Hi guys! I literally edited all these chapters in 24 hours, so I apologize if there's any mistakes. I never edited this many words in such a short time so my brain's fried lol but I had so much going on with my grandpa and moving that this was my only day free to really focus. I hope you guys enjoy them and I hope you're keeping safe and doing alright! And thank you so much for the positive messages and PMs. I'm totally backed up, but I'll be answering every single one! And I CAN'T believe BOTK is almost at 600k reads! 😭😭😭 Thank you so much for your votes, support and comments! 🖤🖤

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What? My mind whirled with so many different thoughts at once that it cut off my breath.

Thirteen.

I did remember at the start of the game Jookie saying there were thirteen contestants, yet only twelve of us actually entered the house. That day was so dang hectic and intense that I just thought they killed off the other person. But what if they didn't?

Rucker peered up at Khan in utter confusion. "Huh?"

"Remember when we all fell into those cages at the beginning of the game, and they started eliminating people?" Khan stood up, pacing. "At the end of it all, they said there were thirteen of us left. Yet only twelve of us actually competed in that first challenge with the body parts."

Yaz shuddered. "I'll never forget that day. Ever. But I honestly don't remember much about other people — I was mostly focused on my damn self."

"We all were," Khan said, walking. "We were all in shock and focused only on our own survival. Every one of us was distracted in some way. That would've been the perfect time to sneak one of us away without the rest noticing it."

I bit my lip. "So many people died that day that I just thought they killed them off too." My mind was also a little sidetracked from seeing the masked figure for the first time, so I didn't really examine the number of contestants as closely as I should have.

"Possibly," Khan said, putting a hand under his chin. "But what if they didn't? When we entered the house, there were twelve names on the game board, so I figured the same as you — probably killed them off. But then, during Layla's killer reveal, Jookie said, "thirteen people entered this house. Twelve killers and one innocent"— those words got me thinking again, what if that last killer did make it into the house with us?"

"He did say that," I whispered, thinking back. He also gave me that riddle before and the answer was... thirteen. But was that what he meant? Another contestant?

"And think back to that tunnel that Bet found," Khan said. "I go back there from time to time and I always see plates and food wrappers."

"I figured that came from the camera crew," I said, looking up at him.

"Could be," Khan said, looking back at me. "But lately, when I've been going through the trash, I see strawberry milk containers and strawberry candy wrappers."

"Which goes along with that strawberry scent we keep smelling," I said, rubbing my leg. "The person who attacked me always smelled like strawberries and so did Layla sometimes."

"Don't forget the pink lipstick," Khan added.

"I still don't get it — why strawberry?" Rucker wrinkled his nose. "Who wants to smell like an artificial popsicle all the time?" His eyes widened. "What if they have a disease or something?"

"Really?" Yaz said, shaking her head. "What disease do you know that makes people smell like a fruit?"

"For your information, knuckle toes," Rucker said, flipping her off. "Diabetics' pee sometimes smells sweet."

"So, the thirteenth contestant covers themselves in pee?" Yaz said, dumbfounded.

"They fucking worship bacon, do you really think they're normal?" Rucker pursed his lips. "Could it be a yeast infection?"

"Yeast infections don't smell like that," Yaz said, rolling her eyes.

Rucker started to speak with a smirk, and Yaz cut him off. "If your next words are, 'How would you know? You got one?' I will punch you so hard in your face that you'll be shitting my knuckles and nails for the next month."

"I wasn't going to be that rude," Rucker murmured. "I do have respect for women."

"Okay, so why you keep talking about my toes, then?"

"Those are just too creepy not to acknowledge." Rucker shook his head. "They look like the crypt keepers' fingers—"

Yaz flew across the bed and tackled Rucker onto his back. Tightening her calves around his thighs, she backhanded his head into the mattress so hard that the whole bed trembled and squeaked.

Rucker grunted, arms flailing around like a car dealership inflatable. "Khan—" he said, taking a loud smack to the jaw. "— get her! She's beating up your sick, helpless patient. H-help me."

"I think the thirteenth contestant exists," Khan said, turning to me, ignoring Rucker's loud pleas for assistance. "And they live in the walls of the house."

Rucker screeched when Yaz twisted his nipple in a way that I didn't even know was possible before she started to kick him.

"How. Does. That. Feel. Huh?" Each word that left her mouth was followed up with a hit.

"Your toenails are like fucking switchblades — I'm bleeding!" He tried to push her foot away, but that just made her dig in deeper. "Stop it, you toe witch. You're gonna give me an STI."

"STI — seriously?" Yaz said, digging her foot in harder.

"I don't know what's under those talons of yours," Rucker said before Yaz smacked the bottom of her foot across his cheek.

My teeth sank into my lip, trying to hold back my laughter as I watched Rucker gargle and flop around, trying to get Yaz off. I turned back to Khan, watching him waltz over to the hole that Seb made in the wall.

Sticking his hand inside the broken plaster, he pulled back tiny speakers. "These caught my eye when I was passing by a couple of days ago. Layla also had these in her walls as well, remember?"

Rucker somehow flung Yaz off him and blocked her next hit by grabbing her thrashing arms and twisting them behind her back. His bandaged legs wrapped around her middle and locked her in place.

"Get off me," Yaz said, eyes blazing, hair strands falling over her face.

"Are you gonna be a good girl?" Rucker whispered in between laughs.

Yaz huffed. "Never." Jerking her head back, it collided with Rucker's nose, making him instantly let go.

Groaning, Rucker clutched his face. "You should be ashamed of yourself for attacking a frail, injured man."

"You should be ashamed for making fun of a helpless girl," Yaz shot back.

"Helpless? With those claws, you call feet? They could protect you from anything. They could probably let the air out of a tire."

With a loud whack, they began to wrestle again, rolling around on the bed like children.

"I remember. The fire devoured Layla's walls, and we saw some of them sticking out," I said, turning back to Khan, ignoring the grunts and screams around me. "But why would they be in my walls...?" As I trailed off, a thought popped into my head. "That voice wasn't in my head after all."

"What you say?" Rucker asked, flinging Yaz off him, letting her tumble to the floor.

I spun my head to face him. "When I was fighting with you — when you weren't talking to me, I got really depressed, and I kept getting lost in my thoughts. And someone kept calling my name and telling me to kill myself. I just thought it was in my head — I've had thoughts like that before — but now I'm starting to think it wasn't."

Rucker scratched his ear. "Shit..."

I touched his hand, the clean bandages rubbing my tips. "It's fine. It's in the past, right?" I smiled, trying to lift that gloomy expression off his face.

That big fight we had was in the past. It didn't matter. We've been through so much stuff since then that thinking about it didn't even faze me. It was a tiny hiccup that just made our friendship stronger.

Rucker squeezed my fingers before letting go. "Yeah," he said, face brightening.

"I think the voice I was hearing was the thirteenth contestant," I said, facing Khan. "I think they were trying to control me like they did Layla."

"Wait," Yaz said, sitting up on the floor, hair tousled around her face. "Remember when Layla kidnapped all of us? At one point, there was a loud booming voice encouraging her. I thought it was probably the producers, but what if it was the other contestant using the speakers?"

"It probably was," Khan said, nodding. "Think about it. If Layla successfully killed all of us that night, she was gonna kill herself right after, which would've left the thirteenth contestant as the last one standing."

"They would've won the whole game without even getting their hands dirty," I said, gripping the blanket.

"Our enemy is a very intelligent individual," Khan said, eyes twirling, voice sounding slightly eager.

My mind started to think back to my interactions with Layla. At first, she was so sad and depressed, always crying. And then, a couple of days later, she was happy, excited even because she made a new friend Zimmie.

ZIMMIE!

"Shit," I said, slapping my head. "I'm so fucking stupid. Zimmie." was right. I was an idiot. How did I miss this? It was right in front of my face.

I think Seb needs time to calm down. I planned on visiting him later.

An intense wave of shame washed over me. was right. He would. But still.

I did nothing wrong. I asked him a simple question — show me your ankle. It wasn't like I singled him out. I peeked at everyone's ankle, and no one else is mad at me. And I'm sorry. I care about Seb too, but we have to start making smart decisions. I said I will talk to him once he cools down.

You wouldn't dare. You're so childish. I hate you so fucking much.

"Zimmie," Rucker said, pulling me from my conversation. "I used to hear Layla whispering that shit in the halls. Creeped me the fuck out, and I went the other way."

"She said Zimmie was her new friend," I said, looking at all of them. "I thought she was losing it because she said she used to hear Zimmie in the walls and in her head, but what if they're a real person?"

"She also mentioned that name when she kidnapped us," Khan said, putting the speakers back into the wall.

"Say this is all true and there is another contestant," Yaz said, brushing her hair out of her face. "Wouldn't we have seen them by now? After this long? How do they shower or get food or request things in the walls?"

"One of us could be helping them," Khan said, staring at Yaz. "They could be someone's secret ally."

My mind went to the one person who would instantly have something in common with them. "Fee. He grew up on a farm and loves pigs. And the person who attacked me has a piggy fetish. I could see them getting along well."

"Again, what's wrong with this person?" Rucker asked, waving his hands. "They like to smell like a Yankee candle, and they get off to piglet? Piglet! A fucking pig. Why would you be obsessed with pigs? They're disgusting animals who eat their own shit."

"But they taste so good." Yaz licked her lips. "Except pig feet. And chitlins. I can't do that shit."

"From what we gathered so far, it seems like the thirteenth contestant likes to control people," Khan said, rubbing his jaw. "Controlling people is what they do best. From what we know about Fee, he might've been controlled by his mother his whole life. When you're controlled like that, it's your norm. And when you don't have that heavy, persuasive influence over you anymore, you can either plummet or flourish. Since he's been here, Fee might've been slowly plummeting, craving that controlling influence. It was his norm — his comfort."

"Which means that if he was approached by another controlling figure," I said, getting what he was saying. "He wouldn't fight it but embrace that connection. It would make him feel almost normal again. At home, maybe."

"You know all these theories could be a crock of shit, right?" Rucker said, scratching the bandage on his wrist. "Layla had a real fucked up childhood, so her talking to herself and doing all the kooky shit she did could just be from that fact alone. It doesn't mean she was controlled. And those speakers could just be for filming purposes so viewers can hear us better. And I remember my first day here. I was looking at everyone when we dropped from those cages, sizing y'all up. And I don't remember seeing anyone but the twelve of us."

Rucker could be right. The thirteenth contestant doesn't exist, and all of these theories could be wrong, and Layla's killer could very well be lurking in the current contestant pool. But when I thought about that fact, it didn't sit well with me.

But could my gut be wrong?

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