Okay... so I'm back on track...

One thing I can say about this chapter is: "Total Angst-fest!"

Seriously... leave me to my own time and devices, and I will give you something worth reading!

Hope you like this chapter :D

The way he was screaming alarmed Shadow and Rouge. To them, it was sudden, and frightened. They were half right… he was indeed terrified, but it was not at all sudden. To him, it was proof enough that it had not been a figment of his imagination last night. It was enough proof that he was telling the truth.

But right now… he was scared.

He clamped his hands onto his head and screeched, curling into a defensive ball, quills bristled outward instinctively. Tremors ran throughout his entire body, so much that he rolled onto his side. His dizziness became full blown vertigo, and he didn't dare try to sit up. He curled up tighter, ignoring the murmurs of the neighborhood around him.

His eyes were squeezed shut, and at the moment… he didn't know where he was. He didn't know why he was outside. He even almost forgot his name…

All he knew was Dark was back, and no one was going to believe him.

As a shortness of breath began to overtake him, his screaming subsided somewhat and became moaning whimpers. His heart was beating faster… painfully in fact. He lowered a hand to his chest and gripped at his patch of white fur tightly as a spasm of pain spiked through his heart. He was breathing deeply and quickly; each breath took less than a second. He knew without opening his eyes that his vision would be impaired, either doubled or darkening.

He was having a panic attack, and possibly his worst one yet.

All he could hear were murmurs and muffled sounds, as if his ears had decided not to work right. He felt hands reaching against him, and trying to pull him elsewhere, though he did not know where. Within a few minutes, he felt something damp and cool be placed across his burning forehead, and he shivered once more as a quick cold flash ran through him before he passed out once again.

"… said to have seen someone… we've known is gone…"

"… I see… this happened?"

"… Started last night… said he saw… morning, started screaming…"

Mephiles strained his ears to hear what was going on around him. He heard voices… some were Shadow and Rouge… a couple he did not know. His head hurt him terribly, and he felt a little sick. He felt too weak to roll over, or even open his eyes.

"… panic attack just this morning… he used to have them often… first one in a couple of months…"

"… think he's running a fever now…"

"… We'll see what we can do…"

Do? Do what? Where was he? Certainly not back at the house. He could tell he was lying on a bed of some sort. He twitched his ears a little to pick up any other sounds.

Beeps… whirs… clicks… someone being paged over an intercom…

His heart started to sink…

He forced his eyes to open, and the brightness of the room almost made him squeeze them tight again.

He was in a hospital…

He whimpered and inched back, away from everyone. He had a fear of hospitals… afraid that he was going to be treated like an experiment there; samples and stuff being picked off of him, and tests being run for everything that could be wrong with him.

Upon hearing his whine of distress, everyone's attention was turned to him, which was from Rouge, Shadow, a doctor… and his Chaos.

They must have brought them with them because Rae wasn't around… Mephiles thought to himself once he laid eyes on Krystal and Sharpe.

"W-what's going on? Why am I here?" He started to ask, his voice fading from upset to demanding as the questions pressed on. "What happened? How did I get here?!"

He was a little jittery… hospitals made his skin crawl. He didn't like the lack of color schemes either… too much white…

Would it kill them to buy some decent colors? He questioned inwardly, his face not giving an indication that this was going through his mind. Like maybe some blue or purple… that wouldn't be as nerve-racking as pure white!

He fixed his eyes on each of them in turn, save for his Chaos. It would have been silly to think they knew… they weren't around earlier this morning…

He was on his hands and knees, waiting on baited breath for their response.

Shadow began.

"Mephiles… are you aware of what happened before you woke up?"

"I was having a panic attack…"

"And you knew this because..?"

"Why..?" Mephiles wasn't seeing where this was going. "I'm pretty sure I know when I'm having a panic attack…"

"Just answer the question… we're trying to help…"

"I knew that because I couldn't breathe right, I was feeling very dizzy, and I was having chest pains. I was shaking, and I felt my body temperature heat up… I couldn't really hear or see either…" Mephiles blinked. Why was this important? He's had them before…

"But do you know what set it off? I mean, that's your first one in two months… that's kinda scary. And it seemed like it was borderline 'heart attack'…"

"It was a panic attack… I'm very much sure of it…"

"But what set it off… your usual trigger is extreme fright… as in the kind you feel when you think you life is in danger…"

Mephiles snorted through his nose.

"So now you're gonna listen to me?"

"Is this about Dark?"

"Of course it's about Dark!" Mephiles snapped at him. He saw Krystal and Sharpe flinched out of the corner of his eye, so he softened his tone. "I saw him last night, and he was there for at least ten minutes before he knocked me out! Hit a pressure point, he did!" He tilted his head to the side a bit to show the bruise.

"Okay…" Said Shadow, being the only one talking at the moment, save for his shady counterpart. "But the question is why? Why would Dark be back and why only show up when no one else is around?"

"I don't know! He didn't tell me, he never does anything but mess with my head!" Mephiles leaned back and sat down properly, folding his arms against his chest, and putting on a pouting face. He was getting really frustrated at this… he was telling the truth, but everyone wanted to contradict him or prove him wrong.

"So, who is this 'Dark'?" The doctor asked.

Mephiles cocked an eyebrow. This doctor was porcupine, if his guess was right. Dark brown with his long quills tipped with creamy white and black. Dark blue eyes and a set of square frame glasses resting on the bridge of his nose.

"And you are...?"

"Thizon. Dr. Eric Thizon."

"I don't like 'Doctors'… don't take it personally… I just don't…"

"Dark was a separate entity in his mind a few months back…" Shadow explained for him. "As his name suggests… he was pretty evil…"

"A separate personality?"

Mephiles started. He saw where this was going…

Before he could open his mouth to tell off the porcupine, and explain that Dark was not a part of him… Shadow beat him to it.

"No, he was… for lack of a better term… a demon. He tormented Mephiles a great deal a few months ago…"

"A… demon? As in… possession?"

Shadow, Rouge, and Mephiles shook their heads in unison.

"Not quite…" Shadow continued as Mephiles glared at the other quilled one. "They controlled the same mind and body, because they were created as one. Dark disappeared after Mephiles drowned, and was dead for about six minutes. He hasn't been heard from since… at least, until Meph mentioned him this morning…"

"How did they end up being in the same mind and body?"

"Thizon…" Shadow sighed, rolling his eyes. "You are aware of my heritage… right?"

"Half Black Arm alien hedgehog hybrid due to experimentations in search of an Ultimate Lifeform… yes… I know that, Shadow…"

Mephiles was a little bewildered that he would know that, before Rouge explained, unheard by anyone other than the shade, that that was also Shadow's doctor as well. It was unknown to Mephiles, because Shadow didn't need to have a check up as often as other Mobians.

"Meph here is also a result of experiments. He was, emphasis on 'was'…" Shadow added, seeing Mephiles start to fidget. "… The shadow and conscious half of an artificial sun god. The experiment for the sun god, Solaris, was unstable, and that's how we got Mephiles. Now, from our own experience… wouldn't make sense that if anything could have happened that was unstable for say… genetic make up, or some such… that two beings can reside in one mind and body?"

"I suppose… given what we've seen in Westopolis before…"

"So Dark was completely different than Meph, and was pretty much the Anti-Mephiles… Dark was not any indication that Meph would have a split-personality… if that was what you were thinking. We've had him evaluated, just for safety's sake, and he checked out great. He just suffers from trauma from earlier in his life…"

Mephiles couldn't have said it better himself. He stuck his tongue out in the way of saying: "I win!" and grinned.

"Still…" Thizon said skeptically, Mephiles not liking the tone of his voice. "If you say Dark is gone… then isn't it possible that he may have been having a visual hallucination? Auditory, as well?"

"Don't see why he would…"

"Has he had them before?"

At that moment, Mephiles felt his stomach turn uncomfortably. A couple of months ago, he was delusional and having hallucinations that he was back at the day of his creation. During that time, he had bitten, scratched, and tried to hit Shadow in his hysteria. He had even run away, screaming about stuff that at the time, only made sense to him. But that was all because of a bad nightmare that he couldn't quite break free from until he was helped.

He clenched his teeth together when he saw Shadow and Rouge nod slowly.

"Does he have a history of them?"

To Mephiles' immense relief… they shook their heads.

"It was a one time thing…" Rouge confirmed.

"If that was the case… then I suggest we let him stay home for now. I don't really see a reason to keep him overnight…"

No words could describe Mephiles' joy upon hearing that… he did not want to stay in a hospital overnight…

He got off the bed quickly, breathing a visible sigh of relief.

"Thank you, anyway…" He added as the group left for home, his Chaos close behind him.

It was night within a few hours. Mephiles was glad… to be frank; he was quite drained from this whole mess.

He had fallen asleep a smidge earlier than normal, mainly because his head still hurt a bit. He was told that his head probably hurt as a side effect of his panic attack. It was likely… he's had that happen before…

Curled up on his side on the couch, his back to the T.V…. he was snoozing quite soundly. He was too tired to grab a hold of his pillow before he drifted off, so it lay under his head.

His nose twitched when Rouge had pulled a blanket over him, and he mumbled something incoherent before fading off into a light snore. Krystal and Sharpe were not tired yet, so they simply sat on the top edge of the back of the couch and watched him.

"I'm worried about him…" Rouge said as she sat down in a chair across from Shadow in the kitchen.

"As am I, Rouge…" Shadow said through a sip of tea. He swallowed. "That was the worst of his panic attacks I have ever seen. I seriously thought he was having a heart attack… the way he was clutching at his chest and all…"

He sipped his tea again.

"What if Dark was back?" He added.

"I dunno… It could be possible… after all the stuff we've seen in the past year alone…"

"Aliens, time travelers, princesses with mystic powers, demons… yep… we've seen them all…"

Pause.

"Have you heard from Omega?" Shadow added.

"Haven't seen him since the end of the whole 'brain' thing" Rouge air quoted, as they were beginning to just give it a short term to refer to the first week they met Mephiles. "He just disappears sometimes… found him in a jungle, last time…"

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah…"

"Weird…"

Pause again as Shadow set his mug down.

Something was about to be said again… but a THUMP and an ear piercing shriek was heard from the living room, as well as numerous things falling down as flashes of purple light were seen.

Kicking his chair to the side, Shadow beat Rouge to the living room by a few seconds.

Pages from many books were fluttering down in shredded strips all around the room. Picture frames and glass lay shattered on the floor, and Krystal and Sharpe had ducked behind the couch while taking cover, now peering over the top edge at Mephiles along with Rouge and Shadow.

He seemed to have fallen off the couch, and was now sitting up, his knees hugged to his chest while he sat on the blanket. His muzzle was paler than usual, much paler in fact. He was shaking terribly, as if he was plagued by a constant chill that spread throughout his body. His breaths were coming in as wheezy pants, with a pattern only broken by an occasional gulp. His eyes were wide… as wide as they ever got. His cheek twitched and his ears were flat as well.

He broke free from his trance and lifted his gaze to them slowly, turning his head. The light from the kitchen was showing them that he was sweating profusely, and overall, he looked positively ill.

An unnerved expression graced his face. Tears formed in his eyes and began to fall without him having to blink. He clenched his teeth together and lowered his head, his hands reaching up to his ears and pulling them down more.

A deep sob escaped him, one not as shrill as his others. Nowhere near…

His body shuddered as the next one came. And the next. And the next. And the next…

He felt someone place a hand on his shoulder and he heard Rouge ask: "… Are you okay..?"

Obviously not… but it was a standard question. What else are you supposed to say?

Mephiles shook his head slowly and felt himself get pulled forward a bit, and was shifted into a safe and secure feeling hug, one hand petting his quills to calm him down. He whimpered and choked on his breath as he buried his face in his hands, too upset to stop crying.

He felt weak and sick… dizzy above all… faint even…

He fell limp after a moan that was meant to be a whimper, his eyes drooping as one last thought flashed through his mind…

They probably won't believe me…

Wow... just... wow...

The way I write this... you'd think this has happened to me before, or something... but it hasn't...

A note about Thizon... I messed around with the scientific name for North American Porcupine to get him. I figured a porcupine would be a nice deviation from the basic animals I've added. I don't plan on him making a huge part in the series... but he may make another cameo...

Anybody here getting "Haunted" vibes around here? As in Teen Titans and Evanescense "Haunted"? ;D