Chapter Seven

It felt as if I had been trapped in the estate for weeks. In reality, it had been a little over a day and a half. I was restless and constantly alert. When a floorboard creaked, a chandelier chimed, or a door opened in another hall, I was on my feet in half a second. What I would have done if these sounds were actually threats, I wasn't really sure – I was weak here. Vulnerable.

I never saw much of Espio or Shadow. For the latter, I was grateful. But Rouge poked her head around my door to check in from time to time, relentless; was I comfortable enough? Were my clothes? And every one of those times, I gave a simple yes so she would leave. I knew her intentions were good, and I felt a hole in my stomach grow slightly larger every time she would back away from the door, but I just wasn't ready. They knew I wasn't.

Silver I saw almost constantly. My quiet compliance did nothing to deter him as it did with Rouge. He would walk right into the room, grab my hand, and pull me along to another room, another distraction from my thoughts. I could wrench myself free and go back, and he'd just calmly grab me again as if I hadn't resisted at all. He was just as stubborn as I remembered, but under the circumstances it was comforting. One of the first things that Silver had shown me was the other bedrooms. There were more than I could count, each more elegant than the next, with beds draped in red and gold and deep, deep blue. Eventually, we came to a stop by one door in particular. The comforter on the bed was disheveled and had clearly been used recently. With a smile, Silver had announced that it was his room, and my confusion must have reached my face.

"I never really got that myth," Silver had admitted with a shrug. "If I can lay down in some coffin, why can't I lay down on a bed?"

That was nothing compared to my second discovery. We were walking towards a wide, circular room towards the back of the mansion, and the first thing I noticed was the floor. The marble was showered in familiar shades of color; sunset gold, fire red, ocean blue. At first, the unexplained colors were so enthralling to my eyes that I was distracted. My pace slowed, and Silver strode past me. Then, as we got closer to the room itself, I saw the glass windows lining the walls, casting their colors onto the floor, letting in the sun. I was so caught up in the moment that I barely registered that Silver was walking right into the light.

"Wait!" I called out frantically, but by the time the word had left my lips, he was already fully in the circle of sun, looking at me over his shoulder in confusion. His fur seemed to glow.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

"The sun," I said, staring. "You're not..."

His eyes widened in realization, and then he burst into laughter. "Not burning to death? That's kind of a myth too. If you're strong enough, it won't hurt you."

I groaned, sliding onto a nearby bench and letting my head fall into my hands. "I feel like a child."

"Well, maybe in experience." Silver sat beside me, keeping a respectful distance.

I fell silent for a while. Dust motes twirled in the sunlight around us in tiny pirouettes. I lifted my head from my hands, looking at the floor but not really seeing it.

"Silver, why did Shadow do that?" I asked quietly.

The silence seemed to grow longer. Unfriendly. I wouldn't meet Silver's eyes, but I knew that the question had made him uncomfortable. All the warmth of the sun seemed to have been sucked out of the room. I hugged my arms to my chest.

"Don't... take it to heart." Silver said difficulty, as if he had to search very hard for the words. "You don't realize it – you can't realize it – but what you said back there in the dining room isn't that far from the truth."

The scene played in my head with excruciating clarity. "About keeping me here being suicide?"

"We've done a really, really good job keeping ourselves hidden," he said. "When we hunt, we do it like a unit." At the word hunt, his golden eyes flickered up warily to mine. "It's the only time we leave here, and no one has ever even wandered close. Someone is after you, and we... we don't know who, or how badly they want to find you. If they find you, then they find us."

"But you're..." I paused and awkwardly gestured towards him. "You know. And there are four of you. Can't you just fight them off?"

Silver turned his head and looked directly into my eyes. "Some vampires are stronger than others, Amy. A lot stronger."

I looked at my lap and pursed my lips. "That still doesn't explain it. He was always distant, but not... well, not like that."

The way Silver's eyes darted around, it looked like he was worried the person in question was listening. He must have decided that he wasn't, because he knitted his fingers together and sighed.

"Shadow was... alone for a very long time. Rouge says that he went missing even before people started to turn. A while before. The night we ran into each other, he was just standing in the middle of the street. There was so much blood on him. I really don't want to think of why, or how." He paused and looked at me, gauging my reaction – my tolerance of their conditions. "He hardly recognized me."

"Was he... one of you?" I asked.

"Yes. Had been for a while."

My voice came out as barely more than a whisper. "How did it happen?"

"He's never said it. Not even to me."

An image presented itself in my head; the dark hedgehog standing silently in the road, more red than black, the pavement underneath him dark with whatever he'd done. My fingers began to tremble and I clamped them between my knees.

"How did it happen to you?" I ventured.

Silver laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his head. "Oh, jeez, Amy. Well, it definitely isn't as mysterious as Shadow's."

"It's mysterious to me," I countered.

"I've shown you a lot today. I don't want to overwhelm you."

I leaned forward, a little spark of my old bravery igniting inside me somewhere. "Tell me. I want to know."

He frowned, looking off into the distance. Remembering. "I was looking for someone. It must have been for weeks, and I didn't have a single lead. And, well... one night, I got found instead."

I lowered my gaze. "Did it hurt?"

"No. Whoever they were, they were very gentle. For that, I was lucky." He closed his eyes. "But they let me go after. Even told me everything would be okay when I woke up in the morning." He met my eyes. "It burns when you change. First the wound, and then your head, and then your whole body. I couldn't breathe... move... I couldn't even think about how much it hurt. And then I woke up."

"And you found Shadow," I said softly.

"Not quite that soon, but yes. I did. He was the one that taught me how to survive this new life. I would've died without him."

"But you're a vampire!" I blurted, then immediately regretted it. Silver had flinched at my words. Cheeks burning with shame, I quietly added, "What I mean is... you can't die."

Silver blinked. "Yes, I can."

"I mean besides stakes, and fire, and sun... light..." I trailed away, my confidence dashed by his amused expression.

"All the obvious ways of dying – getting stabbed, or burned, or falling – they'd definitely hurt. But we heal so fast the damage doesn't last. The only surefire way to get yourself killed when you're a vampire is to starve."

I frowned. "But isn't not starving kind of the point of what you are?"

His smile began to fade and look increasingly forced. "You can fight it. If you really want to. But you get weak. Eventually, it's better to deal with having to do what you have to do than try to avoid what you are. It hurts less."

"How could –" I began, unwilling to let him avoid the question, but I was quickly cut short by the sound of high heels clacking loudly against the floor.

"Do I hear the sweet sound of bonding?" Rouge's voice echoed down the corridor as she swept into the room, two large plastic bags in her hands. "Oh, Silver, why didn't you tell me?" She put her hand on her hip and sighed, "I would've brought my nail polish."

Silver scrunched up his nose. "What's in those bags? It smells awful."

"I have no idea." She smirked, setting one on the bench beside me and pulling out a package of bread, plastic wrap, instant noodles, jars full of liquids with questionable consistencies; she held one of the jars up to her nose and stuck out her tongue. "Shadow didn't give me any specifics. Just a lot more money than I knew what to do with." She picked up a little yellow bottle. "Lemon juice. You drink lemon juice, right, Amy? Is that what we used to drink?"

"You ate food your entire life and you forgot after a year and a half?"

"What? Like you could do better!"

"I'm absolutely sure that I could!"

I watched them bicker back and forth, back and forth; I was listening, but not really hearing the words. Rouge proceeded to pull out dozens of less than edible items and wave them in Silver's face. The white hedgehog rejected them one after another with his palm, spitting chastising remarks and shaking his head in disbelief. They argued like bitter friends.

"You said Shadow told you to buy it?" I interrupted, baffled by the notion that he'd do anything but let me starve.

Rouge tilted her head. "Yes. What's wrong with that?"

I shifted uncomfortably. "Well, I don't know..."

"His little display in the dining room didn't exactly make her feel welcome," Silver said with a scoff. "There was no reason to be so dramatic."

"You're one to talk," Rouge replied sweetly. Silver hissed sharply and turned away. "Hey, we've all had Shadow say he'd kill us. I got told just last week." She grinned and tossed one of the bags into my arms. "Means you're part of the club, honey."

I hadn't realized how hungry I was until felt the weight of the food in my lap. Silver and Rouge forgotten for the moment, I rifled through the contents until my hand folded around a small carton of strawberries. Yes, please. I pulled it open and stuffed three in my mouth at once, the juice bursting on my tongue.

"Were we that gross?" Rouge murmured loudly to Silver. I blushed as pink as the juice covering my hands.

"I think what we do now qualifies as "gross", Rouge."

I barely heard the rest of the conversation over my stomach growling. As I tossed away the empty carton of strawberries and started poking around the bag for something else, Silver's body went rigid. Rouge's chattering abruptly stopped, and the room fell deathly silent. I looked up slowly; Shadow was standing at the entrance to the room, all intimidation. His sharp eyes were fixed on me only. I was suddenly very aware of the strawberry juice on my face, and awkwardly raised a hand to wipe my mouth.

With a derisive snort, Shadow turned his attention to Silver and Rouge, and the spell was broken. I pushed the bag off my lap and crossed my ankles nervously. I didn't think I would ever get used to his eyes staring so coldly into mine.

"I sense someone in the forest," Shadow told them. At once, they stood at attention and hardened their gazes. "They are close. I cannot see inside of their consciousness, but it is no mortal."

"Is it him?" I interjected frantically, standing. "Is it the hunter vampire?"

"As I said," He replied, barely looking at me as he spoke, "I cannot tell."

"But it has to be! Who else could it be?" I pressed.

"Relax, Amy. You're safe here." Silver reassured me smoothly; he, too, barely looked in my direction.

"What do we do, Shadow?" Rouge asked.

"Join Espio and investigate the forest. Search for signs of the intruder, and if you see him, you are to contact me immediately. Subdue him if you must, but do not kill him." Something bright and wild shone in his eyes. "I'll be the one to do that."

Sensing a break in the conversation, I quickly filled it. "What about me? What do I do?"

"We can't leave her by herself," Silver agreed. "Especially not with someone sneaking around so close."

Shadow's ear twitched, and I could swear to feel the irritation radiating from his body. "She will not be by herself."

Several things happened then: Silver stiffened and alternated staring between Shadow and me; Rouge let out one of those musical, nervous laughs; my mouth had fallen open in shock, but I didn't realize that at first. All I realized was that I was going to be here, trapped by a maze of fancy rooms and chandeliers, spending the next unmeasurable spans of time being supervised by Shadow the Hedgehog. Any and all sense of comfort I had regained from my time here blew away like smoke.

"Do you really think that's –?" Rouge began, but Shadow let out a warning growl and the words died on her lips.

"Let me stay here with her," Silver argued. "There's no need for this –"

"I have made my decision, and I expect you to obey it." Shadow's face was expressionless. "Go."

They hesitated, looking at each other helplessly. No, don't give up. I begged silently. You can't leave me with him. You can't.

But leave me they did. Rouge swept down the hall with an uncomfortable look on her face and disappeared. Silver followed, but stopped and looked back with a sharp glare.

"If anything happens to her, and I mean anything..."

Shadow smirked. It was an unsettling thing, to see a smile on such a dark face. "You'll do nothing."

I wasn't so sure. By the looks of it, neither was Silver. He gave me one last nervous glance and disappeared after Rouge down the hall, and then I was truly alone. I hugged my arms to my chest. The warmth from the sunlight was nothing compared to the chill Shadow's presence provided. I tried fruitlessly to remember if there was anything pointy in the bag Rouge had brought me.

"You are a foolish girl," Shadow remarked suddenly, and I looked up in surprise. I narrowed my eyes angrily, offended, and a second later his voice boomed inside my head, scattering my thoughts in every direction. Not even a fraction of resistance. He scoffed mentally, and then spoke aloud again. "How you've managed to stay mortal is beyond my understanding."

I clenched my fists. Shadow was no different from the others. He wasn't some horrible entity I couldn't face; he was still just a rude person too full of himself to care about anyone else. "You didn't," I snapped. "Doesn't that make you just as foolish?"

"If you value your life, I suggest you close your mouth."

I smiled with satisfaction. He hadn't liked that at all. A bit of confidence restored, I sat back on the bench and leaned towards him.

"Why won't you tell me who's after me?" I asked, folding my hands in my lap.

There was a long pause, and I was beginning to think he'd just ignored me. "Precaution," he finally replied.

"I'm just a mortal," I mocked the last word in a deep, slow voice. "What could I do?"

He glanced at me coldly. "Something foolish."

The lack of answers these past few days was starting to suffocate me. "So, the mind thing. How does that work?" I tried.

Shadow shrugged. "I simply do it."

I let out a sharp huff of air through my nose. "Yes, but how?"

I find an opening in your consciousness, and I enter. I cringed, overwhelmed by the edge of anger brought with his mental words. But underneath the anger, there was the slightest hint of another emotion. Something softer. Does that satisfy you, Rose?

Curiosity had always been my greatest weakness. I tilted my head in concentration and squeezed my eyes shut, thinking as hard as I could: No.

I opened my eyes in surprise at Shadow chuckling quietly. "That much effort isn't required. Once I've entered your mind, everything that crosses it is open to me. Only think it, and I will know."

"So, theoretically, I could keep you out if I wanted?" I asked, remembering all the tricks to it I'd seen in movies; imaging brick walls and steel doors with locks barring my secrets.

"It can be done," Shadow mused. "But not by you."

"What? Why not?" I frowned.

"Because you are not strong enough to resist me," he stated matter-of-factly. There was the slightest hint of a smirk on his lips as he said it. I shuddered and leaned back away from him, suddenly uncomfortable. I had been weaker than him when he was still normal, and I didn't dare think of the increase now that he wasn't.

"So I can't keep you out," I conceded dryly. "But tell me this." I stood from the bench, taking an uneasy step towards him. "Does it work both ways?"

Shadow leaned back against the nearby wall, folding his arms against his chest and focusing on me with those piercing eyes. The effect was immediate – I felt disoriented and defenseless, but couldn't bring myself to look away from him. "What do you mean?"

"If . . ." I trailed away, distracted by the intensity of his stare, but pressed on. "If you can hear my thoughts," I paused to concentrate. Then can I hear yours?

No, he replied. I felt the brush of his mind entering my own, and the rush of his emotions mixing with mine. Frustration and curiosity, bitterness and that something soft, dual trains of thought melded into one, and I could visualize it all in my head. Doing this, I realized, Shadow was a little bit vulnerable. I focused on that vulnerability, imagining myself slipping through the cracks of his defenses, and I gasped as my eyes were filled with smoky wisps of color. Shadow grunted in alarm, yanking sharply away from me, and I quickly imagined myself reaching out and snatching one of the wisps before they faded. As I touched it, the world turned white and fell away.

Reality returned slowly, but not in the same place. Not in the same body. The sky above me was a deep purple, almost black, with no light from any moon to brighten it. A breeze ruffled through my quills, and the concrete seemed to echo beneath my footsteps. The urgency in my chest was unlike anything I had ever experienced: animalistic and obsessed, but calculated. I was fixated straight ahead, but a sense of uncertainty held me at a distance from my destination. My eyes, his eyes, watched a girl with long, pink quills hurrying down the sidewalk, muttering things to herself that he couldn't hear, and the figure waiting in the darkness behind her. The person smiled a fanged smile and raised his hand towards the girl, towards Amy, and fury blinded my better judgment. I launched myself down the street, slamming into her pursuer, and I heard her scream, heard her take off down the sidewalk as fast as her legs would carry her. The edges of my reality blurred then, becoming a blur of motion and red, and I could feel shock and a hint of fear as my opponent shrugged off every blow as if it were nothing. In less than a minute, it was over. My head hit the concrete, held down by an impossibly strong hand, and then the worst pain imaginable burned through my body and became my new reality.

The vision changed.

What he once had been was in pieces at my feet. His blood was hot against my face, on my lips, in every inch of my fur. For the first time in months, I was whole again. For the first time in months, I was alive. A broken sound came from within my chest - low at first, but steadily building - I was laughing. The twisted sound carried through the deserted street, the streets ahead, and up into the dark sky. Tears burned in the corners of my eyes. I was a monster.

Reality came crashing back as I fell to my knees with a weak scream. I stared at my trembling reflection on the marble floor – a terrified girl with terrified tears in her eyes. The vision was gone, but I don't think I'd forget it.

I looked up in time to see Shadow clutching his head in his hands, almost as if he were in pain, and he quickly fixed me with a look of pure, fierce hatred. "You... how did you...?"

"You were there," I said in merely more than a whisper. His expression was a heavy mixture of fury and panic. "You've been protecting me."

I slowly stood, taking a few careful steps toward him. He growled and jerked away instantly. I stared into his eyes, closing the distance again, my face inches from his.

"You protected me..." I repeated softly, tears escaping down my face. "Shadow, you turned because of me."

For a few seconds, the world was still. The man in front of me might as well have been a statue. I could feel my shoulders softly shaking. Finally, Shadow spoke, his voice a warm, low whisper against my face.

"I do not care what Silver has told you. If you leave this room, I will kill you." Then he turned and walked briskly down the hall, leaving me alone.

"No," I whispered softly. "You won't."

Please forgive me for the scarce updates... I do love writing, but college and designing games keeps me very busy. Thank you if you've stuck around.