-Chapter 11-

Amy finally found a nice spot to read her book. It was a pleasantly quiet and allowed her some peace from all the things that were bothering her before. She sat against the trunk of a tree and resumed to her story. Unbeknownst to her, Mephiles was watching her. She didn't even hear him climb down the tree above her. He sat down silently beside her, glancing at the printed page Amy had her jade eyes on. A full minute passed before anything happened. Mephiles finally decided to break the silence and get the fun and games started. He carefully leaned over to the sakura female.

"Whatcha reading?" Mephiles whispered in Amy's ear in a sickly sweet and playful tone.

Amy jumped and nearly screamed when she suddenly heard his voice. Before she could let out a cry, the demon quickly swiped his hand over her mouth. But that didn't stop Amy from giving out a muffled scream. Mephiles sat her in his lap and coiled an arm around her form.

"This screaming really doesn't become you, my little flower." Mephiles said coyly.

Amy struggled to reach for her hammer, but blast the luck, Mephiles had a hold on her arms rendering her unable to reach it. She tried elbowing him but it didn't work. He was constricting Amy like a boa. Finally, after a few minutes she finally gave up feeling quite exhausted from the effort.

"There, that's better." Mephiles cooed.

Amy let out growl. She shot a nasty glare at him.

"Now then, if you'll promise to stop making so much noise," Mephiles continued. "I'll remove my hand from your lovely face."

Amy was silent for a very long minute before eventually nodding in agreement. Mephiles took his hand away while the cherry-pink hedgehog pouted.

"What the hell do you want?" Amy demanded.

"My, what colorful language you have." Mephiles commented.

Amy made another growl.

"Oh alright if you insist." the demon mewed. "Though I already told you, I'm in need of a companion."

Amy's eyes widened and she shivered, remembering the incident in Mystic Ruins. More chills ran up her spine when Mephiles began nuzzling underneath her chin. Then he licked her neck and the bite mark, causing Amy's body started to go ecstatic with shivers and electrical heat. Amy began breathing in short gasp and her hand was spinning. She was getting quite dizzy and flabbergasted. She tried fighting whatever influence was coming over her, but it was useless. Seeing Amy physically unable to fight him, Mephiles pulled her into a kiss.

The kiss just made the mesmerized Amy even worse. She felt as if she were about to black out again. The young female struggled to get ahold of herself. She was finally able to push the demon away and smack him. Mephiles wasn't fazed however and shook off the simple attack. Amy also managed to break free of his grasp. Even though he intentionally let her.

"YOU JERK!" Amy screamed.

She pulled out her hammer and began aimlessly swerving at Mephiles. The demon easily dodged her attacks with no effort at all. He lunged forward and gave her a quick peck on the cheek and then suddenly vanishing. Amy let out a cry of fury.

'I'll be seeing you again. my little flower.' Mephiles told her telepathically. 'Tonight that is...'

The sakura hedgehog's cries were heard by Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Rouge, and Shadow.

"Amy, what happened?" Sonic asked.

Amy looked down at her feet, feeling like a total fool.

"N-nothin'. I'm alright." Amy muttered.

-

Later that day, Shadow had gone on his way to gather whatever more information he could find on Mephiles, more particularly his location. Rouge remained behind to talk a little more with Knuckles.

"I think you should ease up on the whole babysitting Amy thing." the ivory bat told the Guardian. "It looks like she's about to lose her nerve."

Knuckles let out a low growl. He didn't like being told what to do. But even had to admit that since Mephiles hadn't shown up for a week, he should give Amy some leverage. And space.

"...Fine." Knuckles grumbled. "But I still don't want her by herself. It just seems that each time we leave Amy on her own, this Mephiles appears."

"Well if you put it that way," Rouge replied. "it gives the perfect situation for a trap."

That caught Knuckles' attention.

"What do you mean?" he inquired.

"Maybe we could use Amy as bait to lure Mephiles into a trap." Rouge suggested.

"I don't like the sound of that, Rouge. I don't wanna put Amy in danger."

"In danger of what?"

Sonic and Tails came into the room of which the female bat and the male echidna were in.

"Rouge has a crazy idea for using Amy as bait to trap Mephiles." Knuckles told them.

"Actually...that doesn't sound half bad." Sonic replied.

"What?" Knuckles cried in disbelief.

"Well on the flip side," Sonic continued. "we can make sure Amy doesn't get seriously hurt or anything."

"Yeah, we can make sure she stays safe." Tails added.

After a few minutes of thought, Knuckles finally agreed to it.

"Alright fine." he said. "But we have to be absolutely sure that nothing happens to her."

The other three exchanged nods.

-

The sun finally went down for the night, prompting the moon to follow its course, accompanied by millions of stars. Amy, to her relief, was allowed to go back to her house. She was however monitored by stealthy surveillance system installed by Tails. It was so stealthy, that even Amy herself didn't notice that it was there.

She went to bed, exhausted by the day's events and having to be closely watched by the guys. The young female certainly wanted to put the 'Mephiles' thing in the back of her mind. She put on a magenta colored night-gown and crawled into her mattress. Amy let out a sigh of sweet relief after feeling her muscles relax. She instantly fell asleep and unconsciously pulled her mantle over her cherry-pink form. An hour later, a dark shadow materialized and fell on her.