AN: Thank you for the support you all gave me for this story so far. Just because I'm saying this DOES NOT mean this story is done now (but it's getting there, I will tell you that), but I just wanted to say I really appreciate you guys liking this story and reviewing it, etc. Just wanted to let that out.

However, this chapter has warnings, just to get it out of the way.

1. It's very long. About 14 pages.

2. There's a disturbing scene later on that I had great difficulty writing, and I honestly didn't add a lot of description to it because it really did disturb me and I didn't want readers to get so disgusted that they didn't want to read this story any more. Just letting you know that as well.

Thank you.

It was morning again. The sun arrived like an evening rose, as the star-like dews faded away in the light. She could hear the songs of the birds as she rose, the light beckoning for her eyes to open.

It was a school day, she realized. She thought she didn't get enough sleep from the late night excursion with Sonic yesterday. But she paid it no mind and knew there was no excuse for her to show up late. She picked out her dress, a black velvety blouse that Roger and Lorena bought for her not too long ago. It reminded her of Olesya, that same dress she wore when she first met her was similar. And she was going to go back to that same school, without her there. Her heart was a little cracked since that day, but she thought Sonic made sure her heart wasn't broken at the thought of her moving away from her state.

She went downstairs, to the smell of crisp bacon frying away in the kitchen. Roger and Lorena were making breakfast again, but from the look of their faces when she entered the kitchen, something was wrong. Lorena's head was tucked next to a phone, her voice serious and with a tinge of sorrow, while Roger glanced at her with a morose expression, putting down his newspaper and never minding that his morning coffee was becoming cold. He didn't even mind that his article was featured in the paper today. He had something very grave to tell to Schiza.

"Schiza, I don't think you need to go to school today," he said, his voice similar to Lorena's: serious, hint of sadness.

And she knew when he announced this to her, something terrible must've really happened. "Why not? Did…did something happen at the school? Why do you look so sad?"

His expression did not change, except his eyes did not leave hers. "Schiza, something…happened last night, back at your old foster home. I hope you still remember Renee, your foster parent who allowed us to adopt you?"

She paused. "Yes, I do remember her. What happened? Did something happen to her?"

His eyes turned away, Schiza believing she could see a few tears dwelling up. "Well…Renee is on the phone right now, and she said she would like to talk to you. It's about one of your friends at the foster home. Something…happened to him."

Who? She thought. Maxwell? John? …Klay? They had to be specific! Who could they be talking about?

Lorena slowly lifted the phone between her head and shoulder and gave it to Schiza, who held it with both of her hands, listening intently to Renee's voice as she piped up, "Schiza?"

"Yes, Renee?"

She noticed there was something wrong with Renee's voice. She sounded almost dead. Zombielike. She sounded no different from someone who just crawled out of their grave with half of their brain rotted away.

"It's about…Klay. You remember Klay, right? He helped you when you were in the foster home."

"Yes, I do remember him. Did something happen to him?" She knew, however, from the sound of her voice, whatever happened to him was not good at all.

"Yes, Schiza…something happened to him." A pause. "After you left and it was his eighteenth birthday, I decided that I would gain custody of him. He became my son. But…something really did happen to him. Something very terrible. Schiza, my son, Klay, he…died last night. He was going to a club in downtown Winona and a drunk driver suddenly rammed him. He died as soon as he got to the hospital. He's…dead, Schiza."

She couldn't believe it. She didn't want to believe it. Renee was playing a joke on her. Klay was still alive in the foster home. He was still there. He didn't disappear like so many people have done in her life. He was still there, ready to see her when they became adults and they would laugh about their memories in the foster home and Klay would have a family and maybe even a wife and kids. He wasn't gone.

"Renee…" She couldn't stop herself from sniffling. "You wouldn't lie to me, would you?"

"No Schiza…" Her voice sounded very deadpan, with no sense of emotion. "I'm not lying to you. I thought the doctor who called me last night was joking too. But he was a real doctor, and Klay really was there, dead. I was just as devastated as you were when you just heard me talking about how Klay was dead.

"I'm sorry to bring this news to you, Schiza. But you and Klay really had a special bond together, and I thought it would be right for me to tell you what just happened to him…"

"No!" she shouted in the phone. "No, it wasn't right for me to know! Klay isn't dead! You know he isn't! You're just playing a joke on me, Renee! I don't want you to joke about things like that! Please tell me he's okay!"

There was yet another pause on the other end, and Renee was still calm and dead when she said to her, "No Schiza, I would be lying to you if I said he was okay. He's not. He's dead. I can't really accept it either, Schiza. But eventually, we will. People do die, and it's a fact of life we can't and shouldn't change. And people can't shelter you from that fact. Everyone eventually dies, and it's something we at first can't accept, but we eventually do. I love Klay Schiza, but I wouldn't joke with you about his well-being. I'm sorry to tell you that he's dead, but he is. He's dead."

Schiza wanted to throw the phone across the room. She knew she was telling her a disgusting lie that she kept thinking was funny, reveling in her suffering and crying. But it wasn't true. Klay couldn't be dead. He was still there. He was probably hiding somewhere. He probably convinced Renee to tell her this cruel joke.

"I'm sorry, Renee…" she spoke at last. "But I have to go."

She ended the call and nearly slammed the phone on the table. She didn't even care on how hungry she was and how Lorena probably slaved over the stove to make really good bacon the way she liked them. She was now no longer in the mood to eat. She only wanted to talk to Sonic about how cruel Renee was to her. She ran up the stairs and into the attic, seeing Sonic's glowing green eyes greet her as she dashed deep into his feathery body and felt herself being covered by warmth as he hugged her.

"Schiza, I can tell you're really upset. What's wrong? Please tell me."

"Sonic…" She tried very hard to hold her tears. He couldn't see her cry. Not now. Not ever. "Renee…she told me…she told me…"

"What did she tell you, Schiza? What did Renee tell you?"

He hugged her deeper into his body. He thought she was going to cry. It was the last thing he ever wanted to see. To see her crying and broken when she was being abused. His heart would bleed if she cried.

Please don't cry, Schiza…whatever you do, please…

"She told me…that Klay is dead!" Her voice was beginning to wail. He could feel her gripping onto him tightly. Please, please, please…

"Schiza, don't cry. Please. It absolutely hurts me to see you cry."

"But…Sonic…" She tried very hard. But she felt that all of the tears she kept inside when she really didn't want Sonic to see her cry was being let loose. "Klay is dead. My friend, Klay…he's dead, and Olesya is gone, and I can't play with you anymore…"

She knew she couldn't hold them anymore. The tears began to fall. They were streaming down her face, and Sonic thought he could see all of them dripping down and onto the floor, scrutinizing every tear with such detail, with a solemn look on his face. Schiza thought he looked as if he disapproved of her crying.

"I'm sorry, Sonic!" she sobbed. "I'm sorry I'm crying! But I'm very sad right now! Klay died, you turned into a monster, Olesya is gone…I can't take it! I'm so sorry!"

He said nothing as she dove into his wings and began to cry on his feathers. Sonic saw each tear slide between them, like leaves in a rain storm, dripping of this sorrow. And he hated it. He wanted it to stop.

He felt his mind slowly fading as he kept seeing these tears. He could feel his mind buzzing in, like a radio with a lot of static, and he couldn't find a station that had a clear enough sound. He thought his eyes were burning too, with something that nearly felt like the infernos straight from Hell, but he couldn't scream no matter how much he wanted to. Everyone would find out, even if he was suffering. He felt his feathers slowly drifting away, as if he was melting and becoming nothing but a dark lumpy puddle.

Schiza glanced at him with full tears in her eyes. She wanted to know if Sonic would comfort her, try to make her happy like he always would do, but his face was still, the morning light reflecting off his phosphorescent amber eyes, his beak not even attempting to make an expression. She noticed that he was changing, and something was wrong.

"Sonic…your eyes…" She was hushed by a sudden movement of his wings, as he began to speak in an apathetic tone.

"Schiza…you do know why I want to protect you, right?"

The tears drifted from her eyes to her cheeks as she continued to look up to him. His wings covered her face, wiping away her tears.

"I love you, Schiza. You've always been my little girl ever since we met. A pretty girl like you shouldn't cry. You should be happy, and I don't want my lovely girl to cry. It hurts me to see you upset."

She felt something that she knew didn't feel like Sonic's beak and feathers. Something wet, and grimy. She wanted to tell him that something was wrong, this didn't seem right at all, but he continued to latch onto her tightly, deep into his body, and no matter how much she wanted to escape, thrashing and trying to push him away from her, his wings kept pushing her deep into his body, her face becoming dirty with this black muck that was dripping from Sonic's feathers.

He really was melting.

"Don't cry Schiza," he seemed to croon in a dark voice. "Everything is going to be okay. I don't want you so sad and upset. Let me sing you a song to cheer you up."

He hummed to a song she didn't recognize, and if he wasn't becoming a thick mat of sludge, it would've calmed her. It sounded as smooth as silk, but she thought he was going to suddenly croak like in her dreams. His droning voice was starting to crackle in a few places, sounding like low deep caws.

Black liquid was dripping from his face, long strands of it stretching and releasing a puddle on the floor. His eyes were changing from amber to a deep ginger orange, then to the red that reminded her of burning hot coals and flames that licked homes and burnt everything down to mere cinders.

She felt a strong thud resonating deep into his grasp, repeating and droning on endlessly. Her eyes shifted to something a deep shade of violet, a vivid almost black purple heart beating she could see through the sludge, pumping black blood into his body that she thought was causing him to think this way.

Her crying made him insane. This was why he never wanted her to cry. Whenever she felt deep sorrow, felt like she no longer wanted to live, it caused him great, unbearable pain that his mind couldn't register. Her sorrow was hurting him. She thought that he pitied her so much that it nearly killed him to try to make her happy, and here she was, crying, which she now knew was the same as driving a knife through him, and twisting it, making his heart wretch and bleed until he couldn't bleed anymore.

There was something wrong with his heart now, she thought. This is why Sonic wasn't letting go of her. He wanted her to go inside this dissolving body and try to fix what was wrong with him, like a mechanic fixing a broken machine. His engine was becoming dead, the electricity running through his body was becoming too much, and his programming was making him overheat and malfunction, and she had to go inside and fix him. Screw in the loose bolts, put the wires in the right place.

She couldn't see herself as a victim anymore. She had to do something, she realized. If she continued to cry about her sorrows Sonic was only going to die and she wasn't sure how she was going to explain these puddles that would eventually drip into the house. And she didn't want Sonic to die as well. She thought Klay was enough.

She pushed her hands through his body, feeling the disgusting sludge slip through her fingers and soon overtaking her arms, but she couldn't fuss on how her dress was becoming ruined. She pushed into the muck, her head going in and eventually her entire body was absorbed by him, as her eyes were met with pitch black darkness.

It was so dark that she couldn't see her arms, or anything else at all. She was afraid to venture on, as she felt herself going inside the vast unknown, but soon she was bathed in white light and she could see. She could see the yellow sun that had red streaks swirling inside it, like big gashes caused by a sharp knife, and a long stairway that spiraled into the sky, and she saw Sonic, with his blue fur and quills and green eyes and his smirk that she dearly missed. Sonic was still there. He was just malfunctioning.

"Hello there, Schiza. You remember me? Before I turned into that monster? Remember when I was a cuddly furball that loved to hug you back?" Even in this dire situation, he was being affectionate and joking with her.

"Sonic, what's going on with you? How did you turn into a monster? What…are you?"

He seemed to think for a while, as if he was deep in thought, scratching his head.

"I don't really know, Schiza. Even if you're deep inside my mind, I truly don't know what I am. But I must be something mystical, right? Because I can turn into a toy and a monster and all, right?"

"Sonic…" She looked deep into him, as if she could see what he truly was in his pupils. "I don't think you're a ghost. Or imaginary. I don't even think you're an angel anymore."

"Then what am I?"

"I really think you're actually a god, Sonic," she said.

"A god, huh? Well, if something like this is happening right now, then I think that's a pretty reasonable guess." He shrugged, never minding the question. "Schiza, I'm sorry I'm turning into a crazy puddle. I promised myself that I would never let you cry again, and to see you cry from a broken heart broke my heart too." He paused momentarily, his hand sliding her hair back. "But Schiza, through everything we've been through, I can tell you're a very bright, kind, strong little girl, and you survived so much and became stronger despite how horrible those things you've experienced. But there was something your father did that I want you to forget for the rest of your life. I never want you to go through your entire life being haunted for what he did to you. When you met me, I made you forget about those memories, and I hid them deep into my mind so I can experience the same pain you go through. But…" he stopped, his face becoming solemn.

"…But now I want you to come with me up these stairs, to the sun, and there we will take those two memories, as thin and as sharp as needles, away from the sun, and we're going to drop them into the moon at the bottom of the staircase, where they'll be forgotten entirely, forever. But these are very painful memories, but I swear, if we both deal with them and throw them into that moon, our hearts will become stronger. We'll realize that all those scary things in life aren't so scary anymore, because we know we can survive and get through this. But I can't carry you up these stairs. You have to follow me, and you have to keep going no matter how tired you get or you feel like giving up because we have so many stairs to go up. We will age, we will grow older, but we have to keep going, and we have to get stronger, no matter how sore our feet and body gets and how weak we feel. We have to keep going, and this isn't going to be easy at all. But we can do this, Schiza. You believe in me, and I believe in you too. You believe that I'm a god, capable of anything, and I believe you're a smart girl who can do anything she sets her mind on. We can do this."

She thought even a challenge such as this still wasn't going to wipe that smirk off his face. He grasped her hand, and they walked to the large spiraling staircase, which Schiza thought it looked like it was made from translucent crystals, almost seeming invisible if she didn't see a spectrum of colors reflecting off the light from the sun.

And as soon as they arrived, he let go of her hand, and they both began to walk the stairs together; Sonic in the lead and Schiza following him.

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She felt her knees burning up like fire as she climbed each step. Sonic told her that as soon as she got to a certain level in the staircase, she was becoming 9 years old. She thought she was a little taller, but there wasn't much of a change. Sonic looked no different, and showed no signs of slowing down as he continued to climb up.

She felt like crying on how much her feet hurt and she wanted to stop. They were only on the first level, but she felt her body burning up and she wanted to stop and take a break. But Sonic told her that she had to keep on going. No matter how much her feet hurt, even if they were getting bloody, she had to go on. Even if she tripped down a few steps and she was in pain, she had to go on.

She didn't want to do this anymore. Her feet was stinging badly. But she kept reminding herself that if she didn't get to the top, Sonic was going to die. So she continued on. Even if her feet was bleeding, even if she tripped and her body stung with pain, she had to go on.

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They were getting higher. Schiza was now 11 years old. Her hair grew longer and she was getting even taller. If her feet didn't hurt so bad, she would start running up these stairs and catching up with Sonic, who she noticed was still not changing. And he kept going up, although she could see some weariness in Sonic's eyes.

She felt a little confident in her steps taking until she felt herself slip, falling down a step or two, her body feeling bruised from her fall. And she hurt even more, her arms ringing with sharp pain and her feet feeling very tired and somewhat out of breath. But even if she fell, Sonic didn't come back for her. He walked.

"Sonic, you didn't come back for me! I thought we were doing this together!" she yelled, rubbing her shoulders trying to soothe herself.

"We have to keep walking, Schiza. I can't go back for you. We have to make it through this ourselves."

And no matter how much she was bruised and bloodied from her falls and steps, she continued to climb.

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She was 16 now. She was a lot taller, she noticed she grew breasts, and her hair covered half of her back. She felt no need for her shiny red ribbon, and she untied it and her hairflowed down, blowing in the wind as she walked. Her feet felt as if she was walking on sharp, hot glass, but no matter what, she continued to walk, and even if Sonic's quills were becoming feathers, they walked, even if she felt the sun's rays beat on her back and making her sweat and pant. She continued to walk.

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She was 21 now. Even if she thought she grew up to be a beautiful looking woman, Sonic paid no attention to her, his arms becoming wings and his feet becoming talons. His mouth was also getting hard and sharp, much like a raven's beak.

And she thought as they were climbing these stairs, she should have some conversation.

"Sonic, why is a raven like a writing desk?"

She noticed her voice was no longer quiet and shy. It sounded like velvet, and she was very surprised.

"I really don't know, Schiza. Why did your parents call you Schiza? That's something I don't even know."

She didn't know either, and she continued to walk, even if she thought her feet were turning into stubs.

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They were nearly there. She could feel the sun getting hotter, her feet stinging even more, and she felt herself becoming slower, but she was determined to get there, even if it took her entire life. And it seemed to. She was 50, her brown hair becoming silver and wrinkles beginning to develop in her face. Sonic was completely a raven now, hopping on each step. But he was struggling, as his feet were nearly too big for the steps, and his pace was becoming slower, and he was nearly out of breath with all this hopping. She wanted so much to help him, even if she was becoming an old lady. But Sonic kept telling her she couldn't, and no matter what, she couldn't come back and help him. He had to do it on his own.

She was getting ahead of Sonic now, and even if her heart told her to help him, she continued to walk.

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She was very old now, and she was nearly there. She could tell she was about 80, with wrinkles covering her face like cracks in the earth and her hair turning white, her teeth drifting away and her feet hurting so much, struggling to get up each step as if she was carrying a ball and chain around her legs, but she was almost there. She could see the needles in the sun. They were white and were probably causing the sun to have those wound marks on them. She could also see the moon below them, looking about as white as her hair and the craters reminding her of the many moles on her face.

Sonic was becoming very weak. He seemed very ancient, and struggling to lift his body on each step. His wings felt like lead, and after every step, he stopped for a few moments to catch his breath.

If she was right about Sonic becoming a god, a god that people barely worshipped nowadays, as the years pass by, gods like Sonic become weaker, as less and less people believed in his power and the influence he made on the people who did worship him. And as decades pass, and as a millennia passes by, these gods are soon completely forgotten, and they no longer have any power, as they no longer existed in the minds of men.

And there was a point where he completely stopped, thinking his body was going to collapse on itself. He felt his heart becoming weaker, and his breath getting shorter. He couldn't walk anymore. He was going to die if he went on.

"Sonic!" she yelled in a voice that reminded her of her grandma scolding her whenever she touched anything in her house. "What are you doing? You told me that no matter what, you would keep going. What's the matter with you? I thought you were stronger than that!"

"I…" he huffed. "I…can't…go on…I really think I'm going…to die if I…cross one more step…" He wanted to lie down and let himself die right there, but he didn't want to fall down all these flights of stairs.

"Sonic, just because you're an old coot now doesn't mean you should give up doing this! Come on, we're nearly there!"

"I don't know, Schiza." He was beginning to catch his breath. "I noticed that maybe you were…right about me being a god. As these years pass, less people believe in me, and I become weak and…powerless. I've grown so old that I cannot move even further. Go on without me, Schiza…you're much stronger than I am."

She put her hands on her hips in disapproval. "And a god is saying this! I'm just a mere mortal Sonic, and you're saying I'm stronger than you? That's no way to talk! Besides, I believe in you! I always believed in you, back when we first met! Now you move your little feet and keep on moving, we're almost there!"

As she took more steps upward, she could see Sonic was catching up. He was using all of his strength to jump up, and they continued to walk.

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Schiza made it, and she felt that her bones were now so weary they were almost like dust. She could tell she was about 100, and the wrinkles were deep, her hair was like a cotton ball, and even if she felt herself very out of breath as she took her last step, she knew she made it. She was face to face with the sun now, and she now had to wait for Sonic.

He was very big, but he felt exhausted as he lurched up the steps, but he kept going. Schiza didn't care that she was going for so long for him to come up here, but she hoped by the time he was here, she wasn't going to be dead.

"Come on, Sonic! You're almost there! Keep pushing yourself! Just a few more steps to go!"

And he did made it, as his huge talons leaped on the top of the stairs, and he thought he was going to pass out, but he didn't.

Now they saw the needles, the two thin spikes of light protruding from the sun. It was the final endurance test for her to go through before Sonic was fixed, she thought. But she felt if she could pass through 100 flights of stairs, she could do nearly anything.

"The needles, Schiza." His voice sounded very deep and old, but yet seemed wise, as if she was hearing an old sage speak with all of his wisdom. "We need to pull the needles, face these memories, drop the God forbidden things into the moon, and we have to drop down into it. We're going to forget all about this, but we will become strong, and we will know that no matter what issue we face, we can endure and outlast, no matter how old we get and no matter how much time and luck is against us. Now…we will pull these needles one by one, and drop them both into the moon. And no matter how…painful these memories are, we cannot cry and break down. We will not let your father win."

The sun was glaring against their eyes, but they could still plainly see these needles pricking the sun, making it bleed down into the moon. And she no longer wanted to see Sonic's consciousness bleed with these memories. She was determined to take them away and let him heal and soothe him, much like he did to her in the past.

Her fingers were careful to not let the needle prick them, and as she slowly took it out, she saw a brief flash of light, then an image of her father holding a black snake.

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"You've been a very terrible girl, Schiza," he said, his voice loud and carrying a lot of deep-seated anger. "You told your mommy that I touched you, when you know that's not true. It's wrong to make up lies and stories about people, you know that Schiza? Why would my own daughter come up with all these lies about me? Plain spanking you isn't going to do you any good, dear. I want to teach you that it's very wrong to make up lies about me."

Schiza, who looked to be about five, was glancing at him and this snake that he carried on his hands with great fear. She heard that some snakes were poisonous, and when they bit you, you might as well pray to God, because she knew if this snake did just that, she was going to die in front of her father.

Her father was insane, she realized. He thought that letting this black snake slither all over his own child's body, frozen in fear to not irritate the snake to inject her with its venom, was a good punishment to teach your child about lying. She realized that she could die right now, and her father would only lie about what happened to her. And she would be simply forgotten, probably even by her mother.

She wanted to cry, but she could not move. She was still as this snake glided over her body, examining his surroundings with its tongue, flickering in and out, seemingly oblivious to her fear.

She hated snakes. She really did thought they were just the devil incarnated into a limbless monster. She heard it was a snake who told Eve to bite into the forbidden fruit, and maybe she was so scared by this hideous thing that she went ahead and ate the apple. She knew very well that you can control people with fear. Her parents have been doing this for a long time.

This time, God seemed to be on her side. She felt the snake's body move away from her, down onto the floor and trying to escape into the vents below them. But this angered her father even more. He wanted to scare her, even have her die because she "lied" about him.

He tried to grab the snake again, but it thought it would have no part in this. It lunged and its fangs sank deeply into his skin, and they were sharp fangs, she saw. His arm dripped with deep red blood, and she could see even more rage transfixed in his face, but he knew he couldn't punish Schiza with this act of God, no matter how much she thought she somehow did this to him. He shouted to his wife to call 911, because he thought the snake he found in the house might be poisonous, and with a sharp whisper, he told Schiza to never tell anyone of this incident, or she really was going to be killed.

And she prayed so much that night that her so-called daddy was going to die, but they said the snake wasn't poisonous.

So much for calling this an act of God, she thought.

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She felt weak as she carried this sharp thread, feeling small jabs as she continued to hold onto it with all her strength, as she pulled out the next needle effortlessly.

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She was six years old, and her father was holding onto another snake, she thought. One that was flesh-colored and hairy. "Suck it," he said.

It looked so revolting to her, and she didn't want to play her father's games anymore.

"No."

"You're going to suck it no matter how much you don't want to. You might as well get down on your knees and do it. Or I will force you to."

She wanted to run away, open the door, and tell her mother that her father was making her suck his peepee, but she knew her father was going to get away with this like he always did. Her mother was insane too. But yet she said, "No."

And without a word, he firmly pushed her head below him, and she tried to keep her mouth closed, whatever she could do to not let him win, but as soon as she thought she was going to puke, he shoved it inside her mouth, and tears were beginning to blur in her eyes as she tasted it, a very putrid salty taste that made her feel even more ill, her stomach retching at the very feel of it.

And when he was satisfied and zipped his pants and left the door, telling her to never let her mother know, she puked, and thought she would never stop puking.

And she sobbed, feeling very disgusted with herself. She wished she could've done something. She wished she would've just punched him there and scream and cry on what he was trying to make her do. And her mother would see it, and her father would be gone.

But no, she had a disgusting taste she thought she could never wash away, and she puked the only lunch she had in two days, and her father once again got away with violating her. And she wished at that moment for God to let her die, because this was too much for her to bear, and she wished she was somewhere far away from her parents. She thought even being dead was better than this.

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Her wrinkled hands were bleeding. The needle pricked her deeply, but even when the blood was running down her arms, she realized that she was no longer there with her father and mother. They were gone. Her father was in jail for a long time, and her mother is repenting and trying to get help for what she did. But she knew she could easily live without knowing these awful things her father did to her. And it probably caused Sonic great suffering as well, knowing that his little princess was treated no more than a dog.

Her hands were shaking rapidly with these two threads in her hands, both from old age and shock. And even if opening her hands hurt her from her opening her bloody wounds, the needles fell and plunged into the moon, seeing them being absorbed like a pebble in water, and they were dissolved into the night sky.

And she no longer knew of that pain, and she never minded the gashes on her hands. She knew she could deal with this. The memories were gone now. Both her and Sonic could never be bothered with them again. And the pain seemed to fade, and it was like both her and Sonic could now deal with their old age, no matter how arthritic their bodies were and how close they were to their deathbed. Anything was better than reliving those demons that were sent back to the deep unconscious, back to the fiery hells that both of their minds only knew.

She held onto Sonic's body with her bony fingers, even if he was almost as large as the sun they were facing, and she said to him, "Sonic, let's go back to being young and you being a hedgehog and me being an 8 year old girl with a loving family and you watching over me. I think I had enough adventure for my tired old bones to deal with."

"I agree. I want to go back home."

She closed her eyes, and so did Sonic, as she tipped over the edge of the stairs with her back, and then they fell down into the night, Schiza's wrinkles fading, her hair becoming silver and long, then hazelnut, then deep brown, and she grew bigger then shorter till she was small and eight years old again, and as Sonic's feathers blew away and his beak became smaller and softer and he no longer had talons but now was wearing red and white striped sneakers again and was now blue and had quills, as they fell into the moon, swallowed by the night and darkness.

She was back in her attic. And she didn't know why she suddenly blacked out. She remembered something about Sonic having a violet heart and he was about to die, but now she saw him laying on the floor, all his feathers gone and no longer large and beast-like. He was a hedgehog again, and his eyes were shut, as if he was in a deep sleep.

She held Sonic's head as she approached him, seeing that he was breathing and blood was still pulsing through his body. He was alive, but probably tired.

And she didn't know how she was able to, maybe from divine intervention from somewhere she thought, but she carried Sonic's body, nearly cradling him in her arms, as she carefully took him out of the cold attic and into her warm bedroom, gently laying him in her bed, putting the covers over him, tucking him in, and kissing him on the nose.

"Goodnight Sonic. I love you. Sweet dreams."

And he slept soundly that morning.