A PART OF ME never thought I would ever see a girl almost face-plant because she tripped over human intestines.

Life was becoming rather interesting.

The feeling of being between life or death — that thrill zipped through me, but it lessened as we walked out of the room and toward Jookie.

"Everyone have fun?" Jookie asked with a grin. "We sure did."

No one responded, not even rude boy even though he looked like he wanted too. The guards made us stand in a vertical line, a camera panning across us, which made me glance at the television I was on earlier.

The television displayed a wide angle of me, capturing my full bloody glory and singed hair. Trickles of blood caked every inch of me, looking like splattered red glue.

All contestants stood straight up, except sketcher girl who sobbed and slouched as she held the pancreas, looking like she was asked to hold a venomous tick.

"Well, ladies and gents, let's start the judging," Jookie said, coming to stand in front of us. "This was just a warm up to get your blood flowing and hands moving." He smiled. "But let's get to what's important. We are judging based on the criteria of biggest body part."

"Well, I won," the skinny girl said, dropping the rest of the intestines on the white flooring.

"No, I did," the red-haired girl said, waving her leg, which caused blood droplets to swing everywhere.

"Neither of you won." Jookie giggled. "The challenge was for biggest as in most important. Not heaviest or longest."

"What?" The skinny girl looked stunned like she never lost anything in her life. Anger flared in her eyes, like she wanted to attack him, forgetting that he could choose whether she lived or died. "You didn't specify."

"It wasn't supposed to be easy, darlin'," he said, rolling his eyes. "Anyway, let's see what everyone else has." He strutted down the line, starting with gruffy-beard.

The big male with the large hands held up his part — a thick, sticky brain.

"Good choice," Jookie said. "Nice hammer and axe work earlier by the way."

He moved down the line, passing by rude guy and red-haired girl. "Amazing saw work on those legs. Viewers loved it, but you didn't follow directions. You can live without your legs, people."

The other contestants held up their body parts for the cameras like Jookie instructed.

Warm-eyes held up the heart, and the blond guy did the same with his pair of lungs. Preppy guy looked sick as he held up the severed arm. Hoodie guy held up a kidney, and so did the Brazilian girl while nerd glasses showed off her liver. Skinny girl looked pissed still as she held up the floppy intestines.

Jookie nodded and sang his praises until he stopped in front of sketcher girl and me. The last two contestants.

He grinned at me. "You're a special one, aren't you?"

I jerked. "Huh?"

"You come off as Princess Peach with your assurances and cuddles and helpfulness and damsel-in-distress vibes." He stared at me. "But the way you worked that body, girl! With so much glee and tenderness, you got a dark side. A dark side wrapped in a sweet, heavenly package. Ooo, I love it."

I looked away, feeling the stares but never meeting them. I looked at myself on TV, seeing my physical self yet ignoring the outside world while I pushed Tini back as far as possible until only Betinia stood front and center.

Jookie snapped his fingers, bringing me back to reality before pointing to sketcher girl. "This one wouldn't have made it without you; why'd you help her?" he asked. "Unlike everyone else, you wasted essential time on your potential enemy — your potential killer. Her waterworks could've been a ruse to trick you. To make you do her dirty work or a sneaky way of gaining your trust. But yet you already suspected that, didn't you?"

At first, yeah. I did think she might've been faking, but my gut told me something wasn't completely true about that assumption. But I had no true evidence or signs to prove either way, so I just followed my normal, everyday programming.

"Why did you help her?" Jookie asked, looking like he really wanted to know. He watched me closely as the other contestants did the same.

I coughed, clutching my small piece of human. "Because... it was the normal thing to do."

Jookie howled in laughter, clutching his stomach. "Do you hear her? Normal?" He wiped tears from his eyes. "None of this is normal, sweetie. You'll need to learn that if you want to survive till the end. But, I like you though. There's something about you. The audience sees it too."

He pointed to the screen that displayed comments.

"Do you see the hot chick with blood all over her? Damn!" said one comment.

"The way she worked that body... mmm, she can get it anytime," said another comment.

"There's something off about that chick," said another one.

"She'll be the first to go for helping the weak," said another comment.

"Fire and now blood. I'm in love with her!" said someone else.

More filtered in until it became too fast to follow anymore, and I turned away.

"Don't look away, darlin," he said with a smile. "You're the winner."

"What?" The skinny girl said, eyes widening. "All she has is some small tissue."

The brain stem, the most important part of the body, brushed against my palm. No technology could do its job as of yet. Not many knew this. Most thought the heart or brain was the most important, but machines could replace them. Science can't produce or make a new brain stem for someone.

And that's what Jookie said as well. "She listened and followed directions," he said with a shrug. "Pay better attention, people."

Warm-eyes and gruffy-beard came in second and third with sketcher-girl in fourth.

The losers were red-haired girl and rude guy.

"You have the last choice now," Jookie said before grinning. "Who do you want to put in the Bottom Doe Three?"

"I don't know," I said. I didn't know any of these people.

"So, you're forfeiting your decision?" Jookie asked, tone somber.

"Yeah," I said.

"Well, then. Vomit king, you're in the bottom three," Jookie said, rolling his eyes.

Preppy boy looked like he was about to have a stroke.

Jookie smiled at the Bottom Doe Three. "One of you is going to get voted off. So kissing your fellow contestants' asses would probably be essential right now." He turned to me. "Since you won, you get one question."

What did I want to know? What bugged me the most? And then it hit me. "Who sponsored me?"

He laughed. "You mean who picked and paid money for you to be here, essentially ruining your life?"

"Yes," I said.

Jookie's eyes lit up like a tortured sparkler. "Instead of telling you, how bout' I show you? They're close by watching, actually. Would you like to meet them?" he asked while motioning for two guards to come over to me.

"Yes." This question nagged me the most. Who brought me here? That person had to know about my past, so how did they find out? Was it just some stranger who stalked me? A friend? All my friendships were mostly fake, but it was still possible.

"Have fun," Jookie whispered with his cheeks spreading wide. "I know I will after I see this encounter."

I stalked forward toward a steel door with the guards in tow while still clutching the brain stem. The other contestants watched me leave, face expressions varying.

The expression that stood out to me was from the blond guy. He smiled at me and mouthed, "Good luck."

My mind told me I was going to need it.

We went through the door and down a dim hallway until we came to a glass door, and the guards threw me inside.

Inside the large office, a curtain covered the wall in front of me. A few seconds passed before a figure waltzed through those curtains, and when I looked at them, I didn't know whether to scream, cry, laugh or do all three.

♟♙♟

💀 Are you happy with the challenge results? Do you agree? And the big question, who do you think sponsored her? Trust me, it won't be easy to guess. It'll shock you haha. Remember to comment, vote and add this book to your library or reading list if you want to get updates! Thanks for reading :) 💀