I've been a Sonic the Hedgehog fan for years, ever since I was a kid. I enjoy both the modern and classic games. Although, after the experience I had, I don't think I want to play another Sonic game for the rest of my life...

It was a pleasant summer afternoon. I was sitting in my living room playing Sonic Unleashed (I liked getting to explore the different towns in it), when I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, the mailman had arrived and put something in my mailbox. I paused my game to go outside and see what he had delivered. I opened it and saw a small package.

"Huh, weird. I don't remember ordering anything." I said to myself, pulling the package out. There was large writing across the top that read, "To Tom, from Kyle." Kyle was a good friend of mine. We've known each other since we were kids, and he was like a brother to me. I hadn't heard from him in about two weeks, so this was a surprise. I quickly headed back inside.

I opened the package, eager to see its contents. The only thing inside was a CD. I picked up the disc and examined it. It just looked like any average CD-R disc, with the words "SONIC,EXE " written across it in black marker. This sparked my excitement, since like I said, I'm a big Sonic fan, but the feeling was quickly replaced with something else: Confusion. Why would Kyle send me a game after I haven't seen him in a while? Would it give my computer some kind of freaky virus the second I put it in?

After debating it in my head for a bit, my curiosity got the best of me, and I went up to my room and inserted the disc into my computer so I could install the game. The title screen for the first Sonic game popped up. "Awesome!" I thought to myself. The classic games always brought back memories. When I pressed start, there was a split second when the iconic title image turned into something much more disturbing, before cutting to black.

The image appeared very briefly, but I saw that the sky had darkened, the title emblem was rusted, I could've sworn the Sega 1991 in the bottom right had turned into Sega 666, and the water had turned bright red, almost like blood. But the freakiest thing in that frame was Sonic. His eyes became pitch black with dripping blood and two glowing red dots that seemed to be staring at me, and his smile had stretched wider up to the edge of his face. I was rather disturbed by the image, though I figured that it must have been just some weird bug and tried to push it out of my mind.

After it cut to black, it stayed like that for a few seconds. And then the save file select screen from Sonic 3 popped up. "What the hell? What's this doing in the first game?" I questioned. The background was that dark cloudy sky of the Bad Stardust Speedway level from Sonic CD, and there were only three save files. The music sounded strange, like it was playing in reverse. And the image for the save file where you can see a preview of whatever level you're currently on was just red static for all three files.

What increased my confusion was the character select. Sonic wasn't anywhere to be seen, and it showed only Tails, Knuckles and to my surprise, Dr. Robotnik. Now I was sure that something had to be up. You've never been able to play as Robotnik in any of the classic games, so what was he doing here?

That's when I realized: There was no way this was just a glitch. This game was hacked.

Yeah, it was freaky, but I wasn't scared (or at least I tried not to be). I never really messed around with hacks, so I had no idea what to expect. I told myself that it was just a hacked game, there's nothing wrong with that. Anyways, shaking off the nervous feeling, I picked File 1 and chose Tails. The game froze for a moment and I heard a creepy laugh that sounded suspiciously similar to that guy Kefka from Final Fantasy, before the screen cut to black.

The typical level title popped up, except the normally-blue simplistic shapes were colored different shades of red and the text shown only read "HILL ACT 1". The screen faded in and the level title vanished, revealing Tails in Green Hill Zone. The music was different though, it sounded like a peaceful melody that was playing in reverse. I had Tails begin running like you would in any of the classic Sonic games. What I found odd was that as Tails was running, there was nothing but flat ground, a couple trees here and there and no enemies.

I saw something on the ground and stopped to see what it was. It was one of the small animals that would pop out when you defeated an enemy, lying dead on the ground bleeding. Tails had a shocked and saddened look on his face that I never saw before, so I had him move along. As he kept moving, I saw more dead animals as Tails still wore that worried look, the music continuing to get lower. It was shocking to see how they all died, and it was obvious somebody killed them in very gruesome ways; a squirrel was hanging from a tree with what I had to guess was its entrails spilling out, a bunny had all four of its limbs torn off and a duck had his eyes gouged out and its throat slit. I felt a little nauseous looking at this massacre, and apparently so did Tails. After a few more seconds, there were no more animals and the music stopped suddenly. I kept moving forward.

Tails stopped running. I was confused, as my finger was still pressing the key, until I saw why; Sonic was standing there on the other side of the screen with his back towards Tails and his eyes closed. Tails looked happy to see Sonic, but then his smile faltered, obviously noticing that Sonic wasn't responding to him, acting like he wasn't aware of the young fox's presence. Tails walked slowly toward Sonic. I hadn't been pressing my keyboard to make him move, so this had to be a cutscene.

I felt a strange sense of dread growing inside me as Tails walked closer to Sonic to get his attention. I felt like something bad was about to happen. I heard faint static growing louder as Tails was inches away from Sonic and stopped, reaching his hand out to touch him. That foreboding feeling in my gut was growing stronger and I was tempted to tell Tails to get away from Sonic as the static grew louder.

Suddenly, I saw Sonic's eyes open. They were black and red, just like the title image, though there wasn't a smile. The screen quickly turned black and the static sound disappeared.

It stayed black for a few seconds, and then white text appeared, a message that read, "Hello. Do you want to play with me?"

At this point I was definitely creeped out. I didn't really want to continue, but my curiosity got the better of me when I was taken to a different level with the level title saying "HIDE AND SEEK".

This time, I was in the Angel Island level from Sonic 3 and it looked like everything was on fire.

Tails looked like he was scared out of his mind this time. He looked towards the screen and made frantic gestures pointing to the right of the screen. He was actually breaking the fourth wall and telling me to get him out of the area he was trapped in as fast as I could. I was starting to get freaked out…

I pressed down on the arrow key and made him run as fast as he could. The music was faint and ominous, as I made Tails trek through the desolate forest, trying to help him escape from whatever was coming after him.

Suddenly, I heard that creepy laugh again, and flashes of Sonic, still with those black and red eyes, along with brief flashes of red static started popping up everywhere on the screen.

The music changed to that frantic drowning jingle from the first game, the one that always scared me as a kid, as Sonic appears behind Tails slowly gaining up on him FLYING; not running, he was actually FLYING! The flying pose of his sprite looked very similar to Metal Sonic's flying pose in Sonic CD, except it was just Sonic. He still had those creepy eyes, but this time he had the most deranged looking grin on his face, as though he was enjoying the torment he was giving the poor little fox as he gained up on him.

Despite my best efforts, I couldn't outrun Sonic, who caught up to Tails. The music abruptly stopped and Sonic vanished. Tails stood there and started crying. The scene was rather upsetting to watch and I felt kinda guilty that I failed to help him escape. Sonic appeared out of nowhere right in front of Tails, who looked up in horror.

Blood started to come down from those blackened eyes as a grin slowly grew from his face as he looked down at the horrified fox. I could do nothing but watch, dreading the outcome of this scene.

Sonic lunged at Tails and right before the screen went black, there was a loud screeching noise that lasted a few seconds. The text returned, this time it said "You're too slow, want to try again?" and that awful laugh came with it.

I was so shocked by what had just happened… Did Sonic just murder Tails? No way, that isn't possible... He and Tails are supposed to be best friends. What the hell is going on?

I snapped out of my shock as I was brought back to the character select, the save file that had Tails was different; Tails was no longer in the box itself but in the TV screen, which was flickering with that red static. His eyes were black and bleeding, his orange fur had gone black and his expression, a look of anguish, unnerved me.

I know I should've stopped playing at this point. I don't usually get bothered by horror games, but something about this one freaked me out. Maybe it was the thought of one of my favorite childhood games turning into… Well, whatever the hell this thing is. It was becoming a bit too much for me to handle. But something inside me told me to press on and keep playing. Trying to ignore the fear I was feeling, I picked Knuckles next.

The laugh came again and the screen cut to black again, this time the level card said "YOU CAN'T RUN".

At this point, any part of me hoping that this was just a really freaky glitch had disappeared completely. It had to be a hack, or some kind of sick, twisted joke Kyle was playing on me…

The next level looked different. It had the ground of the Scrap Brain zone, but the red sky background from the save screen remained. The music was the thing that creeped me out the most, though: It sounded like Giygas' theme from Earthbound. I also took notice that Knuckles didn't look as afraid just like Tails did, looking more unnerved. He broke the fourth wall just like Tails and looked as if he wasn't sure about going on, but I made him move anyway.

He ran down the straight pathway in this dark level and as he did, the screen started to flicker with red static a couple times and then that maddening laugh came again. Then after a few seconds of running, I noticed several blood stains appearing on the metallic ground. That previous sense of dread returned, and I had a hunch that whatever Sonic did to Tails, Knuckles was about to receive the same treatment.

Suddenly as Knuckles ran, Sonic appeared right in front of him, making me jump a bit, and then the screen was covered with red static again. When the static vanished, a black screen appeared with text saying "FOuNd YOu!" I was shocked, how in the world did Sonic manage to find Knuckles that fast?!

I was back to the level, Knuckles looked like he was on the verge of panicking, and Sonic was nowhere to be found. Some weird high-pitched squealing sound had replaced the previous music.

Was I being thrown into some kind of boss battle with Sonic? Christ, I really hope not.

Suddenly, Sonic appeared right behind Knuckles surrounded by what appeared to be pixelated black smoke. I made Knuckles turn and then punch Sonic, but he vanished before I could even land a hit. He appeared behind Knuckles again and I made him punch again, but Sonic vanished again. I realized that there was no way I would be able to land a single hit on him, this battle was unwinnable. I think I knew what he was doing: Sonic was treating this like some kind of game, a twisted, little mind game he was playing with me and Knuckles...

Another cut scene played as Knuckles fell to his knees and clutched his head sobbing. I could practically feel his agony, Sonic was actually driving BOTH of us crazy.

Like he had previously done with Tails, Sonic lunged at Knuckles and the screen went black with another distorted screeching noise.

Another text message appeared. "So many souls to play with, so little time... would you agree?"

What the hell? It could just be my imagination messing with me, but it started to seem like Sonic was actually trying to communicate with me through the game. No, that can't be...

I was brought back to the main menu once again, and this time the second file box had Knuckles in the TV screen. His red fur had darkened to a reddish grey, his dreadlocks were dripping with blood and his eyes were black and bleeding too, and he had a look of sadness on his face. My god, I didn't want to believe any of this was actually happening...

I decided it would be best if I shut off the game for now. Maybe I'll come back to it later, but right now, I need to take a break and process everything. I was feeling pretty tired, so I decided to take a quick nap. Oh boy, what a mistake that was. I began to have the most disturbing nightmare I'd had in years. I was in pitch black darkness, though I was under the light given off by something hanging high above my head. I could hear the cries of Knuckles and Tails nearby. "Help us…", "Why did you give us to him?" and "Run away, before he gets you too..."

Their cries eventually died out as I heard Sonic laugh, still that Kefka laugh.

"You know, you sure are a lot of fun to play with, kid, just like your friend Kyle. It's a shame he didn't last long..."

I wanted to reply, but I couldn't. My throat suddenly went dry, I couldn't speak no matter how hard I tried. I frantically looked around for the source of the voice.

"Oh, don't look so frightened. It won't be long now until you'll be reunited with him, and all my other friends..."

I spotted two small red dots in the darkness ahead of me, and I knew it was him. He stood there, examining me. In my head, I screamed at myself to start running, but it was like my feet were superglued to the floor.

"Don't even think about running, kid. You're in my world now. You belong to me..."

When he grabbed me and I got a good look at his bleeding, black-eyed, grinning face, I woke up with quite a fright.

I decided to go back to the living room and check inside that box again. I had a nagging feeling that I missed something in there when I opened it before.

I tilted the box slightly, and a folded piece of paper fell onto the floor. I picked it up and opened it up. A note from Kyle. I recognized his handwriting, though it looked badly written, scratchy and was somewhat difficult to read, as if he had written it in a hurry. Maybe this was a hint of what I'm supposed to do with the game? I sat down on the couch and began to read...

"Hey Tom,

I know I've been kind of MIA for a while, and I'm sorry about that. What I'm about to tell you is gonna sound really crazy, and you may think this is all a joke. I wouldn't blame you, really. But you're the only person I can trust with this.

There's a disc in this package. Destroy it. Just fucking get rid of it. I had to get rid of this thing before it was too late, and I'm hoping you'd do it for me. I can't do it, he's after me. If you don't destroy the disc, he'll come after you too...

I know, you're wondering who "he" is, but it's hard to explain. All you really need to know is the disc is his entryway to our world. Destroy the disc, and that'll destroy him. You need to be quick though, otherwise he'll catch you. Don't try to play the game either, that's what he wants. If you play the game, that'll set him free, and if he gets out… Well, things will get really ugly really fast. If you don't hear from me after this, it's because he got me.

I'm trusting you, man. Destroy it. Please...

Kyle"

I let the letter fall from my trembling hand. God, I feel so stupid. I should've looked more in the box earlier before playing this game, but my excitement got the best of me. I covered my face with my hands, feeling guilty for playing this game without reading the warning letter from Kyle. "I fucked up Kyle. I fucked up real bad." I mumbled to myself as the realization hit me: I played the game, and I set "him" free. I was going to die.

I knew it was stupid, but I decided to continue playing the game. I was already at the point of no return, so I may as well finish what I started. I turned my computer back on, started the game back up, and selected Robotnik, the last remaining character.

I still thought that was a bit strange, playing as Robotnik, but the level title appeared again and this time, there were no words, it only said "...", which I found a bit unnerving.

This time I was in some kind of hallway. The floor was shiny and checkered, the walls were a dark greyish purple with animated candlelights and a few dark bloodstains here and there, and there was a dark red curtain hanging above on the top part of the screen. Every couple seconds or so, that red curtain would start swaying very slowly, but when you're playing the game you can barely see it move. I had to admit, it was actually pretty nice-looking. Kinda looked like something from Castlevania. The music was oddly pleasant, a piano playing a rather sad yet peaceful song. I knew better though, this was the reversed song that played in Hill act 1, just playing normally here.

Robotnik didn't look entirely scared like Tails and Knuckles did, he just seemed confused. If I just left him standing there, he did a little animation where he turned his head to the left, then to the right and faced the screen and shrugged, as if he had no idea where he was or what was going on. I mentally prepared myself for what was going to happen, and had Robotnik continue onward. He did his usual running animation (You know the one, when you've beaten him at the end of a classic Sonic game and you had to chase after him) as we continued going through the hallway.

Then I stopped at a long flight of stairs leading downward. Now I was getting nervous, even Robotnik seemed unsure of himself, though I ignored the feeling and pressed onward.

As I led Robotnik down the stairs, I noticed that the walls had suddenly gotten darker and changed to more of a reddish color; the red torches were now an eerie blue. Then we landed onto another hallway, this one was longer than the last one (or at least it felt like it) and then we headed down another flight of stairs down. This one took much longer to get to the bottom of.

I heard the Kefka laugh once again, and then the music faded out until it was completely silent. As it did, the walls turned an even darker red and the torches were a black flame now.

When Robotnik landed onto the 3rd hallway, I noticed he looked really creeped out now, though he was really trying to hide it. Honestly, I couldn't blame him.

Suddenly, Sonic popped right in front of Robotnik the same way he did with Knuckles and then the screen was filled with the red static. It lasted for quite a while, then a very unpleasant image was shown to me...

The image showed Sonic standing in the darkness to where you can only see his face while his head and torso faded into black. It looked WAY too realistic to be in a classic Sonic game. When I say realistic, I mean it looked so real, you could actually see the lines in his blue fur. It was like if I were to touch the screen, I would actually be able to feel the fur.

His face...holy shit, he had the most horrifying smile I had ever seen. And considering all the fucked up things this game has shown me, that's saying something.

His eyes are wide, black and still crying blood, and there were two small glowing red dots in the center of those black eyes that seemed like they were staring straight into my soul. His grin was so wide, it literally stretched to the sides of his face like the Cheshire Cat, except Sonic had fangs. They looked very much like the Werehog's teeth except a lot more sharp and with a yellowish color. He had stains of blood and small bits of flesh scattered across his lips and fangs, like he ate some animal.

I stared at that gruesome image for what seemed like hours, never taking my eyes off it. I felt as if he was actually looking at me, smiling at me… That face, it didn't take long for it to etch itself into my brain, and I probably won't be able to forget it until the day I die.

Then the screen flickered with red static again three times, and on the final time, I heard the Kefka laugh once again, except this time it sounded really distorted, demonic even...

It went back to the image again except this time there was red jagged text above it.

"I AM GOD."

It was when I read that message while looking at Sonic that it finally hit me.

Whatever this thing is, it isn't Sonic, at least not the one from my childhood. No, THIS was a monster. A pure evil, sadistic, all-powerful, nightmarish, demented monster... and all of his victims, including Tails, Knuckles, Robotnik and I had to guess Kyle, are nothing more than little toys to him. This game is the gateway into his chaotic, nightmarish world and whatever Hell his victims are trapped in.

I jumped back, almost falling off my chair, as Sonic suddenly lunged at the screen screeching loudly with his mouth stretched open to an unnatural length revealing nothing but a literally spiraling abyss of pure darkness before the red static came again. This time it was way louder and distorted, so loud that it hurt my ears. I flinched and grabbed my ears, trying to block out the harsh noise of the red static screeching.

It finally stopped and showed nothing but a black screen. As I sat there staring at the black screen, mentally preparing myself for another scare, one last piece of text came up.

"Ready for Round 2, Tom?"

The Kefka laugh, which was really getting on my nerves now, came again. This time it sounded a lot more clear, as if Sonic was right behind me.

I was booted back to the main menu and this time the third save file had a TV image of Robotnik in the same zombie-like state as Tails and Knuckles; Robotnik's skin turned a dull grey, his mustache drooped and had blackened, his glasses broke and blood is coming from them and his expression was just… dead.

I looked at Tails, Knuckles and Robotnik, pitying them for the agony they're going through. They were going to be forever trapped within the game, forever being tormented by that horrid hedgehog.

Then the computer shut itself off. I couldn't get it to turn back on, no matter what I did.

I leaned back into my chair, shaking and feeling like I was going to collapse at any moment. I was horrified by what just happened.

Sonic,exe. Whatever it was, it is the very embodiment of evil. He tortures anyone who plays his game in more ways than one, and then when he gets bored, he literally drags you into the game, into his own Hell, where he can play with you always, as his toy...

I finally got my computer back on, but nothing I did was able to get the disc out. I'm pretty sure it's just going to be stuck in there forever.

I suddenly got the feeling that I wasn't alone. I could feel a presence in my room, watching me, and it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand straight up. I stayed completely still, not even daring to breathe. As I sat there, I heard a low chuckle behind me that made my blood run cold. Then a voice spoke softly, almost in a whisper...

"Try to keep this interesting for me, Tom."