CHAPTER 2

TRUTH OR LIES

Later that night at Shadow's house, Shadow was moving around abundantly in his bed. He was

sweating a lot as well. He was having a bad dream. He quickly woke up hoping that the dream

he had wasn't real. He couldn't get the images out of his head. The nightmare he had was about

some black creature killing everyone he knew. His family and friends...all of them were dead. He hated those gruesome images. He couldn't take the bloody gore. He quickly got out of bed, ran into his bathroom, and started to throw up in his toilet. It turned out that his vomit was red. It was blood.

Afterwards he sat on his bed thinking about the nightmare. He could never get back to sleep after torturing nightmares such as that. 'Why does this keep happening? It's the same thing every night. I'll never get any sleep and why am I throwing up my own blood?' Everything was all a mystery to him.

That next morning, Shadow had called Vector and told him he wasn't feeling well from last night. He never told him what the reason was. He figured Vector tried to do something stupid about it. He lied down in his bed for like an hour, but he didn't feel tired for some reason. Then his phone rang. He answered it, "Hello?"

"Shadow, this is Anita", a female voice said.

Shadow sighed, "What do you want?"

"I just wanted to say hi and why aren't you at the Chaotix?"

"I don't feel so great today so I decided to stay home."

"What's wrong?"

"Don't tell anyone, but I've been having these weird nightmares about a monster killing everyone I knew. It makes me sick to my stomach every time I even think about it and afterwards I throw up blood. I even sometimes cough up a little blood during the day when no one's looking."

Anita was quiet on the phone for a while.

Shadow was starting to get concerned, "Anita?" Still he heard nothing. "Mom!"

Anita finally snapped out of it, "Sorry, I must have journeyed into another world. Listen to me, Shadow I have something to tell you. You have to come by my house immediately."

"But can you just say it to me now?"

"No, you have to hear this in person! Now get over here!"

"All right, you don't have to throw a fit." He hung up the phone and ran out his room on to Anita's house.

When he finally got to Anita's house, he walked through the door slowly, nervous about what she was going to tell him. "Anita?" He saw her sitting on the white sofa.

The pink hedgehog tried to smile, "Sit with me."

He sat down beside her, "What's going on?"

She took out a disk from her pocket and handed it to Shadow.

Shadow stared at it for a second. He looked back at her, "What's this?"

"It's your father's diary."

His eyes widened, "My...father!"

Anita nodded, "He kept all his journals on that disk. You can only access his diary by using his password. Unfortunately he never told anyone the password. I've been trying to figure out that password for years and I still haven't figured it out."

"Why did you give this to me?"

"I think it may have the answers you're looking for."

Shadow once again looked at the disk.

Anita stood from the sofa, "Maybe you should get back."

Shadow began to leave.

"Shadow."

He looked back at her.

"I want you to know that I'll always love you no matter what."

"I love you too, mom. I'll see you later." He left the house.

Later Shadow had made it back to his house. He felt tired when he returned home. He just set the disk down on his desk and decided to look at it later. He fell asleep on his bed for a few hours.

When he woke up, he saw a white bat looking around his room. "Wha-what are you doing in my house!"

The white bat was galvanized. She looked at the hedgehog, "I wanted to check on you."

"I'm fine."

Rouge then had her sights on a disk laying on his desk. "What's this?" As she reached out for it, Shadow had grabbed it before her. "Keep off."

"I just wanna look at it."

"No, besides shouldn't you be with that echidna?"

Rouge looked down on the floor, "It's a Wednesday. He's watching over that dumb Master Emerald."

Shadow could tell that she didn't love Knuckles, "You don't love him nor does he love you."

Rouge looked at him with anger, "You're wrong! He does love me! I know he does!" She left the room not wanting to believe Shadow's words.

Shadow took his mind off her and looked at the disk in his hands.

Soon he was on his computer trying to figure out his father's password. He tried many things related to his family, but nothing. Shadow stressfully hit the desk with his fist. "Damn it! What the fuck is it!" He then looked over to his family picture on his desk.

The picture had his father, mother, and him as a young child in it.

Shadow then thought for a moment, "What a minute..." He began to type in the word 'FAMILY' in his computer. The computer then accepted the password. "It worked." He waited excitedly for the screen to load. When the screen finished loading, he was surprised to see that his father had wrote something about a demon. He began to read it.

Journal Entry #12 Date?

My son's day had finally came. Anita and I decided to name him Shadow because of his mysterious appearance. It looked shadowy to us. Anita just gave birth to him today with the help of a demon called Dark. If it weren't for Dark, Anita would loose him because of her illness. Even though Dark gave Shadow his demon blood in order to let him live, I still don't trust that guy. He looks as though he may double-cross us any second now. It doesn't matter now. I have a son to raise. I doubt if I'll do a good job especially with my so called problem with drugs. Some times I can't stand that woman I married.

I'm sure that when Shadow matures, he will become a demon like Dark and uncontrollable at that. I pray he won't come out that way. We're all safe for now. I did draw what he may appear like if he does transform.

Shadow then clicked to the next page and saw the monster that his father drew. His eyes widened, "It's the...same monster from my dream..."

The drawing looked like a black creature with transparent wings, sharp claws, horns and red quills on the head, a long tail, and piercing red eyes. He then noticed a strange mark on his left hand. It looked like it had a huge star with a circle around it with another circle around the first circle, it had six small stars in the inside of the second circle. "But that's the same mark I have. No, it can't be true. I won't believe him. I'm not a monster. This is nothing, but a joke." He took the disk out of the computer, put it in the desk drawer and locked it. "No one shall ever look at this disk. Ever."