Loyalties (an Among Us fanfic)

1. Incident

"Boo!"

I jumped out of my skin. "Lime, quit it!" I said, putting my tablet down and facing her.

"Sorry, Red, you just looked so down," Lime teased, her hands on her hips. The pink flower on her helmet shone under the overhead lights. "You know how I get when I see somebody like that!"

I marched towards her. "You know what? Come here! You're really going to get it now!"

Lime, laughing like a hyena, ran out of the cabin with me on her tail. We sprinted through the bright hallways like track runners for half a minute and even passed a confused Orange along the way. The clangs of our boots on the metal floors probably could've been heard from the upper floor as well. When Lime reached the stairwell, she juked left and ran up the steps, and I would've tripped and fell had I not grabbed the railing in time. I flew up the stairs, cursing at the increasing distance between Lime and I. When I arrived on the upper floor, I sped after her through yet another hallway.

And it was tiring me out quickly, especially since the artificial gravity on this ship was no different from Earth's. A woman like me only had so much endurance. Sure, it was ironic that a couch potato like me made it through training, but things were always weird in some way.

Finally, I caught up to Lime just as we entered the cafeteria. But that was when she slowed to a halt. Before I could stop, I crashed into her at a hundred miles per hour. Both of us tumbled across the cafeteria floors, and when I stopped rolling, I couldn't tell which way was up. When my vision cleared, I saw a familiar white helmet staring down at me.

"You two okay?" asked the Commander.

I used one of the benches to pull myself up. "Yeah, we're all good, White."

"Hey, Commander," said Lime as I hauled her up. "Hey, Black."

Black gave a confused wave from the table she and White had been sitting at.

Having colours for names was certainly weird, but we've done this ever since training. Each member of the crew received his or her own special suit long before the time came to board the Skeld, and for some reason, we started nicknaming each other based on the colour of our suits. Even the Commander got in on it! By the time we got on the massive ship, the nicknames had stuck, and barely anybody called each other their real names. Now, we were known as: Red (me), Orange, Yellow, Lime, Green, Cyan, Blue, Purple, Pink, Brown, Black, and White.

The only drawback was that Lime got mixed up with Green a lot, as well as Cyan with Blue.

Oh, and, funny enough, Pink was a guy. He specifically requested that colour, too. However, I supported him no less than before. After all, who was I to judge the things—and people—a certain man may have been interested in?

"It's a coincidence that you two are here now—Black and I were just discussing the condition of this ship," said Commander White. "We've discovered that the Skeld, for some reason, has a concerning amount of errors and flaws we need to correct. It's likely that it wasn't properly inspected before takeoff, although that would be very unprofessional for the people down on Earth."

Black nodded in agreement. "Actually, how about you call everyone here, Commander? We might need all the help we can get."

What followed was a lengthy discussion between all twelve members of the crew. Everyone was familiar with the ship and could solve most of the tasks that needed to be done. Whenever one person didn't know how to do a certain task, somebody else did, so everything was covered. Eventually, the meeting concluded, and each one of us left to inspect whatever section of the ship we wanted.

I strolled past the O2 room but stopped when I saw Green cleaning the filter. "Howdy," I said, slapping him hard on the back.

"Ow," Green yelped. "I might mess up this filter, dumbass!"

"Oh, what, are you going to clean the wrong spot?" I scoffed. "Also, how does that hurt? Your spacesuit's thicker than a brick!"

"At least a brick has a bigger brain than you."

This was perfectly normal. Between childhood friends like Green and I, just about every conversation would start with one of us harassing each other. Yet, neither of us would have it any other way. If I lost him, I wouldn't be able to take it, and it was clear that he felt the same.

The two of us left O2 and ambled through the hallways. We passed the shield room, crossed through the storage compartment, and entered the electrical room. I always hated Electrical—not only was it dark, but as a person who never really understood electronics, the worries about getting fried by messing up wires and stuff plagued me.

I knelt and inspected the light switches, which were all functional. "Green, how good are you at all this electronic crap?"

When he didn't answer, I looked up. Green just stood beside the distributor, looking stiffer than a stone statue.

"Green?" I asked again, standing up.

"Holy shit," Green whispered, staring at the innermost part of the room. "Holy shit."

I was at his side in the blink of an eye. "What? What do you see—"

The sight of Lime's mutilated body slumped against the wall erased all the words in my mouth. Instead, an ear-splitting scream was what tore out of my lips.

***

"She had how many stab wounds?" Cyan demanded, leaning forward on the cafeteria table.

"Twenty-eight at least," White sighed. His sorrowful gaze was fixed on the table, and despite what just happened, all eleven of us subordinates were surprised to see the Commander like this.

Purple cocked her head. "Twenty-eight stab wounds? Isn't that a meme from some old video game where—"

"Somebody just died, Purple!" Yellow hissed. His fuming glare was obscured by the helmet visor, but everyone knew it was there. "Do not bring video game references into this!"

"Right. Sorry," Purple stammered, shaking her head.

"Who would do this?" I whispered shakily. It took every ounce of my will to not throw up. Ever since I laid eyes on all the blood and cuts, my vomit had been waiting to erupt like a volcano. My stomach felt like how the wilted flower looked on Lime's helmet. "Who would do such a horrible thing to her?"

Lime was goofy. Lime was obnoxious. Lime had really stupid jokes with really stupid timing. But that was why we all loved her. It didn't matter what we were going through, because Lime always knew exactly what she had to do to make our smiles return. Even Blue tolerated her presence, and that guy would get pissed off at the tiniest things.

But now, there would likely be no more smiling from anyone for a long time.

Black folded her hands on the round table. "Was there anybody else aside from you and Green? Did anybody leave or enter electrical before you came in?"

"No, we didn't see anyone." My voice was hoarse, and Black probably couldn't even understand me.

"There was a vent next to Lime's body. Maybe that was how the killer escaped," Green suggested.

"Speaking of the killer, do we have any idea who it might be?" Pink asked.

Each crewmate either said no or shook their head. Nobody expected something like this to happen, much less knew anything about who was behind it.

White's eyes glinted from behind that platinum visor. "Well, one thing's for certain—nobody else boarded this ship aside from the twelve of us."

"So, that means . . ." I trailed off because I already knew the answer.

The Commander nodded slowly. "There's an imposter among us."