Chương 31: Chapter 31
Sonic opened the door at the end of the hallway, leading back to the room that had what he now called the stormroof. Walking around a hole in the ground, with Sonja simply floating over it, Sonic hesitantly placed the key... in the door...
Something was seriously wrong with him. He felt like something horrible was behind that door. If he were to open it... he would have to face it. He experienced mild tremors in his arms. He imagined Zavok behind the door, ready to beat him down and trap him there forever. He imagined an eternity of confinement and torture. He imagined that Zavok would kill Sonja on sight.
He sneezed. As he did, he heard the key drop from his hand to the floor. It made a cling, clang, as it hit the ground and moved into an open sore in the floor. "Damn it!" Sonic cried. He jumped onto the floor and skidded on his stomach, trying to grab the key. It hurt bad, but the key fell right through his grasp.
"Oh nooooo...!" Sonja cried. Something told Sonic she didn't understand the true gravity of this situation. That key was their ticket forward! Without so much as a second thought, Sonic jumped over the fence and into the abyss after the key.
Sonic realized only after he acted what he had just done. He had basically just jumped to his death. But he knew he'd find a way out of this. He had to. He'd get the key and... figure something out.
Sonic quickened his descent into the dark void. He heard whispers the further he went down. It felt like as he went deeper and deeper into the hole, he was going deeper and deeper into someone else's head. Or, he could be plummeting to Hell. The whispers said things like...
"You'll never escape this place! You're doomed to be here forever just like us!"
"Petty little hedgehog. So this is why it happened??? This has to be some sort of sick joke.
"Sonic, I told you to stay where you were! You've always been so stupid!" Tails barked. Maybe he wasn't descending deeper into someone else's head, maybe it was his own. Maybe it was his own madness.
"You conniving cretin!" Eggman yelled. "You're supposed to be a hero, and you didn't even save me! I hate you, hedgehog!"
"I did try to save you, Eggman!" Sonic cried, as he lost control of his fall. The voices had thrown him off. He spun in circles, upside down, and all around. The walls stretched further and further apart. "You didn't give me a chance, you wouldn't just... you wouldn't just stop! Why couldn't you have just stayed the way you were?! Before we started fighting?!"
"You're a fool of a knight!" Caliburn stated. "What did I tell you? A knight never lets down his guard, and you just threw all my teachings away. I am ashamed of you."
"Worthless. Don't show your pathetic face around me ever again."
"Wow, Sonic... I know what it's like to have your eyes on the prize, believe you me, but that was as stupid a move as ever from you!"
The key grew further and further away in the brief instances where Sonic could see it. It didn't seem to be reaching terminal velocity. But Sonic felt as though he was slowing down by the second. He kept falling, however. His vision blurred together as he felt the contents of his stomach coming up his throat. He swallowed and forced it back down.
"Sonic? Why did you always run away? I used to love you, but now I see you for the fool you truly are!"
"FROGGY, WHERE ARE YOUUUU???"
"Why are you not dead?!"
"It's no use!"
"Finally. I am the one true Sonic."
"Pathetic. Curl up into your little ball and die. Or I will make you. I will bend your bones to my will, strip you of your flesh. Then we'll see who has the last laugh."
"You realize this is it, right? You will never truly escape." A deep voice said
"Sonic... why couldn't you find me?" Knuckles asked.
Sonic opened his mouth to speak, but the sound of wind blowing into his face overpowered his voice. He only heard muffled bits and pieces, and it wasn't even what he was trying to say.
"Back off, all of you!" Sonic's voice snapped. But Sonic wasn't even moving his mouth anymore. "I try, I really do, but I can't stand all of you useless friends! I don't want to be friends with you people anymore!"
Sonic watched as the key plummeted further down. Voices of his friends and enemies alike screamed in his ear, eventually mixing together in what sounded like some foreign chanting. But amongst it, Sonic heard a voice cut through the others like a knife. "SONIC!" Sonja cried. Overhead, he could see Sonja flying down towards him faster than he himself was falling. To Sonic's surprise, she plummeted right past him in a blur.
Had Sonja betrayed him too? Figures...
Nope. She quickly floated back up towards Sonic. She had the key! She swooped down under Sonic after showing him the key, catching him in her arms. It felt weird, but comforting. At least someone was on his side here.
Not all was sunshine and rainbows, though. As Sonja carried him back up, a giant gloved hand and arm much like Sonic's came up from the abyss, stretching itself out. It reached for Sonja's ghost tail, hoping to pull her and Sonic down into the abyss with it. But Sonja sped up quickly. It grabbed at thin air before continuing its pursuit.
Sonic and Sonja could see the storm overhead. They had almost made it! But the hand was catching up quickly. Finally, the two got to the top. The hand tried to follow and... it fell to the floor, limp, with a THUD. Looks like it outstretched itself. It slithered back down into the hole.
"... Thanks for the save there..." Sonic murmured.
"Yeah, no problem..." Sonja murmured back, breathing in and out.
Continue to Chapter 34
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