Very exciting, we are ever closer to the turning point of this story! Thank you to everyone's comments, they do help me when I have writer's block. Which I did have for this chapter and it was very difficult to come back to it. Nonetheless, I was able to push through!
Chapter 19
The first thing that Sonic can hear is his fast-paced heart, racing in his chest.
The first thing he feels, those webs around his neck, his body, trailing around him like silly string.
It wasn't silly string. It wasn't silly at all.
They were light, weightless before even, but now, it felt like someone was attached to his back, sinking claws into his spine, his shoulders and trying to drown him in this fear that ate at him.
The first thing he sees, was his hands, trembling like he had stayed in the snow for too long. Pulling away from his neck and revealing the mess that he was trapped in. Just like those husks, those painting people, the victims to this horrid homunculus.
He would end up just like them soon. Where was Shadow?
Where was the snarky demon? The one that would tell him this was a joke, that he didn't leave him alone. That he couldn't die in this trial just like the last, his death wouldn't be permanent.
It wouldn't.
But Shadow isn't here. Isn't going to make death temporary again. He couldn't appear before him because of the sin he is facing.
That's how deadly this one was. Why he had a ticking time bomb of a noose around his throat.
Sonic startles, choking on air as his sight is filled with cyan glow, and a face.
Spirit.
The one Shadow had left him. To aid him in this domain. Death was not temporary, but he has help. Someone to rely on during this trial.
Warm hands grasp at his shoulders and giving him an affirming squeeze, the ivory male's muzzle tilted down to look at him, that warm smile on his face to calm him.
"I know you're scared." He says quietly, firmly, getting through the cotton stuffed figuratively in his pinned back ears. "You can be scared of this. But what matters is if you will face it, and if you do, know that you are not alone."
Emerald eyes come back from the dullness they had exhibited during his panic, quills relaxing against his fur once more.
He wasn't alone.
Sonic sucks in a large breath before nodding to his companion.
"We'll get through this." He murmurs to himself as Spirit pulls away, resuming his gentle position beside him.
They continue their way towards the center of the maze, the den of this Sin. Where the disillusioned violin strings that creak every few notes grow louder, reverberating through the tunnels and bouncing off the threads decorating them like plucking cello strings.
There at the end of the tunnel, an open room, an open drop into a room filled with mirrors of all kinds, some strapped to the floor, others suspended in the air by webs.
All with webs.
The room was circular, pattern decorating the floor was the print of a spider's web, and at the center of it all was Envy, preening himself in a nearby mirror.
Flaunting and posing in various ways, much like a model for a camera but with a sinister purpose. He was cataloging his stock, visualizing every detail of his body, and memorizing it. The leather magenta jacket that had covered him had been cast aside to show off the homunculus's back and arms, the corset revealing more, including two scars that Sonic knew he didn't have on his back.
But there they were on Envy.
When the Sin took notice, a hideous grimace adorns his features, venom in his eyes and disgust saturating his voice as he hisses, turning away from the mirror and going to another with a strut of a madonna.
The instrumental playing in the background continued unheeded, still tauntingly slow in tune and still plucking the wrong chords in mismatched times. Now the sound made sense, the walls around the room had puppets stringed in a line, all playing different instruments, their arms being controlled like every other toy this monster had. More victims.
"So, this is it?" Sonic murmurs numbly, standing to close to the edge of the tunnel mouth for his likely, but his feet wouldn't move to his will.
"Yes, this is your arena." Spirit replies, his hand going back to his shoulder in comfort for the mortal. "But I will be here, I will be your shield. You must continue to be the sword." A pat eases Sonic's muscles as he blows a few breaths of fear out of his system.
Not like it was going to get rid of them all, but he was trying.
With it, he steps forward, dropping into the arena and rolling on impact to lessen the damage to his form. There would be no turning back with that move, the webs below him shift and tremble at his weight, leading back to the center. Which draws the attention of the homunculus as he turns his head, teal eyes trained on him in an instant.
Sonic feels the same chills run down his back as before, and with the spider motif, it was like being compared to prey in the eyes of this homunculus. Teal-webbed pupils never lifting from his form and instead began to weigh him down by some invisible force.
In his head, he could make the connection. Those translucent strings that litter his body were freezing his movements.
"My little toy!" Envy joyfully coos, brandishing his arms in an open gesture, like a friend going for a hug only the tightening of those webs could be felt in that moment.
He feels stuck, mind going haywire with trying to free himself. Nothing that would end in his favor, just like last time, unfortunately.
"You should've stayed in your pen and waited, dear." The twisted image continues, showing off feral fangs in a bright and sinister grin. "You would've lasted longer."
The words were ice cold as they were spoken, manicured nails curling into Envy's palms, furthering his torment. His noose pulling taut against his skin with that motion, a warble of panic leaving his closing throat while Sonic's fingers grasp to no avail.
"Oh well. There's only room for the superior. Not broken toys." The neon clothed hedgehog murmurs, placing a coy hand on his cheek.
Sonic's green eyes dull from the asphyxiation, blacking out under the invisible grip. His body finally begins to struggle to free itself. Body collapses like a crumpled toy to the ground, numbing in his legs from the constriction. Muzzle moving with silent words and pleas. Not for Envy, but for his friends. For the girl he couldn't remember. For Tails, his brother. The Spirit that accompanies him. Shadow. Even for his mother, though she has never truly been there for him.
Only a moment more and then air is returning with force to his system. The feeling of breaking the surface and refilling your lungs. A memory he hadn't forgotten but did not want to recall as it fit the moment disturbingly well.
The aqua glow reveals the webbing, even traveling to the fingertips of Envy like marionette strings much to his displeased confusion. The whites of his eyes flash a rose gray tone in his rage, fur and quills ruffling savagely, more so than his natural unkempt look.
The glare is for Spirit, the wrapped male gliding down to be at Sonic's side. He no longer crosses his legs but stands, arms up and glowing the saving grace of his power. While he is standing, his feet do not touch the ground, the spider web below him even making unappealing hisses as it pulses away in a circular pattern from the proximity of his form.
"You want to join play time? Fine." The homunculus spits, snapping back to his persona and the strings seep into his palms, leaving none on the azure prey. "My love strings are just too vanilla for you it seems." He mockingly sighs, a small tap of his heeled boot becomes increasingly loud the longer it goes on.
'He's impatient.' Sonic interprets in his head. Envy could fool anyone with his body language, all but the person he copied from, those were all Sonic's tells. Just because it took a more sexual tone, doesn't mean it changed that fact.
Sonic grits his teeth, eyes super focused on the perverse avatar, limbs in pain as he gets to his feet. "Thanks." He says hoarsely to his companion.
This standoff was pressing on both parties, waiting for the other to make the first blow. From his calm and still stature, Spirit was purely for deflective means, not the one to battle offensively, which left the twitchy hedgehog in front of them to make his move.
Envy's visage shifts once more, just for a beat. A flash and nothing more. He swings his body with the grace of a dancer, issuing black webs from his palms like the magenta ones before them. They have a thicker composition, and at the end of them, spines that stuck like rose vines.
He brandishes them as whips, a giddy giggle bubbling in his throat as he swings with grace, moving his whole body in the action and making it difficult to tell when he would strike and which were faux attacks, merely snapping loudly in the air. His form following the sounds of his silent song, the beat helping none with guiding them to his steps as the homunculus was the one that made the notes with each tap of his feet. Needlessly changing tempo, height of volume, type of instrument at random.
While Spirit could place a shield around his person to take the brunt of each snapping strike that echoes with uncensored babble. The mortal he guides is forced to flee, jumping, and diving last minute to keep his skin from being sliced up like how the ground, walls and puppets strapped there were getting.
Curiously, those posted mirrors, all of them, were being left alone. even if it mention the whips bending in strange ways that defied logic to leave them be as they crowd the circular arena. His little observation costs him as a slick whip wraps around his body instead of stripping him of his skin like would be normal.
No.
Instead, the black extension tightens around his body, holding his arms down to his sides and forces air to erupt from his lungs. Like a squeaky toy.
"Ah, harder!" The cerulean male shouts, no control over his tongue and the heavy flush of embarrassment mars his muzzle a split second later. "I-I didn't say that!" He denies, green eyes wide and ears flat against his head.
Envy snorts, gleaming with a predatory smile. Tongue peeking out to wipe across fangs. "With pleasure darling!" He answers, swinging his arm like a rolling wave and Sonic could see the pattern go down the vine and no amount of struggle could stop it.
"W-wait, no!" He yelps, body rag dolling as he's lifted off the ground with the whip and swinging around unnaturally in the motions. "Chaos! I want off this ride!" He screeches, head spinning while he's held captive once again.
"The ride's thrilling, but the ending is my favorite part. Ready for the climax?" The homunculus purrs, ending his disorienting patterns to hold Sonic right in front him. The other whip slinking back into his palm as his sharp nails trail over his chin with sultry taps and then bops his nose.
Sonic flinches, a grimace defining his features as he groans in discontent. When envy is done being coy, he's once again lifted high above him, the whip rounding away from him and taking sections of his limbs.
Both wrists, both ankles and his neck.
"I'll be the only one." The image distorts, eyes bulging with twisted glee and focuses entirely of the draw and quartering of the mortal. Like ripping the wings of a butterfly. All mirrors spinning to perfectly reflect the view from all angles. Sonic's panic. Envy's pleasure.
And the calm of Spirit, left unheeded by the enemy.
The blue male wails in pain, feeling his limbs slowly pull from his body more than they should. One of his shoulders giving way with a nasty pop and the prick of tears enters his sight, blurring it.
He is not the only one that cries out of pain, Envy's strings leaving his body just as quickly as they came. His body flinging into a mirror with the suddenness and unlike how a mirror should have broken his sailing in the air, shattering upon impact.
This one, he phases through like a puddle, ending up in a place that he knew, but was also new to him. A solid black space with no light to reach it, but a stage before his kneeling and tired form. His way back behind him, rippling gently, like disturbed water and reflected the other side where Envy and Spirit were now locked in combat. The kingpiece firing off teal razor rings and splicing the ever-growing vines that Envy sprouted.
This Envy was different, there was a stutter to his skin, to his fur. Scribbling blackness that blinks in and out of existence. Redness to his eyes that sporadically move in his sockets.
Sonic turns away, holding his unmoving arm with the other, a whimper in his throat, threatening to surface. He walks unsteadily to the darkened stage, freezing in fright when a spotlight turns on behind him to reveal the burgundy curtains.
They slowly open, showcasing a large window that the hedgehog wastes time to go near, watching as it turns from a plushie and low budget puppet show to his memories.
A tiny ball of blue, that was him, scowling into the distance as the sun burns in the sky a soft orange. The school was empty behind him besides the extracurricular activities, of which he belonged to none.
No, instead he was waiting for the woman that claimed to be his mother, to pick him up. His bright red shoes scuff at the gravel before his feet while sitting on the curb. His fingers are clenching into the fabric of his backpack straps in irritation. And fear.
He was alone on the side of the road where anyone could get him. And the embarrassment of watching parents walk in and then walk out with happy kids his age stabs painfully in his chest. Fathers holding children on their shoulders and mothers smiling and laughing alongside them. A family unit.
A unit that he didn't have. No father to speak of, and he could not recall a smile that his mother graced just for him. Just for him, not for the public or the cameras. For him.
His eyes flatten against his head further, growling to himself with a huff.
"Sonic?" A voice speaks up behind him.
The cerulean boy whips his head back to the sound, catching the amber eyes of an ivory boy his age, backpack slung across both shoulders. A happy smile perks on the other hedgehog's muzzle. "Hey, I didn't know you were still here!"
"Oh, hey Silver." He replies, turning away as Silver moves to sit beside him.
"Waiting for your mom?" Silver murmurs, though he knew the answer and didn't wait for a reply. "Same here. Science club ended early, so I gotta wait for her to get here." He mentions.
Sonic's eyes soften at the statement, glancing at the grey male. Feeling a connection from it. To know that he wasn't alone. A smile lightens on his muzzle, more eager to continue a conversation now with the other boy.
The two began an excited talk ranging from the events of the day, shared friends to their favorite cartoon show of heroes. The Freedom Fighters.
It wasn't until a car pulls up very close to them that they realize, time had passed fast, leading up to the arrival of a soft-spoken female. She rolls down the window, a heart-warming smile glittering her features as she pushes a quill away from her face. "Oh, hello boys! Silver, you ready to go home?" She murmurs.
Silver hops up from the curb they had rested on, pulling the back door open. "Yeah mom! Is dad home too?" He questions, a small wag to his tail.
Sonic could feel that pit in his stomach again, heart burning as he watches the display. Where was his mom? Why couldn't she be like Silver's mom?
Why couldn't he be Silver?
The older female frowns lightly before looking around in the parking lot. For any sign of the lilac female that housed the bright blue boy beside her car. His expression was dark, agitated and wanting. "Silver, how would you like it if Sonic came with us?" She asks timidly.
Both boys perk at the idea, Silver flinging himself over to the window to look at his friend. "You wanna?! We could have a sleepover!"
Green eyes dart nervously at the sides, like he was also checking for the existence of his designated adult before nodding. "Yeah. Mother won't mind." He shakes off, getting into the car after Silver launches the door open for him too. A weak smile appears while the white hedgehog beside him chirps happily over their plans, dinner and watching the cartoons that would broadcast the following morning.
It felt good to have this moment.
Normal.
What a family should be as he watches Silver interact with the woman that looked so much like him in the front seat. Even down to the cheery personality.
But his emerald eyes dull slightly as he looks down at his hands, clenching into tight fists. This wasn't his shred of family; he was an outsider that they let look into the window of their life.
A tease. Something he couldn't have, no matter how much he wanted to be a part of it.
It made him...
Envious.