The Wake Up Call (M,T)

At four in the morning, Helena was **** awake. At night she liked to wear big, chunky headphones and a night mask to cover her eyes. Together they cut her off from the world, and all she’d see or hear until morning were the sounds of waves from her headphones. She loved her headphones and the ocean recordings. Falling asleep and waking up to them were the only times she felt like she could relax. She’d appreciated that a new set of the recordings were waiting for her in her closet. It’d been the one thing she'd liked about this place.

Her headphones were being fucking interupted. Every time she thought she could close her eyes and go back to sleep, another damn ding would cut through her beach. She lay in bed, waiting for it to stop.

Ding

Ding

She gave up on trying to sleep and checked her phone. It was from that bitch Genet, who had tricked her into coming to this god forsaken island. The message read as saccharin as everything Genet said:

Good Morning. I thought about what you said yesterday. If you’re still interested, I’d like to give you a chance to see one of the seasons that were unlisted from the index. I do have a couple of stipulations. You can’t tell anyone else why you’re coming before you get here. You can’t get approval from Richard to disable your transformation before coming. If you’re still interested, I’ll see you by six twenty.

As she finished reading, the same message came through again. “How many of these has she sent?” Helena whispered, annoyed at Genet's persistence but wanting to avoid waking up Hazel. She scrolled through, seeing the litany of identical messages. There have to be at least thirty, forty messages here. Why won’t she stop? It was like she was trying to make sure that Helena didn’t have the option to fucking sleep.

Helena carefully angled herself out of the bed to avoid falling on her ass like yesterday. She trudged to the bathroom on her hands and knees. She looked up and around the bathroom. It was made for a person standing, at proper height. The same tasks stuck on the floor would be asinine.

Getting ready was so much harder without Hazel to help her yesterday. She’d felt useless with Hazel washing her hair and helping her get dressed, but she’d truly struggled without her. The soap was on too high a shelf to reach, so she’d had to crawl wet out of the shower to get a baton out of Hazel’s closet and kneel on the floor of the shower to knock it down. That had been the first of a dozen tasks she’d had to maneuver without waking up Hazel.

By the time she had managed to clean herself and get a pantsuit on, at least a hundred more texts had come through. She’d sent confirmation already she was on her way before the shower, but it felt like Genet was just trying to be annoying now.

Before she left the house, a thought occurred to her. Hazel and Richard both knew she’d need help in the morning. Both of them would probably panic if she was missing when they woke up. I can’t tell anyone why I’m going. How do I make sure they’re not worried about me? She spotted the notepad Hazel has been using on the floor, leaning against the nightstand. That’d be perfect. She’d only imply what she was doing, and Hazel wouldn’t read the message until she had been gone for probably an hour. She wrote a quick note for when her assistant woke up:

Good Morning Hazel,

You don’t need to worry about me today. I decided to get up early to look into something I thought of from our work with Felicia yesterday. I’m not sure when I’ll be back. If I’m not back before lunch, then have fun with Richard. Make sure he’s not worried about me, and don't do anything rash.

Satisfied, she left it on the nightstand for when Hazel woke later. She managed to get the heavy front door open and went to see Genet. Even if Genet was as rude as possible about it, Helena was glad the host had finally seen reason and started to listen to her.

Genet was there at the entrance to the dining hall, smiling at her like it wasn’t five in the morning and pitch black outside. “It’s good to see everyone’s favorite contestant! I take it you got my messages?” She asked, looking down on the billionaire.

“Yes, I got them.” Helena grumbled. ”You were spamming my phone for hours.”

“I needed to make sure you saw it”

“I told you I was coming.”

“Did you? Huh, I must have missed it.” Genet lied. “I’m just glad you’re here. I’ve got some breakfast prepared for you up in my loft. I hope you like nuts, I ground up some pecans for your oatmeal.” Genet strode through the dining hall towards her door at the far left side, not looking to see if Helena was following. Helena scampered after and followed her up the stairs

***

Helena hated pecans. She’d told her father once when she was much younger that pecans felt like broken almonds. But she was in hell, so of course they were littered through her oatmeal. She was doing her best to scoop them out into her napkin as she sat on one of the cushions. Genet said that she couldn’t sit on one of the couches until she was done eating, and even then “only if she behaved” as if she was a small child or a pet.

It was a small grace that the floor was almost as comfortable as the furniture. Every inch of the loft was soft or cushioned, save for the television monitor and three doors she’d seen as she came in. One door obviously led down to the dining hall, the second to a bathroom. She felt like she needed to ask about the last one while she had the chance today. But she needed to get back in Genet’s good graces first.

“I found some lost footage of another season. It was the first season for my closest friend among the other hosts. She asked that I give it to her when we’re done here and was a bit antsy, so anything I show you from this will probably need to be done today. Ready for me to hit play?” Genet asked

“I’m ready when you are. Thank you for showing this to me.”

“I’m hoping it’ll help.” Genet said as she hit play.

It opened onto a nice hotel, much fancier than the houses that Genet had put them in. Just like with their season a couple nights ago, there’d been a general panic when the host announced they were attached to the man at the other end of the room. There were some differences that felt odd though. The host was more obviously inhuman, she was a bright blue like in one of the little games that Richard and his friends liked to play. The man they’d been attached to had weaker social skills than a ferret stuck in a sock unlike how assertive her stepbrother was. As much as she hated Genet, it seemed like the woman had put in effort to at the very least choose women that already liked Richard. Here, it wasn’t clear how or even if the cast knew the stoat they’d been **** to meet. At least two members of the cast were outright lesbians, which didn’t make sense. Helena was pretty sure she was the only contestant that wasn’t straight, and she swung comfortably enough in either direction that it wouldn't have been a problem if it wasn’t Richard.

She needed to come up with something to get to know Genet better, get her to like her more. “So what’s the blue woman’s name?” She asked. She hadn’t heard it come up, and hopefully talking about her friend would get Genet to lower her guard a bit more.

“I can’t tell you. I don’t know her that well, and she’s not the one I’m hoping you’re focusing on.” Genet shut her down. So much for lowering her guard. How does she not know her friend’s name?

They continued watching in silence for a while. Genet skipped ahead a few times, and Helena watched the German woman in the group demand to go home and be punished with scarily large breasts. It was around that point that the Gaelic woman had started stepping up. She’d started making the hard choices Helena knew needed to be made and taking command of both the ferret man and her confused cast members. She hoped the British woman stopped being such a dumb bitch and got around to thanking her.

Genet skipped ahead to the first challenge. It was less interesting than a lot of the others, just a little race that the smart one in the cast easily won. Afterwards though, the show started to get darker. They started tearing apart the cast members’ identities, and the smart one started taking risks and sacrificing things that didn’t feel necessary. Even the dirty jobs she did need to take started to fail as… oh no. No. I can’t watch. She shut her eyes as she was **** to listen to the screams and cries for help fade into dull moos.

Genet paused the tape. “How are you feeling?”

Helena didn’t know how to respond. She was having trouble holding her hatred of the host, she was drowning so deeply in the fear and doubt from watching the elimination of that poor woman. She’d seen a number of those happen the opening night, but listening to the victim of Genet’s friend talk about her children made her feel more real. The tall woman that’d taken charge had done vile things to try and stop it from happening. But it had been pointless. She’d made the right choices to protect her friend, however new the friend was and however hard the choices. But it hadn’t made a difference. She needed to get everyone out of here before that happened to them. But I can’t fight back. They’d target me, just like they did the victims of Genet’s friend. I need to be sneakier to get everyone out. “I don’t know. Is this why you didn’t want us watching your friend’s season?”

“This isn’t the reason it was removed, but I would not have put it on your recommended list even if it had not been removed. This season had a number of twists I would not be comfortable with.”

Helena had so many questions. Why did your friend let this happen? Why are you still friends with her? What happened to the others? But she couldn’t ask those, because she needed Genet to be comfortable around her. So she went with one she hoped was safe enough. “Why did you choose this one to show me, out of any of the others?”

Genet thought about it before answering. “I was hoping seeing how bad it could be would put things into perspective when I say I don’t want to hurt you all when I can avoid it. Plus I figured it’d be easier to work with her on showing you her season than some of the others that got even more bleak.” She examined Helena on the floor. The emotions that she was usually able to read off of Helena felt like they were buried under layers that Genet usually had trouble with. There’d been a few sparks during the opening ceremony, but every drop of affection in the young woman was hidden too deep.

“It’s almost lunch time. Why don’t you sit down on the couch? I’ll go down and bring you what I selected for lunch.” Helena sank into the couch and sat there, trying to hide how badly she wanted to escape.

Genet collected the now dried and empty oatmeal bowl and took it downstairs for the island to take care of. She was grabbing a plate for Helena as another voice spoke to her in the dining hall. She’d thought it was empty at first when she walked in, but she was proven wrong when she heard Maeve’s voice.

“How are you doing today?” She heard the woman behind her ask. “You never came down for breakfast.”

She turned to look at Maeve. The silver haired therapist was certainly a sight to see. If there’s one decision she enjoyed from her opening, it was not adapting Maeve’s clothes to her transformation. Getting to look down at her cavernous cleavage was a nice treat, and she’d heard from downstairs earlier that Richard thought so too. He’d been bashful about it, but she could work with that. “I’m fine, just a little busy. Is there something I can help you with?” she asked.

“I apologize if I’m overstepping, but have you had a chance to talk to your husband about our discussion?” Maeve asked.

“That is not something I want to discuss with you right now.” Genet warned. “I am your host. When I want to talk to you about my personal life, I will. When I ask you if there’s anything I can help you with, I am asking what I can do as the host to help you. Would you like to try again, or are you ready to just go away now?” She dropped her normal cheery act and stared at Maeve, daring her to continue speaking.

Maeve was undeterred. “I also wanted to ask about Ata.”

That was honestly unexpected. “My shopkeep? Why do you care about her?”

“She seemed like she was having trouble focusing. Luna and I met her yesterday, and it wasn’t the easiest conversation. She wasn’t aware of us before we spoke to her, and she seemed to forget we existed the moment we stopped talking to her. Does she need help?”

Right. I brought in a therapist. “You don’t have the ability to help her.”

“I’d still like to try. Do you have any advice?”

“No, I’m being serious. She’s part of the show”

“Is there any way to help her?”

“Y’know what?” Genet sighed. “Ask me on a better day.” She retreated up to her loft with Helena’s lunch. She had one problem she’d already signed up for today and didn’t need another.

Helena ate her lunch as a way to help distract her from what had started to happen before Genet paused it. Genet had brought up a chicken breast and green beans almondine. She remembered ordering green beans like these placed in the building’s cafeteria a few years ago. It felt odd that they were here now, this wasn’t supposed to be her day.

Genet had pressed play again as Helena had started eating. The show kept getting darker, and everyone started getting distracted by petty disputes. Most of the surviving contestants lashed out at the only one that seemed to care what happened to them, and they threw her off. She got aggressive, cruel even when she didn’t need to be and her fellow contestants were barely hanging on. She started to relate less to the tall woman and more to her friend, who’d been humiliated by their host. But the blonde woman still held her head high, and maintained her strength and independence. It wasn’t smart, but they had run out of smart choices. She kept going, free of the pettiness and sabotage that had infected the rest of the cast.

No. Not again. The blonde woman lost a challenge, another basic sporting contest far less interesting than most of the ones that Genet wanted to show the three of them at first. And they killed her for it. They killed her, and they handed her corpse to the master as a toy. It’d be too kind to keep calling him a ferret or a weasel when he’d become so slimy. He was more like a snail, creeping along until his conscience was questioned and he would retreat back into his shell. But he never questioned his ability to do what he wanted with her body, when she’d been so independent and proud a day before. She had almost looked relieved when they killed her. Just a few rounds later than I am, she was relieved to die. “Can we pause again?” Helena asked, putting down her empty plate.

“Anything you want to talk about?” Genet asked. She was looking over at Helena as she asked. Everything she had access to was clouded again. She’d seen the attachment switch over to the wrong contestant, before it went murky again.

Helena wasn’t sure which she wanted to ask about first. She looked over at the unmarked door, wanting to know where it led. But she still felt uncomfortable with the conditions in the season run by Genet’s friend, “Do you think your friend has any regrets about the season?”

Genet thought about it for a moment. “I’m not sure, she doesn’t like to talk about this much. This is my first time seeing the season too. I know this was a rough point in her life, she hadn’t even become…”

Helena started to tune her out. She was trying to defend the host, despite the monstrous situation she’d created. She’d almost thought Genet might have some good in her, like the witch wanted to pretend. “Genet, would you mind if we stopped here?”

Genet got out of her chair and started fiddling with the television console. An old looking VHS tape was ejected, and Genet placed it next to the third door.

“What’s that door go to?” Helena asked. She had the feeling that if she didn’t ask now, she wouldn’t get another chance.

“My natural abilities tend to be a bit flashy, and it feels weird to use my powers as a host for something that I can already do on my own.. I have a few tools like this I use to kind of thread that gap, doing things I’m used to without all the usual flash. I’ve got this door for when I need to go somewhere outside the island without making a big show of it. I’d like you to go back downstairs, and I’ll be taking it over to Shar.”

Shar. So that was the blue woman’s name.

Genet continued, ignoring her revelation. “Since I can tell that you’re a bit troubled right now, it might be good for you to talk to someone. Hazel and Dr.Petrov are busy, but Richard’s friends are all gathered in the Trident House if you’d like to stop by.”

Helena started to leave, crawling to the stairs down to the dining hall. She wasn’t going to the Trident Cottage tonight. She had plans to work on.

“Oh, and Helena? Try not to do anything you’ll regret.”

She wouldn’t regret this. She’d need a little bit more time, but she could beat Genet. She was going to get Hazel, Richard, and everyone else out of here. She could get them out of Hell