Chapter Two
No one was up.
Subconsciously, Sonic glanced at the digital clock on the oven door as he grabbed a glass from the cupboard. 5:34. No wonder Tails was still asleep – it was way too early. Not that it mattered to Sonic, of course. He'd been waking up at five in the morning on the dot for weeks now. Glancing out the window, he watched the slowly brightening sky turn a subtle shade of pink. The cotton candy clouds, all wispy and soft looking, made him feel sour for a moment. He realised that it was likely because he was still feeling more than a little pissed about his recent inability to get some sleep; the clouds reminded him of his soft, white pillow.
Wow, not even the slightest temptation to go back upstairs hit him. Usually it would if he thought about the comfy, warm embrace of the blankets on his bed and the feeling of the pillow against his head after a long day. Now: nothing. Now, only the unconscious need to stay awake filled him. It certainly was an odd feeling, one that he wanted to eradicate entirely.
When had he lost his ability to sleep again? A few weeks ago? A few months ago? Surely, it could not have been longer than a year… right? Maybe… maybe it was. It was hard to pinpoint the moment everything just stopped.
He did, however, feel as though it had happened shortly after he started to see him in the mirror again. His mocking, sharp-toothed grin and unforgiving eyes sometimes flashed in the mirror in the corner of his vision. It had come out of the blue one day, but he knew he was seeing it, hell, he wasn't that crazy yet, but there was nothing he could do about it. There was no one he could physically track down and stop. No, he was already inside his head. And he seemed to be there to stay.
There was no getting rid of him, clearly. He'd tried before but he was back now. He refused to tell Knuckles, he was afraid of appearing weak in the eyes of his friends and he knew that he could deal with it himself. He just had to.
The sound of glass smashing brought him back to reality as he jolted out of his trance. He had dropped the glass onto the tiled kitchen floor, the many sharp pieces now lying, scattered, across the ground. Sonic winced, his blue ears flattening slightly. He perked them up to listen towards the stairs for any sign of Tails.
A few moments went by and he heard nothing. He thanked Chaos silently that he didn't seem to have woken his brother up before glaring down at the mess he made.
'Great…' he growled in his head, his decent mood thoroughly ruined.
He bent down to pick up the shattered glass, ignoring how occasionally the glass would prick his skin and send jolts of pain shooting through his hand. He paid it no mind; he was used to it.
Once he was done, he glanced at the tap – he wasn't thirsty anymore. Disgruntled, he gradually made his way to the front door, hoping to clear up his mood with a lengthy run. Ordinarily, the blur of green grass beneath his feet, broken up only by the odd burst of colour from the flowers, would calm his mind and stop the negative thoughts from festering. Maybe it would work this time too.
One look out the door rapidly changed his mind.
Stone-grey clouds that had seemingly appeared from nowhere had began to form on the horizon. They would bring rain, he was sure of it. He abhorred rain. It was almost as if the weather had turned in response to his own mood which were, predictably, getting worse and worse by the second. How long had he been standing in the kitchen…? He didn't suppose it mattered much. How stupid he was to cling to the hope that things would get better… who was he kidding? They never get better.
"I guess when you're falling, you can only go down…" he muttered bitterly, 'until you hit the pavement that is.' He added mentally.
He refrained from slamming the door, despite how much he longed to, for his sleeping brother's sake, then moved to the front room where he collapsed on the soft, grey settee there. Huh, soft and grey…
How ironic. He truly couldn't catch a break.
He tried to find something to take his mind off recent events, but he found that he could not. He really wasn't making this easy on him… but, then, I guess that was his purpose.
(I'm back a "little" earlier than last time! By the might of the gods, I think the world is ending!
Anyway... This is a shorter chapter than the last one, but I had some inspiration so I thought I'd roll with it. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
~Fortune)