Chapter Text
Every day after school, my dad used to take me and Jane to the park and let us play with the other kids before we went home. He'd race us to the swings and laugh as he pushed us higher and higher until we were sure one of us would touch the sky. We would do this until I turned ten, when Dad's work schedule changed and he'd have to leave for work right around the time he picked us up from school. That left us with our mom, who was never on time and couldn't keep up with us. Don't get me wrong, she tried so hard then to get to where she needed to be, but she was easily distracted and before she knew it she was twenty minutes late to a doctor's appointment. That was what happened to Jane and I one fall night.
It was November, I think. The leaves had just started falling from trees and the weather was dropping quickly. What else was dropping quickly was the sun, and before I knew it Jane and I were watching the sun sink behind the trees from the bottom step of the school. Jane wasn't too bothered by being outside; she was humming a song we learned in our music class and picking apart leaves. I, on the other hand, was starting to get worried. As late as she usually ran, it was never almost dark before we got in her car. At eleven, I liked to think was pretty knowledgable of adult responsibilities, and my mind began to run wild with impossible reasons why our mother still wasn't here for us. Maybe our house caught fire? Did she get kidnapped? Maybe she went on a trip and forgot to tell us?
"Sammy, I'm hungry," Jane finally complained. "When is Mom gonna get here?" I shrugged and looked back above the tree line again. A small sliver of orange sun was peeking out, and a quick look at my Minnie Mouse watch could tell me it was 5:00 and Mom was two and a half hours late. My stomach grumbled and I held it in pain. Mom had also forgotten to put money in my lunch account, so I hadn't eaten since at least seven this morning.
"Sammy," Jane whined, holding out the last letters of my name. I finally stood up and grabbed Jane's hand, pulling her up with me. I knew how to get home from school; I paid attention to directions while in Mom's car on the ride home. Surely it couldn't be that hard, right?
"Look, I need you to stay by my side and hold my hand at all times, understood?" I explained to her firmly. Jane nodded slowly and grabbed my hand. I knew she wouldn't leave my side, even if I didn't tell her to. I trusted her to listen to me; it were the adults I wasn't too sure about. Seeing as we lived in New York City and we were two young girls, I knew we were vulnerable.
We were standing at a traffic crossing and waiting for the light to change so we could cross. The sun was completely gone now and the moon was out, although you couldn't see it through all of the clouds. I noticed a group of rowdy teenagers a few feet behind us and tried not to pay any attention to them, but Jane noticed them too and looked back.
"You kiddos lost?" One teenage boy asked loudly. I stared ahead and when the light turned, I booked it to the other side of the intersection, practically dragging Jane behind me. I didn't stop running until we were one block away from where the boys were. Only now, I had no idea where we were. I was too scared to turn back in case we ran into those boys again.
“I’m hungry and my arm hurts," Jane complained. I felt bad for her, but I didn't know what else to do other than ask an adult for directions, so that's what I did. For the next hour, Jane and I walked farther away from our starting point, asking every adult we saw for help. No one stopped to talk to us and soon I realized that the adults were no help. Jane had begun crying now, and still no one came to our aid.
Eventually we came to the park, and I realized we were closer to home than I thought. Home was just out of our reach. Dad always told us to stay away from the park after dark, but I was tired and hungry and I just wanted to get home. I turned to look at Jane and bent down so I was eye-level with her.
"Okay, we're going to go through the park and then we'll be home. I need you to stay with me no matter what and don't look at anyone, okay?" I instructed. Jane nodded and wiped her nose with her sleeve. My stomach knotted and we tentatively wandered through the park. To be honest, the park wasn't as intimidating at night as my dad made it out to be. The path was well lit and for the most part it was empty. The only sound I could hear was my own breathing and Jane's sniffles. That soon changed however.
We were in the center of the park now, next to the huge fountain that sat a few yards away from the playground. I could hear squeaking as the chains of the swings started moving. There was also yelling and loud laughter coming from the direction of the playground. Jane and I looked at each other; we both realized that the voices belonged to older kids, maybe even teenagers. Jane tightened her grip on my hand and we fastened our pace.
"Where ya going?" A boy called after us. I gripped Jane's hand tighter, trying to hide my fear.
"Don't look at them, Jane," I demanded. I heard someone throw a can down and I broke my own rule. I looked behind us and saw a group of teenage boys coming towards us. It was the same group of teenagers we had run into earlier that night, only there were more of them now.
"Why don't you come with us? We can get you home safe," the same boy yelled.
"Yeah, don't you know it's not safe to be out here alone at night?" His friend taunted. I knew that they weren't going to help us, and I was so scared of what they were going to do. Why were they even following us?
Jane screamed and I whipped around to see an older boy with dirty hair grabbing her arm and trying to pull her towards him. Fear and anger rushed through me and I pulled back. When I saw he wasn't giving up, I did the one thing Dad always taught me to do to creepy strangers: I kicked him in the groin as hard as I could. The boy howled in pain and let Jane go as he fell to his knees. I took this as an opportunity to escape and picked Jane up and ran as fast as my legs could take me. I didn't even know where I was going, all I knew was that scary people were following us and I had to get my sister home safe.
Up ahead was an exit to one of the neighborhoods, and Jane was starting to get heavy. “Just a few more feet,” I reminded myself. I was growing tired and we were losing the distance we had on them. Soon, I felt a hand roughly grab my shoulder and pull me back. I instinctively threw my arms out and Jane fell to the ground. I quickly turned and elbowed the boy in the face, and when he let me go I ran to Jane. The rest of the group was surrounding us, and I hastily picked up Jane, who was crying from being dropped, and put her behind me.
“Stay away from us!” I yelled. “I… I know tae kwon doe!” The boys laughed and the boy who I kicked in the groin stepped forward. I had never seen a person more angry, or with so much hate in their eyes.
“It’s not very nice to attack people who try to help you,” he threatened. “Maybe no one taught you that. So, now it’s time for class.” Before I knew it, I was on the ground and my whole face hurt like hell. My vision was blurred from my tears and I felt his boot on my sternum. He was grinning maniacally and I feared for my life as well as Jane’s.
“Um, Jack? What the hell is that?”
The boy broke eye contact with me and turned to where his friends pointed. The park was quiet again except for Jane’s crying. I tried to see what interrupted them, but all I could see was feet.
“Step away from the girls, and leave now,” a gruff voice threatened. Jack took his foot off of me and walked over to it. I slowly got up and looked over the boys’ shoulders. Four silhouettes stood menacingly in front of us and stared.
“Keep moving, freaks. Nothin’ to see here,” Jack retorted. Jane pulled on my arm and I looked down at her.
“What’s going on?” She whispered.
“I don’t know,” I replied. Jack yelled and I diverted my attention to him and the four figures. Jack was rushing them, but when he got within arm’s reach one of the figures spun around and kicked him in the stomach. Jack fell to the ground and gasped for air, and the park was suddenly illuminated by red and blue lights and police sirens.
“Get out,” the same voice threatened. Not needed to be told twice, the group of teens dispersed as the police arrived at the park. The silhouettes were gone.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“So, this all happened four years ago, correct?” Doctor Yulikova questioned. I nodded and shifted around in my chair. I had been seeing this therapist for about two weeks, although my mom hesitated to call him a therapist. His office was cozy, with white painted walls and a brown carpet and even a dollhouse for his younger clients.
“And what happened after that?” He asked, staring up from his small notepad.
“Well… The police caught the teenagers who were at the park and they took me and Jane to the hospital to get us checked out,” I answered vaguely. I pushed my hair behind my ear and looked at my hands that were in my lap. Yulikova jotted down notes and looked back up at me sympathetically.
“And while at that hospital you learned that your father had been shot and killed, is that right?” He inquired. I blinked and took a deep breath before nodding hesitantly. The doctor wrote in his notepad again and stood up, holding out his hand. I took it and he pulled me to my feet.
“I apologize for opening old wounds,” he said as we walked to the door that led to the lobby. “I just needed to hear the story from you. Your sister already told me about it, but I figured that since she was so young she had gotten things mixed up. You understand, right?” I nodded and kept my eyes on the floor. We walked into the lobby and both my mom and sister were sitting closest to the door. My mom stood up and greeted him while I sat next to Jane. She had her headphones in and was listening to her music loudly. Her hair was still short and brown, but she now had a streak of light blue in her bangs. I remember our mom’s reaction when she came home from a sleepover with blue in her hair. The entire apartment block could hear her yelling at Jane.
“What’s the verdict, Judge Judy?” Jane whispered in reference to Yulikova. She learned that phrase from Dad and used it ever since when making a decision. Mom and I tried telling her that Judge Judy wasn’t really an actual judge, but she continued to use it anyway just to mess with us.
“Guilty as charged,” I whispered back. Jane pumped her fist into the air in triumph and both Mom and Yulikova looked over at us. Jane blushed and I tried not to laugh as Mom gathered us and thanked Yulikova once again.
“Your next appointment is in a couple weeks. He’s taking off next week for family reasons,” Mom informed us. I internally groaned and rolled my eyes as we gathered in an elevator.
“Good for him, I guess?” Jane shrugged. My mom smacked her shoulder and gave her a death glare. Jane wasn’t very good at keeping her mouth shut, but after that she stayed quiet until Mom started the car.
“Do you like Doctor Yulikova, Sam?” Mom asked me I shrugged and gazed out the widow at the cars passing by.
“He mentioned Dad. I don’t know how I feel about that,” I admitted. Mom grew quiet and stared at the road in front of her. She was a widow and showed no sign of ever wanting to date again after Dad died. The only thing in our house that was never to be mentioned was Dad.
“Part of getting better is talking about hard stuff. I had to talk about it with my doctor, too,” she admitted. I didn’t answer and kept watching New York City pass by.
Mom pulled into the parking garage of our apartment complex and parked in our spot. I noticed my uncle’s motorcycle parked next to us and smiled. Casey was our mom’s younger brother and a bit of a troublemaker. He helped us find a place to stay after Dad died and stayed to help us with anything else afterwards. He had a big heart, and an even bigger temper.
“You didn’t tell us Casey was going to be home,” Jane said to Mom excitedly. Jane loved Casey; he used to let us ride his motorcycle at our great-grandma’s farmhouse when we were little and even though Mom told us girls couldn’t work on motorcycles, Casey taught us both how to fix them when Mom wasn’t around. Jane took more of a liking to it than I did, but I still watched because it felt like I had a father again.
“I guess he finished working on the farmhouse,” she reckoned. Jane and I jumped out of the car and ran to the door that led to the lobby. Mom ran up behind us and put her key card in the slot and waited for the light to turn green before she opened the door. Jane and I rushed in and raced towards the elevator, nearly knocking down a couple of people who lived below us. I repeatedly pushed the elevator button and jumped inside, waiting for Mom and Jane to catch up. A few more people piled in and I pushed the button for our floor, as well as the buttons for the other people.
“You must be excited to be home,” an older man chuckled. I blushed and nodded. He was wearing a military uniform and looked like he was coming home from one of the military bases that were close to our apartment.
The elevator door opened to our floor and Jane and I jumped out, saying goodbye to the gentleman in the elevator. He waved to us and the door closed. I beat Jane and Mom to the door of Casey’s apartment and knocked seven times, a secret code between me, Jane, and Casey, who opened the door with a wide smile.
“What’s up, kiddos?” Casey laughed and hugged us individually before inviting us inside. His arms were cold from wearing only a muscle shirt without a jacket in October. Our favorite uncle normally wore a leather jacket in order to keep his cool guy image, but some days he stupidly decided to say screw it and leave it at home. Jane and I used to take turns parading around our house wearing his jacket when he left it there, only to return it to him a week later when he finally remembered he didn’t have it.
“Not much, Case,” I replied, using the nickname Mom gave to him when she was in a good mood.
“Did you finish the farmhouse? Can we go there soon?” Jane asked eagerly. Other than working on Casey’s bike, Jane loved exploring the dense woods that surrounded the property. We would be out there for hours playing Warriors or Hide and Seek.
“Not yet. I don’t think it’ll be ready for another couple of months,” Casey replied. Jane let out a disappointed sigh and put her bag on the kitchen floor. Mom walked in and gave Casey a small hug. Over the years they grew distant as Mom moved to Little Italy with Dad and Casey stayed in Manhattan. After Dad died Casey convinced his landlord to let us move in with him, and then later we moved across the hall to our own apartment.
“Should we order a pizza?” Mom asked me and Jane. We both simultaneously answered with a loud “Yes!” and Mom grabbed her laptop while Casey helped us with our homework.
“So what did you guys talk about with the doc?” Casey asked us. Jane and I looked at each other for a moment before Jane looked down again and I looked back at Casey.
“He asked us about the night at the park. When Dad died,” I answered tentatively. Casey gave me a sad smile and rubbed my back. The first couple months were rough, for both us and Mom. She started drinking and smoking more often and lost her job because she wasn’t coming into work. Jane and I were assigned a children’s welfare agent that checked up on us at home and at school, and even then Jane started slipping.
Three years after Dad died, Jane was caught smoking weed with a bunch of her friends. After the police searched their house, they found a bunch of stolen jewelry and electronics. A majority of the kids were runaways who didn’t even live in our neighborhood; they just took over an abandoned rundown house that no one cared enough to look into. Jane was also getting into trouble at school: swearing at teachers, starting fights with classmates, skipping classes, etc. Our mom finally got the wake up call that she needed to get her crap together and actually be a mother to her children.
“The pizza will be here in about 45 minutes,” Mom interrupted from her spot at the couch. I made a small noise to acknowledge her and went back to math.
After Jane and I finished our homework and the pizza was mostly gone, Mom told us it was time to go home. We both groaned and hugged Casey before following Mom out the door and to down the hall to our own apartment. It was fairly bigger than Casey’s; there was a larger living room and kitchen, and mine and Jane’s room had a balcony that overlooked the river.
It was about 7:30 when Jane and I finally walked into our room. It was a pretty typical room for a couple of teenage girls; there were a bunch of tv and movie posters and a collage of polaroids I took with my camera. Jane’s small speaker was sitting on our dresser next to a bunch of get well soon and birthday cards.
“Can we go up to the sundeck tonight and talk?” Jane whispered to me after I closed our door. Every weekend we would climb the stairs to the sundeck after dark with Jane’s speaker and listen to music. Mom didn’t know and Casey didn’t like us being out alone at night, but it gave us a chance to relax and talk things over.
“Okay, but not too long. I’m supposed to meet Ana tomorrow,” I replied. Jane smirked and started gathering her pajamas. For some reason she was under the impression that I had a thing for my friend that I’d known since middle school. I’ll admit that she was beautiful and really funny, but I only saw her as a friend.
We both went out to the living room and watched some crime show with Mom. Before she had me she wanted to be a police officer, but because of her health she had to drop from the academy and started working as a 911 dispatcher. Today she had the night shift, and while Jane and I were fighting over who got to take a shower first Mom was changing into her uniform.
“I’ll see you girls tomorrow. Call Casey if you need anything and stay out of trouble,” she instructed. We told her we would and hugged her goodbye. Jane and I took our showers and changed into our pajamas: I wore a pair of gray sweatpants and my dad’s old Misfits shirt, and Jane wore dark blue pajama pants and a maroon hoodie. Jane grabbed her speaker and blanket while I grabbed the keycard for the door to the sundeck.
Jane opened the door to our apartment and looked down the hallway to make sure no one was coming. She gave me the all clear and we snuck to the elevator, making sure we were extra quiet as we passed Casey’s apartment. There was no one in the elevator when we got there and I pushed the elevator button that let out at the sundeck.
We arrived at the sundeck and lay our blankets down and lay on top of them. Jane pulled out her phone, plugged it into her speaker, and played a song. It was always an indie band when Jane picked the music. When I got to pick the music, it was almost always some rock band Casey showed me. Tonight it was Blue October that played, and I was relieved that it wasn’t the same guy that we had been listening to for the past six weeks.
“So what do you want to talk about?” I asked Jane, who was humming along to You Make Me Smile. Jane shrugged, shifting the blanket slightly.
“Something’s been bothering me about that night at the park,” she admitted. “Those people that saved us, who were they? How did they know we were in danger? Why did those boys look so scared when they saw them?” I crossed my arms, contemplating what to tell her.
“I’m sure they were just some good samaritans that were taking a stroll around the park. Why would you wonder about that?” I questioned. The song changed to X Amount Of Words and Jane sat up and turned around so she was over me.
“I know I’m going to sound crazy, but you have to promise you’ll hear me out,” she demanded. I nodded and sat up, turning around so I was facing her. She sighed, composing herself, and continued.
“When they first showed up, you were still on the ground so you didn’t see them. I did, and they didn’t look human. And when we were being escorted to the police car I looked back and saw one of them hanging out near the trees, but when I blinked they were gone.”
Jane stared at me, waiting for my response. I didn’t know what to tell her, or if I should even tell her anything. I noticed them, too.
“Maybe you were just imagining it,” I told her. “I mean, we had a strange and long night and we needed to make sense of it somehow.” Jane looked down at her feet and lay down on her back to look at the sky. I knew she was upset that I didn’t believe her, but I didn’t know what to tell her.
We sat in silence for about thirty minutes before Hate Me began playing. Jane looked at me and smiled before singing at the top of her lungs. We listened to this song a lot while Mom was drunk and we were stuck in our room. I started singing along with her when the chorus hit, feeling every word that the lead singer sang.
“Hate me today,
Hate me tomorrow,
Hate me for all the things I didn’t do for you.
Hate me in ways,
Yeah, ways hard to swallow.
Hate me so you can finally see what’s good for you.”
The song ended and so did the album, and Jane turned the music off before stretching and yawning.
“I think we should be getting to bed, dude,” she suggested. I shrugged and stretched my legs.
“I think I’ll stay out here for awhile longer. I’ll be back inside later,” I replied. Jane opened her mouth in protest before closing it and nodding. She said she’d leave the key out for me when I come back and we both said goodnight. The night was quiet save for a few rowdy partygoers, and before I knew it I was dozing off to sleep.
I woke up again to the sound of a loud car horn going crazy. I sat up with a jolt and rubbed my eyes before checking my phone to see it was one in the morning. Surprised that I managed to stay asleep that long, I stood up, stretched, and started gathering my blankets. That was when I heard the screaming.
It was a woman screaming in terror for someone to help and followed by men’s laughter. My blood ran cold and I froze, my mind racing and trying to decide what to do. I dialed 911 and ran through the door into the building.
“911, what’s your emergency?” The operator answered. I was glad she wasn’t my mother as I frantically pressed the elevator buttons to the lobby.
“There’s a woman outside calling for help. I think she’s being robbed,” I explained breathlessly. The elevator doors slowly closed and I started going down to the lobby.
“Where is your emergency?” The operator sighed. She sounded uninterested, almost as if this was boring her. I told her my address and the doors opened to the lobby. I darted out of the elevator and out the front doors, looking around frantically for the woman. I ran around the building and saw a beaten up, red Cadillac sitting on the side of the road. I cautiously walked closer to it and witnessed a flash of a man’s face peer around the corner of a building and dart back behind it.
“Ma’am? Are you there?” The operator asked me. I momentarily stopped in the middle of the street before hanging up on her. The woman’s screams were muffled and I heard a man shush her and someone else. In a moment of adrenaline and brave stupidity, I put my phone in the pocket of my sweatpants and followed the man into the alley.
As I got closer to the sound of men’s voices stopped and all I could hear was faintly muffled crying. I turned a corner and three men turned to greet me with knives in their hands. Their faces held expressions of shock and anger and I noticed one other man stand and pull up his pants. He turned to me and I noticed that he was homeless and dirty. He didn’t glare at me like the others. Instead he smiled, exposing rotted and missing yellow teeth. Behind him there was a crying woman huddled against the wall and curled into the fetal position with her jeans partially down.
“Come to join the party, sweetheart?” The homeless man slurred. My blood boiled and I clenched my fists. I didn’t have a weapon and three of them were armed. I looked to the woman and saw her silently pleading with me to help her.
“The police are on their way, assholes,” I threatened, sounding as menacing as I could. “Get the hell out of here while you still can.”
The man laughed and his pals inched towards me with me looming grins. I cowered slightly and my face fell as I weighed my options. Do I fend them off and allow the woman to escape? Should I run away in the hope they chase after me?
Luckily for me I didn’t have to make a choice, because a low whistle came from behind me and stopped the men in their tracks. I turned to look behind me and saw a figure wearing a hockey mask standing in the entrance to the alleyway. Another whistle echoed through the alley and another four beings landed in front of me from the top of one of the buildings. They each wore a different colored bandana; one orange, another purple, another red, and another wearing blue. They were also… inhuman. I didn’t want to believe it at first, but my eyes didn’t deceive me. They were turtles.
“You punks better leave these two girls alone now, or there’ll be trouble if you don’t,” the turtle in red threatened. The three men looked at each other and laughed.
“Nice costumes, freaks. Halloween isn’t for another couple weeks, you know,” the youngest of them teased.
“We can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way. You choose,” the man in the hockey mask said from behind me. I froze when I heard his voice, but the men laughed hysterically and broke my concentration.
“Looks like it’s gonna be the hard way,” the turtle in blue sighed. He pulled out a sword and the other three followed his lead, each pulling out weapons of their own. I stood back and watched as the four turtles charged at the four men and quickly overpowered them. In all the pandemonium, I noticed Casey lead the woman to safety and run back to me. He gripped my arm tightly and dragged me out of the alley and away from the fighting. He took off his mask and led me back to the apartment.
“What the hell are you doing out here, Sam?” He scolded me. I tore my arm out of his grip and stopped in front of him.
“I could ask you the same question, Casey. What were those things? Who are they?” I interrogated. We both heard a scream and Casey’s face fell before putting the mask back on.
“Go home and wait for me there. I have to help them,” he ordered. Before I could protest, Casey was running back into the alley and red and blue lights followed shortly after.