The forest was populated tonight, again.
Sonic, Amy, Blaze, and Silver stood in a clump in the clearing where Sonic and Amy had been attacked. The question on everyone's mind was:
"How are you here, burger guy?" Sonic asked, staring at Silver and Blaze.
"How are you here?" Silver echoed. "Wait, Burger Guy?"
"I mean, it's not too much of a stretch," Amy reasoned. "If Sonic's my boyfriend, and Silver's my coworker…"
All eyes turned to Blaze. "Then who are you?" Sonic asked.
"Blaze," Silver and Blaze both answered. Amy seemed to recognize the name, but Sonic just got more confused.
"My pen pal," Silver clarified.
"So we all know each other, somehow…" Amy mused.
A green tendril of smoke began to leak out of Silver's mouth. Sonic was the first to notice. "Hey, Burger King? What's up?"
Blaze and Amy stared as Silver's eyes rolled back in his head and green smoke began to coil out of every orifice. Silver began to speak in hasty stutters: "Forest - creature - shadow -"
"Silver? What's going on?" Blaze asked, panicked.
Sonic's eyes lit up. "Is he talking about the monster that attacked us the other night?"
"Us? I don't know what you're talking about!" Blaze said hysterically.
"Holy Big Macs…" Silver mumbled, pale. "He's coming."
"Are you gonna tell us, or do we have to guess?" Sonic said, unable to prevent his nervousness from showing.
Silver, incidentally, didn't have to say anything. Amy, nearly as pale as Silver now, pointed. "It's that thing...from the other night…"
It growled. They scattered.
7:27 AM, Saturday, October 19. No new dreams.
"Two quarter-pounders and some fries!" someone shouted. Amy rested her chin in her palms. As usual, nothing was going on. As usual, her dreams were more interesting than reality.
Although, maybe they weren't interesting so much as they were concerning. Amy kept on waking up feeling like those dreams had been real. Exhausted, she'd dragged herself out of bed and into work…only to nearly fall asleep on the job.
Oh, well. The morning shift was never interesting.
"Hey! I said two quarter-pounders, too!" the someone continued.
"Sorry, I'll get right on it - " Silver's apologetic voice replied, but was cut off. A puff echoed from within the kitchen. Amy's ears twitched.
The reflection from the window glass in front of her was a faint green. With a bad feeling, she turned around. Small tendrils of green smoke billowed out from under the doors.
"Silver?" she called, walking carefully up to the kitchen doors and pushing them open. The room inside was lined with thick green smoke. The manager was just plain confused, shaking Silver by the shoulders.
"I can't tell if they're going to live!" Silver exclaimed, panicked. Like in Amy's dream, his pupils were nowhere to be seen. Silver was sweating.
With a deep breath, however, the smoke suddenly swept itself from the area into Silver's nostrils. His eyes went back to normal. He looked panicked, but for a different reason this time.
"What...happened?" Silver asked, eyes wide. "Oh, no. Oh, crap." Without another word, he darted from the kitchen, out the restaurant doors, and down the street.
"Silver! What on earth happened back there?" Amy demanded that night, in the dream world (although whether this was still a dream was definitely up for grabs at this point).
"I...got a prophecy," Silver explained to the group. "In the middle of work. I'm definitely fired."
"Spit it out," Amy said. "You looked horrified."
"Well…" Silver stammered. "One of us is going to have a terrible accident. And I can't remember who."
No one spoke for a minute. "Are we gonna live?" Sonic asked, breaking the silence.
"No idea."
9:30 AM, Saturday, October 19. No new dreams.
That morning, Sonic checked the refrigerator. "Nope, we're out of juice. Hey, has anyone seen Antoine?"
Manic and Rotor shook their heads. "Not since he went out to get more bread," Manic answered.
"Darn. I should have sent him to get juice too."
"You shouldn't have sent him out at all, if you ask me," Rotor said. "Too dangerous. Antoine's an easy target."
"I guess."
Someone knocked on the door. "Looks like he's back, though," Manic inferred.
Antoine was red in the face, breathing heavy, and sweating. "Sonic! Those méchants from a few days ago jumped me again!"
"You don't look any worse for wear," Manic observed. "You kick their %!^es?"
"Er, well, no," Antoine mumbled. "They're asking...for ze rumble, si vous plait."
"A rumble? At this time 'a day?" Manic snorted. "They must be outta their minds."
"Non, tonight!" Antoine corrected.
"Well, this is the second time in a row they've jumped Twan," Sonic said. "We might as well show them who's boss. Knives?"
"They said fair fight. No weapons."
"Can we trust them?"
"Beats me."
"If we bring knives," Rotor said, "they'll have guns. It's best to not take anything."
3:30 PM, Saturday, October 19. No new dreams.
The invitation to the skating rink had been unexpected, but pleasant. As much as Blaze hated cold, skating was something different. It was less about the temperature and more about the feeling of gliding on your feet. Fun.
A sullen-faced skater passed her as she entered the rink. He hadn't rented his skates yet, and was headed for his locker. At least, that was Blaze's assumption.
6:43 PM, Saturday, October 19. No new dreams.
Silver was cold. He was trying to not be cold. He was also trying to find Sonic. He wasn't able to find Sonic.
He figured that if he could at least make it to someone he knew before his prophecy came true, he could help at least a little bit. And if it turned out to be Silver himself, he would at least be around someone he knew.
The problem was, since he'd run out of the kitchen, he'd put a lot of distance between himself and Amy. He knew Sonic was around here somewhere, but exactly where was a complete mystery.
7:02 PM, Saturday, October 19.
Someone pulled out a knife.
