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My face must mirror Kira's confused one.

'Kira?' I say her name cautiously.

She sighs impatiently. 'Look, who are you? How do you know my name?'

'Are you serious?' I blurt. 'We've just spent the last week together.'

Kira pulls a face. 'What the fuck? No, we haven't. I don't know you and you're kinda creeping me out.

She takes a step back. 'I'm leaving now, bye.'

She turns on her heel and walks away, leaving me dumbfounded on the pathway.

What the hell just happened?

It takes me a few minutes, but I eventually make myself turn back around and head back the way I came. The whole time, my mind is reeling.

Why wouldn't she know me?

She didn't appear to have any kind of head injury. Maybe she suffers from amnesia flare ups?

I frown, deep in thought as I return to the castle.

We had to sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) before we came here. Maybe they make you sign another when you leave? One that requires you to pretend you don't know anyone that is part of the competition. That would be weird, though. I highly doubt it.

I'm relieved to see Fidel when I approach the castle. He catches my eye and I wave at him. He stops walking and waits for me to catch up.

'Hey, Amity,' he greets me jovially. 'Are you alright?'

I nod, but the frown is still in place. 'Yes, thanks. Are you?'

'I'm very well, thank you. Is everything okay? You seem troubled.'

I'm relieved that he asks, because I need to talk to someone about this.

'I've just bumped into Kira,' I start and suddenly, Fidel's whole demeanour changes. He straightens up and narrows his eyes.

'Oh?' He responds cautiously.

'She didn't appear to remember who I am. She was asking if she knew me, it was so weird,' I explain quickly.

Fidel looks around and then steps towards me. I look up at him, wondering what he is doing in my personal space.

He places his hands on my cheeks and I freeze in shock.

What the fuck is going on?

'Amity,' he says my name and weirdly, my eyes are drawn to his.

I look deep into his blue eyes and everything seems to fall away around us.

'What do you think is going on?' He asks calmly.

The words come out of my mouth automatically, I don't even have to think about them.

'I don't know, but something is definitely up. Kira doesn't remember me and I saw you coming out of Marybeth's room the other night, you were wiping your mouth.'

Fidel curses under his breath, but doesn't let go of my face.

'You will not remember seeing Kira. She left two days ago and you haven't seen her since,' he says calmly. 'You do not remember seeing me coming out of Marybeth's room, there is nothing suspicious going on here.'

I hang onto his every word, and then my brain goes fuzzy. Fidel releases my face and takes a step back. I shake my head and rub my forehead with my fingers.

'Amity? Are you alright? You looked a bit faint there, for a moment,' Fidel says worriedly.

I look up at him and frown, trying to remember what I'd just been doing.

'Um, yeah, I'm okay,' I mumble. 'I think.'

Fidel looks concerned. 'Come on, let me take you back to the other women.'

He puts his arm around my shoulders and guides me back through the castles. My head feels full of cotton-wool as he escorts me back.

Fidel takes me into the lounge area, where the girls are watching a horror.

'Amity was feeling a bit dizzy, keep an eye on her girls, will you?' Fidel asks them.

Saff and Florie come over to me and sit me down.

'Are you okay?' Saffron asks.

I nod. 'Yeah, just went for a walk and got dizzy, I guess. I think I'm gonna go lie down.'

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By the next morning, I'm feeling back to my old self.

That was weird, feeling fuzzy like that. I never usually get faint.

Maybe it's being high up in the mountain?

It's day nine and we're going ice-skating today! I change into thermals and tie my hair up. We're all in leggings and jeans, wrapped up and ready for the rink.

The minibus takes us down into town and we park outside an oval-shaped building. Spencer takes us inside and we are given a pair of skates.

Everyone chats excitedly as we lace-up in the changing rooms. We wobble out on the mat-covered floor and approach the rink.

The three bachelors are waiting for us.

There is no one else on the rink. We have the place to ourselves!

Hesitantly, I step onto the ice. Helene skates straight over to Bain, with all the grace of a swan.

I appear to be doing my best Bambi impression: my legs go everywhere.

Saffron steadies me and helps me get used to the slippery surface. I remember what I was taught, pushing myself forward with the tip of my boot.

After a few minutes, I'm more acclimatised and less at risk of falling over.

Spencer gathers us into a group.

'You will be given half an hour to get used to the ice and comfortable skating. Then, you will have one hour to learn a choreographed dance, which you will perform for the bachelors. The three best skaters get a date. Here's the catch, I will be helping your bachelors decide. We're working on talent, not favourites today, ladies.'

I sigh at the end of Spencer's speech. That's me losing, then. I have all the skills of a bumbling amateur.

I skate around the rink in circles with Saffron, getting more confident with every circle. Lula and Helene breeze past everyone. They have skating experience and it really shows.

Helene leaps into the air and does something that I think is called an axel. She lands on one foot and skates smoothly away. It's stunning.

Bain skates up to me and chats for a while. He holds my arm and keeps me steady. The man might be the size of a giant, but he skates so gracefully that you'd never suspect the pure muscle he's packing under his thick coat.

The half hour passes far too quickly. All too soon, the bachelors have gone for a drink whilst Spencer teaches us the dance.

I'm crap at learning dances. It takes me ages to remember the sequence and I mess up steps in my mind.

After the hour is up, I've learned the steps, but haven't perfected them.

The bachelors take a seat on the side and we all arrange ourselves in the middle of the rink. The music begins and the seven of us skate/dance in unison.

I bite down hard on my bottom lip, desperately trying to remember the steps. I watch the other girls and manage to keep up, but there's definitely no sparkle to my performance.

Mostly, I'm just relieved that, when it's finally over, I didn't fall.

The judges take a few minutes to 'deliberate'. Saffron tries to make me laugh during that time, because she and I both know that Helene is going to win Bain.

'Okay, ladies.' Spencer draws out attention to him. 'Our three winners have been chosen; Helene.'

No surprise there.

'Lula and Florie!'

I clap along with the rest of the girls and force a smile. Inside, I feel like shit. That sucks.

Helene runs over on the ice, her skates digging into the streaked surface. She jumps on Bain and throws her arms around him. I quickly look away.

The ride back to the castle is a quiet one.

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'Hey, mind if I stay with you whilst Helene's on her date?' I ask Saff when I knock on her door.

She pulls a face. 'Ugh, of course you can. Come on in to my humble abode of friendship and distraction.'

She dramatically sweeps her hand around, opening the door wider for me.

'Thanks.'

We sit on Saff's bed and talk. I lie on my back, trying to think about anything other than my jealousy of Helene on a date with Bain. I saw her leaving as well, she looked incredible in a backless dress.

'If we had to guess now, who might the guys choose do you think?' Saff muses aloud. 'Excluding Bain, of course, because he's not an idiot, he'll choose you.'

I snort in disbelief. 'I don't know, men can be pretty idiotic sometimes.'

Saff nods. 'Amen to that. Seriously though, I think Ahmed will struggle to choose between Binah and Florie.'

'Yeah, I think so, too. I hope he picks Florie.'

'Me, too,' Saff replies. 'What about Fidel?'

'I'm thinking Lula, they seem to have a really strong connection.'

'Yeah,' Saff says. 'But remember the whole Marybeth/room thing? That was a curveball.'

I frown at the ceiling. 'What Marybeth/room thing?'

Saff shoots me a 'duh' look. 'You know, when you saw Fidel coming out of Marybeth's room?'

My frown deepens and I sit up to look at Saff. 'I never saw Fidel coming out of Marybeth's room.'

Saff stares at me.

'Are you fucking with me right now?' She asks, sounding annoyed.

I don't want to anger her, but I'm seriously confused.

'I don't remember telling you that, are you sure it was me?'

Saff's mouth drops open.

'Oh my God, girl. Did you hit your head when you got faint yesterday? You told Winnie and I that you were thirsty one night, got up to get a drink and saw Fidel coming out of Marybeth's room.'

Somewhere, in the back of my mind, a very, very distant bell faintly rings. As I focus on Saffron's words, the ringing gets louder.

I grip my head as the memory rushes back to me. Fidel, coming out of the room in the dark, wiping his mouth.

'Saff, what the hell,' I groan as I clutch my head.

She leaps over the bed and wraps her arms around me.

'Amity? What's going on?' She asks worriedly.

Slowly, the pain fades. I straighten up and stare at her.

'That was so weird,' I mutter. 'Hand on my heart, I couldn't remember that at all, then, you describing it made me remember it, then my head really hurt.'

Saffron stares at me, bemused. 'What the fuck? That's so fucking strange.'

'Can I stay in your room tonight? I feel weird and I don't like it,' I ask Saff and she nods quickly.

'Of course you can, boo.'

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