Alright, this took a while to update, and I promise this chapter will be better than that last, so onto the chapter!
Chapter 3: You Can't Run From The Truth; Part 1
All the next morning, Shadow received panicked glances from most of the ham-hams, except for Howdy and Maxwell who were still convinced that Shadow was lying.
"Oh Shadow, they're just worried about you." Sandy told him after he had confessed his annoyance.
"Yeah, but they're not." Shadow replied, pointing at Howdy and Maxwell.
Sandy had no reply to this, as it was quite true, so she sat in silence through the rest of breakfast.
After they ate, the ham-hams went out to the lawn to play Strawberry Soccer. However, when Shadow stepped into the lawn, the atmosphere changed. Everyone got tense and a few of them even looked like they were wishing they hadn't come.
"What?" Shadow asked, as everybody was staring at him. "Oh, I see, you guys are still scared I'll attack you."
"It's not that we don't like you Shadow…" Pashmina said.
"Heck yeah it is!" yelled Maxwell and Howdy together.
"It's okay Shadow." Sandy said to him. "I'll stay with you."
Shadow and Sandy sat in the kitchen while the rest of the gang was out playing. They sat in an awkward silence for a while until Maxwell came in through the door.
"I'll be back in a bit!" Maxwell yelled out the door to the others. "I'm just getting water!"
He stepped in.
"What do we have here?" Maxwell asked, smirking at Shadow.
"You know bloody well what!" Shadow yelled at him. "I had to come inside because you've got everyone dead scared of me and thinking I'm a liar!"
"Ooo, a bit touchy today are we?" Maxwell sneered.
"Just get your water and like, leave, Maxwell." Sandy told him, preferring not to get in the middle of things.
"Sandy!" Shadow said. "Can't you see? He never wanted water, he just came in here so he could dump on me."
"Feeling smart today, eh Shadey?" Maxwell jeered.
"Don't ever call me Shadey!" Shadow replied.
"Shadey, Shadey, Shadey!" he taunted.
Oh, that Maxwell makes me so mad! Shadow thought. I'm so angry that…
And before he knew what was happening, his head echoed with a voice. It was the meaner of the two in his dream. "Attack…attack!"
"GET OUT!" Shadow screamed.
Maxwell, who thought Shadow was yelling at him to leave, ran screaming out the door yelling "Crazy hamster on the loose!"
"Shadow, I know you don't like him but that was kind of harsh." Sandy said. " Like, Shadow? Shadow answer me! Shad-"
But Sandy stopped in mid sentence, for at that moment, Shadow lifted his head, revealing bright red eyes and huge pearly fangs.
"SHADOW!" Sandy yelled, looking fearful.
"Attack…attack the girl!" said the voice.
"No…no!" Shadow wrestled with the voice. "Sandy! Get away! Get everyone and tell them to-"
"No!" Sandy yelled. "I will not leave you Shadow!"
"Sandy I-"
"Attack now!"
Before Shadow knew what he was doing, he had lunged head first towards Sandy. Her horrified look flashed before him, and he could do nothing to stop it. Luckily, Sandy's quick reflexes allowed her to escape, allowing Shadow's fangs to barely singe her leg, leaving a small but very deep cut.
"No! Sandy…I…GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" Shadow yelled. And he fell onto the floor.
"Shadow!" Sandy rushed to his side. When he looked up at her, she saw that he had lost his fangs and red eyes, to be replaced with a look of terrified self disgust.
"I…I did that to you." He muttered, staring at Sandy's injury.
"It's nothing, just a scratch." Sandy said. "But I'm like, really worried about you now!"
"Sandy…" Shadow mumbled. "Sandy…get away."
"No, I won't!" She cried.
"I'm sorry Sandy!" Shadow yelled, flinging Sandy off of him. "But I can't risk hurting you again! If you won't run away, then I will!"
And that's what he did: he ran.
"SHADOW!" Sandy screamed, but it was too late. He had gone.
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Shadow didn't notice the pain in his chest because of all the running. All that mattered was that he got as far away from Sandy as possible. He could not bear to hurt her. He could not bear to hurt the one he loved.
He ran until it was night, and he couldn't have ran anymore if he tried. He sat down in a small patch of grass and slept.
He dreamed that night. In his dream, there was a small room that looked like a laboratory, with blinking lights and sounds. Then his dream was interrupted, this time it was the nicer of the two voices he head heard previously.
"Come to me…""I will come." Shadow said out loud, realizing he was awake now. He didn't know how, but somehow he knew the way to this voice. It was as if the path was familiar for him. Over the lake, past the big rock, follow the stream to the oak tree.
He stopped at an opening in the tree, because he knew he should stop there. Inside the tree it was just like his dream, a lab with lights and sounds.
He looked into one of the rooms, and there was a small hamster in a devil suit sleeping in a corner. He was lucky he came so early, because he had a bad and familiar feeling about that hamster.
For some reason, he wanted to check in the closet. And so he opened the door, only to find a brown and white hamster in a lab coat, tied up and gagged on the floor.
"Sha…dow…" came a muffled sound from the gagged hamster.
Shadow did not care how he knew his name, all he wanted to do was get this man out of these ropes. So he untied him.
After being rescued, you'd think that one would be grateful towards their savoir. Not this hamster, he simply muttered "Thank you," picked himself up off the floor, and stared eye to eye with Shadow.
"Welcome back son." Said the hamster. "Or should I say, experiment?"
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That wasn't bad at all! So who really is this professor guy? What's with all the voices in Shadow's head? Why am I asking you guys these questions? You'll just have to read and see! All questions will be answered, except maybe for that last one.