Jookie was already there, bouncing around the room like a child on Christmas. Dressed in formal attire with his dark blue suit, peacock tie, and knee-high boots, he graced all of us with a chilling grin, making the tension increase even more.

When I passed by him, our eyes met, and he gave me a private grin before I continued on, sitting in the recliner that I sat in the last time I was here.

Bringing my knee to my chest, my eyes glanced up at the skylight. A moon shone in the dark sky, a bright crescent in a sea of black clouds and icy fog.

Jookie fixed his tie before clapping his hands together, eyes focusing on the camera in the back. "Welcome, everyone to our first elimination. Such a joyous occasion, right?" He motioned to us. "To the Bloody Doe Three, good luck and please go stand in front of your picture on the killer wall."

Rucker moved away from the wall, face stony and angry. He wore a muscle shirt, showing off his tats.

Chi looked decked out today in her tight booty shorts and choking crop top. Hey, if I were on the chopping block, I'd dress to impress too.

Tiran followed behind Chi and Rucker, seeming rather relaxed, contrasting with his usual fidgety demeanor. He seemed sort of cocky almost.

"Everyone, if you look down at your tablets now, you'll see an image of each of the Bloody Doe Three. Whoever gets the most votes will die," Jookie said before nodding to the three on the chopping block. "You three get to vote as well. And to everyone else, whoever you vote for will show up under your name on the killer board, so don't think your vote will be secret. Everyone will know."

He lowered his tone, gazing out at all of us. "Be careful who you vote for. Remember that alliances have been formed and voting for someone who ends up actually surviving an elimination can earn you an enemy. So, everyone ready?"

In perfect fashion, Gmie spoke first. "Yeah. We all agreed that Rucker should get voted off."

"No, we didn't," Yaz said, finally speaking up. She sat across from me on a similar recliner, wiping some of her black hair out of her glasses. Her eyes, filled with disrespect and annoyance, zeroed in on Gmie. "You took it upon yourself to state an opinion and expected us to agree. And I don't."

"Rucker is a child murderer. Who wants someone like him around?" Gmie stuck her nose up. "But I guess some poor income bitch like you doesn't care about that, huh?"

Yaz's eyes blazed to a darker caramel. "You better watch your mouth, hoe. There ain't no bodyguards here to save you."

Jookie held up a finger. "Fighting is totally encouraged."

Gmie ignored both of them and turned to face the rest of us. "Rucker is a child murderer. We don't want him here."

Rucker flexed his hand into a fist, face glowering. "There's no proof of that."

"We do however have proof on Chi-Lynn," Khan said, interrupting Gmie who was about to speak again.

Chi snapped her head up, staring at Khan. "Huh?"

Khan captured her gaze, standing tall. "Your clue was a bunch of numbers. It was binary code. I deciphered it into a phone number, which led me to poison control." He stared at her. "Why is that?"

She remained calm, even though her ears pinked. "I have no idea."

"Probably because you poisoned people before?" Khan said, staring at her, never dropping his gaze. He was good at that, keeping your gaze. It felt like he was trying to read you from the inside out.

"You said you were all alone," Khan said. "Why would a southern belle be all alone? Down south families are usually huge, but you have no one."

Her mouth let out a harsh chuckle, eyes narrowing. "That's a stereotype. I was raised by my grandparents, and they passed away."

Khan shrugged, not letting up. "I'm guessing not by normal means?"

Wow. He must've been investigating people this whole time as well. Mostly Chi by the looks of it. If he recognized and figured out the binary code, that must mean he's probably some computer tech or hacker. That's probably why he was looking at his anklet that day in the hall, trying to figure out a way to get it off.

"Okay, none of that matters," Gmie said, defending Chi. "If she did poison someone, who cares?"

I care. I'm never eating or drinking anything she makes.

"She's still better than the pedo over there," Gmie said.

"I'm not a pedo," Rucker said, looking like he was ready to murder Gmie. She was pushing his buttons.

"And how do we know that?" Gmie snapped at him. "There's no proof against it."

"He's not a pedo," I said.

Everyone turned to me. Jookie had a twinkle in his eyes like he was waiting for me to start some shit up.

Rucker seemed surprised that I came to his defense.

Gmie glared at me. "How do you know? Do you personally know him?"

"No," I said.

She cackled, letting out an annoying sound. "Don't tell me he gave you his nice big Asian sausage too."

Rucker glowered at her. "I'm not some big man whore going around wanting to plow everything." He then turned to me, eyes wide. "Not that I wouldn't fuck you in a heartbeat — fuck yeah I would — shit. Sorry." He scratched his head, looking down at the ground.

Sebastian narrowed his eyes at Rucker, lips tightening.

Khan arched a brow, face unreadable.

Jookie burst out laughing, eyes dead. "Guess we might have a new hookup in the works."

"Can we get back to the discussion, please?" Yaz asked, snapping her fingers.

"Umm yes," I said, trying to bring everything back to the voting session. "I have proof that Rucker isn't a pedo or a child killer."

Minimizing the voting app, I went to the pictures of the tats and the booties. "If you looked closely at the booties, they had Chinese symbols on the bottoms. The same symbols on Rucker's left arm."

"You were following me?" Rucker asked when I pointed to the picture of his arm at the gym.

"Not really. Just passing by and your tats caught my eye," I said, shrugging. "I saw the way you looked at them, and I knew that they had to mean something special. So, I googled the symbols, and I couldn't find an exact translation but the gist of it was that it said, 'rest in peace, little sister.' And the booties each say, 'little sister' which matches your tats."

Gmie cleared her throat. "That's even worse — he killed his own family member. What would he do to us?"

Khan made a noise. "Chi probably killed her own grandparents. What's the difference?"

"There's no proof of that," Gmie said, eyes narrowing.

"There's none for Rucker either," Khan said, answering back. Even though his face was still blank, everyone could tell that he was getting sick of Gmie's mouth.

Gmie growled and almost stood up, but Demo kept her down, patting her hand. "It just makes sense," she snapped. "He murdered that guy during the first challenge with no hesitation. He's a killer. Like any intelligent individual, I put the facts together, and it points to him murdering his sister."

I clicked off the photos and looked at Rucker. "I don't think he killed his sister. The way he looks at the tattoos resembles sadness and loss. He loved her."

Rucker averted his eyes to the floor, not moving. This must be a tough subject for him. Last night, his visitor had been a little girl, his sister's look-a-like. That must've torn him up inside.

Gmie rolled her eyes. "You can love someone and still kill them, dumbo." She slicked back the edges of her perfect hair. "Rucker's the worst out of the three. He needs to go. And mostly everyone agrees with me."

"Actually, there's someone worse than him." I looked at the last contestant in the Bloody Doe Three. "Tiran."

♟♙♟