ScareS 2, slight Sonadow
The house looked unassuming. Sure, a bit on the rustic side, in need of a serious renovation (or two), but not worthy of cutting off his arm's blood flow like his little brother did, hiding mostly behind him, as if the rusty gate they stood before could swallow him up at any given moment.
"So...why exactly did you fly your toy plane here anyway? That's private property.," the blue furred hedgehog eventually asked.
"M-Marc said they wouldn't bully me anymore, if I flew a round over the ghost house, but they grabbed my remote and made it crash.," the young, yellow-furred fox replied, hiding a bit more.
"Remind me to talk with those guys' parents about their offspring's attitude.," the teen sighed. "Why did I have to come, though? You can just fly over the gate if it's stuck." "Um... it's just...i-it's a ghost house!," Tails blurted out.
Raising a brow, Sonic turned around to face his younger brother. "Tails, most of the time you need to translate yourself, because I can't follow your regular explanation, you programmed our dishwasher, our washing machine and dryer to fill themselves and put our cleaned plates and clothes back into our cupboards – and you believe in ghosts?," he asked.
"N-not ghosts.," the fox defended. "But I believe in facts! And it's a fact, that everyone ever trying to live in there died or committed suicide!"
Sonic blinked. "Remind me again why I don't put a child-lock on all of our devices?" "Because I can unlock it in seconds?," Tails offered.
"Right. Okay, what did you find out about this house?," Sonic sighed. "W-well, it was built about 300 years ago. The first owner died not even a year after moving in, in his sleep – on Halloween! Then a family moved in, and all family members were killed in one night and the father killed himself – also on the night of Halloween! Years later it was a rich merchant, who was stabbed on his porch, then another family, that was killed and robbed and so on! Thirty-three people were killed in this house, four around it and 19 killed themselves! All on Halloween! And that's today!," he exclaimed.
"Yeah, so? It's not even midday, yet." "All of the people died during the day OR night of Halloween. And besides, the house was built on an old graveyard, I don't think, that the- that whatever made the people mad really cares for the time of day, when they're angry... Can't you just go there real quick and get my plane? Please?," he begged.
Looking in the big blue eyes, Sonic couldn't say no. Admittedly, he never could, not ever. That's what you got for being a big brother.
"Okay, but only this time. Don't let anyone bully you into things you don't want again.," he lectured.
With Tails nodding eagerly, he turned to the gate and gave it a careful push. One of the gate's wings fell off with a loud crash, having both mobians jump. "I hope the house doesn't do the same.," Sonic muttered.
"The plane should be on the porch somewhere, I guess. I don't know for sure, though, the camera failed before the remote did and I didn't see, where it landed.," Tails supplied.
By now Sonic got, why this plane was so important to Tails – it definitely didn't have a remote OR a camera, when he had gifted it to him last Christmas. It was a project of his and he naturally didn't want to lose it after all the hard work he put into it.
"I'll find it, no worries. Just wait here, I'll be back in a flash.," he grinned, but upon seeing the overgrown, hardly noticeable path leading up the hill, on that the house sat, he opted for a fast jog. It would do him no good to get tangled in underbrush, to fall and bruise up his entire front. It was no fun at normal speeds – and definitely fatal at the speeds he went normally.
Reaching the house quickly, it did have something menacing about itself now, the dusty windows seemingly watching him.
Shaking the feeling off, he began to look for the blue plane, circling the house as he did so. However, the plane was nowhere to be seen.
He searched behind the house mostly, as he figured, that Tails wouldn't have been able to see the plane go down there from the front gate, but still came up with nothing. Frustrated and irked by the creaking and groaning noises the house kept making, he eventually looked up the window front – and paused.
Cocking his head a bit, he narrowed his eyes. It appeared, as if something had been smeared against one of the glass panes, but upon closer inspection, he saw, that it was a hole, and a pretty recent one, too. Great. So much for 'it fell on the porch'.
Sighing a bit, he went to the front again, checking on Tails as he did so. He blinked upon not seeing him at the gate. Didn't he tell him to wait?
As nothing looked out of the ordinary and he hadn't heard anything suggesting, that he was in trouble, he figured, that he had become scared of the 'factually ghost house' and opted for waiting at home after all. Probably for the best, if he had to enter the 'ghost house' now.
Wincing, when the first step towards the porch already creaked ominously, he stepped on it completely and tried the door.
Despite creaking loud enough to cause an uncomfortable ringing in his sensitive ears, it swung open relatively easily to a large hall.
He paused on the threshold. There stood carton boxes on the ground, completely free of dust, while the furniture and the sheets draped over them had a thick layer of it on themselves. Looking on the floor, he saw three different footprints in the dust, leading into the house, none of them dusted over, thus they were fresh. Did someone break into this house? In the middle of the day? Well, the stories of this house probably kept not only Tails away...
Seemed, as if the simple retrieval would become much more exciting than he thought. "Hello?," he called out, carefully entering. If someone tried to jump him, then he would hopefully have quick enough reflexes.
That thought left his mind quickly, when the floor under his right foot suddenly broke, having his foot plunge into nothingness, which caused him to lose his balance and land on his back with a yelp. The impact caused a cloud of dust, that quickly enveloped him and made him cough, his throat drying up rapidly.
"What in the-? Hey, what are you doing!?," a voice called and he made the mistake to open his eyes he had closed upon contact – which instantly irritated them to the point of watering.
Heavy footfalls came closer and then, a warm hand grabbed his arm and yanked him upright in a sitting position, patting his back roughly.
"Easy, deep breaths. The dust has settled.," the voice soothed and he managed to stop coughing eventually.
Opening his teary eyes, he was surprised to see a pair of rubies hover close to him. Blinking rapidly, he could clear his vision to see a dark furred hedgehog next to him, looking at him with a frown.
"Better?," the stranger asked. "Y-yeah.," Sonic coughed. "Good. You're pretty clumsy, for a thief.," the other replied.
That had Sonic flinch. "I'M NOT A THIEF!," he exclaimed. "Well, you're definitely a burglar, breaking into our house like that."
"I didn't- Okay, I didn't MEAN to break in. I didn't know, that there was someone living in here – and the door wasn't locked!," Sonic defended himself.
The other narrowed his eyes, before standing up, rounding the grounded hedgehog and moving to the door, examining it for signs of him damaging it to get in. Finding nothing, he returned to the still trapped hedgehog. "Seems, like the lock isn't as reliable as I thought. ...Maybe I forgot to lock it last night, too. But that still doesn't explain, why you entered this house.," he added flatly. "I was looking for a toy my brother accidentally flew through your window, I saw the hole in the glass. Have you maybe found a toy plane?," he asked.
The stranger frowned at him, probably trying to see, if he lied in any way – but he would most likely come up with something better, if he was. "...I see. In this case, I apologize for doubting you. Here, let me help you."
He helped Sonic to free his leg from the hole he had gotten stuck in. "Did you hurt yourself?," he asked, watching, as Sonic moved his leg, knee and foot carefully. "No, I guess only my pride got hurt.," he replied.
The other hedgehog nodded in acceptance. "Good. Would you mind giving me a hand? Then we can look for your plane.," he added as he moved to a heavy looking table. Confused, Sonic complied and together they carried the table to stand over the hole. "Won't that block the path?," he wondered, not seeing any way to get past the large piece of furniture to reach the front door.
"That's the idea. I have a little sister; she could easily fall through that hole and she kind of has a knack for getting hurt. She hates getting dirty, though, so as long as this place is dusty, she won't crawl around and avoid getting under this table. Thanks for the help. By the way, my name's Shadow, nice to meet you. We just moved in last night."
"I'm Sonic. Welcome to the neighborhood. And sorry for the rough wake up-call. The house looked abandoned to me."
"Until we are done with unpacking the boxes, it will stay that way, I think. Did you see, where that plane of yours landed?"
"Somewhere on the second floor, I think." "Ah, that would explain, why we didn't notice it. We have all of our bedrooms on the first floor. Follow me – and try not to get stuck again.," Shadow teased as he turned away.
Sonic blushed and grimaced a little. "Very funny.," he grumbled as he followed Shadow to the stairs leading up to the next floor.
As they walked, Sonic started a conversation to distract himself from the groaning wood under their feet. "Where have you lived before?," he asked. "In a tiny village, far away from all civilization. I highly doubt, that you ever were there. Most people drive through it without even realizing it.," Shadow shrugged.
Sonic chuckled. "I wouldn't count on it. I traveled quite a bit of the world already. So, why moving closer to the city again? The air too fresh or something?"
"Or something. My sister is pretty ill. It will most likely progress soon to something worse, so we want to have a hospital close by, that isn't two hours by car away.," Shadow answered neutrally, not turning around.
Sonic felt his breath hitch, an uncomfortable rolling appearing in his stomach. "Damn, Shadow, I- sorry, I didn't know."
"I know, we're not even here for 24 hours. And honestly, I don't like the city. If it weren't for my sister's sake, I would have preferred our old village.," Shadow mentioned offhandedly, before stopping his walk.
Without Sonic noticing it, they had passed the first floor and arrived at the second. "So, any idea, in which room the plane might be?," Shadow asked, looking at the four closed doors lining up in pairs along the short hallway before them.
"Uh..." Sonic tried to remember, where the hole had been and where exactly they were currently in the house.
"Innn...one of those two, I'd say.," he replied, pointing to the doors on the left. "Okay, let's try. You take the first, I'll try the other. The doors might be a bit rusty, but should be unlocked.," Shadow suggested and now a bit curious – and eager for a change of topic – Sonic complied, carefully testing the door Shadow had appointed to him.
It was hard to push the handle down, he actually needed to work it down inch by inch, before it was finally open. Pushing against it was another challenge, the hinges giving off nasty creaks and groans, as if verbally protesting his invasion.
After what felt like ten entire minutes, the door opened, swinging back after the initial resistance, to allow entrance into a room filled with covered furniture. Carefully, he entered, trying not to unsettle the dust or to break through another board, while keeping his eyes peeled for the plane. The room had probably been a bedroom, judging by the lonely, covered nightstand in one corner. The few windows were intact, however, and Tails' toy nowhere in sight.
"Sonic, over here!," Shadow called from the other room and the blue hedgehog was quick to go to him. The other room was smaller and only contained a large, uncovered and dusty table – on that stood Tails' plane. You could clearly see the skid marks the toy had left during its surprisingly accurate landing. Aside from a slight lilt, it stood perfectly like a real plane would.
Sonic chuckled. "A pilot through and through. He even lands perfectly blind.," he grinned in amusement as he picked up the toy, wincing, as several small plastic pieces, that had probably been parts of the camera, fell off, raining to the ground.
"Sorry about that.," he apologized and bent down to try and pick them up out of the dust they had landed in.
"Don't bother. We need to clean this room anyway.," Shadow waved him off. "If you're sure.," Sonic agreed, already having lost track of most pieces in the dust, and straightened.
"Well, I got, what I came for.," he spoke up awkwardly, hefting the plane a bit higher, not sure, how to end the situation without coming off as rude. "Thanks, for letting me get it. And, sorry again, for breaking in."
Shadow smiled. "You are by far the nicest burglar I could have ever expected.," he joked. "And if anything, I should thank you.," he added, looking away with a hint of a blush on his cheeks.
"...For what?," Sonic asked, completely confused. "I really hated the idea of coming here, despite it being for my sister's benefit. So I decided, that if I met at least one half-decent person in this city, I'd give moving here at least a chance. So, thanks. Thanks for restoring my faith in others."
Now, Sonic felt his own cheeks heat up. "Uh...you're welcome, I guess... I mean, I didn't do anything special..."
"I know, that's, why it means so much to me. Come on, let's not let your brother wait any longer.," the dark furred hedgehog smiled and led him down again.
Since the front door was blocked by the table, he led him to the backdoor, that was even more rusted than the bedroom door upstairs. It took both of them to stem it open.
"Gee, don't take too long in fixing this place up.," Sonic sighed, rubbing his sore shoulder, with that he had pushed against the wood.
"I won't. Get home safely.," Shadow nodded. "Will do. See you around!," Sonic waved and jogged around the house and towards the exit.
"Sayonara, Sonic the Hedgehog.," he faintly heard behind himself, but didn't turn around again, as he heard the door close already.
Tails wasn't in front of the property, when he stepped through the damaged gate – silently apologizing to Shadow and his family for not mentioning it, although it would become obvious at some point –, thus he ran home, where the fox was pacing restlessly.
The second Sonic stepped through the door, he all but pounced on him, clinging to him, as if he hadn't seen him in years.
"Woah, easy, Buddy. You're gonna dent the plane. What's wrong?," he asked, startled by the intense hug.
"You were gone for an entire day!," Tails cried. Sonic blinked. "What? No, it was only an hour – two, max. I chatted a bit too much with Shadow, but that's it."
"You were gone for the day and the night of Halloween! It's the 1st now!," Tails exclaimed, pointing to the calendar hanging in the kitchen, which was visible through the open door. The sheet of paper from the 31st was indeed ripped off, as it was his brother's habit each morning.
He couldn't have done it before he had entered, he wasn't that fast, so...it was true? "How? It never grew dark, it was really just an hour for me!," Sonic argued. "You can go back and ask Shadow, he was with me the entire time!"
Tails froze, let him go and looked up at him, his eyes wide. "What...was that name?," he asked in a whisper.
"Shadow. Shadow the Hedgehog, most likely, since he is one." Tails grew pale. "B-black fur? Red stripes in it? Red eyes?," he asked shakily. "Yeah, did you see him already?," Sonic wondered.
Tails shook his head slowly. "N-no. S-Sonic...Shadow the Hedgehog...he died 50 years ago." The toy plane slipped out of Sonic's hand without any of the brothers noticing it.
It had been a hit and run. Shadow had fled his home, unable to take the constant bullying in his new school, and most likely tried to go back into his old village. On the way, a car had crashed into him, killing him instantly. He was one of the few residents of the haunted house, who had met his demise outside of it.
The information ran over and over through Sonic's head as he stood once again before the old house, this time with Tails at his side, once again valiantly trying to stop his arm's blood flow.
The blue furred hero had tried to deny, that the Shadow he had met had been the one, who had died – but the picture in the article about the accident was too similar to be a coincidence.
Honestly, he didn't know, what exactly he wanted here. He KNEW, that there would be nobody. But...who had he met yesterday?
Steeling his nerves, he pushed the front door open, revealing an oddly cold feeling, empty room. No boxes, no furniture. Just a layer of dust...that had been disturbed just recently by a trace of his own shoe prints leading deeper into it, towards the stairs.
He even saw the hole he had broken through, although it looked old, the broken wood dusty and faded. However, something was missing – Shadow's shoe prints. He had helped him out of the hole, had led him upstairs, but there was only one kind of shoe print – Sonic's.
"S-see? I...I told you!," Tails stammered, clearly interested in leaving again. Sonic, however, stepped into the house, still trying to process the fact, that it was so different to the last time he had been in it. Before, it had seemed at least a little like a home, but now... it was clearly abandoned. Yet, he had been here just an hour ago! How could it change so fast?
In the middle of what had been most likely some kind of foyer, he turned around his own axis, looking for...he didn't know. Looking for something, anything, that would explain this.
Something in the corner of his eye moved and he quickly turned to it to see a figure move casually on the first floor. "Shadow?! Shadow, it's me, Sonic!," he shouted and pounded up the stairs, but he only saw the same shadowy person disappear on the stairs to the next floor. Frowning, Sonic took the flight of stairs, slower this time, not missing the familiarity of the action.
The door to the room, in that they had found the plane, was wide open, the others all barred close. Which forced the question, just how exactly he had entered the room next to it...
The open door moved a bit with a nasty creak and he followed the unspoken invitation to enter it. The old table was still there – the first piece of furniture he could detect here since entering the house for the second time.
Slowly, he went towards it, trying to detect anybody as he went, until he stood before the table. Looking down on it, he felt his jaw drop.
"S-Sonic?," Tails whimpered, as he edged into the room, too. As creepy as the house had appeared – it became even worse, when he had to stand in it alone, so he had followed him.
As his brother didn't react, he went to him and looked to the table he was staring at. "...Oh.," he mumbled in the next moment. The top of the piece of furniture was spotless – aside from two words, formed by dust, looking far too delicate and beautiful to have been written by Sonic:
Thank you.
"You know...there are theories about ghosts having unfinished business here...and Halloween is the time for them to come back...so...maybe...," Tails started reluctantly.
"No, not maybe.," Sonic denied, shaking his head. "Shadow, he...he needed a friend. Even if it was fifty years late. He's at peace now.," he explained.
Just as he said that, the two dusty words disappeared, as if a gust of wind had carried them away.
Title: The Ghost House
There will be another Halloween-Story later this week, so stay tuned :)!