The Truth of the Cameras

Devin's POV

Starting? Now? I had to remember the names correctly. I had to do this right. So far, I knew I hadn't made a good impression with Destiny at all.

I didn't like a lot of the feedback I was getting from Cheery Pie either. She wasn't wandering too far away from us at any time. She moved right, left, up, and down but the guards were always almost in the middle of her walking.

I had a feeling this wasn't going to be such a great time as Mattie believed it would be, especially after seeing what happened to the kids. Even during the time of the show, the host was not going to leave our sights. She was even getting another woman to go to the bathroom? So scared that she wouldn't even go to the bathroom?

I don't think it was the werewolf angle she was scared of at all either. She talked to Destiny easily, and she was the one people knew had been the werewolf. The Judge. Cheery Pie. All of these workers. It was great that they could help change things around there now. It was great that the contracts could change things now.

It wasn't great that when the filming was over each day and they went home, the safety basically went off. Words like 'repercussions afterward' really drove it home.

Destiny had tried to act like everything was fine last night, but this place, it couldn't have been good. I didn't trust it. Everyone would put on a nice display for the cameras. Probably reel Mattie in, and maybe one of the other women, but what happened when the cameras weren't on?

No, I didn't trust it. I was going to ask a question, but Cheery Pie only asked for questions for appearance. There was no time to ask anything. Besides, from what I heard? From the actions I had seen? I understood enough.

The cameras didn't just mean the shows cameras. The contract was in place. There was a high chance that a lot of the safety cameras that had been going on, to watch over Destiny in here?

Yeah. While Cheery Pie was introducing the house and situation, along with the women, to the cameras? I could see off camera, that things were being replaced. Cameras for cameras.

New cameras. Different spots. Old safety cameras was being removed. I went toward one of the workers. "Pardon me? Do you have to take out the old cameras?" I asked politely.

"Yeah," he said. "Once the show starts, the first cameras are removed. These are better quality," he explained, starting to get into the facts of the equipment that I didn't understand.

"When you leave though, all of this goes off," I asked him. He nodded. "The old cameras aren't installed, the ones that were watching everything 24/7 last time."

"No, those are being removed from the property. You get complete privacy when these go off," he stated.

"We can't just leave at least one?" I requested. "After hours. A public room. The host and Judge both said someone would be punished if someone was hurt. How would they know what happened without cameras?"

"The contracts are only for these cameras I am installing." The guy was getting frustrated with me. "The others are getting pulled out. Their time is over, whatever pre-contract existed before the show, is over." He held some wire in his hand. "I need to get the next one, excuse me."

Yeah. That answered the question. There were no more safety cameras. The guards were the safety. If we didn't find who hurt a woman, then one of us paid with our lives.

Nice way to cover it up. I looked toward Destiny. I mean, Sweetie. I would really have to learn the new names.

I hadn't left farther than the other side of the room, but I caught a real bitchy glare from Cheery Pie. I wanted to check into the cameras, but I didn't forget where Sweetie was located. That look said I shouldn't have done otherwise.

"Anyhow," Cheery Pie went on with her conversation with Destiny. "Tell us about your werewolf shapeshifting thing, Sweetie. Were you born that way, or did something just happen to your genes?"

Sweetie rubbed the back of her neck lightly. "I don't know exactly? I wasn't born this way. My parents and brothers never shapeshifted. I didn't either, until I was living in this den. I don't know what happened."

"That's a real mystery. Maybe there was something recessive in the genes that came out?" she asked. "How strange. Okay, call your guard over here."

I came over, without being called, which for some reason still made Cheery Pie mad. "I'm never far."

"Across the room with rows of people between us, in this gigantic room is too far!" Cheery Pie had no problem yelling at me at all. "Aren't you the one who was a kid on a leash outside? A boy somewhere around here?" She snapped at me, very close to the face. "Ship up! If you want to survive in this house, and not lose your children to another man she picks? Then you better be watching her carefully. You need to watch all your family carefully."

Another man? "They are my children."

"She is woman, she is the chooser. If she chooses someone else, then they go with her still." Cheery Pie wasn't cutting him any slack.

"Pardon," I said. "You didn't accept questions, and as a guard, I wanted to know what was happening to the 24 hour surveillance we used to have. I noticed no one answered that in a straight fashion." It was a little rude, but I didn't appreciate the way she was treating me.

She flung something away from her dress. "Life is too short to deal with people like you. Don't talk to me unless I ask you to."

Extremely rude. Some Islanders just thought they were heaven's gift to the world or something.

"Okay. Most of my asking questions will be censored to mainly here you," Cheery Pie said to Sweetie. "You are a very interesting character, and you are the first thing we are approaching on the show." She looked toward Mattie. "Lily. Make sure that you, Sunny, and Cotton Candy make it outside in fifteen. I am taking a break."

She tugged on me. She didn't want to speak to me, but she tugged on me? She was still talking to Sweetie, so I guess that explained it.

Cheery Pie may have treated me like secondhand trash, but she was being cordial to Sweetie. She was getting answers to questions I wanted to know, but I didn't know how to ask.

She told her about how she felt when she first got there. How unfair it all had been when she had to make a choice between pregnancy and no pregnancy. The whole time Cheery Pie had been right there, expressing sorrow. She even hugged Sweetie a couple of times.

"Life really isn't fair," Cheery Pie said to her as she rubbed her back, and glared so smoldering at me, it was nothing like before. "Men leave without any repercussions."

"There were repercussions," I said to her, not caring about the fact she said not to talk to her. She was only getting one view of the story. "I was coming to help, but I got hit with forgetful dust."

"Now there are repercussions." Cheery Pie said nothing else, just patted Sweetie's head. "It's okay, Sweetie. Things are going to be great with the show. I suggest, since you know these men so much, you grab the first one you feel the safest with, get married and leave. The other women can carry the show, and you could get your kids out."

That wasn't an option yet. It was the first episode, we needed more time to get ready before we go.

"If your guard wasn't the dad, who would you pick?" Cheery Pie asked.

She hesitated. She didn't seem to hesitate like she didn't know. She knew? She knew someone out of this house that she wanted? That wasn't happening! No way. If it did, I still needed to have some say about the kids. Just because I had no practice at being a dad, and learned it all really fast, didn't mean she could just take them and go to wherever!

"Oh, come on," Cheery Pie asked again. "Whisper it in my ear if you need to, there's clearly someone you trust."

"I know who she trusts," my sister came over with Zoan, also know as Guard today.

"Who?" I wanted to know.

"You're going to hate it," my sister warned me.

"Oh come on." I almost called her by her real name. "Lily."