Woo, I finally decided to update, sorry it took so long, but I've been busy, I don't suppose anyone knows any decent take kwon do schools in west Yorkshire? ;

DISCLAIMER - I DON'T OWN SONIC, SHADOW OR THE CAMERA OBSCURA

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The endless darkness seemed to taunt Sonic as he stumbled around the room, in complete silence and dark, he didn't even know where he was. He stopped when he heard a quiet noise to his left, he recognised it as the soft flickering of a single candle. 'For all that it'll help me now.' He thought as he made his way towards it, at least he knew where he was now. He drew his hand back sharply, gasping when he felt hot wax against it, he closed his eyes, this was hopeless.

When he opened his eyes again though, he was amazed to find, he could see.

It was dark all around, but the lone candle, standing on the table, he could see it clear as day. He turned his head round, he couldn't see anything else. He looked back to the candle, why was this the only thing he could see. 'It must be important,' he gave a small smile, 'maybe Shadow does know what he's talking about.' He took the candle by the small stand it was on and took a moment to think. 'If the candle is here, then the door isn't much further.'

He reached out his arm and tried to make his way over to the right, finding comfort in the soft glow of the candle. After a few seconds of fumbling around, he found the handle and slowly walked through, careful not to bump into anything or fall over. He felt the breeze of the outdoors blow through his quills, and he could hear the trees rustling as they swayed. He slowly made his way across, trying to picture the garden in his mind and remember where everything was, when he heard a sound that chilled him to the bone.

"Why didn't you help me Sonic?" His heart seemed to stop as he heard Shadow's voice behind him, low and menacing. He swivelled round, but the darkness stretched out in front of him, and he tried desperately to find out just where Shadow was exactly. He backed away from the voice and tripped over something lying on the ground, dropping the candle on the ground with a small thud. He looked round, trying to find it, when he saw a blazing flame burn onto the ground.

He gasped and tried to get away, but there was something behind him, preventing him from escaping,. He eyed the fire fearfully as it blazed across the floor closer to him. He got to his feet and tried to back up closer to the surface behind him when he felt a hand on his arm.

"Come on Sonic." It was Shadow again, but this time, his voice was soft, nothing to be feared of, but suggested there was plenty to fear. "Come on, just follow me." The hand kept its tight grip on him and Sonic followed where it led. He heard a few doors open and close, and he stumbled up some stairs with some help with Shadow, and after going through a final door, Shadow stopped, helping Sonic to a railing.

The same outdoor breeze blew around him, and he could hear the familiar burning of the fire, but he felt safe as Shadow wrapped his arms around him.

"Look down." Sonic obediently did just that, and his eyes widened at the sight before him. Etched into the darkness and shadows was a burning fire, but not just a fire, it had burned into a pattern, one Sonic remembered, although he wasn't sure where from.

"The kusabi symbol, something is wrong." That was it! Sonic knew he'd seen it before, but the contentment of remembering was soon replaced with the fear of remembering. The symbol of the kusabi was a bad omen, one of the worst, an omen on the repentance. But it always needed a body to house it, but who…?

Suddenly everything clicked, everything made sense. The repentance needed someone to house it, someone vengeful, someone who wouldn't be able to control the evil inside, the one that was meant to sleep forever. For if it should awaken, doom should befall everything in the manor of evil souls, the place where everything wretched was, and kept under lock and key, lest it should escape and be unleashed on the world. A house visited only in the darkest dreams, a house only existing in the mind, for that house is your evil side, the manor of sleep.

Sometimes you just can't stop the evil from escaping.

Suddenly Sonic was drawn into another vision, he was in the garden, but he was moving. He slowly went to the small hut that stood alone in the corner and went inside, to see a black and red hedgehog standing alone in front of wall. On the wall was a symbol marked in red. Sonic gasped when he saw that the red was not paint or anything similar, but crimson blood dripping from the walls, like in his home. His eyes widened when he saw the slash marks covering Shadow's blood. Was that blood, his?

He was brought quickly out of his thoughts as Shadow finally seemed to realise that he was not alone in the hut. He turned around, fury blazing blood red in his eyes as he advanced slowly towards Sonic.

"I'm sorry…" Then he was knocked out of consciousness.

Sonic woke with a start, looking around in the dark as he lay beside the abyss. He shivered and held his knees close as he found himself in total darkness again.

"I forgive you Shadow, just let this stop." As he stumbled his way back home, Sonic couldn't see that his fur had suddenly turned the brightest white, illuminating all around him, but he couldn't see it as his own shadowy world closed in around him.

It took hours, but he finally got home, covered in scratches and bruises from falling over so many times on his way home. He managed to make his way to the living room where he collapsed exhausted on the couch.

"How do I stop this?" He opened his eyes, not even realising he'd closed them and averted his eyes to a wall. They widened when he saw the burning glow scorched into his wall. The kusabi symbol was etched in crimson, and in the darkness, it stood menacingly and loomed over Sonic as he froze. He suddenly heard a voice.

"Shadow, where are you?" He gasped and jumped off the seat, circling round, trying to find the source of the voice.

"Shadow, help, I can't see where I am, Shadow?" Sonic stopped in his tracks when he backed against the wall, the kusabi symbol burning overhead. He could still hear the pitiful voice in the darkness. "Shadow, I can't see, where are you? Help me!" Sonic wanted desperately to help, but he knew he couldn't. Something suddenly clicked in his mind.

'He can't see, maybe if I don't make too much noise…' He stood perfectly still as he heard footsteps around the room, then a gasp.

"Shadow, the kusabi symbol, Shadow! Shadow where are you?" He heard the figure desperately trying to get away, and sighed in relief when he heard it run through the door. 'That was me,' he knew it was his voice that had called out for help, 'so in my other life I couldn't see, but,' he looked up at the kusabi symbol, 'I could see things others couldn't.'

He put his hand to the wall where the writing burned. It didn't feel hot, but still it burned like a flame. 'What am I supposed to do Shadow? I'm confused.' He made his way quietly over to the desk, if that ghost was still here, he didn't want to him back. He slumped over in his seat and reached out onto it, feeling the photos on it. 'If there's anything special about them, I should be able to see it,' he reasoned in his mind, and smiled triumphantly when an image caught his eye.

It was one he'd seen before, two hedgehogs, one black, one white, both with red streaks, stood facing each other, but there was something different about the white one. It's eyes were covered with a cloth with the kusabi symbol on it, and blood seemed to drip down through it. He looked at the cloth. The kusabi symbol. 'Does that mean?' He suddenly had an idea. 'It must, I don't like it but, if it means finally being with Shadow…'

He grinned, if anyone had been around to see, they'd have seen the pure evil behind that smile as the idea played out in Sonic's head, an idea that went against all his morals, but the final solution to the puzzle none the less. A manic laughter echoed from the house of Sonic the hedgehog that night, as he finally fell asleep…

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Well, there's only one or two chapters after this, aren't you just itching to know what happens? Well I write on a whim, so I can't tell you until I've written it, you'll just have to wait, review, and see.

Please review!