Till Death Do Us Part

Endure

(Lily's POV)

After Mach's accident, school was put on hold for a couple days so he could recover. Luckily, I was able to stay home too! However, it also meant I would be seeing him more throughout the day; so I was actually eager to go back to school. For some reason mom really did like this Shadow guy. I didn't get it. Some mornings, I begged that Uncle Tails could take me to school if mom had to go into work, or had to look after Mach if he had a bad night. He was still struggling with dizziness, and bad headaches. I didn't really want to start a conversation with Shadow on the way to school. When he walked me to school the first day, my friends were of course prying, but that's not what bothered me. 

It should have been my dad walking me to school. Not Shadow. 

On Wednesday, mom did work it out where Tails could take me to school so I was relieved to have his company. The rest of the week was back to normal once Mach was able to return to school. It was just the three of us once more, as it should be. (I was starting to think that mom didn't feel that way anymore, though.)

Shadow kept coming by, most of the time it was every other weekend he'd have dinner with us. However, to my disappointment mom and Shadow started to go out on dates outside of meals at home. Leaving Tails or even Cream to watch us. I could tell that Uncle Tails was bothered by mom dating Shadow. He didn't say anything to mom about it, I would occasionally hear him talking to himself about the situation, and he seemed awful moody on any evenings that Amy went out with him. 

Mom kept trying to encourage us to talk to Shadow more often when he came by. As an 8 year old what am I suppose to say to him? He didn't say much to us, either. Just asked about school - like many adults would. It was getting close to holiday break so not a lot was going on at school. I wasn't playing anymore sports at the moment so it was pretty calm as of late. Mom did allow me to spend the nights with some friends of mine so that was a nice change of pace. 

About two weeks later, I noticed mom was nervous and kept scanning the television about weather updates. I kept hearing warnings about freezing temperatures, and forecasting snow threats to the area. As a kid, I didn't really worry about it. All I heard was the "s" word. Snow! That possibly meant early dismissal from school, or school closings. Mach also loved the idea as well. It continued on for a couple days after that, during the night it started to snow, unfortunately it wasn't a lot on the ground, but the temperatures had dropped dramatically so Mach and I was bundled up in layers on the way to school. I heard our principal announcement about any concerning weather would mean that would we would be dismissed early. Throughout the day, I kept glancing out the window. Hoping to see some snow. It was like this the whole week. When the snow finally arrived, it was a steady snow, so nobody was really concerned. 

Throughout the day, the temperature kept dropping, the snow started to get more intense. All of us were getting antsy to go outdoors. None of our teachers, or any other authority were concerned so we had to continue on with the rest of our school day. However, I think they were starting to regret their decision once the wind started picking up and the power started to flicker on and off throughout the school building. We were dismissed around 1 that afternoon. Parents were informed, and some were picked up by car. Mach and I was offered a ride with a teacher to our home. When the teacher drove us home, the wind got worse it seemed like. The snowflakes felt more like hail, when they hit our face once we arrived home. The teacher helped us to the front door. If mom was home, I couldn't tell. The lights were off inside. Unless the power had been knocked out. We quickly went back to the teacher's car so we wouldn't freeze our tails off. This was when the teacher contacted our mom. I think it went straight to voicemail, because mom never answered. I watched her dig through a folder with our names on it, and all the emergency contacts. I couldn't read who she dialed for next. Unfortunately, whoever she called didn't answer either.