Shadow: The Origin Of A Legend

Chapter 19

A dark blur dashes through the dark cavern corridors, with a light green scarf whipping behind it. The figure clutches a group of papers in her hands, taking care not to wrinkle them too much, and she pants as she runs rapidly. "SoulSilver! 'Silver!" She cries out, bursting into a more open and brightly lit cavern.

"What?!" SoulSilver, seated at a roughhewn wooden table in the center of the room, turns to face her cousin, baffled. "What is it?"

Sky thrusts the papers into her silver-striped relative's hands. "Look!"

The ocean-master hedgehog stares down at the collection of paper. It's a week-old, slightly stained newspaper. "What, exactly, am I supposed to be looking at?" Silver raises an eyebrow skeptically, sounding a little weary.

"Loo-ook!" Sky insists, and jabs at a photo on the front page. "Look at the hedgehog there!" Underneath her claw, a slightly blurry image of a black and red hedgehog smashing a robot's face in with his foot is printed on the paper. Silver folds the paper, bringing the image closer to her face, eyes wide. Sky leans in, hovering over her cousin's shoulder. "Doesn't that look like...?"

"Oh, my God."

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The trees are all blackened, dead, their boughs stretching out like charred fingers towards the sky. My feet splash slightly in the dark green pool beneath the trunks; all around me, a deep grey fog hangs thickly. The trees reach, resembling clawing hands of undead corpses. I writhe my way through them, trying to flee their grasp. My breath comes in ragged gasps as I wrench another clawed branch from my chest, stumbling into a wide, open expanse. The water beneath me acts as a solid, though it washes over my feet in gentle green waves. A few feet away, with her back turned towards me, is a familiar figure. I stare for a moment, not comprehending, until she turns slightly, fixing her luminous jewel-toned eyes on me, her purple fur glowing in the faint greenish aura of this place. Somehow, I know her name. "Heather," I call out in an oddly hoarse voice, "where are we?" Silence meets my query, and she turns away from me, beginning to plod forward. I try to lift my foot, only to discover it bound tightly by something I can't see. Puzzled, I look down, and discover writhing snakes curled about my feet. I gasp, struggling, and reach down to pull one off, but before my hand can reach the snake a dark tendril erupts from the water, wrapping itself around my hand. I gasp, yanking my arm back, but the rope-like black tentacle doesn't let go; three more shoot from the ground, one wrapping its way around my throat and pulling my down. I look up at Heather, standing now a mere foot in front of me, and staring down at me with a blank expression. "Heather!" I scream, fighting against the forces pulling me down, "Help me! Help!"

She tilts her head to one side, her mouth slightly open, but other than that she doesn't move. My knees buckle under the strain and I feel the tendrils sliding further up my body. "Heather, please!" My voice cracks and tears well up in my eyes; through my blurred vision, I watch her turn away and begin to walk off. I'm on my hands and knees, my wrists already below the surface. The waters are cold, frigid, and I start to shiver. "Please, I'm begging you!" The tendril around my neck tightens, pulling my head down. "D-Don't leave me..." I choke out, now elbow-deep in the water, shuddering from how bitterly cold the now-rapidly-ascending green fluid is. She's walking further and further away, her silhouette shrinking. "Don't leave me alone again!" I howl, sinking up to my chest, chilling my lungs and freezing every muscle in my body. "I can't--" The water envelops me, dragging me under. I thrash, bubbles leaking from my mouth, eyes wide with fear, but I can't move very easily. The water around me, dark on the surface, is now glowing a bright neon green, and pain sears through my skull. I throw my head back, screaming, but no sound carries further than my mouth, and all the air leaves my lungs as I shriek. A dark vine wraps around my mouth, gagging me, and I'm pulled further and further down into the painfully frosty water. Writhing, I tear at the vines around my wrists, but for each I tear off, three more appear. My empty lungs beg for me to breathe in, but I know I can't; not only am I too constricted by the tentacles, but this liquid is definitely not something I can breathe. My struggles are fruitless, but appear to have angered these peculiar tendrils--one stabs straight through the center of my back, and I cough out crimson blood. Its deep, rich red blurs and blends into the glowing green fluid, tainting it, and the cloud formed by my own blood obscures my vision. All I can see is darkness as I sink further and further into the abyss, feeling the life ebb from my limbs... Alone.