Okay. This is my first piece of fanfiction ever published. It's also one of my more far-fetched ideas. Oh, well. We'll see how this goes.

I owe my inspiration for this story to the song "Papercut" by Linkin Park. Especially this first chapter.

All the characters in this story are not my property. I don't own any of them.

Gone

Chapter One: Never Crazy

The wind... was unusually bitter, whipping across the grass, through the branches of the old forest trees. It shrieked and wailed against the harsh summer air.... And yet I barely noticed it.

There was the place. I recognized it from the description on the invitation. It jutted out of the forest trees, the only building for miles around. I smiled as I drifted slowly to the ground, folding my wings. The house looked just as I had imagined it would: an enormous mansion, sunshine yellow in color, surrounded entirely by a lovely, well-kept garden.

"Look, Mother, it's Ms. Rouge!" My ears twitched a bit, focusing on the sound of Cream's joyful voice, and I smiled as I approached the little rabbit and her mother.

"Good evening, Cream," I said, nodding in greeting, then I turned to the taller rabbit, "Vanilla."

Cream beamed at me. I was almost taken aback. The little bunny was just overly friendly, it seemed, to everyone. Even though I barely knew her... And it'd been about a year since the last time I saw her... Or anyone coming to this party, really. I suddenly felt out of place... Like I wasn't supposed to be here, among this gathering of friends. Upon seeing Vanilla's warm smile, though, I couldn't bring myself to leave.

"Thanks for inviting me..." I returned their smiles, but I was feeling anything except gratitude. Why, oh why, did I have to come? I shouldn't have come... I should've stayed at home...

The wind blew across my face, but I barely noticed its bitterness. My thoughts were giving me a headache.

There was a terribly annoying voice inside my head, taunting me in a singsong voice, 'You know why you came.... You just wanted to see him.'

Another voice in my head, much more serious than the first, responded quickly, 'Shut up.'

I smiled a bit, walking on, as the voices continued on, 'Face it, Rouge, you had no intention of coming before you saw his name on the guest list....'

'That's not true. Shut up.' I smiled wider. They were just trying to amuse me, now. They had this argument all the time, but it was never serious. No. We all knew the truth.

'Give it up, Rouge. You can't get him off of your mind. You've fallen head-over-heels for that echidna.'

'You don't know what you're talking about.'

'But I know what you're thinking about. Same thing as always... Him. Why else would you give up treasure hunting?'

'It was a bad habit. I needed to get out of it.'

'Lies. Lies you tell yourself because you're scared.'

'Ha. I fear nothing.'

'Except rejection.'

The voices stopped when I neared the door. I frowned. I guessed the voices had to stop eventually. They were beginning to drive me insane... But maybe insanity isn't so bad....

I touched the doorknob and debated going inside... It'd been a year since I'd seen any of the people who were going to be inside. The longest year of my life... I closed my eyes, trying to remember what had triggered so much to change.

I supposed it started when I sent in my resignation letter directly to the President's office... No, it started before that, though I couldn't exactly remember when... It just happened one day. A thought entered my mind and refused to go away... That's when these voices started visiting me. They comforted me at night, driving away sleep, and I listened to them quarrel... They were the ones who convinced me to quit work, move out of Station Square. They taught me how dangerous people could be, and that I should stay away from everyone...

Yes, I was eternally grateful to the voices inside me. And when they told me that I should accept this invitation, I did just as they were told... In return for their wisdom, this splitting headache really isn't all that bad...

I smiled, not crazily, for I could never be crazy! I knew exactly what I was doing.

I remembered the day I told Shadow about these voices. Haha. Silly Shadow. He told me I was insane! He even went to the President to request "special help". I'm not insane! In fact, I left town that night. The voices told me to lay low. I did everything the voices said. They were always right.... Haha, silly Shadow. I'm not insane.

I'm not insane.

Okay... Well, looks like Rouge has finally lost it, doesn't it? Haha.... Yeah.

Will she regain her sanity?

What happens when she meets everyone again?

... And, yes, I'm aware that this story is very strange. It's about the weirdest story I've ever written... Still, read and review, please. Next chapter will be up soon!