Humanity Lost, Tails Found

Humanity Lost, Tails Found By Jessica Kylie Nichols-Vernon aka HawlSera

“Sonic The Hedgehog, if I ever heard that name again it will be too soon.” I think to myself as look down at my orange furred body with gloved hands. I try to take the gloves off and find that I can’t do so. This was my routine now, trying to take off these gloves and convince myself that all of this was a nightmare. I don’t remember what my name was in life, but these days I call myself Tails. I remember many details about my human life but my name isn’t one of them.

Before I can tell you who I was, you should realize who I am. If you are familiar with Creepy Pastas as I’m sure you are if you’re reading this then you know Sonic.EXE. Hahaha, of course you do. It’s the most famous gaming creepypasta there is outside of Ben Drowned or Lavender Town. You’ve played as me, I’m the fox you play as when you load up the game looking for either a scare or a quick laugh depending on your tolerance for the truly macabre. Anytime someone loads up the game the world changes. I suddenly find myself in what resembles Green Hill Zone, the strange pinwheel trees, the floors, the weird tiled ground, and of course the dead animals. That music plays too, you’ve heard before. The song you call “Hill”, I enjoy myself during these moments in a weird way. My torment ceases until I go all the way to the right of the strangely two dimensional world, in my 16-Bit form I can enjoy brief moments of masculinity and I know that for a time, for as long as I stay away from the right side of the screen. This is the closest to heaven that I’ll ever be, and I just want to go home right now. I can’t go home of course, I’m dead now and I regret every second of it. Oh how I wish the atheists were right and it just faded to black when you died, damn that would be amazing. If I could just stop existing altogether.

I can hear you, you’re asking why I don’t just stay on the left side of the screen. Well, isn’t it obvious? I’m only in Green Hill Zone when you play the game, for the most part when it’s the game I can’t control my movements outside of a few looks here and there and some hand gestures. If you push the button I have to move through the piles of dead birds and other animals all the way to where he waits. Each time I beckon to the one playing hoping they’ll get it, hoping they understand what I’m saying. That he, that Sonic.EXE, is the cause of so much misery, so much unhappiness. I guess I’m writing this to try and tell you this directly. I understand that realistically all this will do is bring attention to that fiend and set myself up for the game being played several more times but maybe the real reason I’m doing this is to gather my thoughts, prove to myself that even though I’m a fox, I’m still human. I am still human aren’t I?

It never gets old for Sonic.EXE, and it never hurts any less for me. He talks to you, I don’t know what he says no one tells me. It’s some text blurb on the monitor. I’m in Angel Island and as I stand there afraid pointing to the right of the screen, afraid for my…. Let’s say life… I don’t have a life anymore and I’m not being permanently destroyed, but there are only so many words in the English language. I know he’ll just catch me, but it never stops me from thinking maybe this time will be the one, maybe this time I can escape and break free. Maybe I can even go back to my old life, to the way things were before I died. I can get away, oh God please let me get away this time. Wishful thinking, there is no God here outside of that bastard.

Once he catches me, I cry knowing that I am damned for all time and that not only am I about to be tormented but it’s going to happen all over again. The screen fades to black, he likes it that way. I can’t see you and you can’t see him. Perhaps if you could see what he does to me you’d stop playing the game, maybe the government would get involved and crackdown hard on what sick vile things you people do when you give life to beings like him. When you write stories about him or make fangames about him you give him small pieces of your soul! Not big pieces, not enough to bring you here, and anything you give him your soul will regenerate with time, but he gets more energy to kill people and turn them into what I am now.

The game is going on right now, someone booted it up. I can see him through the monitor, a man in his Late-20’s, African American, a little chubby. Likely a Sonic Fanboy as he has a Sonic Heroes poster in his messy room and a few figures on the wall of Sonic, myself, Knuckles, Amy, E-102, Big The Cat, and Robotnik. He downloaded Sonic.EXE off of GameJolt and started to play it when the nyquil he took for a cold kicked in, he sleeps and I have until morning for him to either finish the game or turn off the computer. I pray it’s the latter. I have the time to write this, if he’s not at the PC I can do whatever. So I’m writing what I suppose is my memoirs. The most useful thing I can think to do is explain how I got here.

I was alive once, a flesh and blood human man, alive and living on Earth in the real world JUST LIKE YOU! I was a big Sonic fanboy and my speciality was drawing Rule 63, reverse gender artwork or fanfiction, of my favorite character, Tails. Tails’ character design had undergone many changes from the earliest builds of Sonic, once Tails was was a raccoon but it was rejected for being too similar to Mario’s raccoon transformation, another build for Tails had him as a female and much to my regret I always preferred the idea of Tails being a woman and fighting Amy for Sonic’s affection. I had a furaffinity account that I can’t link as I can only remember details of my life if they don’t pertain as to what my name was. If I had my original name I’d have power over my own soul and Sonic.EXE doesn’t really want that as I could use it to escape this world and if my body hasn’t been cremated yet return to my life, if it has I can go up there to Heaven, if Heaven even exists. The bastard allows me to remember enough of my life to miss it, but nothing that helps me remember who I am.

This all began when as I was finishing a picture of Tails as a young woman teaching a class with a sultry look and plenty of double entendres for some nervous male students as a commission for someone who liked my more sultry work when I had received a private message in my inbox. The username was listed as Smiling Slasher and he had for his avatar a close up of Sonic’s face in a realistic style with jagged fangs and blood dripping from his eyes, when I tried to look at this page it just didn’t load. I assumed this was an error on my end and read the message.

“Your devotion to your art is quite touching my dear, I am working on a game and wanted your opinion on it. You will know how to contact me at the end of your playthrough. I’d like you not to share this game with anyone as it’s not finished yet and I’m a little nervous about its contents. - Smiling Slasher, Sonic.EXE”

Below it was a link to a megaupload download page, the link only contained 6’s instead of any other number. I chalked this up to an odd coincidence and downloaded a game called “Sonic.EXE”, original name I thought to myself. Oh how I wish I had told “Smiling Slasher” to go fuck himself and continued with my life, my precious precious life.

I loaded it up and plugged in my modded Genesis Controller I normally reserve for my Sega Genesis emulator. I was disappointed and found the game to be lazy and lacking as it just had the title screen from Sonic The Hedgehog 1. My quality standards were a little below 0% at this point but still I pressed start as I was ahead on commissions having just finished the last of my que. I raised an eyebrow as just when I pushed start as the water in the background turned blood red and Sonic bled from his eyes. “Is this some kind of joke, why not make the copyright date say 666 while you’re at it!”

A text blurb showed up saying “Let me fix that for you, ……” it had said my name, whatever my name was. I can picture the text blurb, I remember it using a green comic sans that made my eyes hurt as it showed up over the red water. The copyright date immediately changed to match my suggestion. I had no words for this, if I was stupid I’d say that the game had really damn good AI or had anticipated my commands with my unplugged microphone somehow picking it up. I immediately recognized I had my hands on something supernatural so I unplugged the damn thing and took my PC out of the room only for the monitor to keep going as if it was still plugged to the PC. My next idea was to reach for a hammer and destroy my monitor when I heard a voice shout “FINISH WHAT YOU STARTED!” In a scream so loud that it hurt my ears. I sat back down at the monitor thinking of something to do when the voice screamed again. “YOU’RE STALLING! The portal between worlds is open until you finish the game!”

I swallowed hard and screamed back at my monitor. “I’M NOT AFRAID OF YOU!” I grabbed a bible from my bookshelf and started to read aloud from John 3:16, but I heard laughter as the book into flames prompting me throwing the book to the ground and stomping it out.

“There’s a fire in your kitchen, the door to your room will be locked until you, PLAY, THE, GAME!” The voice said, I looked towards the door as if calling the bluff but it slammed shut. I heard a smoke alarm go off as I feared for my life. I knew time was a factor so I played along with the voice.

The screen faded to black and cut back in on a character select screen with a red background of three characters, Espio The Chameleon, Rotor The Walrus, and Breezy The Hedgehog from that one episode of Adventures Of Sonic The Hedgehog. I selected Espio first because I was frantically pushing the A Button trying to get the game over with. I found myself on the Mushroom Hill Zone stage from Sonic & Knuckles with the stage name listed as “Death Wish”. The music was now severely slowed down, but still recognizable as the Mushroom Hill Theme, now sounding like the same song but in serious need of antidepressants. As I started controlling Espio I noted he seemed depressed as he walked various slowly. I found myself yelling at the screen to go fast as I really did not have time for this. Espio just looked my way after fifteen steps and sighed. The screen faded to black and in purple text were the words. “It would be better if you died tonight.”

When it came back to the game, Sonic appeared behind Espio with the same bleeding eyes from the title screen looking angrily at the chameleon who now had his mouth stitched shut. Sonic gave Espio a kunai and then I could finally control Espio running at full speed. I went through the stage not really doing much platforming or loop de loops instead there were just three pillars each with a Mecha Rotor on top of it with the generic motobug enemies below the pillars each with the word “Freedom” written on each of them. I threw kunais at each of them destroying them, Sonic appearing and doing an audible chuckle sounding much like Kefka from Final Fantasy Six each time one of the motobugs blew up, after this happened platforms showed up allowing me to jump up and attack the Mecha Rotors which threw fireballs at me in retaliation. Each time I got hit Espio’s eyes would roll back in pleasure as he fell to the side dying, only for Sonic to reappear and bring him back to life by making it rain rings upon him. Something that always made Espio cry a little each time, I had this happen twice before I got really determined not to get hit as I could already smell the smoke coming into my room.

Once all the Mecha Rotors were destroyed, a severed body part from what appeared to be Rotor himself appearing from each one, his legs from the first, his torso from the second, and from the third and highest up robot his head. The screen faded to black once more with blue text appearing.

“Espio has played well, do you believe he deserves a reward?” The text said before going back to Mushroom Hill Zone. “Just between you and me, I don’t, he is a sniveling coward who should just shut up and surrender to the joys that I bring to this world.”

The title card now said “Death Wish Act 2: Just Deserts” his time it was at Night with Espio high up on a cliff looking happily as he pointed down the cliff. I assumed I meant I should jump down it which I did. Though it was just a cheap sixteen bit sprite I had not seen someone look so at peace as he did when he descended from that cliff hurdling head first to spikes below. I looked on curious tapping my fingers on my computer desk wanted this to hurry along before my house burned down with me still in it. Espio closed his eyes, the second he did so Sonic appeared and placed an invulnerability box right below the Chameleon, Espio crying as the Invulnerability Chime played in its normally chipper tune. Sonic laughed at this sight continuously until Espio took out his kunai and decapitated himself, Sonic paused his laughter and looked it over Espio his head looking around frantically as if confused to still be alive. The laughter continued once more before the screen faded to black and displayed more text.

“There is nothing in the world that happens unless I allow it to. My land is a Land Of The Deceased and The Demonic, even if I did let that idiot die. He’d just fade into a dreamless sleep for a few months. Of course, a month isn’t as long in my world as it is in the human world. Not that I’d tell him that.”

I was back at the character select screen with Episo now glowing with invulnerability stars with head in his hand. I chose Rotor next in a rush to get to the next stage and escape the fires consuming my home. I have to escape the flames, I have to escape Sonic.Exe, I can’t let either of them catch me.

Rotor was in the Ice Cap Zone from Sonic 3 with the caption “Power Wish”, everything was normal at first glance back the background music was all static and snow was coming down hard. In my worry I pushed left instead of right where I found an exploded automatic warhead. It hit me, this was snow, this was ash was the exploded nuclear weapon. This became more apparent as I went to the right and found various ruined buildings each with a robot part for me to collect. The stage was like a big maze constructed to be as infuriating and long as possible, but once I had all the robot parts the screen faded to black with the text. “I can stop him, you will help me won’t you? Just remember the sequence, Green, Red, Yellow, Red, Green. Do not hit Blue!”

When it cut back to the game I was at some kind of cave with a color coded floor and Sonic floating on the right side of the screen. The Boss Fight music from Sonic 3 now played as Rotor looked towards me with a thumbs up. A machine appeared with a laser cannon attached and dropped Sonic in its beam, the being looking like he was struggling. I jumped on the floor in the sequence I was told Green, Red, Yellow, and Red… this part was easy and so was avoiding Blue as it was a miniscule portion of the floor that I couldn’t have hit if I had tried. I jumped up to hit Green one more time when the entire floor turned blue causing the machine to explode and from it the Seven Chaos Emeralds came forth and surrounded Sonic turning him into Super Sonic though his eyes now bled blue blood instead of red. Super Sonic did a quick hand gesture as Rotor fell apart into three pieces, his head, his torso, and legs. Each of them were then placed into three Mecha Rotors summoned forth from the remnants of the machine.

Finally it faded to black. “You hurt me, you actually managed to hurt me Rotor. You always were a crafty one. You have been a thorn in my side for too long, your Anti-Sonic.DLL has nothing on my fanclub. Long Live the Cult of X! You’ll learn the hard way that there three of them for every one of you.”

Breezy was the only character left, Rotor now replaced with three Mecha Rotors not unlike the ones Espio fought. Am I playing these in the right order? Or was that not the first time Rotor was like that in this crazy game. “One stage, one more stage and I’m outta here!” I said as I played Breezy’s stage. Breezy’s stage was an altered version of the Chemical Plant Zone stage from Sonic 2 only with more loop de loops and the purple water was now blood and the stage itself look rusted. The music was music I recognized, but it was Don’t Cry Jennifer from the Super Nintendo “Clock Tower:The First Fear” as opposed to any Sonic music. Once it started the caption said “Granted Wish”, as this was the tamest stage of the three and the most fun I felt it was indeed the granted wish. Once Breezy got to the end and jumped on the capsule instead of ending the stage it launched a missile, not unlike the one in Rotor’s Stage.

Here I expected it to end, but instead Breezy just walked up to Super Sonic and gave her a hug. Super Sonic snapped his fingers showing a picture of an unassuming caucasian man in his late thirties, one highly overweight and reminding me much of Christian Weston Chandler with a better dress sense. The picture burned down slowly leaving behind it one of Breezy with text written below it.

“I love my new body, all I had to do to get it was kill my best friend and my family in front of Lord Sonic.EXE. Is there anything in this or another world worth more to you than love?”

There was a text prompt allowing me to enter something in, I quickly typed “Hell No”

“The Dishonest are not welcome in the Cult Of X.” Was the response I go when I did so.

The game then went to a screen of Breezy rubbing under Sonic.EXE’s chin flying over Espio fumbling trying to catch his head as all three Mecha Rotors surrounded him with “Welcome To Sonic.EXE” written in red.

The PC cut off and the fire was now in my room. There was no escaping now, I took too long to clear the game. I thought about running into the fire and taking my chances when I heard a siren from outside. I assumed it was the Fire Truck coming to save me, I sighed with relief as I waited on my bed crossing my fingers hoping they’d make it in time.

I heard the windows boot up noise as my PC now showed a sprite of Tails from Sonic 3D Blast in the middle of a Female Symbol. I heard a beeping sound and I suddenly fell unconscious, what happened next was quite the trip. I was actually pulled from my body, as a ghost I floated above my body in the burning room, my body was still breathing to an extent even with all the smoke. I thought I saw someone else in the room when I found myself drawn to the monitor getting literally sucked in through the screen. I fell into a strange void at this point, I had no form, no body to speak of whatsoever. All I saw was a timeline of Sonic from his first appearance as an air freshener in that old Sega Master System to things that didn’t exist when I died. Most jarring was a picture of a group pose where Sonic had blue arms wrapped in bandages with a Knuckles that was big and buff, a Tails and Amy that looked normal, there was a fifth character an orange girl who kind of looked like Marine from Sonic Rush Adventure but I wasn’t sure. When I had a form again it was my normal human body, male, brown haired, green eyed, twenty eight years old, except I looked like I was made out of CGi. “Am I dead?” I asked. “Is this Heaven…” I looked around seeing the sky was red and the world around me was blackened and made of what looked like various Sonic levels meshed together chaotically with no rhyme or reason. “Okay obviously wrong answer.”

That was when they showed up, the headless Espio came close holding his head up to me. Espio looked even more real than I did, he was a scaled purple monstrosity with blood splurting out of his neck. “You… you… did your best.” His head spoke, wheezing and coughing. “We heal… overtime… but fuck does this hurt..”

The rotors showed up next, bringing me to my legs as Breezy showed up with Super Sonic following behind her. The emeralds all scattered as he came down. In person I could see this was no Sonic, this was some savage blue snarling beast hunched over with blood all over his claws. I felt myself shaking as he sniffed over me, he looked more like a blue werewolf than Sonic. “I’m Smiling Slasher, what did you think of my game?”

“I hated every second of it.” I said kicking the beast between his legs, this he laughed at. I guess wolfman doesn’t have nards after all.

“They all fight at the beginning…” Breezy said shaking her head.

“What’s your name?” Sonic asked me.

I said “Tails” and then covered my mouth shocked at what I said. “No, it’s not Tails, it’s Tails, and I’m a vixen…. NO NO, I’m not a vixen, I’m a vixen. I’m a female fox!” My humanity melted before my eyes as white latex gloves appeared over my hands, orange fur bursting out through them coated my body. I screamed in pain as my jaw re-arranged itself into a fox muzzle, I was about to scream out in pain as two fox tails burst from my spine bringing my face to tears.

“You’re three dimensional and realistic as long as the game isn’t being played, hehehe, enjoy your new life Tails. Well, afterlife now.” Sonic taunted me as he stomped right on my skull, breaking my still sore new jaw as I drooled blood. I would have gotten up but my body was still morphing. “Welcome to Hell.” With that he vanished and every time I saw him since it has been too soon.

I struggled to get up and once I did I found two orange gazongas starring in in the face as my hips cracked my backside ballooning in size. As I stood I hoped losing what we between my legs would be painless, but have you ever had your flesh tear open to make lips or an entire womb grow inside of you? That was horrendous, I look down at my feet and find I’m always wearing red shoes that I can’t take off. Oh and before you ask, no I don’t get the fellas back when I’m 16-Bit, but at least I’m somewhat male that way.

Every time you play the fan game, it’s me behind the screen. It’s me he hunts down and it’s me he torments, all of us, we’re all people behind the screen. There’s a group called the Anti-Sonic.DLL fighting for us to be recognized as people both in our new world and our old human w. I’ve considered joining them, but I doubt there’s much they can do. My only hope is to find my way out of this world and hope that a firefighter took my body to a hospital and that I’m on some life support machine somewhere.

My name is Tails, and I wish I were alive.