CHAPTER 13
The next day, Shadow lightly knocked on the front door to Freya's house that late afternoon. After knocking, he slowly lowered his clenched fist beside his waist and waited outside the door. While he waited for the door to be opened, he couldn't help but to be slightly nervous. He hadn't actually talked to Freya ever since they're last encounter at her home. He felt after he had attacked her that she had hated him, but he was surprised that she had called and suddenly invited him to come over to her house that day. Maybe he had to just give her space to sort out all of her mixed feelings about him. It gave him hope that she was ready to have him be apart of her life again. His ears twitched when he heard the door being unlocked and then slowly open afterwards. His eyes fell upon the black male wolf who stood at the doorway looking back at him.
The wolf was wearing casual clothes. He wore a gray button up long sleeve shirt, blue jeans, and white and black sneakers. While he stood at the doorway, there was a silent yet awkward moment between them him and the hedgehog until he finally managed to speak up. "Uh, Shadow...hi..."
As he looked at the wolf, he instantly remembered their last encounter with each other when they practically fought to death in the middle of Freya's kitchen when he had tried to kill Freya and her mother. "...Hey, Midnight. How's it going?"
He couldn't help but to slightly fidget with his fingers while his hand was lowered beside his waist. He tried not to make it so obvious but the tension between the two was intense. "It's uh...going." He slowly stepped to the side so he could allow Shadow to step into the house. "You wanna come in?"
"Uh, yeah sure", when he slowly stepped inside of the house and into the living room, he heard Midnight closing the door quietly behind him. He turned to the wolf who slowly stepped over to him.
"Freya will be down shortly."
After when he made a small nod, he made slight pause before speaking to the wolf again. "...Midnight, about what happened..."
The black wolf slowly raised his hand to him to silence the rest of his words, "Hey don't worry about it. It's not the first time it's happened am I right?"
He was right. Midnight like everyone else was already familiar with facing Shadow's demonic counterpart, but that was still no reason to try to excuse his wrongdoings. "Midnight..."
"I said it's fine", he said in a firm tone. "Besides this isn't about us."
Before Shadow could say another word to him, he and Midnight heard light footsteps coming from down the stairs. He looked over and saw the red female ferret slowly entering the living room. She was wearing a white long sleeve button shirt, light blue skinny jeans, and white high top sneakers. All three of them stood there in the room exchanging awkward but powerful glances at each other until the ferret finally spoke up.
"Shadow", she spoke while looking towards him. "Glad you could come."
"Of course, Freya." He saw her look over to Midnight.
"Can you give us some time alone, Midnight?" She had requested.
The wolf made a small nod back at her, "Yeah sure." He stepped over to her to rub her shoulder gently and whisper over to her. "Let me know if you need anything."
"I will", she whispered back to him.
Shadow watched as Midnight made his way upstairs to give the two a moment to speak privately with each other. Afterwards more awkward silence was present between him and Freya. His eyes shifted over to the gray sofa that was in the corner of the living room, "Um did you wanna sit or..."
She shook her head and crossed her arms across her chest, "This won't take long."
He gave her a puzzled look and wondered what was the real reason why she had called him over to her house. He had a feeling that she wasn't prepared to talk about her feelings and undermining the situation that happened between them. He then saw her take out a few papers she had folded up in the back pocket of her skinny jeans.
She held the papers up to him so he could take it to look at it, "...I need you to sign these..."
He stared at the papers in her hand in confusion. He didn't know what they were and what it had to do with him. "...What is that?"
"...Property deeds...and my mother's will..." She answered as Shadow slowly took the papers away from her to look at them.
Shadow's eyes slightly widened in surprise as he glanced through Joyce's will.
While Shadow read over the papers, Freya began to explain before taking a deep sigh. "My mother...before she passed...she apparently cared for you so much she pretty much made you apart of our small family. If anything were to happen to her, she entrusted you to her property and whatever other belongings she had." Her eyes glared coldly at the hedgehog while he looked through the paperwork. "She chose you over her own daughter..."
He looked away from the papers and shook his head, "Freya, it's not like that." He held one of the papers up at her, "She wrote in her will that she wanted me to look after you. That's all what she meant."
Her fingertips gripped into her arms that she had crossed across her chest. "I'm twenty one! I'm an adult and I can look after myself!" She had snapped coldly.
He lowered the paper down to his waist and made a small sigh before speaking to her again. "Freya, your mother loved you so much. She just wanted to be sure you were taken care of."
"By who? By a heartless demon who wanted us both dead?"
He paused and knew that Freya was still clearly upset over what had happened. It broke his heart to see Freya's trust in him completely vanish.
"She didn't know..." While she slowly shook her head, she placed her hand on the center of her forehead and rubbed it, "When she wrote her will, that was before she knew you were a cold hearted monster..."
"...I can't change what happened that night and God I am so sorry. But...I'm nothing like that demon. You know how I really am and you know how much you and your mother meant to me."
She took her hand away from her forehead and angrily glared at him. "You shut your lying mouth, demon!" She spat angrily.
He stood there and watched Freya's angry eyes beginning to swell in tears.
She slowly shook her head towards him while trying to fight back her tears, "How can I trust anything you say?" She placed her hand on her chest, "You looked me right in the face and told me you didn't give a damn about a brat like me. All those times you were there for me and my mother never meant shit to you and you know it!"
"Freya..."
"Did you forget? Did you forget what all you said to me? Because I didn't! Not one word!" Her voice began to crack and her hands started to slightly tremble. "You were proud to say what you had done and said! You even mocked your own wife in front of me!"
It had then hit him that he had indeed bring up the fact that he had cheated on Rouge with Sally in front of her as well.
"Yeah you cheated on her but I won't breathe a word of it. Because in the end, it'll all come to the light." In disgust, she slowly shook her head at him, "You're such a heartless piece of shit. You should have died that day at the trial but you were sparred for what reason only God knows..."
He stood there in silence not knowing what else to say to her. At that point, what else could he say to her to make the situation better?
"My mother went crazy after you attacked her. She killed herself because of you. Know that, demon", she angrily spoke. She sniffed and tried to wipe away a tear that ran down the side of her face with her wrist. When she tried to calm herself, she glanced back at the papers Shadow had held in his hand. She took a silver pen out of the side pocket of her jeans and held it up towards him. "Sign the documents over to me", she demanded. When she saw him standing there continuing to look at her in desperation for forgiveness, she angrily yelled out. "I said sign the damn papers!"
He slightly flinched when she suddenly screamed at him. Never since the two had met, he had seen her so upset. So angry. So heartbroken. After taking a deep sigh, he took the pen from her hand and laid the papers against the wall that was near him to quickly sign the papers. When he was done signing the papers, he held them up to her so she could snatch them from his hand.
She held the papers tightly in her hand and made sure to not look in his direction. "Get out and don't bother coming to my mother's funeral tomorrow", she coldly spoke.
He did what she had wanted and rushed over to the door to swing it open. Before he stormed out, he looked back at her one final time, "I'm sorry..."
Once Freya heard the door slam shut, she could no longer hold herself back and began to softly sob into her wrist.
It was early the next morning of Joyce's funeral. The weather was dark, cold, and rainy at the Tech City Cemetery located within the park. Everyone was gathered at the gravesite where Joyce was buried. The Chaotix team and other close friends gathered around her grave while the pastor spoke.
"We're gathered here today to celebrate the life of Joyce who was a well loved mother and friend..."
Espio who stood beside Rouge held an umbrella over her to protect her and Spike from the pouring rain. He wore a white long sleeve button shirt with a black blazer over it, a black tie, black pants, and black dress shoes. He slowly leaned over to her to whisper to her, "Fitting weather for a funeral huh?"
She made a small nod while she slightly patted the back of the sleeping baby hedgehog in her arms, "Yeah..." She was wearing a white long sleeve button shirt, a black blazer, a black skirt that stopped at her ankles, and black high heeled shoes.
Espio slightly scanned around the cemetery and then turned back to her, "Where's Shad?"
"He's around", she answered while she herself didn't really know where he was.
He looked over at Freya who was being comforted by Risa and Midnight while she softly sobbed. "Just so Freya doesn't see him right?"
She made a slight nod, "Yeah..."
He slowly shook his head as he recalled what Shadow had told him yesterday about his encounter with Freya. "She really hates him right now huh?"
"He's pretty torn up about it..."
He turned back to her with a reassuring look, "I think the both of them just needs time."
She made a small nod as she had hoped that's what they both had needed. "Yes. Time..."
Nell who was standing beside Rouge saw her glancing around probably trying to locate where Shadow was. He didn't t know where he was either but he knew he was somewhere close watching the funeral service take place.
While standing in the pouring rain, Shadow stood away from the cemetery enough so that he could see everyone gathered to see Joyce one final time. As he stood in the pouring rain, it seemed that he didn't mind that the black suit that he wore was getting soaked in the rain. He was wearing a white long sleeve button shirt underneath a black blazer that was unbuttoned, a black tie, black pants, and black dress shoes. While he sadly stared at the cemetery, he suddenly realized that something was stopping the rain from pouring on him. His eyes shifted upwards and saw a dark blue umbrella hovering over his head. He spun around and saw a brown female chipmunk standing behind him while holding the umbrella over his head. His jaw dropped at the sight of her. She was wearing a dark blue coat that came down to her knees with a black strapless mini dress underneath, and black high heeled shoes.
"You're getting wet", she spoke softly while her blue eyes locked with his.
For a quick moment, he was lost for words at the sight of her. "...Sally? What are you doing here?"
"I'm working on a mission here in Tech City but when I heard about what happened, I thought I'd stop by to repay my respects." She slightly bit her lip, "I know that you and her were close."
He made a slight nod, "Uh, yeah..." His eyes shifted up at the umbrella she continued to hold above his head and used his finger to push the handle of it back towards her so the umbrella could cover her instead. "You uh...need this more than me."
She not only saw the saddened look in his eyes but also the horrible shape his body was in. It looked like he didn't eat for days. Maybe even weeks. He had looked terribly sick. She held the handle of the umbrella tightly in her hand while she held it over her head, "Shadow...", she spoke. "What happened to you?" She then watched him take a small step back from her.
"Sally...you need to stay away from me..."
"Huh?" She saw him turn his back to her while he had his hands in the sides of his pants pockets.
"Don't you think I've done enough damage already?"
Her eyes shifted downwards so that she looked at the wet grass, "...But that wasn't you. That wasn't the Shadow I knew..."
He scoffed under his breath, "Well apparently a lot of others thought different..."
"...Shadow..." When she tried to slowly extend her hand out to him, he quickly took his hand to grab her wrist to stop her from touching him.
While he held her wrist in his grip, he slowly turned to her and sighed heavily before letting go of her wrist and stormed his way past her. "Do yourself a favor and keep your distance from me."
Sally turned and watched as the hedgehog walked off leaving her with a puzzled yet concerned expression on her face.
In The Next Chapter...
Rouge: I'm worried about you, Shad...
Nell: Where do you think you're going?
Shadow: I can't do this...
Sally: We need to talk, Shadow.
Shadow: Sally, I...