Amy's Last Wish

What's the point anymore? Why do I keep chasing such a pointless dream? He's never going to notice me for who I really am. I'll just be that pink hedgehog Amy Rose forever in his mind. What changes have I made in anyone's life except for being a nuisance?

I slowly reached for the small white bottle sitting on a bedside cabinet and looked at it. The label read "Aspirin – 500mg tablet" in simple black lettering but the writing on the reverse was more to my interest, "Take no more than 4 tablets per 24 hours. In case of overdose consult your doctor immediately". I slowly turned the bottle round again and then undid the cap on the top, the childproof lock rubbing my hand slightly as I opened it. I glanced at my hand, feeling the warm tingle run through it, and then looked away, it would soon be gone. I turned to face the bed and slowly tipped the contents of the bottle out onto the covers. A number of round white pills slowly fell onto the covers, like a gentle snow fall, and then stopped. I let the bottle fall a moment later, watching as it bounced slightly on the springy mattress. For a moment I shifted the pills around with my finger, arranging them into different shapes. A happy face, a sad face and finally a mangled mess.

One pill…

That'll probably cure my shaky stomach.

Two pills…

That'll cure my headache.

Three pills…

That'll help me fall asleep tonight.

Four pills…

That'll make me ill tomorrow.

Five pills…

That'll make me drowsy in minutes.

Six pills…

Seven pills…

Eight pills…

Nine pills…

Ten pills…

Eleven pills…

That was it, the entire bottle, eleven white pills. I scooped them up slowly and held them in my hand, looking at the path I had chosen. I reached over and took hold of the glass of water that sat beside me and brought the pills to my lips. One by one I slipped them into my mouth, swallowing them with a sip of water as I did. As the last pill slipped down my throat I slowly lay down on the bed on my side. I glanced up at the walls around me, the light beige coloured walls covered in pictures, pictures of him. I slowly closed my eyes, a final thought lingering in my mind.

Just once I wish he would notice me for who I am, just once.

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It was a strange feeling, it was like I was floating in nothingness, all my senses were numbed beyond anything I'd felt before. I couldn't hear, smell, touch or say anything yet I could still see. At first all I could see was darkness wherever I looked, but then I wasn't even sure if I was looking anywhere but straight ahead for I couldn't feel my body moving. As I continued to look a prick of light appear before me, a small prick of the whitest white light I'd ever seen. It was like looking right at the sun yet it didn't burn my eyes. I felt drawn towards it, or was it the light moving towards me? Whatever the reason it was growing in size and getting closer with an ever-increasing speed. I slowly began to make out shapes within the lights, silhouettes of strange people, yet I still couldn't see who they were properly.

Just then, quite suddenly, the light stopped moving. It wavered for a moment and I felt something flow past me. It was like the caring hand of the mother I couldn't remember. There has never been a moment after that, bar one, that I felt so contented and happy. The soothing feeling slowly slid away and a voice rung in my head.

"Your mind may be ready but your heart is not. I give you this chance to find out whether your choice was the right one. When your heart finally decides on its answer you will know what to do."

Almost immediately the light began to move away, fading back into the darkness. I tried to reach out for it, not wanting the feeling to go, but soon I was left in darkness again. A moment passed and I began to wonder what the voice had meant but a falling feeling interrupted me. I wanted to reach out and grab something to stop my fall but I couldn't, there was nothing to grab. My vision looked down, or did it, and I found another light moving towards me. This one was different, it was a greenish brown colour and was approaching rapidly. I tried to cry out for help but nothing came out and with a flash the light engulfed me.

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With a small moan I slowly opened my eyes. This shocked me immediately, I could move my eyes! I tried moving my head and found I could do that also, with a quick push I propelled myself to my knees using my arms and looked around. I was kneeling on the floor of what looked like a hospital corridor. Doors led off to various sides and stretchers lay scattered around. A variety of doctors and nurses were moving around, one of which was heading straight for me as if he hadn't seen me. I quickly jumped to my feet and skidded to one side as the doctor moved past me not even noticing the near collision.

"Hey watch where you're going you big oaf!" I cried at him.

The doctor still took no notice and continued on down the corridor. I watched him for a moment and then snorted before looking around again. Where was I? Just then a familiar voice caught my ear, that of a young fox I knew very well.

"Wha…what do you mean!" it cried.

"I'm sorry, it's just been too much time. If someone had found her sooner then maybe…" said another voice, one I didn't know.

Curiously I headed towards the voices, poking my head out around a corner I saw I was in a waiting area of the hospital. Lines of chairs lined the walls and in the middle of the room stood a few familiar figures. Tails stood growling in the middle of the room staring heavily at a doctor nearby. I couldn't help but feel shocked, I'd never seen Tails this mad before and it was obvious the doctor was a little nervous by his posture. To one side , turned away from the argument, was a young rabbit holding a Chao. Cream had her eyes closed tightly and I could see a line of tears along her eyelids. Cheese, her Chao, was wrapped in her arms snuggling into her chest and calling out softly.

"I don't believe you dammit!" cried Tails bringing my attention back to him.

"I…I'm sorry…" stammered the doctor.

"I don't give a damn!" replied the fox, tears now forming in his own eyes, "She's not dead! She's not dead ok!"

Tails' tails suddenly drooped, as did the rest of him, as he finally burst into sobs and turned away from the doctor.

"She's not dead…" he repeated through his tears.

I curiously stepped out from behind the corner and walked a few steps into the waiting area. The doctor was still looking at Tails with a sad expression but slowly he turned away and started to walk away.

"She's in room six if you want to see her." he said.

I quickly stepped out into full view and walked right in front of the doctor.

"Who's dead?" I asked quickly.

Neither the doctor heading towards me or Tails or Cream answered me or even registered that I was there. I could feel myself getting a little mad now, why was everyone ignoring me. I stood my ground in front of the oncoming doctor and asked again.

"Hello?! Will someone please answer me! Who's….." I started to say as suddenly the doctor walked right through me, "….dead…..?"

I felt a shiver run down my spine, what had just happened. Why had the doctor passed right through me as if I was nothing? Then it finally twigged, it was me….I was dead! A cold flush enveloped my body making me shake violently, not that anyone noticed. I glanced up to see Tails was now comforting Cream and moving her slowly towards the exit of the waiting room.

"Come on Cream….let's go say our farewells." spoke Tails softly, the young rabbit shaking under his supporting arm.

I quickly rushed towards Tails and Cream, waving frantically to try and get them to notice me.

"Tails! Tails I'm right here! Tails can't you see me? Tails!" I cried over and over.

Neither Tails or Cream heard me though and finally they both stopped in front of a door marked "Room Six". I stood beside them looking at the door for a moment before Tails reached forward and pushed it open. With a gentle hand the fox guided Cream into the room and let the door close. I stood still outside for a moment, unsure of exactly what to do, and then slowly reached out for the door. For a split second I felt my hand touch the surface before it slipped though. I stood looking at my hand, now embedded in the door, and then moved forwards pushing the rest of my arm through the door and then passing through it myself.

On the other side of the door lay a small room in which sat a single bed. Tails and Cream now stood beside the bed in silence and slowly I moved up on the other side of it. There I lay, the lifeless yet peaceful looking form of Amy Rose. My eyes were closed lightly and I could make out the slight curl of a smile on my lips. The pink colour of my quills still held firm but the light tan on my muzzle had faded to white, my blood no longer flowing through it.

I watched as Tails gingerly reached out and placed a gloved hand on my shoulder. The fox looked down at my lifeless body and howled lightly. I blinked in surprise, I had never heard Tails whine like this before and it saddened me to the core to hear it. He looked back up at my face and lifted his hand from my shoulder to wipe a tear, his other arm still wrapped around Cream's shoulder.

"Amy? I've come to say goodbye. I…I know we didn't speak much, I know that there were times when we both annoyed each other but….but I just wanted you to know something. You….I always considered you a good friend Amy. You had a strong will Amy….and a fiery personality. You were always there for people when they needed you. I don't know if you knew this but a lot of people respected you Amy, a lot of people."

Tails stopped and looked away, taking a step back from the bed as he did. Cream meanwhile stepped up in front of Tails, Cheese still wrapped firmly in her arms. The young rabbit stood silently by Amy's bed for a moment before she spoke.

"I'll….miss you Amy." she said softly, barely audible.

"Chao…." moaned Cheese slowly.

Cream slowly turned away from the bed and let Tails guide her out of the room. Tails cast a final glance over his shoulder as he opened the door.

"Good bye Amy." he said slowly before slipping out of the room with Cream.

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For a long while I simply sat and looked at myself on the bed. Time didn't seem to really make sense anymore and I couldn't tell how long I'd been sitting there. The clock on the wall said an hour but it didn't seem like that at all.

Is this really what I wanted? Fah! I made my decision, my life was pointless. Nothing I did really mattered and this is what I had wanted. No-one would care…and yet they did.

I thought back to what Tails had said earlier, did people really respect me? Just then a click made me look up and I saw the door to the room slowly sliding open. A tan coloured pointed muzzle slowly poked through the door followed by a red face and a set of deep purple eyes, it was Knuckles. I slowly slipped to my feet, puzzled about why he was here, Knuckles had always been a loner and didn't take much notice of anyone else for a lot of the time. I watched as he made his way over to my bed and looked at my body, giving a rough sigh as he did.

"So it's true then." he said to himself as he shook his head, "Sometimes I wish I didn't have some of my sources."

He turned away slightly and started to walk towards the door before stopping again and giving another sigh.

"I would ask why you did it but you wouldn't reply to me so I won't bother. We all make our own choices and some we make for reasons that no-one will ever understand. I just hope you made the right one Amy for everyone's sake."

The echidna made a move to leave but stopped suddenly and went rigid. I had heard it too, a light rattling noise from above. Knuckles slowly glanced up and then crossed silently to the door, shutting it with a loud click and turning off the light. The echidna then proceeded to conceal himself in the shadows at one side of the room and waited. I stood next to my bed looking at Knuckles in confusion for a moment before another rattle from above caught my attention. Looking up I spotted a skylight in the roof with the silhouette of a person moving about. I stepped back myself, hiding in the shadows, even though I couldn't be seen in the first place, and waited. The figure moved about a bit more and then the skylight gave a click and opened, quickly followed by the figure dropping down to the floor. I couldn't help but notice two huge shadows that looked like wings behind the figure as they stood up. Without warning Knuckles suddenly dived from his hiding place and collided with the figure sending them flying across the room and smashing them into the far wall. Knuckles made a quick jump to the light switch and flicked it on, looking back at the figure as he did and freezing in place. On the floor, rubbing the side of her head and moaning, was a female bat, Rouge the bat.

"Rouge! What are you doing here?" cried Knuckles a little shocked.

"Maaaaaaw!" moaned Rouge in reply as she looked up at him, "Is that any way to greet a lady?"

"I thought you were a burglar or something." replied the echidna, "Normal people would use the door."

"I could say the same thing Mr 'let's bust a hole in every wall we find'." said Rouge with a small grin as she looked around the room, "I'm surprised there's no holes in these walls actually, what's the matter? Feeling a bit weak today?"

I watched as Knuckles blushed heavily and yelled out again.

"Weak! Never, I just thought I'd use the door today." he cried.

"Unusual for you, but then I never expected you to be here." replied Rouge.

"And why not?"

"You never seem to care about anything but that big gem of yours."

"Neither do you."

The pair looked at each other for a moment in silence, Knuckles glaring at Rouge and Rouge returning his look with a smile. Finally Rouge looked away and waved her hands to the side.

"Well if you're done I'd like a little time with Amy." she said.

"You? What you planning on doing? Stealing her gems?" replied Knuckles still obviously a little annoyed.

"So have such a closed mind, even I have my limits. I came to say goodbye and give her a gift."

"You giving people things, this I have to see."

Rouge gave Knuckles another look and then slowly picked herself up from the floor and gave herself a shake. She silently crossed over to where I lay and dipped a hand into her pocket. Slowly she drew out a small necklace with an amply sized green gem in it and hung it around my neck. Knuckles walked up on the other side of the bed and watched Rouge silently as I stood just behind Rouge herself.

"There you go honey, I thought it'd match your eyes, wherever you are take care." said Rouge.

It was strange to hear the bat talking like this, Rouge always seemed to strong and carefree and I couldn't remember a time before this that's she'd actually shown her true emotions. Slowly Rouge looked up at Knuckles and caught his look causing her to furrow her brow.

"She might have been a pain sometimes but she still helped. If she hadn't persuaded Shadow to help out when we were on the ARK you might have found yourself being lunch for that Biolizard." she stated flatly.

"Me? No way, I could have taken him." replied Knuckles looking away and raising his nose as he folded his arms.

"Say what you will red boy but just because you always act so high and mighty doesn't mean you are."

Rouge turned to leave, looking a little angry now, and headed for the door. Knuckles slowly dropped his nose and followed her with his eyes for a moment before turning away himself and following. Rouge stopped at the door and looked back at my body, allowing Knuckles to walk past her and leave at the same time.

"Bye." she said softly and then closed the door.

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Again I found myself sitting and thinking, the day was slowly passing by but I didn't seem to notice. The words of everyone who had visited were flying back and forth in my head and bouncing off each other. Had I really made a difference? Not that it mattered, there wasn't anything I could do about it now.

During the time I had been sitting I had received a few more visitors. Cream had returned again, this time with her mother and the pair had just sat and looked at me not saying a word. Cream looked like she had been crying and even as she sat she was sniffing constantly. Vanilla, her mother, had worn a face of realisation the whole time she had been sat there. Finally they had left and a short while afterwards a doctor and another man had arrived. The other man had turned out to be a funeral director who had come to measure up a coffin.

I began to wonder what my funeral would be like, who would be there and what would they say? Would he be there? Would the cause of all my pain be there? He hadn't visited my body yet and I was beginning to think he'd never come. What did he care anyway? He'd ignored me all this time when I was alive, what difference did it make if I was dead to him?

I gave a sigh, thinking once again that death was probably for the best. What point was there in living if you can't be happy? A faint click caught my ear causing me to look up suddenly, snapping me out of my thoughts. A gloved hand was reaching round the edge of the door and for a moment the person it belonged to didn't appear, as if they were nervous to enter the room. Finally the door opened slowly to reveal the owner of the hand, it was him, Sonic! I found myself glaring at him as he walked over towards my body and sat down in a nearby chair. I couldn't really make out his facial expression, it was nearly blank of all emotion. He reached out slowly and ran a gloved hand past the side of my face making me instinctively reach out myself and try to slap his hand away. I watched with a little anger as my hand passed right through his and didn't have any affect at all. How dare he! How dare he come here now and be like this! What did he want anyway?!

I stood rigid with my arms locked at my side as I watched him. He slowly retracted his hand and moved it down to touch my hand. Just then something I hadn't ever seen on Sonic before caught my eye, there was a tear in his eye. I felt my body relax slightly, was Sonic upset? Sonic was never upset though, it just wasn't him! He was always so full of energy, so ready to get up and go at any point. I saw Sonic's lips move as if he was going to say something but nothing came out causing Sonic to clear his throat loudly and try again.

"Hi Amy." he said slowly, "I er…I just stopped by to see how you were doing. Figured you might want to go out for lunch or something."

Lunch? What was Sonic talking about? I was dead! I continued to watch as Sonic slowly shook his head and sighed.

"No that's not right. Maybe, hi Amy! You fancy heading up to the theatre this evening? No…..hi Amy! I….oh it's useless! I can't even say it properly when she's dead!"

Sonic hung his head and gave a sigh.

"Guess I was just never made for this kind of stuff. Dammit why can't I be more like her? She never had any problem expressing herself, none at all!"

My hands slowly started to lace together at my chest, I couldn't believe what I was seeing, was it true? Sonic gave yet another sigh as a tear started to roll down his face.

"Well Amy I'm going away for a while. I don't know how long for but I have to work things out. I'm sorry it had to come to this, I never meant to make you feel like this. I could just never find the right time or the words to say it."

He leaned forwards, nearly touching his lips on my ear and whispered quietly.

"I love you Amy…"

If I had been alive I would have burst into tears but I couldn't. I had no physical form, I was just a passing wisp of nothing, a presence stuck between worlds. I wanted to reach out and hug him, I wanted to cry on his shoulder, I wanted to be alive again! Sonic slowly drew back and got to his feet. His hand still rested on mine but slowly he let it slip away as he started to back out of the room.

"No! No don't go!" I cried in a panic, "Sonic don't go! I'm right here! Sonic no!"

He couldn't hear me though and slowly he turned away, his hand now resting on the door handle. I felt an odd feeling pass over me, a connection between my mind and heart and a set of words coming back to me. When your heart finally decides on its answer you will know what to do. And I found I did know what to do! With a dive I leaped forwards directly at my body. I felt the same odd feeling wash over me and the whole world started to go black around me.

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Cough.

"Amy?!"

I slowly started to become aware again as I felt a rush of air fill my lungs. The feeling was so sudden I gasped loudly and coughed again, my eyes flying open at the feeling. For a moment my vision was blurred but slowly it started to focus and the scene around me came into view.

I was still in the hospital room but now I was lying down. I slowly glanced my eyes down at my hand to find it gripping the side of the bed lightly. I took a shocked breath, I could touch things again, more to the point I could breath again.

"AMY?!" came the cry again and slowly my eyes tracked towards it.

Sonic stood rigid by the door, his hand locked on the handle and his gaze fixed on me. My throat hurt but after a moment I managed to croak a response.

"Sonic…."

The hedgehog was at my side in a split second and spluttering words like crazy.

"But…but how?! How are you alive?! You died! You were dead! How?!"

I didn't have an answer for him, even I didn't understand what had just happened but a moment later the blue hedgehog felt my hand lightly touching his. I looked into his eyes, the brilliant green colour fixing my vision.

"I…heard you…." I said lightly, "Thank you…."

With that I felt myself slipping away again, falling into a deep sleep but this time I knew I would wake up from it. I knew what was waiting for me at the other end of my slumber and for it was at that point that I knew I'd never be so contented ever again in all my life.