CONTRACT. Jookie let out a long, annoying cackle. "Bitch, are you hard of hearing? Do I have to spell it out for you? C-O-N-T-R-A-C-T. Contract. My contract is ironclad, and you know it. Don't try to get husky with me."

"Jookie—" the robotic voice started in a growl.

"You're not needed. Be gone," Jookie said, snapping his fingers and the speakers cut out mid-sentence.

My eyes widened. "Can you talk to your bosses like that?"

An amusing look crossed his features as he rolled off of me and stood. "As I told you before, they're not my bosses. I control me." He glanced down at his ruined shirt and ripped it off.

Various splotches of wet blood highlighted his white chest, reminding me of a blank canvas with only a few smears and drops of paint. A minimalistic masterpiece that took your breath away.

And you don't want to suck — shut up before I make her come back. Meanie.

"Wait, can you stop the game then?" I asked in a hopeful tone. "Can you save Rucker?"

"Can you?" Rucker asked, chains rattling.

"I probably could, but I won't. The game will continue," Jookie said, winking at me. "I may be a nice asshole sometimes. But I'm still an asshole."

UGH, why do you like this man. I don't. Then why do you keep looking at him like that? Uh when you see a hot guy, you're gonna look. It's like walking into a nursing home and getting flashed by an elderly man. You're gonna look at his hairy white balls. You cannot not look. Yes, you can. It's called closing your eyes and running away. Its what normal people do.

"You should be more worried about yourself, and the punishment I'm going to give you," Jookie said in a low tone.

I bit my lip. "Punishment?"

"I'm not doing it now, but it'll happen soon..." He licked his teeth. "You'll never see it coming." Jookie then turned to the far camera with a bright smile. "But anyway, I hope you viewers enjoyed that little sidebar with me and my little peach, but it's time to get back on track. We'll be continuing the game in twenty minutes. So, in the meantime, here's a word from one of our sponsors." He continued smiling. "Am I off?"

"Yeah, you got twenty minutes," a masculine voice said over the speakers.

Jookie pulled out his cell. "Can someone get makeup out here for me? And my usual? And can we get a medic out there for Rucker? We can't have him dying for like another twenty minutes."

Fucker. My fingers formed a fist, as I glared at the dick I just kissed. I hated him so much that I could punch a baby duck right now. Why the hell was I attracted to him? What the fuck was wrong with me?

I got to my feet and looked at the window to check on Rucker. The whirling saws around him retreated back into the walls, and people in white clothing rushed into the room from a hidden door in the corner. They splashed through the freezing water to get to him and started cleaning him up a bit.

I turned around at the sound of a door opening behind me, and a crowd of people barged in carrying a bunch of stuff and a director's chair with Jookie's name on it.

A man dressed in all black dashed over to Jookie and started to spritz his naked torso with some type of sparkling water. Two more people followed up, drying him off with silk cloths.

Once he was blood and sweat-free, Jookie plopped down in the director's chair as a blonde woman worked on his face with a makeup sponge. "Where is everyone else? Didn't I tell them to get my usual? Where's my citrus-lily rose gem water? And my salty sour plums and sour patch kids? And where the fuck are my Archipelago Botanicals Black Forest Soy Candles? I need to fucking relax."

Once those words passed through his lips, more people barged in with his requested items, and then they really started to pamper him. The blonde girl continued doing his makeup while two others fed him sour plums and sour patches and another stood off to the side, hand-feeding him his water every minute or so.

He looked a lazy celebrity getting ready to go on live television.

Is he serious? He can't hold his own water?

That wasn't the worst of it though. Seven people wearing long, flowy robes, carrying tall black-lit candles scurried in next, surrounding Jookie's pampering group like a religious ritual.

"Finally," Jookie said in an aggravated tone. "Come closer." Then he closed his eyes, breathing in loudly as the rich ebony wood aroma circled the air. A satisfied smile covered his face, and that irritated my soul.

This motherfucker's getting pampered while Rucker's hurting. "Can you hurry this up?" I snapped, hands on my hips. "My friend's not dying or anything."

"They're cleaning him up, he'll be fine," Jookie said before ignoring me. One of his candle holders began to hum a soft tune, rocking back and forth.

I was seconds away from choking his ass with my bare hands when I heard Rucker whine. I turned back toward the window to check on him, but three guards towered on the other side of the glass, blocking my vision.

"You cannot speak to him while the game is paused," the guard barked through the glass.

"What?'

"Orders from above," the guard said and then went silent.

They're just trying to get back at us. They're probably pissed that they got showed up in front of everyone like that. Which gives them even more reason to hate us and rig the game. They can't. The audience is watching, so it's really up to us to get the last statements right. And we will. We just have to work together.

"Jookie," a familiar voice brought me out of my thoughts. Bae, the girl who did my makeup for the interview a while ago, sauntered through the door, carrying a makeup bag. She sported two high-pigtails, the tips of her pink hair curling around her ears.

Her eyes glowered at me in hatred for a moment before turning to Jookie. "You okay?" Bae asked, replacing Jookie's makeup girl who hurried away without a word.

"Of course," Jookie said, not even bothering to open his eyes, still breathing deeply. "We were just playing around."

"Playing or not, that bitch needs to learn to keep her hands to herself," Bae said, using a brush on Jookie's cheek.

Wait, what? "Excuse me?" I said, turning around. Last time we met she apologized, so what was her problem now? "Can you repeat that, please? That bitch is a little hard of hearing."

Tini...calm down.

Bae cracked her brush in half. "You need to learn to stay in your place. I guess getting your ass beat in that bathtub didn't teach you anything."

I squeaked, making her flinch. "You're delusional if you think you won that bath fight. You got in a few good licks because I was naked."

I think she might be jealous that you kissed Jookie, maybe? He kissed me. I just reacted. Can't she see that I'm the victim here? Yeah, victim. You didn't enjoy it at all.

"Aww are you jealous, honey?" I pouted at Bae. "I'm peach and you're just a washed-up hoe who's probably twenty, but you look forty?"

"Oh, we're doing round two." Bae bolted toward me, and I braced myself for her attack, but instead of hitting me, she flung pink powder in my face.

"Oww." The thick dust coated my eyes like a thick paste, burning them like they had chlamydia, impairing my vision. "I knew you were a fucking pussy." My fingers rubbed at my eyes, tears flowing down in long rivulets.

"No, it's called being smart," Bae said, and then something bony slammed into my tummy. Puffs of air whooshed out of my lungs, making me cough as I staggered backward, blinking like a maniac.

A sweaty hand slapped my face next, cutting my lip open. Thin fluid leaked down my chin, a metallic flavor covering my palate as I tumbled into the glass window.

I rebounded by stumbling to the left, trying to distance myself from her until I could see. I tried using my shirt to blot my eyes, and it worked a little bit. Everything was blurry now.

But before I could continue, she hit in the back of the neck before tangling her hands in my hair. Big mistake. I knew where she was now, so I elbowed her in the side.

Bae gasped and let go, and I just rushed forward, hoping to connect. My shoulder hit her collarbone, and we both went down. I landed on top somehow and straddled her with all my weight, holding her down, so I could clean my eyes with my shirt while she grunted and scratched at me.

That went on for about a minute, as my vision cleared a bit, becoming clearer but grainy still. While I was wiping, she jabbed at my side, connecting with my ribs. I groaned and flopped off her, still wiping the gunk from my eyes.

By the time she got to her feet, my vision was clear, but my eyes still blazed, snot coming down my nose from the continuous tears slipping down my cheeks.

"Come on," she screamed, kicking me in the ribs. "I thought you were going to kick my ass."

"Stop acting like you hard, you cheated like some weak bitch," I said, gripping her incoming foot and pulling it toward me.

She collapsed onto her ass, and that's when I dove on top of her, punching and slapping. Her arms blocked her face, and she laughed at me. That just made me angrier. I aimed for the top of her head, my fists humming in pain with each connection, putting all my energy and anger into it.

When that didn't do anything, I uppercutted her in the tits. She wheezed and choked, lowering her arms. And that's when I aimed a nice punch at her nose, hearing loud crack.

She shrieked and rolled away, blood trickling down her face. I crawled away, using the wall to stand as I closed my eyes, trying to stop the burning.

When I opened my eyes a few minutes later, Bae stood a few feet away, clutching her bleeding face. Jookie still had his eyes closed, enjoying his pampering as another girl resumed doing his makeup.

"You broke my nose," she yelled at me, holding her fingers to her leaking face.

"You threw powder in my face." I sniffled, eyes still burning. "We're even."

"Hell we are," she said, coming toward me again.

We went at it again standing up, throwing jabs and slaps. She scratched my neck and slapped me, and I punched her in the gut. We ended up tumbling into two of Jookie's candle holders who yelled and fell to the floor.

I threw Bae off me and snatched the expensive water bottle out of the girl's hand when she brought it to Jookie's lips and chucked it at her.

Bae ducked and tackled me to the floor, bringing the sour plum girl, sour patch girl and the rest of the candle holders with us. We continued rolling around on the floor, hitting each other until a fiery bellow stopped us.

Jookie stood up, irritation raw on his face. He stomped over to us and gripped us off the floor like bad puppies, one in each hand. "Can't I fucking relax for like five minutes?"

"No," we said in unison.

Jookie sighed and closed his eyes. "Can someone get me some type of alcohol. I don't care what it is — just make sure it's strong."

♟♙♟

"You're done," Bae said, spritzing Jookie's face one more time.

Jookie gulped down another shot of brown liquid from a platter that a girl was holding near his chair. "Good. We only have a minute before we go live."

Bae scratched at the two bloody tissues in her nose, as she packed up her makeup kit, staring daggers at me. Once Jookie broke us apart, he made guards come in here and keep us apart. I just sat in the corner, trying to sneak glances at Rucker, but the guards still wouldn't let us talk or see one another. Dicks.

I glanced at Bae, still feeling her harsh gaze. I shrugged. I didn't care if she hated me. She could hate me all she wanted, but she would respect me. I made that point.

Did you? Yeah, I kicked her ass. And what did you accomplish? Nothing. Both of you just wasted your time fighting over a boy. I wasn't fighting over Jookie. I only fought because she disrespected me and threw powder in my face. Yeah, but you didn't have to provoke her. You have to learn to shut up and walk away sometimes. And where would that get us? We'd stay out of trouble. Sometimes you have to make trouble. That's life. Is it? We wouldn't be here if you didn't make trouble.

Ignoring her, I turned back to the window, seeing that it was clear again. Running over there, I saw that Rucker looked better. They cleaned up the blood a bit, and the wounds looked better. A tired glow still surrounded him like a halo though.

"You okay?" I called out to him, hand on the window.

Rucker turned and smiled in relief when he saw me. "I'm good," he said, chains rattling. "You okay?

"Let's continue the game," Jookie said, cutting me off.

I turned to him, seeing the Jookie pamper squad leave through the door. Bae flipped me off before leaving and mouthed, "I'm coming for you."

"Trust me the next time will be the last time," I called after her as she left the room, slamming the door behind herself.

Jookie stood up and smirked. "Jealous again, my little peach?"

"Never," I said, rolling my eyes. "I'd never be jealous of someone with the hair color of an expired, bleached strawberry." When that last word left my lips, I paused.

Betinia! What if Bae is Layla's killer? She has pink hair. Just because she has pink hair doesn't necessarily mean she's the killer. She didn't smell like strawberries. Probably because she doesn't want us to know it's her. She's supposed to be hidden remember? When I talked to her earlier before my interview, she said something that made me think that might've been a previous contestant in this game. Wouldn't it be a hell of a twist to bring back an old contestant? Oh my god, you're right. But how did she do it? I don't know, but—

Jookie snapped a finger in front of my face. "Earth to peach."

"Was Bae a previous contestant on the show?" I asked point-blank.

Jookie cocked his head to the side. "What makes you think that?"

"She said something earlier about going through this before," I said, looking at him, trying to read his face. "Am I right?"

He shrugged. "Who knows?"

"What is she to you then?"

"Oo, you want to know if she's my girlfriend, right?" Jookie grinned. "Is that why you two fought earlier?"

"That fight wasn't over you — at least not for me anyway and—," I cut myself off, shaking my head. "You know what? I'm not even going to feed into your teasing or whatever you're trying to do. Just shut up and do your fucking job, so I can save Rucker. Can you do that please?"

I didn't have time to go over the Bae-Layla killer theory. That wasn't important now. Rucker was my focus at the moment. When he was safe, then I'd investigate more.

Jookie turned to the camera, his smile bright and dazzling. "Welcome back, viewers! I hope you enjoyed our little break. Instead of getting right into the game again, we've decided to bring you a word from one of our sponsors."

"Seriously? Another commercial? Now?"

"It's not another commercial," Jookie said, standing near the window with me, bringing the smell of fresh lemon with him. "Since Rucker's close to death, one of his sponsors wanted to talk to him."

"One of? He has two?"

"Yes! Delicious, right?" Jookie laughed. "Two different people sponsored him without even knowing it." He turned to Rucker. "You've been a very bad boy, haven't you, Rucker?'

Rucker shrugged, chains clinking. "I don't regret anything that I've done so fuck'em."

"Two sponsors," I whispered.

Jookie turned to me with a smirk. "Something else you two have in common."

I flinched. "Huh?"

"You have two too, my little peach."

♟♙♟