Chapter Twenty-Three

They all stood together with their bodies slowly warming up to much more comfortable levels and just looked around at the landscape before them. It was slowly turning night and all seemed normal, maybe a little too normal. They were standing in the grounds of a large manor house and not that far away from the actual building.

"And this was what we were all growing concerned about, it's just big house." Sonic said with a slightly bored expression while looking at the old fashioned looking building.

Yeah sure it looked old but it was clearly well looked after and not abandoned. I suppose the lights being on in some of the rooms was giving that away.

"Well ok maybe we were trying to freak you all out. We might as well rest up and, you know, get something to eat. I know the guy who owns this place and he always loves having people over." Zhadow casually said with a smile as he looked at the group.

"That was totally not nice man, making us think twice about going in that portal." Sonic said as he turned around and looked at Zhadow.

"Yeah what Sonic said." Silver said with a small frown and crossing his arms, also now facing the two zone cops.

"It's all in the past now so lets go knock on the door and check ourselves in. Jives will be happy to see us." Zonic innocently said with a smile then he and Zhadow walked forwards towards the manor.

"They seem far to eager in going inside that building." Shadow muttered with a suspicious look at the zone cops.

"Oh who cares, they are probably tired and hungry like the rest of us are." Sonic said then began to follow the zone cops.

"Yeah I am sure they wouldn't purposely lead us into danger or something bad." Silver said then he began to follow.

"Well I am keeping my eyes pealed, I agree with you Shadow, they seem far too eager." Knuckles semi seriously said as he looked at Shadow.

"I'm with you too brother, I do not like their cheerfulness all that much." Eclipse said as he watched the others walk closer to the manors front doors.

"Eclipse, have you ever liked anyone's cheerfulness?" Shadow asked as they all began to follow now.

"No but that is not the point, I extra do not like theirs." Eclipse casually said with a shrug.

Soon they were all standing in front of the tall double wooden doors of the manor that this Jives guy owns. Zhadow was about to ring the door bell when the door strangely opened by itself slowly until it was half open.

"And this is where I camp out under the stars." Sonic said as he was a little freaked then turned around to leave.

And he would have done if it wasn't for the fact Shadow grabbed his arm and stopped him.

"Come on babe, let me live." Sonic whined as Shadow began to drag him inside.

"Oh quit being a baby Faker. Angel is more brave than you are being and she came from a farm of horrors." Shadow sighed as he entered first while forcing his poor boyfriend to enter too.

"Please don't remind me of that place, I feel sick every time I remember what was in that pie." Silver groaned with distaste to the memories of what he ate while there.

By now everyone was now inside and standing in the grand front entrance, a little away from the door. The door slammed shut on its own making most jump up and turn around.

"We're gonna die I swear we are." Sonic said as he gripped onto Shadows arm for dear life.

"I swear you have been watching far too many horror movies. You are not going to die ok Sonic so calm down and bring back my circulation to my damn arm." Shadow semi seriously said as he looked at his, clearly panicking, boyfriend.

"Something is wrong here." Zhadow seriously said as he grinned at Zonic discreetly to play along in scaring the zone hoppers.

"Yeah I think you are right, where is Jives? He should have showed up by now to greet us." Zonic said with fake concern while looking back at his partner.

"What do you mean something is not right?" Silver questioned as he was starting to panic more than he already was.

"We should split up and look around, see if one of us comes across Jives." Zonic suggested as he and Zhadow turned around and faced the zone hoppers.

"Oh hell no. Every horror movie I have watched the group of friends split then get killed off one by one. We are sticking together and breaking the horror movie curse." Sonic very seriously said with fear and panic in his voice.

"News flash Sonic, this isn't a movie." Knuckles sighed with a shake of his head but was silently agreeing with Sonics suggestion to not split up.

"What exactly is a horror movie?" Eclipse asked with a look of confusion at Shadow.

Just as Shadow opened his mouth to explain to his clueless other dimensional brother what horror movies were a loud crash echoes from the kitchen up ahead of them. This made most gasp and look concerned that they were not alone here.

"Shall we check that out or just stay here?" Zhadow casually said as he pointed a thumb behind him, grinning at the zone hoppers with amusement to their concerned expressions that there was a killer in this place.

"Oh for the love of, I'll go check it out. Come on Angel lets go and find out what caused that crash, we're not babies are we, no we are not." Shadow walked off while talking to his chao, speaking to her in a soppy voice and having her coo back at him cheerfully.

"Are we going to let him go alone?" Eclipse asked as they all watched Shadow disappear through the entrance that will eventually lead to the kitchen.

"He isn't alone, he has Angel with him." Knuckles casually said and was glad he didn't have to go check out that noise.

"HOLY MOTHER OF CHAOS!" Shadows loud panicked voice hit everyone's ears making all rush to the kitchen.

"Shadow, babe, what is…" Sonic said with panic as he rushed to Shadows side then widened his eyes at what he saw on the floor.

"What the hell?" Silver said with horror as he reached the couple with everyone else and was horrified with what his eyes were showing him.

"That is gross man." Knuckles said with disgust and was starting to feel a little sick.

"Erm Zonic, that is Jives' head." Zhadow said with high concern as he glanced at his zone cop partner.

"Right we need to leave right now. Prank is over and we need to leave before that happens to us." Zonic very seriously said as he kept his eyes on the ripped off head on the floor in front of them.

"Prank, what prank?" Knuckles asked with narrowed eyes at the zone cops, making all stop staring at the severed head and at the cops instead.

"We took you all hear to play a prank, this is Jives' fake haunted mansion and we wanted to scare you all." Zonic explained with a hint of sadness for he was feeling sad a friends head was discovered.

"Clearly something sinister is going on and our friend is now dead. If we want the same fate then we need to leave. I will inform the police in this zone so they know what is going on then after we leave." Zhadow seriously said as he tried to keep it together.

"Erm guys." Silver said with fear in his tone as he pointed to behind the zone cops, making all look.

"Oh sweet chaos we are dead, I don't want to die. There is still so much I want to do." Sonic said as he was shaking with fear while grabbing Shadows arm once again.

The zone hoppers would have backed away from the approaching headless being slowly walking towards them if it wasn't for the head and pints of blood on the floor.

"Zonic, Zhadow what are you both doing here?" The headless being spoke then stopped walking.

"Huh, I didn't know headless people can talk." Eclipse said with a deep frown.

"Jives?" Zonic questioned as he recognised the voice coming from this being.

The being moved his hand then began to unzip the zip on the front. It revealed a dark grey wolf with dark blue eyes. Jives removed his suit, stepped out of it then picked it up. He grinned at the zone hoppers who were now all calm once again.

"So you are not dead?" Sonic asked as he was letting go of Shadow and sounding less scared now.

"What? No of course not, I just finished setting up for a few customers, I thought you were them actually." Jives chuckled and was finding this situation quite funny.

"Customers?" Silver dryly said with an unimpressed look.

"I run a fake haunted house and was trying a new gig out. People come for miles to get scared but it is all faked with magic and illusions." Jives explained and never dropped his grin.

"So there is no killer ripping peoples heads off, that is a relief." Sonic sighed out and was so very glad he wasn't going to die and can still do all he wanted before death for real.

"You know that head looks very real Jives, I think a little too real. I was all ready to call the police and report a murder." Zhadow said with a small frown, not liking having been tricked so easily.

"Good isn't it but you do have a point. Maybe I should make it less real for I do not want this place shut down, have to make a living somehow." Jives agreed and seriously didn't want to have the police involved and getting the wrong end of the stick so to speak.

Half an hour later…

"Doesn't look like your customers are coming Jives." Zonic casually said as they all were relaxing in the sitting room with a hot drink.

"I suppose they changed their mind, I better go clean up then close up for the night. You are all welcomed to spend the night and do not worry, I am off the clock." Jives stood up and was grinning while talking to the group then calmly walked out to clean the kitchen up.

"I do not feel comfortable spending the night in a fake haunted mansion." Silver muttered as he looked into his cup of hot chocolate.

"Silver chill, you can bunk with Knuckles and Eclipse." Sonic cheerfully said with a grin at Silver.

"And why are us three sharing a room?" Knuckles questioned with a raised brow at Sonic.

"Well Zonic and Zhadow are sharing a room so are me and Shadow sharing. I figured sharing will make everyone feel more relaxed." Sonic explained with far too innocent smile.

"More like you want to get laid so you came up with this excuse so it wouldn't look suspicious with you and Shadow sharing a room." Zhadow teased with a devious smirk then sipped his hot chocolate.

"Yeah ok, you got me. I have just had a big scare and need a little loving tonight." Sonic groaned as he was sussed out.

"There will be no loving tonight in front of Angel. I will not have her traumatised with seeing us getting busy in the bedroom." Shadow firmly said as he glared at Sonic beside him.

"Babe, she can spend the night with erm…Zhadow. Yeah you would like that wont you Angel, spend time with daddy's zone cop counterpart." Sonic replied with a hint of nervousness as that glare only hardened.

"Not happening." Shadow very firmly said and was sticking to his decision.

"I do not mind looking after Angel for you and I will take extra special care of her." Zhadow casually said in a calm voice then drank the last of his drink.

"Please love, I need your comfort tonight, I thought I was going to die and be separated from you for like ever." Sonic sadly said with a begging look in Shadows firm eyes.

Shadow narrowed his eyes as he took a moment to think about this. After a minute he softened them and smiled faintly at Sonic.

"Oh fine." Shadow relented for he couldn't take that sad look for much longer.

Next morning…

Everyone was now up and gathered in the kitchen having a bit of breakfast before travelling to their next destination. Sonic was in a very happy mood as he not only made love to Shadow last night but early this morning too in their shared shower. Shadow was also in a good mood but it was a little hard to see he was as he kept a serious look while helping Angel eat some cut up fruit as she sat on his lap up the table in the kitchen. The other zone hoppers didn't look all that happy or refreshed this morning and still looked tired. Mostly because their bedroom was next door to Sonic and Shadow and had heard their activities during the night, which lasted a good two hours straight. As for the zone cops they were moderately fine, and never heard a single bit of noise coming from the couples bedroom for they were further down the hallway.

"Exactly how many more zones will we be visiting before you all have had enough?" Zonic asked as he was, in truth, getting tired of all the hopping about.

"No idea but I do have to admit I am getting a little tired of going from zone to zone." Silver said with a sigh as he lent back in his seat and crossed his arms.

"We will find a zone that is like totally epically fun Silver, just hang in there ok." Sonic said with a wink at Silver opposite him, sounding very confident in his claims.

"I do find your little adventure quite fascinating but I am also glad I am not tagging along. It also sounds dangerous too." Jives calmly spoke as he stood up to pour more coffee into his mug.

Soon enough the zone hoppers were gathered outside the mansion together with Jives standing a little away. Sonic and Shadow got their emeralds out, crossed them then called out chaos control. A portal grew to the size it needed to be and good byes were said. Jives waved them off as he stood and watched them all walk through then the portal closed shut.