Restless Nightmare- a Hermitcraft Murder Mystery

Chapter 24

Cleo sighed, stuffing her hands in her annoyingly small pockets as she strolled through the dark hallway, stopping at the first room. She slowly opened it as the door creaked uncontrollably. Bdubs stared at Cleo as she glanced around the room, where a laptop was open, which seemed to be loading a pre-downloaded movie. Unlike my siblings, she left the room and closed the door behind her.

The next room down the hall was the bedroom the majority of hermits slept in, and coming closer, she could hear shouting. Cleo put an ear against the door and listened. She concluded it was Doc and Xisuma who were yelling at each other for an unknown reason, with Fruit Loops popping up in the argument...? Cleo, quite interested, continued listening until she noticed the voices stopped, and someone began approaching on the other side of the door. Without hesitation, Cleo noped the heck out of there.

She ended up in the living room where False was rocking front and back on a rocking chair.

Cleo sat down on the floor, facing the window where she could see two people chatting outside, assuming they were Ren and Zedaph. A quiet ten minutes went by in a breeze as False fell out of the rocking chair about twenty times.

False and Cleo began chatting aimlessly with no clear subject as Zed entered the cabin, followed by Ren a few minutes later.

Zed opened the freezer and took out four popsicles, tossing them one by one to Cleo, who passed one each to False and Ren. Zed made his way over to the living room and the four kept quiet as they ate their popsicles, with a few small conversations here and there.

As the four sat in the living room quietly, something caught False's attention. It was a white slip tucked inside the wooden seat Ren was on. He noticed it as well and pulled it out. He scanned through the text, mumbling the words.

"My oh my, it really is funny seeing all of you running around trying to solve this."

Ren rolled his eyes, knowing the murderer was having a great time watching their own 'friends' stressing and worrying endlessly.

Cleo took the note and read it and passed it along to Zed, with False being the last to read it. The group exchanged glances, each not knowing what to think about that note.

Before she could examine the note further, False spotted another note. It was under the wooden table, which she bent down and grabbed it, which read:

"I could be the one you suspected the least... and maybe even the most."

"Very informative." False blurted out sarcastically, passing the note to Cleo. "Anyways, who do we suspect the most?"

"Today? Mumbo or Doc." replied Cleo, scanning the living room for any more hidden notes False seemed to be finding everywhere.

"And who do we suspect the least?"

"Uhh... no one, really." Ren shrugged. "Stress, Xisuma? Dunno."

"Well, that note didn't help us at all." Zedaph chuckled.

False reached out to her cup of grape juice and snatched it, taking a sip while listening to the conversation between the other three. When she went to put the cup down, another white slip appeared where the cup was previously. False took the ripped note out.

"R1"

It read. False read it again and again, even flipping it over to see if there was more writing. But there was nothing else.

She had no clue what the note meant by what it said, and the three around her seemed to notice False's confused expression, asking for what it said. She passed the note for everyone to see, and sure enough, they were just as confused as her.

Ren and Cleo began theorising what the note could've meant together, somehow turning it into a debate whether grape juice was actually made of grapes. False got up and went to get a refill of grape juice to prove them wrong.

Meanwhile, Zedaph was the only one taking this seriously. He was working a storm in his mind filled with questions and theories, making him so confused that his brain just stopped working all of a sudden.

A door opening startled the four hermits.

They faced the hallway as Xisuma and Doc appeared, frustrated expressions on their faces. When the two realized Ren, Cleo, False, and Zed were staring at them, Xisuma smiled nervously, but Doc just kept still.

Cleo waved them over to come take a seat, which they did.

"Here, take a look at these notes we found," said Zedaph, passing them to X, and then to Doc. False and Zed began chatting about the meaning of the notes, with Cleo and Ren joining.

Of course, Ren and Cleo had to turn it into another debate, now whether tomatoes were fruit or vegetables.

During an awkward silence Cleo created (no surprise), Ren looked over at Xisuma and noticed he was glaring at someone. He looked over and saw Doc doing the same to X. False noticed it as well and glanced at Ren, waiting for him to start a conversation to stop the rivalry.

And so he did.

"Uhh, Xisuma! Weather's good today, right?"

Xisuma glanced at Ren in confusion, seeing his hesitant smile. False shot Ren a "Seriously?" look, getting a giggle in return.

"So, what do you think the notes mean? " asked False. "The R1 makes no sense though, it's like the murderer expects us to be professional detectives-"

The six hermits discussed the notes, a few possible leads, and more. Bdubs, Stress, and Mumbo soon joined in.

The group actually had some fun after a long week of unfortunate happenings with laughs, Cleo's horrible jokes, a pillow fight and Ren's hilarious commentary, and a baking competition hosted by Bdubs. Let's just say it ended early after a little, well, 'accident.'

The night ended with the remaining nine heading to bed. Stress, Zedaph, and Xisuma, minus Tango, went to the smaller bedroom like always, while Cleo, Bdubs, Doc, False, Ren, and Mumbo took the larger bedroom.

No later than twelve, the cabin returned to silence.

"Seven down, eight more to go."