Graves was already suffocating with barely suppressed rage.
Serena had nearly crippled him, he had been unceremoniously banished to a decaying, drafty cabin, and to top it all off, he had taken a humiliating fall on the slippery moss outside his new door.
Now, he was struggling to stay upright on his crutches while Isabella and Bianca frantically yanked him back and forth.
His patience snapped. He violently shoved both women away. "What bugs? What spiders? Stop talking nonsense!"
Just looking at Bianca made his blood boil. He blamed the Doyle family entirely for his current physical agony and utter humiliation.
Staring down at Bianca, who had collapsed onto the pavement and was now screaming hysterically, Graves let out a cold, merciless scoff. "Keep your voice down, Bianca. Your erratic behavior is severely disrupting the other competitors. I have every right to issue your team an immediate yellow card for this."
"You're a medical student, aren't you? Use some basic logic!"
"This island is a highly classified federal research facility. To ensure the multi-million-dollar equipment remains pristine and the elite researchers stay perfectly safe, the entire island underwent a military-grade bio-sweep just five days ago. There isn't even a mosquito left alive out here, let alone the centipedes and spiders you're screaming about!"
"They are real! I saw them with my own eyes!" Bianca shrieked, totally unhinged. "They were crawling under my sheets! They were inside my nightgown! On my pillows! I'm not making this up!"
"He's right, Chief Arbiter, it's true!" Isabella was trembling so violently she could barely stand, her voice wavering in pure panic. "Our room... everyone's rooms are filled with them... there were hundreds of them..."
Graves glared at them, utterly exasperated. "The stress of the tournament is clearly making you hallucinate. Your squad has been dead last in every single metric, barely scraping past the elimination lines. It's perfectly natural for you to crack under the pressure, but do not manufacture a crisis and ruin the rest of the competitors' sleep!"
Bianca was furious and terrified all at once. "Why would I lie about something like this?! I'm telling you, the room is crawling with venomous bugs!"
"It was a massive swarm... just everywhere..."
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