Deep Dark Blues

Chapter 16- Tongue-eating Louse

 "Kill me?! What the actual fuck do you mean?" Reed's voice climbed an octave higher.

"No...No... no... This is... I mean, how do you even know that?"

Angry scribbling filled the room, Isabella's hand working tirelessly to deliver the message.

Large doses of Insulin are dangerous to non-diabetics! Somebody had taken it and tried to inject you! Why would they take the insulin otherwise?!

"I...I... This is bad... W-why would anybody do that...I don't..."

Reed's heart was pounding in her ears, her whole body feeling sleek with sweat. Why would anybody want her dead? Sure, she didn't exactly get along with some of the crew members, but to jump straight to killing her? The walls were closing in on her, breath stuck in her throat. The list of suspects was short, after all, there were only two people who possibly could have come there.

Reed's bloodshot eyes met Isabella's.

"Ryan...or Aksel?" she uttered, bewilderment clear in her eyes. Isabella shook her head, distress colouring her features white. To say the discovery was alarming was an understatement. Reed was positively terrified. Somebody had tried to take her life, she remembered it...That hazy glimpse into consciousness, the figure looming over her... Somebody had tried to kill her, take advantage of her vulnerable state and poison her...

"I...I need to sit..." Reed mumbled, feeling the knees threaten to give out from under her. Isabella was by her side in mere seconds, pushing the stool towards her with urgency. She dropped onto the seat, a punched-out breath leaving her lungs. Her head hung low, face in her hands. It felt as if a small earthquake had run through her body, her insides threatening to burst from the amount of sheer fear and confusion running through her veins. Her thoughts were running in circles like a crazed toy train coursing back and forth between horror and dismay.

Was it Aksel who did it? Feeling wronged after being accused of raping her? Had he been fed up with being thrown around like he was replaceable? Being an asset not valuable enough to be cherished... Or was it Ryan, so upset over their falling out and the lack of control over the crew that he had started to consider cold-blooded murder? Angry with her over their prematurely terminated romance?

Reed's eyes trailed along the floor and onto Isabella's socked feet. An insane kind of thought ran through her mind... Was it Isabella?

No... No, that wouldn't make any sense. The woman had enough time to actually kill her if she wanted to, and definitely enough time to dispose of the evidence...

Ryan or Aksel?

Aksel or Ryan?

Her leg shook violently, bouncing up and down against the cold floor.

Aksel or Ryan?

Ryan or Aksel?

Both had reasons to hold a grudge...To want her dead, even if she thought those reasons to be small...So... insignificant. It wasn't like people hadn't died over nonsensical matters before.

"Isa..." a ghostly whisper left her lips.

"What do I do?"

Isabella's eyes were stuck on the ground, the woman chewing her already dry lips. She seemed equally shaken by the discovery, the guilt visible in her eyes.

"Isa... What do I do?" Reed couldn't help but raise her voice. It would be easy to judge her, to scold her for raising her voice at her companion, but in truth...How should one react to coming so close to death? The panic gripping her heart was overpowering, tearing her resolve to shreds like a starving dog. The prospect of dying at the hands of the monster outside was one thing, but knowing that somebody in the Vault wanted her dead, made Reed want to retch her guts out.