I got to my girlfriend's house a little late. By the time I got there, they'd started their first game without me. Her friend Sean answered the door, with his head tucked under one arm.

"Oh, hey, man," said Sean. "Hope you don't mind, but we got a game going already. Bee said you wouldn't mind if we didn't wait for you."

"No, that's fine," I said. "I had a deadline to meet. I see you got voted out already?"

"Yeah, one of the traitors got lucky and left me to clean up their mess." Sean led me into the living room, where the rest of Bee's housemates and their partners were in the throes of the weekly game, sitting on the big sectional that lined the walls. A giant bean bag sat in the middle of the floor, ready to catch anyone else that got eliminated.

"Hey!" said Bee, waving to me as I entered. "Come on over, babe. Looks like this game's almost over. We'll get you into the lobby in no time."

I went over and sat next to her on the sectional. I couldn't quite tell from the door, but now I could see that her body ended at the waist. She raised her arms up to her head, and I lifted her up onto my lap so she could nestle in and get cozy. She held up her phone so I could see the game in progress. Two of the other people on the sectional held their heads in their laps like Sean, and one more was missing her legs like Bee. Two more were just heads, lying in a little crater of pillows next to the bean bag, watching the game on a propped-up tablet.

"Are both the traitors still in?" I said.

"Yeah," said Bee, "and one of them's a Headhunter."

Another head appeared in a blue flash above the bean bag and rolled slowly down into the pillows with the other two.

"Got another one," said Mae, the other woman with no legs, as she watched on her phone.

"Oh, they're lining up a double kill," said Sean, gripping his phone between his knees as he held his and his girlfriend's heads in his lap.

I watched the action with Bee, as the other eliminated players cheered and rooted for their favorites. Half of them suddenly groaned, as the torsos of Wilma and Jen appeared and landed in the bean bag, practically in each other's arms.

"Hope someone finds your legs soon," I said, "or this is going to be a clean sweep for the traitors."

"Oh, wait," said Bill, one of the heads. "Jacqui saw it go down. She's chasing them!"

"He got caught on a corner!" said Bee. "You done goofed now, Phan!"

I watched Jacqui take out the Headhunter on Bee's phone, and I saw Phan's torso plop down onto the bean bag. Fortunately, Wilma and Jen had already crawled out of the way and onto the couch. Then, I saw the screen on Bee's phone cut to the voting room.

"Looks like Jacqui reported you, Phan," said Mae. "One more vote, and down goes your partner."

"They've got nothin'," said Phan. "Zoe can still make it."

We all watched the debate go back and forth, but when the clock finished ticking down, the votes popped up, and Zoe's headless body popped out of the air and landed on the bean bag. A few seconds later, her head landed in her arms.

"Crap," said Zoe. "Sorry, Phan. I didn't know half the lobby already suspected me."

"No problem," said Phan. "You couldn't have known. Jacqui had us both dead to rights."

Zoe held her head up to face me. "Oh, hi," she said to me. "Glad you made it."

"Thanks," I said. "Looks like I got here just in time for the good part."

"And now we can get you in properly," said Bee. "The lobby is resetting. Come on, give me a hand, will you?"

The carpet around the bean bag was starting to blur, as headless bodies and pairs of legs began to appear scattered around the floor. I carried Bee's torso toward her legs, and the other players gradually got each other together, pairing heads to shoulders and waists to hips. A couple of them horsed around a little along the way, especially Wilma and Jen.

Eventually, everyone was back in one piece, and I had my phone out, along with everyone else.

"Okay, I've sent out the lobby code," said Bee. "Everybody ready?"

I nodded, along with the others.

"All right, then," said Bee. She winked at me. "Let's start."

I pressed the button on my phone screen, and I appeared in the base. I checked my list of tasks, looked up at Bee, and winked back at her. Then, I got to work.