"Do you happen to live here?"

"Yes, I do. I have a bedroom in a hallway that's always lit up. Spirits who are afraid normally come to me for help."

"Uh, huh..." I responded. Spirits who are afraid? Heh, seems unlikely.

"Oh, I must warn you, the spirits don't like the quiet. Just every now and then whistle, tap your foot, or talk to yourself. They really enjoy company." Tikal smiled and went in that lit up hallway she was talking about.

Something tells me that today's gonna be a really interesting day.

And Amy hadn't responded to my texts yet. I know how she is, probably on her way to find me as well. I told that pink hedgehog to stay put, although that might not've been the brightest thing to do. Tails isn't the best hedgehog sitter either. Once during a lightning storm, he tried to eat me when we were hiding in my empty closet.

Amy's on her way over here, leaving that poor fox at her creepy voodoo doll house. I swear, that woman has more than five hundred plush toys of me, probably on that bed staring at a large cut out poster of me and on the bottom lay several figurines of me staring right back at the plushes, and if that wasn't bad enough, she has a clock the shape of my head, a rug the shape of my head, watches galore the shape of my head, candles that smell like me (I don't know how they even made that), multiple fake pairs of my sneakers, and slipper shoes that also look like them, a full body suit that's tailored to her size, and many, many, many hammers.

Yes, I went inside her room.

I regret everything.

"Huh, this castle isn't as bad as I thought." It was purple, with black and white checkered flooring. Tiny wall candles were lit, spreaded out evenly. I thought I saw a blue one as well...

Just walking around the "living room" made everything have an eerie feeling. Cold shivers were sent up my spine multiple times. My head started acting like a security camera, observing everything. Giggles could be heard from a distance. Figures keep appearing in the corners of my eyes. Blood on the-

Wait.

Blood, fresh blood, on the ground.

And I stepped on it. It, meaning a heart.

A real, beating, er, used to be beating, heart.

This wasn't here before. I looked behind me and Tikal's hallway seemed farther away than it looked. Maybe the ghosts are making me hallucinate... Or, maybe-

Laughter was all around me. Walls were closing in. My head pounding, feet numb, vision blurring. I felt like I was on fire at one point until someone tapped me on my shoulder.

I flinched so hard, I fell on a random couch.

"Yeah, I forgot to mention... They really like to tease newbies."

"Maybe you should've told me a little sooner." I rubbed my fingers against my temple, trying to soothe an invincible headache.

"I see you found the "headquarters."

"Yeah, well the, "headquarters" has a real, dead heart in the middle of the floor that I just stepped on."

"... Um-"

"Let me guess, the spirits played with the dead body and tore out all of its organs and spreads them about wherever they so choose?"

"Yes, and no." She took a seat on a chair that was across where I was sitting. "There is one spirit who's been really aggressive lately. I try to speak to it when I can, but there's no progress. I'm afraid I can't change it. Every day it brings back victims of its last killing spree. I have a hunch it's coming from where you live. And-"

"Was that there before?" I interrupted her, pointing to a far away wall. I know I wasn't seeing things this time.

"I don't believe so. It also likes writing on walls and doors with its victim's blood." Tikal walked over to the blood-stained wall. "There is no escape. You can't hide forever." She read.

Or someone else did.

That voice wasn't hers. It sounded like a guy's, except, very demonic. The room started spinning. Blurred voices were talking. A pair of red eyes stared into my soul. The laughter showed itself. I saw it. I saw-

"Sonic? Sonic, wake up, please!"

I rose from whatever I was laying down on. The room changed. It was no longer purple, but yellow.

Tikal's bedroom.

"You fainted on the ground. Approximately five minutes have passed. You were muttering that you saw "it"? What did it look like?"

"What did what look like?"

"You saw the spirit, yes or no?"

I didn't have a reply to Tikal's question. Everything I saw earlier was a blur, like having a realistic dream and you faintly remember it the next morning.

"I-I think so." I rose out of the bed, but instantly went back down as I felt the room doing 360 flips and twirls.

"You're still recovering." Tikal turned around and grabbed a china bowl. "Here, drink this soup." She held it up to my muzzle.

I looked at it and gagged.

Chunks of Amy's fur was in the bowl, along with pieces of fox meat, and is that my tail?... In a sea of blood.

I must've spilled the bowl or something, because Tikal shrieked in horror at what she saw.

I hope it was the soup.