Chapter 5: Sticks Knows

It was morning by the time Sonic finally got home. He'd spent every five seconds jumping at every little noise and cowering in fear, just waiting for Diaspheria to come out and finish the job. He was shaking by the time he got home, and his face was drenched in tears. The blood on his arms, neck, and lips had dried, turning a crusty black and red in his royal blue fur, like a messed up combination of Shadow and Sonic.

When he walked into his humble shack located by the bay of the island, he was surprised to see his friends, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, and Sticks, waiting for him.

Tails, being the first one to notice his friend, stood up in alarm.

"Sonic, where have you been?!" He demanded. "You've been out all night!"

Sonic, still traumatized, hugged his arms to his body and looked away, not saying a word. At this, Amy suddenly noticed the blood on his arms.

"Oh my gosh, Sonic, what happened to your arms?!" She cried, then noticed the flesh wound on his neck and the bites on his lips. "And your neck and lips! What happened?!"

"Yeah, I thought Eggman took care of your wounds." Tails frowned as he noticed the blood too.

At this, Sonic looked at his friends, his eyes widening in question, but still, he remained silent, afraid that the very misery in his voice would trigger the vampire's hormones. Tails noticed this look and decided to explain.

"Eggman sent one of his bugbots to us with a message." He explained. "He said that he had found you in the woods near his base, badly wounded and crying, so he took you back and took care of you. Then he said that afterwards, you left without telling him what happened."

"So if you're not willing to tell Eggman, just tell us." Knuckles told his friend. "After all, we are your friends… aren't we?"

"Of course we are Knuckles." Sticks rolled her eyes, then glared suspiciously at Sonic. "But what if this is not the real Sonic, but rather a robot look-alike sent by Eggman to fool us! I betcha he's watching us right now, waiting for the perfect moment to take control of our minds and turn us into his evil brainless zombie minions!"

"Sticks, stop, this is serious." Amy scolded. "Can't you see that Sonic's hurt?"

"Ignore her Sonic, you know how she is." Tails comforted as he tried to lay a hand on his friend's shoulder, but then suddenly, Sonic whimpered and flinched away, stepping a few paces back out of reach.

Sonic didn't want to be touched. He was afraid that just a simple touch from his friends would bring the vampire running, screaming out accusations. And worse of all, he didn't want his disgusting body to be rubbed off onto his friends.

Tails, Amy, and Knuckles were confused about this, but Sticks surprisingly became very serious, her eyes widening in shock.

"Hold on…" She held up her hand to halt the rest of the gang. "I'm pretty sure I've seen this kind of behavior before. Let me talk to him."

"Sticks…" Amy began.

"No Amy, I'm serious." The badger claimed to the pink hedgehog. "Trust me, if this is what I think it is… then it really is nothing to laugh at."

With that, the others stood back as they allowed Sticks to approach Sonic, coming as close to him as the blue hedgehog would allow. When she was standing face to face with him, she looked directly into his emerald green eyes, wet and glossy with tears. Sonic looked away, not wanting to be reminded of the spell that could so easily be placed upon him by direct eye contact. Sticks didn't complain, but instead, spoke to him in a hushed voice.

"Sonic…" She started carefully. "Did someone… hurt you?"

Sonic flinched but didn't say anything, hugging himself even tighter. He wasn't saying anything. Diaspheria couldn't do anything if Sticks figured it out herself… could she?

"Sonic…" Sticks tried again. "Did someone… take advantage of you? Make you do… inappropriate things?"

At this, Sonic suddenly began to cry again, burying his face into his hands so that his friends wouldn't see his shame. Sticks squeaked pathetically, her face falling with that serious expression to something of more concern sorriness.

"Oh Sonic…" She said as she tried to wrap her arms around him in a comforting hug, but of course, Sonic whimpered and scurried away to a corner in the room, refusing to let anyone touch him ever again. He sat on the ground and hugged his legs close to his body, rocking back and forth in that fetal position as he sobbed into his knees.

"Sticks, what is going on?" Amy asked the badger, surprised by Sonic's actions. Sticks sighed and turned to look at the rest of her friends.

"I've seen this kind of behavior before." She explained. "I had a neighbor once, who had a sister that was a victim. She wouldn't talk, wouldn't eat, wouldn't sleep, and most definitely wouldn't let anyone touch her. This is no laughing matter you guys. Our poor friend Sonic has been violated."

At this, the others sucked in horrified gasps.

"You mean… he was… raped?" Amy almost didn't want to know.

"I'm afraid that's exactly what I mean."

The group was silent, completely dumbfounded with shock at the discovery. They turned to look at their friend, who was still crying and rocking in the corner. His voice sounded hoarse, as if he'd been screaming for a long time, and quite loudly too. They were surprised they didn't hear anything, if he HAD been screaming, which is most likely he was.

"Poor Sonic." Knuckles finally said in pity. "I never would've guessed."

"Why would somebody do something so horrible?" Amy wanted to know. "And who?"

"I'll see if I can get him to tell me." Sticks nodded, turning back to Sonic and slowly approaching him, but staying far enough away so he didn't feel trapped. "Sonic, can you tell me who did this to you?"

Sonic sniffed and looked up at his friend, his eyes wet and bloodshot from the crying. He was trembling as he stared, the two sides of his brain fighting with each other.

We have to tell them. If we do, maybe they can help.

But if we tell them, we risk letting them get hurt by that whore. We'd never be able to live with ourselves.

But if we don't tell them, she's just gonna keep coming back and attacking and raping us. We should've told Eggman when we had the chance, but we can tell them now.

Don't you remember how she attacked us after we left Egghead's lair just because she thought we might of said something?! Remember her threat?! I think I'd rather just die than let that happen to anyone!

Maybe we should have taken up Eggman's offer.

Wouldn't have mattered. She most likely would've stilled attacked us in the morning. We can't say anything. They already know what happened, but she can't do anything if they don't know who did it.

Got me there.

"Sonic?"

Sonic snapped out of his mental battle with himself and looked back at Sticks, who was still staring in concern. Sonic whimpered and shook his head, refusing to speak and put his friends in danger as he looked away from them, staring at the wall with an empty haunted look.

"Just as I thought…" Sticks sighed as she looked back at her friends. "He's not gonna tell us anything… he's too broken for it."

Sonic's friends didn't know what to say to this. How do you fix someone who has been traumatized by rape?

"We should… probably tell Eggman." Tails exclaimed suddenly.

"What? Why?!" Amy demanded.

"Because if you remember correctly, Eggman wanted to make sure Sonic got home ok."

"But he's not ok, Tails." Knuckles frowned. "He's not ok at all. He was raped!"

"You think I don't know that?!" Tails snapped, then sighed. "But still, I think Eggman deserves to know, otherwise, why would he go through the trouble of taking care of Sonic after the first attack and warning us to watch out for him?'

Knuckles, Sticks, and Amy said nothing, giving the fox a small victory over his decision. He went over to a laptop he had sitting on a nearby table and began typing a few codes into in, trying to hack into Eggman's security system to send a two-way message to the evil genius. Suddenly, there was a small BLOOP, and an image of Eggman sitting at his high-tech computer came onto the screen. Tails turned on the microphone and began speaking.

"Doctor Eggman?"

Tails' sudden voice that seemed to come out of nowhere startled the villain as he yelped and fell back over his chair, crashing onto the floor. Tails cringed at the sound, his ears falling against his head.

"Sorry Eggman, didn't mean to startle you." He apologized.

"Why, when I get my hands on you, you no good goody-two shoes furball!" Eggman snapped threateningly as he stood up and sat the chair back upright, looking around, becoming confused when he couldn't see the twin-tailed fox. "What the- where are you?"

"I hacked into your security cameras," Tails explained, ignoring the threat. "I thought you would like to know that Sonic made it home."

"Oh, thank goodness." Eggman sighed with relief. "If I'm honest, I was actually really worried about him. You should've seen the injuries I saw."

"I think I have a pretty good idea." Tails sighed, looking at his friend in the corner. "But frankly, I think he may have been better off staying with you last night."

"I offered him a place to stay, but he refused. Why, what's wrong?"

"Sonic had another attack on his way home last night. There are new claw wounds on his arms, and there's a shallow cut across his throat, and his lip is all bit up."

"Oh no, is he ok?!"

"I wish I could say he was, but Eggman… we know what happened."

"... And?"

"Turns out… Sonic… was…"

"Was what Tails?"

"...Raped."