Hi! It's been a while, hasn't it?
I am pleased to announce my grand comeback to Twinning With a Twist! I took a few months off, mainly for a few different reasons, but I can confidently say that this story will go on and actually get finished! I have most of the rest of the story written, and all I need to do is finish the final chapter, edit and clean up everything else, and we're golden! I can't wait to get to the end - it'll most likely be one of my biggest accomplishments to date. :D
Oh, something that I probably should have mentioned before, back in my last chapter in… what, September? Jeez it's been a while. A few people had been letting me know that this story was being posted on AO3 by someone under a different name. I'd like to inform everyone that, yes, that is indeed me doing that, just at a much slower pace because I am not as familiar with AO3's interface than I am with 's. I'm likely going to change my handle here to my AO3 one sometime soon, just for consistency's sake, and because the AO3 one is the one I use for almost everything else I do on the Internet.
There's probably something else I intended to say here but oops, short-term memory's a bitch. If anyone has any questions, I will try my best to answer them in a PM or something. For now, please enjoy the newest chapter of Twinning With a Twist!
Chapter 12: A Rocky Road Ahead of Us
Sammy couldn't remember when she fell asleep. One minute, she was talking with Ella about some of the highlights of her life (which were scarce, but had quickly started to grow after having met her and the others). Then the next, she was dreaming about Scarlett being overly hammy and taking control of the island, only to have Ella punch her in the face and save the day. It was a weird dream, and played out a little differently than it did in reality, but Sammy liked what it represented anyway.
The next thing she knew, she was waking up on the hard ground instead of a somewhat soft mattress, the sound of the wind and the chirping of birds ringing in her ears as the scent of hundreds of different flowers and plants infiltrated her nostrils. If you ignore the ground being uncomfortable, this wouldn't be a bad place to wake up to every morning.
She moaned and stretched lazily, and turned onto her back. Ella was awake, having fallen asleep in the spot right next to her. Sammy was about to give her a 'Good morning' when her mind registered that she was staring at the underside of her arm. The red sleeve laid across her stomach, forgotten.
"Ella?" Sammy groggily said.
She tensed harshly - her fingers nearly clenched themselves into a fist and she was halfway to lowering and hiding her arm entirely. But then she stopped, and seemingly forced herself to relax. Rather than bring her arm to her side, she gently laid it down across her stomach, on top of the sleeve.
"G… Good morning," she said. She sounded more awake than Sammy felt, though there was a bit of awkwardness in her voice. "Did you sleep well?"
"Yeah, like a log," Sammy replied, rubbing at her eyes. She was lucky the ground was keeping her from being her usual, heavy-sleeper self. "Going back to the ground instead of a bed is kinda weird. How about you?"
"Pretty good," she said. "It's not every day you wake up in the middle of a flower field. It was a rather nice feeling, I'd like to think."
"Yeah," Sammy agreed. "Smells like a garden here."
"It does, doesn't it?"
Sammy rested her eyes and attempted to block out the light from the blazing sun, but her mind was elsewhere. The new mental image of Ella's arm, held up and contrasting against the cloudless sky, refused to leave her. Was there a reason she had been looking at it? Should Sammy be concerned? Should she probably ask? There was no way these thoughts were going to go away anytime soon. It was probably best to just bite the bullet.
"Ella, I'm really sorry if this is prying too much, but… are you doing okay?"
She didn't say anything; she simply stared up into the sky. After a few moments of silence, she inhaled and exhaled, slowly and deeply. "I… think so. I was just… lost in thought."
Ella ended the sentence there, choosing not to elaborate. But Sammy couldn't just leave it. Sometimes you have to get people to start talking, else they won't talk at all. "Do you… wanna talk about it?"
No immediate response, but Sammy refused to be impatient with her. Ella's fingers twitched, and eventually they formed a fist.
"I'm scared," was all she said.
Sammy looked at her, at the fear in her eyes that she was only now just noticing, and found herself turning on her side to face her. "You are?" she asked.
Ella nodded. "I'm scared of the next time I'm going to get the urge to cut."
Slowly, ever so slowly, Ella raised her arm once more, and for the first time allowed Sammy to have an actual, proper look at it. Even though Ella's skin was already rather pale, her arm was even moreso, showing just how often her old glove had been covering it up. The number of scars across the width of her wrist were not numerous, but it was still a shocking sight to behold, even though she knew what to expect.
"These last few days have been amazing," Ella said in little more than a whisper. "Or, at least most parts of them were, when we haven't been on the verge of death. When I'm with you I have the time of my life, and my experiences with you and Sky and everyone else here has been nothing short of spectacular. And I would give anything to make it last forever." There was a pause. "But…"
"But…?"
"But it won't last forever. In the next few days, one of us might be gone. Heck, one of us could be gone by tonight. I've been able to focus on something strong enough to completely take my mind off of it, and… and if you're not around to help keep my attention elsewhere, I'm scared all of those negative thoughts are going to come back all at once and be that much harder to ignore."
Sammy said nothing as she took that in and continued to stare at the arm. It was true then - she had her suspicions that she was pretty much playing the role of Ella's emotional crutch, if her reaction to the team swap was anything to go by. Sammy didn't mind that, really, if it helped Ella focus herself elsewhere, but obviously there came a point where ignoring it outright and not confronting it would be incredibly damaging for her. If she was able to ignore it for a year, but then had the urge spike in her after that year was up, she would have no way of knowing how to properly fight it. Ella had to be made aware of that - and Sammy intended to do just that.
"I… I can really only imagine the fear you must be feeling," Sammy said slowly.
"I won't lie, it's rather stifling," she said. "Up until the… monkey incident, I'd been simply using the excitement of being on the show to avoid thinking about it. And after that, I've been able to perform in the challenges because I knew you were here. But if you end up losing somehow, I don't know what I would do… And I guess the same could be said for if I lose."
"So… the fear of getting the urge to cut again is what you're most afraid of? And that if I'm not here to distract you, then it might happen again?"
"Yes, I guess so."
"And it's not the fear that one of us might be going home?"
"I…" She paused. "I suppose when you put it like that, it's rather ridiculous. We would really only be apart for a day or two, really."
"Mm, no, don't say that," Sammy told her. "Don't say it's ridiculous. Whatever you're feeling, it's valid."
"Oh. Right. You're right."
"I'm just… you know, worried."
Ella sighed and clenched her hands together, turning her knuckles rather white. "I thought you would be. I'm sorry."
"No! No, it's okay, please don't apologize."
"Oh, I'm so- ...Right, okay."
"The thing I'm worried about though is like…" She huffed. How was she going to say this? She wanted to sugarcoat it somehow, but she really needed to make sure Ella was aware of what she was trying to do. In the end, she settled for the not-so-subtle route. Trying to talk around it proved to be too tricky for her to pull off, anyway. "I… I'm just going to say it. I don't know if ignoring it outright is the best solution." Ella didn't reply to her, or even look at her. Sammy took that as an invitation to keep going. "Wouldn't doing that be just the same as the whole princess stuff? Ignoring your problems and not dealing with them? I really don't want to sound like I'm being rude, but… it almost seems to me that you're falling back into your old habits." She frowned and turned onto her back again. "And that I'm being used as a substitute for the clothes and mannerisms, I guess."
A pause. A long, agonizing pause. The instant the gap of silence started Sammy began going over everything she had said, to see if she had said something wrong, to try and anticipate what Ella could say back to her. Is she going to freak? Is she going to cry? God, why am I so bad at these sorts of things!?
Her breathing hitched, and all of Sammy's attention zeroed in on her. "So… you're saying that I…"
Sammy pushed herself into a sitting position and looked down at her. A few droplets of tears were staining the edges of her eyes, and she looked to be doing everything to keep her gaze on the sky. "What I'm saying is, you need to deal with it. Like, seek help. Professional help. From a therapist or someone."
Ella finally looked her way. "Therapists are expensive."
"I know," Sammy agreed. "But listen, even if we don't end up winning this thing, I still want to help you! I'll help pay for any therapy you might need!" On top of my own. I don't think it'll be too difficult, if I can convince Mom to help out.
Ella's red eyes went wide and she sat up herself. "I can't accept that," she said quickly.
"What?" Sammy asked, flabbergasted. "Why not?"
"If we don't end up winning the million between us, I can't accept that," she said. Her face was hardened in resolve. "Splitting the reward I'm fine with, obviously. Taking your money and using it on myself if we don't win? That's something I'm not okay with."
"But… it's not exactly taking it if I'm offering it to you…"
"I know that, but I still can't accept it."
Sammy wasn't sure what to say, and tried desperately to think of something. Offering to help by paying was the first thing that came to mind, and honestly wouldn't trouble her all that much. But she also didn't want to force Ella to take her money, so she would have to help out in some other way.
"Look, I'm so grateful you're willing to do that for me," Ella said after the silence went on for too long. "And… maybe you're right. Maybe I need to seek help for this, if the mere thought of it drawing me back in has got me so afraid." She took another look at her arm. "But I can't use your money. It wouldn't be right. And sure, you might be willing to give it to me, but I just… it just wouldn't sit well with me. So thank you, but also, no thank you."
Sammy knew Ella wasn't going to take no for an answer. She was one of the easiest people to get along with, but when it came to things she was serious about she did not back down at all. With one last look in her eyes just to make sure, Sammy conceded. "Okay. I understand."
A sympathetic smile found its way on Ella's lips. "Thank you for understanding."
"Yeah, of course. I'll just have to find some other way to help."
Ella smiled sympathetically. "You really don't have to… But you're probably right. About how I'm just falling back on old habits. I guess I thought, because acting like a princess and cutting were two different things, it was alright to try and ignore it, especially since you could argue that it was the worse of the two. But now I see that I was just making excuses because I… I didn't want to deal with it and relive everything."
Sammy nodded. "I was just thinking that, like, if you don't try and find a way around it now, it'll get worse in the future. And…" She gently took a hold of Ella's right hand, and ran her fingers up and down her palm. "I really wouldn't want that to happen to you, you know?"
There was a noticeable pause from Ella. Glancing up at her, Sammy saw her blushing intensely and staring at Sammy playing with her hand, but made no move to take her it away. "God," she breathed. Sammy didn't stop tracing nondescript patterns across her palm. "You're so thoughtful and considerate. Have I mentioned that I really, really like you?"
Sammy's grin widened considerably. "No, but the day's still young yet." They both laughed heartily at that. "Hey, listen, I'm sorry if it sounded like I was getting mad at you," Sammy automatically said without much thought. "I just wanted to make sure I got my point across, you know?"
Ella stared at her, and attempted to hold back even more laughter. "That was you getting mad? Sam, I've seen you mad before, and trust me when I say, that was not mad."
But Sammy's mind was elsewhere at the moment. "Wait… 'Sam'?" she repeated. Memories of days long gone popped into her mind. Vague ones, but… happy ones.
"Ooh, yeah, that just sort of slipped out." Ella frowned. "Why? You'd rather I didn't call you that? Oh, you don't, do you? I'm sorry, I didn't-"
"No! No, uh-" she shook her head quickly. "No, it's not that. It's just…" She felt a wistful smile take over her face as the sting of nostalgia hit her hard. "That's… actually what Amy used to call me, when we were kids. Sam. Before the whole… Samey thing." Before Dad left. Before it all went to hell.
Ella let that sink in, and nodded. "Ah." She paused for a moment. "So… is that a yes or a no?"
Sammy thought for a moment before saying, "You can call me whatever you want. As long as it's not Samey. Or… Sparemy."
Confusion slowly etched itself onto Ella's face. "…I'm almost afraid to ask but… 'Sparemy'?"
"Yeah. Another dumb nickname my sister tried to give me before she decided to turn over a new leaf. I don't even know what it's supposed to mean, but it sounds demeaning."
"It really does. Well, thankfully she's not going to be doing that anymore."
"Yes, thank god. She's gotten so much better about all that crud now. I'm so happy I can go home and not have to worry about her doing something ridiculous, like trying to sell all my furniture again."
"Yes, you can- Wait, excuse me?!"
Sammy laughed at her reaction, and after a moment Ella started as well. She had to remind herself that, even though tensions might get high between them, that was part of friendships and relationships all the time. She may not have much experience with either, but she would learn, if it meant keeping Ella close to her.
"I, uh, need to go to the little lady's room," Sammy said after a moment. "I'll be back in a bit, okay?"
Ella nodded and wished her farewell, and Sammy quickly headed out of the flower field. It was even more beautiful now that the sun was up, and she couldn't help but admire it as she entered the forest and followed the same path from yesterday.
The confessional wasn't hard to find, and she was just reaching the front of it when it opened up, and a long dark leg stuck out of it. Jasmine exited and breathed deeply. "I think they made the stink worse today," she said to herself, using her hat to fan in front of her face.
"Yeah, I wouldn't put that past them," Sammy agreed, and grinned at her friend as she turned to her in surprise. "Good morning."
"Morning," Jasmine said after recovering. "You two do alright? You didn't come back last night."
"Yeah, we were fine," she said. "The ground was tough to sleep on again, but we managed."
"Looks like you more than managed," Jasmine said, and started brushing down Sammy's clothes. "You've got dirt all over you."
She hadn't noticed it until now, but Jasmine was right. She shooed her friend's hands away and cleaned herself off, saying, "Thanks, but I can do this myself."
"Clearly you can," Jasmine said, and then gave her a smirk. "Ready for another exciting day today?"
"Ha," Sammy scoffed, running her hands over the back of her skirt. "If this is what exciting is, I could use a lot less of it in my life. I actually can't wait to go back to school, because it wouldn't involve any of this crap."
Jasmine took a second to stare her down in surprise, but ultimately started laughing. "Right you are! The sooner the season ends, the better." She gave Sammy an almost-sort-of proud look. "That said, you've grown."
She stopped mid-brushing and looked up at Jasmine. "Yeah?"
"Yeah, especially compared to before. You're walking and talking more confidently than ever. Plus, I don't remember you having this much bite to your bark last week."
Sammy allowed herself to swell with pride, just a little bit. "That's true. Even though it hasn't been long, I have grown, haven't I? So much has happened in the last week or so, shockingly."
"And for the better, too," Jasmine said. "I always figured you'd be here longer than your sister, and I was proven right. The underdog always comes out on top, after all."
"True, but it hasn't really been all that easy getting here," she admitted. "A lot of it was just through dumb luck, and even then only by the skin of my teeth." She looked up at her taller friend. "Hey, do you think this is all still worth it? Risking our butts over a million dollars like we've been doing?"
Jasmine seemed surprised by the question, but took it in stride. "Well… I can't say this is the safest thing I've ever done. Honestly it might be one of the least safe. At least in the wilderness, you can kind of expect what you're gonna deal with and prepare for it. Here, it's just one thing after another, and you have no idea what you're getting into!"
"Mm," Sammy agreed with a nod. "I don't think we could have prepared for monkeys of all things."
"Or lions and rattlesnakes."
"Or avalanches."
"Or the island exploding."
"Oh yeah. Especially the island exploding." Sammy sighed at reliving all of those moments. She raised one hand. "On the one hand, we've dealt with so much crazy stuff, and who knows what other sort of crazy stuff we're gonna deal with." She paused and raised her other hand. "On the other… A million dollars is a lot of money…"
Jasmine nodded. "It really is… And that's why I'd say that going through all this is still worth it."
Sammy blinked. "You think so?"
Jasmine nodded confidently. "Yep. After everything they've thrown at us, I'm sure I'll be able to keep at it all and reach the end. Besides, there's only two more challenges 'til the finale. If I've managed to last this long, the rest of it has got to be in the bag!"
"Wow," Sammy said in quiet awe. She may have been finding more confidence in herself, sure, but she'd be hard pressed to reach Jasmine's level of it in her lifetime.
"What about you?" Jasmine then asked. "Something tells me you're asking for a reason."
"Oh, ah," she stammered. "It was just something Sky brought up yesterday, and I guess I wanted your opinion on the matter. Mainly because I… ah… I don't think it's worth it anymore, personally."
"You don't?"
"No. Well. Maybe, I dunno. I really don't feel all that motivated to keep going. Or rather, I do, but the money isn't what's keeping me here, at least."
She looked confused by that, but it swiftly disappeared from her face. "Ohh. Say no more, sheila. I get what you're saying."
"Oh. Really?"
"'Course. And I think it's right honorable that you want to stay here 'cuz of your girl. She's lucky to have you, you know?"
Sammy mentally slapped herself for being so predictable, but couldn't help the red tinging her face or the grin spreading across it. "Gosh, you think? I dunno about that. But, I know that I'm lucky to have her."
Jasmine cooed and actually ruffled Sammy's hair. "You two are the cutest, you know? Makes me wish Shawn was still here, if I'm being honest." She must've seen the guilt flash in Sammy's eyes, as she quickly added, "Not that I blame you of course! It's just how the game is played. Besides, I'm sure I'll see him again once this is all said and done."
"Yeah, for sure!" Sammy agreed, thankful. "You guys can exchange numbers and keep in touch and everything! Oh, right! Um, did you want to do that too, when the game's over?"
"You don't even need to ask! Of course I'd love to chat you up afterwards!"
Beaming with pure joy, Sammy literally allowed herself to jump on the spot. "Woo! Awesome! Thank you so much!" This is gonna rock! My first time having friends I can talk to over the phone! I- I've never even entered anyone's contact info other than Amy's and Mom's. This is so exciting!
"Easy there," Jasmine said, gently putting her hands on her shoulders to get her to stop. "That's for after the show ends. Until then, we're bitter rivals duking it out until one of us drops dead!"
Sammy stared at her in mild horror.
"Or at least, you know, until one of us wins," Jasmine said with a chuckle. "Don't look so uptight, this is gonna be fun!"
She shook her head. "Yeah, yeah of course! May the best player win." They shook hands good-naturedly, and Sammy noted how rough and strong Jasmine's were. She tried matching that strength, but got pretty much nowhere near that. "Now, ah, I really need to pee."
"Oh! Then don't let me keep you! Go on, get in there!" Jasmine effortlessly pulled Sammy behind her and towards the outhouse, which caused Sammy to almost collide with it. "Ah, shite, sorry 'bout that. Sometimes I don't know my own strength."
"Evidently," Sammy said quietly. Louder, she said, "At least you saved me from walking five more steps."
Jasmine laughed and waved her off as she walked away. Sammy smiled happily at her retreating form, thankful once more that she was able to overcome her own fears and anxieties and actually make friends. If this is what it feels like to be loved, I don't want this feeling to end.
Sammy was nervous that the island was about to come back on and rearrange itself again before she left the confessional, but she was pleased to see that the way back to the field was just as navigable as the way from it. Upon returning and taking in the sights once more, Sammy noticed that Ella, while still in the same spot as earlier, was now turned back on to her. And as she approached her, it was becoming obvious that she was moving her hands, almost like she was working on something.
"I'm back," she said before she got too close and startled her. "What'cha making?"
Ella turned her head around and smiled warmly. "Welcome back," she said. "And it's a surprise! You're just going to have to wait."
"Ooh, a surprise huh?" She never exactly received a surprise before - or, rather, a good surprise that wouldn't end up hurting her in some way - so she was eager to see what it could be. "Well, color me surprised!" She turned and sat back-on to Ella, who groaned lightly and shook her head in mock-disgust. After a few moments Sammy decided to scoot backwards and lean against the songbird's back. Ella did the same, and Sammy felt the warmth of someone depending on her rise in her heart. "So… What do you think they'll have us do this time?"
"Who knows," Ella said. "Probably something that's both painful and degrading."
"True," Sammy groaners. "We're so close to the end, it's only going to start getting worse now."
"Mm-hm." A pause. "I'm not exactly looking forward to it."
"No, I doubt any of us are. …Except maybe Jasmine. She's determined to win."
Ella chuckled. "No surprise there. I wonder if anyone who already lost would be feeling like we do, if they were here now?"
Sammy considered it. "Huh. I never really thought about that, you know?"
"With so much going on, you kind of forget, don't you?"
"Yeah." She thought for a moment. "I bet… Shawn would be in it until the very end. Just like Jasmine. He wouldn't let a little thing like dying stop him from winning. That would… probably be something that drives him, honestly."
"Agreed. The two of them are meant for each other, so they'd naturally have similar views about this."
"Mm… If Beardo were here, though, he'd probably be thinking the same as us. I feel like he'd start to get tired of all of this constant danger. Unlike us, though, he'd probably call it quits around the time Scarlett tried to take over. I doubt he'd want anything to do with this place if he knew it was literally able to blow up."
"Yeah, that sounds like him alright." She felt Ella turn her head towards her. "I wonder what that says about us. That we didn't quit."
"Huh. I wonder."
There was a brief pause as Sammy thought what exactly that did say about her, but Ella interrupted it. "What about the others?"
"The others?"
"Yeah. Dave, and Leonard, and like, everyone else on the Salmons' team."
Sammy felt her cheeks flare. "Oh, I… kinda forgot all about them, truth be told." Considering I don't see them as part of the friend group, that probably makes sense.
"Is that right?"
"Y-Yeah… Um." She cleared her throat. "I don't think I can really say much about the others, seeing as I don't know them all that well."
"Just give it your best shot."
"Well, alright." Sammy scrunched her face in thought. "Hmm… Dave seemed kinda mean when he was here. And with the germ thing, I'm not sure if he would've wanted to go on very far. If the grease didn't get to him, I'd say something gross in the balloons, or having to deal with the monkey might have."
"I see," Ella said. "Just so you know, I think you shouldn't judge him just by a few days of knowing him. I understand the things he said about us were… cold, but maybe he was just having a bad day? He might be a good person under all of that crankiness."
Sammy did let Amy, of all people, have a second chance, so… "Maybe you're right. If I see him again, I'll have to properly get to know him."
"And the same with Leonard, too. He seemed… somewhat similar to myself, perhaps."
She had to concede to that, too. "True, I can see what you mean. And I wouldn't say 'no' to more friends, so I'll definitely speak with them again, if I'm able."
"That's the spirit," Ella said.
Sammy twirled her bangs in thought. "I can possibly see Leonard in our boat. He may complain about how everything on this show is stupid, if he got past that whole wizard thing, but I think he might want to try and make it to the end. Of course, I may be totally wrong, since I knew the guy for only one day, but still."
"I see, I see." Sammy heard the sound of what she thought was a flower being plucked from the ground, but Ella continued before she could think on that further. "And you said you don't really know the other team, but what about Topher? You were on his team when he was still here."
Sammy felt herself frown without meaning to. "The less I talk about him, the better. He was a creep who caused an avalanche and didn't care to apologise. He just wanted to take over Chris's job."
Whatever it was Ella was doing, she halted as Sammy spoke. "Did he now?" she asked quietly.
"Apparently. I don't even think he was ever in it for the money. That said, if he learned that Chris wouldn't hand over his job so easily and he started caring for the money, then I could see him going to the end. He seems like the stubborn type." If him refusing to get off the phone meant anything.
There was silence for a few moments, before Ella said, "He sounds like a jerk."
Sammy barked out a laugh at the language, but then was taken aback when she realized Ella wasn't laughing. "W-What? Seriously? What about not judging people like that?"
"There's a difference between being a grouch, and causing an avalanche that trapped people underneath it without apologising."
"That's… fair, I suppose. Did- Did I not tell you why he did that?"
"I guess you didn't."
"Oh. I'm sorry. It must have slipped my mind, after the whole Scarlett thing."
"It's… fine. It's just somewhat troubling that he's another name to add to the list of people willing to cause harm for their own gain."
"This show seems to attract a lot of jerks, doesn't it?"
"So it does. That's just the nature of the show."
Sammy looked up into the cloudless sky and hummed in thought. I wonder what would happen to the show if someone actually died? Would it be shut down? Or would the producers be just as sociopathic as the host and keep the show going for the ratings? I wouldn't put it past them, honestly.
"Right, well," Ella said, and shifted from her sitting position. Sammy had to catch herself before she fell backwards. "Let's not dwell on that and instead think about happier things. Wait-" Ella quickly placed a hand on her shoulder as Sammy began to turn around. "It's not ready yet! Just a few more seconds!"
"Oh, sorry!" She turned back around and patiently waited. In truth, Sammy had forgotten all about that thing Ella was working on, and her mind raced with possibilities for what it could be.
Then Ella placed something light on her head.
Confusion on her face, she slowly brought her hands to touch it. It felt like…
Flowers.
Sammy whirled around to see Ella beaming at her, and in her hair a crown made of the flowers surrounding them.
Slowly, Sammy took the crown from her own head and examined it. It was mostly purple, with some varying colors dotted around it, and it was all delicately woven together by their stems. She held it in her palms, afraid to even grip it lest she damage it somehow.
"This is," she started, her voice beginning to quiver. "Ella, this is beautiful."
"I'm glad you-" Ella stopped herself. "S… Sam?"
Sammy blinked, and felt the tears streaming down her cheeks. She let out a shuddering breath and quickly wiped them away. "I'm okay, I'm okay," she insisted. "I just… I've never received a gift like this, from anyone, outside my family at least. It… It…" As gently as she could, she put it back on her head and gave Ella a tear-stained grin. "I love it. Thank you so much."
Ella's hands were clasped in front of her, and she looked ready to cry herself. "You're welcome." She pulled Sammy into a hug, which she immediately reciprocated.
"I'm going to have to get you a gift too, now," Sammy said. "I'm, uh, not very good at arts and crafts, so I may need to buy it…"
"That's okay," Ella replied. "Whatever you get me, I'm sure I'll love it."
Sammy hugged her tightly, as if afraid that any less would cause her to drift away. What on Earth did I do to deserve someone like Ella?
But that tight hug became painfully tighter when the speakers roared to life, the feedback piercing their ears and causing them to wince in pain. "Sorry! Sorry about that," came Chris's voice. "Seems like every time I press this button, it-" He pressed it again, and the ringing in Sammy's ears increased tenfold. "Yep, it's definitely this button."
"You're doing that on purpose!" Sammy yelled at the sky.
Whether he heard her or not, he didn't reply. "Anyway! Time to join me at the base of Mt. McLean! Which I just named, like, five minutes ago. After me! 'Cuz I'm awesome!"
Ella uncharacteristically let out an annoyed groan. "Ugh, we get it already!" Sammy snorted at her, prompting Ella to smirk lightly.
"Long story short, get over here! Pronto!" The speakers cut off, leaving the two of them in silence.
"That was seriously uncalled for," Sammy said as the two of them stood up.
"Chris can be so mean at times."
"More like all the time."
"True enough." She let out a heavy sigh. The rims of her eyes were still wet, but the sad smile remained. "Are you ready?"
Sammy frowned, and folded her arms over herself. "Honestly? No. But we don't have a choice."
"I know," Ella said. She took a hold of one of Sammy's hands. "But no matter what happens, we're in this together. Okay?"
I really don't know what I did to deserve Ella. But whatever it was, I'd do it again a thousand times over. "Okay."
Mt. McLean was really just a featureless mountain near the middle of the island, seemingly having sprung up from underneath at some point since the shutdown happened. There really wasn't much to look at, aside from the sheer cliff face on their left, and the drop that would most certainly hurt should they fall on the right.
Sammy and Ella greeted Sky and Jasmine, who had arrived before them. Chris and Chef were a few paces away, a little ways up the hill, and chatting to themselves as they made their way towards them.
"Hey guys," Sky said, and her eyes were drawn to their flower crowns. "Cute accessories!"
"Thanks!" Sammy said, taking a moment to readjust hers. "Ella made them herself. They're so adorable!"
Ella grinned. "I can be crafty when I want to be."
The conversation ended there before it had a chance to begin, as it seemed everyone knew what was happening next. "This is it," Sky said to them, her tone both excited and nervous. "No matter what happens, it's nothing personal, okay?"
"Right," Ella said to her. "Of course, we're still going to try to win, so don't expect us to give up so easily."
Jasmine smirked and nodded at her. "Spoken like a true competitor. Something tells me this is gonna be a fun one."
"Something tells me this is gonna be another race," Sammy mentioned, looking up to try and find the top of the mountain only to come up short. And if we were nowhere close to winning the last one… "They were really hurting for ideas, weren't they?" she said aloud.
"Guess so," Jasmine said, following her gaze. "'Cept this one goes vertically rather than horizontally. Completely different skill set required here."
"And allow me to guess, it's something that's right up your alley?" Ella asked with a quirked brow.
"Heh," Jasmine chuckled. "Seems like my reputation precedes me."
"Or I just expect you to already know how to deal with these sorts of challenges." Ella smiled at her. "Either works."
"Well, regardless, you're right." With a cocky grin Jasmine turned back to them. "But like Sky said, no hard feelings, right?"
Ella and Sammy shared a look, but ultimately nodded.
It was at that point that Chris and Chef joined them, and stood up on top of a nearby rock to look down at them all. "Before we begin," Chris said, and pointed at Ella. "I'm gonna need you to stop calling her 'Sam' for the duration of the show."
Both girls' eyes went wide at that. "Wait, what? You were listening in on us?" Sammy asked.
"'Course I was! What do you expect of me, to give you privacy?" Chris scoffed. "You forfeited that right when you signed the contract."
"Okay but, why should I stop?" Ella asked with arms folded. "I feel like I can call her whatever I want!"
"You are free to call her whatever you want - outside the show, that is. But the name 'Sam' is henceforth forbidden. We don't want viewers of seasons four and five to get confused."
"B-But that's-"
"Hush up! Any lip from you about this and it's automatic disqualification!"
Ella's mouth shut harshly, knowing when she was bested. Sammy attempted to calm her down with a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay," she said. "'Sammy' works perfectly for me."
The edge in her face lessened, and she sighed in exasperation. "It's still a stupid restriction."
Sammy playfully gasped at that. "Ella! Watch your language!"
She attempted to maintain the frown, but snorted and lightly shoved Sammy. "Now you're being a jerk." Sammy merely grinned a toothy grin at her.
Chris then called for everyone's full attention, and got the cameras rolling. "Welcome, ladies, to the final four! Hope you're excited to be here! And utterly terrified of what comes next!"
"Is the challenge going to be as simple as yesterday's?" Sammy asked hopefully.
"Ha! You wish!" Chris replied. "After yesterday's flop of a challenge, we're going right back to what makes Total Drama great - pain, pain, and more pain!"
"Greeeat," Sammy droned, folding her arms.
"Just so we're all on the same page, the island is currently partially online," Chris announced to them. "We have some things back in working order, while others are still undergoing maintenance. What those things are," he added as Sky raised a hand, "is something you'll have to find out during the challenge.
"Speaking of: the challenge today is as follows," Chris said, and pointed upwards. "The first one of you to reach the flagpole at the top wins tonight's sponsored take-out dinner. The person who ends up in last gets to be dinner for the cannon."
"It sounds simple enough," Sky noted.
Chris glared at her. "Yeah, feel free to expect 'simple' if you want. No skin off my back." He turned his head around. "Chef?"
Chef reached down behind the rock they were standing on and pulled out four large, noticeably heavy backpacks, before effortlessly tossing them at the girls' feet.
"In these bags you'll find climbing gear that'll either help you scale the cliff faster, or break on you and slow you considerably." Chris told them. "So, does anyone have any questions?"
All four contestants raised their hands.
"No one? Sweet." He blew the airhorn. "Go go GO!"
They all grumbled, but didn't argue as they scooped up their packs (everyone but Jasmine nearly buckled under the weight of them) and took off up the slope. Sammy struggled to get her pack on as she ran, though she managed it after a short while. Ella on the other hand had to stop so that she didn't accidentally topple over while running, and sprinted briefly to catch back up with Sammy.
"This is gonna be tough," Sammy told her as Jasmine and Sky slowly but surely made the gap between them wider. "We're going to have to do everything we can so that we both don't come in last."
"As long as it doesn't involve anything underhanded," Ella panted, "I'm ready to do whatever it takes."
"Agreed," Sammy said. "For now, I think we just keep moving as much as we can. Anything comes up, we'll work through it and try to find an advantage from it."
They tried desperately to catch up to the girls in front of them, but no matter how hard they ran Sky and Jasmine just kept going and going, the distance between them getting bigger and bigger. They needed something to help them, something to speed them up or slow the others down, because otherwise the race would be over before it truly even began.
Luckily - or unluckily, depending on how one looked at it - their help arrived.
"SAMMY BEHIND US!"
In the form of robot crocodiles.
"CRAP! RUN FASTER!"
The two of them pushed their legs to the limit, ascending the slope as fast as they possibly could. Miraculously the crocs kept pace with them and failed to gain on them, but it wasn't something they could keep up for long.
As they rounded a turn, however, Sammy spotted something in the middle of the path. A lone goat stood before them, munching away at something without a care in the world, and lazily looked their way as they came screaming up to it. What caught Sammy's attention was that it didn't immediately bolt when they reached it, and continued to leisurely chew on the flowers sprouting from beneath a rock.
"Is that a robot too?" she asked aloud as they passed it by.
Ella looked back at it as they continued up the path. "I don't know!" she replied. "But whatever it is, those crocs will tear it limb from limb!"
"Better it than us!" Sammy shouted. She glanced at Ella and winced when she saw her pained expression. "I'm sorry, but like I said, we have to do whatever it takes!"
Though she looked like she would much rather puke, Ella nodded sternly. "W… Whatever it takes."
They refused to witness what happened to the goat, but after a few more minutes of running it was apparent that they had lost the crocodiles. It didn't sit well with Sammy's stomach, sacrificing a potentially real creature like that, but she wasn't going to let a single goat get in the way of hers' and/or Ella's victory. Not after surviving bears, avalanches, and self-destruct sequences.
Maybe Sky was right yesterday. We've come so far already. Too far to just give up. I gotta keep at it, at least for Ella's sake.
After running for several minutes, they came across their first true obstacle: a series of stone platforms in a line, surrounded by the sheer drop of the cliff, and what looked to be a log trap swinging away from them and towards the other end.
Which was exactly where Sky and Jasmine were.
"Jasmine, look out!" Sammy screeched at her as the log swung directly at the back of her head.
The Australian quickly turned back to see the trap on its way back, screamed, and ducked just in the nick of time. When she was safe, she jumped over the last gap and made it to relative safety. "That was way too close!" Jasmine shouted with more fright in her voice than Sammy had expected. "Thanks mate! I owe you one!"
"Guys!" Sky called out to them. "Be careful on the platforms, they're greased!"
Both of them zeroed in on the platform nearest to them, and sure enough there were footprints and skid marks along the coated surface. "OMG, I would not have seen that," Sammy said. She did her best to not look down and at the ground at least 200 feet below them. "We'll have to be super careful."
"How did you guys get across?!" Ella shouted across the chasm.
Sky opened her mouth again, but Jasmine quickly covered it. "Ohh no," she said. "Telling them about the grease was the one I owed them. Besides, I'm fine with giving them a head's up, but they gotta work this one out on their own!"
Sky looked upset at that, but let it slide. "That's fair." She cupped her hands over her mouth. "Good luck, you two! Try not to slip!"
Easier said than done, but… "Thanks, you guys be careful too!" They took off further up the trail, leaving Sammy and Ella on their own. "What's the plan?" Sammy asked Ella.
Ella tapped a finger to her chin, and looked from the platforms, to the other side of the ravine, to the log trap hanging high above them. "Okay, I have an idea," she said after a short second, "but it's going to be messy."
"Like, literally messy?" Sammy asked, eyeing the grease.
"Literally messy."
"Hey, I'm working up two week's worth of sweat and stink, I can handle a bit more mess."
Ella nodded. "Alright. We crawl across the platforms and shimmy our way across the gaps between them. That way, it'll be much harder for us to slip and the log trap won't hit us."
"Smart!" Sammy exclaimed, and bent down to her knees. "I'll go first."
"You sure?"
"Yep, no need to worry!" She placed her hands on the platform's surface, and almost immediately slipped and faceplanted onto it. She heard Ella gasp, and she quickly spat out any grease that got in her mouth. "Okay, maybe you should worry."
"Are you okay?!" Ella asked her.
"I'm fine, just humiliated." Sammy started scooting on her stomach, and quickly pulled herself across the gap to the next platform without taking a second to look down. "If you ignore the fact that falling here means certain death, it's not all that bad!"
"Ughh, please don't joke like that!"
"I kinda wasn't… but I'll stop talking now."
A glance over her shoulder showed her that Ella had started crawling herself, almost directly behind her. Sammy unconsciously pulled at the hem of her skirt, but then remembered she was wearing shorts underneath so it wasn't a cause for concern.
It took perhaps a total of five minutes to get to the other end, and that was five minutes of running Sky and Jasmine managed to get in before the girls could get back on their feet. As the swinging log travelled safely overhead, the girls made it to grease-less land and stood with shaky legs.
"That was," Ella said between breaths, "the most terrifying thing I've done so far."
"Even worse than getting electrocuted by an eel?" Sammy asked.
Ella opened her mouth, then closed it. "Let me get back to you on that."
"Thankfully the only things we're walking away with are shirts full of grease." Sammy tried wiping the gunk off her shirt and stomach, but it didn't really work. "Though it's not like we have time to worry about it. Let's keep going!"
Sammy took off at a sprint, Ella right behind her, and they continued their way up the mountain. Weaving between several different rock formations on both sides of them, she soon realized the inevitable. We won't be able to catch them. Sky's a professional runner, and Jasmine's got legs for days. We… we almost have no hope of catching them by simply chasing after them. What else can we do?
Soon, the two of them came to a straight path without any obstructions. Sammy was fit to keep going, but then Ella spoke up from behind her. "Hey, may we stop for a second?"
Sammy saw no reason to say no, other than a million dollars on the line, but came to a halt regardless. Ella placed a hand against the wall to catch her breath. "You gonna be okay?" Sammy asked her.
"I will be, yes," she replied, "just short of breath."
Figuring they might be there for a little bit, Sammy took the opportunity to rifle through her backpack. True to Chris's words, there was climbing equipment neatly stored within - a helmet, several feet of rope, and a pickaxe of all things. "Gosh, no wonder this was so heavy," she murmured, taking out the helmet.
"We should probably put those on," Ella said, eyeing the headwear. "I'd rather us not get our skulls cracked open by another log trap or a random falling boulder."
Sammy's hand automatically went to her head. "But… the flower crowns-"
"Can be replaced," Ella interrupted. "Seriously, I made them in a few minutes each. I can just do it again. It won't be any trouble at all."
"Well, okay, but I don't want to just get rid of it."
"Then put it in the bag until we're done?"
She eyed the pickaxe warily. "But they might get damaged-"
"Samantha. It's okay."
Sammy frowned, but conceded. "Alright." She gingerly put her flower crown into the bag and replaced it with the helmet. Clipping it on, she watched as Ella did the same. Now, they were at least less likely to suffer a concussion should they get hurt.
"So," Ella said. "What do we do now?"
"I don't know," Sammy said, and desperately tried to think. "We have climbing gear… maybe we can scale the mountain?"
"Do either of us know how to scale a mountain?"
"Well… I don't."
"Then I'm not sure if we-"
That was when the cliff wall opened up.
The girls screamed and backed away as the wall pushed in slightly, and separated like a sliding door. Inside was, astonishingly, an entire cave with a slope steeper than the normal path.
Sammy looked at Ella, whose hand was the only thing that had been on the wall. "Don't look at me," she said defensively. "I didn't push any hidden buttons."
Sammy frowned and looked up at their surroundings, where several cameras were pointed directly at them. "I wonder if Chris did this on purpose so the challenge isn't too one-sided…" She received no answer from the speakers.
"It looks like this cave goes both in and up," Ella noted, peering into it. "We might actually be able to use this as a shortcut."
"Not to play devil's advocate, but what if it ends up going down part way through, or ends in a dead end, and we lose even more time?"
"I feel at this point, it's a risk we're going to have to take."
"I guess."
Nodding, yet still apprehensive, the two ventured in with Ella taking the lead. The cave ended up ascending upwards to a shocking degree, and it was only after a few steps that their legs began to tire out. Still, they pressed onwards, with the possibility of a shortcut much more appealing than walking back to the entrance.
A few minutes of silence passed, and thankfully the floor began to level out into a more manageable slant. Ella gasped lightly and pointed ahead of them. "I think I can see daylight ahead," she said, and quickened her pace. Sammy followed suit, ready to leave this cave, and hopefully, all caves once and for all.
But of course, like everything up to that point, it wasn't that simple. Ella turned a corner, stopped in her tracks, and gasped. Harshly. She slammed her hands over her mouth, and from this angle her eyes looked ready to pop out of her head.
Sammy did not like the look of it. "What's wr-"
Before she could even get two words out, Ella hastily slapped her hands over her mouth and quickly, silently shook her head. "Quiet," she mouthed, and jerked her head to what lay beyond the corner. "Bears."
The drop to her stomach came immediately, and she could feel her heart rate start to quicken. Bears, she bitterly thought. Of course it's bears. Why's it always gotta be bears?!
As Sammy began to panic, Ella took another glance down the corridor. "They're asleep," Ella continued to say in a barely audible whisper. "If we're quiet, we can sneak by."
"Will that even work?" Sammy asked. But then her mind flashed to the time with those lions and rattlesnakes, and how even though she and Jasmine had screamed at that one lion that woke up, the rest didn't even react to it. Maybe it's a robot thing, and we've gotta be close enough to them for them to actually pick up our sounds or something…
"We don't have a choice," Ella said to her, and pulled her around the corner.
If she didn't have Ella's hand in hers, Sammy would probably have frozen on the spot. Countless mounds of brown fur littered the area they found themselves in, lying on their stomachs and backs and breathing heavily and loudly. There were at least ten of them, and the smell was awful, but it seemed they were all in a deep sleep. This was good - though Sammy's heart was ready to burst out of her chest, if she and Ella could just make it to the exit at the back of the room without uttering a sound-
"HEY! I SEE YOU GUYS HAVE FOUND OUR BEAR CAVE!"
Every single pair of resting eyes flew open, revealing red irises and no pupils whatsoever.
And their heads all swiveled around at the same time to look at the two of them.
Ya know… Maybe Chris wanted us to find this room after all.
Slowly, the robots stood, growling and glaring at them. Sammy knew she had a deathgrip on Ella's hand but right now she didn't care, her mind was working a mile a minute trying to calm itself down but absolutely failing to do so. There were too many bears, they couldn't outrun them all, and pretty soon the two of them were going to be nothing more than bones on the ground. They were dead, they were going to be so much more dead than if the Chris-bots had gotten to them.
The panic was rising, far too much to contain, and she didn't know what to do. They were surrounded, and Ella wasn't about to sing again, not if she wanted to stay in the game. Sammy was at a loss, an absolute loss, and she knew that they were in an impossible situation. There was no way they were getting out of this one.
"Sammy." Over the din of the bears' growls and her own thoughts, she managed to hear Ella speak. "Sammy, listen to me. Don't panic, we'll find a way out, trust me!"
"But- But there isn't a way out of this," Sammy replied, shaking her head and backing up slowly, one step behind the other. The bears, all of them on their hind legs, began approaching them, cutting off the one cave exit in front of them and their only means of escape. "We're dead. We can't- we won't make it, we won't- we won't-"
She hit a wall behind her.
A soft, furry and warm wall.
A mind-numbingly terrifying wall.
She didn't even need to look up to know when to start screeching.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH! AAAAAAAH- AAAAH- AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"
There was nothing that could be done to save them. She screamed, and screamed, and screamed, until her throat began to ache and demanded her to stop, but she refused and kept screaming.
She screamed because they were going to get eaten, and turned into nothing more than an afternoon snack.
She screamed because there was so much she wanted to do in life, so much she hadn't discovered yet, so much time that wasn't spent with Ella away from this sickening, literal deathtrap of an island.
She screamed because when she died, she'd be leaving behind a mother unaware of what was going on, several new friends whom she wanted to see again, and a sister who no longer wanted to be her personal bully and desperately desired to be a better human being.
She screamed because this was it.
They were goners.
They were going to die.
She screamed.
And she kept screaming
And she screamed even more.
And she continued to scream…
…until she became aware that she was still screaming.
I'm not dead. Why aren't I dead? I should be dead by now.
Gradually, the shrieking died down, but she was far too afraid to open her eyes. Her throat burned, and she realized she had no clue how long she'd been screaming for - her mind had shut down and she seemed to have gone into some sort of self-defence state, even going so far as to curl into a ball and lie on the floor.
She listened, and heard no growling. No roars. No gnashing of teeth. There was… the sound of something sparking? And of stuff falling to the ground? And… of Ella trying to catch her breath.
Slowly, sluggishly, hesitantly, her eyes opened. And what she saw shocked her even more than the sight of bears.
Because what she was looking at were the robotic remains of the bears.
Her eyes flew open all the way and she quickly tried to take everything in. Somehow, some way, for some reason, the ten or so bears that had been surrounding them had, all of a sudden, blown up. Several of their heads were now gone, replaced with nothing but smoke and wires. Some of them had their entire torsos missing, while a select few left nothing behind but soot-filled spots on the ground.
Needless to say, Sammy was utterly confused and still somewhat frozen in terror.
She then remembered what she had bumped into, and looked behind her. This particular bear, unfortunately, had only half of its head blown off, leaving its jaw hanging open and swinging in the wind.
Sammy let out a yelp and scuttled backwards as much as she could, only to hit Ella at the same time.
Ella was still breathing heavily, looking at the carnage around her with wide eyes and a red face. Sweat was pouring down her forehead, and with every second breath she coughed and rubbed at her throat. She gave a startled yelp herself when Sammy crashed into her and whirled to look at her like she was ready for anything.
"Oh my god," she said, the fright in her eyes dying down, and she spent little time enveloping Sammy in a safe, comforting hug. "Oh my god we're safe. We're okay."
"W-What happened?" Sammy asked, too afraid that the bears would come back to life if she looked away from them.
"Ah… heh," Ella gave a slightly amused, mostly tired chuckle. "Remember that time Scarlett said something about the robots'… um… auditory, things, or something?"
"Uhh…" The less Sammy remembered about Scarlett, the better, but she thought back anyway. "I think? Something about you being able to control them because your singing was at the right pitch?"
"Yeah…" She looked at the remains of the bears surrounding them. "If I were to guess, I'm pretty sure our screams were at the right frequency to blow them to smithereens."
The bear that had been behind Sammy fell backwards in a loud crash!, which startled the girls. "R-Really?" Sammy asked after another moment. "How do you know?"
"When you started screaming, they stopped moving entirely and began twitching violently. I put two and two together and started screaming with you, at the pitch you were at. It didn't take long before the first one blew up, and the rest followed right along."
Sammy blinked in astonishment, looked at the rest of the bears' remains, and then down at her hands. "I had no idea I had this much power," she said quietly.
Ella laughed behind a hand, but tried to quickly regain her composure. "Okay, I think that's enough resting for now," she said, and hauled herself and Sammy to their feet. "The longer we wait, the farther the other two get."
"I guess you're right." Sammy took one step forward and nearly collapsed back to the ground.
"Oh god!" Ella gasped, and quickly righted her. "Are you okay?!"
"Still a little shaken I think," Sammy told her, straightening her arms to balance herself. "I'll… I'll be okay."
"Are you sure?"
No. "Yes."
Ella seemed unconvinced. "Let's just take it easy for a bit then."
Thankfully with no more commentary from Chris (apparently the TV screen he appeared on got fried, too), the girls made their way out of the cave and back into daylight. Sammy took a breath of fresh, unpolluted air and allowed it to reinvigorate herself. Once she was sure she was good to go, Ella pointed up the path that miraculously continued towards the top, and they resumed their run for the finish line.
It was only a few moments after they started that they heard someone else screaming.
"Do you hear that?" Sammy said, stopping in her tracks and looking around. "That sounds like Jasmine!"
The two of them searched for a few moments before coming up short, but then it was Ella who had the brilliant idea to look up.
"Oh god she's falling!"
"What?!"
Jasmine was falling alright. Falling right towards them. And the only thing Sammy had time to do was to try and curl up to lessen the damage before she slammed right onto the two of them.
Pain filled every one of her senses, and her forehead ached. Her mind was in a daze, trying to get back on track, but for the life of her she couldn't focus. After a few seconds she felt movement and heard groaning, followed by talking that she couldn't really make out. Slowly she came back to her senses, and felt two sets of hands pull her unsteadily to her feet.
"You good?" Jasmine was asking, seemingly none the worse for wear. "Sorry I fell on you, the cliff broke apart when I swung my pickaxe into it."
"It-It's fine," Sammy said, her head forming a splitting headache. "I'm okay."
"No you're not," Ella said in a whisper, eyes as wide as saucers. "You're bleeding."
"Huh?" Sammy blinked, and felt something warm and sticky fall over her eyelid. She put a hand to her forehead, winced, and removed it to see her fingertips coated in shimmering red. "…Oh."
"'Oh'?" Ella repeated, absolutely shocked. "That's all you have to say about this?!"
"I, uh," Sammy said slowly. "I guess so."
"Lemme see," Jasmine said, removing Sammy's helmet for her and tossing it to the ground. "I've got experience with scrapes like these." She examined the cut, as Sammy stood with one eye closed and as Ella practically fumed on the spot (or as close to fuming as Ella could get). The examination lasted less than a minute, before Jasmine pulled away and nodded. "Eh, it's only skin deep. Might be a bit of a scar left over, but if I were you I wouldn't worry too much about it. You're lucky you were wearing that helmet, else it could've been a lot worse."
"Good thing we put I put it on when I did," Sammy said with a chuckle.
"All the same, it's bleeding something fierce, and the blood'll keep getting in your eye if we don't cover it up with something."
"Yeah, I'm kinda getting that sense now," Sammy said, wiping away the dripping fluid.
Jasmine smirked, and looked out over the canyon beside them. "I might signal for one of the crew to-"
"Here."
All of a sudden, a red cloth was shoved in Sammy's face.
"Wh-" Sammy looked at her, and saw the look of determination and terror mixed together on her face. "Ella, n-no, it's okay-"
"I insist."
She wasn't going to back down easily, or at all, but at the same time Jasmine wasn't having any of it. "Okay, the gesture is nice and meaningful and all," she said, and forcefully lowered Ella's outstretched hand, "but I'd be more comfortable if we had something sterile to use. And that sleeve is definitely not sterile. It hasn't been washed in, what, two whole weeks? And I bet it's coated in your sweat, and hers'. So while it's appreciated, it's also not a good idea."
Ella looked absolutely torn. "B-But- But-"
"Ella it's okay," Sammy said. "I insist."
Ella's mouth set into a hard line, and she looked ready to argue. But she only huffed out a sigh, and slipped the sleeve back over her arm. "Alright," she said quietly.
"Hey you three!" Chris's voice suddenly said, as a TV monitor lowered itself in front of them. "Guess what? Sky's made it to the top!"
Standing next to him was indeed Sky, although she looked haggard and worn out. "You, uh, might want to watch out for falling crocodile parts," Sky informed them. "Some of them may have slipped over the edge."
Sammy looked up but didn't see any. Maybe it was the wrong edge.
"As a reminder," Chris continued, "the next two contestants to make it up here at the top are also safe. The last one gets an all-expenses-paid flight out of here!"
Sammy wiped the blood away from her eye, took a glance at Ella, then at Jasmine. The others did the exact same.
"So, uh," Jasmine said, and took one step backward. "Sorry again for landing on you. Make sure you get someone to check that out. I'm gonna skedaddle now."
"Wait, no!" Sammy attempted to jump for Jasmine, to try and hold her back, but the Australian was far too quick for her to catch.
"Sorry, girls." Jasmine called out over her shoulder as she took off up the trail. "You're great and all, but I'm not giving up my spot just so you can both stay!"
And with that she was around the bend and out of sight. The girls gawked after her, shared a mortified look between them, and sprinted off in the same direction.
When Jasmine saw them coming, she decided to pick up the pace, and progressively got farther and farther away. They lost sight of her once more around another bend of the mountain, and were intent on keeping up the pace as long as they could, but it didn't take long before the two of them came to a block in the road: namely, a wall.
They skidded to a halt, Sammy nearly crashing face first into it, and stared at it in utter confusion. "How did-" Sammy started. "Where'd she go?"
Ella looked up, and then pointed up. "There!"
Jasmine had begun ascending the rock wall with surprising speed, and didn't even seem to be using the pickaxe she'd been given. Though I guess she would've lost it when she fell…
"I think it's time we broke out the climbing gear," Sammy said, and unbuckled her backpack after shrugging it off.
"Oh," was all Ella said. She didn't take her pack off.
Sammy stopped halfway from pulling the rope out to look up at her. "You good?"
Ella gave her a worried glance. "I mean, we don't know how to climb a mountain. Plus, I don't think this is all the proper gear."
"I, uh," Sammy took a brief glance around them. "I get that, but I don't think we have a choice. There aren't any more paths here."
"Well, maybe there could be a hidden path, like that cave."
"Well, sure, there could be, but Jasmine's already got a lead on us, and if we take the time to look for it she could finish before we even get a chance to use it!"
"I-I know," Ella replied, "I just-"
A rumbling in the earth caused her to stop, and the now familiar noise of mechanical whirring could be heard around them. Sammy couldn't help but sigh in exasperation. "There's a path forming behind me isn't there."
Ella, looking past her, gave her a half-smile and shrugged. "I guess Chris wants to make this a close race."
"After yesterday, I'm not surprised." She put the pack back on, wiped away more blood from around her eye, and examined the new pathway. It actually turned out to be a walkway along the face of the wall, leading around it and over the canyon and going upwards slightly. "No time to lose," she said and, taking Ella by the hand, continued on.
It didn't take more than a few seconds for the first obstacle of this new path to present itself. Another, less-noticeable rumbling caused the girls to stop dead in their tracks, and backup screaming when a portion of the wall pushed out and over the edge of the path.
It stayed like that for only a second before receding back into the wall, but it was still enough to make Sammy groan. "Ugh, come on! More booby traps?"
Ella snorted.
Sammy looked at her in both astonishment and bafflement. "Okay, are you sure you're Ella? Because you're the last person I would've expected to laugh at that."
She merely winked at her and passed her by, easily sidling alongside the wall as it remained actually in the wall. Sammy followed quickly behind, nearly tripping up as the block came out again, but nothing major came out of it.
They readied themselves for the next obstacle, which was, uniquely, exactly the same thing as last time, only moving a bit faster. "Need to time this right," Sammy said, mostly to herself, and leapt forward as the block retracted into the wall. Ella did the same without difficulty, and they were off once more.
The path ended up not circling around the whole mountain, but instead stopped abruptly. A second path, above the first, led in the opposite direction and continued upward. The girls pulled themselves up and kept going.
Chris began talking over the speakers, about how it was neck and neck between them and Jasmine, but Sammy tuned him out and pushed her legs even farther.
The next trap was a reversal of what they'd experienced - instead of a block of stone pushing outwards, it instead pushed down from the rocky ceiling above them. If they were too slow, they'd be crushed.
"Same as before," Ella said, lowering herself to a crouch. "Just time it right." The block slammed into the ground, and they ran under it as it rose without any complications.
Now, both the ceiling and the ground met each other, lowering and rising respectively and smashing together in the middle of their path. It wasn't very fast, but it required the girls to dive between the two pieces in order to make it to the other side. As they were weighing them down, they abandoned their backpacks and kept going without them.
And then, the final stretch - rather than continue around the mountain, the path suddenly cut through it, with another cave leading inwards and upwards towards the summit. Unfortunately it went a bit too upward, at such an angle that required both feet and hands to climb it.
"Maybe we shouldn't have ditched the climbing gear," Sammy observed, wiping the blood away again.
"We can't go back for it now," Ella replied, and they quickly got to work scaling the dirt path. The ground was loose enough for them to jab their fingers into, but also sturdy enough that doing so didn't pull the dirt up entirely. They climbed as fast as they could, uncaring that even more grime was getting under their nails, and kept their eyes glued for any tricks or traps Chris might have hidden in it. The caution was for naught, as there were no mines or mouse traps or anything of the like buried in the dirt.
The path slowly but surely leveled out into more manageable levels, and Sammy could see the blue sky where the cave opened up once more. "That's got to be the top!" she shouted, her energies renewed. She pushed harder, sending dirt flying behind her, and scrambled onto her feet properly to run once more, with Ella alongside her.
Sammy barely noticed that the cave walls alongside them had small indents within them, but seeing as her eyes were elsewhere she didn't fault herself for it.
When a giant boulder crashed down at the exit before them and started rolling their way, she wished she had realized what those indents were for.
"Go back!" she shouted. "Back!"
"In the wall, hurry!" Ella, one step ahead of her, squashed herself as best she could in the tiny opening and sucked in her stomach. Sammy did exactly the same with the one on the other wall and prayed it was enough.
The boulder got closer, it's thunderous rumbling got louder, and Sammy closed her eyes just in case it turned out for the worse… and just as quickly it rolled passed them and down the path. When it was safe, the girls stuck their heads out and watched as it slipped down the steep path, disappearing from their sights and, shortly after, the cave and mountain entirely.
"I hope no one was underneath it," Ella idly mused.
"Same," Sammy agreed.
They took one whole second to compose themselves, and then resumed the sprint back up to the exit.
As if Lady Luck was on her side, there were no more obstacles they had to face. It was just a clean run up a slope and to the top of the mountain. She could even see where the cave opened up, with its ceiling disappearing while the walls remained on either side of them.
Almost there. Sammy pushed her legs beyond the impossible, all so that they could both cross the line together. Just a little more…!
Ella was beside her the whole way, and though her face was completely red and dripping with sweat, she didn't dare slow down.
Chris continued his commentary, and Sammy blocked it out. Her mind was almost a complete blank - the only thing that mattered at the moment was the both of them staying in the game. And if that didn't happen… If that didn't happen…
That's not going to happen, she thought solemnly. I won't let it happen.
"Faster!" she commanded, desperately forcing her legs to go even faster, if that was even possible.
"I-" Ella gasped. "I'm trying!"
They were so close to the end that she could see where the cave path ended and the summit of the mountain began. They were practically there, just a few more seconds of running. We can do this. We can do this!
Time seemed to slow to a crawl as they neared it, yet it seemed to simultaneously go far too fast, as all of their efforts, their trials and tribulations and pains, coalesced in that very moment.
…
…
…
And unfortunately for them,
In the end,
It didn't even matter.
"And Jasmine reaches the top, earning her a spot in second place!"
…
…
…
The sentence hit her like a sack of bricks to the gut
What…?
We… lost?
Her mind, so distracted and working overtime, failed to coordinate her legs properly, and she tripped over literally nothing and once more faceplanted into the ground. She didn't bother moving from the spot as her brain tried to work out what she just heard.
But… But we were so close! Weren't we? We could have made it! We could have both been in the final three! But… But we're not…
It was only when Ella, who had stopped a few feet in front of her, fell to her knees and started dry heaving from the exertion did Sammy get up and support her. She gave her a shaky smile and coughed up spit.
"That," Ella wheezed, her face scrunched in pain, "could've gone better."
"That's putting it lightly," Sammy replied, swiping her fingers across her eyelid to wipe away the blood. She had the sense to try and do it with a clean part of her hand, as few and far between they were.
"In case you guys forgot," Chris yelled from the mountain's summit. Jasmine and Sky were standing with him, looking down at them sympathetically. Jasmine was breathing heavily, and her skin was glistening from the sweat. "We still need one of you for third. And the person who isn't third gets sent home!"
Sammy and Ella both glared up at him, teeth grit and growling. Jasmine and Sky did the same.
Chris shrugged off all of the eyes on him. "What? Just a friendly reminder."
The girls took a few moments to catch their breath, though the burning in their legs didn't disappear. Once Ella was able to stand again, they slowly shuffled their feet the rest of the way up the path. And just like that, our worst fears come true. Why did this have to happen? Why did we have to lose? Why did…
She found herself glancing at Jasmine who, aside from the breathing and the sweat, did not look any worse for wear. She glanced at Jasmine's arms and legs, which were well-toned and powerful. And she glanced at her hands, which were used to climb all the way up the cliff without any proper equipment.
Sammy felt her heart sink, and she lowered her head in despair.
Why did we think we could even win in the first place?
They stopped just in front of a line drawn in the sand by someone's shoe, marking where the summit began. The girls stared at it, unsure of what to do. What could they do?
Sammy looked to Ella, and she looked right back. "What do we do?" Sammy asked quietly.
"I… I don't know." Ella said with a shake of her head. "I really, truly don't know."
"Just so you two are aware," Chris told them, walking up to them, "there is definitely someone going home tonight. Neither of you are being saved by forcing legal action again."
Sammy had figured that, but hearing it out loud just made her feel even more defeated.
"What if we-"
"If you suggest you cross the finish line at the same time, we'll have you both play rock-paper-scissors until someone loses."
Ella huffed and didn't finish the thought.
"So, who's it gonna be?" Chris's smile was gone and he was looking between the two of them with thinly-veiled impatience. "Clock's ticking!"
Sammy set her mouth in a line and looked away. "Just- Just give us a minute!" He frowned further, but simply shrugged and walked away.
The girls turned to each other, and neither of them knew what to say. "We really botched this one, didn't we," Ella said after a moment of silence.
"I guess we did," Sammy said. And then, without thinking, "I'm sorry."
Ella's head snapped towards her. "Don't you dare say that. It's not your fault."
It kind of is, she didn't say. I'm the one who stopped us in the bear cave. "Okay."
What were they supposed to do now? How could they even think about who was going to go stay, and who was going to leave? These sorts of decisions should never be made lightly.
Sammy wracked her brain, trying to come up with something. She knew, just from who they were, that any discussion would just run around in circles, with both of them offering to be the loser while the other would be allowed to keep playing. She knew Ella would be willing to give up her chances, and Sammy knew that she herself would be the same. And neither of them would back down from it, which would just make it more difficult and tedious and probably force Chris to do something stupid, like pick a name from a hat.
Maybe I should just walk across to save us the trouble. Even if I don't need to win… Then again, Ella doesn't need to win either, but-
Her eyes widened.
But it might be better for her if she did.
And then, an idea quickly formed in her head.
"Ella?"
The songbird had been lost in her own thoughts, and blinked away the cobwebs before she looked back up. "Yes?"
"I think you should cross it."
Her jaw fell open and she stared in disbelief. "What? Me?"
"Yep. You."
"Wh-" she stammered, her hands moving to her head. "But, I don't understand. Why me? I can't go up against Sky and Jasmine! You're the better athlete between the two of us!"
"I know that," Sammy said quickly, "Just think about it, though. I really only came here to get away from Amy and to make friends, and I accomplished both of those. I don't exactly have anything more to prove, since all I wanted to do has been done."
Ella squinted her eyes. "And… I do?"
"Well," Sammy hesitated, "maybe not exactly, but I was thinking… I dunno, it might be good for you to try and come in first, and show all those bullies at school who you really are, you know?" Seeing Ella ponder this, Sammy continued. "They made fun of you for how you acted, for loving your passions so much that you pretended to be a part of them. And now you have a chance to prove to them that you're more than that, that you're a capable person who can overcome hardships like this! And plus, winning might help with… like, confidence and stuff."
"Confidence?" Ella repeated. "I'd like to think I'm fairly confident already…"
"You are, yes. I was thinking more along the lines of…" Sammy briefly and unintentionally glanced at Ella's arm. "…You know, standing up to them, or your parents or something."
Thankfully, Sammy didn't need to go into detail. It caught Ella off guard, and she covered her arm reflexively. "Oh."
"If you can say that you won a million dollars on a TV show, and survived so much of it to actually get there, then I'd like to believe anything is possible for you. Including… well, you know."
Ella spent a long moment organizing her thoughts, so long that Sammy sent a nervous glance at an unimpressed Chris. He tapped at his wrist, signalling a quickly shrinking amount of time left. Sammy swallowed thickly and looked back at Ella.
After another moment, Ella slowly raised her head back up. "I don't know if I'll be able to focus." She hadn't loosened the death grip on her arm.
"I know," Sammy said, recalling their earlier conversation. "But like we said, it'll only be for a day, two at most. I believe that you'll be able to pull this off, without me being here."
"Are you sure?"
"Absolutely positive."
She paused for another moment. "You… You really want me to do this, don't you?"
Sammy nodded vigorously. "I do, yes."
"You know it's not going to be a walk in the park, right?"
"Well, no, it won't… But I have faith that you're going to do everything the best you can."
Ella sighed and gave her a wry, hesitant smile. "Me getting here has pretty much pure luck. What makes you think that luck will last?"
Sammy frowned. "Hey, you pulled your weight just as much as anyone did. Maybe you did get lucky in some parts, but every other part was because of yourself. Your singing helped us out plenty of times, even if Chris didn't like it, and it's because you refused to give up that you're here right now. So… you know, don't sell yourself short like that."
Ella was silent, though she conceded with a shrug and a nod.
"And besides," Sammy continued, "you're talented in your own right. Just because you're not as athletic as Sky or Jasmine or, or even me, doesn't mean you don't have your own strengths. You can sing and dance like no one's business. And what if the next challenge has a dance battle? You'd kick all our butts to next Tuesday."
Cheeks reddening from the praise, she nonetheless countered, "And what if it's another race? We seem to be having a trend of those lately."
Sammy sighed, glanced over at their competition, and shook her head. "Then I guess we'd both be screwed."
Ella's frown deepened, and she crossed her arms to continue thinking. Unfortunately, it was at this time that Chris cleared his throat irritably. "I'd just like to say that if neither of you cross the line in the next minute, you're both eliminated."
Sammy and Ella turned to him in shock, and then back to each other. "Well, uh, I guess it's now or never," Sammy tried to urge.
Ella's mouth was pressed together in anxiety, her breathing had become loud and quick, and her thumbs twiddled each other. She looked Sammy straight in the eye and asked, "You really believe in me? That I can do it on my own? With… Without you?"
Sammy was taken aback. Girl, do you even need to ask? "Yeah, of course I do!" she answered. "With every fibre of my being."
Her smile turned abashed, and she stopped fidgeting with her thumbs. "That's very reassuring, you know. Honest." She took a deeper, longer breath, and steeled whatever nerves were eating at her. "I'll try to not… No. I won't let you down."
She put on her most confident and spirited smile, gave Sammy a kiss on the lips, and with a rather unceremonious feeling in the air, simply walked forward over the finish line.
"And Ella takes third! Meaning Samey is officially eliminated from the competition!"