A Sonic the Hedgehog song-fic

By Taryn "Jnco" Wander’r

tarynw42@hotmail.com

A companion piece to "The Argument". Sort of a re-write, if you look at it that way.

Legalities- Sonic the Hedgehog and all related characters belong to Sega/Dic/Archie. The song "Furnace Room Lullaby" belongs to Neko Case and this version can be found on "The Gift" soundtrack. I think the original version can be found on the disc "Furnace Room Lullaby" by Neko Case and Her Boyfriends. This short story copyright 2001 Taryn "Jnco" Wander’r.

I lied. It gets darker. MUCH darker.

This is NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART OR WEAK OF STOMACH!!!!!

After the argument, Sonic had more or less stormed off in a huff to think. Why they fought so much, why he drank so much, what drove him to do it.

He loved her, he knew that much. Why did he always have to jeopardise what they had? Why was he so goddamn proud? He had no reason to be. No reason that he knew of, anyway. So he had saved countless lives and cities and restored freedom to the kingdom. It was worth nothing if he looked into her face and saw tears that he put there.

So he ran and he ran and he ended up at the city. And he walked around the dark remains and he thought.

In the beginning he had set out to woo her like it was a conquest. A silly hormonal teenage thing, he wanted some action, she was there and pretty and one of the only girls his age. At first, of course, it didn’t go so good. She was a princess for Christ’s sake, passionate, upright, proper, intelligent, beautiful. She was so wonderful and he was so…not.

Over the course of the years the two pursued an intricate dance of pursuing and withdrawing and flirting and scorning. They both knew what was going on and they both did nothing to stop it. In the midst of a war, in a tiny town of refugees, there wasn’t much to do but play and toy with the frailty of friendship and love.

And as the years went by he found himself developing actual feelings for this unobtainable force of fury and passion and he knew that was his weakness in the intricate game of life they played. So he adopted the bad boy façade and flirted with all the girls, thinking he was spinning them all in his complex web, and tried not to show any real emotion to Sally. After the unspeakable happened, the event he couldn’t even bare to think about anymore, and he admitted his feelings for her and hers for him, and the war raged on and eventually ended, and they got married- he supposed he never learned to drop the mask of cruelty he always wore.

Sonic felt horrible about it now, how they had both unwillingly continued the game of desire and hate they had played before after their marriage. How he had hurt her, without knowing, how he had scorned her heritage and her future.

Sonic disappeared into the darkness of an abandoned factory and sobbed out his pathetic little heart like the lost little boy he was feeling more like every moment. He was afraid of their future now, of her family, her royalty, and he would never admit it. Only allowed himself to cry in the dark of an unfamiliar enemy’s city.

Just like during the war, he and Tails would be out scouting and they’d witness the brutal murder of a young girl or a pregnant woman, and Tails would fall crying into his chest and he’d have to stand there and take it. And hours later back home; he could only let it go if he crawled out into the depths of the forest and cried piteously in the dark, where no one could see him. Couldn’t even tell her, the one he was supposed to love.

The entire time he was twisting her emotions and mind to submit to him, and he knew ultimately it was the other way around. Even that horrible time when they told her she was dead, he stood through the trail and the transportation stoically, to cry out his anger and mourning and fury as he ran. Ran away from whatever fate St. John had planned for him, ran away from the fleeting ghosts of his beloved.

The only time he had ever cried in front of Sally was years ago, when they first admitted their true feelings for one another. The time he couldn’t even bear to think about.

Now with the sound of her crying and sobbing echoing through the dark recesses of his mind, he sobbed his own feelings out and ran back and forth in the darkness of the factory, hitting walls, spreading dust and soot everywhere.

Eventually the inevitable happened and he hit a soft spot in the flooring and fell through, into the basement.

Oh no, no, no, no! He spun around a few times, calling out for help, if anyone was there. There wasn’t even any light pouring in from the hole above him, as that was forged in darkness as well.

Sonic started sobbing anew, panicking. Another thing he wouldn’t admit to anyone, not even Sally, was that he was afraid of the dark. Because the darkness was where he expelled his tears and bad memories, the only thing that knew of them. They could only get him the dark.

There were other things, to, that could only get him in the dark. See, hedgehogs were typically good at finding their way around in the dark, tunnelling, but Sonic had that ability stolen from him, in addition to other things, the last time he had fallen into a basement in the city.

So this was it. He panicked as memories game flooding back, memories he had forgotten he even had, and he found his way into a corner and cowered. He was to die, and never see his princess again. Just like his childhood had died that night.

Oh, Sally, Sally! He cried out in his mind. She was only one who could save him here, the only one who saved him then. He needed her, the way he needed air and water and food.

Why had he driven her away? Now this was the price. He was to die, and go to hell for what he did.

Maybe he already was in hell. His breath caught in his throat as he thought of that. His own personal hell of past buried memories repeated over and over in his tortured mind. In the darkness and silence of the abandoned factory.

He tried to scream for help, like he had before, but he couldn’t make his voice work. Just like before.

The last time he was fourteen. He had fallen into the tiny black furnace room of a factory just like this. Alright, no problem, he thought as he felt his way to what would help him climb back up.

But he didn’t know someone was there. Someone who was accustomed more than he to the darkness and heat and humidity of the furnace room. Someone who laughed when he heard Sonic there and promptly beat him into oblivion.

The fight was fast and efficient, and Sonic probably could have held his own in the daylight. But the defective fur, the one that worked for Robotnik now, took delight in the young hedgehog’s fear and inability in the darkness, and quickly put an end to the struggling.

And then he had done the unthinkable, and had his own sick way with Sonic. He took his innocence and his self-confidence and everything else Sonic would never get back. And the pain was unbearable and intense and lingering, and nothing he could do would ever erase the feel of it from his memory. That’s why he withstood all the injuries he took in fights, for Sonic has felt a much bigger injury and shame than he ever could again.

He tried to scream when it happened, when the unknown evil plunged into him and took his pleasure along with everything that made Sonic what he was. But no sound was forthcoming. He throat was choked with blood and dust and rage and shame.

And then the evil was done, and he left, chuckling, while Sonic bled and wept on the floor in the darkness. And he tried to call for help. But he couldn’t.

Eventually he heard it. He heard her calling to him, heard Sally calling his name. He tried to make himself known but couldn’t bear to let her see him like this.

She came near the hole he had fallen into, and poked her head and her flashlight in. What she saw made her scream and she dropped into the furnace room next to him, and as he tried to cower away she held him close and cradled him. He sobbed and sobbed into her chest, and she demanded no explanation, only murmured soothing words to him, like he did when she missed her father or something had failed.

It was too dangerous to go out now, she had told him, the rest of their renegade party knew where she had gone to look for him and would find them soon enough. While they waited, she soothed and rocked, and sang him a soft lilting lullaby to calm his fears of the shadows and the dark. The soft lilting furnace room lullaby that he always whispered to himself when he was scared.

He whispered the lullaby to himself now and sobbed. I tried, Sally, I really tried. I tried to find my way up but I couldn’t. It’s too dark. He’ll get me again. I’m sorry.

Sonic whispered this to himself as he re-lived his one true defeat over and over again in his mind. He would surely die, now. Die of fear, or of a broken heart, in the darkness of a factory basement where no one would ever find him.

And all Sally would remember of him was the weak little bloody boy she found on the furnace room floor, or the heartless bastard that treated her the way he did.

He couldn’t decide which was worse.

That’s when he heard it.

A soft, lilting voice as if in a lullaby, a ghost of a word, his name, whispered past his sensitive ears.

He bolted up and glanced around frantically, blinded, unable to see his own hand in front of his face. He heard her whisper his name again, but he didn’t hear it. That’s when Sonic knew. She needed him now. As much as he needed her. That’s how she knew where to find him in the furnace room.

Sonic stood shivering and sniffling in the darkness, unable to get the sound of the whispered cry for help out of his head. He weighed his love and against his fear and eventually, valiantly, chose the former.

Shaking and trembling in fear, not bothering to hold back sobs, he felt his way around the basement, forever casting blind glances over his shoulder to whatever unknown evil lurked in the darkness. Eventually he found a chair, and stood on it, aware he was even more vulnerable now.

It took what felt like years. He would hear his name brush against softly against his cheek and cried mentally ‘I’m coming, I’m coming!’. He felt around the roof, then moved the chair and felt around again.

Eventually he found the break where he had fallen through and lifted himself back up into the factory. Then, trembling even harder than before and reliving the pain he had those scant years ago, he felt his way out into the street.

Finally safe in the frail moonlight he raced back to Knothole faster than he ever had before; further illuminating his way with the bright flash that accompanied the boom.

When he found her in the bathroom his heart broke into again. He angrily cast the brick aside and lifted her out, his princess, and forces the pills out of her.

Then he held her, sobbing into his chest, like she had after his incident, and sang the soft lilting furnace room lullaby to her until she calmed down.

"I heard you," he whispered in the silence and planted a soft, forgiving, loving kiss to her forehead.

The End

Feedback? tarynw42@hotmail.com

Now that the story arc’s done, here’s the soundtrack!

Buck Cherry- You Never Can Tell

The Tragically Hip- Wheat Kings

Push to Exit- The Argument

Neko Case- Furnace Room Lullaby