CHAPTER FOUR:

Dead end… CLUES!

Knuckles and Rouge:

Knuckles pulled out the second piece of paper. His face twisted in puzzlement. He was stumped.

"What does it say baby?" Rouge asked in a sweet voice. Knuckles still stood there, his face was scrunched in a weird expression. You could tell he was thinking.

"It doesn't say a thing. it's a picture of a… dog bone!" On knuckles' paper was a picture cut out from a magazine. It was a dog bone…

"Whoa! Mine…is a…picture of a…frog?" On Rouges paper was a magazine cutout of a frog.

"What kinda clue is that!" Knuckles screamed in anger. "Hmm…they have to fit together! Lets see. A dog bone. That could symbolize Bark! But would a frog?"

"Unless! The frog is Big! Doesn't he have a friend that's a frog? Hmm…It could be a duo! Big and Bark together, Bean wouldn't stand a chance!" Rouge thought aloud.

"Wait… That's not likely. Bark is a polar bear…"

"Yeah well…he looks like a dog! And his name is Bark. Alright, so it's not Bark…But that still leaves us wondering, what does the bone mean?"

"Think about it Rouge! Dogs aren't the only animals that eat bones…Cats do too! Big is the murderer!"

Tails and Cream:

"So… Strength… that's what my clue is…" Tails said, a little confused.

"Mine says: Beware of the one with the burning passion. They will zip through the shadows, ready to kill… Hm… what the heck does that mean?"

"Man, sort of obvious in my opinion…There were two key words in that riddle. Burning, and Shadows. It has a hidden message. The underlined letters spell out: BENBALZEA. The bold words say: Will, shadows, kill." walked over to the table with the guest book. He wrote down BENBALZEA. After using many combinations, he came up with: BEANBLAZE. "If you split them you get the names Bean and Blaze! Oh yeah I got it! Take out the S in shadows to get Shadow! Strength could refer to shadow… So…Put Shadow in the front and Bean and Blaze in the back… Shadow will kill Bean, add an and, Blaze. Shadow will kill Bean and Blaze! it's a clue to both who did it, and who is next!" Tails exclaimed.

"But the riddle said "burning"! Blaze has the power of fire! So it would be Blaze will kill Bean and Shadow! Oh my god! She's going to kill her husband!"

"Your right Cream! They have been having marriage problems! Tails exclaimed astonished.

Bark:

Bark looked at the sheet of paper. Bfl. "What the hell does Bfl. Mean? This is stupid. I don't need one million dollars!" Bark tossed the clue on the ground. It landed by Sonic's foot.

Sonic, Espio, and Charmy:

Sonic was about to pull out the clue when a slip of paper fell on the ground by his foot. It read Bfl. He didn't know where, but he'd seen this before. "Alright! I'm gonna read my clue!" Charmy exclaimed. Charmy, Espio, and Sonic had teamed up to read clues. "It says: rodent." Charmy announced.

" Mine say's: Hedgehog…" The two faced Sonic, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Come on guys! You think I could come up with something as elaborate as this? Wait, that didn't come out right…" Sonic defended himself, but realizing he was making fun of himself too.

"True." The two agreed.

"Okay! It reads…" Sonic flipped the sheet over and read. "It reads…It reads…It reads…It reads…It reads…" Sonic couldn't continue. He was baffled at what the paper said.

"Dude just say it!" Charmy yelled.

"PINK!" Sonic screamed. A tear forming. Could it be? Rodent, hedgehog, pink? They all pointed to Amy Rose. Sonics love.

Vector and Amy:

"So yours is blue, and mine is canine… Something aint' right here… I smell a weasel…"

"Yeah, some one's pulling a prank…"

"Well that, but I do smell a weasel, weird huh?"

Mighty and Chudley:

"Sir. You go first."

"Yes, Chudley! Mine says: Quills." Mighty announced.

"And mine says red!"

"So logic says that that, dirty no good, smelly, spiky, dreadlocked, strong, metal knuckled, Echidna destroyed my party! I don't care if he saved me once! He's a murderer! I want his head!"

Big:

"Hmm…what does Knack mean? I wish froggey was here to help me! I think I've heard Knack before…But where?" Big was bewildered. He wished he wasn't by himself.

Blaze and Shadow

Blaze gave Shadow an evil stare, almost as if she wanted to kill him. "You don't care about the mystery!" She exclaimed in anger.

"No! I just wanna leave!"

"Y' know what! I almost hope your next! Now give me your clue!" Shadow gave it to her. "Hm…So…wanna go watch the news?" Blaze asked, suspiciously.

Shadow smiled, almost an evil smile. "What are you hiding Blaze? C'mon you can tell me can't you." Blaze shook her head. She started to walk away. "I said tell me, bitch!" Shadow punched Blaze in the face and grabbed her arm. He put it behind her back and held it. She screamed in pain. "it's a good thing we went to a different room, we wouldn't want any one reading our clues would we?" Shadow said in a deep, raspy voice. Blaze lightly shook her head, a tear rolling down her face. "Answer ME!"

"N-no! We… w-wouldn't!"

"Now what does the clue say!" Shadow demanded. His eyes wide and evil.

"I-it says: pure evil…and…Ahhh! Ultimate…life form." She stammered.

"So I killed him did I?"

"Whats wrong with you! Your not yourself!"

"No I'm not!"

"Are you feeling okay!"

"I feel great Blaze! For the first time I can be free! Be… an animal!" Shadow grabbed a lamp off of a table and began to beat Blaze across the head with it. Bfl.…Bfl.…Basement…go to the… "I have to go to the basement!" Shadow dropped the lamp and ran away.

Everyone was shocked to hear the results. Everyone had come up with a different killer. It caused a large fight. Eventually it was broken up by Vector, who shared his and Amy's clues.

"So…we've been duped…" Mighty said

Bark laughed. "I told ya it was stupid!"

"Well all we can do now is search the mansion for clues… like the letter says…"

Sonic was relieved that Amy wasn't the killer. He couldn't stand the thought of her in jail. Sonic pulled out the paper. Bfl. What did it mean? Then it hit him. It was an abbreviation for something. Yes he had seen it before. Most of the time in elevators. Bfl. Meant basement floor. He knew where he'd find his first clue: the basement.

Okay that's it! I'm in uncharted areas now, which means I have no idea of where I'm going with this story. Is shadow the killer? What happened to Blaze? What is so special about the basement that requires both Sonic and Shadow! Please review this last chapter!

NEXT CHAPTER: Burning passion