The Art of Simplicity is a Puzzle of Complexity

Kathryn woke up confused. She was used to waking up with someone else weighing down the bed beside her, but this was the second time in a week that it hadn't happened.

"What happened this time?" she wondered aloud. "It's not like she's in Charlotte's room because Lauren's gone. She probably didn't go get breakfast or something, since it's only six in the morning and she's the textbook definition of a lazy person in the mornings. What gives?"

She shrugged it off. It wasn't a huge deal to her, it was just a little weird. She had started to get a bit worried about the girl, even though she knew that Sara was more than capable of taking care of herself.

While ambling out to the courtyard, she spotted Becca, who looked more content than she had ever seen the redhead. Of course, she had only known Becca ever since they both were brought into this twisted situation, but it still seemed like progress.

"Hey Becca," she said, coming within speaking distance. "You look relaxed today."

"Hey, Kathryn," Becca replied, turning towards her. "It's like a huge weight has been lifted off my back, knowing that Turner is safe and sound away from Paige for the rest of the week. Plus, I finally get to see him tomorrow, and I can just catch up with him, see how he's doing, all that!"

"That's great!" Kathryn smiled.

"What are your plans?" Becca asked, genuinely. "I mean, it's okay if you don't want to tell me, since you can do wha-I mean, yeah, what are your plans?"

Kathryn stifled a smirk resulting from Becca's slip of the tongue, but answered with "Nothing really big, let's just say that I hope Mandy didn't make him think too much last night."

Becca relaxed after Kathryn didn't bring up her mistakes. Maybe she didn't even really notice it. Regardless, she was grateful that it didn't sound like Kathryn was going to do anything she wouldn't like on the date. Not that she expected her to, but expecting something to happen and hearing that it actually isn't going to happen were two completely different ball games.

"You hope Mandy didn't what now?" Charlotte popped up to Kathryn's right, causing her to jump slightly in surprise.

"Shit, where did you-sorry, you just caught me by surprise," Kathryn amended. "I was just telling Becca about what I was gonna do today."

"Ah, I gotcha'," Charlotte winked.

"I just hope Kendra doesn't make an unscheduled appearance," Kathryn said. "She's got it out for me, and I wouldn't doubt that she's on a warpath for my date."

Becca raised an eyebrow at that. Was Kathryn trying to cover her ass just in case Kendra did try anything, or was it a way to try and get out of any repercussions for anything she might do with Turner? Kathryn wasn't exactly stupid, she could be doing either. Although, if it was the latter, she would most likely have said something about it, due to her transformation, so Becca just dropped it.

"You can't let Kendra keep getting to you," Charlotte offered. "Yeah, the situation here sucks, but it's not all her fault, like she said. Plus, you still have agency here, right? You're mostly yourself and have your self-control, which is more than can be said for some others here."

"That's true, it's not like I got a triple whammy of transformations," Kathryn rolled her eyes. "Although I wouldn't put it past her-no, you're right, Charlotte. I can't just let it go that easily though, I have to at least keep it up until next round, purely out of principle. Actually, sorry to change the subject, but have either of you seen Sara this morning?"

"She wasn't with you?" Becca asked.

"No, she was missing," Kathryn confirmed. "I was up at the crack of dawn and she was gone, which doesn't really seem like her at all."

"It doesn't..." Charlotte massaged her chin in contemplation. "Maybe she did the same thing that you did, Becca, she's trying to figure out what's going on with Liam."

"Mandy's gone though," Kathryn pointed out, while Becca buried her face in her hands.

"Plus, why would Sara be trying to make sure that no one would do something with Turner?" Becca reasoned out loud. "First of all, she's not his girlfriend, and second of all, the only two people who would be with Turner are right here."

"That circles us back though, where is Sara?" Kathryn reiterated as Abby waltzed in.

"Sara?" Abby asked, confused. "What about her?"

"She's missing," Becca filled in. "Kathryn said she wasn't home when she woke up at a stupid early time, and neither of us have seen her."

"Oh, I haven't seen her," Abby responded. "She's a big girl, though, she can take care of herself."

"What could she be doing, though?" Kathryn wondered out loud. "And why didn't she tell me?"

"Why didn't she tell you?" Becca echoed.

"Sounds like someone is getting a little close with Sara," Charlotte raised an eyebrow.

"It's not like that, you gossip girls, I just worry about her sometimes," Kathryn stated, but smiled.

"Eh, I wouldn't worry about it too much today, you've got bigger fish to fry," Abby waved her hand. "I bet Turner's gonna have a lot of questions for you."

"I'm not really gonna be focused though, especially if I don't know where she is," Kathryn pointed out. "And my plan really needs me to be focused for it to work well."

"What, are you gonna be writing a brief for the President with him on your date or something?" Charlotte joked, causing the four of them to lighten up a bit in the tense situation.

"You behave yourself on these next three nights, you hear me?" Mandy warned as she was about to leave.

"Don't worry, Mrs. Teller, I wouldn't dream of misbehaving with you watching like a hawk," Turner switched back to a more formal demeanor.

"And if you need anything, don't hesitate to try to find me in any way you can," she added. "You can go out on the town and find me if you're feeling overwhelmed in any way. I know that you're probably gonna be more willing to talk to Becca, but don't forget about little ol' me."

"I won't," he laughed a bit. "Thanks again for taking the time to talk with me."

"Anytime," she responded. "Except for 4:13 in the morning, that would make me a very unhappy camper.

"But 4:12 and 4:14 are okay?" he jokingly asked.

"Oh, yeah, those are fine," she sarcastically said. "But if you dare between those two times, I'll make sure to give you the worst advice known to man."

"Duly noted," he tapped the side of his head. "Well, you have fun back down there."

"I'll try my hardest," she wearily answered, before stepping onto the elevator and riding it down.

Mandy didn't know what it was about this place, but even the air smelled expensive about the hotel. Sure, it was nice to stay in a luxurious resort for the night, but there was something charming about going back to her bungalow, even though it was a little bit chaotic having to share it with Emma.

She prepared herself for some more mayhem as she exited the elevator, but what awaited her was definitely not what she expected.

"Sara's missing!" Kathryn told her as soon as she exited the doors and saw Becca, Charlotte, Abby, and Kathryn standing in a circle.

"She's missing?" Mandy repeated.

"She wasn't there when I left, and she's not anywhere in sight," Kathryn explained.

"Well, is anyone else gone that she could've gone with?" Mandy asked.

"We do have one person from each room here," Kathryn added.

"Liam was still there when I got up," Abby said.

"Same with Lauren," Charlotte provided.

"So that leaves...Paige and Emma, right?" Mandy said. "Becca? You got any information on Paige?"

"No, I'm trying to avoid her as much as possible," Becca rolled her eyes.

"You mean to tell me you didn't even notice if she was there when you got up?" Abby scoffed.

"Does that surprise you?" Becca retorted.

"Okay, okay, okay," Charlotte diffused. "We'll just see if Paige is there, and if so, then we'll check if Emma's there. If both are there...I don't know what to do then."

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," Kathryn offered. "Although if Kendra's got something to do with this, I swear..."

"Kathryn, we talked about this," Charlotte warned, but it wasn't all that intimidating coming from the blonde girl.

"You're right, you're right," Kathryn relented, and the fivesome walked towards Becca and Paige's bungalow.

"Ha...hnn...oh, God..." Paige let out as she aimed the showerhead down at her pussy.

She was lost in her own little world, replaying the events of two nights ago in her head on repeat. So detached, in fact, that she didn't even hear the door open.

"I-I think I'm gonna-" she harshly whispered before letting out a low, loud moan.

"...I think it's safe to say that Paige is here," Kathryn said after a few seconds of awkward silence.

"Yeah...let's get out of her before she notices we're here," Abby responded, her face red with second-hand embarrassment.

After quickly and quietly closing the door, descending the stairs, and walking a few paces away, Becca spoke up.

"I think I'm gonna be sick," she said. "After hearing that in there."

"Are you okay?" Charlotte rushed to her side. "You look pale, come on, let's go back and sit down at the courtyard. I'll get you a nice cold glass of water...and we can watch whatever's on TV!"

Charlotte draped Becca's left arm over her shoulder as she led the two of them back to the common area.

"Oooookay then," Abby did a slow, dramatic about-face back to Kathryn and Mandy, who were both likewise bewildered. "Should we just go see if Emma's there? I doubt she and Sara are out doing something at this hour, but still, might as well."

"Yeah, sounds good," Kathryn agreed. "If she's not there...I don't really know what to do. We could do a thorough search of the island, but who knows how massive this place is. Plus, I don't really want to scale that mountain there or anything."

"We could go up to the top of the mountain," Mandy mentioned. "There's a lift to go up there, right?"

"I'd be willing to, but you might want to stay down here in case we're gone for a while, Kathryn," Abby noted. "Who knows how long we'll be up there, and we don't really want you to miss your date with Turner."

"Plus, we could use some eyes on the ground, just in case," Mandy added.

Kathryn was going to protest, but she didn't really know what to protest with, so she, once again, relented, saying "Fine, sounds like a plan."

The now-trio entered Emma and Mandy's bungalow, and she was sleeping peacefully, the polar opposite to what Paige was doing. Kathryn looked a bit disheartened at that, she really hoped that Emma wasn't there either, since that would mean that Sara could be with her.

"Well, that's unfortunate," Abby mirrored.

"Y'know, if you told me after work on Friday that the next time I'd see you would be a tropical resort in an alternate dimension where I'd be one of the ten contestants competing for your love, I would've called you crazy and probably submitted a report to have you sent to a psychiatrist," Kathryn said as she walked in the hotel. "But here we are."

"It's...definitely not how I expected to spend my week, or month, or however long we're gonna be here," Turner wryly smiled. "Not how I wanted to spend my time either."

"Eh, we'll find a way to make the best of it," Kathryn nonchalantly said, surprising both Turner and herself. "Just see it as a...security challenge. Us versus whomever's calling the shots."

"You seem very...chipper and easy-going," Turner noted. "Who are you and what have you done with my coworker?"

"I talked to Charlotte this morning," Kathryn explained. "We were looking for Sara, since she's gone missing, but Charlotte convinced me to be a little less hostile towards Kendra. Sure, I still hate her guts and all, but it might serve me well to not be mad at her at every juncture."

Truthfully, Kathryn wanted to be more liked by the audience, and Kendra had struck the fear of God in her with her threats a week ago.

"Sara's missing?" Turner echoed what a couple others had already said in the morning. "Why is it that every time someone comes here for the night, they drop some big information bomb on me like it's just an average Wednesday?"

"I'm worried about her too, but it's not like she's not being watched by the producers," Kathryn expounded, and it was clear that she had put a lot of thought into this. "Kendra wouldn't let anything happen to Sara, she's well-liked by basically everyone; both the other contestants and the audience. Plus, she's old enough to take care of herself, so I doubt she'll get into much trouble that she can't find her way out of."

"That makes sense," Turner eased a little bit.

"And speaking of things that you can't find your way out of, we're going to an escape room," Kathryn was proud of that segue. She hadn't even planned it, it just popped into her head.

"Y'know, that was almost exactly the kind of evening I expected with you," Turner mused. "Even though things are changing all the time, it's nice how many things have stayed the same since coming here."

"Wait, read the code back to me?" Turner semi-asked.

"Which one, the one with the shapes or numbers?" Kathryn fully asked.

"Numbers," he clarified.

"Uh...2-7-4".

"Wait, there are more than three characters here, there are five. And some of these have letters on them."

"Could it be T-W-O-7-4?"

"It could...and...that's it!"

The two of them were working like a well-oiled machine in the escape room, finding clues hidden throughout the scenario, thinking outside the box (in order to get outside the box), and busting their analytical chops off one another.

"Wait, none of these symbols match the ones on the lock," Kathryn stopped. "All of the ones on the lock are more complex."

Turner looked carefully at all the symbols on the clear plastic pieces, trying to fit them together as if they were puzzle pieces, before he noticed that none of them had any overlapping parts.

"Could we just lay them on top of each other and see if that makes a symbol on the lock?" he wondered, starting to pile the plastic pieces on top of each other.

Kathryn looked at the final product made by lining up all five placards, and there was a match on the door.

"I knew they made the right call when I saw you working your first day on the job," she complimented, without even realizing it, before sticking her head into the newly-unlocked cabinet.

"Aw, you mean it?"

"Wait, what did I say?"

"You didn't even realize it...?" Turner asked, confused. "The transformation, it must be. She actually thinks that, it's not just her trying to be polite."

"There's nothing up here, I don't know why we decided to do this," Abby said, disheartened. "It's getting dark and cold up here too."

"Yeah, it'd be pretty difficult to try and spot her from up her as well," Mandy added. "Oh well, it's not a total loss. It's nice up here, and it was worth it to get to see more of the island."

"Well, I don't suppose you'd want to snowboard down the mountain," Abby offered.

"No, I don't suppose I would," Mandy denied. "Thank you for the offer, though."

The pair made their way down the mountain, dejected that they hadn't seen Sara for the last twelve hours.

"Wonder what she's doing that's requiring all day?" Abby mused.

"It may not have required all day," Mandy pointed out. "She may have come back earlier, we just didn't see it."

"But we can see the boardwalk clearly from here," Abby mentioned. "We would've seen her walking home."

"Not necessarily, we weren't watching it like a hawk, like when we got lunch at the lodge."

"Well, maybe she'll be back when we get to the little community."

"Woo! 18 minutes!" Kathryn cheered.

"Do you wanna try the most difficult one?" Turner asked.

"Well, since we did the 'moderately difficult' ones in less than thirty minutes, I think I'm up for it, if you are," Kathryn proposed.

"My brain hasn't turned into mush quite yet," Turner agreed. "I'm in."

They entered the last room, which was almost entirely absent of light, adding to the ambiance of the scenario they were in with the escape room. Immediately, Turner and Kathryn started spitting out random clues that they found.

"Three diamonds over here on the wall, one turned 90 degrees to the right, one straight up, and one upside down."

"There's a book here with nine paper slips, six of which are blank, and the others say '4', 'J', and 'E2'."

"Ooh, on the wall here, there's a number 1 followed by the morse code for 'J', so I assume that J paper slip comes first in some sort of list. Is there anything on the back of the paper?"

"Uh...it's an XOR logic gate with a red square and a green triangle."

"Oh, I found something else on the table over here, it's a crossword puzzle with four letters highlighted in red."

"You work on that, I'll try and look for something that that can correspond to."

~

"Thirty-six minutes!" Turner announced as they pulled the door open back to the main lobby. "I think that'd be a new record for this place, if it was actually in a populated area."

"That was...very intricate," Kathryn marveled. "My compliments to the puzzle setter. It was so much fun."

"Well, you up for getting food?" Turner asked.

"Sure...ooh, you know that really good seafood place downtown?" Kathryn accepted.

"Oh, yeah, I know what you're talking about, why do you ask?"

"There's one that looked really similar that we passed on the way here, if you're up for it."

"Sounds like a plan!"

They strolled down the street as the sun set behind them, talking as they often did while sharing a lunch break at work. It felt just like old times.

"I can't risk getting in last place in another competition," Emma thought to herself. "I'm already gonna be getting one probably terrible transformation next week, it would really help if I could get some assistance in the challenge that's coming in a few days."

She stepped outdoors, feeling the cool, salty breeze and crisp, evening air put her at ease. She hadn't exactly been the most well-liked person over the last couple of days, mostly due to Becca's vendetta against her. The first night with Turner had ended up being the most dramatic event she had ever bore witness to, and that was really saying something considering she had friends in high school that were drawn to drama like a magnet.

"I remember Charlotte saying that Sara bought something using her BP somewhere around here...where is it..."

"Looking for something?" a voice made her jump. Turning around, she saw that it was Becca.

"Oh, hi Becca," Emma's face fell a little bit, but it wasn't noticeable. "I am, actually, looking for somewhere to spend my BP."

"Why, are you trying to get one over on me again?" Becca accused.

Emma took a deep breath in and out, trying to stop herself from blowing up on the orange-haired girl for her constant allegations against her.

"Actually, no, I'm not," Emma snarkily answered. "I'm doing the opposite, actually. I'm trying to better my chances of doing decent in the competition in a couple of days, so I don't have to do anything with Turner. So maybe instead of assuming that I'm always trying to one-up you at every single juncture, you could give me the benefit of the doubt sometimes."

Emma turned around, correctly believing that Becca didn't have a comeback for that, found the kiosk that Sara had used, and started scrolling through the purchase options.

Becca, for her part, turned around in shame, while she kept hearing thoughts inside her head. "This is why Emma deserves Turner more than you do. She's more willing to get what she wants. More willing to stand up for what she believes in. Look at what you've turned into."

Emma: 2860 BP -> 1610 BP