Title: Voices

Anime: Sonic X

Pairing: Sonadow

Chapter 2

He never knows how he does it, but his strait jacket always is back in the corner when he wakes up in the morning. He looks at it longingly, missing Shadow and never wanting to leave this sanctuary. He can smell something unpleasant, which meant he had to remove his sheets again. He must have been talking with the voices in his mind all night long in dreamland and didn't wake up in time. That's one thing that his mind never tells him to do anymore. It just happens, and he throws away and/or washes the sheets and starts fresh again the next night.

He lacked control, as of late. It wasn't his choice. His mind was deteriorating. He could tell no one other than himself and Shadow, though. If he did, the planet would panic, Eggman would find out and attack, and they would think that nobody could save them.

He had considered getting a phone, but if he did, then he would be interrupted in the middle of his alone time. The last time he was interrupted, he lost control of his actions, screamed and destroyed the object the snapped him back to reality. His pupils had shrunk and he looked scary. He was a mess.

He knew that he was getting more and more lost by the day. The things he has seen, though, and the things that happened to him and his friends were partially the reason he snapped. The other reason, or more, was confusing to him. Was there any other reason? He was tired of hero work and being depended on by others, is all he knew. That couldn't be a good reason. It wasn't… not for himself, or anybody else.

Shadow kept him in his right mind, and was the only voice in his mind that told him that he was wrong and needed to return to reality. Even if Sonic didn't like it, Shadow was his last source of sanity. As long as he had that hedgehog telling him what the difference from reality and the world that Sonic was creating in his mind was, he would be fine.

Suddenly, there was a large amount of knocking on the front door downstairs. He opened up a secret compartment in haste, moving the wall and opening the only window in the room, the one that was always hidden so as to keep the world he made in his room from mixing with the awful reality outside of his home. He called out to his two-tailed friend that he would help him defeat Eggman after he showered. He didn't mention that he also needed to wash the sheets for the millionth time that month.

In the shower, with blueberry shampoo, he scrubbed away as many of his troubles and bad odors to the best of his ability. If he could wash away the pain, he would get through this day. It was getting harder and harder to do, though.

'Shadow…' he thought. 'I really hope I can find you soon.'