Whispers in the Dark (A Sonic Fanfiction)

Chapter 7: Whispers in the Dark

{Recommended songs: Falling in the Black by Skillet, Stand in the Rain by Superchick, Demons by Imagine Dragons, My Demons by Starset, Whispers in the Dark by Skillet}

Chaos energy blasted the room as Shadow disappeared. The other three flew backwards. Pieces of the walls and ceiling cracked and fell, raising a cloud of dust.

Mimic came to himself first, coughing out dust. His first instinct was to reach for his knife. It wasn't there. He must have dropped in the blast.

The others began to stir. He growled as he glanced around, but couldn't find his knife. Ugh. Without a weapon he couldn't fight them. He swore under his breath, pulled himself up and ran for the door.

At least he'd gotten in their heads again.

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Whisper lay dazed among the debris. The room was hazy. Her chest heaved with panted breaths.

Her eyes landed on a form a few feet away. "Tangle." She weakly reached out towards her, but her arm collapsed to the ground.

Not again. Not again.

Please Tangle. I can't lose you.

Tangle let out a groan. Whisper gasped sharply with relief. She was okay. She'd be okay. Whisper sank her head back and closed her eyes.

Shadow... He'd gone crazy. She'd started to actually trust him, and he'd attacked. She'd fought so hard to push back the fear, to force herself to not see the Shadow Androids every time she looked in Shadow's eyes.

How could he?

He'd said he'd be careful. He'd apologized for something he hadn't even meant to do. When they were on the roof, he'd been so... different. His voice sincere, full of pain. Even Mimic couldn't have faked that level of emotion. The way he understood the pain of losing someone close to you.

How could she have been so wrong? She should've stuck with her instinct. She never should have trusted him.

No. That couldn't be right. She'd fought to deal with her fears, and she wasn't going to let this destroy her. She was stronger than this. She knew she'd been right before. Whatever had caused Shadow to act like that couldn't have been his fault.

Beside her, Tangle made another noise. She sat up with a groan and stretched the kinks out of her tail. "Ow, my... everything." She glanced towards her. "Whisper!"

She scrambled over. Whisper took her offered hand and pushed herself up. Her legs trembled. Tangle grabbed her arm to steady her.

After Whisper was standing, Tangle burst out, "WHAT WAS THAT? What's wrong with him? What--?"

Tangle's words echoed her own thoughts, but she pushed back at them. This was all wrong. Shadow wouldn't do this. The Shadow who came to apologize to her on the roof, who'd opened up to her, who'd promised to be careful, wouldn't do this. Not without something major happening. And the one person she knew who could create that intense of a reaction was Mimic. This had to be his manipulation.

Whisper was still shaking and her chest was tight, but she braced against Tangle and took some deep breaths. "Hurt."

"What? Where?" Tangle's eyes scanned her. "It's okay, we'll get you back to town and--"

She shook her head. "No. Shadow."

"Shadow's hurt? Who cares? He attacked you!"

"Hurt. Inside." Whisper pointed to her heart. As freaked out as she was, she knew the only reason Shadow would act like that was if Mimic had really gotten to him. "The girl..?"