CHAPTER 7

TAKEN

Later at an old abandoned house, a grey fox was stretched out on a torn sofa sleeping until a green and black squirrel had woken him up.

She shook the fox a bit to wake him, "Lance", she called in a low voice.

The fox had opened his blue eyes slowly and turned to the squirrel with annoyance. "Zena? What the hell do you want? I'm tired. If you want to sleep here then you're out of luck. The top dog always gets first dibs."

She shook her head, "No Lance, it's not that. It's...it's Appex."

He rose an eyebrow, "Appex?"

She made a nod, "I'm worried about him. Every night he's in his room alone with his door shut. It's like he wants to be alone."

"Then leave him alone. You know how that porcupine gets. Just keep out of his way and you won't get hurt." He gave her a serious look, "Remember last time?"

She looked down to the floor and held her wrist with her hand. She remembered his feel and it was full of pain and suffering. She never wanted that to happen again.

"I thought so."

They were then interrupted when a brown chipmunk came into the room panting.

"Boss! Boss!" He shouted while he was exhausted from running.

Lance shushed and walked over to him. "Quiet moron. You might wake Appex."

He continued, "But boss, I just found out some shocking news."

All of a sudden Lance seemed interested. "What is it, Maxcell?"

"Did something happen?" Zena asked.

"Shadow has a real human girl living with him."

Lance and Zena couldn't believe what he just said.

"What?" Lance said with disbelief. "The only real human we knew was that fat guy, Eggman and he packed his bags and moved to Earth like the rest of those filthy humans."

"But I'm not lying! I saw her!"

Zena crossed her arms and turned to Lance, "I don't know. You could be overreacting. Maybe it was one of those demons?"

The fox shook his head, "No, those guys are long gone. The kid could be right you know."

"I think it's a load of bullshit."

"I'll check it out", a voice said near the stairs.

They all looked over and saw a red porcupine leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and his yellow eyes glaring at the group.

Zena smiled warmly with a slight blush, "Appex, you're awake? It was all Maxcell's fault I swear! He has the biggest mouth!"

The chipmunk gave Zena an angry look, "I did not!"

The porcupine grew weary of their argument. He gritted his teeth, "Shut up both of you or I'll kill you."

Zena and Maxcell had then stopped arguing and had their attention on the dead serious porcupine.

Lance placed his hands on his hips. "I told you not to wake him up", he whispered.

Appex took his back away from the wall and faced Lance. "I'll look for the girl then bring her here. Afterwards you can do what you like with her."

The fox made a nod, "Sounds like a plan."

They then watched Appex walk out the door and slammed it shut on his way out.

Everyone sighed with relief afterwards.

Maxcell sat on the sofa, "Man, I hate it when he gets like that."

"Heh, you wait. If there's no human with Shadow, you're the dead guy", Lance had said.

Maxcell's eyes were filled with fear and had hoped that the human girl was still with Shadow.

Later at Shadow's house, Hannah was sitting at the kitchen table with her head down and a glass of cold water next to her. She took her head away from the table when she heard footsteps approach her. She quickly turned and saw a black hedgehog stare at her. "Shadow?"

"Hannah? What are you doing down here? You should be in bed resting. And where's your bandages? You'll bleed to death won't you?"

"I took them off. I couldn't sleep. I was just thinking about my grandfather."

Shadow sat down with her, "You miss your family don't you?"

She nodded.

"Don't worry. Charmy will finish that machine and you'll be home in no time."

She smiled, "Thank you, Shadow. I don't know where I'd be if I had never met you guys."

"In a harsh place like this, I wouldn't want to know." He then decided to change the subject when he saw the red bruise still visible on her head. "Hannah, I'm sorry again."

Hannah touched her bruise and it had still hurt her a bit so she quickly took her hand away. "It's fine, Shadow. I'm sure you didn't mean to." She then talked about something else quickly. "So you seem to take care of Kayla fairly well. It must be hard being a single parent."

He made a small smile, "Most of the time I'm alone with her, but when it comes to something I can't handle by myself, I have Rouge there for me."

"So Rouge is her mother?"

"I never said she was."

"Oh, so you had another woman in your life before?"

He shook his head, "I was never married to a woman in my life."

Hannah was now confused, "What? Then who was her mother?"

He sighed, "A prostitute."

Hannah gasped, "Shadow! You're so filthy!"

"What? No! No! I didn't!" He took a deep breath. "Okay, just let me explain. Her father and a hooker...well...you know and Kayla came along so she left Kayla in the care of her father, but her father was murdered. So I had watched after Kayla. We got attached to each other so I decided to adopt her."

Hannah was now no longer confused, "Oh, I see. Poor Kayla. Well, she's really lucky to have someone like you to watch over her. You're the perfect parent for her."

"Hannah, I'm not perfect."

"Well, I don't see nothing wrong with your relationship with her."

"...Hannah, I drink and...a lot."

Hannah was now understanding what he was saying. "You drink?" She repeated.

He nodded, "And when I get drunk, Kayla's usually my number one victim. There were times when I hit her the same way I had hit you."

Hannah's eyes widened with shock and disappointment, "You..."

"I don't know why I do that I just...", his last words trailed off when he saw the look of hatred in the girl's blue eyes. Shadow watched Hannah clench her fists tightly on the table and looked back at her.

"How could you, Shadow? You actually abuse her like that? And let me guess you told no one about it?"

He shook his head, "No and afterwards she wouldn't tell anyone neither she would just make up an excuse to cover it up."

She angrily glared at Shadow. "Shadow, you're a cruel father and person! I can't stand to see you in my sight. I won't stand here and watch while you torture your own child." She stood from her chair, "I'm telling Rouge all about it and there's nothing you can do to stop me!" She watched as Shadow got up from the table as well and approach her. She stood there and watched him grab her wrist. She looked into his blood red eyes with anger and fear.

"No", he said. "You won't."

"I will."

After hearing her comment, he took his fist and punched her deep in her stomach. Then his yellow bands had started to glow.

Hannah's bands had glowed as well, but they were too caught up in the moment to notice.

He saw her blood spill out of her mouth while she screaming out in agony. He had removed his fist from her stomach and let her drop to the floor. The glowing from his bands had stopped at the same time Hannah's did. He stared at her shaking body with blood dripping out of her mouth and onto the floor. Just as he was about to leave her, he heard sobbing coming from the entrance of the kitchen. He looked and saw the young Kayla on the floor sobbing. "Kayla?"

She looked up at him with her tears dripping from her cheeks. "Daddy, why? Why did you hurt Hannah?"

Before he could say anything, Kayla had ran over to Hannah's body. She kneeled down on the floor and studied her face full of anguish. More tears started to swell in her eyes. "Hannah?" She called. "Are you okay? Please say something." She then saw Hannah's mouth move a bit. She was trying to talk.

"Kayla?" She answered in a hoarse voice.

"Hannah!" She shouted with a sniffle.

"Your father and I had a disagreement that's all. You don't have to worry about me. I'll be all right."

Shadow slowly turned his back and started to walk back upstairs and into his room.

Then Hannah's eyes had felt heavy. She couldn't keep them open. She wanted to close them, but before she could she heard glass fall onto the floor. Her eyes had widely opened when she was startled by the falling glass and Kayla's screams. 'What's going on?' She thought.

Upstairs, Shadow was sitting on his bed and had heard the glass breaking and Kayla and Hannah's screams as well. "What the hell was that?" He quickly stood from the bed and ran downstairs. By the time he had made it into the kitchen, he saw nothing except for Hannah's remaining blood that she had spat out all over the floor. He checked around the area and saw his living room window broken. It had looked like someone had jumped through it. He looked down on the floor and saw a lot of broken glass, but he saw something else that caught his eye. He bent down and carefully picked it off the floor. He held it in his hand and studied it. It looked like red fur. A very sharp piece of fur. Almost like a quill. He gritted his teeth in anger. "He took them."

N/A: I just signed onto Deviantart and posted some art up based on what my characters look like and scenes from my fics. I don't have much now, but hopefully I'll post more up soon. You can find the URL address on my profile. Check it out! Oh, and R&R please!