JOOKIE. That treacherous son of a bitch motherfucker. What the fucking fuck? FUCK!

His words, "That's enough, my little peach" swirled around my mind like an annoying flee, but it wasn't until he followed up with, "You can't kill her" that I saw only black. It was like my entire essence had been shaded by an inky cloud, raining down droplets of hatred, flakes of disgust and pellets of blackened fury.

Fierce shivers took over my body, every movement in synchrony with the savage rage boiling in my belly, wanting his grimy heart and severed dick in my palm.

"Guess I still got good aim," the traitor said from behind me, tone laced with humor and glee.

Fuck you, Jookie. Fuck you.

Intense agony blazed up the middle of my hand from his shot, cold water splashing around me in soft waves when I repositioned myself on the soggy wheel, trying to locate his bitch ass, but everything was too dark to see.

But then, his signature demented giggle coaxed my eardrum.

My slitted eyes followed the annoying sound to the far right. Soft smoke tendrils cloaked that corner, flowing outward like ghostly wisps on moonlit waters, while surrounding his gloomy silhouette like a sinister halo.

"Get your little dick ass out here," I said, hearing Gmie moan. "And you shut up!"

Chuckling, he stepped away from the duskiness, the glowing pool water flickering over him, revealing that shitty smirky grin that I loathed so much.

A tight black suit formed to his hard body like a tongue on a lollipop. The dark color made his radiant lavender eyes burn like a wild firecracker, sparkling like they would explode at any moment. It was so powerful that my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth as thick lines of delectable goosebumps crawled across my spine like a butterfly gliding on a bright pink aster.

What the fuck was I doing? Checking out the enemy? Anyone protecting Gmie was automatically my enemy. Not to mention he fucking shot me.

A dark part inside of me thrashed like a child with a tantrum. He was playing me this whole time. Bitter laughs threatened to escape from my throat, as I dug my nails into my hand, wanting the pain to be my punishment for being so stupid.

And how the hell did he get over there? I didn't see him walk in... — he's must've already been there. But how did I not notice him then? The motherfucker giggles more than a hallucinating crackhead.

Jookie blew on the end of his smoking gun, a bright grin forming on his lips. "Hello, my little peach. Miss me?"

"Miss you?" I clenched my damaged hand involuntarily, feeling sharp pains go up my arm. My eyes widened like growing tumors, wishing I could slit his throat with my vision. "Are you fucking delusional?"

Jookie barked out a laugh. "You know I don't take my meds, my sweet peach."

"H-help m-me, J-J-Jookie," Gmie said through high-pitched moans and whimpers.

"I said shut up." I booted her in the face with my dripping heel, each word making me hit harder than the last because of the messy emotions sloshing through me that I didn't understand, nor could control.

I swung my head to look at him. "You fucking assclown, why'd you stop me from killing her?"

The tips of my teeth sunk into my lip, stopping myself from screaming, "You were supposed to be on my side. I was your goddamn peach. Not her." No, I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of hearing that. Never.

I wasn't in love with Jookie, and I could honestly say that I didn't trust him. Never. But since he helped me a few times and we had this weird fuck-me-or-don't chemistry, I considered him an unholy ally of mine. 

How wrong was I, right? He was playing me for a fool. But he wouldn't fool this bitch anymore. I cut people off for less.

A joyous expression highlighted his face, making his teeth glisten like diamonds in a dark sky. "Because Gmie and Demo are off-limits. You can't kill them." 

I thinned my lips, teeth digging into each other. "Why the fuck not? They tried to kill me no problem."

A blankness that I only saw Khan ever pull off saturated his eyes. "Because they're part of a bigger plan."

"What does that mean?"

"You'll see," he said with a soft twinkle in his light eyes. "All you need to know is that you were never gonna kill them."

Snapping his fingers, the room began to tremble, causing a few tiles to drop to the floor as the walls around me slide and moved, revealing dozens of hidden doorways. Guards, at least fifty, jogged out of them, pointing weapons at me like they caught me banging a hooker at the DMV.

"We were always watching," Jookie said, his tone light and airy. "From the moment you left your base, we were here, waiting. Not even Gmie or Demo knew."

"Then w-why did y-you let her t-torture me? T-that wasn't p-part o-of the p-plan," Gmie choked out in sobs, small droplets streaking down her dirty cheeks. "I got f-fucking b-b-branded."

"Watching, my little peach, mutilate a body was too fucking hot to stop," he said, fixing his pants and shrugging. "I interrupted before she actually killed you. Be grateful."

"Stop calling me that," I said, kicking the water, trying to splash him, but it didn't even get near him. "I'm nothing to you now. You're forever a traitorous limp dick bastard." 

He grinned, eyes bouncing. "Trust me, I'm far from limp."

An evil smile formed on my mouth. "Good. Come over here so I can cut it off and feed it to your new peach, hopefully, she doesn't have a gag reflex and it goes right down and chokes her."

Jookie wagged a finger. "Remember, killing her is against the rules now," he said, walking closer. "Follow the rules or get the consequences."

"This game is supposed to be about killing," I said, looking around the room at the cameras. "And now I can't do that? It's fucking rigged." I smiled. "I hope your viewers and investors are taking notes."

"Oh, they know," he said, cheeks widening. "And we're handling it. All you need to do is know your place. We make the rules, and you follow them, contestant."

Contestant? Really? Is that how he wanted to play it? They really must not know that I'm a crazy bitch. "Or what? Reap the consequences? How can you possibly make my life worse? You already took me away from my family and took away my freedom, and you make me participate in challenges that could kill me. How can you make my life worse?"

A sinister look passed through his eyes before he spoke. "They can always make it worse. Go—"

Demo lurched into the room, the twin doors crashing into the glass walls behind her, everything crumbling like cement under a jackhammer. The sparkling pieces flew everywhere, as she ran toward us, wetness and blackness flowing down her jaws like rainwater spraying out of a dirty gutter.

"Get away from, my Gmie." Demo dived into the pool, liquid drenching the white bandage on her eye as she swam forward. It took her only seconds to get to the wheel and lunge at me. 

Oh, you wanna go cyclops? My foot smacked into her stomach, a squelching wet noise piercing my ears, water drizzling on my face from impact as a loud squeak left her throat, and she crumbled on top of Gmie.

Gmie whimpered at the sloppy collision, body shivering while covering Demo's face in her thick blood.

"I'm s-sorry," Demo said, trying to adjust herself on the wheel. She turned on her back and went to fall into the water, but I gripped the dangling knife off the wheel and jabbed the blade into the tender flesh of her stomach.

"Die, trash," I whispered, fingers twitching. I didn't care if she was under Jookie's protection. Don't come for me.

Demo jerked and stilled, gasping as sludgy redness spilled from the wound, staining the water around her.

My fingers went to dig the knife in deeper, trying to put all my unkempt feelings into it, but a jolting sting pricked my bicep and forearm, as two gunshots went off.

The fucker shot me again.

I hiccupped and flopped back into the water. The cold wetness sucked me in deep like an inhale, submerging all my senses, cocooning me like a newborn baby in winter. I yelped, arm throbbing in a frenzy, as crisp liquid flooded my throat.

Chest convulsing and cheeks puffing out, I clawed to the surface. Gasping sighs roared from my esophagus, lungs wheezing when I broke the surface in one rowdy motion, white waves and bubbles foaming everywhere.

I shivered, eyes tingling from the chlorine.

"Get them," Jookie said to the guards in an authoritative tone. Several guards rushed into the pool, a few shouldering me out of the way like I was trash as they piled Gmie and Demo's bleeding bodies on their shoulders.

Gmie groaned, alive. Demo just laid there, not moving. Was she dead? In an instant, brutal tingles consumed my pelvis, as I peeked around the guards, trying to get a better look at her body, but they were already out the door.

Wait, if Demo was there, where the hell was Rucker?

"Where's Rucker?" I asked, looking through the open doors. I had a good shot of the hallway, where he held Demo earlier, and there were no bodies there. Maybe, they made him go back to the base?

Ignoring my question, Jookie waltzed over to the edge of the pool, holding a phone in his hand as a stale expression colored his face. "You need to worry about yourself. That was a very stupid thing to do."

"So? I don't follow rules," I said while thin prickles crept up my arm from the aftershocks of his shots, feeding the feral passion still rumbling in my tummy.

Baring my teeth, I lunged at him and clutched the side of his jacket and jerked it toward me. That simple action made him wobble before spiraling into the bitter depths with me. 

"Two-faced bitch." I spit at his thrashing body before doggy-paddling to the ladder. It wasn't until I got halfway there that a vicious electrical charge crackled up my leg from the thick bracelet around my ankle.

Whimpering low, my body jolted and sunk like an anchor at sea. I sneezed when I came up again, floating in place as I coughed. "You're s-such a pussy."

"Am I?" Jookie swam over to me, reminding me of a shark drooling for his prey, eyes dark and brooding. His rough hands slammed me against the pool wall, a harsh spasm skirting up my back.

His torso smacked into my wet tummy, and I tried to chuck him away, arms swinging everywhere, but his hands snatched mine out of the air, holding them at my sides.

When trying to wiggle out of his grip, he chuckled at me, a honey-thick noise that made my toes curl, our bodies floating together like two sea angels mating in the ocean.

"This feels like déjà vu," he said, bringing his face inches away from mine. "We've definitely been here before, haven't we, my soaked little peach?"

"So? Just another meaningless moment in my imprisoned existence."

I kneed him in the thigh, missing his dick because he moved too fast, but he let me go. I sunk downward and swam away. But with one strong arm, he flung me back by my hoodie.

I refused to go with it, letting him rip it from my body as I swam to the edge like someone with a rocket up their ass. He breaststroked past me like a deranged mermaid and twirled in my path.

We collided in a sticky frenzy of wet bodies and hard bits, our hands pounding into flesh, but never leaving marks. His long fingers seized my wrists and used them to sling me into the wall.

I whimpered from the clash, my shirt rising above my navel. His knee banged into my crotch, holding my legs apart as he lined his tight chest against mine.

A tantalizing smile coated his lips, as he bucked his hips and rubbed against me like a happy, horny bunny, the friction producing a ferocious fire between us, making my skin feel like scorching lava despite the icy water around me.

"I don't like people turning their back on me," he whispered, putting his face so close to mine that I could feel his breath on my pores. 

I spat water in his face, watching it drip down. "Insecure, much?"

Throaty chuckles grumbled in his chest, causing sweltering sparks to flush over my skin. I fought back a shiver as he leaned in close, only a kiss away. "Never insecure, my wet peach." His tongue licked the stray droplets from my cheek, moving down to my neck, the tip making swift circles along the warm indent. "I'm confident in all my skills."

I nipped my inner cheek, biting back a groan, as his minty breath stroked my jugular like fingers on silk before biting down, giving me the perfect pain-pleasure mixture. I dug my nails into my palm to stop myself from reacting, blood dripping from my cuticles.

"Don't be," I whispered in a harsh, angry tone.

"Says the girl with the hard nipples," he said in dark satisfaction.

Stupid, body. I hate you. "I'm just cold," I said through clenched teeth. "And stop calling me peach. You lost that privilege."

He cocked his head to the side, light humor shifting over his wet face. "Is that anger in your tone? Cause I'm protecting Gmie?"

I didn't answer, and he just laughed, a husky noise that lit up his eyes and made his belly tremble, eyes to the ceiling.

"I don't know why your stupid ass is laughing," I said, narrowing my eyes. "I'm not angry about you protecting Gmie. I'm angry at myself for being dumb enough to think that you were actually a person and not hot garbage."

His head snapped from the ceiling to stare at me, eyes locking with mine. That's when I noticed that the purple contacts were gone, and I was looking into his real gray eyes — dark and stormy like a wild tornado, destroying and devouring everything in its way.

"So, in your head, I was only supposed to protect you?" A lofty laugh rumbled in his tummy. "Fight only for you? And kiss your ass like Sebastian does?" He cackled again, eyes going through multiple emotions until only a void remained. "I'm a sadistic bastard and a grade-A dick, and I fucking love it. Don't romanticize this. Every decision I make has a purpose for me and me alone."

I burst out laughing, spitting on him. "You really are missing a screw if you think I'm romanticizing anything about your trash panda ass. Yeah, you're fucking hot and all, but that hotness can't cover the moody fuckboy that is Jookie." I laughed at him, head falling back. "At the end of the day, you're nothing but a pathetic loser who's only good quality is his face and giggling." I gripped his chin and turned it toward a camera. "Giggle for me, Jookie. Giggle for the viewers. They reall—"

Snatching his chin out of my grip, savage anger poured over his pale features like thick syrup on pancakes, lips thinning. "I'm pathetic? You're the one who can't even face a papier-mâché mask without passing out," he said before laughing in my face. "You try to act all big and bad, but all you are is a sad, sloppy bag of mommy issues." He leaned in close, looking me deep in my eyes. "Bipolar bitches like you are good for nothing but a quick fuck before we go home to our real, sane girlfriends." 

I barked out a laugh, making him pull back. "Yet here you, still trying to lick and fuck this bipolar bitch. Dick still hard for me," I said, grabbing his hard dick with my hands before pushing him back more. "Yeah, I have mommy issues, who cares? I'd rather be my fucked up then your fucked up. Psychotic, sadistic fucks like you only have two paths in life — death or prison." I looked around the room and grinned. "I guess you're already in your own prison, huh? You're basically the creators' bitch, right?"

A dark laugh passed through his lips. "I'm far from their bitch. They're my bitch. Just like you were before I picked Gmie," he said, glee dancing in his eyes.

I glowered at him. "I don't care about what you and Gmie have going on. I literally give zero shits. Only thing I cared about was that you took my kill — my hard-earned kill."

"I can't take something you were never gonna have." He smirked, eyes cloudy. "From the moment you started planning her death, she was protected. You were never gonna kill her."

"Yeah, because of you." With swift precision, I arched my leg, hitting him directly in his crotch. 

"Fuck me." He gargled while his lips did that "O" shape, and he toppled over in the water, hands over his pants.

I laughed, watching him float away while glaring at me. "Toodles, dick."

I was about to pull myself out of the pool and go looking for Rucker when a dark baritone voice sounded through the loudspeakers.

"Betinia," the voice said, sounding robotic and artificial. "You have broken two rules of the game, and now you will be punished for it."

"What rules?" I asked, not even knowing if they could hear me.

"You attacked Demo after we told you she couldn't be harmed, and you attacked our host," the voice said in one long stream. "Do you refute our claims?"

"No, I definitely did both," I said with a shrug. "Kind of hard to refute something that's on tape." 

"You will be made an example of," the voice thundered in a loud tone. "No one is bigger than the rules. No rule shall be broken without harsh consequences."

Guards bolted into the room and dragged me out of the pool by my sopping shirt. They tossed me onto the tiled floor, my neck hitting an edge, sending agony up the back of my head.

"Ouch," I whispered, vision blurring, as I felt myself go airborne. It took a few minutes for my vision to go back to normal, and I saw that I was crowd surfing, the guards holding me up on their shoulders and hands as we moved through darkened halls.

"What's going on?" I asked, wiggling and one guard grabbed my tit. "Hey, watch your fucking hand. And you, stop grabbing my ass." Who knew the guards were perverts?

They kept carrying me through the many halls until we entered a long black hallway, their stomping feet the only sound. It took only a few seconds to spot a bright yellow light in the distance. Then I was thrown into a room, and the door slammed shut behind me.

Turning on my knees, velvet red carpet cushioned my legs, covering the entire floor of the small hexagon-shaped room. A black ceiling towered over me with crimson cushioned walls shielding me in.

A shiny silver table sat in the middle, two expensive leather chairs nestling both sides. 

A masculine yell made me turn to the wall with the giant glass window, reminding me of the ones in interrogation rooms. Peering through it, my heart stopped in my throat. Rucker.

I booked it off the floor and toward the window. Rucker was on the other side of the glass in a small cement room. A giant crack ruined the top corner of the left wall, clear water spilling through, slowly filling the room.

Bright lights shined down on his naked body, thick metal links chaining him to what looked like a recliner chair with the bottom reminding me of a gynecologist examination chair, his legs opened and arched in opposite directions.

The scariest thing was the thick, long ceiling-to-floor buzz saws humming around the room. They swam like sharks in the water, slowly moving toward his body. One could easily slice him in half in seconds.

The sharp edges moved at a nanosecond rate, never pausing. One zipped near his balls before backing off.

Rucker let out a girlish scream. "Please not my balls — not my babies."

"You think you're bigger than the game, Betinia?" That creepy artificial voice came over the speakers again.  "You think you're bigger than us? We'll show you that you're not. You will be put in your place."

"Let him go," I screamed. "Hurt me." 

"This is your consequence," the voice said before cutting out.

"Come back, you fucker," I yelled, banging on the window as the saws kept bobbing and weaving around Rucker.

A small rectangular cut-out disappeared on the far wall, revealing a doorway. Jookie sauntered in, hair still wet. He was now dressed in a tight t-shirt, jeans, and boots. 

"Get him out of there, Jookie," I said, tone warning, fist clenched.

"Told you there would be consequences." A teasing smile formed on his lips. "The game's consequences don't always physically affect you. They sometimes take other things you care about. Things that will hurt you more." He let out a chuckle. "Guess that heart to heart you two had earlier in the hallway, really showed them how much you two care about each other."

I closed my eyes. Fuck. "He can't die, Jookie."

This was all my fault. I let my emotions take over, but they were so hard to control sometimes. I was so angry, and I wasn't thinking. Betinia's usually — NO. I didn't need her. I never needed her.

"Looks like he's going too," he said with a shrug. "And it's gonna be a bloody death too. Oh, I can't wait." He licked his teeth. "I could help him, but I don't want too." He winked and smiled at me.

I clenched my fist, exhaling. "I can't lose him." Sucking my pride down deep, I looked at Jookie. "Please help me."

He let out a murky, bitter laugh. "You want the help of a pathetic loser who's only good for giggling? You want the help of a trash panda?"

"You said shit about me too," I snapped. "Bipolar bitch, mommy issues — I think we're fucking even."

"Cunt."

"Cum stain." 

We glared at each other until Rucker screamed again, and I sighed. "You pissed me off, and I didn't know how to control myself. Just fucking help me."

Jookie came in close, tapping my lip with a rough finger. "Is that an apology?"

"Yes," I said while gritting my teeth. "That's the best you're gonna get after what you did to me earlier."

We locked eyes again, his finger still moving across my bottom lip, sending invisible shivers along my neck.

"What is it about you..." he trailed off, shaking his head before pulling back.

"I don't know, just fucking help," I said, turning back to the window to see Rucker dodging more saws. They weren't trying to kill him yet. They were still trying to fuck with me. Bastards.

"Fine, but you owe me two favors," Jookie said. "One being a dick massage."

"Okay," I said, not even looking at him, my eyes still on Rucker. "How do I save him?"

"It's simple. You play for him."

"Play?"

An overly cheerful grin painted his smooth lips. "It's time for us to play a game, my little bloody peach. If you lose, he dies."

♟♙♟