Shattered 2:

Courtney

By:

Ashley!

P.S: I do not own TDI, TDA, or TDWT, if I did, Duncan would be castrated right now, Gwen would be in the depths of hell, and Courtney would be nodding approvingly at me. KIDDING KIDDING xD Enjoy!

(BTW this starts likeeeee in... episode 16, kinda)

Courtney's POV:

(this is during episode 16)As I stared at him, his eyebrow doing that one-half-raised-the-other lowered, his eyes blank, devoid of emotion, I felt my heart being tugged at. It was only that at first, just a tug, and I didn't even acknowledge Alejandro as he tried to flirt with me. I had figured it out, and as the truth slammed into my chest, I felt my knees grow weak, shaken.

It was one thing to kiss Gwen behind my back, it was one thing to actually see him do it, but now... now he went too far. I immediately knew he had planned this, by that look of his I knew this was his doing, and I hated it, I hated it so much... but that was only strengthening the soft tug on my heart strings, thankfully, none had severed themselves yet.

(this is the end of episode 15 xD there, hope you understand, from here on it's go pretty much in order) I didn't flinch when he looked away, didn't even bat an eyelash when Tyler was voted off, and I didn't sit down until everyone was gone, until I knew that no one would hear or see me.

And that's when I fell to my knees, and I cried.

I still remembered so clearly, so achingly clearly the time that Heather had almost murdered me in season 1, I still remembered that my only will to live-my only reason for pulling myself out of that coma and driving myself to get better, to conquer the array of wounds that covered my body-was him. I remember the way his relief flooded him as I looked at him for the first time after I fully came out of the darkness, and I remember that skull... the skull I still had safely tucked away in my purse with the rest of my luggage, being chucked to me when he left.

Now, he had slipped through my grasp.

It did hurt to admit that, it hurt a lot. But before I knew it, I could hear footsteps coming through the darkness, and I skittered into the shadows, and when the footsteps passed me, I found it to be none-other than Duncan and Gwen again. This time, I didn't choose to follow them, didn't give the effort of beating them down.

So instead, I slunk away back to first class, hiding from Heather, Cody, and Sierra as I curled up and watched the night pass, never letting my mind stray to them, or at least trying to.

When I had formed the alliance with Heather, I knew what I was getting into, but when Alejandro set his foot on our side, and began to flirt with me, I had been confused at first. Seeing an opportunity to make Duncan jealous, I had let Alejandro flirt his heart out, but when he lead me back to the loser side, and I saw that look on Duncan's face, the puzzle started to fit itself together.

The tug on my heart strings was slowly increasing, becoming persistent, but I pushed it back and instead withdrew the one thing I had managed to snatch before going back to first class, it was the one thing that would have originally brought me back here if Alejandro hadn't sought to bring me back himself.

I leaned against the door frame, pulling the wad of cloth out and gazing back at Duncan carefully, guarding myself from him with my expressionless mask.

Without hesitation, I threw the wad of cloth at him, watching as it landed perfectly in his lap, and I didn't waver my stance, expression, or eyes once as I watched him unfold the cloth curiously, then saw his expression shift slightly as he found the skull he had carved for me staring back at him with lifeless eye-sockets. He looked back up at me, confusion etched across his facade now.

As I turned away from Alejandro, shooting him a glare to let him know I knew his plan, I whispered over my shoulder at Duncan,"It belongs to her, now." Silence. Complete silence as I walked away, not daring to look back to see his expression now.

TIME SKIP!

because I don't really wanna write the whole challenge

it would ruin parts of the episode, even if I've already

given away a lot 0.o

but yea xD

Courtney-ish POV (now):

(BTW, this is actually like right at the elimination ceremony, everyone's present this time tho, so yea...) She's looking at him now, at his face, his blank, stoic face that used to drive her crazy. Now, all it represents is pain.

He does not gaze back, oh no, nor does he glance her way when she walks in like he used to. He does not even acknowledge her presence as she takes a seat on the bench at the bottom of the bleachers, waiting, now, for who goes home, and who stays.

Her heart is being tugged at again, it's beginning to tear at some of her heart strings, but she's so persistent, so confident, now.

Confidence is all she ever had, really.

And it's not because she was born with the will to make everything perfect, precise, considering she never was born with that will. What pushed her first was her mother, always insisting she be the utmost best at everything she tried, and when that did not succeed, her father stepped in.

A cruel man, her father was, never exactly resorting to physical attacks, but somehow always tearing down her walls, bit by agonizing bit, with his words. They were so precise, so poised as to believe that he had stayed up the whole night thinking over each dagger tipped word, each poison laced sentence.

She'd eventually gotten so tired of that, rubbed raw by it all, that she gave in. Courtney actually gave in. And that, is where her will to make everything perfect was born. Confidence was laced in afterwards, when her older sister had actually stood up to him that faithful day way back when, when she had made a tiny mistake in her violin lesson while he was watching, and he had belittled her and dismissed her so easily at first, until her sister stepped in.

That was the first time her father had struck one of them.

Before she could venture deeper into her scarred past, Chris called her to go vote, and as she stood, she barely caught Duncan's hand reaching for Gwen's. Her heart strings ripped a tiny bit more, but she walked away to the bathroom, shut the door, and did what she knew she had to, stamp Gwen's picture.

As she came back into elimination room, she decided to stand and watch, leaning against the wall, she did not make a sound, did not let the flames lapping at her heart-so persistently now!-bring on tears, she only observed.

Alejandro tried to woo her, but she ignored his advances again, staring off at nothing as she waited. For what, she already knew, but didn't wish to be proved right. (OHOHOH and btw like... I changed the elimination for this episode, so it wouldn't ruin everything, so yea xD)

The ending result of the elimination ceremony was Gwen: 3, Duncan: 2, with Courtney ending at 4. She did not flinch, did not feel the rush of tears as she walked towards Chris holding the parachute. She only noted Duncan and Gwen's smug expressions.

She gazed out at the sky as it floated past her vision when Chef opened the door, holding it for her with a somber expression, he had been a fan of her and Duncan, and hated seeing this. She nodded quietly at him, and turned around to gaze at her old team-mates, most of them stared back at her with smug faces as well, all except for Sierra, who held a sad frown and drooping eyes, mouthing 'I'm sorry' to her.

She nodded curtly, then finally, finally, settled her gaze on Duncan.

She watched him for what seemed like ages, but was only a few seconds, first his chest-that chest, oh, that chest that she had rested her face on so many times as they spent the night together-, then his mohawk-oh, that green thing that used to drive her so crazy when he refused to shave it off, but now she had gotten used to running her fingers through it, she missed the feel-, and finally-she was stealing herself-, his eyes.

She studied them, looking for something-anything!- that would note his sadness at her being voted off.

But when she chose to look deeper, just one last time, she saw something that made her gaze more wary, her muscles around her heart tighten. She watched the expression in them for a second longer, before it clicked.

It was so idiotic to her at first, she almost brushed the thought aside.

But as she looked at him, her vision wary, for once, her guard taken down, misplaced, she saw it in those eyes. Those achingly, beautiful teal blue eyes that had once stared at her with so much affection behind closed doors.

Those eyes that she now realized always had held a mask. A mask unlike hers, for her mask, which was carefully tweaked and strained and fit so snugly on her face now whenever she chose to hide from people, was still only half filled in. But his, oh but his, was full and smooth, it escaped her how for so long she had never noticed that simple masked lining, that cover.

That fake presence that had always been there, but she had never noticed until now. Until it was too late.

Now, she saw through that mask, and into the real Duncan, the Duncan she had thought about so many nights when they were apart, the one she had ached for, the one she had worried for when he was gone this season, that Duncan was his mask.

And when she saw through it, she realized everything in that one moment. That achingly long, horrible moment of him staring at her as she stared back at him, his fingers laced through Gwen's, and the only thing that came to her mind, then, were three, soft, yet somehow dagger tipped words that immediately ripped at her heart.

She spoke those words slowly, testing them almost, yet so much pain laced them, she could already feel her own mask chipping, her strong side weakening as she whispered,

"You used me."

It was as if, once she had spoken those words, a door was unlocked, a horrible, ugly door she had always avoided looking at, until now. Now, the truth stood before her, in all it's horrific presence, and instead of pushing it back behind her barrier, she grasped it and held on to it as she said again, but with more sureness this time,"You used me."

Duncan's face faltered a tiny fraction, but it was enough for her to push through that barrier and unleash a sense of... she wasn't even sure what anymore as her pupils narrowed into slits, very nearly blending against her onyx irises as she persisted,"All this time... and now I see it."

Duncan started to ask her where she came to that bright idea, before she took a step back and hissed,"On Total Drama Island, you were a teenager, a delinquent, a criminal. It used to amaze me how you could find something to like in someone like me, but now I see it, now I see you Duncan."

"And what exactly do you see?" He challenged, leaning forward and breaking his contact with Gwen, arms folding on his knees as he watched her, a volcano encountering a tornado, and neither one of them noticed anyone else, they were in their own bubble, now.

"You used me," she repeated, and he growled slightly,"What do you mean?" She took a deep breath as she saw all of it, all of his barriers down for her, though he didn't realize it.

It was finally her turn to accuse him of changing, though she realized now, he never had.

"On Total Drama Island, I was a naive girl, something you saw potential in. I first thought that potential was of the romantic kind, but now I see what you really saw...," she felt her shoulder grazing the door frame, waiting like a viper ready to strike as he replied slowly,"And what would that be."

"A toy," she whispered, and when he scoffed she continued,"I was your toy, until I got hurt. Then you must have considered me a human being, before you reminded yourself of the challenge at hand. What you used me for, Duncan, was winning. You knew I was good at leading, you knew I could get you far, you saw your opportunity, you took it." That threw him for a loop, and he gazed back at her, stumped, she knew she had caught him, finally, in her coils. She'd been waiting for this since Gwen had taken him from her, a chance at revenge.

"Gwen always liked you, ever since we all met each other on Total Drama Island, she may have liked Trent as well, but after a while, I bet you anything she started seeing you as the better catch. So she thought better of you, getting more into it during Total Drama Action, you figured how she felt, and you began feeling the same, considering I was your pawn in this game," she continued, ruthlessly, each word laced with poison, just like her fathers had been.

"When I came back, you resumed that torture, that fake relationship, knowing I would get you farther again in the game than you were last time, you knew. All of that paid off, too, didn't it? When you won. But that wasn't the end, now was it? You were having fun with this game, it was the one thing that kept you happy after having to give up your criminal ways," she found herself growling now, her anger flaring as the flames around her heart fueled it. She knew she was right, or at least she figured.

"And then, oh AND THEN. You got bored of this, bored of everything! So you quit before the game barely started this time, and it was luck that Chris found you and dragged you back. You had been thinking about Gwen, I can see it in your eyes, that whole time, weren't you?... You see, you don't even deny it," she hissed as her fists balled at her sides, his expression was flickering so much she barely kept track of it.

"When you first kissed her, you knew she was what you wanted-she wasn't me. I'm the girl that's been broken enough, that's been rubbed so raw that all I know is how to be uptight, bossy, it's how I am, Duncan. You know everything about my past, I told you, but you barely listened, faking concern, faking it all." her nails were digging into her skin as she made her assumptions, showed all of her pain as she whispered,"After all we've been through, it only took one kiss for you to take it all back, to show me what you really think of me Duncan."

She let the hurt lace her words as she barely uttered-yet she knew he heard-,"And that's nothing." The silence as she stepped out of the plane and began her dissent is what made her believe her words.

And when her parachute was unfurled, and she was floating gently down to the ground, she didn't regret it, not one bit.

But in the end, it didn't stop the tears from falling, from knowing she would never be able to see him again. But what stuck the most in her mind, was his final look as she took her fall out the plane.

Blank.

And that, was when Courtney's world, finally had enough, when it finally...

Shattered.

That... took a while to figure out how to write properly

and I'm sorry if Courtney sounds off again... I don't think I'll ever get her right x.x

I tried!

Agh, and I almost cried T.T but I promise it gets better! And it does end with Duncan and Courtney, sometime...

Promise! Cuz I hate this right now.. x.x stupid Duncan!

Anyways, tell me what you guys think!

and no flames plz, they hurt me feelers more T.T

whoever replies I love you D: not stalkery tho... xD and you guys get hugs and some tissues if you cried anddd a stuffed animal of your choice, and some cookies... ;D

~bells