Happy Birthday, Shadow!
It was a warm August night, and Shadow had a battery-powered alarm clock in his hands as he sat on a large rock in the middle of nowhere. The grass went up to his waist, even on the rock, and the gentle swaying of it and the howling of the breeze usually calmed him, but tonight he was hopelessly restless. It was August twelfth, at 11:55 pm, and his birthday was the thirteenth. He didn't want to celebrate another day of his life with Maria dead because of him. He could hardly stand the thought. He was turning sixty-seven in a few minutes, and that would mark fifty-one years since he left the ARK, with Maria bleeding out on the floor.
He wanted to throw the small, red and white clock against a tree in his anger, but he knew he would want to see when it was midnight. Sonic was probably planning a surprise party right now, and that was the last thing Shadow would ever want to attend.
"All the attention." He wrinkled his noise at the words, "All the hugging. Ugh."
11:58. Two minutes until the torture starts.
He thought back on how the ARK would celebrate the day of his creation. Only Maria actually called it his birthday. After all, he wasn't birthed to begin with. He was grown in a Petri dish with the DNA of a hedgehog and Black Doom. His earliest memory was looking through murky green water in a four-foot tall chamber while he was being created. He could just barely make out the figure of a young girl, maybe six or seven, looking through the glass at him. He was still very small, and probably looked pretty gross and deformed so far, but Maria smiled warmly at him anyway. He remembered tugging at wires protruding from his wrists in an attempt to touch the edge of the glass. Maria pressed her small hand against the glass in front of him, and through much effort, he pressed his even smaller, furless paw against the opposite side of the glass. Her lips were moving, and he could just hardly hear what she said, but she said,
"Will you be my friend?" At the time, he obviously had no idea what that meant, but he could hear her soft, gentle tones and knew she meant well, so he pressed his head against the side in comfort, and she petted the glass. "I wish I could hold you in my arms." She said. "I will, someday."
BEEP BEEP BEEP! BEEP BEEP BEEP!
The alarm clock went off, breaking Shadow from his thoughts with an insane beeping noise. "Now, I'm breaking you!" He screamed, smashing it against a nearby willow tree. He fell to his knees, choking back a sob. "What happened to me?" He asked himself, "What happened to, 'I'll never turn back again?'" He quickly got up and looked around the field, making sure he was alone. When he was sure that he was, he kneeled back down and let the tears flow down his face and fall into the dirt, one by one. The grass went over his head at this height, and he felt like it was the best privacy he would get, considering he didn't have a home to go to. Unless, of course, he teleported to the ARK, but there were too many memories there. "I miss you, Maria..." He whispered into the night.
"I'm never truly gone." He heard as the wind howled by his face. His sobbing stopped, and he stood up, wiping the saltwater from his eyes.
"Maria?" He called into the night.
"Everything's going to be alright, Shadow." He heard again in another gust of wind, "I promise you. Everything."
"Maria?" He called again. The wind stopped. He finally gave up and sat back down on his rock. He rubbed his eyes and wished he hadn't broken the clock.
"I ruin everything I touch." He mumbled.
"No you don't." He heard from behind him. A soft, soprano voice. He slowly turned around and saw Maria sitting on the rock next to him. "Hi!" She said happily. She was wearing a light pink dress with a white band around her waist. There were pink white, and purple flowers in her hair.
Shadow hugged her. "I know you're not actually there." He said.
"Okay, you're right about that." She admitted, "But death is strange. My energy's here, but my body isn't. You loved - love, me more than anyone else in the world, so my heart and soul slumber in you. That's why you can see me."
Shadow had no idea what to say. He just caressed her cheek with the back of his gloved hand, and kissed her. "I miss you." He admitted.
"I miss you too," She agreed, "but we'll be friends forever."
"And ever." Shadow added.
"Yes," she said, scratching Shadow behind his ear. He began to purr. "That too."