Chapter 21: Doppelganger

The valley had not made a sound in a month. Nothing moved. Everything was quiet.
In the middle of the valley lay three bodies of three sandhogs. All of them had been through hell a month ago and now it was time to return there.
One of them started to breath again, followed by coughs. He rose to his feet and looked around. His two other friends were waking up too. They all looked at each other.
“What happened?” Sumi asked and tried to stable himself.
“The last thing I remember was...what happened to us back there?” Nightmare OX had got on his feet and looked all around the valley.
Sucker had been the first to stand up and was looking for anything to explain what happened.
“I remember it...”
Both of them looked at Sucker.
“We defeated him. We killed him...I killed him.”
“What do you mean? I only remember the terrible heartache I got. Then nothing.” Sami said as he looked away from Sucker.
“I remember two of them. After that everything went black.” Nightmare OX started to walk around. “Sami! What happened to your hand?”
Sami’s right hand had been chopped off by Irma in their battle.
“I don’t feel any pain. It’s strange. It’s like its still on me. I don’t remember how it happened.”
Sucker had gone quiet.
“Soul Connection.”
“Huh?” Sami looked at Sucker.
“That’s what you said. It’s called Soul Connection. When we became one. Where did you hear about that?”
“From Jim, of course. He taught me all that I know. He was my mentor ever since I was 6.”
“So what is this Soul Connection?” Nightmare OX said.
“Well, of what he told me, Soul Connection is a sort of spell or summoning that connects two or more souls together. Since there are only the souls they create a new body with each other, keeping the old bodies still normal. But if the bodies are destroyed while the souls are in the new body together when they split the souls won’t have any place to end up. Those are often called the Lost Souls.”
“But how did we do that?” Nightmare OX asked and was a bit confused.
“That...I do not know.”
Sucker started walking off.
“Sucker?” Sami looked at him. “Where are you going?”
“Home. They need to know what happened. They need to know that it’s safe to come out of that cave.”
Nightmare OX and Sami looked at each other and then followed Sucker.

After a few minutes of walking they were almost at Sandhog Camp.
“We need to tell them what happened to Tilar and Bill.” Sami said as they were almost up the hill to see the camp.
When they got over the hill they saw the camp. It was just as when they left it. Nearly every building was destroyed in one way or another.
“They must still be in the cave.”
They walked to the entrance of the cave that everyone had been in. When they walked in they saw no one. They looked around and called to see if anyone was there.
“There isn’t anyone here.” Nightmare OX walked to the other two.
“Then where are they?” Sucker tried to look at places that no one could possibly be in. “Wouldn’t we have seen someone from the hill if they were in the camp?”
“We better go and check then.” Sami walked out, still looking around to see if anyone was anywhere around.
They walked into the camp and then saw the others. Everyone lay on the ground, in blood puddles or were on top of someone else.
“What! No!” Sucker ran to them to check if anyone was still alive. “What happened? Who did this? Jake couldn’t have done it! I know I killed him!”
“Rose! Rose!” Sami ran around the camp and looked at everyone trying to find his love, Rose.
Nightmare OX just stood there, silent and looked at the sandhogs lying on the ground.
“Rose!! Please answer me!”
Sami kept on looking, going into every single house. Sucker was still checking if anyone was still breathing. Nightmare OX stood and looked around, everything that brought back memories to the time he killed innocent sandhogs like this.
Suddenly a door opened in one of the houses. Out came a middle age hedgehog women and looked at them. As Sucker looked at her he saw the fear and sadness in her eyes.
“Why did you do this?” She spoke.
None of them understood what she meant.
“What happened?! Why are all of them dead?” Sucker stood up from one of the sandhogs on the ground.
“What did we do to make you do this?” She said.
“What are you talking about? What did we do?”
The sandhog women fell to the ground and lay there still. All three of them ran to her and checked if she was okay.
Suddenly Sucker felt this strange presence. He looked back and saw a dark figure. A black sandhog with empty white eyes. It was him. He was staring at himself.


To be continued…