It felt like I was slowly fading, vision becoming flashing white and black dots. I felt myself going over the edge when I heard —

Tini? There was no response, but my body gained a surge of strength, thick tubes of adrenaline skirting up my spine as I jerked my head forward.

That movement smacked my attacker into my backside, letting their hands slack around the choking device, loosening the tight metal a bit. My body reached for that tiny bit of relief, sucking in air like a baby on a nipple.

"Just die, bitch." A harsh feminine voice whispered at me while trying to tighten their grip on the chocking device, but I ended up sloshing my head forward again, tossing my attacker off balance and forward with me.

They stumbled, and I used that nanosecond of time to fling my body forward, sending my attacker flying in front of me, causing a loud crash to erupt.

"Fuck," my attacker yelled, glass shattering as the pounding on the door increased.

My esophagus slurped in air like it was the last source of nutrients in the world, lungs burning as a tight metal wire tangled around my throat and I pulled it off.

My attacker didn't even give me a chance to gasp again before charging into me, knocking me backward. The blackness consumed my vision, so I didn't see what I fell into, but I could feel — and it hurt, pain jetting through my side as the banging on the door hammered into my eardrum.

My attacker gripped my shoulder and slide their hands up to my neck, trying to latch on. But I elbowed them somewhere, causing a loud wince before my hands started jabbing at the air with the pen, hard and wild like it was my only chance of survival.

The tip landed somewhere soft, and my hand surged forward. A high-pitched girlish scream cloaked the intense atmosphere, liquid covering my hand.

Seconds later, the common room door broke off the hinges, bellowing across the room into the far wall, wood chips sprinkling the air like throwing rice at a wedding. A square box of light spilled over the carpet before my two heaving bodyguards barreled through, eyes wild.

"You — t-two suck at your j-jobs." My voice filtered out in a high-pitched, dry tone, sounding like a smoker's cough mixed with me wandering through the desert without water for years.

I fell to my knees, hands massaging my aching neck as girlish screams continued to assault my ears.

Rucker switched on the light as Sebastian came to my side, helping me stand. Demo hollered in the corner, banging her body in frustration as her hand cupped her impaled eye, the pen sticking out perfectly clean.

Just like Layla.

Rucker glowered at Demo, hands clenching. "She snuck passed us."

I couldn't comprehend what he was saying because everything in me was still trying to recover from my strangulation.

Thick, quick coughs poured from my lips, saliva dripping down in long strands. Every part of me begged for more air; it was like that small depravity of oxygen tricked my body into believing that it hadn't breathed in months, so it sucked up any available air, making me lightheaded and dizzy.

"I got you." Sebastian held me close to his chest, wrapping his arms around me, chin on my head. "I'm so sorry," he whispered, voice soft. "I should've been paying more attention and not arguing with numbnuts over there."

Footsteps screeched from the hall, and Gmie rushed into the room, a horrified squeak leaving her throat. "Oh my god," she said, wobbling over to the hysterical Demo.

"Shut the fuck up," Rucker said, raising his voice at Demo who kept holding her bleeding eye while screaming and thrashing into everything around her. That whole right corner was a mess. "You deserve more than what you got."

Gmie chucked a lamp at his head, missing him by an inch when he hopped back. "How could you say that to her? Fuck you." Globs of tears cascaded down her cheeks, fingers clenching before turning her eyes onto me. "This is your fault." She tried to tackle me, but Rucker flung her back with one arm like he was swatting a bee off a flower.

"Stay away from her," Rucker said, face hardening. His hand latched around Gmie's throat. Her eyes went large as she hung off the floor, feet dangling. Then, he threw her at Demo and they both went down, causing Demo to scream even louder this time.

The agonizing noise made me jerk as I continued to pant like a pregnant woman, throat sore.

The next round of footsteps raced down the far hall and belonged to the rest of the contestants, except Fee. They all crashed in like police officers late to a kidnapping.

"What the fuck happened?" Yaz tumbled in, eyes searching the scene.

"Holy shit." Squeaking, Chi stumbled back into Aries who had a nauseous look on his face as they both stared down at the floor where Gmie was trying to help the screaming Demo. The pen still embedded her eye, blood trickling around the wound.

Layla got stabbed in the eye, and I just stabbed Demo. Wasn't that ironic?

"Betinia fucking stabbed her," Gmie said, voice roaring with accusation and I think...hurt? Did she actually care about Demo?

"She f-fucking tried t-to k-kill me," I said, voice still not working completely. My body still felt really weak, like I could feel myself wanting to collapse, and the only thing keeping me up was Sebastian.

"Most people smoke after a fuck," Yaz said, looking at Gmie who flipped her off, "not try to kill someone. You bitches are crazy."

Khan moved away from the threshold and stood in front of me. "Are you okay? What hurts?" He didn't even let me answer just gently caressed my throat. "She choked you with a wire?"

I nodded, head becoming heavy.

"Weren't you guys supposed to be protecting her?" Yaz snapped, glaring at Sebastian and Rucker. "I guess those muscles of yours are fucking useless."

Rucker glowered at Yaz. "Demo fucking snuck passed us because of soft tits over there---"

Khan thinned his lips, eyes lightening to a blazing brown. "Fuck your excuses. You both were probably arguing again about something asinine." His usual calming tone was laced with thick malice and rage.

Whoa, I've never seen him angry before, and it was fucking scary. His whole demeanor changed like a switch — nose flaring, body hardening.

"We're a fucking team and everyone plays a role," Khan spat out, staring at Sebastian and Rucker like they were naughty children. "If you two couldn't do the simple job of guarding her, you should've let me or Yaz come out as her back up. We all knew there was a target on her back. So you should've been extra careful." His voice came out fluid and commanding with a hint of disgust.

Sebastian's eyes lit up in anger. "We didn't do it on purpose. It—"

"I don't care," Khan said, cutting him off again with a hand. "We can't make mistakes in a place like this. If she didn't save herself, she would be dead because of you two brainless dicks. If you're not going to do your part and we can't depend on you and you can't get along, then get the fuck out because we don't need you. Either of you."

"Uh yeah, what he said," Yaz said, still looking shocked by his outburst. Everyone looked a little frazzled by it.

Rucker's jaw throbbed, but he bit his tongue and turned to me. "I'm sorry, Betinia," he said, fingers threading through his hair, remorse in his eyes. "I fucked up. You're my partner and I let you down. I'm sorry."

"Yeah," Sebastian said, giving me sad eyes. "I'm sorry."

"We don't have time for your fucking apologies," Gmie said, interrupting our group moment with her annoying voice. "We need to save Demo."

Demo was only moaning now, but still withering. I guessed the pen didn't go as deep as I thought, so it must've only damaged the eye and not her brain.

Yaz snorted. "Save Demo? Are you bitches loco?" she asked, arms folded. "You had a plan to murder us all, why would we help you?"

"And you just tried to strangle our partner," Rucker said, voice angry.

"That's all in the past," Gmie said, patting Demo's arm. "We need to move on."

"It just happened thirty seconds ago!" Yaz let out a loud laugh. "Fuck you and that pirate ass one-eyed bitch, okay?"

Gmie sucked her teeth and pointed at me. "This is a fucking game, and you can't blame us for trying to kill her and get the special perks." Then she turned back to Demo. "Our plan for killing the rest of you was abandoned a while ago."

"No, it wasn't," Chi said, leering down at her. "You just talked about it yesterday, how you were going to try to kill one of them and blame it on Betinia."

Gmie threw a bookend at Chi, hitting her in the shoulder. "You're a lying cunt. I never said that."

Chi screeched in pain, hair flying around for a second before she launched herself at Gmie. But Aries pulled her back.

"It should've been you," Chi said, trying to fight off Aries' arms. "You should be the one stabbed in the eye and crying because you're a heartless bitch."

"And you're just a big-boobed slut who needs to go wipe that cum off her face," Gmie said, turning away to comfort Demo who was now sobbing.

Chi lurched out of his grasp, going face first into Gmie. But Gmie was ready, using her foot to knock Chi right in the chin.

"I j-just w-want to go back to the room," I said, turning away from the useless brawl. I didn't really care. I needed to lie down for a second.

"Can you walk?" Khan asked as I stumbled.

"I got her," Sebastian said, coming to grab me, but Khan knocked him off.

"I don't trust you to do anything at this moment," Khan said curtly before picking me up, bridal-style and carrying me out of the room.

All I heard was Sebastian suck his teeth, but I really couldn't comprehend much because my throat ached and felt raw, and everything felt and looked fuzzy.

Was this the lasting effects of being choked? Was I dying slowly? And Tini... I felt her for a brief second, and then she was gone again. Or maybe I didn't feel her? What if it was just my imagination?

I shuddered, the lights in the hallway hurting my eyes.

"You're going to be fine," Khan whispered down at me, eyes like two caramel apples.

"A-am I-I?" I whispered back, body vibrating with exhaustion, head heavy.

He watched me, eyes never leaving me as he hurried through the halls. "I won't let you die."

A soft chuckle whisked from my lips, throat radiating in pain. "Y-you c-c-can't pro-promise t-that."

The edges of his lips turned upwards into a shockingly bright and reassuring grin. "A gentleman never lies."

"Nah, I know plenty who lie," Yaz said, coming in step beside us. "They're just better at it."

"Why you go and mess up his shot like that?" Rucker came around Khan's other side with Sebastian on Yaz's other side.

"What you talkin bout?" Yaz said, confused.

"That man was trying to shoot his shot and you ruined it," Rucker said, shaking his head.

Khan rolled his eyes. "I wasn't trying to 'shoot my shot' I was trying to comfort her and keep her calm since she almost just died."

"I know, I know," Rucker said, looking frustrated. "It won't happen again."

"Good," Yaz said, looking at Rucker and then Khan. "And if you're trying to get into Betinia's pants, you gotta try better than that soft 'gentleman' crap. This bitch almost had an orgasm cutting up a corpse, you gotta come better."

Even with my throat in agony, body tired, and my vision a bit blurry, I couldn't help but laugh at that and Rucker joined me.

Sebastian appeared blank, unreadable.

Khan shook his head, but humor swirled in his eyes. "There's never a dull moment with our team."

"Cause we're the murder squad," Rucker said before smiling.

"That's so stupid," Yaz said. "Murder squad? Really?"

"Death squad?" Rucker said.

"No," Yaz said, shaking her head.

"Did anyone catch what Chi said?" Sebastian asked, cutting off Rucker as he was about to say yet another group name. "About Gmie wanting to kill someone and blame it on Betinia?"

"Yeah, I heard it, but Gmie being the killer is too predictable," Yaz said, scratching her head.

"She was the first one at the body," Sebastian said. "And Demo was the last one near Layla before the footage cut. They both could've jumped her."

"It's possible," Khan said, clutching me closer as I coughed, almost falling.

"Maybe that's why Demo attacked Betinia," Sebastian said, excitement dripping from his tone now. "Because she thought Betinia was gonna solve it."

"Or Gmie could've just wanted the special perk like she said, Kleenex," Rucker said.

Khan interrupted Sebastian before he could retort, looking annoyed at their fighting. "It's a good theory, but we don't have evidence for or against it," he said, trying to be neutral.

"We don't have evidence against anyone," Yaz said before sighing. "That's the problem."

"Maybe, we weren't meant to solve this thing?" Sebastian said, running his hands through his hair.

"N-no," I said before letting out a sickening cough, head humming. It's only been a few minutes, and I felt worse by the second, but I wouldn't let them give up.

I know we could solve this. I just needed to rest and retrace Layla's footsteps. My gut told me it would lead me to the killer.

"W-we c-can d-do t-this," I said, fingers digging into my palm from the pain of speaking.

"I agree," Khan said, nodding. "We can."

"Yeah because we're the Death Squad," Rucker said with a grin.

"We are not the Death Squad," Yaz said, coming around and elbowing him. "Stop trying to make that happen. Just stop."

Rucker folded his arms. "Fine, can you think of somethin better?"

"Yeah," she said, tipping her chin. "Give me a few days."

♟♙♟