LAYLA. Her face blinked in my mind, consuming all my thoughts until Fee popped in, clogging all my senses until I let out a long agonizing breath, letting everything slip away for a second.

Thick rivulets of scalding water sloshed over my head from the square shower nozzle, seeping down my back before pooling at my ankles. I leaned my forehead against the tiled wall, embracing the warmth and peacefulness before my mind became bombarded with more racing thoughts again.

I couldn't stop thinking about the events from earlier. Layla was dead. Truly gone. The image of her corpse lingered in my retinas, and it wasn't because I was in shock. She wasn't the first dead body I've seen — my brother's corpse popped my first-dead-body cherry.

And, since being on this stupid show, I've seen tons of people die. I've sort of become numb to the whole dead-body-murder-thing, but when it came to Layla, everything felt surreal for some reason.

Maybe because it happened so fast. Just hours before she was ranting and screaming, and now she was cold and dead on the floor of my room. And Fee, what the hell was he doing with that bag? Did he kill her? Could it be that simple?

The soft tugging coming from my left side told me it wasn't so cut and dry.

I wanted to confront Fee about his filthy appearance, but Khan said we should wait and regroup with everyone else first and get their take on it.

So, we went back to my room and grabbed the rest of our allies and went to Khan's room to relax, eat some food and discuss everything.

When we got there, I immediately went to the shower. No one questioned me about how I got so dirty, so I never offered up an explanation. No reason to bring attention to something they didn't need to know about anyway.

But that secret passageway.... there was food containers in there so it must not

was it a secret place that the creators didn't even know about? Probably not. After seeing all those wires, someone had to be down there to put them in. That area must not be off-limits though because Jookie would've probably brought it up when he saw me earlier.

And the way he'd been acting, offering me up as a special slaughter prize for everyone, he'd probably enjoy disciplining me, so the area must be free game. I'm not gonna tell anyone else about it yet though, not until I investigated it more.

My soaked hands slicked back my hair, letting the droplets streak down my ears and chin in long ribbons. Once the water turned cold, I shut it off and dried myself with a towel before wrapping it around my body.

I sat next to my dirty clothes on the floor, my knee bumping against Layla's journal. My fingertips grazed the worn leather cover, electric shooting up my tips.

Sighing, I opened the journal to the first entry, which talked about her second day in the house. She went on and on about the hellish game itself and how everything and everyone reeked of death, evilness and the devil. The only person she liked at that time was me; she thought I was nice and that I added a bit of humanity to the house, and she felt like we had some connection.

Honestly, we did have a connection, almost like we were linked in some way. It was hard to describe.

Digging deeper into her journal, her mind began to get darker as the days passed, becoming more warped. She ranted about the other contestants being evil, except huge guy and how no one listened to her and how she felt invisible to almost everyone.

Reading through, I realized she was very observant. Even though mostly everyone ignored her, she listened to their conversations. That's how she discovered the secrets around her like how Gmie was talking shit about Chi.

She also mentioned instances of Gmie bothering her and threatening her with Demo and the rest of her clique. This right here pointed to motive. Gmie bullied her regularly. I wouldn't be surprised if she got Demo to off Layla and blame it all on me.

I actually wouldn't blame Gmie for killing Layla. Layla put Gmie through some real shit a few hours ago. She literally made Gmie a shit dumpster, packing shit into her mouth like a champ. Eww.

Continuing to scan the pages, I got to a weird entry. She wrote about something being wrong with the camera angles. Something was off, she said when she switched through cameras angles on her iPad, especially when many of us were in groups or when Jookie would gather us all together.

When everyone was in a group, one camera would always get the perfect face shot of people, even though most of the cameras couldn't get that angle because the cameramen never got that close to us, and they were constantly always moving.

Something rubbed me the wrong way about this too, but I couldn't put my finger on what it meant, but it screamed at me that it was important.

I turned the page and came to multiple paragraphs about Lily. Some apologies, but mostly anger. And Layla also wrote about the night Tini choked her, and that's when she began her downward spiral and began mixing me up with Lily. Was Tini the cause of her mental breakdown?

Three loud booms on the door brought me out of my thoughts.

"Betinia." Rucker banged again on the door. "Food's almost done."

I didn't answer right away, and my mind began to wonder about Layla again. Was it my fault that she went crazy? Did I indirectly get her killed?

"I know you're getting caught up in that big brain of yours, probably over analyzing shit again." Rucker banged again, cutting through my thoughts. "Stop it and come eat. My food's amazing, so I'm giving you a warning now in case you wanna double up on the panties."

Huh?

Rucker employed himself as group head chef because he didn't trust anyone else to make his food, thinking someone might poison him. Can't say I blame him really, but overall, I did trust my team... to an extent.

"My cooking will have you watering in multiple places, so you might need to take some precautions," he said through the door with a chuckle.

"Don't believe him. My mouth and vag are dry as shit," Yaz snapped at him. "I'm fucking hangry. Who takes two hours to make stir-fry?"

"The chicken had to marinate," Rucker shot back.

"Da fuck it did," she said. "Your ass is gonna give me food. Now."

"Hey! Stop it," Rucker said before a loud crash went off. "Get away from the stove. My spatula will put hands on a woman."

A loud laugh left my lips as I clutched the journal to my chest. My team really was something. I definitely think my days in this house were going to be a lot more interesting.

"Hurry up, yingyang," Rucker said through the door.

"Leave her alone, Rucker," Sebastian said, malice in his voice.

"Piss off, vanilla cupcake," Rucker said before snorting.

"Stop calling me soft things," Sebastian shouted back. "I have a name."

"Whatever, fluffball," Rucker said.

My hand slapped over my mouth, trying to hide the laugh crawling up my throat. Those two will never get along.

Closing the journal and using her picture as a bookmark, I decided to look more at the journal later when all of this was over. I knew it wouldn't lead me to her killer, so it was no point in wasting time reading it now, but my tummy told me it might be useful later maybe.

Getting dressed in some new sweatpants and a shirt that Khan let me borrow again, I opened the bathroom door and got smacked in the face by the savory sweet flavor of cooked veggies and chicken.

"Hope you heeded my warning." Rucker pointed the spatula at me from the stove in the corner. Duke whimpered and begged at his feet. "I put my extra touches on it, so it's gonna be real good."

Yaz hopped out the chair in the corner and bustled over to the stove. "Fuck your touches. Just feed me already," she whined, trying to steal a piece of chicken out of the cast-iron skillet.

Rucker smacked her hand with the spatula. "It still needs to simmer in the sauce for a bit more."

Her eyes blazed for a microsecond. "You said that thirty minutes ago. Basic stir-fry should not take this long."

"You're just impatient," Rucker said, rolling his eyes.

"Thirty minutes is impatient; two hours is not." Yaz pushed her glasses up on her nose. "I refuse to believe women sexually attracted to you actually waited around this long to be fed because my ass would've been at a Checkers right now with a burger and a shake. No dick is worth two hours. Nah."

Rucker stared at her. "My dick would be worth it, but see? Right there — Checkers?" Rucker shuddered. "You don't know quality food. You're used to that processed fast food gunk."

"That fast food gunk is delicious." Yaz spread out her fingers, clutching the air. "I couldn't live without having another Checker's banana shake or a Burger King Whopper."

"Or a white castle burger," I said, thinking of those delicious small burgers. "Or an Arby's apple turnover."

"Or a Wendy's chili and baconator," Sebastian said in a soft tone before licking his lips. "Or a Chick-fil-a sandwich with Polynesian sauce."

"Or a crunchwrap supreme from Taco Bell," Yaz said, looking dazed, hand rubbing her stomach. "Or a Sonic chili cheese dog."

"Or a burrito with guacamole from Chipotle," I said, mouth watering a bit.

"Or KFC's Parmesan Chicken with Truffle-Flavored Cheddar Sauce," Khan said, eyes on his computer screens, fingers typing away on the keyboard.

Everyone paused for a second, even Rucker, and stared at the back of Khan's head.

I furrowed my brows. "Parmesan Truffle what? I don't remember ever seeing that at a KFC."

Khan swiveled his head around toward us for a moment. "I think it's only on their Singapore menu. I used to get it when I vacationed there sometimes," he said, shrugging. "I travel a lot and like to try the different menus."

"If we survive this, you're taking all of us there," Yaz said, pointing at him. "In your private jet."

Khan laughed. "Sure. If we survive the game, I'll take everyone in my private jet to a Singapore KFC."

Yaz whipped her head back. "You seriously have a private jet? I was kidding. Shit." She eyed him. "You better still take us tho."

"Even if we go, I will not partake in eating such greasy sludge," Rucker said, slamming his spatula against the stove. "None of you know what good food is, but you'll learn when you taste my masterpiece. It'll bring the pieces of your soul together."

"I don't need something to bring my soul together," Yaz said, mocking him with her fingers. "I need something to stop me from eating your arm off."

Rucker kissed his fingers. "My food will be worth the wait. It'll have you cumming in your pants. Just wait."

Yaz folded her arms. "Wanna bet?"

"Yup," he said, eyeing her before leaning down to give Duke a few chunks of glistening chicken.

Duke gobbled up a piece, happily wagging his tail.

Yaz gave Rucker a dark look. "So not fair."

Rucker patted the doggy on the head. "Duke's a baby. You can wait."

Yaz pointed to Duke. "Five minutes. You got five minutes to feed me before I steal that piece of chicken from Duke's mouth and claim it as my own. Five minutes."

Duke paused, whining as he tried to cover his remaining chicken pieces with his body. It was so cute.

Rucker shook his head. "Woman, don't you have any shame?"

"No." Yaz crossed her arms. "Not when it comes to food I don't. Puppy, baby, pastor — I don't care."

I laughed, leaving them to their back and forth banter as Duke looked confused, but kept nibbling at the chicken scraps. And Khan went back to his computer research.

"Feeling better now?" Sebastian asked as I tumbled onto Khan's bed and he sat across from me on the other side.

"Did I look that bad?" I asked, scratching my damp hair.

"You looked upset and stressed all evening," he said, nodding. "And you were in the bathroom for almost two hours."

"It's been a tough day," I said before letting out a loud sigh. "And I got caught up in my thoughts a bit."

"Yeah, I can't believe she's gone," he said, running his hands through his hair. "She was just yelling and trying to kill us just a few hours ago."

"And now someone killed her," I said, staring down at my hands. "And everyone has a motive. Even us."

"How are we supposed to find a killer in twenty-four hours?" he asked, shaking his head. "We have so many suspects."

Even my allies were suspects, but something in my gut told me it wasn't any of them. But still, anything's possible.

All I knew was that I would find her killer, no matter what. I just needed to eat first.

♟♙♟

What's your favorite fast food?