The temperature became eerily colder as the elevator continued to descend. Shadow became a little uneasy at the feel. It gradually continued to get more frigid until the elevator came to a rough stop. Shadow had arrived at the second floor basement of the office complex. The fact that it was hardly ever used and the fact that rarely would someone come down here added to the creepiness of the floor. As the elevator doors opened, the black hedgehog hid around the corner inside the elevator, making it seem like the elevator was empty to anyone outside. Shadow slowly peered out of the elevator, and saw no one. Big surprise. He thought. Jeez, it's colder than Rouge's personality down here!

Getting more nervous, the ebony hedgehog slowly and quietly stepped out of the elevator an walked over to the nearby thermostat on the wall, in an attempt to raise the temperature. The current temperature, according to the thermostat, was 77 degrees Fahrenheit (25 degrees Celsius). What the...? Shadow felt much colder than that. To him, it felt like it was around 38 or so (about 3 degrees Celsius). It was as if his mind was making him feel like he was cold...

Shadow tried not to show any weakness in case something was watching him. He noticed that the second floor basement had been badly kept, and pretty much had no purpose. The second floor basement had only a relatively long hallway leading straight out from the elevator, and a door at the very end. The walls were made of metal with the paint coming off, and patches of mold here and there. The floor was made of concrete and was cracked and dirty with occasional puddles of water. All complete with a moldy smell hanging in the air.

Wait, the moldy smell went away. Now Shadow smelled...skunk? The smell of skunk changed quickly to unclean bathroom. "Gross!" He spat. That soon changed to the smell of womens' perfume. Better than crap. Shadow thought. But what's going on?

Just then, a familiar blue hedgehog appeared unto Shadow. "Hey Shadz!" Sonic greeted. "Check out the new scent!"

"The hell?" Shadow rudely asked. "Are you ga-" Shadow blinked and then Sonic was gone, along with the perfume smell. "My gosh, what's wrong with me?" The black hedgehog then closed his eyes and rubbed his temples for a few seconds, thinking that might stop his head from tricking him.

Looking up, Shadow could've sworn he just saw something floating at the end of the corridor! He gasped slightly, but saw nothing. He decided he really had no business down here, and then quickly walked back to the elevator door. It hadn't moved since he had used it, so it opened right up when he pressed the button. He stepped in and as soon as he was completely inside, a buzzer sounded. It was just like one of those buzzers that went off for a second when a contestant on a TV game show got the wrong answer. This, of course, scared the heck out of Shadow. He looked at the screen, and it read 'WEIGHT LIMIT REACHED".

"How in the world!" There was a small sign in the elevator that read 'Weight limit: 5,000 lbs.'. "I don't weigh that much!" He pressed the button that would take the elevator to the first floor of the building, but the same buzzer sounded and the same message came onscreen. Shadow was actually panicking now, as he stepped out of the elevator.

There was now a medium sized cardboard box on the floor, just calling out for him to open it. Shadow couldn't resist the temptation. He didn't agree to it either. Something made him subconsciously decide! He opened the box, but saw nothing than the worn concrete floor, and a second later, there was no box! It vanished. Shadow looked up, and saw the same thing floating at the end of the hallway! This time, before, disappearing, he could see that it was the figure of a living person.

Shadow found himself walking further down the hall. Heart rate increasing, but egar to find out what was on the other side of the door, he decided to willingly go for it. As he continued, he started to hear voices from those he met before.

"Hey, Shadow! That's one of the Chaos Emeralds!"

"All this for what? Nothing?"

"Y-You're Shadow! What do you want from me!"

"EGGMAN ROBOTS MUST BE ELIMINATED!"

"YAHOOOOOO! WOOOOOSH! Try not to crash, okay? This thing is way too fun!"

"You know what they say: 'The more the merrier!'"

"Our race is marked by jet black and crimson skin. Just like you..."

"Find the Computer Room!"

Shadow managed to ignore all of them. Despite how annoying some of them were. Shadow had finally approached the door. Right before he put his hand on it, he felt excruciating pain in his head. "AUGH!"

There was a bright light, and Shadow saw that he was now in a huge green meadow that stretched each way as far as he could see. Stunned, Shadow took off in one direction in the search for civilization with the help of his rocket shoes. He was running for hours, it seemed, but all he saw was more and more green grass. Shadow decided it was useless and came to a halt.

As he was regaining his breath, he felt someone touch his shoulder. He looked up, startled, and saw a young woman with long golden hair and wrapped in a blue dress. Maria.

"Isn't Earth great, Shadow!" Maria rhetorically asked before frolicking in the meadow some more. Maria was about fifty meters away from Shadow when it happened. Again.

Shadow heard the sound of a desert eagle fire. The same weapon that had killed her. Shadow saw that Maria came to a halt, and fell face forward into the ground.

"MARIA!" He sprinted toward her to try and give her whatever medical techniques he knew that could heal her but his vision started to rotate counterclockwise, making Shadow dizzy and nauseous. "THIS...IS...NOT...HAPPENING!" His vision gradually became darker, and Shadow began to fall into a dark abyss of nothing. "AAAAUUUUGGGGHHHH!"

The vision ended, and Shadow was back in front of the door in the second floor basement in the office building. He was panting very hard, and sweating bullets, even though it still felt freezing to him. He realized that who or whatever was making him think like this was just on the other side of this door. Shadow took a deep breath, got his power up to fight-ready, and opened the door. He slowly peered in and saw that the room was a relatively small storage room that looked like it had previously held who knows what.

Shadow saw no one, and continued to open the door. After a few seconds, he saw someone. It was a white hedgehog about to completely explode in laughter. "PPPPPPPPPPPPPTTTTHHHHHHHHH! WAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!" It was Silver. "And YOU said you were immune to my mind tricks!"

Relieved and outraged, Shadow replied. "Okay, that was just cruel, man!" Shadow shoved the psychic hedgehog, making him fall on the ground. He noticed that something rolled out of Silver's pocket. It was a small glass bottle that said: 'Evil Psychic Juice! (Now in fun size! 8D) "Lay off the evil psychic juice." He commanded.

Silver sat up. "Evil psychic juice?" He asked. Silver really didn't know. He took the bottle from Shadow and held it up close to his face to read it better. "You mean this ain't Juggernog?"

"YOU JUST RUINED A GOOD HORROR FIC!" Shadow punched Silver and knocked him out. He picked up Silver's unconscious body, and ran out of the storage room and into the elevator. Shadow pressed the button that would take him to the roof. While they were going up, Shadow started whistling the theme to Angel Island Zone.

When they got to the third floor, the elevator stopped and opened, letting someone walk in. Shocked at the sight, the guy just stared at the two. Shadow then spoke up. "So did you hear about the politics yesterday?" The elevator dinged before the man had a chance to answer. "Oop, gotta go! See you round!"

Shadow, still carrying the sleepy psychic, ran to the edge of the roof. "Wake up!" Shadow demanded as he took off Silver's left boot and tickled his foot.

"Hehehehehehehehe!" He laughed.

"Goodbye!" Shadow threw Silver off the building.

"Augh!"

But Shadow didn't see that there was a balcony one floor lower than where they were. So, Silver landed on a picnic table with some people on lunch break. The people screamed.

"Hey, is that Juggernog?" Silver asked.

Shadow facepalmed and walked back to the elevator, random guy still in it. "Yes, those politics were very political." The guy answered.

"Yes. Yes indeed." Shadow replied.

THE END


Oooh, twist ending! Unless you knew this would happen, in which case would not be a twist ending...

So thanks for reading, and critiques are always appreciated!