He hadn't known how long it had been. To have felt some sort of feeling, a swell of pride or a laugh from joy. He had missed it so much and was growing tired of being numb to everything. What had happened; what had gone wrong? He took a slow drag from a blunt he had burning in his ashtray and thought of when he had last felt anything.

XXX

The day the show had ended he felt as though it would be the best day of his life. He had sat there lounging around the beach well into the night, his Goth beauty was by his side and his friends all around.

But nothing lasts forever, and soon something that even he himself couldn't believe was about to occur.

He watched the camera men as they packed their things and started their vans, driving away into the moonlight. Duncan gave a sigh of relief.

"Finally it's over! No more of that PG bullshit..."

He had turned to the direction of the group to find Gwen's chair empty, in fact most of the chairs were excluding Geoff and Bridgett, who sat talking to one another in separate seats instead of on one another in their usual manner.

"Where's Gwen gone!?"

The two looked up at him immediately, another uncommon thing for the two to stop their moment together to see onto someone else.

" She left about ten minutes ago with Trent saying they were getting a hotel for the night and heading home dude..''

Geoff smirked as Bridgett giggled softly.

"I guess they couldn't take it anymore after so long without bumping uglies."

Geoff laughed at her use of the words.

"What!?"

He was furious, his voice booming throughout the resort where they would no longer be residing in. Bridgett and Geoff looked at him, both shocked expressions glued to their faces. Geoff didn't understand what his problem was, so he spoke out first.

"What are you yelling about dude? I thought you wouldn't care; I mean it's all about the contrac-"

" Wait! Contract? What the fuck does my girlfriend leaving with her ex-flame have to do with a fucked off contract?!"

A thousand things were running through his mind all at once and not a thing made sense in all that time. He saw Bridgett look at the ground, finding her flip flops to be the most entertaining thing at that moment; finally Geoff spoke up.

"Duncan. Dude, I don't know an easy way to say this; I'd like to think that when we are out of this Hell hole you'd still be my bud through thick and thin..."

Geoff paused, trying to think of how to put it.

"What the fuck is going on man!? Out with it!"

Bridgett sighed before taking over the conversation, her eyes not leaving from the spot they were looking at before.

"It wasn't real Duncan, just something for ratings. All of it was in the contract we signed before coming to the Island. It was in the contract to date someone when we got here, better for T.V. I suppose."

She muttered her last words low as if she was afraid the louder it was, the harder his heart would break. She finally lifted her gaze upon him, eyes filled with pity for the poor delinquent. Their moment was disrupted by a harsh slam from the front doors of the resort. There was Courtney. She walked away from the building and onto the dock, an elder man and a boat waiting for her. The man took her duffel bag and they watched as he pulled her into a tight embrace; grabbing her hand then as he led her onto her means of escape from this place. The engine had started and the boat slowly moved; her body seemed tense as she lifted her arm in the air and threw something onto the dock with all her might. And as fast as she had come, she was gone.

He shook his head and looked back at the pair.

"So these girls just used me for face on T.V? What the Hell!? No one told me I was fucking around with some conniving little whores!"

Bridgett shook her head lightly before commenting again, her words cold and shaken.

"Look, Call Gwen what you want, But don't ever speak of Courtney that way. Courtney was the only real thing you had; the only fake thing about her was the force they put her under to stay hung up on you. All she wanted after that whole blunder between you and her, was to leave and try to get you out of her head."

She looked out onto the ocean in the direction Courtney had left, sighing as if she had just let a huge weight off her shoulders before saying her last words.

" That was real, and you ruined it Duncan."

XXX

He hit his blunt once more before he sat it back into the ashtray; watching the smoke as it slowly died away. He knew he had messed up after that night. He had just wanted to show Courtney she couldn't pick and choose things about him to keep, that he hated her rules; if she didn't take him as he was he could show her someone could.

But, how karma had a humor.

He could remember clear as day when he had searched the dock later to find what she had thrown. It was a ball of paper covering a hard object; rubber bands around it to keep it wrapped. He slowly removed them to find the skull he had made her, the DxC carved out so much there was a hole on the other side. Next was the picture they had taken, the one he had been an asshole and refused to take for the longest time. She had her lips softly pressed against his cheek with a smile on her face, his holding a bored expression as his eyes didn't even look towards the camera. He didn't know why he had acted that way now; he knew he had deep feelings for her then, but she had a way of making him feel so weak around her. He then looked to the paper that had wrapped the contents, a note with neatly scribbled writing.

'She became a cruel monster of so frightful an aspect that no living thing could behold her without being turned to stone. and so I leave her on this Island, for I do not wish for her return.'

He knew, he had broken her. He regretted it all; he wished he could take it all back, but he couldn't.

He had lost his princess and he could never change what wrongs he had done to her.

xxx

Stay tuned.