FRIDAY — 10:19 PM

you.

yes, you.

It’s Christmas Eve and panic sets in — you forgot your friend’s gift! Racing through the attic, you riffling through boxes until something familiar catches your eye: your old favorite, Sonic R. The memories rush back — every race won, secret bosses demolished, that smug satisfaction of a perfect run. Of course you’ll give it to them. Share the fun. Keep the tradition.

You bundle up and head across town! taking the game over to your friend’s house. You and your friend sink into the couch, controllers warm in your hands, laughing like kids again. You play together for hours, laughing, trading controllers, reliving those golden moments. Then the weather turns. A sudden, violent blizzard pins you both down. Plans change; you spend the night at your friend’s house, grateful for a spare bedroom and the exhausted safety of someone else’s roof.

Sometime during the night you wake to a noise — a dull thud, then something like a metallic keening. Curious, you slip out and pad down the hall to your friend’s room. You’re about to call when something stops you cold.

Iron fills the air. The hot, metallic tang of blood.

There on the floor is your friend, motionless. Hovering above him is something impossibly wrong: a pale doll shaped like Tails, but ruined —Its grin is stained, its arms ending in ragged, bloody claws stained dark. The gem on its head pulses, a crystal flare in the low light. For a heartbeat it does not move. Then it turns toward you. The smile drops away. Its eyes go blank

"Oh.....''

''....''

then widen until they eclipse its face. The grin snaps back, all too sharp, Eyes absolutely dilating.

“Hope you don’t mind the stains…”

it says, as if this were only a polite apology.

You stumble back. You have to get out.

NOW.