The rest of the day I ignored the others as much as I could. I read, slept, ate, and listened to the radio until Michelangelo’s show "Sewer Talk" came on. The only one I had eagerly spoken to was Splinter; he was a calm, wise soul who seemed to be ‘one’ with his surroundings, and he was very observant too, as I found out in one conversation.

"You seem very solitaire, Aeval, are you always this way?" asked Splinter while the others were out ‘practicing’. "Is there something worrying you? You seem to stare at the entrance and daydream of other things."

What was I really to say but the truth?

"I’m not sure if I am always like this, I’m not even sure that ‘Aeval’ is my real name, I have a feeling that there are more out there that I am somehow connected to. I think that they are in danger and that I must save them…"

"You say that there are others. How many?"

"Two," I replied quickly, "Both females." How I was able to answer that so quickly was beyond me.

"Why did you not say this before?"

"I…" I tried to find the right words to describe my fear, but none came. "I can’t explain; it is hard to say exactly why. It may be just paranoia, but…"

"We’re back!" an intruding voice sang, off key. I looked up to see Mike coming toward us followed by Leo, Raph, Venus, and Don. "Did you miss us?"

‘That’s debatable!’ I thought bitterly. I glanced over to Splinter and hoped that he would say something. Splinter just sighed and said, "As much as to be expected…" And as he walked over to the table, "Aeval and I were just… what is the word?"

"Chatting," I replied.

"Yes, chatting."

Michelangelo plopped down on the couch beside me with a weird glint in his eyes. "Well, then I’ll be glad to chat!" Then, leaning too close for comfort, "Well, how about it? Aeval?"

I scooted away to the other side of the couch. "Maybe later, okay?"

"Okay, I guess," he replied sadly. I then began to wonder how I was to endure all this attention that I was definitely not used to. I was drowning in worries and attacked by scattered memories and the screaming, the pleas that had engulfed the back of my mind.