Chapter 6 – Tragedy
Sonic's mouth hung agape as his mind attempted to grasp what he saw. There were many rows of chairs with people positioned on the grass, and a small stand was set up at the front. The sound of birds could be heard in the spring air, but the atmosphere was anything but pleasant. A few metres away, the large group could be seen in their seats, dressed in black. There was no denying what type of ceremony it was. He felt a huge sense of dread dragging him down.
.
These people are here to honour somebody, he thought. Somebody whose life has been lost. He was naturally saddened at this, but the fear of who it might be was far worse. He didn't have to see Dessovelle to know that she was floating beside him. Hardly moving an inch, he spoke. "Whose is it?" he said quietly. He didn't need to specify what he meant.
She responded with the same hushed tone of respect. "Why don't you find out for yourself?" He finally shifted his position, and began gingerly pacing towards the crowd. He took note of the tall owl in front of the people, the funeral director, he presumed.
.
With every step he took, he increased the strain on his ears, desperately trying to detect the man's words. As he drew nearer, he became aware that he and his friends could be seen seated along the rows. It then became apparent that everyone he knew was present.
The whole town's here, he realised. It has to be somebody that I know. His stomach flipped at the thought. He hurriedly scanned the lines of people. Me, Tails, Cosmo, Knuckles, Rouge, Vector… He continued to tick off the names in his head, and he found himself beginning to panic at the absence of a particular person. Espio, Vanilla, Silver, Blaze…
.
After mentally labelling each person he still hadn't seen her. She wasn't there. He brought his feet to a halt, and felt a nasty swirling sensation. No. He checked the aisles again, but nothing changed. No. He returned his attention to the owl at the front, and picked up on the end of his sentence.
"…we all know that Amy Rose will be greatly missed."
.
Every nerve in his body went numb. He was rooted to the spot. At that point, everything stopped for him. The world seemed to freeze around him, as if he was the only living thing left. He was encased by a deafening silence. The only sound was his heartbeat slowly thumping in his ears, as his ragged breathing echoed inside his head. He felt his throat dry up, and little black blobs dotted his vision as a sense of dizziness was aroused.
Amy…she's…gone…
.
He frantically tried to find ways to contradict it with everything he had, any ways at all to prove that there was nothing wrong. But even Sonic couldn't argue with the truth, no matter how painful it was. He shifted his gaze to the group of mourners once he'd finally collected himself enough to move. Tails was walking to the stand in front of the crowd, to speak about Amy, Sonic realised with horror.
I'm going to watch my little brother give a speech about the person I cared about more than anything else in the world.
He lowered his ears, tensing himself, as Tails quickly dried his eyes and prepared to speak.
.
"Amy was one of the b-best friends I've ever h-had," he sniffed. "She was always s-so good t-to me, and she treated m-me like a brother. Just as Sonic does," he whispered, attempting a comforting smile at the blue hedgehog, who nodded in appreciation, although his pain was evident. "To those that d-didn't know her, she may have seemed a little aggressive. But underneath that, she was probably the k-kindest person you'd ever meet. She would always go out of h-her way to help other people, and she was a g-great role model to me." He paused to wipe his eyes again, and took a few deep breaths. "I know that wherever she is n-now, she's watching over us, a-and I'll never forget her."
.
At this, a loud sob could be heard from Sonic, and the audience turned to look at him. Knuckles was rubbing his back.
"Come on, Sonic. Keep it together, man. Just calm down," he said quietly.
Sonic shook his head, spraying tears everywhere. He was taking in deep, whooping breaths, and his hands raked through his quills. Knuckles was clearly distressed by this, as a tearful Rouge handed him a tissue.
He offered it to Sonic, who was now hysterical.
"I don't want a damn tissue!" he screamed.
.
Everyone stared in silence. He looked torn apart, messed up even. It was almost frightening. He hurriedly staggered to his feet, knocking over his chair in the rush. He zoomed out of the ceremony as fast as his feet would carry him.
.
Sonic was immobilised with disbelief. He always handled every situation with the utmost calm and confidence. He never even considered the idea of himself breaking down in front of the whole town. The concept was almost laughable, although nothing was funny about what he'd seen. His entire body was still trembling with the revulsion from what had just happened. He thought that he could handle it, but he was soon proved wrong. Nothing inside of him felt right at all. He summoned the remaining traces of emotional strength that he had left, and walked past the congregation. He didn't need to walk for long before he found what he'd been looking for, or rather, what he'd been dreading to see.