I froze.
"What... What do you mean? Dead?"
Silver glanced back at Gray and then continued, still whispering.
"He's not who he says he is. Keep your guard up- you're in danger."
He then let go of my shoulder and walked back over to Gray.
"So, Gray, have you met my buddy Ro? No? They're a pretty nice guy, I should introduce you to them..."

He continued making small talk, looking ever so slightly nervous the whole time.

I continued standing there frozen in shock as I tried to process what had just happened. It felt unreal. I hadn't even known Gray for very long, not even a full day, and I still couldn't believe it.

Gray was dead?

But he was there. Right in front of me, talking to Silver. Breathing, moving. And Silver expected me to believe he's dead?

At the end of the visit, Gray gave his brother a hug. I noticed something really weird about the hug- moments into it, Silver's expression went from wary and worried to completely terrified. I heard a small, nearly silent "click" sound, and then Gray let go of the hug. To mask his fear, Silver put on a nervous smile and waved goodbye to Gray, his mouth barely trembling.

Outside, I just had to ask.
"Gray, who are you really?"
He froze and gave me a glare. Did he know what I knew?

From behind us, I heard a synthetic sounding voice calling to us.
"Hey! You two!"
I turned and saw an intact android, fully clothed and everything, running to us while carrying something. They stopped and gave us what they were holding, but I couldn't see what it was, since it was wrapped in cloth.
"This is for... Jason, right? It's from Silver. He asked me to give it to you."

I took the item and opened the fabric surrounding it to see what it was. It was a flashlight. Why a flashlight?
"Hey, uh, who are you? And why-"
They interrupted me before I could finish, doing so almost deliberately.
"The name's Ro! Nice to meet ya. See you!"
They then left.

It was later that night I would find Ro's body.

Gray had gone to scavenge for food after mentioning he was hungry. He had been gone for about five minutes before I decided to look around. Ro's body was barely twenty feet away from us.

Their throat was torn with shredded wires and tubes dripping green liquid hanging out in all directions. A few sparks shot out. Their chest was torn open, like they;d been attacked by a wild animal, and inner workings were scattered everywhere. One of their arms was missing. Their eyes, which had had a faint glow to them when we met Ro, were now dull and lifeless.

I was in shock- how the hell did they die? It looked like something had been eating them, good God...

I heard Gray return, walking up to me from behind. His pace quickened when he saw the mess in front of me.

"Holy... is that Ro? Silver's assistant?" His voice was laced with shock, but something felt off.
"Yeah. It's Ro. They're... dead. Killed. God, this looks horrible..."

Gray knelt down and touched the green liquid, a bit of it sticking to his fingers.
"Whoever did this was like a wild animal."
I gave him a glance before standing up again. What Silver had said was still spinning around in my head.

Gray was dead. Whoever was with me now wasn't really Gray. But could I do anything about it? No. I had no hints, no clues, no ideas, other than Gray's suspicious behavior. Why was he gone before Ro's body was found? Hell, Ro's synthetic robot blood or whatever the hell it was is still warm. They died recently. Really recently.

"Gray, who the hell are you really? Answer the goddamn question!" I was starting to get frustrated.

Gray glared at me the same way he did the last time I asked that question, but this time filled with annoyance.
"None of your fucking business, Jason. So shut up and stop asking questions. You're going to get yourself killed."