ScareS 5, Sonadow

With a heavy heart, the blue hedgehog placed down the newspaper, the front page up. 'HAVE YOU SEEN US?', stood in bold letters over two rows of six pictures each, showing only children.

Twelve children had disappeared during the night of Halloween a week ago, no witnesses, no clues. Nobody knew, where and when they had disappeared, all children had been moving in groups of at least two of them. Everyone had thought, that they would be fine. There had been no such crime ever, everybody knew everybody in their little town. Who could have done this?

The worst part was, that two of the smiling faces looking up at the blue hedgehog from the newspaper were familiar to him.

Sonic sighed and rubbed his hands over his face in exhaustion. He had run through the whole city earlier, but come up with as much results, as the days before and as the police – zero. Not even a shred of the costumes had he found, or a wrapping of all the candy they had collected, before they had disappeared to who knew where.

He looked up and at the pictures of a young fox boy and an even younger rabbit girl next to each other. The fox was Tails, his brother by choice and the rabbit Cream, one of their neighbors and an always welcomed guest.

He remembered, how the two had appeared on his doorstep a week ago, already laden with candy. Tails had been putting his in his secret candy stash, so that he didn't have to carry it all the time, while the hedgehog had helped Cream, who had fallen and scraped her knee while passing their porch. Since she had been dressed as a cute bunny ghost, she had been forced to keep the front of her white cloth up, so it wouldn't get bloody. He had cleaned and disinfected the small wound and put a band-aid with little butterflies on it. Shortly after, they had been on their way again, to the second half of their tour.

Had he only known, that he wouldn't see them again. He would have accompanied them! Maybe... maybe he could have done something...

Dark furred arms came up from behind him, wrapped around his front and pulled him sideways against a warm body. He allowed it, just accepting the comfort.

"Still no news?," Shadow, his boyfriend, asked silently. Sonic shook his head numbly. Shadow was since about nine months his boyfriend. The dark hedgehog owned a toy store in the city, that he had inherited by his deceased parents. He himself was also a talented marionette-maker, his creations looked just beautiful. It was no wonder, that the children of the city never passed the shop without admiring the displayed toys and dolls for a while.

"Let's take a walk.," Shadow suggested gently. Sonic pressed his ears to his skull. "I'd rather stay here. There might come a call...," he declined. "Love, you haven't stopped worrying for seven whole days. You barely sleep, barely eat, I'm worried. Let's just go to my shop. I'll get you a sandwich out of the kitchen." Shadow's shop had also a complete, though small, flat in the back, in that he lived. Although Sonic and Tails lived in a house with lots of space, the dark hedgehog still preferred to stay there for nostalgic reasons, as he formulated it.

"We won't be away for more than ten minutes and they know, that they can call Vanilla, when they can't reach you.," Shadow added. He meant Cream's mother with that, who hadn't left the house, since her only daughter had disappeared.

Sonic bit his lip, but finally nodded. Shadow smiled, relieved, and helped his exhausted lover to stand up.

They walked at a quick pace – Sonic's anxiety just drove him to not waste time with relaxation – through town and reached the shop without any hindrances.

Shadow unlocked the door and stepped to the side to let Sonic in. Which usually resulted in Sonic mock-bowing and saying something like "Why thank you, kind Sir!", but not today.

He just walked in, his mind occupied with Tails' and Cream's whereabouts. Were they even alive still?

He almost jumped out of his skin, when something hit the back of his knees and he fell backwards onto a hard surface. He blinked, when he noticed the familiar surroundings, sounds and smells of Shadow's kitchen and recognized the thing he sat on as a kitchen chair. Oh.

He lifted his head and saw Shadow searching through the cupboards, getting bread, a knife and a plate, to make the promised sandwich. He thankfully didn't point out his distraction.

Since looking at food alone made him queasy, he stood up and walked into the shop, that was directly behind the door in the kitchen.

He looked around the spacious room, his eyes swiping mindlessly over the toys, books and marionettes in the shelves, his heart aching, whenever he saw something, that Tails and Cream would have liked to own.

Trying to pull himself together, he went to lean against the counter, next to the old cash register, seeing the shop from Shadow's point of view for a bit. It had to be a great feeling to see all those happy children come in here, looking for a new toy.

He smiled a little, feeling his mood lighten a bit. He just wanted to move back in the kitchen, when his foot bumped into something unexpectedly. He looked down and frowned at the big carton box, that stood there – and had felt pretty full, when he had bumped into it. Strange, usually, Shadow immediately put away his merchandise.

This whole incident with the missing children had apparently upset his love, too, when he forgot his routine.

Deciding to help his boyfriend out, he opened the loosely closed box – to have his eyes widening. In the box were only marionettes, and he recognized the one on top.

It was Tails.

The wooden figure had two tails out of several segments, had the ears and muzzle of a fox, was painted golden and white on the belly and the tips of the tails, wore white gloves, red and white shoes, a black satin cape and had small, white, pointy drawn teeth poking out of his muzzle. It was Tails in his vampire costume, that he had worn a week ago!

"Sonic, there you-" "What is this!?," the hero interrupted his boyfriend and whipped around to him, the arms, legs and tails of the marionette idly swinging due to the movement.

Shadow looked at the figure in shock, in his hand a plate with the sandwich. "S-Sonic, I-" "What is this? Do you want to make fun of our misery!?," he seethed. "No, Sonic, I swear, that wasn't the reason!," Shadow quickly said, putting the plate on the counter. "Then why did you build marionettes of our children!?"

"To help the parents.," Shadow explained quietly, looking away. Sonic blinked, slowly relaxing. "What?"

"The children are gone for a week now, there is no saying in when or if they return. I don't want the parents to forget the smiling faces of their young.," Shadow explained.

Thoughtfully, Sonic looked down on the doll. Well, it looked kind of happy, as if it would wave at him, if it could.

The blue hedgehog sighed and carded with his free hand through his head quills. "Chaos, Shads, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have yelled at you...," he scrambled to apologize.

Shadow moved closer and gently hugged him. "It's okay. Because of the pain being still so fresh in all of you, I kept the marionettes back. I hope, that they will never become necessary.," the dark male mumbled.

Sonic gently let himself out of his arms and reached up to kiss him chastely. "I love you.," he whispered.

Shadow smirked and pulled him up for a deeper kiss. "Love you, too.," he eventually declared.

The blue hedgehog grinned and let himself out of his boyfriend's arms. He looked at the marionette again. "How did you even know, that Tails had been dressed as a 'fox-pire'?" His heart ached a little, while he remembered the funny nickname they had thought out just a few hours, before he had disappeared. His question had just been out of curiosity, not an accusation anymore.

"The kids came of course by my shop, too, to get some candy. And as you know, I have an excellent memory.," the dark male added.

Sonic perked up at that. "Did you maybe see something unusual during Halloween?," he asked quickly.

Shadow sighed and shook his head. "The police asked me that already – and no. I had my hands full for three hours straight with customers and the children, I had barely enough time to breathe. I would have probably noticed something, though, if there would have been anything."

Sonic sighed, too, and nodded in disappointment. He turned around and went to put the marionette back, when he noticed a flash of white in the mass. Already able to guess, whose marionette this was, he carefully pulled it out from under the others. The marionette was almost completely wrapped in white cloth, only its feet, clothed by small copies of Cream's shoes, poked out.

"I had to guess, what she wore under it, since she only pulled off her hood, so I just chose her favorite style.," Shadow commented, pushing the plate over and pulling out some papers from under the counter to try and get some paperwork done, until Sonic had eaten. Sonic grinned and carefully took off the cloth. Just like the Tails-marionette, the Cream-marionette looked like her, wearing the orange dress she loved so much. Sonic admired the carefully painted marionette, its brown color, its tiny gloves, its soft, fuzzy ears, its happy smile, its-

He frowned. "Shad?," he asked slowly. "Yes?," the male mumbled distractedly. "Did... Cream wear her costume all the time on Halloween?" "I guess so, I never saw her without it one week ago.," Shadow mumbled.

Sonic growled. "Why are you lying to me?," he hissed. Shadow looked up and turned to him, ready to ask, what he meant, but the words died in his throat, when he saw the marionette in his boyfriend's hands, that had been ridden of the white cloth.

Barely visible, on its right knee, was a small piece of fabric, with barely distinguishable shapes on it – butterflies. "I put that band-aid on Cream, I've never told you and according to you, Cream always concealed her injury. Even if she told you – you could impossibly guess the right position of the band-aid AND those of the butterflies on it. So, how do you know of it?," Sonic accused, his glare hard.

Shadow looked at the marionette for a long while with an unreadable expression, before he sighed and rubbed his face in what seemed to be exhaustion.

Suddenly, his shoulders started to shake and a big grin was at once appearing on his lips behind his hand. Quiet laughter came out of his throat, that became louder and louder, until he threw his head back, shaking with loud laughter, as if he had just heard the best joke in the whole world.

Sonic watched him almost falling over with laughter in horror. This WASN'T the hedgehog he fell in love with, was he? He found himself backing off unconsciously, until he hit the box with the marionettes with his foot once again.

"Oh, Sonic.," Shadow finally spoke. "I should have known, that you would find it out. A band-aid, how pathetic. Oh well, it's too late anyway.," he shrugged.

Sonic's heart did a painful beat. "T-too late!? Wh-what do you mean? What did you do to the children!?," he screamed.

Shadow seemed surprised, as if they were talking about two different things, before he smiled and shook his head, leaning against the counter. "The children? What did you think I did to them, love? Do you think, that I killed them?"

"Well, you said yourself, that it was 'too late'!," Sonic argued, gripping the marionette tightly. He would need to throw it, to have Shadow distracted and flee, but first, he needed to know, what he knew about the children's whereabouts.

"It's too late to explain everything to you in a fitting environment. I planned to tell you in a few years, when the loss wouldn't hurt so much anymore, when you were ready to listen, with your heart open and without prejudices. Too bad, seems, as if this has to be done the hard way."

Sonic's grip on the marionette was now the strongest. This didn't sound good... "W-what did you do to the children?," he asked, keeping his voice as straight as possible.

Shadow looked at him with something, that the hero would have before categorized as 'love', but by now, that couldn't be true anymore, could it? Maniacs like him couldn't love! They didn't know, what this was!

"That's my Sonic, always caring about others, although you have no idea, what I have in store for you.," Shadow smirked, still relaxed, as if his boyfriend wasn't a hard-to-catch, speedy hedgehog. As if he knew, that he couldn't escape.

"Alright, my love, I wanted to tell you anyway. I didn't kill any children, they aren't dead in... the traditional sense. They are just unreachable for you."

"Why? Why would you do that to us? To the children?," Sonic asked, feeling betrayed. He had known all along...

Shadow still smiled, which became quite infuriating. "Don't see it as a bad thing. They were saved."

"Saved!? From what!?," Sonic screamed, tears streaming down his face in sadness and desperation.

"From becoming old, of course. From becoming adults. From every worry, every conflict, every future illness and ailment. They simply slept through the extraction of their soul, like in a never-ending dream.," Shadow explained, as if that made it better.

Emerald eyes widened. "Ex-!? W-W-What are you!?," Sonic asked, his emotional hurt getting quickly replaced by fear.

Shadow pulled himself up to sit on the counter. "I WAS once a talent-less marionette-maker, never selling one of my creations. I traveled from town to town, but people barely even looked at what I did with my own two hands. I was close to giving up, until I reached this certain town..."

A nostalgic expression appeared in his eyes, that seemed to look at something far away, just in his mind. "Nobody warned me to go in this toy shop, they probably wanted to sacrifice me. In retrospective, I should be grateful, that they fed me to 'it'."

"'It'?," Sonic repeated, confused. "The shop, Sonic, the shop of course!," Shadow replied, waving impatiently. "B-but what does the shop have to do with this?," Sonic asked, confused.

Shadow chuckled. "Oh love, you are so adorably young and innocent still. There exist so many evils in this world, in all kinds, sizes and forms. I couldn't even tell, where I should begin! Since this would take too much time, I'll only tell you about the shop.

This toy store had been built out of the wood from cursed trees. On these trees had been spilled blood, love," he added. "Unwillingly spilled blood, paired with untimely deaths can cause objects to become cursed.

The town's people knew that, but they couldn't stop the rich business man from chopping down the cursed trees, that had been witness to so many murders and suicides, and from building this shop out of the wood he gained from the trees. He never survived the first week after the opening of the store. He and his family seemingly disappeared."

He paused to chuckle. "The shop's wood had developed its own mind, being put together like that, and had learned to suck out the souls of living beings. And it learned quickly, that the souls of children are the most tasty ones. The bodies, however, were turned into dolls."

Sonic's eyes widened and he looked down on the marionette in his hand. "Yes, Sonic, this also happened to your little friends. But you have my word, that they didn't feel any pain, or fear. They simply slept through it. Master doesn't usually do this, but I managed to convince him." Shadow said that, as if he was trying to console him. As if he should be grateful.

"You call this thing 'Master'!? It's just wood! And I don't believe, that it can suck out souls!," Sonic shouted, while pressing Cream's mar-...Cream... to himself.

"But it can. It almost sucked out my soul, too, so hungry after decades of starving, but I could convince it to let me live. In exchange, I have to feed it and make marionettes out of the bodies. It chooses the prey, and I lure it in. I tried to convince it from sparing Tails and Cream, but their souls has been too tasty for my Master to just leave them be."

Sonic shook his hurting head. "That can't be true! It would be known, if there had been children missing before today!," Sonic desperately argued.

Shadow chuckled again. "I wasn't speaking about this town, was I?," he smirked. "Over time, my Master managed to gather enough energy to move himself. It changed the minds of the people of the towns we moved to, so they thought, that it had been there all along."

Sonic gulped dryly. That was indeed, what he thought about the shop – it had been always there...

"Still, so many missing children in a row, that would have become global...," Sonic weakly argued, suddenly feeling faint. "Oh, usually, Master just needs one soul a year."

"Then... why-?" "I made a second deal with my Master – and my end of the deal was it to give it a dozen children at once."

"Why? What did you want, that you sacrificed so many lives for?," Sonic asked, tears streaming down his face. He felt weaker and weaker for some reason.

Shadow smiled softly and came closer to him. Sonic wanted to move away, to run, but his feet seemed glued to the floor. Looking down, his eyes widened upon seeing, that thin, violet glowing strings were coming out of the ground, going around his feet, reaching up to his calves. As if he had been sown to the floor...

He flinched violently, when Shadow put his hand under his chin and pushed it up. Shadow smiled almost lovingly. "I wanted you, Sonic.," he explained.

The blue hedgehog struggled even more to get away hearing that, but the strange strings kept him firmly in place. "W-what do you want with me!?," Sonic finally asked, feeling terrified.

Shadow seemed sad because of his fear. He reached up and gently stroke his wet cheek. "Oh love, I want to be with you, for forever. The moment Master chose me, it tied my life to its. That had been 700 years ago – and as you can see, my body didn't change. I couldn't stand the thought of losing you, so I made a deal with Master. It agreed to make you the same as me."

Sonic gave a squeak of fear at hearing that and ripped his head away from his touch as much as he could.

Shadow sighed and grabbed his cheek again, closing what little distance had been between them.

"It's okay, I'll be with you all the way.," he whispered gently in what was supposed to be reassurance, but Sonic's heart beat in his chest like a bird, that tried desperately to escape its hunter.

He suddenly saw, in the twilight now filling the room, what his boyfriend really was. A creature, a cross between a mobian and a marionette, his movements accompanied by the clanking of wooden segments forming its limbs against each other, his mouth moving uncontrollably like the one of a puppet in a kids' theater. Several of those scary strings led from his limbs up to the obscured ceiling. It was impossible to say, who moved those limbs – the puppet, or the master.

"Please...no...," Sonic whimpered, scared out of his mind, trembling like a leaf. He had become too weak to struggle, the 'shop' robbing him of his strength...

Shadow came so close to him, that they touched noses. His smile would have been comforting, if it hadn't been for his eyes, that seemed out of glass, looking so lifeless, and the mouth, that was now only a piece of wood, moved by an extra string, the teeth and bottom lip just painted on it.

"It's going to be okay.," Shadow mumbled and connected their lips, hard, cold wood meeting warm, soft flesh, just holding their position.

Sonic struggled, but with as weak as he already was, he barely twitched. His struggles became a little stronger, when his lungs protested and eventually screamed for oxygen, because as they were now, he couldn't breathe properly, not at all.

He made protesting noises, hit the stronger male's chest with his fist and the marionette, but to no avail. Slowly, dark spots appeared in his vision...

Shadow listened to his muffled, desperate sounds and felt his love's struggles against his lips with a guilty feeling. He knew himself, that Sonic had to be scared, he had been, too, but it needed to be done. He wasn't ready to leave him to Death one day.

"Mhh! Mh! M...h..." Finally, after what had to be an eternity for the both of them, Sonic passed out, their lips disconnecting as he went limp. The marionette fell from his hand and clattered to the ground.

Shadow caught the blue figure gently, placing him on the counter, the strings keeping him in place before already loose and gone.

Since the shop had since a while now obscured its windows and turned the sign to 'Closed', he didn't need to worry about witnesses.

"It's better that way, love, I don't want you to see and feel, what will happen next. Don't worry, you will learn to love your new life, I did, too. And hey, I'm here, that has to be something, right?," he spoke gently, caressing his quills, while he watched, how more glowing strings came out of the ceiling above the blue hedgehog, becoming longer and longer, until they pooled on his chest.

The pointy tips dug through the soft flesh and Shadow was thankful, that Sonic was too far gone to feel it. He still remembered the pain he had to endure, so this was better.

Not long after, the strings were pulled back, the skin, flesh and fur between them getting lifted up with the still beating organ, wrapped by several glass-like strings, as if locked in a delicate cage.

"That will be a strange one, love, but you'll get used to it. You'll get used to not needing food, water, sleep, or a bathroom. And you don't have to keep up all those rooms anymore, Master.," he added towards the ceiling.

He didn't REALLY see the building as his Master, but he needed to call it something – and although its mind was primitive at best, it knew the difference between respect and disrespect. So calling it 'Thing', or 'Shop' had just resulted in him getting locked up in an especially for him created cupboard for a year, which had been so boring.

Shadow carefully took the calmly beating organ and turned around, the piece of wall he was facing now moved to the side and revealed a tight net of these strings, in that was another heart beating idly.

Very slowly, Shadow brought the heart closer to the net and it was immediately grabbed and pulled inside the strings by a few of exactly those. The dark hedgehog paused a second and watched the two organs beat in perfect sync with pride.

Smiling, he turned around and went back to Sonic's side, ignoring the blood flowing out of him, coloring his fur dark red.

"That wasn't so bad, was it?," he asked, petting his quills again. "Your body is now connected with the shop." Satisfied, he watched, how the hole in his chest closed, and just for a second, it looked, as if a life-size marionette of him lay there, before he looked like a hedgehog again.

"The next part will be harder, but I know, that you will be fine.," he explained, looking up.

More strings fell from the ceiling, wrapping around pretty much every inch of Sonic's body, while the counter cracked open, looking like a beast's maw, in it only darkness.

Shadow watched, how the other hedgehog got lowered into the dark and how the counter closed up again, concealing every previous damage.

Gently, Shadow ran his hand over the wood. "I don't know, how long you have to stay there, until you break, love, but know, that I will be here for you, all the way. My arms will be the first thing you'll meet, after Master is satisfied with your progress.," he mumbled towards the wood, before moving to leave the shop, the strings falling off him, when he reached the door.

He wasn't as free as he would love to believe, he needed to return to the shop in a week at the latest to stay in it for another week, when he had reached his limit before, or, when the shop called for him to return, which it usually did after a day at the latest, anxious to have its doll back.

He left the shop after making sure, that nobody was around, who had seen him entering with Sonic, and went to his love's house, to gather his personal stuff.

He had a new home now.

Title: The Toy Shop