A Masquerade Murder ★ Hermitcraft AU

Chapter 4- Welcome

Upon entering, Tango had no time to admire the scenery of the mansion before the front doors he had just entered through slam shut, and the lights switched off in a sequence. The only source of lights were a few weak light bulbs and lamps, so it was quite dark inside.

Then, a new message popped up on the chat. Followed by a few more messages.

[ gamemode set hardcore ]

[ unable to break blocks ]

And then, a final message appeared, the final text on the chat.

[ chat disabled ]

Uh oh.

"Um- what's going on?" Bdubs was the first to comment, suppressing his annoying stutter he tends to have when he's nervous.

"I'm not sure, did the lights malfunction?" Tango shrugged.

"Damn, that'd be bad timing." Jevin casually said, seeming disinterested about the whole thing.

"Yuh, we should've just gone home!" Stress spoke, "The amount of netflix series I could've finished in this time.."

"Should we just leave?" Mumbo questioned, tensing up a bit.

"Honestly, we should, this whole thing is really suspicious." Wels shrugged.

"Oh god, I think they heard me when I planned to break inside, and now they're gonna KILL US!!"

Tango snapped back into reality and looked over, to where Ren was freaking out, while Grian was standing beside him, not really sure what to do. He ended up joining Ren and crying with him.

"C'mon guys, look on the bright side, we can have a dance in the dark!" False piped up, "I'm sure Mumbo and Grian would love a romantic slow dance, with soft piano playing in the background, as they look into each other's eyes and-"

Mumbo and Grian practically jumped on False at the same time, as she rolled on the ground laughing at their reactions. They soon realized how quick they were to react and blushed, going to seperate areas of the room to avoid any more awkwardness.

That's when Xisuma spoke up, "Are we just gonna stand here doing nothing?"

Ren took this as an opportunity to get a laugh out of everyone. "Um, we could have a dance, like the reason we came here?"

That was definitely gonna get the whole squad laughing. But much to his surprise, he only got a confused chuckle out of Bdubs.

Everyone heard Xisuma's question, but no one really answered, they just decided to wait until something happened, like the host came to welcome them.

Well Tango was starting to get bored, and when he's bored, it's everyone's problem. He decided his cure was going to annoy Impulse, and maybe a few other people if he still felt like being annoying. He had adjusted to the darkness of the room and made his way over to his friend, who wasn't too hard to locate as his Dorito bag costume wouldn't stay quiet.

Tango was about to yell something in an attempt to scare Impulse, but a voice from behind him caught him off guard.

"Hey guys!"

It was Zedaph. He was sounding a bit on edge.

"Don't you think this place is.. a bit weird?"

"Yeah, how 'bout we just get outta here?" Impulse shrugged at his own suggestion. With a quick glance at each other, Tango and Zedaph knew the answer. Hell yeah! They were gonna ditch this party.

The three found their way to the exit, but when Impulse grasped the door handle and tugged it, the distorted voice spoke again.

"DO NOT TRY TO LEAVE."

Automatically, he stepped back, away from the door, but it was too late. Arrows flew down from the ceiling and when the contraption finally turned off, Impulse lay dead on the ground, arrows stabbing him from every side. There wasn't a death message, as the setting had been turned off earlier. That explained a lot.

Tango stood there, just staring down at Impulse. He came to his senses when he heard Zedaph's scream. "I'M NOT STAYING HERE!"

He ran to a random window through the dark and tried to break it. Turns out it was much harder than he thought, but when he tried to throw another punch, the floor underneath him opened up with the sound of a piston and he plummeted down with it. The final thing that could be heard before the floor closed up was a faint splash.

Zedaph was gone.

Moments of silence passed as all eyes automatically turned to Tango, probably because he had just lost both of his best friends in a flash.

He dropped to his knees in a mess of tears, as a few hermits ran over to comfort him.

Well, one thing was certain, and that was it was sure going to be a long masquerade party.