Restless Nightmare- a Hermitcraft Murder Mystery

Chapter 21

Mumbo raced out of the room, meeting up with a confused Ren.

"Is Zed okay?" He asked, glancing around the cabin in worry.

Mumbo sighed.

"I don't know what happened to him, l saw him crying and tried to cheer him up, but he just told me to get away from him and then ran away."

"I think he just wants some alone time..." Ren shrugged.

The two headed outside and met up with Xisuma, Stress, and Doc. Bdubs and Cleo joined the group not long after. False came last.

"Zed's fine, he just wants to be alone." Mumbo explained, collecting some rocks and plopping them down in a pile.

"Phew, thought it was gonna be a double murder." Cleo sighed, laughing afterwards.

"Alright guys, we need to sort out the timeline of the night." Stress began, slamming a clipboard and a pen on the picnic table. "So, False, you were the last one to go to sleep, and what time was that?"

"Around ten, and I locked the door behind me."

Stress scribbled down a line through the paper on the clipboard, then marked the beginning at ten.

"I was the last to go to sleep in the other bedroom, and locked the door behind me as well. Bdubs, when did you go to bed?"

"Maybe ten or something? Ten-thirty probably."

"Did you lock the door?"

Shrugging, Bdubs replied, "I tried, but it doesn't have a lock, not sure why."

"Did you hear anything, like someone was awake?" Stress questioned, jotting down notes rapidly.

"No- well, now that you say... I did hear a door opening, I forgot what time."

Before Stress could ask who left the room, Cleo spoke up.

"That was me, I went to the bathroom."

"Did... you lock the bedroom door when you returned?" Stress asked slowly, sharing the same thought with the rest of the group.

Cleo didn't lock it.

"Uhh... I'm not sure..." Cleo mumbled, preparing for a lot of groans. And sure enough, they came.

"C'mon Cleo, if you just locked the door, this entire murder mystery would've been over!" Doc grumbled, slamming his hands against the picnic table.

"Oh shut up, I bet you wouldn't have remembered either." Cleo mocked, laughing at Doc to anger him.

"You don't wanna start this," He said, shooting Cleo a threatening glare.

"Looks like you just did."

The two's eyes locked as everyone watched in suspense. Doc spoke first.

"It's weird how you're so cheerful and happy when everybody's dying..."

Cleo cracked her knuckles and responded, "Okay, but haven't you noticed how you accuse everyone with barely any evidence, just to avoid being blamed? Like we know you suspect them, but you don't have to start an argument with everyone!"

Nobody dared to try to stop the fight, nobody wanted to anyway. Doc and Cleo were both making seriously good points about each other, but not enough to place them in the scene of the crime.

"Doc has a point, you've been awfully energetic and happy when there's a literal murder mystery going on." Mumbo spoke up, tagging along beside Doc at the table.

"Well, I'm with Cleo! Doc is clearly accusing randomly to push the blame away from himself." Ren argued, taking a seat beside Cleo.

"What if you didn't lock the bedroom door behind you on purpose, so there would be more suspects, Cleo?" Xisuma questioned, elegantly spinning around and sliding into the seat next to Mumbo.

"Or, she could've just forgotten to lock it." said False, tagging along beside Cleo.

The six paused to look at Stress and Bdubs, waiting for them to pick a side.

"It's obvious," Bdubs began, taking a seat on top of an empty picnic table. "Doc's randomly accusing left and right so we can forget about how you killed Tango and blamed it on me."

Doc rolled his eyes as the rest glanced at Stress for her opinion on who's guilty.

She just shrugged.

The argument was getting heated once again, now with the group split in two sides. False, Ren, and Bdubs were backing up Cleo, and Xisuma and Mumbo were on Doc's side, leaving Stress alone. She wasn't about to accuse anyone yet. The fact that no one had accused her yet was a surprise, and she planned to keep it that way.

After the long pause, Cleo resumed the argument.

"Bdubs is right, Doc could've left the room and killed Tango while everyone was asleep."

"Yeah, sure. When you left the bathroom, I heard you walk around the cabin, and if you were innocent, you would've gone back to sleep. There's no reason to be wandering around at eleven." Doc argued, his words catching Stress' attention.

"I just wanted a midnight sna-" Cleo attempted, but was cut off.

"Hooolll up, Doc." Stress began. "How did you know what Cleo was doing, I thought you were asleep?"

Silence.

Cleo smirked, knowing Doc just made himself a place on the suspect chart.

"I know I should've told you guys this much earlier," Doc muttered under his breath, "I... was awake most of the night."