.

“Five oh. Take Donnie and Mikey and get outta there.”

“ What about you? ” 

“They already spotted me. Get out. Now.” He hung up the phone as the deputies walked closer to him. Leo put on his best concerned citizen smile. “Can I help you officers?”

“Where are your friends?” said one of the deputies.

“What friends?” said Leo. The curtain to their motel room jerked shut. The other deputy made their way towards the room.

“Fake US Marshal, fake credit card, is there anything about you that’s real?”

“My boobs.” Leo couldn’t bring himself to regret that choice of words as the deputy slammed him down on the hood of the car.

The sheriff’s office was equally uncomfortable, as the deputy shoved him into the small metal chair. “So, do you want to tell us your name?”

“Cason Ryan,” he said. Leo was pretty sure he had a Minnesota ID to match.

“Do you know how much trouble you're in?” asked the deputy. 

“Misdemeanor or-”

“You’ve got the posters of at least ten missing persons taped up on your wall! Along with a whole bunch of satanic shit. You, young man, are officially a suspect.”

Leo rolled his eyes. “You know what? That makes sense. Especially since the first one went missing in 1992. Six years before I was born.”

“You’ve got partners. One of them is an older guy. So, tell me, Leonardo, is this his?” The deputy slammed a worn leather journal down on the table. “You are Leonardo, right? Figured there was a fifty- fifty chance on that one. You see, I leafed through it. And from what little I could make out, it’s at least nine kinds of crazy.”

“That’s none of your business,” snapped Leo.

“That’s not the fun part,” said the deputy. He opened the sheet to a blank page. Blank except for the numbers 35-111 and Leo’s full name. “You’re not going anywhere until you tell me what this means.”

…

“Okay, Raph’s getting Leo,” said Mikey. “How’s he going to do that?”

Donnie pinched the bridge of his nose. “I couldn't care less. They’ll meet us back at the diner.”

Harold Robins was still alive, thankfully. He’d moved to an old rundown house all the way across town. The lawn was decorated with lawn gnomes, although a few of them were missing limbs or heads. Mikey tried to pretend that it wasn’t unsettling.

“Mr. Robins?” said Donnie banging on the door. 

The door swung open, and a middle-aged man stepped out. “What do you want?”

“I’m so sorry sir, but we were looking for a colleague of ours. You might have seen him,” Mikey held out a picture he’d taken from the room.

“Yeah, I recognize him. He stopped by a few days ago. Said he was a reporter,” Mr. Robins stepped out onto the porch.

“Yes, we were working on a story together,” said Donnie.

“What the hell kind of story are you working on?  All the questions he was asking-”

“About your wife?” asked Mikey.

“He asked where she was buried.”

“And where was that again?” said Donnie.

Mr. Robins put his face in his hands. “I have to go through this again?”

“Just fact checking.”

“In the plot behind my old house on Breckenridge. I moved after everything. I couldn’t be there anymore.”

There was little doubt in Mikey’s mind that they were dealing with a woman in white. But he had to make sure. “Did you have a happy marriage?”

“Definitely,” said Mr. Robins. He paused for a moment before speaking. He was lying.

“Do you know what a woman in white is?” asked Donnie. “It’s a ghost story. She appears in Mexico, Arizona, Hawaii. But she’s been showing up in places further and further north. But they all share the same story.”

“I don’t want to hear about this-”

“In life their husbands were unfaithful to them. And in a moment of temporary insanity, she kills their children, and then kills herself. They walk back roads and waterways, hunting unfaithful men and killing them.”

Mr. Robins turned beat red. “Danni loved those kids! She would have never hurt them! And maybe I did make a few mistakes! It doesn’t matter! Now get the hell off my property!”

…

“I told you a hundred times, it’s my high school locker combination!” yelled Leo. 

“We can do this all night, but I’m not leaving until I get the truth!” Wow that deputy was way too close to his face. Bacon and coffee breath was not exactly a pleasant smell.

The door to the interview room cracked open. “Sorry to interrupt. 911 call about shots fired on Mayfield.”

“You have to go to the bathroom?” asked the deputy.

“No,” said Leo.

“Good.” He handcuffed Leo to the table.

Leo watched him leave, although with almost every deputy in the station. He reached for his father’s journal, grabbing the paper clip from one of the pages. Leo unfolded it and quickly picked the lock. He tucked the journal under his arm and peaked out the door. Leo glanced around. No one was looking at him. He traced the backrooms of the station and walked right out the door.

Raph was there waiting for him, passing him the weapons he had forgotten. “I can’t believe you got arrested.”

“But a fake 911 call? That’s pretty illegal,” said Leo.

“You’re welcome by the way,” said Raph. “Donnie’s going to buy some lighter fluid and Mikey’s coming to pick us up.”

“Listen I need to tell you-”

“We are dealing with a woman in white. I just don’t understand why Dad-”

“He’s not here anymore, Raph!” said Leo. “I found his journal.”

“He doesn’t go anywhere without that thing,” muttered Raph. “Did he leave a note or something?”

“Just coordinates. We’ll meet up with Donnie and-”

Raph’s phone started to buzz. “Speak of the devil. I’ve got Leo.”

Donnie’s voice came from over the speaker. “ And we’ve got a bigger problem. Mikey just took off with the car. ”

Leo’s heart sank towards his stomach. “You don’t think-”

“I don’t think he’d leave on his own. We need to get to the Robins’ place,” said Raph.

…

Mikey was starting to get bored. Donnie had been in that store forever. He just wanted to burn Danielle’s corpse and go back to Renet. He shivered. 

“Take me home.” Ice shot down his spine as he glanced in the rearview mirror.

Danielle Robins was sitting there, torn white dress and greasy black hair. Her eyes were cold and empty as she stared straight ahead. “Take me home.”

Mikey swallowed the lump in his throat. “No.”

The engine roared to life, and the doors locked. The gas pedal slammed down to the floorboards. Mikey grabbed the steering wheel, trying to make it go anywhere else, but Danielle was too strong. The car sped down the highway, until it reached the old house on Breckenridge Road. 

Danielle sighed. “I can never go home.”

“You can’t kill me. I haven’t been unfaithful.” Spirits had rules, patterns they had to follow. Mikey may have been out of practice, but he still knew that.

She tilted her head. “You will be.”

Mikey blinked and she was on top of him, hand reaching into his chest. He frantically scrambled for the keys, trying to push her off of him would be useless.

A shot rang out through the night, shattering the driver's side window. “Get away from him!”

Danielle flickered and vanished. Mikey sat up in his seat and started up the car. “You want me to take you home?”

He hit the gas, breaking straight through the rotting wood of the old house, parking the car in the living room.

“Mikey!” shouted Leo, racing around to the passenger's side of the car. “Are you alright?”

“Pretty sure,” muttered Mikey.

“Can you move?” asked Raph.

“Yeah, can you-”

“I gotcha,” said Raph, taking Mikey’s arm and pulling it over his shoulder. “There you go.”

“Where’d she go?” said Donnie, looking around the house. “I’ll get the shovel-”

Danielle flickered back into view; the house as disheveled as she was. When Mikey drove through the wall, he knocked pictures down to the floor. She picked up one of them, herself, standing next to a boy and a girl, who couldn’t have been more than four.

“You came home, Mommy.” 

A little girl stood on the top step, holding her brother’s hand. Her blonde pigtails were soaking wet, and water dripped down the stairs and towards her mother. Towards her murderer. Danielle tried to back away, tried to run. But her children latched onto her in an instant. She screamed and distorted, like a movie skipping frames. They dragged her through the ground, leaving nothing but a small puddle.

“What the fuck,” said Raph. 

“She couldn’t face them,” said Mikey. “That’s why she couldn’t go home.”

“Pretty clever, little brother,” said Leo.

“That’s more than I can say for you. Which one of you idiots shot the ghost?”

Raph smiled. “Hey, it saved your ass. One more thing. If you screwed up the car, I’m going to kill you.”

…

“You sure you don’t want to come?” asked Donnie. They had pulled into the parking lot of Mikey’s apartment.

“I’m sure. I’ve got that interview,” said Mikey. “But let me know when you find him, okay?”

“We’ll see you around,” said Leo.

Mikey didn’t turn to see if they left the lot. He was exhausted, and it took almost everything he had to walk up the fire escape to his apartment. The lights were out, which didn’t surprise him. It was late, Renet was probably asleep. He kicked his shoes off and fell straight onto bed. He could deal with unpacking tomorrow.

Something was dripping down from the ceiling. Great, now he was going to have to call someone. Mikey looked up at the ceiling. Renet stared down at him, blood dripping from her stomach, blonde haired spread out like a halo.

“No!” he screamed. The ceiling burst into flame.

Mikey had to get her down, he had to do something. Smoke stung his eyes, as he reached up for her.

“Mikey!” shouted Donnie.

“Renet!”

Donnie grabbed his arm and pulled him to his feet. “I’m sorry but we have to go-”

“But-”

“Mikey, she’s gone.”

Mikey didn’t know how he got outside. He was just staring up at his apartment, watching firefighters swarm around. It took her too. He jumped when Leo put a hand on his shoulder.

“Are you okay?”

Mikey wiped tears from his eyes. No, he wasn’t. But that wasn’t the point. It had murdered his mother, and now it had killed Renet. “We have work to do.”

Chapter Text

There was nothing Nick Clark loved more than camping. The cold night air, sleeping under the stars, the singing of birds in the morning. Nothing could compare to the way he felt when he spent a few days out in the woods. He was just grateful that he had the tent to himself. Sure, Brett and Frank were fun, but he liked his personal space.

“Hey, Kate! Day six of the trip is over and done with. We’re still up by Blackwater Ridge. So far, we’re all still alive. Sorry, bad joke. I love you guys, and I’ll be home in a few days.”

The rustling outside wasn’t too unusual either. Nick couldn’t tell you about the number of times a rabbit had given him a heart attack. Worst case scenario it was a bear, and Kate had made him pack bear spray.

Someone outside started screaming. “Brett? What’s going on?”

If it was just Frank pulling some stupid joke, Nick was going to kill him. A blur raced past the tent. A dark hulking shape. The screaming stopped suddenly, and blood spattered on the outside of the tent. Whatever it was started growling.

It wasn’t a grizzly, or a mountain lion, but it was something, and it was breathing right outside his tent. Claws ripped into his tent, and Nick tried to run.

…

The sun was too bright for a day like today. The black suit Mikey was wearing was far too hot. And the flowers he brought still weren’t quite right.

“I know you don’t like roses so…” Mikey set the flowers down. He wasn’t quite sure what to say.

What could he say? Renet was dead. There wasn’t even a body down there, just ashes buried underneath a headstone. 

“I’m so sorry,” said Mikey, kneeling down into the dark earth. “I should have told you. I should have been there.”

He wanted to curl up and lay there forever. The little details about her were already fading away. Mikey tried to cling to every wisp of memory, any story, anything to keep her with him. But she was gone, and it just wasn’t fair.

A pale hand punched out of the earth and wrapped around his throat. He couldn’t bring himself to scream.

…

Mikey slammed his head on the window as he jolted awake. 

“You, okay?” asked Donnie.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” said Mikey. 

“Nightmare?” asked Leo. “You want to drive?”

“Leo, you are a control freak. And now you want me to drive? You barely let Raph do it,” said Mikey.

“That’s because Raph drives like he’s on the Fast and Furious. I just thought I’d ask,” said Leo.

“I told you I’m fine.” Overprotective brothers were the last thing that Mikey wanted to deal with at this second. “Where are we anyway?”

“We just crossed the Colorado border,” said Donnie.

“We shouldn’t have left Chicago so soon. What if we missed something?” said Mikey.

Raph turned around from his place in the passenger seat. “We looked around there for a week. There was nothing there, if you want to find who killed Renet-”

“We need to get Dad back,” said Mikey. Great, the one thing he wanted to do. Talk to his father.

“Dad going AWOL and this thing turning up again after twenty years? It can’t be a coincidence,” said Donnie.

“He’ll know what to do,” said Leo. 

Raph rolled his eyes. “Yeah sure. Where are we going anyway?”

“Blackwater Ridge. But it doesn’t make sense, it’s just woods,” said Donnie.

“We’ll check in with the Ranger Station. Maybe they’ll know.”

…

Donnie was starting to seriously consider that his dad was just screwing with him. “Okay, so it’s super remote. There’re canyons, abandoned mines, rough terrain-”

“Whoa, that thing is huge,” said Raph, pointing towards a stuffed grizzly bear. Its glass eyes stared blankly at him, mouth frozen in a roar. Donnie shuttered.

“And yeah, it’s really big with bears. I have no idea who would go out there on their own free will,” said Donnie.

“You boys aren’t planning to go out by Blackwater Ridge, are you?” A ranger was leaning against a wall, sipping coffee from a mug.

“No,” said Leo. “We’re college students from UC Boulder. We’re just working on a paper.”

“Save the trees!” said Mikey. 

“Bull,” said the ranger. "Your friends with Kate, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” said Leo. He quickly glanced at the name tag. “We are Ranger Young.”

Ranger Young rolled his eyes. “I’ll tell you the same thing I told her. Her brother filled out a backcountry permit saying he wouldn’t be back till Saturday. He’s not exactly missing.”

“Do you mind if we see a copy of that permit? Just so Kate can see her brother’s return date,” said Leo.

Kate Clark didn’t actually live that far from the ranger station. Leo parked up the street and the four of them made their way towards the house she shared with her brothers.

“Leo, if you want to have fun with a girl, go to a bar. Dad left us the coordinates for Blackwater Ridge. Let’s just go,” grumbled Raph.

“Hang on a minute. Don’t you want to know what we’re walking into?” asked Leo.

“Raph’s right,” said Mikey. “We don’t have time for this.”

Leo knocked on the door. “It’ll be five minutes.”

The door swung open. A dark-skinned woman with box braids wearing a blue sundress opened the door. “Hello?”

“You must be Kate Clark. I’m Leo, and this is Raph, Donnie and Mikey. We’re with the Park Service. Ranger Young sent us over.”

 Leo had always been the first one in on hunts. He was the better liar, Raph wasn’t nearly as creative, Mikey always talked way too much, and apparently Donnie had a tendency to stutter and get them caught.

Kate crossed her arms. “Let me see some ID.”

Leo reached into his pocket and pulled out the badge, holding it steady so she could read it. “This good?”

She opened the door the rest of the way. “Alright. Come on in.”

The house was cluttered. A basket of laundry sat on the kitchen table, where Kate’s youngest brother had carved out a place for himself to do homework. It felt more like a home than any motel room Donnie had stayed in during his life.

“If Nick’s not due back for a while, how do you know somethings wrong?” asked Donnie.

Kate frowned. “He checks in. On every trip I’ve gotten a message every day, texts, stupid videos. But for the past three days it’s been radio silence.”

“Maybe he can’t get cell reception,” said Mikey. It was clear even to Donnie that he thought this was a waste of time.

“He’s got a satellite phone,” said Kate.

“Couldn’t he just be having fun and forget to call?” asked Raph.

“He wouldn’t do that,” said Kate’s brother.

“Don’t be rude, Alex. Our folks died in a car accident a few years ago. It’s just been the three of us. We like to keep close tabs on each other,” said Kate.

“Do you mind if we take a look at the last thing, he sent you?” asked Donnie.

“It was a video. Hold on.” Kate scrolled through her phone and pulled up the video. She pointed to the guy on screen. “That’s Nick.”

“ Hey, Kate! Day six of the trip is over and done with. We’re still up by Blackwater Ridge. So far, we’re all still alive. Sorry, bad joke. I love you guys, and I’ll be home in a few days. ”

There was something in the background. Donnie couldn’t quite make it out, or even know that it wasn’t a tree or something. He needed to get a closer look.

“We’ll find him,” said Raph. “We’re headed out to Blackwater Ridge first thing tomorrow.”

“I’ll see you there. I can’t wait around any longer, so I hired someone. We are leaving, and I am going to find Nick if it kills me,” said Kate.

“I get it,” said Leo.

“Do you mind forwarding this video to me?” asked Donnie.

…

Raph had eaten a lot of bad bar food in his life, he was just happy that the place they stopped for lunch at least tasted different. He sipped on his beer and watched Donnie mess around with his computer.

“According to tourist sites, Blackwater Ridge doesn’t get a lot of people. Locals, mostly. But there are two hikers who went missing from there a few weeks ago,” said Donnie.

“That’s not our kind of weird,” said Mikey.

“And before that in 1999, eight people went missing. Wildlife thought it was a grizzly attack. There were similar attacks in 1976, and another set of disappearances in 1953. Every twenty-three years for as far back as I can find.”

“Okay, maybe it is our kind of weird,” said Mikey.

“What about the video?” asked Leo.

“I slowed it down. Look at this,” said Donnie. He turned his laptop towards them. In three pictures they watched a large shape race across the background. “That’s a fraction of a second. Whatever it is, it can move.”

“Fantastic,” muttered Raph. “Anyone get a look at the thing?”

“A survivor from the attacks in 1976. He was a kid at the time, and barely got out of the woods alive,” said Donnie.

“He still live in town?” asked Leo.

…

Raph was certain that this apartment was older than the state of Colorado. While that may have been an exaggeration, it wasn’t by much. He was surprised the place didn’t crumble to dust when he knocked on Richard Hale’s front door. He flashed the badge and Mr. Hale let him and Mikey into the apartment. Leo and Donnie had gone to check into the motel.

“We’re here about what happened to your family,” said Mikey.

Mr. Hale lit a cigarette. “It’s public record, kid. Read a newspaper.”

“So, your parents were mauled by a grizzly?” asked Raph. “And everyone else that went missing. Those were grizzly attacks too?”

“Mr. Hale, we know what we're doing. But we need to know what it is to stop it,” said Mikey.

Mr. Hale rolled his eyes and took a drag of his cigarette. “I doubt it. Don’t know what difference it would make. You wouldn’t believe me. No one did. Sit down.”

Raph and Mikey obliged, sitting down on the overstuffed leather couch. Mr. Hale sat down across from them in an ugly red, green, and purple plaid armchair.

“Mr. Hale, what did you see?” asked Mikey.

Mr. Hale got a faraway look in his eyes. “Nothing. It was too damn fast, I heard it through. That roar… no bear can make a noise like that.”

“It got inside your tent?” said Raph, trying not to prod too far. Mr. Hale had lost his parents young, and Raph knew something like that didn’t just fade. Not even after forty-six years.

“It got inside our cabin.” Mr. Hale shuddered. “I was sleeping in front of the fireplace. It just… unlocked the door and walked right in. What kinda bear can do that?”

“And it killed them?” asked Mikey.

“Just dragged them off into the night. I have no idea why it left while I was still breathing.” Mr. Hale sighed and moved the edge of his shirt. On his shoulder were three massive scars, claw marks that went deep. “Left me this though.”

Raph winced. His own scar didn’t go that deep, but even ten years later he could still feel that spirit slicing into him. He couldn’t imagine how bad something like that had to hurt. “Thank you for your time.”

“There is something evil in those woods. Something like a demon.”

…

Leo thought that the Red Sun was a decent motel. The four of them squeezed into a double room, with an air mattress on the floor, and Raph claiming the ratty old couch. Shame they’d be camping for the next few days. Especially with whatever else was out there in the woods.

“That doesn’t make sense,” said Donnie. “If it unlocked the door, it’s corporeal. Demons and spirits would just walk through the wall.”

Leo pinched the bridge of his nose. “Really? That’s what you got from that?”

“Well, it does help narrow it down. Maybe a shapeshifter. Or a black dog,” said Donnie.

“Shapeshifter’s stick closer to civilization. With people they can impersonate,” said Raph.

“It’s some kind of creature,” said Leo. “And that means we can kill it.”

“What about Kate and Alex?” asked Mikey. “They're going to be out there too, and we’ll have to worry about them.”

Leo took a deep breath. “We’ll deal with it when we get there tomorrow. Raph, pack a duffel with everything you can think of. I don’t want to take any chances with this thing. Get some sleep everyone. We head out at first light.”

Chapter Text

Mikey thought that getting there at the crack of dawn without stopping for so much as a coffee would make sure that they could beat Kate and Alex to the trail. But no such luck. They were standing in the parking lot, along with an older man holding a hiking stick.

“We can’t let them go out there,” said Donnie. “It’s dangerous.”

“Yeah, that’ll go over well. Her brother’s missing Dee. She’s not going to back down because we told her about a monster.” Leo put his hands on his hips. “We’ll do our job, and we’ll keep them safe.”

“Listen, all I’m saying is my job is to keep you guys safe, and I think that Alex is safest at home,” said the man.

“Got room for four more?” asked Raph.

“Wait, you want to come with us?” said Kate.

“Who are they?” said the man with the hiking stick.

Kate rolled her eyes. “Apparently this is all the park service could send for search and rescue.”

“You guys are rangers?” said the man. “And you’re going out there in biker boots and jeans?”

“I don’t do shorts,” said Raph.

“Do you think this is funny?” asked the man.

“No, sir,” said Leo. “Trust me, we know how dangerous it can be.”

…

Nick didn’t know how long it had been. Hours, days maybe. There was no sun, no way to tell the passing of time, no way to know if the things hanging off hooks beside him used to be people. He thought they might have been. The stench was sickly sweet, and it made him want to vomit. Assuming there was something other than stomach acid in there anyway.

Brett had gone first. Whatever it was that was holding him captive had eaten him first. No light meant there was nothing to distract him from the sound of his friend getting torn limb from limb. Kate and Alex would be worried, but he had a sinking feeling they would never know what happened to him

He squeezed his eyes shut as the creature approached Frank.

…

“So, Paul, you’re a hunter, right?” asked Raph. They had been hiking for hours, and the silence was starting to drive him up a wall. 

Paul huffed. “More than a little.”

“And what kind of furry creature do you go after?”

“Mostly buck. Sometimes bear.”

“Tell me,” said Raph. “They ever hunt you back?”

“Raph don’t antagonize the man,” said Leo.

Raph walked on ahead, doing his best to ignore his brother. Paul put a hand on his shoulder and pulled him back.

“What the hell was that for?” said Raph. He really hated it when strangers put their hands on him. Paul was lucky he didn’t deck him just for trying it.

Paul picked up a stick and slammed it down where Raph was about to step. A trap clanged shut, tearing the stick in half. “Watch where you step, Ranger.”

Raph growled, but let Paul take the lead again. As much as he hated to admit it, Paul knew what he was doing. Well, at least when it came to hiking through the woods.

“Bear trap,” said Donnie.

“Thank you, Captain Obvious,” said Mikey.

Raph brushed his shoulder where Paul had touched it. Kate was glaring at him, grabbing the edge of his sleeve and dragging him to the back of the group. Leo looked at him, silently asking if he should interfere. Raph shook his head and Leo walked on.

“You didn’t pack food; you’re carrying around a duffel bag. You guys aren’t rangers, so who are you?” asked Kate.

“Okay. My name is Raph. Leo, Donnie and Mikey are my brothers. Our dad went missing a while ago, so we came out here looking for him,” said Raph.

“Why didn’t you tell me this to start with?”

“I’m telling you now.” Raph reached into his jacket and pulled out a cartoonishly large container of peanut M&Ms. “And what do you mean I didn’t pack food?”

…

Donnie’s feet were starting to hurt. They had been hiking for hours and had come up with nothing. If they didn’t find something soon, he was going to walk towards the nearest river and swim back to civilization.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I present, Blackwater Ridge,” said Paul.

“What coordinates?” asked Donnie.

“Thirty-five and minus one eleven,” said Paul.

“Not even crickets,” muttered Mikey under his breath.

Donnie was starting to feel like their father had sent them on a wild goose chase just for the fun of it. He’d like to think higher of the man, but that was the only possibility that made even a modicum of sense to him.

“I’m going to take a look around,” said Paul.

“We really shouldn’t split up,” said Mikey.

“Don’t worry about me sweetheart.” Paul gestured to his gun before walking into the woods.

“Okay, everyone else sticks together,” said Leo, trying to maintain control wherever he found it.

It wasn’t long before Paul called out. “Over here! I found something!”

They rushed to follow the sound of his voice, pushing through shrubs until they came upon a campsite.

Or what used to be a campsite. Red stained everything. From the torn tents to the trees, to the earth itself. Whoever that blood had belonged to was long dead. Supply bags were scattered everywhere, provisions eaten by whatever creature stumbled across them. Whatever had done this was only interested in people.

“Looks like a grizzly attack,” said Paul.

Kate ignored him. “Nick! Nick! Where are you?”

“Hey, I’m sorry about this, but we need to keep our voices down,” said Mikey.

“Why?”

“Because whatever did this could still be out there.”

Leo examined the campsite. “Donnie! Come take a look at this!”

He walked over to where his brother was standing. “What?”

“Looks like the bodies were dragged from the campsite before they just vanished. If it was a black dog, there’d still be something here,” said Leo. “Any ideas?”

“Not yet,” said Donnie. There was something bugging him about this, but he was at a loss as to what exactly it was.

“Oh my god,” said Kate, kneeling in the dirt. She was cradling something in her hands, a bloody and broken phone.

“That doesn’t mean anything,” said Alex. “Nick could still be alive. He has to be.”

“Help!” called a voice from the woods. “Help!”

“Come on,” said Paul, racing off into the forest. 

Donnie couldn’t see anything except trees and the crunching of the fallen leaves. He stopped, seeing if he could hear the voice again. 

“Help! Somebody, help!”

There it was again. Just out of sight, a cold echoey voice screaming from the woods.

“It came from over here, right?” said Kate.

Oh no. Donnie knew what it was. “Everybody back to camp!”

He had realized too late. By the time they got back to camp, it had already done its damage.

“Where did our stuff go!” shouted Paul. “So much for my GPS and satellite phone.”

“What the hell!” said Alex.

“It’s smart,” said Donnie. “It wants to cut us off so we can’t call for help.”

“You mean someone right?” said Paul.

“Leo, Raph, Mikey, I need to talk to you. In private.” They wandered a little way away from the campsite, hopefully out of earshot. “One of you has Dad’s journal, right?”

“Uh... yeah.” Leo pulled the book out of his jacket.

Donnie took it, flipping through pages until he found what he was looking for. “I don’t want to say it out loud but…”

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me,” said Raph. “I thought wen- those things were in Minnesota or Michigan. They don’t show up this far west.”

“It can mimic a human voice, and giant claws, and long resting periods,” said Donnie. “If you have any other ideas, I’m open to suggestions.”

Leo sighed. “So, our guns are useless. Fan-fucking-tastic.”

“We need to get these people out of here,” said Mikey.

…

Leo just wanted to go back to the motel. Now that they knew they were dealing with a wendigo, everything just got a lot more dangerous. “Alright, we need to go! Things have gotten more complicated.”

“What?” said Kate, curling her hands into fists.

Paul rolled his eyes. “Don’t worry kid, whatever's out there, I think I can handle it.”

“We aren’t worried about us. If you shoot the thing, you are just going to make it mad.” Mikey stared down at Paul. “We have to leave. Now.”

“Oh, that’s bullshit. And you're in no position to be giving orders,” said Paul.

And that was Leo’s cue. “Okay, everyone take a breath before this gets out of hand.”

Mikey didn’t listen to him. “We shouldn’t have let you come out here in the first place!”

“I was hunting in these woods when your mommy was still kissing you good night.” Paul stepped so he was right in Mikey’s face.

“It’s a better hunter than you are. It’ll eat you alive unless we get your sorry ass out of here!”

“You’ve lost your mind!”

“You ever hunt a-” Raph clasped a hand over Mikey’s mouth and dragged him away by the collar of his shirt.

“Stop it!” shouted Kate. “Look! My little brother might still be alive. And I’m not leaving here without him.”

“Okay. We’d better settle in. However good this thing is in the daylight, it’s better at night. We’ll set up camp and go after it in the morning,” said Leo.

…

Mikey felt a little weird about sleeping in a campground that was still soaked in blood. But Leo wasn’t going to chance going further into the woods, so this was their best option. Donnie had found a large stick and was carving symbols into the earth.

“What are those?” asked Alex.

“These are Ancestral Puebloan symbols. They used them for protection from the creature, so it should work for us too,” said Donnie.

“Really,” said Paul skeptically.

Mikey had had enough of Paul’s crap. “You are more than welcome to try your luck with this thing.”

Leo sat next to him on the log. “What’s going on in that head of yours?”

“Nothing,” said Mikey. “I’m-”

“You’re not fine, kid.”

Mikey crossed his arms and pouted. “I’m not a kid.”

“I’m supposed to be telling Raph to cool it and dragging him out of fights. Donnie, maybe, but not you.”

“Dad’s not here.”

Mikey wanted to see him. Even thinking it in his head felt more childish than he had felt in years. Maybe Dad would be able to explain it all away and give him an answer. But even as a kid, he knew his father didn’t know what to do.

“No, he’s not. I don’t think he’s ever even been to this part of Colorado,” said Leo.

“Let’s leave then. Take them back to town, get back on the road and start looking for him. Why are we still here?”

Leo pressed Dad’s journal into Mikey’s hands. “That’s why we're here. He wants us to pick up where he left off. Saving people, hunting things. The family business.”

“Why didn’t he just tell us? Why does he have to be so cryptic?”

“Because it’s Dad. Name one time he told us straight up what he meant.”

“I have to find Dad. I have to find whatever killed Renet. I can’t think about anything else,” said Mikey.

“We’ll find them. And all that anger you’ve been holding in can only burn so long. It’ll kill you.”

“Raph manages just fine. So do you, Donnie, and Dad. How am I supposed to do it?”

“Focus on the little things. Like I can help Kate and Alex find their brother. Our family’s screwed, but we can help theirs.” Leo elbowed him. “You know what else helps?”’

“What?”

“Killing as many of those evil sons of bitches as we can get our hands on.”

Mikey didn’t have a lot of consistency growing up. Moving from motel to motel, town to town, school to school, nothing ever felt permanent. Even when he went to Chicago, he had this itch under his skin from staying there too long. But Leo, Raph, and Donnie, they were always there. 

“Help!” called the creature. “Help! Somebody!”

“It’s trying to draw us out!” said Raph. “Everyone stay calm and stay put.”

“Inside the magic circle?” said Paul.

“Help!” said the creature. Noticing that no one had come to its aid, it began to growl. A low rattling sound that shook the ground beneath his feet.

“Okay,” said Paul, readying his shotgun. “That’s not a grizzly.”

Something was moving the leaves on the ground, doing circles around the campsite. Alex grabbed onto the sleeve of his older sister’s jacket.

“It’ll be okay,” said Kate. “I promise.”

A tree limb crashed to the ground and Mikey bit back a scream. That wouldn’t help him anyway. “It’s here.”

Paul fired a shot into the woods and the rustling stopped abruptly. “I think I hit it!” 

He left the circle and walked into the woods.

“Paul, that’s a bad idea!” shouted Donnie. “Paul!”

Raph hesitated and turned to Kate and Alex. “Stay here. Leo, let’s see if we can drag him back.”

Leo nodded and followed him into the brush. There was no way he and Donnie were letting them risk their lives on their own. They left the circle and traced their brothers’ steps through the woods.

The flashlight Donnie had brought didn’t give off near enough light. Paul stood up ahead waving his arms. “It’s over here! It’s in the tree!”

A long pale arm with massive claws wrapped around Paul’s throat. The snap of bone rang out as the creature pulled Paul up into the tree.

Chapter Text

Raph hated this part. Watching people’s lives be destroyed by things that shouldn’t have been real in the first place. But Kate was handling it remarkably well.

“Okay, I thought that shit was fake. You know, like ghost stories,” said Kate.

“Oh, they're real too,” said Donnie.

“How do we know it’s not watching us?” asked Alex.

Leo shrugged. “We don’t. But we should be good for now.”

“And how do you know about all this?” said Kate.

“Runs in the family,” said Raph.

“During the day, we’ll have a better chance at killing the evil son of a bitch,” said Mikey.

“What exactly are we dealing with?” said Kate.

“Saying the name out loud tends to attract its attention, but it rhymes with ‘indigo’” said Donnie. “One translation of the name is ‘evil that devours’ and it’s honestly pretty fitting. Most stories about their creation have one thing in common. A cold dark winter cuts people off from supplies and food, so they resort to eating the dead.”

“Like the Donner Party?” said Alex.

“Yes. Lots of cultures believe that eating human flesh could give you powers. Strength, speed, and immortality. You eat enough, and you stop being human. And you are always hungry.”

“Then how could Nick still be alive?” said Kate.

“That’s the other fascinating thing about them! Some part of that knowledge of starvation stays with them. They hibernate for years at a time, but while their awake, they keep their victims alive so that they can-”

“Donnie,” said Leo. “Not now.”

“How are we supposed to kill it?” said Alex. “Paul shot it and it just got mad!”

“Raph, do you have Molotov ingredients?” asked Donnie.

“No! Why would I- Hold on.” Raph patted his jacket pockets until he found a couple mini bottles of vodka. “Nope, I got stuff.”

“I’ve got a lighter,” said Leo. “Let’s go torch this sucker”

Five minutes and four hastily assembled cocktails later, they were following the trail the creature had created.

“Anyone think this is too easy?” said Donnie, as they made their way towards the clearing.

“I swear to god if you jinx us-” said Raph.

Leo interrupted him. “No, he’s right. Those claw marks are so clear and distinct. Anyone can follow this trail.”

“Well, that’s great,” said Kate, leaning on a tree. She glanced up and screamed, diving out of the way. Branches snapped and Paul’s body slammed into the ground.

Alex gagged. “Oh my god.”

Donnie approached the body. “Neck broken.”

A loud growl echoed through the woods. They had walked straight into the creature’s trap.

“Run!” shouted Mikey.

“Leo! Lighter!” said Raph.

“I can’t even see the damn thing! Do you want to start a forest fire!” shouted Leo.

Raph was careful to watch his step as he charged into the forest, keeping his brothers, Kate and Alex in sight at all times. Kate stumbled over a branch and Raph went back to go grab her.

“Come on, we gotta move!”

A spindly tall white figure dropped down in front of them. The growl rattled the trees, as long claws swiped at him.
…

Leo was going to lose it. He had one damn job. Keep people safe and keep his brothers alive. Okay, maybe two jobs. But he was failing at both of them. The wendigo had taken Kate and Raph, and honestly, he didn’t know what to do.

“So, what’s the plan?” asked Mikey.

“Same plan we had to start with. Except we’re down two people,” said Leo.

“If it keeps its victims alive, why did it kill Paul?” said Alex.

Donnie shrugged his shoulders. “He pissed it off. Now we just need to pick up the trail.”

“Hey, someone dropped some MnM’s!” said Mikey. “They're leading that way!”

“Better than breadcrumbs,” said Leo.

The bright candies stood out against the fallen leaves as they followed it through the forest. They were spread further and further apart until they reached the partially boarded up entrance of an old mineshaft. Faded labels warned of the toxic chemicals that had been discovered and how structurally unsound the place was. But they really didn’t have a choice.

Donnie clicked on his flashlight. “Alright. Let’s do this.”

Mikey kicked through the rest of the rotting wood as they made their way inside. The air was cold and damp. The planks beneath his feet were slick with what he hoped was water. A figure raced across the tunnel ahead of them. It hadn’t seen them. Not yet.

Leo let out a sigh of relief. As if to spite him, the platform creaked before the rotten wood collapsed completely, sending them tumbling down towards the ground. Donnie held up a flashlight, towards the ground.

They were surrounded by bones. Femurs, arms, spines. Leo was pretty certain that he had landed on someone’s rib cage. Alex slapped his hand over his mouth and pointed straight across the room. A pile of skulls that almost reached the ceiling was starting to tumble over and spill over the rest of the cavern.

“Found them!” said Mikey. Leo grabbed his knife and rushed over, Donnie and Alex close on his heels. Raph and Kate were hanging by their wrists from a set of ropes, terrifyingly still.

“Kate? Kate wake up,” begged Alex.

“Raph!” shouted Mikey.

Raph winced and opened his eyes. “Ow.”

“You alright?” asked Leo.

“Fine.”

Donnie passed Alex a knife. “Get your sister down.”

Leo started cutting away the ropes. They snapped and he pulled Raph’s arm over his shoulder when he started to stumble. He found the place with the least amount of human bone and set Raph down. Kate was propped up next to him, looking a little more awake.

“Are you sure you're, okay?” said Mikey.

“I just need to get some feeling back into my legs,” said Raph. “Where is it?”

“It’s gone for now,” said Donnie.

“Oh my god,” said Kate, pulling herself to her feet. She stumbled over to another emaciated figure hanging from the ropes. “Nicky.”

So that was Nick Clark. He was still, and it didn’t look like he was breathing. At least his family would have a chance to bury him.

Kate shrieked as Nick gasped for breath. Never mind. “Cut him down!”

“On it,” said Leo, already sawing at the ropes. Nick dropped to the floor, and Kate was quick to pull him into a hug.

“We’re going to get you home,” said Kate.

“I found our packs!” said Mikey. “And you’ll never guess what Paul brought?”

“Flare guns?” asked Donnie. “Probably better than the mini-Molotov’s. Next time bring something bigger.”

“I am injured. Are you really going to hit a man when he’s down?” said Raph.

“When it’s you, yes,” said Donnie.

“We need to leave before that thing comes back,” said Leo. “Can you walk?”

Raph nodded. “Think so.”

Leo picked up the second flare gun. “Let’s go kill this son of a bitch.”
…

Donnie was just thankful that he was holding the other flare gun. Kate and Alex were supporting Nick between them as they tried to find another way out. He wasn’t sure that Nick could make the climb up the rotted wood to where they had first come in.

“Okay, I don’t see it so we should be-” Donnie was cut off by an earth-shaking growl. “Oh, fuck me.”

“Looks like someone’s home for dinner,” said Raph.

“How are we supposed to outrun it?” said Kate.

Leo ran a hand through his hair. “We can’t. Okay, you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Be careful,” said Donnie. “The three of you need to stick with us.”

“I wasn’t planning on wandering off,” said Alex.

Leo walked further into the caves, towards the growling. “Dinner time, asshole! Come on! I taste good!”

“This way,” said Mikey, leading them away from where the creature presumably was.

Leo was still audible in the distance. “You want a piece of this, you Slenderman looking bitch!”

They raced through the mines, guided by the faint light that came from Donnie’s flashlight. Note to self, thought Donnie, get something brighter. Especially if you're going on a wendigo hunt.

At last, at the end of the tunnel, there was a way out. It would be a long climb, but it was better than nothing. The growling came again, closer this time. It hadn’t fallen for it. It was still chasing them. It was standing right there.

It was tall, taller than any man could reasonably be with skin so pale that it practically glowed under the rays of the flashlight. Its claws scraped along the floor as it walked towards them, painstakingly slow. It was toying with them. It thought this was fun. Donnie blinked and it vanished back into the dark.

“Get your brother out of here, we’ll hold it off,” said Raph.

“I’m not leaving you guys down there with that thing!” said Kate.

“We’ll be fine,” said Mikey.

Kate hesitated, before nodding leaving with her brothers. Donnie readied the flare gun. Where was the damn thing? Hot air hit the back of his neck as he came face to face with the wendigo. He jumped and fired the flare, watching it fizzle out in the darkness, but not striking the thing.

“Run?” asked Mikey.

Raph nodded. “Run.”

Donnie could hear his blood roaring in his ears as they caught up with the Clark family. “We gotta move!”

The wendigo was right behind them, growling all the way.

Raph picked up an abandoned pickaxe and moved to stand in front of them. “Stay behind me.”

Donnie could have sworn it was smiling. One step after another it loomed ever closer, teeth bared and growling. There was nowhere to run. And the pickaxe Raph was wielding would ultimately be useless against the creature.

“Hey!” shouted Leo.

The creature spun around, as Leo fired the flare gun. It hit the creature’s stomach, and it yowled in pain. It stumbled a few more feet towards Leo, claws swinging. But it was useless. The wendigo collapsed to the ground, dead at last.

“Not bad, huh?” said Leo.
…

Mikey wished they could have just called a helicopter to airlift them back to the parking lot. But either way they made it back, and Nick was being loaded into an ambulance. The great thing about the long walk was that it gave them more than enough time to come up with a story for what exactly happened.

“And the bear came back after you yelled at it?” said the officer.

“Yeah, it was crazy. It circled the campsite and came after us. I mean that thing had to weigh eight hundred, nine hundred pounds,” said Alex.

“First thing tomorrow we’ll go looking for it. I don’t want anything like that wandering around in my woods.” The officer went back to his car.

“I guess I don’t know what to say,” said Kate. “But thank you.”

Leo smiled. “No problem. We’re just doing our jobs.”

“Crazy job,” said Kate.

One of the paramedics approached them. “Are you riding with your brother?”

“Yeah. Let’s go,” said Kate. “And I hope you guys can find your dad.”

Kate and Alex jumped into the back of the ambulance. Mikey watched as it pulled out of the parking lot sirens blaring and lights flashing.

“I hate camping,” said Raph. “I can’t wait to go back to sleeping in motels. Or at this point, I’d settle for the car.”

“I’m team ‘get a motel’,” said Donnie. “The car's fine for you because you're short.”

“Excuse me! I am six feet tall,” said Raph, marching towards the car.

“You are five eleven and a half,” said Donnie, their conversation drifting off into the distance.

“You know we’re going to find Dad, right?” said Leo.

“I’m counting on it,” said Mikey. “Can I still drive?”

Leo sighed dramatically and handed Mikey the keys. Things weren’t okay. Mikey wasn’t sure they ever could be again. But this was one more step towards their fucked-up version of normal.

Chapter Text

Rachel thought that it was too early for anyone else to be up that morning. But her father and brother were already sitting in the kitchen.

“Morning Dad,” said Rachel.

“You know guys don’t like girls who work out that much,” said Zack.

Rachel smacked him upside the head. “Girls don’t like guys who still live at home.”

“Dad! Defend me here!” said Zack.

Her father rolled his eyes. “You did deserve that. Be careful.”

“I will!” promised Rachel as she shut the front door to walk out to the dock just outside her house.

Rachel had always loved the water, maybe because she lived so close to it. She had been swimming since she was in elementary school, and had a decent shot at a scholarship to a D1 school when swim season started back up again. But the frigid November weather didn’t do anything to keep her out of the water. If she wanted to stay on top of her game, she had to practice.

She left her hoodie and sweatpants on the dock as she dove into the water. Rachel could barely see anything in the cloudy water of the lake. But she could feel someone’s eyes on her. She kicked her legs so that her head was back above water. There was no one there. Maybe it was just the watchful eyes of her father. Hopefully it was just her father.

Rachel decided to swim back to shore when something grabbed her ankle, and slowly dragged her under. Her lungs burned as she held her breath and tried to break free. But when she gasped and water came pouring into her lungs, she knew it was too late.
…

Mikey was exhausted. He hadn’t slept much since… well since Renet died. He still wasn’t used to the fact that he couldn’t see her, couldn’t call her phone and hear her voice on the other end of the line. He moved the cold scrambled eggs around on his plate.

The waitress smiled at Leo flirtatiously and asked. “Can I get you anything else?”

“Just the check please,” said Mikey. They had been making eyes at each other all throughout breakfast and he had had enough of it.

“Okay then." She rolled her eyes and walked away.

Leo glared at him. “We are allowed to have fun, you know.”

“It is ten in the morning,” said Raph. “Give it a rest.”

“As much as I hate to interrupt this meaningful conversation, I think I got something,” said Donnie. He had dragged his laptop to the dinner and had been scouring it all morning. “Rachel James, eighteen walks into a lake and doesn’t come out. Authorities dragged the water and nothing. It’s the third time this year. Her funeral was a couple days ago.”

“With what?” said Raph.

“Probably an empty coffin. For closure,” said Donnie.

“What closure? People don’t vanish into thin air, other people just stop looking,” said Mikey.

“Is there something you want to say?” said Raph.

“The trail for Dad keeps getting colder every day,” said Mikey.

“And what are we supposed to do?”

“I don’t know. Something other than wandering around the country.”

“I am sick and tired of you-”

“Enough!” said Leo. Given how often he said that Mikey was considering giving him a button to press that would save time. “We all want to find Dad. But since we don’t have any leads, we can follow; this is the best we have. Now, where to, Donnie.”

“Lake Arlo, Wisconsin,” said Donnie. “Looks like it’s two hours from here.”

“Great.” Leo took out his wallet and left fifty dollars on the table. “Let’s get moving.”
…

Leo was grateful when they finally pulled up to the James’ lake front house. If he had to spend one more minute sitting in a car with Raph and Mikey sniping at each other, he was going to drive off a bridge. “Grab the Wildlife Service badges. Let’s go see what the family saw.”

The gravel path crunched under his boots as they made the long winding way up to the front steps. It was made of wood, and part of the steps had already rotted away. He was careful stepping up them and knocking on the front door.

“Hello?” asked the man who opened the front door.

“Zack James?” said Raph.

He crossed his arms. “Yeah?”

“I’m Agent Lee, this is my team, Agents Siegel, Kirby and Fox.” Raph flashed the bag and a fake looking smile. “Wildlife Service. We have a couple questions for you.”

Zack dragged a hand down his face. “We already talked to the cops. Do we really have to go through this again?”

“Sorry,” said Leo, lying through his teeth. "It’s protocol.”

Zack stepped out onto the porch. “I’ll take you guys out to the docks. Don’t know how much help I’ll be.”

He marched them back down the path, towards the shore and off the lake. There was a man sitting in a folding chair at the very edge of the dock, staring out at the water. Beer bottles lay scattered around his feet. Carl James didn’t bother to look up at them.

“She went down out there,” said Zack.

“And you are certain she didn’t drown,” said Donnie.

“She placed first in the state for freestyle. Rachel is- was as safe out there as she would be in her own bathtub.”

“So, no splashing-”

“I’m telling you there was nothing.”

“What about a shape in the water? Or footprints on the beach,” said Donnie.

Zack stopped in his tracks. “What do you think’s out there?”

“Not sure,” said Donnie. “What about your father?”

“He’s been through a lot, so if you don’t mind-”

Leo held up his hand. “We understand. Thank you for your time.”
…

Donnie liked research much more than he liked interacting with people. He always ended up putting his foot in his mouth and saying way too much or way too little. If he had his way, he’d be sitting in the car with Mikey and Raph, not stuck interviewing a sheriff with Leo.

“Now what the hell does the Wildlife Service have to do with an accidental drowning,” said Sheriff Collins. He was an older white guy, with graying brown hair, and short dirty fingernails.

“And you’re certain it was accidental,” said Leo. “The brother said he saw something drag her down.”

Sheriff Collins rolled his eyes. “There’s nothing big enough to do it. Unless you think it was the Lochness monster.”

Donnie wasn’t going to lie; he had considered it. Instead, he brushed off the comment with a forced laugh. “Oh, that’s uh-”

“Zack’s a traumatized kid. And we dragged the whole damn lake, there was nothing.”

“That’s the third missing body this year though,” said Leo.

“I know. It won’t be a problem for much longer anyway,” said the sheriff.

“Oh right,” said Leo, the way he did to get others to fill in the blanks. “The uhh-”

“The dam.”

“It’s sprung a leak?”

Sheriff Collins scoffed. “It’s sprung a few dozen. And we can’t get a grant to repair it, so they’ve opened the spillway. Six months from now, there won’t be much of a lake. Or a town. But you already know that.”

“Oh, of course,” said Leo.

Knuckles rapped on the door frame. “Am I interrupting something?”

Oh, thank God, they could leave. Donnie quickly pulled his bag up over his shoulder and turned to the door. A little kid rushed into the office and attached himself to Sheriff Collins’ legs.

The man standing in the doorway gave a soft smile. “So much for coming back later.”

“Gentlemen, meet my son and grandson,” said Sheriff Collins.

Leo held out his hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Leo.”

“Marcus Collins. Hi.”

“Hi.”

Donnie fought the urge to facepalm. One town. Just one god damn town without Leo, or Raph, or whoever getting sidetracked by whoever had caught their attention.

“There from wildlife,” said Sheriff Collins. “Here about the lake.”

“I see,” said Marcus.

Leo looked over to the little boy. “And what’s your name?”

The little boy didn’t respond, just hid himself behind his grandfather. Sheriff Collins, put a hand on the boy’s head. “This is Aidan.”

Aidan snatched a pen from the sheriff’s desk and raced back out of the office, and Marcus followed after him.

“Shy kid?” asked Donnie.

“No, he’s just- it’s just been a long year. For everybody.” Sheriff Collins stood up and opened up the office door. “Let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you.”

Leo made eye contact with Marcus. “Actually, do you mind pointing us in the direction of a decent motel.”

Marcus smiled at him. “Lakefront Motel. If you head around the corner, it’s about two blocks south.”

“Mind showing us?” asked Leo.

“You want me to walk you two blocks?”

“I wouldn’t want you to go out of your way-”

“I’m headed over there anyway.” Marcus knelt down to talk to Aidan. “I’ll be back soon, okay? We’ll head over to the park.”

Donnie turned to Sheriff Collins. “Thanks again for your help.”
…

Raph didn’t know how Leo did it. He had gone into the sheriff’s station for information, and apparently had found someone new to flirt with. Now he had to sit through the awkward small talk as Marcus escorted them to the nearest motel.

“Cute kid,” said Leo.

“Thanks,” said Marcus.

“Kids are the best.”

If there was a god out there, Raph hoped he would smite him, so he didn’t have to listen to this conversation for much longer.

“Look, like I said, two blocks.” Marcus smirked at Leo. “Must be hard, with your sense of direction. Not even being able to find your way to a decent pickup line.”

Leo turned beat red, and Raph didn’t even wait for Marcus to be out of earshot before he started laughing his ass off. It wasn’t often that someone called out Leo so spectacularly, but man was it funny when they did.

“Shut up,” muttered Leo.

Mikey raised an eyebrow. “Kids are the best? Dude, you don’t even know any kids.”

“I know three of them,” counted Leo. “Their names are Raph, Donnie and Mikey.”

“You’re what, five minutes older than me?” said Raph.

Leo sighed wistfully. “Best five minutes of my life.”

Raph hit the back of Leo’s head. Leo elbowed him in the ribs. Donnie ended up booking them a room for the next week. Raph did a quick scan of the room. It was filled with cheap lakefront decor and smelled a little bit like mildew. Leo threw his duffle on the bed closest to the door. Donnie set up shop on the kitchen table, and Mikey set up the air mattress.

“I did some research, and it looks like there’s been three drownings this year connected to the lake,” said Donnie. “There were six other incidents, but they’ve been more spread out.”

“So, what,” said Mikey. “Lake monster on a binge?”

“I don’t think so,” said Donnie. “Every other place where there have been actual physical monsters there’s always tons of sightings. But here there’s basically nothing.”

“So maybe no one’s lived to talk about it,” said Leo, peering over Donnie’s shoulder at whatever article he was reading. “Bianca Collins… wasn’t that the sheriff’s last name?”

“Uh… yeah. That would be Marcus’s wife. Looks like she drowned a few months ago. She took Aidan swimming at the lake, and- oh shit,” said Donnie.

“What?” said Raph.

“Aidan was there when she drowned. He was up on a platform, and it was two hours before water rescue could get to him.” Donnie turned his laptop around. Front page of the article was a little boy who couldn’t have been more than five, with a hollow look in his eyes. Raph glanced at Leo.

“There’s that witness you were looking for.”

Leo crossed his arms, gripping onto the elbows of his jacket. “Poor kid. Seeing your mom die like that. It’s not something you can just get over.”

"Looks like we're headed to the park," said Donnie.

Chapter Text

Leo checked google maps. There were really only two child friendly parks in this tiny town, so odds where he was going to find Marcus and Aidan at one of them. It did end up being the first one they checked though so that was nice. Leo’s mind started to race. What if Marcus thought he was being weird. They didn’t have a choice. There was something in that lake and Aidan was the only one who could tell them anything about it.

Thankfully Marcus wasn’t hard to find. He was sitting on a bench, buried in a book. Aidan was a little way off, crayons in hand, scribbling on a piece of printer paper. He had little plastic army men lined up in neat rows.

“Mind if we join you?” asked Mikey.

Marcus glanced up at him. “I’m here with Aidan.”

“Is it cool if I say hi?” said Leo.

Marcus shrugged his shoulders and Leo took that as a yes. Leo walked up to a kid and knelt down to his level. He picked up one of the army men. “I used to play with these all the time when I was your age.”

Aidan didn’t respond. He didn’t even look up at him. Just kept coloring his picture. Okay, thought Leo. Time for a new approach.

“Are you more into crayons? My baby brother was obsessed with them growing up.”

He leaned over to see one of the finished pictures. The first thing that surprised him was that he could tell what it was. Usually with five-year-old artists some interpretation was required. One of the pictures was a black swirl, but the second was clearly a red bicycle.

“These are really good. Mind if I color a little too?”

Aidan didn’t say anything. Leo picked up a black crayon and started sketching the first thing he could think of. “I think you can hear me, Aidan but you just don’t want to talk. Now I don’t know what happened to your mom, but I know it was something scary. And believe me I get it. When I-”

Leo didn’t want to talk about it. Twenty years later, and it still sent a spike into his stomach when he tried. He swallowed and kept talking. “Maybe you don’t think anyone will believe you. I promise we will. You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to, you could just take those crayons and make a picture for me.”

He finished the drawing and displayed it with a flourish. “Ta dah! You can keep it if you want. This is my family.” Leo pointed to the largest stick figure on the page. “That’s my dad, and my mom. My twin, my little brother, and my baby brother.”

Aidan didn’t say anything.

Leo groaned internally. Well, he tried. “I’ll see you around, kid.”

He caught the tail end of the conversation that Marcus was having with his brothers. “He’s been like that since Bianca died. He hasn’t said anything, not even to me.”

“We heard, I’m sorry,” said Mikey.

“Do the doctors have any ideas?” asked Donnie.

“Some kind of PTSD, I’m just at a little bit of a loss,” said Marcus.

“That’s gotta be rough,” said Raph.

“We had to move in with my dad. And he’s been a big help, it's just-” Marcus fiddled with the sleeve on his shirt. “I don’t know what Aidan saw, but I should have been there-”

“Don’t do that to yourself,” said Leo. “And most kids are tougher than they look. Aidan will be fine.”

“He used to be so loud. It was like he was constantly on a sugar high; I was basically pulling out my hair but now… I just wish he’d-” Aidan walked up to them, and Marcus turned his attention to his son. “What is it, love?”

Aidan shoved a picture into Leo’s hands. “Uh… thanks.”

Aidan nodded his head and dashed back to the bench. Leo folded it up and stuck it in the back pocket of his jeans.
…

Zack just wanted his family to go back to normal. It was like his dad just gave up after Rachel died. It wasn’t even his dad anymore; it was just a husk. He was going to try and make things normal again. He had to make things normal.

“I’m going to make dinner. Try to eat something,” said Zack as he crossed the living room to get into the kitchen. His dad didn’t say a thing.

He took the chicken out of the freezer and started running the sink. Zack turned back to the fridge and started pulling out vegetables. He looked through the drawers for a clean knife before he turned his attention back to the sink.

The water that was running out of the tap had turned a rusty brown, and Zack rushed to turn it off. Great. Now they had plumbing problems. The water in the sink was now an inky black. Zack sighed and rolled up his sleeve reaching into to pull out the plug. He put his entire arm into the sink only to realize that he still couldn’t reach the plug.

A hand grasped his arm and dragged him into the sink. It soon took a hold of his shirt collar and pushed his head under the water. He gasped in a blind panic, desperately trying to take in more air, but the only thing took in was water.
…
Mikey was just about to drift off to sleep when Donnie slammed open the motel door.

“We can officially nix ‘lake monster’ off the list of theories,” said Donnie. “I was driving past the James house. Zack’s dead.”

Mikey rubbed his eyes. “Another drowning?”

“In the sink.”

“No shit,” said Raph. “What’s next up on your grand list of ideas?”

Donnie ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know. Whatever it is, it’s tied to the lake. That’s why there’s been more deaths.”

“And if it can get through the pipes, it can go after anyone in town,” said Leo. “It’s got something to do with the James’s. It killed both of his kids.”

“I did some looking into the town records, and Bianca Collins? She was Carl James’s god daughter,” said Donnie.

Raph grabbed the keys from the hook before Leo could reach them. He smirked and slipped it into his pocket. “Let’s see if Carl James feels like talking.”

Mikey didn’t know a whole lot about people, but he didn’t think that Carl would be interested in talking. Especially to them, but once Raph had an idea in his head nothing and no one could talk him out of it. The only option was to tag along and hopefully mitigate the damage.

Carl was sitting in the same deck chair that they’d first spotted him. He leaned back, but otherwise didn’t give any indication that he’d noticed they were there.

Leo cleared his throat. “Mr. James? We’d like to ask you a few questions, see we’re from the-”

“I don’t give a shit where you're from. I’ve answered enough questions,” said Carl.

Mikey glanced at Leo. Leo shrugged his shoulders, and Mikey took that as a ‘go ahead’. “Zack said that he saw something in the lake. Have you ever seen anything out there? With what happened to Rachel and your son, there might be a connection to your family.”

“Both of my children are gone. It’s- I wish it had just taken me first. Go away.” Carl choked on his words. “Please.”

None of them wanted to push their luck. Donnie turned around and started walking back towards the car. Once he was sure they were out of earshot Mikey turned to his brothers. “Think he’s hiding something?”

“I think he’s just been through a lot,” said Donnie. “And yeah, he’s definitely hiding something. Let’s just get back to the motel and try to figure out a new plan.”

Leo had stopped a little bit behind them, looking back between the house and the dock.

Raph huffed. “Hey fearless, you’ve got the keys.”

Leo reached into the back pocket of his jeans and held up Aidan’s drawing. “That look familiar?”

Aidan’s drawing, while made of paper and crayon, was a near perfect depiction of the James’s lakefront house, dock and everything.

“Looks like Carl’s not the only one who might know something,” said Raph.
…

Donnie felt incredibly awkward just standing in Collin's living room. He wasn’t even sure how Leo had gotten Marcus’s number let alone talked him into letting them in his house.

“I’m just not sure it’s a good idea,” said Marcus.

“Look, if there was another option, I wouldn’t have asked,” said Leo. “It’ll just be for a few minutes, I promise.”

“Aidan won’t talk. Believe me, I tried,” stated Marcus.

“More people might get hurt,” said Mikey, trying to walk the careful line.

“Bianca and the others, they drowned. That’s it.”

“Marcus, if you honestly believe that we’ll go. But if you think there is even a chance that something else is going down you have to let me talk to Aidan,” said Leo.

Marcus frowned and chewed on his lip. “Fine. He’s upstairs. But I want to be right outside.”

“Thank you,” said Leo.

Marucs led them up the stairs of the house towards Aidan’s room. Aidan was sitting on the floor, surrounded by scattered printer paper and drawings. Marcus looked back at Leo and gestured into the room.

Leo stepped inside and crouched down next to Aidan. “I want to thank you for the cool drawing. But I think we’re going to need your help again.”

He took out the folded drawing and set it down in Aidan’s eyeline. Donnie thought that this was going to be a waste of time. There was nothing Aidan could tell them that they didn’t already know. Donnie should be at the library pouring through town records, trying to put the pieces together, not interrogating a kindergartener.

“Did you know something was going to happen? You can nod yes or no,” said Leo. Aidan reached for a blue crayon. “You’re scared, believe me I understand. When I was about your age, I saw something really scary happen to my mom. And I wasn’t interested in talking either. But she always told me to be brave. I always try my best too. Maybe your mom wants you to be brave too.”

Donnie looked at Mikey. Neither of them remembered what had happened that night, they’d both been too young. He’d assumed that his older brothers didn’t remember much either, but apparently, he’d been wrong.

Aidan considered Leo’s words. Without another sound, he handed Leo another picture.

“Thank you,” said Leo.
…
Raph could feel Donnie’s eyes on the back of his neck the entire walk back out to the car. Leo didn’t acknowledge it, just kept walking straight ahead.

“According to Marcus, Aidan didn’t start drawing like this until after his mom died,” Leo said, opening the driver side door. Raph took his seat passenger side and took a closer look at the drawing. Front and center was a yellow house with a little boy in a blue baseball cap and a red bike. In the background was a crude drawing of a church. He’d put money on the fact they’d be able to find one just like it somewhere in town.

Donnie took the paper from his hands. "Fascinating. I’ve heard of cases where traumatic event could make people more sensitive to the supernatural, but having an actual-”

“Not now Donnie,” said Leo. “Whatever it is Aidan’s tapping into it. And with the time frame we’re working with, it's’ only a matter of time before someone else dies. Unless someone has another idea for a lead?”

Mikey took the drawing from Donnie. “Yeah, but there’s like, a thousand yellow houses.”

“There’s less than a thousand churches,” said Donnie.

Raph rolled his eyes. “Yeah, whatever smartass.”

“Hey, Leo?” asked Mikey. “The thing you told Aidan, the thing about Mom. Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Come on, in the grand scheme of bad things that have happened to us, it doesn’t even crack the top five,” said Leo. He looked straight out the windshield and tugged on the sleeve on his jacket.

Raph could confidently say that he knew Leo better than almost anyone else. Their mother’s death had been following them around all their lives, their father constantly reminding them of it. If Tang Shen had lived, they would have had normal lives, simple as that. Dad had even said as much, promising that as soon as whatever killed her was dead, they’d go back to normal. Twenty years later they were no closer than the day she died.

“Let’s find that house,” said Raph. It was better to push Leo back to work than let him dwell on memories he couldn’t change.

Chapter Text

Donnie had it narrowed down to one house on the corner of Elm and Maple. The yellow paint was cracked and peeling in places, the lush green grass of the drawing more rotted and brown. Something bad had happened here, and odds were, it had something to do with that lake. Leo had decided to take Mikey to check out James's place again, so that left him and Raph to deal with whatever was waiting for them inside that house.

“Here goes nothing,” muttered Raph. He knocked on the door.

A woman answered it a few moments later. Her pale skin was wrinkled, her gray hair cut below her chin. She gave them a polite smile. “How can I help you?”

Donnie cleared his throat. “Did a little boy live here by chance? Blue baseball cap-”

“Red bike? Not for a long time,” said the woman. She swallowed. “My son’s been gone for thirty-five years.”

“Mind if we come in?” asked Raph.

The woman shrugged and opened the door the rest of the way. The inside of the house didn’t look much better. An old and faded couch was wrapped in plastic and pictures were scattered everywhere. Donnie elbowed Raph and pointed toward the coffee table.

“Toy soldiers,” he mouthed.

“When you said gone you mean missing?” said Raph.

The woman nodded. “No one had any clue what happened to him. Evan was supposed to ride his bike right home after school. Losing a child like that, not knowing what happened to him- I’d rather they’d have killed me.”

Donnie picked up a photograph laying on the table. It showed two boys, dressed up in boy scout uniforms. He flipped the picture. In neat pencil two names were written. Evan Brown and Carl James.
…

Mikey was getting tired of the quiet. Leo was staring out the front window in contemplation, occasionally dodging potholes and switching the dial on radio when the signal got too fuzzy. Was James' house really that far out of town? It felt like they had been driving for hours. He checked the clock and whined. It had only been ten minutes.

“So…,” said Mikey. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“About Mom?” asked Leo. He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. “Do you want to talk about Renet?”

“It seems we have come to an impasse.” Mikey’s phone started to ring. “Oh, thank god. Hello?”

Donnie’s voice came over the line. “Hey, it’s me put me on speaker.”

“What’s up?” said Leo.

“That house Aidan was drawing? Turns out its home to a kid who went missing about thirty-five years ago. Anyone want to guess when the drownings started?” stated Donnie, in a way that implied he already knew the answer.

“Thirty-five years ago?” said Mikey.

“Exactly. This kid Evan Brown was in boy scouts with Carl, so whatever’s happening-”

“Carl did something to piss him off,” said Leo.

Mikey’s stomach sank as he thought of a much more realistic, much more horrifying possibility. “I think Carl might have killed him.”

“Raph, Donnie, get back to the motel,” said Leo. “We’re five minutes away from the lake house.”

“We’ll call you back once we get there,” said Mikey, hanging up the phone. “Leo, we gotta drive faster.”

Leo slammed on the gas as they sped from the paved roads of the town to the gravel of the James’s driveway. He stopped and Mikey was out of the car, racing towards the dock before Leo had a chance to park it.

Mikey couldn’t really explain it. The feeling in his gut that something was wrong, something was going to happen. It had always been there to an extent, part of human nature, part paranoia after seeing the worst things the supernatural had to offer. An engine roared and his suspicions were confirmed.

In the distance a boat pushed away from the dock, straight for the middle of the lake. Mikey swore and ran until he was on the furthest edge of the wood, not checking to see if Leo was still behind him.

“Mr. James! Turn back! It’s not safe man!” he shouted.

“Mr. James, it’s not safe!” said Leo.

“Dude, I’m serious! Turn the boat around!”

Either Carl didn’t hear them, or he didn’t care. The speed boat continued to roar on, until it shot up into the air, propelled by a massive jet of water. It slammed back down to the surface of the lake before sinking, taking Carl James down with it.
…

Aidan rocked back and forth in his chair. Something was wrong, something was really really wrong. He believed Leo, believed that he might be able to fix it, to stop the person who drowned his mom. Now Leo and his brothers were stuck in an office with Grandpa. Grandpa was bright red, yelling words that he could barely make out through the glass.

“Honey, what’s wrong?” Grandpa stormed out of the office, the brothers following close behind him. “Leo, Raph, Donnie, Mikey- what are you doing here?”

“Okay, so you're on a first name basis now? What are you doing here Marcus?” said Grandpa .

Dad’s jaw clenched the way it did when he was trying not to yell. “I thought I’d do something nice. I brought dinner.”

Grandpa relaxed a little bit. “Oh. Thank you, but it’s really not a good time.”

“Carl James is really dead? Is something wrong with the lake?” said Dad.

“I’m not sure. Go home and take Aidan with you.”

No. Aidan’s mind was flooded with pure panic. He knew something was wrong with that lake, and he knew someone he loved might be next. He raced towards Leo, grabbing the sleeve of his jacket and gripping it with all he had.

“What’s going on Aidan?” Leo looked down at him. Aidan tried to find the words, but all that would come out of his mouth was a whine. “Aidan?”

“Aidan,” said Dad, but it sounded like it was coming from underwater. Dad got tired of waiting for him to respond before picking him up. Aidan needed to say something, and he needed to say it now. He didn’t find the courage in time to stop Dad from walking out of the station and back out into the parking lot.
…

As soon as Leo had called him about Carl, Raph and Donnie had hauled ass back to the sheriff's station, which was a pain without the car. Now Raph was watching Leo try to convince Sheriff Collins that he was in fact, not a murderer.

“So, you saw Carl take his boat out, and saw something attack him. Then Carl, who is an excellent swimmer mind you, disappears into the drink, never to be seen again?” said Sheriff Collins.

Leo cleared his throat. “Yeah that’s- I don’t have another explanation for you.”

“Bull. Nothing is in that lake. We’ve checked. And you're not actually from fish and wildlife.”

Well, fuck. Raph wondered how close Leo parked and whether or not they could all outrun the sheriff.

“I promise I can explain,” said Leo. “See what happened was-”

“No, you can’t. The only reason your asses aren’t in a holding cell right now, is because we have a credible witness who saw the same thing you boys did.” Sheriff Collins gritted his teeth. “You have two options, I arrest you for impersonating federal officials and hold you as witnesses, or the four of you get back in that car and make this town a spot in your rearview.”

“I vote option two,” said Mikey.

“I second that,” said Donnie.

“Get out of my station,” said Sheriff Collins.

They could not get out of that station fast enough. Leo got to the motel in record time, and Raph raced inside for operation ‘get the fuck out of dodge’. He grabbed clothes, papers, journals, and started shoving them in random bags, regardless of who they actually belonged to. That was tomorrow's problem.

“Raph, be careful, you're going to break it!” said Donnie.

“Well, if you're going to be so damn picky about it, you pack!” snapped Raph. Donnie put his hands up and backed off.

“Sunset is half an hour away, and I’d rather not start this drive in the dark,” said Leo. He looked far off, and he grabbed the elbows on his jacket.

Raph glanced at Mikey, silently compelling him to ask. Mikey shook his head before looking straight at Donnie. Donnie turned to Raph, the message abundantly clear. If you have a question, you ask it. Whatever was bothering Leo, he wouldn’t want to talk about it in front of Mikey or Donnie.

“Leo, can you help me take some of this stuff back to the car?” said Raph. Leo swung a bag over his shoulder and walked out the front door. He’d take that for a yes. As soon as the door was shut, he asked. “Okay, what the hell is wrong with you?”

“There’s probably a better way to phrase that,” said Leo.

Raph rolled his eyes. “Uh huh. You’re avoiding the question. Spill. Now.”

“It feels like this case isn’t closed.”

“Pretty sure it is. The ghost was after Carl, and he got what he wanted. There’s not a reason for it to stick around.”

“I just feel like we missed something. Something important.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know but- Aidan looked scared,” said Leo. “I just want to make sure he’s safe.”

Raph shook his head. “Who are you and what did you do with Leo?”

“Ass.”

“Love you too. If it’ll make you feel better, we’ll drive by once the sun sets and check in. Sheriff Collins probably won’t be home till a lot later,” said Raph.

“Thanks, Raph.”
…

Something was going to happen to Dad, and it was going to happen tonight. Aidan was sure of it; he just couldn’t say anything. He tried to tell Leo, but Dad just took him away. All he could do was color, sitting in his room drawing another black spiral.

“Aidan, it’s late. You need to go to bed.” Aidan didn’t fight as Dad took the crayons out of his hands and laid him down in bed.

He didn’t sleep. His eyes stayed open; ears peeled for the sound of running water. In the distance, Dad was running the tub, but Aidan stayed completely still. Aidan had to stay awake, he needed to make sure that Dad was okay. A scream echoed through the night and Aidan leaped out of bed.

He raced down the hallway and started slamming his fist on the bathroom door. Dad was still screaming, but when Aidan tried to turn the nob, the door wouldn’t open. Someone rang the doorbell. Panic flooded him as Aidan raced downstairs. He swung the door open.

“Aidan, what’s wrong?” asked Leo.

Aidan grabbed his sleeve and raced back up the stairs, watching to make sure Leo’s brothers were close behind him. Black water leaked out from under the door. Leo took his hand and passed him over to Mikey. Raph kicked open the door and ran inside.

“Hey, your dad’s going to be okay,” said Mikey. “Let’s just go downstairs for a minute.”

Aidan stayed put, until he heard Dad gasp for breath on the other side of the door.
…

Marcus was having a rough night. He couldn’t sleep after his near drowning experience, so he stayed in the living room. Leo and Donnie were sitting with him, Raph and Mikey were attempting to entertain Aidan somewhere else in the house.

He stared blankly into his cup of coffee. “I don’t get it. Stuff like this just happens in movies, it’s not my life.”

“Whatever it is, we’ll believe you. I promise,” said Donnie. Leo was wandering around the living room leafing through old scrapbooks his father had lying around. Honestly this house hadn’t been organized since Marcus’s mother died, and that was a little over a decade ago.

“I heard, or at least I thought I heard, a little boy’s voice.” Marcus choked on his words. “He said, ‘Come play with me’.”

Leo apparently had found what he was looking for. He held up a picture from the scrapbook, one of his father’s old boy scout troop pictures. “Do you recognize anyone here?”

“Other than my dad, no.” Marcus pointed to a boy in the middle of the picture. “That’s him.”

“Bianca Collins,” muttered Donnie. “It wasn’t because she was Carl’s goddaughter, it was because she was the sheriff’s daughter in law. Both Carl and the sheriff had been involved.”

Marcus’ eyes stung at the mention of his wife. “What about Bee? And what about my dad? What the hell are you talking about?”

Aidan walked in, face fixed in a look of pure determination, Raph and Mikey close behind him. He opened the sliding glass door that led out into the back yard.

“Aidan? Where are you going?” asked Marcus, getting to his feet.

Aidan didn’t respond, only turning back to grab Marcus’s hand before making a slow and steady path out of the backyard and into the woods. Leo, Raph, Donnie, and Mikey followed him until he abruptly stopped. Aidan pointed at the ground and looked up at Leo.

Leo’s eyes went wide. “Maybe you and Aidan should go back to the house. Raph, Donnie, go get shovels from the car.”
Marcus hoped the fear he felt didn’t show on his face. Whatever Aidan had led them to, he was certain he didn’t want his son to see it. “Come on honey, let’s get back inside.”

…

Leo kept digging. With four people sharing the workload, it went faster than it would have. He dug and dug until something metal clinked against the blade of his shovel. Raph reached down, pulling it out of the dirt. It was a bicycle, the spokes completely rusted, but underneath the dirt he could make out tiny flecks of red paint.

“Well, we found Evan’s bike,” said Donnie. “Hopefully his spirt is just tied to- oh no.”

“Oh no what?” asked Leo. The safety of a gun clicked, and he turned to see Sheriff Collins.

“Who are you?” said Sheriff Collins, voice closer to a growl.

“Put down the gun,” said Raph.

Collins shifted the gun, so it was pointed directly at Raph. “How the hell did you find that!”

Leo needed to do something, and he needed to do it fast. “Because we know, Sheriff. We know what you and Carl did to Evan.”

“I don’t know what you're talking about!”

Donnie scoffed. “Obviously you do. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be pointing that gun at us.”

“You and Carl drowned Evan. It’s been thirty-five years, but he hasn’t forgotten what you did to him,” said Mikey.

“Dad!” shouted Marcus, scrambling down the hill.

“Now you’re dealing with one very angry spirit,” said Mikey. “Evan already tried to kill Marcus, and he’s not going to stop until he does. Then he’s going to kill Aidan, dragging them God knows where so you can’t ever find them. He’s going to make you feel the same way his mother does. Then, Evan’s going to kill you.”

“Right. I’m supposed to buy this, why?” said Sheriff Collins.

Mikey stared him down. “Because that’s what he did to Carl.”

“Just listen to yourselves, you sound crazy!”

Raph marched toward Sheriff Collins. “I don’t give a flying fuck what you think off us. Tell me where you two buried Evan so we can salt and burn his bones. Tell me you at least buried him.”

Marcus turned to his father, his face a mixture of horror and disbelief. “Dad, what did you do?”

“So, you believe strangers over-.”

“Something tried to kill me! I lost Bianca on the lake- just-” Marcus's voice cracked. “Tell me you didn’t do it.”

Sheriff Collins’ wouldn’t look his son in the eyes. “Evan was so much smaller than we were. Carl and I, we picked on him, but one day it went too far. We were down by the lake, messing with him by holding his head underwater but, we must have done it for too long. We let the body go and it sank.”

“Oh my god,” said Marcus.

“We were kids, Marcus, you’ve got to understand. We didn’t know what else to do! We just buried the bike and went home. But to say that everything that’s been happening, is some kind of ghost? That’s insane.”

As much as Leo wanted to see the end of this conversation, he was allergic to awkward family situations that weren’t his own. “You can sort this out later. Right now I need the two of you to grab Aidan and drive as far away from this lake as you can-”

“I told him to stay at the house. Damn it!” said Marcus. Leo glanced down towards the dock. There was Aidan, reaching for something that landed in the water.

“Aidan!” yelled Sheriff Collins, racing toward his grandson. Leo took off after him, his brothers and Marcus close behind them.

“Aidan!” shouted Leo, trying to get the kid’s attention.

“Aidan! Love, stay where you are!” said Marcus.

A small pale hand reached out of the lake, grabbing Aidan’s shirt and pulling him under the water. Eyes poked out above the water, cold and cruel. Sheriff Collins took a step back. Leo reached the edge of the dock and took a deep breath. He plunged into the frigid water. Donnie splashed next to him.

Marcus was close to jumping in, but Raph grabbed his arm. “It’ll drown you too. Stay on shore, we’ll find him.”

Mikey cannonballed off the dock, and Raph dived in after. Leo stuck his head underwater, searching for anything that looked like Aidan. Nothing. If he couldn't save one scarred kid, what good was he?

Leo poked his head above water to see Raph. He shook his head. Leo glanced over at the shoreline, as Sheriff Collins walked straight into the water.

“I’m so sorry Evan! I didn’t- if you can hear me, I’m sorry!” said Sheriff Collins.

“Dad! What are you doing!” said Marcus, voice bordering on tears.

“Aidan, he’s only five! He didn’t do anything to you! Just- just take me! I’m the one who started all this!”

“Sheriff, what are you doing!” shouted Mikey.

“Dad, please just get out of the water!” said Marcus.

Sheriff Collins smiled as a pale hand wrapped around his throat. It dragged him under. Leo dove back into the water finally reaching something solid. Aidan. He wrapped an arm around his chest and dragged them both to the surface. He breathed a sigh of relief as Aidan started coughing up water.
…

Donnie was more than ready to get the hell out of Lake Arlo. He tossed his duffle bag into the trunk before turning to Raph. “Well that’s everything I brought. Mikey, it's your turn.”

Mikey was staring off into the distance chewing on his lip. “Huh? Oh yeah.”

“You know we're not going to be able to save everyone right?” said Raph.

Mikey rolled his eyes. “I haven’t been out of the game that long.”

“Hey!” said Marcus. “I’m glad we caught you. We brought lunch. Aidan insisted on helping.”

“Can we give it to them now?” said Aidan.

“Of course,” said Marcus.

Leo took the tray of sandwiches from Aidan. “Let’s find a place in the car for this.”

“Are you alright?” asked Mikey.

Marcus’ face fell. “Fine. Just trying to process.”

“I’m sorry,” said Mikey. “If there’s-”

Marcus cut him off. “You saved my son. That’s all that I can ask of you. My father loved me, and Aidan. I’m just going to focus on that.”

“Alright Aidan, one more thing,” said Leo. “I need you to check out a show called ‘Space Heroes’.”

“Okay!” Aidan high-fived Leo before racing back to his father.

“Be nice to your dad, okay?”

Aidan nodded solemnly. “Promise.”

Marcus shook his head fondly. He walked up to Leo and kissed him on the check, before walking away with Aidan. Leo stood there for a solid minute before turning toward the car and taking his place driver side.

“Sure, you're good to drive?” teased Raph.

Leo flipped him off. “Get your asses in this car, or I’m leaving without you.”

Donnie slipped into the backseat and started scouring through his phone. There was going to be another case somewhere, sometime soon. All they could do was keep driving.

Chapter Text

Kaylee had always loved flying. Every summer growing up, her parents had dragged her and her little sister halfway across the country to visit her grandparents. She loved the feeling of takeoff, soaring through the sky. She didn’t want to fly the plan, just being on board was enough. So as soon as she graduated college, she applied for a job as a flight attendant.

“How are you this fine morning?” asked Captain Williams.

“I’m doing fine, Albert.” Kaylee turned her attention back to the line of passengers. An elderly woman handed her a ticket. “13B.”

“Thank you,” she said, before shuffling toward the middle of the plane.

“Have a nice flight,” she said to the next person in line.

He flashed her a smile. “That’s the plan.”

There must have been a trick of the light, or she needed to get her eyes checked, but she could have sworn his eyes were completely black. Kaylee’s stomach twisted and everything in her body screamed that something was wrong.

Another ticket was shoved into her face, and Kaylee pushed the interaction to the back of her mind. She had all but forgotten the man, between the inflight announcements, tickets, and trying to slam the largest carryon known to man into a luggage compartment. Kaylee checked her watch. Forty minutes into a three-hour flight. Honestly, she thought it had been longer.

“What the hell are you doing!” shouted a voice from halfway down the plan.

The black-eyed man was standing in the aisle, hand on the emergency exit. It swung open, the door flying off the engine, and sending the man straight out of the vacuum of the gaping hole in the side of the plane. Oxygen mask dropped, and Kaylee raced to find her seat.
She muttered a prayer to someone, anyone that could help her live through this. The plane took a nosedive and her heart leaped up to her throat. She closed her eyes, and hoped that if this was the end, it would at least be quick.
…
Mikey thought that things were getting too boring around here. It was nearly six in the morning and all of his brothers were sleeping peacefully. He brought coffee and pastries to keep Raph from killing him after pulling this stunt. He pulled out his phone and opened YouTube, scrolling through all the possible options. He settled on the Macarena, allowing the ad to play through before he turned the audio all the way up.

Raph sat bolt upright on the couch, floundering for something before landing flat on the floor. Donnie didn’t react, just rolling over and placing his pillow over his head.

Leo glared at him, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Why?”

Mikey held up the paper bag. “Breakfast!”

Raph got off the floor and rolled up his sleeves. “Like that’s going to save you.”

“I also have coffee,” said Mikey.

“You’re on thin fucking ice,” grumbled Raph. He swiped the cup and sat back down on the couch. “Did you even go to bed last night?”

Mikey hesitated. “Yes.”

“Try again.” Donnie sat up and rubbed his eyes. “I woke up at two, and you were watching Mat Pat Theory videos.”

“You try sleeping on that thing. It’s more duct tape than air mattress,” said Mikey. He could laugh it off, and pretend he was okay. Unfortunately, Raph knew him better than that.

“When was the last time you actually slept for a full eight hours?”

“Uh, it’s been a minute. Whatever, it’s not that important,” said Mikey, maybe a little too quickly.

Leo sighed. “Michelangelo. This is serious. If you’re not sleeping, you’re going to get sloppy, and that’s going to get you hurt.”

“Didn’t know you cared that much,” said Mikey.

“I don’t. You’re supposed to watch my back too, and I enjoy breathing.” Raph shifted and stared down at the floor. “Is it about Renet?”

A poison spike pushed through his heart and his eyes stung. Mikey turned his back to his brothers and picked up a coffee cup. “A little bit. Mostly I forgot about all the other nightmare inducing stuff we do on a day to day. But still, I’m all good!”

“So what?” said Raph. “You’re stronger than that.”

“Because you’re not afraid of anything,” said Mikey.

“That’s right,” said Raph. “I’m not.”

“What about cockroaches?” asked Donnie.

“Those don’t count.”

Leo didn’t hesitate. “What’s under your pillow, Raph?”

“Nothing.”

Mikey reached under Raph’s pillow and pulled out a large sliver hunting knife. “No fear, huh?”

“That is a reasonable precaution.” Raph snatched the knife back.

Donnie put his head in his hands. “It’s too early for this shit.”

A phone started buzzing, before Leo scooped it up from the nightstand. “Hey. No, he’s not here. Yeah, the poltergeist. No, we can be there. What- okay, we’ll be there in person. See you soon.”

“Who was that?” said Donnie.

“Roscoe Folley. He says he might have a case for us.”
…

Donnie sipped on the long cold apology coffee as Roscoe Folley walked them back to his office. He was a balding middle aged white guy, in a blue polo shirt and khaki slacks.

“I can’t tell you how much I appreciated the four of you coming down. I wish I could be doing you a favor, not the other way around,” said Roscoe. He turned to Mikey. “Your Dad and brothers really helped me out.”

“Something about a poltergeist, right?” asked Mikey.

“Oh, are you guys talking about the movie!” shouted a man carrying a crate.

“Mind your business!” said Roscoe. “Damn right. That thing tore apart the house, nearly killed me and my wife. I thought you were at college?”

“I umm... taking the semester off?” said Mikey. He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked straight at the floor.

“Your dad didn’t shut up about it. He seemed really proud of you,” said Roscoe.

“I’m sorry, he what?”

“I tried to get a hold of him. How’s he doing anyway?”

“Oh. Uh…” Donnie racked his brain for a half-decent lie. “He’s busy.”

Nailed it. Hopefully this wasn’t another poltergeist. After they had cleared it, Donnie had to get ten stitches in his arm after the thing threw a vase at him.

“Well, we’re missing him, but I get to meet the famous Michelangelo. Sounds like a good deal,” said Roscoe.

“It’s been nice catching up, but what was it you couldn’t tell me over the phone?” asked Leo.

Roscoe’s face fell. “In my office.”

The office was cluttered, open boxes with files covered nearly every surface, and some parts of the floor too. Donnie made a point of stepping around them, trying to keep himself from tripping. Roscoe sorted through the mess until he found what he was looking for. A small red USB drive that he plugged into the computer.

“I pulled some strings to get this handed over to me. Flight US Halo 2846 went down forty minutes into the flight. I gave it a listen, then I called you.”

The recording played, words barely audible through the static and whirring. “Mayday! This is flight US Halo 2846- we seem to be experiencing some kind of mechanical failure-”

Loud crunching played out and screaming as the recording cut out. Roscoe cleared his throat. “The cabin depressurized. Over a hundred people were on that plane, only seven made it out. The pilot, Albert Williams, is blaming himself. He’s a friend of mine, and I want to prove to him it wasn’t his fault.”

Leo chewed on his lip. “Alright then. We’ll need passenger manifests, a list of survivors, and maybe get a look at the wreckage.”

“I wish I could help, but the NTSB has that locked in an evidence warehouse. I don’t have that kind of clearance.”

Mikey looked at him and mouthed. “What’s that?”

“National Transportation Safety Board,” whispered Donnie.

Raph smirked. “I think we can handle it.”
…

Raph was under the belief that fake IDs were more of an art than a science. The good thing about having Mikey back was that he had help.

“Homeland Security? Finally get hit hard enough to kill all your brain cells?” said Mikey.

“Hardy Har Har. At least it’s creative. Besides, what are the odds the actual Homeland Security shows up when we were using these.”

“This is how we go to jail, Raph.”

“We’ll be fine. Heard anything from the geek squad?”

“Leo’s running through the list of survivors, trying to find witnesses and Donnie’s pretty sure he heard EVP on that recording. He’s running it through a program to figure out what exactly it said.”

Raph held up the IDs. “Real enough?”

Mikey took the badge and examined it. “Real enough. Let’s walk back.”

The motel room, as it often did, descended into an unorganized mess the second they moved in. Donnie was sitting on the bed furthest from the door hunched over the computer. Leo was writing names and contact information down on a notepad.

“Finally crack that thing?” asked Raph.

Donnie picked his head up. “Uh, yeah, hold on.”

The recording started out the same as before, but Donnie had pulled the scratching to make a concrete voice. “No survivors.”

“Well, they’re shit at their job. There were seven survivors,” said Mikey.

“Mikey!” scolded Leo. “Okay, theories?”

Donnie frowned. “Maybe a haunted flight. In 1972 flight 401 went down because the autopilot got switched off. It was rumored that the plane was salvaged, because the ghost of the captain and the engineer could be seen on other planes that used these parts. But the sightings were never proven, and none of those planes crashed.”

“I’ve got someone we need to talk to,” said Leo. “Dude by the name of Brian Westcott.”

“Why?” asked Raph.

“One, he’s from here. Two, when I tried to call him, I got his mother. She told me he checked himself into the local psych hospital. If anyone saw anything-”

“It would be him,” said Raph. “Let’s go.”
…

Leo was nervous about the new badges. He had full faith in his brother; however, it was hard to pull off Homeland Security in a blue flannel shirt and jeans. The front desk lady bought it, and soon Donnie and him were in. He tried to make himself comfortable at the wooden table and tried to appear as non-threatening as possible.

Brian sat across from them, chewing on his lip. “I thought I already talked to you people.”

“We just go where we’re told Mr. Westcott,” said Donnie. “Let’s go back to before the plane went down. Did you notice anything unusual?”

“Unusual?” asked Brian.

“Stuff like, flashing lights, weird voices-”

Brian shook his head. “No, nothing like that. It was just a crash.”

“Sir, from what I understand you checked yourself in here. Do you want to know what that tells me?” asked Leo.

“Uh… no?”

“It tells me that you saw something. Something you don’t think anyone else would believe.”

Brian crossed his arms and glowered. “I was in a plane crash; it just freaked me out. That’s it. Besides, you’ll think I’m crazy.”

“I can guarantee you, we won’t,” said Donnie.

“There was this guy on the plane. His eyes were like pure black. And I saw- I thought I saw, get up and open the emergency exit,” said Brian.

“Was he solid, or did you see him flicker in and out-”

“No,” said Brian. “He was sitting three seats from me. There’re thousands of pounds of pressure on that door. I can’t rationalize how he got it open.”

“Thank you for your time,” said Leo. He waited till they were out of earshot before asking Donnie. “Ideas?”

“Maybe a monster? Although I wouldn’t have any idea about why it would do something like that, most of them are focused on extending their own lives,” said Donnie. He picked at a loose thread in his sleeve. He was hiding something.

“Any other suspects?” asked Leo, pushing him for an answer.

“I want to rule out monsters first.”

Trying to push him any further would make Donnie shut down. He was always happy to share ideas, theories, and had talked his ear off about every theory. If Donnie wasn’t talking about it, Leo knew it had to be something serious.

Chapter Text

Donnie checked the passenger manifests and came up with a likely candidate. Some dentist, who thankfully lived nearby, who’s body had not been recovered after the accident. David Emerson had been married to one Vivian Emerson for the past thirteen years. If anyone had picked up on David being anything but human, it would have been her.

“Do you think he could be a vampire?” asked Mikey.

“What?”

“I mean, they turn into bats, right? He could have opened the door and then poof! Bat!”

“I don’t have time to explain to you how wrong you are. Dad would have told us if he had dealt with a vampire.”

“I don’t know Dee. He does like to share all the important information at the last minute,” said Mikey. Before Donnie had a chance to snap back at him, Mikey rang the doorbell.

A woman with her hair in rollers and dark bags under her eyes looked out through the cracked door. “Hello?”

“Sorry to bother you ma’am, Homeland Security. We have a couple of questions for you about your husband,” said Donnie.

Mrs. Emmerson sighed before stepping out onto the porch. “What more could you possibly want to know?”

“Just double checking a few things,” said Mikey. “What was your relationship with your husband like?”

“It was- we fought sometimes, sure, but we were always happy together,” said Mrs. Emmerson.

“Was there anything unusual about him?” asked Donnie. “A room he wouldn’t let you go in, not coming home at night-”

“I don’t know what you're trying to imply. My husband was a good, decent man. I would like the two of you to get off my property!”

“Understood, we’ll be on our way.” Donnie was not scared of this woman. He didn’t take off like a jack rabbit and stop running once he was sure he was out of earshot. He definitely wasn’t in such a hurry that he didn’t check to see if Mikey was still behind him.

He stopped once he was at least three blocks away. Mikey showed up a few seconds later. “So normal guy. Good to know. Not a monster then.”

Donnie’s stomach sank. “No. Not a monster. I’ve got one last theory I want to try but involves us getting into that warehouse. The two of us can fool civilians, but I don’t think a security guard is going to buy a couple of guys in jeans and t-shirts as being part of the actual Homeland Security. Especially since you still look twelve.”

“Hey,” whined Mikey, not helping his case in the slightest. “I could at least pass for twenty-one!”

“We’ll make Leo and Raph do it. I want to start preparing, just in case I’m right.”

In all truth Donnie was certain that he was just delaying the inevitable. There were only two real options left. One, some kind of ghost that got attached to plane parts and was now possessing passengers. On the other hand, there was something that Donnie really, really didn’t want to deal with.
…

Raph hated suits. They were always too tight at the sleeves, and the scratchy material of the cheap polyester shirt made him want to tear off his own skin. He readjusted his tie for the thousandth time as he walked towards the warehouse.

“Stop messing with that,” scolded Leo. “Act like you’ve worn one before.”

“Fuck off,” muttered Raph. He was comforted by the fact that Leo looked just as ridiculous but wearing a blue tie instead of a red one. Hopefully the security guard wouldn’t look too closely and see just how alike they looked.

Sure, there were tells if you were looking closely. In some shirts his scar would be visible above the collar, one of Leo’s front teeth was chipped at the corner, Raph’s front tooth was a little crooked. But most people didn’t look closely. He remembered one particularly embarrassing moment, when he’d been so hungover that he said ‘hello’ to the reflection in a hotel mirror, under the assumption it was Leo.

The security guard waved them by after looking at their badges for half a second. It looked like they had found most of the plane, although charred with exposed wires and half melted seats. Raph glanced back at the door before pulling out the EMF meter.

“Any idea what Donnie thinks it is?” asked Raph.

Leo shook his head. “Whatever it is, it’s got him freaked. Any spikes?”

“Not yet. Which door did our dentist jump out of?”

“Emergency exit. One of the ones by the wings.”

Raph made his way towards it. The EMF spiked, and Raph tucked it back into his pocket. He knelt down to examine the door, when something caught his eye. Yellow powder, that smelled uniquely awful compared to the lingering smell of burnt hair and fabric.

“Check this out,” said Raph.

Leo knelt down to take a look. His nose wrinkled and he took a step back. “Yuck. Bag that and bring it back to Donnie. He’ll know what it is.”

“Do we have to get in the car with it?” said Raph, using the edge of his badge to scrap it into the plastic bag. “We can just have it hanging out the window.”

“Shut up.” Leo’s eyes went wide. “Do you hear that?”

Raph bolted upright. “Footsteps. We need to go.”

They scrambled to their feet, to the door opposite the sound of footsteps. Once the door was safely shut behind them, they slowed down to a walk.

Leo turned to the warehouse. “Okay, we’re good so long as they don’t-”

An alarm began to sound, and Raph snapped at Leo. “You just had to open your mouth didn’t you!”

Leo ignored him. “Go!”

They raced across the parking lot before they hit a barbed wire fence. Raph tossed his jacket over it before scrambling up and jumping over the side. Leo went after him, before taking his jacket and racing around the corner towards the car. Raph jumped into the passenger seat, and Leo slammed on the gas, peeling out into the road, and leaving their pursuers in the dust.
…

Max didn’t consider himself to be a particularly comforting presence, but for Albert, he had to try. He knew Albert blamed himself for the plane going down, so he was going to be with him every step of the way, until he was back up in the air again. This was the first step.

“Come on Al, you’ve flown these little things a dozen times before,” said Max.

Albert gave him a weak smile. “I know Al, it’s just- it’s different now. But the waiting is worse. I can do this. I just- let me get some water first.”

“That’s the spirit!” said Max, internally cringing as he said it. “I’ll meet you on the runway.”

When Albert made his way to the tiny twin engine, he was in a considerably better mood. He was standing up straighter, face split in a somewhat eerie grin. The hair on the back of Max’s back stood on end, but he pushed it down. Probably just his own nerves trying to get the best off him. Still, he didn’t take a steady breath until the plane was safely in the air.

They weren’t too high up, all things considered, the vast farmland being shrunk to neat squares on the ground. Flying over the country wasn’t like flying over a city, all sprawled out into suburbs and jagged sky scrapers. There was a kind of order to it.

“How long have we been up here?” asked Albert.

“Uh…” Max looked at his watch. “About forty minutes.”

Albert nodded. The plane jerked as he sent it into a nosedive, the ground barreling towards them faster than Max could process it. He looked at Albert in horror. It wasn’t Albert anymore, his eyes a jet black. The last thing Max saw was the crooked grin on his face as they plowed into a telephone pole.
…

Leo watched as Donnie studied the yellow substance under the microscope, his expression unreadable. “Is it what you thought it was?”

“Sulfur,” said Donnie. “Whatever it was left a sulfur residue.”

“Okay. Donnie, do you want to share with the class?”

“No creature would leave a residue like this, and a ghost wouldn’t either. We’re hunting a demon.”

Leo dragged a hand down his face. “That would explain how he got the emergency exit open.”

A cell phone started to buzz. Roscoe reached a hand into his pocket. “That would be me. You four figure out how to solve this.”

Raph waited until he left. “What the fuck? From what I’ve heard, demons usually stick to families, or screw with one person. For one to take down planes?”

“Nothing in Dad’s journal?” asked Mikey.

Donnie shook his head. “No. It’d be a lot easier if there was.”

Leo missed their father. He’d stopped trying to call weeks ago, the number seemed to have been disconnected. Dad was the last parent they had left, and he always seemed to know what to do. Leo was just trying to keep all the pieces together, make sure that his brothers stayed strong. That meant not letting them know he was terrified.

“Okay, here’s the plan. We go back to the motel, we find out exactly what kind of demon we’re dealing with, and we figure out a way to get rid of it,” said Leo.

Donnie gave him a look. “You mean you want me to find a way to get rid of it.”

Leo patted him on the shoulder. “We’ll try and help you.”

His little brother muttered something about never being appreciated before sulking off to the car. Leo looked to Raph for help, but he just shrugged his shoulders. Leo put his head in his hands and sighed. Hopefully Donnie could figure out how the hell to catch that thing before it had a chance to hurt anybody else.
…

Mikey was bored. Donnie was scouring the internet for answers, and he was pretending to google monsters. He’d given up about fifteen minutes ago and just started watching YouTube.

“So, demons aren’t exactly a complicated concept, thousands of cultures have them. But I think we’re dealing with a yokai.” Donnie turned his computer around. “You see, a lot of yokai are related to natural disasters, but it’s possible that one of them evolved with the times and started finding new ways to cause strife and chaos.”

“Christ. We’re sure we can’t call someone else in to deal with this?” Raph picked at a loose thread on his jeans. “Give me a monster any day but this- how many times have any of us squared off with a demon?”

“Once,” said Leo. “Detroit.”

“And that didn’t exactly end well, did it?”

“Look, we’ll figure it out.”

“Oh, so I’m guessing you have a plan?”

“Well, no but-”

It was at this point that Mikey tuned out. He’d spent eighteen years of his life bouncing around motel rooms with three older brothers. He’d heard some variation of this fight about a thousand times. Donnie moved his laptop off the table and sat next to him on the bed. It was a miracle any of them noticed the phone ringing.

Raph shouted. "And another thing-”

“Shut up! Roscoe’s calling.” Mikey switched the phone onto speaker before Raph had a chance to respond. “Hello?”

“My friend, the pilot from the first flight? He’s gone.” Roscoe swallowed, choking back tears.

“What happened?” asked Leo.

“Plane crash if you can believe it,” said Roscoe. “He and a buddy of his were out in a twin, they were up for about forty minutes but then-.”

Donnie’s eyes went wide as he started frantically typing on the computer. He turned the screen so they could read it. ‘Same as the other flight’.

“I’m sorry,” said Raph.

“Maybe it was just connected to him. Maybe it’s over now,” said Roscoe.

“We’d still like to check out the crash site, make sure it’s something we can do and not just an engine failure,” said Leo.

“Of course. We’re out by Nazareth.”

Mikey blinked. A demon in Nazareth. How ironic. Donnie was shoving his microscope and laptop into a backpack before rushing out to the car. He was sitting in his spot in the back seat before the rest of them had any chance to move. Leo double checked to make sure they had the Homeland security badges before they ran straight out of the motel.

The plane had just been lowered to the ground by the time they got there. Based on the broken pole and the cut-up wires, it had gotten tangled up in the phone lines. Donnie was out of the car the second Leo put it in park. He flashed the badge and the sheriff let him through. He scraped something from the surface off the plane and got back in the car.

“Just what I thought. Sulfur.”

“Maybe it was just connected to the pilot,” said Raph. “It’s probably over now.”

Donnie shook his head. “I checked back. There are six other crashes that went down exactly forty minutes into the flight in the last six months alone. It’s a biblical number, it usually represents death. Think Noah’s ark. But there were never any survivors. Until now. Remember the EVP?”

Leo slumped into the seat. “It’s targeting the survivors.”

“So, it’s only a matter of time before another plane goes down.”

Chapter Text

Leo drummed his fingers on the wheel, eyes landing on Mikey doing his best customer service voice.

“Thank you for taking our customer satisfaction quiz. We hope to see you again soon,” said Mikey. “Okay, that’s the last of the passengers. No one’s flying anytime soon.”

“What about the flight attendant?” asked Raph. “Kaylee something.”

“Kaylee Daniels. I talked to her sister,” said Donnie. “She starts back at work tonight, an eight pm flight out of Indianapolis.”

The dash clock said it was four pm. Indianapolis was a five hour drive at least. That is, if Leo was driving. He pulled over onto the side of the road.

“Raph, you’re driving.” Leo got out of the car and over to the passenger’s side door.

Raph took the keys and slid into the driver’s seat. Donnie held on to the bottom of his seat. Mikey wasn’t paying attention and was slammed against the back of the passenger seat as Raph pressed his foot on the gas. Wind whistled through the windshield he hadn’t installed right, as Raph expertly weaved between the lanes. Leo was thankful that at least he’d filled up the gas tank before they’d headed to Nazareth.

“Donnie, try to get a hold of Kaylee,” said Leo.

“I tried, I left like three voicemails, I think she turned her phone off,” said Donnie.

They screeched into the airport parking lot with forty five minutes to spare. Raph got lucky, he found a parking spot close-ish to the door. Leo checked himself over for weapons, tossing a handgun and a pocket knife into the glove box.

“Anyone else need to leave something in the car?” asked Leo. “No? Good. Move.”

They rushed through the front doors and Donnie started scanning flight information. “Okay, the flight starts boarding in thirty minutes.”

“We can try to get her on the courtesy phone,” said Mikey. “Over there.”

Leo picked up the phone. “Hi, I’m looking for Kaylee Daniels. Gate B 34 flight 2449?”

“Sure, I’ll put you on the line with her,” said a deep voice. Thank God, thought Leo. He could stop this thing without ever setting foot on the plane.

“This is Kaylee, how can I help you?”

Leo racked his brain for an excuse. “Kaylee Daniels? My name is Dr. Brian Bloom, from Bosely Medical. We have a-”

“Jade,” whispered Donnie.

“Jade Daniels here.”

“Are you sure?” asked Kaylee.

“Positive. She’s okay it’s nothing-”

“Because I got off the phone with Jade about three minutes ago. She was studying for a final.”

Fuck. “Well, our records can be wrong-”

“Did Chad send you to talk to me?”

Leo latched onto it. “Yeah, he didn’t really have any other way to get your attention. Look he seems really upset and I think it would-”

“You can tell him he had his chance.” The line went dead.

“Shit.” Leo ran a hand through his hair. “She’s going to get on a flight.”

Donnie pulled out his phone. “There are still tickets available for that flight, four of them are pretty close together. Mikey, get whatever you think will make it through security.”

“Donnie, we need to think this through,” said Leo. “We can’t just jump on a plane at the last minute.”

“We can and we have too,” said Raph. “Look, that thing is going to latch on to someone and it’s going to crash. Dozens of people are going to die.”

Leo swallowed. “Well I know that but-”

“But what?” said Mikey.

“I’m scared of flying,” muttered Leo.

“What?” said Raph.

“I’m scared of planes, Raph.”

Donnie shouted at him. “And you didn’t think to mention this till now!”

“Why do you think we drive everywhere?”

Mikey blinked. “Because we’re broke and none of our ID’s are real?”

“Partly that, but-” Leo could be a little bit of a control freak. The idea of trusting his life to someone who wasn’t family was utterly alien. At the end of the day, it was a miracle
those hunks of metal stayed in the air in the first place.

“Okay,” said Raph. “You stay here, and the rest of us go up-”

“Absolutely not!” said Leo.

“Look, either you stay here, or you come with us. I don’t see a way we could avoid getting on the plane,” said Donnie.

“Fuck it.” Leo marched straight into the airport. “Donnie, print the tickets. We’re going.”

…
Raph thought this would be funny in any other circumstance. Watching Leo freak over being on a plane would be hilarious if he didn’t know it was going to crash. They’d been in the air for about five minutes, and all Raph could think about was the time slowly slipping away.

Donnie leaned across the aisle. “Okay, since Leo’s useless, what are the rest of us going to do?”

“Shut up, I’m fine,” said Leo. The death grip he had on the arm rest said otherwise. Raph held out his arm, and Leo switched to holding his wrist. “The best way to handle this is to track down whoever it’s got a hold off, and perform an exorcism.”

“Yeah, cause that’s going to be so easy on a plane,” said Donnie.

Leo ignored him. “Who do we think it is?”

“Well, someone with an easy weakness to exploit, like an addiction or some kind of emotional distress,” said Mikey. “Maybe it’s Kaylee. I mean, this is her first night back.”

“Good idea,” said Raph. “Which one’s Kaylee?”

Mikey glanced around. “The woman back by the drink carts.”

“Raph, go talk to her,” said Leo.

“Why me? That’s your-” Raph looked at his twin. The last time he’d seen that look on Leo’s face, Raph had been bleeding out on the side of the road. He swallowed his pride.
“Fine. What if our friend has already hopped on the Kaylee express?”

Donnie pulled a water bottle out of his jacket pocket. “I have a couple ideas.”

“That’s a great way to get everyone’s attention. What’s the other idea?” asked Leo.

Donnie frowned. “Well easiest way would be to say the name of God, but I don’t know if that would work, especially since we’re-”

“I’ll go try it.” Raph stood up out of his seat.

“You need to say it in Latin-”

“Okay.”

“In Latin it’s Christo-”

“Don’t make me kick your ass in front of all these people,” snapped Raph.

Donnie shrunk back into his seat. “Understood.”

Raph hoped that he would have come up with something to say by the time he’d gotten to the drink cart, but his mind remained blank. He was pretty sure, “Hi, you wouldn’t
happen to be possessed right?” was a pretty shitty conversation starter. What he didn’t count on, was Kaylee seeing him first.

“Can I help you?” she asked, smiling in a practiced way that didn’t quite meet her eyes.

Shit. “Uhh… No. I’m sorry. I’m traveling with family and I needed to be somewhere where they weren’t. My brother’s a nervous flier and he’s starting to drive me up a wall.”

“Lord knows I understand how that feels. My sister and I would fly out to Oregon from Georgia every summer, and I was ready to smother her by the time the plane landed,” said Kaylee.

“Flying must come pretty easy to you then.”

She looked down at the ground. “It used to. It’s a long story.”

“Ever considered another job.”

“Never. I’ve loved flying since I was a little girl. You only get that kind of purpose once in a lifetime.” Her green eyes were filled with cold determination. “I’m not going to let fear stop me.”

No other time to try and say it. Raph moved his hand like he was coughing. “Christo.”

Kaylee didn’t flinch, just looking in the cart for something. “Did you say something?”

He pulled on a loose thread on his jacket. “Nothing.”

Kaylee handed in a can of ginger ale. “Maybe this will help your brother out a little bit.”

“Thank you, good talk.” Raph rushed back to his seat, hoping to God that it wasn’t the worst way he’d exited a conversation.

“So?” asked Mikey.

Raph shook his head, and handed Leo the ginger ale. “We need the number of her therapist, I don’t know why she’s so chill.”

“Okay so that just narrows it down to all the other fucking people on this plane,” said Leo. The plane began to shake. Leo latched onto his arm again. “Please tell me that’s
normal.”

“It’s just turbulence,” said Donnie.

“This plane is going down, Donatello. So the next person to tell me to ‘calm down’ is getting smacked,” growled Leo.

“This is for our good more than yours. If it is latching onto emotional distress, you make a pretty tempting target,” said Donnie. “Honestly the three off you would make pretty
perfect hosts. Especially if it figures out what we’re trying to do.”

“Oh, and it wouldn’t choose you, why?” said Mikey.

Donnie started counting on his fingers. “Well your still grieving, Leo hates flying and Raph -”

“Finish that sentence, I dare you,” stated Raph.

Leo leaned across his seat into the aisle. “Okay, that’s enough. Donnie, you said you had something for us?”

“An exorcism, the best one that we have for the circumstances, since we don’t have time for sigils. It’s a two step ritual, first step gets the thing out of its host, which will allow it to manifest, making it much more powerful-”

“That helps us, how, genius?” said Raph.

“Because the next step is sending the thing straight back downstairs. It’ll take five minutes tops,” said Donnie. “There are ones that last longer that keep it trapped in the host, but
we don’t have time for that either. We’ll just have to be fast.”

“None of that helps if we don’t know who it is,” said Leo.

Mikey bent the fingers on his hand, a vacant look on his face. “Look up, in front of the plane, one of the pilots. Wait for him to turn his head.”

The pilot was standing straight, making conversation with one of the passengers, and for a second, he saw it. If Raph hadn’t known what he was looking for, he never would have seen the half second the pilot's eyes were pure black.
…
Donnie was just thankful they had a target now. Even performing an exorcism on a crowded plane with twenty minutes to spare was a horrifying task. He wasn’t a fan of the odds of breaking into the cockpit and trying to exorcize the guy that way. If they didn’t die, they’d be stuck in a TSA holding cell until he’d worked out a way to break them out. And it would be his job to figure out how to break them out.

“Raph how down would Kaylee be with luring the pilot back there?” said Leo.

“I don’t know. I talked to her for like thirty seconds.”

“So that’s a solid maybe then. Look, we don’t have enough time for good ideas. Me and Donnie will break the news to her, and then once that happens, you and Mikey can help us take down the pilot.”

Donnie had learned a long time ago arguing with Leo when he got like this would be more than wasted effort. He was just grumpy; he'd gotten picked for having to help give ‘The Talk’. Congratulations, not only are people terrible, there are monsters out here too! Good luck trying to sleep tonight!”

“Let’s get this over with,” said Donnie.

Leo pulled himself back up and they made their way back down the aisle. Kaylee, thankfully, hadn't moved. He tried to make sure there was room between him in the door. The last thing they needed was for her to freak out and run away.

“Did the ginger ale do the trick?”

Leo blinked. “Yeah, that’s not why we're back here. I need you to stay calm, I understand that this sounds insane, but there are lives at stake. We know you were on the flight that went down, and we’re here to stop it from happening again.”

“You were the man on the phone- how did you know-”

“It is a very long, and frankly creepy story,” said Donnie. “The pilot on the plane died about six hours ago. Whatever took down that flight wanted to ensure there were no survivors, and it’s going to come after you.”

“You're right. That does sound insane. How the fuck am I supposed to believe you?”

“You didn’t happen to see anyone who was giving you a weird vibe? Did you see something wrong with his eyes?”

Kaylee leaned back up against the wall. “Oh my god. There was this man, I could have sworn it was a trip of the light but for half a second-”

“His eyes looked black?” said Leo. “The same kind of thing is going on with the pilot, and we need you to get him back here so we can take care of it.”

“You're not going to hurt him are you?”

“Exorcisms aren’t typically fatal, however if the victim has suffered-” Leo slapped him on the back of the head. Donnie rubbed the sore spot. “He’ll be fine. Just get him back here.”

Kaylee nodded. “Okay. I’ll tell him something is wrong with a fuse or something. You're sure about this?”

“Positive.” Leo gave the woman a reassuring smile. Kaylee walked back up the aisles. “You said you found one that would work.”

“One of us reads, the other three hold him down. Easy.”

“Give Mikey the book. He’s a little out of practice,” said Leo.

Raph and Mikey made their way to the back of the plane. Mikey was playing with the end of a strip of duct tape, winding it and unwinding it from the roll. Donnie traded him for the book. Sure Michelangelo was twenty, and by no means a child but Donnie couldn’t unsee the tiny freckled six year old who would drive him up a wall asking endless questions. Mikey somehow seemed more fragile now then he had back then.

“This one?” asked Mikey, pointing to the page.

“Back here you said?” came the words of the pilot. Kaylee pushed aside the curtain.

Raph struck first, tackling the man and sending him to the ground. Donnie ripped off a strip of tape and stuck it over the man’s mouth. Having to deal with him screaming for help would be inconvenient. Especially with more human looking monsters.

“You said you weren’t going to hurt him,” said Kaylee.

“We’ll let him go once the demon’s out. Keep an eye on the door, this should only take a couple minutes,” said Leo. He grabbed an arm that had escaped Raph’s tackle as he tried to pin the man to the floor. Donnie grabbed the flailing man’s legs as Kaylee slowly backed away from them.

“Mikey!” shouted Raph.

“Right, sorry- uhh,” Mikey cleared his throat and began to recite the words on the page. “Regna terrea, cantante Deo, psalillite Domino.”

“Shit!” Raph stumbled back as the demon, slipped a hand out and clocked him hard across the face. Leo made a grab for his other arm, and was flung against the wall of the cabin. It reached out and wrapped its hands around his throat, and Donnie was forced to let go of the legs to try and pry them off his throat.

Mikey kept going. “Per caelum, caelum antiqous.”

The demon let Donie go, and ripped the tape off his mouth. “I heard about your girlfriend. I can hear her screaming!”

Mikey was silent, all the words having been shocked out of him. Raph staggered back this his feet, gripping the demon by the shoulders and repeatedly slamming him into the wall. Leo charged at the man with another piece of duct tape only to miss and accidentally tag Raph’s back.

“Just ignore him!” shouted Donnie. He began to search the cabin for something to hit the man with. He charged at it with a beverage cart, pinning his legs to the wall.

Mikey found his breath again and began reading down the page, as black smoke began to leak out of the man’s mouth and nose. It was working. They could do this. The wind was knocked out of him as the beverage cart came crashing back toward him. Mikey raced to him, pulling him up by the arm and back out of the way.
The man doubled over as a shrieking cloud of smoke vanished back into the wall. Raph let him collapse to the ground. “Where did that fucker go!”

The lights began to flicker and the plane shook more intensely than it had with any other doubt of turbulence.

“It jumped into the vents!” shouted Leo. The floor tilted down as the cart rolled down the aisle, taking their father’s journal with it. Mikey raced out into the body of the plane and snatched the book up again, as it began to rock back and forth. Oxygen masks dropped and screaming echoed from the main cabin.

Leo pressed himself against the backwall, seeming resigned to leaving his fate in Mikey’s hands. The lights dialed up to a hundred before dimming almost completely. Mikey finished the exorcism and the plane evened back out.

Kaylee ducked her head back in. “Is it over?”

Donnie nodded. “It’s gone.”
***

Mikey was down with never getting on another plane in his life. His throat was still burning from that exorcism. Thankfully, no one else wanted to either, and after they’d gotten back to the car, they’d spent the three hour drive back to the motel in silence. Leo thought it would at least be polite to say goodbye to Roscoe in person before they headed off to the next place the wind took them. Once they pulled into the motel parking lot, Roscoe was there waiting for them.

“Figured the last I could do was see you boys off. You saved a whole lot of people with that little stunt.”

Leo moved left whatever weird fugue state he’d been in for the past few hours to attempt to crack a smile. “It’s not trouble, we were just doing our jobs. There’s something that’s been bugging me though. See I had to get a new phone a couple months ago. Mind telling me how you got this number?”

“Your dad gave it to me.”

Raph choked on his soda. “Wait, you talked to our dad? When?”

“I didn’t exactly talk to him. I got sent straight to voicemail believe it or not. But he told me to give you guys a call.”

Mikey turned to Leo, as he watched all the color drain from his brother’s face. Donnie pulled out his phone and hovered over Dad’s number. He took a breath and pressed call. It rang once. Twice. Then it sent them straight to voice mail.

“Hello. This is Hamato Yoshi. I am unavailable at the moment, but if this is truly an emergency, you may reach out to my son, Leonardo at 646-009-2319.”

“Oh, you’ve got to be fucking kidding,” said Mikey.

Chapter Text

June was screwed. She’d been having a good time, hanging out with Nicole and Tori, but now it was past midnight. And while Dad was normally pretty chill about curfew, she was pretty sure that being this late meant that she would be grounded for the rest of her senior year. Maybe her little sister’s sleepover would be enough of a distraction to sneak back into the house. She put the car in her regular spot in the driveway and did her best to creep back into the front door.

“Dad’s gonna kill you,” said Diane. All of her friends giggled along with her. June fought the urge to shoot them the bird. If she’d been in shit for missing curfew, she’d be in even more off it for flipping off a group of twelve-year-olds.

“Yeah, yeah. If you don’t tell, there's ice cream in it for you.”

June walked away and back up the stairs towards her room. All the old family photos stared down at her, a relic from how things used to be. It was the only place her mother still exited in the house, with all her decorations and furniture long since stored away. Sometimes she resented that Mom hadn’t passed anything down to her. June had her father’s brown eyes, his pin straight black air, and sharp jaw. Diane had ended up with their mother’s softer face, and bright smile.

It was quiet upstairs, and the bathroom lights were still on. Flickering, but on. If Dad was upstairs, he’d have long since gone to bed. June should have heard him snoring from down the hall, but it was dead silent. Her stomach sank when she looked closer at the door. It was open. She took a deep breath and pushed it open.

Dad’s body stared up at her, empty bloody sockets where his eyes should be. June did the only thing she could do. She screamed.
…
Mikey was still having nightmares. The same one that he’d been having for months. He was back in his studio apartment, staring up at the burning ceiling. Renet would reach out to him. Sometimes she would be screaming, other times she was cursing him, asking him why he would have ever let this happen to her. Thankfully, he’d never woken up screaming. He did, however, wake up to Raph smacking the back of his neck.

“Ow,” he whined, rubbing his head. “Why’d you do that?”

“Because you were having a nightmare, dumbass,” said Raph.

“I’m working my way back up to a full eight hours.”

Leo cleared his throat. “You know, talking about them would probably help.”

“Maybe. Did we make it out to Ohio?”

Donnie, thankfully picked up on his willingness to change the subject. “Yup. Welcome to Toledo, gentlemen. Formerly home to one, Luke Yoon, whose death may be our kind of weird. Now his body hasn’t been released to the funeral home yet, so we’ve got a chance to take a look at it.”

Mikey stretched his arms out. Yeah, he definitely didn’t miss this part of the job. He kicked the door open and stepped out into the parking lot. Now they had to do their best to look like a normal group of people. A normal group of people who took the time out of their day to go look at a dead body.

“Raph how’d that game go for you?” asked Leo.

“Fine. I got a hundred bucks out of it. Why?” said Raph.

Leo shrugged his shoulders and followed the signs that led them back down the morgue. They’d gotten there during lunch hours so hopefully, they could slip in and out without being noticed. Or at least, that was the plan. A medical assistant had stayed behind, shoving what looked like a gas station salad into his mouth.

“Hey, how are you?”

The man looked up at him. “Fine. Why are you down here?”

“Doctor-” Leo glanced at an empty desk across the room, at the incredibly long name on the name plate. “Slusarski, didn’t tell you about us? Sorry, we might have just missed them. We’re here to look at the Yoon corpse?”

“Uh huh. Look, she’s out to lunch, but she’ll be back in about an hour.”

“Look, we gotta be back on the road by then. Could you just show us the body, we’ll make some notes, and we’ll be on our way.”

“I’m not supposed to let anyone back there without her.”

Leo cleared his throat and looked right at Raph, who rolled his eyes and went for his wallet, passing him four crumpled ten-dollar bills. “Does this get us back there?”

“Right this way.”

“Next time make your own bribe money,” muttered Raph. “It took me forever to get that.”

“Oh please. I bet there’s a dozen crap bars just like it in this town alone. You’ll make it back in no time.”

Credit cards could only take them so far. When Dad had gone off on a dangerous hunt and left them alone for days at time, they’d quickly run out of cash, and then out of food. Leo would sit him and Donnie in front of the TV while he and Raph would work out where their next meal was coming from. During that time, Raph had become a damn good gambler. Leo hadn’t liked it, and Dad hadn’t given him a stamp of approval either, but if it worked, it worked.

“Now the paper wasn’t exactly clear on the manner of death,” said Donnie. “Just that the daughter said his eyes were bleeding.”

The medical assistant scoffed. “Yeah, that’s generous. By the time she got there, there weren’t any eyes left.”

Mikey fought back a flinch as the sheet was lifted away from the man’s face. It’d been cleaned up, not the massive amounts of blood reports had described, but it looked like the front half of his face had collapsed in on itself.

“So what was it?” asked Donnie.

“Stroke’s the current theory, but with the amount of blood that we found still in his head- we'll just say we’ll never really get it all out of the floor.”

“No signs of a struggle either?”

The medical assistant shook his head. “Unless you're thinking a bunch of little girls can do that kind of damage.”

“Fascinating.”

Leo grimaced. “Don’t suppose we could get a look at the police report?”

“I’m not really supposed to show that to just anyone.”

Raph handed him another bunch of ten dollar bills. The medical assistant came back with a copy of the report, and off they went.

“It could actually be something medical. I mean, no one else died in the house as far as I could tell, and it’s not like spirits can move all that far, unless they’re attached to an object. Although I’m not sure what the frequency is-”

“That’s nice Donnie,” said Raph. “And have you met us? We’re not lucky enough for it to be a freak medical thing.”

“Okay, I’m thinking the Yoon house is a good place to start,” said Leo, cutting off the argument before it could begin.

“The paper did say they were holding a memorial today,” said Donnie. “But we’re not exactly dressed for a funeral.”
…
Leo was regretting not stopping by a motel to change first. When he’d read ‘memorial service’, he’d thought it was casual. He was incredibly wrong. Men were dressed up in suits, women in long black dresses. They didn’t necessarily look awful, but that wasn’t really saying much. Oh well, it was too late to turn around now.

“Okay, we just need to find the girls. Mikey, you're closer to her age, you can take the lead on this. Raph, Donnie, please just make an effort to blend in.”

“Whatever, fearless. Just let us know when we can start doing actual detective work.”

Leo bit back his initial reply. Picking a fight with his brother at a funeral felt like a level of disrespect he wasn’t quite willing to dive to just yet. Besides him, Mikey was the best at dealing with people. A sunshine personality, and a bright smile probably helped put them at ease, and make them more willing to talk.

June and Diane Yoon weren’t hard to find. They were buried in the crowd of people in the crowd. Diane was tucked into her sister's side, not looking at the other girls that were talking to June. It looked like all she wanted was for everyone to get out of her house so she could grieve in peace. Leo understood, but unfortunately, they needed answers.

“I’m so sorry about your dad,” said Leo. Condolences were always a good place to start. “I used to work with him, and I still can’t believe it. A stroke like that out of the blue.”

One of the girls, a redhead with a face full of freckles, looked at him suspiciously. June shook her head at her. “Tori, I’m good. Yeah, it came completely out of nowhere. He was having some trouble sleeping but I didn’t think it was serious.”

“So no migraines, no dizziness?” asked Mikey.

June shook her head. “Nothing. He was just here one minute and the next-”

“It wasn’t a stroke!” said Diane. “It’s all my fault.”

“Di, we talked about this. It was just an accident-”

Diane’s eyes welled up. “No it wasn’t. It was that stupid game!”

“Diane, what game?” asked Leo.

“Bloody Mary! I said it in the mirror, it was just a stupid joke. She shows up and scratched your eyes out, that’s what happened to Dad.”

“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” said Mikey. “Look, that's not how the game works. If it was Mary, she would have hurt you. Not your Dad. It was just a stroke, and it wasn’t your fault.”

Diane scrubbed at her eyes, but didn’t fully look convinced. She was only twelve, and at that age, he remembered thinking everything wrong with the world was his own fault. Bloody Mary did seem like a good place to start all things considered. He texted Raph to have everyone meet back upstairs, so they could start to get a jump on solving this mess.
…

“Bloody Mary? You're serious,” said Donnie. Holy urban legend. “People play that game all over the world, why would people just start dying now.”

Leo shrugged his shoulders. “At least it’s a good place to start.”

The crime scene cleaners hadn’t done a very good job with the bathroom. There was more blood stained in the grout of the tile that he thought could possibly be in a human body. Raph started rooting through the medicine cabinet, although he wasn’t sure what that would accomplish.

“Bloody Mary has at least a dozen different origin stories, how are we supposed to know what we're looking for here?” asked Donnie.

“In all the versions I heard, she does take your eyes out,” said Mikey. “Maybe someone liked the idea enough to make it their thing.”

“Yeah but Bloody-”

Raph slapped a hand over Donnie’s mouth. “How about until we figure out what it is, you don’t say it a third time.”

Donnie swallowed. “Noted. But wasn’t Diane the one who said it? So why did Luke die?”

“I don’t know genius, that’s what we pay you for,” said Raph. “Come on, there’s nothing else here.”

“What are you doing upstairs?” Shit. A girl with freckled and red hair was staring them down.

“Uhh… bathroom?” offered up Leo.

“Who the hell are you? Because you sure as fuck didn’t work with Mr. Yoon.”

Donnie started searching the far recesses of his brain for a better lie. “We didn’t-”

“And what was with all the questions? Either the four of you tell me what the fuck you're doing, or I start screaming.”

“Look, Tori, we’re looking into Mr. Yoon’s death,” said Leo. “We aren’t so sure it was a stroke anymore.”

Tori raised an eyebrow. “So, your cops?”

“Sort off,” said Mikey. He tore a scrap of paper off a notepad and scribbled down a number. “If you can remember anything suspicious, go ahead and give us a call.”

Tori took the paper. She didn’t seem to fully believe them, but she didn’t look like she was gonna run to the real cops either. Donnie was going to take that as a win. They left the house and walked back out of the car.

If they were looking into local deaths, Donnie did think a library was a good place to start. They kept records going as far back as there had been a town, and with four people splitting the work, they’d find a suspect in no time.

“Maybe this is where the legend started,” said Leo. “It could explain why she’d be here.”

“Yeah, but that’s an old-ass story. Why start killing people now?” said Raph. “There’s gotta be something more that we're missing.”

“Okay, it helps that we're looking for someone specific. A young woman, probably named Mary, who died in front of a mirror. How many of those could there be?” asked Donnie.

As if the world was seeking to prove them wrong, he finally got close enough to read the paper sign on the computers. ‘Out of order’.

“Oh fuck this,” said Donnie. “I guess we're going to be stuck with paper records.”

They checked out all the records they could carry, and squished them between him and Mikey for the entire drive back. At least they would only be scanning obituaries, so thank whoever was looking out from them for small mercies.