Crew:

Kyle (Impostor) – Blue Riley (Security) - Cyan

Ricky (Security) – Red Edgar (Captain) - White

Sofia (Cook) – Lime Helen (Communication) - Orange

Dereck (Chief Engineering) – Black Chen (Electrical) - Purple

Grace (Nurse) – Pink Valerie (Cook) – Green

Dereck POV

"Are you sure Dereck? If I am the Impostor I could kill both of you without you even bothering." Ricky still sounds comfortable, but I can see a sense of uncertainty in his eyes.

"Just give up Ricky. If you actually are the Impostor you would have killed us already, why would you run?"

"Maybe I wanted you here?"

I look at Sofia, but she doesn't seem impressed either.

"Yeah right. Why would you want that?"

Ricky shrugs his shoulders.

"You don't know how an Impostor thinks. I wouldn't get close."

Honestly, I have no idea what game Ricky is playing. He's clearly not the Impostor. But then who is? We cleared the captain. I know I'm not it. Sofia? No of course not. She and the captain were together when Chen died and I was with her when we found Riley. That leaves….

"Kyle is the Impostor."

"Bravo Dereck, I thought you guys would never figure it out."

Both Sofia and I turn around and see Kyle walk in, although this thing doesn't look like Kyle anymore. Its fingers are long, really long even. Bloody too. It has a tail, with a sharp point. It also has a large mouth, which is now open. Large, pointy teeth are visible and to complete the freak show, it also has a long tongue.

I pull Sofia behind me.

"Don't worry Dereck, I won't kill you yet. I just killed the captain, so you guys are safe for a while. If there's anything you want to ask me, now is the time."

"Why are you doing this?" Sofia asks.

"It's a game dear Sofia. Nothing personal."

"Well it's personal to us you sick creep," I respond quickly.

I turn around and see Ricky, who seems a bit unmoved by the image.

"Get the gun Ricky, we'll end this thing right here right now!"

"Don't think so Dereck!" Ricky reacts. "I plan to survive this thing and for that to happen, my friend over there will have to kill the both of you."

What!?

"Ricky?" Sofia seems just as shocked as I am.

He walks towards us and smiles.

"I've known who the Impostor was since the very beginning. Every kill, every emergency. I knew."

"So you just let him kill all those people? Valerie, Chen, Riley, the captain..?"

The Impostor coughs.

"You are forgetting Kyle and Grace, I killed them too. Helen was entirely your work though."

"So… she wasn't an Impostor?"

I feel my legs shake beneath my body. That can't be true.

"It gives me no joy to report this, but no. She was a human."

I shake my head. I can't collapse now. I have to stay strong and protect Sofia.

"Well I think my time is up. Who wants to go first?"

"Sofia, run!" I scream.

She hesitates, but then decides to make a run for it.

The Impostor looks at me with a kind of confusing look.

"Would you really give your life for her?"

"Dereck, come on!"

"Keep running Sofia," I call back. "Don't look back, just go!"

"You are so dead Dereck. I can't lie, I'm happy to see you bite the dust."

It's annoying that the last words I will ever hear come from Ricky.

"You are a noble man," The Impostor says.

Then, he opens his mouth. The large teeth are menacing. I take a step back, then another.

I have to give Sofia as much time as possible, but I also can't get my eyes off those teeth. I'm helplessly entranced by this monstrosity.

I watch as the beak opens further and then comes down.. onto Ricky.

His dying scream is muffled by the Impostor, who swallows him until the chest and bites. Blood starts to poor down and drops onto the ground quickly.

I don't have to think for a second and start running, while the Impostor munches down on Ricky, leaving nothing behind.

Sofia POV

I run past Medbay. So Grace is dead too. I shake my head and keep running. Don't think about them now. First I have to find a way to save Dereck. But we can't fight that beast, there's no way we win.

I make it even further and make a turn. Riley's blood is still there and I narrowly avoid slipping over it. Where to now?

If I go down further, I end up on the path that will lead me to Storage, which is located quite close to the Cafeteria.

"Keep running Sofia!"

I turn around and see Dereck running. There are blood spats on his clothes.

"What.."

"He killed Ricky, now let's go."

"You can't run forever!" The Impostor screams throughout the ship.

"Come on, we need to find a place to hide!"

We keep running, there's Electrical. We can't go in there, Chen's body is still there. To think of it, there are bodies everywhere.

The Impostor is right, we can't keep running forever. We need a plan.

"Back to Security!"

"What, why?" Dereck looks confused.

"Riley had those books about Impostor's right? We need a plan if we want to survive."

We run back and open the door. I almost vomit when I smell the scent of blood.

"Don't look," Dereck says as he goes in first. I try not to, but a strange combination of curiosity and reflexes urge me to look anyway. I won't describe the scene, but I do realize within a second I will never sleep again.

"There they are."

We each open a book and start reading as quickly as we can.

"5 minutes remaining and then I am allowed to kill again!" The Impostor shouts. This time it sounds closer.

Here it is, a paragraph about killing an Impostor.

"It says here they only die when they have no air to breath. All other methods have failed."

"How do they know they all failed? Wouldn't they have died trying?"

I nod. "I don't know, but if they did die they couldn't have written this book."

For a second I think about how that could be possible, but then I realize there are more urgent problems.

"We need to get it in Storage, from there we can eject it."

Dereck nods and takes my hand.

"Let's go."

We run as fast as we can, but when we enter Storage, we aren't alone.

"It is time to finally end this."

The Impostor stands between us and the airlock.

"I figured you would come here. It's the only way to kill me after all."

Once again Dereck tries to protect me, but this time I won't let him.

"You will still lose." I say. "If you kill one of us you have to wait ten minutes before you can kill again."

"You think you are smart? That rule does apply yes, but not after I killed the second-to-last crewmate. No, at that point I am allowed to finish it freely without restrictions."

"Well if you want to kill us, you will have to act quick!"

I start to run in the direction of the Cafeteria, while Dereck stays behind.

Dereck POV

What the hell is Sofia doing?

"A challenge, how fun."

The Impostor doesn't even run. It uses its large tongue to smash away the boxes in the middle of the room.

I have to find a way to get it in the airlock, but how?

The Impostor's tongue isn't endless and Sofia seems to be out of reach, so it starts running. It is way faster than any of us could ever hope to be.

"Hey ugly face, I'm over here!" I shout as loud as I can, sounding more fearless than I am.

It stops and turns around.

"Can't you see I'm in the middle of something?"

"Do you always chase down girls? Afraid to pick on someone your own size?"

"Fine, you can die first. I don't care, I just want this to be over."

Crap, now I need to run. I throw some boxes down while running past them, but I hear how the monster's tongue is smashing them away like they are nothing.

I feel an aching pain when one of the pieces hits my back. I stumble but manage to keep running. I'm running away from the airlock now, this isn't going to be good.

Suddenly, I feel its tongue wrap around my body and I fall, but am directly lifted up again.

When I look down I stare right in the mouth of the Impostor. The teeth are still red with Ricky's blood. I wiggle and squeeze to break free, but the grip is too strong. I have trouble breathing.

Then I hear a gunshot.

"Take that you ugly monster."

The Impostor doesn't flinch though, instead it turns around to face its new attacker, with me still tangling in the air.

"I've had it with these nicknames."

I feel the tongue moving and the next thing I know I'm flying through the air. I hit the wall with my head and everything goes black.

Sofia POV

"You signed your death warrant lady. I try to be as humane as I can possibly be, but I'm sick of being called names. Impostors have feelings too, you know?"

I step towards the airlock, with the captain's gun in my hands. I never fired a gun before, but the Impostor isn't a difficult target.

He walks towards me, that filthy tongue swinging around.

I point my gun on it again, this time aiming to shoot a bullet in its mouth. The last one didn't seem to leave a scratch, but maybe the insides of this monster are weaker.

"Bullets can't harm me, no human tech can."

I pull the trigger anyway and the bullet flies right into the softer skin.

A loud cry comes out of the monsters beak and it steps back. I try to get another bullet in the gun, but feel a strong force hit my legs. I fall to the ground and drop the gun.

The Impostor steps closer, while I crawl back. Further and further until I feel my back hitting the wall.

It grins victoriously.

I look at it and notice it is now right in front of the airlock. That was a good plan, but that's over now. We've lost.

"You are an ugly creature, you know that? I don't care that you managed to kill everyone on board, you are still a monstrosity."

In the corner of my eye I see something moving. The Impostor doesn't notice it, it's eyes are on me. Drool is falling from its mouth. I hear shoes hit the ground.

Dereck runs forward and bashes into the Impostor, who was got off guard and couldn't react in time. The two stumble into the airlock together. The Impostor is screeching out and falls further away, with its back onto the final door between it and space.

"Close it!" I hear Dereck shout. He's closer to the door but with the Impostor's reflexes, he might not make it. I urge him to try though.

"No!"

"You have to, it's the only way!" He fell with his face towards the Impostor and apparently hurt his arm bad, cause he can't get up.

I jump up and grab his feet. I pull as quickly and as hard as I can.

"No way, he's mine!"

The Impostor's tongue shoots forward and wraps itself around Dereck's right arm, the one that's hurt. There's no way I can overpower him. Even with Dereck punching the creature's tongue away with his free arm.

"Close the doors!"

If I would do that, Dereck would lose his arm. If I wouldn't, Dereck would lose his life.

Without thinking I push the button that would close the door. It smashes through Dereck's arm. Flesh, muscles and bone are crushed and torn apart as Dereck screams out in agonizing pain.

"No, you can't defeat me!"

The Impostor is quick to get back up and bashes into the door, but it seems to hold.

"Yes we can. You are defeated."

I look the monster in the eyes.

"This is for Kyle, for Valerie, for Helen, for Chen, for Riley, for Grace and for the captain."

Giving the beast one final look, I push the button as hard as I can. The ship opens and the Impostor is sucked into the endless void.

Epilogue

After ejecting the Impostor, Sofia gets Dereck to Medbay where they find Grace's body. Dereck goes into shock while Sofia bandages the open wound and treats it as well as she possibly can. Luckily for Dereck, Meera had given them the best medical equipment available. Dereck's wound didn't infect and he made a speedy recovery.

Together, they placed all the bodies in the airlock. With tears in their eyes and a final goodbye to all of them, they gave every crewmate a proper funeral. Even Ricky.

They found the recording Captain Edgar had made and, with the ship on autopilot, decided to secure it and bring it safely back home. With no-one left, they spend their remaining days on the ship talking and discovering their feelings for each other.

After a week, Dereck finally gathered the guts to call the crew on Polus and inform them about what happened.

With help from the support team of Meera HQ, the two managed to land 'the Skeld' safely back on earth.

Dereck and Sofia both received their salary, but demanded to be given the salary of the deceased crewmates as well. While hesitant at first, the leaderboard of Meera agreed after Sofia threatened to go public. They gave this money to the families of the crew. Right now, Riley's father is collecting evidence to sue the company.

Neither Sofia nor Dereck wanted to tell Ricky's parents about his betrayal so they ended up telling them he died a hero's death.

They left the big city and moved to a small town, where they bought a house together from their combined salary. Both had trouble sleeping at night, but they helped each other through those moments. Dereck finally finished his third book, now called 'Space Killer'. It became a bestseller and even inspired a video game.

Meanwhile, the Meera company prepared for more expeditions into space. Which is good news, because that means there are more games to play for us.