Prison of the dead (Labyrinth of Monsters' sequel) A hermitcraft/3rd life fanfic

Chapter 5 - Skizz

Tango screams. I hear this sound a whip around to see him, paralysed, backing away from something down a corridor I didn't see. I walk back to him, and I'm about to ask what the problem is when I see the body. 

EX.

It's clearly him, even though we can only see his back as he lies on the ground. The white hair and red armour are enough of a sign. But even though it's horrifying, I don't really understand how Tango's this scared. 

'H...he... Etho...' he stammers out the words. I look quickly back at the body. With the white hair, I can see why he thinks it's him. But still... 

'Tango? What's wrong?' I take his hand, and get him to sit down. Even in the half-darkness, I can see how pale he's turned. 

'E...Etho died like this...' he explains tearfully. 'Impulse... i found... nightmare...' 

I try to find the meaning of the jumbled words, and when I can't, I just put my arm around his shoulder in a comforting way. He's still fixated on the body. I don't blame him. We stay there for what seems like a long time, until someone appears.

'What the- EX! NO!' It's Zloy. He sprints over to the body, barely aware that we're there. I stand up, deciding to speak. 

'We just found him here. Dead. Someone must've killed him.' Zloy looks over at us, eyes flicking down at Tango. 

'Interesting...'

I don't know what he's talking about. I look down at Tango again. He's looking at the ground.

'What? What's interesting?'

'I suppose it makes sense, after seeing Etho die...' Zloy murmurs to himself. I clench my fists. 

'If you're talking about Tango, then you should have a bit more respect, Mr Lizard.' 

'Excuse me?!'

'You should have more respect to how much it scared him to see EX like this instead of just acting like it's more of your f*****g experiments.

'Calm down! This isn't my fault.'

'Tango?'

'Hmm?'

'We should go.' 

He stands up, happy to be getting away from EX, and we walk off, around the corner towards what I realise with relief is the area with all the different things. There's a fighting area, a redstone area, a building and terraforming area... lots of different things. Zedaph runs over to us.

'What happened?!' He asks.

'EX is dead.' 

'What?! Where? How? Who killed him.'

'Me and Tango ran into the body.'

'Does anyone else know?'

'Zloy saw us there.' 

'What did he say?'

'He was more interested in the fact that Tango has severe PTSD from his time in the maze. You know, for their experiments.' I spit the last few words bitterly. 

'Of course they did. Well, I guess someone was upset about how we're being treated like guinea pigs, and decided to end Mr Everything-is-going-to-be-Fine.'

'I don't blame them... Zloy also said something about it being a lot like Etho's death... maybe it was done by the same person.' My idea is refused immediately by Tango.

'I can't BELIEVE you.' He snaps, before storming away. I watch him go, then look back at Zedaph. 

'Did I... say something wrong?'