CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Sidney and the rest of the dead crew ran away not long after we tried to explain that they were dead. They didn't want to hear any of it and threatened to sue us.

Ha. Ha.

I would love to see them try.

"For fuck's sake…" Rory groaned, running his hand through his hair.

I sighed. "We'll just leave them alone to make their own mistakes."

We continued our way through the forest, until something caught my eyes. I let out a horrified gasp. "Your body…"

There, strung between the trees, was Rory's bloody body. There was still a pool of fresh blood beneath the body. "What have they done to you…? And why?" The only blessing was that he was still fully clothed.

Rory swallowed, visibly shaken by the image of his body in such a state, but he quickly walked away. "It doesn't matter. It's only a body, now. It doesn't feel anything."

"Don't you want to at least get it down?" I asked. Was he hurting as much as I was? My body, too, had disappeared shortly after Luke left. "Can you help me, Edward?"

"Of course," he replied, boosting me up the tree, until I could slowly untie each of the limbs. When the body fell, Edward managed to catch it and gently lay it down on the ground. "You're really getting good with interacting with the living."

I smiled at him. "Thank you!" I still became fatigue easily and I couldn't hold on to things for long, but at least I was making progress. With a bit more time, I knew I could be as good as all the other crazy spirits.

Rory was already off in the distance by the time we finished tending to the body. I made my way over, wondering what had finally made him stop.

There, barely noticeable, was the boundary. The sun gave it a faint shimmer. It had never felt so real.

I extended my hand towards it, but felt nothing. Had I been expecting something solid? There hadn't been anything solid to touch, but something tingled my hand and travelled up my arm. I could feel the same tug that threatened to throw me back into the house. "This is so strange."

Edward pushed my arm down. "Stop that. What's strange is seeing you without a hand."

I smiled apologetically at him and allowed him to play with my fingers as Rory stomped off again, muttering under his breath. "I'm glad you're here, Edward." I didn't know what I would do if I was alone in this place or even with Rory. I would be as loony as the two nurses.

"Not as glad as I am that you're here," he replied, but his eyes were sad. "But I never wanted to share this fate with anyone, especially you. You're too good for this place. I don't want you to change like everyone else has, including me."

I pecked his cheek. "I won't. Not if you're here." He made me feel so bubbly and nice inside. It was as if…

I swallowed. I couldn't allow myself to reach that point, again. Last time hut so much. I wasn't about to hand my wounded heart to anyone unless I was sure that they would treat it right.

"Can you guys be serious for a minute?" Rory barked, glaring at us as if we somehow had a hand in his death. When had he returned? Had he ever truly left? "I don't want to have to clean my eyes every few seconds 'cause you two can't keep your hands off each other. Disgusting!"

Edward narrowed his eyes back at him. Stepping forward, he puffed out his chest. "Then perhaps you should keep your eyes off us. I won't apologise because Madi likes spending time with me instead of you. That is no problem of mine, so stop being an asshole to her."

Once again, the redhead turned on his heels and marched away, while Edward turned back to me with his shoulders slumped forward. It looked as if all his courage had all slipped away, but it was enough. He was willing to work through his anxieties to defend my honour. "Sorry, I probably shouldn't have done that."

I shook my head. "No, I appreciate it. You're doing what I could never do – standing up for me. Thank you, Edward."

His eyes brightened as he beamed at me.

With Rory actually gone and the trio out of the realm of the malicious spirits, we made our way back to the house. The sun was already beginning to set. Did time run faster as the dead?

"Let's take a shortcut."

I felt the familiar tug and ended up back in the house. 'How - ?"

"A trick you'll learn later on," he told me.

"Are you able to use it on the living?" I asked.

He shook his head. "That'll take more power than I'll ever have."

Oh well… It was worth an ask. The others were just going to have to get out another way.

"Madi…" His body suddenly pushed mine against the wall. His breath on my lips. "I shouldn't stay with you. It's getting so hard to control myself," he groaned, rubbing his face on my hair. I heard him take in a deep breath as if he was trying to take in every strand. "But I can't let you go."

My lips parted in anticipation. I couldn't tell if the desire was coming from me or a side effect of the land, but I suddenly wanted him like nothing I had ever wanted before. "Please…" I breathed, placing my hand on the back of his head and pulled him into a hard, needy kiss.

Our lips smashed into each other. His teeth nibbled on mine, until I gave him what he wanted.

My eyes fluttered closed as his hand wandered beneath my nightie and flicked a hardening bud with his finger.

"Edward!" I broke away, crying out his name. Was I still cheating on Luke? Was I still with Luke? I couldn't think. I couldn't form a coherent thought. I just needed and I needed so much. "More…"

I tugged impatiently at his trousers, wondering why foreign clothes were so complicated and why must they have so many layers? Peeling off one layer, there was another and another, while one tug had me completely naked. "H-here?" I asked, a momentary shot of shyness hit me at the thought that anyone could walk by and see, but then I remembered that only the other spirits could see us and they weren't hindered by locked doors.

So why bother?

"Do you prefer going somewhere else?" he mumbled, brushing his lips against mine, again.

I hummed, feeling distracted by his kisses, but managed to clear my mind enough to tell him to relocate into the bedroom anyway where he nearly tossed me on to the mattress. He landed shortly after me, rolling on top until his weight pinned me down.

He brushed my hair back. "You're so beautiful." And he looked at me as if he truly thought that. "Let me worship you."

My body arched, burning for him. "Take me, Edward."

He continued to kiss me as I felt the nudge between my legs. I was already wet and ready for him. Without needing anymore persuading, he entered me slowly and gently as if he was afraid that I was going to break. His hand ran along my body, lingering on every sensitive spot as if he already knew all of me.

"Madi…" he groaned, bumping into my cervix as he fully sheathed himself.

My breath came out in heavy pants. "More, Edward!"

He quickened his pace, until the two of us were clinging to the edge before release washed over us like a tidal wave – over and over again.

I never thought that I would ever be able to feel this way about another man, but here was this stranger who made my heart flutter. Why?

"Edward…" When I touched his face, his eyes opened and his half hooded brown eyes had a red tinge to them. Was it the lighting?

"Madi." He smiled lazily at me. " I…" He looked as if he wanted to tell me something, but thought better of it. He shifted us so that I was lying on top of him

"What are we?" I asked him, drawing slow patterns on his bare chest.

"Whatever you want us to be," he whispered, but his eyes seemed to be pleading me.

I didn't like that he was allowing me to set the boundaries. What if I made the wrong choice? It seemed to be the story of my life. Was death going to be any different? I had already gone to be with the man I had known for a day and my heart was ready to glide over to him no matter how hard I tried to pull it back. Hadn't I learned from my mistakes?

But the way he was looking at me, now… What was I going to say to him? He had been nothing but good to me. I had no reason not to trust him. What was I going to do?

"If you want this to be a onetime thing, I promise that I will never bother you, again. I – "

I must've taken too long thinking over his question because there was a certain panic in his voice.

"It's not that," I told him. "I just lost my boyfriend and best friend after dying. I don't know if I'm ready to be in a relationship so soon and… and…"

"What the Hell is going on here?!"

We both jumped at the sudden exclamation and turned to see Rory reappear for the third time. Was he having issues? Was death making him go crazy or didn't he realize already that this antic was extremely childish?

Rory really had no right to be outraged, right now.

Edward tightened his hold on me, glaring back at him. "I don't believe that's any of your business," he said, pulling me into a kiss to prove his point.

I sighed against his lips. Rory's protests were barely audible when Edward was holding me like this. What was it about him that made me forget everything?

Suddenly, arms wrapped around me and pulled me away from my naked lover. I was completely bare against the clothed body behind me. "Rory, what are you doing?!"

"Can't you see he's brainwashed you? You're not like this. You're not a whore! This isn't the Madi I know!" he told me.

I wrenched myself away from him, my hands covering myself as best as I could. "The Madi you know? The Madi you knew was a broken, little girl who was willing to degrade herself to satisfy your insatiable demands! I was never good enough for you. Why would you ever want someone like that?!" Angry tears welled up in my eyes. "Get out, Rory! You've long since lost all rights to demand anything of me!"

Rory was red in the face, matching the red hair he liked to sport after his rise to fame. He looked as if he was about to blow when he abruptly let me go and walked through the wall without another word.

Edward wrapped me up in the blanket and guided me back to the bed. "Don't listen to him. He doesn't know what he's talking about."

He held me as I cried and cried because I didn't know what to do with all the emotions raging inside me. I loved two men I shouldn't. One was a stranger who had no place in my heart, yet. There was no such thing as love at first sight. The other was a man who had ruthlessly stomped on my heart and left me drowning. He was also the man who thought he had the right to be upset with me for being with someone else!

I couldn't even think about Luke, now. Did that make me a bad person? There was just suddenly so much more on my plate that the problems I had before seemed so trivial.

With any good mood evaporated in a single moment, I didn't know what to do with myself. My mind wandered back to the living people still in the house. Were they still alive? Everything had gone quiet for a while.

I moodily slipped my nightie back on and the two of us looked around to see if there were still any living souls here. Luckily, we found Shelby and Dominic amongst the gaggle of spirits who were taking sick pleasure in their fear. Some of the spirits even shook the curtains and turned off the lights to make them jump and scream.

With a shake of my head, I went up to the couple to see what they were staring at. Out the window was a large mob. They had torches and pitchforks as if they were going on a witch hunt. In front of the cheering crowd was the mangled body of Agnes. Her head had been split open. The blood pooled beneath her corpse.

The poor thing should never have come here. As far as I could tell from what Sidney told us, she had not been invited back for the sequel. Did her need for fame drive her back to this accursed place? Was greed the thing that attracted the dark spirit to possess her?

"What are we going to do?" Shelby cried. Her hand covered her mouth, trying to muffle the scream that would alert the mob of their location.

Dominic let out a shaky breath. "I don't know."

"Edward, stay here. I'm going to quickly check around to see if there's anywhere else they can go," I told him, heading towards the back of the house.

He didn't say anything. His eyes were fixated on the scene below.

I wanted to check if he was alright, but I had to deal with the living situation first. I didn't have any time to lose.

First, I peeked through the back window. There were stragglers there, but nothing like the front. I also checked the basement where the tunnel was. Down there, I was immediately greeted with the sight of Matt's caved in head. The weapon had been cast aside beside the body.

"What happened to you?" I breathed.

"Shelby happened to me," a voice growled angrily from behind.

I turned and saw Matt looking as if he was about to commit murder himself. His dark eyes glinted angrily back at me. "What do you mean? Shelby doesn't seem like a person who would – "

"Oh, she did," he replied. "She likes to look all innocent and frightful all the time, but she's unstable. I know she's cheated on me more than once. It wasn't just Dominic. She's a sex addict! And after the show, it only got worse."

My eyes went impossibly wide as he continued. I would never have suspected it of Shelby, but I had also only known her very briefly. Then again, my judgment of Rory had also been wrong and I knew him since I was a child.

"And now, this!" He gestured to his dead body. "She's probably wanted to do this for a while. I should've been more careful. This house…" He let out a frustrated shout. "It's like it brings out the worst in us. All I want to do, right now, is run up there and strangle her!"

"But you haven't," I told him. "You've stayed down here. Why?"

He looked away. The anger suddenly seemed to dissipate. "Because I still love her… Even though she's cheated and lied… Even though she's k-killed… I still love her. Pathetic, isn't it?"

I shook my head. "No, it's not." I thought back to my own time with Rory. "You can't help who you love. It starts tearing you up from the inside, but you'd still go back for more because living without them feels even worse than withstanding all their infidelity and abuse."

He nodded. "It's happened to you, too. IT's Rory, isn't it? I think everyone knew that there was history between the two of you and Audrey was going crazy because of all the sexual tension."

"Yeah… But it's all in the past, now," I said. "I… It doesn't matter. Shelby and Dominic, I know that this might not exactly be what you want to think about, right now, but they're in trouble. If they don't leave, they're going to join us here in this fuckin' mad house."

"I'll help," he replied without hesitation. "I don't want them to die. Besides, I also don't want to see them flaunting their relationship if they do die here. AN eternity is pretty long, you know?"

I smiled.

Matt was a good guy.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Sorry, I didn't update last week. I was a bit swamped with work and making all my cards and wrapping presents! Updating schedule should return to normal!

Thank you Vivi H88, Mystery Angle, Brookie Twiling, Applejax XD, guest (Guest, Guest, anonymouscsifan, Guest)

Guest: Haha! I kind of do, too… I'll see what I can do :P

Vivi H88: Thank you!

Guest: I thought about killing everyone in the story, but I guess Luke can go off. Hehe… Rory deserves to suffer for a bit for breaking Madi's heart!

anonymouscsifan: Rory is turning into a puddle of green goo… And I'd love to see a season about aliens and not just in the way that Asylum had done. I'm really curious about what happened to Kit, too!

Mystery Angle: Thank you so much! I hope finals went well for you!

Guest: Hehe… Nope, Rory isn't liking this new found connection between Edward and Madi.

Brookie Twiling: Aaaah… My fingers are failing me D: Thanks for proofreading my work! Nope… Those nurses are just plain stupid… Can't imagine why they'd want to exist in an overcrowded house! Rory isn't on the right path for Madi's affection at all… He's completely lost himself on the path to advancing his career. Not a lot of good that's done him, now…

Applejax XD: I'm glad he's safe too!

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

Please, leave a review if you enjoyed this!