Outdated Solution

We don’t know how long she’s been here. Even some of the oldest people in our town admit she was already a legend when they were kids.

 

After recent events, I need to write this down to make sense of everything. Lest I go insane.

 

From my mother's story, she used to be a normal mobian. Her name is debated. Some say it was Swirl, others say it was Twist, though the one most agree on is Tangle. She was a lemur, one that lived in Spiral Village herself. She was a cheery girl at the time, said to light up the town with her boundless energy.

 

She lived alongside her love, a wolf whose name was said to be spoken in only whispers. They were said to be inseparable, constantly at each other's side. Some say it was a love so innocent and pure that it would make you feel lighter just being around them.

 

However, one day, Tangle found a note from her love, simply stating she had gone out to finish a fight she had long since started. She looked all day for the wolf, asking around to anyone she knew. Eventually, she found her.

 

Dead.

 

Accounts vary on what happened; some say that the wolf was stabbed to death, others that she had been shot, and others say that Tangle killed her herself. Though the stabbing story seems to be the original from my research. On that day, people could hear Tangle’s broken cries for miles, as her heart bled out alongside the wolf.

 

She disappeared after that, gone for months, with no one knowing where she might have gone. The wolf was also reported missing, with no one knowing of her death at the time. But then, the wolf came back, seemingly fine, smiling even, though she seemed to get agitated whenever they asked about the lemur.

 

No word was heard from the lemur, with the wolf seeming far too happy despite her love being gone. Some wondered what had happened, with rumors beginning. At that time, the lemur came back, seemingly fine. She greeted everyone with a smile.

 

But something was wrong.

 

Her smile, once so bright, now looked hollow, like a pathetic copy of what once was. Her movements were odd, limbs moving ever so slightly, unnatural. Despite this, those who didn’t know her personally were happy that she had returned.

 

But those who did could tell something was a miss.

 

Soon, everyone could see the problems between the wolf and the lemur. Their fights were constant, though they stayed together. Despite the attempts from others, they kept fighting.

 

During this time, the massacre started. Those who dared commit crimes too horrid to speak of were found brutally murdered. First, it was small injuries, lacerations, and bruises. But it soon escalated until entire buildings were covered in flesh, with the monsters in them being brutalized beyond recognition, as if a demon had come from the depths of hell to punish them.

 

But one day, it reason behind all of it was revealed.

 

The lemur and wolf had been sent to find a criminal, one whose name has been forgotten. When they got there with their friend, they began the battle with them. During the fight, they had managed to cut the wolf’s face, slicing through her skin. In that moment, the lemur froze, her body fading in and out of existence as the wolf panicked. She cried, repeating ‘no’ over and over. When the lemur faded, the wolf turned…

 

Showing the lemur’s face behind the wolf’s skin.

 

The rest of the story depends on the teller; some say she was saved, others say she was a demon that returned to hell. But overall, she was still a legend.

 

A legend I have seen with my own eyes.

 

I was an urban explorer, but beyond the ruins of Spiral City were the ruins of Spiral Hill Village. It had long since been abandoned, some say because of the lemur. I decided to explore, having never been there myself. I took a small amount of food and water, alongside some tools to get around, namely a crowbar, a camera, a rope, and a torch.

 

The drive wasn’t long, only taking around an hour to get there. As the village got closer, something I noticed was that the sky seemed to close up as I got closer. The clouds got darker, the wind colder, even the plants seemed to slowly get more and more wild, stretching and growing beyond what would be seen anywhere in the city limits. The whole place had a sense of abandonment, but more importantly, the feeling of utter sadness. A feeling that this had once been something great, not reduced to nothing but a forgotten memory.

 

As I got out of my car, the sun wasn’t visible through the clouds, but there was enough light to not need to waste my torch battery. I walked through the abandoned town, looking through the collapsing buildings. There were multiple things that I found: photos, art pieces, and even some jewelry. However, I didn’t take anything, deciding to leave the ruins and the homes of these families as is.

 

But as I walked, something felt… wrong. I don’t know how to describe it. It felt like there were eyes everywhere, like I had just entered somewhere that didn’t want me. Like I had walked into some dark realm where I should have never entered. I didn’t think much of it at the time. The weather and the overall state of the city made everything feel off, and I’m not ashamed to say that I’m not exactly the bravest, so the feeling wasn’t something that came off as unnatural. So I foolishly walked in. 

 

However, two buildings seemed oddly… fine.

 

They had cracks and chips, but overall, you’d never know these were over a hundred years old. The first was a museum, or at least I think it was, if the glass display panels and panels with some jewels everywhere were any indication. I looked through the main office, finding a drawer with some old documents. It had belonged to someone named Jewel the Beetle. I knew her; she and her family had formed the Jewel Museum in the city, where memorabilia and trinkets from past heroes like Sonic and Tails were kept. Nothing had ever been said of her living here before, but considering how long it had been since she had been around, it made sense.

 

After placing the documents back and taking some pictures with my camera, I walked out and found another building. This one was a house, a big one. Entering it, the inside was light stepping back in time. The place looked untouched and completely clean. The carpets were pristine, the walls painted, and the air fresh. It threw me for a loop, making me have to recompose myself for a second. Once I did, I explored the home, finding multiple photos.

 

They showed a wolf and a lemur. The lemur had her arm around the wolf, both of them smiling. They looked so happy, the lemur’s smile so bright that I couldn’t help but mimic it. Underneath the photo, a message was written.

 

‘Tangle and Whisper’

 

 Multiple other photos were around the house. Some showed them at a beach, one with them sitting beside a sheep, and another with them in what looked like a town center, and many more. Each one looked so happy and cheerful, a contradiction to the state of the town.

 

As I looked, and brought out a cloth and cleaned some of the photos, as dust had piled up on some. As I did, the feeling of being watched eased a bit, though I didn’t know why. I kept looking, I came upon a door leading to what I assumed was a basement. Going down, I found the door unlocked and walked inside.

 

I wish I hadn’t.

 

Inside, the basement was hot. Unnaturally hot. It was dark enough that I turned on my torch. The light shone on what looked like a massive map. Hundreds of photos and strings were strewn over it. Each photo showed a purple octopus with black eyes and white pupils. Journals and books lay around me, their writing so messy and chaotic that I couldn’t even begin to understand them. But I couldn’t focus on that as something caught my attention. That was a buzzing sound.

 

Looking back, one of the support pillars for the basement was…glitching. I know it sounds strange, but it was glitching, its form flickering in blue. It kept doing so before it finally disappeared.

 

And a pillar of flesh is what I was met with.

 

It reached the ceiling, stretching across it like a mold. Eyes bulged from it, all of them purple and watching him. And soon, everything around me began to glitch, as more and more flesh formed around me. I fell to the ground as more and more eyes appeared, all of them staring at me. But that wasn’t the part that truly scared me.

 

It was when I heard footsteps from up above.

 

I had come here alone. I knew that. And while it could have been another explorer, I knew it wasn’t. Call it an instinct, but my gut knew that whatever walked up above was no Mobian. 

 

The footsteps continued before they got close to the basement door. I ducked behind some of the furniture that hadn’t disappeared. And not a moment too soon, as the door creaked open, the footsteps came down the stairs. What followed were ragged breaths, ones that sounded like the owner's lungs were barely holding on. I stayed quiet, hoping whatever had entered wouldn’t see me. But as a violet light shone right at the furniture I was hiding behind and eyes formed next to me, watching me, I knew that wouldn’t be the case.

 

The breathing got closer, the footsteps getting louder. I was barely keeping it together as I pulled out the one thing I had brought just in case. A bottle of pepper spray. I wasn’t much, and I had wished I had brought something more powerful, but I would work…hopefully.

 

Right when I could hear the entity right behind me, and turned and sprayed them, and a horrific and high-pitched scream rang out. I got up from my hiding place and ran to the door, only turning back once to see what had entered.

 

And I felt my heart stop.

 

The entity had the body of a mobian. But multiple appendages were sticking out of its body. Claws, arms, and what looked like cameras, all sprouting from their back. But that wasn’t the worst part.

 

It was the fact that I knew the being in front of me.

 

It was the lemur I had seen in the photos. Her white and blue fur was easily recognizable.

 

Tangle.

 

Alongside the rotting skin of the wolf, of Whisper, I had seen in the photos with her.

 

The skin was practically falling apart from her body, with some parts seemingly stitched onto the lemur. Entire parts were missing, showing the flesh beneath the skin. But I could see blood from what looked like scratches and knife marks on the lemur’s real skin. Alongside that, I saw a strange three-pronged symbol in her right eye, now red from the pepper spray.

 

It took me a moment to break out of the shock, but I ran up the stairs and out of the house when I did. No sooner did I leave the house than the entire village began to glitch as I heard what sounded like a guttural scream and wolf howl echoing from behind me.

 

As it rang out, the buildings shifted as their walls were covered in flesh, eyes watching my every move, finally understanding why I had that watched feeling. Similar appendages to the ones that the lemur had formed from the masses, claws stretching out to grab me. Alongside it, camera-like appendages formed as well. They had the rough shape of a security camera, but instead of a lens, cloudy white eyes were stuck to them. Blood and mucus spilled under them as a purple glow came from them, following my every move.

 

Things only got worse as I heard the sound of something running next to me. Looking up, I saw the lemur running along the rooftops, her eyes glaring at me as she chased me down. As I ran, I made it to the tree line as I ran through it. I could hear branches cracking as it still gave chase. I couldn’t see her well, but I could hear her swinging along the branches, launching herself from tree to tree. I had almost reached my car before something grabbed my leg and yanked me to the ground.

 

My forehead slammed against the ground hard, the sound of my camera going off hitting my ears. As I got up, I could feel blood slowly drip down and over my eyes. But I couldn’t focus on that as the sound of growling hit my ears. Spinning around, I saw a tendril had wrapped around my leg, having sprouted from the lemur’s back. She was glaring at me, crawling closer on all fours. Like a wolf stalking its prey.

 

As she got closer, some of those camera appendages formed, before they started nudging her. She looked at them for a second as small tentacles extended from them and connected to her next. Her eyes glowed as she went quiet. Behind her, I saw…myself. 

 

I saw myself going through the town, from what I could only was the point of view of the eyes. They showed me looking through the buildings, being careful the entire time, putting the files from the museum back into the drawer, and cleaning the pictures back at the home.

 

It went on like that for a few seconds before the lemur finally moved again, looking back at me. Her face, once filled with rage, now showed confusion, and then understanding. She studied me for a second before her eyes widened, a quiet whine coming from her. One of the cameras formed as a purple light washed over me. It stayed for a second before it disappeared. Once it did, the lemur hand twitched before a strange symbol, one that matched the one in her eye, but was glowing purple, formed in her hand.

 

Instantly, I felt the pain around my body fade, as the small cuts I had gotten from the fall vanished alongside the blood. Once it was all healed, the tendril released my leg as the lemur got up and began to leave. She immediately climbed up the tree, giving me one more apologetic look before disappearing.

 

After that, I picked up my camera and left.

 

I…I know what I saw was the being from the city’s old legend. The Purple Demon, the Skinwalker, the Solver. The same one they had used as a simple ghost story. Was the one I had encountered.

 

I haven’t told anyone close to me. God knows what they would think of it. But that wasn’t the only reason. The only reason I had been let go, from what I could tell, was because I hadn’t disturbed anything in the town, and had even helped clean some of the objects. If I revealed its existence, no doubt more would go looking for it, and I do not doubt that some of them would damage, if not destroy, the ruins to try and find the Solver. And god knows what it would do then.

 

So I have kept quiet, but I’m sharing this now since it seems to have vanished recently, alongside the ruins of Spiral Hill Village. I’m posting this here due to this being a more underground forum where everyone understands the danger of angering an entity like this.

 

However, I leave you with one more thing.

 

When my camera fell off and I took a photo when I fell, a photo was taken of the lemur, of Tangle. I have attached it to this post.

 

I beg anyone, if you have any information, please tell me so I know I’m not crazy here.

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