"

Sebastian turned to me with a smile, white tape and gauze masking his injured arm. "I'm good."

Khan never stopped looking at Sebastian. "Me too."

Sebastian strolled over to me. "My arm feels a lot better."

"That's good," I said, turning to Khan. "Thank you."

"Yeah, man. Thanks a lot," Sebastian said, nodding.

"No problem," Khan said.

"You have a trash bag?" I asked Khan, looking down at the dirty clothes in my hands. "These clothes are done."

Khan nodded, going to a corner and grabbing an already semi-filled bag. "I threw mine away too."

Sebastian scratched his neck. "I'm going to go back to my room and shower. Seeing you two all clean got me jealous." He laughed, turning to me. "Do you want me to walk you back to your room?"

"I still need to redress her wounds," Khan said, going back to the recliner with the med-kit on the floor. "I'll make sure she gets back safely."

Sebastian looked reluctant to go at first, but then he gave me a smile. That perfect smile that I was starting to discover might be a defense mechanism for when something was bothering him. "Alright," he said.

Going over to him, I hugged him, wrapping my arms around his waist. Sebastian was one of the first people to be nice to me here. He was my ally, and I think my friend. Plus, he was like me, which made me feel a little less alone.

So the hug was to thank him for sharing a piece of his soul with me earlier and to let him know that I was here for him. And that I understood that he had this wall up and that he didn't want to share his every little concern and emotion with me. But if he wanted to, I was here to listen.

"See you at breakfast tomorrow?" I asked, pulling back from the hug.

"Yeah. Definitely." His smile seemed real this time, but it faltered a bit when he looked at Khan.

I had no idea what was going on between the two guys. Call me clueless, but I didn't have much experience in the boy department. Jonathan was my only boyfriend, and we only dated for like two months before I got kidnapped and put here.

Tim was the only consistent male figure in my life, and we didn't talk much about our feelings or me dating. When I first brought Jonathan home after weeks of him pursuing me because I kept turning him down, Tim just guzzled a beer and placed a .44 magnum on the table before walking away, never saying a word.

Waving goodbye, I closed the door behind Sebastian and turned on my heels to face Khan who was eyeing me again with a blank face.

"You must be an excellent poker player," I said, walking over to him.

He shrugged. "I am banned in a couple of Vegas casinos, so yeah."

"Yeah?"

He gave me an impish grin. "I'm a man of many secrets." He nodded to the recliner and went to speak again but stopped.

"Need me to bend over again?" I asked, cocking my head.

He chuckled. "I didn't want to sound weird again by asking."

"There are some things that you can never not say weird." Walking over to the recliner, I lifted up my shirt and bent over the arm, ass up.

"That is true," he said lifting up the side of the boxers and ripping off the old dirty bandage. It stung. "Thankfully, no dirt got into the wound, but I'm still going to clean it, okay?"

"Yup," I said, feeling him wipe at my butt cheek.

When he finished cleaning and re-bandaging all my old and new wounds, he packed up his kit and grabbed his iPad. "Gotta order more supplies."

"Oh, shit. I'm sorry. Did I use all of your med stuff?"

He gave me a dumb look. "Shut up. It's fine and it wasn't just you. Sebastian's wound needed a lot of supplies."

"It'll probably leave a scar, right?"

"Yeah, but it won't be his first," Khan said, tapping away on his iPad.

"What do you mean?" I asked, sitting on the floor, so that I could cuddle with Duke.

"He covered it too fast, but it looked like he had some old scars on his arm," he said, looking up for a second.

"Self-inflicted?"

"Not sure. He pulled away too fast," he said, typing away.

I never noticed scars on him before, but I didn't really study him like that. He did grow up on a farm though. That couldn't be easy work.

"You want to stay the night again?"

"You think Gmie's going in for round two already?" I snorted. "Why bother? I'll probably be voted off anyway."

"You still have a chance," he said. "Win the next challenge."

"Yeah, but—" a loud beep cut me off.

"Will the losers please come to the common room in ten minutes?" Jookie said, voice booming through the walls. "We decided to do the challenge now, so that you guys have more rest time and more time to vote. So, losers. Be there in ten minutes or be shot in the face. Oh, and the winners can come and watch if they want too."

The challenge was happening now? I didn't even get any rest time, and my body still fucking hurt. "I really can't catch a break."

Khan went to the med-kit again, pulling out some painkillers and some icy hot patches. "Take these and put these on. Hopefully, it'll take away the pain temporarily."

He also handed me a pair of black Jordans.

"You wear Jordans?"

He held up a finger. "A gentleman must always have great style."

"I still need to get pants."

"We should have time to pick some up from your room. It's on the way," he said as I shuffled through my old clothing from earlier, looking for my keys. After finding them, we kissed Duke goodbye, and he glared at us for leaving him alone again. Sorry, boy.

In the hall, we ran into Gmie and her goon posse again. They all looked fresh and clean. But Chi still looked a bit... off, staring off into space. Probably still traumatized from earlier.

Gmie gave me the finger. "Good luck, bitch."

I smiled at the bruises on her face. "For someone so cultured and rich, you'd think you'd behave much classier than you do. I don't think your parents would approve, but I guess they wouldn't really care since they don't give a fuck about you."

Gmie stalled, eyes widening. "You cunt muffin—"

Demo gripped her arm, pulling her down the hall and far away from me.

Khan and I continued our stroll down the hall toward my room, never batting an eye.

"You know cunt muffin could be a compliment," Khan said, looking at me. "Maybe, it means your cuddly and kind?"

"Or that I enjoy muffins?"

"Yeah," he said. And we both cracked up.

Once we got to my room, Khan just looked around at the barren atmosphere as I put on new sweatpants. I only had one pair left.

"You need to upgrade," he said, never commenting on the family pictures displayed on my walls. I was grateful for that. "Why let yourself be so uncomfortable when you don't have to?"

"If I win this challenge, I'll think about ordering stuff."

"I'm holding you to that," he said, as I slammed the door behind us.

In the common room, everyone was already there, so I was the last loser to arrive. That beefy guard from earlier stood at the double doors, gun in hand.

"Come on, the challenge is this way," he said as he walked through the open double doors. We all followed behind him.

"You ready?" Sebastian asked, falling inline with Khan and me in the back.

"Ready as I'll ever be," I said, letting out a sigh because a sharp pain went up my back. The icy hot patches and the painkillers were dulling the pain a bit, but it was still there, slapping me in the face every time I moved.

"You got this," Sebastian said, giving me a reassuring smile.

The guard stopped stomping after a couple of minutes, pausing. We came to a stop in front of a large rectangular window. It reminded me of one of those one-way mirrors that cops use in interrogations rooms. Peering through the window, a kitchen filled my vision.

"Losers, go in," the guard said, opening a door to the left of the window. "Winners can watch from the window."

The five of us trudged through the open door. It slammed shut behind us with a loud bam. The fluorescent lighting shined down on the midnight walls and black granite countertops. The island in the middle of the room glistened with clean utensils while pots hung from above.

My feet squeaked on the black and white checkered floor as we moved further into the swanky kitchen.

Within a second, Jookie emerged from another door in the back dressed in tight white pants, a knife-patterned shirt, and a giant chef's hat. He bowed upon seeing us. "Chef Jookie at your service."

Right when he said that, an eerie sliver tickled up my spine, my tummy forming knots.

"In this challenge, we'll be broken up into teams of two." Jookie grinned. "But since we have an extra person, one of you will be working by yourselves."

Yaz waved her hand. "I'll work by myself."

Aries pointed to Chi. "She's my partner."

Layla gave me a bashful look. "I'm sorry that you're stuck with me."

I shrugged. "It's okay. We got this." I hope.

She smiled and nodded. "Okay."

"Now that we have our teams, let's move onto the challenge." Jookie snapped his fingers, and a guard wheeled in a body bag.

Jookie pulled down the zipper, revealing Tiran's lifeless body. Thick gashes and cuts marred his grayish-toned skin, as dried blood caked his entire body. His eyes stared at the ceiling, dead.

Chi gasped, hands covering her face.

"Oh yeah, baby," Jookie said with a smile. "We're going to be cooking and eating up some human meat tonight. Hope you brought your appetites, losers."

Holy shit.

♟♙♟