/ Yo! I was feeling really depressed when I wrote this and going through family troubles. So, I decided to write this in order to possible let some feelings out so I can get over it. Annabel, Mellisia, Nightfall, Jason, Blake, Zak, Will, and Caty are MINE! Everyone else belongs to SEGA. Don't be afraid to suggest whether or not I should do chapters. :) /

*thunk* Another knife was driven into the wall in frustration. A light brown hedgie with dark brown hair and icy-blue eyes glared at the wall across from her as she sat on her bed. Since a few weeks ago, on Christmas day on all days, she was in a lousy mood. Every time someone asked her what was wrong, she'd just shake her head and tell them not to worry. It seemed with every day that passed, she got worse. Soon, she was in her room 24/7, either drawing, writing, or laying down with headphones on. Nothing more and nothing less. Soon this concerned Sonic and the others, questioning if she really was okay. The only one who didn't seem to care was Shadow. He never talked much and never seemed to care about anything. The hedgehog girl, of whom her friends call Annabel, soon roughly jerked the knife out of the slightly-damaged wall and walked back to her bed to throw it again. There was a knock on the door and Silver's head popped in.

"Hey, Annabel," he greeted, "Can I talk to you for a second. It's kinda urgent."

"I dunno. Can you?" she replied blandly and threw her knife at the wall again. *thunk*

Silver walked in and sat down on Annabel's bed, watching her retrieve her knife and come back again. His yellow eyes reflected his emotions like a mirror, so Annabel knew what was coming. She sat down next to the albino hedgie, cleaning her knife although it was already spotless.

"I know that you say you're okay when people ask you," he started, lightly tugging on the cuff of his right glove nervously. "But we're starting to worry about you. You haven't come out of your room a lot and the only times you do is either when we're going someplace or when there's food on the table, but you don't seem to eat much. Are you sure you're okay?"

The light brown hedgie was quiet for a while, then sighed. "Yes, Silver. I'm absolutely okay. Just a little sad, that's all."

"Sad about what?" the albino hedgehog asked, looking at her.

"Stuff. But it'll pass. Just stop worrying about it." Annabel responded, looking into her reflection in the knife.

Silver put a finger under the hedgie's chin and gently lifted her head to meet his eyes. "Annabel, you know just as well as I do that isn't true. Something's bugging you and you're keeping it to yourself. Please tell me what it is. II won't tell the others if you don't want them to know, but seeing you like this worries me."

She gave him a look. "Silver, I'm fine. It's just that something came up and it put me in a really stressed state. There's no need to worry about me anymore. I just need time to myself and recollect myself. I'm not saying I don't need your help; I'm flattered that you guys care about my well-being and want to help me. It's just something I need to get over on my own."

Silver looked at the light brown hedgehog for a while, then sighed in defeat. "Alright alright, we'll give you space for a couple more days. If your condition doesn't change by that time, we're not gonna stop until you tell us the truth." He hugs her tightly, then he got up and gave her a worried look before leaving the room.

Annabel sighed and decided to get dressed in a slim-fitting orange turtleneck and white boot cut jeans with brown high-heeled boots, silver loop earrings, and a gold jeweled locket necklace her brother, Blade, gave her when she was little. She went into her private bathroom to tidy up and when she got out, she looked like she was dressed to impress. Her hair was tied up in the back, but her bangs covered her right eye still. When she walked down, Sonic whistled to her.

"Damn girl. Thought I'd never see that beautiful face again. How you feeling?" the cobalt hedgie flirted, giving her a quick wink.

"Fine. Just going out for a while." Annabel replied, swiping a little bit of orange-flavored lip gloss on her bottom lip.

" You look like you're going out alright. On a date," he remarked, smiling cockily. "I hope I'll be that date."

"I'm not going on a damn date. I just need time outside for a while. I'll be back sometime later," she retorted, becoming irritated with the blue blur's flirting.

With that, she slipped on her white sweatshirt and vest and walked out into the snow. Everyone seemed kind of convinced except for one person, who was reading the newspaper as usual. Shadow looked up from his reading and decided to investigate for himself. He got up and went upstairs to the hedgie girl's room, locking the door behind him.

'Alright. She never said when she'll be back, so I'll have approximately have forty five minutes to find out what exactly is bothering her. Knowing how spotless Annabel's room looks, this is gonna be easy.' he thought to himself as he started to silently look around for anything that could have lead to depression. After half an hour of searching, Shadow sighed irritantly.

'Dammit,' he thought. 'What could possibly be causing Annabel so much pain?'

He was about to leave the room until he heard one of his theme songs playing. It was her Verizon Wireless smartphone, lying on the surface of Annabel's black desk. The ebony hedgehog stared at it for a while, then slowly walked over to it. The music then abruptly stopped and a window appeared, reading "MISSED CALL" and someone named Nightfall. Not paying attention to what he was doing, he accidentally knocked a folded up piece of paper off it. Shadow bent over to pick it up, but realized there was writing on it. Curious, he picked it up and read it aloud.

"'Annabel, I know that you think that I'm a bad guy and that your step mother says stuff about me behind my back. It's not your fault that she and I fight all the time. I'm writing to you to tell you my side of the situation. You see, she likes to go out and see the world while I just want to stay conservative. One night, she went out with a couple of her friends and didn't come back until much later. Then one of my friends told me they saw her making out with this one guy named Zak, who was about ten years younger than her. Upset and hurt, I confronted her and she said that it didn't happen. I partially believed her until she started hanging out with more of her friends, a couple were guys. The same incident happened a few months later, but with a guy named Will. After that, I just couldn't trust her and we had to split. Later on, I started exercising more often and became friends with Caty. Her and I are just friends. We never did any inappropriate crap like Mellisia might have told you. I love both you and your stepbrother, Blake, very much and I promise things will get better. From, Jason.'" Shadow was quiet for a while, "Who the hell is Jason? What did this Mellisia person say about him? Who's Caty?"

The Ultimate Lifeform sighed and placed the letter back on the hedgie girl's desk, then searched through her phone. He scrolled through images of her and her friends and found one of him, sleeping on the couch. Shadow couldn't help but smirk a little and looked through her memos. There weren't much, but one that read, "Dear everyone, I'm sorry for-" caught his attention. He tapped on the mysterious message and read it in his head.

'"Dear everyone, I'm sorry for not being of much use and for always getting in the way. I'm just tired of having to decide who I should believe and I just want to go away. Don't think it's your fault cause it wasn't. It was mostly mine. Not because of the "thing" between Mellisia and Jason, but because of developing an anti-social and unreasonable depression. I've always kept my thoughts bottled up inside me and never let you see the true me. Ever since my brother died at a young, I just didn't care for my welfare or my future. I wanted to have him with me again and have everything more enjoyable. Look how that turned out. If you don't hear from me for more than half an hour, just know that I care for every single one of you and I would have done anything for you guys. Take care of Sarina, Sashii, and Nori for me. And farewell, my friends. -Annabel the Hedgehog-"'

Realization hit Shadow like a freight train as the phone hit the ground. 'Oh god. Oh god please no. I won't lose another friend.' His usually-still hands quaked as he ran downstairs, his tan muzzle now pale. Amy saw the ebony hedgehog's face and asked, "Shadow? You feeling alright?"

He didn't even glance at the fuchsia hedgie as he quickly put on his coat and ran outside. Snow immediately whipped at Shadow's face as he trudged forward, searching for any signs of Annabel. Thoughts of possible futures of the hedgehog girl's death raced through his head as he looked around in the blizzard.

"Anna!" Shadow called, looked all around him, "Anna, where are you? I need to speak with you!"

The howling wind responded him, but not the hedgie girl. The Ultimate Lifeform felt his heart beat faster as he started running blindly through the merciless snow storm. He never felt this way since the time of Maria's death, which aroused his fear more. Could she be already dead from the blizzard? Could she have been running on a frozen lake and fell through weak ice? Would he ever be able to see Annabel smile happily again? He shook his head and searched more for the hedgie girl. He couldn't give up on her. Not yet. Not when he discovered her plan of suicidal proportions.

Finally, just when he began to lose hope, he found something in the distance. It was a slightly dark figure, very slowly fading into the storm. Shadow suddenly broke into a run, his heart beating a hundred miles an hour. He called out Annabel's name again and again, each time getting louder and louder. Then the figure stopped and turned to the ebony hedgie. He took that opportunity to skate towards it at full speed. The hedgehog girl hadn't removed her sweatshirt or vest, but she looked dead. Her eyes were lifeless and she staggered with every step she took. Finally, just when Shadow was about to pull her into a hug, Annabel fell into his arms, her eyes rolling to the back of her head. The Ultimate Lifeform never felt so relieved and scared in his life. The ebony hedgehog picked her up bridal-style and chaos-controlled back to Rouge's house, freezing and exhausted.

The albino jewel thief gasped as she saw Shadow trudge in the house, shivering and carrying Annabel in his arms. "Shadow!" she cried, running to him.

The Ultimate Lifeform didn't reply as he climbed upstairs into his room. Setting the unconscious hedgie girl on his bed, Shadow put a couple more blankets on her, lightly felt her face, and checked to see if she was alright. She was ice-cold, but she was breathing easily and with a large bloody spot on her forehead. He bandaged her wound pretty good, trying not to wake Annabel, and gazed at her for a while.

'Why would anyone as nice and lovely as Annabel want to end their lives...? Why would anyone consider her as useless or a waste of space? Why do I feel so concerned for her?' He questioned, slightly smiling at the hedgie girl's peaceful state.

After a moment, he leaned forward and lightly nudged his nose on Annabel's. He then got up and decided to look through her phone more. As the ebony hedgie scrolled through her memos again, he accidentally tapped on one. Oddly, to the Ultimate Lifeform, it was not a note to herself nor a note for her parents. It was a small paragraph that made Shadow blush a light pink.

"'I think I love Shadow. I'm not sure how or why, but there's something about him that attracts me to him. Is it because of his ruby eyes or blood-red streaks? His voice? Whatever it is, I hope someday he'll notice me.'" he read, blushing a little more.

Shadow's mouth twitched into a smile as he looked from the phone to the sleeping hedgie girl. His heart beating faster, he gets up and sits next to her, placing his hand on her slender one. With little hesitation, he gently pressed his lips against Annabel's forehead, then laid down next to her and slept. A wide grin was on his face he fell into a deep sleep.

'Anna, I don't know what's going on with your family now, other than the divorce, and I might not know how you completely feel about it. But no matter what happens, I will always be there to support you. I don't care how many bad things have happened to you or why they happened. I only care about your safety and I would do anything for you in return. Although I may never have the courage to tell you this myself, I think I love you too.'

Before long, Shadow lightly kissed Annabel's forehead and went downstairs to sleep on the couch. Even as he quickly drifted to sleep, a small grin was visible on the ebony hedgehog's tan muzzle.

/ Yeah. My writing isn't the greatest, but hey. Constructive criticism is always appreciated. /