Right, let's continue. And yes, I know I quoted "In The Dark Of The Night" from the movie Anastasia, so yeah. Thank you for your reviews, Elizabeth Life Stone, queenoftrouble, Bloodylilcorpse and the guest reviewer.

I did dream about Mal again that night, but after the dream where he made me make out with Zoey, I was glad for how tame this one was:

"'In the dark of the night I was tossing and turning'," Mal's voice whispered into the darkness. "'And the nightmare I had was as bad as can be. It scared me out of my wits, a corpse falling to bits...then I opened my eyes and the nightmare was ME'!" He appeared at the side of my bed as he shouted the last word.

I glanced over at Heather, who was asleep in her bunk.

"She won't wake in your dream." Mal assured me, continuing to quote. "'I was once the one in control of Mike. When he tried to destroy me, he made a mistake. I made each personality pay, but my little girl got away. Little Bailey, beware, Mal's back and awake'!" He began to laugh.

"Well duh." I quipped.

"I wouldn't use that tone if I were you, doll face." Mal said instantly, cupping my face and forcing me to look him in the eye. "I AM back now, and while I might be in exile right now, Mike won't be there to save you a second time."

"I'm not that little fourteen-year-old you ordered around any more." I said defiantly. "I'm seventeen now, and besides, I have people around who care about me, and Zoey and Cameron are around, too. They'll know if something's up."

Mal simply laughed. "Them? Poor innocent Zoey wouldn't even be able to face up to it. And just because Cameron fancies himself as observant because he noticed Mike's other personalities, I'm not them. I can hide my personality." He suddenly knelt down so we were at eye level and wrapped his arms around me, one hand holding my head so I was forced to face him. "Remember, doll face, one word about me and you won't last the season." He paused. "And you better hope the real me doesn't find out that you blabbed to Zoey."

After that, I woke up. We had green toast for breakfast on the cabin porch (not that I ate any of it).

"Mama calls this penicillin puree." Scott said calmly. "Never had a cold in my life!" He stuffed a whole slice in his mouth.

I gagged. "Excuse me, I need to go find something to do before you make me throw up."

I did some more graffiti, this time on the back of the confessional outhouse before I used it to make another confessional. I sprayed Masochistic McLean Mayhem – a quote I'd heard from Duncan on an exclusive clip after he took the Drop of Shame on the third season for the last time. Then I went in to talk to the camera.

"I have a bad feeling about the rest of the season." I confessed. "At least I was able to get Zoey clued in. Now to win the show without getting hurt..."

Chris called us all to "head to the Chrisoseum, pronto! Today's challenge isn't gonna hurt itself!" I rolled my eyes, and went back to my team.

Sierra took her new pets along with her, and kept telling them off for biting her as she walked. "Ow! That's enough, you two – OW!"

"Um, Sierra, are you sure that you should have brought them back?" Cameron asked her nervously.

Sierra patted his shoulder. "They need a mommy, Cam, and I can't see anyone else who'll do it." She smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna make you be their father." She laughed. "As if we would ever be more than friends!" Cameron smiled, but then the purple-haired girl sighed. "I wish Cody was here – I'm sure he would help me."

Cameron smiled up at her. "I'm sure he's cheering you on right now, Sierra. And if you do need someone to take care of your, uh, pet..."

I didn't listen to any more (I was sure tiny Cam wasn't volunteering himself), talking to Duncan the rest of the way. But finally, we were there, and there was a boxing ring ready.

"Looking rough, Chef." Chris teased as his sidekick came back with the exiled competitor. "Have a run in with a big bad baby squirrel on Boney Island?"

"That kid ain't right." Chef croaked, and I looked at the spiky-haired teen carefully.

He went up to his team and said to Zoey "Man, are you a sight for sore eyes." But I studied him carefully. Mike's voice, check. Mike's hair, check. But there were noticeable marks around his eyes.

I shivered. It was true, what Duncan and I had noticed. Mal was back in control. And something told me that he'd be more brutal than three years ago.

According to Chris, the challenge was "No Pain No Game, with a pinch of Phobia Factor for extra zing." What happened was that we'd have two minutes in a boxing ring with a randomly chosen opponent – we'd spin what Chris called the wheel of misfortune.. If we won the boxing match after two minutes, we got a point. The first team with three points won.

Oh, and Zoey's reward for collecting the most eggs in the last challenge? She didn't have to box, and the Heroes got an extra point.

"But who's gonna watch the Codies while I fight?" Sierra asked anxiously.

"No one, if they value their lives." Chris told her. "Now, let's get ready to pummel!"

I checked out the wheel. Hmm...there appeared to be Sierra's pets, Fang, someone who looked like Alejandro, a spider, a mutant gopher, a bear, something I couldn't identify, and...Mike? I frowned. Weird.

Scott was up first for our team. He got Fang. Phobia Factor indeed! After an initial scream, Scott just went blank and unresponsive. Fang won that one easily.

It was Sierra's turn. She gave her pet to Cameron to look after and went up. She was forced to fight her pet's mother.

"I'm not afraid of a few heads and a lot of teeth and a bunch of claws!" Sierra said defiantly.

Duncan spoke up. "What are the odds of both Sierra and Scott getting such personal opponents?"

"Astronomical!" Cameron spoke up. We all were starting to get what was going on.

Sierra jumped into the ring. "Bring it on, garbage breath!" she shrieked at her opponent, who won, and took her baby back.

Alejandro took the next turn. "I'll earn us a point." he said confidently. He spun, and it landed on the person who resembled him. Whatever it was, Alejandro's expression became horrified. "No! It can't be!"

An older, better-looking, more confident version of Alejandro appeared in the ring.

"Jose."

I remembered Alejandro mentioning his brother Jose in the last episode of the third season. "Jose always has to win! Always! He lives to make me miserable! He punches me in the arm and calls me Al, just because I hate it!" And now, he had to box.

At first, they seemed evenly matched, but then Jose seemed to gain the upper hand. He hit Alejandro a few times, and dodged every punch. Jose's eyes flickered towards Heather for a moment, and then he looked back at his opponent and teased "Your technique is almost as embarrassing as the way your girlfriend with the unnattractive personality over there burned you on national television!" He started to laugh.

Heather, who was standing next to me, simply rolled her eyes. I looked at her. "You're not mad?"

My teammate just shrugged. "Why should I be? I'm not nice. Okay, well, I am a little mad, but why should I care what he says?"

Well, Alejandro cared. He made a huge comeback, punching Jose several times, yelling out that it was for calling him Al, hogging the bathroom mirror, etc, etc. Finally, he was winding up for the final punch.

"And this is for calling any aspect of Heather unattractive!"

Jose was down. "Whoa, the Villains get a point!" Chris called out. "And now we all know how Alejandro really feels about Heather." He looked at the dark-haired girl. "What do you think, Heather? You wanna say anything?"

Heather narrowed her eyes, glaring at Chris, but when Alejandro came back, she managed a little half-smile, and choked out a "Thanks."

Cameron went next, but he pointed out that the game must be rigged, noting how everyone had fought someone or something specific to them. "The odds are too astronomical for this to be random!"
Chris scowled. "All right, fine, spoil my fun. I did tell you that this had Phobia Factor in it, after all. Anyway, just spin!"

The spider came up, and Cameron screamed.

"I thought you were over spiders." Zoey said.

"That is not a spider!"

It wasn't. A giant spider rose up...and proved that it was just an old aquaintance of mine in a spider costume. "Greetings, spider food!"

Cameron screamed again, but I grinned. I'd had two cellmates during my time in juvie – serious swotty Scarlett, and incredibly insane Izzy. And the latter of the two, the one I liked the most, was here.

"Hey, Izzy!" I called out. "Remember me?"

Izzy grinned and waved one of her spider legs at me. "I told you I'd make it big on a reality show!" she called back. Yeah, she had mentioned that.

Cameron almost lost. He was too scared to concentrate properly, and after all, he was weak to begin with. But he very narrowly got another point for the Heroes.

My turn. I was pretty sure what was coming up, looking at the choices on the wheel. I spun...and sure enough, the wheel came up with the silhouette of Mike.

I put up a show of bravery. "I'm not scared of that toothpick! I could crush him!" But deep down, I knew that I wasn't facing Mike. I was facing Mal. And the last time he'd touched me in a way that wasn't sexual, he'd covered me in bruises.

The man of my nightmares faced me calmly.

"I will win this." I hissed. "You can't beat me."

"Enough talk." I heard his reply, but this time, he didn't imitate Mike. It was all Mal, and within a minute, I was down.

"Wow, Mike got right villainous on that one, especially against someone who's actually a Villainous Vulture!" Chris remarked. "But, a point's a point. Heroes win again!"

The Heroes cheered, while we all groaned. And I knew that I was on the chopping block.

"Are you going to vote for me?" I asked Duncan.

"What? No!" Duncan said. "It's not like Scott kicked butt this challenge, either. Besides, I've already decided who to vote for. Alejandro and Heather may be totally head-over-heels for each other, but after today's show of defense for Heather, Alejandro actually approached me and suggested that I join him in voting Heather off. In fact, he used you as a bargaining chip. Three votes, and Heather's gone."
I sighed. "Seriously? Is that the only reason he defended her, then? To trick her?"

Duncan shrugged. "Maybe. Probably not, but it was definitely one reason."

And as it was, Heather was voted off that night. She glared daggers at the rest of us. "Me? You voted me off?"

She saw the smirk on Alejandro's face. "You...you...we were supposed to be in an alliance!"

As it was, he would have been the only one to say goodbye to her, if I hadn't snuck under the dock to hear what he had to say when they were presumably alone. "Now that I have avenged the shame you once caused me, the slate is clean. We can start fresh. I truly meant what I said during the boxing match. Despite everything, Heather, I do want to start over the next time we see each other. After all, we are a perfect couple." Then I think Heather pushed him off the dock, since he landed in the water.

The last I heard of Heather was her saying "Let's do this." Not counting the scream as she was flushed, of course.

Oh, and since she was the only Hero who hadn't been exiled and had been given a pass from the last challenge, Zoey offered to be the one in exile.

There you go! Heather's elimination was close to the last one, but basically, Lindsay had to go early, and Heather really didn't have anything left to do, and I needed to make sure the point was across that Alejandro now feels free to ask her out properly, and to do that, I had to make sure Heather left before him. So I decided to change the winners so I could get rid of Heather early! Also, as you may have noticed, seven people have left, not six. This helps with me with later plans.

Next chapter: Bailey shares her cabin with a guy, the merge happens, and Chris' mansion is intact.