CHAPTER 29
CRIES OF REGRET
It was early the next morning, and Rouge was up fumbling around in her room after when she got finished getting dressed. She was trying to get herself together so she could make it into the Chaotix. While she was pacing back and forth in her room, she suddenly became lightheaded. She thought she needed to calm down and sat down on the white stool that was by her dresser. She leaned on the surface of it and looked at how she looked in the mirror in front of her. She looked absolutely horrible. Her face looked sickly and pale. She regretted what had happened last night between her and Shadow. She had wished she had spoken up and told him about what was truly causing her illness.
When she felt a little better, she scanned the room in sadness. She couldn't believe Shadow had just disappeared last night and didn't tell her where he was running off to. "…Shadow…he could've at least woke me before he decided to run off in the middle of the night last night", she spoke softly to herself. Her eyes suddenly caught sight of Shadow's black messenger bag that was sitting beside her bed. She thought it was odd of him to just leave his work bag laying around. She figured, if he didn't come back for the bag he may not even be at the Chaotix today. Her heart raced as she started to think that maybe something bad had happened to him. She walked over to the bag and set it on her bed. She stared at the bag long and hard with her hand on the zipper. She knew it was wrong of her to look into anyone's personal belongings but she had a feeling that something was horribly wrong. She had to know what was making Shadow behave so strangely. She finally had the courage to unzip the bag and inside all she could find was a old huge brown book.
The book looked really old, practically ancient. It must have been around for years and years. She began to flip through the pages of the book and saw it mentioning demons, black magic, evil artifacts, and many other hellish things. Her eyes shot open when it showed pictures of the same monsters that her and the Chaotix have been fighting before. The book told on how to summon creatures and who had the power to control them.
Her heart raced even faster as she continued to flip through the book. She suddenly had the courage to slam the book shut. After seeing and reading some of the material written in the book, she now knew that there was something seriously wrong with Shadow. She shook out of her thoughts and held the book close to her. 'I have to tell Espio about this!'
Later on at Razi's house, Damon and Razi were down in the basement still panicking about what they both had witnessed last night.
Damon was leaning against a metal table rubbing his forehead in stress and Razi was sitting down at a wooden table with his thoughts still shook up.
Damon suddenly saw Razi stand from his chair and start pacing around the room.
"Fuck this! He's going to kill us all!"
Damon didn't know how to but he attempted to calm the alarmed beaver down. "Razi…"
Tears started streaming down his face with him being terrified. "He's gonna come back and he's going to kill us! Damon, we have to get out of here! We have to run away!"
Damon ran over to him and shook his body trying to snap him out of his petrified thoughts. "Razi! Calm down!"
"Calm down?" He repeated blankly. "How the hell can we calm down? Did you see? Did you see what he did to Allan!"
"I know what the fuck he did to Allan! I was there too you fucking idiot!"
"Then we need to go!"
"What's the point of running when the entire world is going to go straight to Hell tonight!"
Knowing that Damon made a fine point, Razi was back to feeling hopeless. He collapsed back down in his chair and softly started to sob. "We fucked up, Damon. No one will listen to us. Everyone's going to die. We're all going to die…"
Damon saw how Razi was giving up but he couldn't help but to think that there had to be a way to warn someone about Shadow and his evil plan. He looked at the huge computer monitor that was against the wall and suddenly thought of another person who might would hear them out. "…We're not all out of ideas yet…"
Razi looked up from the table and saw him sit in a desk chair that was in front of the huge computer. He heard him starting to type on the keyboard. "Wha-what are you doing?" He asked while wiping away the tears on his face.
"I'm going to send a transmission to Angel Island."
Razi stood from his chair and walked over to Damon who was still typing. "Angel Island?" He repeated blankly. "Why there?"
"That red echidna we ran into a while back…if we can talk to him maybe that'll increase our chances for the Chaotix to find out what's wrong with Shadow."
"It could work but…what makes you think he'll listen to what we have to say?"
"Because…" He stopped typing and looked up at the computer monitor. "…I know for a fact that he has a thing for that bat girl."
Razi and Damon looked at the monitor until a red male echidna wearing a short sleeve green hoodie appeared on the screen.
The red echidna gave the two an annoyed look. "You! You're those lame criminals I ran into awhile back! What do you punks want?"
"Knuckles, please!" Damon begged. "We need your help."
The echidna raised an eyebrow. "You want me to help you? Give me a reason why I should!"
"Because Shadow isn't who he seems to be", Damon began.
"He's being possessed by a demon and he wants to use his body to get stronger. Perhaps strong enough to end us all", Razi explained.
The two suddenly heard a laugh coming from the echidna.
"Okay I know you guys are stupid but not this stupid. Who are you trying to fool anyway?"
"But we're telling the truth!" Razi spoke.
"You two are just trying to turn me against Shadow so we can kill each other! I'm not falling for it! I'm hanging up!"
"Knuckles…" When Razi thought all hope was lost for them, he heard Damon speak up.
"What about Rouge?"
Knuckles paused for a moment until he spoke again after hearing the sound of his former lover's name. "…What about Rouge?"
"I know you're in love with her and I know that you care about her."
Knuckles stood by and continued to listen to Damon.
"But she's in danger! Shadow's been hurting her and I'm pretty sure she's on the verge of death. If you don't do something about this, Rouge and the rest of the Chaotix could fall victim to him. Just like that orange echidna and Allan…"
Knuckles' eyes widened when he heard him mention Tikal. "Tikal is…"
"There isn't much time! You must stop him tonight!"
Knuckles scanned the area around them and there was no sight of Allan anywhere. He began to think that maybe the two were telling the truth. He bit his lip as he debated on trusting the desperate two. However, if Rouge was involved in the mess, he had every intention to make sure that she was okay.
In The next Chapter...
Espio: Rouge? What's wrong?
Rouge: I think there's something wrong with Shadow...
Espio: Is this guy even the real Shadow?
Rouge: We have to stop this!
