*Knock Knock, Knock*

*Knock, Knock, Knock*

The door of the violet cabin opened and a tall skirt-wearing angler fish in oversized sneakers found itself staring at a pair of green cuttlefish with googly eyes.

“.....” The angler fish wordless observed the visitor.

“Uh...Hi,” said Margot.

She and Thomas had gone across the lawn over to the violet cabin to try and deal with the coming trouble she could see brewing from all the other cabins. Suddenly it felt like she was back in school again and all the awkwardness she’d thought she’d grown past had returned.

“Y-, You don’t know me.”

“No. I know you.” said a voice that was just low enough and light enough that it was hard to tell the gender of the speaker.

“Oh...Uh...You do? That’s...That’s okay, I guess.” said Margot. Feeling very not okay about the fact that extra dangerous angler fish that her partner on the outside had simply told her to stay clear of, had been keeping their eyes on her.

“A- Anyway, I’m from the green cabin and I thought I’d come over to share some goodwill and maybe broker a kind of, sort of, deal with you,” said Margot.

“....Why?” said the Angler fish.

“Um...You know that saying ‘the fox and the rabbit may not be friends, but the fox still weeps at the sight of the rabbit in the hunter’s pot’...?” said Margot.

“Nah. Never heard of it, but I think I get your gist. Both our teams are ahead with no lost lives, so most likely besides whatever that fish-faced freak has in store, you imagine that the other teams will come looking for trouble as well...You aim to use my team to keep the heat off your back.” said the angler fish.

“....” Margot blinked, mildly perturbed at the anglerfish's sudden verbosity. Then barely missing a beat, she forced herself to brighten up as if all had gone according to plan and said,

“Exactly! I’m glad you understand...So are you onboard...Yes? No?”

“.....” The anglerfish fell silent again. Then it’s bobbing third-eye glowed and the plush creepy cute, violet horror, seemed to shrug.

“What the hell...Why not? It’s been a pretty boring game thus far...and our mistress mostly wanted us to screw over that bitch Darla.”

With that, the deal between the green and violet cabin was brokered. Margot left their cabin after gifting the anglerfish a portion of the treasures that Monty’s missives had helped her find. Then she returned to her cabin to prepare for the evening’s ordeal.

*************************************************************************************************************

I sat in the lounge. I was drinking but I’d be damn if I could remember when someone offered me the liquor.

This time I’d won the spin and it was my turn to decide what happened in the game. I choose a random event because choosing a bad event was too cutthroat for my tastes, and choosing a good card would mean giving up on the game, thanks to my peculiarity.

I rolled the dice and watched it bounce atop the table. When Barnebas told me that the die had landed on twenty I was far from surprised. Others had lady luck as a patron, a few might call her a friend, I had her as...Margot would term it ...a yandere. Playing both the part of a clingy lover and a controlling obsessive mother.

Now I just had to hope that Margot survived. I couldn’t help glancing at that poor, son of a bitch, Julian. He sat reclined in his seat. Drunk off his ass on immortal liquor. Staring at nothing.

The red cabin had been his team and now despite technically having the most powerful piece on the board, he was almost assuredly out of the game. He had only one piece and said piece was on their last life.

I considered warning Margot about Julian and his pieces. Knowing that most likely Julian would have his wolf start making some very rash, very aggressive moves for the rest of the game. The only way the dark-skinned spirit-king could win now was if he had his man kill all the other competitors.

Besides him, there were others in the lounge who might have their competitors go after my green cabin to make up for their losses and even the playing field. Such as Darla who’d been the owner of the similarly devastated orange cabin, and now looked like she was a hair away from flipping the table over and trying to get what she wanted the old fashioned way.

It was a worrying thought, but I found my worries fading as I watched Margot through the window in time and space that we were using a spectator screen. Margot was a smart woman. She already knew what she needed to do. All I could do now was have faith in her and watch.

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A few minutes after their chat with the angler-fish, Margot and Thomas returned to the green cabin. They should have been back sooner, but Margot had made the two take the long way back. There’d been another errand that she and Thomas had needed to do.

“How’d it go?” said Ashley.

“Well enough…” said Margot.

“At least they didn’t kill us…” said Thomas.

“They even seemed okay about letting us use them as bait for the others,” said Margot.

“Well, that’s convenient,” said Henrietta. Her posh tone lilting upwards in surprise.

“Maybe a little too convenient...I suspect they plan to betray us and are just going along with us for now because it’s already set in stone that the other teams are as likely to go after them as they are to go after us…”

“Nh...Sounds about right…” said Henrietta. Sighing.

“It’s fine...If everything goes as planned, those woods will have something we need to not be afraid of anyone in this camp. Never mind those fish...Plus, I haven’t given them anything that’d make them any more dangerous than they are already are.” said Margot.

“No need to explain...By this point, I think everyone here trusts that you know what you’re doing,” said Henrietta.

“R-, really?” said Margot.

There were words and sounds of assent from the group that were cut short by the sound of a trumpet. Fishel was calling the campers back to the main house. The time had come for them to march into the woods and see who survived this phase of the game.