Chapter Four: Personal Demons


After brushing his teeth, Sonic laid down on his bed, as close to the center of it as possible.

Sonic had learned a while back that he moved quite a lot when he slept. Thus, he'd given up on trying to sleep at the end of the bed like most people, instead settling himself in the center, with a single pillow to place his head on in order to rest.

This arrangement kept Sonic from falling off the bed- for the most part- and worked especially well on nights like this because of the oppressive summer heat. Nights like these were too hot for the heavy blankets covering Sonic's bed.

Sonic, as usual, tossed and turned for a few minutes on top of the increasingly rumpled sheets as sleep resisted him for all it was worth. But, eventually, Sonic's tiredness won the battle, as it always did, and he entered the void of sleep.

For a few minutes, his mind wandered aimlessly, never settling anywhere for more than a few seconds before choosing to move on. But that refused to last, and a dream clutched Sonic in its grip soon enough.

Sonic, admittedly, dreamed quite a lot- he had good dreams, nightmares, and everything in between. He never paid them much mind, instead getting over them and turning to face the day when he woke up. Under most circumstances, that is. Tonight would prove to be an exception.

When his fevered mind settled down, it chose to deposit him in the middle of a burning field. Sonic groaned and rolled over, trying to stand up and figure out what, exactly, was going on. His body felt wet and sticky, his mouth tasted like a battery had exploded inside it, and his head pounded so badly he thought his brain might have been trying to break loose.

A deafening clap of thunder disrupted his train of thought, and caused his head to pound even harder as he took in the gruesome scene before him. The brittle, barren ground had no living plants to its name, just limp, flaming imitations of what had once been greenery. Vicious-looking black clouds dominated the sky, shooting bolts of crimson electricity back and forth at each other at a furious pace. Worst of all, though, the air reeked of a fetid mixture of waste and burning meat. And it didn't take long for Sonic to find out why.

As he tentatively took steps through the field, trying to avoid the little fires that dotted the harsh landscape every now and again, the bodies started becoming visible. And they weren't just any bodies, either. While Sonic felt a potent combination of fear and anger bubble within him after each and every corpse he saw, he began comparing them in a gruesome fashion, and came to the horrifying realization that they'd all been savagely killed. Every corpse had some sort of mutilation: a missing arm here, a disfigured face there, a heart torn free from its rib cage mere steps from where Sonic stood. Even worse, the expressions on their faces- the ones who had enough of a face left to have an expression, anyway- all shared the same emotion: pure, unadulterated terror.

Sonic lurched after that, whatever food had been in his stomach spilling out in a cascade of bile. Struggling to prevent a second wave of nausea from attacking, he tried looking at the places he hadn't seen before. It was only then that he noticed the limp, pale orange form lying about a dozen yards away. He knew something was familiar about it, but his thought remained unconfirmed until it somehow managed to stagger to its feet.

Tails whipped around to face Sonic as he took a casual step forward. In response, Tails took a nervous step back and started to whimper in fear.

"Tails, it's okay," Sonic said, in as reassuring a voice as he could use. "I'm Sonic. I'm not going to hurt you."

He took another step forward, and Tails screamed. He turned around and ran as fast as his tails would allow, shouting "stay away from me, you monster!"

All of a sudden, Sonic's gloves and body felt wet and sticky. When he looked down, all he could see was blood. Big, red, sticky blobs of the stuff covered his body and soaked his gloves, so much so that it was pooling on the smoking ground around him and giving off a deeply disturbing smell.

Then, maniacal laughter came from the heavens, which drowned out all the other sounds of the area and echoed so loudly that Sonic presses his hands to his ears, waiting for the madness to end.

Once the laughter died down, a voice came from the same spot as the laughter, and appeared to be choked with just as much insanity. "Come on, dude! You know how much fun you could have if you just relaxed. Let loose! Don't worry about the direction you're going! Let your desires take you wherever you want to go!"

Sonic took a noticeable step backwards as he rallied his courage. "Who… who are you?"

"I'm you!" The voice cackled. When he listened closer, Sonic almost went white upon the realization that yes, the voice from above belonged to him. "I've just had the time of my life here! Moving target practice? Nothing relieves stress faster!"

Sonic managed to choke out a response. "But- but- how could you kill all these innocent people?"

"Again, They're just target practice, man!" The thing's voice had gotten even loonier than before. "And it's not my fault they're too slow to get out of my way!"

Sonic didn't respond. He just stared intently into the distance, towards where he assumed this thing was watching from, in a safe position where Sonic wouldn't be able to hurt him no matter what he tried. This thing was shaping up to have even worse "villain etiquette" than Eggman- with him, casualties were collateral damage (sometimes intentional, but most of the time not), but whatever this was focused purely on causing innocent deaths.

"You know this is what you really want to be," the voice continued. "Just relaxing, letting the wind take you where you want to go, and nothing slowing you down! You know you want this, right?

Sonic's glare intensified as he fixed his eyes in where he presumed this cheap knock-off was communicating from, somehow. The worst thing about it all was that part of him- the forgotten, impulsive, immature section of his brain- did actually want that. Not having a care in the world and being able to go wherever he pleased without any constraints whatsoever- who wouldn't want that? However, the logical part of Sonic's brain overrode that same part, telling him that such pleasures should never occur at the cost of innocent lives.

"But I don't," replied Sonic. This thing was perilously close to scaring him senseless, but he tried to hide it behind a veil of humor, as always. "Not caring about who gets in the way of my objectives isn't my style. If you want that, I have some friends you could call."

Whatever the thing was seemed to mull Sonic's decision over for a few seconds, but then, it spoke again. And it was angry. "You know I don't have much patience here, do you? I don't have all day," it said.

"For what, exactly?"

"For this," it hissed. Sonic had no idea what he was talking about, but that quickly changed when a spear of crimson electricity struck the ground mere feet away from him. It didn't hit him directly, but the explosion it caused still sent him flying backward before slamming into the burning ground again.

Any resemblance of Sonic the thing's voice once had had vanished, and a static-choked, hissing, robotic-sounding drone took its place. It grated on Sonic's ears, even though they were still ringing from the lightning strike. "I can do things to you you'd rather not hear about," it said.

Sonic had heard this whole spiel quite a few times already, mostly from Eggman. However, the invisible creature seemed more than capable of actually following through on those desired., as evidenced by the destroyed field around them. "Has anyone ever told you that you're really creepy?"

The thing let loose a hysterical laugh that bordered on a scream. "Of course! That was my intention," it rasped.

"Well, congratulations on that," Sonic said, trying to play it off with slow, deliberate clapping.

If this was even possible, whatever this thing was turned even more sinister after that line.. "You irritate me! But don't worry. I won't have to deal with you much longer. Soon, everyone will know my name!"

Sonic just chuckled. "Of course they will. It's not like a million other wannabes like you have said the exact same thing before or anything."

"I'm different," it roared. "I will not let their failures control me! And unlike them, I have an ace up my sleeve they'll never see coming."

Sonic half-listened to that entire bit. "I'm sorry, what's this supposed to be?"

It answered in a single word. "You."

Sonic quickly gestured to himself with a look of surprise on his face, knowing most villains he fought just loved to spoil their evil plans. Sure enough, everything he needed to know came in the next two sentences.

"Since I can't influence you like this, let's just say you won't be in control anymore," it hissed. "Soon, the person everyone will fear most… will be you!"

Before Sonic could come up with a response, violent quaking took over the world. Then, the entire world became tinged with red. Screaming once more penetrated the silence. The scent of smoke permeated the air, mixed with the smell of something burning. Sonic's vision grew fuzzy.

Then, the ground rushed up to meet his head and he blacked out.


Author's Notes:

-Sorry I didn't finish this on time and had to upload it an hour late. I had an event today that ran long, meaning that I had to start proofreading this later than usual. Hopefully, this is a one-time occurrence, and you can still enjoy the chapter.

-Don't worry, this chapter actually has something to do with the plot. How, exactly? You'll find out next chapter. Hopefully, I'll see you there!


Review Zone, Act III:

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