Welcome one and all to my collection of short horror stories. I must warn you that they do have slight references to my humor story Me, Myself, and Sonic. My apologies on this fact.

However, it is not recommended to read these after dark, especially if you're prone to bedwetting.

Disclaimer: no own sonic and co.

Shadows in the Moonlight

The door creaked open slowly. Sonic peered into the dark dusty house. His eyes were wide trying to make out the room in the pitch black. He pulled out a flashlight and flicked it on flooding the grimy room with light. The walls hung with spider webs and what little furniture there was all having white sheets flung over them half-heartedly. He opened the door all the way and stepped inside. A pink hedgehog crept in behind him and grabbed his shoulder, trying to stay as close to him as possible.

Sonic turned to Amy, "Don't worry Ames, it's only one night. Nothing can happen." he said.

Amy nodded anxiously hoping she could trust him. Sonic went over to the door and closed it so the view of the lawn, left uncut for years, was gone from their sight. Sonic grabbed Amy's hand who stayed close to him and the two gingerly went through the dark room together.

The floorboards creaked and for a moment, Sonic feared they would break under the sudden weight after having not been stepped on for so long… but no. They held under the hedgehogs. Sonic and Amy left the depressing hall and went to the left into another room. This appeared to be a living room. Sonic shined his flashlight around the room, a couch was visible under a white sheet and a glass coffee table set in front of it with years of dust piled onto it.

A fireplace against the wall had a scalded log in it and heaps of ash below. An eerie portrait hung above it of an old woman with a stern face and glaring eyes. Sonic stared into her eyes for a moment as if entranced but then he looked away. Another door was to his right but he went towards the couch and sat down. Amy sat beside him but squealed and stood again as she'd sat on a loose spring. Sonic suppressed a laugh and she sat on the other side of him.

Sonic shined the flashlight around the room taking in the absolute filth of the room. He glanced at Amy. She had her eyes on her feet, she was determined not to look around in case she saw something that would cause her to scream. Sonic smiled slightly, he was glad she was here with him even if she was even more afraid than him. If he were alone he would be petrified. However, after being dared by Liz to come here he couldn't have said no, he would have seemed like a coward. He was glad Liz had allowed Amy to come with him, even the presence of a terrified pink hedgehog was comforting to him.

"Come on, while we're here we might as well look around." he said standing.

"Oh, no Sonic!" Amy said, "Please."

However, Sonic took her hand, "I promise, nothing bad is going to happen." he said.

Amy smiled uncertainly and followed Sonic across the room to the door. Sonic put his hand on the doorknob and pulled it open to be greeted by a long room with a lengthy dining table with many chairs placed in the center and empty frames hung on the wall where the paintings probably used to be.

"What happened to the pictures?" Amy whispered looking at the frames.

"Someone probably broke in and stole them." Sonic reasoned.

"Why wouldn't they steal that one over the fireplace?" Amy asked.

Sonic puzzled over this, perhaps it was out of the robber's reach-, or perhaps he had been afraid of the piercing gaze of the woman from the picture.

"I don't know." he replied simply, "Come on, let's keep going."

He pulled Amy across the room and went into an open doorway into the hallway again. He saw an open doorway leading down into a basement and felt his adventurous side take over, "Let's go down there!" he said.

Amy's hand tightened around his, "No, please!" she begged.

"Come on Amy!" Sonic argued, "You don't really think this house is haunted, do you?"

"You never know." she said quietly.

"Don't be silly. Let's go. What could go wrong?" he said.

Amy whimpered but, not wanting to be alone, followed him down the stairs.

Sonic came to a dusty wine cellar. He moved the flashlight slowly across the walls which were lined with racks and racks of wine bottles, "This is amazing!" he said in awe.

"Great, now let's go back upstairs." Amy said anxiously.

"Wait, let's look around more." Sonic said taking her hand and pulling her farther into the dark cellar. He was curious about everything Liz had told him about this place. She had been very vague in her description of its 'spiritual inhabitants' if there were any. All she had said was that there was a murder in this house a long time ago. A woman had caught her husband cheating on her and had murdered him, brutally and painfully, and buried him in the basement. But she was later to be found upstairs, dead: murdered by someone… or something.

Amy of course knew nothing of this for if she did she would never have come.

Sonic glanced around at the grubby cement walls and the dirt floor. There wasn't much of interest down there in the cellar but he was so determined to figure something out that he couldn't resist the overwhelming urge to stay. He looked round at Amy; her face was pale and she had wide frightful eyes staring determindly at him.

He smiled sympathetically, "We'll go in just a second Amy, I promise." he said.

Then Sonic saw a door beneath the stairs and released her hand and went over to it. Amy squealed and ran after him, "Don't leave me!" she whispered, grabbing his hand again.

"Sorry." he said with a smile, "I wonder what's in here." he reached for the doorknob.

"Sonic, don't!" Amy whimpered.

Nevertheless, he did. Sonic pulled open the door. It was a pantry. A very old one at that. However, standing there in the room was what appeared to be a whispy white figure of a man.

Sonic and Amy both froze in fear. Then the haze vanished in a split-second. Sonic was so surprised that he dropped the flashlight and it came crashing to the ground and hit the dirt floor, hard from years and years of never being touched.

The light flickered and then died.

Sonic stared down in horror for a moment at what he'd done, then he turned and pulled Amy up the stairs as fast as he could manage. They came into the hallway and Sonic closed the door behind them. He stared at Amy, her face had drained of all color and her hands were cold as death itself. She stared at Sonic in terror, "Oh please Sonic! Let's leave right now!" she said alarmingly.

Sonic stared at her for a moment, he wanted to leave… Oh, how he wanted to leave right now but he didn't want to give Liz that satisfaction! "It's okay Amy." he said pulling her close in a hug, "Don't worry, I'm here. Nothing can hurt you."

Amy whimpered as tears came to her eyes and she buried her face in Sonic's shoulder. Sonic held her tighter and closed his eyes. He didn't want to open them. What could be waiting for him there?

Then he did and he was greeted by the same hallway. No ghostly vapor, no monsters or vampires or zombies. They were alone. He sighed and pulled Amy away from him and held her shoulders, looking her straight in the eyes, "I promise, I won't let anything hurt you." he said sternly.

Amy stared at him for a moment and then nodded, indicating that she understood and she trusted him, and wiped the tears from her stinging eyes.

Sonic smiled, "Come on, let's go upstairs and find a room we can spend the night in." he said.

Amy nodded, unable to respond any other way, and Sonic grabbed her hand and the two headed for the stairway at the end of the hall.

The stairs creaked eerily as the two made their way up the steps and as they reached the top of the stairs Sonic thought he heard the stairs still creaking after they'd stepped off them but when he looked back he saw nothing. He tightened his grip on Amy's hand and made his way down the hall into a room near the end. The room was completely empty except for a door on the left and one window on the farthest wall which spread moonlight across the floor. This was perfect; it had nothing to be afraid of and there was light everywhere from the moon. He led Amy inside and shut the door behind them.

They sat beneath the window and waited in silence. Amy rested her head against Sonic's shoulder. He was glad to see she was finally calming down, and he pulled her close in a hug. He heard light snores as she fell asleep in his embrace. Sonic smiled, this would be easy. What was there to be afraid of anyway?

Suddenly a piercing scream was heard and Amy awoke and grasped Sonic tightly. Sonic stared at the door in fear. The screaming continued. It was a high feminine scream from somewhere downstairs. Then the scream stopped and footsteps were heard rapidly coming up the stairs.

Then the door flew open and Sonic and Amy stared… there was nothing there. Then the two felt footsteps pounding on the floor of the room and although they saw noone, a shadow was cast across the wall from the moonlight, a woman. Then the door to their left flew open. More footsteps were heard on the stairs and then following the latter through the room to the left as the shadow of a man ran across the wall. Then the door slammed and woman's screams were heard again from the room on their left.

Sonic pulled Amy up and ran out the door. Then as they reached the hall they slowed to a walk and went down the creaky stairs slowly and through the hall. As they were halfway to the door they heard the creaking of footsteps slowly coming down the stairs after them.

Sonic began to walk faster, holding Amy's hand tightly, afraid to look back for fear of what might be following them. As they quickened the footsteps also increased in pace.

Sonic began to panic, he didn't want to meet whatever it was that was following them, so he grasped Amy's hand and took off out the door and down the road back home, leaving behind the house and it's frightful residents to haunt another pair…

But that's a story for another time.