Loyalties (an Among Us fanfic)

3. Stalker

I watched Orange and Cyan talking by the cafeteria windows. Both of them stared at the distant stars, which was the only beautiful sight in the far reaches of space.

It always blew my mind to think about how every glance at the stars was a glance at the past. Those stars were light years away, meaning that it took their light several years to reach our eyes. Hell, a good fraction of the stars Orange and Cyan stared at were probably either white dwarfs, neutron stars, or black holes by now. That meant one short look at the sky would be the closest thing we had to time travel.

I listened closer to those two. They seemed to be talking about how Cyan got accused. It didn't sound like Orange suspected her, though. Like everyone else, I've known those two ever since astronaut training, and they were obviously close. If anything, I might've assumed that they were secretly dating.

I looked towards the Medbay hallway and saw Yellow talking to Purple. With a squint, I noticed there was a sticky note on Yellow's visor with DUM written on it. That made me giggle.

Green tapped my shoulder, making me jump. "Hey, stop giggling like a creepy serial killer impostor."

"Shut up or I'll kill you first," I joked, turning around.

He started laughing too. "Red, I honestly don't think you can joke about this kind of stuff. Especially considering our situation right now."

"Ah, true. Being insensitive is Purple's job, after all."

Green stared at the stars like Cyan and Orange were doing. "Who do you think the impostor is?" he asked.

I shrugged. "Do you have an idea?"

"Nope. I'm a little worried about Blue, though. He may be an asshole, but you would think that this isn't the right time to be an asshole. And when he isn't being an asshole, he's almost as quiet as Brown."

I still thought Blue was a dick just because. "Well, no matter who might be suspicious, we can't trust anyone. Not even the ones we might know really well. Please be careful, okay?"

Green's only response was silence.

I cocked my head. "Green, you hear me?"

"Yeah, I hear you. I'll be careful," he mumbled.

He suddenly sounded a lot different from just five seconds ago. However, I knew exactly why.

"Um . . . Do you want to come with me to check on Navigation?" I asked, fiddling with my spacesuit's gloves.

"No, you go do that. I need to check on the engines."

He turned and headed away with no more than a subtle glance at me. As Green disappeared, I considered the possibility of this being the first time he ever lost my trust. I walked to Navigation with clenched fists.

Stupid, I scolded myself. You just had to say the worst possible thing at the worst possible time. Green probably thinks you'll kill him now. Stupid.

Black was there when I entered Navigation, so I did my best not to look anxious or depressed. She was correcting the steering, so I strolled over to the control panel to ensure our course was charted properly. Neither of us said anything.

Eventually, I couldn't take the silence. "Can I ask you something?"

"Mhm," Black replied, getting out of the pilot chair.

"How do you deal with this? Like, how are you able to stay composed and think straight when all of our lives are at stake with no hope of rescue anytime soon?"