An Impostor Among Them

Part 8: I Believe You Now

            "What about the youngest three?" Pink suggested. "We've all worked together in the past, and nothing happened until they came along."

"That does make sense," Black said with a shrug.

"But there isn't enough evidence against us," I defended. "We were told that there is one impostor on board. All of the 'evidence' against us is circumstantial, and biased toward the fact that we're the youngest and least experienced."

"We don't have evidence against anyone. I think we just need to end the meeting and get back to our tasks. This isn't doing anyone any good," Yellow cut in.

"That's the sort of thing you might say if you were covering up for someone," Pink said. "What if it's Lime? She seems unusually nervous about this."

I noticed Lime's breathing had become more labored as she sputtered, "What the hell kind of accusation is that?"

"Lime, are you sure you're okay?" Purple asked. "You really don't look well."

"Y-yeah—just anxious," she said breathlessly. Her skin looked strangely ashy. "I'm fine."

"If she's to the point of having a panic attack after being blamed, don't you find that a bit suspicious?" Pink brought up.

"No, I do not," Yellow insisted, obviously becoming increasingly agitated. "This was brought up with Cyan during the last meeting. She's panicking because you just suggested throwing her off the ship."

"Thank you for pointing out the obvious," Lime wheezed. She flinched, baring her teeth. "I get panic attacks a lot. You'd know that if you knew me before this trip."

"Wait, there's blood on your shirt," Brown suddenly said. My heart jumped as I glanced down. It was near her back, so somewhat hard to see, but there was a decent-sized red patch. Why is she bleeding? Something else is going on.

"I really think we should get you to bed or something," Black said. "Or just away from here."

Lime turned and began to step away from the table. She staggered a bit, and Black leapt forward to support her. The others went quiet as well. Lime began coughing harshly—she raised a hand to her face, and Black cried, "Oh, my God!"

Yellow rushed over too, but before he reached them, Lime stumbled to her knees with a sharp cry. A chorus of alarmed voices shrieked her name. Black jumped backward, startled. Yellow circled around to her and dropped to his knees. He grabbed her shoulder, shouting, "Lime? Lime! What's going on?"

"What happened?" Pink cried.

A thick spray of blood coated Black's hand. She looked horrified and unsure of what to do. Yellow frantically asked what was wrong, holding out a hand to help her up. When Lime looked up, there was blood streaming from her mouth. She tried to get words out, but trailed off and slumped to the ground. Her eyes remained halfway open in a glassy, unblinking stare.

"Lime," Yellow shouted. "Can you hear me?"

"What the hell—is she okay?!" Black shrieked.

Yellow held the back of his hand to her mouth. His expression morphed to horror. Without hesitation, he attempted to start compressions, before Red pulled him away.

"Stop," he cried. "Yellow, she's gone. You know that."

"You're not the medic," the younger crewmate howled. "You don't get to tell me that!"

"Yellow, please listen to me," Red pleaded. "Do you know what happened to her?"

"No! She was completely fine before this!"

"There has to be a reason. This doesn't just happen out of the blue, and if it was severe enough to kill her this quickly . . ." Red trailed off.

Yellow looked down with an expression of sheer disbelief. Then he stood up to face everyone. "How can you live with yourselves," he snarled, "knowing that the last thing you ever said to this poor girl was accusing her of a horrific crime?"

No one responded. They were all still in shock.

That's exactly what I did, I realized in horror.

"Exactly." Yellow bent over his friend's body and began studying her.

"What the fuck?" Pink gasped, her voice quivering.

I started to feel dizzy. I didn't feel any emotion other than pure shock. It was impossible to take my eyes off of her lifeless body, no matter how much I wanted to. Yellow pulled up her shirt slightly, right where she'd been itching. He looked confused, then horrified.

"There's an inflamed spot right above her hip where she said she felt the prick, and her side is covered in blood. There's a mark on her suit, too. I think she was injected with some kind of poison," he said quietly.

Fury overwhelmed me as I turned on the four who'd come in with Lime—Pink, Green, Purple, and Red. "It's one of you!" I shouted. "It's Purple! There's already a shit-ton of evidence against her, and she was with Lime right before she was killed! I'm telling you, Purple is the impostor!"

"Cyan, calm down," Brown cried. "I believe you now, you and Yellow weren't with her, you two are cleared. Black, you're cleared too."

"I know we said we shouldn't do anything without serious evidence, but wouldn't you say this is enough?" Black asked Red.

"I'd think so."

"Do—do anything?" Purple backed away from the table slowly, her legs quivering. She raised both hands to her face, her eyes going wide. "Half the crew was in the room with her. You don't have proof that it was me! It—it could be Green, or Red!"

"You've always been playing the innocent one," I snarled.

"She was very against the idea of voting, as if she was afraid of being accused," Yellow agreed. He got to his feet, shaking and obviously frazzled; Green put an arm around his shoulders to try and console him.

"I haven't seen her do many tasks," Pink joined in. "She could be trying to put more work on the rest of us."

Purple lost any restraint she still had. "You said it yourselves, there needs to be evidence to do anything serious! Brown, please, you're the only one who can defend me!" she bawled.

Brown's horrified stare hardened into a cold scowl. "I don't think I can anymore."

After a moment of agonizing silence, Purple broke down sobbing, turning away from us and crumpling over her knees.

"Let's take a look at the security footage for our evidence," Red said.

"Yes! Yes, please do that," Purple cried, her expression lifting in hope.