EYES WIDENING, TIRAN LOOKED LIKE he was about to faint. "Umm...I-I-I..."

I don't think he expected me to find her. Neither did anyone else. Varies expressions of disdain were pointed toward Tiran while surprise and anger got pointed my way. The anger was mostly from Gmie.

"Liza was found dead near the bushes outside the student apartments," I said, holding Tiran's frightened gaze. "She was found half-naked with signs of sexual assault. DNA was found, but they could never find a match. The ME said she died from severe respiratory depression that led to respiratory failure because the high roofie dosage interacted with her anti-depressants. Her case is still unsolved to this day."

Khan folded his arms over his chest. "What's the narrative?"

"Police think she got drugged at the library because that was her last location. Once she was drugged, she was led away and probably passed out near the apartments," I said, looking down at the news article on her death. "And then she was sexually assaulted. They said she probably died before or during the assault."

Chi wrinkled her nose. "You're a straight-up perv! I knew I caught you staring at me — thank god, I was never alone with you."

Yaz narrowed her eyes, pushing her glasses upward. "You're fucking disgusting."

"T-th-this is all l-lies," Tiran spluttered, looking around for someone to believe him.

No one did.

I shrugged. "Fine. If I'm lying, then show us your keychain. If it doesn't say, 'Rapist' on it, then I'm wrong."

Tiran swung his head at me, eyes blazing. "I don't have to show you nothing, bitch." Then he growled, fist clenching like he was about to attack me.

Bring it on.

But Rucker gripped the scrawny kid and tossed him into the wall. Hard. Tiran let out a loud ouf, but Rucker ignored him, ruffling through his pockets until he came back with the keychain.

On the end of the keychain hung a large charm that spelled out "RAPIST" in all red caps.

Rucker bitch slapped Tiran, causing him to ricochet back into the wall like a sack of flour. "So you like to drug chicks and rape them? You're a fucking sicko."

Tiran stumbled to his feet, continuing to stagger around until the wall helped him steady himself. Thick droplets of blood gushed from his nose. His thin fingers tried to stop the flow as he glared at Rucker. "Fuck you. Rape is not worse than murder. You're a sadistic psycho."

I stared at Tiran in disbelief. "You raped and murdered Liza. No, you didn't kill her on purpose, but your sick actions still did the trick. No matter how you spin it, you murdered her."

Tiran glowered at me, holding his nose. "It was an accident! I didn't mean to-to k-kill her."

"Then why did you rape her? When she passed out, why didn't you call the police?" I asked him, wanting a genuine answer.

Instead of an answer, he chuckled, letting the blood flow onto his white shirt. "Why does anyone do anything?" He snorted, red trickling down in fistfuls. "My father used to give me the pills because I didn't know how to meet girls — I w-wasn't a man."

Khan stared at him, jaw hardened. "You knew right from wrong. You knew what you were doing. You're not your father. You didn't have to listen to him. You could've been your own man."

He laughed then, wiping the blood from his sticky face. "You're right. I could've, but I enjoyed — no I loved doing it. The power. The chase. The feel.  The taste of their skin.... I could've had any girl I wanted. Whenever I wanted. It was fucking awesome."

Chi-Lynn wrinkled her nose. Yaz glowered. I narrowed my eyes. Gmie jerked back, placing a hand on her chest. Demo glared, face flushing hotly. Layla looked like she was about to burst into tears.

Fee bared his teeth. Aries looked disturbed. Khan pursed his lips. Sebastian shook his head. Rucker balled his fist, ready to throw down.

Tiran stared at all of us, cackling. "Who are you guys to judge me? You guys are all monsters too. Every single one of you or you wouldn't be here."

Jookie whistled, silencing the room as he walked back to the front. "Time for talking is over. Time to put in your votes." He cocked his head, giving me a wide grin. "Points go to my scrumptious peach for figuring out Tiran's dirty little secret."

He pointed to the wall, and I watched three thousand tiny balls fall into my pit before combusting. 3,000 points to me. 5,000 points total. I was in the lead.

Gmie huffed and glanced at me with hate-filled eyes. The devil would be proud.

A screeching ping went off, and the voting app appeared on everyone's screen again with a time limit. Thirty seconds to vote.

Within seconds, the votes poured in.

Aries - Rucker
Betinia - Tiran
Chi-Lynn - Tiran
Demo - Rucker
Fee - Tiran
Gmie - Rucker
Khan - Tiran
Layla - Rucker
Rucker - Tiran
Tiran - Rucker
Yaz - Tiran
Sebastian - Tiran

Jookie made a pretend sad face. "Oh, Tiran. The contestants have spoken, and they don't like rapists so goodbye." He did a tiny finger wave.

Tiran looked frightened as guards piled into the room, gripping him. One pricked a needle into the side of his neck, and he screamed.

To the far left, a wood panel slid open, revealing a chair. The guards threw Tiran into it before it shot into the ceiling. Chair gone. Tiran gone.

"Oh, this is going to be delicious," Jookie said, hitting a button on his phone. A movie-screen size television came down from the ceiling in front of us.

An image played on the screen, fuzzy at first. But then, a clear shot of Tiran materialized, still sitting in the chair, but now he was in an all-white room.

His body trembled, as he sobbed, snot sliding down his nose in huge clumps.

"Liza," he said between sobs, body shuddering. "I'm s-s-sorry. Please don't-t hurt me." He started to rock back and forth, sweat piercing his brow as he reached for someone who wasn't there. "Liza."

The needle they put in his neck must've been some sort of hallucinogen. They drugged him like he did his victims.

He screamed as he started to look around the empty room as if he could see things that we couldn't. "No, Emily. I'm sorry." He turned to the other side. "Tasha, p-please." He screamed at the top of his lungs, making me shiver. "Father. Please forgive me for failing you."

A door opened, and a line of women charged forward. They started to beat and smack Tiran around.

My eyes widened when they tossed him to the ground and stripped him nude while laughing at him, calling him pathetic and a loser.

Tiran sobbed like a baby as the women continued to berate him, calling him weak and a pussy. He kept yelling out apologies to the women for what he did, but they weren't hearing it.

Instead, weapons materialized in their hands. Knives and a pipe. Sinister smiles plastered their beautiful faces, reminding me of sadistic angels. So pretty.

That's when Layla ran from the room, avoiding the television. A part of me wished that I would've done that too because the next part was brutal.

Tiran let out ear-shattering wails as the pipe prodded, and the knives slit his skin like warm ice cream, liquid red spewing everywhere like a broken rain gutter.

The thick mess slathered the joyous women, decorating their bodies like a dense splatter painting. A couple of the women lavished in the warm crimson, dainty fingers rubbing it into their skin like sunscreen.

Others continued torturing Tiran. The sharp tools sliced and diced into him, tearing off chunks of skin and muscle. Gooey matter sloshed and poured around everyone in buckets. It sprinkled over their naked bodies, and they all bathed in it while cackling and berating him.

If you only looked at the women's faces, you'd think that they were having a fun girls' night out.

Tiran just kept letting out piercing howls, making my stomach curdle yet bubble at the same time. His cries didn't last much longer. Once the women started cutting off fingers, and one stabbed him in the chest, his voice weakened to weak cries.

He began to gargle blood, spitting it everywhere while coughing at the same time. A few minutes later, he just stopped moving, only the sounds of the sadistic ladies remained. The light drained from his eyes, face frozen in place.

That face haunted me because I've seen it before. On my brother.

A bunch of mix emotions erupted through me when the women started licking and sucking the severed fingers and eating the discarded chunks of flesh. It all resembled a bloody porn set.

The whole death scene excited me and filled me with shame at the same time. It just further confirmed that I wasn't normal.

Jookie clapped his hands together with a grin. "Ah, wasn't that exciting, children?"

Silence answered him back.

They basically made Tiran experience his own worst nightmare. Were they going to do that to everyone who got voted off?

"Ah, no takers?" Jookie pouted before shrugging. "Oh well, Tiran will be missed, but it's time to move on. Our next challenge is tomorrow."

He continued to talk, but a loud sob came from the hallway. Layla.

Doing the normal thing, I left the room with everyone watching me. Layla sat in the hallway corner, crying as she talked to the wall, sweetness surrounding the air around her.

I approached her, and she glared at me.

"Why'd you do that? Why'd you save him?" Layla asked, tears falling from her eyes.

"Who?"

"Rucker!" she screeched at me, snot forming in her nostrils.

"I told the truth. Tiran was a rapist," I said.

"Okay? But Rucker's a murderer. A straight-up murderer," she yelled at me.

The common room definitely heard that. It was totally silent in there.

"At least Tiran was nice to me," she said, face turning red. "I didn't have to worry about dying in my sleep."

"But that can happen with anyone. Not just Rucker," I said. "At any time."

"You don't have to remind me," she said, eyes narrowing. "I know where I am and what this game entails. But it would've been nice to have at least one less active murderer off my hands." She gazed up at me, anger raw in her eyes. "You're a monster, and a liar just like all of them. You're probably just pretending to like me so that I'll trust you and then you can kill me off easily later, right?"

"No," I said, but she didn't let me finish. She just ran away, sobbing.

I started to go after her, but Jookie stopped me.

"We're not done here," Jookie said, standing in the hall, face lit up with a smile. "In honor of completing your first voting session, we have a surprise for, you guys. We also have a special surprise just for you, my princess peach. A gift from your sponsor."

This couldn't be good.

♟♙♟