Know when to walk away, and know when to run

Dani sighed as she stared at the King of Clubs in her hand. She should have been thrilled. She should have been happy that she’d gotten such a high value card, getting her that much closer to winning the challenge.

Instead, she just felt a bitter taste in her mouth.

I shouldn’t have taken that Eight from Dawn.

Dani had been caught up in the heat of the moment, and was only thinking about herself. She’d targeted Dawn because the other girl was **** and she’d seen a quick route to getting ahead and scoring some major points. It was only after she’d run off and her adrenaline had cooled that she realized how much of a jerk she was.

I shouldn’t have done that. I should give this back to her.

But finding the little cat would be easier said than done.

Dani continued down the path, getting closer to the hotel. She had seen Carly run off in this direction at the beginning of the game, and wanted to meet up with her. She should have done that in the first place. She’d been so excited to get going and take advantage of her athletic abilities that she’d left her buddy in the dust, and ever since then it felt like she had made nothing but bad decisions.

She stepped out of the forest and gasped in surprise. Several yards ahead of her was a beautiful garden, lit bright by the sun hanging overhead. It looked like something out of a still life, and Dani felt an overwhelming urge to paint the scene in front of her.

Is this… a botanical garden? She wondered. What’s a botanical garden doing all the way out here? Hey, wait… Didn’t Kim say something about this?

Dani and Kim weren’t exactly close, but she remembered the other girl gushing about her date with Nick over breakfast a while back, talking about how they spent time in the botanical garden before he took her to the amusement park.

So this is the place she meant.

Was Carly here? If she was, she was too far outside the range of Dani’s Radar System to tell.

But something else wasn’t.

Dani turned around. There was another card a few yards back that she missed. She headed back to get it before going to see Carly. As she did, she saw that Carly had somehow gotten a complete set.

“What the hell?!” She sputtered, staring up in shock as the board changed. Carly had found all the Tens. And in a matter of seconds, at that, rocketing her up into first place!

Dani winced. She didn’t want to compete against her friend. She liked Carly, and wanted to be pals with her. If Carly won…

Yeah, I could probably live with that, Dani decided. Carly getting first place and her getting second. It would mean less Victory Points for her, but if the choices were between that and directly sabotaging the other girl, then it was obvious.

But why couldn’t I think that way when it came to Dawn?

The black pit in Dani’s chest ached even more painfully. She knelt down next to the box, and checked it.

The card inside was the Eight of Clubs.

Seeing the black Eight, nearly identical to the one she’d stolen from Dawn a few hours ago, wore down on Dani even more. She sighed miserably, shaking her head.

I really messed up, huh?

With her hand now full of valuable cards, Dani was almost tied with Carly. But it wouldn’t be enough. She kept going, turning around and heading back into the garden. Hopefully, she’d be able to find-

Dani gasped. There was someone else in the garden! She’d finally gotten in range of another Radar System, and hopefully it would be Carly’s! It could be anyone, but Dani’s instincts told her that her buddy was here somewhere.

“Carly!” Dani shouted as she picked up speed, flying up the stairs and onto the walkway, searching the gardens for a girl in a red hood. “Carly, you here?”

But she got no response. No matter. She was getting closer and closer to the dot, she just had to keep going forward.

That’s when she came across the archway leading to the hedge maze.

“Flowers of the Demon World…” Dani read, and her inner geek giggled with excitement. Oh yeah, this was exactly the kind of place that Carly would explore! She had to be here!

Dani would have had no way of knowing this, but at one time, at the front of the maze, there had been a sign that warned against trespassers, telling people to stay out.

Now that sign read “Welcome!”

So she walked inside without a second thought, not realizing someone was stalking her from the shadows, staying just outside the range of the Radar System’s scanning ability.

“Dakota really left you stuck up there? She just ran away?!” Holly couldn’t believe her ears. “But that’s so mean!”

“That’s Dakota for you,” Gina said, stretching. She was still getting used to having her full motor functions back. Her arms were sore from hauling up Dakota, and now her hips were sore from hanging upside down from the tree.

“Sorry for leaving you up there,” Rose apologized awkwardly. “I thought it might have been a ploy by Dakota to get me to lower my guard.”

“Nah, it’s fine, you still ended up letting me down,” Gina shrugged. After twenty minutes...

“Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, that's water under the bridge. You girls were looking for Dani, right?”

“So you’re going to tell us?” Holly asked excitedly. Rose had given her the third Nine, which meant the only one left for them to complete the set was the Nine of Hearts, which Dani had.

“Sure, why not?” Gina shrugged. “I was heading there myself anyway, before Dakota ditched me. Not like I’ve got anything better to do.”

Rose studied the other girl with curiosity and suspicion. She hadn’t spent much time getting to know Gina over the last week, because she and her buddy were already on the outs and Rose assumed Dawn was more likely to get a higher score in the challenge, so she didn’t know her very well.

But Gina seemed to be acting strange.

“So you really don’t have any hard feelings?” She asked again. “You know, about us stringing you up like that?”

“Sorry again,” Holly apologized. “I didn’t want to at first, but it made sense… we’re really trying to win, see.”

“Pfft. Apologize?” Gina cackled. “Getting tied up is my idea of a good Saturday night!” She laughed at her own joke while Rose and Holly just offered awkward apologetic smiles.

“Well, we still feel bad,” Holly said. “We’ll let you keep those cards, you know, if you want.”

“Oh, Threes and Fours, how generous,” Gina snarked. “Anyway, we going or what?”

“Lead the way,” Rose shrugged. If Gina wasn’t upset with them, why should they keep pushing the subject?

Gina nodded and led the girls down the trail. As she did, she was talking Holly’s ear off, telling her about how they’d run into Dawn and what the other girl had told them about Dani’s whereabouts.

While they were talking, Rose just watched.

Her teammate just stabbed her in the back and left her hanging there, but she doesn’t even seem upset, Rose noted. That’s unusual. But I guess Gina’s an unusual girl.

Still, there was something that bugged her about Gina's “no big deal” attitude. And she couldn't ignore it.

“Oh! And then Dakota nearly fell off the bridge, can you believe that? Trying to get the King of Hearts! Luckily I was there to grab her before she fell, and managed to pull her back up!”

“No way!” Holly gasped. “Seriously?!”

“Seriously,” Gina nodded. “It was tight for a minute there!” She stretched her arms. “To tell you the truth, my shoulders are still a little sore,” she admitted.

“I still can’t believe it!” Holly exclaimed. “You saved her from falling into a waterfall, and she STILL just abandoned you! How are you not pissed?!”

“Oh, I’m pissed, trust me,” Gina said, cracking her knuckles. “I’d like to give that girl a good smacking next time I see her! …But I can’t. I’m trying to be a good girl now. And a good girl isn’t someone who hurts other people, even if they’re upset!”

She flashed a toothy smile. “I should use my words, not my fists.”

Rose scowled. “I think you might be taking this ‘good girl’ thing a little too far,” she said. “Are you really willing to let bygones be bygones?”

Gina shrugged. “I mean, Dakota is Dakota. She plays to win. I knew that there was a good chance she’d ditch me at some point. It’s not like we were actually teammates or anything. I can’t exactly blame her, you know?”

Her expression darkened. “Just because I saved her this time, doesn’t mean I didn’t let her down when she needed me.”

Holly winced. “Gina…” Like Rose, she wasn’t close at all with the other girl. Gina had given off a pretty bad impression at the beginning of the game, and other than the time Holly had agreed to chip in and buy her those patches, the two had barely interacted. So she wasn’t sure what she should say right now. But she didn’t think Gina’s attitude was that healthy.

“She definitely strikes me as the kind of person who would do anything to win,” Rose nodded. “This isn’t the first time she’s thrown you under the bus, either. I remember watching the first challenge, and the way she sabotaged your team by pulling Dawn’s tail, that was… wow.”

She was gauging Gina's reaction, trying to see if she really was this unfazed by everything.

“Ah, yeah, that really bit it for us, huh?” Gina sighed, scratching her head sheepishly.

Holly felt a little sick to her stomach.

“Um… sorry for that,” she mumbled. She may not have done the actual tail-pulling, but she was still Dakota’s teammate for that challenge, so she felt a little guilty.

“Nah, like I said, water under the-”

“Stop it!” Rose shouted, startling both Gina and Holly. The two girls turned back to her, surprised. Rose’s expression was serious and her face was flushed with frustration. “Just stop it already!”

“Rose?” Holly asked, confused. “What’s going on?”

“Yeah, you got a problem?” Gina scowled.

“You’re damn right I have a problem!” Rose stormed up to Gina and jabbed her in the stomach. “Stop being so nice!”

Gina burst out laughing. “Come on, are you kidding me? What is this? Stop being nice?”

“This is an intervention,” Rose said, crossing her arms. “I’ve been studying acting my entire life, and let me just tell you, you are TERRIBLE at it. You absolutely suck.”

“Rose!” Holly exclaimed.

Gina’s smile fell away and a scowl took its place. “What are you talking about?”

“You’re not just ‘fine with it’ are you?” Rose demanded. “I can see it in your eyes, you’re pissed off! Every time you mention Dakota you’ve got this little flare in your expression like you want to strangle her! And I don’t blame you! She left you tied up in a tree!”

“Tied up in a tree by a trap you made,” Gina reminded her.

“Well… yeah. But it’s clear you’re way more upset about what she did than what we did.”

Gina winced, then **** herself to smile. “You don’t know that,” she lamely replied. Even Holly could see through that one.

“You said you’re trying to be a good girl, right?” Rose asked, her voice turning gentle. “I’m not going to press you on the specifics, anyway. But I don’t think that’s the right thing to do.”

“Telling me how to live my life now?” Gina asked, raising her eyebrow.

“Well, a good girl would listen to me, if she knew what was good for her,” Rose countered.

Gina bit her lip.

“Look, I just-”

“I don’t know you very well,” Rose bluntly interrupted her. “I don’t. So yeah, my advice may be completely off-base. But I just spent the last week pretending to be someone I’m not. And it was fucking miserable! To me, it looks like you're making the exact same mistake. I'm just trying to help you, Gina. I think my advice is worth listening to, at least.”

Gina couldn’t find a good argument to oppose that.

“Fine, I guess,” she sighed. “What is it?”

“Stop running away.”

The former punk stiffened.

“…I’m not running away.”

“This isn't the real you. We both know it. You’re playing a part right now,” Rose said. “And sloppily, too. Holly may be dense-”

“Hey!”

“…But I know a shitty performance when I see one. This whole ‘I want to be a good girl and I’m not going to hold grudges’ thing? Awful. You’re no Mary. That girl is so sweet it’s like she’s patient zero for diabetes. Trying to run away from yourself by emulating her-”

“I’m not!” Gina shouted, her face twisting with desperation. “I’m not… I’m not trying to emulate anybody! I’m not running away from myself or my problems or whatever, I just… I just don’t want to be such a terrible, worthless person anymore! Is that so wrong?!”

She stopped walking, leaning against a tree for support.

“Do you have any idea how hard it is?!” She exclaimed. “I’ve been trying, okay?! I’ve been trying to be a good girl, because that’s what Nick wants! But I’m not! I like getting drunk! I like partying at raves and music festivals! I like wearing dark clothes and listening to **** metal! Those are things I enjoy! But I can't do it! It's wrong, I need to be a good girl! You just wouldn’t understand!”

Holly placed a tender hand on Gina’s arm. “Then… explain it to us.”

Gina wiped her eyes and glanced down at the shorter girl. She sighed and slumped back against the tree, sliding down until she was sitting on the ground.

Rose glanced up at the point board. She wished this was a conversation they could be having while walking, but considering she had let this genie out of the proverbial bottle, she supposed she didn’t have a leg to stand on.

Gina looked up at the two of them, then stared at the dirt.

“Do you remember Dakota’s transformation from last round?” She muttered.

“Of course I do, she got a brand-new past where she didn’t die,” Holly remembered. “We all did.”

The world Holly remembered where Dakota didn’t die was boring. Without Nick’s edgy poetry, she never ended up falling for him. She became even more miserable, masturbating day after day to the sickest hentai she could find online. She avoided those thoughts like the plague. Her new identity as Nick’s cuckpet was way more liberating.

“Well, my memories probably received the biggest change,” Gina informed them. “I got a whole second life out of the deal, a ‘what if’ situation. It’s like that Christmas movie, what was it? Miracle on 34th Street?”

“I think you mean ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’,” Rose corrected her.

“Who fucking cares? Anyway, the point is, I got to see what things would have been like if I’d been a ‘good girl’. And I hated it. I had to wear dresses and speak politely. I went to a special private girl's school, and I wasn’t even allowed guy friends! I took BALLET LESSONS and played classical music! Do you have any idea how miserable I was?!”

The other two women stared blankly at her.

“…Well, whatever. It sucked. But you know what didn’t suck? You know what was really fucking good about that whole thing?” Gina sighed. “My mom and dad. They actually loved me. They were smiling. We were a family. I haven’t had that in years.”

Everything else was terrible. But that one scrap was enough to keep Gina from fully disassociating from that life. She didn’t want to give it up.

“Over the years, my family tried to help me,” she mumbled. “They really, really tried. But I wouldn’t let them. I was so caught-up in my own shit, trying to punish myself for causing my friend’s ****, that I didn’t even care I was destroying my family. You know, in that alternate world? The one where I didn’t kill my best friend? My mom just won the election for district attorney of New York City. My dad is a vice-principal. But in real life? My mom works in some two-bit law firm, and my dad teaches in a classroom where half the class wants to stab the other half. At least, that’s my guess, since it’s been like ten fucking years since I’ve spoken to either of ‘em!”

She clutched her hair and started shaking, overwhelmed by her emotions.

“It’s my fault, don’t you get it? Because I was such a shitty daughter and wore my family down, they’re living worse lives than they could have! Do you know what that’s like!? Knowing you’re the reason your family is miserable!?”

“Gina…” Holly didn’t know what else she could say. What Gina was describing sounded terrible to have to deal with. And as someone who’d grown up in a loving home with parents who had supported her through tons of hardship, her own experiences were pretty worthless here.

“So you see why I want to be a good girl?” Gina asked, looking at them. “Because I need to be! Yeah, fine. My acting sucks. So fucking what? If I have any chance of patching things up with my family, I need to change. My mom could have been one of the most powerful lawyers in the city if I had just been a good girl! What, is she going to run for office when her daughter is some junkie burnout? What are the people going to think about THAT?”

“They might think she’s a good candidate for president,” Rose suggested.

Gina glared at her.

“…Right, right, staying out of American politics, not my place.” Rose quickly shut her mouth.

“A while ago, Dakota asked me whether or not being a good girl was what I wanted,” Gina sighed, standing up and wiping her eyes. “Whether I was doing it for me, or doing it because it’s what other people wanted from me. And I guess… I guess that’s my answer.”

“That’s not an answer,” Rose said quietly. “You’re just making yourself miserable.”

“Yeah! That’s right, I am! And that’s MY choice!” Gina snapped. “So that’s what I’m going to do, I’m going to fucking forgive Dakota, and you guys, and I’m going to take you to Dani, and I’m going to be good!”

Gina **** a smile onto her face, turned, and stormed away. Rose and Holly glanced at each other, not sure what else could be said.

“…It’s her own life,” Rose finally relented. “If this is what she wants, then we can’t do anything about it.”

She felt rather miserable herself. She’d been trying to help someone, trying to do good herself, but had only made the situation worse.

Meanwhile, Mary and Kim were debating the use of the coin Kim had won.

“So what are you going to do?” Mary asked anxiously. “Are you going to use it? You can save it for later, right?”

“Yeah, I could,” Kim nodded. The gold coin was burning a hole in her hand. They’d decided to table the decision for now and keep looking for cards, but the problem was that they couldn’t find any. The woods felt like they’d been picked clean.

“If you have more points when you use it, you could shoot right up to the top!” Mary noted. “I mean, I’m just saying. Right now, it’s like… even if you use it, would it really be worth it?”

Kim considered that. She was considering a lot of things. If she used the coin now, then she would double her points from 6 VP to 12 VP. If that happened, her position on the ranking board wouldn’t really change. She’d stay in eighth. All she’d really end up doing was pulling ahead of Mary. If she waited until she saved up a little more and then tried it, she could really make a good profit.

Assuming I win.

That was elephant in the room.

What if Kim lost the coin toss? All her hard-earned Victory Points would go right down the drain. She wasn’t sure if that was a bet she was willing to make. The longer she waited to use the coin, the greater the reward became, but that came with an equal increase in risk.

Kim just wasn’t the type of girl who made those gambles. Any time she considered using the coin, she remembered when her mother would come home having wasted her money on lottery tickets trying to score it big. This felt exactly like that.

“Maybe I should just get it over with,” she sighed, staring down at the coin. It was shining in the sunlight.

“No, you should save it!” Mary insisted. “Wait until you get 50 VP, then flip it! You’ll double your winnings!”

“Or I could lose everything,” Kim pointed out.

“Nope!” Mary said cheerfully. “Because I’ll be praying for your success! A good person like you, I’m certain that God will reward you for all your hard work by guaranteeing you get heads!”

Kim pulled Mary into a tight hug.

“Oh, Mary, you sweet little thing… please, please never go to a casino. Ever.”

“Um… okay? Wasn’t planning on it…”

“Good. Don’t.”

With that settled, Kim considered the coin again. They’d agreed to table the discussion, but, well, they were already basically discussing it. So she might as well.

“I think I should use it now,” she repeated. “If I lose, then I’m only losing 6 VP. I don’t think that’s a very big hole to dig myself out of. And yeah, I’ll only get 6 VP if I win, but I need to think risk-assessment here.”

The safest thing to do, of course, was to not use the coin at all. She didn’t HAVE to flip it. But that felt so pointless.

“I just wish there was some sort of sign,” Kim sighed. She was a wage **** at heart. She wasn't used to making big decisions for herself, she was used to listening to her manager. “Something to tell me whether or not I’m making the right choice.”

As if on cue, footsteps from down the trail caught the girls’ attention. They tensed and looked for somewhere to hide, but that was a no-go. There was a steep hill to their left, and an even steeper drop to their right. They were basically trapped.

Then when they saw who it was coming their way, they relaxed a little. It was just Dawn.

“What do you want now?” Mary asked warily. She tried not to be mad at people as a general rule, but she was still upset at how Dawn used Kim’s transformation against her.

Kim was even more upset, for obvious reasons. But then the girls saw the haunted expression on Dawn’s face, and relaxed a little.

“I, uh… I came here to apologize,” Dawn admitted, her cheeks flushing with shame. “I’m sorry for taking your Queen like that. It wasn’t a fair trade.”

Kim sighed. “Yeah, well, seeing what I got from it, you might have had the right idea.”

“Oh?” Dawn’s tail twitched curiously. “What do you mean?”

Kim walked down the trail and showed her the coin. “This was my ‘reward’ for completing the set.”

Dawn adjusted her glasses. “A gold coin… is it valuable?”

“Sort of?” Kim shrugged. “See, I flip it, and if I get heads, then my Victory Points double. But if I get tails, then I lose everything.”

Dawn’s eyes widened. “That’s… well. That’s quite a risk.” Not one she would have ever taken. Gambling was for suckers.

“So we’re not sure what we should do,” Mary said glumly. “I think she should save until she’s got a bunch of points stored up, but Kim isn’t sure.”

“Don’t flip it,” Dawn said bluntly. “Taking a gamble like that is never the right decision. But then… you probably shouldn’t trust my judgment.”

She sighed. “I’ve really been stepping in it all day…”

Dawn took the Queen off her belt, and handed it to Kim.

“Huh?!” Kim gasped in surprise.

“It’s for you,” she said. “It’s yours, after all. I shouldn’t have taken it from you. I should have just given you the Two, rather than use it to extort you. What I did… that was just as bad as when Dani overpowered me and stole my Eight.”

Kim stared at the card, not sure what to do.

“Not enough? Fine,” Dawn scowled. “I just found this one, but here. You can have it. Just… just forgive me, okay!?” She added another card to the pile, the Five of Spades.

“A-A Five?” Kim’s eyes widened with greed. Having finished completing the set of Twos, the Fives she had were at the front of her thoughts. She needed that Five more than anything!

“Yeah. You need to complete the set, right?” Dawn muttered. “Take it. I don’t care anymore.”

She hadn’t found anything worth anything this entire game. She'd searched for hours and the highest card she'd obtained had been something she'd basically stolen, after having the second-highest card stolen from her. Luck wasn't on her side today. Yet another reason why she loathed gambling.

Meanwhile, people like Dakota and Carly were completing sets of high-ranking cards. She had no hope of taking the Jack from Dani, or any of Dakota’s Kings. The Tens were captured, Holly had almost all the Nines, and what was she going to do? Beat up Mary for her other Queen?

Dawn had already lost. She had just been too stubborn to admit it before now.

She shoved the cards into Kim’s hands, turned, and trudged down the path.

“Wait!” Mary ran over and grabbed her by the wrist. “You can’t just give up!”

“Oh? Why not?” Dawn scowled. What did she know?

“You have to have faith!” Mary asserted. “You can do your best! As long as you have faith, God will reward you for your efforts!”

Kim rubbed the bridge of her nose and sighed. Dawn resisted the urge to burst out laughing. God, if he existed, had never rewarded her for anything. Everything Dawn achieved, she did it with her own two hands.

But she didn’t want to hurt the devoted girl by spitting on her beliefs.

“…Thanks,” she mumbled. “But given what I just tried to do, I don’t think God has any intention of rewarding me for anything.”

Mary frowned. “Then… I will.”

She took her own Queen and offered it to Dawn.

“Thank you for doing the right thing and giving Kim her card back.”

Dawn’s jaw dropped. Mary was actually giving up her Queen? And not out of guilt, but out of actual generosity?

“Listen, I can’t take that, I don’t think-”

“Please!” Mary insisted.

“It’s not going to make a difference! I’m going to lose anyway! It’s better if you have it!”

“No! You can’t give up!” Mary shook her head.

Kim watched the two of them argue back and forth, and finally she had enough. She’d seen less belligerence from customers trying to return something without a receipt.

“Enough!” She shouted. “I think I have an idea of how we can settle this.”

She waited until she had both of their attention before holding up the coin.

“Let’s leave it up to luck, okay?” She suggested. “I don’t want to risk more VP than I have to. Sorry, that’s just not me. Maybe it’s the smart play to wait until I have more points, maybe it isn’t. But right now, I don’t feel comfortable risking more than 6 VP.”

She flipped the coin into the air.

“Dawn, if it’s heads, then don’t give up. If it’s tails, you can do whatever.”

“I don’t agree with this,” Dawn grumbled, crossing her arms. She didn’t like gambling, and right now it felt like she was betting her future. And yet, her ears were twitching with anticipation.

From her throne Sylvia watched eagerly as the coin tumbled down. It landed in Kim’s hand and she smacked it on her wrist, revealing the result.