Chapter 6: The Ash Pit

After school ended Sonic was chilling under the tree out front, reviewing the homework. He always stuck around for a little bit just to make sure his friends left first. As he rested under the tree he was reading over his math homeworker, which was…

Seriously? Accuplacer? This had to be on a college-level or something, it was like a foreign language was scribbled all over his homework!

He couldn't make heads or tails of anything, though Kevin said he could drop by his new house later- if Tom allowed it. Of course, that donut cop was going to, or Sonic was going to be a 9th-grade math dropout!

Sonic packed it up with a heavy sigh, then got to his feet. He felt the need to run a lot again. After the fun race, which he won, he had an itch to keep running. It was like when you walk for too long, then when you stop your legs want to keep going in the same repetitive motion.

Well, he might as well check around in town, right?

Sonic adjusted his backpack on his back, charged up for a moment then took off running.

He ran up and down the streets of the city, even taking the old nature path, checking out his old cave, setting off Crazy Carl's traps and then ran his way back home, all in the course of a minute.

"I'm home!" Sonic sighed as he walked through the front door, his legs still urging him to run. He ignored the feeling, instead he forced himself to walk at a normalish pace as he headed into the dining hall. He removed his backpack and tossed it up on the table. He and Kevin could study in here- it was roomy and they wouldn't get distracted. If they actually went to Sonic's room no work would ever be done.

Wait, no one answered him. Normally Tom was home by now... Did driving here take longer than normal? Was there a whole new schedule he was going to be forced to adjust to?

"Hello!" He yelled. "Answer me or I'll search this house!" Last time Sonic 'searched' a house, he had turned everything upside down in the old place. He never did find his favorite headphones.

"I'm down here, Sonic!" Tom's voice echoed through the house. Sonic's sensitive ears twitched, trying to locate it. Well, honestly down could only mean one thing...

Sonic made his way to the basement door, his eyes narrowing as it hung wide open.

"Tom!" Sonic yelled down, nervously shifting his weight foot to foot. He didn't want to- no! He was Sonic. He wasn't scared of dumb rumors or scary dreams. Sonic grinded his teeth and dashed down the stairs, coming to a sliding stop at the bottom where he kicked dust up into the air.

Tom was kneeling down on the floor, partly hidden in the dark shadows in the back corner. Tom looked up, grinning widely as he waved him over.

"You need to relax, I was right here. Anyways, come check this out! I can't believe we missed it."

Sonic walked over, glaring down at the object until he could finally tell what it was.

"That's... an ash pit."

"It is! We missed it last time we were here. We need to put better lights down here for sure, but the exterminator found it while looking around. He thinks they made their nest here."

Sonic cautiously moved closer, stepping closer to Tom as he refused to take his eyes off of the ashpit.

The grate was bolted on, and there was some weird... runes on it?

"Tom, what are all those?" Sonic asked, placing a hand on the human's shoulder.

"Oh, that? To me, it looked like Latin. I don't know it though, so I'll have to look up what it actually says."

"Maybe Kevin will know? He knows everything." Sonic tried to act casual and shrug his shoulders. "He's supposed to be coming by to help me with my homework."

"You didn't ask."

"Do you want to help me with Accuplacer math?"

"... Kevin is always welcomed over." Tom sighed and stood up, dusting his hands off. "Stay away from this, okay? If rats are nesting in it I don't want you to get bit or anything. We'll deal with this properly."

"Yea yea, Donut Lord," Sonic rolled his eyes. "I'm going to go grab Kevin and bring him over since you gave the all-clear."

"Sounds good. I probably won't be back for a bit. I'm driving down to town to grab some extra rat poison. I really want to nip this problem in the bud. Exterminator also suggested closing off the vents and opening up windows if it gets too stuff." Tom started to head back up the stairs and Sonic followed quickly, forcing himself not to look back at the basement.

"How long will you be gone?"

"Not long," Tom closed the basement door once Sonic was out of the way. "It's just a quick run. Stay away from there, okay? No goofing off or exploring. Rat bites can be pretty bad and if you got hurt we'll have to figure out whether to take you to a vet or doctor."

"Oh haha," Sonic rolled his eyes. "I'll behave, Kevin and I are just going to do some homework. See you when you get home."

"I mean it!" Tom yelled as he grabbed his keys and walked out the front door.

"I mean it," Sonic mocked lightly before stretching out his legs. Okay, now to go grab Kevin and start on the monstrous amount of homework they had.

Sonic groaned loudly, dropping his head onto the dining room table with a loud thud.

"Fighting that Eggman guy was easier than this!"

"Come on, once we finish this problem we can take a break," Kevin laughed. "You got to show me around this place, it's huge! So, focus." Kevin scooted a bit closer to Sonic's side, nudging his shoulder playfully.

Sonic grumbled and lifted his head up, sticking his tongue out momentarily before looking back at his dreaded math homework. Kevin smiled and lightly tapped the paper with his pencil, pointing out the problem.

"Now that I have your attention again, look at this carefully. Both of these sides have to be equal, so you need to find out what X is to make it so."

"I don't care about what X is. Any real problem can be solved by outrunning it or beating it up!"

"That's not how the world works, Sonic." Kevin shook his head. "Come on..." Sonic groaned and looked back at the homework.

Bit by bit, with gentle reminders from Kevin, Sonic slowly worked his way through the problem.

"Are you serious? All that work to end up with 7? A plain boring 7?"

"Hey, math is like that sometimes," Kevin shrugged his shoulders. "Now as promised-" Kevin grinned. Sonic's tail was already wagging and he was on the edge of his seat, ready to bolt. "It's break time."

"YES, finally!"

Sonic jumped off of his seat and started to run around the room, making one long blur of blue. Kevin calmly put the paperweights on the homework so it wouldn't go flying away. All of Sonic's friends had learned to carry a couple in their bags by now.

"Hey Sonic," Kevin hopped out of his seat. "We only did like, 5 problems out of 20. We still got a long way to go, ah, there you are." Kevin grinned.

Sonic was back in his seat, stretching out his arms as he yawned as if he didn't do just a few dozens of laps around the room.

"Okay yeah sure, but that still took forever to do just five. So, what should we do during our break?"

"Sonic, we're in a possibly haunted house. You confirmed it had a creepy basement, what do you think we're going to do," Kevin rolled his eyes. "Show me the way to this creepy basement of yours."

"You sure?" Sonic frowned and glanced off. "It's pretty creepy, and Tom said there are rats."

"Sonic, nothing is going to scare me off now." Kevin dug around in his bag, then pulled out a flashlight. "Come on dude, let's go. Maybe if we investigate it, you won't be so scared."

"I'm not scared. I'm Sonic, I don't get scared." Sonic jumped out of his chair, feeling his quills stand up on edge.

"You just ruined that shirt," Kevin said calmly.

"Ah, dang it! Help me get it off," Sonic groaned as he started to undo the buttons. Kevin rolled his eyes and very carefully started to peel off Sonic's shirt while trying to keep as many quills on him as he could.

"So sharp- ow! Dang, you're like a ball of needles. Didn't mean to upset you."

"I'm not-" Sonic caught himself and controlled his volume, forcing himself to stay relaxed. "I'm not upset, or scared."

Once Sonic's uniform was painstakingly peeled off of the spikey ball that was Sonic, the two-headed for the basement, hesitating at the large door.

"Well, here we are," Kevin muttered as he flicked the flashlight on. "So... Lord BlackWood supposedly died down there? So spooky, man."

Sonic rocked back on his feet, then opened up the door. "No point in just staring at a door."

"You're reading my mind," Kevin grinned and ran down the stairs.

"Oh please," Sonic rolled his eyes and zipped down, easily beating Kevin to the bottom. "Ta-freakin-da," Sonic made a motion to the dark and dusty basement.

"Spooky dude," Kevin whistled as he looked around. His attention was snagged instantly by the large sheet. Kevin pointed his flashlight at it, really taking in its size. "This is that painting?"

"Yes... Maddie covered it up because it was too disturbing to just... be left uncovered," Sonic shuddered and stepped beside Kevin, though he really wanted to duck behind the human for cover.

"Cool," Kevin reached forward and grabbed the sheet, about to pull it down when Sonic tugged on his shirt.

"Don't! Um... Please, don't do it," Sonic shook his head quickly. "It's really creepy... I hate to admit this but, I really... really don't like it," Sonic cautiously looked at the large sheet. It felt like ice was creeping up his spine, causing him to whimper softly.

"Whoa, okay dude, calm down." Kevin lowered his hand and instead petted Sonic's head. "I won't do it, promise."

Sonic stepped away from the painting, and Kevin followed willingly.

"So, where's the ashpit? I got to see that at least."

"It's over in that corner," Sonic pointed. Kevin started to walk right over to it, causing Sonic to panic a bit, "Hey wait, Tom said to keep away from it! He thinks that's where the rats are nesting." Sonic glanced back to the stairs, but even his sensitive ears couldn't hear anyone. Seems Tom and Maddie were running late…

"Rats, or ghosts?" Kevin smirked as he kneeled down beside the old ashpit. "Come in, it'll be fine if I'm here. Besides, you're THE Sonic. You don't need to follow anyone's rules."

Sonic grinded his teeth but walked over to Kevin's side. He was Sonic, he survived years on his own all by himself. While it was lonely it meant he knew how to take care of himself, he didn't need to be ordered around!

Sonic kneeled down beside Kevin, looking at the ashpit with renewed curiosity. Kevin was trying to move the bolts, but they were rusted and tight.

"Whoever bolted this thing shut really didn't want it to open."

"Okay that's weird, but look, Tom and I discovered there's Latin on top... I just mean… Latin, here? In the USA?" Sonic chuckled as he aimed Kevin's flashlight on it. "But um... With that said, do you know this?"

"Ugh, Sonic... Maybe," Kevin moved so he was sitting down, pulling his phone from his pocket "Let me look at some of my notes," he muttered as he flipped through his camera roll, zooming in on a picture then swiping to the next. "Okay okay, I think I can do this." Kevin looked back and forth between the markings and the notes on his phone. "It says... Um... One life... must, I'm pretty sure that's must... be... taken."

"That's... ominous," Sonic sighed. "But it also makes no sense."

"Agreed, but you know most artists are kinda ya know... loopy," Kevin chuckled and put his phone back in his pocket.

"This doesn't look like Lord BlackWood's doing... I mean, he's an artist and all. Why would he put something this ugly in his work area? Also, if it was him he could have gotten something nice, maybe even made it himself and chiseled in the Latin? The writing here... Looks scratched in, like an animal did it."

"Maybe a creature like you?" Kevin offered.

"There's nothing like me in this world," Sonic sighed. "It's just so creepy."

Kevin watched Sonic carefully, then leaned his face over the grate. "Hello! Anyone in there?" He yelled loudly. Sonic bristled up and grabbed Kevin's arm, trying to pull him back.

"What are you doing? Stop it! You'll get bit by a rat or something-" something worse...?

"You actually think rats lived in there? There's nothing to eat in here, and you said that the wall was sealed, and you just broke that window! Unless they're infesting the vents, there's no way rats live in this," Kevin chuckled. "You honestly think there's anything living in there?"

Sonic looked back at the pit as he held onto Kevin's arm, holding him back in case he tried to move towards it again. He didn't want to say it, but he felt like they were being watched... Normally he would do a lap and search the room, but no one else was here…

Was he becoming paranoid? He couldn't let Kevin know, he'll get worried.

"I don't want to be down here," Sonic said carefully. "It's dark and gross and Tom might be back any minute. We might get into trouble."

"Fine," Kevin shrugged his shoulders. Sonic cautiously let him go and Kevin popped up, dusting the dirt off of his pants. "Come on then, we got all that homework to finish.

At this point, Sonic rather face the dreaded math problems than stay down here.