"Seonghwa, I need to ask something of you."

At the careful call of Hongjoong's voice in the darkness of their room, Seonghwa glanced over his shoulder. He looked tired and haunted, his eyes wide awake instead of sleepy like they should be.

Earlier when they had returned to the gruesome image of Yeosang in the med bay, mutilated by tentacles and pumped full of alien eggs, they had made the horrifying observation that he had started to change. Despite the Rigor Mortis chilling him down to the core, the alien eggs seemed fine and unwilling to go. After another round of analysing, the AI had confirmed that the embryos could leech off a dead human organism as well as an alive one.

Terror had seized the crew at that. They had wanted to keep Yeosang around, to clean him up and give him a worthy procedure, as they had done to San. In their panic of the eggs hatching soon, however, they had wrapped their friend and navigator up and brought him to the Launch Pad.

With pale faces, they had watched him drift off into the unforgiving darkness of space. He took the alien eggs with him, and the crew cleaned up the med bay particularised.

The smell of blood still lingered in the room.

After another death and the massive connotations that came with it, the crew's energy was depleted. They all had retreated to their rooms to mourn their friend quietly and try to figure out the riddle of how they could save their souls trapped out here.

"Could you lock us in at night?"

When Seonghwa just rose his brow at Hongjoong, the man sat up in bed to explain. Concern flashed in Seonghwa's features. They had just returned from a shower after washing off the remains of Yeosang and the guilt. Seonghwa's hair was still wet.

"Are you scared?"

He was. He was terrified to wake up from an alien creature raping him and killing him at the same time. But Hongjoong's utmost concern was dedicated to his crew, not himself. A minor part in him wished that as long as Seonghwa and he stuck together, the alien would have a hard time taking control of both of them.

"I want to test something. I want to put myself under strict observation. Remember how I visited San in my sleep a few nights ago? I have a hunch."

"What hunch?" Loyal to his wishes, Seonghwa sealed the door and came over to Hongjoong. They scooted onto the bed and under their blanket, huddling close.

Seonghwa was the only source of safety that fended off Hongjoong's terror. While the crew had agreed to bolt their doors in the hopes, the alien wouldn't be able to enter to pursue them, they all knew that any of them could override the panels with some effort. If alone right now, Hongjoong would be frightened out of his mind. So he clung to Seonghwa and the slim ray of hope he had built with his scheme.

"I mistrust my sleepwalking. I feel like I might be doing more than just wandering and that is... terrifying. So I want to make sure I can't escape this room and see if more people die then."

Seonghwa's eyes searched his. His concern blended into confusion as he regarded the man. In the dim light of the room, his hallow features looked ghostly.

"You think you might be the murderer?"

At Hongjoong's nod, Seonghwa's arms tensed around his body. He had to relax them manually again, and his fingers gently smoothed over Hongjoong's side. More to calm himself than Hongjoong, as it seemed.

"But then why wouldn't I have died first?"

When Hongjoong smiled weakly in a meagre attempt at comfort, Seonghwa's frown only deepened.

"Maybe the monster inside knows not to harm you. But I fear for the others. If we can ensure that I don't leave the room at night and we are always around each other during the day, we might find out whether or not it can be me," Hongjoong tried to demonstrate. The discontent in Seonghwa's features didn't even out.

"So, please... I want this door to be locked and the alarm to be active. So when I try to leave you can wake me instantly. Maybe I should deny my access to it."

Upset, Seonghwa held him closer.

"Don't be ridiculous. It can't be you, you were with someone during both times of death. Yes, you were asleep while San died, but you didn't leave that night. And you can't have killed Yeosang. You were with Yunho."

When Seonghwa tucked Hongjoong's head into his shoulder, as if wanting to shut him up with cuddles, a faint smile ghosted over Hongjoong's lips. His arms wrapped around Seonghwa, too.

Seonghwa trusted him. Despite Hongjoong's unsettling proposal, he held him tight. Their bond was so much more than any fear. With Seonghwa around, Hongjoong felt they could figure it out.

He whispered into Seonghwa's shoulder. The quietness of the room swallowed their exchange.

"But what if I wasn't? What if I fell asleep somewhere on the way or took a nap first and can't remember? It's suspicious. I don't want to hurt any of you."

Hongjoong would gladly lock himself away and do his carry out his duties from a distance if it meant more safety for the crew. He would have to leave for the meetings and the shower, but if somebody escorted him, it might work.

And the moment he fell into suspicion for killing another person, they would seal him away on the lower floor. Although in the best scenario, nobody would die anymore and they could lock him away knowing it was him for the lack of killings.

"Hongjoong, I believe in you. I can't be you," Seonghwa tried once more. The tender kiss he left on Hongjoong's head had the man's eyes flutter shut and he breathed in Seonghwa's familiar scent.

"I also don't want it to be me... But I want to test this. Lock me up. I won't come out before I think it's safe."

Troubled, Seonghwa fell quiet after that. For a while, they just laid together in the darkness while their hearts beat in tandem. The silence alarmed Hongjoong once more. Nothing had become worse than silence.

Hongjoong laid vigilant for a while. Both the memories of his dead friends and the fear of what was going on inside the ship kept his mind wide awake. He foresaw to find another body in the morning, and that once more, the table would become emptier.

After a few hours, he was exhausted enough to sleep finally. Death and despair plagued his dreams.

-

They made it their morning ritual that everybody wrote a message in the group chat right after waking up to ensure that they were active. In reverse, it gave a time frame of when they were still up and about, even if they didn't see each other.

Seonghwa left the room in the morning for breakfast so he could brief the crew on Hongjoong's decision. All of them respected it, and they sent Wooyoung and Jongho to fetch him at his cabin to come over to the dining room. The moment the two of them unlocked the door, Hongjoong was met with two incredulous faces.

"You'll lock yourself away? Call me a bastard for pointing this out, but isn't this the same thing that San did that got him killed? You make an easy target if you isolate yourself from the group," Wooyoung said instead of a greeting. When Hongjoong stepped out with them, Jongho also eyes him warily, unsure of what to say.

"I think this is for the best. If I get targeted, you might be able to find out who the murderer is by staying in a group."

"You are the most central member of this crew. You shouldn't put yourself in danger," Jongho agreed. The concern for his brother showed in his hand that grasped Hongjoong's. When their hands found each other, Hongjoong thankfully squeezed that of his brother. His work-calloused skin was rough against Hongjoong's.

"I know. But in doing this I try not to become bait, but to cover you guys if I actually am the source of all this trouble."

Still displeased, Wooyoung eyed the captain. Wooyoung's hair was ruffled and the lips pale. He had difficulties maintaining his appearance since San's death, but nobody bothered calling him out on it. They all went through hell right now.

"Mingi looks far more suspicious than you. He could have caused both deaths. In pitying his distress, we allow him to slip through our grasps when he was the only one down at the machine room," the man pointed out sharply.

Knowing he was right, Hongjoong still sighed.

"But San might have been an accident, after all, we don't know that. Don't blame people."

Grim, Wooyoung looked ahead again. None of them had anything to add to that. With long steps, they crossed the desolate white corridors that seemed to have lost all the adventure and magnificence they had held a few weeks ago.

The men entered the kitchen in their group of three. The rest of the crew had already gathered here and their hushed conversation fell quiet when they assembled at the desk.

Mingi looked horrible. He hadn't slept for even a second judging by the bags under his eyes. His trembling fingers had wrapped around his mug, numb to the heat and tense with nerves at the same time. Fragile, he recoiled whenever somebody as much as shifted their weight around him.

Wooyoung bit back his comment as he got his own drink. Hongjoong's coffee tasted stale.

"I want all of us to stick together. Watch each other, but don't try to trigger a reaction. Our mental health is feeble already and I don't want something to go terribly wrong," Hongjoong asked his crew. Half of them weren't eating, unable to get even a bite down. Their hollow faces had become shadows of what they once were, all scarred with dread and terror.

"Share your quarters with a person you trust if you so wish. We cannot assure our own safety even in a locked room, but we can watch each other."

Some of them fidgeted, wanting to say something but not daring to speak up.

"Please keep track of your traces. The tablet can store information. And if you feel unsafe, we can figure something out."

They were all empty words. Words that Hongjoong supplied with an empty voice and that the crew listened to with just as empty brains. He couldn't provide any real safety for them and any second felt like torture. Nothing would return to normal before they didn't catch the predator.

"Wooyoung, will you accompany me to the bridge?"

No rouse came from the crew when the two of them left. Hongjoong shivered at the sight of Mingi's empty gaze and Yunho's down-turned lips. While loud and risky, Wooyoung's hot personality at least showed signs of life. Some other crew members looked into nothingness as if they were dead already.

Wooyoung and Hongjoong did their routine check-up automatically rather than with concentration. The quiet beeping of machines and tapping of their fingers was soothing white noise.

Everything was peaceful for a tense moment. An artificial peace that stretched over the screen of their situation like a taut balloon. It was ready to burst once more.

Hongjoong didn't see any light. He could only hope and pray it was actually him and that the mystery would solve itself if he spent his time locked up. The idea that he might have suspect his crew or lose another person drove him mad. He didn't feel competent enough for yet another death on his ship.

And most of all, he worried for Jongho and Seonghwa. He had known the rest of them for a few months and greatly appreciated their talents and personalities. But Seonghwa and Jongho were family, they were home.

Hongjoong would loathe himself until all eternity if he had doomed them by taking them on this journey.

When Wooyoung accompanied Hongjoong back to his room, both of them were glum. Wooyoung waited for Hongjoong as he took a shower before he continued with his day. He wished so desperately to wash it all away and find back to security.

Hongjoong stepped out of the bathroom with a towel over his hair. He parted from Wooyoung at his door and spent his day writing the logs about Yeosang's death and their newest findings on San's documents. He specified the danger that they were in, too, and that he would sue the concerning department for causing two deaths as soon as he returned home.

If he returned home.

Sometime in the afternoon, Hongjoong heard a whimper outside of his door. Instantly, his head jerked up, and he snuck up to the door to check. His heart hammered in his chest, ready to burst in fear.

But when he manually opened the latch with the passcode that Seonghwa had written on a slip of paper specifically so he wouldn't figure it out in his sleeping state, he didn't encounter a dead body, and neither alien embryos.

He just found Mingi, leaned against the wall and with his arms wrapped around Yunho's waist. The red-haired man whimpered into the deep kiss they shared and tears rolled over his cheeks as he clung to Yunho as if he were his sole anchor.

Quietly, Hongjoong withdrew into his room to proceed with his work. Heavy like a rock, his heart rested in his chest.