The Rose Among The Thorns, Ch. 3

Having eventually fallen asleep in that cave, Sonic tossed and turned restlessly. His dreams were vivid; too vivid; of what he'd said to Amy, and the hurt look he'd caught a small glimpse of in her eyes before running off. It was time she knew the truth though, because that's just how Sonic felt. So why was his subconcious torturing him with those images? The blue hedgehog awoke quite a long time later in a cold sweat. His breathing was quick and shallow and his heart pounded like he'd been running for days on end with no source of fuel.

From the mouth of the cave, he could see that it was getting close to night in this place, which meant night was almost ending back home. Sonic stood up and exited to cave, and ran to the edge of the lagoon. Not actually going in, he merely knelt beside the crystal water. He cupped his hands in it and splashed the water on his face to wash away the thick layer of sweat that hadn't developed from the heat on his face. The blue hedgehog stared at his reflection. His face was paler than usual, and that usual cocky smirk was absent from not only his face but from his eyes.

"What's wrong with me?" he asked to his reflection alone, "I don't understand why I feel this lousy. I mean, Amy had to learn the truth sooner or later..."

Man, what a mess. The blue hedgehog stood back up after awhile of staring at his own reflection and took off, heading back home. He headed for Tails's workshop and by the time Sonic got there it was well into the morning. As usual, Tails was working on something in his workshop. This time is was a weapons attachment for the Tornado.

Sonic trudged in and Tails looked to him, his gaze both confused and worried. Sonic sunk onto one of the free spots on a work bench and Tails stopped what he was doing and pulled a chair up. He had a feeling his 'older brother' wanted to say something. So the fox waited. At first Sonic didn't say anything, but after a minute everything about what had happened with Amy came pouring out.

After listening to Sonic for nearly twenty minutes, Tails' brow furrowed in frustration. He suddenly started yelling at Sonic; startling the blue hedgehog.

"Whoa Tails, calm down! She needed to learn the truth eventually. I didn't mean to be so rude to her, but she had it coming after she smacked me with that hammer of hers! I honestly tried to actually be patient for once, but I just couldn't keep it up after she did that!"

The spot where Sonic had gotten clobbered on the side of his head was still tender and he had a dull headache, but Tails continued yelling at the blue hedgehog uninterrrupted.

~

Morning...

Small rays of sunshine peeked through the tree's leaves, and a small ray shone on Amy's face. She slowly opened her eyes and sat up, rubbing them with her free hand as she did. She felt rather tired, and what happened last night still had a huge effect on her. The hurtful words once again swirled in her mind, though not quite as bad as the night before.

She turned her gaze towards the lake that seemed to sparkle in the sunlight, and still held onto the flower as tightly and delicately as she could. By now, Amy wasn't sure what she should do at this point; A part of her wanted more than anything to go back to the way things were and chase after Sonic. But after what he said to her..she was afraid of going back to find out. Would he still hate her even if she saw him again? Or should she avoid him completely and never see him again? Or maybe--...

Crowded thoughts now swirled around in her head, giving her a slight headache. She sighed deeply, still unsure about what she should do, or about what she was feeling, though she was sure the only feeling she felt now was that of a broken heart. Sighing quietly to herself now, Amy stared sadly out at the lake as a small tear rolled down her cheek.

"...He....he loves me...not..." she said softly, her voice was barely above a whisper as she spoke the last word.

Without saying anything else, she stood up and threw the flower away in a random direction as angry tears streamed down her face. She turned and quickly ran off deeper into the forest, not really caring where her feet were leading her.

~

"Y'know, I can't take listening to this anymore. Think whatcha want Tails, but I'm not in love with her. End of story."

Sonic got up and exited his friend's shop. He walked; yes, actually walked; away from it in a random direction. Not really sure where he was going, Sonic wandered toward the city. He wandered for quite a few hours without realizing it. The slow pace was strange, yet Sonic couldn't seem to find the will to even jog. So late afternoon came and the blue hedgehog was wandering through a very busy part of the city when he felt his wrist communicator vibrate.

Entering a quiet alleyway, Sonic pushed the cuff of his left glove over and pushed the little red button beside the screen and an image of Tails appeared. He asked if Sonic knew where Amy was. Sonic shook his head.

"What am I, her babysitter? Why do ya ask anyway?"

So the fox explained that Cream had called and said she was worried about Amy because she'd never showed up for the shopping trip they'd planned today. Tails said he'd called others like Knuckles and Rouge but nobody had seen her and that Amy wasn't responding to any calls on her communicator. Sonic swallowed hard. He had a sinking feeling Amy was missing because of him.

When Tails asked Sonic if he could find her, Sonic nodded once and pressed the red button to end communication. With that, he exited the alleyway and sped off in search of Amy Rose.

~

Amy ran deeper and deeper into the woods. Her communicator went off a couple of times, and she even got a call from Cream, but she didn't bother to answer her or anybody else. She had completely forgotten about it the shopping trip, but right now that thought wasn't what she was too concerned about. She kept running and running, until she stopped to rest on a fallen log to catch her breath.

As she wiped the rest of her tears away, Amy finally got a good look at her surroundings. She hadn't noticed until now that the woods had become very dark all of a sudden, and it was very quiet; not even the birds chirped, and the only sound she heard was her heavy breathing. Suddenly Amy wished she hadn't ran away, and wanted to go back to see Cream and her other friends and tell them she was sorry. Where would she go though? She couldn't remember which way she came from; everywhere she looked, it all looked the same.

She felt a deep sense of panic rinse as she felt her heart race. Amy stood up now, and looked around with worried eyes. She ran, but she only ended up running in circles. She kept going for a good few hours, not really noticing that the sky had begun to grow darker as night approached. She looked around frantically as she once again found herself back at the log; she was lost. She heard a twig snap behind her and she felt a cold chill going down her spine.

"..Sonic..?" she whispered as she turned her head towards the sound, but nobody was there.

Scared, she sat back down on the log and cried softly, unaware that something lurking in the shadows began to approach behind her...

~

He'd been searching for Amy for hours now. Evening with coming and with it the setting of the sun. As it got darker, Sonic could feel his worry beginning to grow. Though he didn't like Amy in that way, she was still a good friend and she worried him as he would worry about any of his friends if they'd gotten lost.

'C'mon Sonic, THINK! Where haven't you looked for Amy yet?' and then it finally dawned on him, 'The lake! What if she'd never left?! Of course!'

He'd searched everywhere else he thought Amy could possibley be, even going so far as going into the girl's section of a giant clothing store (a venture that would probably leave the blue hedgehog scarred for life).  

Sonic sprinted out of the city to the road that led to the lake. He reached it just as there was only a sliver of sun left. He circled the entire perimeter, but found no sign of Amy in the tall grass. Where else could she be? Maybe she ran into the forest? Sonic sprinted through the trees, though it was densely packed and the rough terrain was hard for him to maneuvour at his current speed.

"Amy!" he called out but no response.

He did so several times, but not one reply. The moon began to rise, and that's when it hit.

Pain...pain worse than any form of physical torture.

"Agh!" the blue hedgehog shouted.

It was excruciating, forcing him to halt altogether. His legs were weak, and gave out beneath him. Shaking and gripping his stomach like he was about to throw up, Sonic's emerald eyes looked at the sky through the leaves. They widened as far as they could go.

"No... NO!" he yelled.

How could it be? How had he been a day off?! Sonic had always kept an acutely accurate time of the moon's phases since the first full moon after the Dark Gaia incident. How could he have missed it?! Two years he'd kept it near perfect, so how had he suddenly slipped up?!

Tp be continued...