MTF: Hey there everybody! Here is the beginning of Blood Winter, the companion to AngelicPuppy's Crimson Frost. I hope you guys enjoy both stories.

I do not own the Sonic the Hedgehog cast, they are the property of Sega. Karo, Mari and the Darraki are the intellectual property of AngelicPuppy.

This was my fourth run now. I was on edge and admittedly, I was freaking out. Some part of my brain was saying that running wouldn't help. I'd gotten up three other times and it hadn't helped me sleep, or even lay down for that matter. Everytime I closed my eyes it was another bloody image.

First, it had been Amy and Rouge, screaming as they were thrown into a canyon. Then, Knuckles and Shadow, chained to some kind of sick torture wall. A woman with a long, white blade cut them up slowly. I couldn't remember a whole lot of that one, but I ran to the bathroom when I woke up. Amy had to wake me from the third one where I was drowning, I was pretty sure I'd heard Tails in that one. The last one had been the worst. Tails and Cream, tied to trees that were burning, their agonized cries echoing along with a woman's laughter. I couldn't bring myself to admit that Karo was hurt, not with a spear violently thrust into his chest and blood pouring across the smoldering grass.

I pushed my body faster, despite the frigid morning air. I was trying to outrun this weird craziness that had descended on my house. Usually, when I ran, it was refreshing, relaxing, even if I hit Mach 1 and broke the sound barrier. But this was a hard run, 'hauling ass' so to speak. I felt like an actor in a scary movie that was trying to hide from the ax killer. I'd left sound behind almost as soon as I'd gotten away from the house.

I couldn't run too far, Amy would get worried and the others would start waking soon. It was likely that Shadow was already up, he never slept well at our house after a few days, a week at the longest. I kept trying to convince Amy to make his room more to his tastes, but she insisted that being in a brighter space would help lift his mood and that sitting around in a dark room with dark colors was part of his problem. She never seemed to understand that it was brightness that unsettled him, it made him feel exposed and filled with nervous energy.

I sighed and began to slow down. I could feel the strain in my body, having pushed myself four times on little sleep and lots of stress was starting to wear me down. And that's saying something. I made a wide turn, nearly sliding out, and headed back towards the house. By the time I got there, I could tell that at least two people were up. I found myself gasping and sucking in the cold fire of air. My head hurt, my chest hurt, and my muscles were practically crying from the strain. Man I felt like shit. I heard a door close and a tired sigh. I climbed the railing, and through the busted window, where I found Shadow nearly invisible in the hallway.

"You okay Shadow?" he looked even more sleepless than normal.

"I'll be fine I guess. Angry at Tails, he gave me lip after waking from a nightmare. I've never heard him be so disrespectful."

I nodded, thinking of how Tails had seemed more and more isolated lately. He'd been spending a lot of time in his lab. I glanced back at Shadow, who met my gaze tiredly. I wondered if he'd talk or not.

"You want to talk about it?" He shook his head no, and that was it. I tossed him a coat before heading back to my room. Amy was up, pulling on a robe. She jumped slightly when I wrapped my arms around her waist.

"Oh Sonic, you scared me a little. Did Shadow just leave?"

"Sorry babe, I didn't mean to scare you, and yea he left. I put the phone in there too. Did you sleep?" I asked nuzzling her.

"No. Are you hungry?"

"Yea, a little. I want something else first though" I said nipping at her ear. She let out a sigh and relaxed against me.

"Well, I think I can accomadate you this morning Hero" she answered with a smile. I cheesed before putting her on the bed. After we had gone a few rounds Amy went to go make breakfast. I heard Cream and Karo moving around, and Tails knocked on the door as I was getting out the shower.

"Sonic?"

"Come on in Tails. We need to talk anyway." The little fox walked in, with that look that said he knew he was probably in trouble.

"Did you have another nightmare?" I asked drying my quills.

"Yeah"

"You told Shadow?" he nodded. I nodded back, thinking over how I could deal with his sudden backtalking. It was probably my fault anyway for letting him say whatever he wanted.

"Shadow knows what's going on Sonic. He at least has an idea what might be wrong with us!" Tails said angrily.

"Tails, you don't know that – "

"Yes I do! He always knows! He just never says anything until it's obvious!"

I chuckled, which quickly turned into a laugh. "Tails, I don't know where you get this idea that you can yell around here, much less at Shadow of all people, but you need to bring it down a notch."

"No! I'm tired of everybody treating me like a child and not tellling me anything! It's not fair that he doesn't say anything to us, and we're the ones who suffer – "

"Do you really wanna be grown that bad?" I yelled. He shrank back then. He really had no idea what to do with me yelling. I don't think anybody really did except maybe Shadow or Knuckles.

"Don't think it's all it's cracked up to be. We go through so much to take care of you, do you know what it took to get the government to even let us stay? Have you not looked outside? You think we like fighting? You have no right to try and step to anyone in this house, not me, not Shadow, not Knuckles. No one. You are not on my level, and you're sure as hell not on Shadow's level. You owe him a serious apology when he gets back, because he has done quite a bit for all of us."

"But – " Tails tried again.

"No Miles! You are not the only one hurting here!" I said doing something that I never did, calling by his first name. I think Tails was more surprised at that then my actual words. He looked ready to cry, and dropped his gaze to the floor, ears flat against his head.

"I'm sorry Sonic" he said quietly and walked out. I swore I had heard something like repressed anger in his tone. I shook my head, telling him to get ready for breakfast. Why was the world going to hell so fast? We didn't even have a handbasket dammit. It was like somebody had just used a bulldozer and dumped us into the pit.

Downstairs, Amy had prepared food for the kids, all of who seemed to be missing, probably upstairs. I plopped into my favorite chair, closing my eyes to stave off a rare headache. I'd only been sitting there for a few minutes when Amy opened the door to Shadow.

"Come on, before your food gets cold. Then I want you to sleep, I don't care where, but you need rest."

"I'm fine Amy."

"You're always fine Shadow." She said, her tone angry. "You're always perfectly fine, until you aren't. You look like a wreck."

I had to agree there. We all looked jacked up every which way, like tossed salad, or a bunch of withdrawn junkies. Shadow gave a blank review of himself in the mirror, and shook his head.

"I don't look like a wreck, and if I do it's from taking a run straight out of bed."

"You don't look like a wreck to you, but to your friends and family who know you so well, you look a mess." I said getting up to stretch. Shadow looked almost surprised, which made sense since I normally didn't like a silent room.

"To me, everyone looks a mess. Are any of us actually sleeping?" he said exasperated.

"No, not really. It's like it's been sucked away, Sonic got up four times to run last night. I'm sure you heard him at least once. I know Cream can only sleep in your room or ours and I just toss and turn. Especially if she's in there, I don't want her to have another nightmare." Amy said witth a sigh. She shook her head, worry clear across her face.

"Me not sleeping well either. Scary dreams about my planet, I see fires burning forests." Karo chirped quietly from the stairs.

"I am not sleeping well either, I am having scary dreams about my planet and I see fires burning the forests. That's how you say it." Amy said, reaching through the banister to scratch Karo's ears. He sort of purred, his sign that he understood the correction.

"Shadow knows something about it. He just doesn't want to sound strange or whatever." Tails said from the top of the steps. He was pouting big time, and I was ready to pop him now. We really did not need his attitude.

"We already talked about this Tails. We all know Shadow and he will tell us when he's damn well ready. How would you like it if someone tried to pry something from you? Just like you treasure and protect your experiments and hesitate to explain the stranger or more confusing ones, so Shadow does with his thoughts. You still need to apologize." Tails huffed but didn't say anything.

"Come on, all of you need to eat, then we'll do something to figure out how all of us can sleep." Amy said.

That was the eeriest, most unnatural breakfast we had ever had. It was never so quiet as it was. Shadow and Amy didn't even so much as look at their food, and I had burned too many calories during the night to not eat. Tails seemed angry at his food too, he barely touched it and even neglected his juice. We all reacted to the doorbell, followed by the greetings of Rouge and Knuckles as they came in.

"Damn, I don't think I've ever heard it dead silent in here. What's going on?" Rouge asked as she walked into the kitchen.

"Shadow isn't telling us anything." Tails said sullenly. He seemed determined to get an ally over Shadow.

"Shut it Tails, stop causing trouble." I snapped, biting into a strip of bacon.

Rouge and Knuckles hugged Cream and Amy, before taking seats around the table. Rouge scratched at Shadow's ear, which caused him to put his head down.

"So, what exactly is going on here?" she asked. "Lirias mentioned a dream before he left. He didn't tell us what it was, but that it wasn't a good thing. Is that connected to all this?" Shadow began to laugh nervously. It was a slightly disturbing sound in the quiet kitchen.

"I'm going to take that as a yes. What was the dream about Shadow?" she asked. Shadow's nervous laughter started into near sobbing. Then he jumped into the details of the dream, how Maria became Death, and Lirias' interpretation. We all stayed silent as he went, afraid to break whatever was holding him together.

"Why would Death look for Shadow?" Cream asked. Her question was innocent and totally valid, but there wasn't a way to answer her and she understand.

"Cuz he nearly dies too much." Tails said, quietly. "It's like teasing a dog with bacon; eventually he'll try to bite you." The room sat in shocked silence, all attention on the little fox. His gaze was locked on Shadow's who told Cream to go upstairs. Karo followed her hesitantly, not sure what was going on. Knuckles grunted before going into the living room.

"Ok, so everyone is unable to sleep and everyone is dreaming about death?" Rouge asked.

"That's about right. Cream can sleep if she's in our room or Shadow's, but then we can't sleep for worry of her." I answered. Amy gently rubbed my shoulder, trying to convey some comfort.

"And that's not to say we can sleep when she's not in the room. Last night was the worst, I don't think anyone got more than four hours. I know Sonic didn't, he kept getting up to run. Shadow, well we all know Shadow loses sleep more easily than anyone." She said with a sigh.

"And Cream keeps going into his room, and Karo follows her, so we can bet he's not getting much sleep just due to that." Tails said turning back to his neglected food.

Shadow chuckled darkly, "I haven't even been able to dream. I'm just not sleeping long enough."

Rouge shook her head and began scratching at his ear again. He looked like he was falling asleep.

"Rouge, I don't know what we can do, but I think it might be good if the kids stayed with you and Knuckles. At the very least Cream and Karo." I said, casting a glance at the still sulking Tails. Amy nodded in agreement, wondering if we could contact Lirias for advice.

"It might not be a bad idea, Knuckles and I have been doing fairly well, so maybe a change of scenery would help. I'll talk it over with him, but I doubt he'd have a problem." Rouge said thoughtfully. Shadow mumbled something before sitting up.

"Hey Shadow, are you alright?" I called loudly. He seemed to twitch when Amy called him, getting a wet washcloth and wiping his face. That seemed to wake him up.

"Are you ok Shadow?" She asked.

"I think I was dreaming." He responded, his words slurred.

"Well, go lay down then, you too Tails. Sleep in our room ok? Shadow I think you should stay in the livingroom."

Tails sighed before trudging upstairs. Shadow slouched back in his chair, grunting with a twitch. Rouge shook him a little bit, asking him about his dream. He just gave a sort of 'hrm' and blinked at her. She asked again.

"A fog, someone calling me to go play. Said if I came I'd see Maria." He answered leaning towards the wall. I got up and got Knuckles, who practically dragged Shadow to the couch where he fell asleep almost instantly. Amy put a blanket on him and took a deep breath before going upstairs to check on our chibis.