Black Rose

Song: Tourniquet-Evanescence Rating: 8

Chapter 25-Silence

"We've gotta get you out of here!" he said, taking the keys I had left on my motorcycle and stuffing them into my pocket. He took off at a break neck speed, cradling me in his arms to shield me from the rain. It didn't make a difference since I was already soaked.

We arrived at what looked like a hotel and Sonic approached the check-in counter, setting me briefly down on a brick mantle in front of a gas fire. It felt almost as nice as his warm arms. Before I could be beckoned back into the darkness, he was holding me again and brought me into a hotel room, setting me back down on a chair. He was gone for only a second before I felt a warm, fuzzy towel around me.

"You need to get warmed up and dried off. You could just take a hot shower while I try to find you some dry clothes." He offered. This sounded good because I felt it might wake me from this dazed, half-alive state.

I took the offer and stood under the warm beams of water for about five whole minutes without moving. Finally, I found myself fully conscious, only to have the cruel reality of the situation crashing in on me. I shut the shower off and wrapped myself in another big towel. I sat on the bathroom floor, unable to regain the full strength of my limbs, rocking back and forth as I tried to recall what all had just happened. I had been so dazed for the whole thing that I hadn't really been fully in control of my actions.

Sonic knocked on the door a minute later, but I found no voice to answer him with, so he pushed it slowly open. He walked in and sat next to me, wrapping his arms around my still cold body.

"I don't know what happened. I was just so sad and angry and confused. I didn't know what I was doing, but I would have done it. I really would have jumped. I just…don't know." I said quietly as he joined me in my rocking motion on the floor.

"It's okay Amy. It's gonna be okay now. I promise." He continued to whisper sweet, comforting words into my ear until tears took over and I at least felt real again. Until I could breath and know that this was all real. And I would be okay.

I couldn't wear my normal clothes, since they had gotten completely soaked, so Sonic let me where the shirt he had on before. Even he had to dress warmly in the bitter cold fall, though he said it was just so the others would get off his case about it. I slipped on his long-sleeved shirt and it came down to my thighs. I was still cold, no matter how hot the shower had been I'm sure I would have been anyway. We sat in a chair for a while as he tried to warm me, but I felt like it would never work. The rain had soaked me all the way through and now even my bones were cold. I felt like I'd be that way forever. So cold and I couldn't get warm.

I was tired and I felt weak. I couldn't move and I could barely speak, but I did all I could so that he wouldn't worry, if that was still and option. He had been doing a good job of not letting me go so far, except for the shower of course. He found the ripped open arm I had made for my goodbye note quickly. Even now, the blood hadn't stopped flowing. It had clotted in a few places, but he had to wrap a bandage very tightly around it just to stop the flow.

"I swear, Amy Rose. You gave me a heart attack and you'll be lucky if you get away with just pneumonia!" he scolded. "What happened to make you go that far?"

"Lindsey. He killed her, Sonic! All this time, it was staring me straight in the face, but I looked right past it!" my voice sounded quiet and broken. I could barely get the words out, but I did.

"Who did?" he asked.

"My Dad. He killed his own daughter! And I knew it all along! I was just too stupid to realize it!" My voice broke several times and almost gave out, but I kept going. "He wanted to. He killed her and he wants me dead too! He's never cared about any of us, but I stayed anyway! I didn't do anything about it!"

"You're not going back." He said plainly.

"But I have to! I can't just abandon them! Not now!" I cried.

"Yeah, but I can't just let you go back! What if he does kill you, Amy? Where does that leave me?" Sonic seemed ready to cry too.

"I…I don't want to…"my voice gave out. I was too tired; too weak.

He held me close to him. I could hear his heart beating in his chest. It was so soothing. So quiet.

"You should sleep." He said.

"Thank you." I whispered in a weak voice.

He took me to the bed and lay down, keeping me in his warm embrace. Sleep came and went unnoticeably. It was just one long, dreamless blink. I woke up with my head much clearer, but still feeling weak, though significantly less than last night. I still felt the permanent cold saturating my bones and hopped that it wouldn't last much longer. I looked up at Sonic and felt nothing but pleasure tied to the sight of his face.

I didn't want to wake him, though the clock beside the bed said that it was 11:38, but I couldn't resist the urge to place a single kiss on his too still mouth. To my surprise, his lips met my about half way in between, with just as much passion as ever. He sat up and wrapped his arms around me tightly. I wrapped my own arms around him as well and felt tears sting inside my closed eyes. I didn't know why, but I felt sad. Maybe because I had almost eternally deprived myself of this without even thinking about it. Maybe he realized the same thing, because he held nothing back.

I wrapped my legs around him, which only made him deepen the kiss. Our tongues began battling in one-another's mouths and we were pressed tightly together with just enough space to breath. I took each breath in carefully, for my lungs felt constricted and I didn't want to have to end such an amazing kiss for the mere sake of forgetting to breath.

Evanescence turned out to be the one ending it as my ringtone blared in the background and we both immediately parted.

"I should get that." I said hoarsely and he nodded.

I made a move to get up and answer it, but before I could, Sonic zipped across the room and came back with my phone before I could have even moved from the bed. The caller ID said it was Brian, whom I hadn't talked in several weeks. He had moved out with his girlfriend, Charlotte, and they were now engaged, so he didn't really talk to us much anymore.

I grit my teeth and pressed the accept button, holding it carefully up to my ear.

"Hello?" I answered in a weak voice.

"Amelia Tracy Rosalyn! What the hell do you think you're doing? Where are you?" He yelled into the phone so that I had to hold it away from my ear as to not loose my hearing.

"I'm gone Brian." I practically whispered, unable to make my voice carry.

"That tells me absolutely NOTHING! You better get over this and get your ass back home before tomorrow! I can stay here and help Carly and Carson for today, but I have to work Monday so you'd better get over yourself!"

"Brian, I can't-"

"You can't just run away whenever you feel like it! We've got a lot to discuss, so I suggest you get back here NOW! You have no idea what's happened just since last night!"

"But I'm not-"

"Amelia, you can't just abandon us!"

I looked up at Sonic, who looked annoyed. "May I?" he asked, holding out his hand for the phone. I handed it over, not sure if my voice worked at all anymore. "Amy was told not to come back, and as long as I'm involved, she won't. You can get over that, because what she needs is nothing that any of you have to offer." And he hung up. "Sorry, was that too much?" he asked apologetically.

"I guess not." I squeaked in my barely audible voice. I was somewhat lost in thought, but tried to remain focused until I had some time alone as to not ignore him.

He stretched his arms in a big circle, apparently ready to begin the day. "You want to come and see if they're still serving breakfast?" he asked.

I shook my head no, trying to avoid words as much as I could. "You go ahead; I'm not hungry."

"When was the last time you ate?" he asked. He knew me too well.

"Dinner."

"Last night?"

"The night before." I admitted. He sighed, obviously displeased. "I just don't feel like eating right now." I said honestly.

He pulled me into his lap so that I was still facing him and pressed his cheek against my forehead. After a moment, he pulled back a little and gently kissed it. "You're burning up, you know." He announced.

"But I'm freezing!" I squeaked in disbelief.

"I told you you'd catch pneumonia." He said, "I'll bring you a muffin or something."

I nodded and got out of his lap so he could get up and leave the room. Once he was gone, I sat cross-legged on the bed with my head in my hands and tried to make sense of everything. I couldn't really leave forever, could I? I had promised I would never leave them, but with Dad there and now that I knew the truth, I wasn't sure if I could ever go home again! And if I did, even if Sonic were able to stay with me 24/7, I could never feel calm or safe there again! I was caught up in this confusing life in a place I had tried so hard to stay away from. But now I was here and I didn't know where to go!

"You okay?" Sonic asked a few minutes later.

"I guess." I said, lifting my head from my hands to face him.

"What's wrong?" he asked, sitting down next to me on the bed and wrapping an arm around my shoulders.

"I was just-what now? I mean, what happens next?"

"Well, everything's iced over from that storm last night, so we just have to wait here till everything thaws out I guess. Either that, or Tails could come pick us up."

"No, but I can't just-"

"Amy, you don't really think you're ever going back there, do you?"

"Well Brian's right! I can't just abandon them!"

He sighed. "We'll work something out; don't worry. But I'm not going to let you go back again. Just look where it's gotten you now!" he said.

"So what do you expect me to do than?"

"Come back to the others with me. Tell them the truth and move on. Just come back and everything can go back to normal! Don't you remember the good old days when we could be together everyday and not have to worry about any of this?"

"I do. And I want to go back, but I promised them I wouldn't leave them again. I left them once, and I can't again. Mom left them for good and I can't do that too." I was honestly scarred of being anything like my mother. I tried to avoid every decision she had made.

My mom had met a great guy, in her eyes, when she was in high school. They always talked about getting married and how they would have a future together, but they were both unfaithful. They both got drunk a lot and ended up sleeping with other people, but they always forgave each other. There was one guy my mom spent a lot of night's with, which turned out to be my dad. They ended up falling in love. Mom got pregnant with Brian and they decided they had to get married, so that's how our "family" got started. 19 years later, Mom's old lover came back looking for her and she had decided she'd had enough of the hell we called our family. She ran with him and Dad got the divorce papers in the mail about a week later.

Sonic wrapped me in his arms for a moment, trying to think of his next words. He obviously didn't want me to ever go back, which I gladly respected, but I also wanted him to understand it form their point of view. If I left, I was no better than Mom. I had made promises I didn't want to break and I couldn't hurt them like I had once.

"But you promised me that you would come back for good some day." He finally said.

"I know."

I had two worlds I had lives in, separated by a thick border. One of them was the hell I lived in with my family, obligated to keep this world under control. The other was built on lies, but was still so much happier than I was here; always with my friends and happy and care-free all the time. I wanted to be in the second one, but the first world was where they needed my. Right now I was stuck in the middle on the border-line. I wanted to erase the line and bring the worlds together, but that seemed nearly impossible.

I had to jump over the line, and wherever I landed would be where I'd have to stay. If I went where I wanted to be, the first world and all the people in it may very well crumble and fall apart. If I went where I was supposed to be in the first world, I might get cut off and trapped away from the first world forever! I was stuck in the middle and unable to move, even though the two worlds got farther away every moment I waited.

A/N: Probably only update today; I have orchestra rehearsal really soon, but I had to update at least one chapter today! Anyway, here it is and sorry for mistakes; no time to check. It's kinda long at least So I hope you guys forgive me, thanks for all your amazing support via reviews and I'll try to update more tomorrow.