Watchers

Chapter 22: Dinner in the Elimination Room

He opens his mouth to offer an explanation - even a feeble one - and instead, Rob cuts him off.

"What's the matter, guys?" he asks gleefully. "Turned off your dinner by Daniel's dirty little secret?"

"Sit down," Meredith barks, and it's so authoritarian that even though she has very little power when confined to the speaker system, Daniel watches as people sink obediently into their chairs. At least the focus is off of him for the moment.

Sasha sits beside Daniel and doesn't look at him. She doesn't move to hold his hand again, either, and his numbers just keep ticking up on the wall in front of him. 611,472.

"Melody is the only one who's earned her dessert so far," Rob says in a patronizing tone. "The rest of you better hurry up and eat your dinner. The last one to clear their plate, err, jar, will have to open another envelope - and this one will be your own."

"No," Sasha whines beside Daniel. She's looking at her jar, squirming in her seat, and he wishes he knew how to comfort her.

This time the challenge takes a lot longer. Melody stares straight ahead at the leaderboard while everyone else builds up the nerve to do what she's already done. Taylor stands up and goes over to the black bin, retrieving Erica's centipede, and puts it on the table in front of the empty chair beside him. A few of the other contestants get brave and down their centipedes, and there's much gagging and shivering to be heard. One by one they all do it, until only Sasha, Taylor, Francie and Erica remain.

Daniel can't let her open her envelope - he doesn't care if she's mad at him. He picks up her jar and shakes it violently, rattling the centipede against the glass until it stops moving.

"Here," he says, unscrewing the lid and handing her the jar. "Do it quick before it wakes up."

Sasha snorts and pushes it away. "You eat your centipede."

"I don't, umm," Daniel begins, looking at his own big, crawling nightmare on the table in front of him. "I don't think I have to since my envelope is already open."

Sasha folds her hands in front of her chest and looks away from Daniel.

At the other end of the table, Francie stands up and unscrews her jar, biting down on the disgusting insect inside and then pacing back and forth and shaking her hands while she tries to force herself to swallow.

"Okay," Daniel says. "Fine."

He tosses the contents of Sasha's jar into his mouth and then pinches his nose, praying it will help while he quickly masticates and swallows his centipede. It's all he can do not to retch afterward, but he has to make it look better than it actually is or Sasha will never follow suit.

"There," he says when he's done, a shiver running involuntarily through his body. He picks up the jar in front of him and repeats the process of knocking the hideous thing out, then hands it to Sasha. "Your turn. Hold your nose, close your eyes, and just get it over with."

"I really hate you right now," Sasha says, taking the jar, but she does as he instructs and despite going green for a moment, she's able to keep the bug down. Her eyes are watering when she sets the empty jar back on the table and Daniel pats her on the back.

"Atta girl," he says, and she curls her lip.

"I think I'd rather be eliminated," she says with a grimace, and then they turn their attention to the center of the table, where there are still two unopened jars.

They belong to Taylor and Erica, who seem to be in the middle of the same type of negotiations that Daniel and Sasha just went through.

"Come here and sit down," Taylor says, trying to snag Erica's wrist as she continues to pace behind the table. He says, "I'm not going to let you open your envelope, so please-"

"Please come eat this disgusting centipede?" she screeches, her panicked voice filling the room and making Daniel uneasy. "Yeah, right."

"It's not going to be that bad," Taylor tries to assure her. His voice is soft and doting whenever he talks to her, and all of the aggression that he has for Daniel is nowhere to be found. "Two seconds, a couple of bites, and then it's over. Everybody else here has done it and they're all doing just fine."

"Speak for yourself," Sasha grumbles.

"If it's so easy then just eat your stupid bug, Taylor," Erica says. "I'll take my chances with the envelopes."

Taylor gets up and brings the jar over to her, adopting the same strategy that Daniel used to keep it from writhing about. He puts his face close to hers and whispers something only loud enough for Erica's ears, then puts the jar in her hand.

"The longer you put it off, the worse it'll be," he says, but again it sounds soothing instead of threatening, as the same words directed to anyone else in the house would have been.

Erica looks at him pathetically, like he's doing this to her, and then to Daniel's surprise, she twists off the lid and eats the limp centipede. She gags a few times before she gets it down, then drops the empty jar on the floor where it cracks but does not break. Then she goes over to the corner and slides back down the wall, pulling her knees in and hugging them against her chest.

"Very good," Meredith says into the silence. "Taylor, if you will."

He gets up and goes over to the cabinets, retrieves his envelope, and tears it open without hesitation.