Song: This Is Halloween – Marilyn Manson

A spooky house looms before me, casting shadows of dread over those waiting to get inside.  The gothic exterior and crumbling foundation reveal the instability of the structure.  Broken glass litters the ground around it.  Untrimmed bushes stretch out of control as they ascend the brick walls.  A cracked, dirty sidewalk paves the way.  None of these features would be inviting on a regular day.  But on Halloween, opinions get distorted.

  A line of victims await entry into the haunted house.  Chatter of fear and possible spooks contaminate the air.  Their eagerness is contagious, infecting me in a matter of seconds.  I find myself spinning around to face my companion, a bounce in my step.

  "You ready to scare your pants off and cry for your daddy?" I ask April with smirk.

  Her thin eyebrows shoot up into her bangs with an expression of surprise.  With her blue eyes sparkling humorously, she returns my leer.  "Only after you," she replies effortlessly.

  I expect to feel a familiar tug of emotion at her flirtatious response, but instead I feel nothing.  My mind automatically flickers to Nyleve, reminding me once again of her mysterious attitude and cold demeanor.  She had been so ruthless, yet so welcoming.  She played me like a record.  Still, that only inspires me to chase after her.

  Suddenly, a familiar set of figures approach April and I.  The first four are humanized, green turtles with colorful masks.  They carry gleaming weapons in sheathes and expressions of undeniable strength in their gazes. They're accompanied by a final associate, a large viper with jade slits for eyes.  She doesn't have any blades, but her sharp teeth are dangerous enough.

  "Bro!" I greet Raphael with a chest bump.  "Good to see you," I add, relieved that he is in good spirits.

  "You too, man," Raphael responds with a smirk.  The flash in his eyes tells me that he still feels a bit awkward around me, but that will fade with time.  Soon, we'll be back to the best buds that we've always been.  I can't wait for that day.

  Raphael picks up the conversation before it can die out.  "Gotta say, Jones.  I'm impressed you had the guts to come out on a night like this.  I figured you'd be too chicken to be around all these scary costumes," he sneers.

  The teasing in his voice causes a dark, amused look to spread across my face.  "At least I can get away from anything that scares me.  You'd be as slow as a turtle," I fire back with just as much mockery.

Raphael punches me hard in the arm, but I know it's a sign of friendship.

  "Where's Lucy?" April asks after examining the arrivals.  Her blue eyes are scanning the group expectantly.

  "She doesn't like Halloween," Michelangelo pipes up in his pre-pubescent voice.  "We found that out the hard way!"

  "'Hard way'?" I echo in confusion.  Lucy is the purest, most innocent teenager I have ever met.  Her mind never goes sideways and harmful words never escape her mouth.  What could they have done to someone like that?

  "Raph scared her with a clown mask," Leonardo explains with a sharp glance at his short brother.

  Raphael's face flushes.  "It was an accident," he defends himself.

  Donatello snorts.  "It was an accident that you hide in a closet, waited for Lucy to walked by, and leaped out at her?" he asks sarcastically.

  Raphael shoots Donatello a sharp glare, but quickly returns to silently blushing.

  I have to force myself to stifle any jokes.  Raphael's admiration of Lucy was painfully obvious.  When he was around her, he was like a New Yorker on the countryside- lost and astonished.  His attempts to act cool may fool the others, but not me.  I know how it feels to fall head-over-heels for someone, and Raphael is a victim of every symptom.

  I'm happy that he has found someone to preoccupy him, but I can't deny a stab of envy.  I'm the one who lost my entire family.  I have to live alone, haunted by the loneliness that lingers in the echoes of my house.  I am forced to carry on with a stone of isolation weighing my heart down.  Don't I deserve someone, too?

  Then again, who would ever be interested in a dejected punk like me?

  "Hi, Karai."  April's greeting drags me out of my thoughts.  She is offering a kind, but skeptical, smile to the viper mutant in front of her.

  "Hello...  April..." Karai responds.  She is slow, but she is easier to understand than usual.

  "Whoa," I say, raising my bushy eyebrows in surprise.  I glance at Leonardo.  "When did she suddenly learn to speak again?" I ask, disregarding how rude I might sound.

  Leonardo wraps an arm around his sister's shoulders and wears a proud grin.  "I've been giving her speech lessons.  She's learning very quickly," he explains.

  Michelangelo bounces forward like a basketball.  "Donnie says that if she keeps this up, he might be able to turn her back into a human!" he announces with bubbling enthusiasm.

  April shoots the purple-clad turtle a quizzical expression.  "What does that have to do with speech?"

  Donatello looks pleased that she asked.  "Speech is a unique trait only possessed by homo sapiens, or creatures with human DNA.  Only human brains are specifically designed to make conversation directly through words.  It's what sets our species apart from others.  If Karai can learn to speak properly again, it will reattach her subconscious with her former self and her body will naturally begin to reject her mutation.  Consequently, the white blood cells might be less prone to attack retro-mutagen, and it will neutralize her mutant genes. It's simple psychology."

  The six of us just stare blankly at the turtle.

  "Talking will allow the retro-mutagen to work on her," Donatello summarizes to our dumb standards with an exasperated sigh.

  "Oh!" I say, while everyone else lets out excited murmurs.  And maybe it's my imagination, but Karai's chest seems to puff out with self-importance.

  A rumbling, deep voice explodes from the speakers on the front of the haunted house.  "Good evening, fresh meat," it growls menacingly.  "The hour of horror is upon us.  It is time to experience the real haunts and taunts of this ghoulish holiday.  Listen to the screams of terror coming from the depths of the darkness.  Inhale the aromas of death.  Observe the blood dripping down the walls. Taste the adrenaline pumping through the air.  Feel the goosebumps crawling up your spine.  Enter now, if you dare..."

  The speed of my beating heart increases.  "Let's go, dudes!" I say as I rush towards the entrance; a giant, wooden door that opens automatically as I approach it.  My team cautiously pursues me as I step into the haunted house.

  The inside isn't as dark as I expect it to be, but only just.  I can hardly see passed my fingertips, and I have to strain my eyes to make out the wooden pattern of the floor.  The panels creak underneath my well-worn shoes.  The sound seems to drift far away from me, giving the illusion that the hallway is much longer than it seems.

  I feel something press against my shoulder.  A flash of auburn passes my vision as blue eyes glow up at me.

  "Sorry," she says hastily, but she doesn't move away from me.

  A smirk spreads across my lips.

  "I don't like this," Michelangelo whimpers in a shaky voice.

  "Quit being such a baby," I snicker as I pick up the pace.  The darkness is more annoying than scary.  I want to see something freaky!

  I hear a sharp hiss and eagerly spin around to see what awaits me.  I'm disappointed to find that it's just Karai sizing up a giant, bloody mannequin.  Her jade-green eyes stare into its empty, black gaze with menace.

  Raphael voices my own complaints.  "C'mon, Karai!  You've seen Shredder without a mask, and that's what scares you?  Some ninja," he jeers.

  Just then, an electronic spider about the size of my fist lowers into Raphael's face.  The red-clad turtle screams and smacks it with one of his sais, sending it soaring.  It crashes into a wall and shatters.

  Everyone except Raphael bursts into laughter.  I slap my knee, while April covers her face.  Karai reveals her long teeth as she lets out a quiet giggle.  Leonardo doubles over, Donatello throws his head back, and Michelangelo claps like a seal.

  Raphael, whose eyes glare like car headlights, clenches his fists and squares his shoulders.  "Shut up!" he snaps, which abruptly ends our amusement.

  We return to the haunted house trail.  Constantly, I stifle chuckles as I recall my best friend's expression.  And by the twitches that pass down April's spine, I can tell she's facing similar troubles.

  My team and I wander through an arch that has fake blood splattered all over it.  The walkway decreases in size as we veer around a corner.  The lighting shifts so that the walls are actually visible, exposing sharp weapons stuck in the wood.  Some even have various body parts attached to them, whether gripping the handles or jabbed into the wall.

  "Wow," Leonardo mutters as his eyes examine the decor.  He has always had an eye for blades, so this is a treat for him.

  Suddenly, a butcher knife blasts right passed April and I, narrowly missing our noses.  April lets out a high-pitched scream and leaps into my arms.  Astonished, she stares at the knife as it gets lodged in the wall along with the others.  A deep, dark laugh lingers above in to add to the apprehension.

  "Scared, Red?" I ask the teenager with an eyebrow raised teasingly.

  April looks up at me with surprise vibrating off her face.  She is as pale as snow, but she manages to shake it off and back out of my arms.  "N-no," she says, though not very convincingly.  "Of course not!" she adds with a bit more of her usual, fiery personality, before leading the way into the next room.

  The scenery changes again.  It's more mysterious this time, with lacey drapes and cobwebs drooping from the ceiling.  The smell of dust and carcass touches the back of my throat and makes me gag.

  "That's sick!" I exclaim as I attempt to wave the smell away.  "Where's that-"

  "AAHHH!" Michelangelo bellows as he points in a specific direction.  He jumps into Raphael's arms bridal-style. "DEAD DUDE!"

  A coffin is pressed against one of the walls.  The lid is peeled back to reveal a decaying body covered in tattered cloth.  Even with the eerie atmosphere and fake smell emitting throughout the room, it's not that scary.  To me, at least.

  I turn back around to see Raphael dropping the orange-clad turtle onto the floor.  "Get off me, you shell-brain," he grumbled irritably.

  Donatello rolls his eyes and crosses his arms.  "If it was a real body, it wouldn't have a scent anymore because it's only bone.  It's not scary."

  Leonardo looks amused with his younger brother, however.  "Let's go, Mikey.  We'll find something that's not as bad," he says encouragingly as he takes Michelangelo by the wrist.

  But Michelangelo has had enough.  He jerks his hand away and bolts out a door that says 'Exit' above it.  "Nope, bye!"

  "Mikey!" Leonardo calls as he rushes after him, pursued closely by Donatello and Karai.

  "Wimps!" I yell as the doors slams behind them.  The ending of haunted houses is always the best part!

  April sighs and heads after them.  "We shouldn't get separated from them," she advises as she opens the door.  She glances over her shoulder to see if we'll follow.

Raphael exchanges a look with me, before obeying the redhead.  His disappears out the door with his red bandana tails flapping behind him.

  Hunched over, I grumpily head after them.

  What a bunch of party poopers!