Chapter 10

Sonic's heart beat faster and faster as his feet pounded against the snow. The wind stung his face as he ran faster than the speed of light and sound. He couldn't believe what was happening, about Celicia, Mel, and Amy…what had gone wrong? In times like this, we call for a flashback…

΅΅΅

The door to Sonic's apartment swung open, bringing with it a gust of cold wind that rattled the windows. Celicia thumped through the door and shut it tightly, brushing herself off and stomping the snow from her feet. She seemed relatively pleased with something. Sonic stood and asked her, "Where were you?"

Celicia looked at him like she had forgotten he was there, plastering a grin on her face. "Amy and I are on good terms, now."

The blue hedgehog stood up slowly with a confused expression on his face. "'Good terms'? What did you talk about? How is she?" He was in Celicia's face as if the fate of the world depended on the answer. Celicia rolled her eyes to herself, but took his hands in hers and put on the sweetest expression ever on her face.

"Oh, yes. She's fine! Though she says that she won't be at the airport to see us off tomorrow," she stuck out her lip in a pout. "She says that all you care about is yourself and she never wants to see you again." She shook her head as if this was horrible news as Sonic looked down at the floor.

Sonic gulped. "She said that?"

"Well, I had to clean it up a little," she lied.

Sonic sank back down in his chair and turned away from Celicia. When she wasn't looking his way, he pulled a red, fallen rose from his jacket. Sonic had never told a soul, but it was given to him by Amy. After he had given her the horrid letter of goodbye days ago, he had found this on his bed later the next day. He knew it was from Amy, but had no idea why she still loved him after what he said. And now, he had many a doubt in his mind. He took one last look at the rose, sighed, and let it flutter to the floor, its dry petals drifting away.

Maybe, he thought, maybe we were never meant to be…

"That's right," Celicia stated, sitting next to a shocked Sonic. Could she read his mind? "Your place is with me. I can give you healing." With that, she closed her eyes and advanced slowly on him. Sonic hesitated at first, but, realizing that this was where he was meant to be, moved towards Celicia's face with his eyes open. Celicia's lips parted slightly in the anticipation of a kiss…

The door busted open and Melgildur stormed through the house, not bothering to wipe his feet or close the door. Sonic and Celicia jerked apart, Sonic quite relieved. Mel was glaring down at Celicia with his eyes huge and bloodshot as if she had just murdered his best friend…

"You…" he was breathing loudly. "TWISTED…LYING…DIRTY WITCH!!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, jabbing a finger in Celicia's face. She narrowed her eyes at him.

"Stand down, Melgildur," she stated coldly, standing up. "Or I'll…"

"WHAT? FIRE ME?!" Mel erupted. "LIKE I GIVE A RIP!! WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO; PUSH ME DOWN A HILL?!"

Celicia darted her eyes to Sonic wildly then back to Mel. Sonic looked utterly confused.

"Melgildur…" she said through clenched teeth.

"I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU!!" he looked like he was going to rip out her hair. "YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT ANYONE BUT YOURSELF!! AMY HAS NEVER DONE ANYTHING TO YOU AND YOU HAVE TO GO AND STEAL AWAY WHAT SHE LOVES MORE THAN YOU EVER COULD!! BECAUSE OF YOU, AMY IS PROBABLY DEAD BY NOW YOU DIRTY BAS -"

"What?!" Sonic stood up so suddenly his chair fell back. Celicia looked like she wanted to throw her boot at Mel, but took Sonic's arm.

"Don't listen to him, dear…" she stammered. "I-I can explain…"

"You've done enough!" Melgildur grabbed Sonic's other arm and jerked him away. Sonic expected that if there was ever going to be a tug-of-war, it would be between hotheaded Amy and Celicia instead of Mel. Sonic pulled away from both of them and searched Celicia with his eyes as if on inspection.

Mel gave Celicia one last dirty look before turning to Sonic with pleading eyes. "Sonic, listen to me, Amy is in danger, and I can't save her. There's no time to point fingers at who pushed her down the hill -" he glared at Celicia, letting her and Sonic know that she was the one who qualified. "- but, as far as I know, she may be dead by now! You have to save her!"

Sonic still seemed utterly puzzled. "Celicia pushed Amy down a hill? Big deal." Celicia jumped at this chance.

"He's right, Melgildur," she sneered. "She can sled anytime she wants in this snow. It was only a little hill."

Mel sent an identical sneer in her direction. "More like Death Mountain if you ask me…" Mel was cut off with Sonic shaking his shoulders for answers.

"Death Mountain?! Mel, where did you last see Amy?! Was it a big, slanted, icy slope with a big old dark forest at the bottom?"

"Yeah, that sounds like it," he replied.

Sonic's pupils shrank to the size of pinholes. His face went chalk white as he backed away from Mel and leaned his back against the wall. "She…can't…" He shook slightly, muttering to himself. Suddenly, he jerked as if coming out of a trance, which made Celicia jump. He sprinted towards the door, but Celicia caught his arm.

"Sonic…" she whined. But when he turned to her face, he looked like he was on the verge of murder. She let go of his arm quickly and backed away. Sonic nodded his head to Mel, and was gone.

΅΅΅

And that's where we began.

So, Celicia tried to kill Amy.

Mel had exploded in his mistress's face.

Celicia looked like she was about to cry.

…this was getting really weird.

The snow was really coming down and half-blinded Sonic. It didn't help that he was running faster then he ever had in his life. He squinted against the wind, and only prayed that Melgildur was wrong, and Amy was safe inside her home with two steaming mugs of hot cocoa, just waiting for him. They would talk long into the night just like always, while sitting by the fire, listening to it crackle and snap. Sonic, with Amy leaning up against him with her sweet eyes closed, basking in the warmth of the fire and his love…

Sonic had almost had himself convinced that this was the case…

Right up until he reached the top of "Death Mountain" as Mel had called it. He could barely see down the hill leaning to peer over the edge. At first, he only saw swirling white against a black sky, and, for a waking moment, he hoped that Mel could be wrong.

But that was until he saw the blood.

At first, he thought that it could be a red flower, a rose, even…sticking up out of the ice. It seemed impossible, but the more he looked at it, the more he was convinced that Amy was down there somewhere. With barely another thought, Sonic the Hedgehog backed up a few steps, took a deep breath as if he were diving into an ocean, and started running down the hill in a blur of blue light.

Sonic thought he would slip just as Amy had, but he realized that he was moving so quickly, that it seemed to cancel out the fact that he was on blood-stained ice. The dark red blurred past his vision, heart threatening to leap out of his chest. Sonic only prayed that Amy would be okay…

It seemed to be hours before he finally reached the bottom, gasping to catch his breath from the running and the fear for more than one situation. White was everywhere, swirling past his vision like a thousand tiny, harmless autumn leaves, and what Sonic thought of them as he searched the ground for any clues. He could no longer follow the trail of blood; everything was nearly covered up by the snow.

Numbness just started to creep through his shoes, when a touch of pink caught the corner of his eye. A touch of pink…

With more energy than if he had just chugged a gallon of root beer, he sped off to the pink sticking up out of the snow…along with the red.

With a gasp, he bent down and brushed off the snow as much as he could, while it covered up Amy's face like a corpse. The hedgehog flinched when he had a good look at her bloody, raw face as if a werewolf had ripped its teeth into the side of her head. With trembling hands, Sonic brushed off the rest of her frozen body. He leaned the side of his face over above poor Amy's mouth. Despite the bitter wind, he could feel a tinge of warm breath on his ear – she was still alive, but barely.

Sonic pulled off his brown hat and – remembering what Tails had said about the head and feet being the body's main source of heat – plunged it on Amy's unconscious head. He ripped off his heavy coat and draped it over her shoulders, hugging her close, blood staining his sweatshirt. He scooped her up bridal style and started to trek towards the forest.

Why couldn't he go back up the hill?

Because he couldn't find it.

The snow had consumed them both, and he could no longer tell which was he had come – he couldn't risk Amy freezing to death. The only source of shelter he could see within walking distance was the pitch-black forest. And that was where he was taking Amy.

When they reached the dense shade of the trees, the wind became surprisingly calm. Not completely, but the trees provided enough shelter from the wind so it didn't feel as strong as before. But Sonic knew it was still deadly to his cargo.

Stepping gingerly as to not make a sound, Sonic finally came across a small cave. He had seen it from a distance before and knew he was there. Hugging Amy closer to his chest, he trekked through the knee-deep snow towards the – hopefully – empty cave. He peeked inside and couldn't see the back of it. What did he expect? It was pitch black all around him. How was he going to find out if the cave was safe if he couldn't see past the end of his nose? Speaking of nose, it began to itch terribly. Sonic tried to hold it in as to no disturb the silence, when he couldn't take it any longer and…

"ACHOOO!!!"

The sound echoed back to him quite loudly, and the hedgehog knew that the cave most likely had a back to it, and he was relieved. Sonic set a foot on the cave's stony floor, his footsteps echoing all around him. When he was a good ways inside, he quickly set down the pink hedgehog, looked around suspiciously, and stayed completely still, thinking of all the horrible things he could encounter; bears, mountain lions, spiders – he shuddered.

When his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he could plainly see the back of the cave and – to his relief – nothing else had occupied it. There was not a trace of a hair of another animal. One danger down, but the biggest one was still upon them.

Sonic moved Amy to the very back of the cave, where the wind was less and where there was a greater chance of staying warm. He laid her down facing the wall, and wondered what to do next. He felt so helpless. Amy looked like she was dying, and there seemed nothing else he could do.

He thought of Celicia and how cruel she had been. That lying, murdering little…but nothing Sonic could think or say could keep his mind away from the weak hedgehog in front of him. He had to do something. Amy's mouth hung slightly open, her eyes closed and an inch-deep gash touching her eyelid and stretching across the right side of her face. Her arms under the coat bled through as well as her legs. Black and blue, what little breath she had left came out in small jagged gasps. Though she was definitely unconscious, she shook so violently that Sonic was afraid her head would detach itself.

He had to do something.

With a deep breath to steady his own breathing, he knew he had to keep her wounds from bleeding too much and needed to get her warm. He looked everywhere, but all the firewood that was there was soaking wet, so a fire was out of the question.

He removed his jacket and hers from Amy and winced when he saw all the blood. Just the sight of it sent a long stinging sensation crawling up his back. Sonic knew he would collapse under his own pain. "Why now?" he thought angrily, clutching his sweatshirt in all the pain he was in.

But as much pain Sonic was in, Amy won in the end. His face scrunching up with pain, Sonic ripped his sweatshirt into long, thin strips and bound Amy's cuts as best he could after dabbing them clean with snow he had to breathe on to get melted and warm. He tried scrubbing the blood off the two jackets and wrapped them both around Amy tightly. He bound Amy's gash on her forehead – he needed to cover her eyes with the bandage as well – and crammed the hat back over her ears.

It wasn't until he was nearly finished when he remembered something on the Discovery channel that Tails had shown him (he hadn't been paying much attention). He remembered a person who had gotten frostbite so badly in the snow that his toes all froze up and fell off. The thought made Sonic sick to his stomach, but just to check, he pulled off Amy's boots and breathed a sigh of relief when her toes felt a bit warm to the touch. But just to keep her safe and warm, Sonic pulled off his own warmer shoes and laced them on her tiny feet. They were much bigger in size, but at least she would be warm.

Shivering in a torn sweatshirt, no shoes and no hat, Sonic finally lay down to rest his stinging back. A blistering cold gust of wind whipped through the cave. Sonic shivered a little, but Amy's shaking was so jerky it looked like she was having a seizure. Quickly thinking – and back aching – Sonic inched towards his sweet Amy Rose, held her face close to his bare chest and breathed on her face to keep warm. They both faced the back of the cave wall with Sonic on the outside blocking the bitter wind like a wall for Amy. He rubbed her back quickly for friction, and it was amazing how immediately she stopped shaking and seemed to relax. Sonic also noticed her breathing becoming shallower as he rubbed harder and pressed his face against hers.

Don't die, he prayed silently.

Don't die!