Archive of Our Own ^beta

“So…” Arlo looked at the group with accusatory eyes. The group shuffled uncomfortably, no one saying a word. “Who killed Elaine?”

Elaine sat next to him with an utterly disillusioned, dead expression. No one saw who killed her or anyone around the place she was found, until four people at once stumbled upon her. They weren’t even sure who reported her body first in the unfolding chaos. This left them without a suspect.

Evie was the one to break the silence first.

“It was me, I did it.”

“No, you didn’t,” came Arlo’s swift answer. Then his eyes roam the room, searching for a new, more likely perpetrator.

“John?”

“What? Why me?” John shouted, angered by the allegation.

Everyone, except Seraphina, watched him now with a newfound suspicion.

“The hell, guys!”

The trio all of a sudden avoided meeting his eyes, nervously laughing under his gaze, while Arlo looked him up and down with an arched eyebrow.

“We know you’re the kind of person to sneak around and attack people.”

“Isn’t that the whole point of the game?!”

“So, it was you,” Arlo said with a grin.

“No, it wasn’t!”

“I hate to agree with Arlo, but…” Claire said, not hiding her suspicion the slightest.

John rolled his eyes. “Oh, the backstabbing expert has spoken.”

She snorted. “Should I remind you who backstabbed who?”

“Come at me, if you dare!” He exclaimed, but then narrowed his eyes with a smirk. “You can call the whole school if that helps.”

“Can we not go there?” Adrion tried to get between them with raised hands to dissipate the argument.

She deadpanned. “Of course, your surefire answer is violence. And we’re supposed to believe you didn’t kill Elaine? You don’t even like her!”

“Who even likes Elaine?”

“Rude much,” the aforementioned girl mumbled but was promptly ignored.

“How does that even matter in this game anyway?!”

Arlo was massaging the bridge of his nose. “Seraphina, could you calm him down before he goes on another rampage?”

Seraphina, lying on top of John, completely unbothered by the argument, only spared him a glance. “Oh, now you want me to do the work after you purposefully antagonized him?”

“I mean,” Claire started. “You’re his girlfriend, so it’s kind of your job?”

Seraphina, freezing up for a second, flushed at this. “For the umpteenth time, we’re not dating!”

There was a collective, indignant sigh.

Arlo grunted. “Yeah, very believable.”

“You’re literally cuddling with him right now as he plays with your hair or strokes your back, so everyone would-” Blyke started explaining before his brain could think better.

He was shut up by the two god-tier death stares he received.

“Could you stop constantly making the same assumption?” John asked, obviously annoyed, but he made no attempt to free himself from under Seraphina.

“You don’t leave much up to assuming…” Isen mumbled.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

The others weren’t wrong. Seraphina was completely draped over him, their limbs entangled, their bodies flush against each other, only leaving enough distance between the two, so they could both play the game without seeing each other’s screens. It was a comfortable and warm position neither of them wished to give up even in the face of the group’s taunting.

They just didn’t understand their very close, very deep, and very platonic friendship. At least that was what they kept telling themselves and each other.

“We’re just friends!” John reiterated once more.

But Arlo, knowing well that neither of them would be willing to get up, was feeling bold tonight.

“So, can we cuddle with Seraphina too? I think it would be a great group bonding experience.

“Absolutely not!” John’s eyes flashed threateningly.

Claire found this the perfect moment to feed into Arlo’s plan. If they had to suffer from their stupidity, they deserved some clap back from time to time.

“Oh, so nobody is allowed to be close to her but you? Isn’t that a bit controlling? Even possessive? What if she wants to cuddle with her other friends ?”

He was about to retort, but his resolution faltered. What if she actually wanted to and he was keeping her all to himself by being so clingy?

In the end, he looked away with a dejected face. “I mean… if she wants to-”

“I don’t!” Seraphina almost shouted.

“Hah! So you only want him!”

“Yeah, Seraphina. That reaction was a little too quick,” Isen agreed.

There was a momentary break, where she froze time to gain just those needed few more seconds to compose herself, then deactivated her ability, as nothing happened, and answered with a straight face.

“And what if I only want to cuddle with him? He’s my best friend, so obviously, I’m the most comfortable with him, so stop assuming things and making him uncomfortable.

“So, you’re fine with us calling you his girlfriend?” Arlo asked with a sly smile.

“No! I mean-!” This time even she wasn’t composed enough to freeze time for a better reaction.

But before she could dig herself into a hole, John stopped her in her rambling.

“Sera, it’s fine! I know what you mean. Don’t give into their provocation,” he said as his hands slid up and down on the small of her back in a comforting manner.

The touch was both calming and aggravating, making her bury her face into the crook of his neck.

“Provocation?! You’re the ones provoking us! Just look into a freaking mirror and see what you’re doing even right now!”

John’s eye roll was hard as he, lacking any shame, rubbed his cheek into Seraphina’s soft hair. “Oh, shut up! You’re making stuff up!”

“Oh my gods!”

By this point, even Remi couldn’t stay silent anymore. “I didn’t want to say anything, but I can’t believe you guys are still in denial about your feelings towards each other.”

“It’s not denial, we’re literally not together!”

“And whose fault is that?!”

“Now, now, let’s calm down a little!” Adrion intervened, his hands keeping Claire from launching herself at two god-tiers who obviously didn’t want to be interrupted. “Can we just go back to playing among us?”

“Profiling is an important part of solving a crime, and as we can see John’s not just good at lying to others but lying to himself as well,” Arlo pointed out.

“Do you want profiling?” John shot back. “How about we look into your past then? Getting Sera suspended, using the school to break me, ambushing me with your goons… Oh, right! And you were even brainwashed into joining a murder organization!”

“You know it was against my will!”

“Guys, let’s all calm down, this is just a game!” Remi stepped in, making Arlo raise his arms in surrender, but John was still almost growling at him.

“John?” Remi leveled him with a meaningful stare.

“What? They attacked my character first!”

“I mean, there is a reason behind the assumption…” Isen trailed off.

“Oh, now the rat is joining the conversation too!”

“Hey!”

“Stop calling Isen a rat!” Blyke shouted, jumping up from his seat on the opposite couch.

John smirked at him. “Protecting your boyfriend, huh?”

“He’s not my boyfriend!” He shrieked in a tone a good octave higher than normally, and also beat red.

“But you want him to be,” the other replied in a singsong voice.

Before Blyke could find his bearings to retort, Claire spoke up.

“I say, let’s vote out John.”

“You little-”

“We’re not voting John out without any evidence.” Seraphina’s face finally reappeared from its hiding spot of her best friend’s neck, with stern, threatening eyes.

“Well, we have to vote out someone!” Claire threw her arms into the air.

“We actually don’t…” Adrion said from next to her, shy and timid as always.

“Whose side are you on?”

“I just don’t want unnecessary drama!” He hid behind Remi for protection.

“He’s on the side of reason,” Remi stated firmly, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “Something you could all learn from him.”

“Someone was killed, so we have to vote someone out!” Claire argued.

“If we vote John out but he’s not the impostor we’ll be down two members with two impostors on the loose and a very unhappy Seraphina. Not to mention, that I have a feeling John wouldn’t do his ghost tasks out of spite if he was innocently condemned.”

John huffed. “I would be angry, but I’d do them because Sera would still be in the game.”

“Awww,” Seraphina cooed and booped his nose.

“Simp,” Isen mumbled under his breath.

“Come closer, little rat! I couldn’t hear you clearly!”

“Nope, you’ll have to detangle yourself from Seraphina if you want to catch me, because I’m definitely not going near you!”

“Coward.”

John was trying to get up, but his best friend stopped him by basically straddling him.

“Just let him be.”

Blyke buried his face into his hands bashfully. “Could you take this to another room?”

“Just imagine what they’re up to alone, when they’re doing this stuff right in front of us with no shame whatsoever,” Claire made another jab.

“Could you guys just shut up?!” John yelled, while carefully laying back Seraphina on his chest.

“Enough.” Remi sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “You’re making me regret bringing up this game.

“As you should,” Arlo said, clearly annoyed by the whole thing.

“Hey! It’s not Rem’s fault that you all can’t stop fighting over the pettiest things!” Blyke came to her defense.

“Exactly! She just wanted the group to have some bonding time!” Isen said in agreement.

Arlo raised an eyebrow. “With a game based on deceit and murder?”

“It’s fun!” Remi insisted.

“For who exactly?”

“It would be so good if we just all got along for one night!”

“Us getting along?” Arlo snorted. “Criminally naive if you ask me.”

Blyke and Isen wanted to say some more, to support Remi but didn’t exactly make the situation less awkward with their painful grumbling and distorted faces as they were searching for pros.

“It’s fine guys…” Remi mumbled in the end with a dejected tone. “Maybe this really wasn’t the best idea.”

A tense silence followed, as nobody knew what to do next.

Finally, Blyke spoke up. “So what now?”

“Just skip the voting, I guess,” Arlo answered with a shrug.

John, however, was eyeing him with suspicion. “If after saying this, you still vote me out, I’ll make sure you’ll lose this round.”

Arlo narrowed his eyes as an evil grin stretched on his lips. “Oh really? What happened to helping Seraphina? Or is your petty revenge once again more important than your best friend?”

To this, John was ready to lunge.

“Guys, stop!” Evie exclaimed just as Seraphina did her best to stop an enraged John.

After everyone was calmed down, or more like, restrained, she continued. “Just skip the vote and continue. No tricks, just what we agreed upon.”

She, together with Seraphina and Remi, gave a nasty side eye to Arlo, while the guys all looked at John.

“Fine!” The two said in unison.

Things finally calmed down, and everyone went back to their phones.

“Where was Elaine’s corpse again?” Remi asked.

“Medbay,” Adrion answered.

“Fitting.”

They skipped the vote, just as they agreed upon, and the game continued, with Elaine diligently doing her tasks as a ghost. It wasn’t even two minutes later, however, when disaster struck again.

A dead body was reported.

“I found Adrion in navigation,” Remi stated with some distress.

“John!”

“What the hell? Why am I always your number one suspect, Claire?!”

“Let’s all calm down, we don’t know if it was John or not” Arlo said, surprising everyone. 

“Thank you!”

“Though…” His eyes sharpened, not quite finished. “Where were you exactly?”

“This again?”

“He was with me,” Seraphina calmly stated, sinking her fingers into John’s hair.

Arlo looked at her skeptically. “And how can I believe anything you say, Mrs John Doe?”

“Do you want to catch some hands, Arlo?” She challenged, making him back down.

Taunting John was one thing, because Seraphina usually did her magic to calm him down. On the other hand, when she was the one angered, the only thing John did was sit back with popcorn, indulging her fully in her violent tendencies.

And she hit. Hard.

“So, who else then? We can’t just let this voting go to waste as well!”

“What if it was Arlo or Claire? They both have some experience with backstabbing,” John offered with a smirk, whole-heartedly enjoying his best friend's support.

Claire crossed her arms. “I wouldn’t kill my boyfriend.”

“And how can we be so sure of that?” He pressed.

“I actually saw Claire in Reactor when I was doing my task there alongside Blyke,” Isen stated in Claire’s defense.

“Yeah, I can confirm,” Blyke seconded.

John pursed his lips. “She could have killed Adrion, then fled the scene.”

“So, now it’s okay to accuse people based on prejudice?” Claire retorted.

“It’s payback time.” He shrugged. “But if it’s not you, then what about Arlo then?”

“Arlo was with me in Electrical the whole time,” Evie spoke up. “The task took him some time.”

“Noob,” John coughed.

Arlo didn’t find this worthy enough for a reaction.

“But this means that everybody has an alibi,” Remi wondered out loud.

“Everybody… except you,” Isen concluded and glanced at the girl with suspicion.

“Isen, what the fuck!” Blyke yelled. “Remi’s our best friend, she would never!”

“I don’t know, Blyke. Everything is fair in love and war.”

“But this is just a stupid game!”

“It’s war,” Claire said, her eyes hardening as she looked at Remi.

“It wasn’t me, guys!” She jumped up in panic.

“Hate to say this, Remi,” Seraphina started. “But according to the statistics 95% of the time the one who reports a dead body is the impostor.”

“But I’m innocent I swear!”

“Remi was with me! I can testify for her!” Blyke tried and failed to convince the others.

Isen shook his head. “Dude, we were literally together this whole time. Stop lying, you’re just incriminating yourself.”

“Thinking about it,” Arlo was stroking his chin. “There are two impostors, so the one defending the obvious suspect could be the accomplice.”

“You too, Arlo?!” Remi looked at him like a kicked puppy.

“I’m not saying it was you, but we can’t disregard the evidence present. Didn’t you say I should make my assumptions based on evidence not character traits?”

“Well, I said that but…” She didn’t know how to answer that.

“It was me, I killed Adrion!” Blyke shouted, standing dramatically on the top of the couch.

Adrion silently hid his face in his hands.

“Gods, is every guy here a simp?” Claire exclaimed.

“I’m not one,” Arlo stated firmly.

“I meant guys with a love life.”

John and Seraphina burst out laughing while Arlo’s face contorted into an offended grimace.

“Anyway, you can’t just protect Remi if she is the impostor, even if she’s your girlfriend,” Isen said at last, patting Blyke’s on the shoulder.

“But it wasn’t me!”

“I have to say, I’m not sold on Remi being the impostor either.”

Everyone turned to look at John as he finally moved to a sitting position, Seraphina now comfortably situated in his lap.

“Thank you!”

“She’s not exactly savvy enough for the impostor role.”

“What?!”

“I mean…” Isen contemplated. “She reported her own killing when there was no one else to pin it on.”

“True. A noob mistake,” John nodded, accepting his reasoning.

“Guys!”

“So, should we vote her out?”

“Guys!!”

“Not sure, what if she’s not the impostor after all?”

“Guys!!!” Remi cried out, finally gaining their attention. “It wasn’t me!”

Isen and John looked at each other then back at her.

The former scratched his temple nervously, with an apologetic smile. “Sorry Remi, but the evidence points at you.”

“What if it was a setup, though?” Evie said and now all the attention shifted to her making her suddenly very self-conscious.

Clearing her throat she continued. “The impostor could have escaped, leaving Remi to find the corpse.”

“It’s possible, but is it plausible?” Arlo asked.

Isen shrugged. “It depends on if someone was a venting distance away or not.”

“So, me, Isen and Blyke are in the clear, because we were all on the other side of the ship,” Claire reasoned.

“It was me, not Remi!” Blyke insisted, making Remi groan.

“Blyke, you’re not helping.”

“Same goes for Evie and Arlo, because they were in electrical,” Isen added.

The group hummed.

“What about John and Seraphina? Where were you guys?” Claire shifted her gaze to them.

“We’re in administration, but it wasn’t us,” Seraphina stated as she rested her head on John's shoulder.

“You can’t directly vent there…” Isen narrowed his eyes.

“But it’s closer than anyone else,” Claire finished his thought.

“We’re not the impostors!” John turned his eyes towards the ceiling in clear indignation.

“That’s exactly something an impostor would say,” Arlo remarked, his suspicion.

“I know you don’t trust me much, but leave Sera out of it!”

“Oh, I trust you with my life in any real life situation,” Arlo waved him off. “But not in a killing game.”

John blinked at him in surprise not knowing what to say for a moment.

“That’s… kind of wholesome actually.”

“It’s a shame you live in denial so much I can’t trust your word in this game.” Arlo shook his head.

“Leave me and my love life alone!”

At John’s statement Arlo only smirked. “I never said you were in denial about your love life.”

“Ugh…”

“What now? We’re at an impasse,” Isen sighed wearily.

“John and Seraphina work well as an impostor couple.” Claire, yet again, was eyeing the two.

“Or as a normal couple,” Isen said between fake coughs.

“Could we concentrate on the game, please!” Seraphina was getting both overly annoyed and beyond frustrated with her lovelife, or more like the lack there of it, being the constant topic of this godforsaken game.

“We’re doing just that. We’re trying to figure out if it’s the two of you or Remi with someone else,” Arlo provided.

“Like Blyke? He was the one who tried to clear her name the most,” John reasoned.

“Could be, but if we would have been stupid enough to believe him, and he turned out to be the impostor, wouldn’t that just incriminate Remi even more?” Seraphina questioned.

“He was never the sharpest tool in the shed,” Arlo offered.

“They’re a good match with Remi,” Claire agreed.

“We’re right here guys!” Remi complained.

“But who is the brain in the relationship then?” John asked.

Isen proudly pointed at his chest. “Well, it’s obviously me!”

“You’re not part of this relationship!” Blyke exclaimed with blazing cheeks.

“Yet,” Isen replied with a smirk.

“All in favor of voting Isen into the relationship, raise your hands!” Claire called out and almost every hand shot into the air.

“What the hell?” Blyke was appalled, then his eyes searched for Remi for reassurance.

But he didn’t find any.

“Remi, you too?!”

“Well…” She scratched her chin, a little abashed. “It’s been the three of us against the world since high school, and your feelings for him are painfully obvious.”

“No, they are not!”

“Seriously, Blyke, all that blushing, lingering hugs, and thousand watt smiles made it pretty obvious,” John said while leaning his chin on Seraphina’s head.

Blyke blinked.

Then blinked again.

“You… you’re telling me all this… while literally cradling the love of your life in your arms… and I’m the one in denial?”

It honestly left everyone speechless.

At last Claire snorted, breaking the silence. “Pot calling the kettle black much?”

“Oh come on! Our closeness is different!” John groaned.

Arlo lifted an eyebrow. “Yeah, because Blyke is like a school boy with his first crush, while you’re hitting newlywed levels with Seraphina.”

“Can we get back to uniting the golden trio in holy throuple-mony instead?”

Seraphina laughed into his neck. “I can’t believe you just made up that word.”

“Anything, if it makes you laugh.”

While they were in their little bubble the group exchanged silent glances, contemplating if stabbing them was an option.

In the end, they decided it was not worth the prison sentence.

“So, Isen…” Adrion spoke, breaking the silence and surprising everyone. “Do you take Remi  as your tamer, to live together in holy throuple-mony, to love her, to honor her, to comfort her, and to keep her in vigilantism and in civil, forsaking the hierarchy, for as long as you both shall live?”

“I do!” Isen answered, accompanied by a dramatic hand-gesture.

“Remi, do you take Isen as your idiot, to live together in holy throuple-mony, to love him, to honor him, to comfort him, and to keep him in vigilantism and in civil, forsaking the hierarchy, for as long as you both shall live?”

“I do!” Remi answered with a laugh.

Adrion then turned to Blyke, still keeping a serious, dignified expression, despite the others snickering in the background.

“Blyke, do you take Isen as your idiot, to live together in holy throuple-mony, to love him, to honor him, to comfort him, and to keep him in vigilantism and in civil, forsaking the hierarchy, for as long as you both shall live?”

“I don’t!” He exclaimed, making the others gasp in fake shock.

“How could you?!” Isen draped his arm over his eyes as he dramatically sank to the couch.

“You tried to frame Remi with John,” Blyke stated sternly. “I cannot forgive you for that, and be with you.”

“You’re killing me!” Isen turned away, feigning to be hurt, which to the onlookers looked like a critically dehydrated dying fish.

“At least…” However, Blyke continued.

“Oh?” Isen sneaked a glance at him from under his arm.

“Not until you help me clear her name.”

“Anything for you, babe!” He hugged him, with the obvious goal to make him flustered.

He was successful.

“Get off of me already!”

The others watched the exchange with a high degree of amusement.

“I guess, we’re not voting Remi off the ship then,” Arlo said with a smile.

“I mean, we still could,” Claire replied.

“But that would be an ass move right now,” Adrion stated, giving her a look.

“Shush, you're dead, remember?”

In the end, most of them were still suspicious of Remi but didn’t want to ruin the moment, so nobody got ejected this time either.

The idyll, however, didn’t last long.

Another dead body was found.

“Blyke! How could this be!” Isen wailed as they were all summoned back by the emergency button.

The events leading up to this started with Blyke running around as a madman, looking for anything suspicious.

“Blyke, could you just do your tasks?” John asked, utterly annoyed that the guy was up in his and Seraphina’s ass for the last two minutes.

“I have to prove Remi’s innocence!”

Seraphina groaned. “Could you do that while finishing your tasks as well? The impostors will get us if we don’t finish everything!”

However, Blyke’s suspicion was stronger than something like hard logic, or even common sense. “Do you have something to hide?”

“Nah, their characters can’t make out in the game.” Claire said, making everyone apart from the two snicker.

“Just stop it already!”

Obviously they didn’t stop. Both the teasing and Blyke’s relentless pursuit continued, until a disaster struck in the form of a sabotage. Specifically, a reactor failure. Everyone ran to correct the error. With so many of them still in game the crisis was swiftly averted, and everybody was going their separate way.

Blyke decided that he needed to change tactics, finally peeling himself off of the non-couple’s behinds, and went to security to catch the culprit.

There was a soft gasp that earned dirty looks from the others, as you weren’t supposed to give away anything that happened in the game. But Isen, not pretending that he didn’t hear anything like the others, went to look for Blyke and found him dead right outside Security.

The body was reported, and that brings us back to the present.

“Stop crying already, I only died in the game!” Blyke groaned as he tried to get Isen off of him.

“He was too young!”

“Again, I’m still alive!”

“So, Blyke saw something and when he tried to flee security and report it, he got killed.” John analyzed the situation.

“He obviously saw the impostor,” Claire stated.

John rolled his eyes. “Well, yeah, you see them when you get killed.”

She dragged a hand down her face. “I meant that he obviously saw one of the impostors vent, because nobody else is dead, and something caused him to gasp.”

“That gasp could have been his reaction to being killed, though,” Arlo added, taking in all the information.

“Yeah, but he left security for a reason,” Remi argued.

“Maybe it was because he didn’t see anything and wanted to change tactics again,” Evie offered.

“Yes, he’s impatient and hot-headed like that,” Isen cried out, still hugging Blyke.

“I’m not that impatient and hot-headed!”

Isen and Remi exchanged glances.

“Well…”

“I wasn’t-” Blyke started but was cut off by a kick to his knee joint.

“Remember, you’re a corpse now!” Isen said as his best friend collapsed to the ground.

“Kick me again, and you’ll be dead for real!” Blyke glared at him from the ground.

“First, holy throuple-mony, then the ‘do us apart’ part.” Isen winked.

“Now we’re three people down, and still with both impostors running free. Just great!” Claire breathed out wearily.

“You say that like you couldn’t be one of the impostors,” John questioned her with growing suspicion.

“I’ve been the one most invested in finding the killer!”

“That could be the cover up.”

“If I remember correctly it was you and Seraphina who were under suspicion alongside Remi and Blyke, and now Blyke is dead so you two seem like the prime suspects!”

John deadpanned at her. “Blyke is a simp, so he probably just tried to defend his girlfriend.”

“So why didn’t the other impostor help her then?”

“Because if Remi was stupid enough to kill someone without being able to blame it on others and then report it then the person may have thought that cutting their losses was the safest idea.”

She couldn’t argue with his reasoning.

“So basically, Remi is the prime suspect but the other impostor could be anyone.”

Blyke was about to say something again, but this time it was Remi who silenced him with her hand.

“Don’t break the rules!”

He glared at her in turn.

“Silencing the witness, huh?” John asked and she realized everyone was watching her now.

“Guys, for the umpteenth time, I’m not the impostor! I wouldn’t have killed Blyke!”

“It could have been your partner, annoyed by his excessive following,” Arlo pointed out.

“Someone more ruthless than Remi,” Isen nodded.

Her arms gestured to the whole group, as she stomped on the ground. “Or, you know, it could be anyone else, who can cover for each other!”

John rolled his eyes. “It’s not me and Sera, if you’re insinuating that.”

“And how do we know that, huh?”

“Guys, this is just a game!” Evie tried to intervene but her efforts were in vain.

“What do you mean?” John asked with irritation radiating off of him.

However, Remi didn’t back down this time.

“Exactly what you think. You can’t even acknowledge your obvious feelings for each other, so how can we trust that you can acknowledge being the impostors?”

“The two things are not even related to each other!”

“So, you’re not denying it! That’s confirmation on its own!”

“What the hell do you mean by confirmation?!”

“You’re in love with Seraphina or you’re the impostor! Which one is it?”

“This reasoning doesn’t even make any sense!” John cried out in frustration.

But Remi was on a roll.

“It does, because it’s all based on dishonesty! I’m profiling you!”

“How do you even call this profiling?!”

“Just admit to your feelings, John!”

“What feelings are you talking about!?”

“Your feelings for Seraphina, of course!”

“What’s happening?” Adrion whispered.

“Remi finally lost it,” Elaine whispered back.

“Should we intervene?”

“No.”

“How many times do I have to tell you, I don’t have feelings for Sera!”

“How could you break her heart like this?!”

“What?”

“Just look at her, she’s about to cry!”

John’s attention immediately snapped to Seraphina, who while wasn’t anywhere near crying, looked seriously distraught. Her eyes were downcast as she faced away from him and he could feel her pulling away.

“Sera?”

She didn’t answer.

“I’m so sorry, Sera. I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable with this topic. I shouldn’t have entertained her.”

She still didn’t answer, just slid off his lap.

“I know what could make this less awkward,” Claire offered with a special glee to her voice.

John looked at her with irritation. “What?”

“If you went on a date with someone else.”

“Huh?”

This instantly gained Seraphina’s attention to say the least.

“If you want to prove to her that you’re in fact not in love with her, then the most surefire way is to find yourself a girlfriend. Or boyfriend. Whatever floats your boat.”

“I mean…” He didn’t know what to say as his gaze kept shifting back and forth between Seraphina and the others.

“I think Remi and I know plenty of people who would be interested in you.”

Claire looked at Remi meaningfully who returned her smile.

“Of course!” She said, already pulling up her contact list. “I actually got asked about you a lot at work! People will go wild once they learn you’re out on the dating market!”

“Yeah, I’m constantly pestered about him too! There is this god-tier girl, Jessica, who helped us last time-”

“No.”

The statement was firm, authoritative, and tolerated no opposition.

But it didn’t come from John.

No, it came from Seraphina.

She was back at John’s side, her body completely pressed up against his as she leaned to his neck and placed her lips on his skin, making him shudder. She lingered there for a few seconds, sucking on it, then released him, staring down at her work with satisfaction.

“He’s mine.”

The others frozen to the spot only gaped at her. Their plan was to rile her up enough to confess, but this wasn’t an outcome they anticipated.

“Did you just…” Blyke began, his head spinning.

“...mark him?” Isen finished the question.

“Wow…” Evie’s eyes were wide as saucers.

“Damn, girl.” Claire whistled.

“That… wasn’t what I expected.” Remi stared at them in disbelief.

“I guess, Seraphina always gets what she wants.” Elaine felt some relief that this whole denial disaster was over at least.

“So, he is yours, huh?” Arlo grinned at them with self-satisfaction.

Seraphina’s eyes suddenly widened, seemingly realizing just now what she had done.

She awkwardly cleared her throat a few times, her cheeks scarlet, before she could speak.

“I meant that he’s mine, as my best friend.”

This was followed by an utter, and complete meltdown.

“What the hell do you mean?!”

“You just marked him as your territory!”

“Best friends aren’t giving hickies to each other!”

“Rule of thumb, if you wouldn’t do it with your sibling, it’s not platonic, and I doubt this is the way you greet Leilah!”

“What the hell is wrong with you?!”

“Just freaking admit it already!”

“I can’t take this anymore!”

“I’ll pay you! I’ll honestly pay you, just end this charade!”

But amongst all the shouting, yelling and crying, Seraphina was most concerned with one certain person’s opinion.

“John?”

But John was currently not available. John.exe stopped working the moment her lips touched his neck after all. Now, all that could be done was a whole system reboot.

Tuning out the commotion, she propped herself up a little more, so her mouth could reach his ears, and softly brushed her lips against his earlobe.

“Are you alright, John? Sorry, I just wanted to shut them up,” she whispered and she could feel him shivering as her hot breath hit his exposed skin.

“Me? I’m fine! Totally fine!” He answered in a high pitch, quavering voice.

“You’re my best friend, so you can’t just replace me, you know that, right?”

“I would never do that. You’re the most important person in my life,” he said this time, with such an honest, earnest expression, her voice died in her throat.

She loved it when he looked at her so intensely, like no one else mattered but her.

“I’m your best friend, and you’re mine.” He gently kissed her on her head to emphasize his sincerity.

She melted on the spot.

And the group? The group needed a technical break before this unfolding romantic moment turned into a murder scene.

In the end, all the commotion saved Remi from being voted out, because the gang wanted to kick out John and Seraphina more than anyone else. They just couldn’t decide on who. Being far too accustomed to their antics by this point, however, they managed to recover and the game continued once again.

The ghost gang recently increased in number held true to their commitment and finished their tasks. Now they were mostly chilling, watching for the next disaster.

They didn’t have to wait for long.

The lights went out and everyone found themselves in almost complete darkness. Everyone ran to Electrical to solve the crisis, but as the lights were back on and John, Arlo and Evie entered the room, they found Seraphina and Isen dead, with Remi and Claire standing over their corpses.

They were immediately reported.

“Well, well, well…” John started in an angry tone. “Aren’t that the main suspect and her little helper? And you had the galls to accuse me and then kill Sera. You’ll pay for this!”

“It wasn’t me, it was a setup!” Claire protested. “I was the one who was searching for the culprit the most!”

“The perfect tactic to direct the suspicion away from yourself, pinning your crime on someone else,” Arlo said in a measured tone.

“I wouldn’t kill Isen, you have to believe me!” Remi cried out, but there was no one to console her.

Evie looked at them with pity. “Sorry, but this doesn’t look good. Like… at all.”

“Evie, I know John and Arlo wouldn’t believe me, but you have to!” Remi pleaded.

“Yes, this was certainly John’s doing somehow! As a low-tier to another low-tier, you know I’m telling the truth, right?” Claire was fishing for her sympathy but Arlo stepped between them.

“Don’t try to use her kindness against her. We all know what we saw.”

“You dirty little liars killed Sera,” John growled.

“It wasn’t me! You know just as well that Arlo must be the real villain here!”

Claire’s statement made John think.

“I lost Sera in the dark, while we were trying to get to Electrical. She was just too fast.”

“You’re just too slow for me.” Seraphina poked him playfully in his ribs making him flinch.

“I’m not slow!” He pouted for a second but then remembered that he still needed to catch his beloved’s killers.

“Anyway, Arlo got there right after me. He couldn’t possibly be that fast with his lack of experience. Don’t you remember the times when we tried to play any other game with him?”

The others looked at each other for a moment then nodded.

“Yeah, he just sucks at them.”

Arlo huffed. “Not the defense I wished for, but the defense I get, I guess.”

“What about Evie?” Claire suddenly asked.

Remi, Arlo and John collectively snorted.

“You can’t be serious. Evie? The impostor? Nah,” John waved off her idea.

“So who do we vote out?” Arlo asked, somewhat impatiently.

“Claire or Remi, obviously.”

“But which one? We can only vote out one impostor at a time.”

“I say, go with Claire. Remi’s obviously the less competent impostor, so we can deal with her after.”

Arlo turned to their other surviving member. “Evie?”

“Yeah, it’ll be best to go with Claire.”

“Guys, you’re making a huge mistake!” Claire tried again but her plea fell on deaf ears.

John then stopped for a moment. “But what if Claire is telling the truth? Maybe Remi is the safer bet.”

“That would mean that either you, me or Evie is the other impostor.”

“True, and I saw you guys both enter with me, so it can’t be either of you.”

The resident ghosts silently watched the exchange, unable to say anything, given the rules.

“Let’s vote!”

And thus, Claire was ejected from the ship a few moments later.

The text that followed, however, left John greatly confused.

FutureVision was not the impostor.

It wasn’t much later that he and Remi got double killed.

“Good game, partner,” Arlo said with a grin.

“Your acting skills are certainly improving,” Evie answered with a matching grin.

“I’m learning from the best.”

“But… what about Elaine?” John asked.

“I just hid in the vent,” Evie answered.

“And Adrion? You weren’t even near!”

“Arlo was on the lookout in Security and gave me an alibi while I killed him.”

“Blyke?”

“We knew he was watching, so Arlo vented and I killed him when he ran.”

“But you reached Electrical with me!”

“We were already there before the sabotage started and killed the first two, then vented to Security to run back with you.”

“But you defended Remi from being ejected!”

“Because if we got rid of the main suspect, then people would have looked into our actions more. It was good to keep her and you guys around.”

The game ended with a shell-shocked John, an indignant Claire, an exasperated Remi, a facepalming ghost group, and a celebratory fist bump.

And that day they all learned not to trust Evie.