[SONIC]

Oh my god I've really fucked up.

Shadow hates me.

Shit!

He looked so angry. I could tell from the way he was holding his body that he must have been in a lot of pain. It was strange to see such a powerful creature look so fragile. Saying that, we all have our dark days. I know everyone struggles but I never imagined Shadow would try to kill himself. He really hides his emotions well.

I couldn't stop staring at him. Something in me had shifted overnight and I don't know why but it felt like something was pulling my soul to his. I shook my head and tried to push away my thoughts. This is ridiculous! I need to stop this now. I've already embarrassed myself by crossing a line last night. I got carried away. But when I was holding him it felt like we were the only two people in the entire universe. Actually, it almost felt like we were one person in two seperate bodies... It's hard to explain. Desire ran through my blood and it felt incredible, like a charge of energy that competed every cell in my body. 

What are these feelings... and why with Shadow?!

Even more confusing is the sexual attraction I felt towards him. My whole body was tingling and I wanted him so bad. I'm still so charged up. I need a cold shower...

Shadow caught me staring at him and flashed his pointy fangs at me in anger. I looked away as quickly and my face went bright red. How am I gonna get myself out of this one?

Knuckles showed him the berries that we found next to him. He took one look at them and froze, his eyes widened and his pupils nearly disappeared. He then completely zoned out for a few minutes as if in a trance.

"Hey Shadow, you ok there honey?" Rouge said gently.

Shadow broke his gaze and shook his head slowly. He then put his face in his hands and started... sobbing. Fuck, I've never seen shadow show any emotion other than anger, let alone cry!

Knuckles, Rouge and I exchanged confused glances. Rouge moved closer to Shadow and embraced him in a huge hug. He leant in to her shoulder and broke down into floods of tears and his sobs turned into lurid wails. The two remained in that position until there were no more tears left to cry.

I wished I were the one holding him.

"Buddy, you seem seriously depressed," Knuckles said. "What's been going on?"

Shadow looked up from Rouge's shoulder and glared at him.

"There's no purpose for me to be here any longer," he said chillingly. His cold tone of voice sent shivers down my spine.

"What do you mean there's no purpose?" Knuckles pressed for more information.

"Before we were all fighting Eggman, saving lives and helping the planet. Now we have completed our mission, we are no longer needed here," Shadow replied, his voice full of gloom.

I get it. Not having a clear purpose in life creates depression. But there's no need to drag us all into this.

"Hey man, I don't really appreciate you using the word 'we' here." I chipped in. "I personally feel like I have a lot of purpose. Your life can have more than one mission you know?"

Shadow's ruby red eyes shot up to meet mine and glistened with rage. They were bloodshot from al the crying he had done and all that red made him look even more disturbed.

"And I don't appreciate people touching me without my permission!" he growled at me in a low voice not letting me break eye contact with him. Yikes! I can't believe he just said that in front of everyone! I just stood there. I had nothing to come back at him with. Rouge and Knuckles both shot glances my way. I felt so embarrassed.

"I err... I don't know what you're talking about," I mumbled and ran out of the room. This was too much. I hope he doesn't tell the others what happened! Now what excuse am I going to give for running outside like that?

[KNUCKLES]

Gee, Sonic is acting weird! Maybe he's a little traumatised about Shadow nearly dying. It was pretty hectic. I think Shadow is still a bit delusional because I heard him say something about people touching him. Must have been having hallucinations or something.

"I think we could all do with a bit of grounding," I said. "Who's hungry?" 

Rouge and Shadow nodded and I went to my backpack and took out all of my food supplies. I boiled some water on the stove and dumped in a selection of roughly chopped vegetables. A healthy stew fixes everything!

"Shadow you know those berries nearly wiped you out. Did you eat them on purpose?" I said.

Shadow looked at the floor. For a brief moment he seemed so small and sad, like a young child who has lost his parents. I knew that was a yes. I felt bad for the guy.

"Look, we were able to revive you by giving you some medicinal plants but there's still one more think we must do to help your recovery," I said.

Shadow didn't respond.

I got up and walked outside. Sonic was nowhere to be seen. There was a pile of charcoals that we had swept up from the overturned fire pit. I grabbed a large handful, crunched it into dust and walked down to the river. There I filled up two pans with water and mixed the dust into one of them. I then went back into the house and sat down next to Shadow.

"You need to drink some charcoal. It will help pull the rest of the poison out of your cells."

"What?" He glared at me in disbelief.

"Just do it. You can sit here feeling like shit for another week while your body fights to expel the poison or you can help yourself and allow the charcoal to pull out all the toxins for you."

Although I could tell he wanted to argue, Shadow took the glass and gulped it down, wincing with pain as the clumpy liquid grazed his throat.

"Oh yeah," I added after he had finished, "and another eight glasses of water on top of that."

"Huh?!"

"You have to keep flushing everything out. Trust me, this is the easy way." I crossed my arms to signal that my word was final. He sighed as I handed him the second pan of water.

Just then Sonic burst back into the room.

"Guys, are any of you able to use your communicators?" He asked.

I looked down at mine. No service.

"Hm, seems we're a black spot." I looked at Shadow and he nodded in confirmation.

"Damn, Tails will be wondering where I am. I didn't tell him I was coming," said Sonic.

"That's ok, you're welcome to leave whenever you want." Shadow said grumpily through charcoal-covered teeth.

Sonic looked like he'd been punched in the chest. I couldn't help but wonder what was going on between these two.

Rouge gave Shadow a concerned look. "None of us are leaving you like this sweetheart."

I smirked to myself at Shadow being called 'sweetheart' and went to grab the pot of stew off the stove.

[SONIC]

After I ran outside, I had tried to call Tails. There was no signal here, nothing. How typical of you Shadow, I thought, isolating yourself so much.

I paced around for a while overthinking last night. What are these feelings? Why am I so drawn to him? Does he feel the same way? Or have I gone crazy?

I knew my feelings were wrong, but that's kinda what made it so exciting. This is the first time I've ever felt like this, let alone with a guy. I don't know what I was expecting from him.

After I'd nearly dug trenches with my feet from pacing so much, I decided to head in.

I hoped that if I pretended there was a problem with my communicator it would distract everyone from asking why I ran off so hastily. I think it worked.

Shadow was being his gloomy self and I called him up on it. I don't handle negativity well. He responded by telling me I was welcome to go home at ant time. His words cut through me like a knife. How can a few words hurt so bad?

Knuckles handed us all bowls of hot vegetable stew. It was aromatic and delicious and I devoured mine in seconds. I was so hungry and food was a welcome distraction from my emotions.

When everyone had finished Rouge collected our empty bowls and washed them. "Mmmm thank you Knuckles, you're a fantastic cook!" she cooed at him.

Knuckles blushed slightly and said nothing. He looked up at Shadow. "You know buddy when times are rough, you don't stop in the shit," he said abruptly.

"What are you talking about?" Shadow said through gritted teeth.

"You never stop in shit. I mean don't try to kill yourself at the worst point in your life. You gotta keep moving through it, otherwise you'll start your next chapter in the same shit, ya get me? Suicide isn't a free pass. You take all your troubles with you and you'll have to fix them in your next life."

The room was silent as everyone thought about Knuckles' words. It was a pretty big call to make. I don't know what I believe about life after death but it did make sense to me.

Shadow was staring out the window. I could only see the side of his face but I noticed a small tear well up in the corner of his eye, run down his cheek, and drop silently to the floor.