CHAPTER TEN

I had had enough of this talk of murders and murderers. Why did I allow John to choose the venue? He was always the boring one. It's not his fault that he didn't know what a good party would look like, but this one really took the cake. All those people at the table were absolutely mad, including James March.

As I was about to fling open the door, two arms wrapped around my waist and turned me around. "Now, that is very rude of you. Haven't I been a good host?"

I blinked several times, feeling unusually disoriented from that mere motion. My vision blurred and it was as if everything was still moving around me.

"Alright, so I may have put something in your wine. I needed to make sure that you were going to stay and have fun." He leaned down. "You know how much fun I can be."

I weakly tried to push him away. "L-Let me… Let me go." Why had I even considered seeing him, again? He was crazy. And if he wasn't, then he was a dead serial killer. Any way I looked at it, he was bad news.

"Come here. Don't make me hurt you. I'd really hate to leave any permanent marks on you, my dead," he purred, tightening his grip on my arm.

I had no choice but to allow him to take me back to the table like a sacrificial lamb.

"Can we play with her, now?" Ramirez reached over, but James smacked his hand away.

"She is not for you," he hissed with narrowed eyes before smiling at the other man. 'But fear not. I do have a gift for all of you. Miss Evers!"

Sobs filled the room as another woman was brought in. She was sat down similarly to me, but they tied her to the chair, preventing her from leaving.

I tied to stand up, again, but stumbled over my own feet and fell sideways into my brother who let out a low groan. He was in the same groggy state as I was. "John…"

My eyes fluttered. It was so hard to stay awake. The sobs and screams grew further and further away. The hyena-like laughter was nothing but a minor disturbance.

A hand fell on my head in his lap. I was so tired and it was so comfortable here.

…

My eyes snapped open and I found myself lying naked in bed with John beside me. He was sitting up, rubbing his eyes, muttering to himself. His bare back had fresh scratches near his shoulders.

"What happened, last night?" It was something I had to ask, but I feared what he was going to say.

"I don't know." He shook his head, refusing to look at me. "Fuck… Were we drinking?"

It felt like it. My head was pounding. When I rubbed my eyes, makeup was still there. As I tried to remember the night before, there was a strong hint of fear. Bloodcurdling screams and a roar of laughter. There wasn't much more than that.

Spotting the torn red dress, I felt sick. Our clothes were haphazardly thrown around the room. We were both completely naked. I had no delusions that what we had done last night was appropriate for siblings, but we were both inebriated to the point where we had no memories of what happened last night. I was also on birth control. Things could always be worse. One of us could've died. "We could pretend that this never happened," I told him.

He finally turned to look at me. "There… We might not have done anything. There's not enough evidence – "

"Evidence?!" I cut him off. "We're both in bed naked. I'm not even going to tell you how fucking sore I'm feeling. What other evidence do you need?! We fucked up, John, but I don't want this to damage our relationship. I don't want to lose you. Can't we just forget that any of this happened?"

"How?"

"I don't know… Time?" But at least it was something to work towards because I didn't want this hanging over my head for the rest of my life.

He slid out of bed and I quickly closed my eyes, while he got dressed. His suit was heavily creased as he wordlessly left the room.

I got ready not long after, giving Kaden a call that I wasn't going to be able to make it to work. He sounded concerned, but I had no intentions of telling him what had happened.

My feet took me up a floor to James March's room. Something was telling me that he had answers, but I was afraid of what I may find.

As I paced the hall in front of Room 78, flashes of memories came to me. I was here last night for a Hallowe'en party, or so John had told me. We had gone in to discover the most boring party I had ever seen. There were only a harmful of people with martini glasses and a couple of bottles of wine. It was too stiff.

I couldn't recall what the food tasted like or whether there was even any food. All I tried was a few sips of old, expensive wine. It was good, but something was wrong. The people there, they were –

"My! My! What did I do to gain the honour of having you in front of me, my dear?" James March looked exactly the same as always. He wasn't behaving as if anything had gone wrong the previous night.

When I didn't reply, he stepped to the side and invited me in. "Why don't we discuss whatever is on your mind? We can get comfortable and relax with a glass of wine."

"No!" I shouted, causing him to blink in surprise. "No wine, but I do have some things to ask you." I wasn't sure why I was so adverse to the wine. There wasn't really a good reason, at all.

He smiled. "Of course! Please, make yourself at home."

"Thank you." The room was just as I remembered, but there were no traces of the party. It almost seemed as if it never happened. The maid must've worked very hard.

The maid… What was her name?

Ms. Evers?

The woman had never introduced herself to me before, but I must've heard it from someone.

"Miss Lowe?" He looked at me with concern. "Are you feeling alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine," I told him. "Last night must've been wild. I don't remember much of what happened. I was wondering if you could tell me."

"Yes… Last night…" He smirked. 'You had a little too much to drink. Both you and your brother are very interesting drunks. You were shouting and hallucinating. Quite a scene for all my other guests, but I can assure you that we all had fun."

I blushed. I could believe that of myself, but John would never have let go enough here to have fun. James was not telling me everything. "How did we end up back in our room?" Especially in the state that we were in.

"The two of you were still capable of walking by the time the party was over. I was quite impressed," he told me. "But I followed along to make sure that nothing untowardly happened to either of you."

I suppressed a frustrated groan. I was rubbish at this interrogation business. If only my brother was here instead. "Just tell me what is going on, James! I feel like I'm losing my mind here!"

He threw his head back and laughed. The absolute nerve of him!

"You're never going to give me a straight answer, are you?" I hissed, tired of his antics. His little party had just ended up with my brother and me committing a taboo. Was this all part of his game?

When he looked back at me, his eyes were dark and absent of all mirth. "If you'd start looking at what is in front of you and accept the truth, then you wouldn't have to keep coming to me for answers." He pulled me up by my arm, making me stumble into him. "Do you think I enjoy this?" he snarled. "You make me suffer everyday because your tiny little brain cannot handle the truth. Open your eyes, my dear. Maybe you'd stop being so confused for once."

I wrenched myself away from him, my eyes wide and my heart slamming in my chest. "Fuck you! You're just a psychopath! Don't ever come near me, again!"

I ran as quickly as I could away from him, ignoring the burning stare that seemed to follow me everywhere. I couldn't believe that I was actually beginning to warm up to him!

As I was hurrying down the stairs, the blonde haired woman was ascending them with a sort of grace that made me stop and stare. Her dark red lips spread into a small smirk.

"I hope you're enjoying your stay," she purred. "Nothing strange has happened, has it?"

My feet slowed to a stop. I found myself entranced by her as she reached out and gently brushed my cheek. Who was she?

"I am the owner of the Hotel Cortez," she went on before leaning down to press her lips on mine. "James March was the old owner who no longer resides here nor in your mind."

My eyes had closed at one point because when I opened them again, she was already gone. Had I imagined the entire encounter? Who was that mysterious woman? She said that she was the owner, but she never mentioned her name. Why had she kissed me? There were endless questions that I had no clue of where to even start searching for the answers.

"Is there something you needed, my dear?" the bald receptionist… The name took a little longer to recall, but I eventually found it. Liz Taylor. "Madison?"

"I'm fine," I told her. "I…" What was I doing? Why had I gone downstairs?

"Do you want me to call… him?" she asked.

I shook my head. "No need to call my brother." As I walked back up the stairs, I had a feeling that perhaps she hadn't meant John. There was someone else, but I couldn't remember. It was as if I was missing bits and pieces of my life. What was happening to me? What was causing these memory lapses?

I took my phone out and began to flip through the most recent calls and photos. John was the predominant subject. There were a couple of Liz and several of an unknown male. He didn't seem to be aware that I had taken photos of him. I also couldn't recall doing it. Perhaps I had lent someone my phone? Was it John, but for what purpose? A case?

A dull ache formed at the centre of my head. Something was wrong with me. As I was about to call John, he suddenly appeared in the room looking like a haggard mess.

He tossed his coat on to the chair and the key thrown on to the mattress by my feet. He sat down with his head in his hands.

My own problems were temporarily pushed away at the sight of his despair. "John, what happened? Are you alright?" I wrapped my arms around him from behind and rested my cheek on his back.

His entire body stiffened at my touch, but he didn't push me away. I wracked my brain for the cause, but could only recall the sense of dread and guilt in the morning. Hugging was nothing foreign for us. I didn't know what happened that made him react this way. It was as if I knew it, but like a vivid dream that managed to slip away. The past five years felt that way and there was no rhyme or reason for it. I could only hope that my being a user in the past wasn't finally catching up to me.

"He didn't believe me… I told him about James Patrick March and he didn't believe me! He thought I was crazy... He thought I wasn't qualified, so he fuckin' fired me!" He was shaking with anger as I listened to him, but there were so many questions swimming around in my head.

"Who's James March?" It was the first thing that I blurted and it made him freeze, but I thought it was a logical question. Why would he expect me to know someone from one of his cases? I hadn't snoop on all of his files.

"What do you mean who's James March?" He turned to me with a frown. "You know exactly who that is. He helped us find Scarlett, you stayed a night with him, and we saw him last night with the rest of those fuckin' copycat serial killers!"

I shook my head. "I don't remember much from last night. I probably drank too much."

He sank his fingers into my shoulders. "No! Don't let them get into your head! They were there. They drugged us, Madison! Don't you remember?! Don't you remember any of them?"

His words confused me, but the panic came up, nonetheless. Something told me that he was telling the truth. He had no reason to lie to me about this. Not only that, if I had spent a night with this James March somewhere, I would've remembered that.

"Don't you remember?" he whispered. "I'm not crazy."

"I know you're not." I placed a hand on his cheek. "I think something weird is happening to us. Someone is playing with us because I know we can't both be going crazy at the same time."

I sank into his arms; holding on to the only thing that I knew was real. I really wanted to believe my own words because he had always been my sanity. He kept me grounded when I was in my own delusions. I couldn't afford for him to lose himself. Even if I tried myself to support him, I knew that deep inside, I still wasn't as strong as I wanted to be. "Don't let me go." Deep inside, I was still the same weak and lost girl.

"I won't," he promised. His voice was low. His lips lingered on my forehead. His hand trailed down my body.

"John, what are you doing?" I gasped when he buried his face into the crook of my neck.

He bit me, nibbling on the sensitive skin, until I was leaning against him, again. "John…"

"Tell me I'm not going crazy," he groaned, shifting me over until I was sitting on his lap.

I obediently did as he bade, distracted by the feel of his hands. There was still a part of me that knew this was wrong. He was my brother. This was one of the biggest taboos, but whatever he was doing didn't exactly feel foreign. I allowed myself to enjoy his touch for a moment longer before putting a stop to the madness we were inevitably spiralling into. "We can't do this," I whispered to him, stopping the fingers that were quickly working on my jeans. Even with the thick material between us, I could still feel his arousal rubbing against me.

He didn't say anything back. Instead, he pushed me on to the bed and moved his lips on top of mine.

My heart was racing in my chest. Something about this was so exhilarating, but we couldn't continue. We were going to regret it in the morning. "Stop, John… Stop!"

As if I had found an off switch, he fell heavily on top of me and remained motionless, except for his heavy breathing.

Neither of us knew what to do next. Our blood was still racing through our veins from all the adrenaline.

Eventually, fatigue set in and my eyes drooped closed.

…

James was furious. He was sitting in his room across from his wife for their monthly dinner and he knew exactly what she had done. She had promised him that one night, but in a short moment, she had taken it all away, again.

"How are you enjoying your meal, darling?" He was gritting his teeth as he watched her elegantly cut the carrots on her plate.

She smiled at him as she always did, with nothing in her eyes. This was like a monthly chore for her and he was beginning to feel the same.

Gone were the days where he worshipped her for her passion and ruthlessness. Now, she was just cold. She was already dead inside, which was ironic since he was the one dead.

"It's fine," she replied. "You look as if you wish to say something to me."

He stared at her for a long time. "Of course! I can never tire of expressing my love for you!"

They both knew that this was a charade. Since he died, their entire relationship had become a charade. He had wanted so desperately to cling on to the life he had envisioned all those decades ago. He still did. That was why he still had those dinners, but Elizabeth wasn't the one he wanted across from him anymore.

Instead of the frosty blonde, he wanted his fiery brunette.

He needed to go see her.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Thank you Carrera, kai-baekyun98, BucksDoe, guests (Guest, Guest, anonymouscsifan) for reviewing!

Guest: I definitely agree! I loved that episode and somehow… it turned out that way… I hope this chapter is better! Thanks so much for being honest! Your feedbacks are really the only tools I have to improve on my stories.

Guest: Haha! Your identification always makes me smile! I hope this chapter wasn't too confusing for you because writing it confused me a little!

Carrera: Thank you!

kai-baekyun98: Here it is! I hope you like it!

anonymouscsifan: Oops… Were you hanging there for too long? Do you still have feeling in your arms? I'm so happy that you caught the phoenix reference (of course you would)! James and Madi's relationship will hopefully start clearing up, soon. I'm still trying to plan out when that will happen, but I wonder if this chapter gave some not-so-subtle clues! And I apologise, but this story will definitely have some brother and sister taboo in it. I don't know how it happened, but I can't get rid of the notion from my head. It'll probably pop up every once in a while in the series (and probably a lot of my near-future stories). I really don't know how this ended up happening to me… And now me putting it on your guys…

BucksDoe: Hahaha! Yes, sexy time will definitely happen in the future for this story and this series! Regarding Maze Runner, my favourite character is most definitely Newt. I haven't read the books, yet, even though I own them (I really need to start on that because I heard of how different the books and movies are!). I've had a few spoilers from reading fanfiction on the series. If I do start a one-shot or story on it, it will be after finishing up my Crimson Peak fanfic because that has been unintentionally dragging on too long, but that only has two more chapters. What about you? What is your favourite character?

Thank you as well to everyone who has favourited and followed this story.

Please, leave a review if you enjoyed this chapter or if you have any questions!