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But it wasn’t long until a body collided with mine and I was wrestled to the ground.

This time, they didn’t hesitate to knock me out.

By the time I came to again, my head was pounding. My mouth was dry, body threatening to sink down to the floor from my slumped seated position.

The world was.. Blurry. And not in the way I would’ve expected from a concussion.

Fucking assholes. They’d drugged me after they knocked me out.

A disadvantage, but nothing I couldn’t work with.

I blinked rapidly, trying to chase away the darkness that permeated the edges of my vision, but the involuntary fish-eye effect never left. Only when I heard shuffling next to me and I turned my head to chase it did I realize that the room we were in was pitch black.

To my side, I could make out some shadows. And then slowly, one by one, the masks of each contestant lit up. There were twenty of them in total.

When my mask finally turned on, bright green neon played at the side of my peripheral vision.

I shifted in my seat, stretching.They didn’t restrain me.They took the time to knock me out and drug me, but not restraining me meant they didn’t give two fucks about what I did to the other contestants.

Taking stock of my body, I felt around my arms and legs to see if anything was broken or sprained. I had some bumpsand bruises, but as far as I could tell they hadn’t even bothered to strip me in the end, likely running behind due to the little surprise that I’d set up in my old room.

They hadn’t even thought to look in my bra or underwear, I could still feel the press of the metal containers against my skin, long since heated to body temperature.

A screen lit in front of the group, washing the room in sterile blue light.

Only then did I see just how many cameras were pinned on us, and right below the screen was the plexiglass that separated us and the VIPs who’d been invited to watch the opening.

The theme song began to play through the crackling speakers, accompanied by the sound of bodies shifting anxiously.

Fucking Devil's Playground thinking they can force me in here like some type of animal.

But that’s what they’d done for years, and no one could stop them. At least notyet.Not when they’d made so much money for the country that people were eating out of the palm of their dirty, bloody hands.

They could get away withanything.

Fuck, it wasn’t even that long ago that murder had been illegal in literally any way.

They changed that. Fucked that up for all of us. Made made this world a living hell in the name of a game.

“Welcome, players, to Truth or Dare,” a cheery, computer generated voice said as the screen cycled through all the contestants’ faces and information. “This is the last of the Games this year, so we are looking forward to anexplosiveshow.”

That part was a jab at me, obviously. But it did make me smile.

Because, after all, while I might’ve been kidnapped and forced into the Game… it’d all been a part of my plan.

They came after me becauseImade them. They might’ve left me after they dealt with my mom, thinking I would be some naive little girl and move on with my life, too afraid to provoke them. Scurry away like a cockroach avoiding the kitchen light.

Fuck that.

I’d hacked into their computers and found out some of the vilest, dirtiest secrets I’d ever come across. Though, where they were keeping my mother was still out of my reach.

It was a risk putting me in the Games, but it was the only way they’d be legally able to kill me. Obviously, with power like theirs I could justdisappear, but where was the fun in that? It simply wouldn’t do for a fourth generation Legacy to vanish without a trace.

They didn’t just want to kill me, they wanted to annihilate me. Destroy my family’s reputation.

But it didn’t matter.

Not only was I going to win Truth or Dare, but my entrance into the game would solidify the end of Devil's Playground forever.