Fallen Idol
Concept by The Tears of a Mad Man
Written By Sean Catlett and The Tears of a Mad Man

Chapter 6

It was going to be another one of those mornings.

Sonic had a tough time willing himself to open his eyes, and when he did, he remembered the soft pile of pink that he was sleeping next to.

“Fuck.”

As he tried unsuccessfully to lift his arm without waking her, he sighed even harder when the doorbell rang. She fell off the couch.

Double fuck.

He ignored her confused cry and just walked to the door. The morning was young, and it was still too dark to see without any lights.

Sonic didn’t bother looking in through the peephole and merely opened the door.

“Yeah?”

“He’s dead,” the strange visitor said without pausing in the doorway. He just walked in and moved through the living room, where Amy was now standing up. In Tails walked to his room. Amy rubbed sleep out of her eyes.

Sonic was silent. Thinking. He had sounded so different…

“What’s wrong?”

It was awhile before he said anything. “I’m not sure.”

Amy stretched her arms over her head, groaning. “You gonna go talk to him?”

Again, a pause while he tapped his foot.

“Yeah.”

**********

In the dark, Tails sat. He didn’t bother to turn on his light and check himself, because he already knew what he would find.

In Sonic walked, cautiously, carefully, also not turning on the light, for fear that the young fox would object.

Feigning ease, Sonic leaned against the door and closed it silently. He crossed his arms.

“Killed who?” He asked, not really expecting an answer.

He received none. The dark weighed heavily on Sonic’s body. It was suffocating, and he desperately wanted to turn on the light.

Instead: “Tails, is something wrong?”

It got thicker. “No.”

“Are you sure? Did everything go alright?”

Stupid question. Already he knew what had happened, but feared to face it. It was too hard to believe that everything was long gone, especially a friend that he enjoyed his company with.

“Yes,” Tails whispered, his voice childlike and creepy. “Everything went super duper perfect.” He gave a thumbs up that could barely be seen.

The hedgehog considered the sincerity of it all, hoping that maybe he could convince himself that Tails really was telling the truth…

No.

This isn’t right.

“Come on, kiddo. Can you tell me what happened?”

“Really Sonic, everything was fine. We wont have to worry about the killer anymore. I solved the case. He’s going away for a long, long time…”

“Tails…”

“Yes?”

“Can I turn on the light?”

“… Sure.”

The hesitation seemed to last forever, Sonic’s finger below the switch. But he had to see, he had to see the kid’s eyes…

The light went on.

“Oh… my…”

“See? I told you everything was fine…” Tails said, another drop of blood hitting the carpet.

**********

Sonic ran to the bathroom. Fast. His super sonic speed really kicked in when he ran to the toilet, bent over, and blew chucks. Amy walked into the bathroom, surprised.

“Sonic, what’s wrong?! What’s going on?!” Amy said. She got no answer, only the sound of Sonic’s upchuck. Amy walked out of the bathroom, and into Tails’ room. She gasped in horror as she saw the grizzly sight.

Tails’ face was covered in blood, and his left eye was totally red. His head was busted open again, but worse then before. One of Tails’ ears were gone… no, wait, it was only half ripped off. His nose bent to the side a slight bit, and seemed shorter… since it was bashed into his face.

“Oh my god, Miles, Oh my god…” She slowly walked towards the two-tailed fox, in a shocked daze. “Tails… what… happened?”

Tails looked up towards Amy, and grinned through the bloody hell of a mess which was his face. “What happened? Well… I happened.”

Amy looked at him oddly. “What do you mean?”

“Nothing, except the only reason this happened is because of my own stupidity.” He stood up. “But oh well. Shit happens.” Tails then walked out of the room with his busted face.

**********

The needle was inserted again. The small, fine wire ran through the flesh into the outside world again, and the Doctor sighed heavily.

“At this rate, you’ll put my kids through college.” Nobody in the room laughed.

This was turning to be all too familiar. The white walls were no longer uncomfortable but inviting to the Sonic crew. It was a second home now.

The job done after only one hour, the doctor started to tightly wrap gauze around the bald, cracked open, stitched up head. The doc snipped the end off. He smiled at the unmoving fox.

“Try to keep this one on, okay?” He lightly patted the kid’s shoulder, and gathered his things.

**********

Back in the same old hospital room with the same old headache, the staff had granted Tails this to recuperate from all that he had been through. A police report had yet to be filled out, but a detective from the Bureau was supposed to come by later.

“Buddy, are you gonna tell me what happened?”

This was Sonic talking.

“… No.”

Amy was back at the apartment.

“Why not?”

“What good would it do?”

The blue hedgehog shrugged, walking down to the bed, and he sat down next to his side-kick.

“I don’t know. It would make me feel a little fucking better, I guess.”

“Eh. Deal with it. It doesn’t matter anymore. It’s over now.” That strange mood was still ever present, but it seemed slightly more subdued to Sonic. He took this as a good sign and kept talking to him.

“That’s a relief, ya know? I was afraid that this would turn into another Merlinger case.” Sonic smiled. “I overreact sometimes, I realize, but it’s only because I know the worst can happen. It’s compensation, usually at the expense of others. I swear to you, Tails, I’ll make it up to you. You and Amy both.”

A reassuring pat on the back. A chime of the clock. A shuffling of feet. A feigning of ease.

“Merlinger?”

“Hmmm? Oh, yeah. This was before we met. One of my first huge jobs, when I was younger, and it was in between Robotnik conflicts. Merlinger, he was sadistic. This asshole fucked my shit up good, and he got away. It was the only case I didn’t solved. Caused some damage too.”

“…”

“Tails…”

“What?”

“This… is over, right? I mean, he is dead, right?”

“Of course.”

“Then we’re done. There’s nothing else we can do here.”

“I guess.”

Sonic was getting himself worked up on purpose. Denial at it’s best.

“So, what do you say we get out of here?”

Outside, there was a shuffling of reporter’s feet, small murmurs as they tried to sneak up to the outside door without being heard.

“Fine.”

It wasn’t until two hours later until someone outside noticed that the hospital room had gone quiet.

**********

Staring.

It’s what every one of the people on the street were doing. But it wasn’t the staring Sonic was used to, mind you. They weren’t looking at him like a hero anymore, but more as a villain. Looks of disgust, hatred, and betrayal were all Sonic could see. It seemed to be an endless sea of animosity as Sonic and Tails walked home.

He could feel their eyes on him… it was like slowly sinking to the bottom of the ocean. The pressure slowly building on him… as much as he tried to rid himself of this feeling, it just wouldn’t go away. It hurt his soul to see them hating him like this, but he couldn’t blame them. He did betray them to a point. But he had to do it.

He had to do it for Tails.

After what seemed like an eternity, they made it back to the motel room. Tails sat on his bed, Sonic on his. The strange feeling between him and his little buddy still remained, but it was less now.

“Tails… I think we should go on a little trip.”

Tails’ head raised a little. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, like, a vacation or something. I have this lake that no one goes to. Maybe… we could go there?”

Tails said nothing. Silence. But then, “Just us?”

“If you want.”

“No offense, Sonic, but maybe someone could come with. Make it a little more…” Tails raised his head up so he could see eye-level with Sonic. “… interesting.”

Sonic blinked, and shrugged. “Sure. Got anyone in mind?”

“Amy,” Tails said almost to quickly, like he had it planed it out already. “Amy, please.”

Sonic grinned. He always knew that the fox and a little thing for the pink ball of annoying. “Sure” he said, “Amy can come.”

“Thanks. It means a lot to me.” Tails dropped his head down again, looking at the floor.

Sonic then stood up. “Well, I’m gonna go get something to eat. Want anything?” Tails shook his head. “Okay then. Be right back.”

Tails was glaring daggers into Sonic back as he walked out the door.

**********

Sonic was still gone, and Tails was in the bathroom, looking deep into his own eyes. The mirror wasn’t a very big one, or a well cleaned one, but it did it’s purpose. Tails looked at the horror he had become… once the sidekick to the greatest hero known, now a low life living off some dye job of a hedgehog.

What, you didn’t know Sonic wasn’t naturally blue? Oh come on, have you ever seen anyone with natural blue hair? Same thing, you know.

Tails looked at his head… the dried blood… the cuts, the stitches…

… He looked at his face… his black eyes… his broken nose… his busted lip… the mirror showed him what he really was…

So he smashed his face into it.

The pieces fell all over the floor, all but one jagged spider-webbed piece. It came out from the bottom of the frame, to about the middle. Tails saw his face the way he wanted to, now…

He smiled.

Things were gonna get better…