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A strangled cry tears from Nicky’s throat as he sinks to the floor.
Neil stands behind him, a literal smoking gun clutched in one hand. An orange headpiece obscuring his face. He hears voices coming closer and pries off the cover to the vent on Nicky’s left, easily fitting into the small space.
A moment later, they are all in the cafeteria together and a screen lights up to welcome them: Dead Body Reported accompanied with a fuschia suit that matches everyone else’s.
Andrew is the first the speak. “Electrical.”
Aaron pipes up next. “Who the fuck killed Nicky?!”
Neil is quiet.
“Alli and I were fixing the wires in the admin room.” Renee says and Allison confirms.
“I was watching Matt do card swipe and he was there for a curiously long time.” Dan said, suspicion evident in her tone.
“Dan, baby, no! I was doing it…9 times. 9 times! I can’t- help me, I am absolutely not sus, I am not, I just cannot do the card swipe and we will never get a task win if I have card swipe as one of my tasks.” Matt defends himself. The group agrees that he is telling the truth…for now.
“Kevin?” Andrew asks, sussing out everyone’s location.
“I was shooting asteroids.”
“Can confirm. I walked by him like 3 seconds ago.” Aaron adds.
“And where were you, Andrew?” Kevin responds.
Andrew shrugs. “I don’t know this map.”
They rest of the group stare at him. “It’s the main map.”
“It’s the first map-”
“It was the only map available for so long-”
“How do you not-”
“Andrew was in reactor with me.” Neil finally supplies.
“Likely story. I’m voting Neil. He killed Nicky.” Aaron retorts, locking in his vote for Neil in his orange suit.
“Quite a suspicious alibi.” Kevin says with narrowed eyes. Andrew shrugs again. Neil doesn’t respond. The group deems them innocent…for now.
“Be careful everyone.” Dan warns.
“Yeah,” Neil pipes up. “There’s an imposter among us.”
“Kill me.” Aaron mutters, “For the love of God, someone fucking smite me.”
“Will do, brother.” Andrew replies as he casts his vote.
Another screen pops up as the timer winds down. There was one vote on Neil, 3 votes on Matt and 2 skips. Matt bellows as he is thrown into space. White was ejected .
The lights immediately turn off and Allison shrieks. Dan heads to admin to avenge Matt and get her own card swipe done. Renee and Allison go in opposite directions that time, having tasks on either side of the ship. Aaron heads to the camera room to stalk Neil. Andrew and Kevin are standing in the cafeteria next to the button, not discussing anything or being useful, they’re both eating and not paying attention. Neil stays a moment to ensure they are not moving then leaves.
Neil wanders down the hall toward reactor and stands next to Aaron as he watches the cameras around the facility. He doesn’t speak and Aaron is too focused on the cameras to realize there’s someone near him.
Allison walks in and before she can speak, Neil covers her mouth and stabs her repeatedly in the chest. He leaves and runs back to the cafeteria to join Kevin and Andrew who are still there, somehow hiding from each of Aaron’s swipes of the camera views.
A moment later, Renee walks by, notes their presence, and continues to the Medical Bay to do a scan. She notices cameras are on as she walks by. Aaron is still watching, not realizing Allison bleeds out behind him.
Renee finishes her scan and heads to the reactor room to do her final task. She is a task master. She is passing by when she see’s Allisons dead body in the doorway to the cameras. She checks inside before reporting, and Aaron is there…staring at the cameras.
A moment later, they are all in the cafeteria together and a screen lights up to welcome them once again: Dead Body Reported accompanied with a pink suit, X’s where her eyes should be.
“Aaron…” Renee starts.
“Yeah? What?” Aaron answers. “Where was the body?”
Renee sighs. “It was behind you. In the camera room.”
Aaron’s face flushes. “W-what?”
“Worst imposter ever.” Andrew mutters in what can only be described as twin disappointment. “Remind me again how there is proof that we are related.”
Aaron, with his copycat face, scowls at his brother. “Fuck you- I didn’t kill anybody! I was watching cameras waiting for Neil to kill someone.”
“Neil was standing in the cafeteria with Kevin and Andrew.” Renee comments quietly.
“Can confirm.” Kevin mumbles around a mouthful of whatever the hell he was eating.
“Goodbye, little brother.” Andrew deadpans as everyone but Aaron locks in their vote.
Aaron’s screams of “ there’s no proof you are the older brother ” fade into silence as he is ejected into space. Words came on the screen: Aaron was ejected.
“Interesting.” Renee comments, eyeing the remaining group.
“And then there were 5.” Andrew states, very obviously.
“If we got an Imposter out already then we are good, right?” Kevin asks, finally paying attention to the game.
“Correct, Aaron was definitely guilty so there’s no chance for a double kill.” Dan responds.
The group all separates to do their tasks. Kevin goes to the Medical Bay to mix some vials. Neil, with Aaron spectating him, heads to electrical. Renee has one final task to do and then she’s done. Andrew is, once again, not moving in the cafeteria. Dan heads down to prep the shields.
Kevin is humming to himself as he pours vials from one to another, turning every so often to see if someone else comes by to at least show that he’s attempting to do a task. Is it his first task? Possibly.
Neil leaves electrical and goes to the opposite side of the ship where he finds Dan in the bottom right corner.
“Hey Neil.” Dan says, with the shield menu up on her screen. “Don’t kill me, okay?”
“Okay.” Neil says simply. He leaves and finds Renee standing on a vent in the Navigation room. “Are you an imposter?”
“No.” Renee responds. “Are you?”
Neil pulls out his knife. “Yes.”
“Ah,” Renee hums. “I should have known.” She tries to run around Neil to press an emergency button but she is too late. Her body drops to the ground, her cross necklace dangling from her neck.
A blaring alarm sounds and the group is informed there is a critical sabotage: the reactor is going to meltdown in 30 seconds if they don't fix it. Thankfully, Neil and Andrew are there to stop it. Dan and Kevin wander in shortly after, mid conversation.
“Okay guys, settle this for us. Is water wet?” Dan asks.
Andrew stares at her. Neil grins.
“Yes.”
“No.”
They glare at each other.
Neil rolls his eyes. “From the perspective of a human, I think you would consider water to be wet, but if you’re getting technical to the terms of water molecules, they are not wet.”
“Nerd.” Dan mutters as she turns around to the camera.
“Wait-” Neil says. “What did Kevin say?”
“What do you think Kevin said?” Dan responds, turning back toward Neil.
“I think Kevin said water is wet.”
“Kevin did not.” Kevin says. “Kevin said water is not wet.”
“How many digits of Pi do you know, Neil?” Andrew questions, fully entertaining the change of topic.
Neil thinks for a moment. “3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592307816.”
“Pathetic.” Andrew says with a shake of his head. “You can’t go past that?”
“No, asshole, not all of us have your memory.” Neil retorts, crossing his stubby arms.
“Sad. Truly.” Andrew comments.
Neil hums and checks his watch then he looks up at the group and shrugs. “It can’t be helped.”
“What can’-goddammit, Neil!” Dan falls to the floor as a spear emerges from Neil’s throat and stabs her directly through the visor, killing her instantly.
They’re all back in the cafeteria again as the screen fades to black. Victory is written across two screens: Neils and…Kevin’s.
“Wait-”
“What?”
“What the fuck?”
“It was Kevin?!”
“It wasn’t Andrew?!”
“NEIL KILLED ME! IN COLD BLOOD!”
“Stop screaming Nicky, for fucks sake-”
“IN COLD BLOOD, HOW COULD YOU?!”
“I need an explanation like now.” Comes from Dan.
“About what?” Neil asks, still feigning innocence despite his very clear rapsheet.
“Your partner was Kevin? How the fuck?” Dan exclaims, staring at all of them.
Kevin shrugs. “Why is that so surprising?”
“Who got killed by Kevin?” Dan asks the group. Silence. She turns to Kevin. “Kevin…”
“Neil killed everyone.” Andrew says as he scrolls through his phone.
“Yes, I did. And it was glorious. You all suck at this.” Neil points out. This is something they all already knew but they opted in to play against Neil anyway.
“Andrew is a third fucking imposter.” Aaron seethes.
“No. You’re all just stupid.” Andrew responds, still mostly ignoring the groups outbursts. Allison is climbing all over Neil, trying to get him to apologize but Neil doesn’t understand why everyone else sucks so badly.
“Neil KILLED me while Aaron was RIGHT THERE and Aaron didn’t even NOTICE!” Allison screams as she suffocates Neil.
Aaron shrugs. “I was watching Neil.
“Clearly, you weren’t.” Allison says with narrowed eyes, one manicured nail tapping against Neil’s forehead as he goes crosseyed trying to stare at it.
“Again?” Neil asks with a wide grin.
The majority of the group groans but they all agree. It’s Neil’s favorite game after all.
// Round 2 //
“I don’t really know this map,” Kevin admits as he walks down a long plank-like platform to a pool of lava. “Oh…well, this isn’t good.” He turns around and is faced with a brown jumpsuit. “Oh hey- oh I’m dead now.”
On the other side of the map, where the lights have been turned off, Allison, Andrew, Aaron, Neil, and Dan all argue about who is fixing the lights. Each switch has to be flipped the same direction (up, obviously) but someone is turning them all down.
Aaron is positive that it’s Neil. Neil says he doesn’t have the screen open. Renee actually doesn’t have the screen open. Allison is trying to put in a food order and keeps asking Dan’s opinion on which entree to get everyone and Andrew…Andrew is trying to fix the fucking lights.
“Whichever one of you is turning these goddamn light switches off is going to get sent to space. And I don’t mean in the game.” Andrew seethes, a rare show of emotion from him that always seems to happen in any kind of competitive game.
“Space seems nice.” Neil comments as he flicks the lightswitches down as Andrew flips them up. “It would be quiet.”
“Deathly quiet, for you.” Aaron says (he does not have the screen open and is reading a news article about a man that is wanted for stealing 72 pounds of flour from a local shop. The suspect is short with red hair. He sends it to the Fox group chat.)
“I swear to fuck.” There’s a lot of arm flailing, someone yelps after being hit with a book, then the lights are back on.
“Aaron, do you really think Neil is hiding 70 pounds of flour somewhere?” Renee asks as she glances at the group chat.
“Yeah like where the fuck would be put that?” Allison asks, glancing at her surroundings.
Aaron shrugs. “Description fits.”
“I’m gluten intolerant.”
“No you fucking are not.” Aaron retorts. “You’re literally eating pizza as we speak.”
“It’s gluten-free.”
“That’s not a real thing.” Aaron says, though he grabs his phone once more to see if gluten-free pizza is in fact real.
The group splits again as Dan goes to find Matt and Kevin. Minutes pass without interruption by sabotages or dead bodies and Andrew finally goes to check vitals. Kevin, Aaron, and Allison are all dead. Where the fu-
Neil is next to him a moment later. “Everyone is dead.”
“Is it you?”
“Nope,” Neil pokes Andrew with his stubby little arm. “Not this time. I haven’t seen a single body so I’m thinking this is Renee…no idea who is helping.”
Andrew hums in response just as Matt’s vitals go dead on the screen. “Alright, time for a meeting.”
A moment later, they are all in the board room together and a red flame lights slashes across the screen to welcome them with the words Emergency Meeting accompanied with a yellow suit pressing a bright red button.
Several gasps are hear as the remaining players are revealed. Loudest are Nicky and Dan. Is that suspicious? Not particularly. Renee silence is expected.
“I haven’t seen a SINGLE body!” Nicky exclaims.
“Neil and I are on vitals and we just saw Matt die, so it isn’t us.”
“For this kill.” Neil clarifies.
Dan snorts. “So…you did one of the other kills?”
“Hmm,” Neil hums. “I don’t believe that was I.”
“Then it was Andrew?”
“Oh, I only just came up to Andrew before Matt died so he definitely didn’t kill Matt.” Neil supplies, much to Andrew’s annoyance. He always knew Neil would be a shit alibi when it really came down to it.
“Has anybody seen…anything? Anything at all?” Nicky asks, worry evident in his tone as if he will be next.
“Well, I think there’s still two imposters and we are going to lose to a double kill next round unless we vote one out. It’s definitely Renee.” Neil surmises as he starts listing his reasons. “We haven’t found a single body which means they’re all probably in one spot, because honestly, look whose dead… everyone but Allison is an idi- no, Matt, i mean this nicely, okay?”
Dan laughs loudly. “Do you have any real evidence besides whoever is killing is smart?”
“Nope, that’s all the evidence that I need.” Neil responds as he casts his vote.
“Well, I think it’s Andrew because you think it’s Renee.” Dan casts her vote.
Renee and Andrew silently cast their votes for each other. It’s down to Nicky.
“GUYS I CAN’T HANDLE THE PRESSURE!” Nicky screeches into his headset. If he was actually there wearing a jumpsuit and visor, his visor would be fogging over with how heavily he was breathing.
“You know, Nicky. You know.” Neil murmurs quietly, telepathically using the force to control his mind, or whatever it is that pop culture is doing right now.
There was a crash, a scream, then silence.
A door opens and an orange suit is ejected into space. Neil sighs. A black screen flashes and two red names appear on the screen: Dan and Renee.
“Nicky… you sweet summer child.” Dan chides with a laugh.
“I SUCCUMBED TO THE PRESSURE!” Nicky, again, screams.
“DAN, BABY, I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU!” Now Matt is screeching.
Dan laughs hysterically as she high-fives Renee. “That was so good.”
“Where the fuck were the bodies?” Andrew asks, if only to satisfy his curiosity.
“You should have seen it-” Allison is giggling as she tries to explain. “-Kevin was dead on that platform thingy, by vials over the lava, and I found him but Dan was just standing there muttering about which buttons to press-”
“I never get imposter!” Dan defends her actions.
“SHE DOESN’T KNOW HOW TO PLAY!” Allison howls. “Then Dan killed me fully on accident and Aaron was close enough to see BUT Renee appeared out of absofuckinglutely nowhere and murdered Aaron.”
“And Matt?” Andrew asks. Matt wails.
“And Matt-” Allison is still laughing. “Matt also came to the scene of all of our murders but he was stopped by Dan, quite easily I might add like Matt you are too whipped to play this game, long enough for her kill cooldown to recede. So, he was murdered by his girlfriend. That was was on purpose.”
“So…there’s just a trail of bodies leading to Kevin?” Neil asks, smirking at the idea.
“Yes. And I don’t appreciate it.” Kevin adds.
“Why were you even over there, Kev? There’s no task there.” Allison asks.
Kevin shrugs. “I don’t know this map, I didn’t know where I was going.”
“The map literally tells you where your tasks are. The rooms are labeled.” Aaron points out.
“What tasks? I thought only the main map had tasks.”
The group is silent. Neil is hiding his laughter.
“Someone put me out of my misery.”
“Another?” Neil asks.
//
“It’s been 15 minutes and not only has nobody died but half of you fucks have not done your tasks. What the shit.” Dan grumbles after she slams her hand against the emergency button. They’re all gathered in the boardroom once more. “Who is not doing their tasks?”
“Kevin.” Half of the group says in unison.
“Neil, if you wouldn’t mind.” Dan asks.
“On it.” Neil responds. There a crash. A yell. A whine. Then Kevin speaks.
“Fine, I’ll do my tasks.” Kevin finally relents quietly into his visor.
“Thank you.”
The meeting concludes.
Another four minutes later, a single task looms on the taskbar but Kevin claims to have finished his. Aaron demands what tasks he did and Kevin claims, again, he does not know the map therefore there is no way for him to supply his previous (supposedly finished) tasks. Kevin is voted out because the only thing he can do as a ghost is tasks (little does the group know…he still will not do them).
The taskbar sits where it is. The only thing left to do is…use their brains. The lights turn off. Allison screams (two bottles of wine in and her panic mode is getting worse). Matt is asleep, hiding somewhere by a pure chance of conicidence. Aaron is in the camera room watching Neil taunt Andrew in a corner (not realizing that they are actually making out, thus the reason nobody has died because one of them… is guilty).
Aaron gives up and heads to fix the lights. For some reason, he is the only one there. Everyone else is still there. Aaron is flipping switches when his screen changes. His voice is cut off as he screams.
“NOOO-”
Nearby, Andrew and Neil are discussing the merits of the best dipping sauce for chicken nuggets when Nicky, Dan and Matt approach.
“I don’t know what is wrong with you but I bet it is really hard to pronounce.” Andrew says which earns him a shit eating grin from Neil.
“Something like… Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis?” Neil asks, annoying everyone as he pronounces the foul word perfectly.
“That’s not a real word you fuck.” Andrew retorts, his eyes narrowing.
“Everett M. Smith disagrees.” Neil says with a casual shrug. “Sounds like a you problem.”
Andrew turns to the trio that came up to them. “If one of you is the imposter, kill him now and I will not report you.”
“Google says the word is inaccurate because there's no evidence that breathing volcanic dust causes silicosis.” Nicky pipes up, clearly scrolling through his phone.
“Do it. Now. Stack kill.”
The group gathers together in one spot and a moment later, Neil is dead. A moment later, they are all in the cafeteria together and a screen lights up to welcome them: Dead Body Reported accompanied with an orange suit that matches everyone else’s.
“OH MY GOD, WHO KILLED NEIL?!”
“Nicky, for the love of fuck-”
“Andrew, hush, we all know it was you.” Dan states as if it was entirely obvious.
“Honestly, how dare you.”
Dan snorts in response. “Alright, it wasn’t Allison or Matt so let’s just clear them now. Allison was actually doing tasks, I hope, and Matt is asleep.”
“Are we ignoring the fact that Aaron is also dead?” Renee asks as she points at the screen where Aaron is, in fact, dead.
“He is trash at this game.”
“Everyone put your thinking caps on,” Renee says to distract from the lingering sense of insults ready to head Aaron’s direction while he’s too dead to defend himself.
“Yes Barney, I have mine on.” Allison slurs, who knows how much wine she has had at that point.
“It wasn’t me!” Nicky cries out which the rest of them immediately believe because he has never once gotten imposter. “I think, based on the lack of kills, it’s either Neil or Andrew and that’s only because Aaron is dead.”
“I resent the accusation.” Is Andrew’s only defense.
“Vote Andrew,” Dan says with a sigh.
The screen changes: 2 votes for Andrew, 1 person did not vote, and 3 skips.
“SKIP? SKIP?! YOU SKIPPED?! WHO SKIPPED?!”
The rest of that game passes in a blur. 30 seconds in, Allison was asleep next to Matt off in a corner that nobody even realized existed. Nicky stays hip to hip with Dan under the guise of protecting her but everyone knew who was doing the real protecting there. Though, he does lose her when the lights go out.
Matt is found first, his little stubby body slumps over. 30 seconds pass and Allison joins him in the afterlife. Renee walks onto the scene and stands there, staring at the culprit. She accepts her fate 12 seconds later.
The emergency button is pressed right on time and the group gathers around it.
“So…”
“WHAT?!” Nicky screeches. “I CANNOT HANDLE THIS AGAIN.”
“It was me.” Andrew states, ready to get the damn game over with.
“Stop lying, Andrew, it was me. This was my win. I swept.” Dan retorts.
Nicky cries.
The seconds count down.
Dan casts a vote.
Andrew casts a vote.
Nicky continues crying.
“You could always not vote and just see who dies last.” Dan suggests.
“Which won’t be me because I’ll be doing the killing.” Andrew warns.
Nicky casts his vote.
They’re all back in the cafeteria again as the screen fades to black. Victory is written across two screens: Neil’s and… Nicky’s.
“WOOOOOOOOOO! NEIL YOU WERE AMAZING!” Nicky cheers incredibly loudly.
“You killed one person, Nicky. One person. You’re as useless as Kevin.” Neil groans. “But at least we won.”
“Was that your first time as imposter, Nicky?”
“Yes-”
“FUCK YOU NEIL JOSTEN, IF I DIE REMEMBER THIS: IT IS ALWAYS NEIL JOSTEN.” Aaron’s famous last words because the next game, once again, Neil kills Aaron.