Singular contact (Sonadow story)

Ep.1 - Possible mistake?

Green Hills, Earth (Sonic's POV)

"Sonic.. I think we should go home," a young fox boy's voice reached my eardrums as I was standing with him in front of a house, which is abandoned, from what I've been told and there are even rumours, that it's haunted. I personally refuse to believe in possibility of any ghost living here and scaring anyone, who dares to come here.
"Don't worry, Tails, I am sure everything will be just fine," I said to the worried twin-tailed fox as I looked at him with a genuine smile. He glared back at me with a bit disappointed expression. My smile faded away as I averted my gaze and cleared my throat. Tails sighed and in the corner of my eye I saw him shaking his head slowly.
"Fine... but we only take a look and then go," he finally said in defeat, knowing that I am hard to be convinced otherwise. I nodded at him.
"Promise," my smile appeared on my face again as I took a deep breath afterwards and glanced at the fence, that surrounded the house.
"We need to find a way in," Tails stated while taking a better look at it from upclose, trying to find any way how to get to the other side of the fence.
"What about to simply climb over?" I suggested, he looked at me as if I was crazy.
"Are you joking? Just.. look at how tall it is!" he said seriously, making me chuckle nervously.
"You're right," I agreed with him and mentally facepalmed myself. Minutes later, he found a gap big enough for us to slip inside, so we finally got on the other side of the fence. I looked behind us. The sight was much different from here and it kind of brought shivers down my spine as I turned to face the main dark wooden door decorated by brick door frame and golden door knob. Tails and I exchanged a nervous expression, before we both walked over to the door and examined it properly. I tried to grab the knob and pull or push it, but it had no use, the door was probably locked.

Suddenly, Tails' hand holding a small silver key appeared in front of my face as I looked at him and smiled lightly, grabbing the key I tried to use it to the keyhole. Surprisingly enough, it worked and after a clicking sound the door finally shot open.
"Where did you find it?" I asked my fox friend curiously while wondering, where the key was.
"Under a bunch of ground... to me it seemed like someone buried it there intentionally, so nobody would be sneaking into the house," he replied quietly and held onto me while shivering slightly. I couldn't tell if from fear or just being cold. Probably a bit both...
Anyways, we both entered the house carefully and looked around the short hallway, that we revealed by opening the door. The dark coloured walls were decorated by a few old-looking pictures, mainly with some nature scenery or animal. On the left side of the hallways there was a single cabinet with two drawers, while on the other side there was a shoe cabinet and a holder with two umbrellas in it. We moved to the room, which was probably a living room. There was an oval dark brown wooden table at the center surrounded by a small black couch with two dark red pillows, and an armchair of the same type and colour. By the wall next to a window there was a medium sized cabinet with television sitting on top of it. And lastly there was a big wardrobe in the corner of the room. Not to mention, that everything was covered by a thick layer of dust and in general this place was pretty cold.

Tails and I then heard some noise coming from upstairs and we looked at each other in the eyes with scared expression. Yes, I was now scared too. The noise sounded nearly like footsteps, but it lasted only a second before the whole house went silent again. I felt my heart beating rapidly fast and suddenly I had a feeling like we are not completely alone here.
"Sonic... l-let's go home," Tails said in scaredly voice, it was shaky slightly. I nodded my head and complied as I turned around and walked through the hallway back to the main door along with Tails, who was eager to get out of here. He walked out of the house, while I have been stopped by another noise. This time, it sounded like a jingle bell tingling somewhere nearby me, so I turned my head to look at the living room and in front of the door way to the living room there was indeed a jingle bell laying on the ground. I gulped and even though my body was shivering slightly, I slowly moved towards the item and picked it up to take a better look at it. It was dark purple medium sized jingle bell on a thick black string. Unlike all the other stuff existing in this house, the jingle bell seemed to be somewhat unfitting... it looked too new. That was the strangest thing about it. I shortly looked at the stairs and feeling like being watched I rather quickly ran out of the house, joining Tails, who was already standing outside the fence and waiting for me.
"Where were you? I was so scared, come on," he said firmly and grabbing my wrist he started pulling me away from the house, which I took a last glance at before pulling my arm away from my friend's grip and walking beside him in quick pace.
"I am sorry, Tails.." I looked down in regret and felt his hand on my shoulder, while I slipped my both hands to a pockets of my dark blue hoodie, hiding the jingle bell in the process. I decided to not let anyone know about it. Fortunately, I found a way how to prevent it from making the tingling sound as I squeezed it firmly in my right hand inside the pocket.
"It's fine," I heard Tails replying to my apology as he pulled his hand away from my shoulder and we both eventually approached his house. We stopped in front of his door as he turned to face me and sighing softly he looked up into my eyes.
"Thank you for today, Sonic. See you tomorrow," he said quietly to me and I nodded my head while smiling.
"Sure thing, good night, Tails," I replied and he then entered his house, locking the door afterwards. I sighed as I turned around and started walking towards my own house. I took out the jingle bell and looked at it once again. It was sort of beautiful and I liked the sound it was making. Though, my mind made me wonder, who this thing belongs or belonged to. And mainly... how did it appear all of a sudden in front of the entrance to the living room back in that creepy house. I shook my head slowly as I thought this all through and made a decision - to never visit that house ever again!

Couple of minutes later, I finally arrived to my house, pulled out the key and unlocked the door. Letting them open slowly I turned my head to look behind me over my shoulder under an uneasy feeling of being watched by someone... or something...
Shivers went through my body and down my spine as I entered my house and quickly closed the door, as if to prevent that whoever in following me. I leaned back on the door and frowned while replaying all the moments I just experienced today. Maybe I should have not gone to the house... maybe it was a mistake! I looked down at my clenched fist, which I did not realize I was keeping all the time, and unfolded it to reveal the jingle bell resting in my palm, the string hanging down in the gap between my fingers and slightly swinging in the rhytm of my heartbeat within. I shook my head slowly while letting out a deep sigh.
"What have I done..." I said to myself quietly and walked straight to my room, where I placed the jingle bell on a nightstand located next to my bed, took my shoes and gloves off and grabbing a tank top with shorts I quickly moved to a bathroom. Locking the door behind me I yeeted the clothes on the edge of the sink and looked at my reflection in a small mirror above it. My quills were a bit messy and my eyes tired from today. I sighed again before finally taking a long, warm and comforting shower, which I so desperately needed.

Thirty minutes later I came out of the bathroom, all dressed and ready for the night. Night spent here in my house all by myself... as usual. Or this is what I thought at the moment as I tiredly brushed my teeth and went to my room, where I layed on my bed and let out a sigh of relief. The day was finally over. Tomorrow is the last day of school before the summer holidays begin. My ears twitched as I suddenly heard a familiar noise. It was a sound of the jingle bell. I widened my eyes and in panic I quickly moved my eyes towards my nightstand, which was strangely empty now! I gasped after noticing the jingle bell laying on the ground, almost in the doorway to my room. I gulped and felt my body becoming frozen, not allowing me to move even an inch! I. Felt. Purely. Terrified! My mind kept yelling at me to finally move, stand up and go pick up the jingle bell, but my body did not comply at all. The only body parts I could move with were my eyeballs and maybe mouth. My heart was pounding against my chest while shivers flowed through my spine and caused my quills stick out a bit, as if I was under a threat. And what if there is this... someone, threatening me? What if he is now standing in the doorway and watching me, even maybe smirking, being amused by my fear? I shook my head to get rid of such dark thoughts and found myself finally being able to move. Moments later, I ended up truly standing in front of the doorway and picking up the jingle bell from the ground. I peeked out of my room in hopes of seeing at least something, but as I expected, there was nothing all around my house. Nothing but silence and dim lights coming here from the lamps outside straight through the windows. My whole body was like on fire and the cold droplets of sweat made another wave of shiver go down my spine as I slowly walked back over to my bed and sitting on the edge of it I took a proper look at the little tingling item in my hand. I tried to see maybe some letters or anything, that would tell me more about it, but it was useless, there were no symbols, no letters, no words, nothing. I sighed in frustration, placing the thing inside a drawer of the nightstand I layed on my bed again and covering myself with the blanket I closed my eyes, soon drifting off to dreamland.