Restless Nightmare- a Hermitcraft Murder Mystery

Chapter 37

"Stress?"

She felt a soft hand stroking her hair, just for them to abruptly stop and disappear. She seemed to be lying down on something soft, which confused her. Stress slowly opened her eyes before blinking simultaneously from the bright lights.

She found herself in a small room. The walls and floor were wooden, and moss and leaves covered the area. It was oddly familiar to her, despite not being able to distinguish where she was for some weird reason.

Stress made out two familiar figures standing by a desk across the room, quietly discussing something she couldn't make out. She sat up in the bed and kicked the blanket away.

Unaware where she actually was, Stress wondered where she found herself in. Bdubs killed her, along with mostly everyone else, so where could she be, and who were the people in the room?

"We in the afterlife or somethin'?" Stress casually spoke up, for some reason, sounding a bit southern which made her chuckle. She yawned.

A mug dropped from across the room.

Luckily, it was plastic.

The two at the desk turned around in a flash, revealing themselves to be Ren and Iskall. Ren just stood there, shocked because he thought she'd never wake up this soon. Iskall rushed over to her, a smile forming on his lips.

"Stress! You're... you're awake!"

"Don't you mean I'm dead?"

Iskall froze. He frowned, quite concerned, but mostly confused.

"What... do you mean?" He quietly questioned, his eyes meeting up in a gaze with Stress'. She paused and gave him a nervous glance.

"Umm, you don't remember? We-"

Stress was cut off by Ren's yelling.

"You're awake!! How are ya feeling?"

"I'm good, anyways where are we?" Stress asked, chuckling in confusion.

"We're at Iskall's tree," Ren smiled. Stress gave him a baffled look. "I didn't think you'd wake up so soon!"

Xisuma fixed the respawning glitch and everyone respawned, it seemed. That was the only logical answer to the question why they were back at Hermitcraft.

"You were really sick last week and fainted all of a sudden, you've been in a coma ever since." Iskall explained, laughing stupidly as he remembered he hadn't told Stress what happened yet.

"That's weird, I don't remember that..." Stress muttered under her breath. To avoid an awkward silence, she brought up a different topic. "So, how's everyone doing after the trip?"

Iskall and Ren looked at each other, confused. They soon became concerned after seeing Stress' worried expression.

"What trip?"

Stress froze. "What do you mean 'what trip'?! The camping trip!" She blurted out, visibly angry. The incident was nothing to be laughing about, so why were they joking about it?

"Stress, I don't know what you're talking about." Ren began, "The last time we had a camping trip was, like, a year ago or something."

"Ha, this must be a joke, right?" Stress let out a hollow laugh. "Right?!"

Iskall and Ren were visibly concerned by now. They glanced at each other, worried by their friend's weird behaviour.

"Everything felt so real, maybe even too real..." Stress muttered, "It couldn't have been a dream, now, could it?"

The room was silent. Ren and Iskall had no idea what had gotten into Stress.

"Stress, what's going on?" Iskall asked softly, taking a seat beside her on the bed.

She kept silent for a minute, still processing the information. Trying to process the information. Nothing made sense. How come no one remembered the 'dream', and if it was a dream, why did it feel so real?

"It... was probably just a dream." She suddenly spoke up, "Yeah. A nightmare, that's what it was."

The room was quiet for a good thirty seconds, neither Iskall nor Ren knowing what to say.

"I'm gonna go now, thanks for everything!" Stress piped up, springing up from the bed all of a sudden. She found her shoes in a small closet and slipped them on, quickly walking backwards and waving a goodbye before opening the door and flying into the distance.

Ren and Iskall stood there, just speechless. They then glanced at each other, sharing the same confused, concerned and worried expression all in one.