Life Goes On

Chapter Eleven

Sega owns all Sonic characters, except Sara and Drake, who are mine. Blue terrier belongs to Randomizer. Green squirrel still for sale. Shadow, unfortunately is not. Sorry fangirls.

Coming to her senses, Rouge's eyes fluttered open, before widening into an expression that could only be described as terror. She couldn't see! Everything was dark. Trying to stay calm, Rouge tried to determine what was going on, using her other senses. She knew was sitting cross-legged and sitting. Rouge assumed she was on the floor, and could feel that her wrists were tied behind her back. The room was very cool, but, it was summer, so that meant she had to be inside somewhere. But why couldn't she see?

Her mind screamed as everything came rushing back to her.

As if he had heard Rouge's thoughts, Drake chuckled. Rouge knew he was to her left, using her superior bat ears. Dark or not, Rouge could swear she saw his evil smirk, and her fear was quickly replaced with anger.

"You bastard," she cried. "Let me go! Turn on the lights!"

Drake laughed again, making Rouge lose some of her sudden confidence. "You amuse me, batgirl. Making orders even when you are clearly not in a position to tell anyone what to do." He snickered again. "And as for the lights, I ask you, what lights?"

Several seconds passed, then Rouge whispered, "So… I'm…"

"Blind?" Drake filled in the word. He sneered, "No, Rouge. Not blind." Rouge could hear a throaty purr come from her kidnapper. "Just in a very, very dark place."

Several seconds passed, then Rouge summoned up the courage to ask, "Which is?"

Drake whispered, "In my new home." He reached out and ran his dark fingers through her fur. "My lair. And you, my sweet, are my first guest."

Scooting away, Rouge scoffed, "Well, don't count on me staying for long. Someone will come and find me, and when they do, you will pay."

"And who, may I ask, would be able to find you? That red echidna? He has an island to protect. Why would he come find his enemy, the girl who keeps trying to steal his emerald and ruin his job? Face it, he doesn't need or want you in his life."

Rouge's ears drooped; knowing that what Drake said was true. But her heart leapt when another possibility crossed her mind. "Well then, one of my other friend's will come and help me. Ever heard of the Ultimate Lifeform?"

Laughter. Sick, sick laughter. "Rouge, Shadow has better things to do than worry about the little spy following him around, writing down his every move, who-"

Fear swelled up in the white bat's throat. She screeched, "How do you know about that? You've been stalking me!"

The vampire bat nodded simply, but Rouge obviously couldn't see. "My point is Rouge, Shadow has a life, and I doubt he wants to be bothered by an annoying jewel thief."

While Rouge was slightly ticked off by that comment, she had to admit Drake was right. Shadow probably wouldn't even notice her absence. But what about the others? a little voice in Rouge's head asked.

Sonic probably wouldn't miss Rouge either, he had an entire planet to worry about. Amy would be too busy trying to get Sonic to notice her, especially now, since Elise decided to give him the kiss of life. The pink hedgehog would be trying to get all thoughts of other women out of Sonic's head.

Cream and her had never been extremely close, so Rouge doubted the little rabbit even remembered her name. Tails would be locked up somewhere in his lab in Mystic Ruins, working on whatever crazy experiment he had going at the time. And when he finished he'd move on to another.

Rouge thought for a little while longer and sighed. That left only Topaz. But who knew how long it would take the girl to find Rouge. She could be long gone and dead by then. Drake surely had some plans in mind of what to do to her, otherwise he would have killed her by now.

Movement. Rouge could 'feel' Drake getting up from his spot and crawl over to her. He sat down behind her, sending chills up her spine. She must've shuddered, because Drake chuckled softly.

"Yes, my dear. You are helpless. You are going to die, but you are not alone." Another chuckle. "You get the pleasure of my company."

Yay for me. Then searing pain shot through the back of Rouge's neck, traveling down her back. It continued in throbbing bursts of pain, until finally Rouge got the blessing she asked for. The world went black as she slipped back into unconsciousness.

Drake peered hastily at her face when he released his grip on Rouge's neck. She wasn't dead, but the venom that had just been injected into her might be enough to change that.

Hmm. Not even a scream. The vampire looked disappointed. Her will might prove to be too strong. Strong enough to kill her.

Drake shrugged. He'd been through this very situation before. And each time the girl eventually gave up fighting him, and gave him what he wanted. Whatever it may be at the time. And what he wanted from Rouge was…

He tilted his head to one side. What did he want from Rouge again? He thought for a while, but couldn't come up with an answer. Drake shrugged again as he got up. No matter. In a little while he'd come back and by then he'd probably remember. If not, well, he could put her back to sleep.

Drake grinned, his now blood-covered fangs glittering in the dark. He had all the time in the world to remember. And if he couldn't, then it wouldn't be worth keeping her. He walked through the darkness, following a path only he could see, out into the night sky, where the stars shone as brilliant as the blood on his fangs.

Amy huffed as she sat on the grass beneath her as the sun began to set, filling the sky with splotches of oranges and yellows and reds. She had jogged out to the middle of the park just south of the carnival and was exhausted. The distance was about twelve miles and Amy hadn't stopped for anything. She wiped away the sweat that trickled down her forehead. Her reason for such a long run? Simple: she was mad.

She took off one of her pink boots, which were brand new and barely broken in yet, and peered inside. Blood had filled the insides of the shoe, which explained why her feet had been killing her after the first half mile. Amy groaned and kicked off her other boot and examined her feet. The usually cute, tiny feet were now swollen, blisters on the toes, and red rub marks on the heel. With another groan Amy laid down on her back and closed her eyes, letting her feet burn in pain.

"Well, look at the bright side," she said to herself. A lump rose in the back of her throat. "At least I got farther this time. He's on the date, I'm just not with him."

She sighed feeling hopeless, "Why do I bother? I'm never going to get that irritating hedgehog to like me."

A sudden noise tickled Amy's ear, and, for some reason, made her feel uneasy. Sitting up, she turned to her left and looked over shoulder, but no one was there. She looked back in front of her and shivered.

"Maybe I shouldn't be out her. I'd better go home and make dinner. Maybe Cream'll spare a couple minutes and come over."

Using her hands, Amy held down her pink skirt as she stood up and smoothed out some non-existent wrinkles out of habit. The hedgehog stuffed her sore feet back into her boots and started off through the field. It took her about fifteen minutes to reach the trail that led through the forest which led back to Station Square.

Dread filled her small, petite body as she realized the sun would already set by the time she even made it half of the way through the forest. Sucking in a deep breath, Amy trudged through the woods, which seemed a lot more ghastly than the first time she passed through.

Just stay on the path and you'll get through this. Calm down, you're not afraid of the dark. You're NOT afraid of the dark… You're just afraid of the chainsaw murderers that lie within it. No! Stop that. You're scaring yourself. Take a breath. Everything's gonna be fine.

Amy kept walking, repeating this in her head for about thirty minutes. And that's when the sun finally disappeared.

"Ooh!" she wailed. She wrapped her arms around her shoulders as a cool breeze brushed against her fur, chilling her to the bone. The moon was full that night, hanging right in front of Amy it seemed like. It was very close to the Earth this night, making it appear to be at arm's length. So close.

"Just like Sonic," Amy mumbled bitterly. "Or home." She was just about to let out another wail when she heard a sound, making her freeze. The hedgehog's eyes widened, her voice seeming to have been stolen from her. One pink ear perked up, listening for another sound, anything, to give evidence she was not alone.

Up ahead was a faint noise. Familiar, yet out of place. Something normal, but at the same time wrong. That was the only word that could be used to describe it. Wrong.

Amy forced her swollen feet to not move. To not run back up that hill, back to the clearing, no matter how much her feet begged her to stop.

No. Don't. This is… wrong. I need to stay. And… listen? Even as she thought the words a little voice in the pit of her stomach asked, "Listen? Why not do?"

Ignoring that feeling, Amy went with her first instinct and listened. Taking baby steps, the girl inched closer and closer to the sound. She made extra sure to be careful and not step on a twig and make herself known like the other had. She came to another, smaller, clearing. A cave was in the center of the clearing. It went underground so that it was like a burrow, or a tunnel.

The noise, the wrong noise, got louder and clearer as she came to the edge of the clearing. She could identify it now. It was yelling. Angry shouts. And, laughter. Cruel, wrong, laughter. A man's laughter. It came from the tunnel.

The laughter died down. Soon, everything became quiet. Curiosity made Amy want to go over and look down into the burrow, but common sense and fear kept her right where she was. She was no fool.

Finally, a dark figure emerged from the burrow. He, you could tell from his physique, looked up at the stars; his back turned toward Amy. He didn't know she was there.

Amy strained her eyes in the darkness, just barely seeing the outline of his big, triangular ears and wings.

"A bat?" she whispered.

No. The same voice in her stomach said. No. Not right. Wrong.

Wrong. Everything about this was wrong. But why? How?

Amy turned her focus back to the figure, but saw that he was walking away from the burrow, and was heading toward Amy. She quickly hid behind the tree, crouching low to the ground, hoping she wouldn't be seen.

As he walked by Amy could see his fur was the color of ash and he had red eyes. But the thing that caught her eye was that he had blood dripping from his muzzle, and his fangs were visible. Once he was out of earshot Amy began to panic as she scrambled to her feet.

A vampire bat! But they aren't allowed to take blood! It's been a law since they'd been allowed into society. This was true. When Congress, Kings around the world, and the President had gotten together with the leaders of Mobius and Sonic to debate about all the new habitants when Earth and Mobius formed together to form one about five years ago there had been many new laws. Many, including Mobians were against letting vampire bats into society, others didn't care, and some didn't care, as long as they didn't live near them. Eventually the leaders had decided to allow vampires to live freely, as long as they didn't take any blood from another being, use their venom in any way, or work in any field of medicine. If they failed to obey to these rules they would be killed. And eventually, people and Mobians began to feel at ease with them and life went on as usual.

Amy ran over to the tunnel/burrow and peered down inside of it. The smell of blood filled her nose, making her want to vomit. Someone had been murdered. They had to have been. Otherwise they were dying slowly from blood loss. She could even see a little bit of it on the walls. A streak of red that dripped down to the floor.

That's it, she thought. I gotta go get help. Fast. Ignoring her aching feet, Amy ran back to the path she came from and back to Station Square as fast as she could.

A/N: And this is my sorry excuse for being late, by like, three months. Again, I apologize. Life got in the way, and well, I won't bore you. Just know I would've held onto it for a couple more days and made it longer, extending it to either Sonic or Tails, and also Shadow and Chaotix. Well, that's for next time. See I found out what inspires me to write, HOMEWORK!

I would do anything else but homework, if I wasn't such a wuss. I see a B on my grade card and I feel like the world has stopped. But this year I HAVE to get all A's, so I can convince dad to get me a puppy. Anywayz, review, because I wanna get better at writing. I want tips on how to get better, so I welcome flames, FOR THIS CHAPTER ONLY. Just not on spelling, I know I gotta work on that. Love ya'll,

Hawkcat (who has a broken finger, maybe and can't type real fast or great...)