CHAPTER 5

IT TAKES A THIEF

That night Rouge was still working on that map while Shadow was snoozing on her bed. She was interrupted when she heard a knock at her door. She walked over to Shadow trying to wake him up, "Shadow, wake up."

Shadow opened one eye while the other was closed, "This better be good."

"Someone's at the door. I need you to stay put while I deal with them."

"Sure thing."

Rouge ran downstairs and quickly answered the door. When she opened the door a red echidna appeared with a friendly smile, "Hi, Rouge."

"Knuckles, what a surprise. What are you doing here?"

"I came to see how you were doing with that map your boss ordered you to make."

"Oh my god, I forgot all about it."

"What were you doing this whole time?"

She hesitated trying to make up an excuse, "I was...uh..." She then saw the black hedgehog come down the stairs. "What the fuck? Are you crazy?"

"Rouge, who is that?"

Shadow walked up to him staring into his eyes with Knuckles not knowing that he wanted his blood, "Who's this fucker?"

Rouge pushed Shadow away from Knuckles, "Knuckles, this is my uh...uncle."

"Uncle?"

"Yeah my Uncle...Shad", Rouge tried her best not to slip out anything.

"Uncle Shad? But you two don't even look related."

"He is, he married my Aunt Nancy. She was a white bat like me."

"It doesn't make any sense, but if you say so."

Shadow put his hand on Rouge's shoulder, "Rouge, can I talk to you?"

Rouge looked back at the echidna, "I'll be right back."

When Shadow and Rouge got into the bedroom, they started to talk.

"What?" Rouge asked annoyed.

"It's that echidna. If he bothers you so much you know I could just..."

"No, I won't let you harm him!"

"Why not?"

"Because he's apart of some military. If he goes missing they'll think I'm responsible."

Shadow shrugged his shoulders, "So?"

Rouge looked at him with annoyance, "Just listen to me for once and stay here."

"I don't think so, besides no one tells me what to do."

"Why not?"

"Because your Uncle Shad says so."

Rouge crossed her arms, "Just keep a low profile."

Rouge and Shadow returned to Knuckles.

Rouge saw him sitting at her kitchen table, she decided to join him, "Sorry about the wait. My uncle and I have some family problems. I hope you don't feel threatened by him."

"It's nothing, but that weird look in his eyes really creeps me out. Anyway, I just came to check on you."

"Right, your map. You see I was a little...busy lately and I couldn't get to it. I'm sorry, I'll start on it real soon."

"I don't need it right away. Take your time okay."

"I'll do that."

Knuckles began to reach in his pocket, "By the way, I have something for you." He took out a necklace with a yellow heart shaped locket. He laid it in front of her.

Rouge was surprised, "Is this for me?"

Knuckles nodded, "This can be the start of our new friendship. You can treat me more like a friend than a military officer."

Rouge put the necklace around her neck, "I love it. Thank you, Knuckles."

"The bad news is that I could never get the locket open, besides that it looks good around your neck."

Rouge blushed, "This is so sweet of you." Rouge then noticed that Shadow was just looking at them. "A little privacy would be nice." She looked back at Knuckles, "I guess you should be going. My uncle obviously doesn't know what privacy means. I'll see you later, Knuckles."

"I'll check on you later, bye", Knuckles headed out the door.

Rouge looked at Shadow with an angry look and her arms crossed.

Shadow had no idea what she was mad at, "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"No reason", she walked upstairs getting ready for bed.

When Rouge was in bed, Shadow was staring outside her bedroom window looking at the moon. He was interrupted when he saw a white van drive in near the house. Two men got out of the vehicle with crowbars in their hands. They started to use the crowbars to remove the hinges off the door. Soon they broke in the house. Shadow thought he had to protect Rouge. She was his only hope to make that map. Shadow quietly walked out of Rouge's room and headed towards the living room. When he got there he saw the two men looking through Rouge's drawers probably looking for valuable jewelry, until he interrupted their search, "Hey bastards, leave Rouge's things alone."

The two men looked at him still holding the crowbars in their hands.

"Who's this fucker?" One said.

"I thought that bat was living here alone", the other said.

"You thought wrong, now leave", Shadow gritted his teeth showing them his fangs.

"What the fuck is he?"

The other took out a pistol from his pocket and aimed it at Shadow, "Let's kill the bastard."

"Don't shoot, you'll wake up the bat."

The man didn't listen and shot Shadow in his chest.

Even from the strong impact the hedgehog was still standing. He looked up at them with an angry look, "I said don't shoot."

The men stood there trembling.

From upstairs Rouge could hear the shot loud and clear. She immediately woke up startled, "Shadow!" She quickly ran downstairs in her short purple robe to find Shadow, "Shadow, where are you?" She walked in the living room seeing it wrecked. It looked like someone was going through her things. She then saw Shadow clear in the moonlight with a corpse of a man beside him. Shadow was on top of the other man draining blood from his neck. Rouge gasped a little, not comfortable with the smell of death in her presence, "Shadow...", she said in a low voice.

Shadow took his attention away from the dead man and looked at Rouge with blood running down his chin, "Rouge..."

Rouge quickly ran upstairs into her bathroom and started to throw up.