Hey what's up guys! I got another chapter for you right here and I hope you're liking the story so far. It means a lot to me when you review so I would really appreciate if you took the time to write just a simple comment or anything you like! Thanks :)

Here is chapter 4!

Chapter Four: Trusting Me

It felt like I hadn't slept in forever. I can't even describe the feeling; it was the deepest sleep I've ever had. I'd woken up to the sun setting in the distance through the slightly open curtain that revealed the orange painted sky. There was a small breeze coming from the window that was cracked open an inch. It was surprisingly chilling as my body had attained a warmth I hadn't felt in a long time. I pulled up the covers to cover me completely and thought about everything that had happened in the last 24 hours. I had successfully escaped my imprisonment of a decade, been rescued by a very kind-hearted stranger who wasn't such a stranger anymore, and had sought out refuge in the hospital she had been born. There were a lot of things that I should have been overjoyed about, but I couldn't help but worry about the other girls who I wasn't able to experience this with.

A saddening guilt crept into my mind that they must have thought that I'd selfishly abandoned them. Even though Sonic had tried to reassure me that I hadn't left them behind, I didn't exactly explain to him the whole truth behind my escape. The honest story would have been to tell him about the plan they had created together a few weeks prior to my escape. This plan could have only worked if the four of us had done our share of the tasks and it would have had to have been pulled off perfectly.

The plan was that while "he" was out, we would investigate every place in the cabin that he held us. When he left, he would lock all the shutters and doors and any possible ways for us to escape. If we understood every path, we could have found a weakness some place; and we did. It took us a week to come up with what we could do with the loose brick under the window in the dining back of the house. We decided that every chance we could we would loosen it even more until one day one of us was able to remove it. We then moved on to our tactic for escape. One of the girls was meant to distract him for a bit by pretending to have cut herself and asking him to go fetch the bandages, which we had taken from every possible place in the house to buy us some time. The next girl was supposed to use the brick to break the lock off the back door while the third girl grabbed all the stuff we might have needed on our escape (which wouldn't have been very much since we needed to run). I was supposed to run out and find the sharpest stick in the forest nearby to use as a weapon against "him", since we knew for a fact that he would come after us. I probably had the most dangerous part since I would be the one to fight him off if we weren't fast enough. I was the fastest one of the girls and I was probably the one that showed the most hatred towards him.

But... it had been weeks since we had thought that plan over and I... I was getting scared that we were slowly becoming delusional and that our moment of freedom would never come. So I ran away, in the middle of the night, by using the brick to break the lock and just running for it. It was so rainy and cold and I was crying senselessly but I was so pumped with fear after I heard him yelling after me, that I didn't stop running until I lost my mind. And then I fell onto an open road, where a chance I thought could never come, came in a rapid flash of light and thunder. And then I woke up here...

I shook myself out of my trance of memories I hadn't even realized I was in.

Dammit Amy! Get a hold of yourself. If you keep blaming yourself, how can you help the others...

I had to convince myself that me being safe and sound here was a good thing. At least now, I could work with the police to save the others, and we could all live normal lives again and see our families again and-

"Amy? You awake?"

It was the peppy nurse I had spoken to earlier.

"Yeah. I'm awake."

"Oh, good! Did you sleep well? A-are you hungry? I mean, you must be after all this time..."

She was muttering on again, but I appreciated her presence. It was a really big change in environment for there to be such positive people in my surroundings. It seemed to make my mood lighter every time she was in the room.

"Yes, I slept very well and uumm, yeah, I could go for some food right about now."

"Oh goodie! I'm happy you seem to be recovering very quickly and I'll go get you something to eat right away!"

"Oh, and nurse?"

"Yes Amy?"

"Thank you."

"For what, may I ask?"

"For being you."

"Oh, Amy, that's so kind of you to say! You're very welcome! I'll be right back with your food now."

She smiled at me in the sweetest way. And in that moment, I felt myself smiling too.

xXx

I was already beginning to get tired again a little while after I ate, but I thought it might be wise to keep myself awake for a little while longer to not completely ruin my sleep cycle. Just as I was thinking that, a blue figure walked into my room, as if on cue.

"Oh, you're awake already. I thought you might have still been asleep by now. Sorry for not being here when you woke up like I said I'd be; I kinda got caught up in a little nap myself. So how long you been up?"

"Uh, just a little while; maybe about half an hour, forty-five minutes."

"Oh, that long huh? Sorry, I guess I just have bad timing."

"It's alright. I think I needed a bit of alone time to think things over."

"Well then, I guess I have impeccable timing, haha."

"Yeah. I got some stuff cleared out of the way, so I guess it was a bit helpful."

Just then the nurse walked in with a couple of police officers and another woman who accompanied them. I had never seen any of them before now.

"Ms. Rose, may we have a word with you?"

"Um, sure. I think I know what this is about, anyway."

"Alright. Where should we begin?"

She and her male partner shared a glance and they both nodded to each other.

"So Ms. Rose-"

"Do you mind just calling me Amy? I mean I'm only sixteen, my mother is Ms. Rose."

I don't really know why I said it; I guess it just made me feel less uncomfortable in a way.

"Oh, yes. Of course. So, uh, Amy... do you mind telling us everything you know about what happened ten years ago when you were kidnapped? Any places, people, events, just anything you can remember; your furthest memory..."

"Uumm... The furthest back memory I have is the truck I was put in the day I was abducted. It was very big on the inside but then again, I was six so everything seemed big to me at that time. I'm pretty sure it was a van or a Jeep. It was a dark color on the outside but I'm not precisely sure what exactly. To be honest, ever since then I never even saw the van or Jeep. He kept us in the house for like 99% of the time so again I'm relying on a very distant memory. It could have been a dark green, which would kinda make sense since he kept us in the middle of the forest; or a dark burgundy or navy blue or something like that."

"Thank you. That's very helpful. I heard you mention an "us" in one of your statements. Could you tell us more about that? And you also stated for a fact that your abductor is a man, correct?"

"Yeah. He's a big and stocky hedgehog. He's a light red color and he has peachy skin. He was in his mid thirties to early 40s. Now that I think about it, he always made sure we remembered our birthdays and ages, but he never once told us his age or birthday.

About the "us" portion of my statement, there were always four of us. I was the fourth one when I first arrived with three other girls. I can't really tell you their names except for one of them, since only one of them remembered their name. He always used nicknames on us. Mine was Rose; the other three were Jewel, Kitty and Feathers. The thing is...Feathers didn't exactly... make it."

"What do you mean she didn't make it?"

"Three years ago, when I was thirteen, she tried to run but he caught her. He brought her back and she was dead. The thing about it is I don't know if he's the one who killed her. There were many ways that she could have died out there especially since she escaped on a January night and it was a blizzard outside."

"What about that girl whose name you knew?"

"Well that comes in to Feathers' replacement. She was Tickles and because she was 8 when she was kidnapped, she remembered her name. Her nickname was close; it was Tikal."

Sonic, then got a look on his face and looked up at the question.

"T-Tikal? Did you just say Tikal?"

"Yes, that was her name. Why do you ask?"

"That was the name of my friend's niece who went missing a little over three years ago and she was eight. I'm pretty sure she's the same one. She has a missing person's report and everything!"

"Is that so? Well then she'll be in the system for sure. Would you mind coming down to the station after you're discharged from the hospital?"

"Yeah, of course."

"So, what exactly did he do to you? Is there a certain reason that you know of as to why you were taken?"

"No, not really. He used to call u his little girls and treat us like we were his children. But as far as that goes, he never really did anything to us."

"Alright. I think that's enough questions for today. We'll see you at the station when you come down. Have a nice evening, Amy."

"Bye."

The two cops walked out of the room and revealed the woman standing at the back of the room that I had forgotten about.

"Umm, who are you?"

"My name is Ms. Acorn; I'm a social worker. I'm here to discuss your living arrangements for when you are released from the hospital. Do you have any relatives you can stay with till this is all sorted out?"

"Umm... no."

"Well then, that's a bit of a problem, isn't it, since your father isn't present and your mother is... shall we say away?"

"...Yeah."

"So your options are to stay with a foster family or in a group home. In your case, I personally think that a foster family would be the better option. But it's all up to you."

"Can I think about this later, I'm kind of wiped out from the cop talk?"

"Yes, of course. I'll be back either tomorrow or later in the week. Good day, Ms. Rose."

She walked out of the room and I was once again alone with Sonic. He now had a solemn expression upon his face and it made me feel bad that I mentioned his Tikal's name at all. At least he now knew she was alive.

Suddenly he got out of his seat and stood closer to my bed, then leaned down so we were eye level with each other.

"Listen to me, Amy. You don't have to go stay with some random family for months. I can provide you with another option."

"Really? What can you do?"

"You... you can come stay with me."

"What? But I don't even know you that well."

"But you know me better than you know anyone else here so what will it be?"

"Well you do have a point there but, to be honest, I'm not completely sure I can trust you yet."

"Okay, that's fair, but I live with my sister and in less than 3 months, my brother will be back from university. You won't be alone and I promise I can keep you safe."

"Let me think about it for a while. Can I just sleep on it?"

"Of course. Anyway, it's almost nine o'clock. I'll leave you to rest and I'll be back tomorrow morning."

"Don't you have work?"

"Well I work at an advertising company as a sort of paid intern so I just called in for the next week off."

"Oh, okay. Well, bye then, I guess."

"Goodnight, Amy."

He leaned down and kissed me on the forehead and then exited the room. It was kind of unexpected and left me still for a couple of seconds. It had been so long since anyone showed me this much kindness and care. .It was impossible to fall asleep after all that. I had a lot to think about.

xXx

It took me forever to fall asleep last night. First, I still had to struggle with the fact that the people who I had lived with for the last 10 years were still in captivity while I was living free and then on top of that I had an ultimatum pointed in my direction about my living arrangements. It seemed like a wiser choice to choose Sonic over the unknown but I was still unclear on whether I fully trusted him or not. He was very kind, caring and sympathetic, but how could I be sure that this wasn't just some ruse to get me alone with him? I shook my head instantly. Even I knew that that idea was stupid and I should've never thought of it in the first place. If I knew one thing in our short knowing of each other, it was that Sonic was NOT that kind of person. Was he?

I turned to the clock beside my bed to see that it read 8:14 A.M. I had woken up later than I had the day before and I had gone to sleep later. I pressed the buzzer to call the nurse only when she arrived it was a different nurse, who was accompanied by Dr. Fox.

"How are you feeling today, Amy?"

"Fine. The pain is still there but it's definitely not as bad as it was yesterday morning. "

"Well it's good to see you're recovering nicely."

"Does that mean I can walk soon?"

"In a little while, we'll see."

It was bright outside with the sun shining and barely a cloud in the sky but I couldn't help but feel a bit down with the realization that I couldn't move from my bed for another whole day. I just sat there waiting for someone to walk in to bring me out of my bored misery. It wasn't until a little after nine that Sonic walked in... and he brought somebody with him.

"Hey Amy! This is my sister Sonia."

"Hi, it's nice to meet you, Amy! My brother has filled me in on the story. "

"Oh uh, hi! I-It's nice to meet you too."

It was a little unexpected and quite frankly, caught me off guard. I guess he brought her here to try to convince me to go with him when I was discharged from the hospital. What he didn't know is that I had already agreed in my head, based on all the other options being far too unknown. I would have told him right away, but since he brought his sister here, I thought I might pretend to need a little more convincing just to see what they had to say.

"So Amy, my brother has told me that you're having some issues with your living arrangements."

"Uh, yeah."

"And he also told me that he offered you the option to live with us if you were comfortable with that."

"Correct."

"So I thought I'd come by with him today to talk with you about it. Is that alright?"

"Sure."

"Well, considering you don't have many choices other than going into the system, which is not a fun place to be, speaking from personal experience, I think that the better choice would be to come and live with us until this is all sorted out. Before you say anything about it being awkward or uncomfortable to do that, let me just tell you a little about the way the system works. You'll be put into a facility until they find you the proper foster parents and you'll be passed around from home to home like a hot potato. It isn't fun, especially for someone trying to break back into a regular life. The most normal life you'll be able to live is with us where you'll be in a controlled environment. But, it's still up to you; I just thought that you might want to know."

"Well, I didn't know it was that bad in foster homes, but I did some thinking last night and decided that even though I really don't know you guys that well, that it would be a better choice to live with someone that I know a bit about rather than a total stranger. "

"Really? That's great! It'll be nice to have a younger person in the house; maybe liven it up a bit, ha."

"Well I'm not sure how much livening up I'll do but I'd take a boring, regular, teenaged life over what I've been living for that last decade."

I'm not sure why I kept bringing it up; I guess it just happened. I didn't want to talk about it anymore; I wanted to forget it ever happened. I wish I could just wipe the memories clean from my brain and make it all just one big blackout. Every time I mentioned it, I felt the weight in the room just drop from being cheerful to depressing.

"Why don't we try not to talk about it as often, u-unless you want to talk about it? If that's the case then you can talk about it all you want; we'll listen to whatever you have to say."

Sonia was really nice. She kind of reminded me of Kitty a bit. She was 3 years older than I was but she was abducted a year before me. She was the leader of the four of us, I guess you could say. She was always thinking and acting as the mother figure to us, really. She was the one I felt the most sorry for about leaving them behind because she was always protecting us and taking care of us. I always wondered if she's the one who looked after us, who looked after her?

"No, you're right. I don't want to talk about it anymore. I just want to move on from it, you know?"

"Great! That's great to hear. That's the positive attitude that's gonna help you recover from this. And we'll help you every step of the way too."

"Thanks. You know, I'm surprised you're open to all of this. I mean, sure it'll be a bit awkward for me, but- you're so accepting to allow a stranger into your home so suddenly."

"Well, when Sonic first mentioned it, I wasn't too open to letting him finish his sentence after he mentioned it but then he told me what happened and where you'd come from. And then he mentioned that the social worker had said something about group homes and foster care and that's when I agreed. You see, Sonic and his brother were too young to understand what was going on at the time, but I had to live through it all protected these ones from reality and it was not fun. I didn't think it would be fair to leave you stranded in a situation that was similar to mine."

"I'm sorry about your situation. It means a lot to me that you would open up your home to me like that."

"Thanks. And you don't have to worry; I know what it's like to grow up without parents."

"Yeah, I heard. I'm sorry about that too."

"You don't have to be sorry for me. I got through it, I mean I'm standing here smiling, aren't I, haha?"

"Haha, yes you are."

I really liked her. I think I could learn a thing or two from her. However, what she said next scared me a bit.

"Now the next thing we need to discuss is school."

My eyes opened wide and I took in a quick breath. I hadn't even thought about school. I'd never really been to any school before other than first grade. I really didn't think about school- at all.

"O-oh yeah... school."

"Yeah. School. What is the last thing you learned?"

"Well, all of us used to read a lot because there wasn't much to do around the house so I think I'm pretty caught up with vocabulary and grammar. But as far as subjects like math and science go... I'm so far from ready."

"Really? What have you read?"

"I think the question is what haven't I read. Poetry, fiction, non-fiction, history, classics, journals, essays, you name it."

"So you must be pretty advanced with your language skills. We'll just need to take you for testing when the time comes. I'm pretty good at math and Sonic can probably tutor with science and stuff. He's such a geek when it comes to physics and chemistry!"

"H-hey! I am not. I just find it interesting, that's all."

"Whatever. Anyways, what I'm saying is, we'll get you caught up for next semester. The worst that can happen is you'll have to do an extra year."

"That's fine considering I've never even been inside a high school before. And Sonic, you never told me what you majored in at college. If you're so good at science, why would you drop out?"

"Well, I didn't go into science like I wanted to, the tuition fees were too high so I went into business, which is why I have the job that I have. I wasn't interested in it anymore after a year and half and so I just quit."

"You mean you dropped out because you were bored, not failing? That's a bit... spontaneous, if you will."

"Yeah, yeah, I know it was dumb of me then and I only realized just how stupid I was being after I did it so, what was I supposed to do?"

"You got me beat. I don't know anything about college, so don't look at me. So Sonia, what do you do?"

"Well I finished university four years ago and I graduated in electrical engineering, I know it's supposed to be a guy's job but fuck that noise, so yeah. Now I work at a computer company making computers, tablets, and all that junk."

"That's actually really cool. Do you get to keep any of it?"

"Hell yeah. Everything at home is from work. Of course you'll see that when you get out o the hospital; which shouldn't be too long from now."

"Yeah, I'm hoping it's soon cause I'm gettin' real tired of this bed."

"Haha, alright. Well, I actually need to get back to work since unlike Sonic here, I'm not on leave so, It was really nice meeting you Amy. Goodbye!"

"It was nice meeting you too. Bye."

Sonia exited the room leaving the room positive. I got the feeling that she was the kind of person who could look at any situation and make the best of it. I looked forward to getting to know her better.

"So what do you wanna talk about now?"

Sonic had a smile on his, as did I. For once in my life, I felt like it was finally make a turn for the better.

"Oh umm, I never really asked you about what you said yesterday about Tickles- Tikal! Sorry I just got so used to it."

"That's okay. And about that, I have a picture of her with me but it's when she was five so it might be hard to recognize her since she's eleven now."

He pulled out an old photo from his wallet. I was bent on the left corner and torn near the bottom but sure enough, the picture itself was clear. In the photo stood a little echidna girl in a green skirt and white top, laughing and holding an ice cream cone in her hand. My eyes were glued to her form. It was definitely the girl I had lived with for the last three years, smiling careless and free. The girl I left behind in Hell. The girl I abandoned. A single tear rolled down my cheek. I wiped it away quickly but Sonic had seen it. He slowly put the picture back in his wallet and tilted my chin up from where I was looking down. He made me look him in the eyes.

"It's her, isn't it..."

I couldn't find my words so I just nodded. That's when I really broke down. It was going to happen eventually, I mean the guilt was tearing me apart inside and I couldn't keep it in any longer. I put my face in my hands and started sobbing. I thought that I could avoid this but it was inevitable. Suddenly, I felt two muscular arms drape around me and pull me close. I had never been held like this in my entire life and it felt... it felt really good. It was the first time I had ever truly felt safe and protected. I had strived to be strong my entire life and tried to never let my guard down but right then, right in that moment, I felt like I could finally let it all go and just stay in my fantastical sanctuary and cry like I'd never cried before.

"It'll be alright, Amy. I promise. It's alright, I'm right here."

I took my face out of my hands and wiped my eyes. I could feel the streaks from my tears tightening on my face while they dried and left discolored stripes down my cheeks. I wiped my nose and was sure I probably looked like a total mess at that point but I decided to do something that I'd never been able to do back where I lived. As he delicately released his grip from around my form, despite the pain from my resisting body, I outstretched my arms and hugged him. He seemed to tense up a bit at first but then put one of his arms around my back where I was holding onto his neck. Just one of his arms seemed to wrap around my entire body and again, it made me feel safe.

"I- I'm okay. R-really, I'm f-fine."

I pulled away and he followed soon after. I reached for the box of tissues on the stand next to my bed and dried my face off. I stared to feel really tired all of a sudden. I thought it might be from the pain medication I had taken not too long ago. I also felt bad that I was taking up all of Sonic's time so I told him I felt sleepy and that he should go home for a bit since he looked a fatigued as well.

This entire situation must be stressing him out a lot and he can't be getting much sleep.

"Go, I'll be fine. I'll just sleep off this feeling. Just go home and get some rest, please. You need it just as much as I do."

"Alright, if you insist."

He went over to the curtains and pulled them closed so there was only the light from the fixture above. He made his way over to the switch and flicked it off so I couldn't see that well anymore. He walked over to my bedside, grabbed my hand gently and kissed me on the forehead, just like he had the night before. As he walked away, he held onto my hand until it just fell away from the distance. I think I finally trusted his promise to keep me safe; I finally trusted him. That was the first time I had slept soundly, without worry, in the last ten years.

Alright, Sonic and Amy are getting to know one another as well as understanding each other's back stories. It looks like they've both been through the rough but are recovering. Amy still has some regular life things to get used to so feel free to PM me or leave a review if you have any suggestions or ideas in mind for the upcoming chapters. Like I said at the top, it means a lot if you leave a review so please feel free to do so! And again, thank you so much for reading my story, stay tuned for the next chapter!

-Dark Rose