Things Best Forgotten
Disclaimer: Regrettably, I don't own Sonic the hedgehog, Tails, or any of the other characters in this story. (And, I don't even want to own Tails Doll!) They are property of Sega and Sonic Team. All references to Sonic X are also belonging to 4Kids TV.
Boo-yah! It's chapter 2 already! Am I good or what?! (head inflates like a helium balloon until it pops, spewwing gross pink slime everywhere) Eeeeww! Sorry that you had to see that! It's now time to recognize the first reviewers of my newest story! My thanks to cari la fenix, StormyEye, Asher Tye, Rae Logan, Super Dragon, Koike, Double Dee Dee, Drandu, Shika Kev Prower, ChibiRyou200, brave kid, Zachary W, and Pokelad! Wow, pretty impressive for just chapter one! I recognize a lot of you loyal reveiwers from my other story, Lethal Mutation, but there are a few new faces in the group as well! (Did you know that I have already had more visitors to chapter one of this story than for the first three chapters of Lethal Mutation combined?! Pretty sweet!) Anyways, thanks to all those loyal followers of my work that make my feverishly paced (but luckily this time no real fever) typing fingers worthy of recognition and constantly busy! By the way, this chapter's title will make sense as you read along, so don't worry about me losing it just yet. XD Enjoy! (as if I even need to say that...)
Chapter 2: Sugar Rush
Tails and Sonic returned hours later from their enjoyment of the day spent dashing aimlessly from one scenic vista to another as the sun was just setting into the vast expanse of ocean before the cliff on which their house stood. Mesmerized by the awe inspiring sunset like always, Sonic and Tails lingered outside the house long enough to feel the warth of those final rays of light and watch the glowing orange orb submerge itself completely below the far off waves before finally proceeding indoors.
"Today was lots of fun, Sonic!" Tails thanked the blue hedgehog as he walked into his house first and immediately proceeded towards the kitchen on the opposite wall of the large room which was actually the entire first floor. On his way to the refrigerator he deposited two grocery bags and a plastic hardware store's sack on the small counter that divided the living room half from the kitchen and dining room sections. "Thanks for taking me into town so I could get some of the stuff we needed," he finished voicing his gratitude for the considerate hedgehog.
Sonic let a single laugh escape his mouth as he heard Tails speak his thanks. Only my little bro would thank someone for doing nothing but giving him more work to do! He would have gone into town on his own anyways without me, but he acts like I did him a favor! Sonic smiled at his younger brother as Tails immediately proceeded to store the groceries in the proper locations without so much as a grumble or complaint at the mediocre task. "Nah! It was no sweat, bro! I didn't really have a place in mind to go today anyways," Sonic simply downplayed his own role in a game that Tails and he had always played with each other. It was a kind of mental 'hot potato' in which the loser was the one stuck with the compliment at the end.
"Yeah, but without your help, I wouldn't have been able to go shopping for those other parts I needed, too," Tails shot back, passing the praise to the less deserving hedgehog yet again as he pointed to the bag on the counter that was marked with a hardware store's logo in front.
Sonic tried to come up with a quick comeback that would force the two-tailed fox to admit defeat and accept his rightful compliment, but his mind failed him as Tails once again won their little game of 'pass the praise' for the millionth time. Some day I'm gonna give my little bro a compliment that even he can't refuse! Sonic resolved as he gave up and looked back at his buddy in the small kitchen. He saw the young fox finish putting away the new groceries and reach for a snack in the fridge. Sonic couldn't believe his eyes as Tails removed a can of soda and a slice of chocolate cake from the cold interior of the older refrigerator. "Whoa there, little bro! What cha' think your doin' eatin' stuff like that at a time like this?!" Sonic rebuked his brother. "You know that too much sugar before bed means that you'll be up all night with more of your crazy nightmares! Besides, you can't possibly be hungry after the supper we got back in town! You ate clear through that whole chili dog stand AND my wallet!" Sonic reminded Tails of how his earlier appetite had cleaned out an entire hot dog vendor as well as all the money in the hedgehog's pocket at the time.
"I know, Sonic," Tails responded as he grabbed a fork and proceeded to take a bite of the cake anyways. "But, remember that I have a bigger metabolism than you do, so I have to eat more to stay energized!" Tails used his usual excuse as crumbs of half eaten cake flew out of his mouth while he tried to say 'metabolism.' Tails grinned slightly in embarrassment as he noticed he was talking with his mouth full and making a mess of the freshly cleaned carpet. The hungry fox washed the remaining cake in his mouth down with a quick swig of cola before sitting down on the sofa in front of the TV with his brother and resuming his explanation. "Besides, I haven't had any bad nightmares like that since I was just a little kit!" Tails reminded the concerned hedgehog.
Sonic knew better than that, but decided to let it slide since both the cake and soda were now already half finished. He flipped on the TV and surfed the channels for anything good to watch while Tails simply continued his late night snack, content to watch whatever his big brother decided to stop on. However, it was a sad night for television as nothing caught the blue hero's eye as particularly interesting to watch. After a few minutes, in which time Tails had finished off his second meal, Sonic finally decided to call it quits and head off to bed early tonight. As always, Tails followed him back upstairs to retire as well, since, for some strange reason, the fox always felt compelled to go to bed when his older brother did as well.
As he opened the door to his second floor bedroom, Tails suddenly saw something lying on his bed that gave him a shock. Sonic, witnessing his little brother jump halfway to the ceiling in surprise, quickly asked the obvious question to the frightened kitsune, "Hey, Tails! What's wrong, little bro?"
"Huh? Oh, it's nothing, Sonic," Tails reassured his brother as he now calmly walked into his room and picked up the strange object from his bed that it had been laying on. Sonic also followed him into the small room and took a good look at the horrid object in Tails' hands.
"Gee, bro! When did you make that thing?" Sonic tried to sound serious as his voice cracked at the effort of suppressing his laughter at the absolutely ugly recreation of his little brother in cloth. "Sorry to say it, buddy, but you should probably stick to machines and not stitching!" Sonic joked with his brother.
"But that's just it, Sonic!" Tails objected as he told the hedgehog of the strange doll's appearance earlier that day. "I found this thing in a really old looking box in the back of my closet today, but I don't ever remember making it!"
"Heh, it could just be a gift someone gave you when you were really little that you never played with, so you don't remember it too well," Sonic guessed as he shrugged his shoulders at the mysterious origin of the poorly constructed doll. "Wouldn't blame ya none either, bro! That thing's just plain ugly!" Sonic amended.
"That's probably true," Tails admitted the very likely situation. "But, what scared me a minute ago was that I definitely remember putting this thing under my bed before I left today, so how did it end up on top of my bed if no one was around to move it?"
"Who knows bro?" Sonic was quick to alleviate his brother's irrational fears that Sonic was already attributing to too much sugar too late at night. "One thing's for certain, though. It didn't just fly up there on its own while we were gone."
"Yeah, I guess you're right, Sonic," Tails once again sided with the hedgehog's logical explanation. "I probably just thought that I put it under my bed earlier when I really didn't."
"Sounds just as reasonable as anything else to me!" Sonic agreed. "But, you might want to make sure to put that thing away for good tonight. It's starting to creep me out a little." Sonic finished as a cold shiver ran down his spine after taking a good look at the misshapen doll's beady black eyes.
"Yeah, me too," Tails confessed as he again placed the eerily strange doll of himself under his bed. "Well, goodnight, Sonic," the sleepy eyed fox said as he crawled into his bed for a good night's rest.
Sonic walked back out of the room as he paused in the doorway to turn around and address his brother one last time, "OK, bud. Now get some sleep so you can wake up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed tomorrow, 'kay? And remember, that goes double for you!" Sonic joked as he turned out the room's light and closed the door behind him. He heard his little brother snicker at the witty joke before the door completely shut and he made his way to his own bed for the night.
Tails fell asleep almost instantly after the action and intense chores of the day. His mind wasted no time in shutting down all but his most vital functions as the young kitsune fell into a deep, restful slumber almost upon impact with his head on the pillow behind him. The yellow kit instinctively rolled over on his side under his covers to allow his two large tails to dangle off the other end of the bed as they waved slowly in his sleep like furry, white-tipped pendulums. It wasn't long, however, before the unconscious fox became aware of the beginnings of a dream in his mind's eye as he fell into an ever deeper slumber.
Tails found himself suddenly standing in the middle of a black void. Actually, he couldn't be sure that he was in the middle because there was absolutely nothing but darkness all around him. Frantically searching about for a light or some kind of reference point from which to get his bearings, the fox quickly felt the presence of something else in the void directly behind him. Doing an immediate about-face, Tails spun on his heels to confront whoever, or whatever, was stalking him. Predictably, however, the yellow fox spotted nothing in the surrounding void that was once behind him. Not a moment later than the young kit began to assume that he was just paranoid, the feeling of something watching him from behind again struck the confused fox.
Wheeling about as quickly as he could to get a quick glimpse of his mysterious shadow, Tails again found absolutely no one in the direction he now scanned using his highly tuned eyes that could usually see with the barest amount of light in the darkest room. "Nothing," Tails spoke to himself to calm his frayed nerves, "That's all there is out there, just lots and lots of nothing!" As soon as he finished his words, however, a high pitched giggle, like that of a human child, broke out of the darkness to his left.
Quickly craning his neck around to see the source of the noise, Tails again found nothing in that direction as his body began to quiver slightly in fear at the unsafe situation. Before he could start to calm himself down again, the noise repeated from the opposite side of him, to his right. He jumped slightly as he turned to face the strange, and very unsettling, noise. Again, nothing except more nothing met his eyes. Officially freaked out beyond imagining, Tails tightly wrapped his tails around his chest for comfort, before he suddenly became aware that he could not move them at all because they had been restrained by something invisible. Trying now to run for his life, Tails realized that his whole body was now immobile as some power kept all his limbs from moving more than an inch.
Terrified, but completely trapped, the young fox found himself being slowly rotated in place to face a small object that was levitating by itself behind him. How the strange thing got so close to him without him being able to see it, Tails had no clue. He did however understand one thing about the odd figure before him now, it was what had him trapped, and it didn't seem to want to just let the young fox go.
A voice came from the silhouetted figure that his mind prevented him from seeing any shape of it in detail. "I have waited a long time for this moment, Miles," a voice of malicious, yet almost child-like tone rang out in Tails' mind. Tails was further shocked as he understood that the creature before him wasn't speaking audibly, but rather projecting its words into the fox's brain telepathically. "Ha ha ha ha haaaa! That's right, Tails. I can hear your thoughts. I can feel your fear running through you. You can't hide anything from me!" the voice continued in a steady, menacing threat.
"Who are you?! And what do you want from me?!" Tails shouted to the still obscured object that had him terrified.
"Mmmmm… Delicious! Such wonderful taste, pure terror! Only the purest of hearts give out the most untainted fear!" the demonic voice spoke as it seemed to relish every moment of Tails' terror and attempts to thrash free of the strange force holding him. "Your struggling is pointless, my original. Yes, indeed I was made in your image because it has been my duty all these years to relish this moment. The moment that I steal your soul!" The maniacal figure seemed to change its voice entirely at the last sentence into a deep, threatening sound that could easily have been owned by the Devil himself.
"What?! NOOOOOO!!" Tails began screaming as he fought furiously to break free of the invisible force field holding him in place.
"Ha ha ha ha ha haaa! It's pointless you pathetic flesh-bag! Even your two tails and your 'oh so caring' little blue hero cannot save you now! After all these years that I have waited, finally it is time! I am going to drag your soul down to the very depths of the underworld, so far that not even worst of criminals would ever join you!" the deep voice shouted as it began laughing in the most genuinely evil way imaginable. Tails stopped struggling at the pure malice in the tone of the voice as his eyes became twice as large as they already were. Finally, the voice stopped its terrifying laughter and two glowing red eyes with a third glowing sphere floating above them came into focus on the small object levitating before the frightened fox. "Now, Tails, I have only one last question for you. Can you feel the sunshine?"
Tails was stumped at the odd question before he noticed a strange force begin to seemingly tear his body in half. He didn't know what was happening to him, but he could feel the very essence of his life force flowing out of his body as his whole body slowly went limp. Realizing that he could do nothing to fight back against this unknown entity, Tails again managed to summon all his remaining strength to let out one last blood-curdling scream. The entity kept laughing as the fox screamed its lungs out, knowing that soon the body which was now still capable of making noise would continue to do so even seconds after it was already dead.
Tails felt powerless, drowsy, and drained as he felt himself slip away into the hands of the demonic presence that held him. He kept screaming anyways, out of the sheer terror of the traumatic moment. Just as he felt all the power in his body leave him, everything around him disappeared in a bright flash. The dark void he had been in was suddenly dispelled as the terrified kit's eyes shot back open in his bed back in his own room safely at home.
Sonic saw his younger brother's eyes pop open as the two-tailed fox immediately sat up in his bed in the fraction of a second. "Whoa there, Tails! You're OK, buddy! It was just a bad dream!" Sonic shouted out to the extremely scared fox cub. He had heard Tails' screaming a second ago and had wasted no time in dashing to his little brother's side in a flash. Now he watched as Tails' heaving chest slowly stopped its rapid rise and fall and his heart ceased to pound so hard against his white furred chest that Sonic could see its every beat.
After a couple of minutes to almost completely calm down, Tails quickly turned his head to look back at the blue hedgehog sitting near the head of the fox's bed with a concerned expression on his face. "Oh, Sonic! I'm sorry! I just had the worst nightmare ever, and I…" Tails began to apologize for waking his big brother at what seemed to the now conscious fox to be very early in the morning.
"Don't sweat it, bro!" Sonic interrupted Tails' fast talking explanation. "All that matters is that it's over now."
"Yeah, I guess you're right," Tails agreed as he was very thankful that Sonic was never grumpy from being woken up when he was resting unless the blue hero was extremely wore out. Admittedly, he was very happy to see Sonic right after the terrifying nightmare he had just gone through.
"Now, how 'bout cha' listen to me next time I tell ya that eating too many sweats before bed is a bad idea?" Sonic took the opportunity to teach the young fox a lesson that would hopefully prevent any future occurrences of this situation.
"OK, Sonic, you were right…" Tails admitted as he wondered how a soda and slice of cake could have such a traumatic effect on anyone.
"Glad ya learned your lesson, bro. Now let's get you cleaned up and back to bed," Sonic said as he grabbed the kitsune's arm and proceeded to pull the sitting fox off his horribly wrinkled bed from all the thrashing about the fox had done in his nightmare.
Tails wondered what Sonic meant by 'get you cleaned up' before he suddenly became aware of a large spot on his bed that he hadn't noticed earlier was soaking wet. I wet the bed?! Oh man, this is just embarrassing… How could any nightmare be that real? He looked at his older brother with eyes that were shaking and half full of tears as Sonic noticed what the fox felt so sorry about.
"Don't worry about it, little bro! Everyone does that once in a while. I'm just glad that you're OK after that bad dream you had," Sonic consoled the distraught kit. He saw that Tails was still unconvinced as he tried again to comfort the humiliated fox that was now crying outright, "Hey, I know you, bro. It must have been something really scary to make you do that by accident! Don't you worry about it, OK? You go take a nice long bath to relax and clean yourself off while I deal with the bed sheets and mattress, deal?"
"Promise not to tell anyone?" Tails asked the hedgehog as he slowly stopped the tears that were still silently falling from his eyes.
"Hedgehog's honor!" Sonic answered as he put one hand over his heart and raised his other palm in the air as if taking a solemn pledge to some king that he served under.
Tails gave a short chuckle of relief at the blue hedgehog's actions and wording as he finally started to feel comfortable again. "OK, Sonic," Tails sealed the promise as he walked slowly out of the room to the nearby bathroom at the end of the second floor's hallway.
Sonic, true to his word, immediately began stripping the soiled linens from the poor fox's bed. He didn't even mind the gross odor and wet feeling of the bed sheets as he carried them out to a small pond next to the house and dunked them into the water along with a good deal of powdered detergent. Sonic then pressed a hidden button at the base of the stone lip surrounding the pool as Tails' custom-made outdoor washing machine came to life spinning the water and detergent together in the open-air pond. As he watched the swirling linens, Sonic couldn't help but worry a little bit for his previously terrified brother. He knew that things like this happened to everyone, but he also knew that this particular instance would stay in his brother's memory for a long time. Poor little guy, I probably would have died from either fright or embarrassment or both if I was him just now.
Leaving the late night laundry to soak on its own, Sonic returned to the house and managed to manuever the short soiled mattress down the interior staircase and outside as well. Luckily, the mattress was lined with an non-absorbant outer skin that meant all the blue hedgehog had to do was wash off the surface thoroughly to erase all traces of his brother's accident. Returning the mattress to Tails' room upstairs, Sonic caught another glimpse of the horrid doll that the fox had carelessly thrown under his bed before going to sleep that night. The blue hedgehog once again felt a sense of unease as he quickly set the mattress back on its frame to obscure his sight of the poorly constructed facsimile of his little brother. Just as he left Tails' room again, he saw the young fox open the door to the bathroom and step back out with a towel still around him as he tried to dry all his thick yellow and white fur from his short bath a minute ago.
Sonic smiled at the sigh of relief Tails made upon finally returning to begin completely calm yet again. "Lookin' a lot better now, bro!" Sonic addressed the fox as it still tried to dry off further.
Tails looked up at the quick remark and saw Sonic standing in the hallway with a large, comforting smile on his face and giving him a classic 'thumbs up' gesture. "Thanks, Sonic," Tails replied to his extremely considerate older brother. "I feel a lot better now."
"Glad to hear it, bro! Now let's get you fixed up and back in bed for the rest of the night," Sonic suggested. He saw a quick fleeting spark of fear jump through the kit's eyes at the thought of simply returning to sleep after the nightmare that he had just had.
"Ummm... Sonic? I'm really glad for all you've done to help me out, but... could I,maybe... sleep with you tonight?" Tails muttered as he shyly made his request.
"Sure, bro," Sonic accepted without a moment's hesitation. "But if we don't hurry to bed soon, it will already be daylight by the time we both get to sleep!" At the hedgehog's last statement, but Mobians entered Sonic's slightly larger room across the hall from Tails', and they both climbed into the one person bed in the corner. After a little rearanging of bodies to get both occupants of the overstuffed bed reasonably comfortable, Sonic and Tails quickly drifted back off into a relaxing sleep laying side by side. Sonic smiled before he completely dozed off, noticing that his little brother had unconsciously wrapped the blue hedgehog's body protectively in his two tails as a way to ensure that Sonic didn't leave him. Tails' face was also serene as both Mobians finally got a good long rest.