Flicker [CLOSED APPLY FIC] ✔️

EIGHT.

"Sol?" Maeve blinked in surprise. "What–? How–?"

She grinned, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. "The game heads sent me. They wanted me to give you this."

She brought her hand out from behind her back and opened her palm, revealing a knife identical to the one the others had taken with them. 

Maeve exhaled sharply, looking at Nellie and then back at the dagger. Neither of them moved to take it. 

"Why?" Nellie whispered, feeling slightly sick at the sight of it. Whether it was the same blade wiped clean, or a fresh one with the same features, they could not look at it without seeing Frankie with its handle jutting out of her ribcage, Ryder's body left raw and ripped open, or El choking on her blood as she fell to her knees, unable to stop the blood loss from her wound. 

"They want an even playing field. It makes for a more entertaining game. In a way, Li did them a favour by switching roles." Sol turned the dagger so the handle was facing them. "One of you has to take it. Come on, for old time's sake?"

"What old time's sake? You killed Frankie! Clearly this is just another trick." Nellie turned away from her.

"I'll go if you want me to," Sol offered. "But this is your chance to beat the others. Believe me, an assassin and a psychic know much more than a good girl and a witch gone soft."

"Wait," Maeve called out, cursing herself for being swayed. "I'll take it. I'm sorry, Nellie, but she's right. I may not know Li, but I know Maisie, and I doubt she'll let sentimentality stop her from running us through with a knife."

Sol looked surprised for a moment but masked it quickly with another of her signature grins. "I knew you'd change your mind."

'Yeah right,' Maeve thought, but they kept that thought to themself.

This time she didn't hesitate, taking the blade from Sol's hands straight away. They managed to not show their uneasiness on their face. "So, what now?"

Sol frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I did what you asked. Are you just going to leave us again? Tell us to find them on our own?" 

'Well..." Sol was the one who looked uneasy now.

Nellie, who had been silent for a while now, spoke up. "It's the least we deserve." 

"I—" she paused, as if listening to something. "Wait here. I'll be back." With that, she took off.

Nellie exhaled angrily. "Where did she go?" 

"To check with those in charge, I guess." Maeve shrugged.

"How do we know she'll come back?"

"We don't. We just have to wait and see."

—

Li and Maisie didn't speak. The pair had climbed some of the nearby trees and were sitting in the branches, looking ahead for any disruption. It could have been peaceful, except Maisie couldn't shake the fear that Li was only playing allies, all the while planning to stab her in the back.

The thundering sound of footsteps broke her train of thought to bits. Both of them heard it at the same time, immediately shrinking back into the greenery.

It was clear the newcomer didn't see them, because they were in the middle of a very heated conversation with... themselves, it seemed.

"All I'm asking for is something," the person was saying. "No, I know people are getting restless, which is why you need to step in! They won't hunt each other down, not yet anyway."

"It's Sol," Li mouthed.

'Of course,' Maisie thought. She must be talking to the Game Heads using some kind of technology they'd given her. But why was she back in the game? Hadn't she been voted out?

"What?" Sol exclaimed, then made a face as she realised how loud she'd been. "No. I can't do that! No, I know, but please, Mom—"

Maisie's eyes went wide and her mouth fell open. Mom?

Sol sighed, obviously frustrated. It seemed her conversation had been cut off. Looking extremely annoyed, she ran off in the direction she had come from.

"Well, that settles it," Li said.

"Settles what? Did you hear her? She called one of the Game Heads Mom!" Maisie narrowed her eyes when she clocked their expression. Li had figured something out, and she didn't know if they would share it.

"Emersyn Baxter," they chuckled. "Of course. I wonder if it was her choice."

Maisie's mind worked to catch up. Emersyn Baxter. She'd heard that name before. Where had she heard that name before?

Oh. Emersyn Baxter was one of the Game Heads. She controlled the text and the voting. She'd been quiet for a long time. But what did she have to do with Sol?

Li watched Maisie impatiently. "Think."

Of course. Her daughter, the grade-A valedictorian, was quite the personality in the real world, but she rarely appeared on camera because her mother didn't want her to be recognised. Clearly it worked, because Maisie had had no clue before now.

That daughter's name was Marisol Baxter. And now Maisie and Li knew who she really was, they were more than ready to make her life hell.

A/N

hi :D two more chapters to go, I'm hoping to finally finish this by the end of April D:

if this chapter makes no sense please lmk because it could honestly go either way (also if you need something clarified ask here)

anyway bye <33