Book One In The Ahh-Ness Of Things Series: April & Donnie were once inseparable, but now almost six years have passed since she left NYC. What if April O'Neil could set the record straight, once & for all! The only girl down enough to chill with the...
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Those were the only words spoken between the ever narrowing walls; down the dark passage that increasingly seemed like a dungeon as the corridor stretched on into pitch black. Only Donatello's lantern gave any warmth here because absolutely none came from him. I felt as if i were an intruder, between the walls & the silent guard leading me. We walked for another 10 minutes, I was close on his heels, staring ahead at him cautiously, the whole way. Why wasn't he speaking? He seemed so distant & apathetic, as if I were a stranger; some traveler and he was a guide leading me to a resting place in the dark where only he knew the way. Trying to make conversation I asked him slowly why everything was blocked off;
"Did someone find a way into the lair? is something wrong, why are we going this way?"
Still no response. So we just walked on, ducking outcrops of debris, side-stepping around rubble. The place was really torn up, I wasn't even sure I'd been in this part of the tunnels before. After a while, my mind began to wander as we walked. Why would they have done all of this? I watched him somberly as we moved along. We were so close, I was stuck staring at his pretty shell, his old familiar gray hood covering most of his shoulders; encompassing the back of his head. He was a little taller. He seemed thicker, like he'd grown into his body, but otherwise he looked the same as he had that hot summer day I'd left and as I walked in line behind him I wanted to reach out and take his hand so badly. Suddenly my heart swelled with desperation. I felt I was totally alone and just like that, to my surprise, he paused and turned to look at me. Taking my hand, I thought he was going to hug me and my heart locked in my throat with relief until I realized he was only helping me to step over a deep crevice in the floor.
"Things are different now." His response short.
"It's down here." he said pulling me over onto a small ledge beside him.
There was a huge steam pipe coming out of the wall, but it was a prop. Once it was moved out of place, he used all of his upper body strength to slide a huge slab of stone out of the way. It was on some sort of track, a false wall, you would never know it was there in a million years, or that it could be moved. We squeezed into it a space only the size of a pantry and then in the light of the lantern, I could see another false wall, this one was behind rusting old metal bars. Donnie pulled on one of the bars and it slipped out of place. Then pulling the bar up out of its notch he lifted it & pushed it horizontally into a metal arm sticking out at about the level of his waist and proceeded to push it down towards his feet, in a sequence. It was a claw machine lever used to reset the machine for maintenance! I laughed at the clever ingenuity and I touched his shoulder as he was leaning down.
"That's really cute, D!" He paused at my half attempt to tease him, as if to speak, but then once again said nothing at all.
From behind the wall I heard a mechanism release; a mechanical lock. Donnie pulled the disguised "key" from the metal lever, putting it back in place so that now it once again looked like an old rusty bar and nothing more. He pushed this hidden entrance up to open and slipped inside, starting to close it behind us as I stepped through into an actual door way. Only then he looked me in the eye and said WAIT HERE, firmly.
"Donnie what the hell!", and of course he didn't answer. He had left the door cracked and I could see light coming from inside but I was stuck in this small space now, getting angry & impatience with his cold demeanor. Why was he acting like this; like things should be kept a secret from me like I was someone he barely knew.
"Donatello!"
The door swung open and there he stood. The light from the room behind him illuminated his figure as he stepped out of the way so that I could come into the room. He really was an imposing sight there in the dim, backlit from a distant lamp. I still couldn't see his face clearly. I had forgotten how tall he was; he had been hunched over most our walk through the tight spaces of the tunnels. His shell had concealed his body from behind, but now he was facing me & again I felt a little uneasy. He would have frightened an unprepared person, but his form was so familiar to me even in the low light. I just wanted to rest against him. Comfort would be against the Mountain.
