(Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog; all credit goes to the original creators at Sega, please support the official release)

(Side Note: This story was inspired by Sonic-exe the fan comic version of the My Little Pony creepypasta "Rocket to Insanity". There's a dub of this comic by Scribbler Productions on Youtube, you should give it a watch; its pretty good and it'll help you understand the context of this story. Enjoy).

Chapter 1: The Nightmares

A gentle, kind-hearted soul. A smart inventor and a good friend. These were some of the words used to describe Miles Prower or "Tails" as his friends had called him because of the two tails he was born with, which also gave him his ability to fly. Growing up, Tails was the subject of bullying because of his tails and this is was why he was so timid and lacked courage. Then one day, he met Sonic the Hedgehog and was inspired to become as cool as him after seeing him run like the wind. Sonic had given Tails his confidence, eventually growing into a more outgoing, brave and independent individual, and a hero in his own right; he and Sonic became best friends and Tails soon joined him on many adventures, all the while making new friends along the way. Since encountering Sonic, Tails has looked up to him and stood by his side, helping him however he can during their adventures.

So why was the heroic blue hedgehog suddenly becoming a source of unrelenting terror for the young fox?

Well, the most likely answer was that it all started with the nightmares.

Tails couldn't remember when they had started, but every night he had been plagued by horrifying nightmares about his best friend. In the dreams, Tails found himself walking along the same green hill where he first met Sonic but as he walked along the hill, he would notice something on the ground. It was an animal, a Flicky to be precise, lying on the ground; it was dead, with its stomach split open and its entrails splayed out onto the ground. As scared as he was, Tails continued to walk along the hill. As he did, he saw even more dead animals; some lying on the ground, some hanging from the trees by their intestines and some sitting in large pools of blood.

Tails was terrified to the point where he began crying, that's when he saw him: his best friend, Sonic, standing on the edge of the hill with his back turned to his young friend. Tails ran towards Sonic, throwing his arms around his friend and crying in fear. "S-s-s-Sonic, i-its terrible! T-t-there's d-d-dead animals e-e-everywhere!", he had sobbed. Sonic would then surprise him by shaking from laughter, he would then turn around and look at Tails with an expression of malice. "Of course they're dead, Tails. I killed them", he would say. Then he would change: Sonic's eyes would turn pitch black with red pupils and blood running down his face. Tails backed away slowly, shaking with fear and feeling as though he'd throw up. Then, Sonic would ask Tails a question:

"dO YoU wAnT tO PlAy hIdE aNd SeEk?"

The next thing Tails knew, he was transported to a hellish landscape, a grassy hill that was on fire. Tails would then run, trying to find a way to escape the terrifying area. Suddenly Sonic, the scary demonic one he had seen, would appear behind him and Tails would scream and run as fast as he could in an effort to escape the monstrous version of his best friend; Tails would even look back and see Sonic chasing him, but not running but by flying in the same manner as Metal Sonic. Tails would then trip and fall on the ground; he'd look up and see this evil Sonic standing over him, smiling that devilish sharp-toothed grin. "I WILL EAT YOUR HEART!", he'd say before thrusting his clawed hand into Tails chest. Tails would usually awaken screaming right at that moment.

This nightmare had occurred over and over for the last four weeks; Tails would wake crying, sweating and screaming after each nightmare, and there was even one time where he had vomited in his sleep and had to turn over and bend over a nearby trashcan to throw up so he wouldn't choke. Tails didn't understand why he was having these dreams about his best friend turning into a monster and doing all those evil things, but he would always tell himself it wasn't real. That Sonic would never do such a thing; he was a hero, loved by many on Earth and Mobius, and he wouldn't go against everything he stood for. But even with that in mind, these nightmares would slowly eat away at Tails fragile psyche.

The only time Tails was safe was during the daytime. If nothing was happening that day, Tails would lie on a picnic blanket under a tree in the local park, taking a nap as a single shaft of sunlight peered through the tree's leaves, warming his face and chasing the bad dreams away. But even these afternoon naps only offered a small moment of peace for the young fox, and with this peace came some rather irritating consequences. Dr. Eggman had continued with his evil schemes of world domination, but Sonic and the others would notice that Tails wasn't there to join them in their battles against Eggman's robots.

It wasn't like Sonic and the others couldn't stop Dr. Eggman's robots, but there were times where they could've used Tails' technological insight to beating some of the harder robots. On one particular day, after a rather difficult battle, Knuckles became annoyed by the young fox's absence and went to find him. He found Tails lying under a tree sleeping. "Tails, wake up!", he shouted. Tails was startled awake and he asked Knuckles what the issue was; Knuckles had said the "issue" was that the other were battling one of Eggman's stronger robots, and if it wasn't for Sonic noticing it weak spot in a rather unnoticeable area of the robot's body, they all would have been crushed.

Tails had apologized and said that he hadn't gotten much sleep lately, leaving out the details. As Knuckles said he understood and that Tails should fix that problem, Tails stared up at the sky. As he did, Tails swore he could see the sky flash black for a split second before it stayed like that for a while. Knuckles had noticed Tails staring at the sky with look of terror on his face; when Knuckles looked at the sky, he didn't see anything but a few clouds and some Flickies flying by. Tails watched those same Flickies fly by but when he looked at them, their stomachs suddenly split open and they fell to the ground as Tails could hear faint demonic laughter. "Hey Tails, are you okay?", asked Knuckles as he reached out to place his hand on his shoulder.

When Knuckles' hand made contact with Tails' shoulder, Tails flinched violently and jumped into the air, hovering over Knuckles with his tails. "DON'T TOUCH ME!", he screamed before grabbing his chest to steady his heavy breathing and pounding heart. Knuckles looked at him in concern, 'Tails, are you alright? What's going on with you?", he asked. Tails put on a false smile, "Yeah, I'm okay. Look Knuckles, I have to go", he said as he flew away. Knuckles scratched the side of his head, "Something's bugging that kid, I just wish I knew what", he said.

Something was indeed wrong with Tails, but to say something was "bugging" him was an understatement; it was more like Tails was having a battle within his own mind and as he lost each fight, it took its toll on him both physically and mentally. The nightmare would keep him up all night, leaving him exhausted and disoriented, and the lack of sleep caused Tails to have trouble telling what was real and what was not. And it didn't help that he didn't tell his friends about his situation and that only served to make things worse as it forced Tails to deal with this on his own.

And this was only the beginning...

Tails laid down on his bed to sleep, and this time, he didn't seem afraid. You see, his nightmares had been somewhat formulaic recently. Tails would appeared on the same hill with the same dead mutilated animals, and the demonic Sonic would chase him through the same fiery landscape before catching and killing Tails. The dreams had gotten to the point where they became redundant and repetitive, and Tails couldn't muster the energy to be scared. He began to feel as though he was finally free from this terror, oh how wrong he was.

When he fell asleep and appeared in his dreamscape, Tails noticed that he wasn't on the hill but rather on a futuristic platform and trapped under in a cage. The evil Sonic appeared next to him, laughing. "Did you think that you could escape from me? We're just getting started and I've decided to bring someone new to play with us", it said. The monster snapped its fingers and Tails stared in horror as Knuckles appeared in front of him, tied down onto a metal table; the evil Sonic laughed and smiled as the usual strong-willed echidna struggled to break free as tears rolled down his face. "We're gonna play 'Doctor'. Our friend here is in need of surgery", said the evil Sonic. It then walked over towards Knuckles and Tails watched in horror as it slit Knuckles open from his torso to his stomach and began pulling his organs out one by one; Tails couldn't look away as he watched his friend being slowly disemboweled, screaming in pain. After a few minutes, Knuckles finally died. The evil Sonic looked Tails with that same grin and said, "Are you still bored, Tails?"

That's when Tails awoke screaming again and came to a horrible realization: somehow this demonic Sonic knew that Tails was beginning to find the dreams less scary due to their repeating nature and so this latest dream was it attempting to entertain Tails by switching the painful deaths from Tails to someone else. Tails had hoped this was a one time thing, but he couldn't have been more wrong.

For the next few days, Tails was plagued by a new set of nightmares. Instead of the evil Sonic chasing and killing him, it decided to torture Tails by trapping him and forcing him watch as all his friends were brutally murdered before him and became so terrifying that even though Tails couldn't predict the methods of death, he could always predict the order in which who was chosen in each dream: first Knuckles, then Amy, then Shadow, Silver, Blaze, Rouge, Vector, Espio, Charmy, and Cream and her mother would always be saved for last because the kind and sweet rabbit girl was two years younger than Tails and it tormented the young fox to watch a small child witness their mother being murdered before being murdered herself. Tails had begged for the torment to stop, but the evil Sonic refused and laugh, saying that this is what Tails had wanted when he thought the dreams became less scary by doing the same thing over and over.

The nightmares had pushed the breaking point for Tails when the latest dream had Tails being pulled underground by the mutilated corpses of his friends as the evil Sonic watched and laughed, "Looks like they want you to join in our fun, the more the merrier!", it said as Tails slipped under the blood-soaked earth. Once again, Tails woke up screaming, ran to his bathroom and vomited into his toilet before going to the sink and splashing cold water on his face. That was when he saw that monster's bloody grinning face looking back at him. Tails clenched his fist in anger and screamed, "LEAVE ME ALONE!" before punching a hole into his bathroom mirror, pulling out his hand as blood from the small cuts he endured stained his glove.

Tails began crying hysterically and he slumped into a fetal position in the corner of his bathroom, clutching his injured hand to his chest. "What did I do? Why is this happening to me? I don't deserve this! I don't deserve this! I didn't do anything, but these dream just keep coming. Every night, for weeks! Why? Why can't you leave me alone? Huh, Sonic? Why?", the young fox sobbed. It was clear now: Miles "Tails" Prower was slowly falling deeper into madness.

Author's Note: Hey I hoped you all liked the first chapter of my new story. I decided to take a break from other works and try something new. I'll be back with Chapter 2 pretty soon and that'll be a chapter where Tails will feel himself descend into despair. Until then, this is SuperKirbyLand234 signing out!