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Ella shook off my grip, divin’ for the weapon, but I was too fast, bending to pick it up fluidly, the tip of the weapon instantly pressed to her jugular as I crowded her back against the wall.

She thought she was going up against a rookie.

As if I hadn’t spent my entire fuckin’ life preparing for this. As if my family wasn’t known as big player killers every time they stepped foot onto the island.

Her breaths came in panicky pants, desperate tears forming in her eyes.

A test,my mind warned. She looked pitiful. She looked scared.

It looked real enough to make my heart twist.

But I knew better now. I knew I had to end this.

“P-please! I wasn't going to actually kill you! You've gotta know that! Cam, I trust you. You trust me. We're a team!”

“Is that right?” I teased, the events of the last few hours rolling through my mind like tumbleweeds in the desert. The picture painting itself in waves of fury, like a late summer sunset—blood red. "Because the way I see it, you've been getting fat as a tick on my hard work, waiting for a moment to get rid of me so you could get to the end. Let me believe you were loyal so I’d help your worthless ass."

“C-Cam, no!” she begged, her voice cracking on a sob. “Please, please! You don't understand!”

Like hell I don’t understand. This place is my whole fuckin’ life!

“Please spare me the fuckin’ waterworks, darlin'. You signed up. You chose to be here just like I did. I don’t care what your reason?—”

“I didn't sign up!" Ella shouted, fat tears rolling down her splotchy, red face. "I didn't choose this! Why would anyone choose this hell?”

Is she joking?

Devil's Playground got away with many things. Murder being the biggest. And all because people gave their consent. Theysignedup for their own murderandfor it to be televised. All for the chance of winning big at the end.

I reared back with a laugh. “Ella, ain’t no use in lyin’ to me. Of course you signed up. I reckon you’re regrettin’ it now that it’s gotten ugly. But you signed on the dotted line like everyone else.”

“Cam, I swear, I didn’t. I never wanted to be here. I fucked up, but I wouldn’t ever choose to be here.”

Now, wasn’t that a likely story? Preying on my sensibility, my natural lenience.

I almost felt proud, and I knew Ma would love it. She always did favor social strategy over just plain killin’.

But it was a bunch of poppycock. It was a core element of the Games, the most basic rule. We all made the call to be here. Signed up with your own pen to the paper. Read the contracts. Knew what we were gettin' into. Fame, fortune, and death. Whatever the outcome—it was our choice.

It wasalwaysthe player's choice.

“C’mon, you gotta be able to come up with a better lie than that, Ella. This is just really fuckin’ sad.”

“I'm not lying!” she insisted, her dark eyes meeting mine angrily. “Why the fuck would I sign up to be hunted like an animal?”

“Well, technically, you didn’t,” I corrected in a drawl. “That’d be Hide N’ Seek. You signed up to run a maze. Just so happens?—”

“I didn't sign up!” she screamed, her tears dripping from her chin.

I pressed the tip of the blade against her jugular.

It’d be so fuckin’ easy to kill her right now. Take her life for makin’ a fool outta me.

Make a show of it, Pa crooned lovingly in my ear.

But I wasn’t no PKer. I wouldn’t do it. And there was just somethingabout the way she mentioned fucking up that had me pausing.

It’s a test,my mind reminded me. But even so, it would be a disservice for me to notat least try and see how far thistestwould go.