Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise or any characters associated with the franchise. All rights belong to SEGA. I also do not own anything from the SpongeBob SquarePants franchise. All rights belong to Nickelodeon and the late, great Stephen Hillenburg. These references to existing franchises are not my intellectual property, and no financial gain is made from this nor will be sought. This is purely for entertainment purposes only.
Please note that I wrote this story when I was a kid, so keep that in mind while reading. Enjoy!
Chapter 1 - A Labyrinth of Doors
"W-where...am I?" I wondered aloud. My vision was completely obscured by a thick cloud of mist, so I had no way of knowing where I was.
That's a good question, a disembodied voice replied, likely from deep inside my head. Just a few minutes ago, you were falling asleep. Now, your mind is on a journey...a journey through a multi-level maze, designed to resemble a video game. You'll be defeating enemies and locating keys to unlock the maze's deeper secrets, and I wish you the best of luck with your adventure...if you survive, that is. Mwahahaha!
At last, the mist cleared, and I found myself in a small, dark room that resembled the dungeon of a castle. The walls, ceiling, and floor were made from brick, and the only light source was from a flickering torch positioned on one of the walls. In front of me, there were five large doors. The leftmost door was unlocked, and the other four were locked with big padlocks and chains. In the corner behind me, there was a wooden trap door. Lastly, part of the floor began to glow bright-green, and I realized that the word "START" was painted on the ground, indicating that this room was the starting point of the maze.
"I wonder if I could escape this way," I muttered as I tried the trap door behind me, but of course it didn't budge, no matter how hard I pulled. "What a silly idea," I spoke, sighing shortly afterward. "I guess I have no choice but to go through the door on the left."
As my eyes adjusted to the dim light, I began to notice that there were signs—no, letters—above each of the five large doors. The unlocked door was labeled A, the door to the right was labeled B, and it continued until the last door, labeled E. I turned around and looked at the trap door behind me, which was labeled DA. So I have to go through that door after going through D, but before E? I wondered. But how will I end up back here after venturing through each door? Do I walk back the way I came? Or will those keys I heard about teleport me back here?
I shrugged my shoulders, and with a look of determination on my face, I proclaimed, "There's only one way to find out!" And with that, I inhaled deeply and walked straight towards the door labeled A.
After turning the doorknob, I walked through and timidly closed the door behind me. I looked ahead, and all I could see was a carpeted, well-lit hallway with curved walls. I followed it, and after a 45-degree turn to the left, a 225-degree turn the right, and 90-degree turn to the left, I nearly tripped over a step, stumbling into a room that looked sort of like the starting room, but the walls were completely covered with sharp iron spikes (with the exception of a doorway in the far-right corner). A sign above me read "SPIKE CASTLE".
"Hmph," I frowned, and cautiously, I began to walk across the room towards the doorway, the spikes posing no threat whatsoever. Once through the doorway, though, things took a turn for the worse. A short section of the hallway had spikes from the floor to the ceiling on both sides, and that section began to close in, the spiked walls sliding towards each other to crush whatever may be in their path. Two seconds later, the walls opened back up again, then there was a three-second pause until the walls closed once more. I crouched down, preparing to sprint. Right as the walls opened up, I bolted through the section as fast as I possibly could, reaching the end just in time before the spikes would have crushed me to death. It wasn't over yet, though, because a series of spikes that pointed towards me were slowly moving from side to side, with a very small, narrow opening in between them. Thankfully I was very skinny, so I simply turned sideways and squeezed between them with some room to spare.
As I turned another corner to the right, I thought that this area was done, that the key would be right there so I could grab it. After all, I did narrowly escape being crushed to death between walls of spikes. But just as I blinked...
"Arrrghhh..." A low growl sent a shiver down my spine. A strange monster, with the head and abdomen of a zombie and the tail of a shark, began to flop towards me across the stone floor like a fish out of water. With its arms, it lashed out at me, but I jumped out of the way just in the nick of time. It was then I noticed that its breathing was very ragged, since it had gills on its cheeks.
Wait a minute, I thought. Don't sharks die when they're out of water for an extended period of time? But how can it die if it's a half-zombie? Zombies are already dead!
Without warning, the half-zombie/half-shark creature let out a wail and flopped onto its stomach before it stopped moving altogether. The room fell silent, with only the thumping of my heartbeat filling my ears.
"Well, that was too easy," I said with a grin as I stepped over the monster's motionless body. I came across a door at the far end and opened it, eventually entering a room with nothing but a single glowing key floating the air. I took it with my fingers, and a voice said, "This is the Aqua Key. Door B is ready to be unlocked."
The next thing I knew, the world began to spin, my vision was consumed by a flash of white light, and I landed on my feet, back in the entrance room. I looked towards the second door in the row of five, labeled B. As soon as I slid the key into the lock and turned it, the lock and chains just faded away, like in a video game.
Upon entering through this door, the first thing I noticed was that the floor was covered in a layer of water. It was so thin and still that everything was reflected in it like a giant mirror. With every step I took, the reflection rippled slightly, and I was totally mesmerized by it. A sign that read "Aqua City" was seen in the reflection, oriented the other way so that that it was right-side-up in the reflection, but upside down in reality.
After turning a corner, I noticed that the entire room appeared to be underwater. The ceiling was made of glass, and I could see the eerie, green glow of sunlight trying to reach me through the rippling water above. A soft wail was heard from nearby, and it sounded like that of a mermaid or siren. I turned my head, and there was nobody in the room.
Suddenly, the room began to rumble, causing the water both below me and above me to ripple even more, and a pair of stone doors in front of me started to creak open, revealing a room with a large, deep pool.
Curious, I walked towards the pool's edge, and I looked down. Suddenly, a huge shape sped upwards from underwater, and a mako shark breached the surface, doing a graceful somersault in the air before plunging back underwater. As I watched the shark descend back to the depths, I noticed a door that was deep underwater. Somehow I would have to go all the way down there in order to grab the next key.
I noticed a full-body chain mail suit hanging on a nearby hook, and after putting it on, I grabbed a metal pole and dove into the pool. Immediately, the shark rocketed straight towards me like a torpedo. Even though I knew I was taking a huge risk (mako sharks can swim at 45 miles per hour, after all), I somehow managed to whack it in the gills with the pole. The shark recoiled, and I used that split-second window to deliver a good kick to its snout. Once the shark was relatively still, I quickly massaged its snout and flipped the shark upside down, completely immobilizing it.
Once I caught my breath, I immediately began swimming downwards as fast I could, the shark still paralyzed above me. Fighting the urge to simply swim back up and get the heck outta the pool, I awkwardly twisted the underwater doorknob and entered an underwater room, where another key floated in place.
"This is the Skunk Key. Door C is ready to be unlocked," a voice said as I grabbed it, and just like before, the world spun around and I landed in the entrance room once more. The chain mail suit and the pole were both gone, and I was totally dry.
After unlocking and opening the third door, I immediately gagged as a foul stench filled my nostrils, and I hastily pulled my shirt up to my nose. I entered a large octagonal room with black-and-white striped walls, and there was a rotating statue of a skunk right in the center.
"Welcome to Skunk Hall," the statue spoke. "Have a stinkin' good time, kid!"
"Well, you sure know how to make me feel welcome," I said sarcastically as I crossed the room, reaching a pair of double doors at the far end. The stench grew even stronger as I walked down another twisting, turning hallway, and to make things worse, I had to pass through what was known as the Fart Barrier. I sprinted through the Fart Barrier (which obviously had a very stinky odor), and I found myself in another large chamber. There was a single door nearby, but before I could reach it, the door opened, something scurried out, and the door closed before the click of a lock was heard.
That "something" was a skunk. Go figure.
"My name is Stella," the skunk hissed. "Welcome to my home. It smells wonderful, doesn't it? Well, sorry to say, kid, but your journey shall end here. Ready...aim..."
Stella turned around and began to spray me! Immediately, I began to cough, and my eyes began to water, and Stella had scurried through a small hole completely out of sight.
Still reeling from her attack, I hastily turned the doorknob (thank goodness the door was now unlocked), and along with the key, there was a gigantic bathtub filled to the top with tomato juice. I jumped straight into the tub, and tomato juice splashed onto the floor, but I didn't care. I just wanted that awful smell to be gone.
After a good soak, I walked towards the floating key, certain that once I re-entered the starting area, I would be back to normal. I hesitantly took the key with my right hand.
"This is the Fart Key. Door D is ready to be unlocked."
"SERIOUSLY?" I shouted as the world spun around yet again to take me back to the start. "OUT OF ONE STINKY ROOM AND INTO ANOTHER?!"
I was not ready AT ALL to enter this next world of noxious odors, but if I really wanted to finish this maze, or labyrinth, or video game, whatever the heck you wanna call it, I realized I would have no other choice. At least I no longer smelled like skunk spray, and at least I was no longer dripping from head to toe with tomato juice. Upon crossing the threshold of this next area, I held my breath...only to realize that I was in a plain, sterile hallway.
The hallway turned to the right two times, and then I emerged onto a platform with a cannon aimed at some kind of portal. There was a large sign nearby that read "Stinky Fart World".
"Oh dear, so there's more to come after all!" I moaned, realizing that I had to go inside the cannon. I crawled in and curled myself into a ball, and without warning I was launched through the portal...straight into a gigantic butt crack! This butt hadn't been wiped, apparently.
A sudden gust of wind launched me out of the butt crack as it farted loudly, and I sailed through the air...straight into an even bigger butt crack! This butt let out an even worse fart, launching me into a third butt crack, which of course was even bigger and smellier than the previous one.
This next fart sent me swirling through the air like a fallen leaf from a tree, and I landed in the biggest butt crack of all, the Stenchgantor. However, this particular butt did not fart just yet. The butt relaxed, allowing me to crawl inside and retrieve the key that was hiding there.
"This is the Rodent Key. Door DA has now been unlocked," a voice said as I grabbed the key.
Door DA? What is that one again? Before I could ponder any further, the Stenchgantor let out the biggest, loudest, nastiest, and smelliest fart of all time, launching me straight through a portal and back to the entrance room once again.
Once I regained my bearings, I scanned all five doors, realizing that they only went from A to E, with no DA in sight. Suddenly, it hit me.
"Door DA...that's the trap door that was behind me, right?" I uttered as I snapped my fingers. I turned around, and sure enough, the trapdoor was still there, waiting to be opened. This time, when I lifted it, the door easily swung upwards, revealing a steel ladder that descended into a dark hallway below.
I climbed down the ladder, and I started walking down a short hallway that only had one left-hand turn. The area that I found myself in was called Rodent City, and there were lots of trees, plastic tubes, and food for the rodents to munch on. Mice, rats, squirrels, and chipmunks squeaked, chirped, and chattered, and hardly paid any attention to me as I walked across the room towards the door at the far end. I opened it and came across a single squirrel that was VERY angry.
The squirrel leapt up and began biting and clawing all over my entire body, and as the rodent continued to go berserk, I frantically looked around for something, anything, that would help me get rid of it. Through the dim light, I saw the silhouette of a shelf on one of the walls. I ran towards it, and there I found a squirrel trap, a pair of rubber gloves, and a huge jar of peanut butter.
Quickly, I grabbed the trap, which was like some sort of metal cage with a ramp leading up to the top, put it on the ground, opened the jar of peanut butter, and smeared its contents on the trigger plate. The squirrel immediately leapt off of me, ran for the peanut butter, and triggered the doors closed. I had successfully trapped a squirrel!
With the threat gone, I ran towards the door at the far end of the room, and as I expected, I found the next key floating in midair.
"This is the Doom Key. Door E is ready to be unlocked."
Just like before, I watched the world spin around, and a flash of white light blinded me for a moment before I ended up in the entrance room yet again. There was only one door left now, the door labeled E. Hoping that this would lead to the end of the maze, I unlocked the door and went inside.
Author's note: Hi everyone! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of this story. I wrote it many years ago as part of an English assignment, which in turn was inspired by a drawing I had made when I was even younger. (You can see the first part of it in the story's cover photo.) Please feel free to review, and as always, stay tuned for more!