CHAPTER 6
NOTHING BUT A FAIRY TALE
Later that night at Rouge's house, Shadow was sitting with Rouge on her bed while they were both in her bedroom. Rouge tiredly leaned her head against his back. "Did you tell Vector what was going on?"
The hedgehog made a small nod. "Yeah. He wants us to bring Joseph there tomorrow."
Her ears perked up and she decided to sit beside him on the bed. "To the Chaotix? What does he plan to do?"
He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. He probably wants to turn Joseph in."
The bat woman bit her lip lightly as she knew that Joseph didn't want to be taken home. "But she…"
"…I know but we can't let her stay roaming around the streets. It's too dangerous for her."
Rouge remained quiet until a random thought came to her mind but before she could speak, Shadow had spoken.
His eyes flashed over to hers. "Don't even think about it."
She arched an eyebrow at the hedgehog in confusion. "What?"
He turned to her and held her hand. "I know that you're fond of her but she can't stay here."
She couldn't believe it. He had read her mind. She didn't think it was that obvious that the thought had occurred to her. Perhaps he was thinking it too but regardless, he was right. Joseph belonged at home with her mother. She sighed heavily, "It was just a thought…"
He shook his head slowly, "It just wouldn't work out."
She held his hand tighter and rested her head on his shoulder. "Maybe you should talk to her before we take her to the Chaotix tomorrow."
He thought that talking to her about it would possibly calm her down about the idea rather than having her feeling betrayed by the idea. "I'll talk to her."
When Shadow made his way into Joseph's room, he saw her laying in a small bed already being wide awake.
As she saw him come into the room and close the door gently behind him, she rose her head from her pillow. She saw the hedgehog walking over to her. "Detective Hedgehog?"
He sat on the bed next to her. "I didn't wake you did I?"
The child shook her head, "No. I couldn't sleep anyway. Nightmares and stuff…"
He could imagine that she could barely get any sleep because of her always having visions of people dying. "I understand where you're coming from."
There was an awkward moment of silence between them until Joseph spoke up.
She bit her lip lightly and hesitated to look at the hedgehog. "I just wanted to say sorry for earlier…I shouldn't have kicked you. I was just scared."
The hedgehog couldn't help but to chuckle. This unfortunately hasn't been the first time someone had felt intimidated by Shadow's appearance. He even had to agree that during first impressions, he never had a warm welcome kind of attitude. "It's cool. I apparently scare a lot of people."
Since her and Shadow were finally on the same page with each other, she decided to start a casual conversation with him. "So Detective Bat isn't your girlfriend?"
He paused for a moment after when she had just asked him such a random question. He slowly shook his head. "No we're just friends."
She hung her mouth open in disbelief from his response. "Wha? Then how come I saw you two kissing on the sofa after when you guys brought me here?"
His face turned a deep red after finding out that she had seen them. "You saw that?"
"Duh!"
"But weren't you sleeping?"
She formed a sly smirk. "I was pretending."
"Crap", he murmured. He buried his face in the palm of his hands in embarrassment.
"So if you and Detective Bat aren't girlfriend and boyfriend, then why were you two kissing?"
He was screwed. How was he supposed to explain to a 10 year old girl about friends, friends with benefits, and relationships? He slowly took his face from his hands and turned to the curious child. "We're just…really close friends."
She formed a warm smile at the hedgehog. "So like…do you love her?"
His heart raced as she began to hammer him with questions about his relationship with Rouge. He didn't know what to honestly tell her. "Well…I…don't know…everything's complicated right now."
She arched an eyebrow towards the black hedgehog. "Is romance always this difficult when you're an adult?"
He shook his head and formed a small smile. "Well I'll put it to you this way, it's nothing like anything they say it is in fairy tales."
"Well, if you want my opinion, I think Detective Bat is really pretty and nice too. You two should get married someday!"
Shadow didn't know how much more he could take with her talking about his and Rouge's relationship. He wanted to slam his head into the wall repeatedly. "Okay can we stop talking about me and Rouge now? Please!"
She giggled when she saw how red Shadow's face was becoming with embarrassment. "Fine I'll cut you a break for now." With her getting so personal with Shadow and Rouge's affairs, she decided to change the subject. She looked and pointed at the armband that was pinned to his coat. "What does that mean?"
He looked at his armband and began to explain to her what it meant. "Oh this? It means I'm second in command of the Chaotix."
"Really?" She spoke in disbelief, "I thought you were the leader or something."
He couldn't really blame her for mistaking him as the leader. Many people thought that Shadow had ran the Chaotix instead of Vector. Most of the time, Vector never really acted like the leader just simply because he always had Shadow to lean on when things got too rough for him to handle. "I get that quite a lot."
"So how long have you and Detective Bat worked for that Chaotix place?"
"I've been there for a long time. Since I was 18. I didn't meet Rouge until I was about 23."
Her eyes widened in surprise. "Holy crap! You're old!"
A light blush formed on the hedgehog's face. "Who the hell are you calling old! I'm in my mid 20s!"
The young girl started laughing from Shadow's sudden outburst.
After when she started laughing he couldn't help but to join in with her. "You're too much you know that? You know even though you're young, you act very mature for your age."
Her smile faded a bit, "Well living on the streets for a few months will kind of force you to grow up a little."
"Don't you ever miss your mom?"
"Of course I miss her. I just…" Her words trailed off and she looked down at the bed sheets. "…I just couldn't handle seeing these visions. I just wanted to run away. Run away from death. But no matter how far I run, I can never escape it…Everywhere I turned, someone always died."
Shadow continued to listen to her sad story.
"I know I'm young and all and I don't understand much about the world but…I don't think I'll ever make it…"
"What do you mean?"
"I'm not strong enough to handle it. Maybe I'm crazy or something but I think the only way to stop seeing these things is to just end it…" She began to clench the bed sheets.
"…End it?" He repeated blankly.
"…I don't deserve to live in this kind of Hell. Many people long for a long life but I don't…I long for death…"
His heart practically skipped a beat as he heard her suddenly talking about ending her own life. "…Joseph…"
Tears began to drip from her face as she looked down at the blue bed sheets she was clenching. "I know everyone has tried but…no one can help me. No one can save me…"
"Joseph, please…"
"I'm going to die soon…I just know it."
He couldn't believe what he was hearing. Did she foresee her own death or was she just implying that she would attempt to kill herself? "Joseph stop saying that…"
She slowly looked up at the shocked hedgehog with tears streaming down her face. "I know you'll try to help me but it won't make a difference. No one can ever cheat death…"
He watched her suddenly embrace him and started sobbing softly.
"I don't wanna do this anymore", she sobbed. "I'm so scared."
As she cried onto him, he gently rubbed her back while he tried to comfort her. "Regardless of what's supposed to happen, I swear we'll do everything in our power to make sure your safe."
Even though she formed a small smile through her tears, she still couldn't help but to have a bad feeling about the situation.
In The Next Chapter...
Rouge: Is she okay?
Shadow: She's scared...just scared...
Rouge: ...Do you truly care about me?
Shadow: ...Is this really love?