Chapter 79

"What is this place?" Knuckles asked, looking around at their reflections. They twisted and bent. Stretched and squashed. The mirrors were long and were in the place of the walls, floor, and ceiling. "Whoa! It's like Twinkle Park!"

"Looks like... a hall of mirrors?" Sonic asked, handing Pico to Sonja. Pico was getting very heavy. "I don't know... this might have been better for the carnival." This brought up the question. Who in their right mind had a hall of mirrors in their house? Something wasn't right.

And then, the reflections began to move on their own.

Pico noticed first. He was intrigued by what he thought was this magical room that could make doubles of him and his new herd. And his family, Sonja and Sonic! But then, his double in the walls vanished. Pico squeaked, and pointed at where his double was. "Oo! Oo!" He cooed. But nobody understood him. Sonja didn't even look. Pico became frustrated that no one was listening to him. So he screeched, flailing his arms at the wall. Sonja, curiously, looked down to him.

"What's wrong, baby Pico?" Sonja asked. In her perspective, Pico was just throwing a tantrum. He was definitely angry about something, feeling it was unfair. But for the life of her she couldn't tell what. So she just continued floating forward.

That's when her reflection, too, disappeared. She did notice this, out of the corner of her eye. Instantly, she turned around. This caught Sonic, Tails, Buck, and Knuckles' attention. They watched in fear as all of their reflections slowly drifted off of the wall and onto the ceiling.

"Whoa..." Knuckles gasped. "What are they---?" Suddenly, Knuckles felt something hit him across the face. The sound of glass shattering accompanied the sensation. Knuckles felt beads of blood form on his face and trickle down his cheek. "Gah!"

"Knuckles!" Sonic exclaimed, looking at his friend, who was now clutching his face with his gloved hands. Sonic didn't have time to react before he felt someone kick him. It wasn't just a feeling either. His head was knocked back along with the pain. "Hey, what gives?!"

Sonic could see that their reflections were now dancing across the walls, ceiling, and floor. Sometimes they'd attack, and no matter where they were, their real counterparts could feel the pain and suffered the fallout of being attacked. Soon, everyone had been defeated. Not killed, just not in a position to fight. They lied on the ground, bruised and beaten. All but Sonic. And Pico, who dropped from Sonja's arms and landed on the ground on his rear end.

Pico started to cry as the pain shot through his backside up his spine. He whined, shed little salty tears, and rolled back and forth on the ground, unable to move properly. Sonic looked at this poor baby, who had had his sense of belonging and safety shattered. Sonic knew what he had to do.

Sonic had heard before that breaking a mirror was seven years bad luck. But right now, he didn't have time to worry about conspiracy nonsense. His son was in trouble. So, he instantly ran up to the mirror, knowing it was the only thing he could do. He charged up a punch, and...

Hit the mirror.

Nothing happened to the mirror, but Sonic felt the feeling of his wrist breaking. Although he was sure this couldn't be the case. Just a feeling. But it did hurt, sending him falling to the ground writhing in pain. He inhaled sharply.

Pico lowered his hands from his eyes, still silently sobbing and gasping for that sweet, sweet air between his crying fits. He looked to his new herd, all defeated. Sonja was reaching for him, but soon fell to the ground, her power gone. That's when he realized that the magical doubles of his new herd were behind him.

"Piiiicoooo...." They sang in scary, unfamiliar voices meshing together, wiggling and twisting unnaturally into horrible monsters. "Come here... be with us..." Pico whined in refusal, shutting his eyes to make the terrible things go away. "Pico... we love youuuu..." They grinned from ear to ear as they looked down at him hungrily.

No. No. This was all wrong! Pico opened his eyes and whimpered, looking at the things pretending to be his new herd. Then back to the real ones. He was starting to not be able to tell the difference. He was confused. Scared? Yes, very. Hungry. So very hungry. Lonely. All of these horrible, but not at all new emotions had been boiling up in him forever. Since he was born.

He just wanted them to stop. He wanted to be happy, without a care in the world. As a baby should. He wanted it to be simple. He wanted to drink milk, eat grass, play with things he shouldn't, maybe even sleep a little. But he can't. Why not? Because people were out to get him and the people he loved. It was all so frustrating. He just wanted to make them all go away...

The reflections turned into his other family. Momma, Poppa, Tico, Rico, Cico. All of them were here for Pico. And Pico only. Pico looked to where his new family was, but they weren't there. Sonic, Sonja, Tails, Buck... the new one Pico thought was named Chuckles. They were gone.

Pico gritted his gums. He got up on his two back legs, and stumbled around a little. Balance on these things was still relatively new to him, but he felt he could manage now. He looked at Momma right in the eyes. She smiled unsettlingly and craned her head forward, her neck stretching towards Pico. Pico put his arms to his side, leaned forward, and screamed at her.

All of that anger, contempt, newfound angst. It was all let out through Pico's mouth and trunk. The sound was ear-splitting. The mix of a trumpet and a scream echoed throughout the hall of mirrors. The mirrors began to crack. The creatures stuck inside them backed and cringed away. Then, they looked at Pico in his eyes.

"No! Stupid child! What do you think you're doing?!" The fake Momma growled in a deep voice unlike anything Pico had heard before. Pico just looked at her in the eyes, his breath growing thin. But he called forward more energy from somewhere deep inside of him. Inside his heart. He was confident that he would stop this beast from taking away his friends. His herd. His family.

The more he screamed, the louder and higher in pitch it grew. "Stop! You'll break the mirrors! No! NO!" The reflections of Pico's old herd shouted in unison, in the same voice as the mirrors began to break. "I'll kill you! I'll kill you, you stupid deranged animal! DIE! DIE!"

The reflections reached out towards Pico, their arms stretching out of the mirror. A black ooze grew on the mirror as the hands left the mirror, revealing their true forms. Dead, scraped arms stretching their thin skin. They wailed and screamed from beyond this mortal realm as they reached for Pico. Pico continued to take his stand in the face of danger. He no longer felt fear. He was going to leave this horrible place. And grow up happy.

The mirror completely shattered, leaving Pico in a room in black carpet covering every corner of the room. The arms disappeared along with the reflections. He slowly ceased his scream, as he closed his eyes and plopped down onto the ground. He opened his wet eyes and looked around him. First, he saw the door everyone had entered through. But then, he turned his head to the left. There, lied his family! Buck! Knuckles! Tails! Sonic! Sonja!

Pico gasped in a high-pitched voice. Tears of joy and relief flooded his eyes. He Spindashed over and jumped into Sonja's open arms. She floated upright as Sonic jumped up with a BWOOP and hugged Pico and Sonja close.

"Great job out there, dude!" Sonic congratulated, looking at Pico and petting the tuft of hair on his head, slowly making his way to Pico's ears and scritching them. Pico closed his eyes and cooed.

"Pico! Aaaaaah I love you so much!" Sonja screamed, as she nuzzled her forehead against Pico's. Pico spat out happy gibberish as he flailed his limbs around joyously.

"Whoa... the little guy really did it!" Knuckles exclaimed to Tails. Tails could only smile at the sight before him.

"Hmph..." Buck sighed, looking away and crossing his arms.

A door opened on the other side of the hall. This caught Pico's attention. He pointed towards it, jumping up and leaning on Sonja's shoulder while wagging his tail. "Oh, let's go!" Sonja exclaimed.

Everyone ran towards the door. It was an elevator! The door slid closed behind them.

DING.