Darkness, All That Is Known

Sonic's P.O.V

I lay curled up next to my boyfriend of nine months, Knuckles, on his hammock on the hill as we watched the stars, the beautiful sparkling patterns in the navy sky. I smiled as I felt his fingers stroke my ears, trail through my quills. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me closer, then planted gentle kisses on my temple, making me giggle. We both shifted so we were laying on our sides, facing each other. His amethyst eyes looked gorgeous in the starlight, and they showed pure love and longing as they gazed back into my own, emerald ones.

"Sonic," he said in a sweet, quiet voice, "you're so beautiful."

I smiled and blushed softly. Knuckles ran his fingers in circles across my cheek, then leaned in and kissed me. Our lips parted slightly, our tongues gently mingled with each other. At that moment, we would've been lost in the daze of our love, and it would've remained that way for the rest of the night.

But instead, we were startled out of our romantic trance by the sudden appearance of a dark purple portal before us.

I gasped and clung to Knuckles. Before either of us could react, a beam shot out of the portal and encapsulated us.

I lost my grip on Knuckles as we were pulled into whatever lay on the other side.

Knuckles' P.O.V

I let out a grunt as I landed abruptly on the grass. My eyes instantly searched for Sonic, and I saw he was on the ground just a few feet from me. I stood and walked quickly over to help him up.

"You alright?" I asked, looking him over for injuries.

"Yeah, I'm fine." he said.

"Sonic? Knuckles?" A familiar voice came a few yards from my right. We both looked over and saw our friends Tails, Amy, and Sticks. The fox looked at us with a mix of surprise and confusion, and the hedgehog and badger were looking around at our current surroundings. It was only then that Sonic and I noticed them, too, and we both gasped.

As far as we could see in any direction, there wasn't a single living thing. Every tree, every plant, every blade of grass was dead. Instead of navy and clear, the sky was now black and cloudy. Several yards away stood a massive manor, its dark red exterior paint chipping, parts of its black roof missing. The black gate surrounding it was open and noisily creaking back and forth.

"Where are we? What is this place?" Tails asked what we were all thinking.

"No idea." Sonic said.

"You guys think Eggman might be behind this?" Sticks asked.

"I don't know." said Tails. "None of this feels very Eggman."

"Yeah. This isn't really his approach." I said.

"I've got a bad feeling about this place, guys." Amy said fearfully.

A cold gust of wind blew past us, making us shiver. "Well, standing out here in the cold isn't gonna help us get back home." I said. "How 'bout we check the manor?"

"Seems as good an option as any." Tails agreed, and we started walking.

But as we were approaching the gate, a filthy, decayed hand shot up from a small lake of muddy water and latched onto Sonic's ankle.

Sonic's P.O.V

I screamed as the rotting hand suddenly grabbed me. I desperately pulled my foot back, and after several attempts the hand finally lost its grip on my ankle. I staggered back in fear and lost my balance, but Knuckles caught me before I hit the ground.

We all huddled tightly together and watched, horrified, as five mammals pulled themselves up from the muck. Their skin and fur were dull-colored, their clothing was tattered, their quills were grimy and matted.

And their eyes...were just hollow sockets with dark blood pouring out of them.

There was one other, much more ominous thing we all noticed. Amy said it.

"They're...us."

The five zombified animals...were living dead versions of us. Sticks, Amy, Tails, Knuckles, and me. Our undead counterparts.

I wasn't liking this. We'd been transported to some dark, evil place, and now we were being confronted by zombified versions of us. I wasn't liking any of this.

The zombies suddenly lunged for us, faster and steadier than we expected. Before I knew it, my counterpart wrapped his hands around my neck, blocking my airways. As I gasped for air, I clawed at his fingers, but his lock on me was impossibly tight. He leaned forward and attempted to bite into my shoulder, but Knuckles punched him away, his grip on my neck releasing.

Knuckles held me close to him as I took in gulps for air. At some point, his counterpart lunged for us, but Amy knocked him away with her hammer.

"Quick! Into the manor!" she yelled.

Tails and Sticks fought off their counterparts, and we all ran behind the gate. Tails locked it, and the zombies reached out to us through the bars, trying to grab us. We quickly made our way up the steps of the manor and into the dark foyer.

Amy and Sticks shut the double doors tightly behind us. And I leaned against the wall, struggling to recover from the shock of what just happened to us.