Chapter two: Roses are Red

Shadow walked out of the forest and looked back at it in anger. How could have lost the villain? He looked at his arms and sighed. They were covered in tiny scratches for the numerous bramble bushes that seemed to almost purposely conceal themselves amongst the trees and regular bushes. He looked up towards the city and sniffed for some reason that was unknown even to him; a bad feeling was in the air and he didn't know what it was, but neither did he like it. Shadow suddenly started running in the direction of Amy's house. He normally kept a regular eye on her since he noticed that she had started to self harm when meeting up once. He raced to her house and immediately jumped up onto the balcony and pricked up his ears as the blinds were shut. He suddenly heard yelling from inside his eyes flared and before narrowing as he quickly listening harder. Someone was on the phone to what sounded like the emergency services. Shadow quickly grabbed the door handle on the French doors to find them locked. He growled at them before grabbing the handle with both hands and tearing it open forcefully. The strong smell of iron hit his sensitive nose for the second time his eyes quickly dart over to the floor where Amy is laying in a pool of her own blood. "Rose." He whispered in shock Shadow shot to the other side of the room where Spall was standing there gawping at him. "What happened?" Shadow growled at him. Spall gasped and chocked slightly as Shadow had put pressure on his wind pipe.

"I found her like this." He managed to chocked out. Shadow relieved the pressure on Spall's windpipe, but kept him pinned against the wall. "I was just bringing her some flowers..." Spall trailed off. Show's eyes glanced over to the blood red roses on the floor and found it odd that they had no blood on them at all. His ears drooped at the sight of the colour and type of flower but he dropped Spall who almost fell over at the sudden increase of gravity.

"Have you called an ambulance?" Shadow questioned as he crouched down and felt her neck, probably for a pulse. "Go grab some towels to stem the bleeding. The bathroom is over there." Shadow announced as he pointed towards the door just down the corridor. "Be fast." Shadow muttered as he moved her into a more comfortable looking position. Spall quickly dashed to the bathroom and was back within a few seconds, practically throwing the towels at Shadow. Shadow expertly caught them and immediately starts ripping them and using them as improvised bandages. Spall watch him in awe for a few minutes as he saw the amount of caring and gentleness that came from the seemly angry and aggressive hedgehog. The sound of sirens was heard getting rapidly closer as the paramedics get closer.

"Excuse me... But who are you? Are you Shadow?" Spall asked Shadow as he finished off. Shadow looked at him with lazy irritated eyes and blatantly ignored his question.

"Apply pressure here." Shadow ordered as he pointed to where his left hand was pressing. Spall did what was told and Shadow stood up doing a spectacular dive of the balcony. Spall shouted a thanks just as two male dogs and a female cat rush in and Spall wondered if Shadow had heard him. The cat of them immediately checked Amy's pulse and did a quick glance of the make shift bandages.

"Nice bandaging skills. If you could step back." Two others came and swiftly put Amy on a stretcher before carrying her out. "Your girlfriend should be fine. She isn't critical thanks to your swift reactions but she will be under risk if we don't get her back right away." She told him as she rushed downstairs.

"She isn't my girlfriend!" Spall shouted, but the paramedic was already gone. Suddenly he realised he may be able to ride along if they thought she was his girlfriend so he grabbed the roses and rushed down the stairs after them.

The ride in the ambulance was no where near as fun as the ride in the police car, that was obvious on Spall's face. It was likely because instead of sitting with someone who, despite her ditziness, had dealt with those sort of situations before he had no one. This was strange to him, he had barely met this women and yet he already felt like he had some kind of bond with her. He just didn't know what the bond was yet. He was in there for several minutes and all he could do was stare at her hooked up to the portable life support, looking so frail and weak in comparison to how she had looked when he first met her only hours ago. He wondered who the hedgehog was that popped in though the French doors, and what his connection was with Amy. Suddenly the ambulance stopped and the paramedics burst out the doors, carefully lifting Amy out of the ambulance. They swiftly got her into the hospital. Spall just stood at the bottom of the small hill leading to the hospital looking up at in awe. He had never been in a hospital in his memory, only when he was born was he in one because his whole life he had somehow never got ill, not once. He quickly dashed up the hill and went in the entrance, still as fascinated as a puppy with a new toy, and went to the reception. "My friend Amy just came in?" Spall asked the Cheetah receptionist sitting behind the desk, she clicked on a few things.

"She is in intensive care, sorry you can't go in until they've fully assessed and stabilised her. If you'd like to give me your name and take a seat I'll call you over when she's out." The receptionist told Spall. He looked behind him and saw a waiting room full of people, he told her his name before sighing then walking over and sitting down in one of the comfier seats.

As Spall sat there and waited he watched people come and go. People were constantly coming with some sort of emergency, whether it be with an ambulance or just by some member of their family that had driven them there. It was fascinating to Spall to see just how busy this place was, as stated before, he had never needed to go into one. He sat there for what seemed like hours, the clock managed to hit midnight, and it was dark outside.

"Spall? Amy's available for visitors." The receptionist announced. Spall sprung up and paid his thanks before shooting off and then realising he had no idea where he was going. "Room 403." She chuckled before he once again dashed off, swerving in and out of the many doctors and nurses. He rushed up to the fourth floor and counted the rooms as he went along. He found the room almost right away. He took a deep breath as he turned the handle. Inside the room it was everything that he expected it to be, to his surprise he found Amy hooked up to little more than a hear monitor, already awake.

"Hey you." Amy muttered to him sleepily. Seemed they'd put her under some kind of thing to make her sleep, that wasn't working too well.

"Hey, you okay? I brought flowers." Spall asked before pointing to the flowers in his hand. Amy looked at them and grinned sleepily.

"You shouldn't have. Red Roses though?" Amy asked, seeming to be waking up slightly from the interaction. Spall looked at them mystified.

"They were yellow. That's just odd. I'll put them in this conveniently placed vase next to you, seems to already be filled with water too. How convenient. Hospitals are weird." Spall concluded. Amy laughed slightly.

"I hate them. Can't wait to get out of here." Amy told him. Spall looked at her half sympathetically and half confused.

"Why did you do it?" Spall asked rather bluntly, but in a gentle voice. Amy sighed.

"21st of June 2013 today." Amy announced as if that explained everything. Spall just looked at her weirdly. "I take it you don't remember the... Incident of 2012?" Amy questioned. Spall shook his head in reply, Amy just smiled and laid her head down. "Well that's good, not many do." She took a deep breath and sighed before continuing. "Someone promised me something during it, I put all my trust in him, but he deserted me as soon as we got back here. It flung me out of sync, I had spent so much time before depending on no one, but then spent a whole year practically depending on him without even realising. So I was lost when he left, I had no one, Slayde disappeared. Everyone did. I was alone for the first time in a long time and it just got to me so much that past things came back to haunt me. I was trying to cope by myself and then when you mentioned the police station, it all came back. My parents were murdered. And the killer was never caught." Amy concluded. Spall was almost in tears.

"That has to have been horrible for you." Spall whispered, sounding very shocked. Amy seemed to have fully woken up now, whatever they gave her really didn't work.

"I'm going to get out of here, so I'd suggest leaving unless you want to help me." Amy announced as she shut off her own heart machine and sat up looking at her bandaged arms. "Erm could you just turn for a second, I need to change out this damn dressing gown thing." Amy told him, Spall quickly turned and faced the wall, hearing her get out of the bed and grab something, before a load of rustling and finally. "You can turn now." Spall turned to see her in the clothes she had come on the ambulance in. A short sleeved top and jeans, there was a tiny bit of blood specked on the shirt.

"Here, take my jacket." Spall told her, offering her the black hoodie with a Shadow logo print on it. Amy paused and looked at the print for a second in irritation before shrugging and putting it on, zipping up the front, covering the small blood stain and all the bandages on her arms.

"Thanks." She answered simply as she walked out the room. Spall felt uneasy about this. It was like springing someone out of... Well... Hospital. They made it all the way without incident and as soon as they were outside Amy was bounding around. Spall didn't get how she could be so energetic considering the fact that she had almost died not too long ago. Spall then noticed the Roses in her hand. She had kept them! That made him smile a silly grin. He didn't really understand where the grin had come from, but didn't seem too bothered.

"So where too?" Spall asked out the blue after a few minutes of walking. It was getting dark and he didn't want to be outside because of the murderer that was hanging about. Yet they didn't seem to be going in the direction of the flats, they were off course a little.

"I'm going to this nightclub that's not too far away from our flats called 'The Ice Cube' It used to be owned by a friend of mine, well I suppose it still is, we just don't talk that much anymore. Funny how things can make you lose touch with people." Amy replied. Spall looked at her shocked.

"I don't really do night clubs. I'll see you tomorrow I guess." Spall told her, she looked slightly disappointed but didn't press the subject. She continued to walk off as Spall turned to go towards the apartments. Something was nagging him, and he didn't know what.

Didn't go after her I see. The voice suddenly chipped in. Spall just ignored it. What if she's off to jump in a river?

"Leave me alone." He said aloud, earning a couple odd looks from the people who were still outside.

And what if that murderer finds her? Spall just completely ignored the voice and walked home as quietly as he could. He arrived, went upstairs and went right to bed, despite the fact he hadn't eaten. And fell into a dreamless sleep.

Meanwhile, In The Park

The park was completely quiet, save the lone straggler who dared brave such a dangerous area at night with a killer on the loose. As hard as the police had tried to cover it up this murder was just in too much of a public place as it had to be cordoned off. The entire park had been shut to prevent any contamination of evidence or for someone to stumble upon the body and become disturbed for the rest of their life. That of course did not stop everyone, some people came in for shelter, some people came in for dares, but one lone Wolf was sat in the middle of it all, looking for as much evidence as he could. His colleges had left hours ago, telling him to get some rest, come back in the morning. Not that he listened. No. His job had become his obsession. The need to redeem himself shone through, though no one knew. Far off, in a land not so well known he himself had committed a terrible crime that made him feel sick. The crime of murder. It was the heat of the moment, he found her, cheating on him with another in their bed. He just couldn't take it. He was gone before morning, no doubt the bodies weren't discovered for a few weeks. He moved somewhere so far he'd never be discovered, unless he went back of course. The black wolf was just about to give up when something caught his eye, he hadn't noticed it in the sunlight, though he didn't understand why. All he knew is that his wolf eyes could see it clear as crystal in the moonlight. A trail of burn so thin that it didn't seem natural. It seemed to lead to where the body was sat from a dark bit of trees that even with his eye he couldn't see into from here. In fact the contrasted made it impossible to see into the small gap of trees yet was perfect to see everything that went on in the clearing of the park. It clicked. He didn't know why he didn't think of it earlier. He made his way to the clearing swiftly, carrying various tools to try and find various bits of evidence. He started immediately after his eyes had adjusted to the change in light levels, finding nothing of evidence anywhere in the place. Again as he was about to give up, something seemed to cut him a lucky break. He found a single piece of purple fur. His thoughts cast back to the purple hedgehog in the interview room and considered immediate comparison of DNA samples. He went to pick up the sample, but suddenly he heard a shuffle behind him. He turned, who ever this was, he best have a good reason for being here. It was not only cordoned off, but also he was in the middle of some important evidence gathering. He opened his mouth to tell them to leave, to tell them that they would be arrested if they were on this area for much longer than a few more seconds. At least, he would have told them that if he hadn't been punched in the jaw with the amount of force that he was sure could only have come from a steam engine. His vision swam and his conscious almost threatened to go out as he slammed into a nearby tree and fell over. He made an attempt to stand, but he had been robbed of all balance, he lifted his head slowly to see a hooded figure, bitterness and hatred flowing in the air around him. He found himself being picked up by an ungloved hand with purple fur on the back of it, which confused him, no finger prints were ever found at any of the previous sites, so why would a killer be so shoddy now? He couldn't decide who was attacking him, instinct said the killer but logic told him that it couldn't possibly be. There was never any evidence of physical assault before the murders before. Could this be a new killer working in the others shadow? His thinking was cut short as his head was slammed into the side of a tree, scraping his skin and leaving deep cuts. Pain surged through his brain, but he would not scream. He would not give his torturer that satisfaction. His face was once again smashed against the tree head on. His nose smashed, pouring blood down the lower of his face. The hand lifted his face to be on equal level with its own. The Wolf could almost make out a face as the attacker breathed in deeply. The attackers other hand snapped up and wiped a finger over the blood, becoming covered with the red liquid. The attacker then put the finger in what the wolf could only assume was the mouth of the attacker and the attackers eyes flashed, the wolf fought the urge to vomit as some feeling finally came back to his body from the delay since the previous attack. The wolf flailed and scored a lucky hit to the side of the attackers head, his self defence course never taught him what to do in this situation. The figure dropped him and he fell to the floor, he noticed bare feet with black fur on the top, this confused him, the only person he suspected it to be was fully purple He looked up quickly at the recovering foe and fled right into the forest, sure that his advanced sight in dark light would save him. He ran as fast as he could, not noticing the eerie silence of everything else in his panic. Suddenly there was a shuffle in the tree to the right of him, he almost shouted in surprise and instinctively turned to run to his left. He knew this park and its forest was right in the middle of the city, so if he could just get out of it there would be people around, and he'd be safe. He continued running with this thought in mind, lungs and legs burning from the effort they were not used to. Heart beating far too fast from both fear and exercise. After what felt like hours but was only minutes the wolf caught a view of the city. He almost shouted in happiness, his legs were threatening to give way and he almost slowed down a bit, but he knew that could mean death. He heard a final rustle behind him and a hand grasped the backpack he had full of forensic items, very fluidly he disconnected the bag and continued running, making it out of the forest and onto the street. He instantly collapsed, gasping for breath. A female Panther in her early thirties stopped by him.

"Are you okay?" She asked in a hushed tone, she probably knew about the killer.

"Need... police... now..." The wolf managed to get out in glorified huffs, so warn out from the run that he had just done that he couldn't even construct sentences. The Panther quickly put his arm round her shoulder.

"There's a phone booth just there, I'm afraid I have no mobile." The women told him as she half pulled him along. There was a bench next to the booth and the wolf was grateful to sit down, he could hear her talking over the phone. She asked for the police at the location and an ambulance. She thanked them and hung up the phone as the booth door opened. The wolf waited quietly for her to come out the booth and the door closed. He sighed and turned to see his rescuer and thank her. Instead he was greeted by a cloaked figure with a malicious grin shining through in the darkness. What happened next shocked him even more.

"You didn't really think you'd escape me did you?" The murderer asked with a hint of amusement coming through. Because he now had no doubts that was exactly who she was. The tone was evil and dark and malicious and loathing. But that didn't hide the feminine tone that fell from the cloaked ones mouth. The wolf stuttered and tripped over his own words, unable to get up and run this time because his legs wouldn't let him force them into any more running. "Now you'll just die tired." She told him harshly as she roughly covered his mouth with her right hand, making him unable to breath. He started to struggle, his arms still fully functional and not shut down from tiredness Both went to her arm to moved it until an incredibly sharp yet dull pain hit his chest. He found his vision fading quickly as she let go of him, holding his heart in front of him he knew that his brain would survive without his heart for mere moments, he also realised his lungs were severely punctured and he couldn't make a sound even if he wanted to. He fell onto his back and the murder dropped his heart right back into the gaping hole in his chest as it leaked blood all over the place, no heart to pump it and cause it to spurt. The murderer started licking the blood off her fur as she walked away. He looked over to the women in the booth, thankful to see she was still breathing, just unconscious as he put all he effort into moving his arm, dipping his finger into his own blood he wrote shakily on the window of the booth 'Femal' before he passed out without finished off the last letter, never to wake up again.

Sorry I've been slacking guys! My first update for aaages. I'll try get When All Else Fails AND Doomsday updated by the end of the week! :)

~SD out :P