A Rose In Trouble

It's been about three months and Sally and I are still together. I forgave her when she promised me that she would never speak to that Monkey Khan guy again. I believed her, although, things are still pretty much the same.

Sally hasn't been seeing any of my friends ever since that incident back at the hospital. Speaking of which, I can't even bring her along anymore during our hospital visits. When the team and I visited Knuckles and Tikal on the second day, we were told by the staff that they caught us fighting in the room under surveillance; they warned us that if we ever had another physical brawl anywhere in the hospital like that again, they will call the cops on us. So yeah, that's pretty much why I can't allow her to visit because God forbid, she might attack my friends again and have us arrested or something.

What's still the same is that Sally is still controlling me. She complains and nags and it was seriously getting on my nerves a lot. Everything's like a cycle between us: first, everything's all calm; next, there's some whining and complaining; then, there's some arguing; and finally, there's forgiveness and apologies. Then, it starts all over again.

The guys peer pressured me into leaving her, but I kept refusing. I still didn't have the courage to break up with her.

In between late morning and early afternoon, Sally and I got ready to go out to see my friends for a bit. After avoiding them for a while, I wanted her to at least see them for a minute and apologize to Blaze and Rouge for almost killing them back in the hospital. Sally was wearing a black tank top with a blue vest, a pair of denim shorts, and black strappy heels. As soon as she was done doing her hair, she grabbed her blue shoulder bag with a rhinestone 'S' on a side, and we exit out the door.

Our destination is to the coffee shop where everyone will be meeting at. As the two of us were walking down the neighborhood, Sally was trying to hold my hand, but I kept it away; just wasn't in the mood for that. I began the conversation while we kept strolling,

"Now, Sally, when we get to the coffee shop, remember what you're about to do, right?"

"Uh huh," she muttered quietly.

"You're going to apologize to my friends AND promise to all of us that you will be on your best behavior, got it?"

"'Kay,"

"And if you don't—"

"Okay, I got it!" she cut me off and snapped.

I let out a sigh after her remark; it's like I'm talking to a spoiled brat. We stood quiet during the rest of our walk.

About twenty minutes later, we finally made it to the coffee shop. Outside, we can see Tails, Cream, Shadow, Rouge, Silver, and Blaze sitting in the table. Though, I could've sworn I saw a familiar pink hedgehog entering the shop. Could that be Amy? I've haven't seen her for months. I hope she's taking things okay.

Sally and I got to the group. "Hey, everyone," I said.

They seemed disappointed for bringing "my girlfriend" along.

"What is she doing here?" Tails asked with sarcasm.

"I've brought her along because she has something to say to you guys," I answered. I gestured to Sally, "Tell them, Sally."

She just stood silent. I elbowed her to make her answer. I paused and then did it again. When she didn't say anything, I finally snapped,

"Sally! Apologize!"

Nothing… so much for that plan. I sighed again. "Look, guys—"

"Sonic, it's alright," Tails cut me off, "we have some bigger concerns right now."

"What are you talking about?" I asked. "And also, didn't I just saw Amy walking into the shop?"

"Yes, you did," my best friend continued, "Have you noticed something… strange and different about her?"

"No. As a matter of fact, I've haven't seen her for months. Is she okay?"

"No, and we're all worried about her." Tails answered one last time.

"Huh? What happened?"

Cream began, "When Amy showed up, she has bruises and cuts all over her body. She even has a black eye, and Tails and I just noticed that both of her forearms are covered with fresh cuts."

I was wide-eyed. "What…?" I said almost inaudibly.

"No freaking way," Sally said, sounding a little surprised. "You're kidding."

We were all disdained at her comment, but we ignored her. Cream continued, "We tried asking her what happened, but she wouldn't answer. She seemed terrified when she spoke to us. Then suddenly, she just got up and walked into the shop without even saying a word."

Suddenly, I have this strange feeling inside of me. I can't even tell if I'm worried or anxious. "S-seriously?" I stammered.

Each of them answered almost inarticulately,

"Yes."

"It's true."

"Positive."

"We all saw it."

We went quiet for a short moment.

"Okay," Sally broke the silence in an obnoxious tone, "you guys are lying. I totally don't—"

Just then, Amy appeared out of the doorway of the coffee shop with a small paper cup in her hands. Her pink quills went way passed her shoulders and her outfit is… kind of sexy with that white tank top, black shorts, black ankle boots, and a pink and black checkered bag over her shoulder. Although, I was shocked when I first saw her after a few months; they were right about her, she did have those marks and bruises all over her body, and that black eye looked really serious. My God, she looked awful. I felt so much empathy.

Amy and I gazed each other eye to eye. Then, Sally did something very unpleasant. She hysterically laughed so hard at the innocent pink hedgehog.

"Holy shit! It's fucking true! Man, you looked like you were used as a punching bag!" she continued laughing.

Everyone else seemed so aggravated and I got really annoyed.

"Sally, shut up!" I yelled at her in contempt. She finally stopped laughing and then frowned.

I gazed back at Amy, I began, "Amy, everyone's been telling me about you. I'm really worried about you."

"Since when do you care?" she answered gloomily as she took a sip of her coffee.

"Just now," I remarked.

Sally let out a loud groan and then she whined, "Sonic, can we please go?"

"No!" I snapped at her again. Afterwards, I glanced back at Amy. "Now, Amy—"

"AMY! AMY ROSE!"

We jumped when we heard that loud-ass voice calling out Amy's name. I never got a chance to ask her what's been going on. That's when I just realized something shocking. Consider this battle #3.

That voice we just heard happens to be Scourge. He suddenly appeared and walked up to Amy in anger. Also, he has a silver-colored alcohol flask in his hand. I'm guessing that he's been drinking.

When he got closer to Amy, he forced her to look at him. He started screaming,

"There you are! I've been looking for you!"

We watched the whole thing. We were confused, though at the same time, terrified.

"Scourge, please," Amy timidly remarked, "I'm in a mid—"

Out of nowhere, Scourge just slapped Amy really hard on the face and she almost fell over. The rest of the team quickly got up from their seats.

"AMY!" All of us called out in horror. Well… almost all of us.

"Ooh, looks like the ho got bitch-slapped by her pimp." Sally joked and then giggled.

"No talking back at me, you slut!" Scourge screamed as he violently grabbed hold onto Amy's upper arm. "Now let's go, you're supposed to be taking care of me!"

Just when he was about to pull Amy away from us, I felt a sudden hatred inside me. I quickly got to him and yelled, "Let her go, Scourge!"

Scourge retaliated, "Mind your own fucking business, Blue-boy!" Everyone, especially me, was aghast. I was completely curious on why my Anti needed Amy so damn badly.

"Let's go, Ames, say goodbye to your friends." Scourge told her as he harshly dragged her away from us.

Amy turned her head to us and I believed she said something, but I couldn't recall it. We watched her get yanked away by Scourge until they were already gone.

I immediately turned back to the team and they looked extremely traumatized about that situation.

"Why didn't you all tell me?!" I said.

"Tell you what?" Silver remarked.

"That Scourge has been beating the senseless shit out of Amy for no reason! And he just took her!"

"Well, we didn't notice that until now, Faker," Shadow answered, "What do you expect? We haven't seen her for a while."

"And there's no reason for you to yell," the white hedgehog replied.

I sighed softly, "I'm sorry," I then said calmly. Watching the tension between Scourge and Amy got me really edgy. "But still, why the hell would Scourge just hit Amy like that and then dragged her off?"

"We really do not know, Sonic," Blaze said.

"Honey," Sally began, "since when do you care about her? Please do not tell me you're falling for her." she sounded cold. "Because if you do—"

I rolled my eyes, "No, I'm not!" I cut her off. Truthfully, I don't even know if that's a lie or not. "Sally, please just stay out of this, because this isn't your business anymore."

Sally let out a low growl. I gestured back to the group. "Please, guys. There has to be a solution."

"For the last time, we do not know." Rouge stated.

"Well," Cream began, sounding timid, "I-I think I know," We all glanced at the rabbit.

"Cream," Tails told her as he touched her hand, "You mean—"

"Amy left me a voicemail last week," she took out her phone and turned it on, "although, I really don't know if you guys want to hear it."

"We do," the two-tailed fox replied right away.

"Please, it's really important." I quietly begged Cream. She sighed.

"Ok. But I got to warn you all, you won't like what you're about to hear." she then began pressing buttons on her phone and showed it to all of us.

The voicemail read in speaker: "You have one new voice message. New message:"

The message showed Amy's voice; she sounded really submissive and soft-spoken.

"Hey Cream, this is Amy. Listen, I'm sorry that I've haven't been chatting with you and the others lately. It's just that—it's really complicated. And I've haven't told you about this yet, but… Scourge and I are dating."

Our eyes widened in astonishment. I even heard Rouge gasped quietly.

"And I'm really sorry that I didn't tell you about this in the first place. It's just that… our relationship went complicated and he's been isolating me away from you. Although, I cannot tell you what's been going on between us because—"

Amy was cut off; then, Scourge's voice appeared in the message.

"Rose, babe. Who are you calling?"

"Just a friend… Sorry, that's—"

"Well, hang the fuck up. We have some business to take care of."

"In a minute, Scourge… Cre—"

"Don't fucking talk back at me! Now, hang up or else!"

"Sc— AHHHH!"

In the message, we can hear Amy screaming and in the background, there were very audible sounds of crashing and lots of beating. We began to cringe and flinch at the noise.

"YEAH! YOU LIKE THAT, HUH?! YOU LIKE THAT?!" Scourge hollered as the sounds of punches became noticeable. "THIS IS WHAT YOU GET FOR TALKING BACK AT ME!"

"SCOURGE, STOP! PLEASE!"

"DON'T MAKE ME BASH YOUR LITTLE SKULL AGAINST THE WALL, YOU BITCH!"

"SCOURGE, NOOO! AHHH!"

The screaming and beating persisted, louder than ever. We can hear some more crashing and finally, there was a loud…

BANG!

…in the background. Amy stopped screaming and she started crying so loudly… like she's in deep pain.

"Now, hang up!" Scourge screamed, "Do it!"

Amy sobbed hysterically for countless seconds.

"Cream... I'm sorry… I have to go… Bye…"

The voicemail ended.

We were all shocked as hell. Rouge had her hands over her mouth and Blaze only has one hand over her lips. Shadow and Silver looked like they just saw a murder. Tails and I were… just alarmed. Cream sadly turned off her phone and then put it away.

"Holy… shit…" Blaze emphasized quietly as she set her hand down.

"My God…" Rouge said to herself.

"Cream," Silver stated, "why didn't you tell us that in the first place?"

"I'm really sorry," Cream replied, "I was too scared. Also, she wanted me to keep this only between us; she told me not to tell anyone else about this and I promised."

By listening to the voice message, it already hit me.

"I can't believe this. Amy's in an abusive relationship with Scourge." I told them.

"That explains so much." Shadow finished off.

Suddenly, I have this feeling. Like… like… I want to help her. But… I don't know how.

"Guys, we have to do something about this." I announced.

"Sonic," Tails said, "I really don't think there's a way we can save Amy. I mean, you know how freaking aggressive Scourge is, he almost killed Knuckles before!"

"Well, if we don't, who knows what he'll do to her next? He might actually murder her!" I persuaded.

"Why can't we just report the issue?" Cream asked me.

"No, that's not going to help much," I answered, "We don't even know where Scourge lives. Besides, he might find out that one of us reported him and beat us for snitching him out. Guys, please. We have to save her."

I gave them time to think about this. For the next minute, they were gazing at each other. Then afterwards, they faced towards me.

"Alright, Sonic," Shadow sighed and began, "if this means a lot to you, then—we'll do it."

"We'll do our best to help you rescue Amy," Silver finished off.

Everyone else nodded their heads. I was relieved. "Thanks, guys." I got myself ready. "Come on, let's go. We're going to find them."

"Wait," Tails called out, "what about Sally?"

We just realized that Sally has been absent while we were listening to the voice message. We looked around for a second and she's nowhere in sight.

"Where did she go?" I wondered to myself. I called, "Sally? Sally, where are—"

Without warning, Sally snuck up behind me. "I'm here."

I jumped as I yelped. "Sally, where the hell did you go?!" I asked sternly.

She answered, "You told me to—"

"Never mind that," I cut her off. I honestly don't care where she went anymore. I grabbed her wrist, "Come on, we're leaving."

Later…

"Sonic," Sally began whining as we strolled around the streets searching for any signs of Amy and/or Scourge, "where exactly are we going?"

"Sally, I already told you about this," I answered her, "we're looking for Amy."

"Why? Why should we? Most importantly, why did you bring me? I thought you said I should stay out of this." Sally was being obnoxious again.

"Because you owe me big time for not apologizing to my friends,"

"Well, let's just hope that pink bitch doesn't do any damage when we find her," she scolded.

We stopped walking when we got to the corner of the block. I was starting to get mad at her comment, "Okay, Sally. First of all, Amy's not a bitch, and you really need to show some respect. The reason why we're looking for her is because she's in grave danger and we need to help her before it's too late. She could be seriously hurt."

Then Rouge cut in, "Yeah, so you better stop your whining."

Again, Sally attempted to hit her, but I immediately stopped her.

"Sally, quit it!" I glanced at her. "And you better not show that side of you, either. Because if you do, I swear to God, there will be consequences!"

"Fine," she muttered under her breath.

"Sonic," Blaze began, "next time whenever we have events like these, can you not invite her along anymore?"

Sally just gave her the look.

"Don't worry," I replied, "I promise—"

"Uh, Sonic," Tails interrupted me and I met his gaze. He was pointing at the front direction. We followed where he was pointing at.

There, we can see a familiar figure of a pink hedgehog crossing the street towards us. Although, her head was down, she had her hand covering one side of her face, she had headphones on, and I believed that she was holding an iPod in her free hand. As she was coming closer to us, she was singing; I listened carefully and I noticed that she's singing the female chorus of the song "Love The Way You Lie" out loud in a miserable tone. She passed by us and unbelievably, she didn't notice us.

I got to her and then I gently touched her shoulder to catch her attention.

"Amy," I said her name.

She stopped walking, let her hand down her face, and then turned around to face me. When she did, she took off her headphones and put her iPod away inside her bag.

"Sonic?" she answered. Amy looked over my shoulder to see the rest of us. "What are you all doing here?"

"Looking for you," I remarked in empathy. I gently held her wrist and walked her to the gang. We just realized that she looked worst than before. The bruises on her face and her black eye have worsened. They gasped softly and Sally… she looked disdained about me holding her wrist.

Amy then pulled her hand away from mines. "Sonic, please. I just want to go home." She attempted to turn back around, but I interfered.

"No," I held her shoulder again, "Amy, we know what's been going on."

"What do you mean?" she coldly responded.

"We just found out about you and Scourge. Cream showed us—"she cut me off right away.

"Wait, wait, wait… Cream?!" she looked over at her best friend in contempt. "You told them?! I thought you promised!"

"Sorry, Amy," Cream told her innocently, "They really wanted to know, so I had to—"

Amy immediately snatched my hand off her shoulder and then turned back around. She stomped away from us in anger, just a few feet away. I quickly got up to her.

"Amy! Come back!" I called out as I grabbed her arm again. She turned around, and then angrily shoved me.

"Get away from me!" she snarled.

"Amy!" I cried out, "Can't you see, we're trying to help you! Don't you realize that you're in risk?"

"I can take care of myself!" she resented, "I don't need you for anything! And also, I thought you said you want me to stay the fuck away from you!"

"What?" I was confused when she said that.

"Don't you remember? You freaking hit me to the ground and then you went up to that slut of yours!"

I thought about that… and I totally remember. I felt really guilty. I went up to her again. "Amy, I am so sorry about that, I didn't mean it," I said in remorse, but she looked like she doesn't accept my apology.

"Sonic, I think she's bleeding," Tails informed me as he gestured to Amy.

I looked down and glanced at Amy's bruised forearms. He was right; there were droplets of fresh blood coming out of her cuts. Most of them looked like they were made just now. I may eye contact with her again; this time, with more worry.

"Amy, what have you been doing to yourself? Why can't you tell us?" I cried.

From behind me, I can hear Tails, Cream, Shadow, Rouge, Silver, and Blaze attempting to convince Amy to let them help her. They all said something at the same time; I couldn't understand what they were saying. Again, she refused.

"Sonic, please," she said, "Just leave me alone."

"Amy—"

She then violently pushed me away from her. "I said 'leave me alone'!" she shrieked at me, "Just stay away from me!"

Here comes battle #4.

"Hey!" Sally stomped her way to Amy in irritation, "you do not treat my boyfriend like that!"

"Sally, please—"I tried to stop her. Sally raised her hand to me and was still glaring at Amy.

"Now, I'm only going to say this one time," she threatened her, "do not fuck with him ever again! Because if you do, I swear I will kill you!"

"Look, I've—" Amy stuttered.

"Do not fuck with him!" Sally repeated with a snarl.

"If you could just—"the pink hedgehog was doing her best to defend herself.

The chipmunk-squirrel was starting to get out of control. Impulsively, she grabbed hold onto Amy's quills and then pulled her down. She screamed, "I SAID 'DO NOT FUCK WITH HIM'!"

Amy was faced-down, flat on the ground. Sally began to beat her mercilessly by punching and kicking her repeatedly. "YOU DON'T FUCKING DESERVE HIM! YOU DON'T DESERVE ANYONE!" Sally screamed at the top of her lungs as she continued to attack her.

The team and I shouted as we ran to the two to get Sally to stop. We struggled at first for like 30 seconds until Shadow and Silver both finally got her in their hands. They together threw Sally back and away from her. I ran to Amy who was struggling to get off the ground.

"Amy!" I called out while I tried to help her up, "Amy! Are you okay?"

She finally stood up; although, she pulled herself away from me. She turned to face us with rage and sorrow in her eyes. We just stood there, all worried.

"EVERYBODY! JUST LEAVE ME ALONE! CAN'T YOU SEE THAT I'VE ALREADY BEEN HARMED ENOUGH!" she sobbed. Afterwards, she turned back around with tears falling from her eyes and then she started running away, crying.

"Amy!" I called out one last time. I watched her sprint down the street until she was already gone.

As I saw her disappear in deep utter sadness and guilt… I began to have this new feeling for her.