Chapter 3. Rest
Back at Rouge's house, She wasn't at all hesitant to dive into the comfort of her home, walking rather fast into the kitchen and leaning herself against the marble counter as she tried to catch her breath. Rex and Cass also out of breath looked out the kitchen window at the alley leading to the were house. Two GUN soldiers and a red echidna running out into the darkened street and into a different street out of view.
"What the hell just happened?!" Rouge insisted too know as the other two turned from the window.
"What I was trying to tell you." Rex spoke between a few short breaths. "I told you he was different."
Rouge didn't think he meant that different. She knew some grate amount of people and all of them different in there own way but she felt this was going a step too far on a scale of difference.
"What is he Rex? Some sort of demon vampire hedgehog?" The white bat coughed, fearing that she already knew the answer.
"I guess you could call it that.." The brown wolf related as he thought about the differences and then remained quiet in doing so, as did the grey fox.
Rouge continued after a brief moment of thinking. "Him, he needs the Ambrose diamond. But why?"
"Rouge this maybe a little too much to take in all in one night." Rex turned his attention back to the vixen, "I think it's best we go find get Shadow, Cassandra. He might try something again." Cass nodded slowly and headed for the door with Rex behind.
"Rex!" Rouge called as she tried to stop him but it was too late as he had already closed the door. "I hope they will be ok." Rouge whispered to her self as she directed herself to the window next to her and watched the two run quietly down the street into the darkness. Her mind was still trying to figure out if there was another reason for what her new hedgehog friend had done. The only possible answer kept coming up into her head but still she tried to dismiss the thought that there could be such thing as vampires, this is real life after all, It was all nonsense to her yet made sense at the same time.
She was quickly shaken back into reality by a huge flash of lightning and crackle of thunder. She hadn't herd the loud pounding of rain begin on the kitchen window that echoed threw out the small home making her feel more shaken and scared than she had previously been.
'Maybe Rex is right, I need some rest before I go nuts.'she thought to try and block out her thoughts of what she had seen that night. Looking at the clock face on the wall seeing it was twenty minutes till seven.
She pulled herself away from the counter and walked into the front room and picked up the mug of cold coffee she had put on the small table next to her sofa the night before. Rouge remembered that security camera photo that the TV had shown on the news report the day before. 'Knuckles is right, this hedgehog is dangerous but there's something more about him'Rouge stood for a moment it think as she placed the mug down in the kitchen on the cold marble surface. "I need to find out what is going on around here tomorrow." She finally spoke out loud as she turned out of her kitchen into the living room and up the wooden stairs that lay opposite the front door.
Her room was at the end of a long corridor. The door looked like every other door in the house. An almost white wood with a silver door knob with a small heart shaped diamond in the centre. The only difference with this door is it had the name 'Rouge' engraved on a small silver plaque three quarters of the way up the front in a fancy writing, slowly opening the door and taking her boots off before she walked in as not to ruin the cream carpet..
"I need to redecorate in here." Rouge complained as she looked around at the four dark pink walls that hung a few pictures and paintings. She took a few steps over to her dressing table and sat down on the small chair, lifting a picture frame from it and looking at it closely. The ivory bat and a few friends had all grouped together making weird faces and poses for the photo, scanning it closely Rouge's eyes focused in the middle on a blue hedgehog, a yellow fox and a red echidna. She let out a deep sigh as she gazed upon the echidna. She could forgive knuckles as much as she wanted to but it didn't change her mind about him. The fact that she had trusted him for so many years made it hard to stay mad at him, no matter how serious it was.
When her eyes met the other two next to him, the hedgehog and the fox, her mind automatically drifted to Shadow and Cassandra. They looked so alike to one another that she thought this was all some weird dream, or nightmare. "This is just getting too weird." She thought aloud as she compared the ones in the photo to her new friends. "Maybe I should get some rest and I'll forget all about this crap in the morning."
She rose from her chair and placed the frame back down in its position, sitting herself onto the bed and resting her head down on a soft pillow.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Rouge slowly flickered her eyelids open to a small rustling sound, hoping to look up a warm morning sunshine threw her bedroom window, but she soon realised it was nothing more than the soft silver light from the moon and the curtains blowing slowly in the breeze of a partly open window. The rain had stopped a short time ago it seemed as small drops of water sat on the outside surface of the glass.
She lifted herself from the comfort of her pillow and made a gentle yawn, walking to the window and closing it, noising the carpet to be wet. 'That's weird.'she thought as she turned around and looked about the room.
"Hello Rouge." voice came from beside her making her jump back with shock as she turned quickly to face an ebony hedgehog.
"God sake, Shadow. Scare me to death." The white bat laughed over her fear as she realised who it was.
"God has nothing to do with it." He stated looking out from the window at the quiet moonlit street. "Do you know where Cass and Rex have ran off to by any chance?"
Rouge thought for a moment and shook her head. "They left to find you before you got yourself into any more trouble." She responded tilting her eyes down at the bloody stains over his dark coat, causing him to do the same.
"Oh, right." He mumbled as she sat him down on the end of the bed. "I'm sorry you had to see all that, Rouge." Rouge just smiled trustfully.
"Don't move from this spot, ok?." Shadow nodded as the bat walked threw a small door to her left turning the light on, walking into a small bathroom as Shadow watched, taking the chance for his eyes to wonder about the room he was in as he waited.
"So?" came a muffled call from the other room as the sound of running water was herd. "Why do you need the Vampire Crystal anyway?"
Shadow made a deep sigh as he turned his head as he thought about the current question. "Because of what I am."
Rouge walked back in the room with a small wet towel, the hedgehog could clearly smell the strong fragrant of bleach emitting from it as she gently stroked the large stain on his sleeve. "Your soaking wet, Shadow."
Shadow nodded slightly and looked back at Rouge, still thinking to himself. "I had to make shore those another three didn't say anything." Rouge knew what he meant. She just worried about if knuckles was ok, she didn't want anything to bad to happen to him, he was only looking out for her safety after all.
Removing the towel from his sleeve, a small patch of red soaked it to it removing most of the stain, even though it was still rather noticeable she decided it was the best she could do for now.
"It would be best if we could put this in the wash for now." She said as she rose from her seated position and headed for the other door across the room, quickly slipping her boots on. Shadow nodded and got up, following behind her after she left the room.
Rouge steadily made her way threw the dark corridor trying her best not to trip over any unseen objects from in front of her as she reached the stairs.
"Damn it's so dark." She whispered as she tried her best to see where she was going.
"Maybe for you, but not for me." the darker hedgehog spoke making his way down the hall without a trouble as he came up to the white bat. She reached the stairs but had to try and predict where the first step would be as she placed her foot out in front of her, leaning forward until it touched a step. She slowly lowered herself to the first step and made a low sigh with relief as she had found the stairs. Placing her foot out for another step, as a loud bang was herd from outside in the street that seemed to echo threw the house causing her to fall forwards with fright, but was quickly caught in the arms of the dark hedgehog.
"Oh my God! Thank you so much Shad." She gasped as she realised what she had done, quickly giving shadow a soft hug as he set her back down on the right step.
"Are you ok?" He asked with a slight laugh. Rouge nodded.
"I think I'll live, I think I just hurt my ankle there." The ivory bat spoke looking down at her leg and inspected it carefully. She listened closely. "So what the hell was that?"
"I don't know, it sounded like a gunshot." Shadow also listening for any signs that could prove different. "It's ok. I got you if anything bad happens." Rouge smiled softly even though she wasn't even shore if he could see it in the darkness.
"I think I might hold you too that." She knew that he meant what he said and that made her feel safer as she made her way down the stairs with a little help and turned into the kitchen. With a simple flick of her wrist she turned on the lights on her way in.
"Right then, do you want a cup of coffee or something while you're here?" the bat asked as she turned the kettle on and walking to Shadow, who nodded slightly as the white bat helped him to remove his coat revealing some small bullet holes on his back, nothing too serious anymore but she could tell they had been bleeding badly at the time and they looked as if they were really painful.
"Them soldiers got you badly." Rouge whispered loud enough for shadow to be able to hear as she folded the coat in her arms and took a closer look at his back.
"It's nothing I can't handle." He answered as he leaned back against the wall. Rouge sighed slightly as she remembered that he was a vampire after all, but she still felt that it must of hurt him a lot no matter what he was, she knew he needed the help weather he would admit to it or not.
"We're still going to need to get that sorted sooner or later, or your going to have problems." Rouge explained as she tossed his coat into a wash basket.
She tried her best to ignore the small pain in her ankle as she stood on her tip-toes to reach a high cupboard and produced a mug from it and placed it on the marble top.
"How did you know this was my house?" Rouge asked curiously as she gazed out at the street from the kitchen window.
"It wasn't hard to find since you and Cass are the only two I know to wear PinkHearts perfume so following the scent from the were house to here was a breeze." Rouge giggled as she added the coco and sugar to the mug and stirred it all together with the hot water from the kettle and a small teaspoon.
"PinkHearts perfume, huh? What other things can you pick up part from almost silent noises from behind a metal door, a girl tripping on the stairs in complete darkness and her perfume from the end of her street?" She laughed as she passed Shadow his hot mug of coffee. He just smirked as he took a long sip from it. "I'm shore Rex and Cass wont be long." She assured as she watched him quickly gulp down the last of it, not seeming to care about how hot it was.
"Come on." Rouge began with a smile, then walked into the living room leaving Shadow alone for a moment as she turned on the TV causing a bright light to flicker around the room as she scanned threw the channels as she listened in onto anything that she may find important or interesting.
But she found neither so she simply left it on a random channel as Shadow made his way into the room "If you need anything don't hesitate to ask or simply help yourself, ok?" She spoke softly with a slight laugh as she sat him down. He just seemed really tired as he lazily leaned back into the comfortable cochins and closed his crimson eyes. Rouge checked the clock on her wall too see that it was coming up to three thirty. She pressed a button on the remote and turned the volume down low as she listened to the dark hedgehog's soft, heavy breathing, so she decided she wouldn't try to disturb him.
"I'll see you when you wake up." She whispered with a smile as she sat herself down on the comfortable armchair next to the sofa, emitting a soft long yawn and let herself drift off to sleep as well.