003. Lights out
.
.
.
Tikal jolted when everything became suddenly dark. At the same time, she hissed when realising that she had cut her hand, dropping the knife and the vegetables all together. With her free hand, the echidna tried to locate the tissues that were, thankfully, nearby where she had occupied herself. Grabbing a few, she clumsily wrapped them around her hand before turning away to find the light switch.
Taking a few cautious and jittery steps, she pressed her thumb onto the switch a couple of times only to find out that the light wasn't switching on.
Well, that was no good.
She poked her head into the hallway to see it was also dark, the living room and upstairs too.
Faint panic started to rise up to Tikal's chest as she slowly made her way out the kitchen, wincing at the slight pain coming from her cut hand.
"Shadow?" she called out nervously, hoping the hedgehog knew of the situation.
"Looks like the power's out."
She shrieked, jumping back and turned around to greet the voice until her eyes recognised the ruby reds staring back. Tikal let out a breath of relief, the beat of her heart slowing down.
"Sorry," Shadow apologised with a low chuckle before flickering on the switch of his flash light, "The power's out so we're gonna have to rely on this for now until it comes back on."
Tikal nodded, pressing the tissues onto her cut fingers anxiously, another wince escaping her lips.
Shadow noticed this. "What happened?" he asked, shining the light onto her bleeding hand that were now soaking through the tissues, "You cut yourself?"
"Y-Yes," she answered, looking down at it, "Accidentally. I panicked..."
"Hold on," he said, giving the flash light to her as he sped upstairs. Tikal waited until he came back down with a first aid kit. He took the flash light from her and guided the echidna into the living room where they sat down onto the couch.
"Give me your hand," Shadow requested and Tikal hesitantly obeyed as he removed the soaked blooded tissues and discarded them into a small bucket. She yelped when he started to press a wet piece of cotton onto her cut fingers, making her resist.
"I know it hurts, but just bear with me," he told her gently dabbing more of the wet cotton. Tikal stopped and sighed softly, a few yelps and winces coming from her as she sat patiently.
After Shadow had gotten rid of most of the bleeding, he carefully wrapped a bandage around her hand, making her smile gently at the action. Once he was done, he put away the kit and held the flash light once again between them.
"Usually it would be the other way around," Tikal said with a small laugh, taking a look at her bandaged hand before glancing back at her partner, "Does this... usually happen?"
"You mean the electricity going out?" He nodded, "Most likely because there's something that needs to be fixed in the network."
"Ah," she nodded as well, "When will it come back?"
"I don't know," Shadow replied glancing down at his wrist watch, "It's random. So it may take a few hours."
"A few hours?" Tikal repeated, her panic arising again.
"Yes," the hedgehog looked over to her, "Why? What's wrong?"
She pulled back, biting her lip as it quivered. "Being surrounded by the dark," the girl nervously played with her dreads and whispered, "It... brings back some bad memories..."
Shadow just stared at her, travelling his eyes down until he caught her injured hand in his. He was giving that look again, she noticed. It was an intense look and when she saw it the first time, it had frightened her somewhat and she didn't understand. Now, she understood and it always touched her heart at how the hedgehog always managed to keep her calm and protected.
"I understand," he brushed her fingers against his lips, an action which made her flustered, "I won't let anything like that happen to you again."
Tikal laughed gently, leaning her head against his chest. "I know."
A knock was heard from the front door, making the both of them pull away. Tikal looked up at Shadow who was just as puzzled.
"Maybe it's the electrician," he said, getting up with the flash light and walked out of the living room. Tikal followed closely behind him.
When Shadow opened the door, he was greeted by a blue hedgehog, his signature grin all over his face.
"Hey, Shadow!" Sonic waved, tilting his head over to the side, "Tikal!"
Tikal came fully into view beside Shadow and kindly greeted back the blue hedgehog. "Hello Sonic, what brings you here?"
"Weeellll, ya see," Sonic scratched the back of his head, "I lost control with this new airplane Tails built me and made a little crash landing near your house..."
"My goodness, are you okay?!" Tikal inquired, immediately taking a look at the speedster's face.
Sonic shook his head. "Oh no! I'm totally fine, I made it outta there before it hit," he laughed nervously, "But, um, I kinda broke some of your electricity cables outside sooo—"
Shadow's eyes quickly twitched. "You what?"
"Look dude!" Sonic lifted his hands up in an instant, "I called Tails over and he'll be fixing it in no time! So until then—"
"So you're the one who caused Tikal's injury?" Shadow seethed through his teeth, his demonic glare powering over the blue hedgehog.
"What?!" Sonic yelled in panic, quickly looking over to the echidna's bandaged hand and understood, "Oh man, Tikal I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to—"
"And made me lose my six thousand word report that's due in tomorrow?" the black hedgehog cut him off once more, his voice growling with such anger that Tikal sent a pleading look over to her blue friend.
"Huh?" Sonic crossed his arms, "Didn't anyone ever tell you that you're suppose to keep saving your work in case instances like these happen?"
A moment of silence.
"Sonic," Shadow said, surprisingly calm.
"Yeah man?"
"Run."
"Run?"
"Run."
"Gotcha!" Sonic saluted to Tikal before speeding off. Shadow, ignoring the annoying gust from him, wasted no time and sped off after the hedgehog.
Tikal held onto her skirt as the wind disappeared, blinking a couple of times before taking a note of her surroundings. Sighing softly, she shook her head with a small chuckle before picking up the flash light that was dropped, and began making her way inside.
The lights came flickering back on, and caught her by surprise. Confused, she raised her head to see a yellow two-tailed fox giving her a thumbs up.
Tikal giggled, doing the same. "Thank you, Tails!"