Warning: Suicide
The Photographer
He wasn't very known in this world. He is the stranger, who walks in the day, taking photos, and observing the nature and beauty all around him. Spring was just into bloom, even though it was close to June. Out from a window of a building, he noticed a mother and son, walking together, hand in hand. The woman held her son protectively, close to her. The white, pure flowers stood out from the rest of this old town.
A squeak of the door, he left the room as it was. The creak creak of the stairs echoed mindlessly in his ears, traveling to his mind. He was a man of no tomorrow. Those timelines, erased. Days quickly flew by, he lost track of time. In maybe different realms of the universe, his life would have been better. Maybe he had a better life. Running around free, saving the world, out with his friends. Here. He had nothing. Nothing to accompany for. Nothing to do. Shadow didn't exist. He was just another person. A person who existed for the life of this planet.
The glint of the lens of a powerful, sleek camera in his gloved hands. The tiredness in his eyes, the lift of a faded smile. Another click, another photo saved. Sonic sat on the dirty sidewalk, watching the cars past by, vehicles to their destination.
"Do you know why on one side of this road, of this bridge, the fence is curved at the top, and here on this side, it's straight up?" Sonic glanced back and forth, hard. He squinted, and tried to find out why. "It's really simple. Honestly, I would be deadpanning if you couldn't figure this one out." "I. I really don't know." "Really?" "Shadow I don't know." "Fine. Alright." The ebony looked at him. "That side of the fence is curved, because when people walk by, they won't be able to litter." He made a gesture with his white gloved hand, the tips of his fingers arching down, curving to a slight letter C. He used his other hand that represented as "litter" and made a bouncing move off. And that's when Sonic noticed the sidewalk. "Holy crap I didn't notice the sidewalk there!" "That's why I told you to keep looking back and forth Sonic." "I didn't notice the sidewalk!" The blue blur exasperated. "If I did, I would figured out why the fence is curved..." The dark hedgehog cut in. "The fence that is straight, is well, straight up because there's nobody walking back and forth there. There's no sidewalk." "Shadow I get it!" "Just like when you didn't understand when if two cars were running at forty miles per hour and they were to crash, what was the crash of the speed?" "I'm not some smart assed punk like you! I don't understand physics well. Jeez." Sonic crossed his arms, turning away. Shadow snorted. "What's with the camera you carry around all the time?" "Things. I like photography." "You? Huh. I didn't expect."
Every name, every face, were fuzzy from his mind. Everyday was just every hour and second he continued to exist in this nihility. The conversations he had, with strangers and close relatives, or friends, he can't remember them at all. The itch to write something, but just as it came, it faded away. Nothing ever seemed to stick inside his mind. Bits of his childhood memories continued to stay where they are, but they never seemed to last for long.
An old run-down gas station.
A park filled with flowers and trees, young mobians running about.
A piece of a crushed, dented, metal soda can.
The blurs of blocked out faces and memories.
The memories threatened to spill. He didn't need them. He didn't need these feelings, these dreams. Something he wanted to erase, but he can never will. He was sorry. He wanted to see them again. He wondered why he is still here. He didn't care. He'll leave. It repeated over and over in his mind. Those days he felt so well, only to be crushed by being dragged back and over again.
The blue hedgehog drooped, letting the camera fall at his chest level, the strap around it preventing it from shattering on the ground. He looked at his hands. What is he doing here? Be nice. Smile. Easy easy. At home he lies in bed. He attempts to fix things inside his house, all by himself, since he felt like he is forced to. Those rigid rules were drilled into his mind.
He wants to see people smiling, but he can't. He lost the only one, that slipped out of his hands. Everyone left, everyone left, he didn't want it to happen, but it's the fatal slip up. That maybe a dream here, he remembered, he tried, he was by himself, he was born, he lived in a family, and then he left.
Those friends in his dreams, they were probably somewhere else. They don't exist.
The one with the two-tails?
He isn't sure why namesakes would talk to him.
What was his name again?
Oh it was…
…
T…
Talls?
Tails.
Okay.
He was a bright and young intelligent fox. Everyday whenever Sonic would wander down the busy streets near the laboratory, near G.U.N. headquarters, he would always spot the yellow white-furred fox busily typing away in a laptop. For some reason he would always catch the hedgehog and pull him into a conversation.
Sonic would always nod, toss in a few words here and there, and try to make sense and most of the conversation they had.
"Hey Sonic!" He nodded. "How are you?" "I'm good. How about you?" "Fine and dandy. Just finished up an essay." The fox flashed him a bright smile. "There's a lot going on, like having to finish building a prototype of this new chip and then submitting it to the Commander. It's not like I'm working at a business company!" He laughed. "What are you doing?" "Just taking photos. Like all the usual." "I'm curious why." Sonic sighed, feeling the weight on his neck. "I just wanted to. I like taking photos." Tails hesitated. "It's just...well. I kinda always see you off. You okay?" "What's wrong with me?" Tails shoved his gloved hands into his lab coat pocket, "I kinda. Like." Eyes flicked to the sky and the horizon above. "I recognize that anywhere. Just the features. Like nothing's really there, or worth it." "And why do you care?" He flinched. "It's not good to bottle up emotions you know. Find someone...to talk to maybe?" Sonic turned his gaze toward the ground. The two continued to walk. "Sonic, have you ever been to High Gates?" "Why should I?" "It's. It's scary the first time. I can come with you if you want to. I just. I feel what you're going through. Maybe you don't want to talk about it, but every Friday, I would never see you there. I have a sharp attention on people you know. I just don't work at a laboratory for nothing. I do other, psychological stuff even if it doesn't seem like I am." "Huh. Thanks I guess." "Anytime. You seem pretty chill. Can we hang out more? More than just these casual conversations before I have to go back, like usual?" "Of course."
Maybe that's why the hedgehog remembered Tails so vividly. He's just there. A fox who has a wonderful career and life ahead of him, carrying for an already given up hedgehog.
I wonder how you are doing today. Up and above?
I'm sorry.
11.
More hours. More days. More seconds. But they seemed to slip out of his grasp. He wanted to, wanted to remember the warm face he looked up to everyday. They aren't there, he feels himself falling and falling.
The hedgehog found himself, inside his empty bare room once again. He was printing out photos, many photos, he found himself writing a half-assed attempt of an essay, typing, quickly, then printing it out. He bundled the photos into separate folders, the sheen of the matte paper leaving him remember the many places he had traveled around Station Square once more. He was back at the computer again, typing another essay.
He left the apartment key under a potted plant. A particular someone will come by.
The cobalt hedgehog was at the G.U.N. headquarters. Eyes flicked onto him, gazes piercing into the depths of their soul.
"Mail for Tails. Miles Prower." He dropped a suitcase, filled with the folders and photos, to a security guard and walked away. The stranger had a mixture of confusion on his face, and he called for him, to come back. No matter. They will still deliver it to him.
The camera was back at his apartment. Shadow will come back. He'll see it. But it no longer mattered. He was sorry. But nothing could fix it. Sonic was sorry. He was sorry. He was tired.
Over and over.
He was at the cliff.
He wanted it to end this way.
Drop.
The sky shattered into a million stars.
1.
the note wasn't there anymore.
2.
Tails opened the suitcase and found the photos.
Can you hear me?
His death was silent, just as his body was found from a scientist who didn't see him in a week. But nobody came for the photographer. All that chased after him was a grieving project and two-tails.
Do you need help?
Yes.
