Sonic Hill 2: DX
Chapter 17: Into the Abyss
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'June 25th, 2008
The police announced today that James Sunderland, who was arrested on the 18th of this month for the brutal murder of Travis Mills and his sister, Shanna, committed suicide in his jail cell early in the morning on the 22nd.
According to the Police Statement, Sunderland used a wooden soupspoon to stab himself in the neck, severing his carotid artery. By the time the guard discovered him, Sunderland was dead from blood loss, with the spoon buried 2 inches into his neck.
An old school mate of James Sunderland's from his hometown of Ashfield said, "He didn't look like the type of guy to kill kids. But I do remember that just before they arrested him he was blurting out all sorts of strange stuff like "He's trying to kill me. He's trying to punish me. The monster…the red devil. Forgive me. I did it, but it wasn't me!"
The school mate then added, "I guess now that I think of it, he really was kind of crazy."'
Miles put the magazine back in the Newspaper rack and looked up at the sky, digesting all that he had just read.
"The Red Devil…"
Didn't sound like the town had very healthy residents even before things got all weird. Pyramid Head's helmet was red…Miles shrugged it off, hoping that there wasn't any significance about the article that he had just read.
He'd already exited the Happy Burger, finding nothing but another strangely colored emerald, this one aqua. It was now stored in his handbag like the other three. He was creating quite a collection here. While he was at the Happy Burger he also looked around for some food, but didn't find anything that wasn't rotting or molded over. So now he stood on the corner of Doggie Avenue and Cloud Street, only a short distance away from the Rosewater Park. He'd decided it'd be best to at least check out the newspaper rack that he spotted, but found nothing but that magazine. Nothing else of it seemed interesting enough to read, so he decided it was finally time to head back to the park and check out that statue.
Crossing the street, he ran down the sidewalk for a short period of time till he finally reached the park entrance, getting a strange sense of déjà vu. Not too far away from where he was now was that old alley that led back into the back entrance of the Creekside Apartments, but he had no intention of ever going back there.
The sign saying the park's name on it was written over with red spray paint, saying 'Blood Swamp' over the letters spelling out 'Rosewater Park'. It made him uncomfortable, like everything else in the town seemed to, but he had more important things to worry about than that. He ran into the park, taking the path he had taken on the way to where he met Shadow
(shadow…)
and where he had spent so much time with Sonic in the past. Except rather than going to the main lookout deck, he took a left turn at one of the smaller paths that led into the center of the park. It took a while for him to find the goddess statue, but through the never-ending darkness he found it, standing erect and holding its angelic hands out in prayer. At the bottom of the statue was a pedestal.
'Reach Your Hands Out To God And Pray For Your Forgiveness'
He didn't recall seeing it say that before when he and Sonic had been there three years ago, but he also didn't recall the town being anywhere near this weird, so he decided not to think too much into it. Kneeling down before the goddess, he pulled the shovel and the wrench out of his carrying back. With the metal shovel in hand, he jammed it into the dirt, prying chunks of brown minerals everywhere. Thirty seconds of digging later, the shovel hit something hard.
"Hm?"
He dug around the hard spot, coming up with the box that the director had spoken of. After digging enough around it to comfortably grab it, he did so and pulled the box out of its grave, placing it in front of him. The top of the metal box was screwed in, proving to Miles that he was right about before. Grasping the wrench, he unscrewed the metal top and pulled it open, revealing a shiny golden key. Picking it out of the box, he read the words printed on it.
'Sonic Hill Historical Society'
"Finally, the museum…" a smile threatened to grow on his dry lips, but ended abruptly when a loud, familiar sound echoed throughout the whole town.
Sirens.
"Not a-again…" he cried, suddenly feeling a strange sensation throughout his body. Extreme light-headedness overcame him, and before he knew it he was on the ground, consciousness fading away into the dark pits of his mind.
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'Sonikku…'
A new warmth surrounded him, loosening his tense muscles. Opening his eyes slowly, he was practically blinded by eternal white light. Someone's warm gloved hands were holding him up, petting his forehead down to the rip of his two tails slowly and calmly. Looking up, he gazed into Sonic's beautiful green eyes. He was lying in his blue hedgehog's warm embrace.
'My heaven…'
'I'm still waiting for you, Tails-chan.' Sonic's smooth voice whispered. 'Don't give up.'
Smiling, Tails closed his eyes, worry pervading his mind along with the relaxed enjoyment. 'No…Sonic…don't go…Sonic…Sonic…Sonic…'
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"Sonic…"
Miles sat up quickly, his three long orange locks of hair at the top of his forehead jumping as if trying to escape from his body for a second until they fell back down flat against him. He put his hand to his head and shook it, trying to make sense of what had just happened.
"Was it all…just…a dream?" he asked himself.
Looking around, he was surprised to see he was not only still in the park, lying on the soft dirt in front of the goddess statue, but the park had changed again. Fog filled the world, along with a very cold chill in the air. He was back in the misty Sonic Hill park. For another second, he thought possibly that everything involving the hospital and Shadow was just a nightmare, but putting his hand to his back, he felt the bloody bandages hugging his skin, along with another dose of pain in the large gash still there.
"No…it wasn't…" he felt almost relieved at that thought, while also saddened by what had happened earlier that…day? He wasn't sure what time it was at all, but he did know that he must have passed out again right after he had gotten that key…
Looking at the carrying back around his left shoulder, he opened it and looked in, surprised to see that it was almost empty. The four emeralds he had gotten were gone now, but the shotgun ammo box and handgun clips were still there. On the ground right next to him was the golden historical society key, which he grabbed and threw in the bag with the ammo.
He got up, slowly brushing the dirt off of his fur and then looking around. That was so weird. The town really had changed back…it didn't make any sense to him, but things in this town rarely did. Now that he had that key, he must get to that museum…
And so, Miles left the Rosewater Park, taking Doggie Street all the way past the gas station and Pete's Bowl-O-Rama up the road towards the broken bridge. The cool air of the town felt more comforting than scary now, after having to run around in that stuffy and stinky hospital and all the other places. The fresh air felt very good against his face and within his nostrils and breath. After jogging for a long while, he stopped at the parking lot he passed by, leaning down and panting heavily, the coldness of the air stinging the back of his throat slightly. He gave himself a few seconds to recuperate before he began walking again, passing by all the dead empty cars. Only a few straight jacket monsters and mannequins tried to get in his way on his jog down Doggie Street, but they took little effort to evade. The large front double doors of the Sonic Hill Historical Society stood before him, just waiting to be unlocked.
That dream had given him even more new refined hope that Sonic was there, enough to inspire his tired soul to continue forward. Now, it was time to enter the museum. With a sigh, Miles slid the golden key into the slot and turned, unlocking the double doors and allowing him access to the place. He pulled them open, took one last look at the foggy streets of Sonic Hill South Vale, and entered the Sonic Hill Historical Society.
The first hallway, like many before it, was dark and annoying. Except unlike that of the hospital and apartment hallways, there was a window somewhere in it that shined in a nice calm white light from outside. The hallway was shaped like a T, the entrance being where Miles stood right now, on the left part of the T. It branched off to the right a few yards ahead, and continued forward a few more yards past that to another set of double doors. To Miles's right and a about five feet away from the front door was a third set of double doors with the words 'EXHIBIT ROOM#1' carved into a metal plate on the front of it. Better check every room as he passed them by. Miles tried those doors, groaning in frustration when they didn't open. Like countless other doors in the town, it was locked.
"Damnit…" he muttered silently, turning to move down the hallway. When he got to where it branched to the right, he turned and walked down the even longer hall. At the very end of this hall was a rather large window, from which he could see only white fog outside of. That must be what is lighting up the room, he guessed. On the left side of that window was a fourth set of double doors. He pulled the handgun back out of the carrying bag, just in case some trouble arose. Once he reached the double doors, he pulled them open and peered into the new place.
He turned his flashlight back on; shining it upon a medium-sized stodgy room full of statues that circled around it. Center stage, drawing most of the attention was a pedestal with a large book on it. Curious as to what it was doing there, the young fox walked up to the book and blew off the blanket of dust coating it. Picking the book up, he read the gold lettering written on its leather-bound cover.
'Book of Lost Memories'
"Hmm?" Opening the book, he was surprised when a small silver key fell out of one of the pages and clinked onto the floor. He picked the key back up and read the words 'Main Hall' carved into it. Pocketing it, he looked back at the opened book with gold-lined pages, noticing a strange symbol written on the inside cover. It looked like a large triangle with a circle around it. Weird little symbols and writings were on the inner perimeter of both the triangle and the circle, looking similar to the writing he'd seen on the inner rim of all the rings he'd found in the hospital earlier. Underneath the shapes there was a word written in very strangely shaped English letters: 'CHAOS'.
"Weird…" he whispered. Flipping through the pages, he saw an extremely large amount of writing inked onto every sheet of paper, until he reached the last page. At the bottom it said the book's full-page number: 666. Flipping back to the first page, he decided to check out at least some of what the strange book had to offer. He didn't want to stand there and read the whole damn thing of course, just basically see what it was talking about since it interested him. The index was in the first page, so he turned to the second one, reading what was written in English.
'Chapter I: Lost Memories
The name comes from the legend of the people whose land was stolen from them.
They call this place "The Place of the Silenced Spirits." By "Spirits," they meant not only their dead relatives, but also the spirits that they believed inhabited the trees, rocks and water around them.
According to legend, this was where the holiest ceremonies took place.
But it was not the ancestors of those who now live in this town that first stole the land from these people. There were others who came before.
In those days, this town went by another name. But that name is now hopelessly lost in the veils of time. All we know is that there was another name, and that for some reason the town was once abandoned by its residents.'
-SLAM!
Miles closed the book shut and jumped, whirring around and looking at who stood at the doorway.
"Eggman!"
The fat bald man took a step back in surprise, immediately hiding something behind his back. "Oh, Miles. W-what are you doing here?"
"You've got a weapon too?" Miles asked as he pointed at Eggman's arm, which he noticed was holding a handgun in it before he hid it away. "Well, that's good."
Raising an eyebrow, Eggman asked. "You don't mind?"
"Of course not. We do have to defend ourselves from the monsters in this town. I've got my own too, see?" Miles said, trying to be friendly and holding up his handgun, then pointing it at the shotgun strapped to his back.
"Ah, I see…" the large pale man's eyes scanned the room, his tense shoulders lowering, showing he was relaxed now. He looked to his left at a statue of a goddess pouring water. "Monsters, eh? I guess that's an interesting way of putting it…"
"What?"
"Nothing."
Miles considered that they're not the usual type of monsters he'd seen in horror movies and figured that's what the tall man meant. He nodded in agreement, feeling very glad again to see other life in the town. It was hard to believe that while he and his deceased friend were running around the hospital, the others had still been fighting for their lives in the town too. Although his conversations with Eggman had proved to be unpleasant thus far, he was glad to see the fat old man was okay.
"Eggman, I have to ask you something," he said, a question suddenly plaguing his mind. "Why are you here?"
"I could ask the same about you. What the hell are you doing in this town?"
The young fox thought of hiding it for a moment, and then decided it really didn't matter anymore. Sighing, he admitted. "I'm looking for my boyfriend."
"Boyfriend?" Eggman asked, raising an eyebrow in surprise. "You're gay?"
"Well…yeah." Miles said as if he was ashamed of it—which he hadn't been since those horrible high school days. He stared down at the floor for a moment, and then looked back up at Eggman, a bit more anger showing in his tone of voice than he intended. "You've got a problem with that?"
"No, no, of course not." Eggman said as he walked up to the statue and placed his hand on the bowl. "I'm not homophobic or anything, you just didn't come off as gay."
Miles couldn't tell if that was a compliment or an insult. But either way it was best not to get in an argument about it. "Good…" he said. Then another question came to mind. "Hey, did you see that little brat again?"
"Amy?"
"Yeah."
"No, she ran off. Haven't seen her since she left the bowling alley."
"I saw her a little while ago…as much as I hate her guts, I can't let a little girl run around in such a dangerous place like this…"
"Um…right…" From the sound of Eggman's voice, Miles got the impression the man really didn't care. What he did care about seemed to be the book though. Pointing at it, Eggman asked. "What's that?"
"Oh, this? I don't know." Miles turned and placed the book back on the pedestal, opening it and laying it down to rest. "I just found it a second ago, didn't get to read much of it yet."
"Let me see that!" the fat man ran up and yanked the book out of his hands. Eggman placed two of his long gloved fingers on his tiny spectacles and adjusted them, reading the cover with interest. Miles really couldn't tell if they were glasses or goggles, but either way with them on he just noticed he couldn't see Eggman's tiny eyes. "Book Of Lost Memories, eh?" the man asked.
"Yeah, I was about to read some more of it, but…it's probably a just waste of time. I really need to check out the rest of this place…"
"I'll stay here and read it." Eggman said quickly. "If I figure out anything, I'll let you know. Okay?"
Miles looked at Eggman nervously. "Um…okay. I'll be back in a few minutes."
"Right." Eggman turned and started skimming the pages closely, already seemingly lost in the book. Miles turned and walked out of the room.
'At least Eggman and Rouge are still alive…' he thought as he closed the double doors behind him, leaving Eggman alone in the dark room.
It was time to check out the rest of the museum. Miles ran back down the hallway, making a right turn at where it branched off in two different directions and ran up to the double doors parallel to the entrance. Using the key he found in the Book of Lost Memories, he unlocked the doors and pushed them open into a very large new room; the main hallway of the museum.
It was two floors high, the second floor being nothing but a catwalk surrounding the perimeter. In the middle of the room was a giant set of bones—similar to ones he'd seen in dinosaur museums—of an animal that he couldn't recognize. Whatever it was though, it was huge. The room was shaped like a square, except for a little narrow hallway on the far right wall that turned right, leading up to a stairs and passing by two restroom doors on the way there. There was also a set of double doors on the center of the left wall. In the back of the room was a large group of windows, all looking out into the white fog, which cast grim gray lighting over the shadowy room. What sounded like a music box was playing very distantly somewhere else, but Miles couldn't pinpoint it.
'I should check the first floor first, then move up to the second…' he thought to himself, strategically planning what his next move shall be.
There didn't seem to be a map of the place, but luckily the historical society wasn't very big – at least not from what he'd seen of it so far. He took the double doors into an L-shaped hallway on the west wing of the museum, which was just as well-lit as the first hall he'd entered before he ran into Eggman a minute earlier. To his immediate right was a single door—the first one he'd seen since he entered the place—marked 'STORAGE' with a bronze plate. That door was locked, unfortunately, so he moved down the hall and turned to the only place he could, left, to stare down the longer section of the hall. In the back, just like the T shaped hall he had been to earlier, was a gritty glass window shining gray light as far as it could. Next to that window though was yet another set of double doors on the left wall, along with a second set closer to where he was standing now. Exhibit Rooms#3 and 4, he guessed.
Moving down the hall, he tried Exhibit Room#3 to see that it too was locked, so continued down until he reached Exhibit#4. The door opened easily, revealing a room like the one he had talked to Eggman in. Statues surrounded the perimeter of it, but in the middle was a large statue of a rather attractive looking young male raccoon wearing armor and holding out a long shiny sword. Stepping closer for a better look at it, Miles noticed that the sword was a real one. Its sharp edges glistened off of his flashlight's beam. Also, from the looks of it, the hand was loosened enough to take the sword out of. Grinning, Miles grabbed the hilt of the sword and eased it out of the statue's grip, taking it off and swinging it around a few times, admiring the swift sounds it made as it cut through the air.
"Sweet!" he exclaimed. Looks like he had a new weapon now, one that would put the long gone steel pipe and wooden plank to shame. Sword in hand, Miles walked back out of Exhibit Room#4 and took the hallway back to the main hall. Didn't seem to be any other place of interest in the first floor – the rest room doors were unlocked but had nothing of use in them. So Miles had no other choice but to check out the second floor.
Jogging up the straightforward steps, Miles reached the second floor and walked across the catwalk surrounding the perimeter of the main room. The second floor had the same exact door positions as the first one, but the doors leading to the hallway above the T-shaped hall in the front of the museum were locked, leaving Miles with no other choice but to examine the hall above the L-shaped one. Those doors were unlocked, so he pushed into the new hall.
It was similar to the L shaped one below, and even had a storage room on the right wall like the other one did. Except with this one, some music was coming from the other end of the door, telling him that this was where that music box sound was coming from. Cautiously, he grasped the handle and pushed the door open, hearing the music instantly grow a thousand times louder.
The room was completely empty, looking very old and barren. There were only three notable things about it. One: In the back of the room was a broken stained glass window, and through the hole left in it you could see only more endless fog. Two: In front of that window was a rather large wooden music box player, about a foot long and wide. It was creating a very creepy and loud ten second musical tune that just kept on repeating itself over and over and over again. And finally, in front of that music box sat Rouge, curled up in a little ball and staring blankly at it, her black folded up wings facing the two tailed fox.
"Rouge…?"
She didn't bother to turn around; instead she just kept her tired gaze on the music box. "Who is it?" he heard her haggard voice ask.
"Miles."
"Ah, I thought so…"
"Um…" she wasn't saying anything more. Miles pulled the family photograph out of his pocket and walked up to her, his shoes making an uncomfortably hollow sound on the old wooden flooring. "You forgot this when you left the bar. I thought you might want it back."
Kneeling down beside her, he handed her the photo. Rouge, her eyes still focused on the music box, took the picture from his hand and looked at it with an emotionless face.
"Thanks." the bat said bleak and cheerlessly. She reached her hand out forward and placed the torn up photo on the floor in front of her, still keeping her eyes on that endlessly playing music box. Backing up, Miles stood a few feet behind her.
"I saw what you did earlier. You've got to stop cutting yourself."
"I'm sorry," she said right away. Miles didn't know how many times she had said that so far to him, but it was a lot more than seemed normal for someone her age. "It's not easy…"
"I know…it's like an addiction, almost. I used to do it too…" he looked at the dusty floor, memories of those horrible days before he met Sonic returning again. "But you need to stop."
"…did you find your boyfriend?"
Miles felt like he was being ignored. "No, not yet. I got…off track. But that's not important right now, Rouge. Are you listening? You need to stop."
There was a silence between the two. The mystic melody continued to drone on.
"Okay…" Rouge said calmly, and not very convincingly.
Sighing, Miles really didn't know what to say anymore. Eventually, he came up with something. It seemed just like their second conversation in the apartments…
"Did you find your mother yet?"
"No."
"Your brother, your father?"
"I don't know…"
'What's that supposed to mean?' he wondered, feeling like he definitely wasn't on the same page as her.
"Well, I hope you find them…" he said. "Listen, we should really stick together. It's only gotten worse since we last talked. Teamwork is the best way to get out of here."
"I don't want to leave yet."
"Yeah…I don't either." Miles stated. "Um…I think Sonic might be at the Lakeview Hotel. I'm going to look for him there. The other half of Sonic Hill is on the other end of that lake you know, maybe you can look for your family over there too."
"Yeah…"
"Uh…" Miles scratched the back of his head and looked around the empty room. He really pitied her, and especially since Shadow had…died, he really didn't want to run around alone anymore. It was like the hedgehog's death had proved to him once and for all that anyone could get killed in this place. "Rouge…well, I don't want to just leave you here…"
"It's okay, go on without me," the female bat said. He was very precarious about leaving her, but she seemed to really want to be alone, and just standing there wouldn't change her mind.
"Okay…" Miles said. "But I'll be back, okay?"
"Sure."
Not wanting to leave the girl alone, but not wanting to stay there either, Miles left the 2nd Floor Storage Room.
The L Shaped hallway held Exhibit Room#5 and Exhibit Room#6 within it, so Miles decided to check them out. Opening the door to Exhibit Room#5, he scanned the interior.
There were two statues in the center of the room. One statue was of a short human peasant with its arms spread out, exposing his chest, which had a small rectangular hole in it. The other statue was a few feet in front of it and it was of the same warrior as in Exhibit Room#4, except this time the warrior's arm was stretched out towards the peasant as if he was holding a weapon in his hand. Miles looked at the two statues, quickly figuring out how this puzzle must have worked, and put the sword in the hand of the warrior. He stepped back as the warrior statue's fingers moved mechanically and wrapped around the sword's hilt. Then, the warrior statue began to slide slowly across the pedestal it stood on until its new blade slid into the chest of the peasant statue like a key through a lock.
"AAAAHHHHHH!!!"
Miles jumped as an agonized scream blared out of someplace on the peasant statue, sounding like it was inside a tin can. There was another hole in the back of the peasant statue, similar to the one on its chest. From that hole the blade's tip stuck out now. Though the reenactment was grotesque, it had worked for Miles's benefit – on the tip of the blade was a small key on a ring. Disturbed at the sight, Miles pulled the key off the tip of the blade and examined the name written on it: 'STORAGE'.
'Jeez, great place to put this key…' Shaking his head, Miles walked out of the room, not even wanting to look at the horrible scene permanently depicted there.
Before he left the 2nd floor L-shaped hallway, Miles checked Exhibit Room #6 to see if it was locked. Unfortunately it was. So, he went back to the main hallway, took the catwalk around it, went down the stairs, and re-crossed the main hall to enter the 1st floor L-shaped hallway. Using the key, he opened the storage room door and walked in.
It was exactly the opposite of the second floor storage room – this one was packed full of crates and random junk. They were aligned in an almost labyrinth-like way, but in the very back Miles had spotted another music box, just like the one on the second floor. Except this one didn't have a music box plate in it…Miles took a wild guess that maybe this puzzle would be just like the last and walked back out of the storage room to ask Rouge if he can borrow the music box plate on the 2nd floor storage room. Annoyed at the inconvenience, he took the stairs back up to the second floor and took the catwalk back into the L-shaped hallway, opening the door and walking back in.
Rouge wasn't there.
"Rouge…?" He asked, surprised she had seemingly left so quickly, even though she knew he was going to come right back. Sighing, he walked to the back of the room, where the music box still droned on and on. He turned it off and grabbed the oversized golden plate; picking it up and carrying it on his trip back downstairs. Once he reached the 1st floor storage room again, he placed the large plate in the music box and turned it on.
That creepy childish tune played just as well and as loud as before, but once he turned it on a small panel opened up in front of the music box, pushing out a tray with a bronze key on it. Weirded out by the puzzle, Miles picked up the key and read the words on it.
'2nd Floor Hall'
"Ugh…" Frustrated at having to backtrack again, Miles walked back up to the second floor and inserted the key into the double doors above the T-shaped hall double doors.
'This is so weird…' he thought to himself. 'The puzzles here are just as random as the ones in the other places. Why did Rouge leave anyway? And where did all the monsters go?'
It seemed that since he had left the streets and entered the museum, he hadn't seen any monsters at all. He wasn't complaining at all – this was very good for him and everyone else – but it seemed that the monsters just didn't come to the historical society for some reason…why would that be though? Maybe it's just a place the monsters happened to not come by yet, or something. He didn't know. In the meantime, he had to worry about figuring out…well, he didn't even know. He just knew he had to do something to in order to progress on.
The 2nd floor T-shaped hallway, just like the L-shaped one, was basically identical to the one on the first floor. Except, for this one on the left turn, there were double doors on both sides of the hall. Meaning that maybe the room parallel to the locked Exhibit Room#1 was two separate rooms on this floor. He tried the door parallel to Exhibit Room#1's door only to find it was locked, so he turned back at the corner and went down the longer part of the T, trying the door on the right wall first because it was closer.
This room was Exhibit Room#8. The main object of attention was a large model of a boat in the middle of the room, surrounded by a glass case. It looked like some sort of public cruiser, but Miles couldn't tell. He read the golden plaque nailed onto the wooden pedestal holding the case up.
'Silent Voyage'
And below it:
'In memory of the sixty seven who died and now sleep beneath the lake.'
"The sixty seven who died…?" Miles whispered to himself, feeling a bit afraid. How had sixty-seven people die at once? And why hadn't he heard of them before?
A loud, mangled roar reverberated throughout the Sonic Hill Historical Society, making Miles jump and spin around. It stopped right away, followed by that maddening silence.
"W-what was that?" he asked, his voice shaking with fright.
Like so many questions he'd been asking lately, no answer came.
Turning, he continued looking around the room, pulling the shotgun out from behind his back just in case. It was best to stay calm and finish checking the place out before he got freaked out. He remembered that note that dead person had left around the beginning of his journey through the town, and it had said to try and stay calm and not panic. While not fully managing to do that, trying to keep his cool and think rationally was probably one of the things keeping him alive so far.
There was a small block of stone on the floor not too far away, reaching up to about the level of his chest. On that stone was a strange looking black mask, appearing almost demonic in its features. Miles figured maybe he was supposed to place it somewhere like with the other puzzles, since it looked extremely out of place with everything else, and it was the only thing in the room without a glass case. He grabbed the mask and left the room. Quickly, he ran a few yards to the door across the hall and to the side of the Exhibit Room#8 door, the door to Exhibit Room#9. Opening the double doors, he shined his flashlight in the new room.
In the very back of this room were three statues, all looking large and seemingly god-like. Each had a similar face as the mask he had just gotten, except for the middle one, which had its hands stretched out and was holding a large silver emerald within its grasp. That statue had no face at all, looking bare and expressionless. Miles looked down at the mask, and then walked up to the middle statue, standing on his tiptoes and sliding the mask onto the god's face. Once he did, a soft click was heard and the god's grasp of the emerald loosened.
Miles grasped the emerald and pulled it out of the god statue's fingers, examining it closely. It looked just like the other four he'd found and lost as he progressed on. Though it still seemed useless, he couldn't help but put the emerald in his bag and keep it for the time being. Since that was the only thing of interest in the room, he walked back out.
-Thump…
-Thump…
-Thump…
Miles fur stood on end and he looked down he hall, hearing a strange thumping noise every few seconds, like something large was walking his way. Grasping the shotgun tightly, he stood his ground and stared at the hall, waiting for whatever to happen next to happen.
And it did.
A large hand reached around the right corner of the hall, digging into the walling with its long sharp claws. Miles's heart skipped a beat as he realized what it was.
Letting out an ape-like howl, the skinless gorilla jumped around the corner and landed on the floor about ten feet away from the scared fox. Miles let out a cry of terror and pointed the gun forward, squeezing the trigger and firing a burst of shotgun shells just in time to stop the monster as it suddenly charged at him, crossing a long distance in an extremely short amount of time. It fell to the floor in response to the blast, now only a few feet away. Before it could get back up, Miles squeezed the trigger again and felt that usual pain in his arm as the weapon fired and recoiled back into his shoulder. Blood squirted from the gorilla's chest onto the wooden floor and it let out another roar, but it still wasn't dead. Miles tried to fire again and heard that horrible click, telling him the gun was empty.
"Shit!" he cried, opening the carrying bag and yanking out the box of shotgun shells at lighting quick speed.
His mind was beginning to panic, and through the adrenalin rush he quietly told himself to try and stay calm. Yanking the box open, he saw only two shells were left within it, but those two might just be enough to save his life. As fast as he could, he reloaded the weapon, successfully doing so before the beast fully recuperated. Unfortunately, before he even had enough time to re-aim the weapon, the skinless gorilla looked up at him, and he—fearing his life—looked back into its empty eyes. A second later, it was on top of him, and he was holding it back with the same weapon that had saved him countless times before.
The monster continued letting out mangled grunts of hunger and rage, trying desperately to tear the small fox to shreds. Miles cried out in response, instinctively kicking it in the stomach with his right leg. This didn't knock the wind out of the monster, but stalled it for enough time for him to roll over, pushing the weapon against the beast in the process. The end result was both of them switching sides; Miles now on top of the monster while the gorilla was below him; its slick skinless body rubbing against his furry knees.
Jumping up, Miles spun around and sprinted down the hall, stopping and the end and turning—gun raised—just in time to shoot at the beast before it rammed right into him again and tried to mangle him. A split second before he fired though, the monster jumped in the air so high that the shells only pierced into its belly. While this still didn't kill it, it slowed the gorilla's assault down enough for it to land right in front of him instead of on top of him. Pumping the shotgun, Miles pointed the weapon right into its chest. It looked up and let out another terrible roar, which mixed in with the roar of the shotgun as it sent a fourth tide of shells into the monster's body. The power the shells had on its body by being fired at point blank range made them shoot right through the screaming monster's chest. Chunks of its bloody heart ripped out of its back along with the scattered bullets, splattering onto the floor behind it. With one final scream, the monster fell backwards and spazmed for a second before finally dying.
Panting heavily, Miles pumped the shotgun, thinking about the fact that that was his last shell. Looks like his fears proved real, there really was more than one monstrous gorilla walking around. Thinking of that scared him even more. Rather than sticking around and watching the pool of crimson form around the monster, along with the stench of more dead flesh, he ran out of the 2nd Floor T-hallway and back into the main hall.
'No more shells…' Miles said, trying to hold back an urge to vomit. 'Not good…I guess the monsters really do come to this museum now…maybe they sniffed me and the others out or…something…'
A small amount of sweat had formed on his furry brow, but he was alright. For now, at least.
There had been no more keys, as far as he knew, so his only other option now was to check on Eggman and see if the man found out anything useful. Wedging the shotgun back in between the belt around his chest and his own back, and equipping the handgun, Miles ran back down to the 1st floor and then to the 1st floor T-shaped front hall.
"…what the hell?"
The once locked double doors to Exhibit Room#1 were gone now, completely. The walling around its hinges looked bruised and broken from where he stood right now. Running up to the doors, he looked in to see that the doors were on the floor of the room, looking bent up and destroyed as if someone, or something had blown it open with something very, very powerful. Shocked to see this, Miles remembered about Eggman and quickly sprinted down the turn in the hall to check up on the man and alert him.
When he opened the double doors to Exhibit Room#2 though, he found that the man was gone, just like Rouge, and he had taken the book with him too.
"Him too…" Miles whispered, brushing his hand nervously through his scalp for the millionth time that day. "What's going on here…?"
He had to check out Exhibit Room#1, since it was the only room left open—apparently forced open—in the whole museum that he hadn't checked yet. Walking back to the hole in the wall, he stepped over the bruised and beaten doors, checking out the exhibit room.
The room was full of broken glass cases, which probably held rare artifacts before they were raided. Miles didn't know, and like many things, he never would. There wasn't much anything in the room but broken glass. But, there was a half-opened door in the back, so he walked up to it and shined his flashlight into the smaller area.
There were a few paintings lining the dark room, each looking old and worn like they had been made over a hundred years ago. The one to his immediate right when he entered the room was that of a strange small stone room with an even stranger square hole in the middle of it. Underneath the painting, three words were written:
'Into The Abyss'
That sent a shiver down Miles's spine. The letter had mentioned The Abyss earlier…
On a painting about the same size a foot away from that was what looked like a very large building. Upon closer inspection, Miles realized that it was the Brook Haven Mental Hospital. Underneath this painting, there were quite a few words written:
'Brook Haven Mental Hospital (1880)
This hospital was built in response to a great plague that followed a wave of immigration to this area. It was originally little more than a shack, but it gradually grew and grew.'
'Goddamn hellhole…' Miles thought to himself, being overcome with memories of that horrible place again. Another crack appeared in his heart just by thinking about it, much to his dismay. He held the thoughts back with all his might, biting his lip as if to physically counter the mental pain, and moved on.
He turned around and looked at the opposite wall, the one to the left of the entrance door. The first painting he spotted was what looked like the beautiful Lake Toluca, except like the other paintings, it looked extremely old and dusty.
'Waterfront Landscape
Robert Smith, 1820 (D.O.B. and death unknown)'
'Weird…' Miles looked to the wall beside it, not seeing a painting there at all. Instead was an awkward looking square much brighter than any other part of the wall, like someone had recently taken the painting there away.
Wondering why, Miles looked to the back of the room, and almost screamed at what he saw before him.
This painting was large, much much larger than the other ones. While the other three paintings looked old and dusty, this one looked bright and new, as if it were painted very recently. It was not the fact that the painting stands out that had scared him so badly; it was the content of it.
'Oh my god…'
Within the illustration, Pyramid Head stood, its giant rusty knife in hand. Its red helmet, which had brought so much discomfort and terror to the fox in the past, was staring directly forward, as if looking at Miles from within the painting. Around its cadaverous body were several cages hung from the ceiling, each holding an upside down mutilated corpse within them. The air around the horrible monster and its caged corpse collection was dank and misty looking, just like the foggy streets of the town. At the bottom of the painting, one line was written:
'Misty Day: Remains of the Judgment'
He tore his face away from the painting, horrified to see even an illustration of that thing. What the hell was that doing here!? And who had created and put it there, more importantly? Miles didn't even want to know, he just desperately wanted to get away from it.
When he tore his face away, his eyes gazed upon yet another truly strange sight – there was a huge hole in the wall. It looked like maybe there had once been a door there but the whole door and the section of the wall around it had been ripped down, leaving behind broken shreds of wood. Behind the hole there was some stone walling, which lead down into darkness. Shining his flashlight down it, Miles realized it was a stone staircase. Though his flashlight was at fullest power, it still ended abruptly in the darkness far below, telling him that the set of stairs was very very long, and the length of the steep stairs matched the depthness of the shadows it led into.
'Into The Abyss…'
He didn't have to say a word; he suddenly knew where he was going, where he had to go. Once he went down those steps, there was no turning back. He could still leave, run back to his car and leave the horrible town of Sonic Hill forever. Or, he could keep going forward, descending into the darkness of The Abyss, past the point of no return, and have a chance of finding Sonic once and for all.
'Escape…?'
'Sonikku…?'
Though he feared what he would face down there, he knew he must if he hoped to see his true love ever again. With a nod, Miles Prower made his choice. He knew what he wanted. No longer did he really care very much about his life, no longer did he really care much about the pain he'd felt and most certainly would feel. That was all expendable, disposable. All he really, truly wanted was his beautiful Sonic back.
Without looking back, Miles Prower stepped through the hole, and began to descend the steps into the eternal darkness below.