TOUGH. Today's been a very tough day, and that was being generous.

My body shivered under the shower nozzle, steaming water spilling down my shoulders and back. It was on the hottest setting, yet I still felt filthy.

Droplets drenched the cuts on my palms, a stinging sensation radiating up my wrists. I held my one hand up, staring at the wound that Rucker gave me.

Sebastian wasn't happy about my newly found alliance. He complained all the way back to my room with Rucker trailing behind us because he didn't trust Sebastian, which prompted another argument between them. Boys.

I'm sorry, Sebastian, I thought to myself. I wanted to go home, and Rucker's alliance was a necessity. I needed to start playing the game and forming alliances was one way to do that.

I should've tried explaining that to him, but both guys just kept arguing, so I just told them both to stop and that I was going to go shower.

Rucker agreed, saying he would do the same, but I secretly thought he might go look for Layla again. I didn't blame him if he did. She did kidnap him and cover him in shit so...

But I couldn't say that I didn't feel for her. She spent her whole life being manipulated by the only father figure she'd ever adored. He disciplined her mind with erratic scripture and sinister lessons while killing innocent people in front of her. Who wouldn't be a little fucked up after that?

A soft whimper brought me from my thoughts, and I turned off the water and grabbed a towel. Duke barked at me when I opened the bathroom door and licked my feet.

"Hey boy," I said scratching his head, his uncontrollable giddiness bringing a smile to my face. I truly loved Duke; his presence definitely made my situation better.

Loud knocks erased the smile off my face, making me alert. Who could that be? Grabbing my iPad, I searched the camera footage for the hallway outside my door, and my eyes widened.

Layla lounged against my door, a hard-plastic sound knocking against my door. "Lily — Betinia," she slurred. "Lily — Bet... don't l-leave me alone. P-please." A sob caught her throat.

My hand dropped to my side. Should I let her in? What if it was all a trick just to get back at me? I hesitated at the doorknob and shook my head. She tried to fucking kill me earlier! But still... her tears and her tone of voice sounded so sad and lost.

You can't keep helping people, I thought to myself. It wasn't smart nor safe to keep taking chances. My mind and heart had an internal struggle for several minutes until all noise stopped.

Looking back at the camera, I saw that she was gone. As I searched through the cameras for her, I couldn't find her, so I kept swiping through the cameras, trying to see where she went until Gmie popped on my screen.

She and Demo lounged in the pool room on the wooden chairs. Even with the shit cleaned from her skin, Gmie still looked horrible — ill and haggard. A bucket sat next to her feet as she hunched forward, hands holding her stomach.

I zoomed in on their conversation.

"Fuck, Chi." Demo slapped her bare thighs, moving closer to Gmie. "We don't need her or Aries."

Gmie dry-heaved for a second before coughing. "We do need them — we needed a big team to take over. Now we're the fucking minority."

"So?" Demo shrugged. "We can still do it. All we need to do is take out the smartest and biggest threat — Betinia. And everyone else will follow. Trust me."

Gmie coughed into the bucket, eyes narrowing. "How are we going to do that now, huh? Everyone's probably on her side now."

"Okay, she might've saved everyone from Layla," Demo said. "But this should just make people want to get rid of her more. She's a threat! People will see this and vote her out. Her little rescue trick won't change that."

I forgot about the voting session. She was right. Yeah, I saved everyone, but that still might not stop them from voting me off. Shit. Clicking off the camera, I sighed, feeling lousy until a quick thought crossed my mind.

The kitchen pantry.

I needed to see what was behind there. What if it was a way out or something? But wouldn't they have covered every exit? But still, my tummy told me something was there, and it's been nagging at me for a while now. I should go check it out. It might be my last hope for an escape before the voting session.

Besides, Gmie and Demo were at the pool, and everyone else was out of sight, meaning they must all be in their rooms cleaning up, so this was the best time to venture out.

Quickly getting dressed again, I pulled on my knife heels, thinking of them as good luck charms now before trying to close the door behind me, but Duke whimpered, placing his paw in the crack.

"I'll be right back, puppy," I said, but he butted his nose into the small opening.

I coaxed him back inside, closing it gently, never hearing the tumbler click, but I didn't see his nose anymore, so I left.

Arriving in the kitchen, I walked around casually for the cameras like I was just looking for food and cleaning up before I slinked into the blind spot and opened the pantry.

Moving stuff aside, I spotted the hole. My fingers plunged through it, feeling an airy atmosphere on the other side. I smacked it hard again and again, using more strength with each incoming hit, until it cracked open, throwing me into the unknown abyss.

I spiraled through the hole and into the dark open air, slamming into a floor. Lots of dust and air sprinkled around me and coated my lungs. I sneezed and tried to use my hands to block the incoming mist, but my fingers just caked more dirt onto my face.

I sneezed again. Looking upwards and behind me, a square hole marked my exit from the pantry, as darkness surrounded the rest of me.

Using the flashlight on my iPad, I aimed it around me. A bunch of old boxes and crates with fistfuls of dust littered the damp, large area. I wiped off one of the crates, and I saw that it contained dirty clothes, but the others were empty. What the hell? I turned around, seeing the room fully. What was this place?

I searched around and just ended up getting filthier. All the other crates were locked shut. Checking the camera footage, I wasn't anywhere on it. This place was either empty of cameras or this was one of those rooms that we, the contestants, didn't have footage access for.

Still searching, I tripped over a box and ended up tumbling into a wall, which opened outward, splitting the soft drywall, causing me to fall face-first into a long, dusty hall. Hurrying to my feet, I hesitated before trekking down the hall and decided to seal the pantry entrance back up, just in case someone came in. I didn't want them to find what I found.

It took several tries along with placing the iPad flashlight perfectly for me to align the cracked boards back onto the open spot. It still didn't look a hundred percent right, but it was presentable.

Climbing back through the open drywall, I traveled down the cement hallway, coming to another room filled with wooden paneling and wires. Wires were everywhere. The whole ceiling reminded me of a tangled maze. It looked like every single wire in the house was hooked up here.

Besides the wires, trash littered the floor, causing a greasy yet sweet odor to form in the atmosphere. On the floor, I spotted dirty dishes and silverware, Chinese takeout containers and other fast food wrappers, along with strawberry milk containers with symbols and strawberry candy wrappers.

Was someone eating in here? My mind instantly came up with a conclusion. Cameramen. They must stay in here from time to time and make sure the wires were functioning well.

That's probably why I smelled that sugary strawberry aroma sometimes. Some or one of the cameramen had a strawberry sweet tooth or fetish. And since they constantly followed us at close range, we were bond to smell it, especially if they were excessively eating this highly fragranced candy. There had to be at least a thousand wrappers on the floor here.

Continuing straight, a rectangle-shaped light marred the wall, and I pushed at it, opening a door. The bright lights of the pool room teased my eyes, making me pause. I discovered a secret passageway. It went from the kitchen to the pool room.

I didn't know what to make of the secret room, and with Gmie and Demo gone but not far away, I didn't want to linger here too long and give it away. So I just walked out of the passageway door and closed it shut behind me. I put a potted plant in front of it to make sure no one else would find it before leaving.

I was still trying to piece together what I just found as I made my way back to my room but seeing my door wide open stopped me in my tracks. Huh?

I hurried forward toward the open door, seeing every contestant in my room. All eyes turned to me, bodies moving out the way, mixed emotions in their eyes.

My heart leaped. Duke was dead — he was dead, wasn't he? That's all my mind could think about, but when I saw what everyone was really looking at, my heart dropped into my stomach.

Layla laid limp in the middle of my room, thick liquid leaking from under her head, forming a large puddle. She never moved. Just silent.

No more erratic lectures or shit throwing. Her body just rested there. From my experience with death, I knew she was dead. It was just a feeling.

I looked up at my fellow contestants. Gmie leaned against Demo, glaring at me with accusation. Wait, what? She thought I did it?!

"Her dead body is in your room," I said to myself, piecing the situation together in my mind.

Oh crap, this couldn't be good. Why did stuff like this always have to happen to me?

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