63
The make-up lady seems extra brusque tonight as she applies my cosmetics and brushes my hair into an elaborate style, but I don’t say anything.
All of us are a little more subdued this evening, despite the prospect of the ball.
Valérie may have constantly whined like an out-of-tune motor, and she may have been the messiest, albeit most short-lived, roommate I’ve ever had.
But all of us had kind of grown used to having her around; I’d even stopped fantasising about throttling her quite as often as I had when I’d first met her.
“She would have loved this,” Thorun murmurs, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye as she surveys the row upon row of ‘Gone With The Wind’ type ball gowns that have been wheeled into our suite for us to choose from.
“It’s just the shock of the thing,” Sona shrugs, “no one else has died on a date. Everyone else has come back happy. Well, except Cat, when the bachelor brutally savaged her.”
“Call me that again and I’ll stab you, Sona,” I flash her an angry glance while at the same time acknowledging that she’s right.
No one had expected our roommate to die last night, least of all me, knowing that the bachelor doesn’t kill women.
But accidents happen; they happen in the real world, and they happen here.
It’s a salient reminder to not form bonds and to expect the unexpected, always.
“Valérie’s gone, and that’s the end of it,” I snap. “It doesn’t matter how or when. Now we’re down to three in our room again and eleven contestants in total — that’s all that we need to focus on.”
“I don’t believe you really mean that, Cat,” Thorun says quietly as she turns from the mirror to look at me.
“The reality of the situation is that we’re in a game to the death, Thorun,” I sigh as I push the make-up woman away and rise, “and in case you haven’t noticed, every single one of us, bar one, is going to die here.
What kills us: shark, gun, knife, rope, poison.
It doesn’t matter. We’re all doomed. All but one of us. ”
“I know, but..”
“There are no buts.” I shake my head and suck in my breath as the costume lady laces me into the corset of the black and red gown I’d chosen.
“Don’t you see how it is yet? Once contestants are eliminated nobody talks about them any longer.
They’re just gone. If you sit around and cry, you’ll be next.
You have to just keep going and keep your eye on the prize. ”
“She was my friend,” Thorun says quietly, turning back to the mirror.
“I don’t know how many times I have to tell you this,” I snap, “there are no friends in this game.”