Chapter 55

Sonic opened his eyes. Again, he was transparent. He looked at everyone else. Transparent too. Pico was asleep in Sonja's arms. They were in front of the house in the forest. A shadow crept its way across the ground. When Sonic tried to look at the source, he saw nothing. And his eyes hurt a little. He decided to look away.

Everything in his vision was grayscale. But he could see the sun in the distance, suggesting that it was daytime. It was also snowing. Sonja didn't so much as look at him or Pico. She only looked at the man next to the shadow, and a younger man as he walked into the house.

"So this is it!" The same voice of the person who slapped the other person way back in the mansion said. The woman. "Here is where you'll be staying until you can continue."

"Thanks, I really appreciate it!" The man exclaimed, joyously. He had a short, brown beard on his chin. He had on a snow jacket, to protect him from the harsh cold of winter. He looked and sounded about fifty years old. "Yeah, my son and I definitely couldn't keep going in weather like this. We'll continue our hike later. But thank you so much! What was your name again?"

"Marilyssa. Marilyssa Orglace," The woman responded. Sonja cringed away derisively. She was the opposite of how she had been when they traveled back to when she was a child. But Sonic couldn't tell why. Everything seemed fine and these people were getting along great.

"Oh, yeah... well, thank you so much, Marilyssa!" The man exclaimed. He was incredibly thankful. Sonic thought that the woman... Marilyssa... had let the man and his son stay due to the harsh snow. What a nice gesture.

The scene faded away to the inside of the house, in the dining room. Sonic's vision became grainy like a VHS tape. Also like a VHS tape, little glitchy specks climbed their way up his vision, eventually snapping out of sight. The man from earlier was there, as well as the shadow. It stretched across the walls.

"Marilyssa... why, Marilyssa?!" The man shouted, his voice breaking under sorrow. He held up an analog gun. The shadow put up its hands.

"Now, Baxter... we can talk this out..." The woman's voice said. There was the impression of a smile and a giggle in its voice. The shadow held up its hands. "Put the gun down, and I'll find Ken for you..."

"No, you shut up!" Baxter (the man) shouted. "Shut the fuck up! I know what you did to him, I saw it with my own eyes! I trusted you, Marilyssa..." The man sobbed. "I trusted that you were a good person, at heart, even when I saw what you did to those animals! But I was WRONG, wasn't I? I let my son walk into your trap, but I won't do the same... I'll kill you and end your horrific 'experiments'... Prepare to die, you horrible, horrible woman!"

Baxter's hand trembled, he went for the trigger. You could tell he didn't want to do it. Already, from his stance and hesitance, Sonic could tell the type of person he was. He was merciful, and kind... but Marilyssa had done something awful. Something unforgivable. She had hurt his family.

"It was all fine... why'd you have to bring my family into your experiments?" He sobbed. He fell to the ground on his knees. Sonic could feel the shadow grin. "Why???" He raised his hand from the ground. And went for the trigger once more. A gunshot sounded, blasting into Sonic's eardrums.

But it wasn't his gun. There was now a hole in Baxter's head. He fell to the side, and his gun fell from his hand. He had an expression of shock on his face, as the tears fell from his bloodshot eyes. Blood pooled out of his head.

The room filled with smoke. Looking over to the source of it, Sonic saw a gloved hand holding a gun identical to Baxter's. Smoke flew up from the gun. Looking at the hand, it was attached to a white dress. Looking up, he saw...

... It was Sonja...

She had a blank expression on her face, almost, unregistering what she had just done. Sonic turned to the real Sonja and caught a glimpse of her looking at the ground. Pico had woken up and begun to scream at the sight.

Tails and the deer just kind of... stared...

Sonic looked back at the other Sonja. The one from another time. She fell to the ground on her knees, as she threw the gun against the wall. She began to scream as her eyes went into miosis. She gagged while screaming, as tears fell from her shocked eyes. She put her hands to her mouth. She had just killed someone.

She continued to scream, as Marilyssa laughed. She laughed so hard. She took a lamp from the desk behind her and threw it at Baxter's corpse. It shattered, leaving glass around him. She went into a laughing fit. She lost all control as she danced around. The shadow bounced from side to side.

Looking back to the real Sonja, she was trembling. She gritted her teeth, as Pico continued to scream and cry. He stuffed his face into Sonja's arms as he too trembled. Tails and the deer looked to Sonja. She looked away from them, and over to Sonic. She had tears running down her face.

Then, everything cut to black as the sound of a VHS being ejected played in Sonic's ear.

Continue to Chapter 56