Sonic was running through Green Hill Zone late at night, sweat was dripping from his brow and his legs burned with exhaustion. He could see the silhouette of his house in the distance, just a few more minutes of running and he would be home, he would be safe. Behind him, he could hear the angry shouts and smell the gunpowder from behind him, if he stopping running for even a second, he would be caught and killed. He knew that.
Sonic finally reached his front door, he threw open the door, rushed inside the house and slammed the door behind him, locking the door as he ran into the house. Sonic was panting from his burning throat, his legs wobbly from running so far for so long, he didn't even know how he got into this situation, all he knew was that something started chasing him so he started running. It was just now that Sonic had realized that the house was completely dark, no lights were on and the house was also completely and utterly silent, almost scarily silent. Sonic slowly started walking through the house, using his hand to scale the wall and guide himself through the dark house.
Sonic kept slowly walking through the house, the house was still dark, the house was still completely quiet except for his own footsteps and creaks of the hardwood floor. "Tails?" "Amy?" "Anyone?" Sonic whispered out but there was no response which made Sonic even more uncomfortable than he already was. Sonic kept sneaking through the house until he reached the kitchen, Sonic could faintly see something laying on the ground, Sonic squinted through the darkness, stepping forward into the kitchen.
Sonic let out a surprised yelp as he slipped and almost fell over, once Sonic had steadied himself he looked down to see what he had slipped on. Sonic was confused to see a red liquid stained onto the bottom of his shoe, Sonic felt a chill run down his spine as he saw a trail of red lining the kitchen floor and red splattered the kitchen wall.
And then he saw Tails, and then Amy, laying face down in a pool of crimson, not moving an inch. Bullet holes smeared in red riddled both their bodies. Sonic started to tremble as tears pooled in his eyes, he dropped to his knees as strained whimpers escaped his throat. Sonic crawled over to Tails, giving the body a gentle shake to no response. "Tails...wake up, wake up please, I can't... I can't do this alone..." "Why, why wasn't it me?" Sonic murmured to himself, his voice shaky as lined with tear induced hiccups. Tails body was so cold, even if the two had spent hours playing in the snow he'd never felt anything as cold as Tails currently was right now.
He'd stepped in blood, he'd stepped in his friends blood.
Soft whispers and the sound of a gun being cocked from behind him made Sonic whip around, his vision blurry from tears. All Sonic could make out in front of him was the shine of steel, he found himself staring down the barrel of a gun.
*End of Nightmare*
"GAH!" Sonic shrieked as he shot up in bed, his body trembling and his eyes clouded with tears. Sonic was breathing in short frantic gasps, it took Sonic a few seconds to remember where he was, he was in the G.U.N protected hotel, in his hotel room, on Earth. Sonic wiped a cold sweat from his brow, backing up on the bed until his back smacked against the wooden backboard, Sonic wiped tears from his eyes with a trembling hand, slowly getting his breathing under control.
"Fuck...c'mon Sonic...breathe...breathe." "You're safe, you're safe, it's okay." Sonic thought to himself, even though he didn't believe it. Sonic slowly pulled himself out of bed, glancing over at the digital clock on his bedside table, "8:29 am" the digital dial stated. Sonic let out a yawn, stretching as he did. "I need to get ready for the day, I should start with a shower since I don't really want to leave the room right now." Sonic thought to himself as he walked over to the hotel rooms bathroom.
*About 10 minutes later*
Sonic had taken a hot shower, brushed his teeth and straightened out his blue quills but he still couldn't put the nightmare out of his mind, the bad dream stubbornly clinging to the outskirts of his mind. "I got lucky today, that nightmare wasn't too intense, they can always get worse." Sonic thought as he finished putting on the red shawl that Amy had given him when he caught a glimpse of the city below, the city, much like him, was just waking up. Cars and buses were starting to fill the roads and people were starting to pour into the sidewalk, people going for a morning run or morning bike ride, people getting into their cars and calling taxis to get to work.
The sun seemed to be hiding from the world, peeking out from behind the skyscrapers, anyone else would think it was beautiful. And it was beautiful, Sonic had to admit that, but when he looked down at the city, he didn't find it inviting or fun, in the past he saw Earth as one giant adventure for him to explore, now it just made him scared. On Earth, anything could happen to him, anyone could hurt him and there was a chance no one would care.
Sonic didn't hate Earth or want to destroy it, he just didn't feel safe on Earth, he couldn't wait to get off this godforsaken rock and never come back. It has been a day since Sonic had met up with the council of humans, after the incident that happened there Sonic was given a day to recover and calm down from what was said before giving his testimony. A knock on the door to his hotel room caught Sonic off guard, Sonic walked over to his door and looked through the peephole, he was surprised to see Eggman standing on the other end of the door. Sonic opened the door, much to the mad doctor's surprise.
"Sonic, you're awake already?" "I thought you might have just woken up." Eggman explained, "Heh, it's alright Doc." "No harm no foul." Sonic grinned. Eggman just now noticed that the dark bags under Sonic's eyes had gotten darker, Sonic had been plagued with eyebags since the beginning of his madness, some days the eye bags were faded and some days they were more prominent. The darker the eye bags were usually indicated how bad the nightmares were getting. "Did you have a nightmare?" "You have bags under your eyes." Eggman asked, Sonic was surprised, he knew he had eyebags but he didn't know they were that noticeable. "Uh, yeah I did." "Thankfully it wasn't too bad this time." Sonic sheepishly replied, rubbing the back of his neck.
Eggman stepped into the hotel room closing the door behind him. The duo walked over to the bed and sat down. "You know what day it is today right?" Eggman asked, Sonic nodded solemnly, he knew that today was the day he was going to give his testimony against The President. "Yeah, I know." Sonic sighed, nervously fiddling with the gold brooch that held his red shawl together. He was afraid for many reasons, fear of the unknown, fear of potential consequences. But he was ready to do it, he had to do it, he wanted to do it, he was ready to give his testimony and put an end to this nightmare once and for all. "I'm nervous, I guess, but I'm ready." Sonic declared, Eggman put a hand on Sonic's shoulder comfortingly, "I know you can do it." Eggman said, "Thanks Eggman." Sonic smiled, it was nice to help him along the final hurdle.
Sonic and Eggman talked for a few minutes before leaving the hotel room and going downstairs, where a G.U.N appointed taxi was waiting for Sonic, the taxi was going to take Sonic to a private, off the beaten path building where Sonic could safely give his testimony. Sonic arrived at the building after a few minutes of driving, Sonic walked into the building, two G.U.N bodyguards trailing behind him, they were there for his protection. Sonic was stuck in the building's waiting room for a few minutes until a G.U.N agent called him into a small room.
In the room there was a large wooded table with two chairs sitting across from each other, a box of tissues and a tape recorder were sitting in the middle of the table. Sonic sat down on one side and the G.U.N agent sat down on the other side, turning on the tape recorder as soon as both of them had sat down.
"Hello Sonic, before we start I need to ask a few things, just for standard policy's sake." The G.U.N agent said, "You understand and consent to your audio testimony being used against The President in the upcoming trial?" The G.U.N agent asked. "Yes, I understand what I'm doing and I consent." Sonic said, "You consent that the contents of this audio testimony will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?" The G.U.N agent asked. "Yes, I promise to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth." Sonic replied. "Alright, with the standard policy stuff out of the way, let's start at the beginning." "Would you mind telling me how it all started between you and The President?" The G.U.N agent stated, motioning for Sonic to begin talking.
"Alright, it all started about a month ago, The President messaged me through his personal communication line and told me he wanted me to meet up with a few agents of his in a private meeting." "Back then I still trusted him and since it was through his personal communication lines i thought it was safe so I listened to him." "I met up with him outside of a big grey office building late at night with two other humans. The President introduced them to me, he said they were special agents that worked for the government." "The agents had fancy badges and were really kind to me, i never had reason to doubt any of them." "Me and the two agents got into a dark purple limousine while The President stayed behind and they started to drive with me in the backseat." After a few minutes I realized something was wrong, we were going in the wrong direction they were driving in the opposite direction of the White House."
"I asked them what was going on but they didn't answer me, they just kept driving." "The windows suddenly blacked out and I couldn't get the doors unlocked, a weird smelling gas started to fill the backseat, I tried to escape but I passed out after that and woke up in a pitch black cell, in some kind of huge prison-like place." Sonic said, his body and voice trembling, he bit his quivering lip in an attempt to fend off tears as painful memories started to flood his head. "And, what did they do to you in the prison?" "Did they...torture you or threaten you in any way?" The G.U.N agent asked, visibly shaken up by what he was hearing.
"Torture, threats?" "Where do I begin?" "They...would drag me out of the cell and into an interrogation room every day, it was normally two of them, but sometimes it was three or even four." When I was there they would threaten to kill me, kill my friends, attack and invade my home if I didn't answer their questions." "They wanted to know the secret of my super-speed powers, the location of the Master Emerald, how Mobian society worked, I didn't tell them anything of course." "When I refused to tell them anything, they would...oh god...th-they would beat me until I was bloody and bruised all over, sometimes with their fists, sometimes with a pipe or a stick..." "They would slam me up against walls and strangle me, electrocute me with jumper cables...burn me with cigarettes...make me go without food for days on end...force feed me alcohol, when I would spit it out they would just force my head back and pour more down my throat until I threw up...I can't-it hurts just thinking about...oh Chaos no..." Sonic whimpered, dissolving into tears towards the ends, hiding his face with his arm and turning his head away, tears streaming down his cheeks and soft whimpers emanating from his mouth.
The G.U.N agent uncomfortably slid the box of tissues over towards Sonic, "I'm...sorry to hear that all happened to you Sonic." The G.U.N agent muttered, unsure of what to say. Sonic took a tissue from the box and wiped his eyes with it, sniffling slightly. "Thanks..." Sonic replied softly, after taking a minute to collect himself he continued with the testimony.
"So, how have these experiences affected your life?" The G.U.N agent asked. "I-um, I can't sleep, I'll lay awake in bed in the middle of the night for hours, listening to every little sound as I wait for something to jump out at me, even though I know I'm safe." "Even though I know that I'm safe and nothing will hurt me, I get nervous and jumpy whenever I'm home alone and I can't stop looking over my shoulder even though nothing's there." "And then the nightmares, oh Chaos the nightmares, I can't go without having at least one or two nightmares a week." "The nightmares vary, sometimes I know I'm home when I wake up but other times the nightmares are so vivid it takes me a solid minute or two just sitting there in a cold sweat before I'm able to recognize where I am..." "I can't sleep, I'm scared to sleep out of fear I'll have a horrible nightmare..." Sonic said, blinking away tears.
"I see, thank you for your time." "You're very brave in doing this, I applaud you Sonic, thank you for your testimony, this will be put to good use." "We should have an update for you in a day or two." The G.U.N agent said. "Thank you." Sonic said, the both of them stood up, the G.U.N agent turning off the tape recorder.