Youth of a Nation
Chapter 4
Amy's Adventure
Amy felt herself floating. She felt more relaxed then she had in a long time. She opened her eyes and found herself adrift in a blue…something. It felt similar to water on her skin, but she didn't feel wet. There was a gentle light all around her, and she knew she was dead. But she felt more alive then she had in a long time.
"My heart doesn't hurt anymore…I'm free of the drugs, that's what's different!" She spun in the ether ecstatically.
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Tails held Amy's head in his arms at they sat her down on the floor of his old hut.
"Griff, is she going to be alright?"
Griff just shrugged. "I dunno. The drug should be taking effect now. It's going to overload her brain so that the drugs she had in her system won't work anymore."
Tails leaned down and planted a soft kiss on Amy's forehead. It was then that he saw her hands.
"Jesus, Griff. Look at her hands…" The goat looked at the ragged pieces of flesh hanging from Amy's fingers. The blood had caked into a sort of bandage, but there were pieces of glass all throughout her fingers. Skin had been stripped away from her hand in several places, and there was glass inside of her hand.
"I'll go get the first aid kit, ok?" Griff stood up and walked out of the cabin.
"Don't worry Ames." Tails said softly into her ear. "We'll get you fixed up."
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Amy closed her eyes again and began to hum to herself. "This is a kinda weird afterlife. I mean, I feel great. But, there's really nothing here…Tails?" For a split second, she swore that she heard his voice.
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Tails placed Amy's right hand into the wash basin and poured the water Griff had heated up over the injured extremities. He began the tedious process of picking out all of the glass and reopening the scabs so that they could be cleaned out. Several times he pulled her hand out and poured peroxide and alcohol over it, and then Griff dumped the old bloody water and returned with fresh.
Once the right hand was cleaned as best as he could get it, Tails covered the entire thing with antibiotic gel and bandaged it up. Then he started on the left.
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Amy began to feel tired. She closed her eyes and the blue void went away. Her last thought was, 'Am I dying again?'
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"Why in the hell would she do this to herself?" Griff asked, returning once more to Tails with a fresh basin of water. He went over by the window and lit a cigarette while Tails continued his tender work.
"I don't know, but you'll have the chance to ask her yourself in a few minutes. She's starting to come around." Tails covered the left hand with the gel, and then set her broken middle finger as best he could. He was finishing wrapping it up when Amy's eyes flickered open.
"Tails?" She croaked in surprise when she saw the fox hovering over her.
"Hey Ames. Why did you do a stupid thing like this?" The fox said in a playful tone. His words however caused her to cast her eyes downward and begin sobbing.
"I missed you! You left me hanging! I thought we had something together, but you stopped coming around. I tried calling you, but you never returned my calls. So I started doing drugs heavier and heavier. Then tonight, I heard about your record deal on the news, and I…I just snapped."
Tails shook his head. "Amy, I do care about you. I've just been trying to push this record deal through so I'd have some time to be with you. I've been staying up till three in the morning with record executives and industry contacts trying to make something happen."
"But if you really cared, you would have found time."
Tails face faltered. "Maybe your right. Maybe I didn't care as much as I should have. But I love you Amy. And I care about you now."
Amy looked at him sourly. She sat up woozily. "Don't throw words like that around Tails."
Tails gave her a gaze that would have pierced an iron heart. Luckily, he was only dealing with a pink hedgehog's heart. "I'm not, Ames. I love you…Let me take you home."
Griff spoke up. "I'll just chill here tonight, Tails. You have more important things to do."
Tails looked back to Amy. "Will you let me take you home?"
Amy didn't say anything, she just started sobbing again. Tails helped her stand up and then slung his arms under her. He helped her get into the passenger side of her car.
Walking around, Tails looked at Griff again. "Things are going to start changing now, aren't they?"
Griff smiled and shook his head. "Things change all the time. People's hearts are the only things that remain static. Take care of her, Tails."
Tails got behind the wheel and drove off.
Back inside the hut, Griff rolled a joint and began to smoke it. He walked outside and began to wonder a little bit into the forest.
"Many of the city dwellers would be afraid to go into the forest at night. They've forgotten the serenity and peace of the Great Forest."
Griff's thoughts were interrupted suddenly. He saw the glow of a campfire in the distance.
"Who the hell would be out here? No one else comes out here anymore…"
Feeling the need to sate his curiosity, he began to walk towards the campfire.
AN: Sorry about not updating for such a long time. I just forgot that I write sins and not tragedies, lol. Stay tuned for the final chapter of Youth of a Nation!