Chapter 2 is here! Thank you for the kind reviews on chapter 1, they were soooo appreciated. I hope everyone enjoys what I've dreamed up!
( *cough* The rating will increase after this chapter *cough* )
Darkness.
Was this... a dream?
A finger traced his jaw.
He felt the overwhelming need to pull away from the touch.
That cold, brutal touch.
He wanted nothing to do with it.
Shadow took in a sharp breath of air and opened his eyes.
The sky was a hopeless abyss, completely void of stars. In the center of the sky was a chaotic mess of dark reds and purples, slowly rotating counter clock-wise.
With a quiet groan, Shadow propped himself up on his elbows and felt his skull throb painfully. The silhouettes of circus stalls were all around him, silently observing the fallen hedgehog. Although there was absolutely no one present, he could still hear the faint, muffled, echoing ambience of a circus all around him.
"Cir..cus..?" Shadow muttered, his own voice foreign to even him. "...Where is he-" Without being fully aware of his actions, the ebony hedgehog rose shakily to his feet, "..Sonic...?" Shadow spoke quietly to himself, his memories gradually returning to him. He gazed up at the sky, the magnitude of the situation finally dawning on him. Sonic had been taken, whisked away to Chaos knows where. The circus, Shadow now recalled clearly, had been overrun by odd shadow monsters. He remembered reaching for Sonic, but something repelled him back... Something powerful...
Shadow narrowed his eyes and began to travel in a random direction, since it was as good as any, and took in his surroundings as he went. He came to a stop by a vacant game stall riddled with grinning toys. The circus was nothing like he remembered. Everything was rearranged, maze-like, distorted, different.
A black and red checkered surface replaced the lush grass. The air felt thick and heavy. It was dark, but this was not 'night'. And the sky...
Shadow growled out of frustration, clenched his fists, and punched the display of toys, sending their mad grinning faces straight to the ground.
Where was he?
Where was...?
"Sonic-!" Shadow bellowed, then held his breath in hopes to hear something, anything, that would help him find his counterpart.
He froze. Something wisped by the corner of his eye. Something black, something lacking of any real substance or figure. Shadow whirled around. Again it happened, once again grazing his peripheral vision.
Was he going mad? Or was something.. hunting him?
Shadow felt a cold tingle down his spine and the sudden urge to press forward, to get away. Paranoia suffocated his once clear mind.
He had to run.
The muted colors of the circus stalls blended into each other as Shadow ran faster and faster, turning corners sharply and leaping over discarded toys and broken railings. The faster he ran, the faster... 'it' ...went, keeping up with him easily and still dancing just out of his visual field.
"Stop it.." Shadow uttered, blinking hard a few times in hopes that his eerie 'hunter' was really just his eyes playing tricks on him.
An indescribable panic gripped his chest and caused him to lose focus just long enough to misstep and send him tumbling to the ground. He held his head, alarmed at the sudden feeling of overwhelming terror. Never had he felt fear this deep before. What was happening to him?
"Stop it..!" Shadow called out with his eyes shut tight, wanting nothing more than for the stalking shadows to leave him alone. He didn't dare open his eyes.
The odd world around him suddenly went dead silent except for one crystal clear chuckle.
A cruel, amused chuckle.
The familiarity of the laugh sent Shadow's mind reeling.
That couldn't have been...?!
A deep rage began to boil in Shadow's chest.
"Mephiles-!" Shadow roared and slammed his palms to the ground, then jumped to his feet. "Where are you?! What have you done!" He felt like a fool for falling victim to Mephiles' mind tricks so easily.
There was a movement in the near distance, as if responding to Shadow's outburst.
"...?" Shadow stared in disbelief.
He fast approached a looming, whimsical polka-dot building and there, sitting infront of the entrance was a powder blue toy bear.
Shadow silently knelt infront of Sonic's toy bear.
"I swear, Mephiles... If you hurt him..." Shadow felt his heart thud wildly against his ribcage. There was no doubt that that vile hedgehog, Mephiles, was behind all of this. He ran straight into the darkness of the building, wanting nothing more than to tear the hedgehog who caused all of this trouble limb from limb.
Though it was near impossible to see where he was going, he pressed onward. Time passed and the surrounding darkness slowly gave way. Shadow couldn't help but marvel at the bizarre scenery.
"What is this..?" Shadow muttered to himself as he now cautiously traversed the topsy turvy world. At one point, Shadow mused, the building must have been the Maze of Mirrors attraction. But thanks to Mephiles' influence, the once fun attraction had turned into something far more treacherous. There were no walls, only an endless black void with countless mirrors of all shapes and sizes floating in midair as far as he could see. Each mirror was playing a different scene from Shadow's memories. He saw many familiar faces... Rouge, Maria, Silver, Amy, Sonic... He continued walking down the floating, red and black checkered pathway, distracted by the looping images, eyes locked on the memories of Maria. Shadow paused, too distracted to notice the swirling tendrils slithering out from the black portions of the checkered pathway.
The attack came without warning, without sound. By the time Shadow realized he had taken damage, he was already tumbling over the checkered path and falling into the void. Shadow looked up and saw the crawling mass of smoky black tendrils writhing every which way all over the edges of the pathway.
He was all too aware of the burning pain across his back where the tendrils had struck him hard enough to split flesh.
Mirrors and memories blurred past as he fell deeper and deeper into the void.
Shadow felt the same cold tingling down his spine from earlier. He felt that same impractical fear. His heart pounded, his blood turned cold. No- he absolutely refused to allow himself to cave in to that ridiculous fear again. And yet, the more he struggled and fought inwardly, the more he felt himself slip away from his own thoughts. The deeper he fell into the void, the more Shadow began to find it difficult to be angry, to feel concerned about falling, to feel anything at all. Numb.
The shine in Shadow's eyes dulled, that vibrant ruby color was now a rusty red.
...
A laugh..
Was that Mephiles' laugh?
Shadow struggled in vain to move. Were his eyes closed, or was he still falling deep into the depths of the void? Had he slipped into unconsciousness at some point? Or was he dreaming?
Shadow struggled to recall why he was here at all...
He felt someone's fingers caress his lower lip. A deep loathing swelled in Shadow's chest. As if running on instinct, Shadow found enough strength to bite down on the hand- hard. It earned him a sharp strike across the face. The pain raced down his body and reminded him of the fresh wounds on his back. He groaned in pain.
"Still have some fight left in you, I see." A poisonous voice hissed.
Shadow slowly opened his eyes. Still within the embrace of the void, he realized he was also bound by smoky tendrils within a well oversized, Victorian-esque mirror frame.
Mephiles floated in the air, sitting with his legs crossed, watching Shadow intently as if admiring his own reflection.
Shadow stifled a cry when he felt claws dig into the back of his neck and painfully pull him forward so he were nearly nose to nose with the other hedgehog.
"Tsk tsk, Shadow. You were almost mine a moment ago.."
"Where. Is. Sonic." Shadow growled under his breath, staring him down.
"You really should be more concerned about your own well being..." Mephiles cooed and twisted his claws, which caused Shadow to cry out.
He kept the ebony hedgehog still with just one hand, while the other traced his cheek bone.
"Tell me where he is, bastard!" Shadow shouted, his pain turning to anger.
Mephiles took pleasure in the pained look of his prey.
"There it is again. I see it in your eyes, Shadow. That unrelenting will. Despite impossible odds, you continue to fight. Why is it that you persevere while others submit to defeat? Is he that dear to you?"
By now Shadow's neck felt like it were on fire. Trickles of blood leaked down his shoulders and torso, staining the white fluff on his chest.
"Submit to me." His grip tightened, claws sinking in slightly deeper. "Submit, and I will spare everyone from a cruel fate. Would this not be the most noble thing for you to do, given your current situation? There is no hope for you here, though you still have one last chance to save everyone.. including Sonic. Simply accept me as your master, and be my shadow."
It was never that damn simple with Mephiles, Shadow knew that.
He continued to bore his eyes into that of Mephiles', but the racing pain made it difficult to keep his eyes opened. His eyes fluttered shut, thus forfeiting their staring contest.
"Idiot. For a fellow with no mouth, you talk way too much. Now listen to me as hard as you can... I'm not afraid. I'll never be your little victim.. and I swear, keep this up, and I will kill you." Shadow snarled quietly.
"Ugh...!" With much relief, Mephiles released his grip on Shadow.
All he could do was hang his head and feel his body go limp.
"You will be mine, Shadow. Body and soul."
Mephiles manifested behind him, sliding one arm around Shadow's waist. The other hand gripped Shadow's chin and twisted his head up painfully so that Mephiles could whisper directly into the ebony hedgehog's ear.
"And believe me...
...I will take great pleasure in tearing everything you love apart."
(to be continued, and as always, comments/reviews welcomed!)