Chapter 7: Why Me?
While skating through the city, Willow saw many bright lights pass her. Suddenly, the shoes started to break down. "Oh, not now." Her shoes might have stopped working but not her didn't momentum didn't slow. She then tumbled to the ground. "Jeez," She said as she rubbed her head. Willow looked up to see a white building. In big black letters it read, "Station Square's Public Library".
For some reason, Willow had an urge to enter the building. She got up off of the ground while looking up at the transparent doors. She pushed open the door and bells chimed as she entered.
There was a green cat sitting at a desk right across from the doors, "I need you to sign in please." said the cat.
"Oh, okay." Willow said as she walked over to her, looking up to see the walls covered by books. Her attention went to the sound of the cat tapping the pen upon the sign in sheet. Willow grabbed the pen and wrote her name.
"Miss Willow, you left your book here."
Willow looked up at the cat in confusion, "What? I've never been here before."
"Well then, someone must have dropped your book off." The cat went over and grabbed a brown leather book that had golden swirl designs around the border. "Because," She placed the book up on the sign up sheet. "Your signature matches the one in the book." She pointed from the book to the sheet, showing an exact match.
"Well," Willow said with a little curiosity. "I can't argue with that." The cat handed her the book. "Thanks" she said. Willow turned around and sat down on an onyx love seat, which was by the door.
She opened up the book, but every page was empty. She flipped throughout the pages over and over again, but not a single word was written. I've never seen this book in my life. Willow thought. She slouched in the seat, unsatisfied. She pondered, Why me? This is useless... She thought as she rested her head on her hand and put her feet up on the coffee table in front of her. She shifted her feet and rocked them back and forth. She then remembered how the shoes had broken down. How was she to explain this to her brother? She took off her left shoe and examined it. "Hmmm," She opened the empty book and grabbed a pencil off the coffee table. She tapped the pencil on her lips while she looked at the shoes. The pencil flew across the paper, sketching out the shoes and how they work so that she could somehow fix them.
Her pencil drew blueprints of how to make the shoes better: adding a better energy product, a way to hover longer and higher, heck, maybe even fly. So many ideas crossed Willow's mind she began to write on the next empty page.
The sound of bells filled the library. Willow looked up to see a pink hedgehog carrying several books and a pair of boots. Amy spotted Willow and walked over to her with full arms. She plopped the books down on the coffee table and sat down with the boots in her hand. "Hello Willow. Nice surprise to see you here. I didn't see you being a book reading type of hedgehog."Amy giggled. She held out Willow's boots, "Here. Take them. They're yours."
"How did you know I was here?" Willow questioned.
"Well, I was here to drop off some books and then I was going to head to your house and drop off your books."
"Thank you." Willow said with a smile as she took them.
"Willow, I need your help. Dash...has been acting all weird all of a sudden. Whenever I say anything, he's blow up at me." Amy said as she covered her face with her hands. "I don't know what happened. It all started during the party. He told everybody to leave and that he wanted to be left alone. I don't know what got into him, Willow."
"Oh..." She said shyly. "How... would I help?"
"I just need you to go and talk to him or something. He won't even listen to me, but maybe he'll listen to you." She said as a final resort.
A sudden burst a wind flung the door open and from behind there was a blue hedgehog. "Mom, I need those boots back..." He saw his mother sitting across from Willow. Amy waved him on to come and sit with them.
Willow just sat in awkwardness.
"I already gave her the boots back." Amy, looked at this situation, stood abruptly, "I'm just going to go check these out now."
Dash sat next to Willow, who had pulled her head the other way forcibly. "Willow, please look at me." He pleaded. She did so slowly, looking blankly, Willow did as what he wanted. "I want to apologize for how I acted at the party. It was wrong, I should have never yelled at you."
In a quiet voice she responded, "It's okay. You don't need to. I should have never asked you so many questions." Willow shoved her foot back into Flint's shoe and grabbed her book and boots. She stood for only a moment, tears forming.
"Willow, what are you doing?" She began to walk towards the door, "Please don't leave!" He said as he reached out for her, but she was already gone.
Outside now, Willow was running hastily away from the library. From a distance, she heard her name being called to her. She squeezed the book and her boots tighter in her arms.
A blue blur came up next to her. "Willow stop running." Dash said as he her pace. She gave no response and kept on running. He then ran out in front of her and held his hands out, making her stop. While stopping she almost fell right into Dash. "Willow please." he pleaded for the thousandth time. She took a step to her right to get passed him, but he moved just as fast as her to get in her way. She did the same with her left, but he still copied her moves.
From underneath, the shoes came back to life. Dash looked at them with curiosity as Willow began to hover in mid-air.
"Are those Flint's?"Willow then skated right past him. He, once again, caught up with her.
"Come on Willow."
She suddenly stopped, head facing the ground. Dash, who had kept on running, turned around. Willow cleared her throat. "You know." She said with a raspy voice. "I should have never walked off on my own. I should have just stayed at the snack bar." They both stood in silence. "I never wanted any of this! I never wanted to be in the game, or have my sister hate me. I wish... I wish I was never born."
"Don't say that!"
"Then why must I, of all people, feel like the world is falling apart. That I am to blame for problem."
A third person came into the conversation, "That's because you are the person who is causing all the problems. And why are you in Flint's shoes? Did you even ask." spat Sapphire.
Dash walked over to Sapphire, "You have no right to be here, Sapphire."
"There's no signs that say 'No Sapphire Allowed'."
Willow just stood there, watching the two fight as if they were a married couple. She slowly took off the shoes and placed them on the ground, still hovering, seeing that she didn't know how to turn off the shoes. She then put her own boots on, and walked away. She then turned around to see if they still did not notice her not being there. Wanting out of this mess, Willow then picked up her pace from a jog, to a full sprint.
She saw an opening in a dark forest that seemed familiar. She slowed her pace and walked through the opening. Taking the same way as before, Willow made her way towards the cave that Dash had found her in. "Probably not the best place to be in now, but I can't go home... Sapphire will find me and do god knows what."
Willow placed her hand on the cave opening. "Hello old friend. It's been years since I've been here."