I don't know how we ended up here; the drop is at least 300 ft. Unless someone used a ladder, but even then, that someone had to have had superhuman upper body strength to get us all up here. And then tie us tightly to the top of a row of ten neighboring trees.

There had to have been more than one person moving us. It must've taken them hours, maybe days. We probably didn't all arrive on the is...

I tried to yell at them, but that backfired. I was choking on the sand. They laughed at my coughing and gagging groans; I don't blame them. If I was them, I would've laughed too. But I wasn't them, and I was pissed, and time was ticking.

I managed to get one word out before the three of us disappeared into the jungle and from the competition. What the hell was going on?

"Message".

...

Covered in gore and god knows what else seemed to be the least of my problems. Being trapped in this place, with these people. Could anything be worse? Of course, something worse always happens whenever someone asks that question, and this case is no different.

Right on cue, I hear Harry's bond-villain voice on the overhead speaker,

"Islanders, for this team challenge, you will have to complete ...

Work smarter, not harder. That's the difference between the people who get what they want and those who watch others get what they want from their 9-5 desks. I would never be trapped in a cubicle; hell, you could never trap me anywhere. Even in kindergarten, when I got sent to the timeout chair, the teacher couldn't get me in the chair. She'd chase me around the classroom until I wore her out. It ...

Claire always knew there was something off about Augustus; it was part of why she was so drawn to him. Being an heiress, people would always be showing their hands to her. There was no mystery in her life since she could remember. People would find out who she was and tell them every little thing about themselves in hopes of getting her money.

Sure, some people went about this more cleverly than ...

"This is a bad idea; we should turn back,"

Delilah, my ditzy roommate, and partner for this challenge, says.

"Relax, I know what I am doing."

I say so confidently that it even convinces me that I know what I am doing when in fact, I have no fucking clue.

"The sun's setting, and if we aren't back yet, we lose. Which means-"

"I know what it means. Will you just shut up and let me think."

She...

When climate change and politics aren't interesting enough, nothing gets viewers like a reclusive Billionaire pulling a Willy Wonka. If you were born after 1980, odds are you have no idea who Dr. Augustus Emerson is. Unless you've taken a psychology course, you have probably heard of Dr. Augustus Emerson.

The renowned psychologist from Wisconsin married Claire Emerson, the last heir of the Emerso...

"I know you said not to bring it up unless I had evidence, but if Emerson-"

"Daniels, I don't want to hear it. Just drop it."

He wouldn't drop it. The Chief knew he wouldn't drop it, but warning him out loud would clear his enviably guilty conscience for when the Bureau finally pulled the plug on Daniels. He didn't recognize his friend. The Wilson Daniels he knew was bulletproof; it used to im...

The blade is a breath away from slitting my carotid; I can do nothing about it; my hands are tied. The last face I am going to see is not human. I want to look away, but if I turn my head, I’d just be doing the job for him. The only weapon I have is my mouth. The same weapon that landed me in this basement in the first place. Maybe it can get me out.

“I had nothing to do with it, I swear (lie). I...