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Like I said,rigged.
They’re trying to trick us.
Glancing at Lily, standing a few people down the line from me, I find her already looking at me. The look on her face is pensive, and I wouldn’t doubt if she was pondering the same thing I was. This game is designed for us to know our Advocates and for our Advocates to know us, so throwing us a curve ball would be smart of them to eliminate more Players. Looking down the line, I see a couple overconfident looking Players. Monica is beaming, practically bouncing on her toes. I’d make a lofty bet she thinks she’s won, that she could guess every person who came through in the second round.
Stella, surprisingly, seems unsure. Her expression is blank, patient, as she waits.
She doesn’t have to wait long.
Iris walks into the center game room, approaching the line of us with that overly polite grin on her face. She spends a moment looking at each of us, as she always does, before she starts speaking.
“Today, each of you were kissed by five contestants, and then you were given cunnilingus by five contestants.” My back straightens as I go on alert, noticing Iris’ choice of words. It seemed my guess was correct. We had a different five contestants for the second round. She didn’t specify that they were thesamecontestants. “This was a test to see if you know your Advocate well enough by now. You’ve been given plenty of time with them to know every detail of how they sound, how they feel,” her eyes land on me, “and how they behave.”
That felt targeted.Was she implying that Laurence and I cheated?
“Ten,” Iris cocked her head to the side, hands clasped behind her back, “which contestant in the first round was your Advocate?”
“Five.” I knew it by heart. I had the kiss memorized from start to finish. I would know him by the way he breathed.
Iris’ grin grew wider, giving me a small nod. “Correct.” She turned to a Player I hadn’t spent any time talking to, but I knew her name was Clover. “One. Which contestant in round one was yourfavorite?” The room was so silent, I heard Lily make a sharp inhale.
“Um…” Clover took a moment to think, entrapped by the trick question for a moment as she did mental gymnastics to analyze Iris’ intentions. If I was her, I would answer honestly. They said we were guessing who our Advocate was based offthe second round, and it seems they’re trying to catch us on technicalities, their words being more literal.
“Two,” Clover answers with a sweet smile. I would bet that two was her Advocate.
Iris looked disappointed. “Based off votes from your audience, they seem to think three was your favorite, based off how long you kissed them. Would you deny that?”
Clover was stun locked. She stared at Iris like she had just spoken gibberish. “No-no, it was a good kiss. But it wasn’t my Advocate.”
“I didn’t ask you who your Advocate was, I asked you who yourfavoritewas.” Iris stared back at a very confused Clover. The silence was filled with so much tension you could have grabbed it from the air. It put me on edge. I was nervous for these girls. I was nervous formyself.
What if my guess was still wrong? What if Laurence reallywasin the second round and I just don’t know my Advocate well enough?I wonder, my mind frantic.
Only time will tell.
Iris moved on from Clover, the first-round guessing seeming not to matter, as I had guessed. “Three.” Monica perked up even more. “Which contestant in the second round was your Advocate?”
“One,” she answered confidently, rocking back and forth on her heels.
Iris kept her grin, but something shifted in her eyes. Her look darkened in an excited way as she said what we all feared. “I’m sorry Monica, but that is incorrect.”
Monica went still. It felt like an icepick had stabbed me in the stomach. She was going to be shipped off to the processing center and she didn’t even know it.
I wanted to leap out of line and accuse Iris of blackmail, of lying to the Players. I’m sure Monica thought the onlyconsequence to losing was missing out on the reward money and fucking a billionaire. I wanted to scream a warning to her to run, but there was nothing but jungle surrounding us, and beyond that, endless ocean.
“You are permanently eliminated from the games, Monica,” Iris told her with barely suppressed glee as a pair of guards entered the room and headed for her.
“No,” Monica protested, taking a step backward. “Give me a second guess! I’ll get it on the second guess! Please!”
To my surprise, Iris held up a hand, halting the guards who lingered close to Monica, but kept their hands off her. It was nerve-wracking to watch them. I dare a glance at Lily, who looks just as nervous as me, but she was the only one in on the Echelon Society’s secret.
Iris gestured for Monica to continue, a diabolical grin on her face. “Go ahead.”
“My Advocate was four,” Monica said, but she sounded unsure. She was probably like me, and not given her advocate as a contestant in the second round, but she didn’t know her Advocate well enough to notice. That was the whole point of the test, after all.
That didn’t mean I didn’t feel for her when Iris shook her head and the guards grabbed onto Monica’s arms, guiding her out the door.
She surrenders, allowing them to guide her, nothing but a look of visceral disappointment on her face as the door clicked softly shut behind them and Iris’ attention returned to us. It was difficult not to scream after her, to tell her to fight. A quiet resolve grew in me. Despite not being a fan of Monica, she didn’t deserve to live out her days as a servant to the corrupt men here.
