Sonic paced the ground in the Green Hill Zone, tense and nervous. The moon was glowing merely as the stars gathered around it to support its glow. The nightfall sky was tar black with a bluish hue, and the night was completely silent. But he wasn't focused on what wonder the night has brought. His conscious was aimed on his most efficient worry he had in his system. Amy. He nervously chewed the tips of his fingers as a drop of sweat trickled down his forehead like a lonely raindrop on window glass. He hoped, and only hoped, that he would eventually find his lost Amy. "What have I done?" he said with sorrow in the center of his voice. "If…if only I could make up for what I've done…" He held in the tears before they emitted from his eyes. He could hear the voices in his head scolding and cursing him for that one huge mistake he has made.
Then, in an unexpected second, a clap of thunder boomed across the night sky like a massive gunshot. Sonic jumped and glanced at the sky in shock. "YOU FOOLISH HEDGEHOG!" a voice shrieked out of nowhere in the sky. Then a dark, terrifying laugh spat from the voice in the sky. Sonic's ears flattened against his head in fear as he turned in all directions with widened eyes. "What was that? Who's there?" he screamed to the sky. In the blink of an eye, the sky blacked out completely. All of the stars and even the moon disappeared, leaving the sky blank with eerie darkness. Sonic gasped and jumped backwards with his eyes glancing at the blinded sky. The laugh in the sky crackled again, mocking Sonic in his actions. "WHAT IS GOING ON?" he managed to bring from his lips.
Below his feet, he felt the ground shift apart as an earthquake. His stomach tightened and his throat twisted as he realized that he was falling through the earth. The darkness overcame him, concealing him in a never-ending sea of blackness as he convulsed below the earth. A few minutes of relentless falling plunged him into the arrival to the one thing that mattered most—a place with light. His body fell out of the chasm in the split rocky earth, and he began to fall through a strange, reddish underworld. He could feel the heat below on his fur as it sent a chill through his spine. His eyes clamped shut tightly and he clinched his teeth as he fell closer, closer, and closer to the ground. For a split second when he approached the ground, he knew he had died as every bone in his body shattered to pieces. But to his surprise, he didn't hit the ground. Instead he found himself tensed up as he stood vertically on the ground.
His ears twitched as he tried to figure out what just happened. But he glanced around. The world was orange and red and he saw magma and flames singing the canyons of the horrifying world. The ground was rocky with no terrain or foliage in sight, as stalagmites and stalactites surrounded the world. What is this place, he thought. Am I dreaming? "Dream? Hahaha! You only can hope this is a dream, hostage!" The voice startled Sonic, booming out of nowhere. It was the same evil voice as above in the sky. "Hostage?" Sonic shouted back. "What are you talking about? And where are you? WHO are you?" The voice let out a dark chuckle. "Quiet. I am the keeper of the underworld, and your TORMENTOR!" The voice laughed harder and a clap of thunder sounded.
Sonic tensed up as he saw two long snakes slither towards him, hissing and baring their fangs. "Get away!" he demanded. But they refused. Instead, they plunged forward and wrapped around his arms and waist until they had him perfectly constricted. He growled and struggled to get free, but to no possible avail. "What do you want?" he screamed. The voice chuckled darkly with a spark of evil in the center of it. "You've committed a mistake. A TERRIBLE mistake. And you must pay for it!" Sonic's eyes widened and he looked at the smoky, fiery sky in awe. "I haven't made any mistakes!" he said. "I'm a hero, and heroes don't make mistakes! And I'm tired of talking to nowhere! Show yourself!" He waited for his tormentor to talk back, but it didn't. It left Sonic in eerie silence, besides the sound of the fire crackling around him. "I know you hear me! TALK BACK!" he yelled. No reply. He began to get angry, but was slightly startled as the snakes hissed viciously in his ears.
Suddenly, smoke rose from the ground behind him. He turned to watch it in awe, as it clouded in a thick layer like haze. It swirled around and around, faster and faster until it formed to the shape of an anonymous creature. The smoke cleared, and it left a dark, shadowy figure standing in front of Sonic. It walked closer to him, and he managed to make out what it was. It was a green hedgehog, wearing a brown cloak that wrinkled to the ground at the bottom. He glared at Sonic with his red eyes and had a blank expression on his face. On his forehead was a large dried scar that had a blackish pigment. Sonic looked at him in awe. "Y-you're…the keeper of the underworld?" The hedgehog smirked, showing his sharp chipped teeth, and let out a low, evil chuckle that sent a shiver down Sonic's spine. He hung his head and narrowed his eyes up at Sonic with that creepy smirk still imprinted on his face. "Indeed I am." His voice was the same as the voice out of nowhere, but it didn't echo through the underworld. "And forever will you stay here, burning in the flames of my world!" He laughed once more.
Sonic growled and clinched his teeth. "What did I do that dragged me down here? Tell me!" he demanded. His wicked tormentor stopped laughing and gave him a dark look. He snapped his fingers, and the snakes slithered off of Sonic. They curled around each other and began to grow in size. They changed in shape, transforming into what looked like a tiger. Another clap of thunder struck, and the tiger appeared thirty times Sonic's size. It glared at him with its red eyes, bared its long walrus fangs and with a flick of his tail, he roared with great might that rattled and shook the fiery underworld like a god unleashing its power. It snarled and whipped a string of saliva off its bottom lip. Sonic's ears flattened against his head, but he gulped and tried not to look scared. "That's…impressive," he said, trying to stand tall and proud without fear. The tiger opened its jaws wider than the wingspan of an eagle, exposing its large fangs and razor-sharp teeth. It roared in Sonic's face with saliva dripping from its teeth. Without warning, it slapped him with its clawed paws with mighty force that it sent him flying across the ground.
He slammed into a huge boulder, which luckily stopped him from rolling out of bounds into the flames kindling in the huge canyon below the cliff he was on. His quills drooped and looked singed as he trembled in an attempt to get up. The underworld keeper let out an evil laugh that echoed through the red lands, and began to slow clap. "Bravo. Very outstanding job, my pet," he said to the tiger. Sonic, in the corner of his eye, saw the tiger slowly disappear in a flame of fire. It swallowed the tiger whole, and it was gone when the fire died down in the blink of an eye. Sonic clinched his teeth as he struggled to his feet. "Just tell me what I did! Stop these stupid games, I'm not playing with you!" he screamed. He jumped as the hedgehog's eyes grew wide and angry. "SILENCE, YOU FOOLISH HEDGEHOG!"
Sonic's throat tightened so hard that he was afraid he would choke. The hedgehog pulled the cloak hood off his head and narrowed his eyes on him. "Don't you understand what you did? You broke a heart that can never be fixed, you foolish sinner." Sonic's ears flattened and he hung his head. Amy. "That scene…it was an accident! I didn't mean to hurt her like that!" he said. The hedgehog shook his head. "You said what you meant and you meant what you said. You have hurt that poor little hedgehog too many times, but this one was too much." Sonic buried his face in his palm, as one small tear fell from his eye and splashed on the copper red ground. "I…I only…" he said in a dying whisper. The hedgehog frowned, looking at him with pity. "You should be ashamed, for what you've done to this girl…"
Sonic looked up with his saddened eyes as the hedgehog moved aside, and his lips parted in shock. In front of him, his eyes saw her. He saw the pink hedgehog—Amy. His eyes glistened as he ran up to her. She was on her knees on the ground with her head hung in sadness. Her eyes were closed with a tear resting on her cheek. "Amy! Can you hear me? Snap out of it!" he said. She didn't make a sound. He reached his trembling hand to touch her, but his hand went right through her like a ghost. He looked at her in awe, and his face turned furious. A spark of fire lit in his eyes as he swung himself around to the hedgehog. "What have you done to her?" he demanded. "What have I done?" the hedgehog asked.
Sonic gasped as the hedgehog's face morphed into his. "All you are is a pushy brat who yells at me just because I turn you down!" he said, mimicking what Sonic had said to her. Sonic shook his head and looked at him with his sad eyes. "No! Don't bring it back up!" he begged. The hedgehog continued in Sonic's voice. "So just do us all a favor, and GO AWAY!" The words echoed over in his head like a broken record. He jumped backwards and screamed. "Stop it! I never meant to hurt her!" The ground below his feet opened up, but luckily he managed to grab onto the edge of the opening. He looked up at the hedgehog, who peered at him from above him. "Help me!" he screamed. "Please! I never meant what I said! Just give me a second chance!" He glanced down at the fire sizzling below him, waiting for him to fall into it. "People like you don't get a second chance," the hedgehog said. "Instead you get a punishment." The edge of the opening broke and Sonic began to fall to his doom. The fire grew closer as he felt the heat getting hotter on his skin. "NOOOOOO!"
His eyes flew open. His blue fur was soaked with sweat and his heart was racing. He looked around where he was. He was back in his and Tails' shared apartment on the couch. He remembered that he had fallen asleep after searching for Amy. With a slight smile on his face, he let out a sigh of relief as he wiped a drop of sweat off his forehead. "That was some dream…" he said. "But Amy…she's still lost…"