Little ShaDows

Chaptero Uno (A wish gone horribly wrong)

Shadow the Hedgehog sat perched on the ledge of an apartment building, one leg hanging over the side while the other was raised up, allowing his arm to rest on his knee. It was nighttime and the city was almost completely quiet but for the distant murmur of traffic. The sky was clear and the shining moon was full. Yet for all the endless amount of black space, there was only a single, tiny star in the sky. Shadow found himself focusing on that little star and, without realizing it, began directing his inner musings towards it.

'It must get lonely being up there all alone.' he thought. 'Surrounded by darkness and silence, nothing to hear but your own hollow thoughts... But then again, though I can't see them, there are always millions of stars around. You are never truly alone, unlike me...'

He hesitated, unsure if he should continue. The conversation was about to get personal and Shadow wasn't the type to lay his feelings bare before anyone or anything, even if what he was talking to was a lifeless mas of gas burning millions of miles away in the vacuum of space. Still, he felt he needed to get this off his chest.

Coolly diverting his gaze sideways, he continued on.

'I too have friends, if you can call them that. They're more like associates I only see when there's some sort of trouble brewing. Not that I want to see them more...I suppose I wouldn't care all that much if I did, though. It could be...nice. Sometimes. I guess...Maybe...' he felt his cheeks grow warm and scowled at the sensation.

'What am I saying? The only thing those idiots ever do is get in my way, especially that faker. I'm better off on my own. Plus, it's not like I have a reason to hang around them...'

His expression softened. He turned his crimson eyes back to the star, feeling a strange openness in his chest as peculiar words started to form in his throat. They wanted to be spoken and he so desperately wanted to speak them, but he knew his pride wouldn't permit such sentiments to be uttered aloud. And so instead, he spoke within himself, revealing the deepest desire of his heart in the softest whisper.

'I wish I had a reason.'

The star flickered. For a moment Shadow wondered if it had really heard him, but then his cynical realism returned and he concluded that he was thinking too much. His pleasant mood turned glum, he soon left the apartment roof and shortly thereafter...the little star disappeared from the sky.

ooOOoo

"Shadow..."

The ebony hedgehog turned his head in the direction of where the voice had come from and was surprised to find a small light there. Sparkling like a firework, it hovered amidst the darkness, seemingly close enough to touch and yet, at the same time, appearing too far away to reach. Shadow stared at it in wonder.

"Shadow," spoke the light again, its ethereal voice holding a girlish charm. "You were so kind to sit and talk to me. I am small and seldom noticed by anyone, and my loneliness sometimes feels too great to bear. But tonight you were there and my loneliness was forgotten because of your presence. Now I want to give you something in return for being a friend to me. Shadow the Hedgehog...your wish is granted."

With that said, the light rapidly expanded, engulfing Shadow in a blinding white. Gasping, his eyes shot open, revealing the whole encounter to be nothing but a dream. He was in his bed, curled up in a fetal position on top of the covers, the position he had taken when he had first laid down. The darkness of night was letting up and he could make out the time displayed on his digital clock without squinting. Much to his chagrin, the extra large numbers read 6: 02.

'Great...' he muttered inwardly, but then something occurred to him. The numbers on his clock never looked that big. And the lamp beside the clock never stood that tall. And the photo next to the lamp, the one he hated and kept declaring he would get rid of because it featured his "friends" giving him a death hug and grinning like morons, well, it was practically the size of his tv.

A feeling of dread settled over Shadow. Slowly he sat upright and examined himself. Tiny hands. Tiny legs. Tiny body. Everything on him was midget sized! Heck no, he would probably resemble an ant to a midget! It was impossible. Illogical. It was something that would only happen in fairytales and Shadow did not believe in fairytales. He had to be dreaming. Yes, that made sense. Right now he was having some weird dream in which he was shrunk down to a measly three inches. Because something like this couldn't happen in reality, right?

'Oh hell...'