Chapter 16

Upon entering the porch of the mansion, Tails found the door frame empty, just as Sonic and Knuckles had left it. He felt a rumble in his stomach. He realized he hadn't ingested anything but coffee for the past few days. But he was too hard at work to even worry about eating. Only keeping himself up to continue working. He felt like he was about to lose it again.

His drowsy mind suddenly remembered. Sonic was supposed to meet him here. But unsurprisingly, he had run off, presumably deeper into the mansion. Tails turned on the Miles Electric, quickly calling Sonic. Sonic's ringtone played. Sonic the Hedgehog, you can't catch what you can't see... It sang. Tails sighed, irritated. He hated this song. After a few seconds, Sonic picked up.

"Hey, Tails!" Sonic exclaimed, after a brief static. Odd.

"Sonic, where are you?" Tails asked. "I just arrived at Green Hill. You need to come to the entrance!"

"I'll be right there, bud!" Sonic stated. There was an accent in his voice that Tails didn't notice until after he said those words.

"Sonic, are you feeling alright?" Tails questioned Sonic. "You seem a little off."

"Yep, never better!" Sonic exclaimed again. He held up his thumb and closed his eyes while smiling. His eyelids were the same color as his skin. Tails immediately jumped back.

"Hey, you're not Sonic!" He cried. Someone else wouldn't have noticed this slight change in the few seconds it was visible. But Tails did. He knew Sonic better than anyone as far as he knew. "What have you done with Sonic?"

"Hey, buddy. Calm down," The thing imitating Sonic said softly. He blinked, this time, his eyelids were as blue as always. "Is everything okay? Your mind playing tricks on you from all your sleep deprivation?"

Tails blinked, his face confused. "Maybe..." Tails whispered. He looked away slightly. "Sorry, Sonic... it's just been a long few days."

"It's okay, Tails," Sonic assured him. "We all make mistakes. Anyways, you should come in. We need to look for Knuckles. I'm in the study area. It's right in the center door. Can't miss it."

"Alright," Tails agreed. He nodded. "Meet you there. Don't move. See ya."

Tails powered off the Miles Electric and put it in his backpack. He walked inside the house. An awful smell emanated from the room on the left, piercing Tails' nose like a needle. "Gross!" He gagged, turning away and covering his nose with his hand.

Walking further into the house, he opened the door to what Sonic said was the study. The one in the center, forward from the entrance door. Opening it, he found nobody there. "Seriously, Sonic?" Tails mumbled. He facepalmed. Multiple times. Sonic had run off again.

Then, a sudden crash. The door fell over with a slam. Sonic ran in slower than normal. His feet and legs didn't even blur together. He appeared to be holding a Pocky, which is the common nickname for a Mobini rabbit. "Tails!" He cried.

"Sonic! What happened?" Tails asked, as he stared at the Pocky. It seemed limp in Sonic's hands as he held it. Its eyes were closed in a state of permanent terror and its mouth was open, revealing its buckteeth. It looked dead. "Oh my God..." Tails said, his voice trembling as much as his arms.

"I swear I found it like this, Tails!" Sonic cried. He fell to his hands and knees. Tears slowly fell from his eyes. "I was planning to run out of the house and find it help, but... you're here!" Sonic got up, shaking his tears out of his eyes and smiling. He latched onto Tails' shoulders, with the Pocky still in his hand. Tails shuddered upon the Pocky's still warm touch. "Please, you have to help it!"

Touching a corpse was much different from touching a living organism, Tails learned that day. You could tell by the feel of it that it was deceased, while a living organism has a type of spark to it. A spark that lets you know it's alive. This wasn't.

"What am I supposed to do?" Tails asked. He looked up at Sonic in fear. He was the medic for the Resistance during the two months and two days he was involved during the war, and he did wonders with his machines for wounded soldiers. But he wasn't prepared. He had left the workshop in such a hurry. He didn't have time to bring his tools with him! He----

"You eat it," Sonic said. He cut through Tails' thoughts.

"I... what???" Tails asked after a brief moment of silence. He couldn't believe what Sonic was asking him to do. There was still a chance Sonic could get this Pocky to a hospital and try to revive it with a defibrillator, or a 1-Up Monitor. But the clock was ticking. Tails pulled the Pocky away from Sonic. "I would never do something like that! Why would you even suggest that?!" Tails cried.

"Well, we won't be able to get it to a hospital in time. What, you think I'm fast enough?" Sonic asked, mocking Tails. He blinked. Skin colored eyelids. Tails' blood ran cold. "It's suffering in there, Tails. Put it out of its misery. You're a predator at heart, you crave meat. I'm just some herbivore." Sonic smiled.

"You're not Sonic!" Tails cried. Sonic would never say anything this imposter just said. He was the fastest thing alive. He believed in Tails. He would never ask anybody to hurt a live animal. And he certainly wasn't a herbivore. After bouncing into the imposter and knocking him back, he flew away with the Pocky in his arms. "Get away from me!" The blue hedgehog that looked like Sonic didn't pursue. Instead, he watched as Tails slammed and locked the door in his face.

Tails ran to the entrance. But somebody had closed it off. Skidding to a stop, he ran towards the door with the dent on it. But it was locked! He didn't want to go into the room that had the horrible smell coming from it, but moreover he didn't want to go back to the room with the thing attempting to steal Sonic's image in order to lure Tails into trusting it.

Tails took a deep breath, and ran towards the room with the bad smell coming from it. He turned the handle, and, with a mix of relief and dread, he opened the door and dashed in. He shut the door behind him and locked it. As soon as he did, he heard the other door open. Then, frantic footsteps as the imposter ran towards the door to the room he was in.

The hedgehog knocked on the door gently and calmly. "Tails," The hedgehog called. "Come out, Tails. I was just joking about before. You know how I LOOVE to joke, right?"

"Go away!" Tails cried. He lied the Pocky on the floor. And put his face in his hands. The smell was putrid, and his fear unimaginable. His stomach rumbled.

"Tails, you can't stay in there forever!" The hedgehog snapped. The knocking became more frantic and hard. "Sooner or later, you'll give into your desires! You'll eat that poor Pocky and I know it. You're a monster for not letting me try and get it help! We're not friends anymore!"

Tails cringed away. He couldn't tell whether to open the door or not. He couldn't call anyone for help, as the Miles Electric was on some sort of fritz. That's right, the interference from the house! Tails felt so stupid. He had been awake for days on end, he hadn't eaten in forever. He looked over to the Pocky. There was no hope for it now. It was long deceased.

Tails felt gross about what he did days later.

He had given in to a primal desire inside of him. He had eaten the Pocky. He bit it off with a nasty crunch, and chewed it. He let the blood, meat, and hair alike wash around in his mouth. Then, he swallowed. It went down his throat, and into his stomach.

When he threw up pieces of the dead animal, he took to the unprepared meat infested with maggots and mold that was spilling out from the minifridge. He had to... and would... eat anything he could get his hands on. Blood spilled out of his mouth and ran down his face. The problem was, he liked it. He wanted more. But there was no more.

He had taken a dusty science book off of the shelf and started reading from it aloud to himself, to drive away the deafening silence. "When the environment around an organism begins to change, the organism will change with it in a process called evolution. Through evolution, behaviors can change. Appearances can change. Even new species can be born from this process." Tails chuckled weakly. He sighed as the smile fell from his face along with the book from his hands. "I-I already knew that..."

Tails looked at himself in the screen of the Miles Electric. Then, he watched as the screen of the Miles Electric faded into the frame of a mirror in a silver, fancy ballroom. The walls were black and seemed to stretch out forever. The smell from the previous room carried on into this one. He saw a ripply Sonic in the mirror. "I've... I've always wanted to be like Sonic." He said to himself. "I wanted to be like him so much, that I... I trapped myself in an eternity under his shadow."

Tails breathed out sadly. "Even when I proved myself to be a hero, he didn't believe me. I was always just his sidekick. He treated me like one until I just became one yet again," Tails looked away from the mirror in shame. "Even when Phantom Chaos appeared, I couldn't save myself. Even when Sonic was dead, I had to rely on another Sonic to save me."

Tails looked back to the mirror. Sonic had disappeared, and in his place stood his own reflection. It smiled at him menacingly. Then, it walked away. Tails was left in the dark room.

Meanwhile, on another plane of reality, Tails was lying on his side on the ground. His fur had darkened, as well as his eyes. They were stuck in miosis, where the black part of eyes would shrink. He foamed at the mouth as he got up. He felt like a new person. But somewhere, deep down inside, he knew he had to find Sonic. For what reason, his now feeble mind couldn't conjure up.

His purpose now was to eat, feast, and kill.

Continue to Chapter 17