God, where the hell is she?

His violet eyes look left, then right.

The walls of his cell were concrete, a toilet in the corner and steel bars in front of him. Easy to break through, but he didn't want to get himself in any more trouble at the moment. There used to be other people in his cell, but they were moved out since he was deemed too dangerous. That just pissed him off even more.

Who the hell are they to say that I'm dangerous, huh!

Fuck! Right when I think I'll be able to have a decent god damn conversation it's taken away from me!

Footsteps could be heard approaching his cell and the detainee knew exactly who it was. A tall human in a police uniform walked out in front of his cell, a sour look on his face.

"You're friend payed up . . . again. Consider yourself lucky." growled the human before inserting the key and opening up the cell.

Dick head. Once the door was open the red echidna walked out of his jail cell and growled at him a little bit. "Tell the family I said hi." said Knuckles in a bit of a threatening tone.

"You stay the hell away from my family!" snapped the human before the echidna just walked away.

The echidna just walked away.

I hate that guy and the next time he comes close to me I will definitely find his family. His wife, his kids, everyone. he should learn not to god damn ruin my good times.

Knuckles violently pushed the door open before walking into the police department lobby. Other criminals were cuffed and going through processing while the echidna just stared them down. Some of them even had the balls to snicker at the sight of seeing the Emerald Guardian exiting the holding cells. In response, the echidna just shot them each a deadly glare, making them back away.

Don't you ever fuck with me.

He exited the building through the front doors and was surprised to see the sun out high in the sky. People walked through the sidewalks with their own agendas while cars pleasantly drove past him on the streets. No one seemed to notice the echidna for being a hero, neither did they praise him either for all of the good things he had done with Sonic and his allies.

Why the fuck is everyone so happy? Knuckles frowned at the sight and growled a little bit. That's all I see, people fucking happy with what they're doing but why! Does the thought of being a tiny unnecessary pile of filth entertain them!

"You know you should really stop getting into fights." said a smooth female voice, a bit of irritation in her tone.

Knuckles was snapped out of his little rant and looked forward to see the only person who'd care enough to bail him out of jail.

How many times has it been so far? Ten? Eleven?

Rouge the Bat tapped her foot agitatedly with her arms crossed as she looked at the echidna. It was obvious to him that she was not happy with paying up so much money to keep him out of trouble. She had been the only person who cared enough to talk to him anyways.

Like I care if I go to jail or not. I can always fucking leave! Walls are easy to tear down and the guards are all pussies! She doesn't have to waste her damn time for me. Hell, she can take the fucking Master Emerald for all I care.

The echidna just grimaced at the sight of her. "Well sorry." he said sarcastically before walking right past her without a care in the world.

"Hey! Don't just walk away from me! You owe me!" yelled Rouge angrily before catching up to the disgruntled echidna.

He scoffed. "I don't owe you shit." was Knuckles' only reply.

Get the hell away from me woman or I'll make you get away. I'm not in the mood to deal with this shit right now. Where the hell is the nearest bar? I need a god damn drink.

His attitude finally brought Rouge to the edge. She went over and stood in front of him, blocking his path. "What the hell is your problem! Nowadays you just leave Angel Island and get into bar fights like some god damn alcoholic! What the fuck is wrong with you!" yelled Rouge angrily.

Her yelling was starting to gather a crowd as some of the civilians stopped walking just to watch the little quarrel.

Knuckles once nonchalant demeanor changed into an irritated one suddenly. "You're my problem!" he then roared in an enraged tone, making Rouge shrink back since she had never seen him so pissed. "All of you god damn people are my problem!" yelled the echidna before turning to look at all of the pedestrians that were watching. Knuckles then turned back to look at Rouge. "Just fucking leave me alone!" he then yelled before storming off past Rouge.

Damn it . . . I don't mean that. Go back.

He kept on walking.

I said go back.

He still walked onwards.

Go the fuck back!

His body didn't respond and instead he just kept on walking down the sidewalk. He was torn between decisions really. One part of him wanted to just leave while the other wanted to go back to apologize to Rouge. It didn't matter though since he was already a couple blocks away from her now.

Hours passed and nighttime came quickly. Knuckles was still walking through the streets even though everything was closed by now. He figured that he might as well make it to shore or find a bar, but he found that he was a bit lost.

I just have to be fucking lost in the middle of the night, wonderful.

In front of him though he could see Rouge once more, but once the bat spotted him she ran towards him. There was a worried look on her face.

"Hey!" she called out, this time a bit of empathy in her voice. "Knuckles!" she said before walking right next to him. "Look, I'm sorry if I did something wrong, but you've got to tell what it is. I'm here to help." said Rouge in a more caring tone.

He stopped but instead of accepting the apology, Knuckles just glared at her with an even more angered look on his face.

That puts the icing on the god damn cake!

Knuckles grabbed Rouge by the shoulders and brought her close to his face. "You're never there to god damn help!" he roared before pushing her away. "You know what I do all fucking day! I sit around on my ass watching a fucking giant emerald! At first I was okay with it, but now . . . NOW, it's just a god damn pain!" yelled Knuckles. "I'm the last of my kind and I've been cursed to watch that damn thing and you want to know something!"

Rouge was too frightened to reply.

"I'm getting lonely!" Knuckles then admitted. "There's no one to talk to! Nothing to do! And nature is getting pretty god damn boring to watch!" he yelled. "And you!" he then pointed at Rouge. "You say you want to help me! Yeah right! How is it that everyone wants to help but they can't even see what's going on!" his eyes were wide with anger and for a second, Rouge thought she saw some tears in his eyes. "That's why I do all this stupid shit! Because I want some damn thrills from now and then, just to know what it feels like to be alive! Sure there's Eggman, but that's not enough!" he said before turning away from her. "I want to do something with my life other than just sitting there watching that rock for all eternity."

The loneliness, the longing, the anger and paranoia are the things that keep me up at night now. Why me? Why am I the only one cursed to do this job? I'd rather die than live with this curse. I'd rather feel pain than all this agony. I hate my long gone lineage and I hope they're all burning in hell.

Those feelings brought back horrible memories of the past when all he did was long for some form of escape from his imprisonment.

Rouge could see a tear hit the ground.

"Knuckles." said Rouge tenderly before putting a hand on his shoulder.

"No!" he then yelled before turning around and pushing the hand away. This time his tears were visible. "None of you care!" he yelled as he started to back away slowly.

"Stop this Knuckles, I care." said Rouge, on the verge of tears as well.

"Don't god damn lie to me!" retorted Knuckles.

She walked towards him and took his left hand in hers. "I'm not lying, just please, stop." she said a tear rolling down her left cheek on onto the echidna's glove.

The bat then turned over his hand to get a hold of it but instead she found the most shocking thing. Going horizontally along the echidna's wrist were thin patches of dried blood crisscrossing each other in no pattern whatsoever. The sight of this just shocked her.

"Knuckles! What have you been doing?" she asked in a shocked tone before looking at Knuckles' face.

There was a saddened expression on the echidna's face as he looked at the self inflicted injuries.

"The stinging pain feels a lot more comforting than you'd expect it to be when you're that desperate you know and the sight of blood trickling down your wrist really gets your heart pumping." started Knuckles. "Don't know why, but it really helps. After a while it doesn't hurt anymore and instead it just feels like . . . I dunno, it just feels so blissful really. At first I was a bit hesitant to try it and didn't know how to do it anyways. I actually chiseled a spear head out of a large boulder and used that since I had no idea where to find a razor blade or a knife. It was good enough though and that was all I needed to keep me company for a couple of hours before I could go out to a bar or something."

The explanation just shocked Rouge and caused tears to form in her eyes before she embraced Knuckles in a hug.

"I . . . I'm so sorry." she sobbed, still embracing Knuckles.

Her warmth, her tears . . . I can feel it now. She . . . she cares.

Knuckles hugged back and started crying as well.

"No, I'm sorry."