“Ladies and Gentlemen, we only have three minutes left before the pageant begins. There is still one contestant left who has not shown up.”

He turned and indicated at the empty dais behind him. Immediately, every single large virtual monitor showed the empty dais between Bethany and Candi.

“If she does not arrive at the designated time, she will forfeit the contest and will be immediately disqualified.”

A discontented buzz suddenly sounded among the audience. The huge group that had shown up to support Olivia Faraday rose in an uproar.

“Something is wrong! There’s foul play behind the scenes!” Someone from the crowd yelled out.

FOUL PLAY!!!

FOUL PLAY!!!

FOUL PLAY!!!

The crowd began chanting. They got so loud that not even Lorem Ipsum could interrupt their chanting.

Candi smiled.

The crowd was buying time for Olivia Faraday to arrive. She had, at most a few minutes leeway. Any more than that and even the crowd couldn’t save her.

It was fortunate then that at first strike after the hour, a hover pod came zipping in.

This one was not the fancy crystal faceted hover pod that the contestants rode in. It was beat up and looked rather grungy, but it was fast.

Whooshing in at the last second, it stopped in front of the contestants and the top opened up to reveal a disheveled and battered monarch butterfly.

She got out on shaky legs. One of her golden wings had been torn into tattered shreds. Her golden-brown hair had loosened from their crystal pins and was fluttering in the breeze.

The insectoid crowd gave a loud cheering for their beloved butterfly as she took her spot in between the red phoenix girl and Candi.

Olivia looked like something the cat dragged in. If this was a beauty pageant, she was surely going to lose.

Considering the way she and Bethany Dresden were shooting daggers at each other, it was more likely that she had been dragged around by the red bird.

“What luck! Our final contestant finally made it to the pageant, Ladies and Gentlemen! Let’s get started then, shall we?”

Lorem Ipsum raised his hands and a burst of fireworks bloomed in the sky.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The crowd roared.

“Today’s theme will be ‘Musical Chairs!'” He announced with cheer.

“I would like to point out to the audience that we have seven dais upon which seven women are standing.” He indicated with his hand.

“Please take a look, if you will, at the platform down below that’s on the lake.”

All the visuals zoomed in on the empty stage.

“As you can see, there are only six daises set up there. This means only six women can move forward from this point.”

Ooooooohhhh!!! The crowd gave a collective gasp.

“The contest will start as soon as each woman draws a number. The number will determine the order with which she will descend the Sky Walk.”

Woooaaaaahhhhh!!! The crowd howled.

Lorem Ipsum pulled a box out from his ping-pong hover craft and flew towards the women.

“If you will, please take one and then change your positions according to the number that you’ve pulled.”

He smiled and extended the box.

All the visuals zoomed in on Jenna Natoli as she reached into the box. Her hand came out with a round white ball with the number 4 printed on it.

Then Valeria pulled out a 5, Anaïse picked up a 6, Helene got the number 1 spot, and Bethany got 3.

By the time the box reached Olivia, there were only two balls left.

It was a toss up. Olivia would get either 2 or 7. Either way, Candi would get the last leftover ball since she was the one standing on the seventh dais.

Olivia looked up at Lorem Ipsum and then she glanced over at Candi.

She reached out with shaky fingers and reached into the box.

The visuals zoomed into her face and split screen on her hand disappearing into the box.

The crowd went silent.

She pulled out a white ball. It clearly had the number 2 printed on it.

The crowd went wild.

Lorem Ipsum smiled with complete satisfaction and extended the box to Candi. His eyes gleamed with joy.

Candi smiled and reached into the box to pull out the last ball.

It was of course, the ball with number 7 printed on it.

As the women changed places on the dais to reflect the numbers on their balls, Candi remained standing on her number 7 dais.

If all the women took their turns and managed to descend the walkway safely, she would remain on dais number 7 without even a chance for an attempt.

“And there we have it, Ladies and Gentlemen. Fair and Square, we have a drawing where each woman got a chance to pick the most desired number.”

Of course, he did not say that Candi really didn’t get a chance to pick anything since there was only one ball left by the time the box reached her.

This was simply understood, and the crowd accepted it as just random bad luck that she was in last place.

He extended his arms.

“First up. Helene Cordera!”

A voice over began reading the background for Helene as her dais moved forward towards the front and began spinning around so that everyone could see her physical beauty.

“Helene. Are you ready to take a walk down the Sky Walk to get to your position at the lower platform?”

“Yes.” She smiled with full confidence.

“Ready when you are.” He extended his hand towards the Sky Walk.

Helene Cordera, in her stately outfit made of sparkling scales of teal and gold, began her high fashion walk towards the Sky Walk.

At the top of the platform, she stood there looking down the glass walk way and suddenly began shivering.

The top platform towered above the pond, with only a 30″ width of glass Sky Walk connection.

There were no guard rails.

Candi looked at Helene Cordera’s sparkling 4″ heels studded with champagne diamonds and held her breath. There was no way those heels would be able to make it down that glass walkway.

Apparently, Helene Cordera realized the same thing because she reached down and took off her shoes.

With one shoe in each hand, she took her first step onto the glass walkway and began teeter-tottering back and forth. Her arms began waving wildly as she tried to regain her balance.

Her feet took several frantic steps as she slipped and slid, pitching forward headfirst down the skywalk.

With her belly flat against the glass Sky Walk, she began sliding uncontrollably downward, her body skittering around.

Helene threw her diamond-studded shoes away and grabbed onto the sides of the Sky Walk to stabilize herself.

SPLASH! SPLASH!

The shoes hit the pond and sank into the murky depths.

Panting and clawing at the sides of the Sky Walk, Helene slowly slid down from the top all the way to the bottom of the platform.

With no dignity left, Helene Cordera tottered onto the first dais and stood, shoeless and shaking with delayed panic.

Her entire front was drenched in sweat. The fabric was threadbare and missing much of the teal and gold scales from her breasts all the way down to the bottom where the gown split at her knee.

“Ladies and Gentlemen! The first beauty contestant, Helene Cordera, has reached her designated platform!”

The crowd clapped and cheered.

Lorem Ipsum turned back to the remaining contestants.

“Next up is Olivia Faraday! The contestant holding ball number 2.”