WATCHING. Everyone continued to watch Layla like she was a viral video, eyes never leaving her.

Layla bellowed out another whimper and wriggled her ass before standing up straight. Bending down, bucket between her knees, liquid brown caked her ass, running down the back of her legs to the floor.

The intense sewage smell smacked my face, tickling my gag reflex for a second.

"Can someone please get this smelly loony toon?" Gmie asked, wiggling in her ropes. "Please." A sliver of desperation tickled her tone.

No one answered her. Everyone just kept watching.

Picking up the knife off the floor, Layla sliced her palm, letting her blood trickle into the bucket. "Yes, Jesus. Bless all my excrements with your undying love and affections and righteous. Help me. Please me. Bleed me." The knife kept piercing her palm over and over in tiny slits, every hole dripping into the container.

"What the hell's wrong with you?" Demo shouted as she struggled with her ties.

Layla dunked her bare hands into the shit-and-blood filled pail and moved them around like a hand mixer. "I'm just mixing my fluids together so that I can cleanse all of you," she said before grinning, cheeks pinching.

Everyone froze at her words, except Rucker.

"Look here, bitch," Rucker said, glaring. "I'll fucking kill you if you touch me with your shit. Kill you. Read my fucking lips — K I L L. I will murder you with my bare fucking hands if you get even a speckle of that shit slop on me."

Layla pouted, eerie happiness entering her eyes. "Silly, Rucker. I'll do whatever I want to you. You can't hurt me. Jesus' got me," she said before laughing and using the knife to stir the bucket this time. The blade slapped against the plastic insides with loud thwacks, until she pulled it out, reddish-brown liquid leaking from the tip.

Dropping the knife, she dug her hands into the bucket again and began chanting something again while mixing it.

"Ewww..." Chi closed her eyes and shuddered. "This is wrong on some many levels."

Layla then stood up with a huge glop in her hand and started drawing on the floor. Her fingertips drew weird symbols on the floor before creating a giant decagon, a piece in front of each contestant. But the largest and drippiest pieces were in front of Rucker, Sebastian, Gmie and me.

When she got to me, Layla smacked the ground and grunted, giving me a vicious side-eye that made my whole chest tighten for a second. Nice Layla was gone. This was a whole new girl right here.

"God, come forth with Elziaron and Zimmie, bless this circle," Layla said, standing in the middle of the shit decagon as she swayed. "Come to me. Help me cleanse these filthy monsters and bring them into the holy light before I exterminate them all at once. Home Enron emend emend ejejn dirk diej emend djdjdj siennas ejen..."

"Fuck this," Aries said, trying to get out of his ties. Everyone else was trying to do the same, but no luck. She tied them perfectly tight, almost like she did this before.

"How did you even get us here?" Gmie said to Layla, slapping her tied wrists on the ground. "What was in that sm-smoke?" She was stalling. At least Gmie was good for something.

"That was just some homemade knockout gas." Layla shrugged. "My daddy taught me all about chemicals."

"Well—" Gmie started again, but Layla cut her off.

"No more questions. No more stalling." Layla swung her head around and giggled before doing some sort of dance. Ugh, she looked and smelled horrible. Shit was just everywhere — all around us, clogging our pores and nostrils.

"I'm not stalling," Gmie said, looking helpless. "Someone get her. Get her."

But no one could get out of their ropes.

Layla cackled. "Scared, Gmie? Ha! You, Rucker, Betinia, and Sebastian are the worst of the worst. You guys deserve this the most."

Me? What the hell did I do? Oh. I did try to kill her. Tini did, anyway.

Gmie whined, adding an extra squeakiness to her voice. "I did nothing wrong."

I squinted my eyes at her. Really? She basically threatened Layla and tried to kill me multiple times. Gmie should be the last person crying innocence.

Ignoring Gmie, Layla glanced around the circle with an eagerness painted on her face before focusing on Rucker. "Twinkle twinkle little shit, take the sins of this snitch. Up above his fucking head, let it erase him until he's dead."

Rucker never even flinched. Just gave her the harshest look ever. "You're so lucky my hands are tied, or I'd fucking kill you right now."

He had a lot of heart. Layla literally had all of us by the balls, and he didn't even let it faze him.

Layla laughed. "I know. I'm not stupid. You're a murderer at heart. That is your sin. You're a cold-blooded child murderer."

"Wasn't he cleared of that charge?" Khan asked, not even bothering to try and get out of his ties. He was the only one just sitting there, probably analyzing the situation.

"Yeah, I was cleared," Rucker said with a hint of smugness. "It would go against God to kill an innocent man."

The innocent man part was pushing it. We all knew that he had a few bodies under his belt.

The tips of her lips swelled into a triumphant grin. "Yes, but you told on yourself," Layla said before gigging. "I listened to that story you told Betinia. About your ex-gang leader."

"So?" Rucker shrugged.

"You were the little brother, weren't you?" Layla smiled. "You killed your older brother and all the gang members who didn't agree with your new rules. Am I wrong?"

I knew there was something off about that story. He killed his own brother. Whoa.

"Wrong," he said. "There's no proof in that story. I admitted to nothing."

Picking up the bucket, Layla dragged it over to him, leaning in close. Her shitty hand grasped his face and he looked like he wanted to bite her.

"You're right. You admitted to nothing, but I know that look," she said, face inches from Rucker.

"What look," he said, glaring.

"That look in your eyes when you kill a sibling," she said, voice dead. "That look of bittersweet remorse. It comes from watching the life drain out of their body by your hand. You killed him."

I didn't know what possessed him, but Rucker said, "He killed our baby sister. He deserved more than what he got."

"Told you he was a murderer," Gmie said, nodding to him.

Yaz pursed her lips. "Just shut up. Everyone here murdered someone — even your uppity ass. So, don't go passing judgment."

Gmie flicked her head back, further messing up her unruly bun. "I did no such thing. I never killed anyone."

"Cleanse him." An unknown booming voice burst through the atmosphere before quickly leaving, interrupting Yaz and Gmie's argument.

"What was that?" Chi asked, looking around with everyone else.

It sounded like it came from a loudspeaker, similar to the one Jookie spoke on, but this one was more concentrated like it could only be heard in this room.

"It's God. He's talking to me. He wants me to remove your darkness with my light," Layla said to Rucker. "Jesus will forgive you. God will forgive you." She took another handful from the bucket and splashed it onto his head. Then she smacked it onto his cheeks.

Thick clumps of fecal matter dribbled down his face and he screamed in rage, body thrashing as he tried to grab her. "I'm gonna kill you. Kill you in a way where your demented Jesus won't be able to fucking save you."

Layla jumped out of reach, laughing. "I'm cleansing you."

"You're smothering shit on me, bitch." Rucker turned a blistering red. If this was a cartoon, smoke would be blaring out of his ears right now. "This isn't cleansing. You're just fucking crazy."

"No. I am alive and a vessel of god. I have never been saner or more woke in my life." Layla chucked more shit clumps at him and spoke in tongues. Aries and Fee who were on either side of Rucker just scooted away, trying to avoid the fecal chunks.

Rucker screamed, wallowing around like a fish out of water. He tried to dodge the shit while trying to kick her, but he failed. She moved around too much, and the stench must've gotten to him because he stopped struggling after a good ten minutes and just took it.

When Layla finally stopped, she twirled around, hands arched above. "Twinkle twinkle little shit, take the sins of this snitch. Up above his fucking head, let it erase him until he's dead. Twinkle twinkle little shit, now I wonder who is next." She spun around the circle, stopping on Aries. "Oooo."

Aries quivered. "Umm I-I."

Layla galloped over and spat in his face. "God doesn't like your kind. You won't be cleansed. You deserve to burn." And then she moved onto Gmie with a grin. "You're next."

♟♙♟