"And…Wendy wins!" Leonie yelled once again. Even she seemed disturbed by what she just witnessed, picking up the tone near the end of her announcement.

"You still alive?" Wendy asked coldly. No response. Her job was done, at least a little. She calmly walked out of the door back into the main hall, where everyone who completed their fights were waiting. Cyrus looked as indifferent as ever, while the others all looked horrified. Amber and Vanessa looked at each other, while Andrei just fixated his gaze on her.

"What… was that?" He asked calmly.

"I beat Micah." Wendy replied calmly. She stood still, looking on the floor. Her metal pole and trousers were both drenched in blood. And when Andrei looked at her, he noticed she was shaking. As much as she tried to hide it, the weight of her strikes was finally catching up to her.

"Wendy!"

The five of them turned around, and Silvia and Odebode were standing by the hallway. Silvia ran over to Wendy with Odebode following.

"What the fuck did you do?" She asked, shaking Wendy's shoulders.

"I beat Micah." Wendy repeated calmly.

"Wendy…Micah might be dead." Odebode added slowly.

"Yeah, I know." Wendy nodded. She went to one of the leather couches and sat on it, next to Cyrus. "That was the point."

"But what made you do it?" Vanessa asked. "Is this about Eric?"

"Because if Micah's dead, then killing Amber will be easier." Wendy announced quietly.

For a brief few seconds, everyone's eyes locked on Wendy.

"I'm guessing this is about Eric?" Amber asked. She didn't seem to pass judgement on Wendy.

"It's not about Eric." Wendy replied quietly. "It's because you're with the Novas."

The eyes were all on Amber now, who remained calm.

"You think I'm the mole, huh? What made you think that?"

"You're the leader of a crime syndicate." Wendy started. "And when you came back yesterday Cyrus was covered in blood while you were fine! And Eric was dead!"

"Okay, but why did you have to kill Micah?" Vanessa asked.

"Because I couldn't kill Amber alone!" Wendy snapped back. "But if I killed her friend then it'd be easier!"

"Wendy, Wendy." Amber sighed. "I'm not the mole. The reason I didn't have any blood on me is because Eric wanted to take on the challenge alone."

"And what was the challenge?" Wendy yelled back.

"We aren't allowed to say." Cyrus replied calmly. He should have mentioned the robot fights, btu he frankly didn't care to continue Mersache's lies. "Trust me, Wendy. I was there. I have no reason to follow Amber. And none of her actions so far have led me to think she is the mole."

"But…she was always around! She's lying to all of you! She's working with them!"

"Wendy, her girlfriend died." Vanessa said calmly. "I don't think she'd let that happen."

"Besides, she owns a crime gang, like you said." Silvia replied. "Don't exactly know what she could want."

"To live?!" Wendy yelled. "Like the rest of us? Or to let the rest of her gang live?"

"Didn't her gang get shoved into Kalea or something?" Odebode asked.

"Something like that." Amber replied, showing a pained expression for the first time since the conversation started.

"Wendy…just stop." Silvia whispered next to her, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder. "She's not the mole."

"She's lying!" Wendy screamed, slapping Silvia's hand away. A few shocks were coming out of her now, which she gathered into her hand from her hair. Her index and middle finger pointed directly at Amber, who just sighed and surrounded herself with a wall of shadows. Cyrus moved behind her. Just before Wendy let the shock out, Silvia grabbed her hand with a hair whip, sending the jolt of electricity into the ceiling.

"What are you doing?" Wendy asked, trying desperately to be calm.

"Wendy, she isn't the mole!" Silvia yelled.

"Why are you defending her?"

"Because she isn't the mole!" Silvia repeated. "Look, I know what happened to Eric hurts, but she didn't kill him. She doesn't have a reason to."

"Then who is the mastermind?" Wendy screamed, her eyes filling with tears.

"It's me!"

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Wendy stood in place for a second. Everyone did. Amber looked for the fear to leave Silvia's face and that line to be revealed as a bluff.

It wasn't leaving. It looked genuine.

"W-what was that?" Vanessa squeaked out.

"Care to repeat that?" Cyrus asked calmly.

"I'm…I'm the…I'm the…"

Silvia took a few steps back, barely avoiding a swing from Wendy's pole. Nothing left to do except stare at everyone staring back at her. So she ran.

"Odebode, I need to do something." Cyrus announced, getting up out of his chair. "Andrei, Amber? Restrain Wendy."

Andrei pulled Wendy in closer. Wendy let out a bunch of incoherent screams directed towards Silvia, while Amber stood in front, covering both of them in a wall of shadows.

Odebode and Cyrus ran after her quickly, until Silvia ran into the girls bathroom.

"Excuse me, miss Silvia?" Cyrus asked, knocking on the door. "We just want to talk."

"Then just go in." Vanessa replied.

"Well, it's…the woman's bathroom. Just walking in there seems slightly…unneeded, don't you think?"

"It's a pretty important issue we're talking about." Vanessa replied. "I'll let you in this time."

"Thank you." Cyrus replied, lowering his hat over his eyes. Vanessa opened the door, and him, Odebode, and Andrei followed her in.

Inside was a sterile bathroom with a normal colour scheme, which looked like nobody ever used it. Inside, they heard heavy breathing from one of the stalls. Second on the right of the five stalls in front of them. Cyrus approached the door, knocking on the stall door politely.

"Silvia?" Cyrus asked. "Can you come out?"

The breathing at the other end of the door stopped. The room was overcome with the environment of dead air.

"Vanessa. How dangerous would it be to get your parasites to take the door down?"

"Very." Vanessa replied.

"Understood." Cyrus nodded. "Odebode, if you please."

Odebode summoned his sword, slashing downwards twice until the door collapsed. On the other end was a terrified Silvia, alive and well.

"Silvia. You need to understand we aren't here to hurt you." Cyrus said calmly, standing in front of her, hands behind his back. "You don't seem like the kind of person who would do something like this without reason."

Silvia looked behind him, and Odebode was leaning behind the door. Vanessa was also in the room, not really adding to the intimidation factor.

"I just want to ask you a few things." Cyrus continued. "Would you allow me?"

"And if I don't?" Silvia asked.

"I'll call Andrei and he'll block the door. I hate to say it, but you can't escape."

"Silvia took one more look around the room and realized there wasn't an escape route. She glanced at her watch, to see if Leonie and Kalea, or even the boss had anything. Nothing. They're probably waiting this out to see what happens.

"What do you want to know?" Silvia asked.

"First off, what are they giving you?" Cyrus asked.

"Paying for my brother's college."

"Can I ask which one?"

"Brickwall."

"On level five?" Cyrus asked. "And if I remember correctly, you're from level two?"

"Yeah. He wants to study law. Help out people on the lower levels."

"Interesting." Cyrus whispered to himself.

"They say if I survive to the end, the boss will make sure nothing happens to him."

"Yes, he'd certainly need that." Cyrus sighed. "Okay, question number two. What did you have to do under these people?"

"When the higher ups consider things to be getting too boring, they bring me in to spice things up."

"And how'd you do that?" Cyrus asked.

"Well, first thing they asked me to do was kill someone in the city exploration challenge. You know, the one where you tried to kill Amber?"

"I remember it." Cyrus sighed.

"Well, I was told to kill someone the people watching weren't interested in. So I had to protect Valentina, Amber, and Ulrich."

"So was Aurora's death your doing?" Cyrus asked.

"Nope. They left me in the dark about that one, probably to throw the reveal of who killed Timothy at me."

"Right, right. But Gemma's death wasn't you, was it?"

"Nah. I was trying to get Lloyd killed. The show wanted to keep him around, but they gave me records of what everyone did. So if I had to kill anyone, I could at least cause a freak accident that takes him out."

"I see." Cyrus nodded. "And on the topic of killing…was anyone killed because of you?"

Silvia sat in place for a few seconds.

"Yeah." She finally answered. "Seeta was all me. I had to lead her to an elevator and not get in, which would strangle her. You can ask Andrei about it, he was there."

Silvia put her hat over her eyes, in order to mask the tears falling from her face.

"And yesterday. I was supposed to kill Wendy, but… I just couldn't do it. And if she didn't kill Micah, then I would have had to kill Odebode, or the deal was off."

"Wait, what?" Odebode asked.

"Don't act yet." Cyrus commanded with a quick glance over his shoulder.

"Apparently the people running the show are scared of what you two are planning. They knew I couldn't kill you, so killing Odebode was the next best thing."

"Right, right." Cyrus replied. "Well, I think I asked enough questions. And I only have one thing to ask."

"What?" Silvia asked.

"Are you staying with them, or with us? You know about my plans, so what's your next move?"

"Well, I guess my plan is-"

"That's enough discussion, everybody!"

Cyrus turned around, and Leonie was casually leaning by the doorframe, looking like she was about to burst out into laughter.

"Sorry to interrupt…whatever perverted shit is going on here, but we need to take Silvia with us. Again, sorry this is so soon, but we need to make preparations for the finale."

"Finale?!" Vanessa asked. "But there are seven of us left!"

"Well, we figured since everything from here to outside was made so much more interesting by this season, we're letting you go home a day early! Come on, a happy face or two? No? Tomorrows the final challenge! Me, Silvia and Kalea against the six of you!"

"Got it." Silvia replied. "Cyrus, could you move please?"

Behind her, Odebode summoned his sword, with it placed against Leonie's throat. Leonie casually put her fingers in front of her neck, pushing the blade away from her.

"Best not to do that, I already had to take someone back there out."

"Excuse me?" Cyrus shouted. "Who was it?"

"Tell you what? You leave me to collect Silvia, and you can see what I had to do. Sound fair? Now get out before it's a five-person finale."

Leonie was slowly starting to glower at the remaining contestants, and all three of them left the room without a word. Once they left, Cyrus ran back towards the main hall, and once he got there, he saw three people who stayed. Wendy was against the wall, unconscious at best. Amber was where she last was, casting a shadow over Andrei.

And next to Andrei, was Andrei's left arm.

"What happened here?" Odebode asked.

"Leonie came in asking for Silvia." Amber replied, finishing the patch of shadow over where Andrei's left arm used to be. "There. That should stop the bleeding for now."

"And what happened to Wendy?" Vanessa asked, the breath leaving her with every word.

"She attacked her. She knocked her out, and Andrei tried fighting her while she was preoccupied. But all catching her off guard does is make her panic. And when she panics, she isn't as precise as she wants to be." Amber explained.

"Andrei, what were you even thinking with-"Odebode started.

"Odebode." Cyrus interrupted with a small raise of his finger. "We don't have time to argue. I take it you heard of what's happening tomorrow?"

"The final challenge?" Amber replied.

"The very same." Cyrus nodded.