CHAPTER TWELVE
Maybe a part of me didn't want to see him after all because the moment he said my name, I knew I had flickered out of existence for him, again.
"Madi?!" He turned around in a circle as if I was going to reappear, but that wasn't going to happen. I had felt my courage slip the moment he saw me and those feelings that had left me crippled before came rushing back. How was that possible? I was so sure that I was over him.
"I can't do this… I can't do this!" I shook my head, pacing the room.
"Stop!" Edward pressed me against the wall. "I'll do it, okay? I'll talk to him. I'll warn him for you."
I swallowed back a sob and nodded my head, refusing to look at the man who thought he was going crazy.
He kissed my forehead with a small smile on his face. "Just tell me if you need help. You don't ever have to do this alone."
He was so kind, but I didn't know if it was because I reminded him of his dead wife or if he was truly this kind to help a stranger like me. Maybe he had a long time to reflect on the things he had done. Again and again, all he had were his memories of her and all the things he could've done to prevent her from dying. How would that change a person after hundreds of years?
"Rory?" Edward faced his twin.
The actor jumped. "Who the Hell are you? Where's Madi? I swear… I saw her!"
"I'm Edward Mott. I used to own this plantation and I've been stuck here ever since I died," he replied. "I'm here to warn you. There are malevolent spirits who want to kill you and unless you want to be like me, all of you should leave, now. Warn the others, too, when you get the chance."
"That's ridiculous! Ghosts aren't real!" Rory argued with a shake of his head.
"Then who am I? How did I get here?" Edward retorted. "Look, I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing this for someone precious to me. She's the one who wants you to live through this. I personally don't care. The house is crowded enough that I won't even notice you're still around."
"I just…" Rory ran his hand through his hair. "Who are you referring to? Audrey? Do you know her? How – "
"No, you fool!" Edward hissed. 'It doesn't matter. Whoever cares about you wanted me to warn you. That's all I'm going to say. Do the right thing for once in your miserable life."
With that, he jumped out of the living world and let out a frustrated huff. "He is an absolute idiot. Why would you ever care if – " He stopped when realisation must've hit him. "Oh… I thought… The other one… I'm sorry…" He looked bashfully down at his feet.
I gave him a weak smile. "Not your fault. You didn't know. Hell, I didn't even remember it until I died. I had amnesia for a while and it was the best thing that happened to me. I think no matter what happened, I was still going to die, soon." Probably better that I hadn't done it myself, while depressed out of my mind, but everyone else was still going to think that I had committed suicide. They were all expecting it to happen, anyway.
"Don't do that," Edward suddenly scolded me.
"What?" I blinked back.
"You were lost somewhere – somewhere dark where I couldn't help you. Don't do that," he explained.
I recalled that his wife had taken her own life. It was strange how similar our lives ended up. It was as if everything was replaying at different times. "I'll try… Edward, if your wife died in the house. Is her spirit stuck here as well?"
He shook his head. "She's gone. She didn't deserve to be here for all these years. Her heart wouldn't have been able to take all the blood that's been spilt. Our beautiful house…"
"I guess that's for the better." She sounded like a lovely woman.
He mumbled something under his breath before nodding. "Something like that…"
What an odd thing to say.
Dismissing it, I decided to go back to Luke. I shouldn't have left. Hopefully, he was alright. I knew that I was hurting him, again. I wished that it didn't have to be this way.
"You don't have to do this," Edward told me as we began our walk down the hall.
"I have to face this sooner or later. I'm hoping it'll help me come to terms that I'm actually dead and then I can do what I have to do to keep everyone safe." What else would shock me enough than really seeing my dead body, again?
When we arrived in the room, I was surprised to find two men shouting at each other. Was that a good thing or a bad thing?
"It's because of you she's fuckin' dead!" Luke accused. His teary eyes glared at Rory who looked as if he was on the verge of ripping his hair out. How had he gotten here so quickly? Did time pass differently as a spirit?
"I've tried to stay away from her! I didn't know she was even going to be here! Sidney had kept everything a secret. If anything, you should've been able to predict that I was going to be back for the sequel!" Rory shouted back, rubbing his already bloodshot eyes. "It's n-not as if I wanted this to happen."
"Well, it did!" Luke hissed. "You fucked up her life, went and fucked that bitch! She's been crying over you for so long. I thought that the accident had been a blessing when she forgot all about you! Now, this…"
"I know, alright?!" Rory turned around to face the wall. His eyes were clenched shut and he was breathing heavily. "You don't understand… I regret everything I had done to her. If I knew that killing myself would fix her, I would've gladly done it." He hit his head against the hard surface. "I love her, many. Even after everything. I still fuckin' loved her…"
Luke froze and went silent as the new information sunk in.
I did, as well. That had been the last thing I expected him to say. He and Audrey had always looked so happy together. That had, of course, been on camera. Had things been different in private?
Even so, the damage had already been done. My heart had been torn to so many pieces that I didn't think anything could've put it back together.
"So I've said it!" Rory went on, turning back to the shocked man. "I realised that I wasn't good for her. I thought leaving her would do us both some good, but I fucked up! It's the only thing I can do, okay?! I admit it! I'm a huge ass fuck up!
"I followed everything about her on TV, on the internet, whatever random gossip I can get my hands on. I've tried a million times to call her, but she changed her phone number. Hell, she's still in there!" He threw his mobile carelessly on to the floor to prove his point.
"Even seeing the two of you together… It hurt, but I thought, at least she's happy, again… Because that was all I wanted…" he whispered. His voice cracked as the tears finally fell.
Luke let out a breath and sat heavily on to the bed.
Silence fell around the room like a thick blanket as neither knew what to say to each other.
"I have to tell them that I hadn't done this to myself," I told Edward. It was so painful seeing them both like this.
He held his hand out to me and I took it. I reached for the sensation he had told me about and gently tugged. It flowed from his hand to my fingers and into the rest of my body.
I could do this.
For once, I had to be strong.
I needed to do the right thing.
I couldn't just bail because I was scared.
As I was about to tell them, something slammed into my side. Our hands slipped away from each other and I tried desperately to bat away the crazed woman. "Get off me!" It was one of the nurses, but I couldn't tell which one.
She had a knife in her hand. "You're not ruining my fun, bitch!" she screamed, raising the blade above her head.
"No!" I could hear Edward shout as he struggled with another spirit – the other nurse.
Even dead, I was afraid of what the knife would do to me. Would it hurt? Would I die, again? What was going to happen?
I watched with wide eyes as it descended on me. The first stab almost immediately sent me into shock. I could feel the metal slide in and come back out.
Over and over again, she slammed the knife back into my chest. By now, I couldn't even feel the pain anymore, just the impact of the force made me gasp in shock. "Go play in the darkness, little girl!" she cackled.
"No, Madi!" Edward was still shouting as my world began to dissolve around me, until nothing was left.
I was by myself in the darkness. My chest was free of any markings and the only thing left of what that mad woman had done to me was the images seared into my head.
Where was I? I looked around, but there was nothing anywhere. It was as if I was the only one left in the universe after even the sun had burnt out. Was this Hell? Was that what happened after dying as a spirit?
My feet travelled around a little. It was so strange because I wasn't stepping on anything. I thought I would be falling or floating. What kind of physics was this?
I shook my head. This really wasn't the time for trivial questions, but then again, what else was I supposed to do here? Could there possibly be some sort of exit somewhere? Maybe I had to sprout out some magic words?
No matter where I went, if I even went anywhere, there was nothing. Was this where I had to spend all of eternity? I would go absolutely mad!
Eventually, I gave up looking for a glowing green exit sigh that didn't exist and just lay down. It was then that I began to feel like I was really floating. The sensation was actually quite nice and I easily fell into my thoughts, which ended up on Edward.
The sixteenth century man must've adapted a lot in the years he was stuck in the house. I was glad that my ghostly companion didn't sprout out Shakespearean English because I was definitely not going to understand any of that. And although he looked like Rory, their personalities were like night and day. He was chivalrous and soulful. He was also a bit sheepish, but it was endearing. He stepped up at all the right times.
I wished that I could've had more time to get to know him. He seemed so weighed down by the death of his wife still. To love someone so dearly… And to still cheat on them. Why?
My thoughts suddenly changed. Rory had done the same to me. I never thought that I would ever hear that he loved me, again. Why did it have to come after death?
If he approached me before, would I have ever accepted him back? IT was hard to say. Before the accident, I had been so obsessed. He was all I knew. I had given him all my love and he still had it, until I could no longer remember him.
Luke had tried to piece my back together the best he could. Bit by bit, I knew without a doubt that I loved him, but no matter how hard I tried to suppress it, I also still loved Rory. A part of me was always going to love him and I hated myself for it.
And now, there was this man who looked exactly like him with the manners of a true gentleman.
Why was I even thinking about this? I was stuck here alone and all I could think about was my doomed love life! What was I? A stupid school girl?
Lost in thought, I barely noticed when the surrounding changed. The darkness alleviated and I was suddenly in some old, dusty place with wooden shelves and canned foods. The pantry?
I was glad to be away from limbo, but was I still at the plantation?
"Hello, I've never seen you here before." A young girl stepped out from the shadows.
"Who are you?" She had on a dirty dress that was definitely centuries old. Her pale face looked tired and sad. How did she die?
"I'm Priscilla," she softly introduced herself. "Will you play with me?"
Her long, matted red hair was slightly draped over her face with big, blue eyes peeking through. "I… What do you want to play?"
"Hide and seek?" she asked, hopefully.
That didn't seem too difficult, so I agreed.
"You'll hide, I'll seek," she told me, already putting her hands over her eyes and counting backwards from a hundred.
I immediately found myself racing up the stairs. What was I doing? I was dead and playing with a dead girl? Maybe I should've gone looking for Edward instead. Was he worried? Did he know that I was going to come back? At least I was still here where I was familiar with some things instead of that infinite black.
A new door caught my attention. I phased through and saw a body. "Oh, no… No…" The blood pooled beneath him, soaking his clothes with the memory of life left behind. "What are you doing to his body?" I cried at the two women who were touching his chest and fiddling with his pants. "Leave him alone! Have you no shame? Wasn't killing him enough?"
"Stop trying to spoil our fun!" the blonde sneered. Her hand dove into his pants and I had to look away to keep from retching. "Just because you can't have him anymore, doesn't mean that the rest of us can't."
The other one was completely ignoring me as she violated the body.
"Disgusting!" I spat. Had Rory also turned into a spirit? If so, where was he? Surely, he wouldn't allow them to do this if he was around.
"Found you!" The high pitched voice made me hump and I turned to see Priscilla with her finger pointed at me. "You're not very good at this game. I don't want to play with you anymore." With that, she was gone as if the body and what was being done to it didn't affect her at all.
Perhaps it didn't. With how long she had probably been here, she must've seen some traumatic things.
"See, even the little brat doesn't like you," the brunette finally tore her attention away long enough to cackle at me.
I threw my hands in the air and quickly left. I wasn't going to just stand around, while they raped him! Would someone be able to help me if I asked them?
As I rounded the corner, I bumped into someone. Their arms quickly caught me right before I could topple over and didn't let go until I saw them clearly. "Rory?!" I whispered, stepping back.
"Madi…" He looked sadly at me. For a moment, I could see the blood on him and all the stab wounds that took his life. "I didn't think I'd ever see you, again. I… I love you."
I took another step back, shaking my head. "How could you even say that to me after everything you've done?!" Did he think I was going to just fall back into his arms? I didn't care how genuine he may be now. He had destroyed me that first time. I'd be a fool to start that all over again.
There may be a time I could forgive him, but not now. I had to keep my heart out of this.
He opened his mouth to try to defend himself, but probably thought better of it.
"Madi?" Edward's softer voice drifted over and he wrapped his arms around me. 'I'm glad you're alright. I didn't want you to ever experience that here, but with the two of them around, we've all had to go through it a few times."
I nodded against him. "It's alright. I'm just glad that I didn't end up stuck in that darkness. It's horrible there." Even if I had to face Rory, I was so relieved to be out of that Hell hole. At least I wasn't alone with absolutely nothing, especially when it involved warm hugs like this.
Edward was a very good hugger.
"Hey, wait… wait… What the Hell is going on?!" Rory exclaimed. "I'm dead, stuck here, and there's this other guy who looks exactly like me!"
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Thank you Brookie Twiling, Mystery Angle, guests (anonymouscsifan, Guest, Guest) for reviewing!
Sorry, I'm just gonna ignore the random reviewer with a random review…
anonymouscsifan: I'm going to finish up the rest of the season tomorrow! And then I'll probably write a long blurb at the end of the next chapter xD
Brookie Twiling: I hated the nurses so much! Evvvillll! Thanks for pointing out the typos and grammatical errors!
Guest: Hehe… I'm curious about what you want to say.
Mystery Angle: Muahahahaha! Thank you!
Guest: Ha… I wonder if the other ghosts will get along with Madi…
Thank you as well to everyone who has favourited and followed my story.
Please, leave a review if you enjoyed this!