Sonic Hill 2

Chapter 4: Souls of a Lost Town

------

A locked steel gate blocked off most of the third floor hallway. Only about a quarter of it was accessible; he'd need to find a way to open the gate or get around if he wanted to check out the other side. He was getting sick and tired of these gates.

"...hey, wait." He said, looking down. The flashlight shined on something reflective. He looked closer and noticed it was a key. Maybe it's the Fire Escape key! It was on the other end of the bars, but not out of arms reach. Miles dropped to the floor and reached through the bars. Maybe he was wrong. He could just barely grab it, but his fingers reached the edge of the key. He strained his arm and tried to pull it towards him—

Until suddenly someone stomped on his hand, causing him to cry out from the small pain. He looked up to see a young pink hedgehog standing on the other end of the bars, wearing a pink dress and white and pink boots, grinning madly at him. Before he could move, she took her boot off of his hand and kicked the key out of reach.

"Haha!" she laughed, her young voice filled with joy like she'd pulled a funny prank.

"Hey!" Miles shouted in anger. The girl, still grinning, turned and ran away, disappearing into the shadows. "Come back here!" She didn't though, of course. She was already gone. "Damnit…"

The key was way too far for him to reach now. Shocked and angry, Miles pulled his aching hand away from the bars. He rubbed it, staring into the shadows the young girl disappeared into. She looked like she couldn't be any older than twelve years old. "What the hell is a little girl doing in a place like this?"

None of that mattered anymore, because the brat was already gone, after foiling his plans of escaping the place easily. He'd have to find another way to get out, or grab that key. But at least now he knew a key was there, and that's good.

"Stupid stupidhead…" he grumbled, turning and walking down the other part of the hallway, which quickly ended at a boarded up window.

There were only two other doors on this side of the hall. He tried the first one: Room 301. He opened the door and raised an eyebrow at the room's interior. The three-room apartment was trashed. Furniture and other crap was all over the place. But most noticeable of all were the holes. There were tiny holes everywhere in the room, covering up seemingly every square inch of the place. It looked like someone had come in there with a sub-machine gun and shot the hell out of the place.

And then he noticed the shopping cart sitting in the middle of the room. This place just got weirder and weirder. He walked over to the cart and looked inside. His eyes lit up.

There was a single handgun in the cart, as if someone left it there on purpose.

"Yes!" he exclaimed, picking it up. He examined it, trying to figure out how to eject the clip. He didn't know shit about guns, but at least now he could defend himself.

Eventually he figured it out and ejected the clip, sad to see that the clip was empty. "Ugh…" But at least he had a gun now, and its weight made him feel a lot more comfortable. He looked at the plank he'd dropped on the floor in his excitement, trying to figure out what to do next.

'I need a bag or side pack or something…' he looked around the room. None was nearby. 'At this rate I won't be able to carry everything soon…'

The small "pocket" of his fur was starting to feel crowded and it made it feel weird to walk after he placed the weapon in it. With the plank resting in both hands, he moved out of the room. The other hallway door was locked, so he went back to the second floor.

He walked down the hallway, not sure of what move to make next. All the doors were locked; he didn't know how he was going to get to that key…

"AAAAAAAHHHH!"

Miles jumped as a male scream of agony pierced the silence of the apartment building. He looked over to where it was coming from – down the right hallway. The scream ended as quickly as it came, and the silence faded back into place. Wide-eyed, the orange fox stared down into the hall. "Who was that?" he asked himself. "Oh man…"

Cautiously, he crept down the hall, waiting for the radio static to burst to life any second. But it didn't.

Instead, he saw another metal-barred gate, like the one upstairs.

And behind it stood a large creature unlike anything he'd seen before in his entire life. It had arms and legs and stood bipedal like a human or furry, but that was all the normal traits he could see. Covering most of its body was some strange old and dirty cloth that almost resembled that of a pillowcase. There were stains all over the cloth from who knows what, along with tons of tiny holes and rips. In one hand it held what looked like a gigantic knife—its length was even bigger than the fox himself. But most noticeably was the things head, which was covered by a gigantic dark-red helmet shaped like a small pyramid. Pointy edges of the helmet were gray with rust, and the whole thing was larger than the monsters whole body! It stood six feet tall, making the four-foot tall fox feel like a tiny rodent.

Miles just stared at it, not sure how to react. In fact, he was frozen with fear. Had the metal bars not stood in between them…he didn't even want to think of that. The pyramid headed thing just stood there like a statue, staring back at him. It was moving—breathing anyway—but didn't seem to be interested in doing anything more than just staring at the terrified fox.

His right hand slowly inched towards the door next to him, eyes locked on where the beast's face should be. He was too afraid to make any sudden movements, for he felt that if he did, the monster would react. So far it was almost as if it were asleep.

His hand grasped the handle, slowly turning it. The door opened a slight bit, and he moved into the room, not taking his eyes away from the creature until the door blocked his view.

He then closed it shut, putting his back to it instantly and breathing a sigh of extreme relief. Closing his eyes, he put his hand to his forehead and rubbed it over his scalp fur. Finally relaxing, he opened his eyes.

And regretted it.

Tiny sprinkles of crimson leaked everywhere, and there was a large bullet hole in the back of an armchair in the corner of the room, which stood in front of a snowy TV screen.

An arm was hanging off the side of the chair, like someone was sleeping there. The blood-coated hole was in the same location as the hole on the TV set, which must mean…

Too afraid to go back outside, and horrified at what he knew he was going to see, Miles slowly crept towards the armchair, moving past it and looking at what—or who—was laying in it.

He was hoping it would just be nothing, and he knew that wasn't true, but he'd never expected to see what he did. The body of another young male fox—this one was even orange-yellow like him—lay there, head slumped down and bleeding heavily. There was a large bullet hole in his forehead, which was aligned with the armchair and television hole, as if someone had shot him from behind with a powerful gun…

Miles looked away, closing his eyes shut and holding back the urge to vomit. It was easy enough, for he hadn't eaten much anything earlier anyway. That fox looked freakishly a lot like him, and he didn't even want to look to see if the fox had two tails like he did—the idea of that was just ridiculous, and he didn't even want to see. His back to the corpse, he opened his eyes and looked around the room. There wasn't anything else noticeably strange about the rest of the room (although he could see the shadow of the corpse illuminating off the wall from the TV screen's static…), but there was an open door that led to an empty looking room. He might as well check it out while he was here though, so he moved in the new room.

There was a large grandfather clock on the left wall, which didn't seem to be turned on. The hour hand was on ten, the minute hand on two, which caused the fox to question if the clock had ever even been used or not. Other than that, there was absolutely nothing in the whole room, except for some markings on the wall and a small key on the floor. Miles bent down and picked up the key, reading the label on it: Room 202. That room was just down the hall…he then looked over at the writing carved into the wallpaper.

Harry Mark Steve

Three different sizes,

time on the run.

Three young men circlin'

around the sun.

Harry is short and

very, very slow,

Steve can't stop,

he's always on the go.

He raised an eyebrow. Who the hell carves random poetry into their wall?

'Maybe that guy in the other room…' Miles shuddered. He could still hear the static from the TV set not too far away.

There didn't seem to be anything else in the room, and he was getting tired of that staticy cry from the television, not to mention it was scaring the hell out of him. Quickly, he turned around and ran out of the room, trying not to glance at the corpse on his way out.

When he walked out of the apartment room and back into the hallway, he noticed two things right away. One: That monster at the other end of the bars was gone. Two: He wasn't alone.

The radio static—similar to that of the television—let out its annoying buzz, alerting the fox that a monster was nearby. He looked down the hall, his handy flashlight shining on the twitching body of a straightjacket monster. Instantly, the fox raised the plank and walked towards it. Before it could spit at him, he smashed the plank over its head, just like with the others, knocking it down. He was beginning to learn the simplistic reactions the creatures had, and kicked the monster before it could begin crawling around. It died, but the static did not.

Before he could look around, the sound of something crying out was heard and suddenly something wet hit his arm. Miles cried out in pain and backed away, trying to wipe the disgusting vomit off of him. It burnt, not so much like acid but more like extremely hot water. He looked up and shouted once more, spinning and smacking the wood into the second straightjacket monster's body. It didn't fall over, but stumbled backwards instead, its head bleeding profusely. The fox slammed the plank down on its head, smashing fragments of skull and bone into its tiny brain. It fell to the floor, joining its partner. This time, the static ended.

"Okay, I think I'm getting used to this…" Miles breathed a sigh. He felt downright nasty for his actions, and it scared him how easy it was for him to kill, but at least he was safe. Safer, anyway.

He walked down the hallway, turning right at the T, and unlocked the door to room 202 with his new key.

As his flashlight shined into the new room, cutting through the darkness, a ton of small things fluttered around. It took Miles a second for him to realize that the whole room was filled with small, multicolored butterflies.

'My God, when does it end!?'

Shrugging off the extra bit of weirdness, Miles walked into the room, waiting for the radio static to begin. But it didn't, thankfully. This was the first apartment room that actually looked somewhat tidy—other than the hundreds of butterflies of course. Most of them fluttered away from him when he got near, so he wasn't worrying about them crawling on him or something. There was an open door that led into a bedroom, and something was reflecting light off of his flashlight in the back wall of the room. Miles walked into the room and stopped at the wall, staring at the strange hole there.

He saw something shiny in there, maybe another key…but sticking his hand into the wall to find out what it was didn't seem like a good idea. But there might be a key in there, and he'd need it if he wanted to get out. If he wanted to find Sonic…

He made up his mind and slowly—reluctantly—put his hand into the hole. The thought of something inside the hole biting it off or something terrified him, but he had no choice. He reached farther into the hole, trying to find the key.

Something moved across his fingers.

Miles yanked his hand out quickly, his whole body feeling yet another chill of terror. For a second he expected something to jump out and bite him or something, but the room was just as silent as ever.

Sweat forming on his brow; Miles took a deep breath once again. He quickly shoved his hand back into the hole and yanked it out with the key in his palm, extremely relieved.

'Okay. Don't pull shit like that again.' What he just did was one of those things that make one feel really stupid once they think it over. He had a dreaded feeling in his stomach that the day was still far from over. 'Just…get out of here. Yeah…'

He looked down at the key, sweatdropping at its name. He had the feeling it said "Clock Key" on it's surface, but the L seemed to be faded away, making it say "C-ock Key." Considering how much fear he'd experienced to find it, it was rather funny. He snickered a little, and then stopped as the seriousness of the situation sunk back in. Turning, he pocketed the key and ran back into the hallway.

The monsters bodies were gone.

He didn't even want to think of where they went. He ran back to the end of the left hallway, stopping at the gate and reluctantly pushing the door open into the room where the corpse was.

And that body was missing too.

He felt a sinking feeling in his heart, a feeling that that pyramid headed monster…

Wait a second. Why didn't the radio static turn on when he was next to the Pyramid Head?

'Not good.' He thought, sounding a lot calmer in his mind than he'd expected. 'That thing's walking around and I won't be able to tell where it is till it's right next to me. Not good at all. Not good not good not good…'

Shaking his head, he ran back into the grandfather clock room. There was a keyhole next to the side of the main part of the clock. He used the Clock Key and opened it up, allowing him to turn the clock's arrows if he wanted to.

'Okay, yeah the ability to do that probably wasn't worth all that crap I just did, but that poem…'

That poem on the wall behind him seemed to tell him something, and he quickly figured the clock must have to do with it. Harry, Mark, Steve?

'Three different sizes…Harry's shortest and slowest, Steve's the fastest…that makes sense. Harry, Mark, Steve. Hours, Minutes, Seconds…'

Okay, figured that out. Now how was that supposed to help the situation?

He had no idea, but the strange "puzzle" wasn't going to solve itself. He grabbed onto the smallest arrow—Seconds, or Steve he should say—and pulled it down. When it passed by the three the clock suddenly made a clicking sound and moved the slightest bit to the left. He wouldn't have even noticed the movement had it not made a noise from dragging against the ground. He looked on the right side of the clock to see a crack of another room.

'…is this clock covering a door?'

He put the plank on the ground, stood on the right side of the clock and pushed it as hard as he could. It moved surprisingly easily, revealing a huge hole in the wall that opened up into another apartment room – room 123.

'Interesting…'

Picking up the plank, he stepped over the remains of the wall, through the hole, and into the second room. It looked pretty much the same as all the other apartment rooms basically did. Nothing special. But the door leaving the room led to the other side of the steel-barred gate.

Which in turn, should lead to the stairway, which led to the third floor hallway, which would lead to the other end of the second gate, where the Fire Escape key was!

Smiling, Miles ran through the door, up the hallway to the stairs, and walked up the steps. Finally, he was going to get to that key and get out.

Thankfully the 3rd floor doorway was unlocked, and he walked into the third floor hallway. Might as well check all the doors as he went along, like in the other halls. Maybe he could find something useful…

As he expected though, the first two doors he passed were locked. To his surprise though, the third door down opened. He walked into the new room, only to hear some very strange noises first thing.

'What the…?'

Miles slowly walked left, following the small apartment room's hall. The third floor apartments seemed to work the same way the local hotel did: largest and most expensive rooms on the top floor. But that wasn't exactly what he was thinking about. What was that noise?

The most grotesque thing he ever saw when he turned the corner was something he'd have engraved in his memory forever. Just like every other horrible thing he'd already seen and will see. His jaw dropped in disgusted, horrified fascination at the sight before him.

The Pyramid Head—the same monster he'd seen just a little while ago on the other end of the bars—was there, brutally fucking two leg mannequin monsters at the same time. They made no sound—except that certain squish that made the fox want to hurl—but their many legs shook and stretched, as if it were trying to escape the Pyramid Head's strong grip. The monster continuously thrust into one of the mannequin's torsos, while holding the other down with his free hand. The whole time it was grunting and groaning in what was obviously supreme satisfaction.

That is, until its body went erect and it emptied itself into the mannequin. Miles, horribly disgusted, realized he was just standing there and his mind suddenly screamed with fear. He looked around desperately for someplace to hide before the Pyramid monster—who was currently stuffing the mannequin he'd just raped into the kitchen sink's garbage disposal like it was some leftovers—noticed he was there. He looked to his right and spotted a closet door. Quickly he grabbed it, opened it, and then jumped in, shutting the door behind him and backing up to the wall.

More strange sounds were heard. Grotesque sounds. Miles covered his ears and shut his eyes tight, trying to block out the mental images he was getting at exactly what was going on in the kitchen right now. Until suddenly, the sounds stopped.

And the Pyramid being's heavy footsteps were heard.

That's when it dawned on Miles. And just like several times within the past hour, his terror grew greater.

'YOU STILL HAVE THE FLASHLIGHT ON!!!'

The closet's door had closed blinds, but the Pyramid monster could obviously see the light filtered through it. The light itself shook, as a result of Miles's now shaking body. His hands trembling, he grabbed for the light and tried to shut it off. But to his horrified dismay, before he could the light stopped shining on the wall and shined on something much much closer to the door.

It turned off, leaving them both in almost complete darkness.

…

…

…

He put his hand on his heart, hearing its rapid beating. He stared forward, but could only see the silhouette of the creature with the even darker shadow of the apartment behind it. It seemed to be staring directly at him once again, holding up a strange metal flap where its eyes should be, as if trying to figure out if there was someone in the closet or not.

(come out of the closet tails)

Miles held his breath, not sure whether it was his own mind saying the sick pun, or if it were the Pyramid monster itself. His blood ran cold, and that second he knew he was about to die.

His hands felt all over the wall, screaming to find some way of getting behind the wall and safely away from the monster, until they hit something small and hard.

A handgun bullet clip.

'YES!' his mind screamed. Not exactly of joy, but for the slight hope he might just be able to escape. He pulled out the handgun and—not even being able to see what he was doing—loaded it. It seemed the click of the gun was what finally told the Pyramid Head that the fox was here. For it let out a roar of what sounded like anger. Miles raised the handgun to his eye level.

'"If you're going to try to fight them, the most important thing is to relax. It's dangerous to fire a gun while you're all crazy with fear. Take good aim, and then squeeze the trigger. And don't forget to finish them off. I think most of those creatures can be killed, even if they are tougher than people."' The note had said.

Gun drawn, Miles held still and tried his best to calm down. He failed miserably. The monster reached for the handle of the closet, about to open it, when the fox squeezed the trigger.

-BANG!

And the creature cried out in pain, for the bullet had amazingly gone through the open flap for its eyes and hit its real organic face. Bulls Eye. Had Miles blindingly aimed any higher or lower he would have been dead by now. The flap fell closed as Pyramid head fell backwards, only to be hit by three more bullets right away by the fox who before now had never fired a gun in his life. Groaning in agony rather than pleasure, it turned and rushed out of the room.

…

Miles couldn't believe what had just happened. His back hit the wall behind him and—still shaking—he wiped sweat from his now wet fur.

"W-wow…j-j-just…oh man…" Speechless. That moment had made the other three look as scary as a box of puppies.

A moment of silence later, he turned the flashlight back on and walked out of the closet. The corpse of one of the mannequins was on the kitchen floor, its legs ripped off. The second mannequin wasn't visible, and he could only see a single high-heeled shoe sticking out of the sink's garbage disposal.

'Jesus. I didn't know monsters did that' He thought to himself.

There was another key on the floor, next to one of the mannequin's legs. Looks like Pyramid Head had dropped it. Picking it up, Miles read the label to see it was the Courtyard Key. The courtyard door was right near the entrance to the apartment, but he hadn't even known it was locked before he went upstairs…well, looks like he can check out what's going on over there.

'Not that I seem to have much of a choice.' He thought. This apartment building was beginning to feel like a rat's maze or something. He went back to the apartment's front door, opening it and looking up and down the hallway. The radio turned on.

Miles went back to the closet and picked up the plank he had dropped accidentally, almost forgetting about the trusty weapon once again. Since he had gotten the gun it seemed rather useless, but he knew his ammo supply was limited and he'd need something to defend himself once the clip was empty.

The hallway just had three straightjacket monsters, all of which Miles dispatched without too much retaliation. Other than vomiting on him they didn't seem to really have any effective attacks, and even that one attack didn't hurt him that much. It morely just made him feel extremely unpleasant.

Anyway, now he was on the other side of the bars where he'd tried to get that one key. And just as the little girl had left it, the key was on the floor. She sure caused a load of trouble for him, but he finally had it at least.

'Now to check out those two places…'

---Later…---

Getting to the courtyard was rather easy; all he had to do was take the East 3rd Floor Stairway down to the first floor, accessing a new area of the apartments. Nothing useful was there (but he did spot a strange looking coin which he couldn't help but keep – he liked collecting rare coins, and he'd never seen one with the face of an old man engraved on it like this one), but the door out of that area led back outside. Then it was just a matter of running across the front yard, back to the first room he had entered in the place, and trying his luck on the new door. The key fit perfectly and opened it wide into a large swimming pool area.

The fog seemed less dense here, and as Miles walked closer to the pool he could make out the shapes of some straightjacket monsters. He knew they weren't furry or human right away because of the radio's continuous static. They were too far away to be a problem though, and what was actually in the empty swimming pool was fascinating more – another out of place shopping cart. Maybe there'd be another gun in there? He dropped down to the bottom of the empty pool to check it out, seeing only another coin there.

"Who'd—" he stopped himself. He'd get no answer anyway.

Pocketing the coin, he climbed back up out of the pool and began his walk towards the second apartment area on the opposite end of the pool. When he got to the door, he opened it just like always and cautiously peered into the dark hallway.

'Clear. Alright. Time to check some rooms.'

For the first time that day, the first door he tried in the hallway was unlocked.

The lighting in the room was very dim, but at least it was existant. Miles was beginning to question why only some of the lights were on. But he stopped thinking of that the moment the smell hit him.

"Ugh!" he covered his nose and let out a sound of disgust. An extremely nasty smell emitted throughout the whole apartment room. Miles shined the flashlight everywhere, trying to figure out where it was coming from, and seeing nothing but a ton of overturned chairs, tables, and shelves packed full of football trophies and awards. The source of the smell became apparent pretty quickly.

There was another corpse, just like the one that was watching television. Its gray-furred body was riddled with bullet holes, and it was lying on the floor next to an opened refrigerator.

'Who are these people? And who's the one killing them?'

Maybe that Pyramid Head knew how to shoot a gun? He didn't know. The monster had already proved to have the ability to do something he'd never even wanted to imagine a monster could do…

"Uugh…"

A groan came from the bathroom. Miles quickly looked at the bathroom door, surprised at the sound. It didn't sound like a monster at all. In fact…

The young fox ran up to the already partially opened door and looked into the room.

The flashlight illuminated a man, hunched over a toilet and vomiting into it. The first thing he noticed was that the human looked rather strange. His thin long legs and arms contrasted with his large egg-shaped stomach, and the way the man was kneeling over he couldn't see his head, probably pointing out that his head was as out of place on his body as his arms and legs. He was wearing long rather tight fitted trousers and a red jacket, along with some white gloves.

"Hello?" Miles asked.

The egg-shaped man, startled, looked over to him. The human's bald head had a large red mustache, which was rooted right underneath his oversized pink nose. Even farther up his small face were some glasses and goggles which concealed his eyes. It was one of the strangest looking humans he'd ever seen.

"I didn't do it! It wasn't me!" he cried, as if Miles was an angered accusing parent.

"Didn't do what?" the fox asked, not expecting that to be the first thing he heard coming out of the fat man's mouth (other than vomit, anyway).

"I didn't do anything, I swear! That guy, he was like that when I got here!" The human nodded towards the dead body next to the fridge in the other room, right before he turned back to the toilet and hurled up some more bile.

'This man looks more freaked than I am.' Miles thought. 'Jeez, I hope he's alright.'

"My…uh…" the fox tried to think up something to say to calm the guy down. "My name is Miles. Miles Prower."

The bald man looked at him for a second, raising an eyebrow. For a second the fox thought he was going to laugh (just like all the kids at school did. If they didn't make fun of him for being gay, or having two deformed tails, they'd make fun of his name: 'Miles Per Hour'.) But instead of laughing, the man turned back to the toilet and more grotesque noises emitted from his throat.

"Um…Eggman." He muttered once he stopped throwing up.

"Eggman?" This man obviously wasn't any normal human.

"Yes yes I know." He said. "If you don't have anything nice to say about my name, then just shut the fuck up. I'm tired of that bullshit."

'Whoa…' the fox didn't expect that either. "Alright……Eggman, who's that dead guy in the kitchen?"

"I didn't kill him."

"I know. But who is he?"

"How the hell am I supposed to know?" Eggman asked, as if the question offended him. "Jesus, I think some guy's walking around shooting the hell out of people here. This place is fuckin' crazy!"

"Yeah, this apartment isn't too safe either…" Miles looked down at the floor. At least he wasn't the only one in town. He was suddenly really relieved to see another person, even if it was this strange old man. Eggman opened his mouth to say something, but instead turned and started barfing once again. "Are you okay?"

"Ugh. No." Eggman said, not facing him. "It's not every day you see a dead person."

"Yeah…" Then the fox realized this man might live here, and this was his one chance to ask some questions. "What happened here anyway?"

Eggman turned back to him. "I dunno. I don't even live in this town! I just…I just…"

"You too huh?" Miles knew exactly what Eggman was going through. "Something just sort of brought you here, right?"

"Yeah…you could say that."

"Well whatever it is, I think you better get out of here soon. It's dangerous."

Eggman nodded. "You're right. What about you?"

"I'll leave as soon as I'm done here." As much as he hated to leave the middle-aged man alone, he didn't want to get slowed down. Besides, the human didn't seem to be interested in following him anyway. "Eggman, be careful. Okay?"

"Yeah…um…you too." Eggman said, right before he put his head back over the toilet, making a mutilated gurgle before coughing up more half-digested food.

Ears trying to focus on something other than the fat man's throat, Miles walked out of the room and shut the door behind him, feeling almost relieved to be away from that person now. Like he was beginning to enjoy being away from others or something.

Still, he was very glad to see that he wasn't the only one alive in the whole town. It made him feel more comfortable walking around the place knowing there's someone else not too far away, at least.

Anyway, it was time to get out of this place. After trying all the other doors in the hall and not finding any unlocked, Miles took the stairway up to the second floor. He went into the room with the hole in the wall, which led to the clock room and then into the TV room, which finally led him back to the other side of the 2nd Floor Hallway's gate. He ran down the hall, turning right at the fork, and finally reached the fire escape.

Glad to be finally leaving, Miles slid the Fire Escape key into the slot and turned. The door opened out…

But there wasn't a fire escape there.

In fact, there was a whole other building, just about two feet away from this one. There was no door there, but an open window, which was exactly parallel with the door.

"Goddamnit!" Miles shouted. That's strange; this second apartment building must be brand new, because it wasn't even listed on the town's map. Looks like if he wanted to get out of here, he'd need to get through this building too. "Not a good day." He muttered.

He stepped over the two-foot distance between the two buildings and climbed through the window, ending up in a rather tidy and large bedroom. After vaguely searching the room, he didn't come up with anything that could be useful, other than a portable safe on the table. He always thought those things were stupid—it'd just give the criminal robbing your house an easier way to steal your belongings. He didn't know the code to the safe either so he didn't even want to bother.

He walked out of the room, looking down the long straightforward hallway. From the looks of it, this apartment building was smaller than the other one, and that's good. Because he was getting sick and tired of it all.

He tried his luck on all the doors, only to find literally all of them were locked, except for the door to the stairway. There was a tiny note posted on the door to room 209 though. He shined the flashlight on it and tried to read the tiny handwriting.

'Dear Tom,

I have to run an errand so I'm going out. I left the house key with Uncle Luigi (You know where he lives, don't you? The key is in the room near the first floor staircase.) I'll be back as soon as I can, so please watch the place while I'm gone.'

"First Floor Staircase…" he took note of that. Turning, he walked back to the staircase door and opened it into the stairway. He spotted and grabbed the map posted next to the door. The top of the map said 'Creekside Apartments', so he guessed that's where he was.

The third floor stairs were boarded off, and he wasn't planning to go there anyway, so he moved down the steps to the first floor. The bottom hallway looked exactly the same as on the second floor. Miles decided to try all the right doors first. The first door he tried opened up into another large apartment room. There was an open window in this one, and cold gray light shined in from outside. The fox turned off his flashlight and looked around.

It looked like any normal apartment room would; the Creekside Apartments seemed to be faring a lot better in the situation than the Woodside Apartments did, and that was okay with him. If he was going to have to look for keys and stuff, it might as well be in a tidy room.

Not an empty one though. He searched the whole room and didn't find anything that could help him. But there was a door in the corner of the room that he hadn't checked yet, might lead to a bedroom or something. He decided to check it out, grabbing the door and opening it.

As Miles stood in the doorway, staring into the new room, his jaw dropped in complete surprise wrapped in a layer of worry.

The bat that he met in the graveyard lay on the floor, looking into a large mirror that took up the whole far wall. She was holding a large, shiny kitchen knife in her gloved hand, holding it a mere inch away from her neck.

The girl's bloodshot eyes looked over to him, staring at him with the knife still above her head. Her voice sounded extremely tired, and even more depressed. "Oh, it's you…"

Miles stood still, frozen in place. He didn't know what to do, but whatever he did next might mean this girl's life. She looked like she was seconds from stabbing herself.

"Um…yeah…" he said stupidly. "I'm Miles."

"Miles?" It wasn't really a question, just an acknowledgement. The girl looked into the knife, seeing her own voided reflection in the shiny blade. "…Rouge."

"Rouge?" Miles echoed. Nice name. "Okay…I don't know what you're planning. But you know, there's always a better way…" He tried to council her.

"Yeah…" Rouge said. "Really…but you're the same as me. It's easier just to run…besides, it's what we deserve…"

'Huh?' the fox wondered, stepping back a bit. "I don't understand. I'm not like you."

"Are you afraid?" she asked. "I'm sorry."

"It's alright..." He remembered what she said at the graveyard. "Did you find your mother?"

"Not yet…she's not anywhere…" Rouge said sadly, rolling to her side so she looked into her reflection in the mirror. From where she lay, she could see the fox behind her at the door.

"Did she live in this apartment building?"

"I don't know."

"So all you know is that she lived in this town?"

As if he said something extremely offensive, Rouge bolted up and stared at him angrily. "What!? What did you say!?" She sat in front of him, sounding pissed off and confused. "How do you know that!?"

Miles stepped back again. "I just guessed. 'Cause you're looking here in this town for her. How else would I know?"

Rouge's facial expression and tone of voice did a 180 and she got the depressed look on her face again. "Yeah…"

The fox waited, expecting the bat to say something else. No response came. "Am I right?"

"...I'm so tired…" she said, putting her hand to her baggy eyes and rubbing them.

"If not them, why did you come to this town anyway?" Miles was beginning to wonder what was really going on with her.

Long pause.

"Did you find who you're looking for?" the green-eyed bat asked, completely ignoring his question.

Miles considering countering but decided against it. She didn't seem to want to talk about herself anymore. "No. Not yet." he said sadly. He pulled out a photograph of Sonic, smiling an innocent smile at the camera. He kneeled down and held the photo of the emerald-eyed hedgehog in front of her. "Have you seen this hedgehog? His name is Sonic."

"Is he your lover?" she asked.

Miles bit his lip again. Maybe she really was paying attention when he accidentally foreshadowed their relationship in the graveyard. "Eeer…I…"

"...sorry…I haven't seen anyone here." She shook her head..

"It's okay. He's dead anyway." The orange fox said. "I don't know why I'm looking for him…"

"He's dead?" like before, Miles couldn't tell if it was supposed to be a statement or a question. She curled up into a ball and stared at her feet.

"Don't worry. I'm not crazy. At least, I don't think so…"

'Oooh, smart one, Miles.' Miles mentally punched himself.

Rouge slowly stumbled upwards, standing on her feet. "I've gotta find my momma…"

"Should I go with you?" Miles asked. "This town's dangerous. I now know what you meant back in the graveyard."

"I'll be okay by myself," she stated. "Besides, I'll only slow you down."

He pointed at the knife, which was still in her hand. "What about that?"

She looked down at the large knife as if she had forgotten it was there in the first place. "Will you hold it for me?"

"Sure."

"I'm afraid of what I might do if I kept it…" She said, holding up the knife for him to take. While she did this, Miles's eyes transfixed on her ungloved left hand, which had scars and scratches all over it, some of them red and puffy.

Miles reached out to grab the knife, but before he could, she yanked it away and swung it in front of him, a look of pure terror on her young face. "NOOO!!!"

She swung it and for a second the fox thought she might stab him; he jumped backwards to avoid the attack. The look of terror on her face suddenly changed to a look of guilt and sorrow. "Oh, I…I'm sorry…" her voice was filled with regret. "I've been bad…P-please don't…" She took a step backwards, as if afraid he'd yell at her, and then placed the knife on the counter, running out of the room and leaving the fox alone once again.

Miles just stood there, dumbfounded. After a long silence, he looked at the blade on the table. Picking it up, he looked at it closely; there were tiny spots of crimson on it.

"Rouge…"

Not only was the town weird, but also all the people he'd met so far since he entered the place were acting strange. Whatever happened to Rouge while he was away…it must not have been good. "I hope she's alright…"

There were two other things on the table, another coin and something he had been looking for for a while – a rather large side pack that could be fitted around his waist. He grabbed the side pack and tied it like a belt to his waist, taking out the handgun and putting it in there. Rouge's knife soon followed. While the coin joined the other coins in his right fur-pocket.

"Man…I've gotta get out of here." he said, remembering that one door in the end of the second floor hallway with the 'Exit' sign marked above it. Now he just needed to find a way to get through that door…