You're pretty much halfway through at this point.  I say pretty much because the last chapter is going to be about double the length of the others.  So, going by the numbers you're halfway, but judging on content you're probably not.  I say probably because I'm too lazy to do the math.  Math sucks.

      Hope those of you that have already started class had a great first day…unless you're a bully.  If you're a bully, I hope you got your ass kicked by some short, skinny kid that secretly knew karate while all of your friends pointed and laughed at you in a horrible cacophony of mockery and shame.  On top of that, I hope your second day was even worse.

      Remember: Confucius say: Man who run in front of car get tired.  Confucius also say: Man who run behind car get exhausted.

                                                                Sonic the Hedgehog is not my creation,

                                                             His story belongs to the Sega Corporation.

                                                               This fanfic is made with humble intention,

                                                                To honor their art and brilliant invention.

                                                                                             ~ Lael Adair

                                                                                  IV : Improv

                                                        "We're actors --- we're the opposite of people."

                                                                                             ~ Tom Stoppard

      "SONIC! NO!!!"

      I rest my chin on my hand and idly watch Sonic's head roll across the floor.

      "Manic?" Sonia asks. "Are you listening to me?"

      I watch Tails dive across the living room. He's nice enough to catch the head right in the doorway so I can see him . . . lucky me. Aaaand cue the death scene:

      "Sonic no! He lied to me . . . he tricked me. . . ."

      BANG!

      Tails falls to his death, right on cue.

      "Manic!"

      I stare into Sonia's big brown eyes. She can't see Tails, the lucky little bitch. She can't see him, Jack can't see him, the kids can't see him, the guys at work can't see him . . . no one can see the freaky little shit but me.

      I glance over at the teenage fox that's making my life a living hell. "He'll stay like that for hours."

      Sonia tilts an eyebrow at me. "What?"

      I suddenly realize I said that last part out loud. "Huh? Oh . . . uh, nothing. What were we talking about?" With an unsteady glance at me, Sonia starts talking again. I try to pay attention to her, but my eyes keep drifting to Tails lying 'dead' on the floor. It used to creep me out, but now after three weeks of watching it day after day after day after day, it's just getting annoying. I swear. If that little fucker wasn't a ghost, I'd walk over there and kick him in the nuts.

      I've tried everything to get rid of him; garlic, rings of salt, little pendants on chains . . . fuck, I even tried roach spray. Nothing works. Every day, without fail, that little shit is there; in the shower, on the john, eating, sleeping, working . . . it's driving me crazy. He ignores me too --- reliving the last few minutes of his life without ever acknowledging I'm there. Shit, he'll even walk through me if I get in the way. Doesn't that just fuck all? I can't even get a ghost to pay me any respect.

      But what worries me the most is that I've kind of gotten used to it, almost like you get used to the news playing in your house even though no one's watching it.  I guess in my head I think of him more as a thing, kind of like a television.  A one-way image that follows me around but isn't really alive, isn't really real.  I'm glad, too.  I don't want to think about him watching some of the stuff I do when I'm alone.  The thought of being constantly watched gives me the creeps.  I can see now why chicks make such a big deal out of being stalked.  But they have it easier than I do.  They can move.

      I want Tails gone.  He's driving me fucking nuts.  I don't want to have to live this way for the rest of my life.

      "MANIC!"

      I jump. Ignoring a chick when she's talking is not the key to a long life.

      "You're NOT listening to me!"

      "No no! I am! Uh, something about your nails and your hair, right?"

      "No!"

      Damn. Wouldn't you know it? The one minute a year she doesn't obsess over her girly habits. . . .

      "Manic! I'm serious! I'm trying to have a deep, heartfelt conversation here!"

      "Well I'm sorry! But it's kind of hard to pay attention with ---" I cut off, but it's too late. Sonia knows exactly what I was going to say.

      Her big cow-eyes get even bigger. "Oh Manic, more ghosts?!" she sighs. "Are you ---"

      "NO! I'M NOT DEALING AGAIN!"

      Sonia's spikes flare out huffily. She crosses her arms, "I was going to ask if you were ok!"

      I sink my head into my hands, trying for the moment to ignore the fact that there's a kid's bloody body only two feet away from me. I can see my reflection in Sonia's glass breakfast table. I look like shit. My ears are drooping, my quills are strewn about every which way, and I have huge circles under my eyes. I haven't had a full night's sleep ever since I first saw Tails' 'one man play.' I call it that only because that's what it is, a play. The little fucker comes to me at all hours of the day and night, and performs the same ass routine over and over and fucking over again. And every time, I'm forced to watch it all the way through, all the way to its bitter end, each time more vibrant and horrible than the last. I can't even shut my eyes to block it out. When I do, the scene just replays in my mind, like a broken record that I can't turn off.

      A gentle hand rests on my shoulder.

      "Manic." I can hear Sonia's voice shaking, she sounds like she's about to cry. "Please. Get some help. I've already lost you once to something I couldn't see, and you came back to me. I don't want to lose you again."

      I sigh and slump back against the kitchen chair. Tails just stares at me. He seems about as interested in this conversation as I am.

      Sonia takes my hand this time, practically forcing me to look at her. "Manic, please! Promise me. Promise me you'll get some help!"

      I pull away. "I don't need help! I need a fucking exorcist!"

      Well now I've done it, damn me and my tongue. Sonia's officially pissed. You can always tell because her little black nose turns up like some inbred poodle.

      "Listen to yourself!" she snaps, her pink quills flipping about angrily. "You need help, Manic! You should have gotten real help the first time, instead of going to a damn hypnotist!"

      "Oh fuck, Sonia! Not this fucking argument again!"

      "Don't you swear at me!"

      "I'll swear at you as much as I fucking want until you bury this stupid argument! Guardian, Sonia! I can't believe you're still harping on this!"

      "I told you to get help, Manic! Not some hocus pocus crap that doesn't do anything!"

      "Hey, hey! It worked, didn't it? You told me to go to rehab, you didn't say which rehab!"

      "Dammit Manic! Hypnotism isn't rehab!" She throws up her hands in exasperation. "That is so like you! You never want to earn anything for yourself! First stealing, then drugs. . . . And all that stupid 'doctor' did was snap his fingers and trick you into thinking you're better!"

      I've had enough. I leap from my chair, sending it skittering backwards through Tails' body and into the living room. "Hey!" I shout at her, jabbing a finger mere inches from her inbred-poodle nose. "For your information, no one got me through that but me! The hypnotist is only there to point you down the path. He can't help you take it! That accomplishment was mine!"

      "The accomplishment was like everything else you do, Manic! It was false! If you had gone to a real doctor ---"

      "I don't have to take this!" I'm so pissed I can't even see straight as I storm out the front door. I slam it so hard that the wood shatters in its frame.

      I barely enter the woods surrounding Sonia's house when a raspy voice floats from behind me. "Please! Don't hurt him!"

      I clench my fists. Is that damn ghost doing a replay already?! "Shut up!"

      "Don't hurt him!"

      "Shut the FUCK up!"

      "Please! Don't hurt him!"

      "I swear by the Guardian's dick, if you don't SHUT UP. . . ." I don't even finish the threat. It's empty anyway. What the hell am I gonna do to a ghost?

      "All right. I'll give you the Chaos Emerald, but you have to promise to let Sonic go."

      I whirl on Tails, both fists clenched and my teeth bared like all hell. "What the fuck do you want from me?! You want me to watch you die over and over again?! HUH?! All right! Fine then! Here I am! I'm watching! Die! I'll ENJOY it after all you've put me through you little piece of shit!"

      Tails doesn't even acknowledge my presence. He's turned to the side, playing the 'scene' as if it's taking place off to my right. With a rigid step forward, he speaks the line I know is coming. "There. Now let Sonic go!" The emerald disappears, the ears prick up, the mouth drops open, and then the scream that never fails to ice my spine erupts from his mouth. "SONIC! NO!!!"

      He dives for the ground, catching the grotesque head that I know so well in his skimpy arms. And then he starts to rock.

      I sigh like a parent with a frustrated child and cross my arms. "Come on!" I snap, impatiently tapping my foot. "Get it over with so I can go home!"

      Tails just rocks.

      "Come ON! It's not like I don't know what's coming next! BANG! Remember?! Now hurry up and die so I can walk the rest of the way home and seethe IN PEACE!"

      But the gunshot never comes. Tails just sits there, sobbing and crying, rocking the head. "Sonic no! He lied to me . . . he tricked me. . . ." And then --- slowly, ever so slowly --- Tails' eyes rise from Sonic and move to focus on me, piercing down to my very soul. I'm frozen on the spot, unable to move, unable to think. A new fear creeps over me, like new pain from an old wound, and the woods turn deathly cold. Slowly, Tails' mouth opens, and that same raspy voice that haunts me even when I sleep speaks: "He'll trick you too."

      BANG!

      I take a step back, shaking with renewed terror. "Shit! Holy SHIT!" I scream at the dead corpse. "What the FUCK is this?!"

      He spoke to me! The little fuck spoke to me!

      "Oh shit oh shit oh shit . . ." I just stand there forever, repeating the words over and over like some kind of mindless chant. "This can't be. This isn't happening. That's not what's supposed to happen! This isn't right!  This can't be ---"

      Like walking through a dream, my feet start to move by themselves. I don't even notice where I'm going, I just go. My head is swimming like it's filled with air, and huge white patches of throbbing light keep blocking out chunks of my vision. I replay the conversation over and over in my head as I walk, analyzing every angle, dwelling on every word.

      "This can't be. That's not what's supposed to happen. That couldn't have been real. . . ."

      But I know it was real. It was as real as I am. It was as real as the large wooden door that's now in front of me. It was as real as my own reflection now staring at me from the frosted glass decorating the door's center. It was as real as the sign now swinging above my head . . . that sign that I haven't needed in almost a year.

      Still in a kind of sleepwalk, I place a hand on the door and push it open. I can't feel the wood underneath my fingers, but I know where to go. I've had to do this before. And believe me, it wasn't any easier.

      I'm going to get some help.

      Ghosts freak me out.

      Nothing really interesting to say down here, other than the fact that the Confucius line at the beginning cracks me up.  I should probably mention that I didn't make that up.  My friend told it to me.

      Next update should be around August 22 or so.  I'm moving back up to college next Sunday, so there might be a delay, but I'm not anticipating any problems.  I should have chapter 5 up well before I have to move.  I don't know if chapter 6 will be delayed or not since classes start September 1st.  We'll have to see.