Fancharacters are in here for minor plot purposes, don't worry.

Mansion 2: chapter 23

James' POV

"James? have you slept at all last night?" Jasmine asked as she woke up in the morning to find me sitting in front of the computer screen instead of being in bed next to her again. I had been staring at the monitor long after it had been turned off.

"James?" She said again when i didn't answer. I reached for the freshly printed papers that still laid on the device.

"i found the information that i had been looking for. maybe even more then i had expected or even wanted to find." I said and handed the papers to her.

Jasmine's ears flattened as she could already tell that those papers contained bad news. Her hands touched mine as she took the papers from me. Her eyes quickly scanned the pages and a look of shock came on her face.

She felt her heart sink as she learned of everything that this madman had been doing to our son and to so many other poeple. The papers explained what was done to the victims. It contained newspaper articles of places having been closed down. Those places had connections with the one Shadow had been trapped in for the majority of his life. And these papers contained more then that. It told us the culprit that was behind all of these crimes. One that they had forgotten a long time ago.

"what is this?" She silently asked.

"these papers contain all the information about this madman that goes around with the name Gerald Robotnik." I said and got up from the computer chair and took my jacket.

Sonic's POV

I growled and tried to surpress the pain that i felt in my broken leg. I tried to hurry towards the screaming and save my new friend.

"don't worry, Emily. i'm coming!" I said as if she could hear me, but i knew that she couldn't. Even if i wasn't to far away from her. There was no way that she could hear me above her own screams. I limped faster and almost fell couple of times. The stick of the broom slide out from under me and made me fall to the floor.

"damnit." I growled in pain. Blood ran down from my nose, but i wiped it away. I stood back up and deemed the broom useless and continued limping on.

The screams were close now. Or i guessed that i was getting close. I couldn't tell. I didn't hear them anymore. I tried not to let that get me down. I had to stay possitive. There was a door in front of me. I growled and surpressed the pain as i trudged forward. I took the door handle and bursted inside. I gasped at the sight in front of me. This was one of those torture chambers that were also present in that mansion.

"Emily." I muttered as my eyes fell on her. Or what was left of her.

"Oh my god." I muttered in shock as my eyes widened at the gruesome sight.

"E...Emily?" I called for her, but it stayed silent in the room.

I slowly approached the bleeding mangled corpse spread out on the table. The pain in my leg forgotten as my mind was trying to comprehend the sight in front of me.

What had he done to her? Both of her legs were missing, removed in a gruesome way. Two long, metal knifes, similar to those Shadow had, were lying next to her. They were most likely meant to replace her legs. Her hands were messed up aswell. Halfway up her fingers were cut off, and replaced by sharp, metal pins. But the worst part were her eyes. Where her eyes were supposed to be, were now empty holes.

I felt my stomach turn in disgust and tore my gaze away as I couldn't bear the sight any longer. My right hand pressed against my mouth as I felt like I was going to be sick. My other was on a filthy table next to me for support.

"I'm sorry." I muttered to Emily, even though there was no way she could hear me. She had helped me escape from that police station so I could get Shadow back and maybe find a lead on her boyfriend. Now she had fallen victim to this bastard's sick experiments aswell. Just thinking about this made me sick.

But than a different image popped into my mind. It was still the same image of Emily's mangle corpse lying on the table in a pool of her own blood along with old blood of countless of people before her. But it was different. Her human frame had changed into a much smaller mobian one. Her blond hair was gone, instead replaced by ebony black quills soaked in blood.

I nearly retched. My eyes widened as I realised just who I had seen with my mind's eye in Emily's place.

It was Shadow.

The corpse I had imagined lying on the table behind me, multilated until barely recognisable, was his.

Is that what is to become of him if I don't get him out of here and taken care of soon enough? Will he end up like her?

'No, I can't think this way!' I told myself mentally. If I were to get him out of here, than I wouldn't matter how he would end up. Because I was going to make sure that bastard couldn't hurt him again.

After this is all over, Shadow is going to recover completely, he's going to get out of that wheelchair, we're going to marry and grow old together, damnit! And we're going to be happy doing it!

That thought should've made me happy. It should've made me determined. But those feelings had barely settled in my heart before they were whisked away once more as I heard something.

It was the metalic clang of something made out of metal falling to the floor.

The fur on the back of my neck stood up as I suddenly didn't feel alone anymore. A soft moaning interrupted the silence, making my heart beat faster.

"Emily..." I muttered as I slowly turned around to face the rusted table behind me. The moaning had stopped, but when I turned to look, I saw her head lifted to face me, as if she tried to look back at me.

"Sonic? Is that you... Help me... Please..." Emily begged me, one of her mangled hands reaching towards me.

I didn't move. I didn't react at all. I was too shocked to see that the corpse was still moving, still breathing and speaking.

"So... nic..." Her voice was barely audible, but to me it was still earsplittingly loud.

She reached over in an attempt to get to me, but only ended up falling off of the table. The metal instruments lying next to her falling off aswell.

"Emily, don't move!" I told her once I finally got myself to move and approached her, going to my knees next to her for as much as I could with my broken leg.

"Help... Me... Hurts... So much... Pain." Her voice kept repeating as she reached up and took my jacket in a tight grip, as if clinging onto it for dear life.

I was at a loss of what to do or say.

She was going to bleed to death at this rate, but I couldn't get her to a doctor. I didn't even know where I was, how was I supposed to bring her there? Maybe there was something here that I could use?

"Hurts... Pain... Help me.." She still kept repeating over and over again.

"Listen, Emily, I need you to let go of me, understand?" I asked, but she didn't listen as she practically crawled on top of me in desperation for help, for atleast a little bit of ease on her torn body. Her weight and my broken leg made me tumble down on my back.

I was so preoccupied with her wellbeing that I never noticed the newly joined presence in the room until the soud of ripping flesh reached my ears before blood came spewing out of Emily's mouth, covering my face and chest with the liquid. She gurgled one last time before falling down on my chest lifeless, in turn giving me a look of what stood over us.

It looked like something ripped right out of a nightmare. It adorned a short blade, somewhat longer than a hunter knife, as replacement for his right arm. Both of his legs had been replaced with painful-looking metal prosthetics. He wore no clothes, instead blood from several of his own wounds and blood from his victims soaked his skin and the few patches of hair he had on top of his head. The red liquid dripped off of a white cloth, or what used to be white, that was disorderly wrapped around the stump where the rest of his right arm used to be.

His bloodshot eyes moved from Emily's lifeless form to look at me and my heart skipped a beat in fright. His arm drew back, ready to strike. Fearing for my own life I quickly pushed the corpse off of me and jumped backwards to the door, his blade making a metal clang upon contact with the floor. I used the wall for support to get back up on my feet.

The being, what I could only call some sort of experiment, regained it's balance and focused back on me. I jumped out of the way when it tried to stab me again and I nearly fell because of my leg. My eyes quickly scanned in the room franticly. I needed something to defend myself with.

Something shiny, metal and sharp caught my eye and I quickly grabbed it, only to discovered that it was a stupid scalpel. But it was better than not having any defence at all.

I jumped back just in time as the blade came rushing towards me, barely scraping my skin. I stumbled down to the ground as a short stool stood behind me that I had noticed before. I grabbed one of its legs and send it flying towards the experiment to buy myself some time to get to the other side of the room. I was getting further and further away from the door in my attempt at staying unharmed. Well, staying less harmed than I already was.

The experiment yelped and whined in pain when the stool hit it in the face and hunched over, placing it's only hand on his hurting head.

While it was preoccupied with his pain, I quickly bolted for the door as fast as I could with my leg. By the time he figured what I was doing, I grabbed the door knob and pushed the door open before slamming it close behind me and limping down the hallway.

It wasn't until my leg was practically screaming in agony and my adrenaline had faded away that I stopped to take a breather. I searched for support at a nearby wall to spare the hurting limb for atleast a little while.

My break was cut short as I heard a yell. My head turned to look from one end of the hallway to the next.

"Oh no." I muttered as I couldn't see anything in this darkness. The yell could mean anything. But after what I had witnessed in that tourture chamber, it's most likely nothing good.