Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark

The Ash Pit

After school ended Sonic was chilling under the tree out front, reviewing the homework. He always stuck around for a little bit just to make sure his friends left first. As he rested under the tree he was reading over his math homeworker, which was…

Seriously? Accuplacer? This had to be on a college-level or something, it was like a foreign language was scribbled all over his homework!

He couldn't make heads or tails of anything, though Kevin said he could drop by his new house later- if Tom allowed it. Of course, that donut cop was going to, or Sonic was going to be a 9th-grade math dropout!

Sonic packed it up with a heavy sigh, then got to his feet. He felt the need to run a lot again. After the fun race, which he won, he had an itch to keep running. It was like when you walk for too long, then when you stop your legs want to keep going in the same repetitive motion.

Well, he might as well check around in town, right?

Sonic adjusted his backpack on his back, charged up for a moment then took off running.

He ran up and down the streets of the city, even taking the old nature path, checking out his old cave, setting off Crazy Carl's traps and then ran his way back home, all in the course of a minute.

"I'm home!" Sonic sighed as he walked through the front door, his legs still urging him to run. He ignored the feeling, instead he forced himself to walk at a normalish pace as he headed into the dining hall. He removed his backpack and tossed it up on the table. He and Kevin could study in here- it was roomy and they wouldn't get distracted. If they actually went to Sonic's room no work would ever be done.

Wait, no one answered him. Normally Tom was home by now... Did driving here take longer than normal? Was there a whole new schedule he was going to be forced to adjust to?

"Hello!" He yelled. "Answer me or I'll search this house!" Last time Sonic 'searched' a house, he had turned everything upside down in the old place. He never did find his favorite headphones.

"I'm down here, Sonic!" Tom's voice echoed through the house. Sonic's sensitive ears twitched, trying to locate it. Well, honestly down could only mean one thing...

Sonic made his way to the basement door, his eyes narrowing as it hung wide open.

"Tom!" Sonic yelled down, nervously shifting his weight foot to foot. He didn't want to- no! He was Sonic. He wasn't scared of dumb rumors or scary dreams. Sonic grinded his teeth and dashed down the stairs, coming to a sliding stop at the bottom where he kicked dust up into the air.

Tom was kneeling down on the floor, partly hidden in the dark shadows in the back corner. Tom looked up, grinning widely as he waved him over.

"You need to relax, I was right here. Anyways, come check this out! I can't believe we missed it."

Sonic walked over, glaring down at the object until he could finally tell what it was.

"That's... an ash pit."

"It is! We missed it last time we were here. We need to put better lights down here for sure, but the exterminator found it while looking around. He thinks they made their nest here."

Sonic cautiously moved closer, stepping closer to Tom as he refused to take his eyes off of the ashpit.

The grate was bolted on, and there was some weird... runes on it?

"Tom, what are all those?" Sonic asked, placing a hand on the human's shoulder.

"Oh, that? To me, it looked like Latin. I don't know it though, so I'll have to look up what it actually says."