The Killer Among Us: Part One

It was only a simple game, we thought. None of us ever even imagined that the “simple game” would be so twisted. So, so cruel. I mean, all of us were connected. We knew each other in some way. No one would suspect their own friend of such a drastic crime. You would never expect such a horrid stunt to happen to you…

But there was no explanation.

It just happened.

On a ship filled with only nine other teenagers, the only seven-year-old there was going to get bored somehow. All of us sat in the cafeteria just passing time by doing random things that somehow seemed boring to Levi. I didn’t know the kid too much—I only knew that he was a cousin of Garrett Grey.

Garrett was a good friend of mine. He ran his hand through his tousled blond as he scribbled something on his sketchpad. His green eyes were so focused on the page, it seemed like drawing was something he was passionate about. Then he turned to me and grinned cheekily. “Rashida, you’re staring again.” he said.

My face grew warm. “What? No, I’m not.” I quickly blurted out, focusing my attention to something else. That something turned out to be a half-eaten apple.

“You are too!” Garrett leaned back in his chair, folding his arms. “You just can’t get enough of this masterpiece.”

Ugh, this guy always acted so smug.

“Besides,” he continued. “What else is there to look at?”

“Um, outside the window?”

He chuckled. “Sure. The vacuum of nothing but space as we drift away further into the universe as we slowly decay on these ships for the next few thousand light years is interesting.”

I rolled my eyes. “Jeez, why did you have to turn that simple sentence into the start of the monologue?”

“What can I say? I am a masterpiece that makes masterpieces.”

Groaning, I got up from my seat in the cafeteria and made my way towards the window. Yeah, sure. On this sort of craft we were drifting through the void of space. As far as I knew, I was born out here. So was everyone else. And for as long as I could remember, we’re trying to find something called a “planet” to civilize.

“Do you think something’s really out there for us?” a voice said to my left. Her name was Paisley. She pressed her hands against the glass, as if in awe of the blackness of space.

“I dunno,” I replied. “I honestly don’t care too much.”

She turned to me, her blue eyes sparkling. With her short and spunky pink hair and the bubbly attitude, she gave off a sorta brighter atmosphere.

“I hope we do someday. I mean, settling on a planet like the Earth they talk about in history books seems so exciting. That’s my dream. And I’m only fourteen, and younger than most of you on the ship. Maybe I’ll get to see an earth someday.”

“So what you’re saying is that the rest of us are going to die miserably,” Cooper stated on the left of Paisley.

“Cooper!” she hit him lightly on his arm. “That’s not what I meant—”

“Kidding! I’m kidding!” Cooper fixed his oversize cyan sweater then continued to rub his cheek against the window. “Dang, it’s so cold out there. I can feel it from here.”

I chuckled. “Just watch out for Bryce. If he catches you in the act, he’ll get mad just cuz it’s his father’s ship.”

“Yeah, it is.” Bryce—yes, I knew it was him— said behind the rest of us. “And I don’t want to return it after the week is over for him just to see that a few teens trashed it. Do you know how bad that’d look on me?”

“Who cares about you?” I bit back. “If you didn’t want this place to get a little dirty, why’d you invite us in the first place?”

Bryce opened his mouth to speak, but I cut him off again. “Lost for words? Again?”

He rolled his blue eyes. “Just…don’t destroy anything, alright?”

For some reason, I didn’t get along with Bryce Cameron. Even more than that, I didn’t want to get along with him anyways. I mean, if I’m being honest, why would invite other teens to hang out at your ship for a whole week if it wasn’t going to get dirty?

“Can you guys keep it quiet over there?” Pearl shouted from across the room. “We’ve barely been here a couple of days and I don’t want to hear you guys yapping your heads off.”

Pearl Astor was the type of person to be known as the diva. The drama queen. The pop star. And just because her parents owned one of the top ship manufacturers that we knew off, she thought she was all high and mighty.

Next to her sat the “emo” couple on the ship, Bernard and Yvette. Even though Yvette was mute, she and Pearl bonded somehow. Don’t know why the drama queen would wanna hang with her, but she did. And her boyfriend, who refused to wear anything other than black, stood by her side always.

And honestly, the two were a little too lovey-dovey at times. Now, for example. Bernard was stroking Yvette’s long and blonde hair, all while listening to Pearl pump herself up. Talk about irony.

Then that’s when Oaklynn came running in. “Have you guys seen Levi? We were playing tag, can’t find him anywhere.”

Oh, yeah. Levi. My original topic. Forgot that I was talking about him in the first place.

“BOO!” Levi jump onto her back. Oaklynn screamed at the top of her lungs like she was being attacked by a wild boar.

“Levi! Don’t do that!” she chided.

“But it was funny,” the seven-year-old boy replied. “You didn’t find it funny?”

“Well…uh,” Oaklynn pushed up her circular orange glasses. “Sure. Yes, I did. It was funny. Did everyone else find it funny?”

The rest of the cafeteria room was silent. Oaklynn could be very annoying at times, awkward too. Maybe even a pushover. That’s probably what made her so annoying.

“I’m bored.” Levi said. “Ooo! Let’s play hide and seek! Without the tag. Tag is now boring. Oh and,” he ran up to Garrett and clung to his back. “I want you to play too. Oh! Can everyone else play? Pleeeeeeeease?”

“That does sound fun, actually.” I said, pulling out a smirk. “I can get away from this chump over here.”

Bryce glowered—he knew I was talking about him.

“Don’t we have stuff to do around the Skeld to keep it goin’, y’know?” Bernard said in a low tone. By the sound of his voice, you already knew he wasn’t that big off a talker.

“We could probably just do them and just try not to get caught by the seeker,” Cooper suggested. “Levi is already the seeker since it’s his idea.”

Levi ran around the room like the little kid he was. His energy made me smile. “Okay, I’m counting to one-hundred. You guys go. 1… 2… 3…”

“Oh, shoot. He’s starting now!” I called.

“Go, go, go, go, go!”

* * *

Yvette’s tablet vibrated. Another task that was given, and it was her turn in the rotation now. She showed Bernard. He nodded and said, “Okay. I’ll go with you.”

Yvette shook her head. She signed to him that he should continue the game, just for the heck of it. Have fun for once. She would be okay.

Her edgy boyfriend nodded again. “Be careful, got that?”

The girl smiled softly and headed out of their hiding spot. Pulling out the map on her tablet, she hummed a little song to herself.

She did love Bernard, but some time to herself did her some good. That time alone gave her thoughts room to wander.

Memories.

Ideas for music.

Food. Those were her main options.

But this day was different. Today, her mind wandered to what the future might look like. Yvette was 18 years old. Almost, at least. Probably whenever she returned to her home-ship at the end of the week, she’d have to start planning out what she was going to do with her life. Not like there was much to plan anyway.

All you had to do was make a living in a ship, start a family to continue the legacy in a ship, and wait till a new habitable planet was found…and you waited on a ship.

Not much excitement in the life she lived. At least she had Bernard. At least they had each other.

Yvette entered the electrical settings room. She searched the wall for the light switched. She found it, flicked it, but no lights came on. The tablet didn’t notify you what task you did, just the room. Now she knew the lights were out in the electrical room.

Another day, another task. Opening the box specified for the lights in each room of the ship. Let’s see…

Admin room.

Communications.

Oh there it was. Electrical settings.

Yvette furrowed her brow in confusion. The wires that powered the lights were…severed. Weird.

After using her hands to feel for the shelf, she grabbed some gloves and electrical tape. Unraveling the tape, the possibilities of how this wire could have gotten cut ran through her head. Either the Skeld’s wires were not as strong as they appeared to be. But…

This was an Astor Industries ship. They used quality tools to make these things. The only other possibility she could think of was…

Sabotage.

She dropped the the tools she was holding and froze. Not because of the shocking revelation. Because someone firmly gripped the sides of her head—the girl was unable to move.

Immediately, she knew what was going to happen to her. And of course she was targeted. She was deaf, unable to scream if hurt. Not loud enough anyway.

The second her own before her own lights were cut out, Yvette released a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding.

Goodbye, Bernard, she mouthed.

Then a sudden twist, and—

* * *

“So, you’re just hiding behind the chairs?” I asked Cooper. “Are you sure that’s the best hiding place?”

He shrugged. “Why wouldn’t it be, Bryce-a-roni?”

“First of all, don’t call me that. Second, you’re out in the open.”

“Dude, I’m hiding behind chairs. I’m not completely out in the open.”

I fluffed my blond hair before heading to a coat closet to hide. “Whatever floats your boat.” I struggled to close the doors, but unfortunately, the closet didn’t have much room. I could hear Cooper trying to stifle a laugh.

A couple seconds later, a groan came from the doorway of the room. It was Rashida. Why the heck was she here? “Are you freaking kidding me? I’m fine with Cooper the dork being here, but why the heck does Bryce have to be here too?”

“Hey!” Cooper called out, obviously offended. How dare she call me that? “You—”

“I’m staying here. You can find somewhere else to hide,” I said, still trying to fit my body deep in the coat closet.

Rashida walked in anyway. “I just spent the past five minutes trying to find a good place to hide. Levi already found Oaklynn… she’s not the best hider. But anyway, I just decided to come to Admin.”

Somehow, the girl crawled her way under the table. How did I not think of that?

“Get out. Please.” I remarked from the closet, the doors cracked open by my foot.

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“Yes!”

“No!”

Cooper rose his voice at us. “Guys, for crying out loud, shut up! You’re going to bring Levi right to us!”

After that it went silent. Everything was just blank for a few minutes. But then, I heard a frightened cry come from nearby. Immediately, I stumbled out of the closet.

Rashida hit her head on the bottom of the table. “Ow…! What the heck was that?”

“I dunno,” I said, finally finding my footing with the other two close behind me.

“It sound like it came from the electrical settings room,” Cooper remarked.

We quickly rounded our way around the storage room and headed into the corridor of the electrical room. My heart was pounding. If something happened on this ship and my dad found out…

Sniffling came from inside the darkened room. “Does someone have a flashlight?’

“Like we would have a flashlight on us at random times,” sneered Rashida.

“You know, you should really try to—”

A shadowed figure emerged from the shadows, almost on his knees bawling silently. It was the little boy that Garrett brought along—Levi.

Cooper rushed to his side and held the boy near. “Hey, hey, hey. You doing alright?”

Levi’s face was so pale, like he’d seen a ghost. He only buried his face into the cyan sweater and let the tears and boogers flow. I personally was surprised that Cooper didn’t flinch.

Rashida crouched near the two and placed her hand on Levi’s shoulder. And because they just stood there silently for the next few moments doing nothing, I realized the real issue at hand.

I tried flicking the light switch on and off multiple times, but the room still stayed dark. The only light that came through was the lights from the hallway. There shouldn’t have been a light out as of now. Someone must have gotten the task notification. Either that person was just lazy or was still finding their way around the Skeld. Maybe the person was lazy enough to not charge their tablet.

“You know, it’s normal to be afraid of the dark.” Cooper said, still hugging Levi. “It’s nothing to be ashamed about. I didn’t over the fear of the dark until I was—”

“I’m not afraid of the dark.” Levi croaked out.

Checking my own tablet to see who was assigned the task, I started to slowly trail my way towards the wires. Maybe one of them was loose or something.

“Then…why are you crying?” Rashida inquired. “Did someone scare you?”

Huh. Weird. Yvette got the task about seven minutes ago. But it was still marked as incomplete. I didn’t know the girl too much—we were acquaintances. And even though she was close-ish friends with Pearl, she seemed the type to be responsible.

But sometimes things aren’t as they seem.

Levi’s voice in the background was barely above a whisper. “Um…kinda. There’s…”

Something caught my foot and I stumbled over. I didn’t remember leaving anything on the floor, and something so bulky…

Since I didn’t have a flashlight, I used the tablet’s blue glow to see what the object was. It was nothing I'd ever expected to see in my lifetime.

“Guys. You’re gonna want to come see this for yourself.”

***

“Yvette is dead.”

Bryce had gathered everyone in Admin to share the shocking news. I honestly expected for there to be raging commotion, but. It was dead silent.

Dead. Yvette was dead. How did something so…unexpected take place right in front of their eyes?

I looked around the room, mainly studying Bernard. He was the closet to her. The guy had a similar expression to everyone else in the room.

Confused.

Shocked.

Still trying to wrap their heads around it.

But…he seemed lost. And trying to hold back his tears. It didn’t show much, but there was something off about him. A piece of him was gone.

Bernard locked eyes with me and scowled. I quickly looked away.

“How…how did it happen?” Paisley’s delicate voice broke the deafening silence.

Bryce sighed before speaking again. “We found her dead in the electrical room. Well, Levi did initially. He screamed, we heard. Cooper, Rashida, and I went to go check the scene. A few minutes later, we found the body.”

Whenever he mentioned my name, he gave me a quick glance. Like I had something to hide or something. Did he really hate me that much to think that I was a killer?

“Her body was still warm,” he continued. “so she couldn’t have been dead for too long. Yvette died from a whiplash, which… definitely didn’t happen by accident.”

“Woah, hold up there.” Pearl’s loud voice demanded. “Are you suggesting that one of us could’ve murdered Yvette? Are you insane?”

Garrett, who was holding a sleeping Levi, interrupted Bryce. “That, or we have a stowaway. Maybe someone who was guilty for something, then decided to continue his crimes here.”

I said next, “Either way, Yvette is dead. Someone on this ship, known or not, murdered her. Some of us may be next. There’s a killer among us.”

For a few moments, I let those words sink in.

Yeah, a simple game we thought. None of us ever even imagined that the “simple game” would be so twisted. So, so cruel. I mean, all of us were connected. We knew each other in some way. No one would suspect their own friend of such a drastic crime. You would never expect such a horrid stunt to happen to you…

But there was no explanation.

It just happened.

TO BE CONTINUED DUE TO WORD LIMIT…