Fading Back to Red

About two thousand, three hundred missing person reports are filed every day. In total, every year carries a burden of nine hundred thousand missing persons. This is in the United States of America alone. The world is a cruel place. Raping, stealing, unfair laws, murders, abusers, these are only few examples of what gifts the world holds. Of course, family is there to protect you. Unless they are some of the people who are apart of the problem. A high percentage of kidnappers are family members, which is why the kids are so trusting of them. Family is suppose to be one of the only things you can trust in this world.

But nothing is perfect.

Raphael was four years old when he was abducted from his family. He was in a park waiting for his older brothers to return. Nobody knows what exactly happened to him. He might've wandered off, he might've been confused about the meetup point, he might've been kidnapped and molested behind a bush. It was twelve years later by an accident that led the FBI to discover that he was indeed alive and for him to accept took thirteen years for him to call his real family, his family. The world isn't perfect, and neither was his life.

"Listen, Raphie." His older brother, Leo spoke to him in a commanding tone.

Leonardo was ten years old with his three year old brother, Donatello. The three brothers were waiting outside of the hospital in a park they had for children to play on. Their father was here to check up on his friend who was in a mild car accident. Known as Splinter to some, he didn't want his kids to see something so bad quite yet, so he sent them out to play.

"Sensei wants us all to behave and you have to stay here. I'm going to take Donnie to the bathroom and you better be here when I get back." Leonardo watched his younger brother. Sometimes his annoying sibling would listen, then defy him and make the two of them get into trouble. Leo was suppose to be in charge of him, after all. He was the oldest one there, therefore, he had to be right on most (if not all) things. He was also the furthest in their training.

All the brothers would start training on their fifth birthdays. With five years under the belt, Leo had the basics down and was starting to move on to more difficult moves. Raphael was very jealous of his brother, but would wrestle with him occasionally like all brothers eventually do. His birthday was coming up very soon and he couldn't wait to start training like Leonardo.

"Okay." Raphael answered quietly. He was playing with a truck in the sandbox and didn't really care what his older brother was saying. His car was much more important.

He didn't even notice they were gone until somebody sat down next to him. He looked up and saw a smiling woman. She had soft skin and long brown hair that reached her back. She seemed sweet, but again, he had his truck in his hands. Didn't that lady understand that he was playing?

"Hi there. What's your name?" She asked nicely.

He glanced up and watched her for a second before turning back to his car. "Raphael."

"Well, Raphael, what're you playing with?"

"A car." He said shortly. Where were his brothers? They should be back soon and that lady was in their spot.

"That looks like my car. Do you wanna go see it?" The woman smiled at him and put a hand on his shoulder. "I'll even let you ride in it if you want. We can drive around anywhere you want, just like you're playing with the car."

He stopped and considered this. "Anywhere I want?"

"Yup! I'll even take you to get ice cream later if you want."

He smiled and agreed. "Sure, lady. I like chocolate ice cream the best."

She stood up and picked him up in her delicate arms. "Oh, do you?" She mused to him. "I like chocolate, but my favorite would have to be cookie dough."

As they got closer to the car, the more relaxed her nerves became. Jessica and Mike had been planning on this for a while. They weren't picking this child specifically, but he would do nicely. The room they set up was ready, she just went to go get the child today. She was scared at first, but the child came on his own will, which had made this much easier than it was expected to be.

"Lady, this doesn't look like my car." Raphael spoke up. "It's blue, not red."

"I know, I'm sorry." Jessica glanced behind her quickly. Nobody was watching them. Though, the brothers were coming out of the building about now and had spotted that he wasn't in the same place. They must've thought that he was playing hide and seek or something, because they started to look in trees and other hiding spots the four year old would've reached. "We're going home now, though. Do you wanna watch a movie?"


A few days went by. The police were called, but they didn't have much to go off on. A four year old went missing five days ago. Nobody noticed what happened and by the time that the two brothers told their master what had happened, the kidnapper and her prize were half way to his new home. He of course, requested to go back to his home, and his 'parents' had already decided on what they would tell whatever child they nabbed:

"Honey...they already left you. We saw them leaving and knew they wouldn't come back for you. I'm sorry, baby."

Abandonment: the act of giving something up or the voluntary surrender of property without attempting to reclaim it.

Raphael soon learned how much it hurt to be abandoned on the playground without his brothers, or his father. He would always be haunted by the thought of why they didn't want him. Why they left him there to die. Why they had him if they didn't want him. It wasn't fair to him and never would be. It scared him to not know the answer to all these whys and he turned that fear into anger throughout the years to come.

But for now, as a four year old boy, he cried about being tossed out, while his family cried about the loss of him. The police told them that while they tried their best, they weren't able to do anything about it. Too little information to go off on, too much unnoticed by the world. Anything could've gone wrong, and it was safe to assume the worst in this situation. If anything were to pop up, fingerprints, dental records, any source of DNA found would alert them as a missing person found. It wasn't enough for the family. Far from enough for any of them.  

Leo felt horrible. In some way this was all his fault for leaving him alone, he was the oldest one, he was suppose to be right majority of the time. He was suppose to protect his younger brother- the one who was going to start training on his birthday. He were ready to show off his moves to Raphie and help him along with performing them correctly. Now he would have to wait until Donnie, who didn't understand what was going on, was old enough.

Splinter took this the hardest. When his sons told him that they couldn't find Raphael anywhere in the park, he grew concerned. He followed them downstairs and he looked around, called out, asked people if they had seen what happened. Concern turned to fear. He called louder, looking wildly for his son. He went to the front desk and asked about his four year old. They apologized, but they didn't see anything. Fear turned to panic and he called nine-one-one.

When they got home and waited for anything to happen, it felt like somebody gave him shots of adrenaline and punched him in his chest with knives.

"Daddy? Where's Raphie?" Donnie asked his parent. He wasn't in his room and he wasn't watching tv with Leo, so surely his parent would know.

With tears forming in his eyes, Splinter pulled up his son into a hug and held him tightly. He had failed, just like he did with his old family. They had a sister he would never tell them until he believed they were ready. And now, with another child gone, he could feel the grief starting already. "I don't know, Donnie. I don't know."

"Why?" He asked innocently.

His daddy hugged him tighter and began to gently sob with his youngest one in his lap. He held him tighter against his chest and tried not to think of all the cruel things that could happen to a child who was taken in this day and age.