That night after watching Blue suffocate in the vast darkness of space, Pink had asked me to spend the night with her so she wouldn't be plagued with nightmares. She had suggested for me to curl up in her makeshift bed of pillows and sheets but I declined and lied next to her on the floor. I held her hand as she slept, keeping on eye on her all night to make sure she was well rested.
I woke up the next morning very early, even before the florescent lightings built into the ceilings of The Skeld started to warm up for the day. Checking the time, I realized that we weren't even due to do tasks for another two hours. The whole ship was still and quiet as the remaining crew slept.
I let go of Pink's hand and she whimpered at the lack of touch as she turned herself on her opposite side. She fell back asleep straight after and I breathed a sigh of relief. While Pink is asleep I believe that the parasite must be resting too. She doesn't seem to be in so much pain, and at least when she's unconscious she is unable to put herself or others in harm's way. And with everything that has been happening the last few days, I would like to see her sleep in so I could have some well-needed time to myself.
I slipped out of her room and made my way back to the barracks pass Medbay. I listen for a few seconds standing in the middle of the hallway, the sounds of my friends' slow breathing soothing me. I could even hear Yellow's snoring from our shared room.
I grabbed my clean, brown space suit from my room and some fresh underclothes and I make my way to the showers. This was the first time I really got a chance to freshen up since the night that Cyan was killed. I washed my hair and my body, taking my time to allow the hot water to pour over my body and relax my tense muscles. I quickly dressed and tossed my dirty clothes down the laundry chute for it to be washed with everyone else's clothes.
Once I was nice and clean, I decided to skip breakfast since I still felt sick from all the death I seen last night before bed and I headed to electrical to begin my tasks for today.
After grabbing my tool belt and strapping it around my waist and filling it full of my tools, I got down on my knees and began putting together wires and melting them together with my soldering gun, pairing the same colour wires with each other.
I wasn't even done of my task as I heard the door to electrical open and close and footsteps approached me from behind. I turned my head to see Yellow coming inside the room, also preparing himself for today's jobs.
"Good morning, Yellow," I say pleasantly, my voice still raspy from sleep. "You're up awful early."
He tightened his belt until it pulled tight around his waist and gave a grunt. "I couldn't sleep, Blue's dying face kept appearing in my dreams."
"I see." I said and became quiet.
Yellow also stopped talking and walked past me, opening the panel door on the calibrators used to keep all the energy in the ship running. He turned dials and pressed buttons until all three gears inside was moving in sync. He closed the door and turned his head to watch me watch him. My face reddened as I was caught staring at my friend and I turned away and back to my task.
"What? Are you going to make fun of me about dreaming about Blue?" Yellow asked, his voice rough and angry, but not like usual. It was like he was angry at me, not just being pissed off for no reason.
"N-no," I replied nervously. "I would never, in fact I dreamt about him too."
"Mhm." He grunted again, signalling me to go on.
"I dreamt about him screaming at Red and Black. For them allowing the k-killer to go free, I understand how he was upset about that, it's scary to know someone that scary is roaming free," I stammered, trying to connect the two red wires.
"Bullshit."
"Excuse me?"
"You know what I said, I call bullshit on that." Yellow fumed, gritting his teeth.
"I don't understand what you're getting on about," I said, sensing that I was in danger. "What do you mean you call bullshit?"
Yellow let out a roar and picked me up off the floor by the collar of my suit, my helmet falling off from the force of the movement. I gasped out in pain as he pinned me to the wall, breathing in my face.
"You know what I mean, asshole," he spat, his spit speckling my face and I squinted. "You're not upset like Blue was for Red and Black being so dense. You're happy, you and your little girlfriend."
"For the last time, Yellow, Pink is not my girlfriend." I choked out, Yellow's hand clamped tightly around my throat. "I don't have any idea what you're going on about. P-please, let me go and we can talk this out."
"You and Pink are the imposters! I know it!" He growled like a wild, blood thirsty animal. He was going to kill me. "You were the ones who killed our friends, Cyan and Orange and Blue. Their blood is on our hands and I can smell it from a mile away."
"Why would we do such a thing?" I questioned, my hands wrapping around his around my neck, trying to push myself away from him. "They were my friends too, why would I kill them?"
"I'm not sure why, but as soon as that little girl came aboard, things started going to shit and now you are acting different. I haven't seen you in days and you spend all your time cooped up with Pink. That monster she's researching, that must have something to do with this all." He said.
"You got it all wrong, Yellow, don't be an idiot, I would never bring harm to the crew."
Suddenly, his fist connected with the side of my head and I was launched across the room, crashing into a wall and I crumpled to the floor in pain. I groaned and tried to catch my breath but he kicked me in the stomach. I puked all over the floor, a mix of stomach acid and blood.
"Don't you EVER call me an idiot, imposter." Yellow spit on me. "You're not saying anything now, but I will get the truth out of you. Listen to me..."
Yellow stooped down and picked me up again, bring my face to his. I felt my nose bleeding, dripping down onto my clean suit. "I won't do anything today, I won't say a word to anyone, not even to Purple. But I promise, you only have today to confess that you and Pink are the imposters and hope that Red and Black will take mercy on you for your confession, or else I will call an emergency meeting and tell everyone what you and Pink did and have you tossed out, just like you did to Blue."
Yellow took a fistful of my hair and slammed my head down on the floor. I felt my skull connect to the metal sheeting of the ship and I went unconscious.
✨✨✨
"Brown! Brown are you okay?!" A feminine voice called out my name and my eyes started to flutter open. My head felt like it was splitting in two and my nose looked crooked as I stared down at it. I groaned and put a hand up to my eyes to block the light shining down at me.
I noticed that I was lying in a bed in Medbay. Machines all around me blinked and beeped, as I heard a heartbeat play out on a monitor. I realized that it was monitoring my own heartbeat. What happened to me? I remember Yellow and I talking and then we started to fight. Did he hurt me?
Memories of what happened in electrical flooded over me and I felt the colour in my face drain, my hands became sweaty. I need Black to get out of here so I can warn Pink of Yellow and his plans.
"I think he may be waking up!"
"Please, Pink, give him some space, he fell awful hard." I heard Black say softly to the small girl standing next to me and she took two dramatic steps backwards.
"Brown? Can you hear me?" Black asked me with a concerned voice, gently taking one of my hands and holding it in his.
"Yeah, I'm awake." I say, my jaw sent searing pain through my head as I spoke. "What the hell happened?"
"It seems like you had a nasty fall off a ladder." Black explained. "Purple found you knocked out in electrical and a ladder was found next to you. You still had a tool belt on so we assume that you must of fell when you were doing a task."
"You gave me such a fright, you jerk!" Pink cried out, her eyes teary. "I thought the imposter may have gotten you too!"
"Now, now, Pink, let's not bring that up right now, let him have some time to relax and get his memories recollected before he tells us what happened." Black scolded Pink. "Why don't we both leave him alone for a little while?"
"Actually," I asked anxiously. "Can Pink stay with me? As I relax?"
Black gives Pink a quick glance before replying. "That's fine, but if she annoys you or you just need some time to yourself, just say so."
"Thanks Black."
He nods and allows Pink to stay in the room with me. He pulls the curtain around my bed closed and leaves the room to go back to Navigation with his Commander boyfriend.
Pink didn't even give me a chance to breathe before she starts to question me, losing the act of the concerned girlfriend. "What the hell, Brown? You let me all alone in the lab while I slept and went out and got yourself knocked out!? I thought you could of been killed!"
"Quiet down! I'm fine, I just have something to tell you. I didn't fall out of the ladder, I actually got confronted by Yellow. We got in a fight." I shushed her, trying to prop myself up in my bed. I think I may have a concussion, and I almost threw up from the pain.
"You got in a fight!? What happened? What did he tell you, what do he know?" Pink sat on the edge of the bed, anxious for me to explain myself.
"I think he may know that it was us who killed the others. He cornered me in electrical and told me he is suspicious of us and so is Lime and Purple, and he knows that the parasite is a part of all this. He told me if we don't confess by tomorrow he was going to have an emergency meeting and kick us off anyways. We're trapped." I told he and watched as all the colour drained out of her face in fear.
"You're not serious. Please tell me you're joking."
"I'm not, I wish I was though. We're going to have to confess and hope that Red isn't as harsh as he was yesterday with Blue." My voice trembled. I was scared so I couldn't even imagine what she was going through, the literal person who murdered the other crewmates to use as a food source for an alien parasite.
"We can't just let ourselves get found out, Brown, we're too far in this now, I don't wanna die." Pink says, her voice a whisper. "You do understand what we need to do now, right?"
"Huh?"
"We need to kill Yellow before he can tell the rest of the group that we are imposters." She said matter-of-factly.
"Wouldn't that look suspicious? You do understand that he probably already told everyone that they should look out for us since he already knows that we are the imposters."
"That's just a risk we need to take, there is a chance that he kept this to himself and told no one about his suspicion and nobody thinks we're the imposters, but there is a 100% chance tomorrow that we die if we do nothing." She says.
"So what do you have planned?" I asked her.
"Nothing just yet, other than we need to eliminate him before sunrise tomorrow. That gives us about 18 hours or so before he will call the emergency meeting."
"You do understand that I can't exactly help you with this whole 'elimination' thing this time, right?" I say. "I think that I may have a concussion or something, I can't even lift my head without getting dizzy."
"Thats completely fine, I can do it myself. You just rest here, I got some planning to do."
And with that, Pink struts out of the room without pulling the curtains shut for me as she begins to plan a murder.