No pairing (Sonilver/Mepilver, if you squint)
"I...I don't know, Sonic...," a silver-furred hedgehog mumbled, eyeing the building in front of them uncertainly.
"You were the one, who accepted the dare.," his blue-furred companion replied, his eyes roaming the old hospital's facade with an air of indifference.
Honestly, he didn't get, why everyone thought it was haunted. It had been closed due to financial problems, that wasn't anything strange. Admittedly, financial problems due to filed complaints, that the hospital couldn't stem at some point anymore, but still. It would have been closed for unnecessary cruelty or a psycho-doctor killing off patients for fun and such far earlier, if that had happened at all. There had people died in there, sure, but in which hospital hadn't that occurred? Honestly, only its slightly worn appearance really made it ominous looking, nothing else.
...That, and a rumor, that held itself quite strongly, he had to concede. It was about the last head physician before its financial crisis, who apparently disappeared without a trace the second the hospital had to close and it was said, that he had been devoured by the hospital's 'demon'...whatever that was supposed to mean.
Other rumors stated, that he had killed himself in his office because of the bankruptcy of his working place. That nobody had dared to enter the office still containing the body ever since the clinic had been closed.
It was quite a favored dare among their peers to enter the hospital and to find the office of the missing head physician because of that story. For some reason, nobody had succeeded so far, though. Everyone had gotten spooked at some point. Now, it was Silver's dare. To find the office, and to put an apple on the desk, so to say as a proof.
Glancing to the side, Sonic saw said fruit in Silver's trembling hand, pressed against his chest as if he tried to get strength from it.
While it was true, that Silver had accepted the dare and was therefore responsible for seeing it through, it was just a dare, not a law or vow.
He would probably get a small punishment for refusing to enter the building after all, but that would be it. Chaos, they could turn around right now, eat the apple and say they did it and nobody would be the wiser.
Nobody would actually check, if he had truly done it. If the rumors were true, then they would get away with saying they couldn't find the office, since nobody could so far. Besides, the others were just as afraid as Silver – if not more – of the old building. They weren't even here, but waiting at home for their return.
They had only chosen this dare, because they knew, that the young hedgehog wouldn't go through with it. This way, they could think of an embarrassing punishment waiting for the hedgehog. But if they said now, that it was done...
"I...I'll do it.," Silver repeated his earlier statement, when he had received the apple and the exact task tied to the dare. "L-lying isn't my way. At all. I...I want to return and tell them I tried without lying."
Clearly, he had read Sonic's mind – literally – and was now determined to show him and the others, how courageous he was. He had only accepted the dare landing him here to prove himself in the first place, Sonic could imagine. He sometimes tried a bit too hard to impress others, to appear brave, when he struggled with his fear.
"...Okay, then. Let's make this quick. In, and out. Then we'll have enough time for our costumes for Amy's Halloween Party.," the hero grinned and moved to enter through the open front door. To play 'Truth or Dare' on Halloween had added a certain nuance to the questions and dares, he mused.
"Y-you are coming with me?," Silver asked hopefully. Sonic had only offered to come and supervise and he had assumed, he would wait outside the building. "As long as I am not entering the office, I won't interfere with the dare.," Sonic shrugged and the slightly younger hedgehog smiled gratefully, following him.
The hallway leading to the reception desk was littered with old beer and soda cans, the walls sprayed in layers by several different graffiti-artists. Apparently, the rumors couldn't stop several parties from happening here.
The desk itself was in shambles, as if someone had hacked on it with an ax. It even had scorch marks on the formerly polished wood. As the damage was clearly old and they didn't have to worry about a crazy ax- and scorch-wielding psycho being here with them, they just looked for any kind of sign pointing them to the right direction.
After a quick search, they found a large map next to the desk, that probably depicted, where the most important places in this building were located.
It was hard to say for certain, though, as the map was also a victim of the graffiti, making it near impossible to read.
"S-Sonic...l-look...," Silver suddenly whispered. Following his outstretched, shaking finger, Sonic's eyes zeroed in on a surprisingly clean line, almost in the middle of the map. As if the spray paint had been deflected by it, they could easily read, 'Head physician – Cellar VI, Room 66'. The sprayed patterns had been clearly interrupted by this single line, but why?
After a moment, Sonic shrugged it off. "This just makes it easier for us. Come on, I think I see the staircase to the cellar over there.," he pointed ahead of them. Admittedly, it WAS a little strange, but it would be stupid to feel threatened by something like that.
Silver nodded, yet he kept glancing back at the map as they moved away from it. Why... was this one line not sprayed? It didn't make any sense!
The staircase Sonic had found led indeed into 'Cellar VI', as a faded tag above it revealed. Silver stared into the deep darkness lurking at the bottom of the stairs and shivered.
"Why does it have to be the cellar?," he whined. It was still bright outside, would be for a couple more hours, – but down there was probably no window as a light source, judging by the impenetrable blackness greeting them.
"I'll run home and get us the flashlights.," Sonic mused, peering into the darkness as well and coming to the same conclusion. Mobian hedgehogs DID have a bit of night vision, but without any light to help them, they were just as blind as anyone down there. "A-and me?," Silver squeaked.
"Come on, who are you talking to?," the hedgehog asked cockily. "It's only a minute. Actually less. Just wait for me. The flashlights are fully loaded and I know, where they are.," Sonic replied, grinning.
"H-hurry...," the other whimpered. Rolling his eyes a bit at his friend being afraid of literally nothing – and thinking he would dawdle while running –, Sonic went a couple of steps away, before speeding off, throwing several empty cans up with the shock wave and, despite being careful, nearly blowing Silver down the stairs.
Only his quick reflexes, grabbing the railing as fast as he did, prevented him from sailing into the darkness.
Unfortunately, he lost his apple, when he used both hands to grab the railing, and watched it roll and bounce down the stairs into the impenetrable darkness filling the cellar.
"Oh no.," he sighed and stretched out his hand, activating his psychokinesis, finding the piece of fruit and engulfing it with his power, making it glow softly and look like a giant firefly, especially as it lifted off to fly towards him. It was almost a soothing picture, the light of his psychokinesis, lighting up the darkness...
Something descended on the glowing apple suddenly, jerking him out of his semi-trance, replacing the serenity with cold terror. The something had four, spindly fingers and sharp claws, everything so black, as if the darkness itself had grabbed it.
Not waiting to see, what this was, Silver just screamed, turned away and ran – to collide with something blue a couple steps later.
An arm wrapped around his back, preventing him from falling to the ground, when he stumbled backwards, and he looked up into Sonic's green eyes. "You okay? You need to be careful, you know, that collisions with me at this speed are no laughing matter.," he asked and warned as he righted the other and let go.
Silver's knees shook, but not because of the sudden collision. "S-Sonic...d-down there...I...I saw a hand!," he stammered. Sonic blinked as he tried to process that. "...Just a hand?," he then asked slowly. "I...maybe. Just...it was so dark, I...it had the apple...," Silver mumbled, realizing, how silly he sounded.
Sonic hummed and then went back to the staircase, Silver on his heels and the promised flashlights in hand.
Standing in front of it, Sonic frowned into the darkness, gave one of the flashlights to Silver and clicked the other on, shining the ray down the stairs. The apple lay abandoned at the foot of the stairs, nothing around it.
Not hesitating any longer, Sonic descended the staircase, with Silver staying glued on the spot, just watching, how Sonic's flashlight chased away the darkness as he eventually reached the end of the stairs. He picked the apple up and turned it in his hands, looking it over. "It has a couple bruises from where you let it fall, but that's it. If that was an animal, it didn't nibble on it.," he stated.
"It...it didn't look like an animal. M-more like a mobian, just... scarier...," Silver supplied. Sonic frowned at that description and then shone his light down the hallway. It was empty, no signs of life whatsoever. "You maybe misunderstood something. There's nothing and nobody here. Come on, let's get this over with – unless you want to go home."
It wasn't a challenge, just the genuine offer to leave, if this place spooked him too much after all.
Silver swallowed. His instincts screamed at him to run and never come back, but at the same time, he heard the taunts of his peers, mocking him for being a coward. If he was just a little brave now and put that apple in the office, then he could withstand their teasing far easier. "L-let's go."
Sonic looked at him in worry, as he shakily descended the stairs. "Silver, really, we don't have to do this, it's fine.," the hero tried again. "I...I want to be brave like you.," Silver whimpered, trying to sound more confident than he felt as he finally stood next to Sonic. His own flashlight's beam brightened the already light hallway some more, which was a little reassuring.
"I'm...glad, though, that you're here. Thanks.," he smiled, a bit calmer, and took his apple back. He still waited for Sonic to start moving, before he followed him.
The hallway was...strangely sterile. Unlike in the foyer, there were no graffiti on the walls, no trash lying around. Not even animal traces, dust or leaves were visible.
It did put Sonic on edge, too, despite him not saying it, Silver could tell by the subtle tightening of his muscles in preparation of...anything.
If even animals actually avoided this place... Or...did they just not...survive coming down here? The thought made him feel nauseous.
"Look, there's a door!," Sonic pulled him out of his thoughts and he looked ahead to the literally first door aside from the front door they had spotted here so far. Peering over his shoulder, Silver could only make out a small light rectangle being the staircase they had come from. Why was the office this deep in the building? And why in the cellar? Shouldn't a head physician have the best office, not the worst?
Standing before the metal door, however, it had a simple writing reading 'Head Physician M.t.D, Room VI-66' confirm their unspoken question. They had found it. "...What's 'M.t.D.'?," Silver asked, reading the strange initials.
"Probably the name or something.," Sonic shrugged as he looked around carefully. His own instincts were acting up now, too. Strange, graffiti-repelling maps? No problem. An empty hallway, bare of any traces of life? A bit worrying, but not THAT strange in his book. But an office of that everyone claimed since years, that nobody could find it – and they just climbed down some stairs and almost fell over it? Now THAT was scary and had his quills rise.
Why did nobody ever find this room? Had they been this scared of an empty, dark hallway and not brought flashlights? And what about this hand Silver had seen? Or were this just their nerves talking and his hesitation was completely unnecessary?
Looking to the side again, he saw Silver anxiously waiting next to him, clearly not about to leave now, but waiting for his next move still. Finally deciding, that he could deal with whatever was lurking behind this door, he grabbed the handle, pushing it down and giving the door a little push to see, if it was locked.
It swung open silently, staying wide open, which had both teens freeze. A door out of metal in a building, that was since years unoccupied, should be at least a little rusty, should be blocked by its own age. But no, the door swung open so easily, that not even Sonic, who rarely wasted too much time with thinking about things, could ignore this very fact.
After finding this room so easily, the hero felt even more unnerved. His hand shook just a little, as he pointed his flashlight into the room.
A mockingly neat office greeted them. A desk stood in the middle of the round room, a staple of books on it, a desk lamp and an – admittedly old-fashioned – computer keeping it company. Bookshelves and cupboards were lining the walls all around the desk, the floor was laid out with a boring, gray colored carpet and a single light bulb hung off the ceiling. Aside from the last feature and the lack of windows, it looked highly prestigious and not like a cellar-dump at all. Worthy of a head physician, the teens presumed.
The most curious thing, however, was, that it looked clean and while none of the furniture was modern and all scents stale and old, it appeared, as if someone was actually working here, had just gone out for a coffee break or something. It seemed untouched by time, which was just eerie. Not even spiderwebs or dust were visible.
"I-I'll just hover the apple on the desk.," Silver stammered. It sounded surreal, to still think about the dare now, when they both felt spooked and ready to bolt despite the lack of reasons for their unease. Would it even rot in these neat surroundings? Or stay as unchanged as everything here? The mere image was absurd.
The piece of fruit started to glow as Silver's powers engulfed it and he let it fly over to the desk. He wanted to drop it on the piece of furniture, but he apparently did something wrong, as the apple rolled off the desk and in the middle of the room, a couple of steps away from them.
Silver tried again, but the apple wobbled as he attempted to lift it and eventually fell down again, when his psychokinesis failed him.
The silver furred hedgehog sighed. "I really need to work on my focus.," he grumbled. "Leave it be, it's in the room.," Sonic waved off. "But not on the desk.," Silver protested in a rare bout of stubbornness.
Until today, Sonic couldn't possibly understand, what possessed him to let happen, what Silver did next – he went into the office, intent on putting the apple on the desk quickly and running out again.
He never got this far.
Silver was just two steps in the room, when the door slammed shut, so fast, that it almost took Sonic's hand and nose off hadn't he jumped back on pure instinct.
The second he had recovered, he grabbed the door handle and tried to yank it down, but it wouldn't budge, no matter how hard he tried. "Sonic? Sonic, help! Get me out!," Silver cried, banging against the door in a panic.
"Hold on, Silv, get away from the door!," Sonic called and let his flashlight fall to mark the point he needed to reach, before racing down the dark hallway towards the staircase. Upon reaching it, he made a sharp U-turn, raced towards his flashlight, turned purposefully to the wall opposite of it, jumped against it, curled into a ball and ricocheted off it and into the door, breaking it open.
Landing on his feet, he felt triumph at the perfect performance despite the rather narrow surroundings for maybe a second.
Because then, he realized, that it was quiet. No breathing aside his own, no whimpers, no nothing. Just silence, pressing on his ears.
Straightening, he looked around the room, that was only illuminated by his flashlight in the hallway. Silver's lay switched off on the ground next to him and the apple. But the silver hedgehog himself was gone.
"Silver? Silver, where are you! That's not funny!," Sonic called, circling the desk anxiously, looking for anything out of place, that would indicate, where his friend was, pushing against everything in hopes of finding a hidden door, checking the walls, the floor even the ceiling – nothing.
"That's impossible...," Sonic muttered, his heart hammering in his chest. This was a room with only one exit. Where could he have gone to? And how did he get out?
He tried eventually moving the heavy oak desk, running out of other options here, when something dropped off it with a thud.
Thinking, that it was maybe a clue to Silver's whereabouts, Sonic went to its front to see a longish object lie there, having fallen off the desktop apparently.
Going a bit closer, he saw, that it was an old desk placard, its brazen front tarnished. He wanted to ignore it, when he noticed the writing carved in the brass. Blinking, he picked it up and angled it into the beam of his flashlight to read it. His eyes widened, once he could decipher the writing.
Mephiles the Dark.
"M.t.D.," Sonic muttered, his stomach dropping. Mephiles the Dark was an urban legend, a nightmarish, blood-thirsty creature, that was said to devour innocents crossing his path. A...a myth. Such a demon couldn't exist. He just couldn't! And yet...
Sonic felt fear grip his insides. Nobody in their right mind would call themselves like this. And the rumors...about a demon residing in the hospital... Could...it really be?
The hero jumped, when Silver's flashlight suddenly flared to life, the beam pointing at the door, that slammed shut again, but kept clapping open and close, as if trying to get his attention. As if his eyes weren't already glued to the black sludge, reeking freshly, disgustingly of rot and death, clinging to the back of the door.
As if he needed help noticing the dripping substance, with that a message had been written on the door. The words had a finality in themselves, that made his skin crawl as hopelessness started to set in.
He's mine now.
Nobody ever saw Silver the Hedgehog again. His friends, especially Sonic, searched everywhere for him, without success.
The hospital was torn down, brick by brick, but the hedgehog and the office he had disappeared in had vanished without a trace. Nobody believed Sonic, the only witness, that it had been there. There had never been a cellar VI, nor a room 66, on none of the floors, as the blueprints eventually proved.
Sonic himself, despite having the incident still fresh in his mind, couldn't find the cellar and room again, his memory failing him. To the day the hospital had been taken down, he had roamed the building like a blue shadow, restlessly looking for his friend with no one else willing to help searching for a myth.
By now, the disappearance of Silver the Hedgehog is nothing but a story for unruly children, who want to enter unoccupied buildings. Without the demon, of course. That was clearly nothing but fiction of a heroic hedgehog suffering from PTSD.
There is, however, a new rumor concerning the property of the former hospital, that holds itself as stubbornly as the former ones.
It is said, that in nights of the full moon and wandering across the property, you can hear someone silently cry and plead for help. Yet, if you look for its source, you'll only find a lonely, silver quill, swimming in a puddle of black, rotten smelling sludge...
Title: The Dare