SONIC: The Haunted Disk

*I’ve been a Sonic the Hedgehog fan my entire life. I have at a copy of almost every Sonic the Hedgehog game (except for Sonic 06, Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric and Sonic Labyrinth, because those games suck), and I have one of every console that has at least one game of Sonic The Hedgehog (I also have a few Nintendo consoles).*

*Why am I writing this down, you ask? Because a few hours ago, I had a terrifying experience with a hacked Sonic game on my computer, I’m sure it happened to a lot of people, and I'm sure that it’ll happen again.*

*It all started when I was playing Sonic Lost World on my Wii U and then I heard a knock on the door. I went up to the door, but nobody was there. There was a box by my front door, inside of it was a CD that had "SONIC" written on it and a instruction box that was from my best friend Kyle Scott, who I haven’t heard from in 2 weeks.*

*I decided to put the CD in my computer because the CD had "SONIC" written on it (because as I said before, I’m a huge Sonic fan), and a popup for a Sonic game showed up on the computer screen and I pressed it.*

*The game started up like the first Sonic the hedgehog game. One thing I noticed was that the word “SEGA” wasn’t on the title emblem. When I pressed start, the screen suddenly changed into what i’d consider horrifying.*

*The image that changed before the split second it cut into black was far different than the original Sonic title image, I noticed the sky turned pitch black, the title emblem looked so rusted that if you were to touch it, you’d most likely get tetanus. The river’s color turned from blue into a dark red. and the “SEGA 1991” on the lower right area of the screen changed into “SEGA 666”.* *The most terrifying part was that Sonic had changed the most, His fur was a darker blue, he looked more like Modern Sonic than Classic Sonic in shape, his skin had become paler, his smile was longer and looked more sinister and his eyes were now pitch black with glowing red pupils, and he was bleeding red blood from his eyes and mouth, and he was staring RIGHT AT ME.*

*The screen stayed black for 7 seconds before changing into the Character selection from Sonic 3 & Knuckles. The characters that were playable were Tails, Fang The Sniper, Knuckles, Metal Sonic and Dr. Eggman (there wasn’t Sonic anywhere on the screen), And I got confused on why Metal Sonic, Fang The Sniper and Dr. Eggman were playable. But then I came to a conclusion that this was either a ROM hack or a fan-game.*

*I noticed that Tails was the only unlocked character in the game, so I chose him and when i did, the screen froze for 2 seconds and then some pixelated laughter that sounded like a mix of Kefka’s laughter from Final Fantasy VI and Dr. Eggman’s laughter from Sonic CD’s bad ending.*

*The screen went black for three seconds before saying “HILL ACT 1”. which slightly frustrated me because I thought it would say “GREEN HILL ZONE ACT 1”. The stage looked like Green Hill Zone except the grass was a faded brown, the water in the background looked extremely polluted, and the trees’s bark was colored black and the music sounded like a sadder version of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata if it were played backwards.*

*I moved Tails around the stage and noticed he played exactly like he did in Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 & Knuckles except he couldn’t preform the spin-dash or fly. When I moved him forwards, the scenery immediately took a turn for the worse because there was a bunch of dead Mobini and completely destroyed Badniks. Tails also looked really concerned when I was controlling him.*

*When I got near the end of the stage, The scenery became more nightmarish with a bunch of mobini with Badnik heads in place of their actual heads and the sky had become pitch black and the water in the background looked more like radioactive waste than an actual ocean. When I got to the end, I noticed that Sonic was standing there with his arms folded and eyes closed and his shoes were gray. I slowly moved Tails towards Sonic and then static was playing and got more louder when Tails became closer, when Tails was within arms reach of sonic, Tails started walking away from Sonic, and that’s when Sonic opened his eyes, and they were pitch black with glowing red pupils. Then the screen glitched out for 2 seconds before becoming black for 3 seconds, and then some text popped up and it said:*

**HELLO**

**DO YOU WANT TO PLAY A LITTLE GAME WITH ME?**

**> YES**

**> NO**

*Before I could click on “NO”, the screen went black for ten seconds and it then said “HIDE AND SEEK”.*

*The stage was Angel Island Zone Act II from Sonic 3 & Knuckles except the flames looked a lot more realistic, The time in the stage was set at 00:10 and stayed that way, Tails’s name on the bottom left part of the screen changed to “Alan” and Tails himself looked extremely terrified, and every time I stopped moving him, he points at me as if he’s telling me to shut the game off.*

When I came into a forest, the Time counter started counting down by 1 per second until the “TIME OVER” image showed up for a few seconds, and then the static came back and a image of Sonic with pitch black eyes and sharp teeth showed up and his head was violently shaking and he had a evil grin and the text on the screen changed into:

**READY OR NOT, HERE I COME**

*Before I knew it, Sonic jumped from the left side of the screen and started chasing Tails with an extremely malicious smile on his face, I was moving Tails as fast as he could, but Sonic kept coming closer and closer to Tails until he tripped Tails and Tails slid for 2 seconds before stopping, Tails looked like he was in great pain but he got up and started walking forward. I realized I wasn’t moving him at all and he was moving by himself and that his twin tails were GONE. Sonic then showed up and kicked Tails into the ground and walked towards him and snapped his neck. Then the screen went black for twelve seconds with the sounds of Tails screaming and being torn apart (Tails sounded more like a adult male than he canonically does) being audible before the sound glitched out. It was silent for a while before a message appeared on the screen with that terrifying laughter and it said:*

***AW, YOU WERE WAY TOO SLOW***

***THAT'S OKAY THOUGH***

***DO YOU WANT TO TRY AGAIN WITH SOMEBODY ELSE?***

*I was horrified about what happened. I thought to myself, “Did Sonic kill Tails? No, it couldn’t be! They’re supposed to be best friends! What the fuck did Tails do to deserve this?*

*The screen changed back into the character selection screen, and then I noticed that Fang The Sniper was unlocked and Tails was no longer in the character box and he was in the TV screen itself. I noticed that Tails’s fur was now colored a dark shade of brown and extremely disheveled, his eyes had been gouged out of his sockets, his mouth ripped open and he had an look of horror and anguish on his face.*

*The music changed from the Sonic 3 & Knuckles save file selection into a sad and creepy-sounding melody. I tried to shrug it off and then I clicked on Fang’s character box and then the laughter came on again, only this time it sounded a little more like the guy who played Steve Urkel from Family Matters.*

*The screen went black for six seconds before the level said: “THE BRIMSTONE”, The stage looked like Star Light Zone from Sonic 1 except the background was in afternoon instead of nighttime, the platforms were colored grey instead of green. Fang had an angry look on his face. I moved him around the stage and noticed he was slower than Tails and he could also double jump. I moved toward the left side of the screen and got suprised that there wasn’t an invisible wall. The game continued like normal.*

*I moved Pit for twenty seconds before he fell into a bottomless pit and then the game glitched out for eighteen seconds before the screen went black again for ten seconds.*

*Then the level said “ABYSS” and the background resembled the one in Death Egg Zone from Sonic 2 except the entire background looked like it completely wrecked and the Mecha Sonics from 16-Bit Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 & Knuckles were completely smashed and wrecked. I noticed that Fang looked extremely terrified and his name on the lower left part of the screen changed into “Jake”.*

*I moved Fang to the right and when I got to the end, I saw Sonic (with a extremely sinister grin and his shoes were covered in blood) and another message popped up.*

***FANG, DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN I SAID THAT I’D LET YOU LEAVE THIS HELLHOLE?***

*Sonic then pressed a lever that dropped Fang into a bunch of rotating saws. The screen went black with the sounds of a human woman screaming at the top of her lungs and the sound of a chainsaw being on and tearing her apart before it glitched out after six seconds. The screen was silent for 2 seconds before another message popped up and said:*

***I LIED***

*What the hell was that? Did Sonic just fucking kill Fang the Sniper?!*

*The screen came back into the character selection screen and I noticed the same thing happened to Fang. he looked like he was cut up into pieces and then hastily sewn back together. His eyes were completely pitch black and his skin was now a sickly green and he had an dead look on his face.*

*I thought to myself, “Man, the person who made this fan game must REALLY hate SEGA.”. I then clicked on Knuckles and the same laugh that came on when I clicked on Tails came back on, only this time it sounded like a mix of Ryan Drummond and that guy who voiced Sonic in that OVA in the 90’s.*

*The screen went black for three seconds and then the Level title came on and said “YOU CAN’T RUN”. The stage looked like Scrap Brain Zone but the stage looked really rusted and the background was covered in dark red clouds and was raining blood. Knuckles had an unnerved expression on his face.*

*I moved Knuckles around the level for twenty seconds before he fell into a pit which caused the game to glitch out for 10 seconds before the screen went black again.*

*It then sent me into a level that said “FFFFFF”. The level looked like some stage that was originally meant for Sonic 2 but was scrapped. I moved Knuckles forwards into the stage. Seventeen seconds later, some text showed up and said:*

***THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX ARE WE?***

***YOU DELIGHT ME, THOMAS MILLER***

***BUT SOON****, THIS PLACE WILL BE YOUR PERMANENT HOME***

***TOM, ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME?***

Thirty seconds into the level, the static came back and then another message popped up on the stage and said:

***YOU’RE NEXT***

*I was sent back into “YOU CAN’T RUN. I decided to jump over the pit and then progress into the stage. Then Sonic teleported in front of Knuckles and then static played for eight seconds before a message popped up and said:*

***FoUNd YOu***

*The screen came back into the level and the BGM was some sort of frantic tune in the key of B Minor. I noticed Knuckles was in a fighting position and was absolutely terrified and his name on the lower left side of the screen changed to “Dave”. I walked him over to Sonic to punch him, but then Sonic teleported onto the other side of the screen. Every time Sonic did this, His pose changed from taunting Knuckles into copying his pose or standing like Super Sonic. This went on for 4 minutes and every time Knuckles tried to hit Sonic, he would grow more and more tired until the last time he tried to hit Sonic, he collapsed and then Sonic kicked him in the face and then caved Knuckles’s chest into his lungs with his fists. The screen went black with a loud scream and somebody choking on their own blood and then another message popped up and said:*

***THERE’S SO LITTLE TIME, YET THERE’S SO MANY SOULS FOR ME TO PLAY WITH***

***DO YOU AGREE WITH THAT?***

*I started to get concerned that the game was trying to talk to me, but that shouldn’t be possible! Not unless it’s some sort of sophisticated AI.*

*The screen came back into the character selection one, and I noticed Knuckles was now in the TV screen of his selection box. His fur turned into a dark dull red, his dreadlocks were soaked in blood, his eyes were extremely bloodshot and dried out, he was hung by his own blood-soaked intestines, and he had a look of sadness in his face. I was starting to believe the characters in the TV screens were the actual characters. But I couldn’t even bear the thought of it.*

*So I decided to shut off the PC and take a nap because I had a really bad headache from playing that game for a really long time. But I really wish I didn’t, because I had an extremely horrific nightmare. I was in the middle of an abandoned mall and there was a light above me which didn’t have a source. I then heard a bunch of agonized screams that sounded like they were coming from everywhere.*

***TOM! PLEASE! HELP US!***

***WHY DID YOU HAND US OVER TO HIM?!***

***DESTROY THE GAME BEFORE HE TAKES YOUR SOUL TOO!***

*The cries died out after 50 seconds, and then I heard that terrifying laugh and heard somebody speak:*

***You’re a lot of fun to play with, kid. Just like your best friend, Kyle Scott. Although it’s a damn shame you didn’t even think of listening to him.***

*I was looking for the source of the voice when he said this:*

***It doesn’t matter anyways. Why? because it won’t be long now until you join him along with my other friends.***

*I started running towards an exit, but there wasn’t any. The entire mall had changed into “HIDE AND SEEK” from the game, and then “Sonic” said this:*

***Where are you running to, Tom? There’s nowhere in the world for you to run.***

*I felt something grab me by the arm. I turned around and it was Sonic (looking exactly like that title screen during that split second) and a skeletal bony arm coming out of his mouth. I woke up with a fright.*

*After a couple of hours, I turned the game back on, and clicked on Metal Sonic to see how his level was like. Then Sonic’s laughter played again, only this time it was a fusion of the first and third times.*

*The stage said “Unsafe Haven” and it looked like Bad Future Stardust Speedway Zone from Sonic CD. Except it looked way more rusted and damaged than it did before and it was so cloudy I could barely see where Metal Sonic was going. His name on the bottom left corner was “Michael” instead of “Metal”. The art style changed from 2D into 3D.*

*I got to the part of the stage where you’d usually face off against Metal Sonic in a race in Sonic CD. But since I was playing as Metal Sonic, there was the head of Amy Rose (in her Sonic CD design) impaled on a pike, and then Sonic walked up and then threw the pike at Metal Sonic’s head, which caused the screen to turn black. Then a message popped up and said:*

***DID YOU THINK THAT THERE’D BE A BOSS FIGHT?***

*I was getting frustrated with the messages and started thinking that Kyle sent this as a prank, but then I realized that I never even read the instruction manuel he gave me. I looked for the manual and found it after 13 minutes of searching for it. But instead of being a manual that I foolishly thought it was, It was a letter from Kyle. The letter read:*

From: Kyle Blenter Scott
28 Baltimore Street, Glenwood, IL

To: Thomas Gregory Miller
21 Baltimore Street, Glenwood, IL

*Tom.*

*If you’re reading this, I’m already dead because of that THING. If you don’t destroy the disk, he’ll come after you as well.*

*Just destroy the godforsaken disk! Doing so will destroy him as well. But do it quick.*

*Don’t even think about playing the game. It’s what he wants you to do and if you try to shut the game off or resist him, he’ll retaliate without any sense of mercy. I tried destroying it, but something was preventing me from doing so.*

*I’m sending you this because I hope you’ll be more successful with destroying it than I was.*

*Please.*

*Kyle Scott*

*“What have I done? why didn’t I listen to him? If I keep playing this game, I’ll be the next to die.” I thought to myself. I immediately tried to eject the disk, but to no avail. I looked at Dr. Eggman and noticed his design changed from Classic Dr. Eggman into the one used since Sonic Adventure 1. I pressed on Dr. Eggman, and that godawful laugh came back on again, only this time it sounded like a fusion of all the times I chose a character in this game.*

*The screen immediately changed into the Death Egg background, except it looked like there was moss growing everywhere and bizarre scenery that had distorted forms of Sonic’s head (some Sonic heads had twenty eyes, others had thirty teeth, others had inhumanly long tongues and others had no eyes at all). I moved Eggman around the stage for at least 2 minutes until Sonic just appeared on the screen and opened his mouth to an unnatural degree.*

*Eggman tried to run away from Sonic, but a skeletal hand came out of Sonic's mouth and grabbed Eggman by the leg and dragged him to Sonic's mouth and that's when the screen changed to static that lasted for twenty seconds. After that, the game over screen popped up, it was just the words "GAME OVER" and there was blood on the words.*