An Among Us Story - Live on The Skeld

PURPLE

Victory. The words flash across my screen as all 8 of us Crewmates alight the transport ship and step into the waiting lobby. There is a certain excitement in the air as Pink, Green and White squeal and hug one another.

"Yessssss... we wonnnn!!!!" Pink yells. "Lol... I still can't believe that Black would even try to kill one of y'all AND blame it on me!! Like, her egregious plan... that is the most shocking part of the game... OMG..."

"I KNOW, RIGHT??!! I thought she was, like, a noob and all, but that plan of hers... dang..." Green responds in kind, with the same amount of shock.

I guess that she and White have filled Pink in on what happened after she had died. She did not see the replay of the last meeting of the game after she had been fixed up because she had died too late in the game (whereas I totally saw Black belting out lies in the second-last meeting of the game after my death... OMG... especially after I had been all fixed up, I had to listen to Black totally cooking up another situation which she was magically in)...

Despite being usually reserved, I feel the need to join in the conversation. After all, Black had killed me really savagely (maybe the most savagely of all of her victims)...

I press my palm on my newly-replaced artificial heart. It seems fine... but I am not. And I need to talk. Approaching them, I join in the conversation.

"Black k-killed me after killing Yellow and Brown..." I comment. "It was really terrible, I tell you... w-when she killed me, I was so scared..."

"Oh, hi, Purple!" Pink waves at me, all friendly, and Green and White follow suit, albeit rather awkwardly (I don't usually talk to them). "Wait, I thought that Blue killed you? He was right next to your body... and near Brown's body too..."

"I..." I begin, but then stop. "Uhh, no... Blue was kind of like my ally. He was so nice... H-He must have broken down when I died..." My eyes tear up again at the memory. "Black, she... sh-she really s-stabbed me 3 times, with a kind of maniacal look in her eyes. She... She r-really scared me..."

"Oh my gosh!!" Pink exclaims. "So Black was the one calling ALL of the shots, not Blue?"

"That's right..." I laugh a little at Pink's and Green's shocked looks. "The only crime that Blue is guilty of is murdering Orange. That was the only shot that she didn't call..."

"Dang, seems like Black's really going to be angry about losing this match... and if she's An Impostor again, she'll definitely have it in for us. Better not to underestimate her again..." Pink murmurs, slightly worried.

That's pretty obvious to me... unless I am freaking sure that she's crew (like if she does visual tasks in front of me), better to steer clear of her in the future...

"Yeah..." I murmur in agreement.

"Oh yeah, and by the way..." Pink smiles as I am turning away from her. "Thank you for saying that it was Black at the start of the game... if not for that, we wouldn't have been 100% sure that she was indeed An Impostor... and of course, the others who had died in the line of duty should be thanked too..."

"Right..." I laugh lightheartedly and leave them. Talking to the trio has made me realise that I really need to find a specific someone... one who had saved my life early in the game...

There he is, standing next to a box of supplies, alone, with his body turned away from the crowd. Drawing near to him, I tap him on the shoulder and he whirls around defensively, before softening when he sees that it is me.

"Yellow, I really want to thank you for trying to save me back there..." I start, but he holds up a hand to stop me.

"You don't have to thank me..." He smiles. "I mean, I didn't get Black voted out in the end. They did..." He points to the trio of girls.

"Well, but you... you, um, lost your life tr-trying to do it..." I start to stammer. "I mean, B-Blue and I h-heard the s-sounds from Admin... they were really terrible... even Blue felt bad..."

"Yeah, there... there was this crazy look in her eyes before she killed me..." Yellow shudders at the thought. "She... She really seems to enjoy killing..."

"Yeahhh... I... I s-s-" I intend to say that I had seen that too.

However, the words catch in my throat when I see two more arrivals in the waiting lobby.

The atmosphere in the waiting lobby grows a little tense, but the amount of tension does not go unnoticed by me. Out of the corners of my eyes, I see some of the Crewmates glance at them before turning away again.

I, however, start to find it harder to breathe as my gaze fixes on one of the arrivals. My eyes widen and I unconsciously start to step backwards, my breaths coming out in ragged gasps. I clutch my artificial heart in a vice-like grip as I start to stumble backwards, away from the arrival.

However, it is too late. She catches sight of me and the only thing that is visible to me, right at this moment, is the scorching fury in her eyes. This fury, it freezes and entrances me at the same time. I can only watch in paralysed fear as she starts to stride towards me.

"Purple... Purple!!" Yellow suddenly waves a hand in front of my face but I am way too preoccupied in my thoughts to pay attention to him.

"Sh-She stabbed me... She a-actually stabbed me..." My lips quiver uncontrollably as I bury my face in my hands, collapsing against the box of supplies next to me. "N-No one h-has ever s-stabbed me before... never so b-brutally, before..."

"Purple! Listen to me!" Violently, Yellow starts to shake me.

When I finally turn my attention towards him, he sighs.

"Look... I know that you probably have a fear of her," He jerks his head towards the arrival, "but you can't let it show. You cannot give her the satisfaction of knowing that you are scared of her... so now, follow my lead..."

Turning me around so that my back faces the two arrivals, Yellow starts to talk again.

"Sooo... what're you going to do after this?" He questions me.

'Huh??' I think. 'How is that related to the context of my problem?' Then it hits me. Yellow is trying to distract me from her so that I won't think of her anymore... and so that I won't look like I am positively scared of her...

"I... I... uh... I'm going to play another game... lol..." I jump on his distraction gratefully.

"Ooo... me too!" Yellow exclaims. "Hope we win again... and survive! Haha..."

Just then, a tingle creeps up my spine and makes my stomach contract uncomfortably as I feel her presence a mere few feet behind me. My breaths come in shallow as I fight for air (my windpipe feels like it is about to close soon). For some reason, taking in deeper breaths doesn't work and I still feel oxygen-deprived...

It's so hard to put up a fearless front in front of people for even just one minute... how did she manage to do the exact same thing so effectively when she was busy trying to suck up to the Crewmates in the second meeting? I mean, like, she didn't even look the least bit scared, despite the fact that she was knowingly backstabbing her own partner and sabotaging herself, too... and the second meeting was so long... I can estimate that she had to have put up that fake front for, like, 10 straight minutes or something... she's really a natural liar and psychopath...

That thought is the only thought on my mind as she puts her hand on my left shoulder and leans in close to my ear.

"You, Purple, may have won the previous game due to sheer luck... but I will, with no doubt, make sure that you won't get so lucky if I am An Impostor again in the next round. Payback time will come when you least expect it..." Black's venomous message to me cannot get any clearer than that.

If she is An Impostor in the next game, I am certain that she would find the first opportunity to kill me so that I won't even get to touch any of the tasks before my death... I am officially screwed.

My fear of Black takes over me, engulfing me like a monster. With a gasp, I feel the hairs on the back of my neck rise warningly as the world around me darkens and I start to fall endlessly into a black hole...