See Chapter 1 for Disclaimer

Chapter 2: An Unthinkable Act

Tails had soon realized that every night when he closed his eyes, the nightmares just kept coming and so he came to the ultimate conclusion: sleep during the day and stay awake during the night. He figured that if he changed his sleeping habits the nightmares wouldn't hurt, after all the daytime was the only time he could sleep without being plagued by those horrible dreams. The only problem was he wasn't nocturnal, so how was he going to pull this off?

That answer came in the form of caffeine, Tails reasoned that if he drank coffee at night, it'd keep him up during the eight hours of sleep he usually got and then he'd just sleep the following morning. Tails went to the market the next day and began buying several large tubs of coffee, then when night time rolled around he brewed up a few cups and drank them while watching late night TV.

Tails also deduced that what he watched on TV could also help keep him awake at night so he flipped through the channels to find something that wasn't dull or boring to watch. Eventually he settled on either one of those mindless action movies that just had big loud explosions or one of those horror movies that relied only on jump scares to frighten people. For the most part, Tails plan had worked like a charm; the loud and obnoxious movies and cups of coffee kept him up at night and during the day he slept off the resulting fatigue, the nightmares were kept at bay.

But sadly all good things must come to an end and Tails soon realized that his plan went from making things better to making them worst. The combination of coffee and late night TV had thrown off his internal clock to the point where he didn't feel hunger at the appropriate times, and that only caused him to go an entire day without a single meal.

To top it off, the constant jittery feeling he felt from drinking so much coffee caused to also become extremely paranoid and jumpy, and when it wore off, he felt dizzy and sick and the visions of his nightmares would flash before his eyes. To put it simply, Tails was slowly turning into a shell of his former self; the lack of sleep, irregular patterns of hunger and the sour mood made the younge fox unrecognizable to everyone around him.

And it wasn't long before his friends caught on that their young fox friend wasn't behaving like his usual happy and chipper self, and that's when they decided to discuss what to do about it.

Knuckles had gathered the others together the very next morning to talk about Tails recent change in attitude and outburst the other day, it was very disconcerting and they needed to know. "I have noticed that he's been rather distant lately, almost like he's avoiding us", said Amy. "Do you think it's all the stress finally catching up to him that's got him acting that way?", asked Silver. "I don't know, but what I do know is that Tails isn't doing so well and he's in some serious need of cheering up", said Knuckles.

That's when Sonic stepped forward, "Why don't I go see him? After all, he is my best bud. We can talk for a while, maybe grab a bite to eat and I bet he'll be back to his old self in no time. I know, you guys can tell him to meet me over by Green Hill, hanging out where we first met is guaranteed to put a smile on his face", he said. The others agreed that some quality with Sonic was all Tails needed to get out of his funk, "Alright Sonic, I'll go find Tails and tell him to meet over by Green Hill", said Knuckles. "Sweet, that should give me enough time to pack some lunch in a picnic basket", said Sonic.

An hour later, Knuckles once again found Tails beneath a tree at the park and what he saw wasn't pretty. The young fox had dark bags under his eyes, which were blood shot and red from the crying he had done, and his bright orange-yellow fur was messy and unkempt. Man this kid is in dire need of a good time, thought Knuckles. He walked over to Tails and tapped him on the shoulder, awakening the sleeping fox. "Hmm? Oh hey Knuckles, what's up?", he asked sluggishly. "Sonic wanted me to tell you to meet him over by Green Hill, he's got something special planned for the two of you", said Knuckles as he walked away.

Tails was suddenly filled with a sense of dread: him and Sonic, alone together, at Green Hill; that was exactly how all of his nightmares had started, but Tails shook his head. "C'mon Tails, those were in the dreams. You're awake now, this is real life and the real Sonic wouldn't do such terrible things...right?", he said to himself as he flew to Green Hill. Tails was unsure of himself, but he kept reminding himself that he was in the waking world where his nightmares couldn't hurt him and he was safe.

When he landed, Tails saw that Sonic set up a picnic for the two of them near some tall trees. Sonic saw Tails and smiled, "Hey buddy, glad you could make it. It's been too long since we've just hung out together, and everyone's noticed you've been a little down lately, so I set up this picnic. I brought you a ham sandwich if that's okay, as for me, I'm having a chili dog. I also brought some cheese and crackers if you're in the mood for that too", he said as he sat down and began eating.

Tails almost felt himself relax as he sat down across from his friend, everything seemed normal. The sky was bright blue instead of pitch black, the nearby sea wasn't blood red and the Flickies in the surrounding trees were chirping happily and not dead with their corpses strewed about on the ground. And Sonic was normal too, he gave Tails a friendly smile as he scarfed down his chili dog, washing it down with a bottle of soda. His eyes weren't black, red and bleeding, and he wasn't smiling that evil smiling or laughing that demented laugh.

Tails breathed a sigh of relief as he bit into his sandwich, a warm feeling filling his chest. Everything is normal, he thought happily. After Sonic finished eating, he stood up and dusted his hands off, "Well, if you're almost done, I thought we could play a game together", he said. That's when the world seemed to stop around Tails and the food he just ate felt like cement in his stomach, "W-w-what did you say?", he asked fearfully. "A game. I thought on a nice sunny day like today, a picnic and a friendly game would be just the thing to perk you up; we could play Tag or I Spy or Follow the Leader, maybe some Leap Frog. We could have a little foot race or better yet, we could play Hide and Seek", said Sonic.

And that's when everything felt like it was crumbling around Tails feet, this was when he felt the nightmare coming true and when the image of that demonic hell spawn would flash before eyes in place of his friend. He was here, he came for him and now, he wanted Tails to play his sick and twisted little game. Well this time, Tails had finally had enough and was going to fight back; looking for anything to defend himself, he grabbed the cheese knife Sonic had brought for the cheese and crackers and held it in front of himself.

"S-s-stay back! Don't come near me!", Tails exclaimed. Sonic became confused and concern by his friends behavior, "Tails, what's wrong buddy?", he asked. Tails shakily held the knife out, "Get away from me, you monster!", he shouted. Sonic ignored him and stepped closer, "Tails, are you feeling okay?", he asked. Tails felt fear and rage boiling up inside him like a thermometer inside an oven.

•Look at that freak trying to sound all innocent and friendly. You know he'll kill you if you don't do something!•

•But what should I do? He's coming closer!•

Tails was having an internal argument with himself, with that side of his mind that we all listen to when in danger. The part of us that tells you to either run from the oncoming threat or stand up and fight back against it, and this part of Tails was definitely pushing towards the latter category.

Sonic took another step forward and placed his hand upon Tails' shoulder, "C'mon Tails, you can talk to me. I'm your best friend", he said. Tails felt the thing string holding his mind together slowly coming apart, he couldn't stop himself, his hand flew out and he slashed the knife across Sonic's face. Sonic cried out in pain as he fell over, a long gash having been made in his right cheek. He looked up at Tails as tears began to well up in his eyes, "Tails...what did you do that for?!", he shouted in disbelief.

Tails just stared at him with his shaky hands clutching the knife, "Y-y-you think you c-c-can get me that easily? Not this time! This time, I'm winning this game and you're gonna lose!", Tails shouted. Sonic was even more confused and even saddened by his friend's display of insane anger, "Tails, what are you talking about? What game?", he asked almost scared to know the answer.

•Look he's doing it again, acting like he's hurt so you'll let your guard down! You can't let him get to you, if you do then your done for!•

•What do I do then?•

Kill him! Do it, you know he'll just kill you if don't kill him first! Make him pay! Make him suffer just as he made you and your other friends suffer! DO IT! KILL HIM!

At last, Tails finally snapped and charged at Sonic with the knife; he knocked the blue hedgehog over and pinned him down with his foot, "Tails, what are you doing?", Sonic pleaded. Tails looked at him with an expression of unbridled fury, "LET'S SEE HOW YOU LIKE IT!", Tails screamed as he brought down the knife. Being pinned down, all Sonic could down was scream in agony as his best friend stabbed him repeatedly in the abdomen and torso, tears streaming down his face.

After the tenth stab, Tails finally stopped and backed away to look at his handy work. Sonic laid in a small pool of his own blood as he looked up at his friend; Tails stood over him, clutching the knife in his hand that was soaked in blood along with most of his chest, stomach and legs. Sonic cried as he gasped, struggling to breathe. "T-t-t-Tails...why...d-d-did you...do this? I-I-I thought y-y-you were my f-f-fri...", Sonic's voice trailed off as the blood lost and shock caused him to pass out.

Tails stood over him breathing heavily until the fire in his eyes died out and he saw what laid at his feet. Realization hit Tails like a runaway freight train as his mind just pieced together what he had just done: he brutally attacked Sonic, not the monster from his dreams, the real Sonic! Not the Sonic that loved to torture Tails in his dreams by either killing him or killing his friends right in front of him, but the Sonic who always helped people in need and loved stopping Dr. Eggman's evil schemes all in the name of being a hero; he stabbed nearly to death not the demon, but his best friend. Tails gasped in shock.

He had stabbed his best friend nearly to death!

Tails dropped the knife and crouched over Sonic's not moving body, crying hysterically as he shook the still hedgehog. "Sonic? Sonic! Sonic, please wake up! I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry! I didn't...I don't..I just...! H-h-h...Help! Someone help me! Please, somebody! Anybody! HELP ME!", Tails screamed as he sobbed uncontrollably.

Not too far away from where the horror show took place, Vector, Espio and Charmy were walking along the grassy path having a conversation with one another. "And so I told him "if you're not gonna change the oil every three to four miles, then why would you even bother buying it in the first place?" He just looked at me like I was stupid", said Vector. "So what did you next?", asked Espio. "Yeah, the what happened next, Vector?", asked Charmy. "He tried driving off but then he didn't get far on account of the transmission being shot and to top it all off, the battery died. Some people are just too lazy to look into fixing up their cars", said Vector.

Just then, the trio stopped walking when they heard a high-pitched voice screaming for help; they ran towards the source of the sound, with Espio getting a little further ahead of the other two. When he stopped at the source of the screams, he found Tails lying on the ground in a fetal position, crying and shaking; Espio bent down to his level, "Tails, what's wrong? Oh Chaos, why are you covered in blood?", he said.

Tails just laid there shaking and weeping, he had barely acknowledged Espio's presence. Speaking of the ninja chameleon, Espio turned to the left and gasped in disbelief; he saw Sonic lying in a puddle of blood, not moving. Vector and Charmy had finally caught up just as Espio rushed to Sonic's side, "Man you run fast, Espio. Guess that's a ninja thi—! Oh my gosh, what the heck happened?!", shouted Vector as he saw the bloody hedgehog lying on the ground.

Espio placed his hand near Sonic's neck and felt a weak pulse, "He's still alive! Vector, call 911 right now!", he said. Vector quickly took out his cell phone and started dialing the number for the ambulance; Charmy, with tears in his eyes, flew over to his friend and the unconscious hedgehog. "Espio, is he gonna die?", Charmy asked his voice cracking.

"I'm not sure, hopefully the ambulance will get here before that happens. In the meantime, I have to tell the others about this", said Espio as he pulled out his own phone and began calling the rest of Sonic's friends. As he did, he glanced over to Tails who continued to lie on the ground crying and shaking. What in Chaos' name happened here, he thought.

Half an hour later, the others arrived in time to see Sonic being wheeled away on a stretcher into the back of an ambulance. "Ahhh! No, Sonic!", shouted Amy as she began crying. One of the EMTs approached the group of shocked friends, "What happened? Is Sonic alright?", asked Knuckles. "At the moment we're not sure, but we can tell you, whoever did this must've really hated your friend. He was stabbed over ten times, whoever did this must've wanted him dead", he said before climbing into the back of the ambulance.

As the group was trying to process what had just happened, Charmy looked around and noticed that someone else was missing. "Hey, where did Tails go?", he asked.

At the hospital, Sonic was quickly wheeled into the OR and was being prepped for emergency surgery, though he was giving the medical assistants some trouble. "Geez, even after being stabbed so many times, he's still got some fight left in him. Hopefully this will knock him out so we can patch him up", said Assistant #1 as he injected Sonic with anesthesia for the fourth time as the speedy blue hedgehog, despite being injured, still had enough strength to resist being sedated. Sonic's eyes opened slightly as he looked at the group of surgeons all around him. The head surgeon gave him a reassuring smile, "Don't worry Sonic, you're always there to save us. Now it's our turn to save you", he said. Just before the anesthesia took full affect, Sonic whispered a single word, "t-t-t-Tails...", but before the doctors could make sense of what he said, he shut his eyes again and slipped into unconsciousness.

Author's Note: There we go, Chapter 2 is finished and what a chapter it was. Seems our favorite two-tailed fox has snapped and did the most terrible thing he's ever done. Now we all know he didn't mean to do it but the real question is: will the others believe him when they find out who really almost killed Sonic? Find out in Chapter 3, until next time, this is SuperKirbyLand234 signing out!