Battle of the Killers

79 | What Now?

Gmie. What the hell was she up to now? She always had something up her sleeve and for Jookie to smile like that — she had something good up there.

Unless — was she Layla's manipulator? No, she couldn't be. If they wanted to keep Layla's true killer a secret, for now, Gmie being outright suspicious like that would be too much of a giveaway.

Even though I hated that bitch, I knew she wasn't that stupid.

"Bet-betinia." Sebastian moaned on the floor, thick blood still seeping through his fingers from his arm wound. It dripped onto the ground, creating a drippy-dot pattern.

"Oh shit." I dropped to my knees, staring at the wound up close. "You okay?" The gash damaged his upper bicep to his lower forearm, very jagged but slightly shallow.

Letting out slow, harsh breaths, salty droplets beaded his forehead, one slowly sliding down his cheek as his eyes squinted. "Y-yeah, I'm okay. Just hurts like a fucking bitch."

I swerved around to Khan. "Can you—"

Khan didn't even let me finish. "Of course. We need to get him to my room, and I'll patch him up," he said, nodding.

I popped to my feet but paused when Fee started to talk. It was a rare occurrence, so everyone listened when it happened.

"Is that it?" Fee asked, wiping his dirty hands on his pants. "It's over?"

Khan wiped his hair out of his eye. "I suppose so. Layla killed herself and we figured that out at least and won. Now we just wait for the next challenge."

"But who manipulated her?" I asked, helping Sebastian to his feet. He groaned and leaned against the wall for support, still holding his bleeding arm.

Rucker gestured his thumb at me. "If yang here couldn't figure it out, then it's impossible."

"It's whatever," Chi said, throwing a curl back. "The point of this game is killing. Fuck who did it. We won and we got to keep our pinkies."

"Me and Khan are the reason you kept your pinkie." Rucker crossed his arms and flicked his head at Sebastian. "Ice cube over there actually helped a little too. Guess you're not totally useless, hunnybun."

"Fuck you," Sebastian said, eyes fluttering shut for a moment.

"Well, thank you." Chi began walking out of the room. "I gotta go check on Aries."

"She's right," Yaz said with a shrug. "There's no reason to keep looking for the killer. Whoever it is, is smart as shit and just playing the game."

"Still." Khan tapped his chin. "I'm curious to know who manipulated her. Whoever did it manipulated us as well and that's a strong feat."

I was still curious too! It fucking pulled at my brain like puppeteer strings. How did I not figure it out? How could I fuck up so badly? I stared at my team. Was it one of them? Were they manipulating me right now?