Hey guys! I'm back from my break and bring to u a new chapter:D
I hope everyone's been tuning into Live 8! I saw Green Day in Berlin (on TV obviously!) and they rocked, along with Keane, Coldplay and many others! lol so yeh Let's all do something about poverty and tune in!
Enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 3

Several hours later, everyone was asleep. Shadow was given the sofa, for which he was grateful as it was very large and comfortable. But even with this in mind, Shadow began to drift into a strange nightmare.

He found himself in a scary new atmosphere. The ground was rocky and barren. There were no walls surrounding him, just a dark red sky filled with smoke. The wind blew and lifted a vast amount of dust as it did so. Shadow coughed and spluttered and the dust was thrown in his face. He wiped his eyes clean and as he lifted his arm away, he saw creatures standing around him; the same creatures he'd fought on the beach.

Shadow gasped in surprise and stood back a little. But then a sharp pain shot into his arm. He cried aloud and clutched his wound in a feeble attempt to harness the pain. The creatures just stood over the hedgehog and watched as the pain began to take over him. The awful feeling began to get so overwhelming for Shadow that he eventually fell to the ground. Something was trying to take over but Shadow refused to let it do so. He winced and began to shake a little.

Just then he heard voices. They spoke to him slowly and almost sounded hypnotic.

"Welcome to our World…" said the first voice.

Shadow remained lying on the rocky floor, the awful feeling now almost completely embracing him.

"Yes…Now just let yourself come to us." said a second voice.
"There's no need to fight. The pain will stop soon…" said a third.

"NO!" Shadow shouted, continuing to shake.

"All you are doing is making things harder for yourself, hedgehog." said the second voice again.

Shadow's pain increased and he yelled aloud for help.

Then another voice came into the frame, and this was a voice that Shadow recognised and was thankful to hear.

"Shadow! Shadow wake up!"

…

Sonic thought he'd heard something from downstairs and so went down to investigate. He'd found Shadow in a state on the sofa. He was shaking and clutching his arm. His forehead was sweaty and he was shouting.

"NO!" Shadow yelled out in his sleep.

Sonic grabbed Shadow's shoulders and began to shake him.

"Shadow! Shadow wake up!" he cried.

Almost immediately, Shadow's eyes opened and he began gasping for breath. It took him a few seconds to figure out that he was no longer in his terrible dream world. He quickly sat up, still breathless, and looked at his arm. He was still clutching his wound and found that he couldn't easily let go.

"I…I was in pain…It was too intense…I almost let them take me…" he whispered, more to himself than to Sonic.

"Let who take you?" Sonic asked.

Shadow didn't answer and, instead, managed to lift his hand from his wound and saw that it had bled. The colour of the blood was the disgusting mix of dark red and green. However the green seemed to overpower to natural red of Shadow's blood and the cut itself was now sealed.

"…Shadow?" Sonic said worringly.

Shadow shook his head and looked back at Sonic.

"I had a dream, well it for more real than a dream but…Anyway, you know those aliens I told you about?"

Sonic nodded and listened as Shadow told about how the aliens were trying to take him over to their side.

"It felt so real, Sonic. I was in so much pain…they said it'd stop if I let myself join them." Shadow finished.

"Wait, you could understand them?" Sonic asked.

Shadow nodded.

"I think whatever was trying to take over my body allowed me to understand their speech somehow…" he said.

"What's going on you guys?" came a voice from the stairs.

Sonic and Shadow looked and saw Tails standing on the steps, wiping his eyes.

"Something weird is what's going on Tails. Go wake up Knuckles -"
"No need…" Knuckles replied yawning and walking down the stairs.

"Oh. Well…There's something up and you'll both need to hear about it." Sonic said.

Shadow told Tails and Knuckles about his nightmare. They too became concerned.

"This is probably how the aliens create more numbers. We'll have to stop them before they take over town!" Tails said.

"Or worse, the world." Knuckles said.

"I guess I'm lucky they didn't get me just now…" Shadow said quietly.
"You bet your ass you're lucky!" Sonic replied.

"Don't worry Shadow. We'll help you as long as we can in making sure they don't get you." Tails said, trying to sound reassuring.

Shadow sighed.

"Thanks Tails but I'm not too sure that -"
"Don't even think about it Shadow. Those things ain't getting you and that's that!" Sonic butted in.

Shadow didn't feel as confident as that but smiled anyway.