It was unsettlingly quiet in the city at the early hours of the morning. The young blue hedgehog walked at a slow pace, his arms wrapped around his torso as small beads of water dripped along his mussel. He didn't bother to wipe them, nor did he pay attention to the small few people who glanced his way before minding their own business.
Sonic found himself walking down a small gap in-between buildings, leading him to the back spaces of the local shops and restaurant's. There was no lighting except from the flicker of a singular broken street lamp that gave him the guidance he needed to avoid stepping on broken glass as he made his way to the garbage bins. He always checked the one outside the Pizzaria, on a lucky day he would find a full pizza untouched but too burnt to serve to customers.
In this case he wasn't so lucky, all he could scavenge from his dumpster dive was a couple of half eaten slices and several crusts, all that had been mixed in with the trash.
For his first month being homeless, Sonic had too much pride to rummage through the garbage to find his next meal, often he relied on begging. It worked well for a while, mostly to his age. People took pity on him and would give him their loose change or buy him food from a shop. But he found the more homeless and desperate he began to look, the less people wanted to help him. When his fur started to smell, they turned up their noses and walked away. Often when he held his hand out to beg, people would start to yell at him not to touch them, sometimes he was spat at or had drinks thrown on him, all because in the public's eyes he was unclean and worthless.
Within those painful first few months of living this way, Sonic learnt so many new lessons. All the money he had taken from home had been stolen from him, he was beaten up by thugs who tried to mess with him and now had almost been kidnapped.
The fourteen year old shuddered, eyes welling up once more on the memory that plagued him from less than a week ago.
He had reached his breaking point. He missed his mother so much, the woman who treated him as an accessory to her lavish lifestyle more then anything else. He missed his father, who would enjoy nothing more then to relish in the satisfaction that he was right. People were cruel. No one would help him when he needed it the most. Not when he fell sick from food poisoning or when he broke his fingers. Even the doctors turned him away because he couldn't pay for treatment, and he wouldn't go to the police for fear they would take him home. Also at this point he had resorted to stealing from the market place, he didn't want to end up in jail. He was so afraid at this point, and for the first time since he left he wanted to go home. Screw the consequence's, screw the way his family treated him, he wanted his soft warm bed. He missed his large meals, he missed the smell of lemons from the cleaning lady, hell he missed the attention his brother would give him, no matter how much it hurt. He missed his sisters criticising them because at least then he was seen by them, he was alive in their eyes and he was a person, not a dirty street rat he had been compared with for the past year. He wanted to go back and beg his family for forgiveness.
The only thing that stopped him however... he didn't know where they lived.
He had ran home last week, using his super powered speed to leave this horrible city and run back into the direction he had thought was home. But when he reached the house, three hours of running at the speed of sound, travelling over eleven thousand miles to reach them, the house was empty. A sign hung on the gates, written in bold words was SOLD.
Sonic had dropped to his knees and silently wept. They didn't want him to come back. That's why they moved. They wanted to make sure he would never return to them.
His hands drew close to his face as a loud wail of despair tore through him. He wanted to go home... but they had moved on from him, and it only took them over a year. This was the house he was born in, where he had all of his favourite memories. And now it was all gone.
He was nothing more then that to them now. A memory. And that was how they wanted it to remain.
Did they truly hate him this much?
Sonic didn't know how long he had sat in front of those gates, or if anyone else had walked by him or not, but he eventually realised he wasn't alone anymore as a large shadow cast over him.
Slowly he lifted his face from his hands, and stared up at the person next to him.
A large anthropomorphic man like himself, a bear to exact, loomed over him. His obese stomach hung down further then it should have, and his rotund face hid any traces of a neck, however small. He wore a red cap backwards and was puffing away on a cigar. This bear was an older man, obvious by his patches of grey fur around his face and wrinkles along his eyes. Normally a man like this around this classy of a neighbourhood would have sent the people living here to ring the police immediately. But clearly no one was staring out of their windows at four in the morning.
"What's up with you kid?" the bear asked, his voice just as grunt and sick sounding as Sonic imagined it to be.
For a moment he didn't answer, getting a strong sense of uncertainty from this man. Despite what his father continually tried to teach him however, Sonic didn't want to judge him solely on looks. For all he knew he could be lost, or maybe lived here too.
"I... I was looking for my parents, but they moved" he answered, naively telling the truth.
The bear for a second grinned, a twinkle flashing from his golden tooth. "You don't say, they're the ones who lived in this fancy house right? How long have you been gone for?"
Sonic sighed, "A year and a half I think." He was surprised when the bear suddenly gasped.
"That long? Well no wonder they moved. I was their gardener for five months, they never spoke of you but they were so sad and upset, I think they were too devastated to open up about you."
"Really?" Sonic smiled, his eyes suddenly brighter as hope suddenly began to swell up within him. They missed him? Did this mean they would take him back? Would he still be able to go home and be welcomed?
These questions must have been easy to read upon his face, as the old bear crouched down and leaned in closer. "Yeah of course kid, they're your family right? I bet they'd be thrilled to see you again" he grinned.
Sonic immediately stood up, and the bear stood with him. Happily the fourteen year old rubbed the tears away from his eyes, now finding an excitement build up inside of him. "Thank you... thank you!" he cried out, unable to contain his happiness. "Do you know where they moved to? Is it far?"
The bear laughed to himself, seemingly sharing the joy of a family united. "Of course I do, it's not far at all. The directions are hard to explain though, I have my van with me, how about I give you a lift down now?"
Sonic didn't think logically with this. He allowed his emotions to overrule his judgement and agreed to it.
The bear lead him along the road to a van that had no advertisement of the man's business on the side, no logo or phone number, and no registration plate.
The bear opened up the passenger door for him, and Sonic jumped in. He didn't see that the child lock was on. He didn't see any of the obvious red flags that when looking back he realised were there.
The bear got into the drivers seat, started the van, and began to drive.
Sonic stared out of the window, watched as all his old neighbour's houses blurred together in a speeding motion. He remembered these streets so well, him and his twin sister playing hopscotch with the other kids in their small private estate. They would play everything until it came to chase and playing tag, then he wasn't allowed. His father would supervise when he was home, and other times it would be their nanny. She didn't know why she couldn't let him play the running games, but whenever she allowed him his father would tell her off for it and take away part of her payment for it. They went through a lot of nannies thanks to him.
As the roads continued to flash forward, a thought suddenly occurred to him. At first it was a simple wonderment, but then the more he pondered it, the uneasiness he felt before started to return.
"Hey... what were you doing outside the house at this time?" he slowly asked, shyly turning to face the bear.
The older man remained silent, his eyes fixed on onto the road ahead.
Suddenly, Sonic's wrists felt sweaty. This man said his parent lived close by, but they have been driving for nearly twenty minutes, and now they were on a motorway.
Panic started to seep into his mind, his body quietly trembled while his eyes fixated on the stranger that sat next to him. Fear prevented him from looking away, feeling the moment he did so something bad would happen. A false sense of security told him that if he kept his eyes on this man that he would somehow be incapable of doing anything other the drive.
The bear was still silent, his fingers flexing against the wheel while he calmly inhaled his cigar.
As slow as he possibly could, Sonic's twitching fingers moved to the door handle. He was too afraid to pull on it just yet, too afraid to confirm his fears or make any sound. But eventually his desire to escape overruled any ounce of sense and strategy he may have needed just in case. There was still a chance that the man was telling the truth, but a loud voice in his head began to tell him otherwise.
Silently he said a prayer. Then his fingers pulled against the handle.
The door wouldn't open, but made a loud enough noise that the bear turned his head.
For a split second all Sonic could hear was his own breathing.
The bear suddenly turned the wheel violently, forcing the van off the motorway and crashed against the edge of the trees.
Little damage was done, but Sonic was shaken from his chair and smacked his head against the window.
"Gah!" he yelped, clutching the side of his head. He had no other time to think or react as the bear threw his seatbelt off and leapt on him. Sonic screamed out, taken off guard as the large bear grabbed his wrists and pinned him against his chair. "GET OFF ME!" he began to scream, praying someone would hear him. But the old man laughed at his anguish and fear. "I can't believe it was this easy, you really are a stupid one you know that kid" he taunted, reaching for something in his back pocket. Sonic couldn't respond, no words could form as his heart raced at dangerous levels. With his hands bound together by just one of the giant paws of his capture, Sonic resorted to kicking, but his abnormal strength that could have easily knocked this man from the car was suddenly failing him. He was too afraid to fight, there was no strength in him, only fear.
The bear held a small vile up to the hedgehog's face and sprayed out it's contents, being sure to keep his own face at a good distance.
This should have left the hedgehog immobilised and unconscious, yet to his surprise, the blue teen coughed aggressively and grew limp. But nothing more.
Confused at the little reaction, he tried spraying again, but nothing else happened. He tried again and again until the bottle was emptied, then in a fit of anger threw it to the floor.
"Fine, guess you'll have to be awake then" he smiled afterwards, a sinister giggle following after.
"What are you doing... please stop!" Sonic began to try cry out, his voice raspy from the drug he inhaled and his limbs failing to respond to their commands.
And then it happened. A moment, a memory, a scar, that will forever live with him until the day he finally died.
The man placed his hands where they should never have touched, and tears spilled from the blue teenagers eyes. He was so stupid! Such an idiot for trusting this man... his father was right...
His father was right...
The bear almost removed the jacket off the young boy, but Sonic had another idea.
In a split moment, that could have been the difference between life or death, the boy reconnected with his superhuman strength. An anger built within him, and a desire to fight reawakened.
One kick was all it took. The bear was thrown threw the wind-shield and rolled along the ground some distance away.
Sonic didn't know if the man was dead, or unconscious, or even hurt. He didn't care.
Ripping his seatbelt off, he jumped threw the hole in the window and ran along the road.
He didn't know where his parents were or if anything that man said had even been true, but he didn't care anymore. He knew he should have called the police, try and get the bear arrested so he could never hurt another person again, but he didn't. He couldn't. He ran away.
There was so much going through his mind, plaguing his thoughts until he felt as if his ears would bleed. So many different ways that scenario could have played out. So many different ways he could have been seriously hurt with the point of no return.
Living on the street he had to deal with so much mocking, people offering to pay for his company for the night. He never EVER entertained that idea, but now... now it was so close... too close. This was almost point of no return. And why? Because he missed his warm bed and his large meals.
Finally his legs gave out from exhaustion, and Sonic collapsed where he was.
A field, secluded and bare of any life other then the green grass he lay upon.
As he laid, the moon shone directly above him, creating a hue of blue along the blades of grass that soothed him. He felt the wetness of nature, the cold drips of water still lingering from the previous bout of rain. He hadn't smelled this sweet aroma in such a long time, and now he was too upset to enjoy it.
Nothing around him could bring joy after what he just went through. Not just being molested by the sick monster that tricked him, but by the fact that now, he realised that there was no home to return to, not anymore.
That option was forever taken away from him, and all he had left was the knowledge of his father being right.
The world is cruel. It's filled with people who want nothing more to hurt you, to use you for their own sick and twisted gains. To break you down into nothing. It was that moment, for the very first time in his life, Sonic finally understood how his father could do it. How his father could help these people escape prison and fight on their behalf.
It was because it meant nothing to him. Everyone in the world was a criminal, so why not make money from it. He saw the evil in everyone... and he was right... he was right. Everyone was a monster, including his family... including him.
That day had played through his mind as if it were a broken record. Constantly going over and over what was said, how things played out, how they could have played out, what could have happened to him had he not lost control of his emotions. He could have been killed... or so much worse.
Those thoughts stirred a sickness inside him, suddenly his half eaten pizza didn't seem so appealing anymore.
Sonic had returned to Station Square after what happened. Travelling had been his main goal when leaving home, but the reality of it was without money or any worldly goods to his name, he couldn't survive travelling place to place. Especially not now. Part of him thought he could rely on the kindness of strangers, but not anymore.
Now, his best chance was to stay in the largest city on the continent. This was where he could find food, this is where he could run away if needed, and this is where he could steal without people seeing him among the crowd.
This was the place where he knew he could stay safe... and trust no one.
Sonic sat upright in his bed, singular arm cradling around his knees as he stared at the floor.
It was seven months ago to this day when that all happened, when he tried to go home. He had sworn then that he would never trust another living soul, that he would only ever rely on himself for anything. But look how that turned out.
He ended up working for the most dangerous man in the world, lost his arm and is now being forced to live with the hedgehog who started this mess to begin with.
Shadow... scared him. It wasn't because of his quick temper, or the strength he had to rival his own, or even the occasional threats of beatings he would give. What scared him was the fact that despite everything Sonic had done, despite every opportunity he had... he wasn't trying to hurt him.
It had taken the blue hedgehog so long, so many nights of questioning his motives, and trying to force a reaction sometimes, for him to finally accept that Shadow wasn't lying to him. As crazy as the concept was... he wanted to help him... maybe... no yes, he did. Did he?
Sonic held his head in his hand and groaned loudly. He couldn't let go of the fear that all of this was going to go away. That Shadow was going to go away.
Lately... he had started to feel something he hadn't in such a long time. Sonic felt at home.
And the knowledge that after the trial on Eggman was over with, Shadow would send him away. He would have to go to another foster home, or worse, enrol in that military school.
His chest started to tighten.
Sonic didn't want this to end.
He didn't want Shadow to turn on him, or to send him away, or to hurt him again.
All he wanted was to stay, to stay in this small house with his windowless bedroom and to be yelled at for not using a coaster, or for drinking all the milk and putting the bottle back.
He wanted to stay, he wanted to stay so badly... he wanted to be loved by someone again.
So lost in his own woes, Sonic failed to hear the door creak open.
"Faker I need you to come downstairs..." Shadow paused when his eyes laid on the blue teenager. Sonic looked more distressed then he had seen him in a while. Large black bags under his eyes, face as white as it could be and sweat seeping down his forehead.
"What is it?" he asked, approaching the bed and sitting next to Sonic. He placed his hand on the teen's forehead and felt a burning heat upon contact. "Sonic, can you hear me?" he asked, clicking his fingers in front of Sonic's eyes.
And then, in one swift motion, capturing him off guard, Sonic threw himself onto him, and wrapped his arm around his neck and buried his face into his shoulder.
Shadow was at a loss at the sudden action. His hands hovered in the air for a long moment, until they eventually lowered and place along the hedgehog's spine, making an effort to return this sudden unwanted hug. He did this only because he thought Sonic was going through another hallucination and it better to be ready to retrain if needed.
So it came as a real surprise when Sonic uttered in a quiet voice "thank you".
Shadow raised his brow, not understanding what was bringing this on. For two days now the hedgehog had stayed in bed and wouldn't talk to him. He had expected Sonic to still be in a mood. Gently he pulled away, forcing Sonic to let him go, but the blue teen wouldn't look at him, feeling too ashamed and vulnerable at what he just did.
Sensing that something was off, Shadow gently lifted Sonic's chin with his fingers, making the boy look him in the eye. "Want to explain what that was about?" he tried to smile while saying this so it would appear light-hearted, but as that was unnatural for him it looked odd.
Sonic simply looked down and shook his head.
With a small nod of acceptance, Shadow slapped his legs and stood up. "Very well, you can tell me when you're ready. For now though I have a small gift for you" he said while walking back to the door and leaving the room for a moment.
Sonic raised his brows, curious as he stared at the door. Was he suppose to follow or was Shadow coming back?
His question was answered however as the door opened once again, but it wasn't Shadow who walked through, not at first anyway.
"Tails!" Sonic cried out, throwing the blanket from his shoulders as the young fox ran to him and jumped into his arms. "I missed you so much! Vanilla and Shadow said I could stay for a couple of days, isn't that great?" Tails shouted, his excitement being to much to contain and he almost choked his adopted brother with his death grip of a hug. Sonic didn't mind however, he was just as excited and happy to see the kid again, the painful memories he dwelt upon before now forgotten. "I can't believe you're here! This is so cool, I need to hear everything Tails, leave out no details" Sonic laughed.
Shadow stood by the door frame, his arms crossed over his chest, but for once, a soft smile curled upon his muzzle. He had to admit, it was nice to Sonic happy again.
He walked out of the room once again, grabbing the handle to close the door behind him.
"Shadow wait."
The ebony hedgehog stopped, leaving the door half opened and looked back at the blue hedgehog, awaiting an explanation.
Sonic was quiet once again, a voice in his head telling him he was being an idiot again, telling him not to trust anyone! He should have learned from last time, so don't do it. But in the end, his heart won out, and he decided to trust Shadow with the truth.
"I want to tell you something... about my parents... and why I can't go back."
Tails looked between the two hedgehog's, confused at what was going on. Shadow however, taken aback by this sudden level of openness, was barely able to find his words to string together a response. So all he did was say "okay", then he sat down on the bed and listened to the story.
On that day, Sonic swore he would never trust another living soul until the day he died.
But clearly the young fox child that stood in front of him hadn't yet learnt that lesson.
With his brow arched, Sonic stared down at this kid, showing all kinds of confusion and irritation.
"Go away kid, I don't have anything" he said harshly.
"Can I have that?... y-you looked like you weren't gonna eat it" the young boy asked nervously, pointing at the slice of eaten pizza that Sonic was about to throw back into the bin.
The hedgehog looked at the pizza, then back at the child. He took a moment to ponder, and then finally, he turned to the fox cub and said "No". Then he threw the pizza into the bin and began walking away.
He could hear the small sharp noises of the kid wailing behind him. He didn't care though, the kid had a fairly easy life lesson in not trusting people compared to what he had. He almost turned a corner and put the kid to the back of his mind until a new voice suddenly echoed nearby and almost startled him. He thought he had been alone, was someone watching him?
Spinning back around, Sonic saw the young fox child was at some distance away now, almost concealed in the shadows, along with someone new.
Quietly Sonic stepped closer, trying to hear what was being said. He felt his quills begin to bristle as a familiarity of the situation alarmed him.
"My my, two tails? What an unusual feature" the voice charmed.
"I-I don't like them... people laugh at me" the kid replied.
"Nonsense, I know people who would be fascinated by them. Say, are you hungry? I have food back at my house. It's warm and cosy, and I can make you any food you like."
"Really?"
Sonic ran forward. He knocked the stranger over and pushed him as far away as he could.
The young boy screamed in shock at the blue hedgehog's actions. "W-what are you doing?" he cried, fearing he would be next. He had never seen anyone run so fast before, this was so scary.
He screamed again when Sonic grabbed his wrist and dragged him away before the stranger could get up and try and steal him away.
The fox boy was scared and confused right now, but Sonic wasn't going to let him go through what he almost did. He was lucky to have powers to fight with, the fox might not have been so fortunate.