"I have a slight announcement to make," Venable announces from the head of the table.

Everyone stops eating their cubes to look up at Venable.  Coco sends me a questioning glance, but I just pretend to not know what's happening.

"The no copulation rule is now no longer in effect," she states.

Everyone looks between each other.  "No fucking way," Coco mutters to me.

"I'm not finished," Venable speaks up, directing everyone's attention back to her.  "This doesn't mean that you can just go around sleeping with whoever you'd like.  If you're engaging with a member of the opposite sex-"

"Ms. Venable, I don't think we're going to have to worry about matters of pregnancy," Gallant interrupts.  "All the men here are gay - besides possibly Langdon, although he doesn't seem interested in anybody in this outpost."

Venable shoots Gallant a glare that makes him look down at his plate.  "I am quite aware of that," she states coldly.  "Knowing that it's been almost two years since any of you have had sex, I'm just informing you all in case somebody decides to be unpredictable."

Coco scoffs.  "Let's be honest here, none of us even have anybody to have sex with.  The only straight man was Timothy, but thanks to Mead he's gone."

I chuckle.  "I would still never stoop that low, no matter how desperate I was."

"You guys are lucky Emily isn't here," Dinah sighs.  "Even then, it's still awfully insensitive of you to be saying this shit."

"Who's here to be offended?" Coco asks rhetorically.  "Timothy?"

I quickly cover my face with my hand to try to cover my laugh, but it doesn't help.  Coco begins cracking up, then I join her.  Gallant joins in, and soon the three of us are laughing uncontrollably while Dinah, Andre, and Venable just stare.

"Oh, come one, take a joke!" Gallant tells them.

"This is not a laughing matter," Dinah scolds, her tone a mix of shock and offense.

"Our sense of humor is basically nonexistent anymore," I sigh as I lean back in my chair and look at Coco.  "I would've never found that funny a year or two ago, yet here I am dying over it now."

She smiles as she composes herself.  "God, that felt good.  I haven't laughed like that in forever."

"Only at the expense of Timothy," Dinah remarks.

"Oh, shut up you dry hoe," Coco scoffs as she flips Dinah off.

I begin laughing again, and soon Coco and I are having a laughing fit all over again.  Oh, there is no way I'm letting her die with everyone else here at the Halloween ball.

......

"I must admit, I'm impressed," Michael states as he stands up from his desk.  "You somehow got Venable to revoke her no copulation rule and allow Emily to live."

I lean back in the chair by the fireplace.  "Impressive, am I right?"

He chuckles as he makes his way over to me.  "I'm guessing there's a reason for this though."

"Of course there is," I roll my eyes.  "I want to bargain with you."

"For what?" he questions.

"Coco's survival.  I don't want her to die on Halloween, whether it be at the hands of Venable or the witches."

He shrugs.  "I don't see why you need me for this."

I send him a glare and he chuckles.  "I know you have something to do with Venable's plan," I scoff.  "And that you're likely to kill anybody who somehow doesn't die in whatever Venable is planning."

He holds his hands up beside his head jokingly.  "You've got me."  He takes a seat in the chair beside me.  "Let me guess; you don't want me to kill Coco."

"Exactly."

He feigns hesitation as he shrugs, "I suppose I can make an exception for her.  Although, the two of you together only mean trouble."

"Yeah yeah, I know," I roll my eyes. "Anyways, who else are you planning on killing before the Halloween ball?  We have, what, five more days?  And you've already killed Evie and Timothy."

He shrugs.  "Coco and Gallant have proven to be entertaining.  Mallory's off-limits for now.  Dinah and I have somewhat of an alliance - it's more like a mutual agreement to stay the hell out of each other's ways.  I suppose that leaves Emily and Andre."

"You'd better not be about to tell me that I just saved Emily for nothing," I scoff.

He chuckles.  "Don't worry, I'll give her a few more days. But I know that you only saved her because you wanted to get involved with the drama."

"Well, I can't deny that.  But don't go acting like you're all better than me; I know that you left your laptop out with that email open just for Timothy and Emily to see.  You wanted some extra drama just as much as I did."

He smirks.  "See?  We do have a few things in common."

"Yeah, right," I scoff. "All that we have in common are our tendencies to be dramatic, angry, and problematic."

"Problematic?" he questions.

"Oh yeah, problematic. We go around starting drama just to start drama. Like you creating the beef between Coco and Gallant, and me using my mind-control abilities to make people start arguments with each other during dinner."

With a shrug, he admits, "Yeah, I guess we are both problematic. But I'm better at being problematic than you are."

"Bitch please," I scoff. "It's not even a competition."

"Oh really?" he challenges. "Let's make it one."

"For real?" I ask, my voice making it clear that I'm absolutely going to make this a competition if he is.

He nods.

"Okay, then let's have a competition to see who can cause the most trouble."

"Why not place a bet on it?"

I raise a brow.  "What do you propose?"

"If I win, you have to help me defeat the witches."

I pause, pondering his proposal. With a sigh, I concede, "Fine.  But if I win, we get the hell out of here and don't confront the witches."

After a few moments of contemplation, he nods.  He steps forward and straightens himself out as he extends a hand. "Have we got a deal?"

I step forward, matching his determined energy as I shake his hand. "We've got a deal."

......

"Where the hell did you hide my hairbrush?" Dinah shouts from down the hallway.

Coco, Mallory, Gallant, Emily, and I all turn towards the hallway from our spots in the sitting room to see Andre backing into the hallway. "I didn't steal your damn hairbrush!" he yells, not noticing all of us watching him.

Dinah storms up to him angrily. "I know that you've been pining for my hairbrush ever since you were careless enough to lose yours! Why can't you take no for an answer?"

"But mother, I need to brush my hair somehow!" he complains.

"So you did steal it," she accuses.

He quickly closes his mouth, realizing that he just incriminated himself.

"Just tell me where the hell it is," Dinah threatens, her voice lowering.

"I don't have it, I swear!"

Something in Dinah's expression changes, and she slaps Andre across the face. "You stupid boy! You basically admitted to stealing it, don't you dare try to deny it now!"

Andre turns away from Dinah and notices all of us staring at him. Dinah follows his gaze and glares at us. "Great, we have an audience," she sighs.

"You think?" I scoff as I lean back and turn my attention back to the book in my lap. After everyone's looked away from me, I smirk. All that I had to do was mind-control Andre into stealing Dinah's brush, and the rest just worked itself out.

"What do you expect when you're having a fight in the middle of the hallway right outside our main gathering space?" Coco remarks.

Dinah sighs and turns around dramatically. After she's stormed out of the hallway, Andre turns to the rest of us. "Y'all aren't safe either. Come on, you just sit there all day gossiping and waiting for more shit to happen for you to gossip about. Get a life."

With that, he storms off as well.

Coco turns to the rest of us. "We aren't really like that, are we?"

Gallant winces, Emily scoffs, and Mallory looks away. I take one for the team as I reply, "Yeah, we kinda are."

"Not kinda, really," Gallant adds.

Coco looks between the four of us, an upset look on her face. "No, this can't be all that I've been reduced to." She quickly stands up and begins walking away. "Mallory! Let's go find a hobby."

Mallory quickly trails after Coco as she sets off to discover a hobby(?). I don't know what the hell she plans on finding as a hobby in this outpost, but I wish her luck. After Coco and Mallory are out of view, Michael appears in the doorway.

Upon seeing him, Emily makes up an excuse to leave, not wanting to be in his presence. I can't blame them; I would leave if Michael wasn't here to talk to me.

Gallant looks at Michael expectantly, waiting for him to say something.

Michael notices Gallant's stare and smirks. "Mr. Gallant, don't you have somewhere to be?" His tone makes his request clear: Get the hell out of here.

Gallant nods, seemingly off-put, as he exits the room.

Michael settles down in the chair across from me. "So I see that you caused a fight between Dinah and Andre already," he observes, referencing our bet on who will cause the most trouble.

I smirk smugly. "And I got a rise out of Andre that caused Coco to question her life. That makes it 2-0. Tell me, are you going to make my job this easy?"

He rolls his eyes. "I see that you're already trying desperately to get ahead. You see, I have bigger plans."

"Killing everyone in the outpost won't count for points," I state, narrowing my eyes at him.

He chuckles. "Don't worry, that is not my plan. At least, for our little competition."

I roll my eyes. "What do you say, should we put a deadline on this competition?"

He raises a brow. "What, are you already afraid of falling behind?"

"You wish," I scoff. "I just need to know when to plan my victory celebration."

He rolls his eyes. "Fine. How about three days? That'll give us two more days after that until the Halloween ball then."

I nod. "That sounds fair."

We both turn towards the hallway upon hearing shouts ringing out. "What the hell is going on?" I ask, turning to Michael.

He smirks smugly, ignoring my question.

"Oh, you asshole, you caused that, didn't you?"

He nods as a Gray goes running down the hallway. "Fire! Fire!" she exclaims at the Grays passing her. They all panic and begin running for water.

Michael stands up to exit the room and walks past me on his way out. He leans down so his lips brush against my ear as he's passing. "It is 2-1 now."

......

"How the hell did you knock a candle over?" Coco asks Gallant as I'm walking out to meet them in the middle of the hallway.

He sighs as he looks down at the Grays cleaning up the mess from the fire. "I don't even know what happened. I was frustrated, and the next thing I knew I decided to throw the candle."

"And they say women are emotional," I scoff, knowing that the actual reason he threw it was because Michael mind-controlled him.

Coco shrugs distastefully. "Men."

"Oh, come on now," Gallant protests. "You can't just compare me to men when we all know I am much better than almost all of them."

"If you are what is considered a superior man, then it's no wonder men blew the world to bits," Venable states from the end of the hallway.

Gallant quickly turns to Venable in fear. "Ms. Venable, I can explain-"

"Explain how you let your emotions get the best of you, then you threw a candle which lit the floor on fire and could have burned down this whole outpost, killing all of us or leaving us to fend for ourselves in the nuclear fallout?" she questions coldly. He sends her a shocked look. "Oh, I heard your whole conversation, so there is no denying that this was an emotionally charged offense."

"Ms. Venable, haven't you ever had a moment where emotion clouds your judgment?" Gallant asks, desperately trying to avoid punishment.

Venable laughs mockingly. "Emotion? Are you really trying to appeal to my emotional side?"

I scoff as I turn to Gallant. "If that was your best defense, you deserve the punishment coming your way." I quickly mind-control Venable to make her choose to punish Gallant. This will push me ahead of Michael.

He glares at me before Venable taps her cane harshly, turning our attention back to her. "Interrogation room. Now."

Before Gallant can argue, Mead steps out from behind Venable and walks towards Gallant. "Ms. Venable, please!" Gallant pleads. "I can't go through that again!"

She smirks as Mead begins dragging him away. "You brought this upon yourself." 

We watch as he disappears down the hallway with Mead. As Venable turns to walk away, she says over her shoulder, "What's pathetic is the fact that he was right when he was talking about being superior to other men."

......

"I had no clue Ms. Venable was such a feminist," Coco remarks as I sit beside her in the library.

"Are you surprised?" I ask as I lean back and open my book.

She shrugs. "Not particularly. Actually, now that I think of it, I can totally see it." She suddenly perks up as if she remembered something. "Wait, did you hear what Emily saw last night?"

I fling the book in my hands across the room as I turn my attention to her. "Tell me."

She smiles eagerly as she watches me lean forward to listen to what she has to say. 

"Wait a minute," I interrupt. "Weren't you on an arc to find a hobby outside of gossiping?"

She rolls her eyes. "Valentina, there's nothing else to do in this boring ass outpost. Therefore, there's no shame in gossiping being my only hobby."

"Okay," I laugh. "Then go ahead and spill."

"This morning, Emily told me that she saw Ms. Mead going into Ms. Venable's bedroom after curfew last night."

"How long was she in there?" I ask.

She shrugs. "Emily was too scared of getting caught snooping, so she went back to her room."

I roll my eyes. "Sounds like Emily."

"Do you think they did anything?" Coco asks.

I scoff and shake my head. "I know they didn't do..." I trail off. I know that Mead's a robot so there's absolutely no way, but I could use this to create more trouble. The current score is 3-1 with me in the lead, but I know that Michael must have more planned. I need to widen that gap.

She quickly perks up. "What is it?" she asks.

I quickly shake my head. "I shouldn't tell you."

She grabs my arm. "Valentina, I swear to god, if you don't tell me right now-"

"Calm down, Coco," I scoff.

"So you'll tell me?" she asks.

I sigh. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt anything."

She leans forward excitedly and I smirk. Oh, she is falling for this too easily. "Just don't tell anybody that you heard it from me."

"I would never," she promises.

I nod. "Well, I happened to see Mead hooking up with a female Gray less than two weeks into our stay here," I lie.

"No way," Coco gasps. "Which one?"

"The one that got shot with the other guy Gray on the day that Timothy and Emily arrived. The girl threatened to expose Mead, so she decided to tell Venable that she caught her having sex with the other Gray; she needed to cover her tracks." These are complete lies; those Grays had sex with each other and only each other.

"Really?" she asks, although I can tell she entirely believes me.

I nod. "Just don't tell anybody I told you. I don't want to find out what cover Mead will make up for killing me."

She nods. "I will not breathe a word of your name."