The man in the robot incredulously stares at me.
"You don't know what you're dealing with, you fool," he says in an unsurprisingly contemptuous tone. "You don't know who I really am. You don't know what I'm capable of. I could flay you with the pull of a lever or the flick of a switch."
Some sort of engine inside of the robot revs in anticipation. My eardrums are popping; a wheeeeeee fills my ear with the malice of a sound devil, its vibrations breaking me down.
On the inside. I can't afford to break a poker face. It would gratify everything too much.
"You thought it was too easy," the man in the robot continues, sounding more thoughtful by every word, as if it almost pains him to consider eviscerating his greatest work of art. "But I'm not stupid. I knew from the start what you were planning. You're a turncoat."
Funny, he's describing himself. How egotistical. Or is it kind of putting himself down?
"Why are you stalling?" I interrupt his monologue, flashing him a trademark grin only intended to irritate him further. "I'm waiting to be hit with your switch, with your lever."
"I had no idea you were a fuckin' masochist, Mr. Hedgehog," he spits, now becoming increasingly vulgar as I continue to verbally push him. From my view I can see veins bulging in his neck. "I'm trying to make this pleasant for you. This could be over a lot quicker, a lot quicker."
"So, you're trying to make this pleasant for me?" I echo, glancing at my watch. 11:52. "If you're trying to kill me, shouldn't it be quicker? You don't make much sense for a proclaimed genius."
"I'm lying," the man says, stroking his mustache that zigzags out in every direction. "I just wanted to see you squirm."
"Figures," I tell him. "You were always such a liar, even from the start. You know why so many people abandoned you?"
"Because you're stupid," I say, taking my time with each word, drawing everything out. Maybe I'm trying to get it through his thick head. "None of your colleagues wanted to work with an egomaniacal sociopathic 'genius' like you. No one in Mobius accepted you because it wasn't because of your practices and beliefs, it was because you're a cheating, double-crossing brute."
"You fucking-"he starts,
"Yeah, and what else? You're a failure. None of your plans have worked. None of them ever will. Because I'm here."
"And again," I say, feeling slightly more confident and aware in my surroundings with each passing seconds. I can see the rock patterns and ways out and the ways in and the air direction and wind and everything. "You fucked up again."
I begin to slowly feel kind of scared but I'm not exactly sure of what I'm afraid of.
I begin to feel more and more relaxed however, like sleep is coming easily to me.
This eerie wringing feeling is starting, like I was being grown out of my skin. I feel the universe.
It's breaking apart. Time is ruining just for me. I can see everything.
I can hear something, something vaguely like glass breaking or something exploding. I look up.
A sort of warmth spreads over me. An urging. Vibrations. Screaming. I give in and let myself go.
I disappear and let it take over because the craving won't go away, maybe just this one time it will stop…
"Sonic! Oh my gods!"
One eye opens, though I feel as if my bloodstream had been filled entirely with sand. I feel tired and sore. I get up, each joint creaking as if I had gone into hyper-reality and broken several bones in the process.
At my feet is a scarlet fluid.
"Oh my gods!"
I crane my neck to the direction of the screaming. It's Miles.
"What?" I say. I take a step towards him, to which he screams in horror. Loudly.
"You're not Sonic! You're not Sonic! You're a fucking monster!" He shrieks, and runs away. I'm all alone, except with the corpse of a man who is confused and horrified as Miles and I.
The man in the robot stares at me incredulously.
why do i even do this shit? -2009