Sonic Hill 2: DX
Chapter 15: Reality
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It was a long jog back to the third floor S corridor, but the fox and the hedgehog had finally made it. The angel painting looked just the same as before; its thin arm supporting its petite hand extended outwards. Two rings were already placed on it, the two they had put there an hour or so earlier, and now only three fingers remained naked and ringless. Miles made a quiet wish that they'd get out of here soon once they finished this puzzle, and then made a second wish that it'd at least do something that benefited them.
The stench of burnt, rotten meat and gasoline had plagued his senses for so long, and he'd kill just to breathe fresh air again. Then again, he and his friend Shadow had killed plenty of monsters here already.
The steel pipe strapped to Shadow's back had proved pretty useless since they had met in the basement's basement earlier, and he hadn't even used the knife still in his half empty side-pack. The shotgun had been basically the single thing keeping them alive, other than their own teamwork. Though, both that and the handgun were beginning to deplete in ammo again. Shadow had already handed him the handgun back, deciding to use the pipe from now on till they found at least one more clip for it. The melee weapon easily took down straightjacket monsters, and there was no use wasting bullets on them anymore if they could help it. Strange, Miles had thought, it seemed as they progressed on everything just got bigger and badder.
Miles held the last three rings in his hand while Shadow kept watch on the hallway with the pipe. If a monster was nearby, the radio would alert them of it, but he thought he'd at least humor the hedgehog for the moment. It was the least he could do – Shadow had done an awful lot for him, and he hadn't been able to do much in return. He felt very guilty because of that.
Carefully, Miles slid the last three rings onto the angels fingers, hearing a distant click the moment he put the final ring on her pinky finger. Then, another soft sliding sound was heard as the painting began to slide to the left, revealing the metal door leading to the stairway. The stairway led back to the C Corridor, but also continued downwards into the boiler room and a few other rooms in the basement that were locked from the side facing the elevator. It was better than nothing – maybe they could find another thing of use in those new rooms.
"Okay. Let's go." Miles said. Shadow nodded beside him, almost blending in with the corridors darkness.
Grasping the shotgun tightly, Miles reached to touch the doors handle. To his surprise, the second he touched it the door literally fell off its hinges and into the stairway, hitting the floor and letting out a loud unnerving noise that echoed throughout the hall and the stairway. Jumping a little, Miles shined the flashlight down the stairway, seeing that there weren't any gates blocking the first floor or anything this time. That was good.
He gestured to Shadow, and they walked across the short flat part of the stairway and then down the steps, their footsteps sounding a lot louder than in any other place in the hospital. They only made it to the first turnaround when Shadow spoke.
"Miles, come, look at this." He pointed to a piece of paper nailed to the wall that Miles hadn't even noticed. The fox shined the flashlight more onto it and tried to read the words scribbled in barely legible handwriting.
'i found thE kEy to the moosium i got skarEd and i hidE i hidE it undEr statuE of godiss in park but i did no stEEl it im Not a krimminal. pLEEs dOnt nakE mE go 2 jaLe i didn ot do n E thing dOnt u bElEV mE¿'
Raising an eyebrow, Miles turned to Shadow. "Another patient?"
"I'd hope so," the hedgehog said, shaking his head. "It's not important I guess. Let's just get the hell out of here. I'm sick and tired of this place."
Miles agreed fully. He didn't know how long they'd been in this hospital so far, but it sure was more than six hours. He despised this place even more than he did when he originally came in, and he'd be very happy if he never had to see it again. Looking forward again, Miles and Shadow moved down a few more flights of stairs. The doors on the second and first floor were boarded up—not that they'd want to go back into the C or M corridors again anyway—but luckily the basement door wasn't. They opened it, revealing the boiler room. While it was still dark like most other rooms in the hospital, it was lit up a bit by red lights from the various mechanisms in the area. It gave it a bit of a creepy feel, but it was nothing compared to what they had seen so far on their long journey through Sonic Hill.
The boiler room door should lead back into the basement hallway, if it wasn't locked from this side too. But the duo wasn't thinking about that at the moment, their attention was already stolen by what lie in the corner of the room.
A large statue of a knight in shining armor holding a huge axe before it, which reminded Miles of medieval castles and stuff he'd learned about in school. A few feet in front of the knight was a large pedestal that stretched a few yards across it. Miles and Shadow walked up to it, reading what was carved in a plague on the stone.
'Turn the keys together, and the door to your destiny shall open.'
Looking, they noticed there was a key on both ends of the pedestal, sticking into their own respective keyhole. The key on the far left was white, while the one on the far right was black. They were too far apart for one to turn simultaneously.
Shadow looked at Miles, and Miles looked back. Both knew what to do, and split up, moving to the opposite keys. Miles grabbed the white key, while his friend grabbed the black one.
"On three." Shadow said. "One…two…three!"
They both turned, and heard a click similar to the one from the painting. Metal scraped against metal and the knight's armored chest opened up, revealing a hole with a golden key standing upright within it. Miles reached into the statue and grasped the key, pulling it out and reading the words on it.
'Basement Second Floor Door'
That iron door in the basement's basement must be what the key was for, Miles figured. Turning to Shadow, he smiled. "Shadow…"
"Hmm?" Shadow asked.
"I just thought I'd say again…thanks for helping me through all this."
"Thank you too." The hedgehog said, giving him a benign smile. It helped ease some of the guilt Miles felt about earlier. "Now come on, it's time to check out that place."
"You sure you wanna come with? You didn't like it down there earlier."
Shadow rolled his eyes. "That's just because I wasn't in there with you. I'm not afraid anymore."
"Heheh, alright." Miles smiled, looking to the door. "Let's go Shadow."
"Yeah."
Walking up to the boiler room door, Miles unlocked it from this side and opened it back into the basement corridor. They immediately went to the basement storeroom door and opened it. They didn't stick around the basement's storeroom for more than five seconds, taking the ladder in the hole on the floor down to the basement's basement right away. It was just as dark and creepy as before, except Shadow was with Miles now. He didn't mind that at all.
The intimidating iron door was still there. Slowly, Miles slid the key into the keyhole and turned, hearing a gentle click as the door unlocked. He pushed it open and was surprised at what was on the other side.
Another very long dark hallway. In the very back—what had to be at least one hundred yards—there was a light. Squinting, Miles guessed it must be an elevator or something. If he remembered the hospital's layout correctly, that elevator shouldn't even be in the hospital. Maybe it led to another building or something…he didn't know. But they weren't going to find out just standing there. Miles hoped that it wouldn't end up like in the apartment buildings and began to walk forward, closing the door behind him and hearing Shadow's reassuring footsteps by his side.
-CRASH!!!
Miles's heart almost jumped out of his chest when he heard an extremely loud and close crashing noise from behind them. He and Shadow whirred around, and their eyes widened in terror when they saw what was behind them.
Only a few yards behind them stood Pyramid Head, its several-foot-long bloodstained knife in hand. It raised its large metallic head up to the ceiling and let out a loud, angry roar that sent shivers down both their spines. Its roar created a blinding crescendo with the scream of terror within Miles's mind. Quickly, he turned to Shadow and shouted, the fear he felt showing clearly in his voice.
"RUN!"
Miles and Shadow both turned around and broke into a sprint, immediately running as fast as their legs could carry them. Pyramid Head screamed again and—to Miles's utter surprise and horror—broke into a sprint also, running after them with amazing speeds. The slowness it had shown in the past must have been an act or something, because it was running just as fast as them now, if not even faster. Raising its knife into the air, it did a huge overhead swing, which just barely missed Shadow and Miles as they ran for their lives. Dragging it off the ground, Pyramid Head began to speed up again, gaining speed every second. He swung the knife once again, sideways this time, missing only by a few inches.
Miles realized that he himself was also gaining speed, running faster than ever. Some unknown instinct mixed in with the rapid rivers of adrenalin flowing through his veins. The result effected his two tails, which began to spin around like a propeller, making him increase speed and zoom further forward so he was now a few feet ahead of Shadow and Pyramid Head in the mad race for survival.
The creature was still hot on their heels; almost close enough to grab them. The two panted heavily as they desperately stared ahead at the elevator door, their savior, which was quickly getting closer.
-CHING-CLANK!
The giant knife swung and missed Shadow's back again by only a few feet. It hit the right wall and bounced off, swinging back and still missing the hedgehog. Miles prayed that they'd get in the elevator in time. His eyes bugged out when he saw that the doors—which were drawing closer and closer by the split second—were beginning to close.
Another swing. Closer. But still missing. The two furries' feet pounded against the floor as they once again missed death by only a few inches. With a sudden burst of speed, Miles and Shadow ran faster than they ever did in their entire life. And just in time too; another swing of the blade, and the monster missed Shadow's back once again by mere inches. The elevator door was only a few yards away, and less than a second later, only a few feet.
Miles kept his constant speed and side-ran through the now halfway closed door, running to the back of the elevator. His mind cried with relief, for he had made it inside alive. But that relief only lasted for a few milliseconds before he realized one thing was missing. He spun around quickly and saw Shadow staring at him, a look of pure horror in his dark eyes; the door was almost all the way closed. Desperately, the hedgehog reached out to try and get in.
His hand was the only thing that made it through that door.
The sliding doors shut on his hand, but rather than reopening, they stayed there slightly ajar for Miles to stare in horror as Pyramid Head raised its gigantic knife above its head and slammed it down on Shadow's back. The knife pierced deep into his flesh, cutting through the steel pipe on his back and almost completely through the hedgehog himself. The force of the weapon dragged Shadow down to the floor in a sea of pain, forcing his mouth open with a scream of pure terrified agony.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
Miles couldn't blink, couldn't move, couldn't even breath as he saw the creature raise its knife up again and slam it down on the hedgehogs back a second time, forcing another agonized cry from his friend. It raised the knife for the third time and hacked into him again, and again and again and again and again and again. Crimson droplets splattered inside the elevator, spraying onto Miles's furry face and the cold gray walls around him like sprinklers.
Shadow's final pained scream slowly died out as the knife was brought down on his thin body one last time. Then, the monster grabbed onto the black—now dark red-stained—hedgehog's leg and dragged him away, releasing his limp hand from the doors and letting them slide closed, leaving the fox alone in the silent cold elevator.
Miles's large blue eyes still focused on where the hedgehog's hand was only a few seconds ago, unable to tear themselves away. It finally dawned on him fully what had just happened.
"S-Shadow…" Miles whispered silently, stepping backwards until he felt the cold metal walls of the elevator touch his wounded back. It sent sending rays of pain stinging through him, but he barely even noticed it. Somehow, the pain just didn't matter anymore. "N-no…Shadow…"
Slowly, he slid down to the floor, still not believing it. It couldn't be happening…
But it was. This was his reality.
Shadow was dead.
Miles placed his hands onto his face, covering it, and began silently crying.