THe TaiLS DoLL iS WaTCHiNG you

I consider myself to be the luckiest man in the world. But I didn't win the lottery, strike oil in my backyard, or find a drop-dead beautiful girl. I survived.

Let me explain. Last week I was cleaning my dorm with my roommate Alex. Everything was going as usual. The work was exhausting; we unpacked box after box (our room was also our U-Haul) and were sorting everything for what felt like decades. But it wasn't without fun. Occasionally we would unpack a box and stumble upon some nostalgic item, like our sound recording pens we used to spy with in our freshman year or old assignments that we thought were torture before but now would be respite. We were having a discussion about invincibility. Alex insisted that some things were just invincible, while I argued that everything had to have a weak point. Anyways, we were nearly finished when Alex shouted to me from across the room.

"Hey, look what's in this one!"

I made my way over to him, and traced his pointing finger to a box containing my old Sega Genesis. I couldn't believe it. My long lost friend had returned. We had both had a Genesis as kids. It was our favorite pastime. It was our childhood. A while back, Alex's Genesis had broken, and I had lost mine. But here it was, sitting in a musty box in the corner of our room. A whole eon of childhood memories and good times buried by adulthood had suddenly been unearthed. We had found a treasure worth more than gold.

"Well, you want to play it or just keep standing here?" Alex barked, jerking me back to reality.

"Uh, sure!" I replied.

Postponing the rest of the cleaning, we removed it, and hooked it up to our TV. Then we indexed the golden library of my old games.

"Whoa, you have Shining Force!"

"Yeah. Oh! I forgot about Streets of Rage 2!"

When we had browsed through everything, we set about what we should play first. We decided on Gunstar Heroes. For several hours, we played through every game, reliving our childhood. It was nearly midnight, but we were still going strong. Alex removed the next game from the pile. It was Sonic R.

"Ooh, Sonic R. The Tails Doll is gonna get you!" he said, laughing and tickling me.

"Hey, stop it! Get off!" I shouted playfully. I managed to stop his tickling.

"Want to try the curse?" he moaned, imitating a spooky voice.

"Eh, why not?" I replied.

"I bet you don't even know what it is," he retorted.

Of course I knew about the curse. You play a tag race on Resort Island as the Tails Doll and tag Mecha Eggman, Metal Sonic, and Metal Knuckles, tagging Super Sonic last. After that, the Tails Doll is supposed to steal your soul. It was all bullshit, if you asked me. Nonetheless, Alex grabbed the controller and had everything set up in less than a minute.

The game started. The cursed song "Can you Feel the Sunshine" began playing. We were soon reminded of the difficulty of tag race. Even though I wasn't playing, I felt Alex's frustration as he narrowly missed Metal Sonic, and Metal Sonic turned around. There were several moments of frustration throughout the race as we came close to tagging another player then had the opportunity snatched from us as we bumped into a wall, etc. After what seemed like hours, Alex finally tagged Super Sonic, ending the race. We were both so relieved to have tagged him that we had forgotten about the curse. So when the Tails Doll's picture popped up on the screen, we both jumped. Everything was silent for a few seconds as the Tails Doll seemed to gaze deeply at us, as a predator gazes at his prey, inspecting the meal.

"Heh, forgot about that," Alex said, breaking the silence. "I was so preoccupied with the race..."

"Yeah, me too."

"Well, this is boring. I'm going to get some chips."

"I guess I'll get some too. I am a little hungry."

Going to get the chips had made me less afraid. I had an excuse not to look at that thing anymore. But even when I was out of the room, I knew that thing was still staring at me. What made it worse was that "Can you Feel the Sunshine" was playing in my head, and I couldn't get it out. After a few minutes of being out of the room, my fear had lessened. We began talking again about what we would play next when we got back. I wanted to play Revenge of Shinobi, but Alex insisted on Mr. Nutz. After our little banter about the next game, we went back into our room and were once again confronted with the Tails Doll.

Alex had won our argument. We would play Mr. Nuts next. By this time, I had shaken off my fear and was ready to continue. Alex went to shut off the Genesis. Suddenly, my diminished fear returned, many times stronger than before. Alex had turned off the Genesis, but the picture of the Tails Doll was still on the screen. Its eyes seemed a little blacker. Alex turned around and saw me white with fear.

"What's wrong?" he asked me. I didn't respond. My eyes were fixed on the screen.

Alex turned back around and looked at the screen. Instantly his jovial face was replaced by one of sheer terror. We were both silent for a minute.

"I... I turned it off... it's still there..."

He went back over to the Genesis and unplugged it, then the TV. Nothing changed. The Tails Doll was still staring us down, hungry for blood.

"What the fuck is happening? Why is it still there? I unplugged it! What the fuck is wrong with this thing?" he shouted. "Go away! Go the fuck away!"

Its eyes blackened even more.

"Get out of there, you sick fucking bastard!" Alex was provoking it even more with his shouts. "Go away, you evil fucking demon!"

The lights in our room cut out. Our faces were only illuminated by the light from the TV.

Alex quieted down. "Can you Feel the Sunshine" was playing again. We both sat and listened.

Finally, the TV turned off, leaving us in pitch black darkness.

"What the fuck was that?" Alex whispered to me. "Tomorrow, I'm going right to the Dean's office and filing a complaint. I'm going to get new lights, a new TV, a new fucking dorm. Do you hear me?"

I wasn't listening. I was distracted by a red light glowing faintly from across the room. I started to get up, in anticipation of it moving closer. Alex was still shouting at me. I tapped him on his shoulder and pointed to it. He saw the light too, and shut up instantly. I was standing up now. "Heater," I whispered to him. He seemed to understand. We had a heater in our dorm room that was sealed off with iron doors.

"NOW!" I shouted. The light shot towards us as we began running towards our safe haven. It nearly missed me. As it flew past me, I caught a glimpse of his face. As I had suspected, the light was coming from the red orb mounted atop his head. He had a mouth stitched closed, and one ear seemed to be bitten off. The worst part was his eyes, two fathomless black voids staring into my soul.

He shot past me and landed in a pile of boxes. We kept running towards the heater. I was always the faster of the two of us, so I was about 2 feet ahead of Alex when it happened. I took a quick glance back to see a red light rising from the rubble. I also saw Alex's terrified face, trying desperately to keep up.

The light shot towards us again. I saw it disappear behind Alex. "TONY!" he shouted. Then Alex fell forward, revealing a bloody claw emerging from his head. He had given me the time I needed. With one great Herculean effort, I flung open the door to the heater, darted inside, slammed it shut, and jammed it just in time to hear the metallic bang of something hitting the other side. I had made it. I was safe... for now. I heard pounding from the other side of the door, followed by scraping, which sounded similar to nails on a chalkboard, but ten times worse. The scraping subsided to pacing, which then gave way to silence. The only sound to be heard was the humming of the heater. It was now that the impact of what had happened hit me. Alex was dead. I was trapped. There was a demon on the other side of the door. I felt like crying, but I didn't. I was too shocked to cry. For a long time, I was at the mercy of my emotions. After a while, I regained control of myself and began to think logically. There were no more sounds coming from the other side of the door. Was it gone? Could I get out? No. That's what it wants me to think. It wants me to think it's gone so it can rip me apart when I open the door. Other times my tidal wave of grief crashed down upon me again. A few times I thought of giving myself up to it so I wouldn't suffer anymore. Fortunately, I stopped myself before I might have done something stupid. I had thought of every way that I might be able to leave my confines other than the door. The only other way was through the heater itself. If I went through there, I would burn up instantly. I kept trying to think, but there was something that always stopped me. That cursed song kept running through my head. Whenever I would think I had found a way that would work, that song would play in my head and make me forget my plan because of my fear. "Can you feel the sunshine... sunshine... SUNSHINE!"

That was it! I had figured it out! I knew its weak point! Memories of my conversation earlier with Alex came back to me. I had said that everything had a weak point. Now I knew the Tails Doll's! The song wasn't a curse, it was a blessing! It told you how to beat the Tails Doll! His weakness was sunshine!

For a moment, I felt relieved. I felt that everything would be ok. But then I remembered where I was. There wasn't any sunshine inside a dormitory. All the blinds were closed, and it was night... or was it? How long had I been in here? Maybe hours? It might already be morning! I didn't have a watch or a phone, and there was no clock in the room. I couldn't tell what time it was by guessing either. My grieving might have been hours, or maybe minutes. It didn't matter. I only had one chance. Its weakness was sunshine, so somehow I had to get it outside. The problem was that I was trapped by it. I would have to run past it, out my door, down the hallway, and out the door leading outside. I began thinking of what I would have to do to make sure I would outrun it. I had seen how fast it was before. How could I outrun that? I couldn't think. I was getting desperate to leave. I mustered up all the courage I had, and flung open the door.

It was still there. It had been waiting there the whole time. But I had anticipated that. As soon as the door opened, I was out. This may have been the scariest moment in my life. I nearly ran into it. With one giant leap, I cleared its head, rolled on the floor, and made it to my door. I think that it tried to sabotage me when I left the furnace. It didn't matter. I was still being chased.

I tore into the hallway, dashing towards the exit. It seemed that the blackout earlier had affected the entire building, because all the lights were out here too. I could see a red light reflecting off the far wall ahead of me. It was in the hallway too. With all the speed I had, I made for the exit. By now, the thoughts in my head had reached a fever pitch. If it was night, I was dead. If it was day, there was no guarantee that sunlight would kill it. But when I looked back at it, I didn't care anymore. What I saw made me go all the way. I turned my head, and once again saw its two black eyes fixated on me. It's sewn up mouth twisted into a smile. Then the strings holding it closed broke, and it opened its mouth, revealing something too disturbing to write down.

I had finally made it to the exit. My hand grasped the handle, and with one mighty shove I pushed the door open and ran out. I could never be more thankful. The golden sunlight illuminated the dark corners of my eyes, basking my skin in its warmth as I leaped out. But the Doll wasn't far behind. A second after I came out of the door, it did as well, still grinning. But then it stopped short, as if it had been struck through the heart with a sword. It then began to scream, its head pointed skyward. Its shrill scream pierced my eardrums, as it climbed to the volume of a rocket engine. Then at once it was enveloped in flames. It began flailing wildly as its skin boiled and blackened, small bits of it breaking off and blowing away in the wind. Then it drew in a breath, and exploded. A loud boom shook the city. After the boom subsided, there was no trace of the Tails Doll left.

I was put in a mental institution for a while. Nobody believed my story. Not even Alex's body lying on the floor of our dorm convinced them. They think I murdered him. In reality, he let me live. This is the first time they have let me use a computer since I was detained. They have ignored everything I have told them. They only granted me one request: that I have a room with lots of sunshine in it.

Can you see? The sun is shining on me. It makes me feel so free! So alive! It makes me want to survive!

And the sky, it makes me feel so high! The bad times pass me by. Yesterday, it's gonna be a brighter day!