Eliminated

Chapter Eight

A/N: I have been getting AMAZING comments, in a really quick time, too! I cannot put into words how happy I feel with all these great comments, thank you so much. As a special treat for my incredible readers, I'm going to upload a new chapter super-fast! I uploaded today and you already want a new chapter... *explodes of happiness*

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"I can't believe it.." Jasmine mumbled. "We lost."

"We wouldn't have," Zinnia said angrily. "Not if Andrew hadn't tortured that guy."

"I like you, Andrew, but really.. what was that for?" Phillip asked, sounding a little disappointed.

"Haven't you guys ever wanted to explode?" I asked, defending Andrew. After all this, he felt like my brother. I couldn't just let him get eliminated, because these complaints were going to equal votes for Andrew -- and in this case, Andrew did not want votes.

"Yeah, I mean, we were tied, how do you know for sure they wouldn't have beat us?" Jasmine added. "We weren't looking so great."

"The boy would have cheated, they would have lost, and we would have a guaranteed win!" Zinnia yelled in exasperation, holding her hands up in the air.

Everyone was silent, because -- I hate to say it, but -- Zinnia was completely right.

"So, this is it," Andrew said, speaking up for the first time since Kyle pointed out someone was going to be eliminated. This voice was another new voice of his: a hopeless, depressed voice. I could understand why, though. He expected a lot of people to vote against him.

"Well, we all have one day left together, right?" I said, trying to sound upbeat. "Let's enjoy it!"

No one seemed to be enjoying anything, though. They were holding their heads in their hands, with worried expressions on their faces. I'm pretty sure Zinnia was crying a little, which was a first. Zinnia hadn't cried this whole time -- even at the Drawing.

All of us sat there for a while, not really sure what to do or say. Our moment of silence was interrupted once Jackson called, "Alright everyone! Time to go!"

Zinnia tried to casually wipe her face, but everyone noticed. I'm pretty sure everyone noticed when she was crying, too. I walked up to her and patted her back, and to my surprise, she enveloped me in a huge bear hug. I just hugged her back, a little awkwardly, not sure what was going on with her. I guess losing was pretty intense, and I was the only one who ever really supported her.

I sighed, and we walked forward, then Jackson led us back to our rooms.

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Once we were back in our "mansion," Jackson explained the details of elimination.

"You must pick one person to be eliminated," Jackson began. "Once it's time for you to choose, you will each be handed slips of paper. On each piece of paper, you will have a name of one of your team members, but not your own name. You will then pick who you want to eliminate and put the slip of paper with their name on it in the box. No one will ever know who you voted for unless you choose to tell them."

I was thankful for no one knowing who I voted for, but I still didn't want to vote for anyone.

I decided to make my decisions alone. As soon as Jackson was finished talking, I left.

I walked around in the hallways, exploring parts of the mansion I hadn't ever seen before. My curiosity distracted me from my worry.

I put my hands along the wall as it started getting darker. It was odd, as Jackson once told us, all the lights in the building were always on unless it was past nine o'clock. Someone could have turned the lights off, but it seemed like no one had gone through this hall in a few days.

Soon enough, it was pitch black, and I was getting scared. I was glad I always had my hand on the wall, because I couldn't see a thing, but I felt a lot of twist and turns. I heard somewhere that if you held your hand along the wall, you would make it out of a maze. Hopefully, I would make it out of here.

A good idea would have been to turn around, but I couldn't leave an exploration like this behind. I liked being a little adventurous every now and then.

Finally, I saw a small amount of light. My pace got faster, and soon, I was in a fully lighted room. Hopefully, it led back to the mansion I was in. 

I walked forward and looked around, not noticing anything exciting in the room. It looked a bit familiar, so I decided to investigate and find out if there was a way out of the room and to the rest of the mansion.

I instantly shrunk back into the hiding place once I saw a person's shadow. I wasn't sure why, but all of the sudden, I felt like I wasn't supposed to be there. I peeked around the edge of the doorway since I couldn't hold back my curiosity, and tried to keep myself from gasping once I saw who was there. Right then, I understood what they meant when they said that old saying, "curiosity killed the cat."