Cream arrives home to strange clues

Cream hummed a cheerful tune as she skipped along the sidewalk, her steps light and bouncy as she skipped along the sidewalk toward her home. Her was heart light and filled with anticipation of seeing Tails. As she neared the house, she made a brief stop at Cheddar’s dog house to give the massive Great Dane a loving pat. Cheddar thumped his tail happily against the ground, enjoying the attention.

With a smile still playing on her lips, Cream approached her front door, her thoughts filled with what she and Tails might do today. She reached for the doorknob and pushed the door open, only to pause at a surprising sight. There, on the ground, lay a box of chocolates and a single rose, seemingly discarded in haste. Puzzled, she bent down to pick them up, her brow furrowing. A smile touched her lips—gifts from Tails, no doubt. "Tails must have dropped these," she murmured to herself, wondering why he would leave them there unattended. Yet, her smile faltered as she noticed something else: a faint trail of blood leading from the doorstep, disappearing up the stairs.

A cold shiver ran down her spine, her earlier cheer replaced by a growing sense of dread as she swallowed. Her little bunny nose wiggled anxiously. She stepped inside, shutting the door softly behind her. The normal sounds of her mother cooking in the kitchen reached her ears, Vanilla humming a familiar tune, oblivious to her daughter's return. Cream's heart thumped louder in her chest as she tiptoed past the kitchen, not wanting to alert her mother just yet. She needed to see for herself what this was before making her mother worried.

Vanilla, oblivious to her daughter's disturbed state, continued to cook, her back turned to the entrance as she hummed along with a tune from the radio. She thought he heard or sensed something and looked back towards the door. Not seeing Cream, she shrugged it off and went back to tending to the food she was cooking, the sizzling of grease drowning out most other sounds from the house.

Gripping the chocolates and rose tighter, she went to the base of the stairs. The blood formed a breadcrumb trail that led her upstairs and Cream began to follow them, each step heightening her anxiety. As she reached the top, the sounds of a shower running and Vector's mumbling voice confirmed his presence in the bathroom. The shower turned off, followed by the squeak of the curtain rings as the curtain was drawn back.

She stood outside the bathroom, her hand hesitating on the doorknob. Her mind raced with possibilities—had something happened to Tails? The gifts, the blood... it didn't make sense. Her heart urged her to open the door, to confront whatever lay beyond, yet fear of what she might discover had her frozen. she stood there a moment, her floppy ears listening to the large reptile moving around inside....