Chapter Text
Antiquing
Uncle August, beloved younger brother of Carol O’Neil has officially been declared deceased after missing for five years after authorities found his body, DNA testing confirms their findings. A few weeks later the Letter of Testamentary arrives. Naturally, as Carol and April are his only living relatives, they get everything. Or: April inherits her uncle August’s antique shop and the boys help her clean it up. Turns out Uncle Augie hid some mysterious secrets from the family…
Chapter One: Uncle Augie
“This is it.” April gestures to the old building squished between two even older buildings. Dusty brown brick covered with cracks, mortar falling off in some places. Weathered gargoyles her uncle brought back from France when she was little stood guard over the building. As a young girl, she always thought of them to be alive.
The turtles gathered around behind her, huddled in oversized sweaters, breath coming out in white puffs despite it being in the sixties.
Its late afternoon and Uncle August’s lawyer had just given her the keys to his beloved antique shop. Her mother couldn’t bear to walk into the dusty shop. A shop that hadn’t been open in over five years – not since her uncle left on a “quest” (as he called his business trips) and never returned. April didn’t want to either. She had many many fond memories working behind the counter when she was younger. He never got mad if she threw a rude customer out, or tripped and broke something.
“Come on April, open the door it’s freezin’ out here.” Leo bumped her lightly.
“Yeah, sorry guys.” April dug out the keys to the antique store.
“No probbles April,” Raph said, nudging his brother harshly, “We understand this is hard for you.”
Raph holds the door open as the file in. Mikey finds the light switch and the ancient blubs flicker to life.
Donnie sneezes four times upon entering, quickly covering his face with his hoodie.
“Dusty.” He rasps.
“No kidding.” Leo swipes a finger across a nearby shelf covered in centimeters thick dust. “Yuck.”
The doorbell chimes as Raph lets the door close. “What now Apes?” he asks.
“Um. I’m not sure. Cleaning? The manifest? Uncle always kept a meticulous inventory.” She’s made her way to the counter. The old register is from the early 1900’s caked in dust. She opens it, finding some coins but no bills. There was six-hundred dollars in the till last time she rang a customer up. The customer was strange, tall and thin like a tree sapling. A rasping voice with a hood to hid his face. He was looking for a necklace with a pink stone set in it. Her uncle had shook his head and said he didn’t have one, but told him to try Clem’s, or call back later when some more inventory came in.
April let the memory go.
It was the last time she step foot in the store until now.
Her uncle had left for his business trip that weekend and she never heard from him again.
“Man. I’m getting some mystic vibes in here.” Mikey said dusting an old book off.
“Me too.” Raph carefully inched closer to a bright yellow vase.
“This place certainly has a creep vibe.” Leo shivered.
April looked around, past the cobwebs and through the layers of just. She spotted Donnie squinting at the yellowed pages of crusty old books. He pulled his goggles on and gasped, flinging them off his head with a painful “Gah!”
“Donnie!?” his brothers rushed to his side.
April picked up his goggles.
“Who the hell was your uncle, April?” Donnie growled rubbing his eyes furiously.
“An antiques dealer.” April huffed.
“Everything in here’s mystic.” He whined.
“For real?” Raph and Leo exclaimed.
“Makes sense. The gargoyles on the building are alive.” Mikey nodded, “What?” he drew back at the incredulous looks they gave him, “I figured they were just resting! It’s none of my business where a goyle perches.” He huffed.
Mystic? April stared at Donnie’s goggles. She knew he modified them to detect mystics. Even modified them with an intensity dial so he could use them in mystic heavy environments. Uncle Augie always had something weird that gave off vibes. She thought looking around at the stuff on the shelves.
She put the goggles on and understood why Donnie had been startled. The shop glowed. Everywhere she looked bright auras revealed spirits in jars, magic leaking from metal, plain glowing auras from random objects. Adjusting the frequency, the eye bleeding light dimmed to a more manageable field. This revealed that not everything was mystic. The bright yellow vase Raph was looking at was just a vase. The mirror that gave April the creeps was just a dusty mirror.
“My uncle was a mystic antiques dealer. Who knew?” She said in awe handing her friend back his goggles.
“You always said he had wild stories.” Raph rubbed his chin.
“Maybe, we should get Draxum to help you April.” Mikey said nervously. “Some of this stuff feels… dangerous.”
“You said he kept a detailed inventory?” Donnie asked.
“Yeah,” April moved to the back room. The door was stuck but with Leo’s unkind shove of the wood, it opened, “It should be back here. There’s also a secret passage upstairs to his apartment in here too.”
“Awesome.” The brothers chorused.
There was just so much of her uncle’s life to go through. He owned the building and the lawyer took care of overdue bills when the news of her uncle’s demise reached him. April was thankful to that strange man with red hair and a too-wide smile. Her uncle had lived in the apartment above the shop, and occasionally rented out the other floors to immigrants or people in need of temporary housing.
April was realizing she didn’t actually know her uncle very well.
The ring of keys she was given unlocked every lock her uncle had, or so the lawyer said. Hard to believe when there was only four keys.
It still took a few minutes to find the right key and several threats to her very purple best friend to stop him from trying to break out his saw and break in himself. Inside the cabinet was a gun, a literal witches wand, another smaller safe, and a binder stuffed full of papers.
“I guess this is it.” April said lifting the heavy thing. The fact that “Inventory” was printed on the cover confirmed it. She took the little safe too.
She followed the boys back outside and locked the door back up.
She could go through all his stuff in the morning. Right now she needed to go see her mom and ask a few questions… more than a few.
“Brrrr.” Leo rubbed his arms dramatically. “You ready April? I really want to get back to my warm and cozy room.”
“You didn’t have to come you know.” Donnie snarked. “In fact, you shouldn’t even be out of bed. Just because your fever broke, doesn’t mean you’re still not sick.”
“And miss out on finding out April’s uncle is some crazy mystics’ dealer? No way!” Leo threw out his hands.
“Thanks guys. For doing this with me. I don’t know if I could’ve done it alone.”
“Don’t worry about it April. We’re always here for you.” Raph patted her shoulder while Mikey hugged her. “Just call if you need help cleanin’ the place up.” Raph added.
“I’m gunna start on his apartment first. My lease is about to end and Uncle August’s apartment is all paid off. Just gotta pay things like water and electric. Probably garbage too.” She chuckled, “And hey, if you guys ever get tired of living in a subway, you can probably take one of the other apartments. My uncle owned the whole building.”
“You own the building.” Donnie corrected, “At least that’s what the lawyer told you right? That your uncle left you the building?”
“…Yeah… I guess you’re right…” April felt a hysterical laughter form. She was twenty-two years old, never had a steady job in her life, struggling through college, and now she owned a whole ass building in New York City. And all it took was her uncle dying…
The sound of grinding stone brings them out of their bubble. A cloud of moss and dirt rained down as they looked up toward the roof of the shop.
Mikey is proven right about the gargoyles on the building being alive as one gargoyle unfolds its wings and takes off. The other one looks down at her, its pointed nose and sharp teeth looking menacing in the twilight.
“Hello.” Mikey waved up at the goyle. The others make their startled greetings while the stone being chuckled.
“Hello little kappa.” Its voice is heavily accented. “Since you are here, we must assume August is dead?”
April feels her eyes burn with un-shed tears. Raph gives her a tight side hug. “Yeah, they found his body last month.”
“Who are you anyway?” Leo steps forward.
“I am Toutatis, my partner is Cissonia. August met us in France many many years ago. In exchange for a ride to America, he only asked us to guard his store.” The gargoyle proceeded to scale down the building till they reached the ground and stood up. They were only around two feet tall, but their wings gave them another foot at least.
“Uncle Augie always had secrets.” She murmured. “Guess hiring goyles to protect his store was better that installing security cameras when he was never here to begin with.”
Toutatis laughed, “We tried to convince him to get them, several times. We can’t always be alert. He claimed that some of the items in his store do not mix well with human electronics.” He looked at them up and down, “We enjoyed watching you grow up little month, but it is time for us to go. Be safe little April, our contract with your uncle ended the moment you put that key in the lock.”
Before April could even begin to ask the million questions she had bubbling up inside her, the goyle unfolded their wings and took off.
“Maybe they’ll be back?” Donnie commented.
“I don’t think so.” April sighed.