The nurse dropped a folder she was holding and muttered, "Oh my God."

Shadow's head shot up like lightning, and faster than the speed of sound he was right in front of her. "You listen to me." He commanded. She just looked at me, then him, then the door. "Don't even think about it." He said in the same, threatening tone. A low growl began to reverberate through his lungs as he perked his ears up as straight as they could go.

"What do you want from me?" She asked, her cheeks turning tomato red.

"You listen to me." He repeated, "You didn't see anything."

"I didn't see anything." She repeated shakily.

"Good. Now then." Shadow picked up the folder and handed it back to her. "What's this?"

"Some test results." She replied, her voice quavering slightly less. "Th-they're for Ms. Robotnik."

She took two transparent sheets out of the folder and walked across the room to hand them to me. I took them and stared intensely at what I saw on the first one. It was obviously supposed to be my brain, but there were strange lines, like rivers on a map, that seemed to be inching their way around it. "Care to explain?" I asked.

That sparked Shadow's interest, and he ran up to my side for a look. "Whoa, is that your brain? What is that?" He asked.

"We don't know." The nurse answered, some sort of strange side-effect to the toxins you were exposed to. This is an X-Ray we took of your brain this morning, and we took the other one a few hours later.

I stuck the first one behind the second one and took a look. The "rivers" had spread dramatically and were now emitting a strange fog.

"We would describe this as some sort of glow that these corrupted nerves are giving off, but we don't know how to explain this horrific phenomenon." The nurse said as we continued to study the image.

"Wait." Shadow looked up at her. "What do you mean 'horrific'? could this kill her?"

"Well, it's already corrupted thousands of nerves in Ms. Robotnik's brain. If it hasn't affected her yet, it's only a matter of time before it does." She wouldn't make eye-contact with us, and she used a serious tone of voice. Not getting emotionally involved. I knew this voice. It was the same voice my grandfather had used many times before when he would tell a radiation-exposed or injured scientist that they were going to die.

Low and soft, I let the words tumble out of my mouth. I knew I would be uttering them someday, but I had no idea it would be today.

"I'm going to die."

It was more of a statement than a question; I was just so sure it was true.

The nurse gave a slight nod. "Probably." Shadow grabbed my shoulder with his left hand and the bed-side table with his right, steadying himself.

"Thanks for being honest." He said flatly.

"I'll leave you two alone to discuss this." She seemed relieved to be leaving the room and shut the door behind herself with a bang.

But we didn't discuss it. Shadow didn't say a word. Just grabbed the lamp on the small table and through it on the ground in fury. The darkness caved in on us immediately, accompanying the clash and clatter of glass. I heard the squeak and groan of the bed springs as Shadow sat down and laid back, his head next to mine. Still without words, I searched the air with my hands out until I felt his soft fur. Taking his head in my hands I kissed him and we let the blackness swallow us. Together, we hid in the pitch darkness, waiting for the struggle of life and the universe to go away and be lifted off our shoulders. Waited to just be naïve young lovers again, and not the pained and worn out people that we had become.

I jumped and that damn monitor spiked a final time as Shadow shot up in the bed, swinging his legs over the side and hitting the floor. I felt the cord in my wrist be yanked from under my skin and the monitor shut off. I yelped helplessly at the pain. "Shadow!" I yelled, "What's your problem? Why'd you do that?!"

The door opened and I saw his shadowy silhouette appear in the blinding light, realizing he was already leaving the room. Before it slammed shut and I heard his rocket shoes kick on, I heard a single word from him. A word that he said with anger, frustration, and overall hatred.

"Della!"

By the time I got a bandage for my wrist thanks to Shadow, ran down the research labs that weren't inactive for toxic waste removal, and found the one that Della and Shadow were in, it was too late to prevent the screaming. I mean, I did join in after all.

"You evil, murdering whore!"

"You disgusting little bastard!"

"I outta kill you RIGHT NOW!"

"Me too!"

"Hey, hey, HEY!" I yelled as I ran in. I pointed at Della. "Just get off our backs, you WITCH!" Then I turned to Shadow. "You're not protecting me if that's what you think you're doing! It doesn't do you any good if you're going to be unpredictable all the time and do crazy things without letting me know first! I'm part of this too you know! Hell, I'm the one who's the most affected besides... that poor scientist!" I felt really bad about forgetting her name. Now she was just another piece of this delusional puzzle. No longer her own person with a shot in life to be famous for anything that's more important than to three people.

"You wanna know why I ripped that IV out of you Maria? Huh?" Shadow said angrily. I was alarmed with the idea of him talking to me this way, but I wasn't going to stop my quest for answers now.

"Yes! I do!" I said angrily back.

"So that you could get out of that frickin' hospital room but not before I could get back at Della first!"

"Why can't I ever be a hero too?"

"Because I'll miss you too much when you're gone! I don't want to be the CAUSE OF YOUR DEATH!"

"WELL IT'S TOO LATE FOR THAT!" I screamed. Suddenly, I realized I had gone too far.

"I'M SORRY!" He screamed back, beginning to sob and falling to his knees.

After all this I had completely forgotten that Della was there, but she got my attention when we both turned our heads to the sound of her clapping. "I know," She laughed, "A little cliché, but I couldn't help it." She walked over to Shadow's side and looked at him with disgust. "I did mean to kill you two with the bomb, but it wasn't supposed to go off just yet. It was a good thing you were outside that door though, and it was a really good thing I was eating breakfast at the time. What a great day to be late, right?" Silence. "Whatever. Let me walk you through my plan."

I interrupted. "What's your motive? Why do you hate us so much?"

"Well, it's not actually that personal, believe it or not. I'll tell you that story too. Those toxins will soon kill you anyway. And as for you, tsk tsk tsk..." She shook her head as she looked down at Shadow, drawing a 9mm pistol from her lab coat. "I'll finish you off myself."

Just so you guys know, I have a blog on WordPress .com called Shadow Girl, where you can catch up on what's happening in my life and read some deleted scenes from my works of fan fiction! Just go to your address bar and type in: Shadow Girl three oh five-five dot word press dot com (I know I typed it weirdly but my word processor seems to keep deleting real numbers. Whatever!).

Wow, that ruined the mood, didn't it?

-TheVideoGamer