Author's note: There's one more fairly gruesome scene here. Just wanted to let you know.

Chapter 4: Sonic's Nightmare

Tails woke up early in the morning, about 5 AM. For some reason he couldn't go back to sleep, he had a very worried feeling that something bad just happened. After nearly half an hour of trying to go to sleep, he gave up and decided to have an early breakfast. He jumped in the bathroom and took a quick shower to wake himself up completely.

"Why do I have such a worried feeling? I feel like something bad happened to someone close to me. But I've never heard any bad news about anybody, I guess I'm just uptight. This shower should help me relax then."

After his shower, he was now wide-awake. He took out a bottle of orange juice and poured himself a cup, and then he made some toast with jelly. He didn't want a heavy breakfast since it's still too early. While still chewing his food, he turned on the television to occupy himself for a few minutes.

"I hope that there's no news on this early. I'd rather watch soap operas than that." Unfortunately, the first thing he saw on TV was the morning news.

"Hey, what's going on? The morning news doesn't start until 7 AM." Tails groaned with disgust and changed the channel. However, to his surprise, there was more news! He changed the channel again and saw more news! He repeatedly changed the channels and found them all to have the local news on! (Too bad he doesn't have cable!) Finally completely frustrated, he threw down the remote onto the couch.

"That does it! I'm going for a walk, I'd better be careful though, it's still dark outside."

He was dressing up since it was chilly this early and accidentally overheard the news anchor. "Station Square is normally a very peaceful and uneventful place," said the news anchor, "but all that changed last night." Tails wasn't really paying attention. He's almost done dressing up and ready to leave.

The news anchor continued, "about 11:30 PM last night, a car pile-up occurred. To show you the details, I will rebroadcast the tape that recorded the incident." The news showed the footage from the accident scene.

A news lady appeared in the footage. "Hello, this is Donna Yoshiana and I'm at the scene of a rather gruesome looking accident."

Tails finished getting dressed and was about to turn off the TV, if it weren't for what he just saw.

The news lady continued. "This car pile-up involved eight vehicles, including two 18-wheeler trucks. We also found out that there are fourteen people involved, but there are only two casualties. One is a blue hedgehog, and the other is a pink one, well actually it looks more red because of the blood. Right now they're being sent to Station Square Emergency Medical Center."

Tails saw the whole thing clearly and he dropped the TV remote onto the floor in shock. He saw Sonic laid out on a stretcher and being loaded into an ambulance. Tails then saw another stretcher with a large lump of bloody meat on it.

"Hey, that lump of meat looks familiar." He looked very carefully at the TV screen. " A-Amy? Could that possibly be her?" Tails started to feel sick, "oh no, please tell me I'm still dreaming!" He pinched himself very hard, "ow! I guess not. Oh boy, in that case I'd better tell everyone!" He frantically ran to the phone, but before he dialed a single number, he heard a knock on the door.

"Who is it," Tails asked.

"It's me," said a familiar voice, "hurry and open up, I've got something urgent to tell you!"

"That sounds like Knuckles," Tails thought. He then quickly unlocked the door and swung it open, it was indeed Knuckles, with a very tense look on his face.

"Did you hear what just happened?" They both said at the same time.

"We've got to find them!" Knuckles was very anxious and almost seemed afraid! No, that can't be possible.

Tails agreed, "I know where that hospital is." He hesitated for a moment, "um, Knuckles. I think that we should tell Rouge about this."

Knuckles gave a puzzled look, "what for? You know she's a thief and a troublemaker."

Tails knew that he'd say that, "I know but we're going to a hospital and I think they need as many visitors as possible. I mean, what is she gonna steal? Maybe the food from the cafeteria?"

Knuckles smiled slightly, "well, knowing her, I wouldn't be surprised if she did. All right, I'll at least talk to her. Just tell me where the hospital is so that I can stop by." Tails wrote down the address for the hospital, and Knuckles took off to find Rouge while Tails set off to find his injured friends.

When Tails finally arrived at the hospital, he wasn't allowed to see Sonic or Amy. They were still in intensive care, however Sonic's injuries are very minor, so the doctors said that Sonic will be out by the end of the day. But Amy was in very critical condition, so Tails will have to wait quite a while before he could see her. The news hit him much harder that he thought.

Warning: This part is somewhat graphic. I decided to add it at the last minute.

Sonic knew that he would have a nightmare from the things he saw that happened to Amy. In his nightmare, a bunch of small monsters had tied both him and Amy down on a stone slab. They tried to scream for help, but they noticed that they were gagged over their mouth. Then two monsters appeared with something in their ugly hands. One was carrying a large hammer, and the other was holding a long metal stake or spike! A bunch of monsters held Amy's head in place while the long stake was held to the side of her head.

"NO!" Sonic almost thought out loud, "they couldn't possibly be doing what I think they're doing!" He couldn't be more correct.

Amy struggled as best as she could, but the binds held fast and the monsters assisted in holding her still. Finally with the metal stake in position, the monster with hammer swung as hard as it could and hit the stake dead on. Sonic winced at the sound of metal clanging and bone splitting open. He could see the look of pure torture in her wide-open eyes. Even with the gag over Amy's mouth, her screams of agony were still very loud and clear.

The stake went in about halfway, so the monster with the hammer swung again. More sounds of bone splitting were heard and Sonic tried his best to struggle out of his binds, but it seemed that his arms and legs were paralyzed. He couldn't do anything except watch or turn away his head. Either way he could still hear her crying and screaming in torturous agony.

Finally, the hammer was swung a third time. This time the stake completely impaled her head and was sticking out the top, just like that metal shard in Amy's head at the accident scene. Quickly, the monsters removed Amy's gag from her mouth. Immediately she gave a blood-curdling scream of terror and agony that was so loud it finally woke up Sonic from his nightmare. But her screams were still echoing through his head.

His face was soaked with sweat and his heart was racing like he just broke the sound barrier (which he's more than capable of). He looked around and noticed that he's laying in a hospital bed. He could smell the anesthesia in the air and knew that his nightmare had ended, or has it? He checked himself and found that he had some bandages covering the top of his head, a small cast over his arm, and some wrappings around his ankle. A few seconds later, he heard a knock on the door and he nearly jumped out of the bed with a heart attack. A doctor walked in to talk with him.

"Hello there little guy," the doctor said as cheerfully as possible, "I've got some good news. You have some visitors!" The doctor stepped aside and Tails appeared.

"T-Tails? TAILS!? Is that you?" Sonic was almost hysterical, but also very happy to see him.

"Well, unless there's another two and a half-foot fox with two tails somewhere around, then I guess I'm the one."

"Come here," Sonic said very cheerfully, "I've missed you big time."

"And everyone's worried about you and Amy big time." Tails was just as cheerful.

Sonic then remembered about Amy, especially his nightmare. But he was going to hide his nightmare for now. "Hey Doc! Where's Amy, the pink hedgehog from the accident scene? She's supposed to be with me."

The doctor simply scratched his head nervously, "um, I'm not exactly the one you should speak to about that. I'll go get the one in charge." He quickly stumbled out of the room, nearly running into a nurse.

Sonic just blinked a couple times, "you know, I think he's hiding something."

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Wow, I wonder what's in store for them now. The fic is going to shift from gruesome to somewhat depressing. I just decided to give you a little semi-preview.