CHAPTER 1

A TRAGIC DAY

"Give it back, Shadow!" A little brown fox girl yelled while she was chasing a little black hedgehog around the classroom.

The black hedgehog was running around in circles while he was holding a paintbrush with red paint on it, "If you want it so much then run for it."

The two kids continued to yell and run around the classroom until the teacher came in the room stunned by them tearing the room apart. She quickly ran over to them trying to stop them, "Shadow! Kassidy! What are you doing!"

Shadow then spun around and splatted the red paint on Kassidy's white shirt.

"Shadow!" The brown fox yelled as tears came to her eyes.

Shadow immediately dropped the paintbrush on the floor knowing that he would get in trouble.

The teacher grabbed Shadow by the arm, "Shadow, why did you do that to Kassidy?"

Shadow shrugged, "Cause it was...fun?"

The teacher's grip tightened on his arm, "You're in big trouble this time, Shadow."

Shadow smirked meaning he had an idea. Since he was extremely rich he thought he could get out of trouble, "Hey if you don't tell the principal on me, I'll give you five hundred dollars and I won't get my father to fire your sorry ass."

The teacher gasped, "A six year old boy shouldn't use such language nor should he bribe the teacher."

"Why not? My father doesn't mind."

"That's it", she said in a deep tone.

Later that afternoon in the classroom, Shadow's punishment was writing 'I will not bribe the teacher' twenty times on the chalkboard. Shadow was almost finished, until Kassidy came in the room staring at him with anger. Shadow noticed her coming in so he looked over to her, "What do you want?"

"Why do you do this?"

"Do what?"

"You tease me and make fun of me. Why?"

Shadow looked down to the floor, "I don't know." He never meant to hurt her feelings.

"Then why do you do it?"

Shadow looked up to her, "Because I like you okay!"

Kassidy then stood there at the doorway in complete silence.

Shadow realized what he said and dropped the chalk he was writing with and began to walk out the door.

Kassidy never looked at him, "Shadow..."

"I don't wanna talk about it." He then left the room leaving the brown fox speechless.

Later outside of the school, a light blue hedgehog with red quills on his head seemed like he was waiting for someone. He spotted a black hedgehog walking towards him with sadness. The light blue hedgehog smiled, "How was your day, Shad?"

Shadow sighed, "Terrible, I don't think I'll be able to show my face there again."

"Wanna talk about it?"

Shadow looked in his father's green eyes and shook his head.

The light blue hedgehog placed his hand on his shoulder, "Let's go home."

Later the sun had went down and the night had approached. It seemed that a storm was coming. The light blue hedgehog figured that they better hurry. He looked down at his son, "We better hurry or the rain will catch us." He then heard laughing coming from a nearby alley. He stopped and looked over to the dark alley.

The rain began to start slowly. Shadow looked over to his father, "Dad, what's wrong?"

The light blue hedgehog looked over to his son, "Nothing."

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Dash the Hedgehog", a grey fox appeared from the alley. "We've been waiting for you."

Dash glared as three more figures appeared behind him, "Lance...and the rest of you punks..."

Shadow held his father's hand, "Dad, who are those guys?"

The grey fox smirked, "We're gonna kill your drunk ass for getting us in trouble with the police."

Dash looked over to Shadow, "Stay here and don't move."

Shadow didn't quite understand the situation at the time, "But..."

"Just do as I say and I'll take care of this", Dash slowly walked towards Lance with fury. "How dare you threaten me."

"You and what army", he snapped his fingers and the three figures surrounded the hedgehog.

Shadow watched as Dash got severly beaten by the three figures, "Dad!"

The rain poured from the sky after the three figures beat him up, Dash was lying on the wet ground with blood running down the side of his face. He slowly looked up at Lance holding something with a shiny point in his hand.

Shadow gasped as he saw the small weapon. He ran towards Lance and started to punch him in the leg, "Leave my father alone!"

Lance found him annoying so he used his fist and punched Shadow in the face.

Shadow fell the ground crying.

"Appex, kill that damn kid!"

A red porcupine grabbed Shadow by his arm and took out a pocket knife holding it near his neck.

Dash tried to get off the ground, but Lance stomped on his back, "Do us a favor and enjoy looking at your only kid die in front of your eyes."

"No Lance, please don't kill him. He's only a child. Kill me instead just don't kill my son."

Lance made an evil smile towards Appex, "Let him go."

The red porcupine threw Shadow against the wall making him bleed from the back of his head.

Shadow looked up at the grey fox positioning his pocket knife at the blue hedgehog's head. He started to cry, "Dad...DAD!"

Lance pointed the knife at the hedgehog's head and smirked, "See you in hell, Dash the Hedgehog."

Shadow sat there against the wall and watched his father getting stabbed in his forehead. He cried and yelled in sadness, "Dad..."

The grey fox walked up to him, "He's dead, kid. Get over it already."

Shadow looked up at Lance with anger, "You son of a bitch!" He tried to punch him, but the red porcupine grabbed him by his arm. "Let me go! Let me go right now damn it! Damn you! Damn you all!"

Lance chuckled, "You got a lot of spunk in yea kid. Maybe you should join us."

Shadow couldn't believe they wanted him to join them. The ones who killed his father in front of his eyes. "I'll never join you!" He shouted.

A brown chipmunk handed Lance a small microchip. Then he and the red porcupine held Shadow down on the ground.

Shadow got scared and started to panic, "What the hell are you doing!"

Lance slowly walked up to Shadow holding the microchip towards his head.

Shadow closed his eyes tightly, "No!"

The next day at the school, the teacher confronted the class and somehow she looked sad.

Kassidy looked around for Shadow, but he didn't show. She wondered if his absence was connected to what he had said yesterday.

"Class, I have some bad news about one of our classmates", the teacher had said.

Kassidy began to listen closely.

"Last night Shadow's father was killed and Shadow was with him. Shadow went missing and the police don't know where he is. They're doing their best to find him."

Kassidy gasped, "Shadow..."

Then other classmates began to make awful comments about his whereabouts.

"Maybe he ran away", one said.

"Or maybe they killed him too", another said.

Kassidy didn't want to hear anymore of their comments. She stood from her desk and confronted the class, "Stop it!" She shouted and then ran out of the classroom.

"Kassidy!" The teacher shouted, but Kassidy had ignored her.

Kassidy ran into the girls bathroom, kneeled on the floor and started crying, "Shadow, where are you? Please be okay."