I look around. It’s dark in the room. I slowly feel around for a light switch but fail to find one. It feels to be a square room, perfect on all sides, still no light switch, not even a door. I question how I even ended up in such a place but it doesn’t matter now. The point is I’m here and I need to escape this nightmare.

I finish feeling around the room only to find that there’s nothing besides me in the room. I wonder how I even got in here without a door. Slowly, I bring my hands up to check if I still have my ninja swords. I sigh in relief as I find that I still have them. I guess that they feel like If I’m going to be in here, I don’t need my swords, after all, I’ve got nothing to attack. Yet, I wonder why they allow me to keep my swords, after all, I can do damage with them. I then continue to wonder what I would damage since there’s nothing in the room for me to damage.

My brothers! Master Splinter! They’re not here with me. I feel a small pang of loneliness as I now realize just how alone I feel. I then laugh to myself. Why should I miss them when they continually cause me worry and never appreciate anything I do? After all, all I am to my brothers is the nagging older brother who wakes them up for practice and does their job to look after them regardless of how capable they are but gets yelled at and lectured by Master Splinter when they don’t do what I’m told that they need to do. I can’t win. It’s always a loose/loose situation for me in this sense.

I reach for my grappling hook and begin to swing it around wildly, yet in a controlled wildness using my wrist. Soon, it leaves my hands as I guide it with my arm in the direction that I want it to go. I cringe as I hear the sound I was dreading hearing. It hit a ceiling. Clanging loudly as it hits the metal floor, I try to think if I wasn’t dropped into this room, how I got in. Winding the rope quickly and putting it back in my belt, I come to the conclusion that there must be a sliding door that I must not have felt or a wall must have the ability to move.

I sit against one of the walls as I continue to think when suddenly, I hear a voice. There’s a speaker and microphone somewhere. I know it, there has to be.

“Comfortable Leonardo?” says the voice.

My mind races for a moment. Talk about your sick jokes but this has to be the sickest. It's Master Splinter’s voice that I’m hearing. I try not to sound as bitter as I am about it but then again, if it was Splinter doing this, I wouldn’t be surprised. Besides, the pressure he puts on me is too much for anyone my age to handle without giving up who you are to please his wishes

“Why would you care?” I ask in a bitter voice.

“You are right. I don’t. I have more for you to do on top of what I have you doing already,” I hear him say.

I laugh bitterly. He knows that he’s slowly killing me. I feel myself die and suffocate. I guess this is how Mulan felt when she was told not to fight, expecting to be the perfect daughter when all she wants to do is do what men did. I guess to put it in my terms; I want to be me while Master Splinter wants that part of me dead so that I can be the great leader and protector that he wants me to be.

“You really do want to kill me, don’t you?” I ask with a sarcastic Raph tone.

“Of course, has it really taken ten years for you to figure this out?” asked Master Splinter.

I laugh again. I knew he was trying to kill me since I was at least five.

“Of course not. I’ve known it since I was five. I’m only here because I’ve faced the facts and know that I have no where else to go,” I say.

“Smart turtle,” comments Splinter with the same sarcastic tone.

“So what do I have to do this time?” I ask, annoyed.

“Die”

“What?” I ask as my eyes open wider than they ever have before.

Suddenly, sand pours in from the top of the room. Quickly, I jump to my feel. I look around as I realize that no matter how much I try to stay above the sand, eventually, I’ll be crushed to death from the weight of the sand, a sadistic symbol of each problem that I’ve had to take care of and each lecture that I had to sit through. It wouldn’t surprise me if the sand was four different colors, mostly brown and red. Purple and orange being the least.

The sand rises quickly as I realize just how much trouble that I’m in. It gets harder to breath. I can feel myself suffocating. I’ll die under this weight.

“Leonardo?” I hear Master Splinter say.

I want to answer but I can’t. I just can’t.

“Leonardo!” says Master Splinter sharply.

I jump to attention. I look around slightly and sigh a breath of relief. I’m not dead. I’m instead, standing in front of Master Splinter, listening to another one of his orders for me as he leaves.

“Sorry, Sensei,” I say as I bow.

“I want you to look after your brothers. Make sure they practice and make sure that the lair isn’t a mess this time,” he says as he turns.

“Yes Sensei,” I say.

“Do it even if it kills you.”

I cringe as I hear those words.

“I’m saying that figuratively, Leonardo.”

“I know, Sensei,” I say forcing my laugh to sound real.

He smiles his all knowing smile before turning and leaving from the tunnel. I sigh in relief, knowing that he’s gone. Hopefully, things will go better this time.

“Okay, you heard Master Splinter,” I start saying.

“Kiss my shell,” say my brothers as they turn and leave.

I groan and think back to my daydream or daymare I guess one can call it. Maybe he is trying to kill me with this weight, I think to myself as I sigh again.