The Sound of Silence

Summary: When Michelangelo brings home an old antique doll he found in the sewers, his brothers don't know what to think, especially Raphael, who is enjoying teasing his youngest brother about his latest find. Ignoring his taunting brothers, Michelangelo cleans the doll up in the hopes of giving it to April to sell in her antique shop. But when strange things start happening in the lair, and the doll seems to move on its own, Michelangelo soon realises that maybe he didn't bring home a doll at all, but something else entirely.

Disclaimer: This is a not-for-profit piece of fiction created from my imagination with the setting/characters from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. All rights belong to their respective owners.

A/n: I love horror movies and writing horror stories, as you know if you have read my story 'Hear Me Scream'. Inspiration for this story came to me after watching the movies Annabelle and The Conjuring. I hope you enjoy.

Chapter One

"You guys will never guess what I found!"

Leo opened his eyes and glanced around the dojo. He had been meditating for the past hour, and was finally starting to feel a sense of calmness and weightlessness when his youngest brother's voice broke through. Sighing, Leo stretched his neck and slowly got to his feet, enjoying the sensation of feeling return to his legs. Quickly bending down to blow out the flickering candles he had set around him, Leo straightened up and made his way into the main room to see what had gotten his youngest brother so excited.

Mikey was standing in the middle of the room, a huge grin on his face and his baby blue eyes sparkling with mischief. A worn duffle bag that was used for scouring trips lay heavy at his feet.

"What's going on?" Don asked, blinking his eyes as he emerged from the gloom of his lab. "Is something wrong?"

"Nah, bonehead here's just being annoying," Raphael grumbled from where he was sprawled out on the worn sofa, the latest wrestling mag lying open in front of him.

"Hey!" Mikey pouted, poking his tongue out at Raph.

"What did you find, Mikey," Leo asked, stepping between the two brothers before they could start bickering.

"Oh, yeah," Mikey blinked like he had suddenly forgotten. "I was out in the southern tunnels doing some scouting," Mikey said as he lifted the worn duffle bag into his arms. "I was really hoping I'd find a new comic book or something, but I found something so much better!"

"What have I told you about going to the southern tunnels?" Donnie asked, shaking his head. "They're dangerous, Mikey. The foundation is unstable."

Mikey waved this away with a quick shrug. "But we haven't been there for ages! Besides, it was totally worth it."

"I swear to god, Mikey, if it's another old sneaker I'll beat ya'," Raphael grumbled, not sharing his youngest brother's enthusiasm.

"That was one time," Mikey complained. "Besides, it was totally your size! I didn't know it had bugs in it!"

"You were saying," Leo cut in quickly, clearing his throat to get Mikey's attention back to the subject at hand.

"Check this out!" Mikey grinned, unzipping the duffle bag and letting it fall empty to the ground.

Silence echoed around the room as everyone stared at what Mikey was holding.

"Is…is this some sort of joke?" Donnie asked, being the first to break the silence.

"What in tha' hell even is that?" Raphael murmured, pushing himself to his feet to get a closer look.

"Um, that's really…" Leo trailed off, lost for words. "Why on earth would you bring that home with you?"

Held out proudly in Mikey's hands was a doll. Not your average Barbie or Cabbage Patch Kid, but an old, tattered, porcelain doll. The doll was made of white porcelain, which was now more of a muted grey/brown colour from spending however long in the sewer. The doll was designed to look like a girl, with a mop of wild curly red hair and fair features. It wore what appeared to be a white wedding dress with ruffles and flowers, though there were a few stains covering the dress that were a disturbingly brownish red colour. Her lips were painted black and large black circles were painted around her eyes, like a racoon. All in all, the doll was decidedly…creepy.

"Isn't it great?" Mikey asked, turning the doll around in his arms. It was about 50 centimetres tall, and its glassy eyes stared straight ahead.

"Mikey…why on earth did you bring that home?" Don asked in bafflement.

"Because it's cool!" Mikey said. "This thing is like old, man! It could be worth like, a million bucks."

"I highly doubt that, Mikey," Leo sighed.

"That thing is creepy. What tha' hell do you even want it for?" Raphael growled, looking at the doll like it was a giant bug.

Mikey blinked. "I don't know. I just thought it would like cool in the lair. I mean, why would someone through something like this in the sewer?"

"Maybe because it's old, broken, and as Raphael pointed out, rather creepy," Don replied.

"Nothing a little cleaning won't fix, isn't that right Jessabelle?" Mikey smiled, holding the doll up in front of him.

"You named it?" Raphael asked incredulously. "Why tha' hell did ya' give it a name?"

"Because all dolls have a name," Mikey said seriously.

"Heh, didn't realise you liked playing with dolls," Raph smirked.

"I'm not going to play with it!" Mikey scoffed. "I'm going to clean her up and display her! This thing is seriously cool."

"Whatever you say, Mikey," Leo sighed, shaking his head. "Just make sure you wash your hands, it has been in the sewer after all."

"Yeah, yeah," Mikey said, waving this away before turning to face Don. "Hey Don, I don't suppose you have any scrap material or anything? This dress is ruined."

"No, Mikey," Don said, trying to hide a smile, "unfortunately I don't have anything in my lab that can be made into dolls clothes."

Raphael snickered and Mikey shot him a dirty look. "I'm not going to play with a doll!" Mikey insisted. "I'm just going to display it!"

"As long as you display it in your room and not out here, knock yourself out," Raphael said, returning to the couch and his magazine. "Wait till I tell Casey you bought home a doll," he chuckled.

Mikey glared angrily at the back of Raphael's head.

"It's ok, Mikey," Leo said. "Just…it might be best if you kept it, I mean, Jessabelle, in your room."

"Hmph!" Mikey scoffed, stalking off into the kitchen with the antique doll. "Don't listen to them, Jessabelle," Mikey said to the doll as he sat her on the kitchen table. "They'll see, once you're all cleaned up you'll be perfect for April's shop. I reckon she could get a lot of money off you."

As Mikey went over to fill up the sink with hot, soapy water, the painted black line of the doll's mouth twitched ever so slightly, so it almost looked like she was smiling.

A/n: Apologies for the short chapter, this is only going to be an introduction, though I thought it a bit too long to be a prologue. I have copy and pasted a link down below. If you copy and paste it into your web browser, you should see an image of a doll, which I am using as the inspiration for the doll in this story.

Link: . /search?tbm=isch&q=creepy+dolls&backchip=g_5:vintage&chips=q:creepy+puppet&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjypfvcorrdAhXT-lQKHR94DtYQ3VYIJigA&biw=1366&bih=631&dpr=1#imgrc=jitWfp02z9mLuM: