Restless Nightmare- a Hermitcraft Murder Mystery

Chapter 20

Xisuma shot up from his bed.

"What was that?!"

He thought, terrified from the loud scream he had just heard. He recognized the voice clearly.

He kicked away his covers and slipped on a pair of slippers, then threw on a tee. He looked around his room only to see Zedaph, who looked as frightened as Xisuma himself. Maybe even more. The two turned to Stress, who had fallen on the floor in her sleep. She was fast asleep.

Without a word, the duo stumbled out the room and into the hall, X in the lead. They eventually made it to the cold, abandoned bedroom where Cleo and Ren were staring at the scene.

Inside the dark room, a boy in a white sleeved top was resting on the bed, almost about to fall off. His white tee was now crimson red with a bit of blood on his wavy, blonde hair.

Beside Tango was Bdubs, standing beside the bloody corpse, tearing up at the sight.

It was obvious who had commited the crime.

━━━━━━━━━━━

"Bdubs is the murderer, case closed." Doc declared, leaning back in his seat proudly.

"I- I know I was the only one in the room with Tango, and that both of the other bedrooms were locked, but it's not me, I swear!" Bdubs blurted out, soon realizing he was proving Doc's point.

"See! He even said it himself!" Doc laughed.

Ren sighed. He had enough.

"Usually I'm on your side Doc, but not this time." He spoke up suddenly, "Let him explain, stop making sudden accusations! Who knows, you could be the killer but just framing Bdubs."

Doc froze.

"Excuse me?" He began, "Tell me, who was the one who stood up for you when you were the main suspect early on?!"

Ren bit his lip, knowing he had made a brutal mistake.

"Betrayal." Doc mumbled.

Things were getting heated, even between close friends. First Keralis and Bdubs, and now Doc and Ren. Mumbo already had his popcorn out to watch the show, and Stress had her notebook out ready to catch one of them slipping up and revealing a major clue only the murderer would know.

Back with Ren and Doc, the argument was rising. Each was trying to point evidence in the other's direction and trying to prove them guilty.

"Remember when we found a red cloth? It matched your shirt colour! And when we went to search for Scar in the forest and Iskall was killed back at the campfire, you wandered away from our group." Doc argued. "I covered up for you because I didn't wanna ruin this friendship, but it looks like you want to."

Clenching his fists, Ren shot back, "That may be true, but ever find it suspicious how whenever someone is found poisoned, you helped cook? And how you're always unusually quiet, too scared to speak up and be accused?"

"We don't have time for this." Stress began, abruptly interrupting the argument. "Alright everyone, tell me, who was the last one to go to sleep and lock the door in the other bedroom?"

Ren and Doc glanced at each other and sat back down. That was a weird argument ender, but okay.

"In the room where most of us slept? Last night?" Cleo questioned. "Me, False, Mumbo, Ren, and Doc?"

"Yup, that one."

"When I went to sleep, everyone was asleep except for False, she wasn't even there." Mumbo piped up, fidgeting with his pockets.

"Yeah, I was the last one to go to sleep and then I locked the door just in case... y'know?" False chuckled nervously, glancing at Bdubs who rolled his eyes.

"So, both bedroom doors were locked," Doc explained, "and Tango and Bdubs were sleeping in another room together, which means there's no way any of us could've done it, so the murderer is Bdubs! Case closed!'

Ren sighed.

"That's not how it works, Doc..."

Before the two could escalate into another argument, Xisuma noticed something. He counted the group and concluded that someone was missing.

"Uhh, guys? Where's Zed?"

Horrified faces filled the surroundings, each having the same thought in mind.

Ren was the first to jump up and run into the cabin, followed by False and Cleo. Bdubs and Doc entered next, with Stress and Mumbo not far behind. Xisuma stayed behind.

"Zed?" Cleo called out, the empty rooms echoing her words.

"Zedaphh?"

"ZED?!"

"ZEEEEEDDDDDAPPPPHHHHH???!!!"

"Shut up Ren-"

"Excuse me? You shut up!"

There was no reply.

A few minutes later, While Mumbo was searching, he could hear light sobbing from behind him. It seemed to be coming from one of the two bedrooms. He knocked on the door and waited a few seconds, but received no response.

Mumbo decided to just enter, which he did without hesitation. As he stepped in, he noticed someone familiar curled up in the corner, hands in their face as they sobbed quietly. Mumbo immediately recognised the individual as Zedaph, causing a sigh of relief.

"Zed? You okay?"

However, Zedaph didn't reply. He just continued crying without even looking up to see who had entered. Mumbo got on his knees and took a seat beside Zed, who finally looked up to see who had come.

Suddenly, Zedaph jumped.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!"

He yelled, pushing Mumbo away from him and running out of the room as his tears crashed down on the floor.
Mumbo sat there, still processing what had just happened. He was beyond confused, the only thing coming to mind was,

"What's got into him?"