The Shadowed Lands (I may change title)
There was nothing around him. There was nothing he could touch, not even the smooth texture of air. Nothing he could see, not even the inside of his eyelids. There was nothing he could hear, not even the faint ringing tone of silence. There were no scents, no tastes, just nothing. Nothing surrounded him, but he was nothing, too. There was no way of knowing how long he'd been in this terrible place. No way of knowing if he would ever be freed. So he waited, but didn't wait, for nothing exists in the Void, not even time. The Void was the truest prison of all, even though there was nothing preventing him from escaping. Nothing. That was the Void. No one who hadn't been there could understand the true horror of nothing. No one escaped unless they were freed. That had only happened once, and the child who'd been freed had been driven insane the moment she ceased being nothing, and was able to leave her sanity elsewhere. If that would happen to him, he wasn't sure he wanted to leave this place. But it wasn't a place. It wasn't anything. It was the Void, and the Void is nothing. If he had been able to think, he would've gone insane long ago. It seemed like he'd been there for eternity, but it could have only been moments. Time had no hold in the Void. He could be here forever, trapped within nothing. Someone could free him, but that wouldn't happen. No matter how long it had been, no one could have forgotten him. No one could have forgotten the way he'd terrorized the world, no matter how long he'd been here. Right?
"Why are we here, Faker?" Shadow growled angrily.
"Because Amy and Rouge are hosting the International Shadow and Sonic the Hedgehogs Fan Club for the week, and I am not staying in the same house as over a thousand crazy fans." Sonic shuddered at the thought.
"Let me clarify. Why am I here?"
"Because I needed someone to carry my stuff. That and, it's your fan club too. I saw autograph hounds sniffing out your room yesterday. If you weren't here with me, you'd be ambushed by fans every 3 seconds." Sonic shuddered again, this time because of the glare Shadow had sent his way.
"That would explain the lipstick on my door. I thought Amy was trying to decide who she really loved again."
"For the record, she was stalking me first."
"You can have her. I have enough problems with Rouge and her consistent apologies for betraying me by flirting with Knuckles. I wasn't aware we had a relationship."
"That's exactly how it started with Amy. Except with less apologies and more tackles. And one case at court when I got a restraining order against her." Sonic grimaced, remembering the scene Amy had made at the courtroom.
"If you have a restraining order, why does she still get to chase you around?"
"The legal document mysteriously vanished. And I haven't managed to get photographic proof that she's after me since."
Shadow smirked at the expression of suffering on the other hedgehog's face. Sonic noticed the smirk and decided to ignore it. In a verbal fight, Shadow had the distinct advantage of being able to think as fast as he could skate.
"Seriously, Faker, why are we here?" Shadow was not going to let the subject go without a fight.
"Well, I was snooping around in Amy's room a while ago, looking for some picture or something I could use in a case against her, and I found her diary. I knew it would be a very bad thing to read it in search of something I could use against her, so naturally, I read it. Cover to cover. It was pretty boring, I mean, she dedicated a whole page to describing my eyes. I think one word, green, sums them up pretty well."
"Get on with it. You did not drag me all the way here to talk about Amy's use of the pages in her diary."
"Well, like I said, I was doing research in her diary, and I found out one thing. One vitally important thing." Sonic started to grin.
"What?" Shadow was getting interested despite himself, but he wasn't about to show it.
"I found out Amy's worst fear. She's terrified of vampires!" Sonic was really smiling now.
"And that's the reason you dragged us to the Transylvanian mountains?" Shadow was not impressed.
"Yeah! She'll never follow us here! She's scared Dracula will get her!" Sonic said proudly.
"Well, it is remote. They'll have a hard time following us. Of course, we could've accomplished the same thing at the Bermuda triangle."
"No, no, no! Nowhere near water! Especially not water where people have been known to disappear!" Sonic shivered with the thought of all that water.
"I've never understood your hydrophobia."
"My hydro-what?"
"Your fear of water."
"Why didn't you just say so?"
"I did."
"No, you said I had hydro-something."
"That's the scientific term for a fear of water."
"You spend too much time with Tails. He's rubbing off on you."
"No, I just didn't stop school at the age of 12."
"Hey! Blame Eggman for that! He blew up my school!"
"You could've gone to a new one."
"He tried to take over the world! Repeatedly!"
"15 year old delinquent."
"I am not going to listen to you if you're just going to insult me." Sonic flopped down on the edge of a cliff. Shadow resisted the growing urge to give him a little push.
"So we're going to spend a week just wandering the mountains?" Shadow asked grumpily. He was not in a good mood. He'd turned one ankle in a hole that had suddenly appeared in front of him and then vanished as suddenly as it had appeared, and it was really starting to hurt.
"Of course not. I made preparations in advance. We're staying at one of the places Dracula was rumoured to have lived in! Further protection from Amy!"
"Once again, I am astonished by your ability to make bad choices and think that they're good ones. Let's just go."
He heard something. The sound of rock falling, and a muttered curse. He saw something. A shoe, like nothing he'd ever seen before. Light behind it, light from the sun. Something in nothing. For a moment, fresh air wafted through the hole in the Void, carrying with it the scent of the outdoors. He felt something wet drop on to his hand, seeping into his torn glove. Blood. In the moment of thought before the hole vanished, he knew what was happening. Once every thousand years, the Void would tear. He would have a chance to live again, if he was released when the Void tore. And he had the method to do so. He smiled before the Void could close again, and cast the spell that would force the one whose blood had fallen to release him from the endless nothing. He knew where it would go. Transylvania. His home.
"Ow!"
"What is it this time, Faker?" Shadow asked, his voice filled with exasperation.
"Stepped in a gopher hole. Darn it, something cut me! Something that wasn't one of your comments." Sonic sat down, holding the offending foot. "Do we have any bandages?"
"You packed the emergency bag."
"Oh, right. Let me see⦠Mirror, syringe filled with tranquilizer, smoke bombs, garlic, obsidian knife, more garlic, oranges and lemons in case of scurvy, tissues, four bottles of blue hair dye in case, uh, Eggman attacks with one of those machines that targets blue things and we have to dye the land around us so we can escape, Amy's diary, Cream's teddy bear, some kind of gizmo Tails built, a video camera, a stapler, four pens, thirteen different coloured pencils, Rouge's shirt, she asked me to get it dry cleaned but I never got around to it, so don't stare at me like that, seven magazines, including the draft issue of Playgirl Amy sold those pictures of you and me to, a flashlight, three bottles of hair gel, in case we have to slick our spikes down, a computer mouse without a computer, a hairbrush, my toothbrush, my DS, a bag of jewels Rouge forgot to take out, Rouge's diary-"
"Why do you have Rouge's diary? And is there anything in there about why she acts so irrational around me?" Shadow interrupted.
"I found it with Amy's, no, but there is a detailed description of a daydream where she has all the gems in the world, and you and Knuckles are her servants and willing to do whatever she wants you wants you to. Sunglasses, ninety-three subscription cards Knuckles filled out, the wall clock that went missing from our kitchen a while ago, a cow bell with 'Sonic's Bell' written on it in hot pink and the i's dotted with little hearts, a sweater, twenty-two marbles, in case you lose yours, a sled, three hundred and fifty-seven paper clips, thirty coupons for various fast food places, a picture frame, and a thirty year old map to the Forks in Winnipeg. Oh, and bandages."
"How did you fit all of that in a two foot long bag?" Shadow asked in disbelief.
"I learned the fine art of packing and unpacking from a true master."
"And you're not going to elaborate."
"You have learned well, young grasshopper."
"I'm a hedgehog."
"You're screwing up my martial arty sayings, Shadow."
"Bite me."
"I don't think you'd taste good."
"Better than you, chilli dog breath."
"Says the guy who likes ravioli."
"Nothing wrong with noodles, except the ones in your brain."
"Are you suggesting I'm not smart?"
"I don't need to, you just did."
"Okay, I concede defeat in this battle, but I'll be back!"
"Whatever. Are we going straight to the house, or stopping to see Sofia first?"
"You have a girlfriend?" Sonic stopped dead in the middle of standing up, his mouth hanging open.
"Sofia, not Sophia."
"Oh. Right to the house, I already paid. The owner was really eager to rent it out. I wonder why?"
"Let's just go."
They set off again at a slower pace. About halfway to the house, they started arguing over the definition of the word 'squash'. Sonic insisted that it was a verb, while Shadow was adamant that it was a vegetable. An awful vegetable, but a vegetable all the same. Both of them agreed that squash should never have been invented, as the vegetable was awful and the verb was hard to remember. They slowed down when they reached the house. Well, it was more of a castle than a house.
"This is where we're staying for the week?" Shadow eyed the crumbling stones that made up the walls doubtfully.
"Yup!"
"Have I told you lately that you're crazy?"
"Yup, five, minutes ago."
"Well, I'll say it anyways. You're crazy."
"Oh, look. The owner went on vacation to Miami and left the key under the mat." Sonic poked the note that had been taped to the door. He shifted the mat aside and found the key, inserting it into the keyhole almost instantly. The lock clicked and the door swung open on its own.
"Come on, Shadow."
"This is a bad idea. A very bad idea. If something bad happens before we leave this place, I'm blaming you."
"Okay. Now c'mon in."
Shadow sighed and crossed the threshold. A chill ran down his spine, and he had the feeling something was watching him. Something other than a blue hedgehog tapping his foot impatiently. The sensation of being watched vanished as suddenly as it had appeared, leaving Shadow even more nervous than before.
