That's the only word to describe the emotion that was forming on Seb's crazed face.

I think he's trying to fuck with Seb's head. You did kiss him. Because of a dare, and I was drunk. You voluntarily kissed Jookie. Keep telling yourself that.

Giggling, Jookie ran forward and dipped down low to avoid Seb's head-on strike at his face. Once it went over his head, Jookie elbowed Seb in the ribs and stomped on his foot. Seb jerked, and Jookie flung his leg up, knocking the knife from Seb's hand. Then he followed up with a nice long slice across Seb's back.

Seb slipped and fell to the ground, and Jookie giggled and kicked Seb in the face. A gush of blood poured from Seb's mouth, sliding down his chin.

"How's that?" Jookie said on a laugh. "Still boring?"

Seb swallowed his blood, licking his teeth clean as he shrugged. "I'd give you a five outta ten. No — five point five. Nice kick to the face."

Jookie picked up Seb by his hair. "That's a low score coming from someone who's about to grace my skin with their blood."

Seb just smiled, eyes spinning like he was on something.

"Why'd you make this deal?" Jookie asked, dragging Seb over to the buzzing saw in the corner. It spiraled at an alarming rate, drenching both of them in dirty water. "You should've known you couldn't beat me."

Seb turned his head to me, water sliding down his face. The look he gave me was filled with so much intensity and emotion that I felt quiver. "Because of her angelic face. Just the sight of her melancholic tears destroying her beautiful wispy sweetness made it feel like the world was caving in on my heart, destroying every delicate vessel and tissue. I couldn't take it. I had to do something to stop her endless suffering."

Seb...

"Spare me the dollar store poetry," Jookie said, rolling his eyes before smiling. "And don't worry. You won't have to see her cry anymore because you'll be dead." A wide grin slid across Jookie's happy face. "And the game will continue."

"JoJo, it's funny how you really think that." Seb brought his hand down on Jookie's collarbone, chopping it with a hard smack. Jookie stumbled to the right and let go. Seb almost flew back into the moving saw, but he swerved out of the way just in time, flipping in the process.

"That'll never happen," Seb said, stretching.

Jookie gritted his teeth, holding a hand to his neck. "Because..."

"Because," Seb said, turning to the camera coming through the opening. "I can't die without the viewers knowing exactly why this game's a cheating piece of shit. This whole thing's rigged."

Jookie let out a loud laugh. "Seriously? This again? How'd we cheat this time? We posted the questions and answers for the viewers to see."

"Yet that doesn't stop you guys from purposely lying and picking the wrong answers from the start," Seb said, gazing at me. "Like that last question. The viewers saw that it was a lie because you told them it was, but in hindsight, it's really the truth. You've met her before, yet you guys put that you didn't. I call that cheating, Jojo? Don't you?"

"When my peach—" Jookie started.

"Stop calling her such dirty smut," Seb said, spraying red spit everywhere. "Just saying it makes me want to vomit. Peach." His face puckered like he tasted a sour patch kid with no sweetness. "She'll never be that. Especially when you're a liar."

"When my peach," Jookie said, glaring at him, "fell through that birdcage at the beginning of the game, that was the first time I met her."

Seb yawned, stretching again. "You're really boring me with your ignorant lies. When we got picked to be on the show, our sponsors probably told you everything about us, right?"

"Correct," Jookie said with a shrug.

"Hers probably told you that she suffers from multiple personalities or alters or whatever she chooses to call it," Seb said, turning his harsh gaze onto Jookie. "Why would they not tell you something that important about her? They wouldn't. It was probably the main selling point of putting her on the show." Seb moved closer to the camera, his pants hanging low. "But you're not a total liar. When she fell from that birdcage, that was the first time you met her — well that specific personality anyway. And when you finally got close enough to talk to her and she didn't act like she remembered you, you kept testing her, trying to bring out the personality you met, but it never worked, did it? So you guys thought you were in the clear and could now exploit that knowledge for your own selfish, pathetic gain. You planned for her to lose on purpose to make the game more interesting. Who wants a winner when you can make her a loser?"

"Do you know how you sound right now?" Jookie said, shaking his head.

"Don't try to make me out to be the crazy one, Jojo," Seb said, wiping his lips. "You guys know what you did. And you did it for ratings. Everything's for ratings because ratings equal money. You guys knew that most of the viewers would bet for her to win because she's had an excellent track record so far. You knew it'd be a big payday for you if she lost, so you made her lose and bet against her so you could rack in the most profit. Am I wrong, JoJo? Isn't that how it went?"

Jookie stood there, silent.

"You guys lined your own pockets while shitting on everyone else," Seb said, a look of pure disgust covering his face. "Basically, fucking the viewers like they were a naive glory hole instead of sticking to the fairness of the game."

The more Sebastian rambled, the more his eyes swirled like wild winds, reminding me of a tornado about to gobble up a whole trailer park. There was no softness. Just darkness and chaos.

Excuse me?

"You seem to know a lot, Seb," Jookie said, looking at him. "How's that?"

"It's common sense that you guys only care about money." Seb spat on the ground. "Filthy, disgusting, dirty money."

"But how do you know about her so-called multiple personalities," Jookie asked, leaning forward.

"By watching her," Seb said, not looking at me. "Her personality would change so rapidly sometimes. But it wasn't until I saw her talking and answering herself earlier did I put it all together."

"That's your proof? Whose personality is consistent

all the time?" Jookie pursed his lips. "Who doesn't talk to themselves sometimes? I tell myself how phenomenal I am every morning."

Sebastian scowled. "I also know because I go through the same thing. I suffer from multiple personalities." He turned to me. "I think that's why I connected with you so much. It felt like we had something in common that no one else could understand."

Oh my god. It kind of makes sense. Like he used to have weird ticks and his expressions would change so rapidly sometimes. I thought he was like us, and he was! Umm, he can't really out us when everyone saw us talking and answering ourselves. Could we really?

Jookie snickered. "So, I'm guessing this is your sorry excuse for a second personality?"

"I don't know, Jojo." Sebastian shrugged. "How's that tummy feeling?"

Jookie punched him in the face, making him fly back into the cement wall, splashing into the water. "How's that feel, huh? And stop calling me that."

"Did I piss you off, Joseph?" Sebastian said, crawling to his feet, blood leaking from his nose.

"That's not my name," Jookie said, slapping him.

"I guess your whore mother blessed you with something more ironic like Jesus?" Sebastian said from the floor. "Uh, that name tastes so ah."

"Am I the only confused on what the hell's going on?" Rucker asked, looking around at all of us and then stopping on me. "You have a split personality?"

Usually, I would've just denied it and laughed it off, but now that showed up, everything was different now. I was so confused, and it was now the one question I never wanted anyone to ask me. It was like asking me, "did you want to die by poison or get shot in the kidney?" There was no good answer. Just fear.

I turned away from him, ignoring his question. I didn't want to see the look of repulsion, pity or fear in his eyes. So many emotions rocketed through my body, the main one being fear. It coated my tongue like sticky juice.

Would his feelings toward me change now? Would he see me as a weirdo or a freak or dangerous like everyone else in the world would if they found out?

Earlier when my team addressed me about it before the pool room, it was just an awkward silence and I covered for myself to make them think I was normal. But how would they act if I really admitted to having alters? Probably the same as most people in the world, and that saddened me.

♟♙♟