Persistence

Chapter 1

Burning, searing pain, the tormented hedgehog looked up with a blurry eye sight. Through the blurs he could see make out a figure, a person, it was Shadow The Hedgehog who was looking down on him with cruel eyes and a sadistic smirk. "Shadow… Shadow please." Sonic choked in pain.

Shadow just widened his evil smirk, grinning even more as Sonic's eyesight became completely blank and he blacked out. Sonic could no longer feel anything, what he felt wasn't like a simple unconsciousness, nothing like he had felt before. It felt a lot worse, a lot more empty.

"Am I… dead?" Sonic's voice echoed through his own mind. "Did Shadow just… kill me?" he struggled to say, his emotions holding him back from speaking. There was no reply, only the distant echoes. "He couldn't have killed me… I can't be dead." he said desperately and anxiously.

The suffocating darkness started to fade and brighten to white until his sight was returned. Now he could see his dirty white bedroom ceiling. He looked around the room groggily, seeing the dim sunlight creeping through the closed curtains. He removed the bed covers from the top of his body and got out of bed. The dazed hedgehog gave his head a few quick shakes to wake himself up more. It felt as though his heart was beating everywhere in his body, his head felt light and dizzy.

"Man… what a dream." Sonic said to himself shakily. "I've not even seen Shadow since the Black Arms invasion, I don't even know if he's alive or not." he added. The shaken and shocked hedgehog walked across the hallway and into the bathroom, turned on the cold water tap, cupped his hands together, filled his hands with water and splashed it onto his face. The freezing cold water splashed onto his face and collided with his red hot cheeks, cooling down his skin and shocking himself fully awake. It took the sleep out of his eyes and the sweat off of his skin, making himself feel a lot fresher.

Once Sonic was washed and dressed he made his way into Tail's workshop which was in the garage next to Sonic's house. Tails saw Sonic as the blue hedgehog walked inside, taking his eyes off of his work, Tails watched as Sonic walked in slowly and silently. The hedgehog looked very out of concentration, looking around the rook cautiously. Tails founds this very strange, Sonic would usually waltz into the room cheerfully and say good morning but today he was a lot quieter. "What's the matter?" Tails asked.

Sonic was shaken out of his trance. "Oh! Uh, nothing." Sonic said and smiled. "Good morning Tails."

"I know there's something wrong." Tails said wisely.

"Yeah…" Sonic sighed and walked over to the work table Tails was at. He leant against it and looked around the room idly, leaving them both in an awkward silence.

"So?" Tails said, "Want to tell me about it?"

"Oh… might as well." Sonic groaned, not really wanting to think about the nightmare. "Tails… do you think that Shadow is alive?" Sonic asked quietly and reluctantly.

"Well, we haven't seen him for months now. He may have died in his fight with Black Doom." Tails said, not really knowing the answer. "Why? Have you been thinking about him?"

"Yeah… I had this dream about him." Sonic said hesitantly, looking to the floor.

"What happened in the dream?" Tails said, noticing Sonic's discomfort in talking about it.

"He was…" Sonic started and gulped, "Torturing me." there was a look of true fear in his face. Tails was silent, he didn't know what to say. "I think the dream might have been some kind of warning." Sonic shivered.

"It could be… but maybe it only means that Shadow is returning and that he isn't going to t- hurt you." Tails said, refraining himself from using the word 'torture', it made him uncomfortable saying it. Sonic took a deep breath,

"I hope to Chaos that you're right." he said shakily.

Later on that day, Sonic went for a walk and a run through station square. He was in the centre where all of the shops and sky scrapers were. He looked through all of the shop windows at the various things he could have bought for himself if he had the money.

Then, about a dozen meters away, across the road, amongst the group of busy humans that were on their way to various locations, Sonic saw a little black hedgehog crossing the road, he was coming in Sonic's direction. Sonic made himself unseen by going into a nearby shop. He stood inside and watched as Shadow walked right past it without a clue that Sonic was near.

Sonic then came out of the shop and had a look to see if he could spot where Shadow was, he found him and saw where he was headed. "I wonder where he's going?" Sonic said to himself and walked in the direction Shadow had gone. He then began to follow the mysterious hedgehog, keeping a distance from him of course.

Sonic followed him for about ten minutes, he had gotten to the suburbs, where Shadow went into a house, closed the door and that was the last Sonic saw of him. The house was quite small, but fully detached from other houses and in a very quiet area, no wonder he hadn't been found before. It was just a five minute walk from Sonic's house too, which would be a few seconds run for Sonic. "I wonder how long he's been living here." Sonic pondered.

Sonic kept a distance from the house and sitting by a bush, he watched to see if Shadow would come back out again. Hours passed but nothing happened, Sonic was nearly falling asleep when he realised that waiting any longer had no use. "Shadow is alive…" Sonic said to himself quietly. "But that means that the dream I had has more chance of coming true." he added worriedly.

Deciding that he wasn't going to wait any longer to see Shadow and that he definitely didn't want to knock on the door, Sonic realised that it was time to go home.

Meanwhile, Tails was concentrating on a new contraption that he was just putting together with a small screwdriver. Suddenly, the door to his workshop flung open and it slammed against the wall as is swung around. In the doorway was a panicking hedgehog. Sonic was looking terrified while Tails was dropping and breaking his hard work in shock. "Tails! I saw Shadow! He's alive!" Sonic exclaimed frantically, his pupils shrinking and his eyes wide. "He he has a house nearby!" he added.

"You can't worry about it this much Sonic. It was just a dream you had, you can't just trust one dream." Tails sighed while he began to pick up the pieces from the floor. "And if it does happen, you'll get through it… you always get through everything." he reassured him.

"But Tails…" Sonic hissed and gulped. "I… died at the end of that dream." he struggled to say. "I don't want to die." he said worriedly.

"I think you should stay away from Shadow then." Tails said, looking uneasy. "Where were you in your dream, in his house?" he asked.

"No, somewhere completely different… it was dark and I could hardly see but… the place reminded me of the Black Arms." Sonic said anxiously.

"Hmm… it seems to me that an old memory of the Black Arms invasion and nearly getting killed in the Black Comet is bothering you." Tails said.

"I hope you're right Tails. I really do." Sonic said, looking down feeling anxious about his fate.