Oh yeah! Look at epic me, saying I just want to see how much I'd already written and then end up adding another 2,000 words when I could've been read Catching the Fire (the second Hunger Games book)! Aren't I epic? Well, not really when I should've probably done this like a month ago!
Infinite excuses, blah, blah blah. I've started school back and I'm officially a senior! So now My days consist of trying to get as much Physics and Government and Trigonometry crammed into my head before noon. After lunch, I do chores (the endlessly messy house; ugh) and have to work part time later on in the day. Maybe I'd have time to write more often, if it weren't for my hopeless and never ending chain of obsessions.
First of all, I'm currently hooked on like a zillion (or three) manga/anime series. I try not to spend too much time on that kinda thing, but CLAMP has me hooked. Plus, the term 'book worm' doesn't even begin to describe me! I'm more of a book leach, since I seem to devour any words set in front of me as quickly as I can...except Government class. I hate Government. -.-
Anyway, there's your pathetic excuses and I'm sorry for not sending my usual review replies out; too much to say and so little time. I will add, though, for anyone and everyone who was curious, that whenever I have Cream in this story, I just think Cheese is a given. Not to be rude or anything, but honestly I see him as a very pointless character and it's really no wonder I forget to make his presence prominent throughout the story. Still, I apologize for not mentioning him before now. :(
Erg...blah...ramble...CHAPTER! ...enjoy.
DISCLAIMER: Hah, and I thought I'd forget it I do not own Sonic or anything else mentioned in this story, but I do own the plot, so hands off! Jk, lolz XD
Amy looked out her kitchen window to see the rain still hadn't let up. Opening the front door, she sat on the porch a moment to watch the steady drizzle. What was there to do at a time like this? Sonic and Knuckles were hanging out at the workshop, watching a baseball game or something she guessed, and Cream and Vanilla were with the Chaotix. The younger rabbit and Charmy were always good playmates and got along nicely when Vanilla wanted some time to herself or with Vector.
That left Amy stuck at her house alone while the rain persisted.
But I can't do nothing. She thought. That would mean the boredom fairies win, she paused and sighed aloud. Okay, so boredom fairies were a myth and she knew it...and now it seemed the rain was getting the better of her sanity. Do something creative! Build a tent inside out of blankets like when you were little! Or...play fortune teller with a teddy bear...except I don't know where one is...oh what the heck!
Amy stood abruptly and practically stomped into the house, determined not to be caught doing nothing by...well, whatever cloud creature was brewing up this rain storm to make people think there was nothing to do. Yes, that was the reason for this...determination! She used her crutches to hop into the kitchen and opened up an old junk drawer in the china cabinet. Skimming briefly over the contents, and making a mental note to bring a good half of them to the garbage can soon, she dug through and found a small, worn out box.
She smiled to herself, remembering the game from when she was little. She'd get anyone near enough to come into her "Shop of Mysteries" and give them the full on fortune-telling treat. Palm and tea leaf reading, her prized tarot cards, and a makeshift crystal ball she'd designed by putting a fish bowl over a lit candle and staring at the smoke caused by the smothered flame. It was silly and strange, but boredom won over and she decided the nostalgia might be interesting if nothing else.
Once she had a tea pot simmering gently and a candle lit, she spread out the cards and shuffled them with a quick hand. It was a practice she hadn't brought out in awhile but was glad to still posses. Spreading and piling and switching for a moment, Amy got into the mood and was only shocked out of the almost trance by a startling knock on the door.
"Gah!" she exclaimed aloud, nearly falling out of her chair. "C-coming!"
She scooter the seat out and grabbed for her crutches, moving to the front door and taking a quick glance through the peep hole before unlocking it. Sonic stood on the front porch, looking impatient as he glanced out at the deepening rain. She quickly let him in and out of the rain.
"Hey," he said, brushing rain off his arms and stepping inside. "I tried to call, but the power's out. Sorry about that."
"Oh, uh, no problem," Amy said, hoping he wouldn't notice her little setup in the kitchen. "I was just, uh..."
"Oh, am I intruding or anything?"
"No, no! Actually you're just in time; I was on the verge of a boredom-induced mental breakdown."
"Again? Seriously, Ames, we've gotta get you some video games or something."
"Ew, no thanks," she rolled her eyes, leading him to the living room.
"Hey what's that?" Sonic asked, spying her rig in the kitchen and turning off course. Amy mentally face palmed.
"It's uh...nothing."
"No, I mean with the-hey, are those your old tarot cards? I haven't seen them in ages!"
"Ugh. Now you're intruding," Amy groaned, rolling her eyes.
Sonic shrugged. "Give me a reading, oh Mysteries Amy," he pleaded.
"No. I only do fortunes for myself now," she said stubbornly.
Sonic scofferd. "Yeah right! A few years ago, we'd be lucky if we could go a day without getting one of your charms or curses. It all depended on your mood."
"Did not! I can't decide what the cards say!"
"Well then give me a reading right now and we'll just see if it doesn't reflect your mood," Sonic tempted.
"Fine! ...urgh," Amy rolled her eyes, not to keen on having been so easily duped.
"Come on than; I don't have all day to see how my life will end," Sonic said, already sitting at the table. "I'm waaaiiitiiing."
Amy groaned and took her seat in front of the cards. She shuffled through once more and and spread the cards in proper piles across the table. (Honestly, I don't have any tarot cards and I've never had a reading, so I'm skipping most of this. What is in here is a rough estimate based on a bunch of unhelpful Google look-ups -.-')
"Hm..." Amy puzzled, flipping over a card. "Major arcana looks good," she paused and flipped another two in a row, taking a moment to ponder the outcome. "That's..."
"What? Do I only have a week to live?" Sonic faked panic.
"No, no. From what I can tell, things will be going just fine for you for awhile now, but...there's something else. Like maybe someone is secretly mad at you? I'm not sure."
"Straange. It's not you though, right?"
"Why would I be mad at you? You've actually been really nice lately," Amy assured him.
"Lately," Sonic chuckled. "I am offended, Miss Rose."
"Maybe someone got ticked off by your ego," she mumbled, rolling her eyes.
"Yeah, whatever. Hey, it's getting late now, huh?" Sonic glanced at his watch, since the other clocks weren't working due to the power shortage.
"I guess so. It's definitely gotten darker, but that might just be the rain."
"Do you have any more candles? We should light them now before it's too dark to see," Sonic suggested.
"Yeah, I'll get some. Do you need to get back home or something? You can borrow an umbrella or..."
"Naw, Tails said it might be better if I stay over here to make sure you're alright. There was supposed to be a tornado watch for a few hours tonight."
"Yeesh, well you shouldn't be outside anyway than."
Sonic almost laughed. "Oh please! I can outrun AND out spin those things."
"You've tried?"
"...well, no but...hey! I brought dinner!"
"Should I be scared?"
"It's takeout; no worries," Sonic said, taking off a backpack he'd been wearing and pulling out a bag. "The stove wasn't working so Tails sent me to get something for dinner over there. I figured it would be the same situation and got it on the way over."
"Oh cool! I haven't had Chinese in forever," Amy smiled. "And it's still warm; that's nice. I was trying to make tea, but I guess I didn't notice the power was out; I'd better turn off the stove before it comes back. No wonder it was taking so long though," she laughed, hopping over to turn the knob off.
"Hey, shouldn't we have the fortune cookies first? You know, since you were just doing your fortune telling thing?"
"What does that have to do with anything? You'll still get another prediction whether it's now or later."
"Phooey," Sonic muttered.
After lighting a few more candles to brighten up the room, they sat down and started eating. It was still fairly early, but neither wanted to wait for it to get cold, since there was no way of reheating anything without the power on. By the time they had finished, it was only about 6.
"Fortune cookies now?" Sonic asked.
"You're just anxious because it has the word 'cookie' in it. They're not even real cookies you know."
"Don't say that! They'll hear you and give you a bad fortune!" Sonic exclaimed and Amy rolled her eyes, picking up a cookie and breaking it in half.
"Dang; it's hard to read in this light. Okay, mine says...'Be wary of your footing. Often a small step can cause a great fall'." she gave a laugh. "I couldn't have gotten this a few weeks ago?"
"Maybe it's trying to warn you so you don't break something else. Like your arm or another leg or something!"
"I feel so enlightened. Now whats yours say?"
Sonic broke his open and pulled out the slip of paper, holding it just close enough to a candle to see it without it catching fire. "'Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words can break a heart. Choose them wisely'."
"They dead pinned you!"
"Hey! I always think before I talk!" Sonic said, paused for a moment and then they both started laughing. "Okay, so there's no filter between my brain and my mouth, but whatever. I wouldn't say something to genuinely hurt someone."
"Even if you thought it?"
"No, since I normally don't criticize people in my head. What are you saying, Amy? That you're a mental-hater?"
"I never said that!"
"You implied it though," he teased.
"Did not! I asked if you did! And not even that. I was just saying..."
"Eh, whatever. Honestly I'd rather hurt someone's feelings than break two legs."
"I'm not going to break ANOTHER leg!" Amy exclaimed and quickly added when Sonic began to speak, "Or an arm."
"Whatever. Just watch your step," he warned.
"And you watch your mouth."
"Geez, you sound like my mother," he rolled his eyes.
"Do I need to shove some soap down your throat?" she said in a nasally impersonation. They both let out long laughs before continuing to actually consume the cookies.
"So what? You're gonna stay the night here?" Amy inquired.
Sonic shrugged and did a mega pouting face. "Oh, I wouldn't want to intrude."
"I'm sure you wouldn't. Would you prefer the couch, floor, or bed?"
"Let's go camping!"
Amy blinked and tried to register his exclamation. "You were serious? Did you not actually just come here to bring news of a possible tornado in the area?"
"No no, not outside, crazy! I meant on the floor, both of us. We can set up a tent and tell ghost stories and everything!" Sonic began excitedly. "It'll be fun!"
"And roast marshmallows over a candle?" Amy added sarcastically.
"Oh, can we?!"
"I was kidding! Who would want a wax flavored s'more anyway?"
"Don't knock it till you try it," Sonic shrugged before pulling her along to the living room. "C'mon!"
After a few minutes of planning, Sonic retrieved a stack of blankets from Amy's hall closet and they started carefully constructing their indoor fortress. It was slow going, trying to find just the right tactic to making the blankets stay in place and they had to start over several times when one part would collapse and ruin the structure of the whole tent.
Finally, they had built a castle of blankets fit for a king! ...In theory. As long as said king didn't mind crawling on his stomach to get in and then having to keep his head low if he wanted to sit up. There was also the potential threat of a cave in at any given moment and...well, you'd need a very indifferent king for it to work well.
"It's beautiful! All hail our royal fortress!" Amy laughed as they took a step back to admire it.
"Royal? What kind of king would stay in this thing?"
"A very indifferent one," Amy giggled. Sonic gave a laugh as well before they both crawled inside and tried to situate the sleeping bags laid out on the floor. Once they had both found comfortable positions that suited their needs for the night, Sonic didn't hesitate another second to pull out a flashlight and hold it under his chin for dramatic lighting.
"Once, there was a lawnmower!...With legs!"
"No, no, no! We will not do that again!" Amy scolded, snatching the flashlight from him. "If we're not even going to tell them properly then what's the point of telling bad ones?"
"What do you mean, 'not tell them properly'?" Sonic mimicked poorly.
"Oh there's a whole ritual! I saw it in this manga where-"
"I don't need the details," Sonic stopped her, hoping to avoid a XXXholoic reference and save the author of this fanfiction a much longer disclaimer...that she always seems to forget anyway. :/
"But anyway, you should at least try to be scary."
"Oh, I should? Give me a break, Ames! You couldn't scare Cream on Holloween."
"You're right, because she's too sweet to scare. You on the other hand, I don't mind so much."
"Alright, let's here it then," Sonic leaned back in a relaxed position.
"Are you sure about that?" Amy put on a devious smirk and Sonic nodded casually. "Okay, but don't say I didn't warn you."
Sonic scoffed. "Warn me about what?"
"Exactly."
"What?"
"That's the one."
"The...what?!" Now he seemed genuinely confused.
"Not the what? THE What."
"...I don't get it."
"Let's hope you don't, because the What was a horrible epidemic that swept through the lands many years ago."
"So, what, like a plague?"
"Oh no! Not that kind of epidemic! The What was much more...unique. That's why it got so many people; it took a while for anyone to realize how out of the ordinary everything was and by then...it was too late to save anyone.
"It was kind of like...nanobots. Only not electronic; that kind of technology wasn't around back then of course. But What it was...it was almost as thin as a gas and all you had to do was walk through it, inhale its vapors, and...well, that's about it. Anyone you were near became infected, by breathing in traces of the What you exhaled, and they passed it on to the people they were near."
"How did the What get started?" Sonic asked, slowly becoming entranced by her story. Amy hid her pleasure well with a mask of mischief, almost pleasure as she began to spin her story's web out before them.
"It was a regular day. No dark stormy night or ominous clouds as a tell for anything strange. Maybe that's why little Sue-Ellen showed no reluctance when her mother sent her out to pick some apples. See, Sue-Ellen's town was surrounded on all sides by a dense forest, so they were all well-fed by its many fruits and herbs. It was nothing out of the ordinary for a parent to send their child in; no more different than a trip to the grocery store for us."
"Sue-Ellen was a dangerously curious girl, though. Every time she was sent to the woods, she found herself wandering farther and farther off the path or away from the town. This time, however, she got a little too far and wasn't able to find her way back. Lost in the woods, with night descending quickly, little Sue-Ellen decided to find a place to stay for the night, until light came back to the forest and she could find her way home.
"The girl was grateful to quickly find an unoccupied cave that could offer sufficient shelter from the cruel forest at night. However, her curiosity won out again and she found herself wandering deeper and deeper inside. About a hundred yards into it, lighting her way with one of the candles her mother had provided, she found the writing on the walls:
"'Beware the-'..." Amy broke off and Sonic leaned in with anticipation.
"Beware the what?"
"Exactly her words. What was she to beware of? Sue-Ellen brushed madly at the cave wall, trying to uncover the rest of a message that wasn't even there. After a few minutes of brushing and dusting at the ancient rocks, they began to crumble under her finger. She dug away into a hollowed out sort of room...where she found the skeletal form of the one who had written the message.
"Sue-Ellen rushed from the cave, screaming into the night, until she came smack into on of the men from her town. His face flooded with relief as he found her in a thin beam of light and he called out to a search party that had all been looking for her.
"They brought the hysterical girl back home, where her mother was able to piece together the story and coax her into calming down. After a while of consideration, they dubbed her story a tall tail the product of Sue-Ellen's hyperactive imagination. That night was all but forgotten...until they began to notice the changes."
"What kind of changes?" Sonic urged.
"At first it was just little things. Sue-Ellen beginning to grow more tired or despondent at times. Nothing that worried them. But as the child grew paler and seemed to be dwindling into nonexistence, the town became more and more concerned. Others began showing similar symptoms and, by the time they had called in doctors from the city, they were all but zombies.
"With no found cure and no way to examine the condition without catching it for themselves, the doctors were forced to isolate the town; no one allowed in, and no one allowed out. Without the townspeople's' acknowledgment, a dome was built around them and their woods, where they'd forever remain to live out their existence as half people of the What.
"Their brains became useless and their bodies half decomposed as they wandered aimlessly around the ghost town that was once so lively. Once their home. Now it sits unoccupied in ruins, never to be disturbed other than the wind, whispering by with its eternal question. 'The What?'..."
Boo!
Oooooo, who'd I scare?! Perfect bedtime story, eh guys? Again, sorry for the delay and my lack of replies, but I hope you enjoyed this chapter none the less. At least the word count was a tad higher, huh? I'll try to update sooner and thanks for all your support and reassurance that I am, in fact, doing something right with this story :) Thanks to all,
Goodnight! Zzz *u* zzZ