15 years later

I stared up motionlessly at the ceiling like i do every time this day comes around...Sonic's birthday. He would just be turning twenty today if he was still here, and every time i get to thinking about that the emotions that i had managed to keep bottled up through the year always manage to come out in big spurt of rage, sorrow and guilt. I still remember that night too. I remember it like as if it all just happened a few hours ago.

Flashback 15 Years Ago

I had just collapsed to my knees and after reading the letter. My tears falling onto the fresh sheet paper smearing some of the words and adding on to the how illegible it already was. I had cried for about ten minutes or so when mom started checking our rooms, doing the normal rounds she usually did every night to make sure Sonic and I were safe and comfortable.

I can remember her face perfectly when she saw me in my position on the floor. She showed confusion and concern as she ran over and knelt down next to me and rubbed my back soothingly while trying to also figure out what was wrong with me in the first place.

That was when she saw the note...

I fought with her for a few seconds trying to keep Sonic's disappearance a secret so i could fix everything and pretend like nothing happened, but being my mom she, of course, won and read the letter. Even though i could barely read she seemed to understand it perfectly from the expression on her face.

That face of hers has been glued in my mind for the past fifteen years. I will never forget it. I don't think I've ever seen so much heartbreak and sorrow on anyone's face compare to how much was on my mom's. Her rosy pink cheeks, and blond face seemed to pale and her crystal blue eyes seemed to dull to light gray after reading the note. Her smile turned into a frown that seemed permanent and i think it was while her usually straight posture slumped a bit making her seem like a motionless rag-doll.

She slowly stood up from her spot next to me and stood there staring at me for the longest time with her now gray eyes, the letter held firmly in her grip showing no sighs of being released anytime soon. Even though she said nothing, i knew exactly what she was thinking just by looking into her eyes and it made me feel that more guilty then i already was.

I watched silently as she then proceeded with exiting the room, walking sluggishly out the door with her head held down as a sign of defeat, which she rarely ever showed or did because she was never one to give up, and sat down in chair at the kitchen table. She seemed overall lifeless as she sat there just staring at the piece of paper before bursting into tears and crying onto the letter, while she clutched it to her chest.

I felt my heart shatter into a thousand pieces at the sight of seeing my mother crying like that. I watched from the top of the stairs only to leave a few seconds later to my room and do the same with my face buried in the pillow. It was also during that very moment of wallowing that i vowed to find Sonic and bring him home no matter what it took.

End of Flashback

I sighed as the memory played through my head once again, and i groan at how unsuccessful i have been at keeping my vow. Nearly everyday for the past ten of the fifteen long and lonely years that Sonic was gone, mom and i have been searching high and low for the little runaway hedgehog hoping that we would possibly find him and i could beg him for his forgiveness and hopefully convince him into returning back home with us.

Each day we searched high and low, in the trees and tiny holes in rocks and the ground where he could fit his tiny inside, and even in several different villages but never found anything not even one of his precious blue quills.

Sometimes we would even search when it was pouring down rain, and even during the snow just because my mom was that determined to find her little baby blue, but this eventually led to trouble a few months in.

Flashback 10 Years Ago

We were on our way to check another village a few miles away from our home. Mom was leading the way like always, while walked quickly behind her. A bad snow storm was said to hit that day, but my mom ignored it letting her determination and strong-hardheadedness get the better of her and continue the search anyways.

We were about halfway to the village when the storm came out of no where and hit us hard. I tried to convince her to stop and set up camp so we could take shelter, but she refused to listen and continued walking.

That was when things got a lot worst...

The wind picked up and the snow started to pick up, falling down forming into thick cold blankets on top of us. That was when mom started coughing. I tried once again to get to her stop and relax knowing that she was ill but once again she refused to listen, pushing it off as 'no big deal' and walking.

i began to panic though when her coughing turned into heavy hacking and then progressed more into wheezing and her gasping for air. Her once golden hands, now a bit blue and frozen from the cold clutched around her neck as she gasped and choked fighting for a breath, before she collapsed face first into the snow.

i quickly screamed her name loudly in horror as i ran over to her and put her head in my lap. I held an ebony ear up to catch any sighs of breath or life from her but found none. I held her lifeless body close to my chest as i cried helpless tears onto her motionless form and wallowed in the loss of yet another loved one that i could have once again prevented from loosing.

Me being only eighteen didn't have any of the required  experience to carry my lifeless mother back home, so i did the next best thing. I found a nice peaceful spot next to a tree and buried her there giving the best funeral and send off that a determined mother of two could ask for, then returned home totally alone for the first time in my life.

End of Flashback

Five years have passed since the incident and not much have changed. I have recently just turned twenty three and i am definitely feeling it other then that everything is pretty much the same, except that after a few years of continuing the search for my mother i soon deemed it pointless and just assumed that Sonic was either dead or with another family with a brother way more better then the likes of me.

I groaned softly as i turned on my side and looked at my, still surprisingly functional, clock and saw that it was nearly noon. I sighed as i sat up, knowing that i still had errands to take care of, so mumbling softly to myself i finally got out of bed and slipped on my skates and glided down to the farmers' market in the village not to far from my home.

Once i arrived i began looking around for anything that i deemed absolutely necessary that i had to have since my money supply was a bit on the low side since work is pretty scarce where i am so i have to come here to the village to find any at all.

I had just finished and payed for my groceries, which consisted mostly of a few loaves of bread, some jam, a few chunks of meat and a bit of fruit, and was about to head back home when the sound of a black and white spotted female cat was heard cursing at something. i walked into the direction of all of the commotion to see what exactly what was wrong when heard her cursing continue.

" Be gone you misshapen beast! ...You blue spawn of the devil! And don't come back to my stand again do you hear me you...you... mongrel!" I tilted my head in confusion at hearing the feline use such cruel words to someone as i continued to quickly make my way to her stand. Once i did i noticed her frantically raving around her small stand to no one in particular.

" Umm ma'am are you alright?" i asked slightly confused on who she was ranting to. She quickly turned and faced me and calmed her features a bit as she nodded, " Oh yes young man i am perfectly fine, just a little riled up from the blue devil trying to steal my bread again. You know i work too hard to make this bread every morning to have it just snatched up by some misshapen creature with legs of metal."

I was pretty much zoned out with what she was saying until my ears picked up on something she said. Wait blue and with legs of metal...it couldn't be him...could it? i quickly faced the cat once again interrupting her rambling once again to ask my question. " Madam this...umm... blue creature with the legs of metal...did you so happen to see which way he went?"

She stopped her chattering and pointed off towards the woods, " It ran off into there and good reddens to i was just about to call the authorities on it...or the animal catcher which ever would take it quicker." I nodded and looked into the direction of which she was was pointing to see something very much blue, disappear behind a large shrub. i thanked the cat before running after it hoping it was what...or actually whom i thought it was.