112 | The Truth

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FEAR

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FEAR. It shifted through me like gritty motor oil in a broken car, leaking everywhere, making me feel like I would drown in it at any moment. For most of my life, I hid my abnormalities to fit in, and now it was like I was standing naked in front of the world, waiting for the laughs and embarrassment to come.

I couldn't look at Rucker and see the rejection on his face. I just couldn't handle it. This was why I didn't get close to people. It was like once you got to know a person and connect with them, they had this power over you. It wasn't always manipulative, but it made you care sometimes — crave their acceptance even when you didn't want too.

Sebastian's voice broke me from that wanting for a moment, interrupting everything. "Ever since you met her, you've treated her differently from the other contestants. You tease her. Flirt with her. Give her hints. Why would you do that unless you met her before? You knew from the beginning she juggles with multiple personalities. Or do you just help all strangers you meet?"

Jookie smirked. "You don't want to know what I do in my spare time," he said, voice warm and husky.

Seb grounded his teeth, blowing out air. "All of you are cheaters. This whole game reeks of privilege and disgrace. Where's the elegant realism? The sophisticated authenticity?"

"Money and authenticity don't work together," Jookie said.

"But they can," Seb snapped. "You just let the vile aroma of profit corrupt the very delicate core of the game. It's shameful and nauseating. All of you planned for Betinia to lose from the very beginning. You just didn't think you'd get caught or called out for it."

"And you call this calling us out?" Jookie belly-laughed, holding his stomach. "Where's your proof? You're spewing out shit that makes no sense."

"Proof, you say? All the viewers have to do is rewatch the footage and see how you interacted with her," Seb said in a bitter tone. "You acted like you met her before. You whispered things to her and tried to exploit her multiple personalities since the beginning. Why else did you bring up her past and her mother so soon and so often? Because you wanted to trigger her, hoping to bring out that other side to see if she'd remember and to exploit it for ratings. You barely touched the surface of any of the other contestants. Only her."

"Hate to break the obvious to you, but we're exploiting all of you for ratings and money," Jookie said, shrugging. "The viewers know and don't care about that. And it's not our fault that she's the most interesting."

"They'd care about you messing with their money though." Seb's eyes crinkled. "They'd care about you scamming them out of millions of dollars." He paused. "But then again, this isn't the first time you tried to do that. How about I go over all the wonderful ways?" Sebastian held up multiple fingers. "One, Layla's death. You guys almost cheated them until we said something about it. We clearly had it right, yet you tried to make us lose. I wouldn't be surprised if you hid evidence to purposely make us come to that suicide conclusion, so we'd lose. Or maybe you even killed Layla yourselves? We'd never find the killer then and you guys could keep dragging it out, making more money."

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