Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) (Leonardo X OC)

Chapter 2: The Alleyway

Hi everybody! I hope you are having a good day! Here is the next chapter. Enjoy!

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The wind blew through my dirty blonde hair that was held back in a ponytail as I skateboarded down the sidewalk. I had been riding for about ten to fifteen minutes before I could see the city in view. I lived or used to live in a house little ways outside the city. My father liked it because it gave a sense of peace with no traffic noise or constant beeping horns everywhere. I had been there a few times with my friends. From that experience, I understood how it could be stressful when living in a noisy city.

I got off my skateboard and stepped on the back of it, making it flip into my hand. I strapped it to my duffle bag with my helmet instead of carrying it around all the time. Horns were honking in the streets as drivers were wondering if they were going to move or not. I walked down the sidewalk casually as I took a look around.

'If I remember correctly, one of my friends used to live somewhere on 28th street,' I thought as I looked at the street signs. I walked past an alley when I stopped walking all of a sudden.

'What is this strange feeling,' I thought to myself, 'it felt like it was pulling towards something.'

I took a few steps backward and peered into the alleyway. It was a bit dark due to the clouds in the sky, and I can only see the silhouettes of a garbage bin and a few trash cans next to it. Looking at the other end, I can see people walking by, oblivious of me staring from the other end. The strange tug in my chest pulled me towards it, as though it wanted me to go through there.

I wanted to deny this strange force, but somehow my gut told me that it was okay. That was the weird thing; I would get a strange feeling when being around something dangerous, from either the location or people. But this time, I was not feeling anything odd. Curiosity got the best of me, and I decided to venture down the alleyway.

'Just a quick peek, and head straight to my friend's house,' I planned in my head. I took a deep breath and stepped into the alley. As I took the first few steps, I felt a slight chill in the atmosphere, and it felt a few degrees cooler than it was before.

'Strange,' I thought.

Then I felt as though I was walking through the mud. Everything around me felt like I was walking in slow-motion. The sounds of honking horns muffled as though my head was underwater. I saw the other side of the alleyway getting closer and closer as I tried to reach the end. The noise from the other end began to increase from a muffled sound. It felt like I was turning up the volume on tv. I took the last few steps when the sound went back to normal.

Looking around, I noticed a lot more people walking down the sidewalk and lots of yellow cabs stuck in traffic. That was strange; I had only seen one or two taxis on the other side, but not a lot like this. Everything around me does not look familiar, not one bit.

I was a bit scared, but I took a deep breath and walked down one direction on the sidewalk. As I looked around and was aware of my surroundings, I suddenly recognized some of the buildings.

'Where have I seen this before,' I thought, 'was it from a picture?'

The more I traveled through the city, the more I realized where I had seen these areas before.

'I've seen them before from the pictures online. This could not be New York, right?'

I stopped walking and moved to the side to get out of their way. I pulled out my iPhone and turned it on. The first thing I saw was the time and date:

3:00 PM

Monday, August 25

My brown eyes widened in shock. This could not be right! It was 12:30 last time I checked, and it was June! I unlocked my phone and went to the map app. When it opened, I saw a pin of where I was right now. Using my fingers, I zoomed out the map until I could see the name of the state.

New York

I was shocked. I could not believe that this was happening. I wanted to think of this as a dream, an illusion, or something. I turned around and went the other direction to where I believed the alley was. When I made it to my destination, I looked at the other end. I only saw the same traffic and bustling crowd as over here. My mind could not wrap around the fact that I, Lia Wilson, ran away from home only to suddenly end up in New York, which is several states away from my own.

I felt my heart beating wildly, and I knew that I was getting ahead of myself. I closed my eyes and took deep breaths, blocking out the noise of my surroundings. As soon as I felt my heart slowing down to a regular pace, I opened my eyes.

'Okay, this is strange,' I thought to myself, 'the best I can do is to memorize the city while there's still daylight.'

I nodded my head in a silent agreement, turned around, and explored the place that I longed to travel to for such a long time: New York City.

Little did I know that my journey in this state will change my life forever.