It was 4 PM. The group was starting to get together at Pule Productions. Once again, they were all waiting outside the table reading room.
"It's still so hard to believe Espio is dead...I never would've thought it could come to this..." Tikal said in depression.
"I thought we were done talking about this." Shadow sighed. Tikal ignored him.
"I still wanna figure out what caused that black blood to come out of Espio's mouth. I know, I should let it go but...I can't help but think about it." Tails said.
"There's this thing called the internet. Use it. Learn it. Love it. Cherish it always." Shadow said.
"Okay, what is your deal? Ever since Espio died you're acting more like a bastard than usual!" Sonic yelled.
"My deal is that everyone keeps bringing it up when I don't want it to be! I don't want to be constantly reminded of the fact that Espio just threw up black ooze all over someone's face and then died right after. It's so annoying." shadow strictly stated.
"...You get emotional about it, don't you?" Rouge figured out. Shadow glanced at her then looked away. She could see right through him.
Fang arrived at the group last with a concerned look on his face.
"Hey Fang. Are you okay? You look...worried." Bean noticed.
"I just had this incredibly weird dream. I've never seen anything like it. It was just so...disturbing and even scary. Do you want to explain it?" Fang asked.
"Might as well seeing that waiting out here is getting to be pretty boring." Sally said.
"Okay then. I can't remember every single thing so I'll just do my best. The dream started here, in this hallway and we were waiting for Aoi to open the door so we can tell him Espio had died. While we were waiting, I kept hearing this weird singing...I forgot what the singing was, but I know one of the words was "Wake up" which...made no sense. Anyways, the door opened and we went in to see Aoi. The thing is though is that...all of you guys told Aoi that Knuckles died and I told Aoi it was Espio...but I saw Espio standing on the other side of the room. I could clearly remember being extremely confused about this. Then you guys kept saying Knuckles was the one who died and I remember yelling to Aoi that it was Espio! But then, you guys got angry at me and got out these pocketknives and came after me. So I ran out the door but then I bumped into a ghostly version of Knuckles. He said something, but I forgot what it was. I then turned around and was stabbed by Sonic, then I heard him say something which I also can't remember and then I woke up." Fang explained.
Everyone stared at him in shock. They were all speechless.
"Wait a second...DOES THAT MEAN I'M GONNA DIE NEXT? WHAT THE HELL?" Knuckles freaked.
"Calm down Knuckles! It's just a dream, it doesn't mean anything. Still, the fact that you had this dream is really weird. But I don't think it has any significance." Vector said.
"Well, like I said, I've never dreamt of anything like that before. So in my opinion, it either has to mean something or there's a reason why I had that dream." Fang said.
"I'm telling you guys, it has to be Aoi doing this. Haven't you all noticed that things started getting strange ever since we met him?" Shadow asked.
"Well now that you mention it..." Blaze said.
"Oh give me a damn break. How can someone like Aoi make someone die by having their blood turn black? Or by someone having a nightmare? You're over-thinking it." Sally said.
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but Shadow does have a point. There is definitely something bizarre going on and it most likely pinpoints to Aoi. But the question is, how is he doing this stuff?" Tails asked.
"I knew that man seemed suspicious. I'm definitely having second thoughts about doing this movie." Vanilla said.
"Remember a couple nights ago how Sonic explained that Aoi thougt he was hearing stuff and how he might be going insane and paranoid? That's what got me thinking that maybe Aoi IS insane and is trying to make US go insane too!" Bean said oddly.
"That is the stupidest theory I've ever in my entire life! Why can't we all just accept the fact that everything that's happened is a COINCIDENCE?" Sally raised her voice.
"You don't need to be so rude!" Bean snapped back.
"I'd like to think it's a coincidence but...I also agree it may have something to do with Aoi." Amy commented.
"Can we just drop this please? This is giving me a headache and it's just making me more confused." Rouge said.
"...I also had a dream similar to Fang's." Sonia spoke. Everyone looked to her.
The door quickly opened and out walked a camera crew.
"Hello everybody! Step inside, if you will." Aoi greeted. Everyone quickly went inside the room. Aoi shut the door.
"Um...Aoi? We have something bad to tell you." Tikal started.
"Oh gosh! What happened?" Aoi asked.
"Well...you see...um..." Amy wanted to say it, but she couldn't get the words to come out her mouth.
Blaze took over.
"Espio is dead." She finished.
Aoi's eyes widened and he took a step back.
"D-DEAD? HOW?" He yelled.
"We actually don't know how he died. I know it seems confusing but...well it IS confusing but the only thing that's probable is that he died from either a disease or some virus he caught." Knuckles said.
"Oh my god. This is just awful...and I had everything prepared for filming too..." Aoi said in disappointment.
"We're really sorry this had to happen, Aoi. None of us saw it coming either. But if it makes you feel better, we all still want to continue going through the movie." Sonic said.
"Hmm. I see then. But this creates a problem for us. Espio's character. He had a lot of lines in this script but thankfully, he dies first in the script. So, I'm gonna have to do some re-writes then we can do the table reading once again." Aoi explained.
"Can't you just hire someone else for his character though?" Cream asked.
"I could but...replacing him would just feel...odd. It wouldn't feel right. Come back in 2 days. I'll have the new scripts printed out and ready to go." Aoi said.
"Good. We'll be there by then." Rouge said with a forced smile.
As everyone started to leave, Aoi spoke up.
"Will there be a funeral for Espio?" He asked.
Everyone stopped in their tracks. They didn't know how to respond to his question.
"Um...no there won't be. Sorry." Tikal said. Everyone looked to her.
"And why not?" Aoi asked.
"Because it's...well...um...he's in the morgue, okay? See you in two days." Tikal said in panic and quickly ran out the room and so did everyone else.
"He's in the MORGUE? Are you kidding me right now?" Knuckles asked.
"What? I couldn't think of anything else to say! Don't judge me!" Tikal defensively said.
As Amy was walking in the back of the group, Sally slowed down to her.
"It's your own fault, you know." She said.
"Wha? What are you talking about?" Amy jumped.
"About Espio. You killed him on purpose, didn't you?" Sally asked.
"WHAT? How could you even think of saying that, Sally? WHY WOULD I KILL ESPIO?" Amy yelled.
"Because you had the perfect opportunity to kill him and make yourself look innocent. The whole situation was panicked and dangerous. One little slip and...BAM! No more Espio." Sally said. Amy was feeling a mix of emotions right now.
"But why would I kill ESPIO though? I don't have anything against and I don't hate him!" Amy yelled again.
"Please. I've seen the way you've looked at him. You give him a smug look everytime he hangs out with us. Like you just wanna punch him in the face. You only have yourself to blame. You did kill him. You disgust me." Sally said in a creepy tone.
"But...I...I didn't...how could you say something like that?" Amy whispered and started to tear up.
As Cream and Vanilla were walking out of the building, Cream thought of something to say to her mother.
"Mom, do you think I'm...weak?" Cream asked.
"Huh? Why would you ask that, sweetie?" Vanilla asked back.
"Because...well, I don't know. I just figured that everybody probably sees me as just some defenseless little girl who can't put up her own fight." Cream explained.
"Did someone at school tell you you're weak? Is that why you're asking me this?" Vanilla asked.
"Well...kind of." Cream awkwardly said.
"Oh, honey! Don't listen to those guys. You are a brave and courageous little girl, especially all that you have been through. Besides, you're still young. You shouldn't be worrying about how tough you should be." Vanilla said and gave her a hug.
"How do I know you're not just saying that?" Cream asked. Vanilla was put off by this weird question.
"Because I know you better than anyone else does." She answered. She started to get a bit worried for her.
"...Liar..." Cream whispered.
LATER:
Bean was at his house, in his room reading his script.
Kenta Masuda (Vector): Here, let's all stay in this building for tonight. There's blankets and mattresses here and the air's warmer in this place as well.
Daisuke Ijima (Tails): Fine by me. I'm tired anyways. We'll try looking for people again tomorrow.
Junko Shimaki (Blaze): If we EVER find people, that is...
Hisoka Kato (Espio): I'll take the first lookout, just in case anything weird happens while we're all sleeping.
Natsumi Mado (Amy): Yeah...you have fun with that! Good night everybody!
Hisoka rolls his eyes at Natsumi. Everyone else gets on to a mattress and immediately falls asleep except for Yukie and Kayoko Nanami, who are lying together.. Camera cuts to them
Yukie Nanami (Cream): Mom, do you think we'll ever find people again?
Kayoko Nanami (Vanilla): I know we will, honey. You just gotta have faith.
Yukie Nanami: But...I'm scared though. What if something bad happened which caused everyone else to leave and that bad thing will come get us next?
Kayoko Nanami: Shhh...go to sleep sweetie. I'll be right here.
Camera cuts to Yukie, whos eyes close slowly and she drifts into sleep as does Kayoko.
Camera then cuts to Hisoka, who is coughing like crazy. He runs outside to cough so he doesn't wake everyone else.
Fade out.
Fade back in outside the building. Morning has arrived.
Mamoru Seto (Knuckles): EVERYONE! GET UP THIS INSTANT!
Natsumi Mado: Ugh...damnit! I was hoping I would wake up in my own home.
Hikaru Sasagawa (Charmy): What's going on Mamoru? Did something happen...?
Mamoru Seto: Yes, something bad happened! Hisoka is gone! I can't find him anywhere!
Satomi Noda (Sonia): WHAT? So he just...disappeared? Without a trace?
Mamoru Seto: Yep. I really hope nothing bad happened to him...
Ryo Komori (Fang): Maybe he ran away in hopes of getting to where everyone ran to?
Hayato Kotani (Sonic): I don't think he would do that. It's extremely dangerous to go out at night alone. Especially in an empty city...
Kayoko Nanami: No matter what the case is, we have to go find him. He could be hurt or lost.
Everyone nods and they all exit the building and decide to run left.
Camera cuts to them walking in the city, all shouting out Hisoka's name.
Ami Kamiya (Sally): Ugh, I give up! I don't think we can find him!
Kenta Masuda: No. We can't give up. We need to find him. We need to...
Izumi Kanai (Tikal): OVER THERE!
She points to an alley way across the street. They notice a large puddle of...something leading into it.
Hikaru Sasagawa: What the heck is that? Is that...blood?
They all look at the liquid. It was purple and it looked less 'liquidy' than blood.
Hayato Kotani: That is definitely not blood.
Akira Ikeda (Rouge): Where the hell did all this come from? This wasn't here before...I think.
Nori Kusaka (Bean): It leads into the alley...we should go check it out.
Everyone agrees and slowly walks in the alley way. They follow the trail of the purple goo.
Ami Kamiya: Why do I get the feeling this could lead us all into danger?
They all kept following the trail until they saw something that scared the hell out of them.
Akira Ikeda: OH MY GOD! HISOKA...HE'S...HE'S...
DING DONG!
The sudden doorbell noise made Bean jump. He quickly ran out of his room to the front door. He opened it to find a package sitting on the step.
"A package...? But I didn't order anything!" Bean said in confusion. But since it was a free, random package, he decided to keep it.
He shut the door and went into the kitchen. He went into the drawer and got out a pair of long and sharp scissors.
He began cutting into the tape and started ripping to box open with force. After he got it open, he picked up what was in the box and stared at it in surprisement.
MEANWHILE...
"They all think I'm weak, huh? Well I bet they've never seen a weak person do THIS before...hahaha." Cream talked to herself, doing a little 'something' in the kitchen. She was making a lot of noise with the utensils she was using.
Vanilla came rushing down to the kitchen.
"CREAM! What are you doing up this late? It's past midnight!" She said.
Cream stopped what she was doing and just stood in silence.
"Cream...? What are you doing?" Vanilla asked in concern.
"You lied to me, mom. You don't think I'm strong at all...do you?" Cream said in a completely different voice which creeped Vanilla out.
"What? What on earth are you talking about, Cream? WHAT IS GOING ON?" Vanilla started to panic.
"It's okay. You don't need to say anything. I know. The entire world knows. I was useless during my adventure with Amy and Big when we went to defeat Metal Sonic. I was only good at flying...that's the only thing I'm good at..." Cream said, changing her tone to a depressing tone.
"Cream...what has gotten into you? PLEASE ANSWER ME!" Vanilla yelled.
"They think I'm weak, mom. And they're right. But I do think I have enough strength in me to do something like this..." Cream said, then turned around. She extended her arms out to show her arms had been all cut up and bloody.
Vanilla gave the loudest gasp ever.
"OH MY GOD, CREAM! WHAT DID YOU DO TO YOURSELF?" Vanilla cried.
"What do you think I did? I wanted to prove to everyone that I'm strong enough to at the very least hurt myself. And you know what? I kind of like the pain." Cream said. She grabbed the butcher knife that was already bloody and stabbed herself in the palm of her left hand.
"No...YOU GIVE ME THAT RIGHT NOW!" Vanilla screamed, running towards Cream but Cream angrily kicked Vanilla down to the ground.
"GET AWAY FROM ME! You really think you know me, huh? Lies. These wounds are weakness leaving the body. I guess no one expected a cute little rabbit girl to cut herself 5 times on each arm, huh?" Cream said with a creepy laugh. Her blood was dripping all over the floor.
"Cream...please...just put the knife down...PLEASE, I'M BEGGING YOU!" Vanilla started crying.
"Enough! I think I've done enough on my body. Now, to prove that I truly do have a little more strength in me, let's say we practice on someone else, shall we?" Cream said deviously, grabbing another butcher knife.
"No...Cream! Please don't do this! This is your mother speaking to you!" She continued to cry.
"LET'S PRACTICE!" Cream screamed and ran to Vanilla.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Vanilla screamed and turned her face away.
But instead of stabbing Vanilla, Cream stabbed herself with both of the knives in the chest, spilling out a bunch of blue blood all over Vanilla.
EOC.
Things are REALLY getting out of hand now and it will only get worse as the story progresses. Please review.