Chapter Text
A/N: The idea for this fanfiction was spawned from a bad fanfiction, one that I don't feel like naming, partially because the fic itself was deleted along with other works. I noted how the faux-superstitious holiday Friday the 13th played an important part in the fanfic, and everyone was paranoid of it. Then I thought, what if the town itself is a paranormal hotspot? While this could have been in the original fic,I doubt it because it was badly written.
I hope you enjoy it, because I don’t know what the fuck is going on personally.
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Chapter 1
The Welcoming Party
Cream sighed as she heaved the heavy suitcase full of her clothing into the minivan, it going in along with the other suitcase in the trunk. "Mom, why are you leaving me in that town?"
"I told you Cream, I've been given a promotion that requires a lot of traveling. This is a really big opportunity for me, Cream, ok?" Vanilla explained.
"Are you feeling alright mom?" Cream questioned, realizing the odd nature of this event. "I thought you said would never leave me alone with anyone besides yourself."
"I'm feeling perfectly fine. Besides, the Maplewoods Overseer Program has some very experienced people you'll be staying with. And one of them, you might know."
Cream still didn't understand why her mom was leaving her at Maplewoods; a town that was known for its vast sugar maple forests. For one thing, she never heard about the town until a pamphlet arrived at their doorstep. For one thing, said pamphlet showed the maples in pictured forests were slowly dying and the weather was cloudy. How her mom overlooked that was appalling. But alas, Cream was going to the town the pamphlet advertised and attending its high school as a freshman until January 21st. As her mother drove her to the place through farms slowly submitting to the tangled vines that covered them and other, less remarkable, derelict surrounding towns that were clearly not to be walked through at night, and she couldn't help noticing the increasing cloud cover as her mom neared the place.
"This is it Cream." Vanilla said, as they passed a crudely painted sign that read:
WELCOME TO MAPLEWOODS
MAPLE SYRUP CAPITAL OF THE WORLD
POPULATION: 1,115 1,112
"Isn't it beautiful?"
Cream didn't entirely agree with her mom. While it did seem like a decent sized town with major outlets west of where she was staying, the houses and public buildings were old and not too well-maintained. It was miraculous that they were standing.
"Y-Yeah mom, it is quite pretty." Cream said, lying just a little bit to keep her mom happy.
"Listen honey, I know this is a little hard on you, especially knowing you had to leave some of your old friends behind, but I'm sure the people here are friendly."
The minivan then reached the apartment complex where Cream would be staying, which were much taller than the other buildings in town, while still looking somewhat old and derelict. After unloading, Vanilla made one last goodbye to her daughter.
"Please promise me that you won't do anything irresponsible while I'm gone. I will find out. The people I'm leaving you with have my number."
"I promise." Cream said, her voice slightly depressed, as she watched her mother drive from the apartment complex. Immediately, Cream entered the first building, and looking for the room Vanilla said the people she would be staying with lived. Despite the elevator that led to the rooms was public access, she decided to get their attention by buzzing in, she waited in a surprisingly well decorated lobby. Then she noticed a familiar someone walk out of the elevator. Said someone was world-famous Sonic the Hedgehog. Cream was speechless. Why is THE Sonic living here and responsible for me?!, Cream thought.
"Are you Cream?" Sonic asked, approaching her. Cream was silent, too struck with the awe of seeing someone that famous in a small town like this. "I assume you are, because I've never seen you around and you're speechless."
Cream regained her composure and spoke. "Y-Yes, I am. I'm sorry for being so startled, Mr. Sonic."
Sonic, while admittedly peeved about having Cream refer to himself as a mister, decided to ignore it and take her up to his apartment.
"Cream, uh, do you need any help with those suitcases?" Sonic asked before entering the elevator, noticing the almost comically large sizes of the suitcases Cream brought with her.
"Not really, but I wouldn't mind if you did." Cream responded.
Sonic then took the larger of the two suitcases and entered an elevator with Cream, pressing the third floor button. The elevator was rusted in places, and only one of the two lights functioned, filling Cream with a sense of dread. The doors suddenly slammed shut, scaring her to a very figurative death. Anyway, Sonic reassured her the elevator was simply old and fell into a state of disrepair, and someday would be repaired. Once the elevator opened to the third floor, the control panel sparked, short-circuiting the last operational light and leaving the elevator stuck on the third floor.
"Wow, now management really needs to fix that elevator." remarked Sonic.
* * *
The hallway where Sonic lived had few doors, understandably due to how big spaces had to be to accommodate sufficient and permanent living spaces for the residents (although there was an unusual amount of space between doors). And Cream remembered that her mom mentioned there'd be multiple people so clearly there was some sense to the lack of perceived apartments there. As they walked, Sonic talked about his heroic exploits.
"Hey Cream, do you remember when Eggman split the world into pieces and turned me into a werehog?"
"The world split apart? Sonic, are you crazy?" Cream asked, not recalling any events of the sort.
"Weird, I thought you would have at least heard about it. I mean, sure no one really cared once it happened, but I’m pretty sure you would have felt it." Sonic inquired. Cream would come to understand the significance of the comment in later events, but at the moment, she was too occupied by Sonic talking about his increasingly bizarre adventures, which left her wondering if he was exaggerating parts, but these thoughts were chased he reached a crudely painted blue door, the paint of which covered the inner parts of the adorning arch that surrounded the door, the golden painted details that adorned it, and bits of the carpet and doorknob.
Grabbing a key from who-knows-where, Sonic inserted it into the lock, opening the door. Upon entering and walking down a long hallway that ran to the right of the door, Cream noticed there were pictures of other mobians taken around the late 1800's to the 1900's upon entrance.
"Sonic, why do you have these pictures on the wall?" Cream asked.
"Oh those? Sonic laughed nervously. "Those were photos the last owner of this apartment had. He was really into, uh...what's it called?"
"Ancestry?" Cream added.
"Uh... yeah, that. I really should give them to him sometime. Unfortunately, I don't know his name or address so, yeah." Cream was about to ask about the last owner until Sonic dashed off with her luggage supersonic speeds.
"Sonic, wait for me!" Cream shouted as she ran after Sonic in a futile attempt to catch up with him. Once she reached the end of the hallway, Sonic immediately sped in.
"Cream so I packedallofthatsuitcase in the guest room for you." Sonic said rapidly.
"You didn't have to do that right now, Mr. Sonic," Cream replied. Cream noticed something wrong but didn't really want to stress Sonic out even more.
"Who said I needed to have a reason to do anything?" Sonic's confidence and charm shone in the comment, instantaneously making Cream lose motivation to question Sonic in that moment. It was something Sonic was rather good at, although that didn't mean he didn't get nervous on the outside.
Sonic walked out of the long hallway, which ended at an open doorway to the left to reveal a large living room. The living room's walls were an off-white color, and were lined with similar wooden accents on the floor as the front door. Two openings in the western side of the room led to a small, rectangular kitchen the first serving as a doorway, sealed with a painted metal door, the other being the window to a bar-like area, the wall with the bar being leaned against a wall diagonal from the door.
An HD television was perched on the southern wall, facing two cheap, green recliners, in between it a nightstand with a table lamp styled like a genie lamp and a stack of plastic coasters; the recliners and nightstand were perpendicular to a matching couch. In the recliners sat two other mobians, a bright orange fox who at the moment was burying his face in an issue of C&EN (Chemical And Engineering News) Magazine. Patches of his fur appeared to be covered in soot, something quite unusual especially considering the fox himself only appeared to be eleven or twelve at the most.
Next to him was a red echidna, wearing spiked white boxing gloves and a pair of sunglasses with green tinted lenses and currently asleep, mumbling about some jewel thief. Sonic immediately got their attention, making the fox close the magazine and the echidna wake up, frantically looking around the room. Cream then noticed the fox had two tails.
"Wait, she came that early?" said the echidna. Cream did not know it, but it was actually 11:18. It was hard to tell due to the copious amount of cloud cover.
"Well her mom had to get to the airport for some promotion of some kind. It’s not entirely unjustified." Sonic gestured towards Cream. "Guys this is the next person we will be 'overseeing', Cream." Cream noticed that a painted expression seemed to come across his face when he said the last part, but it disappeared as soon as he began talking again. Also when Sonic said "oversee", he said it with with a tone of mild discomfort.
"Cream, these are my friends who help me whenever Dr. Eggman whips up something that I can't handle on my own." Sonic pointed to the fox. "This is Tails. He's a real genius, even though he's twelve. He makes a lot of the gadgets I use in my escapades- I mean adventures!" Cream wondered why he was correcting himself, the word 'escapades' was actually a synonym. The newly identified Tails groaned. Contact between the fox's gloved palm and his face was established.
"Well anyway, he also can fly with his two tails. That's why we call him that." Sonic then immediately whispered into Cream's ear, "His name is actually Miles Prower but don't call him that. He HATES it.
"Next to him is Knuckles. He's pretty strong, and he guards the Master Emerald, well, for the most part, at least." Sonic explained.
"Hey, are you saying I'm not good at what I do?!" Knuckles shouted, his muzzle gaining a redder tinge.
"Not at all. Admittedly he's not that..." Sonic paused, trying to think of the least offensive word or phrase that he could say. "... He's not the... sharpest tool in the shed. But I'll admit, he's definitely smarter now than when we met him."
"Why thank you Sonic." Knuckles responded, his anger at Sonic decreasing.
"Don't mention it. The reason he comes here is because, well, we're the some of the only friends he he has, and as I said, he's a strong guy, as you can tell by those boxing gloves of his," Knuckles held up his hands, twisting them to give Cream a proper look at his gloves.
"...although I'm pretty sure they're actually mittens."
Knuckles got mad once more, "Sonic!" he yelled, at the top of his lungs.
* * *
Cream sat at one of the lone table in the bar area with Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, eating a Hot Pocket like the others, due to Sonic not having enough foodstuffs at the moment for any proper cooking to take place.
"Mr. Sonic, why do you have a bar in your apartment?" She inquired, knowing Sonic wasn't an alcoholic.
"See Cream, back in the late 70's, early 80's, these apartments made up a hotel. This area was the concierge lounge, you know kinda like a bar. Once the hotel folded, a wall that separated it from another hotel room to make this apartment." Sonic said. Cream was surprised that Sonic knew a lot about this place, especially considering he was only 16.
"Well the thing is Cream, Sonic likes to use the bar whenever he decides to have a party. We have a storage unit full of tables and chairs for whenever that happens down in Maple Heights." Knuckles explained.
"Maple Heights?" Cream asked.
"Yeah, there was recently a population boom about, ten or so years ago, and so they had to make Maplewoods two separate towns." Sonic added.
Sonic finished his Hot Pocket. "Alright guys, I gotta go grocery shopping. Cream, would you like anything in particular from the store?"
"Some carrots would be nice." Cream said.
"That all?" Sonic wondered.
Cream nodded. Sonic got up from the table, his chest hitting the table. Sonic groaned in pain, for Knuckles had punched him in the stomach earlier, bruise.
"Knuckles, you know I was only joking before, right?"
"So what? You know these are boxing gloves." Knuckles stated.
"Whatever." Sonic finally got out of his chair properly.
After that exchange, Cream, Tails, and Knuckles decided to dismiss themselves noticed a calendar on the wall open to the previous month, August. While this wouldn't be too odd, what was marked on it, however, was. Almost everyday on the calendar was marked with a cloud, with only two sun symbols marked, and four marks that indicated partly cloudy.
Cream spoke up in her usual, timid voice, "What do you use this calendar for?"
"You see Cream, Maplewoods has some very unusual weather patterns. The amount of cloud cover is always high, except for a few select days. Sonic loves being out in the sun, and he uses that calendar to track the amount of days the sun has been out." Tails explained. "But the thing is, I've found no pattern to when the sun comes out."
"Why would you look for a pattern?" Cream wondered.
The otherwise complacent expression that usually lay across the young kitsune's face was replaced with one of fear, as if remembering something traumatic. "Look Cream, when your mom drove you here, didn't something seem, off?"
Cream became unnerved by the more serious and grave tone of voice Tails took on. "Y-y-yes..." She stammered.
"The thing is, Cream, this town isn't normal in any sense of the word. Everyday something odd, something wrong happens. No one knows how the hell Sharp calculators cause some people to try and eat them. No school keeps records of successful summonings of demonic entities with their studens. No one knows how Pop Rocks and Coke actually kill you if consumed in the same timeframe in this town only. No one has an explanation for... anything. Do you KNOW what we are regarded as?" Tails explained, getting progressively more aggressive sounding as his speech went on.
"Th-th-the..." Cream was on the verge of crying now.
"No Cream! That sign is old, no one has bothered to take it away! Do you know what everyone refers to this place as?! The Place Where Science Gave Up! We've had thousands of scientists come try and decipher what makes this place the breeding ground for the paranormal! Hell, I've tried but nothing falls into a pattern, nothing points to any documented phenomena. There's only one explanation to this madness I can think of! Some kind of THING, some entity has to be responsible for it. But what divine being would put this area, specifically INTO A HELLHOLE?!" The kitsune began scratching at his head, running his fingers into his scalp as he started sobbing softly.
That only made matters worse. Cream began to cry also seeing . Causing Knuckles, who had before been immersing himself in some of his favorite hip hop tunes, ran into the room to see what was going on. Once he saw Tails scratching his head, he knew something bad was going on.
"Cream, what happened?" the red echidna asked. Tails suddenly bolted into his room, crying about names either Knuckles or cream could readily identify.
"I don't know, he- he just started shouting about how he-" Cream hesitated through tears, "he couldn't explain..."
Just then, a familiar blue blur whooshed in, bags of groceries in hand. "Knuckles, what's going on?"
"I don't know, she's too upset to talk." Knuckles said. "I think Tails had another one of his episodes again."
"Oh no... did he hurt her?" exclaimed Sonic.
" I don't think so," Knuckles replied, "She didn't mention anything about being hurt and I mean, she looks fine right now."
Sonic bent down slightly and looked Cream in the eyes. "Don't cry Cream, Tails does this sometimes, but he usually calms down later. I'll go talk to him first. Just let Knuckles know what happened."
And with that, Sonic was gone again.
* * *
By the time Tails had calm down, Sonic decided to walk Cream and the rest of his friends around bits of town, some of the more notable landmarks including a statue made from around the time the town was founded, the old elementary school that seemed to defy all spatial reasoning, and of course , a portion of the vast maple forest the town was named after, if you could call it that.
Right now, they were looking at the latter.
"Isn't this beautiful, Cream?" Tails inquired, looking at one of the least decrepid of the trees in this particular section.
“No, I mean, the trees are rotting . Why would you find this beautiful?”
“You see Cream, it’s unconventional, but have you ever been in a sketchy part of a well populated city, and you see those abandoned factories, left to rot? To me that can be beautiful in some dark, twisted way, a kind that almost-” Tails began to explain before Sonic interrupted him.
“Tails, I don’t think Cream wants to hear you talk about that.” Sonic said, noticing Cream seemed pretty uneasy
The kitsune sighed. “You know Sonic, maybe I was right about telling her about how anomalous Maplewoods and the surrounding area is. Why not tell her why I-”
“Look Tails, she clearly doesn’t have much of a stomach for the paranormal, isn’t that right?” Cream nodded in response to Sonic’s comment. “I’d prefer that we try to make things as normal as possible for her.”
“I don’t think that will be possible, Sonic. You’ve tried this before and it backfired severely”
The rest of the tour went on like this, Sonic and Tails arguing about what to do about with Cream. When they moved into the more developed parts of Maplewoods, Cream was able to tell that this was where most of the activity happened, as it there were definitely more cars and passerby around to greet them.
The high school that she would be going to for the moment was very modern, aside from some parts that reeked of 90’s architecture, and despite being more larger and the corridors and rooms more open than her middle school, it was still in a way, just as cramped.
“So Cream, how do you feel knowing you’ve got an advantage over the rest of your freshman class?” Sonic asked.
"Pretty good I guess" Cream replied
* * *
When dinnertime arrived, and they got back to the apartment , Sonic had cooked pork chops, which were surprisingly good, albeit a little dull in taste. After dinner, Cream decided to unpack the stuff that Sonic hadn’t hurriedly unpacked, and just go to bed. Cream had just begun to settle in, so really, what else could she do?
The guest room Sonic provided was big enough to allow for it to have a computer and a TV, the designs of the additional furniture inside being modern and therefore more geometric in design. The bed itself could be converted into a couch, and just before Sonic had made it into a bed.
As Cream lay in bed, she remembered something about Sonic didn’t seem right. Why was he so nervous? Was it because he was nervous about having to take care of her? Or was the way the house looked unpresentable? Cream ruled the latter out, because frankly, it was ridiculous, despite the ratty, cloth covered recliners looking like they housed thousands of spider eggs, their apartment look presentable. And considering that her mom said he had been doing this for years sometime before this, so after that memory re-emerged, Cream couldn’t figure out why Sonic was so nervous.
Thinking it over more, she figured Sonic was hiding something. Something big. Something that she probably wouldn’t understand. I shouldn’t pressure him about it too much tomorrow, Cream thought. It would probably make him more nervous.
And with that Cream went to sleep.
And within her dreams came the screaming.