Yeah, I'm going to continue this story. I guess I like the concept. So here it is! The previous chapter felt a little rushed to me, so this one is probably a tiny bit better, or not. So read and review!
And just to say, the previous chapter was really more of a prologue. This is chapter 1.
Chapter 1- Riddles
Holding his drained arm, he staggered back to his own two feet. His hand was wet with the warm liquid, feeling weaker with every passing second. The world was spinning out of control, dragging the hedgehog along with it. Blurriness invaded his eyes; he had to squint to examine the damage made on him. He could barely make out two puncture holes just below his wrist. The blood still flowed, gushing free from its fleshy barriers.
Rouge…
He tried to help her, but now he feared that she was already lost. He had looked into her eyes and it was like staring at a statue. She was a living corpse.
Shadow, wincing in pain with each heart-wrenching step, stumbled out of the alleyway and onto the abandoned sidewalk, not even any lampposts lighting the area. The streets used to be filled with masses of people, and the lights once glittered along the dark pathway.
Until a few bizarre incidents made everyone retreat indoors, or even move to a different section of Station Square. Far too many went missing at night, and few were ever found again. And those that were, the very sight of them made even the police dogs cringe.
Shadow fumbled for the red Chaos Emerald that lay abandoned on the gravel. He had dropped it when Rouge attacked him, and could dimly recall the jewel clattering on the ground when it slipped from his possession. The hedgehog had followed her, to prevent any more of her night raids.
But seeing her face was what really took his breath away. God, her face…
Shadow clenched the emerald in his good left hand while the other lay limp by his side. He had lost all feeling in the injured arm, most of his life blood lost to her.
He wrapped his fingers around the jewel, feeling the jagged facets pierce through his glove until it reached his flesh. Just to know that he was still living. Rouge's eyes proved that the opposite could happen.
Picturing in his head the only place where any help could be offered, he muttered the words of transportation swiftly. A brief light emerged in the dark shadows, a spark of a candle, until it fluttered like a butterfly's wing and died, overtaken by the obscurity.
There…there…there….
This was all that's left. Nothing else now. Nothing else.
Her ears flicked at the subtle sound, a footstep hitting cement. Over there… She moved among the buildings, jumping on the footsteps with grace that she never achieved in life. She could taste it now, too sacred for words.
The vessel, housing the liquid, walked calmly on the streets. It believed it would live. It actually thought that nothing could hurt it. Even walking all alone at this time of night. Over here, not heeding the warnings.
Arrogant little idiot.
Nothing is truly safe anymore. She had learned that the hard way. Just like he said… he said…
Sulking among the dark, she watched her prey move. Her eyes could see the crisscrossing veins, right there, under the delicious skin and fur. Red gold coursing through him.
She need…she needed…but…
Time for a little snack.
A thousand shrieks escaped her throat as the huntress pounced on her treasure. It saw her now, realizing for the first and last time what true horror was. This was the hell preachers had warned about.
The footsteps moved faster, but she already won. The flashing fangs hitting their target, her fortune entering inside her.
Another day, another life.
Delicious.
Tails, a young eight year old kitsune, did not know anything of what was occurring at this particular hour. Snuggled up in his bed, he lost himself in dreams of youth, all the endless possibilities opened before him.
His house lay on the Mystic Ruins, a simple structure erected on a hill, holding all of his metallic creations that lay around the floor in cluttered disorder, waiting for their master to pick up the hammer the next morning to continue where he left off.
Snoring blissfully, Tails was just about to receive the Nobel Prize for his new outstanding invention that not only cured every disease known to man, but took out the garbage for you as well, when a loud knocking sound intruded into his dream cloud.
His blue eyes slowly opened, wondering why the sun had not risen yet. He searched for the digital clock on his nightstand, seeing 3:52 AM blink on and off in bright red.
"Oh…why is-?"
Knock knock knock.
"Uh, too tired…who is it?"
Knock knock.
"I said 'who is it?'"
Knock… knock
"…Hello?"
Hearing the change in rhythm, Tails got out of his warm bed regretfully and went to answer the incessant knocking. Scratching his head lazily, he was too sleep-befuddled to question why anyone would come over this late at night. Or, more importantly, whether it was someone he wanted to open the door for. He only knew that if he answered the door, the knocking would stop and he could go back to his Nobel Prize dream.
Going down the stairs and through the living room in sleepwalker mode, he found the wooden door.
Knock…k…k…
The fox boy turned the brass doorknob and looked outside with little interest. The sight before him was like a splash of cold water, enough to jerk him fully awake.
"Shadow!"
The red and black hedgehog stooped like an old man, holding one arm close to his body, a Chaos Emerald grasped in the living hand. Only able to open one of his eyes, he looked at Tails with a desperate plea.
"Heh, good…thing…you're here."
"Shadow, what happened to you! And your arm, who did this to you?"
But the hedgehog already collapsed to the ground, the injuries taking their toll. His breathing came in brief gasps.
"No, Shadow!"
"Please…help her…"
The young fox, unsure what else to do, dragged the Ultimate Life-Form into the house who kept whispering the same words over and over.
"Help her…"
Sonic the Hedgehog was on another of his runs. The moonlight bounced off his cobalt quills as the wind ruffled through them, a blue banner trailing after him. Somehow, running at night time felt more exhilarating, and he would sometimes jog a bit at this hour if sleep would not come to him.
But this was really more for work than for pleasure.
It was plastered all over the news. Missing people reported daily, new bodies discovered; one last week, another only two days ago. No evidence as to the murderer. Maniac on the loose. Lock your doors, bar all windows. Stay inside, unless you want your corpse left to the photographers.
Sonic decided to catch this villain, so that he could put the citizens' fears to rest. Plus, they were all begging him to do it, since the police had achieved next to nothing. After all, this was the job of a hero, and the search sounded interesting. A little gross, considering how the victims died, but interesting. So he traveled where and when many of the kidnappings occurred.
At night. In the remote areas of Station Square. Perhaps he would find some clues.
The azure hedgehog paced on the sidewalk, noticing the lampposts were turned off and that not a living soul habituated the streets.
Strange, even the lights in the buildings were off. Sonic kept his guard up, remembering where the last victim was found.
As he jogged, he tried to come up with any possible subjects. Who would do this kind of thing? Well, it was definitely not Eggman. The guy liked to go on a grand scale, and his ego was too big to stay hidden in the shadows as the murderer was doing.
Shadow…could he have-? No, he would not this. Granted, he tried to destroy the entire world once before but he was changed now. He stayed true to Maria's wish and always lent a helping hand towards others, except when it came to the military GUN. Still a little angsty, but had a good heart.
Sonic could not really think of anyone else that fit the criteria. This was harder then he thought. It required a lot of thinking, something he did not have much of a talent for. Sonic was the type of hedgehog who acted on a problem instead of dwelling on it for more than five minutes. So of course he was having trouble.
Nack the Weasel, maybe. No, not like him either.
He was getting a mental strain on this conundrum.
The streets grew darker with each block he passed, city rats scrambled out of the hedgehogs' path, the only sign of life in the dismal section.
Still pondering, Sonic thought it over. What was one thing all the murders and kidnappings had in common? A specific race on the victims? Nope. It was feline one day, human the next.
Age? Well, he or she did go for the young mostly, ranging between fifteen to thirty. Big range.
He sighed heavily. "Why can't this be any easier?"
There was another thing. The kidnappings happened every day, one victim for each for a full three weeks.
Twenty-one lives lost.
He had to find this maniac soon.
Wait, one more fact. Each victim (the ones that were found at least) lost an insane amount of blood. All had died from the drainage, and the victims were found with two holes embedded into their neck, like thick needles.
To Sonic, it looked more like a bite. Like a….vampire?
Then immediately he thought of a vampire bat. Rouge?
He almost laughed aloud at the prospect. She was a jewel thief, not a bloodsucker. Besides, she looked more like a fruit bat instead. Strange though how he suddenly thought of Rouge at that moment.
Sonic kept running through the abandoned streets at a steady pace when he felt a sudden chill. Not that of a cold chill of the wind, but one that seemed to go through him to his bones, enough to make him shiver and his heart skip a beat.
Shocked from the feeling, he halted in his jog. Around here, something was here.
A soft gasp wisped to his right. Turning, he spotted a figure sprawled in an alleyway, between two buildings, lying in his own lake of blood.
Sonic ran up to him, disgusted at the gruesome sight, but worried for the victim. A male coyote, his fur pure white that was stained with dark crimson. The black pupils of his eyes took up the entire area of the orbs. His mouth hung open, as if he had been screaming but was suddenly cut off. He did not seem to see Sonic, his face had a faraway look.
The hedgehog knelt down next to him, emerald eyes expressing his horror. "Sir, what happened? Who did this?"
The coyote tried to speak, but could produce no sound. Sonic examined the throat and saw two puncture holes in the skin. Another attack. So this was…
Whoosh.
Hearing the slight waft in the air, Sonic jumped back, just escaping the long metal pipe that clattered to the spot on the ground where he had dodged from. Ringing tones from the collision of the metal echoed throughout the street, heard by no one nearby. He looked upwards to the thrower of the object. He could make out a figure, veiled by the railings of a fire escape. It made low hissing sounds like a snake.
"Who are you?" he shouted.
The form jumped down next to its latest victim. Black, deformed wings sprouted from its back, stretching out like arms. It crouched like a panther, gazing at the hedgehog with the undead eyes of its ill-fated kind. Moonlight glinted off sharp fangs, wet with saliva and blood that dripped methodically.
Then he saw the face. Sonic no longer breathed.
"You…"
Hisssss…