The Blair Witch Project
Chapter 5: Nowhere
The trio of sleepy hedgehogs were now fully awake and alert. A little while ago, Amy had woken up because she heard some kind of sounds outside. She quickly woke up Shadow and Sonic and blubbered to them about the noises. The sounds didn't sound like the ones from last night or the night before. This time it sounded like…low laughter coming from the distance. Amy took out her camera and instantly started recording. Shadow turned on a flashlight and just looked grumpy, not scared of whatever was out there. Sonic's expression was blank, but Amy could see the terror in his green eyes. The blue hedgehog's fear caused her fright to double. She had never seen her hero look so frightened before and that scared her even more than what was outside. If Sonic was scared, then she had every right to be petrified. "Do you hear that?" she whispered to her companions, shakily recording their faces within the tiny tent. The low laughter came again and she shuddered, taking in a sharp breath of a gasp.
After a little bit, the eerie laughter turned into something indescribable. Whatever it was, it didn't sound like a human. The voice became warped and there was the sound of cracking and snapping branches from around them. Amy huddled close to the two hedgehogs and Sonic put an arm around the petite girl, pulling her close against him. Amy didn't know if it was for his comfort or for her, but she was beyond horrified. Shadow, however, just seemed annoyed as he sat there, holding the flashlight and shining it at them. Amy still held up the camera and was recording. Her heart was beating wildly against her chest and she was fighting hard to keep the tears out of her eyes. Now the terrifying noises sounded like the laughter of little children outside. There was giggling and then there was heavy breathing and then there was that warped voice again. The snapping of branches could still be heard and it put Sonic and Amy on edge.
Shadow was miffed at their behavior. "It's just-"
Suddenly, the tent began shaking like crazy. Amy screamed and Sonic released a yell of fright. Shadow put on a surprised look and seemed disturbed now. Amy continued screaming as Sonic unzipped the tent and bolted out like there was no tomorrow. Amy scrambled after him, still holding her camera as she ran.
"Wait!" Shadow shouted, going after them and running into the darkness with his flashlight.
"Hurry up, you guys!" Sonic yelled from way up ahead within the darkness. The sounds around them intensified as the three of them ran.
Amy was crying as she continued running after her hero. "Wait! Wait for me, Sonic! WAIT!"
"Hold on!" roared Shadow as he shined the flashlight everywhere as they continued running for their lives. The giggling of children and the erratic breathing of something evil penetrated his ears and a dark feeling came over him.
"WHAT IS THAT?!" Amy screamed out suddenly, looking to her left as she ran. "WHAT IS THAT?!" It sounded like the pink hedgehog was struggling to get air into her lungs as she was wild with pure trepidation. Shadow shone the flashlight in the direction of where she was looking and saw something abnormal moving through the darkness between the bare trees. The black hedgehog couldn't quite make it out, but he knew it didn't seem entirely human.
Amy was panting wildly as she finally reached Sonic, who was now standing there waiting for them. Sonic appeared to be petrified as he was staring in the direction of where Amy was looking in when she was screaming. Shadow stopped next to them and could no longer see what Amy had seen that had been moving through the darkness. He still couldn't figure out what it was.
"Shadow, turn off your flashlight!" Sonic hissed at the black hedgehog, crouching low to the ground.
Trembling and weeping, Amy lifted up her camera and recorded everything around them, getting on the ground next to her blue hero. Shadow quickly turned off his flashlight and got down on the ground next to them, alert and ready.
The sounds had ceased and it was dead silence all around them, but the three of them were still on edge.
"What's going on? What the heck was that?" Sonic whispered frantically to his companions, trying to see into the darkness. "What's going on? Somebody tell me what's going on."
"I don't know!" Shadow hissed back in a whisper, looking just as lost as he was.
Amy tried to wipe her tears away, but they still came. Her body was shaking violently and she desperately tried to be brave, but she was completely horrified about what just happened. "D-Did you guys hear that baby screaming…?" she whispered to them, almost sobbing.
Shadow pinched her arm and she yelped. "There was no damn baby."
"I heard a baby…"
"There was no damn baby out here, Rose!" Shadow hissed at her like a venomous snake. "I didn't hear a baby."
Amy shook her head. "I-I heard it…"
"Okay, okay…" Sonic muttered quietly, wanting them to stop their banter. "I haven't heard anything since we've run away. I don't hear anything else."
The pink hedgehog shushed him, finally getting her tears under control. "Let's just be quiet, okay? Let's just be quiet."
"…Okay."
The three hedgehogs stayed in that same position on the ground all night long, listening out for anything else. They didn't dare try to go back to the tent so soon. When the sun started coming up again and there was light, Amy got up from the ground and stretched out her legs, turning on her camera again and recording. The fear she had experienced last night had faded away a little bit, but she was still filled with trepidation. What exactly had she seen last night? What was that? What was going on? Was it the Blair Witch?
"I think it's safe to go back now, guys," Amy said quietly, staring at the two males.
Sonic viewed her with reluctance.
Amy caught his look. "The sun's up, we should be okay now, Sonic."
"Rose is right," Shadow talked, getting to his feet and stretching out his limbs. He didn't like being on the ground all night like that. "Now that we can see, we should be alright."
Sonic jumped to his feet and didn't look at his friends. "Let's just go pack our stuff and let's just get out of these woods, okay? Come on."
When they got back to their campsite, they were shocked to see that the tent had been messed with and that some of their packs were missing. Amy stepped over, inspecting the place. "Where's my pack?"
"Your pack is over there." Shadow pointed at Amy's pink backpack on the ground next to the tent. "Where the hell is my pack?"
"I don't see mine anywhere…" mumbled Sonic, looking around at all of the things in disarray on the ground.
Shadow slammed his fist into a nearby tree, absolutely infuriated. "What the hell, man?! Who the hell is screwing with us out here?!"
Sonic wandered over to his canteen on the ground, seeing a wet spot next to it. "They spilled all my water," he commented, crouching down and peering at it with disdain.
"That's not water," Shadow talked, going over and looking down. Amy went over too. "That looks like slime."
"That's not…" Sonic reached down and touched it, seeing how sticky it was. "It is slime."
All three of them felt darkness settle over their hearts.
"What the hell is that?" Shadow demanded to know.
"I don't know…"
Amy was still recording as she looked around at all of the things that were thrown about on the ground. "Whose stuff was thrown around all over the place?"
"It's my stuff, alright?" Sonic seemed agitated as he glanced around at everything, picking up his canteen and then hurling it off somewhere. "Can you cut that camera off, Amy? I'm not interested anymore, okay?"
"Wait…" Amy continued to document everything.
Shadow started gathering all of the things that he could find around the area, not daring to touch Sonic's things. Why were Sonic's things only thrown around? That didn't make any sense. The black hedgehog picked up the pink hedgehog's backpack and sat it next to her. After that, he started folding up the tent and whatnot.
Sonic glowered at Amy. "Amy, turn the camera off. This is not funny."
"Do I look like I'm laughing at all?" Amy questioned him, frowning at him.
"No, but you're going around doing your documentary thing, Amy," Sonic retorted, still very much agitated. "You're still videotaping everything when you don't even need to!"
Suddenly, Shadow marched over to Amy and tried to take the camera away from her and Amy freaked out, shoving the black hedgehog away. "Don't touch my camera!"
"Then stop it with the damn videotaping!" Shadow howled back at her, still trying to go for the camera.
Amy bit into his hand and Shadow yowled with pain, stumbling back and cursing loudly to the sky. Amy backed away from him as Sonic just watched with wide eyes, surprised by this display. The pink hedgehog continued to record the black hedgehog, breathing heavily with fear and with anger.
"You bite me again and I will throw you into a damn creek!" Shadow hollered at her crazily, actually prepared to go through with that threat.
"Touch my camera again and I will bite you again!" Amy screamed at him.
"TURN THAT DAMN CAMERA OFF!"
Sonic rushed over to the two of them and shook his head. "You guys, stop! You are both not acting right! Don't hurt each other! Just calm down, okay?!"
Shadow seemed to find sense in the faker's words and he forced himself to calm down. "Fine! Fine…" Shadow turned away from them and crossed his arms over his chest in a firm fold.
"I'm sorry…" Amy apologized to Shadow, tears running down her cheeks as she blubbered.
Shadow stared at her for a long moment before asking, "Are you alright, Rose?"
"Yeah, I'm just…" Amy didn't finish that sentence and she turned off the camera, looking down at the ground.
"Look, let's just go, you guys," Sonic announced, not looking happy at all.
They both agreed.
The hedgehogs gathered most of their things and moved on through the woods once more, taking a random direction and hoping that they would find the car soon. They walked for a few hours and even found another creek with water rushing through it. There was a log over it that they could cross and they did that with ease, but with Sonic freaking out about the water again.
Eventually, they stopped for a break. Amy sat down on a tree stump and handed Shadow her camera. Shadow took it and turned it on, videotaping the pink hedgehog. He felt bad about what he did earlier and he could tell that Amy felt bad about biting him like that. Sonic didn't have anything to say as he paced around the area with impatience.
"I can see why you like this video camera so much," commented Shadow dully as he zoomed in on the pink girl's face.
Amy pursed her lips and looked down at her lap. "You do?" she asked.
"Yeah," Shadow dryly stated. "It's not reality."
"I think reality is telling us to keep moving," Sonic piped up, still pacing with his hands behind his back. "We have to keep moving, guys. We can't take breaks like this."
Amy didn't respond to that and she kept her head down, drawing circles on her red dress. Shadow moved the camera over to the blue hedgehog and Sonic started walking away from them, fed up. Clearly, the blue guy had lost it. Sonic stood next to a tree, mumbling to himself and shaking his head from time to time; he was absolutely anxious and seemed as though he wanted to get out of there right away.
They all did.
"Sonic!" Amy called out to him after a moment, lifting her head up.
Shadow peered at the pink hedgehog. "No, Amy. Leave him alone for now. He needs to be alone. I think he's lost it."
"We're all losing it…"
"I know that."
Amy straightened up and glanced worriedly in Sonic's direction. "We have got to go, Shadow. It is hard for all of us to hold it together, but we do need to go. We can't stay here. I don't think I can spend another night in these woods, Shadow."
"I know," Shadow mumbled. "I understand that, but Sonic really does need some time to calm himself down."
"We need to get out of here in one piece and this is not helping," retorted Amy.
"Tell me something I don't know." Shadow threw her a sarcastic look.
Amy frowned at him.
"Hey, why was all of that slime all over my stuff?" Sonic wanted to know, turning around to look at them all of a sudden. There was a defeated expression resting on his face. "Huh? Why was that? Why were all my things thrown around like that?"
"Let's go." Amy didn't know the answer to that as she got up from the tree stump, taking the camera away from the Ultimate Life Form. "Let's go. If we keep moving south, we'll get out." Amy didn't fully believe in her own words.
Sonic did not move.
"Please…" Amy said quietly, walking over to him and recording his face.
Sonic started shaking his head. "I don't want to set up camp another night, Amy…"
"Sonic, none of us do."
"I know," muttered the blue speedster. "I know."
Shadow stepped over to them and folded his arms over his chest. "Whatever that was last night is going to come back. We know that for a fact."
"Don't say that," Amy told the black hedgehog. "We don't know that for a fact."
Shadow stared at her as if she had grown a second head. "Whatever that was came to us three times in a row and it's getting worse every night."
"I would love to hear this, but can we just please go?" Amy really didn't want to talk about last night. She just wanted to keep moving. The faster they moved, the faster they would get to the car.
"They might very well go on forever, Rose," Shadow told her gravely. "They might come back tonight. There is a very high possibility of that happening tonight, and you know that."
Not wanting to hear any more of that, the pink hedgehog whirled around and started walking through the woods again, not looking back to see if the two males were following. She wanted to get out. She just wanted to go home. Sonic and Shadow were behind her, walking slowly. Amy walked quickly, still recording with her camera. When she turned it off, she huffed loudly and tried to think. Their friends should be looking for them now, right? Were they even looking? It was starting to get dark again and Amy was becoming terrified. What would happen tonight? Would they be attacked this time?
The three hedgehogs trekked for about another hour until they came across something horrifying. Sonic dashed over to the creek in front of them and could see a thick log over it. It looked extremely familiar and it caused them all to feel dizzy. "That's the tree we crossed!" Sonic blared. "That tree is down! That's the same one!"
"This can't be happening!" Shadow shouted, going over to join Sonic as they walked alongside the creek. Shadow was trying to find something different, anything that would tell them that they were not seeing what they were seeing. But it was all true and there was nothing he could do to change it. "Why is this happening?! What the hell?!"
"No!" Sonic wailed.
"No…no…" Amy whimpered, feeling tears sting her eyes as she sluggishly followed the other two hedgehogs. Amy was shaking from head to toe as she gazed at the creek. "No. This can't be happening. No…please no."
"No!"
"What the freaking hell!"
Amy shook her head vigorously, refusing to believe it. "No, no…Sonic, it's not the same log. It's not…the same log, Sonic! It's not!"
"It's the same one!"
"No it's not! It's not!" Amy didn't want to believe it.
Shadow spun around to look at her from where she was. "It is! Open your eyes, Rose!"
Amy stumbled forward, leaning against a tree and breathing heavily. "It's not the same log…" she whimpered again, more tears gathering in her eyes. "It's not…it's not the same log…" Amy collapsed upon her knees in front of the log, finally breaking down. The tears roamed her cheeks and she wept. "It's the same log…"
"I can't believe this!" Sonic yelled from the distance.
"It's the same log…" Amy whispered, in a daze as her tears continued to fall. "It's the same log." Amy bowed her head and turned off her camera, crying while her shoulders shook.
They have been going in a circle.
They didn't get anywhere.
Trembling, Amy put her camera back on and recorded her face. She was still crying, but she was calming down a little bit. "Okay. It's okay," she told herself, wiping her tears away with the back of her hand. "It's okay."
Shadow eventually went over and stood beside her, watching the water rush through the creek. He was staring at it coldly, an untellable expression dancing along his facial features. Sonic was standing on Amy's other side, grim.
"Where…where do you guys want to go?" Amy queried, climbing back to her feet and recording the creek. "Today south didn't work out so…so I guess tomorrow we'll go east? I don't know, okay? I don't know anything anymore. I don't know what to say."
"How the hell did we walk south all day and wind up back here?" Shadow demanded to know, his tone icy and unforgiving. He was now glowering at the pink hedgehog with disdain.
"We walked south all day, okay!" Amy shouted at him, sounding like she was about to burst into tears again. "We walked south all freaking day! I don't know how we ended up here!"
Disgusted, Shadow turned away from her and walked off somewhere for the time being. Later on that day, Sonic grabbed Amy's camera and started messing with it, playing back the footage from before for a few minutes. He watched that for a little while before recording and putting the camera on Amy. Amy was leaning against a tree, looking very grave. Sonic zoomed in on her features and didn't say anything.
Amy noticed him filming. "I don't know what you and Shadow expect me to do. Do you expect me to do something about this, huh?"
Sonic did not answer.
Amy became a little irritated. "What do you want to do, Sonic?"
Sonic still said nothing.
"Sonic?"
"You want to make movies, Amy," remarked Sonic sarcastically. "You know what we're here to do. Let's make some movies." Sonic zoomed in on her face again with the camera.
"Leave me alone, Sonic!" Amy hissed at him, feeling angry tears start to form in her eyes. "Stop messing with me!"
Shadow groaned loudly as he trekked over to them, contempt painting his face. "Stop it with your yapping. I don't want any more arguments. That does nothing."
The two hedgehogs said nothing.
"I got first watch. Let's set up camp," Shadow ordered. "I got first watch."
Nobody moved.
Sonic kept staring at Amy. "Show more emotion than that, Amy."
Amy did not look at him.
"Come on," growled Shadow. "We've got things to prepare for."
Sonic gave him an acid glare before turning back to Amy, still recording her. "Okay, here's your motivation, you're lost and you're angry in the woods and no one is here to help you!" Sonic put the camera in her face, walking closer to her. Amy just stood there, not looking at him, tears rolling down her cheeks. "There's a freaking witch and she keeps leaving crap outside your door! There's no one here to help you! She left little trinkets and you freaking took one of them! She ran after us, there's no one here to help you! We walked for fifteen hours today!" Sonic's voice was getting louder and louder.
"Sonic…" Shadow warned him, knowing that Sonic had completely lost it by now. He would never treat Amy like that if he was his perfectly normal self.
More tears poured out of the pink hedgehog's eyes as she listened to Sonic. Sonic completely ignored the black hedgehog and continued to yell in Amy's face as he recorded her.
"We ended up in the same place! There's no one here to help you! That's your motivation!" Sonic howled crazily at the pink hedgehog and Amy finally broke down.
Putting her face in her hands, Amy whimpered, "Stop…"
"THAT'S YOUR MOTIVATION!"
Amy's shoulders shook with violent sobs. "Stop…please stop…Sonic…"
"Sonic, that's enough!" Shadow barked at the blue hedgehog, glowering at him angrily. "This is so unlike you!"
Sonic whirled around to face the Ultimate Life Form. "No! She's still making movies, Shadow! Even after everything we've been through here in these woods, she's still recording every step of the way!"
"Just please stop…please stop yelling at me…" Amy still had her face in her hands and she was still sobbing.
Sonic finally turned off the camera and took a step back, shoving the camera into Amy's hands. The blue hedgehog instantly appeared to look guilty about hurting Amy's feelings, but he wasn't going to take back what he said until they got out of the woods.
Without a word, Shadow started setting up camp, putting the pink tent up again and getting inside. It was dark now and he had the flashlight in his hand turned on. Amy was sitting in the tent with him and Sonic was also in there. Amy and Sonic were not speaking to each other and Shadow was annoyed by this. They were both silent and not saying anything at all.
Amy opened up a magazine and started reading it quietly to herself. Sonic was trying to get some sleep now. Shadow just had the flashlight on for Amy and was just staring straight ahead at nothing, waiting for something to happen tonight. Shadow picked up a chocolate bar that he had found in Amy's backpack and started munching on it silently.
"I'm sorry, Amy…" Sonic quiet voice drifted throughout the tent.
Amy froze and glanced at him. She thought about his apology, but then thought back to him yelling at her. It made her form go rigid and she refused to say anything to him. Going back to her magazine, Amy flipped a page and just completely ignored him.
Sonic sat up and turned towards her. "Ames?"
Amy still ignored him.
Guilty and hesitant, the blue hedgehog lifted his hand and placed it over hers. Amy gasped softly and turned her head towards him. "Amy, I'm really sorry about…about yelling at you, okay? I'm just…I'm just sick of these woods and I really want to go home. That's all. I was taking my frustration out on you."
"I forgive you, Sonic." Amy gave him a small smile.
Satisfied, the speedster released her hand and turned back around, giving her his back. Then, he closed his eyes and allowed sleep to claim him. Maybe when they got out of the woods he could take Amy out on a date. He knew that would definitely make her feel better.
Maybe.