Crimson Darkness

Crimson Darkness

By: Tails Fanatic

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TF- I’m Sorry for the long time between updates, but I have finally gotten out the next issue of my story here. I hope you enjoy it and be sure to give me a nice review if you do. No bashing please. Thanks for all the people that are readers already.

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Chapter 3: Trust

The next morning, the light entered the window of the apartment gleaming beautifully in the room lighting it up brightly. It hit the figures of the two hedgehogs sleeping together in the makeshift bed glistening off their fur making it shine some. Darkness didn’t waist much time after the light hit her before she was up. She liked every now and then to get up early, but she did love most of the time sleeping in really late.

After smiling at seeing Shadow still asleep next to her looking really relaxed, Darkness slowly got out of the bed and headed for the bathroom. After using the bathroom and washing her face. She went and turned on the shower and let the water get nice and hot. She took off her clothes and got in to take her daily shower to clean herself up so that she would look great and not stink at all.

Once that was done, Darkness got out drying herself off and then headed over to the sink. She opened the medicine cabinet and took out two pill bottles. She popped the top on one and quickly swallowed the pill. She then opened the other one and swallowed that pill too. She then reopened the medicine cabinet and hid the pills at the back of the place so they would not be discovered so easily. Once the pills were taken, Darkness headed out and got dressed in some new clothes and was ready for the new day.

Darkness headed back into the living room. Shadow was still asleep on the couch bed and looked so peaceful. She didn’t want to disturb him, so she went really quietly over to the kitchen area. The kitchen area was basically just attached to the living room, there was just a small counter between them that had counter space and the stove.

Once in the kitchen, Darkness headed for the refrigerator and opened it up took out a couple of eggs. She then reached under the counter and pulled out a frying pan and cracked the eggs into the pan. She turned on the burners to the stove and commenced to cooking breakfast for herself and for Shadow.

It didn’t take long for the smell of the eggs to travel over to Shadow and start to stir him. Once the smell got a good hold on his nose though, his eyes opened right up. He took a deep whiff of the smell of the food in the area. It smelt so good to him. He had not eaten eggs like this in a long time and the smell was taking him over and making him really hungry.

Shadow was soon pulling the covers off of him and getting out of the bed. He reached over to a nearby table and grabbed his gloves then putting them on. Then looked down and put his feet inside of his Jet shoes and was soon standing up and walking over towards the kitchen where he saw Darkness cooking.

“Man, that smells great!” said Shadow walking almost right over to her to look into the pan to see the eggs sizzling in the pan. Darkness looked up at the obviously hungry Shadow and smiled at him. “They will be done in a minute Shadow. I though you would enjoy a nice home made breakfast after all I heard you have been through. I thought it would be a nice change to what you have been through for these past months. We could also go shopping later if you would like.”

Shadow grinned still looking hungry. “If you mean food shopping then I would say go hit that market, because I will really be hungry for awhile. Since I have been out on my own, I have lost a little weight. I need to put a bit of meat back on these bones.” It was true, Shadow had lost a bit of weight. His legs and arms looked so skinny and his stomach was starting to get a little smaller too. It was obvious he had not been eating that well at all lately.

“Alright Shadow.” said Darkness, “You go sit down at the table and I’ll bring you some breakfast.” Shadow nodded and quietly walked over to the table in her kitchen and sat down to wait for her to finish. He kind of liked being in a house like this. It was so much more comfortable than living outside and that was a plus for his back, because trees do not make good beds all the time.

The eggs looked like they were almost done in the pan. There was some toast in the toaster that was just placed in there and starting to cook, and now the fridge was being opened again and a carton of orange juice being brought out and poured into two glasses on the counter. At this time, the eggs were at full sizzle so Darkness turned the over off and scooted the eggs onto two plates, then places a piece of toast onto both of them and started heading towards the table Shadow was sitting at.

Darkness placed the plate in front of Shadow and sat the glass of orange juice in front of him and smiled. “Eat up Shadow.” said Darkness going to get her plate and sit on the opposite side of the table to start to eat her meal. Shadow examined his food for a minute before just diving into it eating it kind of fast and chugging his orange juice in a few gulps. He was acting like he hadn’t eaten in days. He had been eating, but it wasn’t so well though.

As Darkness ate her eggs at a normal rate, she looked up and saw Shadow eating really fast and greedily at his plate and scarfing his juice like if he slowed down someone was going to take the food away from him. She was a little worried he may choke on his food, but from the way he was eating, she was afraid he may growl or bite or something if she tried to stop him.

Once Shadow was finished with his food, he lay back in his chair with his hand on his stomach sighing happily. He looked really pleased to have a good food in his stomach, and from the happy growls that his stomach was making it was obviously approving too of Darkness’s cooking. Shadow just rubbed his stomach and gave a small burp as he relaxed.

Darkness gave a small giggle as she saw how relaxed Shadow looked across from her. “I guess you enjoyed you meal Shadow.” she said still eating hers. Shadow looked up from his happy trance to look back over at Darkness. “You have no idea. This is the first really good food my stomach has had for a long time. I really needed it.” he said putting his hand back on his stomach.

After a few minutes, Darkness finished her plate and head over and gathered the dishes and went to the sink to start cleaning them. Shadow had already gone back to the living room and sprawled out on a chair relaxing and looking tired some still. His full stomach was making him a little sleepy again, but he was trying to fight it though.

After Darkness was finished with the dishes she walked over and sat in the chair next to Shadow. “So, Shadow, I was wondering where you are going to be staying from now on? Your always welcome to stay here as long as you wish.” said Darkness looking at the really relaxed Shadow. He didn’t look like he wanted to move at the moment, and like he may be there for awhile.

“I’m not sure yet, I guess staying here would save me a bit of money so I buy more food.” said Shadow. “You know, you can save your money Shadow. I make plenty of money at my job.” said Darkness. She got up and walked into her room. Seconds later she came back with her wallet. She handed it to Shadow for him to look in it. Shadow opened the wallet and it was packed really tight with cash. His eyes opened really wide upon seeing the contents of the wallet.

“HOLY SHIT! How did you get so much money?” asked Shadow dumbfounded by the shear amount of money in the wallet. He wasn’t kidding either. It really was quite a lot that the wallet had trouble closing. “Like I told you, I earn it from my job.” said Darkness just standing there next to him.

“What kind of job do you have that can earn you so much money?” asked Shadow as he took the money out to count it. She started stumbling on her words now. “Um…. I really can’t tell you. It’s a private job, and I’m not allowed to tell the job unless the job says I’m allowed to.” Darkness looked a little nervous as she said that, because Shadow was staring at her now.

“Won’t tell me? Your not going to tell someone you want to stay in your house, where you work at and how it can help get over eight thousand dollars here in your wallet?” asked Shadow staring at her with his arms crossed. He was hoping he could trust her, but she didn’t seem like she could even trust him at the moment, which was making things a little hard for him at the moment.

She started sighing as she saw the aggravated look that was on his face. It was evident to her that he was not happy that she would not tell him about her job. “Shadow, it’s not that I don’t want to tell you, it’s just that I’m not allowed to tell you. If I just went around telling people what I did, I would lose my job.” She sounded sincere, but Shadow was still having a hard time since she was telling him the whole truth.

“How do I know you’re not some spy sent here to watch me and then detain me huh? I swore to not do evil things anymore, but how do I know you’re not someone who thinks otherwise and is just trying to lure me into a false sense of security?” asked Shadow as he just stared at her, with his eyes getting more and more ticked off.

Darkness sighed, “Well, I guess you don’t. All you can really do is trust me when I say I am not Shadow. I don’t want to hurt you. I just want to help you.” Darkness looked sad now and was trying to act as if she was telling the truth. Shadow was listening to her, but still not giving him the whole story was still sounding very fishy to him.

“I’m not a very trusting kind of guy like that. I’ve been double crossed before from people who I thought I could trust because they didn’t give me the whole story. I’m not falling for it again. I’m not stupid Darkness.” said Shadow starting to get up to face her now.

Darkness seemed really nervous now. She has seen how he really can get when he gets upset or mad and she didn’t want anything to happen to her or the house. Shadow has stood up now and was staring at her arms crossed. “Well, do I get an answer or am I leaving Darkness?” asked Shadow.

She was now starting to feel sad and didn’t want him to leave, because if he did, she may not see him again and she wanted to help him get through all of what he told her about last night and if he left now she would not be able to do anything to help him at all. “Wait Shadow, is there no way we can talk about this and come up with a compromise so you don’t do anything rash?” she asked.

“Rash would be believing someone when they could possibly hurt me and bring me back down to nothing when I just want to be left alone more and more as time goes on.” He just stood there staring at her to see what she would do next to him. She was not on the top of his trust list at the moment, and neither were many others if any at all.

“Maybe I can talk with my heads and see if I can tell you what I do. If I were to just tell you right here, I may lose my job.” she said almost begging him to believe her. “You can do that, but until you can prove to me that I can have your full trust, I’m not sure if I can stay here or not, because If I do and don’t have full trust, then I could be putting myself in danger by staying.” said Shadow starting to walk slowly towards the door.

Darkness walked towards him crying slightly not wanting him to go. “Shadow please, there has to be something I can do to get you to stay.” she said in a begging like tone. She had a few tears running out of her eyes as she looked as if she was going to pounce on him to make him stay, but also the look of control that would not let her just jump on him like that.

“Darkness, I’ll be in the city, I’m not going to leave, but come by later in the day and find me near the edge of town near a big tree. I’ll be there later today close to nightfall. If you can prove then that I can trust you, then I’ll be glad to come back here, but if you can’t, I’m not staying. I just need someone I can trust ok?” asked Shadow as he put his hand on the door about to leave the house.

Darkness panicked now as she saw that he was going to leave her like this. “Shadow no, please, just give me some time to fix this.” begged Darkness to Shadow. She had tears still running down her face not wanting him to go. She was trying any way to convince him, but it didn’t seem to matter that much at the moment.

“Like I said, if you just meet me at the tree tonight and tell me all about your job then I will for sure come back to the house no problem at all, because I will then trust you.” said Shadow opening the door and starting to walk onto the front steps. Darkness looked a little upset as he walked down the stairs and down the street. She knew the tree he was mentioning and she had to get right on fixing this if she was going to get him back here to help him now.

Darkness quickly ran to her phone and called a very long number until she finally got an answer after many rings. “Give your password it said.” a robot like voice said. “I’ll kick your ass.” she said plainly. “Searching for password match………………… Match found……….. Welcome Agent Darkness…….. Will transfer to agency now.” the automatic voice finally cut out and a real person came on now.

“Hello, Agent Darkness, did you need something.” asked a female like voice. “Yes I do boss. I have a real predicament and I really need your help.” she said back to her. “Well, what do you need? Reinforcements, more weapons, what is it?” the lady asked. “Well, it’s like this Kate. I ran into Shadow the hedgehog last night.” said Darkness trying to sound professional about it. “Whoa! Are you hurt Darkness?” asked Kate on the other end sounding a bit frantic about hearing this.

“No, no, I’m fine, but that is not the problem.” said Darkness pacing a bit back and forth while here on the phone. “Then what is the problem then?” asked Kate wanting her to hurry and get to the point. “Well, Shadow seems to want to go straight, he needs a place to stay and I offered to let him stay here last night. He actually is really nice, he’s just had a hard life, though right now, he is not fully truthful of me, because I would not tell him where I worked at. I was wondering if it would be ok to tell him and bring here there so you all could look him over, so we can maybe help him some?” she asked hopefully.

There was a silence on the other end for a bit and then Kate finally spoke again, “You ask a difficult thing. Maybe we can try to help him, but if we were to take such a huge risk and let him know about our agency then we will need to keep some surveillance on him to make sure he is loyal and all.” Darkness thought this over in her head and finally talked back, “If you feel all he need is a bit of watching for awhile, then that may be what we have to do, because he needs some help. He’s gotten really skinny lately from pour nourishment.”

Kate listened to Darkness’ concern and had to agree with her. “What all has he told you of his situation?” she asked. “Well, not all of it is a pleasant one, but apparently he had enough of Eggman, beat him up and ran off on his own. That’s why no one has heard activity from him for awhile. He’s been out on his own just barely staying alive trying to change himself.”

“This sounds like it could be good. If you are correct in what you are telling me and Shadow the hedgehog would keep us a secret and would now change sides, I bet with your help and our resident psychologists here, we could really give him the help he needs. Alright, Agent Darkness, go get him back there with you. I’ll send you some transport there tomorrow to pick the both of you up and bring you here. That is an order alright.” said Kate sounding firm there at the end of that speech.

“Yes ma’am!” said Darkness showing her the respect she was suppose to give. That’s when she had another though that she had better deal with now or it may be a bad situation at a later time. “Kate, I have another favor too.” she asked in a low voice.

“Yes Darkness.” she asked back to her not sounding as strict as before. Darkness made sure no one was listening again and then got real close to the phone, “Would you mind sending me over some more of my pills Kate? I’m starting to run low of both bottles.” Kate now understood why she seemed a bit low voiced on this. “Sure thing, I’ll send you over some pills tomorrow with your transport. We can’t have you doing anything bad again now can we.” said Kate sounding a bit serious on that point.

Darkness seemed really serious here too. “I know what you mean, I need to be sure I keep a steady supply of those or else. I go though two of each pill a day, one in the morning and one at night of both, so I go through them fast.” “It’s understandable Darkness, I’m on it. You just complete your part of the bargain and bring Shadow in for us and we will provide you the things you need to live happily.” said Kate in a bit better mood.

“Alright, thanks Kate, I better go get ready to meet Shadow, I have to meet him later to tell him this to get him back to the house.” Said Darkness, “Be careful how much you tell him so soon. I’d rather tell him more than you will, because I can watch him better than you could in his condition.” said Kate sounding like she was drinking something now. “I wont boss, I’m out then.” said Darkness. “Later Agent Darkness, take care.” said Kate she hung up the phone.

Darkness hung up the phone and looked at the wall clock, it was going to be a few hours before she could go out and meet with Shadow to see if she could bring him back so for now, all she could really do was wait and hope that when she went to that tree later tonight, Shadow would listen to her and trust her once again, because after all of what she heard from him, she really wanted for him to trust her once again, because he needed someone like her, just like she kind of needed someone like him.

She had made a small mistake when she broke his trust with this, but it seems though, he may get more trust and more help by this little slip in trust, so maybe a slight slip of trust at one point, can at a later point have better consequences than if you just kept the original trust of the first point, or maybe this was wrong and it was not so that breaking the trust will fix things, it’s all a matter of how you perceive things.

Darkness though is starting to believe that maybe she did make the right move, at first it seemed that she had really messed up and just hurt a torched soul even more than he already was hurt. But maybe when she can now explain to him all of what he wanted from her, maybe it would help him and even fix his soul to where he can be normal and not some torched soul or some evil doer who’s only goal is to destroy everything.

No, now Darkness was going to try to what she thought had to be done, not because it is something that she wanted to do for him, but it was a matter of something she had to do for him. He had been so kind to her last night and she felt she owes him some, and now, she was going to repay him, by giving him what he really needed, a place to stay where he is cared for in a positive way and not in a horrid way like his past, things were going to change if she had her say so, and that’s exactly what she was going to try and do now.

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TF- Wow, Shadow certainly had a problem with what just happened, but it appears Darkness is going to try and fix it, will she be successful and what was with that Agent Darkness stuff?