Chapter 9

Knuckles and Miky were running through the Emerald Forest in search of the path to Suicide Lake when they stopped in front of a tree to catch their breath. In a fit of frustration, Miky lightly kicked the trunk and groaned, "Ugh, this is the fifth time we've passed this stupid tree! I know the path was right around here! Why can't we find it?"

"Maybe we have to wait until nighttime so the full moon will light the way. That's how we found it last time and according to the legend it's the ONLY way to find it." suggested Knuckles as he looked around. "The bad thing is though I wanted to get there BEFORE dark."

"The legend is full of it! We must have taken a wrong turn somewhere, that's all. It's not some hocus pocus or fairytale nonsense that's stopping us from getting to the lake."

The red echidna folded his arms and frowned, "After everything we've uncovered you're STILL acting like that? What's it going to take for you to believe what's happing right now is real? Do you have to have a ghost pop up in your face to make you believe?"

"Sure if such a thing existed! We found some pretty weird coincidences and stuff like that but we shouldn't be trying to find this stupid lake; we should be trying to find Sonic! Because whether he's possessed or not he's out there somewhere doing Chaos knows what! I know I said I would try to believe and I've never tried harder to believe in something but the stupid story is bogus and I'm going to prove it by finding the darn place before dark! Now come on, let's go this way."

"We already went that way! What makes you think you can find it?"

Miky glared as Knuckles over her shoulder as she began to walk, "Because I'm using my sense of direction, not NONsense."

"Fine than, lead the way!" scoffed the guardian as he followed, "I'm telling you though, we've gone this way."

On the other side of the forest, Sonic was stumbling through the undergrowth, barely able to pick up his feet to step over rocks, roots, and small bushes. He stopped and leaned against a tree to catch his breath. While his muscles no longer had pins and needles, he still felt weak in the knees and every step took a lot of effort. Sonic glanced up to see the sky beginning to turn slightly orangey-pink as the sun began its decent.

"Why did you stop? We need to get to the lake before the moon rises." Nagged Beauty's voice in Sonic's head.

"Well excuse me if I'm a little tired because you've feeding off my energy! You wanna get to the lake so bad? Than help me out here!" the exhausted hero snapped back as he started forward again.

"Stop your whining and keep going!" It was quiet as Sonic shuffled along save for his labored breathing. After a few minutes Beauty spoke again, "You know, you really gave me a run for my money. I haven't come across someone like you in a long time but never did I meet someone who would so foolishly bet their body and soul! But don't worry; I can't imagine it would hurt much more than any of the others."

Sonic rolled his eyes as he asked skeptically, "I doubt you're telling the truth. What did you to the other people before me?"

She chuckled as if she remembered a joke, "Oh well, I'd siphon off every living ounce of energy they had until they either couldn't stand the suffering and kill themselves or they wasted away to nothing. The good news is you won't have to go through that."

"Than what are you going to do with me? I don't know if you've noticed but I'm a dude and you're a chick. If you're going to take over my body for good, isn't that going to be a little awkward for you?"

"Eh, it's a minor problem that's none of your business. Now pick up the pace." Ordered Beauty. 'Hmph; he's such a fool. With all of the energy and power I'm going to get from his soul, gender will be the least of my problems.' She shuddered in excitement as she thought, 'To think, I'll no longer be confined to that damned lake, staying hideous and disgusting until a victim comes along only to fade back to being ugly once their energy fades. No, thanks to Mr. Hero I'll be beautiful again and I'll stay beautiful! I'll be alive again and free to do whatever I please!'

Knuckles and Miky were still walking through the Emerald Forest as the soft, orange sunlight of evening time shown through the forest canopy. They had been walking for a good ten or twenty minutes and Knuckles was getting impatient. His gut told them they needed to get to Suicide Lake as soon as possible. He still wasn't entirely sure why but he knew that it just might answer many of their questions. The guardian looked at Miky as she walked ahead of him, each of her steps was determined and sure-footed and this was matched by the serious look on her face. Knuckles sighed inwardly as he thought about her unwillingness to believe in what was going on.

He knew it was difficult to believe that Sonic could be possessed by some angry, vengeful spirit that was hell-bent on ruining his life but what else could it be? They had no other plausible explanations; none that made sense anyways. An inkling of doubt began to creep into his mind as he began to think about it more. It was a pretty crazy notion, what if he was wrong? Knuckles thought about Sonic's behavior, trying to come up with a better explanation, and he suddenly remembered when he was looking into his eyes. The chill went up his spine again as the image of Beatrice the Weasel flashed before him. No, he wasn't wrong. For whatever reason, this Beatrice had possessed Sonic and Knuckles' intuition was telling him that if they didn't get to that lake, something awful was going to happen.

"Knuckles look!" shouted Miky, breaking Knuckles away from his thoughts. "Over there, in that cluster of trees! Doesn't it look a darker in there to you?"

The red echidna looked where she was pointing and replied in surprise, "Yeah… the sunlight isn't shining through the leaves. But, I bet the light of the full moon would be able to! That's the path; you found it Miky!" Knuckles charged off ahead towards the darkness, feeling much more nervous than he did the first time he had come this way with his friends

"Told ya I would!" called out Miky as she was right on his heels with a triumphant grin on her face, "Now let's hurry up and find whatever you're looking for!" In no time they burst out of the trees and came to stop on the pebbly shore of Suicide Lake.

Knuckles shuffled his feet back and forth in small, gravel-like rocks, as he breathed in the cold, damp air, "Its quiet… there's not even the sound of the water lapping on the rocks… Everything is so cold and still… like death."

Miky looked around as she bent and picked up a rock, "It's creepy that's for sure. So what are we looking for anyways?" She pulled her arm back to throw the stone into the lake but Knuckles grabbed her wrist to stop her, "What?"

"I'm trying to listen. There's something more to this place I know it; I picked up on it a little the first time ewe came here. I just need time to... feel it again." Miky looked around, confused as to what he was talking about but never the less she lowered her arm and put down the pebble.

"What did you feel?" she whispered. 'Wait, why am I whispering?' thought Miky to herself, 'You aren't actually buying into this baloney are you?' she shivered and hugged herself as the cold air began to soak into her fur. 'It's just a stupid lake! But…' She looked out at the lake, the water looking black and icy. As the sun set further, shadows were creeping in on all sides and for some weird reason, Miky could feel her heart rate quicken slightly. 'I do feel a little… weird now that I'm just standing still… Ugh… my skin is crawling… is this what Knuckles meant by intuition and feeling stuff?'

"I felt a rage… It's difficult to explain but I could feel this anger overpowering all the sadness that also exists here." Knuckles continued walking as he closed his eyes. He wasn't a medium or anything like that but every living being gave off Chaos energy and he could sense that energy. He knew that sometimes through different circumstances, a place could become soaked in that energy and an imprint would be left behind. Knuckles often felt these imprints when he visited the Mystic Ruins. He would be completely alone and yet he could sense the energy of his ancestors pulsing through the place as if they were still walking the paths going about their lives.

Miky looked over her shoulder, finding herself becoming nervous at all of the shadows shifting around them as the sun traveled across the hidden sky above them, "So… if all of the sadness came from the people who killed themselves… would the anger come from Beatrice because she was murdered?"

Knuckles nodded as he continued to walk, letting his intuition guide him, "Yes…" He suddenly stopped and his eyes flew open. The rage was stronger than it had ever been before and as he looked down at the rocks beneath his feet, Beatrice's face flashed before him and he could have sworn a shotgun blast was echoing in his ears. He stepped away from the imprint and exhaled heavily, unaware he had been holding his breath, "Here. She was shot here. They shot her in the face and dumped her body in the lake, just like the article said."

"Well ok but what does that have to do with Sonic?"

"I don't know yet but I can tell you this; from what the article said she was a woman who valued her beauty more than anything else. When they blasted her in the face with a shot gun, they took that away and she was really pissed off about it." Knuckles exhaled again as he took another few steps back from where Beatrice was killed, "Really, really pissed off."

Sonic stopped within the shadow of a tree to catch his breath. He didn't know whether it was because he was beginning to feel a little dizzy but the hero could swear he was walking in circles. Every time he would he try to mention this to Beauty, however, she would insist she knew where she was going and send him off in a direction. Twilight was quickly waning and in no time the moon would be rising in the sky. The more the light faded, the faster Beauty drove Sonic on. He had to rest more frequently and for longer. His feet felt like lead and the numbness was beginning to creep back into his limbs. Sonic raised a shaky hand to wipe the sweat from his face as he asked, "Which way?"

"That way, to the right." Replied Beauty, "And hurry up! It's almost completely dark!"

"I'm going, I'm going. Yeesh…" Sonic began to go forward when he spotted something on the ground that gave him pause. In the dirt of the path was two sets of prints; he recognized them as the ridged bottom of Knuckles' shoes and the smooth sole of Miky's boots. At first he thought the prints were from when they had all visited the lake but he quickly realized that these tracks were recent and the prints from Tails' or his own shoes were nowhere to be seen.

"Stop wasting time and get moving! What are you doing?!"

Sonic resumed walking as he answered, "Nothing, just trying to not to pass out. I'm dizzy."

"Well you won't have to worry about it for much longer. Keep moving!"

"Ok, so we know that a whole bunch of guys committed suicides here because Beatrice made them ruin their relationships. Than a whole bunch of women got together and shot her in the face her and dumped her body in the lake." Recounted Miky as she glanced up, straining to see the sky through the thick canopy of leaves, "So let's say that she did become a ghost and now she's raving mad about it. Why would she possess Sonic and trash his life? What would she have to gain?"

Knuckles rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "Maybe she's looking to make people as miserable as she is… but I think there's a little more to it than that. Do you feel the emptiness here? It's like a hungry black hole that will never be satisfied. No, she wants more than just to make others suffer. I feel like if we can figure out what we could stop this…"

Miky sighed sadly, "If only Tails was willing to help us… He really thinks Sonic has turned against him… Surely Tails HAS to know something is wrong?"

"Did you immediately know something was wrong? He could still be too angry or hurt to think about it rationally. Still, his help would be nice…" Suddenly, the sound of snapping twigs and rustling bushes could be heard coming their direction. "Quick, hide!" Knuckles drove into the undergrowth surrounding the lake as Miky leapt up into one of the trees. They exchanged worried glances as the noises became louder and both of them had to hold back gasps when Sonic at last stumbled into view.