CHAPTER 23
Two weeks later, it was late in the afternoon inside of a huge church. There were purple and light pink themed things such as ribbons and flowers all throughout the church. A piano was softly playing while the crowd of people in the church were carrying on conversations with each other.
The entire Chaotix group was present along with Nails, Tikal, Shadow's mother, Rouge's parents, and other close friends.
Rouge and Shadow were standing in the front of the corridor watching as everyone socialized.
Shadow looked around the room, "This reception is going pretty smoothly…except for your parents of course."
Rouge sighed sadly when she noticed that Tonya and Espio were sitting at separate ends of the room. "This is awful…"
"I know", Shadow agreed as he spotted two older bat figures across the room talking and drinking punch together. "Your parents actually came."
The white bat flashed her eyes over to the hedgehog in annoyance. "Not that. Espio and Tonya…they look so miserable."
Shadow took Rouge's hand and led her down the aisle of the corridor. "Um, Rouge? Honey, I know you're worried about Espio and Tonya. I am too and I'm gonna try not to sound like a dick when I say this, but in case you forgot…our fucking wedding is tomorrow."
Rouge could suddenly sense the frustration in Shadow's voice.
"Our friends and families are here. Your parents have been giving me shit for the past few days ever since they arrived in town."
Rouge stopped in her tracks and decided to listen to more of what Shadow had to say.
"This week is supposed to be one of the happiest weeks of my life and I've been trying so hard not to jump out the damn window over preparations and high school drama."
She then felt him gently caressing her hand with his. "So please can you just focus on us right now?"
Rouge sighed heavily as she realized that she was focusing on other things and not what was actually going on between them. "Okay you're right. This is supposed to be our moment. I'm sorry, sweetie." She nuzzled upon his chest lovingly, "Tomorrow will be perfect."
He leaned in and kissed her until they were interrupted when a male voice called out to them.
"Hey! Save it for the honeymoon you two!"
Shadow and Rouge turned to an older male gray bat approaching them along with an older white bat woman by his side.
Rouge smiled warmly at the couple who stood before them. She embraced the older male bat, "Daddy!"
"My baby girl." Her father had returned the hug until Rouge had pulled away from him and went to hug her mother. His eyes flashed over to the hedgehog in annoyance, "…Shadow."
Shadow gave the male bat the same cold look back, "…Jack."
Jack's eyes never strayed away from the sight of the hedgehog. "Rouge, are you sure you wanna hook up with this devil hog?"
Rouge pulled away from her mother and gave her father an annoyed look. "Daddy, be nice to Shadow."
A disgusted look was shown on his face, "I can't believe he's going to be my son in law."
Shadow angrily crossed his arms. "What's wrong, Jack? Upset that I'm gonna be the one banging your daughter on her special wedding night?"
With his face lit in anger he practically lunged himself out at the hedgehog. "Why you!"
Rouge tried to calm her father down, "Daddy, calm down!"
"Well he's gotta be doing something right", Rouge's mother had spoke. "Rouge didn't turn out gay like her sister."
"Very observant, Garnet", Shadow growled. "That must one of your special key elements for being a class A bitch."
"What did you call me you ill mannered…" Before she could finish, Rouge had cut in between them.
"Okay!" She spun around to the furious hedgehog, "Um Shadow, why don't you go get us some drinks?"
Jack had held up a white foam cup, "But I already have a…"
"You can never have too much punch!" She once again turned to Shadow, "Please!"
When Shadow realized what she had wanted him to do, he sighed heavily. "Fine."
After when he had walked away from them, Rouge turned to her parents in disappointment. "Why do you guys always have to make it so hard for him?"
Jack had arched an eyebrow, "Just look at him. He's completely no good for you."
"He's cocky, stubborn, rude, and he listens to that God awful metal music", her mother had spoke.
"Didn't he used to be a drug addict too?"
"Drugs, Rouge?" Garnet had exclaimed.
Rouge slowly shifted her eyes away from them. She began to remember all of the things Shadow was mostly known for especially before the two had even started dating.
Shadow at one time was a hardcore drug addict and an alcoholic. He had even suffered from constant depression and schizophrenia. Over the years, he had gotten better dealing with it. However, whenever he became severely stressed out he would pick back up on a couple of bad habits.
She wanted to believe that he had gotten completely over his addictions and disorders. "…He had a rough life okay? But he doesn't do that stuff anymore..."
Garnet gave her a sympathetic look. "Honestly Rouge, we don't know what you see in him. He'll never give you the kind of future you want. I wanted grandchildren for God's sake."
She bit her lip lightly. She was already slightly disappointed that she and Shadow may never have a child together. As she was trying her best to look past that, her parents were making the matter worse. "…It can't be helped and you know that."
"Why should you have to give something up for something like…that?" Jack had asked.
"Really Rouge, you should've just stuck with that red echidna", Garnet had spoke.
"Stop it", Rouge spoke in a low voice. "Just stop it okay! Shadow makes me happy and you should be happy for me like real parents should!" Afterwards, she stormed away from them leaving them speechless.
An older pink hedgehog woman had approached Shadow at the drink table. She embraced the black hedgehog from behind.
Startled, Shadow turned to the hedgehog woman. "Oh hey, mom", he spoke dully.
"Hey yourself", she spoke with a smile. "How are you feeling? Excited for your big day?"
He shrugged his shoulders. He wasn't really in the mood at the moment since Rouge's parents were talking bad about him for almost the entire day. "Yeah."
She had noticed his melancholy attitude, "Shadow, what's wrong, dear?"
He replied without turning to her. "It's nothing…just Rouge's parents talking more shit."
It angered her that Rouge's parents would always talk negative about Shadow. She couldn't understand why they had hated him so much. "Oh don't pay attention to those dumb bats. You know they don't know what they're talking about."
He shrugged his shoulders carelessly, "At least they're leaving town right after the wedding."
"That's another good thing to look forward to huh?"
He sighed heavily, "Yeah I guess." He had then spotted Nails who was standing next to him with the same miserable attitude.
"You think you got it bad? At least you don't have embarrassing parents who's constantly nags about how many times you've been locked up and how super wrong it is to be attracted to women!" She angrily crossed her arms, "And they keep saying I'm going to burn in Hell! Yeah I know! I'm going to rot in Hell! I'm fully aware of this!"
Shadow rose an eyebrow and smirked, "Oh? You too? Looks like I'll be seeing you there."
A sweat drop appeared on the side of Anita's head, "Oh come on. Don't say that. Garnet and Jack don't know what they're talking about."
Shadow turned to the pink hedgehog. "They told me I'd burn for listening to the devil's music and being an atheist."
"They said I'd burn for using witchcraft and being a whore", Nails spoke with a smirk.
An uneasy look formed on Anita's face, "Your parents aren't really the nicest people in the world huh, Nails?"
"Duh!" Nails exclaimed.
Shadow had then saw Espio confronting him.
The chameleon called out to him, "Oh hey, Shad."
When Anita saw Espio about to talk with Shadow, she had decided to walk away to give them some privacy.
"Hey Es, you still coming tomorrow right?"
"Duh! Just because Tonya and I aren't dating anymore, it doesn't mean we both won't be there for you."
Shadow was glad to know that he could always count on Espio. After all, he always looked at him as a brother.
"Besides, I'm your best man. I got your back, dude."
"Thanks, Es." He saw him holding a clipboard, "So is everyone else still coming tomorrow?"
Espio began to read some off the names off of the clipboard. "Yeah. We got Julie, Knuckles, Sarah…"
"What about Charmy?"
Espio paused as he looked up at him in surprise that he had singled Charmy's name out from the group. "…Charmy?"
He made a small nod, "Yeah did he mention anything about coming?"
The chameleon shrugged his shoulders, "He never really mentioned anything about it to be honest."
A worried look had formed on Shadow's face.
"I mean I'm assuming he is, but he's been so distant and quiet. He barely talks to any of us anymore and its…kind of scary."
Even Shadow had to admit that Charmy's behavior was setting off a red flag. It worried him terribly. It didn't take much for Shadow to think of Charmy's behavior as warning signs of suicide.
"…He's been like that since…"
Shadow knew that Charmy had been starting to act different since Vector's death. "I know and I wanna talk to him but…."
"…Margaret?"
He made a nod. Margaret had hated him and had probably been bad mouthing him for months to Charmy trying to turn him against him. "Yeah but Charmy's a smart kid with good judgment. He's put up with her crap before why would this time be any different?"
"I just hope he shows."
The two were interrupted when Rouge walked over to them with a worried look on her face. "Shadow?"
The hedgehog saw the worried look on her face, "What's wrong?"
"Well", she began. "Anita ran into my mom in the bathroom…"
"…And?"
"…They're arguing."
"Again?" Shadow knew Anita wasn't a fan of Jack and Garnet since they always talked down about him. They had been getting into arguments just as much as he did with them. "Fucking Christ!" He placed his hand on his forehead, "It's going to be a fucking disaster tomorrow."
Rouge bit her lip in worry as she noticed him getting stressed out, "Don't say that, Shad."
Espio started to ease away from them to give them privacy, "I'm gonna try to break up the cat fight."
Shadow shook his head when he saw Espio run over to Anita, Jack, and Garnet. "This is perfect! This is supposed to be one of the best moments of our lives but it'll be nothing but a straight up war zone."
Rouge still tried to think positive. "Everything will be all right, Shad."
"Yeah everything will be just peachy", he spoke in a sarcastic tone. "We've got your hypocrite Christian parents, Espio and Tonya are having relationship problems, and then there's your gay witch sister who's trying to get into a five thousand year old girl's panties!"
An uneasy look formed on Rouge's face as she realized that there was many things going on. "…Oh…"
"I fucking swear! Can this not get any worse?"
Meanwhile, The Raiders were in Razi's house down in his basement making plans for their next big move.
Maxcell was sitting on a wooden stool eating an apple while reading the newspaper until he came across an interesting article. He looked up from the paper and turned to everyone else. "Hey, guys!" He called, "Check this out!"
When Maxcell held the newspaper out to grab, Zena had decided to take a look at it. A sinister smile had slipped upon her face.
When Maxcell saw her expression, he had formed an evil look as well. "Pretty interesting huh?"
"I don't believe this", the squirrel spoke as she read more of the article. "Shadow and Rouge are getting married."
Nack, Damon, and Razi instantly stopped what they were doing and turned to Zena in disbelief.
Zena continued, "They are to be wed tomorrow."
"What?" Razi spoke in disbelief.
Nack quickly snatched the newspaper from Zena and began to glance through the article seeing it for himself. "Well what do you know?"
Damon turned to the chipmunk, "What are you doing looking through the wedding section anyway?"
Maxcell shamefully looked away from him and continued to eat his apple. "…You don't need to know."
Zena clasped her hands together in excitement, "Oh my God! Nack, we gotta crash this wedding!"
"I'm totally down!" Damon agreed. "How are we gonna do this?"
Razi snapped his fingers, "I got it! Another demon!"
Damon shook his head, "No, Razi. No more goddamn monsters."
"You couldn't even control the last one", Zena added.
The beaver could remember how out of control the last demon he summoned had gotten. "No it'll be different this time." He used the wheels on the desk chair he was sitting in and rolled them over to a desk. He began to flip through the pages of a book that set on the desk. "This time I'll summon a Hell Hound."
Nack rose an eyebrow at the strange name and crossed his arms. "Hell Hound?"
A sinister look formed on his face, "That's right. This time it'll obey me like a loyal dog should!"
In The Next Chapter…
Julie-Su: Calm down will you?
Rouge: I can't help it! I'm nervous!
Nails: Just look at me! I'm all pink and fluffy!
Tonya: We're doing this for Rouge remember?
Nails: Is everything okay, Tikal? You've been avoiding me since…
Tikal: It's not your fault. It's me…