Chapter 2: Silver's Visit

When Sonic got to the village, he saw a restaurant and went inside. A waiter walked up to him.

"A table for one?"

"Yes please," Sonic said.

The waiter motioned for Sonic to follow and led him to an empty table. Sonic sat down and looked at the menu.

"Would you like anything to drink?" The waiter asked.

"Not yet."

The waiter walked away as Sonic looked through the menu to decide what he wanted to eat and drink. When the waiter returned a few minutes later, Sonic ordered what he had decided on.

The waiter took his order and left. A few minutes later Sonic's phone chimed, and he got a text from Silver.

'Hey, Sonic. Tails told me you bought a castle near Apotos.'

Sonic smiled down at the screen as he typed his response. 'Yeah. It's a nice place.'

'Blaze and I are in Apotos for our honeymoon. Do you mind if we come visit?'

'Not at all. Did Tails give you the address?'

'Yeah, he did. We'll be there in an hour.'

'Maybe you should make it two hours. I'm out at the moment.'

'Alright; I'll call you when we get there. See ya soon!'

Sonic smiled at the text. It sounded like Silver was doing well. Their wedding had been beautiful, though Sonic hadn't bothered sticking around for the party. The food came half an hour later; Sonic thanked the waiter and started eating.

After Sonic ate, the waiter came up to him. "Would you like any dessert?"

"Sure. What're my choices?"

"Pumpkin cheesecake, chocolate mousse, and ice cream."

"I'd like to try the Chocolate Mousse," Sonic said.

"I'll have it out in a moment."

Sonic nodded and waited for her to return with his dessert. When she did so, he looked at it and smiled.

"Thanks," he said, and started eating.

It was as good as he'd been hoping. When he finished, he paid and left. Sonic looked at his phone to see what time it was. It was currently 6:41.

'What time do you think you'll be here?' He texted Silver.

'What works for you?'

'How about 7:30?'

'Sure.'

'See you then.'

Sonic got up and paid the bill before leaving the restaurant and going back to his castle. He went inside and looked around, wondering if he should do anything to prepare for his guests. After some consideration Sonic shrugged and walked into one of the other rooms. They were his friends, not someone he needed to impress.

Half an hour later, he heard the loud knocking on the door. Sonic smiled and walked up to the massive front doors, swinging them open.

"Welcome," he greeted.

"Hey," Silver said as he and Blaze walked in. "Pretty impressive place you got here."

"Thanks."

"So, how have you been?"

"I've been great."

Silver smiled as Blaze followed them.

"What made you want to move here, Sonic?" She asked.

"The change in scenery."

"Well, it's a nice place. How did you find out about it?"

"Wandering."

Blaze smiled and sat down on the couch.

"So, you and Silver are on your honeymoon?" Sonic asked, sitting across from them.

"We are."

"That's great. How long are you going to be in Apotos?"

"Two weeks."

"Would you like to stay the night?" Sonic asked. "Or maybe for a few days?"

Silver thought about it, then smiled and nodded. "That would be great. Thank you."

"It's the least I could do. You two are my friends."

"Where should we sleep?" Blaze asked.

"There's a guest room next to mine. You can sleep there."

"Thanks."

Silver walked outside. He opened the trunk of his car and brought some suitcases in. "I'll bring these to the room."

He walked upstairs, following Sonic's directions. A few minutes later he came downstairs. "I got our things in the room. What should we do now?"

"Let me show you around," Sonic said.

Silver and Blaze nodded and followed Sonic, who showed them around and them a tour of the entire castle. As they walked, Silver continually sensed that something in the castle felt strange. Being a psychic, he was sensitive to such things.

"Sonic. Did you ever look into the history of this castle?"

"No, I didn't," Sonic said, looking at Silver. "Why do you ask?"

"Something feels...off about the air here."

"What do you mean? I don't feel anything."

"I'm not entirely sure. It feels like we're not alone here."

"Not alone? Don't tell me this place is haunted," Sonic said.

Silver shrugged. "Possibly. But it could just be something about the land it was built on."

"Like an ancient site?" When Silver nodded, the blue hedgehog grinned. "I'll have to look into it."

"Tell me what you find? I'm curious about it as well."

"Okay," Sonic said. "Maybe we could go to the library tomorrow. They might have something."

"How does that sound to you?" Silver looked at Blaze.

"We could do that," Blaze said, smiling.

"So Silver," Sonic said. "Blaze told me a few weeks ago that you can use your psychic powers to sort of possess people. That must be interesting."

"She told you that?" Silver laughed. "It isn't really... I mean... It's pretty uncomfortable, actually."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Being in another person's body, having complete control of their actions, is... It takes some getting used to. And I can barely manage it anyway so it doesn't last very long."

"When did you first find out you could do that?"

"Training. My psychokinesis is strong enough, and my master thought it might be a useful skill to have. So she had me see if I could do it."

"Your master?" Sonic asked, confused. "Who's that? I didn't realize you had one."

"Her name's Gold. I thought it would be a good idea to get proper control of my powers and eventually found her."

"Can you possess other things besides people?"

Silver grinned. "I can make any machine do whatever I want. Within the capabilities of its programming, of course."

"He can possess animals too," Blaze told Sonic.

"I don't like to do that," Silver said.

"Why not?" Sonic asked, still curious.

"Because they're living things with minds of their own. It's not right to take that away from them."

"Makes sense. What's it like to possess a machine?"

"Not as strange as you might think." Silver thought about it. "I'm not sure I'd even call it possession. All it really is is going into it's hard drive and telling it what to do. Anyone with the right skills could do that; I just do it faster."

"So you're basically an artificial intelligence?"

"No. I'm a person with psychokinetic powers."

"But if you go into a machine and tell it what to do, wouldn't you be something like an AI when you do that?"

"I'm not a part of the machine, or one myself. So I'm not an AI. Just someone with the right powers to get in there and mess around with it."

"Gotcha. I was confused."

"Most people are when I try to explain my powers."

Sonic grinned. "Wanna see the ballroom?"

"A ballroom?" Silver jumped to his feet and pulled Blaze up as well. "Yeah, show me."

The blue hedgehog smiled and led them to the ballroom. He pushed the double doors open and walked inside.

"This is my ballroom," Sonic said. "I haven't really finished cleaning it up yet."

"It's amazing," Silver said, looking around.

"You think it'll work for having a party here?"

"Yeah, it will. It's pretty big."

"It would take a while to decorate..."

Sonic smiled. "Maybe I could hold a party at the end of the week."

"As a kind of moving in party?"

"Yeah. What do you think?"

"I think it's a great idea."

Sonic smiled at them.

The next day, they went to the library in town.

Sonic walked up to the librarian. "Excuse me," he said. "Do you have any books on the castle here?

"Castle Dracula?" The librarian replied. "Yes, I believe I do."

A few moments later, the librarian told them where they could find the books. They went to the shelf she had mentioned and looked at the books.

"Here it is," Sonic said, setting the book down. "Castle Dracula. It was originally owned by Vlad Dracula, also known as Vlad the Impaler in 1458."

"I think I've heard about him," Silver said.

"Wasn't he the person who impaled people after killing them?" Blaze asked.

"Among other things."

"Looks like he has a list of descendants," Sonic said, tracing a family tree. "The last one being..." He froze and his eyes widened. "My great grandfather?"