"The Pendrive"
My name is Thomas Miller, and I am 23 years old. This is my story.
I had a good childhood growing up. I played a lot of games that shaped me into the kind of person I am today. One specifically will be the main focus of this topic. A certain blue hedgehog who needs no introductions or explanations.
A while back, I moved out of my old man's place to get out of the city and move into an old home out on the countryside. It wasn't that I was kicked out or anything. My relationship with my folks are and still remains pretty alright. It was just that crime rates were a bit of a concern for me (also yeah covid being a bitch and all) and I didn't want to risk getting mugged or murked by some drugged out whack job any time I went to work.
So yeah, tl;dr fuck new york city.
My past few jobs didn't exactly make it all that easy for me either. Pizza Hut, Best Buy, Target? They didn't pay much. At least at the ones I worked at. But trust me when I say saving money can do miracles for your future.
Anyway I packed my shit and headed out and settled into an old cabin that was built in the 40s. I wasn't able to get much info on it at the time (unfortunately) so I had to make due and do some rearranging which thankfully only took like half a day. It was the weekend and my uncle Derek decided to use his time off to help me move. Specifically with getting a new refrigerator and a Television (cable and internet included fuck yeah). He considered it an "early birthday gift" and wanted to make sure I stayed safe. His relationship with my mom isn't exactly the best but that's because he looks out for me I guess. He always told me "all you need is a TV and a Fridge to survive the winter".
As for the house itself? It was "ok". It was in acceptable condition. 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 2 porches, an attic, a shed, a closet, etc. It was what you expected. The good news is that it had a fireplace. You don't see those nowadays.
Thanks to my phone I wasn't entirely alone to talk to and share news with. My old Latino college buddy Kyle had been in touch with me on discord ever since then. his username? "M3cha_b0i_303" with a name like that, I'm just waiting for the day he comes out of the closet so I can say "I fucking called it".
While I talked with him, I decided to take out my laptop and set it on the desk available in the bedroom. That was when something occurred to me, I didn't check to see if any of the drawers were empty.
I wasn't sure who lived here beforehand but I was damn aware they weren't the best when it came to cleaning and proper management. It was mostly as I expected. Rubberbands, paperclips, printing paper, staplers, etc. The standard office equipment shit. Nothing special...
...at least.. until I opened the front drawer. There was a bunch of flashdrives laying inside. I was under the impression that whoever lived here may have forgotten to pack these. They seemed to be a bunch of flashdrives. Colored ones specifically. Almost every color of the rainbow too. One seemed to stand out to me, a blue usb with the letter "S" on it written in sharpie for some odd reason. That was an eyebrow raiser for me. I decided to take it out and take it over to my laptop I down put on the kitchen table. (It was charging so i was already good to go)
After I boot the thing up and slid it in I did some digging and found 4 folders that caught my eye. There was a folder called "my blue hero" and it was.. to my surprise...filled entirely of old official sonic the hedgehog art. Some of it being concept art as well.
Another folder was called "memories", I clicked on it and saw a majority of them featured a young girl with long blonde hair and glasses who was either enjoying time with her family sightseeing or playing with her pet dog. one of them was a Christmas picture. She appeared to be holding a Nintendo DS and a copy of Sonic Rush happily. The next picture was of her birthday cake with classic sonic on it. Her name was on it and she had just turned 14 years old. The year was 2005
"Happy Birthday, Sharon!"
My eyes widened a bit. My curiosity grew even more at this. I was positive someone lived here now. I knew because the house i moved in was visible in the background in some of the photos. The only logical conclusion I had was that "Sharon" accidentally abandoned something that was important to her. I kind of felt bad and clicked out of the folder to lurk some more.
The 3rd folder seemed to be a collection of exe files with it being titled "my projects". from how it looked, it seemed that sharon developed a hobby and had became a sonic game dev. My surprise was clouded by a sense of unease as I felt genuinely weirded out while looking at the file names.
"retribution"
"freedom"
"savior"
I clicked the first one and it took me to what appeared to be the title screen for Sonic 2. A few details about that seemed off to me was how it skipped the animation with the star twinkling and sonic and tails appearing. "Sega 1992" was completely absent for some reason. Strangely enough, Tails wasn't even in the title screen. it was just.. Sonic. He was in the center of the emblem like in Sonic 1. The music was slower than usual. You know how in the PAL version of Sonic 1 the music tempo is slowed down? that's the best way I can describe it. It wasn't exactly bootleg-tier but it just felt.. "empty" to me
Strangely I wasn't given an option to play as just Tails or Sonic with Tails. Just Sonic. I was under the impression this was a 16-bit remake of the master system game at first but my expectations were subverted instantaneously as I saw "Emerald Hill Act 1" pop up and heard the memorable tune play. Little to nothing was seemingly changed about the zone up until act 2.
Eggman didn't show up this time. Sonic just kept running. My fingers got tired a few seconds later and I let go. Sonic didn't stop. It was actually a cutscene. He stopped in his tracks and the screen scrolled to show some new faces. At first I thought it was Tails but as I looked closer the sprite looked more feminine and different. It was a fox girl with yellow fur and wearing a dress similar to Amy's, but light brown. I could barely make it out but next to her body appeared to be a pair of glasses. The mobian-like characters looked like more vicious versions of the fox bully duo who made fun of Tails.
I was well aware this wasn't in the original game. This was a hack Sharon made. But why? My curiosity raised even further after what happened next. Sonic's expression became more serious and angry. The bullies suddenly stopped and ran for their lives after recognizing the blue hero before their very eyes.
Sonic sprinted after them and the classic death sound played twice. Yet, Sonic's life count remained the same. There was one thing going in my head:
"Did Sonic just fucking kill those guys?"
The silence was broken immediately as "SONIC GOT THROUGH ACT 2" appeared on the screen and the "act clear" jingle played
I wasn't sure what to make of this. Were those her ocs? Why did Sharon replace Tails with this other Fox character? This just raised further questions for me. As soon as chemical plant started, I was shocked to see that the Fox girl stood by Sonic. Tails' role in this game was taken by her entirely. But.. why though? I played through the rest of the game and it was basically the same as the original for most of the game. The only difference between this fox girl and Tails was that she didn't use her tails to fly.
The keyword here being "most".
I spent some time getting all the chaos emeralds so I could go Super Sonic. By the time I reached Mystic Cave zone I was already done and blasted through the other levels with ease. Strangely enough, after I collected the 7th, Instead of "NOW SONIC CAN CHANGE INTO SUPER SONIC" it said "NOW SHARON CAN HAVE HER HAPPY ENDING"
Sharon...? Was the game talking about the fox girl? Is this some self-insert fantasy?
My curiosity grew further. I had to see how the rest of the game was altered. Right up until Metropolis Zone, things started to differ from how the original game played out again.
There were skeletons of dead flickies floating in the lava with empty badniks next to the edges. That weirded me out for a few seconds but the realization hit me like a truck.
"Jesus christ..." I muttered to myself
I knew flickies were used as batteries for Eggman's robots but I never thought about what he did with "dead batteries".
Standing next to the edge for a few seconds triggered an animation of Sonic and the fox girl to look down at the lava with their eyes widened and looking visibly angry.
It was an odd yet interesting detail to me and Sharon seemed to be pretty passionate about adding extra story elements in the game.
I wasn't unfamiliar with sonic fans sneaking adding shit like this in their fan games so I shrugged it off and kept going.
Sky Chase, Wing Fortress, and Death Egg played out pretty much the same. How the scenery looked, however, was a different story. Sky Chase no longer took place during the day. It was a starry rainy night, and the clouds were much darker now. There were a few lighting strikes every couple of seconds too. It was pretty as hell ngl but it was distracting and nearly gave me a seizure. The music was untouched.
Wing Fortress was the same too. Same music and same scenery. The only difference being that it was raining now and the start of the level.
After the Tornado was shot down, Sonic and Sharon jumped out. The Tornado exploded as it fell and the duo went on their way. I didn't stick around to think how they'd get back to the surface safe and sound. My top priority was finishing what I started.
After I beat the Wing Fortress boss and grabbed onto Eggman's ship alongside Sharon, I prepared myself for the Death Egg Robot. What I wasn't prepared for was to see a line of text flash across the screen with the warp sound playing
"THE MADNESS ENDS TODAY, OLD MAN"
This message seemed a bit out of place and it sure as hell did not come across as something Sonic himself would say to Robotnik.
...Did Sharon have some personal beef with the mad scientist? The thought ran through my head while I stood there listening to the death egg music for a couple seconds like an idiot. This hack was raising further questions by the minute.
The bosses played out normally with very differences. I still had plenty of lives to spare so it took me a bit to beat the Death Egg robot. After I beat egghead once and for all, I expected the Death Egg to start detonating on the spot. But something unexpected happened instead. Robontik jumped out of the robot and started running. Sharon spin-dashed after him. The death sound played again like before. You didn't need to be a genius to understand what this was implying. After that cutscene ended, Sonic started running with Sharon following suit. The usual slideshow with Tails firing up the Tornado to save Sonic wasn't there this time. Instead it showed Sharon falling scared for her life, with Sonic grabbing her hand and giving her a confident smile and thumbs up like he's saying "good job, kiddo". He held on to her hand and right as the song was nearing its climax, Sonic went Super and carried Sharon safely back to the ground. It then cut to credits like usual.
As they played, I took a quick step back to take a piss and grab a beer from the fridge. I felt a bit underwhelmed over how little about the game was altered, but the feeling of curiosity remained unchanged. But what I saw after the credits ended weirded me the hell out.
The words "thank you for playing!" were on the top of the screen. Below the screen however was a disturbing sight. Robotnik's body was laying on the ground. His head seemed to be bleeding like his skull was fractured. On the left and right sides were the impaled eyeless decapitated heads of the bullies from the start of the game on. The stakes seemed have some bits of blood dripping down the wood.
"Holy shit..." I said under my breath. I exited out of the game and got out my seat to take a breather and think about going on with this, I knew this wasn't a virus or some shit but it caught me off guard. Sharon seemed to taught herself to do sprite art and used her talent to.. live out some sort of self-insert fantasy of hers.. It was really fuckin weird but I decided to shrug it off as "standard sonic autism" and let it slide. Curiously, I looked at the clock on my phone and it was already 6 PM. I decided to take a small break, take a shower, and make myself some coffee. I even messaged Kyle and told him about the flash drive. He didn't seem all that interested unless it was nudes or some liveleak shit. I swear the crap he says sometimes can be a real fucking eye roller.
I sat back down with my coffee by my side and resumed my investigation. I didn't waste any time. I clicked on "freedom" and a new window popped up. I was greeted with a low quality "SEEEGAAA" chime. To my shock, it brought me to the title screen of Tails Adventure off all sonic games. But immediately I felt a sense of unease as I analyzed it. The words "Tails" seems to be nothing but a mess of code. The "Ad" and "S" in "Adventures wasn't visible for some reason. It just read "Venture". The fact that the music played normally and "press start" flashed normally did not do me any favors. Did Sharon have some sort of grudge against Tails? What was with the distorted alterations? The weirdest thing I didn't realize until the last second of analyzing was that there was usually a small cutscene of Tails sleeping in a forest only to be awoken by the island being set ablaze by the battle kukku armada.
I only played that game a few times on gems Sonic Adventure DX a couple years back but I remember vividly that was supposed to happen. Here it just... cut to the main game. "Tails' House" was now just "Home". The menu felt less... lively than it did in the original game. The clouds remained frozen in the air, there was no flowing animation whatsoever, and the birds on the bottom left side were completely absent from the menu. The cheery music was unavailable too leaving me with just dead silence. The only rational explanation I had was that Sharon got lazy or she was trying to make the mood more dreary.
I went to start the Poloy Forest and AGAIN I was greeted with Tails' sprite being altered! This time it looked like Tails was just wearing the attire Sharon had in that weird Sonic 2 hack. She had both of Tails' namesakes for some reason. Talk about a half-ass job. She probably rushed this one.
The music played normally like in the original game. The graphics and visuals (so far) were unchanged. I moved Tails(?) to the left and traveled through the burning forest. Jumping over tree trunks, avoiding spikes carefully, pushing rocks around. Thankfully the controls and actions were left unchanged so I was able to drop bombs like normally. Like I said before, my memory of playing this game is pretty hazy so I didn't really remember much about the original aside from this stage. The stage was surprisingly long and had a very small number of enemies.
You may be wondering why I said "enemies" and not "kukkus". That's because they were absent entirely. In their place were badniks. or at the very least, they seemed to be. Their designs seem to be heavily modified to look like something Robotnik 100% would create. Bird-like and robotic. Any remote trace of the actual kukkus were seemingly removed from the stage, possibly even from the game itself. My unease turned to curiosity again. I had to see where this was going. When I reached the third act of the stage I finally reached the boss and to my surprise, Robotnik was there! his mech looked like a fusion of the bird walker and the egg-vhc-001 from Sonic CD when you get to Palmtree Panic Zone 3.
The fight began and I didn't hesitate to start dropping bombs on Robotnik. Trying to do any damage was almost impossible because of the bumpers bouncing the bombs at me and knocking me back. The flamethrower gave me trouble too as sometimes when I even try to get close Eggman managed to burn me. "Tails" began to look weak as the fight went on and on. Soon badniks started coming from both sides of the screen. I was being cornered and I knew damn well Tails had limited flight in this game so that wouldn't work. I was shit out of luck. After throwing one more bomb Robotnik's mech launched a robotic arm from the front to grab "Tails" by one of his namesake and shook him around. "Tails" looked visibly scared for his life while at the Doctor's mercy. After a few seconds he did something I didn't expect to see. He slammed "Tails" into the dirt and knocked him(?) out. Completely unconsciousness now. What happened next solidified my belief that these weren't any normal romhacks. The screen then cut to black and transitioned to a shot of "Tails" being held captive in Robotnik's lab. Looking heavily damaged and bleeding from his head and some other parts of their body. And.. one of his(?) namesakes were missing. Pixelated blood was visible on the floor and wall. After a few seconds it faded to black and the normal game over screen appeared. I was so fucking taken back by this I decided to close the game and go splash some water on my face.
I made the mistake of assuming "Sharon" was a normal programmer. I know some sonic fans like to make dark and unhinged shit with the sonic series sometimes but something about those hacks so far... they really just.. It doesn't feel like they're satirical at all. It feels like it's either trying to tell a story of some kind. There's all these dark themes going on and nothing was making sense to me! Why was this "Sharon" bitch obsessed with Tails so much?! What was so special about him that he has to be the main focus? All these questions overwhelmed me and I decided to close my laptop and call it a night for now. This shit was getting too weird and I thought it was best to save the rest of the investigation for tomorrow. I don't know why I did it, but I double checked to make sure my doors and windows were locked and secure. Maybe it was me being a pussy? Maybe I was paranoid? I don't fucking know I just didn't feel safe for some reason.
The next day I talked to Kyle about my findings. The following was our discord conversation. I had his permission to share this beforehand.
T-Zilla2800 : dude you one?
M3cha_b0i_303 : ye what's up faggot
T-Zilla2800 : some of the shit i found on this pendrive has been freaking me out
turns out sharon may have been a hacker and modified her favorite games to be something else entirely.
M3cha_b0i_303 : are they like that weird ass sad satan with the cheese pizza
T-Zilla2800 : god i fucking hope not man
the exe files so far seem "safe" but jesus this bitch has some weird thing for tails
M3cha_b0i_303 : she's not a shotafag is she?
T-Zilla2800 : NO i mean his sprite
his character!
she's been modifying him to look like some sonic fursona she made and it's fucking weird as hell she's even changing the plots of the games she's hacking
M3cha_b0i_303 : maybe she grew up being one of those retards from deviantart who made sonic recolors for fun
T-Zilla2800 : no doubt about that
she seems a bit too "passionate" about hacking
i'll probably send some screencaps later
this is an insane discovery and i don't know if "sharon" had any intention of putting these game online
if anything, i'm not sure if she even wanted anyone to see these
M3cha_b0i_303 : are you going to delete the files or take that shit to the authorities?
T-Zilla2800 : if I find anything illegal maybe
praying this doesn't fuck up my laptop as soon as I'm done with it
M3cha_b0i_303 : you'll probably be fine as long as you scan everything on that flashdrive and think twice before downloading anything suspicious.
T-Zilla2800 : I'm not retarded kyle
I know how viruses work.
M3cha_b0i_303 : aight stay safe fag
T-Zilla2800 : i will
L8r
I did what Kyle said and scanned everything to be safe (thank god). I wasn't going to risk getting my computer infected. I know I'm probably already playing with fire by fucking with something I shouldn't be seeing but as they say: "better safe than sorry".
It took me an hour to build up the confidence to march back to my laptop and finish what i started. I wasn't scared or anything but looking at the file "savior.exe" gave me a sense of unease. Taking a deep breath, I clicked on the file and I was welcomed with a dark blue screen with the Sega logo. I immediately knew what the game was. Sonic CD. It appeared to a rip of the lesser known 1996 PC port. The title screen was left unchanged. Sonic Boom was playing in the background the way it should. Unsurprisingly this version had the American OST I knew damn well to keep my expectations lowered this time and prepared for the worst.
Palmtree Panic at first looked to be left in tact. Not much was changed visually. The only things that really stood out was a slight increase in badniks, the lack of platforms, and... Amy Rose. She wasn't there. Usually near the end of Act 2 Amy will be seen and if you're close to her enough she'll start running around Sonic and hugging him if you let her touch him cutely. That didn't happen here. I didn't bother trying to deny something was wrong. It was already clear something was going on and something was going to happen. I pursued onwards preparing for whatever mindfuckery awaited me. I made sure to keep the time stones a top priority throughout the game. I didn't want to find out what the bad ends would show to me. Zone 3 wasn't really all that different. Visually speaking, it was the same. I led sonic straight ahead and stopped right at the edge of the ditch area with the ring monitor held up by pipes and was exposed to a disturbing sight. Some flickies on the ground, barely moving and clinging to life. This was very likely meant to be an inversion of the good future with the flickies flying freely in clean air. It was an eerie yet interesting detail that further puts into perspective how Robotnik's actions are a danger to Little Planet. Incase you're wondering, nothing about the boss changed. As usual it was piss-easy but Sonic looked visibly angry at Robotnik before and after the fight.
Collision Chaos was up next. As I expected, Amy wasn't present. The spikes Metal Sonic breaks through were gone, leaving a clear path for Sonic. Most of the game was left the same. I focused on collecting rings so I could get the time stones. I've only been able to 100% Sonic CD like this because finding and destroying the other robot transporters is almost fucking impossible. By the time I reached Stardust Speedway I had almost alll of them. Instead of "TIME STONES", getting the last one rewarded me with the words "NOW SONIC CAN SAVE HER" with the normal American stage clear music. A part of me thought this was referring to Amy and I strongly wanted to be right, but I knew better than to think this would end well. I went to go deal with Metal Sonic and beat him to Amy like usual. I beat him to the finish line and the door closes on him. The music went dead silent and I shown a familiar figure dangling from the pipe. It was that fox girl's unconscious body. I froze up for minute before I hesitantly pressed the jump to get her down. Sonic caught her and the normal "stage clear" results came up. It read "SONIC MADE A GOOD FUTURE" instead of "SONIC MADE A GOOD FUTURE IN ZONE 3". Obviously I had the impression that Sonic would make sure this girl would be taken to safety. His face had an expression that showed he had a good idea Robotnik was responsible for this. The screen faded and a line of text appeared with the warp sound playing like last time.
"He won't be able to hurt you anymore"
Before then I had been confused by everything the games had presented. Up until now I began putting two and two together and comprehended what was likely going on. These games aren't just average autistic fantasies Sharon has. There's no way she wouldn't have her sonic fursona be put through torment without an explanation.
Metallic Madness was next. Throughout Zones 1 and 2, Sonic looked determined. Because I had all the time stones, I didn't need to worry about collecting rings so my main mission was reaching the goal in one piece. Zone 3 was my final destination. Like all the good futures in the game, it was bright and colorful and full of life. All that work led up to this and I had to see how this ended once and for all. I struggled a bit through the cheap platforming section, got past the spike wall, dealt with the twin hotarus badniks, and got to the Egg Spinner. Each time I had Sonic strike him, Robotnik got more upset and attacked faster. I struck him one more time during the pogo jump attack and it was over for good. Sonic watched his mech explode in the air looking satisfied with cracking egghead once again.
Here's where things took an interesting turn.
Robotnik's Egg Spinner usually hovers off screen but here it stayed and exploded in the air, along with everything else. As it was exploding, a familiar figure arrived coming from the right side of the screen. It was the fox girl. She stopped and looked up at Robotnik's mech in disgust for a few seconds before jumping to strike him to finish him off. The screen froze on impact and it cut to black. I thought it ended there and was ready to close the game but it had one last thing to show me. The good ending cutscene played with the sparks showering across the land and turning it into a flowery paradise. Cosmic Eternity was played but something was wrong. It was a loop of Casey Rankin saying "Believe in yourself" over and over. Where "you're too cool!" is shown was now replaced with a very short message.
"No more"
I had enough. I closed the games and exited the folder. Nervously, I clicked on the 4th folder and was shown what seemed to be a list of audio files. it was titled "diary". In it were all mp3s that were numbered and given creation dates to them going as far back as 2008. There was a voice in the back of my head telling me to just erase the fucking files, and throw the damn flashdrive away but my curiosity kept getting the best of me. There was no turning back at this point. I could just end this investigation here and live in ignorance, but what good would that do? I had to get to the bottom of this once and for all. Hesitantly, I clicked on the first one, and it opened on windows media player and started. The voice sounded like it belonged to a teenage girl. Her voice sounded cheerful and tomboy-ish. She seemed to have a bit of an accent.
Entry #1 (12/26/2008)
"Alright so.. Hi! I'm Sharon! Sharon Kelley. I'm 16 going on 17 soon! My birthday is on June 28. I was born in 1991! I got a Nintendo Wii and my own computer for Christmas this year! I decided to use it to start my own digital diary! I really don't want to risk my parents finding out anything embarrassing about me so yeah.. better safe than sorry!"
Entry #2 (1/7/2009)
"Had a talk with my mom. Turns out we may be moving out to the countryside soon. It kind of blows because it means I won't be able to see my friends again until I learn how to drive! I guess I better remember to let my closest friends get a hold of my yahoo so they can contact me later"
Entry #3 (2/13/2009)
"I'm close to finishing high school thankfully. Turns out two girls who used to bully me got expelled a while ago. It's hard to say I didn't see it coming. Their names were Alicia and Rachel. I won't give out any details about them because the last thing I need right now is their dads getting contacting my family because of me giving out personal information. I'm tempted to do it out of spite but it's not worth it. Alicia pushed me down the stairs once and nearly broke my leg. She cried to a teacher who witnessed it happen that "she was just late for class" which was utter bull and she knew it. And trust me you do not want to be alone in the bathroom with Rachel. I cannot tell you the countless times she got on my case for how I dress. "Sharon what are you a damn hippie?" "Are those your daddy's hand-me-downs?" "Do you even dress yourself or does your mommy still pick your clothes for you?" At least I still have a mom, bitch. After all the torment those two put me through over the months, I hope they end up selling their bodies to the streets. Considering Rachel apparently gave one of the students a handy in a stall one time I won't be surprised if that happens."
Entry #4 (2/29/2009)
"My childhood memories are pretty hazy, even to this day. My mom was pregnant around the time she moved to America from Ireland. My earliest memory was playing Sonic the hedgehog 2 on my Sega Genesis. I think I was 7 at the time. I fell in love with the series since then. I even asked Santa to bring me a Sonic plushie as a present. He still sits on my bed. I remember throwing him at my closet as a kid yelling "SPINDASH ATTACK" anytime I heard a bump in the night while I had trouble sleeping."
Entry #5 (3/18/2009)
"My relationship with my father hasn't exactly been the best as of late. To be honest I don't it ever is, or will be. As far as I've known him, He's shown to be loud, vulgar, and have an ego the size of a mountain. He always looks disappointed anytime I tell him I want to get into sports. He tells me I'm more likely to get far in life on the force like him. Not only do I think I'd never use a gun, but God knows I'd rather jump off a bridge than waste my life backing the blue. Anytime I speak up about it he just shrugs off my beliefs as "going through a phase". Either he doesn't care what I have to say, or he just doesn't want to deal with the fact that I'm not interested in putting my life on the line 24/7. It's always what he wants. Not what I want. My mom says when I was 6, he took a cigarette he was smoking and gave my arm a burn mark because I drew on the walls. I believe her. Because even though I don't remember that.. the mark on my elbow is all the proof I need.."
I felt visibly uncomfortable hearing that last part. It was obvious at this point this young Irish American girl may have grown up in an abusive household and had dealt with constant verbal harassment from some students who went to the same school as her. My sense of dread was replaced by pity the more I listened.
Entry #6 (3/24/2009)
"Graduation Day came and I can't say it wasn't the greatest or the worst day of my life. I can't say I'll miss going to school but I'll definitely miss being able to talk to people about my problems. I was always scared to talk to the principal about home troubles, but I took every opportunity to make sure anytime I was bullied and harassed on school grounds was made known. To be honest... I feel like I probably should have risked it even if it meant getting the belt.."
Entry #7 (4/6/2009)
"My mother said we may end up moving soon. Fantastic. Now I may end up have to let go of the house I grew up in. I'm not sure how this can get any more depressing. She said it's because the house has been falling apart and the hoarding problem has been too much to handle. She's not wrong. I think it's been months since the last time my parents tried to tidy things up around here. My mom said she grew up in this house and her late father bought it around the time he got married in the 40's, so I guess it makes sense why this house feels like a dumping ground sometimes. It's old as shite. It's a miracle I can get to my room. I nearly broke my glasses tripping over junk while trying to get to the stairs."
Entry #8 (4/11/2009)
"I finally 100% Sonic Adventure 2 Battle and got all the A ranks after so long. I learned a while ago from a forum called "Sonic Retro" that doing that would unlock Green Hill Zone. I didn't know in-game rewards like that were a thing until now honestly. Incase you're wondering I 100% SA2 before a few years back. I was a bit upset about Sega going third party but I accepted it pretty quickly. As long as they can still make games that's really all that matters to me. It's definitely easier to play SA2 on Gamecube than the Dreamcast I won't lie."
Entry #9 (4/18/2009)
"My asshole dad broke the news to me. He looked up some houses around our area and found a nearby cabin house that was up for sale that was a couple miles away. He didn't hesitate to tell me to make sure everything is packed. He's really not interested in second trips. Whatever I forget to pack "isn't his problem" in his own words. My mom really does not want to let go of this house and my father isn't really the greatest when it comes to handling tears. I probably won't be able to make another entry for a while. Then again, I don't really have a schedule with these so.. I guess It doesn't matter."
Entry #10 (4/22/2009)
"It took some time for me to unpack and put my clothes away. Thankfully, I seem to have all my games and nothing seems to be lost. I'd probably throw myself down the stairs if any of them were missing. It's going to take some time to get used to living here. Don't get me wrong I LOVE nature! I love seeing deer, birds, and squirrels pop up around my neighborhood. It's just that there isn't exactly a neighborhood here. The only houses in the area are like a mile away. At least we have a furnace and a fireplace now."
Entry #11 (4/29/2009)
"The more I played Sonic the more I learned something about me. I relate to Tails a lot. He's young and deals with bullying and all kinds of conflict no kid should go through. And yet he pulls through and bravely handles dire problems on his own at times. I envy him. No one really ever stood up for me when I was pushed around and bullied by those skanks from my school. I was on my own every day and it effected me mentally over time. I don't have a "sonic" in my life. No one ever came to my help."
I was taken back by that last part and was now on the brink of tears. My suspicions were right. It all made sense now. Sharon made those modifications to Tails' sprites to look like her character to vent about how she just wanted someone to drag her out of hell. Someone that could've helped her. Someone like Sonic. If at least one person stood up for her, maybe things would have been different. I felt bad for her.
Entry #12 (5/3/2009)
"I haven't really been able to bring myself to get out of the house lately. I'm not sure if it's depression of lack of sleep. I started getting into coding lately and started playing with sprites. I saw footage of this sick Sonic fangame called "Sonic Megamix" and my mind was just blown away! There's a whole other world of sonic media for me to get into. I wouldn't mind doing something like that soon. writing my own story. directing my own project. making my own level designs. It all sounds so exciting."
Entry #13 (5/7/2009)
"Every minute I live in this house I swear I feel like I'm being held hostage. I'm probably putting my mom's life at risk just recording myself saying this, but she's told me she's tempted to grab me and flee from here while he's sleeping. There's a reason she hasn't tried to do so sooner. It's because he has a gun. She's scared shitless. I'm close to calling the police. Ever since he got fired for being unprofessional and abusing his power, his attitude worsened. Long story short, he was called in to investigate a possible drug carter down in Brownsville and shot some guy's dog in a fit of rage after no one was willing to co-operate with him. As a result, for the time being. he was fired and is now out of a job and possibly blacklisted. This isn't the first time he acted like a monster towards pets. He used to kick a dog we used to own anytime it misbehaved. He was a border collie named Igor. To this day, I just know he was lying out his ass about him dying from old age. I know dogs only live up to Thirteen or Fourteen, but he was only seven. SEVEN years old. He started drinking more and became much more angry, threatening to hit my mother if she raised her voice and "gets smart with him.""
Entry #14 (5/12/2009)
"I've been having some strange dreams lately. I wouldn't say they're nightmares, but they were without a doubt strange. This most recent one unnerved me a bit. I had a dream I was walking through Emerald Hill and appreciating the environment. The more I walked, the foggier it got. I didn't stop walking for some reason. At a certain point I started to see someone or something in the fog. I yelled out to them and asked who they are. They seemed to be whispering something. I wasn't able to make out what they were saying."
Entry #15 (5/21/2009)
"He had her arrested. He got. My mom. Bloody. Fucking. ARRESTED. I feel sick and mortified. The bastard got into a fight with my mom and told the authorities a false story about how she was planning to kill him. He didn't say a word to me about it because he thinks no one will believe a child. Sociopathic cunt."
Entry #16 (5/23/2009)
"I finally got the hang of programming and making sprite art. I think I'm ready. I have a good Idea of what kind of hacks I want to make. Something that reflects how I feel. I want to tell my story."
Entry #16 (5/25/2009)
"All future recordings are being done while he's sleeping. I can't risk letting him know. It's 3 AM right now and I'm sacrificing sleep to get this out. I'm trapped and alone with this monster of a human being. I'm hesitant to even try and sleep because I fear he'll do something foul to me while I'm asleep, So I'm taking safety precautions and keeping my door locked until morning."
Entry #17 (6/4/2009)
"I had another dream again. I was laying on a beach somewhere. I could hear the sound of waves around me. It felt so real to me. I wandered around a bit and saw someone or something in the distance at the edge of the path I was going down. Their silhouette looked familiar and I ran to see who it was. Behind it looked like a jungle. I finally got up close and the figure finally came into view. I'm probably going crazy but.. It.. It was Sonic! He looked similar to his portrayal in 06 and Adventure. He turned to face me and smiled. I was ready to breakdown on the spot. Sonic looked me in the eyes and said something to me. I think he was.. whispering? My memory is fuzzy but.. all I could make was him saying the following:
"What's wrong kid? Daddy Issues?"
That's when I woke up. The first thing I saw was my Sonic plushie on my shelf. I'm sure it was a coincidence but.. It was really weird."
Entry #18 (6/9/2009)
"It's a miracle I can still go downstairs and get food. I don't bother even looking at him anymore. I just act like he isn't even there. half the time I even bother to bat an eye he looks drunk. Figures. I miss my mom so much. I wish she was still here. The one person in my life I know that matters most to me. And he took that away from me and I may never see her for a long time unless my aunt can manage to bail her out."
Entry #19 (6/11/2009)
"My sleeping schedule has been messed up lately. I can't really help it. I've never felt so scared and defenseless in my life. I have to take sleeping pills and pray I wake up. The last time I raised my voice to him he threatened to "leave me on the streets to rot like a cheap whore". I shouldn't have to live like this. No one should have to live like this."
Entry #20 (6/16/2009)
"It happened again. I saw him. I was dreaming I was running through Mystic Ruins trying to get away from Eggman in his Eggmobile. I'm not joking when I say this. He had my dad's face. It was like my own father was trying to kill me while cosplaying as Robotnik. It was unsettling. I was sure this was a nightmare. I thought I was going to die until Sonic stepped in. He appeared out of the blue and clashed into him and landed in front of me to see if I was okay. I felt relieved. He helped me to my feet and gave me an encouraging smile and said "You're not gonna lay there and let that Egghead get away with he did to you, are ya? Come on, let's take him down together!" I felt a tear run down my face and blinked. After that, I noticed my body was suddenly different. It looked really similar to Tails. I wasn't sure what to think of it, I just accepted it. Sonic took my hand and we were about to run at Eggman at full speed. Before either of us collided with him, I woke up with tears in my eyes with my Sonic plushie laying by my side. I hugged it close and started to sob. That was the best dream I ever had."
Entry #21 (6/20/2009)
"My projects are finished. I'm hesitant about sharing them online. Some people might get the wrong idea and think I'm some nutjob. Maybe I'll gain the confidence to publish them online someday. but for now I'm gonna keep them safe on my hardrive. I made sure to have all my files backed up onto a little blue flashdrive I took out from the computer desk at my old house. I hope I don't get it mixed up with the others."
Entry #22 (6/23/2009)
"I don't know if these are simple dreams anymore. They feel like... messages. The one I had last night was very clear. For context, The dream started with me wandering on a brown checkered path while looking up at the sky. I saw many things that came off as odd. fishes swimming in thin air. green humming birds singing, and floating bumpers with stars on them defying the laws of gravity. I think it was a special stage. I heard a voice call out to me. All all-too familiar one. I ran in the direction of where the voice was coming from. Sonic was standing next to a portal ring waiting for me. He looked up to the ring and spoke.
"You're looking for a way out of this, aren't you?"
I looked to the side and answered "yes" while not wanting him to see me shed any tears. He turned back at me with a look of comfort and understanding.
"You gotta face your fears eventually, kid. Otherwise you'll never be free. Sure things look scary now, but it'll get worse if you don't act fast. Don't let Robuttnik get the chance to take your life away!"
I took a step close and asked "What should I do?"
Sonic got close to me and brought my hand up and put a large blue gem in my hand. I looked down at it and it looked exactly how I imagined what a real life chaos emerald would look like. He looked me straight in the eyes and said "Sometimes you gotta take things into your own hands. You already know what you gotta do. Go knock em dead, Goldilocks!" and then pointed his thump to the portal ring. It was all a blur after I jumped in. It was like a bright light. I.. I think I have a good idea of what that chaos emerald was meant to represent.... I know what to do next tonight.... No more.."
"No no no no..." I said under my breath. My body froze up after hearing that. I was in total denial. I didn't want to believe it. I had a good feeling she was mentally unwell but I didn't anticipate her being this far gone. I feared the worst and clicked on the final mp4. It was short yet terrifying.
Entry #23 (6/24/2009)
"Thank you for saving me, Sonic."
The tone in her voice wasn't that of joy. She sounded.. pleased with herself. Relieved. Every bit of fear and anxiety that was present in her voice in past entries was absent. That alone was enough to tell me everything. I decided to pull up my phone and google Sharon's full name. My heart was starting to beat so fast I swear I was going to explode. The last thing I expected to deal with in my life is the slow downward spiral of a mentally sick teenager.
"Robert Kelle, 58. (Former officer, Born 1951) gone missing and officially pronounced dead on July 12. 2009. Her daughter, Sharon Kelle (Born 1991) has been missing since then. It's speculated that an anonymous serial killer may have snuck into their home and took both their lives. Much like her father, she was officially proclaimed dead after a failed search and rescue operation. The father and child's whereabouts are unknown to this day."
I messaged Kyle and told him everything. Reasonably this was hard for him to process as well.
T-Zilla2800 : kyle
M3cha_b0i_303 : hey man how'd the investigation go?
T-Zilla2800 : I don't
I don't know how to feel at the moment
The crap I found nearly broke me
M3cha_b0i_303 : how bad was it?
T-Zilla2800 : dude i'm pretty sure i should turn this over to the police this bitch killed her fucking DAD
M3cha_b0i_303 : are you joking
tom you know i'm not a fan of pranks like this
(I stopped messaging for a minute to drop some of the audio files in the dms and told him):
T-Zilla2800 : LISTEN TO THIS I'M NOT LYING
(he went radio silent for a few minutes before responding.)
M3cha_b0i_303 : tom I'm not used to situations like this but here's my best advice so listen close
call your uncle
tell him what happened
pack everything and get the HELL out of there
let the police handle it
T-Zilla2800 : understood
I slammed my laptop shut and put it in my suitcase and dropped all the flashdrives inside it, grabbed all the clothes I packed, the wires, the food, everything that was important to me.
I threw everything in the car and drove off. I took one last look at the house before noticing something. This is going to sound insane but it's the truth. In the attic window, was a young woman with unnaturally long and messy blonde hair, looking down on me.
(Epilogue)
It's been over a month since this incident has happened. I found a new (and hopefully not condemned) house to call home. My uncle was disappointed I left the fridge behind because it was expensive but he understood and said he can go pick it up another day. I turned everything over to the authorities and told them everything. When they went to the house and scoured the area, they never found any woman in the attic. what they did find however, was something just as horrifying. They found a human skull up on the hill in the woods under a tree with a GPA. They dug it up and found a single word carved into it.
"Eggman"