Chuck was shaken by the endeavour, he couldn't bring himself to glance at the corpse any longer. It felt wrong to leave the ruinous sight of his friend behind though.
A beep on his watch informed that it was 3:30 am as he considered his next course of action. He couldn't forget it was still quite early in the morning , everyone was undoubtedly asleep, snoring away carelessly in the land of dreams.
Chuck wouldn't be sleeping for some time. How was he going to break it down everyone? Majority of them being impressionable children, was it worth taking their smiles away?
The elevator dinged as he reached first floor of the mansion, eerily silent as darkness lingered. He was debating on whether or not to share the unpleasant news.
Then again, sooner or later someone would stumble upon the body or ask about the fox's whereabouts. He couldn't risk anyone being even more traumatised and he definitely wouldn't want someone like Cream to seek it out.
It had to be done unfortunately and Chuck wishes there was a better way to address the subject. He mentally prepared himself for the bonfire of questions, tears and fear. Time to wake up the gang, he thought of his approach walking up the staircase, he reached a stretched out corridor of doors.
He made sure to be as discreet as possible, keeping in mind eventually that he'd have to wake each member of the household. Chuck passed Cream's door, obvious to the crayon scribbles of flowers and a paper consisting of all the little rabbit's friends with happy faces. Chuck was gonna be sorry for haunting this child today and days to come. Hopefully the girl's mother would be enough to soothe her.
The floorboards creaked as he entered, he automatically turned on the light switch attached to the wall. Cream was a light-sleeper, not a surprise, who couldn't detect noise with those ginormous ears of hers?
She was up certainly, ruffling into a sitting position, meeting eyes with Chuck. "Grandpa, is it time to wake up already?"
The way she innocently called him Grandpa triggered memories of another young child. He stopped the waterworks, needing to act his part as adult.
"No, not really. But I have something important to discuss so could you help me out with waking everyone?"
"Okay!! Let's go, Cheese!" Cream hopped out of bed, planting her feet flat on the floor, her little chao accompanied her as she ran past Chuck, ears bobbing behind her.
He heard something about waking up Mama first or Mr.Sonic. Sighing, he followed in her footsteps as she politely knocked on each occurring door without a care in the world.
Chuck heard the groans and footsteps, he would feel annoyed if they weren't so ignorant. Cream came rushing back immediately, appearing lost. She blinked meekly, meeting eyes with the scientist.
"I think I woke everybody up but Tails isn't in his room... maybe he's working...?" The young rabbit pondered, stroking her chin. Chuck was beyond inconsolable.
--
Everyone was there, huddled up in the main living room. Each face read something different, confusion, irritation, tiredness. It didn't bother Chuck too much, after all he had disrupted their sleep at such an early hour.
If they were to ever sleep again... off topic, right. It was time to address the thing. He sighed, eyeing each individual with as much contempt he could muster.
"Now, you may be wondering why I've brought you here so suddenly-"
"Mr. Throndyke, it's nearly 4:00am in the morning."A very groggy, distant Tanaka reminded, trying to uphold his usual formal demeanour. "Could this wait to a more appropriate hour?"
"No it can't!" He snapped back, giving the crowd quite a jump-scare. Tanaka closed his mouth, looking to the floor, not expecting such a hostile reaction.
Chuck didn't want to create a tension, he did his best to relax and keep his cool. They didn't know the urgency, the truth. Once they were enlightened, it would be a particularly different story.
"Sorry, the matter at hand is serious, it must be discussed now."
Yet he was interrupted, again, by none other than the little fox's closest friend. The blue one stuck his index finger up, jumping from his spot on the couch. "Hold it!"
Relax, relax. Chuck huffed, clearly unimpressed by whatever the hedgehog had to share with the group.
"If this matter's so important, then we oughta bring Tails from his corner of the lab and let him in on this." Sonic finished with plenty of attitude to spare, bringing his finger to his nose.
Even his laid-back behaviour wasn't enough to hide his slight concern of the seemingly important matter. Call it a hunch, intuition, his big brother senses, whatever, he had an inkling that it was something to do with his plucky fox buddy.
He hoped it wasn't the case, he hoped it was never the case. Depending on how Chuck would now respond to him would test his theory.
"Sit down, Sonic, please." An order, the old man was trying to avoid his statement. Albeit, the hedgehog was curious as he was worried. He obeyed unwillingly, eager to zip down at any moment to check on the fox who was probably over-working. Right? Right, nothing bad about that.
"Now as I was saying, it's a very sensitive touchy subject, be warned. I can't believe it as well." By the looks of it, he had hyped this mystery well enough, that everyone's eyes were glued to him. He wasn't ready to see them filled with tears.
A sigh, deep breath. "This is difficult but it needs to be said. Miles "Tails" Prower is dead." It's strange and possibly unfitting but he saluted on cue.
Silence, it was deathly. Then it struck down like a storm, a chorus of shouts, sobs, chatters, thumps and other undistinguished sounds. He heard snippets of the ruckus.
"No way!! How is that possible?" A voice that sounded like Amy stuck out from the crowd, she planted her two feet on the floor. She was confused for the most part, refusing to believe such hideous news.
A distraught Cream hid into her mother, sobbing, muttering words that had no meaning. Cheese tried his best to comfort the rabbit in her time of need but found himself spilling some tears as well. Vanilla could only remain silent, as she processed the fact of death.
The others were just as shocked. Chris tried to get the attention of Sonic, but it seemed the hedgehog was in another dimension entirely. Ella and Tanaka shared a look, before turning back to Chuck himself. The news announcer, who had just announced a disturbing topic to kids in the middle of the morning.
Well, they hardly counted Vanilla as a child but the point stands. Maybe as the more older, mature ones of the group, it was their job to cease the panic travelling through the room.
"Calm down, everybody, surely Mr. Throndyke isn't being serious?" Ella faced Chuck, with a piercing stare, which basically told him to cut the bullshit and confirm.
That wasn't the case. "It's true! Why would I lie about such a sensitive matter! You can't be serious, Ella!" The grumpy old man snapped back. He couldn't believe they thought he brought them down here for the sake of it. Hopefully they were not that oblivious?!
"Then show us." A shaky, unstable Sonic stood to his feet, ignoring Chris' attempts to communicate with him. The teen walked up the man, on the verge of collapsing at any moment.
Chuck twisted his tongue in a knot, the feeling of blood still resonated with him. It was a miracle how no one had noticed the poorly washed out blood on his lab coat. "I'd rather not."
Sonic narrowed his brow, gritting his teeth. He glared at the man, tapping his foot impatiently. Anyone could tell he was angry. "Show me then."
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hdjdididnskd hi lol forgot this fic existed!! couldn't sleep so I just decided to update it.