2:45 a.m.

The few remaining survivors were now gathered at the living room. After receiving the news about Amy's death, Cream and Tails were definitely not taking it very easily as they had been shivering with fright while hugging each other for comfort. Knuckles and Rouge were surprisingly calm though, which made Shadow suspicious.

I don't want to believe this either, but it's the only remaining possibility. Shadow thought to himself as he announced his one thought he wished weren't true to everyone in the room.

"I have a feeling that one of us had murdered them,"

Everyone froze at that statement, even Cream and Tails had stopped shivering. "One... Of us...?" Tails murmured.

"Yes, I hoped it wasn't true, but I'm running out of possibilities," Shadow replied.

"But... That's impossible! I doubt if anyone here would even like killing their own friends!" Knuckles spoke in an enraged and slightly frantic voice.

"Have to admit, but Knuckles' right. Plus what would the killer get from killing them anyway? I don't see a clear motive in this," Rouge stated.

"I know, but I don't see how the other possibilities fit in," Shadow answered. "I first thought that it would have been a shooter who shot from outside, but the windows and doors were already closed tight and had no cracks at all. There also seemed to be no possible place for the killer to hide inside the house, no secret passages, no hidden doors, nothing."

"But... Why would anyone want to kill Sonic? He can be... Annoying but... He's a caring person... It's just... Not fair..." Tails couldn't continue as the tears started to stream like waterfalls.

"Shorty is right, Shadow, no one here even has a grudge on Blue, so why would someone other than Eggman kill him for no reason?" Rouge said, while also trying to console Tails.

"Do you have any clues?" Knuckles asked.

Shadow took the bullet he found from Sonic's corpse out for everyone to see. "I know this bullet," Rouge suddenly answered after taking a closer look at the bullet. "I thought only GUN members would use this type of bullet,"

Shadow nodded in agreement, but then Knuckles interrupted.

"So you did this, didn't you?"

"Why would you think..." Before Rouge could finish, Knuckles interrupted again.

"Stop lying, Rouge! Isn't it obvious now? You planned for us to have a sleepover here, you killed Cheese while we were looking for him, you shot Sonic and stabbed Amy, you did this!" Knuckles burst into rage and pounced onto Rouge.

"Knuckles! Calm down!" Tails cried as he and Cream tried to pull Knuckles' right arm off Rouge.

"Calm down! Echidna! I'm sure that Rouge isn't the killer!," Shadow called.

"And why should I trust you that Rouge isn't behind all this?" Knuckles demanded.

Before Shadow could answer, the lights turned off all of a sudden and everything turned pitch black. A second later, the lights were automatically turned back on.

Everybody looked around and almost nothing was amiss. Cream and Tails were still tugging onto Knuckles' arm, Knuckles himself was still restricting Rouge from escaping while she was struggling under his restraining.

The "almost" part however, was that Shadow now had a knife implanted in his chest.

"Shadow!" Rouge cried as she freed herself from Knuckles and grabbed Shadow before he collapsed onto the ground. "Shadow, please! Don't leave us here! You're the only one left who can solve this!"

"I'm... sorry. I guess... I wasn't... fast enough..." Shadow whispered, which he got his last breath after that.

Everyone was too stunned from the current situation that they almost did not realize that Cream suddenly screamed and ran away from the house. Tails was the first to break from his trance as he chased after Cream. "Cream, wait!" This left both Knuckles and Rouge left in the house.

"You... Did this... Didn't you?" Rouge whispered.

"Didn't you do it?" Knuckles answered, completely unsure of what was in the bat's mind.

"Just... Kill me already... Would you...? I... Don't want to... Live anymore..." Rouge spoke between breaths.

"Rouge, I..."

"If you don't want to kill me, then... Leave,"

"Rouge..."

"Leave!"

Knuckles sighed in defeat as he headed through the front entrance and closed the door behind him.

Rouge, after sensing that no one was around, then silently shed tears onto Shadow's corpse.

What she didn't know is that, a mobian was watching her through the window and grinning maliciously.