Page 90 of Alice Chen's Reality Check

Reply: u/SlutForMothman

?? what’s that

Reply: u/fizzfuzzbizzbuzz

sorry it’s a survivor reference. it’s when the editors erase a player for no stated reason. idk, maybe she’s terrible in interviews or she pissed off someone in production. but they’re definitely going out of their way to ignore her, which is weird for a character who’s been at the center of so much drama and has made it this far in the game.

Reply: u/510153029402

Don’t forget these are actual people, not just “characters”

Chapter Nineteen

Hell Is a Pop Quiz You Didn’t Study Enough For

It doesn’t feel real that Daniel and I go straight from the beach memorial to something as mundane as brushing our teeth together. Sharing the small space of the bathroom with Daniel feels almost too easy, as if we’ve been doing this dance of moving around each other our whole lives. In some ways, I guess, we have been. I try not to think about what it would be like to do this together for more than just a few days.

“You were right, Alice,” Daniel says.

“What?” I say through a mouthful of toothpaste. I spit into the sink. “Run that by me again?”

“Anton was murdered.” Daniel furrows his brow. “What you said earlier about the list of blackmail material you found, I think that seals the deal. Someone murdered the guy. And I overheard the producers when they were cleaning up the memorial. It’s like Lex said, we’re stuck here. The storm caused a lot of problems along the islands. An accident on a reality TV set isn’t even close to the top of the list for local law enforcement or the medical examiner. Backup isn’t coming anytime soon. We’re on our own. We have to figure out what’s going on here if we want to make it through this.”

I nudge Daniel aside to rinse out my mouth, and he tosses me the dental floss.

“Told you,” I say.

“We’ll have to play it safe, though. You said the blackmail list included cast and crew. That means we don’t know who we can trust. Anything we figure out, we share between us and Lex, and no one else.”

“Agreed. Stay sharp, Midas.”

“Same goes for you. Stay sharp, Slayer.”

—

Less than a week after I arrived atDawn Tay’s Inferno, I find myself on the water again. First thing after breakfast, Leah and the other producers ushered us onto a fleet of speedboats that are taking us who knows where. The ocean spray is bracing, and I lean into it, not caring if the cropped floral tank that Leah foisted on me gets wet.

After yesterday’s challenge, I’m hoping that today’s challenge isn’t too out there, but those hopes are violently squashed when we’re split from our partners, escorted onto a floating platform, and positioned on a beam that extends over the water.

“Are we sure this is, like, safe?” Mikayla asks as she peers over the edge of the beam. “I mean, after what happened to Anton.”

“It’s safe,” Leah assures her. “We tested it on the PAs earlier today.”

“They’d better be getting hazard pay,” Daniel says, but Leah is already gone, shouting orders at the production assistants. They’re hard at work attaching buckets of slime to ropes hanging down from a wooden beam, suspending one bucket over each of our heads, but the vibe is different now. They’re working silently, not a smile to be seen. It’s clear that everyone is nervous and on edge. It feels like the calm before the storm.

“It certainly seems like the slime budget has skyrocketed,” I observe.

“Unless they’re just reusing yesterday’s slime,” Selena says. “Then it’s free-ninety-nine.”

There’s an edge to Selena’s voice today. The sunny smile she usually wears is gone. The other contestants look haggard and tense. Are they freaked out by Anton’s death, or feeling guilty for murdering him?

Mikayla in particular looks more frayed than usual. She’s managed to chew through an immaculately manicured nail, and her shoulders are hunched in, like she’s trying to shrink away from Trevor’s arms around her.

Jaxon and Brittany seem the least changed. They’re decked out in their standard cowboy getups, and their matching poker faces seem entirely focused on winning. I wish I could borrow some of that calm.

Soon enough, Dawn Taylor arrives on her own speedboat, a beacon of color in a flowy, bright-yellow pantsuit with matching yellow sunglasses.

“Babes, it’s go time!” she says, whipping off her sunglasses theatrically. “Today we’re in the sixth circle of hell: Heresy. And we’re putting you all to the test to see how well you know your partner! You’ll each get a board to write on. I’ll ask either the men or the women a question. Your goal is to mind-meld and write the exact same answer as your partner.”

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