Layla spun away from Sebastian who gave me unreadable blue eyes. "What would you know about me, huh? You're just as bad as him."

Be calm and collected. Keep her talking. That would be the best strategy until I could figure a way out of these confinements. "What did I do?"

"You turned your back on me." Intense hatred boiled in her dark brown eyes. "You were my last shred of hope, but you're just like the rest of them. There's no humanity left in this house. Zimmie told me everyone must be cleansed and exterminated. Even myself. "

So, she planned on killing us and then herself? A multiple murder-suicide.

Gmie shuddered and coughed, sliding her eyes over to me. "So, all of this is Betinia's fault? You bitch." That last word came out breathy and soft, but the tone was colored with hatred and agony.

I ignored her. "I'm sorry for what I did to you." Tini wouldn't be sorry though, but she was gone now. I needed to clean up her mistakes. "I was just really angry. I tried so hard to win us that challenge, and all you had to do was eat a tiny bite."

Layla scrunched her face up, a fire burning in her eyes. "It was human meat. Human meat! It goes against God to eat another human, no matter the cost. I thought you would know that more than anyone, Lily."

She called me Lily again. Who was Lily? "Lily?"

A glassiness swarmed over her eyeballs, as bewilderment filled her expression. Then she shuddered before sighing. "Nothing. Never mind."

A throbbing formed in my feet, sending cramps up my thighs. Having my legs in one position was starting to hurt, so I went to move them and that's when my heels clicked on the wood flooring.

Wait, my heels. The knife heels. I could use them to cut my confinements. Why didn't I think of that before? Thank you, Jookie.

My eyes peered up at Layla who still looked lost. I couldn't do it now. I needed to wait until she turned her back. If I bent forward enough, it would be a tight stretch, but I might be able to reach my heels with my wrists, but not when she was watching. I needed to wait and keep talking to her before she started flinging shit again.

At the moment, she appeared to be confused still. Mentioning Lily really threw her off, but she said it first? But then forget? She must be losing touch with reality or hallucinating.

"I know we're in this situation, but you must want to live," I said, shuffling my feet to stretch the rope there a bit. "I know you don't want to die. Not like this. Not here."

"Death is just the start of the human journey." Layla smiled at the sky. "This is painful — being alive hurts every day. Every breath makes it harder." She nodded. "This is how it must be for everyone. Even me. Zimmie is right. She's always right."

What the hell did I say to that? I got tongue-tied for a second, but I caught Khan's eyes from the side. He was mouthing something to me. Glancing his way for a moment, I saw that he was mouthing, "Ask her about her family. Keep her talking."

I looked around at everyone else, hoping for a bit of help with this, but they were all tense and quiet. Probably not wanting to be the next one shitted on, so I was on my own.

Layla went to move toward the bucket, but I blurted out, "But what about your family? Don't you want to live for them? To see them again?'

A vicious chuckle left her throat. "My birth father fucked children, and my mother was a crack whore who abandoned me and fucked animals for pennies."

"Shit," Yaz mumbled, jerking back.

Yeah, shit was right. What girl would be happy to go home to that? Still, I needed to keep her talking. "I t-thought your daddy said you were a cleaning vessel for God. He couldn't be that bad, right?"

"My birth father was a monster, but daddy was a pastor who took me and my sister Lily in after our whore mother got put in jail for trying to fuck a goat for six dollars." Intense adoration filled her eyes for a moment. "When daddy took us in, he became my everything. He taught me everything I knew. He saved me."

"Don't you want to see him again?" I asked.

"Yes," she said, shuddering. "But this is my job. Daddy said God sent me to him to help him cleanse the world. He said I would have a mission one day, but I refused to believe it until Zimmie—"

"Who the fuck is Zimmie?" Rucker said through clenched teeth. "You kept saying that name over the last couple days and now you keep saying it."

Layla let out the biggest grin. "She's my new friend." She tapped her head. "When I'm in my room, I hear her in my head. All the time." She swirled around the room with her arms high. "She's everywhere around me, blessing me. She opened my eyes and made me realize that this is my mission. And it makes sense. This is my purpose, and I'm happy to do it. I want to be closer to God, and I want to be like daddy. I want to cleanse and help the world like him."

"Like him?"

"Daddy is God's ultimate vessel, his favorite child on earth. And he said God ordered him to find me and to teach me the biblical word." Layla blinked before smiling to herself. "He also taught me to be a good girl, and to be pure so that evil would die. Those who sin must be cleansed and put to death. Sins are evil. Sins make people bad. Sins make monsters like all of you. Daddy said we must exterminate the monsters for God, to help his lost children get into paradise."

Wow. This pastor really brainwashed her. He sounded like he should be a villain in a Far Cry game. "Did he exterminate in front of you?" I asked, still wanting to keep her talking.

"Yes, of course," Layla said. "I was six when I saw my first cleansing ritual. And it was glorious."

"What happened?" I asked.

"He just taught me how to cleanse monsters, and how to help rid their bodies of evilness and sin," she said, nodding, "by using my light. For years, he cleansed children and misguided souls with my light."

She wasn't giving me specifics. How did they actually cleanse people? The only thing I saw her do so far was cover Rucker in shit and make Gmie eat shit.

"How exactly do you cleanse people?" I asked, trying not to sound like I was prying. "Is Rucker cleansed now?"

Layla peeked at red-faced Rucker who was still glaring, probably thinking of ways to kill her. "Rucker's in the preparation stage. Which is only step one. Cleansing is a ten-step process."

"Ten-steps?" I asked, trying to keep the disbelief out of my voice.

"Since daddy is male and God's favorite, his cleansing process is less steps," she said, nodding again.

"What does his cleansing process entail?" I asked.

"Step one is injecting his manly fluids into monsters over and over until the evilness leaves," she said, nodding her head quickly. "It's the most important step he said."

I wasn't the only one who knew what she meant by manly fluids because everyone either cringed or looked disgusted.

"So, your daddy was a rapist, huh?" Rucker laughed. "Figures some weirdo had to raise your crazy ass."

Layla flung her head in his direction, pure hatred on her face. "My daddy is not a rapist! How dare you say that? He's God's favorite. He follows God's instructions."

"I don't think God's out there ordering him to rape people," Rucker said, squinting his eyes. "He's a sick fuck who brainwashed you into believing all this crap. You're not a vessel of God. You can't clean us. You're not special. You have no purpose. Zimmie doesn't exist. You're nothing but an ordinary orphan girl who was born to a whore and a pedophile."

Damn. His words came out so harsh that they even offended me a little bit.

Layla's eyes started to twitch, almost like she was having a seizure. Her hands gripped the knife so hard that her knuckles whitened. "Jesus, please forgive me for killing this soul before cleansing him."

Rucker who you thought would be a little frightened about maybe dying to her didn't even flinch. His eyes were dark, his facial expression hard.

She looked like she was about to take a running start at him, but I blurted out, "Isn't killing wrong?"

"He doesn't deserve to be cleansed," Layla said, saliva dripping from her lips. "He deserves to burn in hell."

"But what about all the other monsters?" I asked, not sure whether my next statement might make me her next target. "After you cleanse them, you kill them? Isn't killing wrong?"

"No! It's not killing," Layla snapped at me. "We're cleansing. We're helping God's children. Evil souls must be cleansed so that God will accept them. And in return, I get blessings from God. I'm only doing what he ordered."

I didn't think she was getting many blessings since she was currently on a horror reality show. "Did Lily have the light gift too?" Layla hadn't mentioned her since earlier. It was always her and daddy but never Lily.

"At first, she did, but then daddy said only I had the light to cleanse," Layla said, "because I stayed pure."

"And Lily didn't?"

Her lips puckered, almost like she sucked on the first layer of a sour patch. "Lily became filthy. The devil corrupted her. She started listening to slut music and wearing whore clothing like our mother." Layla shook her head. "But I was always good. Always good."

"If you're getting blessings from God, why are you cleansing and exterminating yourself too?" That I didn't understand. If she considered herself the light and thought she was helping people, why kill herself with us?

Layla averted her eyes. "Cause I've sinned. I w-was always good. Always good."

Her statements about Lily made me think of what she said to Rucker earlier about being similar to him — how they both had that look of bittersweet remorse. And then, I thought of those messages she sent me about Lily.

All of it gave me an idea of how to get out of this mess. I just hope I was right.

♟♙♟