Crimson Darkness

Crimson Darkness

Written by Tails Fanatic

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TF- Here is the next chapter everyone. I do wish I got some reviews to know how I’m doing in this. I will write when I can. I am getting ideas all the time so these will come out when I am through thinking and get to actually writing. Enjoy my work everyone.

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Chapter 2: Tortured Soul

Shadow opened his eyes when he heard Darkness start trying to talk to him. He gently changed his direction in the bed so that his head was now facing her as it lay there on the pillow. “I would rather be sleeping Darkness. What is it you want? I already let you sleep in this bed with me.” said Shadow. There was a bit of a silence from both of them for a bit as they looked into each others eyes before there was anymore speaking.

“I was wondering if you just wanted to talk about things, since well, I don’t think I can get back to sleep at the moment with all that lightning and thunder outside. I’ve always been afraid and with it going on, I’m not going to sleep anytime soon.” said Darkness. Shadow just looked over at her as she lay there and talked about her fear of thunder and lightning. He could understand kind of, but since it had never terrified him, he didn’t know what to quite make of it. Some thunder has startled him before, but he was not terrified like she seemed to be.

The hedgehog figured since the girl wanted to talk, it was doubtful that he was going to get any sleep with her like this. He had been kind enough to let her sleep in the same bed as him, be he really didn’t know what to talk about since he had not talked with someone for this long like this. He was out of practice and really hoped if he did talk, he could think of at least something to say.

“Fine, what do you want to talk about?” said Shadow as he adjusted himself in the bed for a conversation that he really was unsure on how it would go. Darkness adjusted herself too and looked right at him. “Where have you been all this time Shadow? I used to see you in the news all the time, but in the past few months, you have not been in it once. Where have you been?” asked Darkness staring right at him.

Shadow tiled his head back breaking eye contact with her and looking staring at the ceiling now. He was starting to have a few doubts about this now. “I don’t think I should. I really don’t feel too good about bringing up my past in a conversation. I am constantly trying to forget a lot about my past, so I try not to dwell on it by talking about it.” said Shadow just staring at the ceiling and following a small crack in it across the room.

Darkness looked at him worried by the way he was acting. “Did something happen to you in these last months Shadow? You are not acting the same as you used to from the looks of the videos I have seen about you on tv.” said Darkness. She saw how he was now staring at the ceiling and looked so concerned about him.

Shadow’s eyes turned and looked at her worried face after the question she had just asked him. He felt really bad about this, because he figured this was not the right thing to be doing. He was in so much pain in his mind from past events in the few months since he ran off from Eggman. His mind was really working on him and it was starting to take its’ toll.

“Shadow, come on, just tell me. You don’t have to be scared of me.” said Darkness again trying any way to comfort him. He sighed some this time and turned to look at her again. “I have been treated really badly for the past few months.” said Shadow sighing some and pulling the covers closer around him trying to make himself feel better any.

Shadow was just sitting cringing some because of his past when a hand suddenly is softly placed on his should. He looks up suddenly and sees Darkness has put a hand on his shoulder. He was startled by it at first, but finally got used to it and seemed to relax just a bit. Darkness’ touch seemed to be having a slight affect on him.

Shadow finally gave a small smile and touched his hand to hers giving it a small pat and gently moved it off of him. “Thanks, I needed that. I guess after all I have been though these past few weeks I am not that crazy about talk it at all since some of it was not that great.” said Shadow. His sigh had gone away and a plain expression came onto his face showing that he was at least comfortable now and not freaking out.

Darkness smiled glad that she was at least able to do something for the hedgehog she had invited in. She was so happy that she had brought him home and let him sleep here. Not only was she getting a person to talk to and keep her company during the storm, she seemed to be helping him relax some. And from the looks of him from what she had already seen, he really needed it.

“I’m not going to force you to tell me Shadow, but maybe talking about it will help you get over what happened to you. If you hide everything within, it will eventually build up and you may drive yourself into a depression that would be hard to get out of.” said Darkness giving him a small speech. She was hoping that her word would help him enough that he would eventually open up to her, but she would be glad if he would at least tell her something. He wouldn’t have to tell her everything, but something would be good, because it would be a breakthrough at least.

Shadow took all of this inside and thought it over. He then nodded to her suddenly and smiled. This was something that she was not expecting. Had she just gotten through to him? From the way he was acting it would seem like he was relaxing now and seemed comfortable with her presence now.

“Are you going to talk Shadow? I just want to help you is all.” said Darkness. She reached out and put her hand back onto his shoulder once again calming him and relaxing him back down. Shadow just continued looking at her and then finally started speaking. “None of it is easy to talk about.” The hedgehog lay back on his back looking at the ceiling trying to get comfortable as he talked.

Shadow started to look nervous then as he looked like he was stumbling with the words to say. “Take your time Shadow, I am not rushing you. Go at your pace.” said Darkness. She had small smiled on her face gave him a gentle rub on his arm closest to her. It worked too because he soon was in total relaxation as she rubbed his arm.

“Alright, I’ll tell you about what has been going on with me for these past few months, but I have to warn you, a lot of it is not going to be to pretty.” said Shadow. Darkness didn’t care and continued slowly rubbing his arm. “I don’t care, just go ahead, I’m here so don’t feel alone as you speak. This will let me know the best way to know how to comfort you.” said Darkness giving him a smile.

Shadow gave her a small smile back before turning to the ceiling again. He was going to look at the ceiling during the story, because he though if he looked anywhere else, he may either lose it or break down into a sob and he didn’t want that, because the stuff he was about to tell was miserable to him and stuff he wished to forget. He then finally began to speak to Darkness.

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~Flashback~

Shadow had recently left the base where he had just beaten Eggman and torn the place to shreds. He looked back and grinned evilly at what he had just done. “Damn that Eggman, he got what he deserved. I could have killed his sorry ass, but I am in no mood to get blood all in my fur. If he tries anything else against me, I’ll strangle his big, fat neck and twist his head off until snaps off and leave him a huge lump of dead shit all over the floor if he ever comes near me or my life again.” said Shadow in anger towards the person that had brought him so much anger in his life.

The black and crimson colored hedgehog then sped off towards the nearest city, which just happened to be Westopolis. As the hedgehog neared the city, he stopped and looked it over. The last time he had been here, he was not really welcomed and he figured things would not be the same, because no one will have known about him breaking ties off with Eggman unless the doctor announced it to everyone, and he doubted the doctor was going to do that, because that would help Shadow and Eggman would want him to suffer for this.

Shadow quietly walked into Westopolis to see how welcomed he would be. But the second the hedgehog was a bit in the city and some of its citizens got a good look at him, there was panic and screaming for the police going on all around him. The black hedgehog tried to tell someone that he was not here to make trouble but the police saw him holding the man and though he was about to harm him and fired in his general direction as a warning.

Shadow released the man and headed down an alley way and down other side streets as he heard the police roaming around the city looking for him. GUN troops happened to be in the city too so they were on the look out for the black hedgehog too. Shadow was in a hidden alley way sitting on the wet ground waiting until the activity settled down before he would look for a way back out of the city.

Shadow was waiting there when suddenly there was a rustle and someone standing there next to him holding a knife at him. “You don’t move! Give me everything you got and you can live.” said someone next to him. He looked up and there was tall rough looking rabbit covered in rags and holding a knife in his hand at the hedgehog acting like he would stab him.

Shadow got back to his feet and looked at the rabbit across from his and just turned his other cheek and started to walk away from him without a concern. The rabbit then lunged at Shadow with intent to stab him, but suddenly the rabbit was hit with kick right in his gut that knocked the wind right out of him. He then received an upper cut to the chin and was sent flying into a wall hard knocking him out and probably breaking his jaw at the same time too as he fell limp letting go of the knife.

“Pitiful.” Shadow said. He then took to the streets and headed quickly out of the city before anyone could spot him. He turned and took one look back and at the glowing city and headed off into the hills of the night. He didn’t know where he would sleep, but wherever he could find though would have to do for now.

Shadow had to for about a week either sleep on the ground under a tree or up in the tree depending on how he felt and the temperature of the air around him. He had no money and had lost a little weight too. He was barely eating much, because he had no money to buy food for himself. He was relying mostly on tree fruit to keep him nourished, but it was getting close to winter so there was not much left. He had to find a better way because soon all food would run dry and he would not have any food and maybe starve to death if he didn’t do anything soon.

Shadow had stumbled one day across a newspaper from one of the nearby small towns. He picked it up and started reading it. He came across one thing that did give him a bit of interest. It was an article for something called recycling. You were to bring many thinks to this center in the town and they would pay you for it, not much, but it would be enough to at least feed him he figured.

After discovering a bit more about this recycling he had started spending a bit of time at the nearby dump rummaging though trash looking for things to take to the place, just so he could give them a bag of it for just a few cents, but that few cents would keep him fed and alive and that was what mattered. not his personal hygiene, just the fact that he would live.

The hedgehog knew he had the strength to just mug someone or even kill someone for their money, but he was trying to improve his reputation some and that would not help him at all. It would only convince many more that he was a bad person and make more people want to catch him, so this was all he could do for now to help himself.

Shadow was earning a bit of money to feed himself from these trips back and forth from the dump and the town, but it was far too little for him to buy a place to stay, so outside was still his residence. He didn’t mind most of the time because outside was a pleasant and quiet place to be at time, but at others though, outside could be the worse place in the whole world to be.

On some nights, it would begin to rain, at first Shadow would just climb up into the tree to escape the rain, and this worked sometimes, but not all of time though. If the rain was going hard enough the tree was no protection at all and he would start getting wet. He would quickly run off and try and find a safe place to stay. This was not an easy task to do when it is pouring down rain and you are soaking wet, more so at night.

During daylight hours, Shadow could usually take shelter in a store or some place like that where he was trusted. A lot of store in the smaller towns would allow him in to stay, because he was usually a customer and not going to hurt them, so he was welcome to stay for awhile. Night though brought a different thing to him though in the fact that no one usually opens up there doors to a stranger at the dead of night in the pouring rain.

At night usually his only escape would be inside a hallow tree, there were no bridges since it was mostly a river less area he was hanging out in, so fishing was out too. A tree trunk was the best thing to stay in, but it was really unpleasant to say the least. Shadow would be hunkered up in a ball at night kind of cold because of the temperature drop the rain brought. He usually would stare out at the rain and frown as he lay there cold and miserable.

This was one of the worse feelings he had ever felt in his life. He was free yet so alone. He would lay there so miserable, rain or not, with no one around to talk to or even comment about. The only talk he usually ever had was with the people at the recycling center or the people at the local stores that knew him as a regular. Other than these people, no one ever spoke to the hedgehog. He was all alone with no one at all there to comfort him or give him company. He was alone.

He had one day when he was about to come out of the tree caught a glimpse of a blue blur coming towards where he was. He knew immediately who this was. It was Sonic the hedgehog. He could not let the blue hedgehog see him or trouble may start, because Shadow still did hate him some. He knew a lot of this was still because of the things Eggman had told him about the hedgehog, but he had thrown a lot of those aside, but he still hated the hero for his own personal reasons. He stayed still and hidden and soon the blue blur was gone and he felt safe for a little bit and relieve, but then he seemed to feel alone yet again.

After another week of being in these little country towns, Shadow finally departed the area in search of a new area to reside around. He had soon come across Station Square. This city was not as big as Westopolis, but it was still a big city to him. He was hoping things would go better around here and hoped there was not a repeat of what happened to him during his visit to Westopolis.

As the hedgehog entered the city, he was greeted with the same stares that he received last time, but no one was running at him or screaming. Everyone just stared and were talking to each other wondering what the black hedgehog would be doing here in the city and why he was not already tearing it to pieces.

A police officer soon approached Shadow and stood there defensively seeing if he was going to attack him or not. When Shadow did he loosened his guard and started to speak to the hedgehog. “So, Shadow the Hedgehog huh, what brings you here and also, why are you not going crazy as we all have seen in the past.” The officer looked really interested to know why someone he had seen act so crazy and destructive in the past, was acting like this and not attacking anyone.

Shadow just looked up at the person knowing he could just take him down and do what he wanted, but he decided he better play it safe if he wanted free roam of the city. “I have come here not to make trouble. I am here just to eat and try and find refuge. You people don’t have to worry about me, I will not cause any trouble.” said the hedgehog trying to be as honest as he could.

The officer looked really confused at the hedgehog’s response, “But why? Aren’t you working for the evil doctor Eggman?” asked the officer. This sparked Shadow’s attitude off but he was going to try and keep his cool though. “I don’t work for that bastard any longer. I am a roaming doing things my own way, not what that man tells me to do.” said Shadow with his hand in a fist obviously really mad at thinking about the doctor right now.

The officer hearing this backed up a tad just to give the hedgehog some space, and then looked down at him again to speak more. “If you truly are not going to attack us, you are free to roam the city, but any funny business and the city police will come after you and call GUN in too, but if you behave, we will not have a reason to do that.” said the officer to the black hedgehog before him.

Shadow just gave a small nod and started to walk away and into the city. He understood what the officer meant and would try not to cause trouble. He knew that he would have to go back on the run if he started making trouble, so for now, trouble was not an option he could consider at all if he wanted to survive at all.

The city was not that much better than the country was because there were lots of people around here. He had lost a lot of the feeling of being alone on the outside, but it still remained inside, because he knew that the people all knew him from things they had seen from the past, but he didn’t know any of them, so he didn’t have anyone still to talk to.

He had places to eat now so he was not going to starve, but finding a place to stay was hard, because everywhere required money to be able to live there, and Shadow barely had enough to feed himself one meal a day. Usually that was all fast food, because all of it was really cheap there, even if it was not the best food in the world, it would keep him alive and nourished to keep going on.

Shadow was mostly stuck out on the streets sleeping or going out of the town and sleeping in trees again. He hung around this city though, since this city was not as aggressive as others were towards him. He was able to live without fear of people trying to get him, but no one in the city would ever let him stay in any house without money.

Shadow tried desperately to find a place to sleep, but no one was going to let him stay there. He was going to have to make do still with where ever he could. Eating with money he got from recycling still since it was the only way he knew to get the money he needed to eat other than hurting people, but he couldn’t do that or risk getting kicked out of the city. He was going to have to make do with his life for now, until something came up that would help him or he would be like this for a very long time and he did not want that at all.

~End of Flashback~

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Darkness was in total shock at heading all of this. It was such a horrible and sat story that she almost cried at one point. She understood why Shadow had had such a hard time getting ready to tell it now. It was a horrible story, and it obviously had affected his mind some being all alone and living on the streets for awhile like that. Shadow looked stressed out now and really upset and depressed.

“My goodness Shadow, I had no idea that you have had such a hard past few months. You poor dear, you must be hurting inside so bad.” said Darkness looking at the sad looking Shadow. He gave a small nod and turned away from her again looking really depressed and alone like he has felt for these past months. That was until he felt an arm start to wrap around him.

Shadow shook a tad in fright when he felt someone touching him, but suddenly the touch was felt easy and relaxing. It seemed to be soothing his soul just a bit as he felt a type of comfort he had never felt before. He eyes turned and there was Darkness with her arms wrapped lightly around him hugging close to his back.

Shadow was really confused by this action. No one had ever really hugged him since the girl from his past, Maria. He had not felt comfort and ease like this for such a long time. He didn’t know how to really react to it, but his body was starting to get so relaxed, signaling to him that this was a good thing for him.

Darkness held Shadow in an embracing hug holding his back close to her body. She could feel him tense up at first, but then he was starting to relax as she held on to him. She could tell what she was doing was having the desired affect she was wanting it to have. She lay her head near on of his shoulders and held on ever so softly.

Shadow felt relaxed but confused at the same time. “Darkness, why are you doing this to me?” he asked her in a low voice. She gently rubbed onto his chest fur as she kept her arms around him. “I’m trying to comfort your soul. After all of what you want through, you need a loving friend to heal your tortured soul Shadow.” said Darkness.

Shadow did feel hurt and alone inside. He had not talked with anyone in a long time in any long and good way. He had not had anyone show him any things that looked like care at all. It felt really good and didn’t push her off. He had grown to like this and actually started smiling as she continued to hold him in her comforting embrace.

“You feeling better Shadow?” asked Darkness as she continued to hold Shadow so lightly. She felt all his muscles relaxing and him seaming to get more comfortable too “I really like this Darkness, it feels so good and I for some reason am so relaxed.” said Shadow as he then turned himself around so he was facing her now and looking at her face to face.

Darkness looked into his eyes and could see a lot of sorrow and misery in those eyes. He seemed to be calling out for help from the look those eyes had on her. She continued hugging on to him to give him as much comfort as she possibly could and he was willingly wanting it because it felt really good to feel someone showing him care instead of anger and hatred that he was used to so often.

“Shadow, I can tell from your eyes that you have had some hard times in your life, but just think now though. I’m here. I will be your friend. You will not be alone anymore and you don’t have to be scared to open up to me, because I will never judge you. I only want to help you get over what ever is bothering you. So, just relax and be at peace Shadow. I’m here now.” Darkness said all this and then leaned over and gave Shadow another hug and he just seems to fall into her arms in total relaxation.

Shadow’s eyes looked heavy as he remained in her embrace and lat there continuing the hug. “Thank you Darkness. You really have helped me some. You have no idea how much I have been through. It has been really hard you know?” said Shadow not letting go of her yet. Neither one of them seemed to want to let go of the other one, because both of them were totally relaxed in the others arms.

Finally Darkness let go of Shadow but remained close to him still so that he could feel her presence still close to him. He looked up after the hug ended and smiled at her. He was glad she was still there with him, because she really was making him feel better and more relaxed after all that had happened to him over these past few weeks.

“Shadow, I’m glad I brought you here tonight so that I could help ease some of your pain, and thank you for letting me be near you here during this storm. I don’t know why it scares me, but it does, but not when you’re here with me though.” said Darkness now snuggling up next to him.

Shadow didn’t push her away though. He let her be close to him. He had to admit, this girl was helping him and bringing him the care and comfort he had been wanting. Maybe tomorrow they could see if they could do more things and become pals, because this really felt good to him and he really didn’t want her to leave him, because he liked this feeling, and he hadn’t felt like this in a long time. He was glad he was though, because he liked it a lot.

Soon the two of them started falling asleep next to each other. First Shadow fell asleep looking relaxed against his pillows and warm under his covers. Darkness saw him fall asleep and wrapped her arms back around him softly seeing him smile in his sleep. She lay her head close to him and fell asleep herself. That is how they spent their first night together. Arms were wrapped around each other and feeling really safe with no concerned for the storm outside anymore, just the two of them and total relaxation.

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TF- Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Darkness really seems to be doing Shadow some good. He has had a hard life, but what could become of his life now that Darkness is in it. Will it get easier, or will it just get more difficult and confusing?