EVERY step away from my room caused my chest to twitch, tight swooshes of air leaving my throat until none remained. I gasped and stumbled forward.

My hand stopped me from colliding into the wooden wall, body sagging a bit. Calm down. Everything would be okay. I could do this.

Shifting my body against the wall, I shuffled forward a bit and turned the corner. No one graced the hall. Only silence and the timbre of my beating heart filled my eardrums, palms becoming sweaty.

Start with baby steps — play the game by surviving the voting session. To do that, I needed to get at least four other people on my side.

Gmie, Demo, Aries, and Chi were crossed off immediately. With their leader popping a major boner every time she pictured my death, only a miracle from God would convince any of them to not vote for me.

Layla was probably a definite no too. Everyone else was up for grabs, except Khan because I didn't know if he really liked Chi or not. Maybe it was just sex, but I didn't have time to try and decipher either way.

Scrolling through my iPad, one of the cameras showed Rucker working out in the gym alone. Time to manipulate for my life.

Tiptoeing through the halls, trying to avoid everyone else, I turned the corner and spotted the gym down the hall in front of me. I almost kept going, but a figure materialized from the right, stopping me in mid-step.

Squinting, I realized it was Aries. He paused outside the doorway and peered inside the gym, never saying a word. Just staring for like ten minutes straight before moving along.

Huh? What was that?

Loud grunts shuddered throughout the workout room as I got closer, my feet scuffling up to the threshold. Rucker panted, arms racing back and forth as he jogged on the treadmill, feet hitting the rolling belt in quick spurts. His jet-black hair clung to his dripping forehead, sticking to his ears as blotchy redness colored his skin.

A thick book rested on the dashboard, and he turned a page every minute or so. My brows furrowed when I gazed down his muscular back and stopped at his sweatpants, seeing a thong peeking through the top.

A thong?

Guess there was a soft spot to Rucker's tough exterior. Silent giggles shot from my throat, and I covered my mouth and walked into the gym.

I only got two steps into the room before Rucker twisted around while jumping off the treadmill, a large knife in one hand.

"Get the fuck back," he shouted.

I tumbled back, almost dropping my iPad. "I come in peace!" Gosh, that sounded stupid.

Sighing, he lowered his guard for a second, letting the knife tumble to his side. "Didn't your mama tell you not to sneak up on folks? If we were in the streets, you'd be gutted without a second thought."

"You don't have many friends, do you?" Shit, why did I just say that? That was rude.

Rucker let out a rough laugh. "Nah, I don't need people to like me. They do gotta respect me though." He cocked his head to the side. "What you want?"

"Um—" My left fingers played with the soft lacy material of my dress, sweat forming on my knuckles. "I'm just here to talk."

His eyes stared at me head-on now. "Talk?"

"Yeah. Talk."

"Is that your way of asking me to fuck?"

"God no," I said without thinking. "Sorry I didn't m-mean to say it like that. I think you're great really I just-just wanted to talk talk."

"Talk talk?" he asked.

I totally suck at this. I'm going to die. "Yeah." Then absolute silence filled the space between us, tension curdling like old milk.

Until he burst out laughing. "Is this your awkward way of asking me not to vote for you next session?" he asked. "You gonna beg for your life?"

"No."

Surprise danced in his black eyes. "No?"

Begging someone for something usually got you nowhere. "No."

"You really are a strange one."

"What do you mean?"

"At first you were this quiet timid chick — you reminded me of one of those overly sheltered girls who become porn stars later in life."

"Um, thanks."

"And then I see you slicing up bodies like your fucking ghostfacella or some shit and eating human flesh like its skittles," he said, shaking his head at me. "And now you're completely different. Again."

Damn, this wasn't going well. "Okay..." I said, feeling tongue-tied.

"But you did save my ass when Gmie wanted to fucking spank it and skin it alive so," he said with a shrug, "thanks for that." His eyes looked away from me for a second, fingers scratching his hip.

"It's whatever. Don't worry about it."

"Why did you help me?" he asked. "I'm clearly a murderer."

"So?" I shrugged. "We've all done something to get here. No one's better than anyone else. Except Gmie. She thinks she's hot shit."

Rucker titled his head, using the heel of his hand to wipe sweat from his nose. "That chick is too high-strung. Controlling as fuck. She reminds me of my psycho Sunday school teacher who used to hit us when we didn't know certain passages," he said, shuddering. "Which is why I never planned on voting for you. No one tells me what the fuck to do."

"Wait, what? You never planned on voting for me?"

"I'm not stupid." Rucker placed his knife on the treadmill dashboard. "She thinks I have nails for brains, but I see her plan. She's using all of us to win. Once she gets rid of your ass, then she'll focus on the next person, until it's me she's after." He paused for a moment. "She reminds me of a story."

"Story?"

He looked like he was analyzing me for a second before nodding. "I might not make it out here alive, so it doesn't matter anymore." He nodded to the short bench. "Sit. Let me tell you a story."

A story? I hesitated for a small moment, fingers twitching, before I lowered myself to the bench, sitting on the edge. My curiosity beat out my common-sense urge at the moment.

Rucker plopped down on the other edge. Several different shades of emotions flickered across his angular face before settling on one — anger.

"The original founder of my gang died," he said, eyes dark. "Despite the shit we did, he was a good man. Saved my ass plenty of times."

"How'd he die?"

He swiped his hand through his hair. "Not important," he said. "His little brother took over when he died. A real hot-headed shit head he was. But our gang worked as a democracy, so he didn't have complete control."

"Democracy?" I said, voice lifting an octave. "In a gang?"

"It worked. We all voted, and we all got a say. Everything was hunky dory," he said, rolling his eyes. "But little bro wanted to implement some heavy shit, and the older members didn't like that. So every time we had to vote, it'd be a fifty-fifty split. Old versus New."

"That had to suck."

"It did." He pressed his fingers together. "Lots of chaos, until little bro got happy. Nice even."

"So he went from being a dick to nice, just like that?"

"Yes." Rucker looked straight ahead. "People were wary at first. But months passed, and the gang started to feel almost normal again. Everything was perfect for about a year until members started snitching and stealing."

"Just out of the blue?"

"Yes. Over the course of six months, we lost about twenty members."

Lost must've meant killed because gangs usually didn't forgive stuff like that. "What happened next?"

"Little bro completely changed the gang. He got what he finally wanted."

"What?" I stopped, thinking over the story until it hit me. "Wait, all the members that died were the older members, right?"

He kept staring forward. "All the thieves and snitches were the same members who kept voting against the leader all those months ago."

"Damn," I said. "That was his whole plan. To play nice, until he could weed out his opposition, and finally get what he wanted. Wow. I wouldn't be surprised if little bro killed the older brother."

Something else about this story rubbed me the wrong way, but I couldn't place it.

Rucker stayed silent for a moment. "Gmie's ultimate goal is for her, Demo, Chi and Aries to win the game. That's a no-brainer. To do that, she's pretending to be nice while trying to turn all the other contestants against one person so we'll either vote or kill them off. Once we kill off that person, she'll move onto the next and start over."

"We have to stop her," I said, turning to him. "We have to fight against her." My teeth sank into my tongue, trying to hold back my next statement, but I ended up blurting it out anyway. "We should be allies."

I needed to start playing this game, and I couldn't do it alone. Not when Gmie and her big posse were trying to control it. It helped to know that he didn't trust Gmie either, but could I trust him?

No, but he wanted to survive this game as much as I did, and if we had a common goal, maybe it'd be less likely for him to betray me.

Rucker turned to me with a serious expression on his face. "If we're allies, that means we're like partners. We watch each other's back, right?"

"Right."

"I'm going to be honest with you, I don't like people much, meaning I don't trust. That's a fact," he said, staring down at his clenched fists. "And people who betray me die. That's a fact too."

I gulped. Umm, maybe I shouldn't have opened my big mouth. "Okay," I said, almost squeaking.

"Another fact is you're fucking weird," he said. "You're like a walking kaleidoscope — one tiny move and you're different."

Thanks.

"But you see things that most people don't and you put shit together that don't even make sense, but it does," he said, wiping his face. "And you dissect bodies like you're fucking playing videos games and you try to kill people without thinking or planning. You just do."

"Okay?" I couldn't deny that.

"I think with your brains and my power we might actually be able to do something," he said. "When I agree to something or give my word, I do it. So I need to think on it a bit more before I agree to an alliance."

"Fair enough." Maybe, he could be trusted.

We talked a bit more about the alliance, and he told me he'd meet me in the library in a few hours with his response.

My stomach growled on my way out of the gym. It's been days since I've had a good meal. Fee might be there too, which would give me time to talk to him.

Fee didn't talk much, so I didn't know how successful I would be with convincing him not to vote for me, but I might as well try. Rucker went better than expected.

It took only moments to move from the gym to the kitchen, and right when I went to swing open the door, a loud whistle pierced the air and I stopped.

Turning around, I saw the G-squad coming for me.

Crap.

♟♙♟