2.
Huh?
Where'd that voice come from?
"You didn't think you could hide, did you?"
"What in the hell-"
"Exactly."
I'm really confused right now
If it's possible it just got colder. I feel clammy and dirty.
"Sonic."
"That's my name, speed's my game. You wanna come out and play?"
"No, little hedgehog. It's MY game."
"Are you organizing a race or something? 'Cause I never lost a race that was fair, you know." I try to look around but I'm standing in total black and it's kind of freaking me out. I feel like my eyeballs are falling out from trying to see. "Hey, no fair startin' when I can't see ya!"
Then right in front of me comes this blue glowy thing, and God is it scary. It takes a lot to scare me, and this thing does the job a bit too well. It hurts my eyes to look at it.
It's cold.
Something inside me seems to squirm and writhe. I don't know what it is.
I feel strange.
"I made you, hedgehog. Now you are of age. Now you are ready."
"I don't think that's true, since I am not a an uh whatever you're supposed to be thingumabob."
"I am Hell itself."
"Uh-huh. Tell me another one, Stephen King. If I'm standing in front of Hell there would be FIRE."
"Tell me, hedgehog what is your greatest fear?"
"Water, stupid. Everyone knows that. My DOG knows that. And I don't have a dog."
"What if Hell was your greatest fear?"
"It ain't. Forgetting how to program the DVR, now THAT scares me."
"I know your greatest fear, Sonic.
"The one you've never told anyone."
Gulp.
This isn't looking so good.
How does Mr. Pilot Light here know about that?
"You're afraid of being alone."
Damn.
Busted.
"So you have a choice. You can do as I ask which is really not that hard or you can stay here for eternity."
"I'll stay here, thanks. I don't wanna know what a walking blob of mist wants me to do."
"You're bluffing."
"Try me."
"If you insist."
And it disappears.
The darkness presses on me.
It's gonna go away any second.
Right?
Why isn't it going away?
Count to three.
One...
Two...
Three...
Shit.
Still there.
Alright, I'm scared now.
"Hey! Hell itself! Ya just gonna leave me here?"
Oh my God, time is stretching on forever. I can't do this. Someone will come for me.
No one's coming.
It's so dark.
It's so cold.
Oh God.
"I give! What do you want?"
The glow returns, blinding me. But there's some thing there now, and it helps banish the fear. Okay, so it's an evil uh thingification of Hell, but it's all I get.
"All you have to do is close your eyes."
I don't want to.
I'm afraid that when I open them it will be gone, and I'll be alone again.
But I do it anyway.
I open my eyes when the sun warms me.
I'm shaking.
God I was scared.
Never been that scared before.
'cept the time I almost drowned.
But here I am standing in the middle of Emerald Hill, in once piece, same as before.
What.
The.
Hell.