Restless Nightmare- a Hermitcraft Murder Mystery

Chapter 17

Tango dashed into the cabin. He ran through the hallway with no clear destination. His vision was still blurred, everything was happening in a flash, which made him crash into the bookshelf at the end of the hall. He sat on the floor in defeat.

"Tango?"

He heard Ren call his name, and immediately panicked. He stumbled back on his feet and dashed into a random room and slammed the door shut.

Tango let out a sigh of relief. That didn't last long, however, as he came back to his senses. He slid down the wall and wiped a teary eye, continuing sobbing over the arguing outside the room.

"What... what did I just do?" He mumbled, staring back at his reflection in a small mirror across the room.

"What's wrong with me?"

━━━━━━━━━━━

"Ugh, what time is it?" Tango grumbled, rubbing his eyes. He then realized he had fallen asleep. Quite confused by the silence outside his room, he opened the door.

He stumbled through the hallway until he arrived at the kitchen, where Bdubs was spinning on a spinny chair, humming the lyrics of a song.

"Where is everyone?" Tango asked, confused.

Bdubs looked up at him in surprise.

"Outside." He simply said.

"Why aren't you out there with them?" Tango asked, taking a seat on a spinny chair.

"Ha, they're mad at me too." Bdubs chuckled. He tried to hide it, but it was obvious he was irritated.

The two sat in an awkward silence.

"Imagine if Keralis was actually the murderer, and we were right?" Bdubs suddenly piped up, laughing.

"To be fair, he probably is." Tango shrugged.

"I didn't really suspect him though..."

Tango froze.

"What?"

"Yeah..." Bdubs quietly muttered.

"You're telling me you didn't even suspect Keralis, yet you made everyone else hate him?!" Tango screeched, shaking his friend aggressively.

"Exactly." Bdubs giggled nervously. "But maybe I was wrong and he was actually the murderer...?"

"Bdubs..." Tango chuckled, still shook at what he had just learned.

"Like he accused me first, and if I didn't get back at him, I would've been the one dead!" Bdubs exclaimed.

"Alright then, who do you think it is?"

Tango began making a tower using Nutella jars as Bdubs watched, bored.

"To be honest, False." Bdubs shrugged. "Or Doc, I mean it could be him too."

"Wait, False? Why?"

"I mean she was mainly in charge of the trip and chose the campsite, she probably planned this whole thing to kill us all."

"Hey, weren't you the one who had the idea-"

"Okay okay fine I had the idea but False did most of the work for the trip and was basically in charge."

Before he could reply, Tango's tower of Nutella jars suddenly collapsed. He was able to catch two but the other three hit the floor, causing a loud thump.

"Aw come on!" Tango whined as Bdubs laughed. He began rebuilding the tower with the help of the other boy.

"Things sure are gonna be heated back at Hermitcraft." Tango chuckled, his nervous voice managing to creep into his sentence.

"We shouldn't worry about that, it's the murderer who's gonna get all the blame." Bdubs said.

"Uhh, yeah..."

Tango hummed a melody as he placed the final jar on the top of the tower. He yawned, leaving his seat and entering the kitchen. Tango opened a cabinet full of spices and grabbed two mayonnaise jars and rushed to add them to the tower, as Bdubs shook his head and chuckled at his friend's childish behaviour. He sat back down in silence.

Bdubs continued humming songs and spinning around as Tango stacked jars.

"Bdubs, do you hate me?"

Bdubs, shocked, spun around to face Tango after his sudden question.

"O-of course not, why do you think that?"

Tango let out a quiet sigh as he hung his head low.

"I mean, after what I did, I thought you would hate me for it..."

"I..."

The two sat in a silence, Bdubs not knowing what to say.

"Look, Tango..." He spoke up, placing a hand on the other's shoulder. "Yes, what you did was wrong, but you shouldn't blame yourself. You probably would've been the one dead if you didn't push Keralis first."

Tango stared at Bdubs, a small smile forming on his lips. He let a tear stroll down as he leaned in for a hug.

"I- I know, but I shouldn't have pushed him off! It's all my fault!" He cried, squeezing Bdubs tightly.

"No no it's not your fault, none of this would've happened if I hadn't accused Keralis in the first place." Bdubs assured, Tango nodding.

The hug continued for fifteen seconds before the both pulled away. Tango was just glad, and mostly grateful not everyone hated him for his actions, let alone his hatred towards Keralis. He didn't wanna see anyone other than Bdubs, especially Xisuma. He was the most devastated from the death of his friend, and now that he knew who had commited the crime, he was ready to simply end Tango.

"I don't think I have much time left at this campsite if X is here as well." Tango chuckled a bit nervously, trying to hide his expression by spinning around in his chair.

"Don't you worry, we'll talk to him about the situation." Bdubs promised.

"Yeah, I don't think that'll work..."

Before Bdubs could reply, something out of place caught his attention. He reached over to it and took it out. It was white slip of paper. Without a second thought, he began reading it in his mind, muttering the words.

"Really bdubs? I'm disappointed. The one you're looking for is in plain sight.

Tango, you suspected the wrong person."

Bdubs read it again. And again. Two, three, four times. He kept rereading it until Tango grabbed the slip of paper from him out of curiosity. Tango looked back up after reading it, clearly much more confused than Bdubs.

"Should we..?" Bdubs mumbled, pointing backwards to the front door.

"Yeah."