Chapter 7: Dead by Drama - Total Loud Action

"Last time on Total Drama Action..." The recap began with a magician's hat on one of the tables in the Crafts Services Tent with Chris popping his head out of it. "Our contestants were taking on a fantastical journey of incredibly nerdy proportions as we took to the field to fly some not-so-magic brooms while everyone wore glasses that made them look like they just came out of comic con. Tyler proved he can score a goal and get hurt all at the same time, and while Jasmine could have easily won it all for the Gaffers herself, she was unable to resist the majestic charms of Justin. After that we took to the mountains to rid the world of a golden spatula because two of those bad boys is way too much power for even yours truly to possess. Duncan angered the Volcano spirits, aka Chef, Izzy beat up her own teammate, and Gwen literally won it for the other team leading to her untimely departure falling from 2nd place to 2nd last place. 18 contestants remaining and after this totally terrifying episode we may see another one get slashed into bloody chunks. So make sure your group is together and your flashlights are fully charged and get ready for another episode of Total. Drama. Action!"

It was a mostly quiet day in the Film Lot, so far Chris hasn't shown up to ruin everybody's fun and this allowed the contestants to all hang out and just have some fun together. Justin, Duncan, Geoff, and Tyler were all kicking around a soccer ball, off to the side Lily and Edward were both relaxing inside of a kiddie pool, Dawn was hanging upside down on the tree to relax while Jasmine decided to hang out under the tree and lift some weights, Bridgette and Lindsay were laying down on some lawn chairs to catch some rays, and Lincoln, Mike, Harold, Trent, Leshawna, Ronnie Anne, Izzy, and Owen were all at a picnic table together playing a game of poker. Surprisingly Trent brought a poker set along with him for everyone to play during down time and it was certainly welcomed. Meanwhile Heather was inside the trailer taking a shower and DJ was nowhere to be seen.

"Hmmmmmm…" Lincoln looked at his own hand consisting of the queen of hearts and the jack of clubs before looking over the river which so far had a ten of diamonds, a nine of diamonds, a queen of spades, and a four of spades. He already had a pair and if a king showed up he got a straight, but the odds certainly weren't going in his favor. But those chips in the middle were definitely tempting. "…Check,"

"Check," Owen lightly hit his fist on the table.

"Check," Mike went next.

"Check," Then Harold.

"…Hmmmm…" Trent thought about it a little bit as he look at his cards before taking 6 black chips in hand and throwing them in the middle. "I raise 6,000."

"Dang fool, you a heavy spender," Leshawna was caught off guard by that move and briefly looked at her hand before throwing the cards down. "Nope, I fold."

"I'd be crazy not to fold as well!" Izzy giggled before folding herself. "But I guess I would be regardless, haha!"

"Yeah, that's a little much for me," Lincoln wasn't gonna risk it and lose big, he folded too.

"Tempting but I'll fold," Owen shook his head before discarding his cards as well.

"Too rich for my blood," Harold shook his head before opting out.

"Uuuuugh…" Mike groaned a bit before looking at Trent. Just like for the whole game, he had that calm and relaxed expression on his face that made it completely impossible to tell what was going on in the guy's head. It was almost infuriating but Mike had to respect that. "…Nope, I'm out too,"

"Well Ronnie Anne that only leaves you," Trent said as he looked towards the Hispanic teenager who had yet to fold as she was staring intensely at her cards. "You in or out?"

"Hmmmm…" Ronnie Anne hummed as she really thought about her next move. She had three fours in her hand, solid three of a kind. But if another repeat card showed up she would have either a full house or maybe a four of a kind if she was lucky enough. But it would be enough to beat what Trent has. The bet was big and she had no idea if he was bluffing her or not, that expression pissed her off that she couldn't read it at all. But she refused to let this guy get to her. "…Call,"

"Ooooo," Everyone at the table let out as Ronnie Anne threw in 6 black ships herself.

"She's going in folks!" Izzy bumped up her fist in excitement over watching this.

Harold then revealed the last card of the river, an Ace of diamonds. Ronnie Anne tried not to break her poker face as she cursed internally. So three of a kind with three fours was what she had, not the worst but definitely could be better. Trent looked down at his cards for a second, not breaking his own poker face even for a second…but pushing all his chips in the middle. "All in," Trent stated simply as everyone's eyes widened.

"Oh snap!" Leshawna yelled out loudly as he put her hand to her hand. "That white boy's going all the way!"

"Grrrrr…" Ronnie Anne started sweating as she tapped her fingers on the table anxiously. "…You're bluffing. You gotta be, you gotta be bluffing."

"Maybe," Trent simply shrugged, making Ronnie Anne irritated a little bit. "But it's your call."

"…." Ronnie Anne looked at her cards again, considering her moves. If she goes all in and he proves to be bluffing she knocks him out. But if he wasn't…she couldn't take the risk. "…Fold…"

"Probably smart move, I mean, who's to say I was bluffing or not," Trent smirked a bit as he revealed his cards…two threes, one of hearts and the other of diamonds "But yeah, I totally was~"

"Dammit!" Ronnie Anne shouted out in irritation as Trent took the pot while Izzy took everyone's cards and began expertly shuffling them.

"Dang Trent, how do you do it?" Mike asked as Izzy began dealing everyone again. "You got like the perfect poker face."

"It's all about keeping a cool head man," Trent shrugged as he explained the art of the poker face to his friend. "Don't think too much and just go with the flow, try not to over stress about things and you're golden,"

"Heh, I wish I couldn't stress about things," Mike chuckled a bit before giving his friend a worried look. "Not gonna lie I thought you'd be down in the dumps after…ya know…"

"After Gwen got the boot?" Trent finished for Mike, a brief frown coming to Trent's face. Yeah he wouldn't lie, Gwen leaving sucked and he already missed her but he wasn't gonna let it weigh him down. "Yeah it kinda blows that she's gone but hey that's just how the game is played,"

CONFESSIONAL – Trent

"Gwen wouldn't like me to just sit around and mope while she's gone, she'd want me to keep going and fight till the end and hey that's just what I plan on doing," Trent said with a determined look as he pointed a thumb to himself. "With her cheering me on back home hey, how could I possibly lose? I'll win this thing for the both of us,"

CONFESSIONAL – Ronnie Anne

"Ugh, well this is just great," Ronnie Anne grumbled at seeing Trent taking Gwen losing so well. She thought with her gone he'd shut down like Lame-O did when the hippy girl got kicked off last season, but Trent was doing just fine! "I was hoping Gwen leaving would throw off Trent's game and throw Lincoln's team dynamic off. I gotta think of another way to weaken them…"

"Hey guys, I'm back," DJ smiled as he stepped up to the trailers carrying a box. A box that happened to be filled to the brim with a variety of sandwiches. "And I got more sandwiches for lunch!"

Upon hearing that everyone immediately perked up and looked towards DJ with excited expressions on their faces. "Oh! Me first! Me first!" Lindsay proved to be quicker than everyone as she rocketed out of her lawn chair and raced towards DJ and grabbed a couple of sandwiches and took a big bite out of one. "Oh my gosh…soooo good! You're the best DJ!"

DJ smiled and blushed a bit in response as Lindsay handed the other sandwich she got to her boyfriend. "Oh yeah, come to papa!" Tyler grinned before stuffing the sandwich in his mouth and crying tears of joy. "Wow…it's like there's a party in my mouth and everyone's invited!"

And soon everyone was lining up to get the sandwiches DJ 'sneaked' from the Craft Services tent. In contrast to everything involving non-reward food over the course of the show, everyone was more than eager to get more to eat from the food Chef made today. No one could explain it but over the last few days Chef's food has started getting better, and now it was becoming more than better! It was delicious! DJ watched as everyone helped themselves to multiple sandwiches and all eager to get another bite. "Oh I don't know how to describe it," Jasmine said with her mouth full and eyes sparkling. "This is the best bloody food I've ever had in me life!"

And at that DJ couldn't help but give a wide proud grin.

CONFESSIONAL – DJ

"I still feel bad about being in this alliance with Chef, but I actually enjoy working in the kitchen with him! It's nice getting to cook food, learned everything from Momma after all!" DJ stated with a fond smile, he's been learning from his momma ever since he was a kid. She wanted to make sure he grew up with all the skills to lead a bright happy life. "And seeing everyone happy with the food just makes me happy, I like cooking for other people and knowing they love it does the soul good!"

"Dude you rock!" Duncan complimented the brickhouse as he stuffed a sandwich into his mouth. "Who knew Chef could make something edible!"

"You can say that again!" Mike grinned as he happily dug into the sandwich he got. "I didn't know he could make food like this!"

"He usually doesn't." Trent grinned before biting into his own sandwich as well. "But hey, why look a gift horse in the mouth?"

"Instead let's introduce it to OUR mouths," Lincoln laughed as he swallowed down the last piece of one of his sandwiches, thankfully DJ also brought him, Dawn, and Bridgette vegetarian safe choices, he really was considerate like that. He then spotted Bridgette finishing up her own sandwich and looked at the other one in his hands and got a fun idea. "Hey Bridgette! Go long!"

Bridgette immediately caught on to what he was doing the surfer girl grinned as she began running. "I'm open! I'm open!" Bridgette yelled out before Lincoln threw the sandwich like it was a football towards Bridgette. Seeing it coming towards her, Bridgette leaped up into the air and managed to catch it in her mouth. "I got it!"

"Whooooo!" Geoff cheered while waving his hat around in the air. "That's my girl!"

"Oh! Do me! Do me!" Izzy called out to Lincoln with an excited grin. Shrugging, Lincoln picked up another sandwich and threw it across the air with Izzy pursuing it on all fours. "Bark! Bark! Bark!"

Watching the whole ordeal while rolling her eyes was Ronnie Anne. She should reprimand her teammates for being so friendly with the competition, but she was putting the advice of Heather and Justin to use and was working on gaining her teammates' trust. Thankfully the one she had in mind right now was easy, turning her head she saw Owen feasting on a whole bunch of sandwiches. "Hey big guy," Ronnie Anne called out. Owen flinched a bit and stopped eating to look at Ronnie Anne, at first he was worried she was gonna yell at him but the big guy was pleasantly surprised to see Ronnie Anne add a couple sandwiches to his pile. "I had my fill earlier, all yours."

"Oh wow!" Owen grinned, giving Ronnie Anne a friendly look. "Thanks!"

"No problem," Ronnie Anne sent him a smile before walking away.

CONFESSIONAL – Ronnie Anne

"Like Heather said, winning over Owen's trust is easy," Ronnie Anne stated with a cocky smirk. "Just give him anything edible and you have him wrapped around your finger~."

CONFESSIONAL – Owen

"You know maybe we all have the wrong idea of Ronnie Anne," Owen, the poor innocent soul, said with a carefree shrug. "Maybe once you get to know her she isn't so bad!"

"Man, hanging with everyone is so much fun!" Lindsay grinned as she happily chowed down on another sandwich. Carbs be damned, she needed this deliciousness in her mouth. "Imagine if we didn't have a challenge today!"

"I would certainly be ok with that," Dawn stated as she ran her fingers through Izzy's hair, petting the psycho hose beast like a dog after she had caught the sandwich that Lincoln threw. Izzy was even letting her tongue hang out like a dog. "Spending time with all you is certainly a delight,"

"Hey Lily," Lincoln spoke up to his sister, making her look up at him. "Do you or Edward know if we got a challenge going on today?"

"Brbrbrb," Edward shook his head.

"Yeah we have no idea," Lily shrugged her shoulders before leaning back into the pool. "I know Chris gave me and Edward the day off today,"

"Eeeee," Lindsay squealed a little as she looked down at Lily. "I still can't get over how cute she is!"

"Well another day I get to work on my tan certainly can't be a bad one," Justin grinned as he removed his shirt, showing off his perfect body to all the ladies around with again all of them, except for Dawn, as well as Owen being completely entranced. "Wouldn't you ladies agree~?"

"Yeeeeah~" The entranced girls and Owen let out in unison.

Dawn meanwhile just rolled her eyes.

CONFESSIONAL – Dawn

"I truly don't see the appeal in just seeing someone for their looks, especially when they're backed up by such a nasty looking aura," Dawn faked gagged a bit before letting out a love-struck sigh. "Now if all the ladies started swooning over Lincoln that I could understand~ …They better not though."

CONFESSIONAL – Geoff

"You know what, I was being completely ridiculous yesterday worrying about Bridgette and Lincoln getting all close to each other," Geoff said with a relaxed smile, all worry seemingly vanishing away from the party boy. "I mean, Lincoln's just a dude she can party with! No big d, and it's not like she swoons over him like she and the other's do for Justin, and hey who could blame them bro is capital H hot. I trust my girl,"

"Hey, what's going on out here?" Emerging from the trailer, freshly showered, was Heather who scowled as she watched everyone stand around doing a whole lot of nothing. "Why are you all just standing around? Hasn't Chris come by and announced the challenge yet?"

"Negative brah," Geoff said as he stuffed a whole sandwich into his mouth, only chewing a few times before swallowing it all down. "We don't think there is one today, meaning we can just hang back and party!"

"Well there better be a challenge today!" Heather stated as she stomped forward, nabbing a few sandwiches for herself as well. Hey total jerk or not she knew these things were completely delicious. "Some of us are actually trying to win the million instead of just lazing around here,"

"What happened to subtlety," Ronnie Anne teased with a grin earning a glare from Heather.

CONFESSIONAL – Lincoln

"I've been making sure to keep an eye on Ronnie Anne after the beach challenge in case she tries any more fast ones and during that time I notice she's gotten particularly close with Heather and Justin." Lincoln stated as he leaned back in his chair with his arms crossed behind his back. "And no one starts getting close to Heather for friendship, especially someone like Ronnie Anne. So she got herself an alliance huh? Should be interesting, I'll just need to keep tabs on them to stay a step ahead."

"Attention all Total Drama victims!" Unfortunately everyone's dreams of another day off were crushed as they heard Chris' voice speak to them through the loudspeakers. "Please meet me at the North East corner of the studio palooza! Bring lozenges, because the screaming's gonna hurt!"

"Well, the idea was nice while it lasted," Jasmine said as everyone sighed with those sitting forcing themselves to stand up. "Let's go see what the bloke has in store for us today,"

As everyone left, they left behind the box that still had quite a few sandwiches left.

"Hehehe~," Lily eagerly giggled as she walked up and took a few. "Score one for the little guys"

"Brbrbr~!" Edward happily jumped in the box to help himself.

After a long walk to the destination Chris gave everyone, everyone was mildly irritated to see Chris was nowhere in sight, though the one who voiced their irritation was Heather as usual. "We walked all the way here and he can't be bothered to show up?" Heather let out as she paced around with crossed arms. Like she stated she was hoping to get the challenges through to get herself closer and closer to winning the million bucks, and Chris not even being here was just massively unprofessional. "Where does he get off on this?"

"Maybe he just racked up too much overtime," Justin suggested with an amused grin as he leaned on a spotlight. "You know, finding new ways to torture us and junk."

"WOOOOOOOOAH!!!" Everyone suddenly heard Chris yell as they looked up to see the host falling and-

SPLAT!!!

Everyone watched in stunned horror as Chris was impaled on one of the spotlights, blood splattering everywhere and getting on everyone. Nearly all the contestants began freaking out, the only ones really keeping their cool being Duncan and Dawn, with Lincoln and DJ turning green before fainting. "OH MY GOSH!!!" Bridgette yelled out as she put her hands to her head.

"THE DUDE'S DEAD!!!" Geoff screamed out as most of the others began panicking.

"Guess the producers got tired of paying overtime," Justin said as he pointed to Chris. He was definitely shaken up but he was holding himself together better than most of the others.

"Oh relax everyone," Dawn reassured the others as she walked up to the 'dead' host and looked down at him with her usual calm expression. "So what's the challenge today?"

Just then Chris revealed he wasn't dead as he raised his head up to deadpan at Dawn. "Why do you always ruin my fun?" Chris asked with Dawn merely shrugging before she went over to help Lincoln.

"Dang it I was just about to call dibs on your boat," Duncan sighed a bit as Dawn managed to get Lincoln back on his feet with Jasmine shaking DJ awake.

"Well it's just the magic of cinema boys and girls. I'm absolutely perfectly Chrisily fine," Chris wasn't gonna let Dawn throw him off his hosting game as he removed the top half of the spotlight off him revealing that no impaling happened at all. "Wanna see how it's done?"

"NO!" Everyone yelled in unison.

"Well if you insist I'll explain," Chris smirked as the contestants groaned before the host began explaining the effects to everyone. "Our cracker jack effects team seals fake blood in a thin plastic membrane called a squib. This baby burst on impact, and an old fashion optical illusion seals the deal in making it look like I've been impaled."

"Can we just get on with it already?" Duncan asked, already annoyed with the host and his antics.

"So I'm gonna assume giving all the blood and other sick and twisted stuff you set up," Chris grinned proudly at Leshawna's words. She really knows how to make a host feel special. "I'm guessing the theme for this challenge is horror movies?"

"Right you are Leshawna," Chris confirmed as he hopped off the spotlight, stretching his back out a bit before he began to explain things to the cast. "Get ready for the spookiest challenge yet guys! Time to bring your scream on!"

And just like that Lincoln and DJ fainted again.

CONFESSIONAL – Ronnie Anne

"Gosh I remember how hard it was when we went on movie dates." Ronnie Anne rolled her eyes and shook her head. So Lincoln was still the same wuss he was when it came to anything slightly gory. "Some things never change,"

"Now horror movies are best known for one thing. Being able to scare the pants off people!" Chris began explaining the challenge everyone would be in store for today. "So for your first challenge the teams will be tasked with scaring each other! Using various props and special effects the team will set up a scare walk for the other teams to go through with their screams measured by a scream-o-meter! Team that gets the most screams wins the challenge!"

"Question," Duncan raised a hand. Don't get him wrong he was absolutely psyched for this, if there was one thing he really loved doing it was freaking people out. Last season certainly proved that. But there was one thing he needed to make sure of based on what happened last season when they had a scary movie challenge. "There's no real escaped psychos this time right?"

"Chef did a look through and we are about 90% sure that we are psycho free," Chris explained to everyone, getting a few to tense up as they didn't quite trust the host's word. "Ya know except for Izzy of course."

"Haha! Ya missed me!" Izzy laughed as she put her hands to her hips proudly.

"Fair enough," Duncan simply shrugged.

"Grips, you won the last challenge," Chris turned his attention towards Ronnie Anne and her team. "You can decide if you want to scare first, or walk first."

"Yeah I think we'll scare first," Ronnie Anne didn't even need to think about it.

"Shouldn't we let them go first?" Lindsay spoke up as she walked up to Ronnie Anne, pitching her own idea. "See if we can do better than them?"

"Sweet little Lindsay," Ronnie Anne shook her head and patted the blond on the head, her voice completely condescending. "If we scare them first, they won't be able to come up with anything better because they're too shaken up, haha!"

"Ooooo, good idea," Heather smirked and nodded in approval.

"But-" Lindsay spoke up only for Justin to put a hand on her shoulder.

"Lindsay, leave the thinking to the smart people ok?" Justin told her as he gave Lindsay a flawless smirk. "You just keep look gorgeous~"

CONFESSIONAL – Lindsay

"…I can be both…" Lindsay whimpered a little bit, hurt by the handsome teen's words and her team completely shutting down her idea.

The Grips were provided with a large store house filled with different sorts of props and costumes one could use for horror movies from costumes of various scary monsters, fog machines, jugs of fake blood, horror movie makeup, and just about everything in between. Ronnie Anne rubbed her hands eagerly, already brainstorming ideas for various scary things to set up. They had about an hour to get ready and get into position in a set that resembled the woods with a U shaped path that the other team would walk through before arriving back at their starting point.

"Oh we got some fun stuff to work with here," Ronnie Anne grinned as she picked up what looked like a noise machine. Pressing a button on it, she and everyone else jumped a bit as the machine produced a loud vicious sounding roar. "Ok here's what I'm thinking, we spread throughout the entire path with multiple scares to try and get as much screams as we can from the other team," Ronnie Anne instructed the team as they all looked her way. "Owen, Geoff, Lindsay, you'll all be near the front. Me and Duncan will stick to the end of the trail to get big last minute scares. Everyone else spread out around the middle."

"Why are we near the front?" Owen asked as gestured to him, Geoff, and Lindsay.

"Because you're our least scariest members," Ronnie Anne told them bluntly. Sure she was trying to be 'nicer' to them to get them on her side, but with this she figured she could be blunt. She needed to play this smart to continue eliminating more members of Lincoln's team. "You can still give them a decent enough spoke though, make them unnerved, then the ones in the middle can get them going, and then me and Duncan go in for the kill."

"…Fair enough," Geoff shrugged with Owen nodding in agreement with Lindsay slumping down a bit.

"Alright, everyone gather up your props and costumes and make it fast. We only got an hour." Ronnie Anne ordered with everyone heading into the warehouse to grab what they needed to give the biggest scare possible. "Come on Duncan, let's look for some stuff for our scare."

"Um, I think I can set up my own scare thank you very much," Duncan stated bluntly as he walked past Ronnie Anne. He saw what she was doing and no way was he gonna fall for it and team up with her for this. He was just fine scaring people all on his own. "I'm grabbing my own stuff."

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" Ronnie Anne narrowed her eyes at Duncan as she grabbed his wrist to keep him from going forward, Duncan sending her an annoyed look. "We need to work together here!"

"Hah? Work together? Yeah I'm sure that's what you have in mind," Duncan forcibly took his wrist back from Ronnie Anne before looking her right in the eye as he harshly poked Ronnie Anne in the shoulder. "Listen, you might've fooled everyone else, but I'm not that dumb. I know your game and it's not gonna work."

"Oh…" Ronnie Anne began narrowing her eyes at Duncan as she swatted his hand away. "Is that so?"

"Yeah princess, you're lucky you got most of the idiots on this team but you can't fool me that easily," Duncan claimed before walking off, giving Ronnie Anne a quick 'I'm watching you' gesture as he went to go get his props. "So watch your back,"

CONFESSIONAL – Ronnie Anne

"…" Ronnie Anne was silent as she simply glared at the camera.

With the Gaffers, they were all together in the woods set up for the challenge, the entrance and exit of the pathway right in front of them. The lighting on the set was set up to make it look like a dreary night, perfect for the horror movie setting that this challenge was all about. "Ok Gaffers, let's get this scare fest on." Chris grinned as he walked up to the Gaffers. Some were calm and confident like Dawn and Jasmine and others were already getting the heeby jeebies like Lincoln and DJ. "The Grips are out of time so it's time to take a walk of the scary variety!"

"W-Who decides who goes first?" DJ asked with his tone already shaking despite not even being scared yet, not counting Chris' stunt of course.

"Yeah we figured that some of you might try and avoid the inevitable as much as possible," Chris sent a disappointed look to the more scaredy cat members of the Gaffers before pulling out a hat that was filled with slips of paper. "So instead the orders gonna be completely random, Lincoln you're gonna pull names out of this hat and whoever you pull will be on their way towards the Grips scare fest."

Chris then snapped his fingers as Chef brought in an electrical board that had two meters on it with one having the Gaffers' logo on it and the other having the Grips' logo on it. "This is the scream-o-meter," Chris explained as he patted the board a few times. "This baby will measure the blood curdling screams that you guys let out while on the path. At the end of the challenge whichever team has their scream meter filled up more will win the first party of the challenge. So Lincoln, come over here and pull out the first victim's name."

Lincoln gulped a bit as he walked up to Chris as the host held out the hand. Looking away as to not cheat the picks, Lincoln felt around a bit before grabbing a piece of paper and reading it out loud. "Mike," Lincoln said, hearing a few sighs of relief from his teammates with the team member in question flinching. "Sorry man,"

"…Crap…" Mike sighed out as his body tensed up. Very reluctantly, Mike walked up to the start of the path and held himself a little. Yeah…he wasn't exactly the biggest fan of scary movies to say the least. "Welp…here I go…wish me luck…"

"Quit stalling bro," Chris said with a teasing tone, getting a glare from Mike before he entered the path.

"Ok…Ok…this isn't so bad." Mike told himself as he anxiously looked around. So far none of the Grips had come out yet to scare him, but Mike couldn't relax due to constantly expecting it. Besides this woods set was already freaking him out enough, he really did feel like he was all alone in the woods at night. "Just…spooky woods…where anyone could pop up at any time to scare me…easy…hehe…"

Rustle. Rustle.

"W-What was that..." Mike tensed up and looked out frantically, trying to spot anything before it could pop out at him. But he failed to find any trace of anyone, causing Mike to gulp. "M-Maybe it's just in my he-"

"ROOOOOOOARR!!" But cutting Mike off was what looked like a sea monster jumped out of a bush, letting out a loud roar before it started running at him.

"AAAAA-" Mike was about to scream out loud from the scare, but that scream soon turned into a gasp as Mike seemed to change again. His hair fell down forming bangs that covered his right eye with bags forming underneath his eyes. Instead of screaming, 'Mike' let out a growl as he reared his fist back and-

BAM!!!

"Ah! Dude!" The sea monster let out as it held its bruised cheek. Taking off the mask, the sea monster was revealed to be Geoff who gave 'Mike' a glare. "Ow! What the heck man?!"

"Try that again, see what happens." 'Mike' told Geoff as he got right in his face. Geoff flinched a bit and backed up from the tanned teen. 'Mike' seemed to be satisfied with his as he began walking away only this time looking completely fearless. "That's what you get for jumping in front of me,"

CONFESSIONAL – Geoff

"Ow…" Geoff winced as he rubbed his swollen cheek, an intern's hand popping up to help cover it with makeup. "Little dude hits harder than ya think…"

"Uuuuuugh…" Suddenly 'Mike' then felt something grab onto his leg. Looking down he saw Lindsay dressed as a zombie crawling out of the bush, letting out groans as she pulled on 'Mike's' leg. "Braaaains…"

"…" 'Mike' was silent as he simply freed himself from the ditzy blond's hand and began walking forward again causing Lindsay to break character and frown.

"And I spent so long on this makeup…" Lindsay looked down with a frown.

As 'Mike' continued to walk forward soon the spot he was at began filling up with fog. Rolling his eyes, 'Mike' stood still allowing whoever it was to get their little scare over with. "Ooga booga booga!" Running out of the fog was Owen…as a bed sheet ghost. The big guy waved his arms around in an attempt to scare 'Mike' to no results. "Ooooooga…boooooga…oooo…oooo…"

"…Really?" All 'Mike' could do was blink in disappointment.

"…I'm not good with scaring people…"

"Clearly," 'Mike' rolled his eyes before continuing forward.

It took a bit more of walking before 'Mike' ran into his next scare. "RAAAAAARRR!!!" Suddenly someone in a yellow bunny costume wielding a knife popped up in front of Mike, trying to get a jump scare out of him. "I'M GONNA SLASH YOU INTO BITS!"

"So, a fan of internet junk huh?" The bunny was taken aback by 'Mike's' words as they once again continued forward. "Gonna have to do better than that."

CONFESSIONAL – Tyler

"Oh what does Mike know?" Tyler, wearing the yellow rabbit costume, defends his choice of costume to wear to spook others. "This is totally scary! Imma stuff you in a suit bro!" Tyler then pointed at himself…only to accidentally poke himself in the eye with a plastic knife. "Ow! Ow! Ow!"

"Ooooo…ooooo…" A ghostly echo filled the woods causing 'Mike' to look around. Suddenly something was lowered right in front of him that, due to the bald head, he could tell was Heather wearing a banshee's ghost costume. Raising her head, Heather revealed the ghostly makeup she was wearing before letting out a loud screech right in Mike's face. "SCREEEEEEEEECH!!!"

"Ow!" 'Mike' growled out as he covered his ears and sent Heather a glare. "Well if you were trying to burst my ear drums you certainly succeeded at that."

"What?!" Heather let out in shock that 'Mike' wasn't scared at all of her set up. "How did you not scream!?"

"Quite frankly, that bald head is the only scary part about you," 'Mike' grinned before laughing and walking away.

"You…get back here!" Heather tried to attack 'Mike' for his insult but the rope around her waist prevented her from doing that.

"Come on seriously?" Justin poked his head from behind a tree, the handsome teen being the one that was helping Heather lower and raise herself up and down through a pull system they set up. "You gotta amp it up! We need those screams!"

"I don't see you doing anything to scare anyone!" Heather yelled back as Justin suspended her again.

"A, you asked for my help with this," Justin pointed out, getting Heather to scoff and roll her eyes. "And B does this face look like it's capable of scaring anyone?"

"Grrrrrrr…" A vicious growl was soon heard along the path making 'Mike' again stop. Emerging from the bushes was a vicious looking bear. 'Mike' again didn't react at all as the bear walked up to him snarling before roaring right in his face. "ROOOOOOOOO-"

But the bear's roar was cut off as 'Mike' closed its muzzle before pulling on its head. The head of the bear soon popped off revealing Izzy in a bear costume…again. "Seriously?" 'Mike' couldn't help but chuckle a bit as he tossed the head back to the psycho hose beast. "Doing this again?"

"Hey, if it ain't broke don't fix it!" Izzy grinned before laughing, not too disappointed by not getting a scream out of 'Mike.' She just enjoyed trying to freak everyone out in a bear suit, she got a taste for it last season. But before he could walk off again, Izzy narrowed her eyes a bit at 'Mike' before grinning a bit. "Oooooh, you're not Mike though are you~?"

"…Maybe I am, maybe I'm not," Chuckling, 'Mike' walked off. Well looks like someone might know more than she lets on. Well he could definitely say his curiosity was piqued now. "Who's to say~"

CONFESSIONAL – Izzy

"Oooo, mysterious," Izzy said excitedly. "I like him!"

Rustle…

"Hmmmmm…" 'Mike' rose a brow as he neared the end of the path. Basically all the bushes around him started rustling, trying to unnerve him and set up something big. He could just walk away and not even give whoever it was, either Ronnie Anne or Duncan, trying to scare him…but it'd be so much more fun to crush their hopes of winning. "Oh my, now whatever could that be?"

Right after saying that 'Mike' watched as multiple large monsters popped up from the bushes. Each one designed to look as frightening as possible, blood staining them, sharp claws and teeth equipped on all of them, and to top it all off each one let out a loud roar from what he could assume was from a noise machine or something. Once the roaring was done 'Mike' smirked before he began slow clapping and chuckling. "Seriously?" The skinny teen asked in amusement. "This is the best you can do?"

Popping out of the bushes and being the one to set this all up was Ronnie Anne who gave Mike a shocked look. "The hell…" The Hispanic teen let out. How did he not get scared? She's been setting up pranks her whole life! Every Halloween she always managed to make a set that scared the bananas out of her friends but this scrawny kid who Ronnie Anne wrote off a wimp who did weird characters just braved it completely without flinching?! "Are all Lame-O's getting backbones now?"

"Obviously not." Deciding to rub a bit of salt into the wound 'Mike' shrugged before smirking at Ronnie Anne. "Considering you can't set up a decent scare."

"…I dare you to say that again you twig," Ronnie Anne growled as she glared right at 'Mike' stomping up to him. "Go ahead, or I'll give you another reason to scream…"

"Fine then, if that's what you want," 'Mike' chuckled as he leaned down to Ronnie Anne to say right to her face. "Lame-O~" Ronnie Anne was completely caught off guard by him using her insult against her that she wasn't able to prevent him from pushing her and knocking her onto her butt before he walked away smugly, whistling a particular tune as he did so.

With Duncan, he was more than ready to unleash his scare that he set up, but as he was about to initiate his scare the delinquent stopped in his tracks as he saw Mike walking up. His hair lowered down to form bangs…while whistling a tune he knew all too well. "I know that whistle!" Duncan yelled out as it all clicked in his head. He knew exactly where he knew Mike from now, and it wasn't good.

CONFESSIONAL – Duncan

"I knew that I knew that dork!" Duncan yelled out as he explained just where he remembered Mike from. "He was in the same Juvie Detention Hall as me! Only then he went by Mal. He was there for only a week, but during his time there he took down all the top dogs! That guy is bad news!"

Duncan saw Mike, or rather Mal, pass by and was tempted to scare him…but he knew this guy wouldn't budge. He would save his scare for the next guy who passed by rather than have Mal spoil what he was doing and give the others an advantage.

"And Mike returns from the scare walk!" Chris announced as Mal emerged from the exit of the path, meeting up with the rest of his team. "And the Grips scream-o-meter is at a solid zero,"

"Wow, good job Mike," Lincoln complimented as he walked up to Mal. "You seriously didn't scream at all? How was it?"

"Heh, it was all cheap stuff," Mal waved it off with a cocky grin. "Just generic 'scary monsters and effects. Amateur hour,"

"Huh, I guess all the method acting helped you through it," Bridgette said with an impressed look.

"Could say that," Mal shrugged, keeping his grin up. All the while Trent looked at Mal suspiciously while Dawn narrowed her eyes a bit. Mal didn't pose any sort of danger or threat right now, but she'd keep an eye on him.

"Trent," Lincoln said after pulling the next name out of the hat. "You're up dude."

"Sweet," Trent decided to talk to Mike or whoever it was now later, for now he had to focus on putting up a brave face and get ready to take the walk. "Let's do this!"

Trent then walked down the path and thankfully was able to keep his cool for the most part. The first few scares didn't get to him at all, Heather's scare made him flinch, he wasn't gonna let himself get scared by Izzy the bear a second time, and when he got to Ronnie Anne's scare…

"ROOOOOAR!!!" All the monsters let out as they rose up from the bushes.

"Woah!" Trent let out as he backed away a bit before shaking his head and calming himself. "Heh, not bad but can't get me that easily,"

"Grrrr…" Ronnie Anne let out from behind the bush.

When Trent was at the tail end of the path, he looked around for any last minute scares. Everything seemed fine at first…until he saw the blood slowly flowing down the trees. "F-Fake blood? That's all you got?" Trent was unnerved but he wouldn't scream that easily.

Scraaaaaape…

Trent flinched a tense up as he heard a loud scratching sound and looked to see a large mark made in one of the blood soaked trees. Trent gulped a bit and began to back away only to run backfirst into someone…turning around…

"RAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!" Wearing a hockey mask and his signature hook, Duncan let out a roar as he rose up a chain saw that was going full power.

"AAH!" Trent screamed out as he fell to the ground and backed away a bit.

"Ahahahaha!" Turning off the chainsaw, Duncan laughed as he flipped his mask up. "Nice scream there guitar boy, you should start singing more with that high pitched squeal."

"Yeah, yeah, get your jokes in," Trent rolled his eyes as he got up and dusted himself off. Still, he couldn't help but be impressed with the set up Duncan had. "But hey not bad man, pretty sick scare here,"

"Glad someone appreciates the craft," Duncan smirked as he and Trent shared a fist bump. "Besides, someone's gotta pick up the slack for the team."

"Yeeaaaah…" Trent let out as he scratched the back of his head. "No offense but their scares are kinda…"

"Completely lame and wouldn't even scare a newborn?" Duncan bluntly said.

"Yeah…that," Trent nodded in agreement before walking forward and eventually meeting his team back where he started.

"And we got our first scream!" Chris announced as he pointed to the Grips' Scream-O-Meter which only had a tiny bit filled. "Small but hey progress is progress."

And so one by one the rest of the Gaffers went. The likes of Jasmine and Leshawna didn't budge at all when they were on the walk, proving to have fearless nerves of steel like everyone suspected. Bridgette ended up filling up the meter a little bit and DJ…

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!" The big guy screamed out as he ran out of the path, collapsing and curling himself into a ball once he was back with his team.

"And DJ earns some big points for the Grips," Chris pointed to the meter which now had a good chunk filled. "Nice lung captivity there DJ,"

"Grrrrr…" Chef growled out as he looked at DJ. Looks like he was gonna need to intensify DJ's tough guy lessons.

Unfortunately Lincoln didn't fare much better when he was chosen.

"ROOOOOOOAR!!!" The monsters let out as they rose from the bushes.

"AAAAAAAHHHH!!!" Lincoln screamed out before booking it.

"Hehehe," Ronnie Anne snickered as she smirked cruelly at the retreating Lincoln.

CONFESSIONAL – Ronnie Anne

"Now THAT's more like it~" Ronnie Anne grinned with immense satisfaction.

"There, there, it's ok." Dawn reassured a quivering Lincoln, holding him in her arms while running her fingers through his hair to help sooth him. "I got you,"

"Is he gonna be alright?" Jasmine asked Dawn as she pointed to Lincoln in concern.

"Yes, he just needs a minute," Dawn reassured Jasmine as she continued to hold Lincoln. Chris held up the hat which only had two more names inside of it. With Lincoln still needing a moment, Dawn reached into the hat and pulled out another one of the remaining names. "Harold, you're up."

Harold gulped as he stepped into the walk, and unfortunately like Lincoln and DJ Harold found himself getting spooked and filled up the Grips' scream-o-meter a bit by the time he returned. That just left Dawn as the last one to go through, the nature lover entering with a completely fearless face.

When Geoff popped up for his scare.

"Hi Geoff."

Then Lindsay.

"Hi Lindsay."

Owen's scare.

"Hi Owen."

Tyler in his bunny costume.

"I'd put some ice on that eye Tyler,"

Heather and Justin's scare.

"…Heather, Justin."

Izzy's scare.

"Hi Izzy."

"Hi Dawn!"

Ronnie Anne's monsters.

"…Ronalda,"

"Grrrrr!"

And then Duncan jumping out.

"Hi Duncan,"

"Yep…" Duncan sighed out as he removed his mask. "Should have expected that from you,"

And then Dawn returned to her teammates all cheering for her. "And the Gaffers have all completed the walk!" Chris announced before gesturing towards the scream-o-meter. With multiple members of the Gaffers not screaming at all and a few others only letting out small screams the Grips really only had 3 big screams to fill their meter leaving it only a bit over half full. "Ok Gaffers, you'll have an hour to collect what you need to set up your own scare. Fill up your meter more than the Grips and you'll win at the first part of the challenge."

After a bit of time the Gaffers entered the same props warehouse the Grips were in after they had returned everything they used. "Ok, so what should we do…" Lincoln hummed a bit in thought as he looked through all the props and costumes…and nothing came to him. He was good at thinking of plans, but thinking of ways to scare people wasn't his forte, that was Lucy's. And without Gwen they lost their top horror expert. "Ok…I got nothing. Anyone got any bright ideas?"

"Ahem," Clearing his throat, everyone was surprised to see Mike speaking up. Only it wasn't Mike, Mal was still out and he was more than happy to provide a few ideas to everyone. "If you don't mind, I have a few ideas I'd like to share."

"Oh, ok then," Lincoln was a bit surprised to hear Mike speak up. He didn't seem like the guy who had a knack for scaring people, but considering he was able to brave everything from earlier, maybe Mike did have a few good ideas to share. Not like he had anything anyway. "What do you got Mike?"

"Simple, we do the opposite of what the Grips did," Mal stated, walking forward as he began to look through the various props. "Instead of setting up multiple small scares, we set up one big scare. Build up the atmosphere and tension before going in for the kill. Let's face it some of the small scares they had were completely lame,"

"He's got a point," Bridgette nodded with agreement. Honestly she thought Lindsay and Owen were more cute than scary when they tried their things. "Setting up a big scare to make sure we get at least a decent scream from everyone might score us more points in the end,"

"Yeah, that's not a bad idea at all," Lincoln smiled and nodded as he thought about it. The Grips' score was decent but nothing too high. They get a good scream from at least a majority of the team they could pull ahead. "Alright, I'm down for that. Everyone else?"

No one had any objections to this causing Mal to grin. "Good, now then…" Mal grabbed a large deer skull from a pile and tossed it to Jasmine. "Help me gather up everything."

"Ok Grips, the Gaffers set up time is up," Ronnie Anne grinned confidently after Chris made his announcement. Sure she wished her score was higher, and was definitely disappointed in some of the scares her teammates set up, but she knew none of the Gaffers were horror buffs, they lost their only one last challenge. And considering some of the other team were complete scaredy cats like DJ and her own Ex Boyfriend, they had this challenge in the bag. "Grips if they can't get the scream-o-meter higher than yours you'll have won the first part of the challenge. Ronnie Anne, pick a name from the hat to determine who will go first."

"Gladly," Ronnie Anne walked up to Chris and snatched the first piece of paper she felt with her hand. "Heather."

"Hah, this'll be easy," Heather smirked confidently as she went right into the path, showing no fear at all.

"Hmph, no way Lame-O could set up anything good," Ronnie Anne stated cockily as she crossed her arms. "Might as well give us the win no-"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!" Suddenly the sound of Heather's blood curdling scream cut her off as everyone looked towards the path. As the Gaffers meter filled up, Heather returned from the exit of the walk, looking horrified with her skin even looking a bit pale. Heather didn't say anything and instead held herself due to the horrors she just saw.

"You were saying?" Chris asked with a smirk, getting a growl of irritation from Ronnie Anne. "Next victim please?"

"Grrr," Ronnie Anne growled a bit as she picked the next name from the hat. "Tyler."

And the same results.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"

"Izzy."

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"

"Lindsay."

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"

"Justin."

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"

"Geoff."

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"

"Owen."

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"

"Duncan."

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!" Duncan screamed as he met up with his team, the delinquent actually looking really frazzled. "Oh…Oh man!"

"Seriously!? Are you kidding me?!" Ronnie Anne yelled in irritation. Victory was now a dream that had long passed, the Gaffers' meter was now completely filled up, far surpassing the Grips' own. Every single one of her teammates ended up screaming and returning like they just saw the most horrific thing ever. "You all screamed!?"

"Y-you don't know what it was like dude!" Geoff yelled out, still feeling the effects of what he went through. "It was horrible!"

"Shadows!" Tyler shouted frantically. "Shadows everywhere bro!"

"Waaaaaaahh!!" Lindsay cried out while curled into a ball.

"The Fog! The Fog!!!" Owen cradled himself while holding Mr. Coconut, who was equally terrified despite his permanent smile. "It lurks in the fog!"

"Oh whatever," Ronnie Anne rolled her eyes as she got ready to head in. Sure her team lost but she wasn't gonna give Lame-O the satisfaction of her surrendering. She'd go through and brave whatever it was that was set up and prove to her team they were being a bunch of babies. "I'll go see it more myself. It can't be that bad."

Stepping into the woods, Ronnie Anne looked around and saw nothing. Nothing was set up, no rustling bushes, no spooky decorations set up. There was just…nothing. She rose her eyebrow skeptically and wondered what was going on. It wasn't until the halfway point that things started to happen, fog started to roll in. A lot of it. Clearly they were using multiple fog machines to build the atmosphere. But this was nothing, fog wasn't gonna scare her…until she looked up.

"W-Woah…" Ronnie Anne stuttered a bit. On multiple trees were the outlines of Lincoln's teammates…all hung by their necks from the high branches. Ronnie Anne couldn't quite make them out due to the fog, but they were dangling there lifelessly. Ronnie Anne shook her head, no, this was just to try and unnerve her. Just cheap tricks. She marched on, putting on a brave look and-

SCRATCH!

"H-Hey!" Ronnie Anne yelled out while frantically looking around. "Who's there!" Looking around Ronnie Anne saw no one, not a single soul. But what she did see was large claw marks deep within the trees, all of them also stained with blood. As she walked forward, a bit more cautiously, she heard a loud crunch and looked to see bones littering the grounds. All of them stained in blood with some chunks of meat attached to a few.

Ronnie Anne felt her stomach churn a bit, especially when she saw the pools of blood on the ground. Looking around again she tried to find any sign of someone coming out to scare her. She didn't find anyone again, but she did see another outline appearing in the fog. A deer. There was a deer standing there looking to be eating grass, the Hispanic teen rose a brow…but soon felt chills as the deer stopped and looked towards her, its glowing eyes staring right at her.

Another wave of fog passed by and once it disappeared the deer was gone. "H-Hey! What's going on here?!" Ronnie Anne tried to keep her tough girl act, but it was clear she was getting uneasy and a bit scared. "Whoever's there…ya can't scare me! So just give it a res-woah!" But in her rant, she failed to notice the trip wire in front of her, causing her to fall to the ground.

Thud.

Ronnie Anne tried to get up, but the sound of loud footsteps made her freeze as she saw something approaching her from the fog. Stepping out of it, Ronnie Anne looked up in frozen fear as she saw what now stood before her. A Wendigo. The monster had a deer skull for a head, its mouth dripping with blood with claws and patches of fur also stained red. It easily stood over ten feet tall and looked down at Ronnie Anne.

It blew steam out of its nose as Ronnie Anne tried to move, tried to speak, but could only watch as the creature reared its head back and-

"SCREEEEEEEEEEEEECH!!!" The Wendigo let out an ear piercing screech right at Ronnie Anne's face.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!" Ronnie Anne screamed at the top of her lungs as she ran away in fear, the Wendigo continuing to screech at her.

But once she left, the creature's hands went to its head and removed it…revealing Dawn sitting atop of Jasmine's shoulders. "Whooo!" Jasmine grinned as she and Dawn high fived each other. "That's how ya do it mate!"

CONFESSIONAL – Leshawna

"Didn't expect Mike to be so into Horror," Leshawna said with an impressed tone. The fact they got all the Grips screaming like little girls was nothing short of impressive. "Guess some people can really surprise ya sometimes,"

CONFESSIONAL – Harold

"I could have totally set up a great horror walk," Harold claimed as he put a hand to his chest. "I just don't want my mad skills to outshine everyone. Gotta give others some time to shine."

"Heheh, that was quite fun," Dawn grinned before cutely giggling a little bit.

A little later Chris stood in front of both teams again once the challenge was over, the Grips all frowning at their defeat while the Gaffers were all grinning. "Gaffers, congratulations on scaring the beegeebers out of the Grips!" Chris said as the Gaffers all cheered while the Grips gave Chris dirty looks. "Now for your next challenge, who here has heard of the game Dead by Daylight?"

"Isn't that the game where you hunt people down as a killer or try to escape them?" Lincoln raised his hand. He's never played it but he's seen a few people on youtube play it. "Like a horror version of hide and seek."

"Exactamundo Lincoln," Chris snapped his fingers at the white haired boy before addressing everyone. "For this challenge, four survivors will be trapped in a set and will have to power five generators to power the gates to escape, all the while being hunted by a killer! Gaffers you won so one of you gets to be the killer, Grips, pick your four best survivors."

"So to win I'm guessing we just need to escape?" Ronnie Anne asked, desperate to win this challenge to get another win over Lincoln.

"Well as long as I'm not paired with Owen I'll be fine," Izzy spoke up, sending a glare to the big goofball who slumped down and sighed.

"Yep, if even just one of the Grips' survivors escape they win." Chris nodded his head as Ronnie Anne started thinking about who to choose. "As for the killer, they just have to slash everyone before they get out! Grips, the four survivors you choose will each wear one of those neato plastic membranes I freaked you all out with earlier. Each survivor must wear three of them for the killer to aim for, if the killer bursts all three you're dead and out. And they must be exposed, so no hiding them under your clothes or under your arms. So Gaffers, go over there and decide on your killer, Grips, go pick your survivors."

"Ok, now who should the killer be?" Lincoln asked as the Gaffers started to discuss whoever could be the killer, DJ simply stood to the side and decided not to be a part of the discussion. He was still very much not into horror, if that wasn't obvious enough, and he definitely wasn't gonna be the killer.

At least…he thought he wasn't going to be. Suddenly DJ found a strong hand grabbing his shoulder as he was pulled away by Chef. "You volunteer to be the killer!" Chef ordered DJ, making him flinch.

"M-Me?" DJ stuttered a bit. "Why Chef?"

"Because you're perfect for it! That strong body works perfectly for the overpowered killer hunting people down," Chef grinned as DJ paled a bit at Chef's description of the whole thing. "And this sets full of old rickety wood, easy for you to break through and take people by surprise~"

"I-I don't know about this…" DJ whimpered a bit as he looked down only for Chef to smack him in the back of the head and glare at him.

"Listen DJ, today is where things change!" Chef firmly told the brickhouse, leaving no room for argument. "You gotta stop being scared and MAKE people scared!"

"O-Ok! Ok! I'll…I'll try…" DJ relented as he started heading back to his team. Gulping nervously a bit, he cut into the conversation as they tried to decide on the killer. "Hey guys! I was thinking maybe…" DJ hesitated a little bit but looked back to see Chef nodding his head. "perhaps…I could be the killer?"

Everyone was taken off guard by this. DJ, the big lovable momma's boy, wanting to be the killer? That certainly didn't add up. "You?" Trent asked with a skeptical brow. "Are you sure?"

"Y-Yeah! Of course!" DJ did his best to smile and nod his head and not give away he was being pressured into this. "Hehe…if there's any obstacles in my way I could easily…you know…smash right through."

"Well that's a little aggressive for you," Leshawna pointed out before humming a bit in thought. "But it could actually work if you actually tried to get everyone."

"Don't worry," DJ gave everyone a reassuring though nervous grin. "T-They won't know what hit em…" Looking back, DJ saw Chef sending him a thumbs up in approval.

"Well…if you're sure," Lincoln wasn't 100% on board with this but if DJ really wanted to step up, who was Lincoln to deny him the chance? "All on board for DJ being the killer?" Though hesitant, everyone nodded in agreement.

"Come on," Walking up to DJ, Mal grabbed his wrist and began pulling DJ away. "Let's just add a few touch ups."

"Touch ups…?" DJ whimpered out, not liking the grin that came to Mal's face.

It was quick and easy for Ronnie to choose her team's group of survivors. It was gonna be herself, Duncan, Izzy, and Geoff and once her choice was made along with the Gaffers choosing their killer the Grips found themselves within another set. This one again being like the woods, only not as dense and with a large wooden cabin in the middle of it. The four Grips looked around a bit to get a feel for the place as Chris' voice spoke up through some loudspeakers. "Welcome killer food!" Chris gave them a not so flattering name. "I'll keep this short and sweet, your goal is to power 5 of the 7 generators that are hidden in this set in order to open up the gates to leave. If at least one of you leaves, your team wins. If the killer slashes all of you by popping all your blood sacks, the Gaffers win! I'll be relaying progress on everything happening."

"Who'd the Gaffers choose as their killer?" Geoff asked as he made sure his blood sacs were on securely. All three of his were on his chest, Izzy had one on her stomach, one on her shoulder, and another on her knee, meanwhile Duncan had one on his lower stomach, one on his wrist, and one of his lower leg, and Ronnie Anne had one on her shoulder, one on the back of her hand, and the last one on the top of her shoe.

"Sorry, but one of the points of a killer is to hide their identity. So who can say~" Chris teased them earning groans from the four Grips. "And get ready...set…get slashed!"

"Alright, I'm going this way," Duncan set off on his own, already going all lone wolf. Other than Geoff, Duncan wasn't really too keen to stick together with anyone on this team but even then he knew Geoff would be easy pickings given the party dude was always top 5 in the first characters offed in a horror movie, he'd be better off on his own.

"Shouldn't we all stick together?" Geoff suggested as he looked at Ronnie Anne. "Ya know, horror movie rules and such?"

CONFESSIONAL – Geoff

"I mean I'm no horror movie buff but that's a pretty standard rule right?" Geoff asked as he scratched the back of his head. "Split up and you're all goners dude!"

"Well it's obvious that he's not interested in working together." Ronnie Anne rolled her eyes before walking off on her own as well. The Gaffers caught her off guard last time, but this time she wasn't gonna be taken down that easily. It was time to go all final girl. "Let him get slashed if he wants to,"

"Oh! Oh! Follow me Geoff!" Izzy told the party dude as she got on all fours and pointed forward. "I got a nose like a bloodhound! I can totally sniff out generators like nothing!"

"Uh, ok then," Geoff shrugged as he decided to follow the crazy girl. It was either that or they all went on their own and that seemed to be a bad idea so best at least two of them stuck together. "Lead on then Izzy,"

And so Geoff began following the psycho hose beast as she sniffed the ground before leading them forward through the set. Geoff looked around cautiously trying to spot the killer if whoever they were came after them. Walking around the set, it only got creepier as they explored it. Meat hooks were set up in various places, obstacles of junk were set up, the cabin looked like it was made of wood that would fall down if you hit it too hard, and one could just barely see in it.

"Alert! Duncan has fixed the first generator! Four more left!" Chris announced through the loudspeakers.

"Sweet!" Geoff silently cheered as he pumped up a fist. "Go D-Man!"

"Oh! Oh! There's one over here!" Izzy perked up as she began running towards where she apparently sniffed out a generator. "It smells of motor oil!"

Following after the crazy girl, Geoff quickly ran forward but turned his head and saw something stick its head out the window of the cabin before retreating back in. "Woah! Did you see that?" Geoff let out fearfully as he stopped in place only to look around and see that Izzy was gone. "Izzy? Izzy…where'd you go dude?"

Geoff walked around looking for both the psycho hose beast as well as the killer that he was sure he saw inside of the cabin. The party dude gulped as he looked for wherever Izzy could have gone. "Come on Izzy…let me know where you are…" Geoff shook a little bit before he heard rustling coming from nearby. Turning in the direction of it Geoff, despite all better judgment, slowly tipped toed towards the source of the noise. Eventually he spotted a large bush that was shaking and started approaching it. "Izzy…that you…"

Rustle…

…

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!" But it wasn't Izzy. Emerging from the bush was the killer, Geoff screamed out in terror as they were face to face with the tall burly killer who wore a mask that looked to be made of bone that had sharp teeth carved into it and dirty button up white shirt stained with dirt and blood, a cloak made up of leaves and vines along with blue jeans and large green boots that went up to the killer's knees. Along the killers arms around roots that seemed to dig into their blood covered arms. And in their right hand was a long rusted looking machete that they quickly slashed at Geoff.

SLASH!

BURST!

"AAAAAAHHHH!!" Geoff yelled as the killer slashed at one of the blood pouches on his chest, causing it to burst and covering Geoff in fake blood. Before the killer could strike again Geoff quickly booked in the opposite direction as fast as he could, but the killer soon followed. Geoff looked back and quickly regretted it as he saw the killer approaching him and even catching up. "Crap! Crap! Crap!"

Geoff then looked forward again and saw a pathway of junk with a pallet standing up on it. Getting an idea, Geoff approached it and waited for the killer to approach before slamming it down, causing the killer to fall back with his path now blocked. "Yes!" Geoff cheered…only to watch in horror as the killer rose a fist before slamming it down on the pallet, completely shattering it. "Oh no…"

Geoff tried to run again, but as he ran he failed to notice a twig on the ground that he ended up tripping on. Geoff panicked and tried to get back up, but felt a foot pressed down on his leg and looked back to see the killer pinning him down before raising up his machete and-

SLASH!

Ronnie Anne was currently working on the generator she found when. "And Geoff has been slashed!" Chris announced through the whole set making Ronnie Anne groan. "Three survivors left to power four more generators!"

"Freaking party boy…should have picked Heather instead…" Ronnie Anne grumbled to herself before going back to the generator and quickly fixing it up completely. "Perfecto!"

"Make that three generators!" Chris quickly followed up. "Ronnie Anne completed generator number two!"

"Hmmm, strange, could have sworn I smelled a generator over here," Izzy rubbed her chin as she looked around, finding herself in the cabin in the middle. Having lost Geoff, who she soon found out was slashed. Izzy simply decided to keep going and follow her nose but it seemed to lead her nowhere as she looked around the cabin for a generator but failed to find anything. "Alright Izzy think, if I were the killer what would I do…"

Kill them all, they know what you're up to. Kill them all now.

"Woah! Ok, ignoring those thoughts haha!" Izzy laughed a bit before scratching her head. Walking around the cabin, Izzy soon found a set of stairs leading down below. "Oooooh, the dark creepy basement! Of course!"

Grinning, Izzy went down into the basement and found herself in a room that was stained from the floor to the ceiling with blood, a tree of bloody meat hooks. While most would be terrified of being in a room like this Izzy was only impressed with the display. "Wow! Cool murder basement! Nice!" Izzy looked at the basement a bit to really take in all the horror aesthetics of it. But as she was looking around Izzy heard heavy breathing behind her and looked to see the killer standing right behind her. But instead of reacting in fear Izzy decided to talk to them. "Oh hey! It's you! Gotta say just love what you've done with the place here! Must have taken a while to get all this blood!"

"…" The killer was silent as they looked at the camera, raising a brow behind the mask.

"And the hooks just really bring it all together. It's just crazy alright, haha. Really, really crazy," Izzy shook her head and laughed…before reality finally caught up with the crazy girl as she looked back again with widened eyes. "Oh right, crap!"

Slash!

"And another one bites the dust," Duncan grinned as he finished up his second generator. "This is way too easy,"

"And Duncan finished up generator number three at the same time as Izzy gets slashed!" Chris made two announcements for the price of one. "Two generators left and two survivors left! Things are looking close!"

"Seriously? I thought Izzy would've lasted longer than that," Duncan said with surprise before rolling his eyes and making his way to where the next generator was. Looks like whoever the Gaffer killer was, was certainly putting in the work. If Duncan had to make a guess it was either Jasmine or Mike, or rather Mal. When this is over he's definitely gotta warn the other team about that guy. But for now he had to focus on finding another generator, and after a bit of searching he managed to find one located in the middle of the set hiding behind a tree. "Come to papa~"

Duncan walked up to the generator and was about to get to work on it, but right as he was approaching it he saw someone reach out for it at the same time as him. It wasn't the killer, but he kind of wished it was. "Oh great," Ronnie Anne let out as she gave Duncan a glare before pointing away. "Buzz off mohawk, this one's mine,"

"I saw it first Latina," Duncan again refused to back down as he leaned down and began working on repairing the generator as Ronnie Anne only growled more at him. "If you wanna stick around you're free to help as long as you don't screw it up, or if that big butt of yours doesn't give away our location."

"Maldito pinchazo delincuente…" Ronnie Anne grumbled out, but despite her hatred for the delinquent she leaned down and began working on the generator with Duncan. She sent the occasional glare to Duncan. Oh yeah she definitely didn't like the guy and it was clear the feeling was mutual, but she was making good progress at getting her team on her side. But Duncan proved to be a thorn in her side, so she needed to play things differently. Fine, if she couldn't trick him she'd play it straight. "You know me, Heather, and Justin have an alliance going on."

"Yeah, yesterday's news." Duncan rolled his eyes. "You don't think I haven't noticed how you three are always whispering to each other? Ever heard of subtlety?"

Ronnie Anne took a deep breath through her nose to control her anger. "Well if you know then I think you'd like to know that we might just be willing to let you in," Ronnie Anne revealed, making Duncan raise his brow. "We could use someone like you, especially considering how you won last season. With you by our side crushing Lincoln would be easy,"

"Pfft, so that's all you care about?" Duncan laughed at that last part Ronnie Anne said. So she was just doing all this to try and take Lincoln down? Man she really was just a petty little bitch. "If you're just dedicating your entire time now to getting back at Lincoln because you dumped him and he moved on then it's seriously time to get a hobby,"

"Grrrrr…" Ronnie Anne growled as she stopped working on the generator to glare at Duncan. "I thought you hated him too!"

"Eh, don't get me wrong he's definitely pissed me off before but I don't hate him." Duncan revealed making Ronnie Anne's jaw drop a little. "I kinda respect him in a few areas, the guy's got some skills. Honestly rather be on his team than the one led by his clearly psychotic ex."

"And what the hell is that supposed to mean?!" Ronnie Anne stood up and began yelling, completely disregarding the fact that they needed to stay silent. "Are you seriously trying to start something right now?!"

"Hey I'm just telling it like it is," Duncan smirked in amusement as he continued to work on the generator, just about finishing it off. "Like you break up with him and act like he's the one who wronged you and just go all psycho crazy trying to beat him. Three words sister. Move. On. Already."

Duncan then finished up the generator as Ronnie Anne glared down at him, her face red with rage, completely disregarding Chris speaking through the loudspeakers again. "Oh that is it!" Ronnie Anne rose her hands, ready to strangle the delinquent right here right now. "I'm gonna rip off your-"

Stomp! Stomp!

Both flinched at the sounds of loud footsteps approaching and looked to see the killer staring right at them from only two yards away, holding his machete threateningly. "RAAAAAAHHHH!!!" The killer let out as he charged at the two.

Duncan and Ronnie Anne were quick to start running as the killer pursued them. But as they ran, Duncan grinned deviously as he looked towards Ronnie Anne…and proceeded to trip her. "Later sister!" Duncan yelled out as he laughed, Ronnie Anne falling to the ground face first. "I told you to watch your back!"

"…" Ronnie Anne was completely silent in rage, unable to stop the killer as he approached her.

CONFESSIONAL – Ronnie Anne

"That is it…" Ronnie Anne said through her teeth while covered in fake blood. "He's dead!"

"With only one survivor left, Duncan has to complete the last generator on his own and get to the exit before the killer slashes him!" Chris said as Duncan grinned as he put the finishing touches on the last generator before booking it. "And he completed generator number 5! If Duncan can successfully escape he'll have won it for the Grips!"

Duncan booked it at full speed towards where the exit gates were. Once he made it he immediately began to flip the switch to power the gates. "Come on, come on hurry up already…" Duncan whispered as he looked around to see if the killer was approaching him as the lights on the switch lit up. The third and final light lit up causing Duncan to smirk, thinking he got away with a clean victory and-

CRASH!

Right before the gates opened up, Duncan was tackled by the killer who managed to catch up and charge at Duncan and successfully tackled him to the ground. "Oh no!" Duncan let out as he tried to escape the killer's grasp, even punching him in the face. But the killer proved to be made of tough stuff as they rose up their machete and-

SLASH!

"Crap!" Duncan yelled out as all three of his blood sacs were slash, covering him in the stuff.

"And all the Grips have been successfully slashed! The Gaffers win today's challenge!" Chris announced through the speakers, all the Gaffers cheering on the outside of the set.

"I-I won?" The killer let out, Duncan's eyes widened at the voice he heard before the killer removed the mask revealing himself to be DJ. "I actually won! I did it!"

"DJ?! You're the killer?!" Duncan let out in surprise. Never in a million years did he think DJ would end up being the killer. The dude was sometimes afraid of his own shadow. Duncan had to admit…he was pretty proud of the brickhouse. "Huh…impressive display man, not bad."

"You really think so?" DJ couldn't help but be proud of himself. He was worried that he'd screw it up and let his team down and make Chef angry, but he actually did it! And it felt…pretty good actually. "Heh, thanks. Just had to…step up ya know,"

"Grips, take a shower to get all that fake blood out and then I'll be seeing you at the Gilded Chris ceremony tonight," Chris told everyone bluntly. No rewards to save anyone this time, once again it was an elimination round. "Get ready to vote off your favorite loser!"

LATER

"DJ! DJ! DJ!" At the Crafts Services Tent, the Gaffers were all gathered at a table together cheering a flustered DJ on. Despite their doubts, the brickhouse managed to make them proud and win the challenge for them.

"C-Come on guys," DJ said with his cheeks dusted in pink. "You're making me blush."

"Hey you deserve it man," Lincoln told his friend as he patted DJ on the back. "You won it all for us, you should be proud,"

"Who woulda thought under that cream puff of a man was a real tough as nails brother," Leshawna told DJ, giving him a nod of approval. "I knew you had it in you,"

"She's right DJ, you really did a good today," Jasmine told the big lug as she wrapped an arm around him and gave him a friendly punch to the shoulder. "You won the whole thing for us ya big bloke, way to do us proud big guy,"

"Heh, thank guys," DJ found himself blushing even more as he looked at his team gratefully. "Y'all are the best,"

"Coming through," Chef said as he walked up to the Gaffers' table and delivered to them a bunch of pizza boxes, each one fresh from the oven. "Dinner is served."

"Holy crap!" Bridgette let out before digging in, along with many of the other contestants.

"There's even a vegan pizza for the hippy in there," Chef stated as Dawn eagerly looked through the boxes to find it.

"Oh wow, thanks Chef!" Lincoln grinned as he bit into a plain slice of cheese pizza. "What's the occasion? I thought today was an elimination challenge,"

"Oh it is," Chef nodded before grinning a bit. "I just thought the winning team deserved something special is all," Chef then sent DJ a wink, making him tense up a little bit.

CONFESSIONAL – DJ

"I still feel bad about kinda sorta cheating by being in an alliance with Chef, but…I mean it's not like I cheated in that challenge right?" DJ said with a small smile, still feeling quite proud of himself. "I won it all on my own, not like I had any sort of unfair advantage or something. Maybe Chef really is onto something with this tough guy training."

"Duncan did what?!" With the Grips, Ronnie Anne had called all but Duncan to a team meeting where she revealed Duncan sabotaging them.

"It's just like I said," Ronnie Anne shrugged, internally smiling smugly at her little plan. If she couldn't win she was gonna make sure Duncan loses. "Duncan told me himself he would rather be on Lincoln's team, then proceeded to trip me letting DJ catch me. He sabotaged us!"

"Woah…" Geoff let out, feeling a bit betrayed. "I mean…I knew Duncan could have an attitude but this seems out of left field for him…"

"Well believe it," Heather stated, feeling quite proud of how far Ronnie Anne's manipulation skills have come. "We keep him here we're at risk of losing more if he's just gonna sabotage us,"

"I-I don't know…" Owen let out, feeling unsure about this. "I mean Duncan's my friend, are you sure it wasn't just an accident?"

"Trust me big guy I wish it was," Ronnie Anne spoke softly to Owen as he patted the big guy on the shoulder. "But we can't trust him, he's out to help the other team. We don't cut him now, he'll become a worse problem later on."

"Well he's got my vote," Lindsay stated, going on board for this. "The guy's a huge bully, I can't stand people like that,"

"Well if Lindsay's voting for him then I guess I will too," Tyler shrugged, he didn't really have any sort of relationship with Duncan so he was pretty neutral to this whole thing.

"Glad you're all so understanding," Ronnie Anne sent them a thankful smile before turning around and walking away with Justin and Heather, the Latina soon smirking smugly. "Way too easy~"

"You sure it's a good idea to drop Duncan so early?" Justin voiced his opinion on the matter. He certainly wasn't close to the delinquent in any way but he tried to think about the long term effects of this. "I mean he's one of our strongest teammates, it could put us at a huge disadvantage,"

"Trust me Justin, this'll be for the best," Ronnie Anne stated firmly as Heather nodded in agreement. Justin merely shrugged and just decided to go along with it.

THE GILDED CHRIS CEREMONY

The lights and music of the Gilded Chris Ceremony again blared through the night as the Grips again found themselves in the elimination bleachers while the Gaffers watched in their fancy wear from the VIP section with Chris taking the stage in his blue suit. "Grips, welcome back to loser town," Chris said with a grin as the Grips all sent the host glares. "Soon your nine will become eight, you all know the drill, use the voting boxes under your seat to select who you want to slash away from the competition!"

"Wait!" A voice called out as Lily went up to the stage wearing a purple dress. "Can I watch? I didn't get to help out with the challenge today and I wanna hang out with you all at least a little bit."

"Hey, if you wanna see a loser kick the curb, be my guest little lady. Go sit with the Gaffers." Lily grinned as she went to join the winning team, of course sitting next to her brother as he happily wrapped an arm around both her and his girlfriend. Once the Grips all made their votes Chef stepped up with both the Gilded Chris' and the results with Chris grabbing the latter. "You've all casted your votes and made your decision. Remember, if you do not get a Gilded Chris award you're as dead as a dumb blond at the beginning of a horror movie. No offense Lindsay."

"None taken," Lindsay smiled before registering what Chris said and putting on a hurt look. "Hey!"

"Let's get started shall we?" Chris then picked up two awards. "Lindsay, Tyler, you're both safe!"

"Yeah! Place at the table!" Tyler yelled out as his girlfriend caught her award while Tyler again failed to catch his leading it to hitting him in the gut. "Ouf!"

"Izzy, Geoff, you two are safe as well," Chris tossed the next two.

"Alright!" Geoff grinned as he used his hat to catch his while Izzy again caught hers in her teeth.

"Justin, your handsomeness lives on," Chris complimented Justin before tossing him his award.

"Why thank you," Justin grinned as he caught it.

"Ronnie Anne, Heather, you two are still safe somehow," Chris shrugged as he tossed the two girls their awards.

"Shows what you know," Ronnie Anne stated with a smirk.

That left only two, Duncan and Owen flinched as they looked at each other with worry. "Well boys I'm sure you know the drill by now," Chris smirked as he grabbed the last award. "Duncan, you're on the chopping block for kind of screwing over your team by basically throwing Ronnie Anne to the killer,"

"Eh, no regrets," Duncan shrugged as the Hispanic teen shot him a nasty look.

"And Owen…a bed sheet ghost? Really dude?" Owen blushed a bit in embarrassment as Chris gave him a disappointed look and tone. "That was the best you could do during the scare walk?"

"I said I'm not good at scaring people…" Owen looked down as he mumbled that.

"And the last Gilded Chris goes to…" Chris began as he held the award back, getting ready to throw it. Duncan glared forward as Owen began to sweat nervously before Chris finally made the announcement. "…Owen!"

Owen grinned as Duncan grumbled a bit and kicked the ground as the big guy caught his award. In a moment of impulse both Owen and Justin went in to hug each other…before quickly pulling back with awkward looks on their faces. "Sorry man," Justin quickly said.

"Sorry…" Owen let out an awkward apology.

"Duncan, dude, you're done like dinner," Chris told the delinquent before pointing down the carpet of shame. "Lamoesine's thataway bro."

"Welp, guess that figures," Duncan let out as he stood up. He figured Ronnie Anne would pull a fast one and look like she did. Still, there was still one thing he could do before leaving. "If I'm going out, then I'm gonna go out with a bang,"

"Oh yeah?" Ronnie Anne smirked as she stood up and looked down at Duncan. "How's that?" Duncan looked up at her grinning deviously…before reaching forward and pantsing Ronnie Anne, exposing the thin piece of pink underwear she was wearing to the entire viewing world. "AH! YOU (BLEEP)!!!"

"Ahahahaha!" Duncan laughed loudly as he jumped into the Lamosine. "Later loser!"

Ronnie Anne shook her first at the leaving limo before hearing all the Gaffers, Chris, and even some of her own team point and laugh at her. Ronnie Anne blushed in complete and total embarrassment as she tried to pull her pants up quickly. Meanwhile watching with a frown was Lily, all she could do was look around and ask herself one question.

Why does everyone hate Ronnie Anne?

"Well…leave it to Duncan to give a grand exit like that," Chris laughed as he wiped a tear away from his eye before looking at the camera. "But with that we've already lost both finalists from last season! Meaning that from here on out things are only gonna get more interesting! Will both DJ and Mike continue to surprise everyone? Will the Grips last long enough to regret sending away one of their strongest players? Will Ronnie Anne expose more of her underwear to the entire viewing world?"

"(BLEEP) YOU MCLAIN!!!" Ronnie Anne yelled at him from off screen.

"Find out the answers to all these questions and more," Chris decidedly ignored Ronnie Anne's words as he continued the outro. "Next time on Total. Drama. Action!!!"

Chapter 7 - Chapter 7: Dead by Drama