Jersey rolls a 1.

Thomas moves to her spot and sits down again, relieved her turn is over. Jersey is knocked out of her trance of Thomas.

“Sorry, I was…”

“Don’t finish that sentence, stop looking at me like that, and roll.” Thomas interjects.

Jersey grabs the dice and begins to roll. Luck seems to have left Jersey as the die reveals a single dot.

“Fuck man.”

Instead of the others laughing at her, they’re fearful knowing that Jersey rolling low only means bad news. And they’re right to be scared. Jersey grabs her piece and moves it onto the gray space. A new color effect the group hasn’t encountered yet.

“Shit.”

“Shit.”

“Shit.”

“Shit.”

“Shit.”

Jersey sees that the top card sits there with a gray background, waiting to be picked up and read.

“So…anyone wanna go instead?”

“Nope.”

“Just pick up the damn card. I don’t want to delay the inevitable suffering.”

Jersey finds no takers, and grabs the card meant for her.

–

“Finally entered the gray,

A player finds a crossway.

A new choice will be presented,

Choose the player who will be tormented.

Choose yourself to gain a lead,

And the two effects you exceed.

Or choose another to rollback,

And take an effect they’ve backtracked.“

–

“Wait…what?”

“You can choose yourself and a base color: red, green, yellow, blue, and you can move forward until you encounter that colored space, but you take two effects of that color. Or you choose another player and a base color, and **** that player backwards until they hit that color, and they take one effect.”

“You got all that from the riddle?!”

“NO, I READ THE RULES CAUSE I’M NOT A MORON.” Thomas holds up and waves the rule book.

“Oh, right.”

“WAIT, THIS IS OP AS FUCK.” Jersey’s face lights up with glee, knowing that she hasn’t condemned everyone to another effect like she did at the start of the game. Jersey is now in a position that Ashton and Thomas were in last round; gain an advantage or make another player suffer. Jersey looked over the board and saw her options.

If Jersey picked herself, the furthest she could go was another red space. She would move seven places forward and be on the sixteenth space, almost halfway but in the lead.

Seth, Yonah, and Ashton were all on different colored spaces, but all of them could be **** back to a red space at the very start of the board to get the most out of the effect.

Seth sat only on the fourth space, blue. She would only move back three spots.

Ashton was next, sitting on the sixth space, brown. She would move back five spots.

Yonah was on the previous red space with Jersey, the eighth spot. She would move back seven spots.

The only unique one was Thomas. She was in the lead on a blue space, the eleventh space. She had already passed a few base colors and wouldn’t move very far if Jersey chose red, yellow, or green. However, there was a space she yet to clear, the blue space she was on. Thomas currently had the lead, and she would lose seven spots, just like Yonah, but would also be taken out of the lead if Jersey chose blue for Thomas. She would end up on the same spot Seth currently occupies.

“Question Madam Gamemaster.”

“What?”

“If you’re on a color, and I say that color, do you move back to the previous one or stay on the one you’re currently on?”

“You have to move back, the current space color doesn’t count.”

“Cool…cool.”

Jersey wasn’t known for thinking and planning, but she felt that she had to in this situation of power. She was sitting here, COUNTING spaces. Very un-Jersey like.

“If you think any harder, you’re gonna have a headache.”

“HUSH, I’M BRAIN BLASTING RIGHT NOW.”

“Oh boy.”

“Here we go again.”

Everyone groaned and became annoyed.

“We’re gonna be here for hours.”

“Nah nah nah, I know what I’m doing. I’m gonna…”