The Darkness

It was summer, and it should’ve been a good day with how the weather was looking. Clear skies, nice and warm, and little to no wind. By all accounts, Lilianna should’ve been happy that day, and yet, she wasn’t. The previous week, Scorch's boyfrirnd Leonard had seemingly dropped off the face of the Earth, and none of their companions could get into contact with Leo. Tried talking to his parents and sister, they didn’t know anything, filed Leo as a missing Mobian, etc. 

With no hope to find Leo, Lilianna was stuck in a bad mood, even while out with her friends. “Hey, c’mon Lily! Hurry up you slowpoke!” 

“Okay, okay, I’m coming! Wait up!”

She ran off after the other two young Mobians, her large, oversized sleeves flopping along as she did. 

Things halted to a stop again the moment the sky became dark. It was odd, it wasn’t supposed to rain that day? However— It didn’t seem to be rain that was plaguing her playdate. The little friends of Lilianna’s had suddenly somehow disappeared in an instant, and things were at a standstill. Anxiety welled up in her stomach as her little blue eyes stared around at her surroundings, seeing nothing until coming across her own reflection in the window. Wait a moment. She wasn’t a hedgehog?

”Well, aren’t you just so precious?”

Leo?

The figure in the reflection was oddly disturbing. It looked just like Leo, but half of him had been darkened out by a shadow. All that remained was a devious half-grin and half of Leo’s originally peppy face, now dulled with dark grey-ish purples. 

“So you’re one of his friends, hmm, hmm, hmm~?” The figure taunted as it faded from sight, reappearing behind Lilianna’s back. ”So tiny, you are. I’d say you look, hmmm, 8 at best, hahah!” 

Her ears flattened, his taunting chortles and giggles getting on her nerves. “I’m 11, for your information you big faker!” She sassed, trying to act confident.

Another laugh. “Ohoh! Fiesty, fiesty, are we now? Little one, I would not do that, no, no, no~ I’m not someone you should challenge, my child. Why, what even makes you think you can defeat me?”

”Cos Leo’s MY friend, not yours, you— You big bully!” Lilianna insisted, pouting and glaring. “You better give him back right now or you’ll be in a lotta trouble!”

Reeling back, the mysterious figure seemed to have shadowy claws that scratched at her cheek. That was all it took to get to her, as she fell back and held her face with a cry of pain. It slowly approached, poising itself for another similar attack, but seemed to be held back by something. 

“Lily!” Compared to the deep, ominous sounding tone on the figures vocals, this sounded much more like her friend. “Dodge!”

Taking the order as quickly as she could, she managed to roll out of the way of the next strike, watching as Leo slowly regained his colors and the shadowed out half of his face faded. 

“Aw, boo~ I wanted to play a little more with you two...” The voice whispered, leaving only Leo behind. The clouds disappeared just as soon as they began and he stood before Lilianna as she recovered, the scratch disappearing as if it’d never even been there. 

Her eyes widened and she tightly hugged him, not wanting to let go in fear he may up and disappear on her again. “We missed you! You’re okay!” She cried out. Leo faintly smiled and patted her head. “Who was that meanie imposter anyways? I don’t like him at all."

Trying to find the ways to begin explain to Lilianna what had just happened proved to be hard, as Leo failed to find the right words to start off with. “I’ll be completely honest with you Lil, I’m not sure. Whoever they are, they’re scary and, well, bad. I don’t know how they got control over me, but can you promise you won’t tell your big brother?” She went to ask why, but he stopped her. “I know what you’re going to say, but. I don’t want to worry or scare him.”

”Okay. Well then, extra super duper promise you’ll stay safe, okay? And sealed with a pinkie promise of course! I don’t want you going away again for a lo~ng time!” Holding out her pinkie, he naturally took it and gave it a shake and a toothy grin. “Yay! Make sure you keep it!”

”Will do, kiddo,” he assured. 

As he got up to leave, her young companions ran over. “Lily! Don’t get lost okay?! We got scared for a sec!” One of the girls proclaimed. 

“I’m okay! Was just saying hi to my friend Leo!” The friend took her by the hand and they continued towards the park, and as they left, she turned back and gave an enthusiastic wave to Leo before running off with her friends. 

While watching their figures fade away, a mind softly spoke in his head, using the same rough and strange tone as before. “Hahah~ What a precious child. Maybe she’ll be the first victim once I take full control over you. Hurting your friends, won’t that just be the worst feeling in the world?”

With a disgruntled sigh, all that Leo mumbled was, “Shut up, Ink.” He turned his back and began the treck home, finally wanting to see his family and friends after that long week of being trapped with his own devilish shadow.