After two weeks of recovery, everyone was allowed to return to the school. The Head of the Society did assign some security to the school, they just remained outside the school however, but the kids didn't know how to feel about them being there. Amy called Tails to return home, she needed his help with some final prep she had said. Tails informed Sonic that everyone was invited to the party before he left. Sonic didn't really want his brother to leave, even two weeks after the night and everyone was still pretty rattled. Sonic had never felt like people he carried about were closer to death than he did after that night.
Knuckles and Rouge had decided that the party could be their first date, and they were both nervous and excited. Rouge couldn't stop talking to Shadow or Blaze about it. Silver honestly felt jealous, not of Knuckles, but of Knuxouge, which is what Sonic had said their ship name was. He wanted that with Blaze, but he was terrified of messing something up. Every time Blaze saw Silver, she got these butterflies she didn't understand. She didn't understand anything she was feeling towards her friend anymore, but she pretended everything was fine. Sonic and Shadow were their usual selves. They enjoyed each other's company. When either of them woke up from a nightmare, they would stay up with the other until they fell back asleep.
None of them could shake this feeling like something was still wrong. It felt like something was coming for them. And none of them liked it. Sonic and Shadow weren't the only ones plagued by nightmares. Sonic would wake up screaming. Shadow would wake up sobbing. Knuckles would wake up with tears streaming down his face and then pretend nothing was wrong, not telling anyone. Silver would wake up, remembering every detail of his nightmare, no sound, no tears, just shaking with fear. Rouge would wake gasping, with tears, but she could never recall any details of what she saw in her dream. Blaze would wake up by sitting up in bed, heart racing, and her stitched up leg stinging. And they all hated it, but none of them talked about it. They all knew the others were scared, and they didn't want to show the others that they themselves were scared, but it was useless, because they all knew.
Silver opened his eyes, heart racing. He tried to close his eyes again, but every time he did, he saw it again. He looked at his hands and felt like crying, because he saw it again as well. He wanted to cry, but he also didn't want to wake his friends. Looking at his hands, he saw her blood. He closed his eyes and saw her lifeless body lying in his arms. He didn't understand. None of this seemed fair to him, and he hated it. So, he sat up and hugged his knees to his chest and just chose to play with his blanket, trying not to think about his nightmare. He didn't realize it, but he was crying, loudly.
"Silver?" He turned to the sound of his name. He saw Sonic, sitting up in bed. Silver turned away. He knew Sonic would just try to get him to talk about it, and he did not want to talk about it. As predicted the next words out of Sonic's mouth were "Do you want to talk about it." Silver shook his head, not trusting himself to speak. "Do you want me to leave you alone." Silver thought for a second. Being alone would mean his brain would just think, and he didn't really want his thoughts running. He slowly shook his head. Sonic climbed up and sat on the end on Silver's bed.
"Would you like me to just ramble to occupy your thoughts, I could also just sit here if you would like too not be alone." Silver still didn't trust his voice to not quiver, shake, cry, or even just tell everything that happened in his nightmare, so he held up a one, and Sonic understood. Silver knew Sonic could ramble when he wanted, or even when he didn't, but it turned out that Sonic could talk about nothing for forever. He talked about movies, then tv shows, then toothpaste, then cereal, then food, then fairytales, then his general disdain for books, then he started talking Tails. "And one time, Tails and I got really, really mad at each other while in his workshop. He picked up a tool and started chasing me with it, well I grabbed a different tool and then chased him, and we started to sword fight with them. We started laughing so hard that too this day, neither of us can remember what exactly we were mad at each other about, just the aftermath." Sonic looked over to see Silver, now snoring.
"So why were you awake?" Shadow asked, startling the crap out of Sonic. "How long?" Sonic asked. "Since the moment Silver started crying."
"Nightmare."
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"Same thing. January standing over all of you, Tails, and Amy's dead bodies, cackling like a maniac. What about you?"
"I'm just a light sleeper." This was true actually, Shadow had actually been having a very nice dream, more of a memory, of playing in the halls with his sister. Sonic looked sceptic, but left it alone, choosing to trust. "Do you want me to hold you?" Shadow asked. Sonic nodded. So, he climbed down and so did Shadow. Shadow grabbed his boyfriend. Sonic didn't hesitate to literally jump into his prince's arms, wrapping his arms around Shadow's neck and legs around Shadow's torso. Shadow cradled his boyfriend and walked over to the bed, sitting down, holding the sobbing Sonic. Shadow began rubbing circles on Sonic's back. They sat there for a while, letting Sonic let out his feelings in tears.
Knuckles woke up, tears streaming down his face like usual. He looked over and saw Sonic and Shadow, snuggled together. Knuckles wiped his tears, because crying was not something he did. He was the strong one. Everyone else could cry, but he couldn't. He was supposed to be the strong one, and those who were strong were not supposed to let others know that they felt weak. Because every time he fell asleep, he felt the same weakness he felt that night, saw everything he saw that night. He couldn't save them. He couldn't save Sonic, his best friend. He couldn't save Tails, who was the second closest (Sonic being the first) to having a little brother. He couldn't save Silver, Blaze, or Shadow, the people he had just started to think of as friends. He couldn't save Rouge, the girl that he liked. And he couldn't save himself. He couldn't save anyone, and that certainly did not terrify him.
Blaze woke up. She was strong, so what she saw didn't matter. It didn't matter that in her dream she watched as Silver screamed for her help. It didn't matter the January held a gun to his head. And it didn't matter that as she ran to save him, he only got further. And it didn't matter that by the time she got close enough to touch him, January smiled and shot him. And it didn't matter that Silver fell into her arms, closing his eyes for the last time as he whispered words that she knew he would never actually say in life, no matter how many times she wished it. Because now she was thinking she knew what those butterflies were in her stomach when he smiled. And it didn't matter that she didn't get a chance to say it back, because now she was thinking that she did. And it didn't matter that as she thought about how much it didn't matter that she was crying silent tears. None of it mattered, because Silver didn't love her like she loved him. So, none of it mattered.
This was nightly routine at this point. Rouge got up and stretched her wings to calm her racing heart. She looked over to find a sleeping Blaze crying again. According to Shadow, the boy's room wasn't much better. And none of them knew what to do. And not matter how many times she told herself it wasn't her fault, that something like this would have happened anyway, no matter how many times Shadow told her isn't her fault, no matter how many times any of them did, the guilt still weighed on her heart. And it was a truly horrible feeling.
Sonic looked around the ballroom, on fire. It was pure commotion. He didn't know why. But he came across a skeleton that looked suspiciously like Knuckles. Then one that seemed like it could be Rouge. Then Silver. Then one that looked like it could be Blaze. Then Tails. Then Amy. Then James. And then Shadow started limping towards him. "You're alive!" Sonic shouted and started running towards Shadow. "Why couldn't you save us?" Shadow asked.
Sonic woke up screaming. He could barely register someone trying to sooth him. After a minute of sobbing into the persons shoulder, he saw it was Shadow. This was the second nightmare in one night. "It's okay. It was just a nightmare. It wasn't real. I'm here. We're okay. We're all alive."
"I just want to sleep again." Sonic sobbed. Shadow held on tighter as Sonic sobbed harder into his shoulder, saying he just wanted to sleep without fear of having a nightmare.
James opened the door and the death glare he got from Shadow would have floored just about anyone else. "Seriously, none of you are awake." Sonic turned and looked at his teacher and the look his student gave him broke his heart. James saw Knuckles was still asleep and Silver wasn't even laying down, he was laying on his knees and hugging them to his chest. James sighed. "You guys can sleep in today." He said and closed the door.
James went to go see the girls. Neither of them were awake. He closed the door again. He was kind of at a loss for what to do for his students. And they definitely didn't want his help. He was tempted to sneak them all melatonin with dinner.
Knuckles woke to the sound of Shadow whispering soothing nothings to Sonic as he sobbed. For the most part, Knuckles was up the moment he was awake, but his body was so tired from nightmares that he decided to let go of that and turn over and go back to sleep.
James decided to do a few things to try to help his students. And in case you were concerned, sneaking melatonin in the student's food was not any of those ideas. First, he was going to give them their phones for a few hours. Two, he was going to give them a free day. Three, he grabbed some sleeping bags and set up a room for the six of them to have a sleep over together tonight, because it seemed like they needed each other right now.
Sonic didn't let go of Shadow, even after all of the tears had fallen. He didn't want to, because he feared that would mean Shadow was actually gone. Shadow ran his fingers through Sonic's hair. Sonic enjoyed the feeling and eventually sighed in contentment. "Do you think James will come back sometime soon and make us get up?" Sonic looked up and Shadow. "The clock says its eight am, if he hasn't come back yet, I think he's just letting us get up when we are ready." Sonic snuggled back into Shadows chest. "I'll take that to mean you are not ready."
"I am not." Shadow let out a chuckle. He started running his fingers through Sonic's hair again. It was surprisingly soft at the moment. "I'm surprised Knuckles or Silver hasn't woken up." Sonic said after a while. "I think we are all exhausted." Sonic chuckled but it was a soulless one. "I do not want to train today."
"Why?" Shadow found himself asking. "Just don't feel like it." Sonic shrugged. Shadow hummed in understanding. "Besides, you're a comfy pillow." Sonic looked at his boyfriend and watched him blush hard. Sonic laughed heartily. Shadow, playfully, rolled his eyes.
Silver's back ached and his cheek felt like it was on fire. He opened his eyes and realized he fell asleep and had stayed asleep in the exact position he had been listening to Sonic in, which was a very poor decision on his part. Silver let out a groan as he sat up and stretched his back. When he opened his eyes he saw how light it was outside. He looked down and saw Sonic and Shadow, awake and cuddling on Sonic's bed. "Hey guys, what time is it?" Sonic and Shadow looked up at Silver, startled. Shadow then looked at the clock. "8:56 am" Sonic looked at his boyfriend. "Why don't you just say 9 in the morning?"
"It isn't 9, it was 8:56." Sonic facepalmed but he also smiled like an idiot. Silver stretched and laid down to try to help his back. And it did. "So how come James didn't come to wake us up?" Silver turned on his side to look at his friends. "He did, but after standing in the doorway he said we could sleep in. So Shadow and I have just been snuggling here and letting you guys sleep."
"And the two of you did nothing more?" Silver teased. "I cried." Sonic shrugged. That had honestly not been the reaction Silver was expecting. He had expected the two of them to be flustered. Not Sonic admitting to crying. Shadow kissed Sonics forehead in comfort. "Sorry." Silver whispered. "Don't worry about it." Sonic smiled. They sat in silence for a while. "Is the Knucklehead up?" Silver asked. Sonic looked over then back to Silver. "Uh uh. It's surprising honestly." Silver hummed in response. He knew everyone was bad, but not this bad. He let out a sigh and rubbed his hands through his hair. He didn't really know what to do anymore, and he didn't like it.