Sonic Hill 2: DX
Ending III: Forever
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The vibrant thud of his heart beat in his chest lightly. If the hotel's layout were anywhere close to what it used to be, he'd probably be hovering over the icy lake by now. Wooden paneling cracked and creaked under his red-and-white shoes, which were encrusted with the remains of the various things he'd walked on and over during the past few days. His paw feet, confined within the shoe's slick interior, felt as if they stood within small pits of lava – the pain was very prominent, yet so nonchalant by now it barely phased him anymore. But that didn't mean it didn't hurt any longer – only time could heal it, unlike too many things he'd already experienced.
'Almost over…'
That was his remaining hope: that somehow it'd all end for him soon. There was nowhere else to go, so what lie ahead must be the only place he's meant to go before…before…
'Before I can rest.'
Miles's long jog ended when the behemoth steel doors presented themselves in the strong flashlight's beam not very far ahead. While intimidating, the handles budged after a little strain, and he managed to slowly turn them and push the set of metal forward, opening it into a bright grim area outside. Any usual soul wandering around wouldn't be phased by the bleak "light" the fog gave off, but for Miles whose eyes had already adjusted to the darkness had to cover his face for a moment before blinking and regaining his lurched composure.
The catwalk, the one he stood on now, looked treacherous. If there were a hole or dead end or something, he'd fall into whatever lie below before he even knew it. And considering how dead quiet it was, the bottom didn't seem to be anywhere nearby. Just fog, more and more fog. A staircase revealed itself eventually, tiny holes lining its surface from which you could see dots of the fog below it. Soft dull clinks emitted from the floor as his feet made contact with it, which combined with the even softer sounds of the rifle, katana, and bags he carried like dead weight as they shook and flung themselves onto his aching body and back from momentum. They stopped, along with the fox, when he reached the top. To his surprise, that wasn't the end of the stairs at all – now they led back down into the depths of the gray.
Letting out brief breaths for air, he began to descend, jogging down the stairs for a short period of time before reaching another stairway leading up. Bad construction design, but things like this didn't have to make sense in a place like the one he was in now. Without even slowing down, he began to run up the second set of ascending metal.
The end was in sight.
He stared in awe at the structure the stairs led to. It looked like a building of some sort, but there were no signs of any doors or windows at all. If it was a building, then this must be the roof. A chain-link fence surrounded the place, confining the rather beautiful interior from complete view. Vines and moss grew along the small stumps of what used to be brick walls inside, contrasting with the deserted area around them.
Or maybe it wasn't deserted after all, the fox quickly noticed. In the center of the arena stood Shadow, his dark fur contrasting just as much with the drained grayness of the arena as the walls and vines did. Dull realization hit the fox; his mouth split open a bit by a discreet gasp.
"Shadow…" he whispered.
The same devilish grin he'd seen when they first met appeared on the hedgehog's face. "Welcome back, Tails."
"How are you h—" Miles stopped himself in mid sentence. Silence ticked between them, until it was broken again by his depression-laced words. "…nevermind. Shadow, it's time to end this."
"Yeah, let's leave this place." Shadow agreed arrogantly, taking a step forward.
Something less than kindness shined in his tone, jolting the fox into a backward step. "No." For the millionth time, he dragged his fingers across his scalp nervously.
Shadow's legs glided across the floor with a smoothness that Miles would have found both impressive and attractive in any other situation. But he knew what was really going on now, thus replacing his admiration with feelings of forlorn. Shadow wrapped his arms gracefully around the miserable furry, annihilating the distance between them and pulling him closer. Leaning forward, he whispered sensually into his ear: "I know you want me. That's why you're here. I'm yours; just say the word." He grinned widely again. "You can keep me, Tails; take me fore—"
The confidence in the sexy hedgehog's eyes faded away in less than a second, a gasp escaping his lips this time.
-BANG!
"Aaahh!!" For a moment, his skin too seemed to pale, as terrified and pained realization hit him just as hard as the bullet now buried in his stomach did. His body tensed up, standing erect before he began to fall. His back hit the ground, leaving him to stare up at Miles bewildered.
"Don't call me that…" Miles whispered, lowering the handgun and placing it back in his side-pack.
"It wasn't…it's not…" Shadow croaked, his expression of betrayal shining like a new searchlight. "Not supposed to end th…th—" His head fell limp on the floor, followed soon afterwards by his bloodstained body. The newborn bullet hole in his stomach seeped blood out unto the uninviting concrete.
"Sayonara, Shadow." Miles whispered coldly. A little guilt grew strong enough to admonish him of its presence, but only a little. Distantly, he gazed up at the colorless sky, closing his eyes in thought for a moment, and—
-
When he opened them, he was no longer in the strange arena, standing before Shadow's lifeless corpse. Instead, he was now in a very very familiar place. Somewhat clean blue shag carpeting coated the floor in its warm fuzz, un-whiningly carrying the contents of the room on its back. Across from the double bed a few feet to his left was an old TV set, which stood beside a black shelf full of random junk and pictures. A photograph of himself and Sonic stood proudly on the nightstand, bleakly depicting memories of the past which he'd never wanted to forget, unlike many. Parallel to where he stood—by the door—there was a large gritty window, which normally would show the city streets outside. But on this occasion, the outside world didn't exist. Instead there was only plain white nothingness.
It was his bedroom.
Sonic lay on the bed, staring up at the ceiling with an ashen but somehow relaxed expression upon his beautiful face. The dark gray covers concealed the percentage of his body, but from his light-skinned chest on up was visible. He looked almost dreamlike, lying there for the first time in so long before Miles. Seeing his amazing emerald eyes calmed the tension binding the fox's body enough to let him move again.
Miles took a few steps closer to him and sat in the chair beside the bed. It was the same spot where he had suffocated him to death months, not years, earlier. Opening his mouth before even knowing what to say, Miles spoke in little more than a whisper.
"Sonikku…"
"Tails-chan…" Sonic whispered back, right before he curled his hand into a fist, put it to his mouth, and let out that same horrible dry, throaty cough that his lacerated throat had emitted countless times in the past three years. A moment of recovery passed, and he spoke again. "I've been waiting for so long…"
"I'm so sorry for what I did…forgive me…"
"I told you I wanted to die, Tails." The melancholy ease of Sonic's words was ardently sincere. "I wanted the pain to end."
"No…that's not entirely true. You did want your pain to end, but…" Miles tore his gaze away from Sonic and shamefully stared down at the covers, trying his best not to cry anymore. Small streams of tears managed to escape his eyes, but that was all that broke through. Knowledge of reality, of truth, was painful to accept. "The real truth is…part of me hated you…you were sick for a long three years, Sonic. You were taking my life away…"
Sonic coughed again, the agitated pain in his mouth becoming more apparent. The fox tried to ignore it – in the short time he had left, he didn't want to focus on what lie ahead in his bleak future.
"It was selfish of me," Miles continued despairingly. "We were both so miserable, I couldn't stand it anymore...that's why I took your life. I don't deserve to live for that."
"You killed me, and you've suffered for it. It's enough." The blue hedgehog said in a surprisingly kind and accepting tone, right before he coughed harshly again. A weak half-hearted smile formed on his lips. "Thank you for coming all this way, Tails. I really appreciate it…You have no idea how sorry I am for having to bring you through all this, but I couldn't let you live a lie forever."
Speechless, Miles sniffled and looked back into Sonic's weary eyes. The other male cracked a second small smile and reached beside him, pulling out a thin piece of paper from underneath the covers. Carefully, he placed the letter in Miles's hands, drawing his own away for a third sickeningly dry cough. This time though, a series of coughs followed, ending four croaks later.
"Getting hard to breathe again…" Pain was etched on his regretful face as he shook his head and cleared his throat.
"Sonikku…" Miles whispered, distraught. Taking Sonic's hand, he gently placed it on his own furry cheek longingly. Sonic's hands were pleasantly lukewarm. His blurred slightly as tears overlapped Miles's eyes, and he spoke in a sorrowful pleading voice. "P-please…don't leave me alone again…"
"I'm sorry…" the blue hedgehog's voice was as weak as he felt now, and Miles could tell he wasn't going to be alive much longer. Peacefully feeling the warmth of the fox's face against his tender fingers, Sonic uttered the last words Miles ever heard him say: "I love you, Tails…I'll love you forever…"
A small rattle of breath escaped his lips: the last one he'd ever have. Sonic's eyelids slid back into place, shutting his mind and sight off from the word for the final time. His hand fell limp on the Miles's ashen face, dead.
"No…Sonikku…"
Droplets of warm, salty tears streamed more rapidly through his dirty white fur and onto the bed sheets; his love was really gone now. And he knew this time there was no coming back. Head bent low, Miles's breaking voice whispered ever so softly.
"I love you too…"
Slowly he lowered Sonic's bare hand back onto the bed beside him, leaning forward and kissing the hedgehog on the forehead just like he had a long time ago. With tender and gentle care, he picked his boyfriend's lifeless corpse up into his arms. The dead weight strained his weak muscles, but he didn't care. Things like that no longer seemed in the least bit important to him now. Holding Sonic's hollow shell of a body close, he stared longingly up at the ceiling and continued to weep.
He was alone.
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Parlami
Il tuo silenzio guarda dentro
Non resisterò
E un attimo,
Nel tuo vuoto sento che
Io non ce la farò
Walk on by
You walk on by
Walk on by
Wondering why…
Wandering from you
Falling at your side
Wandering from you
Healing my desire
Stumble in your soul
Give yourself to me
Hurting your desire
Healing mine
Slegami
Dal mio rimorso, sei diverso
Mentre muoio e poi risorgo dentro te
Flinchè vivrò
Ricordarti cosælt;/i>
Sarà una colpa eterna su di me
Walk on by
You walk on by
Walk on by
Wondering why…
Wandering from you
Falling at your side
Wandering from you
Healing my desire
Stumble in your soul
Give yourself to me
Hurting your desire
Healing mine
Healing mine
(Stumble in your heart again…)
Healing mine
(Give yourself to me…)
Healing mine
(Stumble in your heart again…)
Healing mine…
"Comalies" – Lacuna Coil
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'I wonder what I was afraid of.
Without you, Sonikku, I have nothing…
I just can't go on anymore…
But that's okay; it all finally makes sense to me.
Now I know the real reason I came to this town…'
-
Pinned under the windshield wiper was a paper: Sonic's real letter. Licensee plate number '440KN9' hung on the back bumper as Miles opened the driver's door of his car and sat back in the seat again, immediately slumping his head back on the dirty window. His grim eyes gazed outside at the dark trees swaying in the calm wind not too far away. The distant sound of water splashing against rock was heard far off. Sonic's body lay wrapped in a warm blue blanket in the back seat, a peaceful expression on his now lifeless pale face.
'I've come all this way…'
(…i killed him i loved him i killed him we were so happy together i killed him now im all alone…)
'Maybe this way we can be together……though that's probably just wishful thinking. I know, if there is an afterlife beyond this towns grasp, I won't be going to the same place as you anyway. I wish I could believe otherwise.'
(alone)
'But there will be no salvation, no forgiveness…words cannot express how sorry I am for what I've done, my love…'
Miles turned around; his pained eyes glanced at the hedgehogs beautiful face, blurred by his tears. How he longed to see happiness, and life, within his love's face. But both those blissful joys were forever gone. He caressed Sonic's delicate and cold hand lovingly, then kissed it softly before lowering it back down onto the seat.
(sonikku)
The fox slowly placed his head back on the window, staring back at the cold world outside the tomb of his car before bursting into tears again. He cried; cried harder, louder, and more emotionally than he ever had in his entire life. It was far too much to hold in, and he didn't care how shameful his pathetic and lonely death would be. His world was no longer gray, but now a saddened dark blue, darker than that of both his own eyes and Sonic's soft, dead fur.
He'd lost everything. His love, his life…
(it all comes to this)
'And now it all ends…'
Gravel cracked under the weight of the tires as the car moved backwards in reverse, stopping about twelve feet away. Though it was hard to see through the blurred and stinging tears in his eyes along with the dirt tinted windshield, the cliffs' edge was about twenty feet away. It overlooked Lake Toluca. If he recalled, it was about a fifty-foot drop down into the cold murky water where the souls of Sonic Hill rested; where he too would soon rest.
Was the fear of death so important now? Maybe some did fear it, but others, like him, prayed for it.
Letting out one last, long cry, he floored the accelerator. With a harsh screech from the tires, the vehicle zoomed forward at incredible speeds. Miles lay his head on the left side of his seat, peering into Sonic's reflection in the rearview mirror as the vehicle they were in quickly moved closer and closer to the lake in its last run.
'Goodbye, Sonikku…'
The car flew off the cliff's edge, descending downwards much slower than thought possible into the murky waters below. Miles Prower's last thought before hitting the surface was that of regret. Regret for all that he'd done, all that had happened. Regret that he'd never see his love again.
-SPLASH!
And the car sunk deeper and deeper, filling up with the ice cold liquid and sucking out all the oxygen immediately as it continued its short journey to the bottom of the lake. He knew he would soon join the souls at the lake's bottom too; suffering, burning forever for the sins he had committed. No one would know how truly sorry he was. No one would know he'd come here at all. Perhaps that too was for the best.
As the vehicle reached the bottom—its windows cracked, its metal walls dented—Miles Prowerstill lay in the front seat with his eyes closed, waiting for his impending death. His soul and body began to fade into the eternal sleep, soon to be drifting through The Abyss of hell with the many other lost souls of Sonic Hill.His exhausted minduttered one final word, before the end of his everything…
(forever)