When the priest was finished with his patrol it was about midnight. During the walk, he had beaten up some drunken punks. It sure felt refreshing to stretch his fists once in a while. He always asked the Lord for forgiveness as he only taught them a small lesson.

'It seems everything is alright.' He slowly headed to the church, when he heard an unusual noise. 'What was that?'

He quickly climbed the nearest building and looked around, listening to the night, picking out that sound once more. 'That way!' He ran along the roofs, jumping over the wide gaps, and a street further he found the source of the noise.

"Sonic?" he whispered loudly. It sure was the small hedgehog child.

'What is he doing here? I thought he went home!' He knelt, peeking over the eaves.

"Dang!" Sonic grumbled, getting up slowly from the trash. "I still can't make it!" He threw the garbage down. "Once more!" He ran several tens of meters back since this street was one of the longest and narrowest in the whole town. Shadow didn't stop following him, observing from above.

"Let's roll!" The youngster started to run, and with each step, he was faster and faster. The priest was honestly speechless. He heard this boy liked running, but this was amazing! He was a lot faster than any adult.

Once Sonic was near the place where Shadow found him, the boy tried to make a sharp turn but instead ended up in the trash cans just like before.

'I see.'

Sonic was too fast to safely turn the corner with the momentum throwing him off. The blue hedgehog slowly got up, dusting himself off. 

"Dang it!" he cursed a bit louder than before. "At this rate..." He clenched his fists. "I won't be able to..." He wiped a tear forming in his eye, unaware he had been discovered.

Shadow climbed down and silently approached him from behind. "Sonic?" he called him, acting surprised.

The boy turned around, and his eyes widened. At the last moment, he closed his mouth, preventing any sound from escaping.

'Oh crap,' ran through his young mind.

"Father Shadow?" Sonic's mouth was wide open. "Why are you here?" He shivered.

"That's my question, boy. What are you doing at this late hour?"

Father Shadow came a bit closer but kept some distance to not frighten Sonic more. This part of the town wasn't exactly friendly, but thankfully, not many people lived here.

The youngster pouted, unwilling to answer.

Shadow sighed. "Let's go. I'll walk you home." He was sure, with a bit of time, the boy would tell him why he was out so late.

"No! That place isn't my home!" the boy shouted, clenching his fists. Tiny tears appeared in the corners of his emerald eyes.

The adult hedgehog's face turned longer, and his eyes trailed toward the ground as his ears flopped down. He was afraid this was the case. Sonic's parents had disappeared and were proclaimed dead. Some people even said they were murdered or used as living sacrifices.

When Shadow heard about this absurd claim, he immediately investigated the origin of it. After several days and many miles in his legs, he finally found the source. Apparently, it originated from an adventure book about a group of people fighting against crazy priests using people in their twisted rituals.

It popped into the head of a young man who was reading it at that time. Shadow told him what his words caused, and suggested to the young man to not create such fantasies about somebody's late relatives. The loss was already stressful enough. The young man promised not to do it again and told people around the town to stop talking about it as it was just his fantasy.

However, it still took months before the story was put to rest, but Sonic heard it plenty of times during that period. Once somebody mentioned the death of his parents, he would throw a tantrum, kicking and punching whoever uttered those words.

It was the period of time when Sonic was the wildest. The priest needed a lot of cooling pads for his calves, bandages, and jars of cookies before he was able to approach Sonic without getting injured.

Once Shadow was able to calm him down, he made sure to keep close contact with him to give him a sense of safety. Despite that the aunt there was kind and loving, Sonic still hated the orphanage he was forced to live in. This elderly woman expressed her appreciation for calming Sonic down at every Shadow's church visit she made after that.

Shadow shooed the memories away, put a small smile on his face and spoke, "Then, what about coming to my place?"

The blue lad's ears twitched. At this moment, he expected to be scolded, so he remained silent and only slightly tilted his head to the right.

"I won't tell anyone about your late adventure. If you don't feel alright there, you are free to visit me anytime and spend a night if you wish. Just promise me you won't come here or do anything dangerous, okay? If you want to run, I think I know the right place for you," he spoke in a casual tone.

The boy's ear jerked. "Really? Can I just go like that? You aren't mad at me?" He stretched his neck a bit like he wanted to see over the priest as if to spot any lie in hiding.

"Well, saying 'I'm not mad' is stretching it. I'm angry with you for being outside so late, but I can understand your frustration."

The blue hedgehog's face was nearly swallowed up by his wide eyes as he couldn't contain his confusion. After a few seconds, he dashed toward Father Shadow and hugged him. "Thank you," Sonic mumbled.

"It's alright; let's clean this place up before we go." He patted Sonic's head.

The process took them a while, but Sonic smiled and hummed a simple melody. Shadow knew he disliked cleaning, as the aunt often asked him for advice on how to convince the boy to keep the space in his shared room decently tidy. It usually ended with Shadow coming for a visit and helping everybody with their rooms. Most of the time it also included assistance with homework, telling stories, listening to girls' troubles, and showing boys how to make the whipping-tops spin the longest.

While such days exhausted Shadow, the memories made him smile. It quickly soured to a frown as he grasped something slimy. He abruptly threw it into a dumpster and cleaned his palm on old cloth.

Soon all the garbage was back in trash cans, and the boy held the priest's hand while they were heading to the church.

They walked for several minutes before the blue hedgehog asked, "Father Shadow, why don't you have quills on your back?"

The ebony hedgehog jerked, his ears twitching, and he turned to face the other side of the town with knitted eyebrows. He inhaled the cool air, drawing wrinkles on his face.

The boy looked worried. The aunt in the children's home had told Sonic to not ask this question. It was rude since, for hedgehogs, quills were their greatest pride. He just couldn't help but wonder about it.

"Father...?" he asked quietly, feeling guilty.

"Uh, what?" Shadow finally reacted, looking down. "Sorry, Sonic, but can you walk to the church on your own from here?" He knelt, so their eyes were on the same level.

The boy nodded.

"Good." Shadow gestured his appreciation. "It seems I have forgotten a very important object. I'll fetch it and head back as soon as possible. So be a good boy and wait there for me." He stroked Sonic's blue quills. "I have a lot of tea bags so pick any you like, and I think there is a pack of cookies in the pantry."

"Okay," Sonic answered.

"Don't worry, I'll be right back." Shadow stood up and waited until the boy headed to the church, disappearing around a corner. Only then Shadow went his own way.

'This feeling, it can't be! Is it coming from the source of those incidents?'

He sped up, walking faster and faster until he was running, entering deeper into the abandoned downtown.

Only hooligans and criminals resided there, although merely a small number of them. It was said the place was cursed; in the past, all of the citizens were eaten by a demon in the night.

Since then, that part was called the 'Red District' because the inner walls were splattered with blood. That supposedly happened a few hundred years ago. Now, it was just a legend of a ghost town.

Shadow could tell he was getting closer. The ominous smell guided him all the way there, so his steps became quieter and slower. The best chance of victory laid in a surprise attack after all.

'It's here!' He stopped just before the corner.

The smell of fresh blood hit his nose. He listened but heard nothing. The priest reached inside of his robe, feeling the cold surface of his weapon. He slowly stepped into the narrow street to find a corpse. It was gutted, its expression full of terror. He let his weapon be and came closer to inspect it.

But what would make others vomit had no effect on him. Shadow didn't bat an eye, observing the place, looking for hints. They were easy to find, as a trail of blood was way too obvious to be overlooked. Once he quickly prayed for the dead man's soul, he jumped over the body and continued in the pursuit. After a few steps, he heard a woman's scream.

"What?" he gasped as the shout was cut short. The priest gnawed on his lip as he resumed his steps. 'I have to proceed slowly to not alert it.'

At each corner, he momentarily stopped to listen before he continued. When he halted for the fourth time, his ears picked a quiet sound of munching and bones breaking. It was too late for any rescue, but it also meant the demon could be vulnerable.

Further down in the street was something on all fours, jerking its head. It was the demon, feasting on his latest prey. His yellow teeth were deep in the chest, crushing the rib-cage to get to the heart. His work was accompanied by slurping, licking, and sucking escaping blood.

"Pff, this meat tastes bleh," Eclipse commented as he ripped a big chunk of the meat away from the body. He was chewing it with a bored look, and the blood was dripping down. "I should have picked something better."

He pondered about it, wiping the blood with his forearm. "Yeah, children would be good. They have tender meat, and their souls are the purest." He licked the leftover blood on his cheek, showing a long, purple-forked tongue.

From the fresh corpse flew sluggishly a semi-transparent ball of gray with a tail.

"Ah, there it is. Hardly average quality." He caught it with a clawed hand and offered it to the dust balls hovering next to him. "Here, take it home, I'll be hunting for a bit longer."

The dust balls wrapped themselves around the soul.

"Don't forget to go to sleep; no souls for you four if I catch you staying up too late, 'kay?" he said with a playful smile.

The dust balls gave him a happy whistle and flew away, heading to the cave which was now their home.

Eclipse turned back to the corpse, ripping the meat from the chest. He wanted to get the heart before he would look for another victim. The heart was the tastiest part of the body, as his peers were saying, however, Eclipse still had to find the one he would find tasty. Not to mention, there was this rumor surrounding it he wished to explore.

Suddenly, he felt a chill run down his spine. He hurriedly gulped the meat inside of his mouth before he could choke on it and leaped towards the wall. A bullet missed him by a few millimeters, yet he could feel the burning heat from it.

Once he latched on the wall, he looked down, hissing with his forked tongue out. The attacker was none other than Shadow. His weapon of choice was a silver handgun combining weaponry and holy words, silently shooting bullets that were deadly only to demonic creatures.

"You unclean beast!"

"Hey, I bathed yesterday, you know!" replied the morose demon.

The ebony hedgehog was taken aback momentarily. He had never encountered a talking demon before; they all seemed to be more animalistic, not to mention their forms were less defined.

The creature used his hesitation to attack. Eclipse jumped down, slashing at the priest with his claws.

However, Shadow was experienced. Such a straightforward strike couldn't surprise him. He merely pivoted his body. Eclipse's face widened as the demon didn't expect so quick reaction. His face twisted as he was kicked in the stomach before he touched the ground.

His body flew through the air, crashing into the wall. He barked as he slid down, "You will pay for this!"

"What a shame! I must have forgotten my wallet in my other fur," Shadow taunted him back.

The demon growled in response, lowering his body a bit. The priest squeezed the trigger once more, but at the same time Eclipse leaped, heading down the street.

"No, you don't!" Shadow shouted, pursuing the vile creature further, entering an even older, more deserted part of the town.

Special thanks to LigerCat for editing this chapter :-)

Dedicated to iloojin for taking her time to BadAss Critique my book <3