Future-Past

The First One

 Just a couple days old. He could barely do anything. He opened his eyes for the first time. The voice he kept hearing was coming from somewhere. He tried to see where. There was a figure standing over him. It gave him what he thought was a smile. So, he smiled back.

"Honey, look! He smiled! Look!" The figure started talking but he couldn't understand what it was saying, it sounded like a bunch of noise. The noise frustrated him. He tried to exclaim his displeasure and all that came out was a high-pitched whine.

"Dear, you have to speak quieter. You'll upset him." There was another voice, deeper than the one before. Another figure came over to him. It looked like the other one, but different. The second figure reached out and picked him up. He was going to start crying before he was being rocked. The motion soothed him. He started feeling sleepy. A nap wouldn't be too bad right now. He closed his eyes.

 He started hearing noise all around him. When he opened his eyes, everything was... different. He didn't really take time to notice what was in the room before, but he knows it wasn't this dark before. There was a loud bang and he started crying.

"No, please! Don't take the baby! Please!" There was a yell.

"Please! He's too young. Take me instead!" Was the second yell.

"No, Isaac you can't. I don't want to lose either of you!" The first cried.

"Joanna, please! It's either me or the baby."

"We'll just take you all." A new voice said, sounding cold and mechanical.

"No!"

 "Put her down!"

A door busted open. A large robot walked in. The robot peered in the crib at the baby who was still wailing. It snatched up the child and took it away.

He was placed in the back of a large trunk. Put into the arms of someone he didn't recognize. He cried harder.

"Give me my baby, please." It was that voice again. It sounded sad and broken. He was handed over to see a familiar face. He stopped crying and stared up at the person. He smiled.

They smiled back.

"It's alright now baby, Mama's here."

 Shadow sat up, waking with a start. He placed a hand over his heart and willed it to stop beating so furiously. He tried to catch his breath a moment. He was lying in bed. The room seemed to be the same though shrouded in darkness.

"Shadow?" A sleepy voice called out to him in the dark. "Are you alright?"

The dark hedgehog turned to look next to him, startled. He let out a relieved sigh. It was just Sonic. "I'm fine, go back to sleep." His voice was shaky sounding.

"Did you have another nightmare?" Sonic sat up to look him in the eye.

".... Yeah." He said after a moment, running a hand down his face.

"Do you want to talk about it?" The blue hedgehog asked.

"No," Shadow said quickly. "Don't worry about it."

"Shadow." There was concern in his voice. "You've been having nightmares almost every night, how could I not worry?"

"It's fine."

 "No, it isn't. Something's wrong."

"I said it's fine."

"You need help."

"I don't need help."

"I'm tired of arguing with you about this."

"Then don't."

"Shadow-"

"Sonic, please." Those two words made him stop talking. "I don't want to talk about this anymore." The darker hedgehog got out of bed with a sigh, walking to the door.

"Shadow-" Sonic started to say.

"I'm going to get some air." He left the room. He paused in the foyer to grab his house keys and shoes.

It was a bit chilly out. The moon was high in the sky. Shadow took a breath and broke off into a run into the forest. He didn't return home.