Sonic Hill 2: DX

Chapter 29: Stairs of Fire

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The wet door slowly closed behind him as Miles entered the employee stairway. It had only been a short "swim" from the kitchen down the corridor to here, and it was good to finally step out of the murky and cold water and onto somewhat dry ground again. All he had to do now was take the wooden steps up to the first floor and go on from there.

'—Weren't the stairs made out of metal before?' he thought for a moment.

Seeing a stairway like this made out of wood looked very awkward, but it wasn't something important as far as he was concerned. Stairs are stairs, and these would get him to where he wanted to go. He slowly and tiredly went up the stairs, changing direction at the turnaround and going up to where the first floor door was. To his shocked disappointment, it wasn't there.

'Erg…'

But he did smell something.

Something burning.

'What the…' His eyes peered up at the spiraling stairway above, and they almost bulged out of their sockets in response to what he saw. 'Oh my god…'

Redness blocked his view of the rest of the place completely; a redness that he realized was a raging fire. Flames covered the steps that led up and up into the hotel, consuming everything they could touch. The whole stairway was on fire; not just a small one but a huge blazing one that didn't look like it'd end anytime soon.

And there was nowhere else to go. The tired, weary fox slowly stalked up the stairs. Even though it was burning, not enough had caught flame yet to completely block an ascent by someone such as himself. But they did get bigger and bigger the farther he went up. And they did go up, very very far. Each step seemed like an eternity, each and every one feeling like it would be his last, for it sapped so much of the evanescent strength from his scratched up legs. He was incredibly exhausted from what he'd been doing for the past two days. Four days ago he would have never even imagined being able to get this far and still stand upright, both physically and mentally.

His whole body felt like one giant bruise, the pain now mostly focused from his legs to his rear. But he continued moving up the flaming stairs – he still had to find out what purpose he had to serve before he could leave, or better yet, die.

The hard wood creaked beneath his feet, apparently not able to take the abuse from his weight and the flames joined together much longer. But that particular step had been given mercy – the fox only stayed on it for about a second before moving on to the steps above it.

As he reached another turn around, he halted when he spotted something standing amidst the flames on the flat part of the stairway. He moved forward a bit and squinted; the figure standing not too far away came into focus.

"…Rouge!?"

His jaw dropped. The batgirl stood, flames surrounding her but not one touching, starring up at a strange portrait hung up on the charred wall. The painting looked the same as that photograph he'd given her of her family, except the paint around every family member except the young female bat in it was smeared, leaving only the girl alone in the world of focus. Underneath that painting was the corpse of a young male bat, wrapped in blue carpeting. From what Miles could see—and that wasn't very much—the body had been charred and burned to death long ago…

Her ears perked up.

Quickly, Rouge the Bat turned around and stared into Miles's tired blue eyes, a look of shock on her equally if not more tired ones.

"Momma…?" Rouge asked innocently. A smile formed on her lips, a happy smile; not one he'd seen from her before. "Momma! I was looking for you!"

'What?' Miles wondered silently. The bat stared at him happily with a very dazed and drunk look on her face. She thoughtlessly walked through the flames, somehow managing not to step into any of them by pure luck. A few just barely kissed her boots, but she didn't seem to pay any attention to that. The fox stepped back, trying not to burn himself in the process.

Rouge looked down at the old wooden floor. The fire created a strange illumination on her pale face – dark shadows waved and loomed under her baggy grim eyes.

"Now you're the only one left…" she said to herself serenely, almost too quietly for the male to hear. "Maybe then…maybe then I can rest…"

She looked back up at him and smiled again, her dulled eyes seemed to almost look through him rather than directly towards him. Miles took another step back, his foot landing on a step on the other set of stairs and almost causing him to lose his balance as she continued walking towards him.

"Momma?" the large-bosomed batgirl asked, her expression changing from happy to worried and distressed. Still, she moved closer to him. "Momma why are you running away?"

Her right hand placed itself onto the fox's cheek, feeling his furry face for a moment until it slowly guided itself down to his shoulders in wonder. Her left hand joined in, and in unison they moved back up his face, touching lightly under his eyes. Miles felt really uncomfortable already, not understanding what the hell the strange girl was doing, but did nothing for fear of hurting her. After she repeated this a second time, she quickly drew her hands back and let out a small gasp, as if she had seen a monster.

"Y-you're not momma!" she cried. It was her turn to take a few steps back now, her eyes wide with fear. That fear soon turned back into shock and sadness again. She looked down at the floor shamefully. "It's you……I…I'm sorry…"

"Rouge…no…" Miles spoke, realizing what she must be thinking. Naturally, he held his hand out as if to try and comfort her.

She finally gave him a real look, like she was really speaking to him rather than to herself. Her voice sounded distant and muted against the blazing fire.

"Thank you for saving me earlier…" she said, her smile long gone. "But…I wish you hadn't. Even momma said it; I deserved what happened."

"No way, Rouge." Miles said sympathetically. "That's wrong…"

He extended his arm further as if to pat her shoulder comfortingly, but she recoiled and held her own hand out to his face to stop his gesture. "No, don't pity me. I'm not worth it."

"But…"

"Unless…" she looked back at the floor, hiding her pained eyes from him. She seemed to contemplate something for a long moment, and then looked back up to him, her tone of voice changing. "Unless you think you can save me…"

It was then she did something he really didn't expect her to do. Coming closer to him, the bat grasped his arm with one hand and placed her left one on his cheek gently, staring into his red-rimmed azure-blue eyes. "Miles, will you love me? Hold me? Take care of me? Heal all my pain? Never leave my side?" she asked pleadingly.

The fox bit his lip. How the hell was he supposed to respond to that? He wasn't interested in females…but he didn't want her to suffer anymore than she already did. Something deep inside his heart told him she had been suffering equally if not even more than he had, in this horrible town of Sonic Hill. And for that, he felt truly and deeply sorry for her.

No, he couldn't love her…but the look in her turquoise eyes made him almost want to. To love her, to help her, to protect her…but he couldn't betray Sonic either…

He didn't know what to do. And he never even realized how long it had taken him to respond before it was too late.

"That's what I thought." Rouge said with disappointed understanding, breaking the young fox from his reverie. Taking her hand off his face, she held it out in front of her as if asking him for something. And she did, a second later: "Miles, give me back my knife."

"N-no." the fox stated sternly, shaking his head. He couldn't let her do that. "I…I won't."

"Saving it for yourself?" she asked. It wasn't a joke, but a grin seemed to form on her ashen face.

"No…" Miles felt far more unsure of himself than he would have liked. "I'd never kill myself…"

-CRASH!

A large flaming support beam fell from above, smashing into the ground in between the two furries. Miles jumped backwards and just barely managed to stop himself from tripping over and rolling down the stairs to his death, but Rouge did little more than take a few steps away from it before it landed. The support beam covered most of the flat part of the stairway, separating them from each other. Miles was left on the bulk of the flat area, while Rouge stood on the other side, in front of the flaming steps that led higher and higher into the sky. After realizing he was still in one piece, the fox looked ahead to see the bat's dark eyes staring at him from across the flames.

"I never meant for it to happen like this…" Rouge said, looking like she was about to break down any moment. "But he never stopped hurting me…never…" She placed her two hands over her crotch and looked down at the flaming beam. From where she stood, Miles could see that her mascara was smeared and washed away with tears, revealing the countless scars and cuts on her dirty, pretty face. While they may have partially healed physically, he knew, they would never heal mentally.

"I'm sorry Rouge…" Miles said sadly. "It's not right what your father did to you…"

"It's too late now," she said tiredly. "I thought maybe I had a chance. But I was wrong. I don't deserve one…I killed them…all of them!!" the end of the sentence was a scream, followed by endless sobs and tears that flowed freely down her stained cheeks. As she broke down, Miles felt that if the beam hadn't separated them he would hold her and hug her tight right there. But she was right—he knew that too—it was too late.

"I burned the house down after I killed him…I didn't know my brother and momma would get home so soon though…it was an accident." Wrapping her arms around her scarred sleeveless shoulders, she continued. "But I…I wanted to do it, didn't I? I killed them all…I…"

"Rouge…"

"I understand." The girl gulped, her scarred face trembling slightly. Her moist eyeliner created black teardrops to contrast with her clear ones. "That letter was made so I would be punished. I knew it wasn't real—none of this is real, not to all of us anyway—but it all makes sense to me now. This is what I deserve."

"But…"

Hopelessly, Rouge turned around and started slowly walking up the steps. Another chunk of wood fell from above to the floor next to the other furry; the flames around them were getting even more furious by the minute.

"It's hot as hell in here…" Miles muttered to himself, wiping sweat from his brow.

Rouge suddenly stopped as if someone had pointed a gun to her back, and turned around. A few drops of sorrow flung off of her cheek and into the fire in the process, not making any effect against the fury of which the flames proceeded to live off of.

"You see it too now, huh?" Rouge asked, not seeming to be that surprised. Limply turning back around, the batgirl said, in the most depression-laced words he'd ever heard: "For me, it's always like this…"

With that, she folded her wings tightly to her back and continued to slowly walk up the stairs of fire. Seconds later, another support beam exploded in flames and fell, landing on the steps a few meters in front of the fox. Her body escaped his view as the whole section of the stairway suddenly collapsed around him. Miles jumped out of the way just in time to avoid the tons of burning wood as they piled on top of one another, bursting into more hot fire seconds later. He scrambled back to his feet in the small corner of space left and looked up to see the whole section of the stairway Rouge was standing on minutes ago was now gone.

And she was too.

"Rouge…" he whispered, not knowing what to say. He looked down at the floor, feeling tears flow down his cheeks again too. They dripped and let out a soft hiss as they landed on the heated floor at his feet. Even if she escaped from that section of the stairway in time, he knew she might be happier if she hadn't, and he knew he'd probably never see her again. "Goodbye, Rouge…"

And the stairs of fire around him continued to burn. Silently, he prayed that the girl would find some sort of peace at the end of her own long journey, even if it would be short lived. At least it'd be there, and that was the best he could hope for for not only her, but also for himself. Still standing there on what was left of the floor, Miles remorsefully stared up at the ever-burning stairway that seemed to spiral up and up forever into the flames.