Chapter Nine Hell Is a Surprise Meeting That Wasn’t on Your Calendar
Chapter Nine
Hell Is a Surprise Meeting That Wasn’t on Your Calendar
Dawn Taylor and Leah usher us to an upstairs parlor in the villa, which apparently the crew calls “the war room.” But this space feels a world away from the one we’ve been living in. Gone are the tropical centerpieces and cream-colored sofas. We must be where the dirty work gets done, away from the cameras, because instead of opulent displays and high-end furniture, there’s a long dining table strewn with half-full cups of coffee and schedules with scribbled notes in the margins, with mismatched chairs clustered around it. At the back of the room, a wall of monitors display footage of what’s going on around the island, in real time and scenes from the last couple of days.
This room isn’t meant for contestants, and I have a feeling that under typical circumstances, we would never have been allowed in here. Even though I’m out of the show, I can’t resist trying to take advantage of the moment. I quickly scan the timelines and notes scattered on the table, channeling my teacher skills to read upside down and decipher the scrawled writing. Most of it is pretty mundane—contact sheets, catering schedules, headshots of the contestants—but I spot one piece of paper with each couple listed below their producer’s name. And next to some of the names of the couples are initials. It takes me a second before I realize that the production crew is making bets. By the looks of it, almost half the crew is gambling on Daniel and Selena winning. No one is betting on me and Chase.
Well, I guess they weren’t wrong, given where we are now. I don’t have to look to know that Chase is giving me sad, puppy-dog looks.
Peter Dixon is seated at the head of the table, lounging in a very expensive-looking armchair. He doesn’t look up for a moment, clearly absorbed in whatever’s on his tablet. But when Dawn Taylor taps her nails on the table, he glances up and breaks into a broad smile. He sweeps the papers I’d been reading out of sight. Damn.
“Here we are, Pete. What do you want?” Dawn Taylor gives him an icy stare like she wants to either exile or murder him. Instead of taking a chair, she perches on a nearby filing cabinet, giving her the height advantage.
Peter Dixon chuckles. “Just give it a minute, DT.”
I stay standing, arms folded, and Daniel falls in beside me. Chase sinks down onto a cardboard box, which sags under his weight. Selena finds a chic white stool and hops up onto it.
Minutes later, Seth storms into the room. Unlike Leah, whose outfits scream harried corporate mother of two, Seth is dressed in an odd mix of high-end and low-key. He’s sporting an oversized tie-dyed tee and Valentino jeans, paired with garishly colorful sandals, as if he got dressed inside a secondhand store in the dark. He doesn’t look happy to be pulled into this meeting on short notice. Bryan is right behind him, looking far more serious than the last time we saw him.
“What did you do to my couple?” Seth demands, rushing up to Leah.
Leah rolls her eyes. “Cool it, Seth. How do I know that all of this isn’t your fault? I saw you lurking around earlier.”
“Hold up,” Peter Dixon interrupts. Leah and Seth, listen up. “Let’s take the temperature down, guys. We have a really interesting opportunity here.”
“And what makes you say that?” Dawn Taylor asks sweetly. She’s smiling now, in a way that sends a chill down my spine.
“You have two couples here about to leave Dawn Tay’s Inferno ,” Peter Dixon says, nodding at the four of us. “And the production assistants just let me know that both Naiah and Sage failed their Lust Challenge.”
“Who?” I ask before I can stop myself. I tried to memorize everyone’s faces and names yesterday, but some of them just didn’t stick.
“They’re the ones with the flower crowns. We met them last night while we were doing body shots,” Chase says. Then he furrows his brow. “Oh, no, that was me and Selena.”
“Yes, lovely people,” Peter Dixon says. “And very insightful about auras. But not terribly committed to each other.”
“So what?” Dawn Taylor asks. “We send all three couples home. It’s perfect, actually. A scandal like this will be good for the show.”
“DT, you know I value your instincts, and normally, you’d be right.” Peter Dixon steeples his hands. “But I just got word from the FlixCast folks. Our Nielsen ratings for the season premiere were, in a word, record-breaking. The execs are expecting nine more episodes. What happens if we cut three couples at once?”
“The math doesn’t add up,” I say. “The challenges are designed for a specific number of players, and the filming schedule requires an elimination for each circle of hell. If you get rid of us, you’ll have to rework the challenges, and you’ll be forced to fill time, instead of giving the viewers what they want.”
“I’ll also flag that if Selena and Daniel get eliminated now, we’ll lose the Latino audience and a good chunk of the Asian audience,” Bryan chimes in.
Great, so glad that’s their reasoning. I catch Daniel grimacing at this. Selena also looks a little put off by what Bryan just said.
“So the math teacher can do math,” Dawn Taylor says, her tone still ice-cold. “But the rules are the rules. This is a show for couples, and we’re down three couples. That’s reality TV, Peter.”
“Ah, but you forget. We make the rules,” Bryan says. “We just need the contestants to be coupled up.”
“What,” Dawn Taylor scoffs. “Are these two,” she indicates me and Daniel, “going to get back together with their backstabbing, cheating partners who couldn’t resist getting nasty next to a rack of Smirnoff Ice?”
“Hey now,” Daniel cuts in. “I don’t think we’ll be getting back together, but I’d appreciate it if you didn’t talk about Selena that way.”
“And who says chivalry is dead?” Dawn Taylor says, throwing up her arms.
Bryan references his tablet. “Leah, you noted that Alice and Daniel have chemistry.”
I shoot a baffled look at Leah, who is carefully avoiding my gaze. I knew it. She was up to something. “That’s correct,” she says. “They met in high school. They have enough history to fill a textbook.”
“And of course, Chase and Selena seem to have some chemistry too,” Peter Dixon says.
“Yeah, they were fucking.” Dawn Taylor narrows her eyes at him. I can almost see the lightning crackle between them. “Are you proposing that we swap the couples? And keep them in?”
“Got it in one.” Peter Dixon snaps his fingers. He points at me and Daniel. “Ever wanted to be in a showmance?”
“What? No,” Daniel says, while at the same time, I say vehemently, “Absolutely not.”
“But Selena and Chase gave in to lust. They failed the test as couples,” Dawn Taylor says.
“I respect the hell out of you, DT,” Peter says. “But I’m going to have to disagree with you here. These contestants passed the test with their stylist. What happened with Chase and Selena? That was the beginning of a beautiful new romance.”
“But—”
Peter Dixon leans forward on his elbows, making eye contact with Dawn Taylor. “This is what we need to do to make this show a success. Don’t you want your show to be a success?”
Dawn Taylor casts a look of venomous resentment at Chase and Selena.
“Fine,” Dawn Taylor says finally. “But you’re forgetting something. The couples themselves have to agree to it.”
“I’m in,” Selena says right away, and leaps down from her stool to join Chase. She directs an apologetic look my way. “I’m sorry, Alice, but I need this show.”
I nod. I’m pissed, but I can’t exactly blame her when Chase was the one who betrayed me.
“Let me get this straight,” Daniel says. “The only way for me and Alice to stay in the game is to compete as a couple?”
“That’s the idea,” Peter Dixon says.
“We’d have to really sell it,” Leah says. She’s already jotting notes in that notebook of hers. “We could say that a spark reignited between you and Alice when the two of you met again for the first time in years. Fate brought you together on the show.”
What’s being proposed is starting to sink in. The producers are all looking at me like it’s the most obvious solution in the world, but I can’t do this. I can’t fake a relationship with my old rival. I know when I’ve lost, and the only thing for me to do now is make a graceful exit. I’m going to pack my bags and go home, newly single and with nothing to show for it.
I glance at Daniel, and our eyes meet. God, I hate losing.
I find myself saying, “I need to make a phone call.”
“Not allowed,” Dawn Taylor says immediately.
Peter Dixon says, “Hey now. Didn’t you read the contestant files? The kid’s mom is having a hard time. You probably wanna call her, right?”
I nod.
Peter Dixon gives me a sympathetic look and offers me his phone. “Go ahead. Take your time.”
I know my mom’s number by heart—it’s the only one I’ve ever bothered to memorize. I punch it in and retreat to the back of the room.
“Hello?” My mother’s voice hits me like a sip of hot cocoa on a cold night.
“Ma,” I breathe, slipping into Chinese for a moment. “How are you?”
“Alice! Do you know what time it is? You should be focused on resting!”
Right. I just called my mom at one in the morning her time. If I were really at my fictional teachers’ conference, I’d be asleep. Oops.
“The conference hasn’t been going so great, Mom,” I say. My voice catches in a sob. I want desperately to give her a kernel of the truth. “I’m not sure whether or not I should stay.”
“Aiyah. Don’t give up. I raised you to be stronger than that,” she scolds, but her tone is soft and full of kindness. It’s her version of a rousing pep talk.
“Are you doing okay without me?” I ask, biting my thumbnail.
“Yes. I’m doing great. Auntie Yee has been taking me to mahjong every day. I tell her, it’s too much! But she needs a friend, you know, so I go with her.”
Of course, in my mom’s mind, she’s the one doing Auntie Yee a favor, not the other way around.
“Have you been eating enough?” I ask.
“Tsk, I always eat enough. You need to go to sleep. Gargle with salt water if you’re not feeling well, okay? I’ll talk to you when you get back. I love you,” my mom says. She hangs up before I can say anything else, and I’m left clutching the phone in my hand and blinking back tears.
Memories flash through my mind—my mom’s face, lined and careworn. The post-op surgery room with all those monitors hooked up to her. The thick gray haze of smoke covering her apartment. The bookmarked cookbooks I have stacked next to the rice cooker. The three-hundred-dollar olive oil.
I went on this show, something I never would have ever done in a million years, for my mom. She’s the one who was always there to wipe away my tears and hold me after a nightmare. Who worked overtime so I could buy a name-brand pair of UGGs when everyone else at school had them. Who told me over and over again that it wasn’t my fault that my father left us, that my only job was to study hard and be happy.
Selena isn’t the only one who needs this show. People—usually rich people—always say that money can’t buy happiness, and money isn’t everything. But when you’ve been swimming against the tide for as long as I have, just trying to stay afloat in an ocean of student debt and medical bills and rent and utilities, it sure feels like everything. And I want better for my mom. Hell, I want better for me.
I’m not ready to give up. I’m all in, no matter what it takes. I’ll be damned if my cheating ex-boyfriend is going to crush my dreams of a better future.
“You’re seriously asking us to fake a relationship,” Daniel is saying to Leah when I rejoin everyone. “That’s ridiculous. Right, Alice?”
Of course he would think it’s ridiculous. It is ridiculous. The two of us are more likely to kill each other than to kiss. But I can’t do this without him.
“I’ll do it,” I say, handing the phone back to Peter Dixon. I turn to Daniel, focus all my attention on him. “I want to keep competing.”
“But why—” He shakes his head. “I’m lost, Slayer.”
“I want to win. I can’t stand doing things halfway.” I’m not about to tell him my tragic backstory, but I don’t need to. He already knows that I never give up without a fight. And I know that he can’t resist rising to a challenge, especially when it comes from me. I am his greatest rival, after all. I shift my weight, fold my arms, and plaster on my best shit-eating grin. “So are we going to do this or what? Unless you think you can’t handle me.”
“Dream on, Slayer.” Daniel laughs. “I can handle you.”
“So you’re in,” I say. I meet his gaze, and for one electric moment, it’s just the two of us here in this room. He takes a deep breath and nods.
“I’m in,” Daniel confirms.
I stick out my hand, and when he shakes it, elation floods through me. I’m back in the game. “You’d better keep up with me.”
“You know I always have,” Daniel says, cocking an eyebrow.
“Secret alliance is back, baby!” Chase shouts, pumping his fist in the air.
Selena gently takes his arm and lowers it. “Too soon. Read the room.”
Seeing the two of them together, I wonder if Selena and Chase might actually, in the long run, be a good match. But what Chase did still hurts, and just thinking about it makes my stomach turn. Three years down the drain. Maybe it was time for our relationship to end, but what stupid way for it to happen.
The sound of applause jolts me out of my thoughts. Dawn Taylor is slow-clapping. “Well, isn’t this adorable? I suppose I should thank the four of you for spicing this show up.”
“Always happy to help,” Daniel says dryly, but Dawn Taylor just nods as though he really means it.
“Seems to me like you’ve got the drama you wanted,” Peter Dixon says. “Will you do the honors?”
“Of course,” Dawn Taylor says. She brushes a perfectly curled tendril of hair behind her ear. “I’ll give Naiah and Sage their send-off.”
She stalks out of the room, her heels clicking on the tile. She pauses at the doorway. “Congratulations, all of you. Welcome back to hell.”
STORY NOTES FOR EDITORS: “DAWN TAY’S INFERNO: LOVE IS HELL,” SEASON 1, EPISODE 2: LUST (CONT.)
DAWN TAYLOR: …I’m afraid that today, the couple that fell victim to Lust was Naiah and Sage.
[Footage: Naiah flirts with stylist Matteo, making out with him in the dressing room.]
[Footage: Sage is found with stylist Emma, his pants down, starting to get hot and heavy before the footage blurs out.]
[Dawn Taylor wearing a sexy devil costume standing in front of all the contestants gathered on the beach.]
DAWN TAYLOR: Naiah and Sage, say your goodbyes. Your journey through hell ends here.
[Naiah, crying, runs off screen without speaking. Three vape pens and a blueberry-flavored condom packet fall out of Sage’s pockets as he chases after her.]
DAWN TAYLOR: Naiah and Sage weren’t the only couple put to the test.
[Footage: Daniel opens the door to find Chase and Selena together.]
DANIEL CHO: What the hell, guys? We were in a secret alliance.
SELENA RIVERA: I’m sorry, Danny.
CHASE DE LANCEY: It was like seven minutes in heaven.
[B-roll footage: Chase and Selena looking deep into each other’s eyes, absorbed in conversation on the couch. Trevor and Mikayla egging Chase on as he does a body shot off Selena’s stomach.]
[Pull-back shot of Dawn Taylor addressing the contestants inside Villa Paradiso.]
DAWN TAYLOR: Today, two couples broke up, and two new couples came together. A hot and heavy passion has burst into flame between Chase and Selena—
[Surveillance footage: Two figures moving together in the dark storage shed. Audio of moaning and heavy breathing amplified 4x.]
DAWN TAYLOR: —and a spark has reignited between Alice and Daniel, who reconnected on this island after eight years apart.
[Footage: Extreme close-up of Alice and Daniel in the hot tub together.]
DAWN TAYLOR: Welcome to Dawn Tay’s Inferno , baby. You never know what might happen in the fires of hell. On this island, your love will test you, push you, and even change you.
[Gasps from the crowd, close-up shots of dropped jaws.]
DAWN TAYLOR: These new lovers made their case to me, and I’ve decided to give them a chance to prove their love to the world—and to each other.
[Interview footage: Ava and Noah (Co-CEOs)]
AVA DAWSON: To be perfectly frank, this is unfair. They failed to stay together as a couple. They should be out.
[Interview footage: Brittany and Jaxon (DTFarm)]
brITTANY LEGARE: Oh, I’m not worried. I mean, these new couples just got together.
JAXON HILL: Yeah, we’ve been together for seven years. They won’t be able to keep up with us. So let ’em stay. They won’t last long.
[Footage: Brittany and Jaxon kiss and high-five each other over their heads without looking.]
[Interview footage: Selena and Chase (Naughty Hotties)]
SELENA RIVERA: I hate how things went down, but I talked to Daniel. We’re all good. And I’m so excited to embark on this adventure with Chase.
CHASE DE LANCEY: Babe, I feel like a million bucks when I’m with you.
[Interview footage: Alice and Daniel (The Asians)]
DANIEL CHO: This isn’t exactly what we expected, but life has a weird way of working out. I’ve always admired Alice, ever since high school. And the tension between us when we reconnected on the beach—well, you’ve seen it. It feels like fate, getting this second chance at a romance together.
ALICE CHEN: Yeah. A hundred percent.
DANIEL CHO: Sure, everything that went down today was a little crazy, but I’m choosing to see it as a blessing in disguise. Dawn Tay’s Inferno brought us together, and I’m not going to take that for granted.
ALICE CHEN: Yep. Daniel and I are a couple now. We’re together. Romantically. And physically.