Chapter Text
It was dusk now, the sky a flaming orange. The trees cast long and ominous blue-black shadows across the Purple Team’s campsite, held back only by the flickering of the fire. In a short while, the first elimination ceremony of the show would commence. And already there was a target on someone’s back.
“Please believe me!” Will pleaded. “Fiore is not what she seems!”
Nick could only snort contemptuously. “That’s a child you’re talking about, mate. You’re just trying to cover for losing us the challenge.”
Will held his hands up in deference. “Look, I’m sorry about the challenge today. It won’t happen again, okay? I’ll try harder next time! Just, please don’t vote me out!”
Ashley looked around the campfire. Her alliance had barely lasted two challenges, and now they were already falling apart. It was almost unbelievable. Why did this have to happen to her? Why so soon?
Nick scowled. “You faffed around and cost us the win. Sorry chap, but you’re too much of a liability. I’ve made up my mind.” With that, he stood up and marched into the treeline, arms folded.
WIll fell to his knees dramatically. Tears rolled down his cheeks. “N-no…”
“Oh, don’t listen to him,” Lill said, as encouraging as she could. “He’s just being dramatic.”
“No, but he’s right,” Will sniffled. “I did ruin things for us. But please, you have to believe me! Fiore is not some innocent little girl!”
“Wow, slandering a child.” Everyone jumped at the sound of Ellie’s voice as she leaned against a nearby tree, watching them very intently. “Real mature of you, Will.”
“I agree.” Alec came out of the tent; Ashley caught a glimpse of Fiore watching them through the open flaps. “I say it’s important to cut the dead weight before it crushes us all, wouldn’t you agree?”
Will burst into tears and ran off into the woods.
Ashley didn’t miss the smirk that Alec and Ellie shared. Something in her gut stirred. She knew she would have to act, and fast.
“C’mon, Lill. We…need to get more firewood.”
Lill followed her deep into the treeline, well out of earshot of the others. They stopped in a small clearing, shadows falling harshly across them as they faced each other.
“So, what did you think of all that?” Ashley asked her. “D’you think there’s anything to it?”
Lill thought for a moment. “I hesitate to say that Fiore’s definitely up to something, but Will doesn’t strike me as the kind of person who’d make up something like that.”
“That’s a fair point, but I can’t see a little girl doing and saying those things. Maybe he’s exaggerating?”
“Maybe, but either way it is an odd thing to lie about. And look, I’m saying this as someone who works with kids for a living: they can be a lot more cunning than we give them credit for. And given how…soft Will clearly is, I’d say it’s suspicious at least.”
Ashley sighed. She still didn’t want to believe such a sweet little girl could be as cruel as Will described, but she also didn’t want her alliance to fracture so soon.
Fiore reminded her so much of her littlest sister, Trisha. Poor Trisha, holed up in the guest room at their aunt’s house, along with Pam, her other sister, and their parents. They’d overstayed their welcome. They needed a place to live. And in order to accomplish that, they needed money.
Ashley knew she needed to play this as smart as possible. She, quite literally, could not afford for this to go spinning down the drain. So she took a deep breath and composed herself.
“Well, in that case, you’d agree to voting out Fiore?”
Lill nodded. “Besides, I don’t think a kid should really be competing in this anyway.”
“You and me both.” She paused. “But what about Nick?”
“Honestly, I don’t know what to do about him. He’s clearly made up his mind.”
“He sure seems stubborn. But we can’t let him vote Will. The others are surely going to. We need to stick together to keep our majority.”
“We also don’t have long before the ceremony starts. If Will couldn’t get through to him in an afternoon, then we’re certainly not going to do it in fifteen minutes.”
Well, Ashley didn’t like the defeatist tone creeping into Lill’s voice. Ashley was not going to stand back and let everything spiral out of her control. So she stood taller, more determined.
“I’ll try him,” Ashley said with purpose. “Leave it to me. Tell Will to vote Fiore.”
“I will.”
And with that, Ashley turned and headed further into the woods.
—
It didn’t take her long to find Nick. He was sitting on a log, staring at a patch of wildflowers growing nearby. He perked up when he heard Ashley coming. “Can you believe it? Trying to blame his loss on a child!”
“Actually, that’s what I came to talk to you about.” She sat next to him. “We need you to vote out Fiore with us.”
He sputtered. “Over the guy who cocked up the challenge? What are you on right now?”
“Look, haven’t you at least considered the possibility that Will might be telling the truth?”
“Oh Christ, he’s gotten to you too. Let me ask you which is more likely: a child being some kind of evil genius, or a grown-ass man with a laundry list of fears trying to save his own skin?”
“...Okay, sure, I see your point, but-”
“Do you, though? Because you’re over here telling me to vote for the kid, instead of over there telling Will to back off.”
Ashley was steadily getting more annoyed with Nick’s tone, but she kept herself calm. She didn’t want to scare off the one vote that could make a difference. “Well, think of it this way: however useless you think Will is gonna be in challenges, I can guarantee that Fiore will be much worse. She’s just a child after all, not that it’s her fault. Will is big and strong, and we might still need him.”
“I’m not exactly a huge fan of having a child with us either, but Will’s already proven himself to be a liability. What if the next challenge is to face our fears? What then, huh? You gonna stick up for him then too?” He gave her a poke in the shoulder. “Honestly, if you insist on tanking your own game for him of all people, then be my guest. But don’t even think about trying to drag me down with you!”
It was the poke to her shoulder that really set Ashley off.
“I’m doin’ this for all our games, you twat! If we vote Will off tonight, then we’ll lose our majority! Have you ever seen one of these shows? Do you have any idea how risky it is to do something like that? If that happens, then that’ll show the others how dysfunctional we are, and they’ll absolutely try and pick us off one by one! Including you! Do you really want that to happen?”
As she spoke, Ashley stood up, towering over Nick, leaning in uncomfortably close to his face. Nick cowered away, his shoulders hunched. He looked genuinely scared.
“Okay, okay! Fine, I’ll vote for the bloody kid. Just…please stop yelling at me!”
“Glad you finally came around!” She stood up straight and tipped her hat at him.
—
(Confessional - Ashley)
She looked a bit guilty. “I didn’t mean to yell at him like that. I was just annoyed that he was being so stubborn. But, I finally got him over to our side, so I guess I can’t complain too much!”
—
At last, it was time to vote.
Trevor stood solemnly in front of them. “Each of you will take turns writing down the name of the person you want to see voted out. Whoever has the most votes will be eliminated!”
—
One by one, they cast their votes.
Fiore wrote hers with unconcealed glee, a devilish smirk on her face.
Will could barely write straight as his hand kept shaking.
“Finally, we won’t have to worry about that bumbling buffoon ever again,” Alec muttered.
Ashley showed her vote to the camera. “I sure hope Nick sticks to what I told him, or this could get ugly fast.”
—
At last, they were all seated again. Will was an absolute ball of nerves. Ashley tried to still him by placing a hand on his knee. She gave him a reassuring smile.
“Okay, let’s get this show on the road!” Trevor reached his hand in the vase and pulled out the first slip.
The tension was so thick one could cut it with a knife.
“First vote: Will.”
Will flinched as though he’d been struck.
“Second vote: Will.”
“Oh no…” Will choked out. Lill audibly held her breath.
“Third vote: Fiore.”
Fiore just shrugged. She wasn’t worried.
“Fourth vote: Fiore.”
Another one? Wow, they were really hopeless. But she wasn’t stupid. She knew exactly how they all felt about each other.
“Fifth vote: Will. That’s three votes Will, two votes Fiore. Two votes left.”
Will’s head drained of blood; he felt like he was about to pass out. He swayed unsteadily on his stump. Ashley squeezed his knee even tighter.
“Sixth vote: Fiore.”
Ellie cast a glance back at the other four. All of them seemed nervous, not just Will. Still, the other three seemed a little more composed than she was expecting. She suddenly got a strange feeling in her gut that this might not go as planned. She turned around and crossed her fingers.
Fiore, meanwhile, paid them no mind. She couldn’t help but smirk. Soon, she’ll be one step closer to victory!
“First person voted out of Disventure Camp is…
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…Fiore!”
Everyone in a ten mile radius were suddenly deafened by the screech that burst out from Fiore’s lips. She pressed her hands against her head as she continued to scream in genuine shock.
“Uhh…” Trevor seemed hesitant to confirm it. “Fiore, you can make your way to the bus stop outside the main gate and-”
She cut him off by jumping off her stump and directing a stream of curses at everyone that went on for so long and so loud that everyone was left reeling. One by one, she pointed at the four-person alliance that ruined her hopes and dreams and unleashed an absolute torrent of insults their way. Trevor motioned at the cameras, miming to the editors to censor everything that came out of her mouth.
Will shook in pure terror. Lill sat with her mouth set in a firm, disapproving line. Ashley narrowed her eyes at her, realizing that Will had been right about her all along.
Nick’s jaw practically hit the ground. He turned to face Will, eyes wide. “Holy shit, mate! I’m never doubting you ever again!”
“HEY! DON’T LOOK AWAY FROM ME! I WASN’T DONE TALKING TO YOU, YOU BRITISH *******!” Fiore screeched like the demon that she was.
“Jesus Christ…” Ellie honestly hadn’t expected Fiore to be this vitriolic. Even Alec seemed surprised by her outburst.
Trevor nervously jabbered into a walkie-talkie. “Uh, Jensen, I think you’re gonna have to come get her yourself…she’s having a total meltdown…I’m not going near her! I’m scared she might cut me!”
Jensen appeared a few minutes later. By that point, Fiore was still going strong, fuelled by the burning rage of a thousand suns. She was so livid she couldn’t even take pleasure in watching them all squirm.
“Alright, lassie, you’re coming with me.” Jensen picked her up and carried her over his shoulder.
“MARK MY FUCKING WORDS! YOU’RE ALL GONNA GO TO FUCKING HELL FOR THIS, YOU ROTTEN *********!”
At last, Fiore’s hollering faded comfortably into the distance, though it took a while for everyone’s ears to stop ringing.
Silence descended on the campfire area as everyone took in what had just happened. They were all well and truly speechless.
But Nick couldn’t stay that way for long. He put on a cocky grin, shrugged, and said, “Talk about being a sore loser.”
Both Will and Ashley snorted a laugh. Lill just shook her head in disappointment. Trevor gave a pained smile.
Alec and Ellie, meanwhile, shared a nervous glance.
They just lost their best shot at cracking that alliance; clearly it was a lot tighter than they’d initially thought. From here on out, they were gonna have a much tougher time making it through unscathed.
—
(Confessional - Alec)
“Well…shit.”
—
(Confessional - Ellie)
“Okay, this is not how I was expecting that to go.” She sighed. “Great. Now it’s two against one. My game is over before it’s even begun. What am I supposed to do now?”
—
(Confessional - Nick)
“So Will was right. And Lill. And Ashley.” He sat with his arms folded. “Gee…that really could’ve gone differently. How long was Fiore planning to hide her true self for? This is why I don’t like kids! No kid is gonna outsmart me and get away with it!” He pointed at the camera.
—
Long after everyone had gone to bed, Ashley stayed up, sitting by the fire. She stared into the flames that leapt up to lick the shadows, chasing them away. Her eyes watered, but still she did not look away.
This was a reminder for what she did. This was penance. On every step of this journey towards the million, she must never once forget why she was doing this.
She had to breathe a sigh of relief. Her alliance had withstood its first storm. And hopefully, it would withstand many more. She needed them all.
It scared Ashley to think about what might have happened if Nick had turned on Will after all. Especially now that Fiore had shown her true colours. It was a very convincing act she did, and the thought of Ashley continuing to fall for it made her feel ill.
But luckily, that little monster was gone. And her two allies would soon follow. Then…
Ashley wasn’t yet sure what would come after that, but no matter. She’d cross that bridge when she got to it.
And so she fell asleep in front of the fire, steadily awaiting the new day yet to dawn.