Right, let's keep going! Thanks for reviewing to Elizabeth Life Stone, Bloodylilcorpse and queenoftrouble. By the way, the following nightmare is the most disturbing yet. You've been warned.

That night, my "Worst Nightmares" list was topped, and it featured the same things as usual.

This time, I was in the room with the red and black beds and the pink lights, but this time, Zoey and I were both in the bed with the blood red sheets – and neither of us wore a thing. I was skinnier but taller than Zoey, so she was sleeping with her head nestled in the crook of my neck, and as I took in where I was, she opened her eyes and jerked up. "Morning, Bailey." she whispered softly. "I'm sorry about what I did last night. I didn't mean to get us both punished."

I frowned. "Wait, what?"

Zoey gave me a look of concern. "I wouldn't service Mal the way he wanted – I was too scared – so when I said that, he made you do that to me, and then me do that to you, and then made us sleep here together, and then...I think he made you look away, but then he used a paddle on me until I passed out from the pain, but I heard him saying you'd be punished for what I did too..." She sniffled, but managed to hold any tears back.

At that moment, the door opened. "Did I hear a rule being broken, again?" Mal tutted quietly. "Zoey, Zoey, Zoey...have you still not learned your lesson? What are you meant to call me?"

Zoey cast her eyes down. "Master." she muttered.

Mal nodded, a smirk on his face. "And did you call me that when you were just talking now?"

Zoey kept her gaze down. "No, Master, I didn't."

"And are you meant to call me by name, ever?"

"No, Master, that would be inappropriate."

"That's right." Mal said smugly. "And do you deserve to be punished for breaking that rule? Look at me when I am speaking to you, Red."

Zoey made eye contact with him. "Yes, Master, I do." she said, although her tone sounded more like she was telling him not to.

"It's your lucky day." Mal said. "I'm in a good mood, and I'm not going to punish either of you for that. But if you want me to stay merciful..." he paused. "Little Red, do what I told you to do yesterday. Kneel. If you do a good job, I'll let you put on some clothes." He looked at me. "Doll face, you have a strap-on. Give it to her from the back. If you do well, I might give you something afterwards, since you've been a good girl recently."

I winced at his words.

I tried to block out the rest of the nightmare, which involved Zoey and I doing everything we were ordered to, and after both of the others peaked...well, the nightmare ended just as Mal was about to take the plunge into me.

I was woken by a hand on my shoulder. "Bailey! Are you all right?"

I opened my eyes and quickly gave myself a reality check. Mal hadn't gotten that far with me. Any kind of relationship between Zoey and I was nothing past friendship – and come to that, we weren't really friends – just friendly competitors. But speaking of Zoey, she was the one that woke me, and she was now giving me a look of concern.

"You were sort of...writhing...in your sleep." she explained. "And crying out. I'm not sure what you were saying, but it sounded like you were having a nightmare."

I nodded. "Yeah, I've been having a lot of nightmares recently." I sighed. "I used to have recurring ones just after I left juvie, and they only just came back."

Zoey sat down on the end of the bed. "Wanna talk about it?" she offered. "Back when I was little, I had a lot of nightmares. When I woke up, I'd run to my parents' room and then if they listened to me about it, I always felt a lot better."

It was nice of Zoey to offer to be a listening ear, but there was no way I could tell her what was in my dream. It was too embarrassing. Yet, I didn't want to turn down her offer. I decided I'd just have to bluff by telling her a previous dream.

"We-ell..." I said hesitantly, "The nightmares are all Mal-centred. Is that okay?"

"I understand." Zoey said, although her eyes became more anxious. "You said you had problems with him in juvie, and don't worry, I'm not judging you."

"He always comes and talks to me in the dream." I murmured. "Usually I'm in the same place. Like last night, we were both in this cabin, but you wouldn't wake up in the dream. Then Mal would come and talk to me about what he was going to do when he got the chance. He keeps threatening to finish what he started with me...and he keeps saying things about you too."

Zoey's eyes widened. "Me? What would he want with me? I know he'd hate me, because I'm the one who's closest to Mike, but..."

"In one of my dreams, he was saying that you were cute, and that he wanted to break anything he found 'cute' or innocent." I admitted in a low voice. "And he said another time that when he won the money, he was going to force me to submit to him as a slave-girl, and that he wanted you as another slave."

Zoey looked horrified. "When you say slave-girl, do you mean that he wants you to do...you know...weird... favours?" I knew what she meant by 'weird'.

"Yes." I managed to whisper. "That's what he used to make me do. I despised it – and I was so lucky in juvie. He was going to finish it then, because he discovered that I was secretly in a relationship with Duncan, and I was just lucky that Mike was able to take control and stopped him." I sighed. "And I'm sorry to say this, Zoey, but you've got to face up to it. That guy you've been with for the last few days is not your boyfriend. He's Mal – you have to believe me!"

I could see the wheels turning. "The weird behaviour..." she muttered. "The leaky boats...him and Cameron disappearing during the moon challenge...using Svetlana when he couldn't access his other personalities...all those times when he was enjoying someone else's misery..." she looked up at me. "You're saying that back during that obstacle course, I should've listened to Alejandro?" I nodded, and she spoke again. "I don't want to believe it, but you're right. I have to face up to it! I mean, it does all add up – I can't believe I didn't put the pieces together already! I thought Alejandro was just making trouble. After all, it wouldn't be the first time." She frowned. "I guess I should thank him for trying to warn me."

I laughed. "Maybe he was just angry that Mal stole his place as the worst villain in Total Drama history. Worse than Scott or Heather." I wanted to lighten the mood, and it worked!

Zoey giggled too. "Right! But," she said, becoming serious again, "Is there a way for you to find the DVD and show me before today's challenge?"

I smiled. "Tell you what. You lure Mal out of the spa hotel today, and I'll sneak in and grab the DVD. Maybe if I see the portrait I hid it in, I'll remember which one it was. Ditch Mal somewhere far away from the hotel, meet me in the camera room, and I'll show you the evidence."

It was a tall order, but somehow, Zoey managed to buy us a minute of time, and we were soon in the control room, watching the creep of my nightmares.

Zoey gasped, staring at the images of Mal's sabotage and cruel acts. "So this is Mal?" she whispered.

"I told you he was scary." I whispered. "See how he keeps pushing his hair up? His hair only defies gravity when he's Mike. As Mal, it always covers one eye and he's been keeping it up with hairspray for some time."

Zoey's eyes went wide as she saw Mal first taking control for good in the sixth episode, and proving that he was the one to get Cameron kicked off. "Oh no! Surely he hasn't been Mal for that long?" She turned to me. "I'm sorry I didn't believe you! I feel so stupid for not seeing it. Thanks for the warning." Suddenly, she gave me a hug, and I stiffened, not sure how to react.

I looked Zoey in the eye. "I want to offer an alliance." I said. "Not for the game – for us. We're the only two who know about this. We need to protect each other from Mal. And protect Scott, possibly. It doesn't matter who we kick off next, as long as we look out for each other." I held out my hand.

Zoey shook it. "Deal. We stick together for the rest of the game. Allies to the end."

This time, Chris called us to the dock. As we walked, Mal started talking to Zoey. He'd noticed her frowning, and falsely reassured her yet again that he was Mike. Zoey just smiled and said "Yeah. I wasn't sure who you were sometimes, but now I know." The second Mal wasn't watching her, Zoey looked over at me, letting me know that she wasn't falling for it.

Chris arrived on a boat, dressed up as a pirate. Chef was by his side, dressed up as a scowling parrot. Chris told him to lighten up. "You look great, and you know it." He paused. "You know, if you don't wanna be here, then – that isn't what I was gonna say!" But Chef had already driven the boat away.

Chris explained that he was missing his home on the mainland. "And I'm sure you four are too, so I've come up with a special challenge – your mission: To retrieve one of four valuable pieces of pirate loot."

There were four chests stationed at the end of the dock. Each of us would take one of them to find out what we had to get. First one to bring their item to the dock won invincibility. The person who turned up last, or empty-handed would be eliminated.

This was bad news. This meant that we had absolutely no power over who got eliminated unless someone stalled someone else in some way, but everyone would be busy looking for their own loot.

As the winner of the last challenge, Mal should've gone first, but for some reason, he decided to persuade Chris to let Zoey go first. Her treasure chest gave her an electric shock, and she was supposed to bring the Sasquachanakwa (yeah, basically Camp Wawanakwa's version of a yeti).

I went next, and got a major pepper spray. According to Chris, I had to find a picture of him. "I stashed a ton in the spa hotel, but one mysteriously went missing around the time of the blue harvest moon." Chris explained. "So don't bother looking in the hotel – I know which one was taken."

Great! And I was the only one who didn't know my way around the island like everyone else.

Scott got a boxing glove to the face, and had to find a diamond, which was being guarded by Fang.

Mal tried to get out of opening his chest, but Chris caught on. "Nice try, but the choice isn't official until you see for yourself." He found a snapping turtle in his chest, but it freaked out and ran away when he gave it a menacing glare. His loot was the long-lost original Chris statuette.

I decided to start with searching around the hotel, working up to the outside.

I heard the loudspeakers talking about Scott, and then Zoey, being near to their loot.

So where was the portrait? Well, remember that bear that stole one of Katie's/Sadie's outfits in the first season? Yeah, it was in their cave? Apparently when they'd been all happy and friendly because of the blue moon, they'd liked one of the pieces of art and hung it up in their cave. And it seemed that violet and black weren't attention grabbing, so I covered my sparkly nose piercing and crept up, grabbed the picture and sped out of the cave.

There were claw marks on the picture, but once I used some spray paint to touch it up, I got back to the dock. FIRST! Zoey was right behind me, but I'd won! I had immunity! And with Zoey being in second place, that secured both of us a place in the next episode! We high-fived.

"YES!"

Mal dragged Scott back, neither of them with anything. Scott was stunned, saying dopily, "Sorry, I would've gotten the shiny rock but the sea pig ate it." Okayyy...

"Uh-huh." Chris frowned. He looked at Mal. "What's your excuse?"

"Okay, I didn't find the loot I was assigned," Mal admitted, "But I did bring another kind of treasure – an injured competitor, your favourite!"

Chris perked up. "It's true! Injured players are some of my favourite things. Well played." He looked down at the former villain. "Scott, sorry, dude, you're going home tonight." Then he looked at me. "Bailey, you have the spa hotel-"

I didn't wait for him to competely finish. "Chris, I know you said the hotel is for winners only, but can I please take Zoey with me?" I begged. "She has won a challenge and come second in the last couple, and I really really want to share the hotel with someone. Please let Zoey stay in there too!"

Chris sighed. "Okay, okay, Bailey, you don't have to whine on. You're a newbie this season, so I'll cut you a break. Zoey is welcome in the spa hotel for tonight."

Of course, the real reason I wanted Zoey in the spa hotel was safety in numbers, but I didn't say that. Zoey knew it too, but after what I'd told her, it was for her safety just as much as mine. With Scott gone, there was only one possible way to survive, and that was to stick together.

That night, Zoey and I agreed to share a room, and by coincidence, we'd taken the same one when we were on different teams and sleeping in the hotel as a team. "I mostly shared with Sierra." she explained. "Gwen wanted to be on her own a lot of the time. I wanted to get to know her, but she seemed really depressed about something that she wouldn't talk about."

I sighed. "She'd only come back to the show because she wanted to make up with Courtney after the whole boyfriend-stealing thing in World Tour. But then you guys voted Courtney off first, and..."

Zoey sighed too. "Okay, now that makes me feel really guilty. I was one of the people to vote Courtney off. It was hard enough when I realized Lindsay actually wanted to be voted off that night. It's just...I knew Courtney was a strong player, but she really wasn't friendly. Our team was a lot stronger when everyone was supportive of everyone else."

I laughed. "You wouldn't have lasted a day on the Villainous Vultures with that mindset! You must've been so relieved when you weren't the one chosen to swap teams with Gwen!"

For a few minutes, Zoey and I weren't Total Drama competitors, sticking together for our own safety. For just a sliver of time, we were just two teenagers hanging out together.

"We should keep in touch after the show ends." Zoey suggested.

"Sure." I smiled. "But before we start exchanging numbers, we have to survive."

"We will." Zoey said, trying to sound confident. "We have to."

As Scott was flushed that night, her words kept replaying in my mind. "We have to." But would we?

Zoey's optimistic. She always tries to find the good in horror, and although she hasn't said it to Bailey yet, she's determined to get the real Mike back. Wanna see what happens when it's just them on the island? Stay tuned to find out!

Next time: Terror, terror, and determination. And yes, I know I put terror twice.