Chapter Eighteen

Broken

The next day, Rouge lay in her bed staring at the ceiling; she couldn't believe that Knuckles had tried to rape her; she had been up half the night crying and having nightmares of Knuckles coming towards her to hurt her.

"How could he?" she whispered "how could he?" she rolled onto her side, she could feel her baby moving around and kicking, "shhh shhh" she whispered "its ok baby" she whispered "you're safe, you're safe with me" she stroked her stomach and closed her eyes, singing softly to the baby.

As she sang, she closed her eyes again, she felt so tired from having nightmares and crying, stroking her stomach to calm her baby soothed her. As she slipped into a deep sleep, she saw images form and a voice began calling her. "Rouge…Rouge" Rouge opened her eyes to see herself standing in a dark room with a light coming in from a window, the light of the moon.

"Shadow!" she thought, she looked around and saw in the corner of the room a black hedgehog sitting in the corner just within the light of the moon, he had his head down and his knees pulled fully up to his chest. As she walked closer, she could see he had tears shining on his face from crying.

"Shadow…" she whispered in a heartbroken voice, "what have they done to you…?" she looked at him, the black hedgehog she knew, no longer standing strong and tall, fresh and fearless, but more like a cowered frightened child, a prisoner of war. His shiny black fur was all dirty and bloody, bruises covered his lean strong body, his quills were drooping and his eyes were red with the tears he had cried through torture and devastation.

Rouge walked over and knelt in front of him, Shadow then looked up, showing more scars, like his ear than was half missing, and his scar above his eye from the Metarex battle. "How could they accuse me of leading you to your death Molly? All I did was try to help, I saved you and Rouge from many dangers when we were fighting the Metarex together"

Tears then fell from his eyes "those monsters killed you, and I failed to save you from them…yet these bastards….your people….accuse me of killing you….I never wanted you to die….I was by your side the whole time…." He grasped his legs and cried harder into his knees.

Rouge felt so heartbroken, she wanted to hold him, but she couldn't, she was invisible to him, she cried more watching as Shadow sat there, broken and tortured. As she cried, she felt the scene around her fade as she was pulled away from her dream. She then opened her eyes again to find herself back in her bedroom.

Rouge sat up in shock, she was drenched in sweat and the baby was kicking again inside her, "shhh shhh" she whispered "mommy had a nightmare" she lay back on the bed and tried to get her breath back. "I better see Vanilla later about this" she said. "I need someone to talk to"

Later Rouge walked on to Vanilla's house, she held her stomach and wrapped her coat tighter around herself, and she walked through the park then made her way to Vanilla and Cream's house.

When she got there, she could see Vanilla sitting on the armchair watching Cream play on the floor with Cheese, Rouge sighed, her mind went back to what Knuckles tried to do to her, every time she closed her eyes, she could still see the echidna's face coming towards her, his large paws on her body as he tried to invade her.

Rouge bit her lip as she walked towards the house and knocked on the door, no sooner had she done that, Vanilla came to the door, "Hey Rouge!" she said cheerfully, but then her cheerful expression faded when she saw Rouge's pale face. "Rouge?" she asked "are you ok? Come on in!" Rouge walked through the door and through to the kitchen.

"Do you want a cup of tea?" asked Vanilla as Rouge sat herself down at the table. "Please" she whispered, she sat back and stroked her stomach as Vanilla boiled the kettle and prepared two large mugs of tea. She then made the tea and came over sitting opposite Rouge.

"My God" said Vanilla studying Rouge appearance as she sipped her tea, "you look horrible, you look like you haven't slept at all!" "I haven't" said Rouge lowering her mug. "Why?" asked Vanilla "what happened?" "Knuckles" said Rouge "Knuckles?" asked Vanilla surprised.

Rouge nodded, she then began to explain to Vanilla what he tried to do, how he had tried to rape her and how he could have hurt the baby. Vanilla was shocked, "he did that to you?" she asked. Rouge nodded "I don't know why he did" she said "he took me out on these dates and treated me well, but then forced himself on me"

Rouge began to get angry "he took me out on these dates, then I realise he only did it so he could get me in bed, he could have hurt the baby" Vanilla then grabbed Rouge's hands, "hey hey hey" she said soothingly "calm down, it's all over, everything's ok now"

Rouge looked at Vanilla and calmed down, "look Rouge" said Vanilla "what Knuckles did was wrong, but you can't beat yourself up about it" Rouge nodded, but in the back of her head, she kept thinking about how Shadow would have acted, "he probably would have Knuckles slaughtered" she thought. She looked back at Vanilla who stroked her hand still trying to calm her down.

Poor Rouge....but Vanilla was there to comfort her. That horrible Knuckles! Hope he's ashamed!

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Love Bloodrayne666