We, again, had the option to chose both a weapon and armor. I was sent into the waiting room and was shocked to find that nobody else was waiting there. I expected them to arrive later, because maybe they were just taking longer to get ready, but the red light started flashing and a message appeared on the door. You'll have to find your team. Watch out for the gremlins. It hit me that I wouldn't immediately have my team's assistance, also that I'd most likely have non human obstacles. I had only one life, and the people in charge seemed to want to take it from me as soon as possible.

I spawned somewhere in a forest. It smelled of pine and the floor beneath me crunched as I walked. I tried talking into my headset, I got no reply. They must've cut us off from them completely unless we got near to each other. After a good minute passed just walking forwards I heard the edge of the map's boundary behind me close in. A smaller space would help me find my team, but it also helped other teams find me.

I tensed as I heard someone else walking not far from me. Not a second later a large brown ball of spike jumped at me. I fell over and it scratched at my side. Taking a significant amount of damage in the process I grabbed for my weapon and hit what I assumed was the gremlin with the side of it. It paused and I scrambled to my feet and started shooting at it. It was good at dodging my shots but not good enough. It faded just as human players did and I hurried away, talking quietly in my head piece in case I did near one of my teammates.

"Grace?" I heard someone ask. It sounded innocent enough until I recognized the person speaking to me was Jasper. I stopped walking and looked around. He could have been anywhere nearby and I hadn't wanted to risk him hearing my steps. "We can team, you know. I'm sorry about how I treated you guys." I hadn't known whether or not to trust him, and I didn't want to risk anything. Nikki said he'd been quiet, better than usual, but someone doesn't change completely in one night. I wasn't able to gauge what direction he was coming from so I started to slowly sneak in the opposite direction I had been going in earlier.

"I hear you, Grace. Just trust me," he said through the headpiece. He started to sound slightly irritated and I knew he was lying. I stopped walking and stood by a tree, I was now starting to hear other voices in the background but Jaspers was by far the loudest. Next thing I knew I was pushed to the ground from behind, I struggled to be upright again but wished I couldn't see what I had saw. Jasper ripped my weapon away from me and threw it to the ground too far to reach for. He straddled me in a way that wouldn't allow me to move and a rush of panic surged through me as he lined his aim where he'd wanted. Never in this competition had I seen someone use physical force like this to help themselves win, and I thought it was cruel and practically cheating.

I screamed in unbearable pain that was worse than respawning, I couldn't stop the long line of curse words aimed at him from leaving my mouth. I kicked and continued to scream, but eventually all I could do was try to stop his bullets from reaching my head. I had barely noticed the pain stop.

When it occurred to me that new pain hadn't replaced the old and faded, I wondered if I'd lost already, I looked up to see Jasper scurrying away and Duncan shooting at him. When Jasper was a ways away Duncan helped me up and I had to lean on him for support. My vision was blurry and I became too dizzy to stand straight.

"Get that," he instructed, he pointed at something but I couldn't make out what it was. After a few more minutes of his patient urging me forwards, I could finally make out what he'd pointed at. A health orb. I'd only seen one before, when Parker had to use it. He had told me it felt so much better than the regeneration one one, and I was able to experience it when I grabbed one and felt the warmth vibrate throughout my body. It wasn't as effective as regeneration was but I had gained health nonetheless.

"What about you?" I frowned when I saw his number wasn't perfect either. Everything I'd felt earlier was gone. The pain, blurry vision, dizziness. It was all gone.

"I'm fine, the gremlin did the damage, not that wildcard," he spat and I saw that he was no longer calling Jasper by his name. "I heard him talking to you, did you trust him?" he asked. He was no longer disgusted but rather vengeful.

"No, I stopped so he couldn't hear my steps anymore. I guess it was too late, and I was distracted listening to the voices to see if any of you were nearby," I explained. He was about to reply but stopped and listened to something. "Is he back?" I asked fearfully.

"No, it's Amberline and Victoria. They're in hearing distance but not close to us," he explained. I listened intently and was able to make out their voices but was careful to keep watch for a returning enemy. It took a while for Duncan and Victoria to find a way to us without notifying everyone else who might be listening to where we were.

"We heard you scream, what happened?" Asked Victoria as they approached. "It sounded bad..." Amberline was beside her they both had lost a sufficient amount of life, no doubt a victim of the gremlins. They were too good to have so much damage caused by a person.

"That wildcard is what happened. He disarmed her and had her so she couldn't move. The coward couldn't handle his target fighting back," Duncan explained angrily. Even though, personally, I hated what Jasper had done I could see the strategy behind it. I wasn't about to go replicate the situation, but if Duncan hadn't been nearby everybody would have heard the words, "Grace has fallen," spoken for the world to hear.

"Did you kill him? I usually ignore the names, but I would've thought I'd remember Jasper's name being announced," said Amberline.

"No, he got away," I informed her, able to remember him running.

"He's almost gone though, so he should be easy if he tries to attack. Unless he got ahold of an orb. Grace got a health orb," Duncan added. We didn't spend much longer talking and staked out a bunch of alone people. Hearing name after name announced. Jasper had fallen, but not by our account.

We were all relieved when the last member of D3 was announced to have fallen and we all tensed in hearing Dean, and then Parker, announced. Only one person has to survive to the end, so I hoped Parker wouldn't swing into one of his moods. We won without much of a problem. Really, our only competition was D3.

When we were out of the game we all went to the leaderboard as usual and dispersed. I approached Duncan, who'd been sitting alone on the bench in waiting for the rest of us to be ready to leave. "Thanks for helping me earlier," I told him as I sat down with him. He turned towards me to show he was engaged with the conversation I'd initiated.

"Was I supposed to let you be eliminated?" he asked jokingly. He smiled at me, then his smile faltered and he soon looked troubled.

"What's wrong?" I asked cautiously. I had overstepped the lines before with Parker and tried watching the situation. The last thing I needed was for Duncan, my favorite person in the game so far, to dislike my pestering.

Little did I know, we were actually switching positions today. "I just- don't take this the wrong way, I just want to know what's wrong," he said in a rush. He looked around for a few seconds, then he seemingly decided on a course of action. He looked directly at me and I felt the pressure put upon me when our gazes locked, and he reached a point of no return.

"I don't think I understand what you want to know..." I told him honestly. I couldn't think of anything that would create interest or concern that he didn't already know about.

"I can't find a way to word it without sounding cocky," he told me reluctantly. He thought for a moment, or rather two or three of them, and said, "Is there something holding you back?"

I played dumb. "From?" I asked, trying to find something else to change the topic. Nothing particularly out of the ordinary was going on and I almost decided to make a scene. Victoria and Amberline chatted in a corner by the leaderboard, they laughed happily and I wished I could go talk to them instead.

"Holding back from... you're going to make me sound like an egotistical jerk," he said and chuckled uncomfortably. His gaze was no longer fixed on me but instead on the ground in front of us.

"From liking you?" I finished his sentence. I couldn't deny, I did like him. Admitting so out loud would be so much harder than in my head. "Maybe I am holding back, but for good reason."

"Can you tell me trust me enough to tell me your reason?" he asked after I admitted there might be something there. He fumbled with his fingers and I knew this was almost as uncomfortable for him as it was me. There was too much being put on me, I decided. Needing to win, needing to be open, needing to discover the ins and outs of my teammates. Though most of those were personal choices, I couldn't hold up much longer.

He rested his hand on my own and I jerked away. It was a move so innocent, it was something a child could do. It reminded me that this was Duncan, my friend. I could trust him. I felt tears threatening to spill at any second and I almost told him about everything. I was going to tell him about The Monsters but couldn't, something snapped inside of me. Why was he trying to get information out of me? There was obviously something he'd failed to tell me, even if others knew.

"What about you?" I asked. "Something's up with you too. I'd be willing to bet it's the information you referred to when you were talking about the wildcards. It's why you refuse to read. It's your slowness and how you seem to understand what Parker's going through with Jasper. I also think how you sneak out has something to do with it too."

He flinched slightly, a look of hurt showed on his face and I suddenly regretted my words. "You're right. Something is wrong, but leaving doesn't have anything to do with it. Yes, I leave at night but that's because I found a group of people who have the same theories I do. You guys never take me seriously when I talk about them."

He paused to see if I had anything else to say. I didn't, and he continued talking. "I'm slow because I'm dyslexic. I don't read the letters because I'm not good at reading like the rest of you are. I understand Parker's situation because I was in it myself. There. You know my side of the story, would you feel better opening up now?" He looked at me pleadingly and I couldn't help but feel obligated to talk.

I, however, wouldn't allow myself to share my worst memories because I felt bad for him. "I'm sorry, I can't tell you." I got up and started to walk away. He hadn't followed and I instantly felt worse. I couldn't risk him being like The Monsters, I couldn't risk anybody for that matter.

A/N Aw man, Duncan's secret is out. I've planned this moment for a very, very long time now. I don't know much about dyslexia, I've done some research on it, but if something's really wrong about how I made Duncan it would help me. Anyway, see the rest of this play out in the next part.