Chapter 9: Nightly Visit
That same night, Sonic laid on his bed, the lights off and his nightlight on, the lullaby playing softly from it. He was trying his best to stay awake, waiting for the voices to come back, but with the time changing to 12:30 it was starting to get a lot more difficult.
Sonic released a yawn, then smacked at his face a few times to get himself to wake up. His eyes continued to droop and he sighed. Maybe a glass of water would keep him awake.
He pushed the covers off himself and went over to his bathroom, stepping up to the sink and picking up the glass that sat there. As he was filling the cup, he didn't notice all of the tiny bodies of creatures leaving his vent and running around his room.
With his glass of water now in hand, Sonic left his bathroom, slowly drinking from the glass and starting to wake up a little more now that he was moving. He looked around his room, noticing nothing strange about it. Suddenly, Sonic jumped and almost dropped his glass when he heard a new, childish robotic voice. He turned towards it and noticed one of the stuffed bears on the shelf was moving, repeating the phrase "I Love You" over and over. Sonic frowned and went over to the bear, studying it curiously. He did not notice the creatures that were sitting behind the bear, making it move.
He reached over for the bear to see why it was going off, when suddenly, it jumped at him, making him shriek and accidentally drop the glass, breaking it on the floor. He stepped back, scrambling for the lightswitch. In his panic, he accidentally stepped on a shard of glass, cutting his foot.
"Ah!" He hissed in pain before turning on the lightswitch. As soon as he did so, the creatures in his room shrieked and scrambled to the shadows, hissing in agony.
"The light! The light!" They hissed in unison. "It hurts us. Turn it off. Yes! Turn out the light!"
Sonic gasped and turned the light back off, his only source of lumination being his nightlight. He limped over to his bed, trying his best to keep the weight off his cut foot and sat down. He brought his foot up to inspect it, carefully pulling the glass out. It wasn't deep. He wouldn't need stitches, but he definitely wouldn't be running anymore any time soon. He hissed and looked up, turning his head and searching around his room for whatever had frightened him.
"Who are you?" He asked them again.
"We're your friends."
"Friends?" Sonic hissed. "Friends don't scare each other and get them hurt." He looked around again. "Where are you?"
"Come down to the basement and play with us."
"I'd rather not." Sonic growled, trying to find something to stop the bleeding. "What are you? What do you want from me?"
"Hungry… Hungry… Hungry…" The voices repeated over and over.
"I have food if that's what you want." Sonic rolled his eyes, grabbing the only thing he could think of, a sock, and trying it around his foot to stop the blood. He stepped down from his bed, testing the weight on his foot, then tried looking for the creatures under his bed. "I want to see you… Let me see you. I promise I won't hurt you."
Suddenly, at that moment, the light turned on and Tom and Maddie came in, both looking agitated.
"Sonic, what are you doing up? It's 12:30 in the morning!" Tom scolded. "Do you want to be late for school again tomorrow?"
"I wasn't late." Sonic grumbled, pulling himself out from underneath his bed. He stood up, accidentally putting too much weight on his bad foot. He hissed in pain and hopped on one foot. "Ow, ow, ow!"
Maternity instincts immediately took hold of Maddie as she pushed past Tom and went up to Sonic, gently picking him up and setting him on the bed. "Oh Sonic, what happened to you?"
Sonic blushed a bit, thinking up a lie quick. "I couldn't sleep, so I was getting a glass of water from my bathroom. Something startled me and I dropped the cup and accidentally stepped on a shard." Well, it wasn't THAT far from the truth.
"You need to try and be more careful." Maddie shook her head, untying the bloody sock and inspecting the wound. "Tom, could you get the first aid kit?"
"On it." Tom nodded and ran off.
"It's not deep, so you won't need any stitches." Maddie assured. "But you definitely won't be running for awhile."
"I figured." Sonic sighed.
"Here you go, Maddie." Tom came back, carrying the red first aid kit and handing it to her. As she worked on Sonic's foot, he knelt down and started cleaning up the water and broken glass. As he stood up, he happened to notice a small object, hidden under Sonic's pillow.
"Hey, did you lose a tooth?" Tom frowned in confusion, picking up the tooth and inspecting it.
"That's not mine." Sonic shook his head. "I found it."
"You found it?" Tom frowned. "Here in the house." Sonic nodded. "Well… I don't think you should really keep this, ok? It's not very sanitary."
"It's probably a hundred years old. It's practically a fossil by now." Sonic frowned, then noticed Tom's look and sighed. "Fiiiiiiine." But what Tom didn't know was that he had a second tooth hiding under his pillow.
"Alright, that should do it." Maddie smiled triumphantly as she finished bandaging up Sonic's foot. "Until its healed either Tom or I will be driving you to school. And you'll have to use crutches to keep off it."
Sonic groaned and flopped back on his bed. "I hate those things! They hurt my arms."
"Well, that's just a price you're gonna have to pay." Tom shrugged.
Maddie helped Sonic lay back in bed and tucked him in, kissing his forehead before retreating back to her husband. Tom turned out the light and looked back at Sonic. "Please, try to get some sleep."
Sonic sighed and nodded. "Alright. Good night."
With that, Tom closed the door and went back to bed with his wife. Sonic remained on his own bed, staring at the ceiling, listening for the whispers. After half an hour of not hearing anything, Sonic's eyes drooped closed and he fell asleep.
