Chapter Text
“Remind me how you convinced us to go on this trip?”
The question was asked by Blaze to the pink hedgehog across from her, eyeing the seagulls that squawked and called overhead.
“What? I think it’ll be great! A fancy ship and a weekend getaway. I think us girls deserve that much. Right? Besides, it's All Hallowtide!” Amy beamed, adjusting her hat in the midday sun. Somehow, she was able to wrangle all of the girls into joining her on the grand River Maye. The ship docked just ahead was an old and magnificent thing, a large white and black passenger ship that was nearly two hundred years old. It had seen battles and hardship despite it not being built for such, but it withstood the test of time and eventually became what it is now. A luxury ship hotel.
A cream colored rabbit stepped side to side with excitement beside Amy. “Do you think it’s actually haunted? What if we see some ghosts?” she asked.
Amy shrugged, but motioned to the extra duffel at her feet to which she had brought along ghost hunting tools. “I’m not sure, but wouldn’t that be so cool? I brought some tools just in case. Some say you can hear the whispers of old passengers in the halls.”
After Blackwater Ridge, Amy was itching to find out if there was any real ghost activity at all or just some marketing gimmick to gain more passengers. A ship of this size though, who knew what hid in its walls? The stories it held and the spirits bound to it.
“Who knows? Might make for a good article.” Rouge said from Amy’s other side. The white bat had just swatted away a pesky fly and adjusted her sun shades. While she was not as keen on getting ruffled by ghosts again especially with how much it affected Knuckles, the idea of a weekend on a fancy ship sounded promising. Plus, she wasn’t going to lie and say she wasn’t curious about the history of the ship. Back in Blackwater Ridge, the Clements family were not only a part of the history of the land but the town itself. Would there be someone with a story to tell? One of battles and hardship, love and loss, trials and tribulations? Rouge would like to uncover it. In fact she had even brought a few gadgets herself, ignoring the bombastic side eye given to her by Knuckles as she packed of course.
The line was slow moving to board the ship, not that it mattered. The day was bright and sunny, and the breeze that came from the bay just beyond was pleasant. Again, the main cause of worry were the seagulls themselves, to which Sarah also kept a close eye on as she ate away at her sunflower seeds. Those birds would eat at anything they could get their beaks on, and she wasn’t willing to share. At least not with them.
Much like Blaze, she hadn’t been sure how she’d gotten roped into coming along. One would think that after how terrible the boys’ camping trip had been, also a recommendation by Amy, that they wouldn’t indulge in her ideas any further. Seeing Sonic injured like that after what was supposed to be an innocent trip… it was worrying. Hell, he had still been mentally working through all that happened at Glace for Chaos’ sake. Shadow, too.
Sarah was sure neither of them would be returning to the woods anytime soon.
Good news was that Sonic had made a full recovery within a few weeks. The semester had started back up as well. With classes in full swing and the track scholarship he had to keep up with, it kept him relatively busy and his mind occupied.
“Let’s just hope it remains uneventful.” Sarah gave Amy a pointed look, that all but young Cream caught.
Amy tittered as she adjusted her hat for the tenth time in just a few minutes. Only she hoped it would also remain uneventful. Not too uneventful, because hello! It’s All Hallowtide! But hopefully nothing like what Shadow and the guys had gone through. Amy had still been working through the guilt from that one. Not only from crossing a boundary with Shadow and his own healing process, but from getting her best friend hurt too. In wanting to help the people closest to her, she had only ended up hurting them further. Unintentionally, yes, but still. It was something she had to work on.
As the summer went on, the two of them were on much better terms after they sat and had a long, long talk about boundaries and giving him time to work through his trauma at his own pace. Shadow understood why she did it, of course - one of the things he adored about her was how much she cared. But it will take some longer to work out how they feel and get back to a sense of normalcy than it can for others. For him, it would still take time. Eventually, he would be okay, but for now just knowing that Amy was there if he needed was enough for him.
Amy supposed that the addition of a little furball had also assisted in that.
Jobs had come and gone for Shadow during the summer, but Knuckles was steadily trying to coax him into the construction industry. It paid good money and he knew Shadow was never afraid of getting his hands a little dirty. He had brought him along on some smaller odd jobs just to get him acclimated, see if he liked the work well enough. At one particular construction site, both Shadow and Knuckles found a little stray kitten. The poor thing was scraggly and tiny, and they could tell it was orange despite all of the mud and dirt caked up on its fur. Regardless, it was pretty dang cute. When relaying the story to Amy, it went as followed:
“I’m not really a cat person.” Shadow said to Knuckles. They were both squatted down to the ground, a tiny filthy kitten walking circles between them.
Knuckles reached his hand down to pet the poor thing, which it immediately bonked its head into. “Doubt you’re much of a dog person either. At least it’s cute… What happened to you little guy? Probably separated from your mother, no doubt.”
As kittens do, the kitten yowled his lungs out as if he knew exactly what Knuckles asked. It was a boy, they had checked as soon as they pulled him out of a hole in a wall. It had been scared, rightfully so with all of the hammering and loud tools around them. Shadow had been the one to find it after hearing its meowing and deciding to investigate. It had grown attached to him rather quickly, much to his demise. And was now rubbing against his legs, hollering up at him with its amber eyes. It hardly looked a month old.
Shadow stared down at it, not knowing what to do besides reach down and pet it. It began purring instantly. Dang it. He was pretty darn cute.
“We didn’t really have pets back home. So, I’m not sure what to do with him. You want him?”
Knuckles started, “Rouge would kill me if I brought a cat back home! I’d never hear the end of it if he so much as put a claw in her clothes, nevermind her silk sheets. Why not take him to a shelter? I’m sure once they clean him up, someone will adopt him real quick.”
Shadow sighed through his nose. There was no way he’d get back to work now. With a kitten running around, it was bound to get into an accident with so much equipment. “That’s not a bad idea. I think I’ll do that instead.”
Carefully, he scooped up the kitten and brought it close to his chest as he stood. It was far too light for his liking. Maybe he would stop by a store and pick up a can of food on his way to the shelter…
That was his last thought before he and the kitten made their leave.
Safe to say: the kitten never found its way to the shelter.
Amy had been in class when Shadow had sent the photos of the little kitty, before and after it had gotten a bath.
‘ Meet Hugo.’ The text had said. Of course, Amy had squealed loud enough to earn a stern look from her professor that day. The rest was history. Despite not being a cat person, Shadow was a great cat dad and little Hugo was already putting on weight.
Back to the conversation at hand, Amy put a hand to her hip.
“Come now, it’ll be fun! We can paint our nails, have girl talk, tell spooky stories! I even heard the spa is pretty nice~” Amy winked at her circle of friends. It will be fine. Regardless of the past! It has to be!
“Now you’re speaking my language,” Rouge said. Of course she had done a little research before deciding to agree on coming. The River Maye had fantastic reviews on its spa, and no way was mama going to miss a good spa treatment.
“That sounds great, actually,” the fuschia hedgehog Sonia agreed. Amy had invited her along on the trip as well, just for a chance of them all to hang and catch up. Sonia and Amy had been around each other a lot due to Sonic and Amy being best friends, so naturally they became friends too. She had also seen Sarah a lot more, which was nice to have another girl around when she was surrounded by her goofs of brothers. After they had come back from the Seeley Lake trip, Sonia had known some shit had gone down. It was terrifying seeing Sonic like that, and Manic wasn’t much better off. She had remembered how off Sonic had been after he had quit Glace. She had known that something had happened, but wouldn’t pester him about it as much as she wanted to know what was wrong.
After Seeley Lake, they had told her everything.
About the strange ‘dog-like’ creature that occupied the woods in Glace, to the ‘wendigos’ up in Seeley Lake. As hard as it was for Sonia to wrap her head around it, she couldn’t get over her brothers’ reactions to it just by them retelling her. The fear in their eyes… What they had been through, what they had seen had actually happened. She believed them. Could such things actually exist? Could ghosts? It was all so new to her. But I’m still so unsure…
As if Sarah could read her mind in that moment, she nudged her slightly, offering her a few sunflower seeds. “It’ll be fine. I’m sure of it. Besides, I have a feeling you’re just a tiny bit curious about the idea of ghosts,” she jested.
Sonia smiled a bit at that and accepted the seeds. “Maybe just a little.”
Cream had broken off into an enthusiastic conversation with Amy and Rouge, trying to come up with ideas of what or who the ship was ‘haunted’ by. Besides Amy, the young rabbit was probably the most excited of all for their little weekend trip.
Blaze had turned to both Sarah and Sonia then, “I don’t know. I don’t really believe in ghosts. Glace was… different.”
Blaze had known something had happened at Seeley Lake and even heard Sonic had gotten hurt, but Silver hadn’t spoken so much as a peep about it. He had been especially quiet, even jumpy in some instances. There was something wrong, clearly. But Blaze would never pressure him into speaking. After how much he had been there for her after Glace and how hard she took that… she wanted to be there for him. So, she would be patient, as much as she wanted to care for Silver too.
Sarah shrugged. “To each their own. Glace wasn’t an illusion. There are just some things we can’t explain out there. As much as we want to. ”
“If anything, it just makes me all the more skeptical as to what’s out there,” Blaze pondered, squinting up at the blue sky and then out along the bay. Small and large dots could be seen in the distance. Other smaller boats and a few bigger vessels, sail boats and cruise ships most likely. With how nice the weather had been lately, Blaze didn’t doubt it.
“Careful what you wish for,” Sarah snickered. “Seeds?” She offered some to Blaze, who turned her nose up at the offer. After the mess she’d leave at the desk back in Glace all the time, the lavender cat could never understand how Sarah could tear apart an entire bag in less than a few hours. Plus, anytime she tried them they would always get stuck in her teeth.
“Thanks, but no thanks,” she declined politely, but smiled nonetheless. Sarah shrugged again, stuffing another handful of salt and pepper dusted seeds into her mouth. Sonia stuck her hand out for more, which she obliged. And then the two were snap, crackle, popping on the seeds. Blaze could never understand, and her tail flicked about in annoyance.
“Oh, right!” Amy fished around in her tote bag for her cell and miraculously a selfie stick that seemed to magically fit inside, much to Blaze’s surprise. “Let’s take a selfie!”
Both Sarah and Sonia grumbled in displeasure. Not only because it was too much to be doing all of that, but because they had mouths full of sunflower seeds. Even Blaze sighed heavily. She wasn’t much of a picture taking girl, either. Silver took nearly all of their pictures together back home. Her camera roll, on the other hand, was composed of pictures of the sky, any beach or river, or any plants and animals that had caught her eyes.
Still, Amy had managed to hush them up and wrangle them into a tight squeeze to get all six of them into frame. Even managing to angle it enough to get a view of the River Maye itself behind them. Much to their discomfort, Amy had snapped not just one, but several photos of the girls wearing different expressions. Or trying to. Sarah and Sonia were all but ecstatic to finally have a chance to spit out the seeds they’d been holding.
“Oh, thank Chaos!” Sonia nearly coughed.
“Did you have to take so many dang photos, Amy?” Sarah huffed.
The pink hedgehog shrugged, not looking up from her phone as her and Cream swiped through the photos. “What? I need some good ones to post on my page!”
Sarah wanted to say to hell with that page, but the line started moving much faster for boarding. It seemed that they opened a second line to help get the guests checked in faster. With no other option except to move along, Sarah just huffed and followed after the others.
Up ahead, the River Maye staff greeted and welcomed guests aboard in finely made deep blue vests and blazers with bow ties to match. It was rather hot for such a get-up, but at least they looked the part of a ‘fancy ship crew.’ It wasn’t long before their group was up for boarding, half split up between the two lines to quicken the process. Cream, Sarah, and Blaze in one line with Amy, Rouge, and Sonia in the other.
“Hello there, young miss! Welcome to the River Maye,” a tall, gray bird said to Cream.
“Hi! Oh, I’m so excited! It’s my first time,” she said cheerily. “I hope we see some ghosts. Have you seen any yourself?”
The man shook his head, “I have not. But you might just luck up. Or un-luck up, depending on how you feel. Anyways!” He just smiled down at her and stuck his hand out. “Let’s get you onboard. Boarding pass?”
Cream blinked up at him before her mouth dropped open. “Oh, shoot! One second. Sorry!”
All that time, poor Cream had forgotten to take out her boarding pass from her bag, which she promptly had to fish out. Amy in her chatting with both Rouge and Cream earlier had done the same, holding up the other line. Funny, it was, that the two most excited for this weekend getaway were the least prepared when they needed to be.
After the little hold-up, the girls grabbed their belongings and finally stepped up the ramp into the famed River Maye.
If the outside was grand, the inside was spectacular.
Apart from the air conditioning that had Amy nearly sighing with relief, the lobby had polished flooring of intricate design. Columns and pillars reminiscent of ancient societies and cultures adorned the space, either for aesthetic purposes or proper structural pieces. Gorgeous vases filled with various exuberant plants lined walls and tables. There were even walls with stained glass works like the sea, the ship itself, and depictions of some of the Maye’s guests or events from the past. Nearly bordering gaudy with all of the extra couches, chandeliers and ruffled curtains, but passable. Very passable.
The girls had pretty much stopped square in the middle of the entrance, taking everything in.
Blaze eyed the plants in particular. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Dracaena that tall.”
“A what, now?” Cream tilted her head. “Never-mind that! I can see my reflection on the floor!” she chirped.
Sarah was ignoring all of them at the moment, too lost in the fine architectural details of the pillars. Sonia was taking everything in one detail at a time. She had been to some nice hotels and even resorts because of how well-off her parents were, but nothing like this. It was almost a more vintage type of class. Rouge eyed the pretty vases. It wasn’t anything she’d normally go for, but she had to admit it might look nice at home. Knuckles might fuss at her, no doubt only because it was sure to cost a fortune and she sure as hell hardly had a green thumb to plant anything in it but… “Do you think they’d sell me one of those vases?”
Someone to the side cleared their throats. “Welcome aboard the River Maye, ladies. Please no blocking of the entrance. If you follow me, we can get your things settled in your rooms so that you may enjoy all of what our ship has to offer.”
Amy grinned at her friends, who reluctantly shuffled out of the way and towards the staff. From the looks on their faces, she was sure they would be able to find something they all enjoyed this trip. Ghosts or no ghosts.
This weekend is going to be more than fine. It’ll be great!