CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

I stared blankly at the scene in front of me. Matt was sitting at the kitchen table with mouth hanging, while Rory was on the floor, rubbing his lower back. The brunette nurse was smirking down at him and I wondered what they were doing together.

Rory caught my eyes and tried to stand up, but hit his head on the table and let out a groan of pain.

Beside me, I could see Edward shaking his own head. "Come on." He wrapped his arm around my waist and led me away from the trio. I really didn't want to think about why the nurse was there, especially after seeing what they had done to his dead body, but what did it mean?

One moment, he was fondling me, while he thought I was unconscious, the next moment, I see him with that murderous slut. Why was he giving me mixed signals? I knew we weren't together anymore, but if he'd stop playing with my feelings, it'd be much appreciated. It felt as if he still thought we were still in the same situation as before.

He was being his silly self, maybe a bit seductive and then, he'd have his trysts on the side, while I tried my best to keep him. That wasn't going to happen, again. I was going to be my own person, even if it meant having to die before I could accomplish it.

"What was he doing to you while he was in there?" Edward asked me as he walked out. It was a clear night. The moon was blood red. Was that why all the spirits were acting? Was that why I felt as if I could tear Edward's clothes again and jump in him?

I suppressed a groan, rubbing my eyes to try to clear my thoughts. I had never thought of sex so much before. It was so distracting.

"Madi?"

"Sorry. What was the question?" I asked him, shaking away the lust that was building at the pit of my stomach.

He chuckled. "Where has your head gone? I was just wondering if he did anything to you, while he was in there. I didn't expect to find the two of you in the room together."

It was strange. His voice didn't sound accusatory. He didn't seem jealous. Did he trust me enough not to cheat on him or had our relationship been so superficial that the prospect wouldn't even affect him? "Umm… Nothing. He carried me there after I helped Matt contact Shelby. It kind of zapped away all my energy. He left right after he tucked me into bed," I half lied.

Edward sighed. "You're not strong enough to channel energy, yet. If you over do it, it may be…. fatal. I don't know what happened to the spirits who had tried that over the years, but it's as if they lose themselves. They go crazy. I don't want that to happen to you, Madi."

"Don't worry." I pat his arm. "I'm fine. I was bit tried, but after some rest, I'm right as rain."

He smiled back at me. "I'm glad. Since dying, you've been the only good in my life. I don't want to lose you." He gently cupped my cheeks as we stopped by the edge of the forest. "I swear, I'll do right by you."

I looked into his dark eyes that caught the glow of the red moon. "Edward…"

"It's too soon, I understand. Don't worry about it right now. I don't want to make you uncomfortable." He led me back into the house where all Hell seemed to have broken loose. There was screaming and shouting upstairs.

We walked in further and saw a strange half naked figure in a pig mask. Whoever that was immediately made Edward wary. "Let's go."

"No, wait…" I saw a body on the floor in front of the lunatic. "Who's that?"

"Madi, let's go." He tugged my hand, but I was pulling us up the stairs. When we reached the top, I let out a gasp.

Dominic!

He was barely recognisable. His entire body had been chopped to pieces and only half of his bloody face stared back frightfully at me. The other half was lost in the mess of his other parts.

The pigman lifted his head to look at us. His large knife was poised above his head and he looked ready to charge at us.

It didn't seem as if he cared that we were already dead.

"Run!" Edward yelled at me.

We raced back down the stairs and out the door, stopping in front of the mob that was still loitering around. They jeered and shouted at us, but we ran past them and into the forest where the trees masked the madness of the cursed plantation.

"I-Is he still following u-us?" I asked, afraid to look back.

"No, we're alone," Edward replied. "It's safe, now. At least, until we bump into them, again." He plopped down on to the ground and pulled me down into his lap. "I'm sorry you had to go through that."

I shook my head. "It was my fault. I should've listened to you. Are there more like him in the house?"

"He's one of the ones who had gone a bit… mad," he told me. "But he follows the order of Scathach. She was the one who killed him and now, he follows her orders. If he doesn't, she'd hurt him. There's no escape from the pain, not when you're dead…" His eyes went downcast as I realised that he must've experienced it first hand in the past.

I kissed him. "Do they still hurt you?"

"Not anymore. They've lost interest in me. If I had been the only one just then, they wouldn't have even bothered sparing me any attention. They like to play with fresh meat before they've been… broken in." His voice was small, reminding me of a beaten child.

"You're not broken," I told him. "You're strong. Whatever they've done to you, it's only made you stronger because you're still here. You're still the same, unlike the rest of those spirits."

He gave me a weak smile and held me as the night slowly passed. The red moon became nothing but a faint trace in the sky before it was consumed by the radiance of the sun.

Oddly enough, it was perfectly comfortable on that forest ground. His arms were wrapped tightly around me and every once in a while, we'd leave random kisses on each other. I, now, knew that this relationship was more than just sex. We had a connection that could not be explained. Something was pulling me to him and I had no willpower to stop it, but this time, I wasn't going to bend over backwards for anyone. If they wanted me to change, they could go find someone else because this only meant that whatever I was feeling couldn't possibly be real. I was not going to let anyone else ruin me the way he did.

"What's wrong?" Edward whispered when he noticed me tensing.

"Nothing. We should probably go back." I didn't want to return to the house, but I didn't have much of a choice. There weren't a lot of places we could go.

We slowly walked through the forest, enjoying the peace of quiet a little longer before being greeted by a gory scene. It seemed like most of the cast were going to stay here, after all.

Monet was the latest victim. He body was impaled in the centre of the foyer. Blood was, of course, everywhere. I really hoped that we could clean this place up. I didn't want to have to stay in this pigsty for an eternity.

Was it horrible that I was already desensitised to their deaths? I wanted so badly to help them, before, but the more I heard about them… the more I saw each of them die… the more time I spent in this place… Their lives mattered less and less to me.

Was I going to end up becoming one of the crazies? I had only been here for a few days and I was already losing my empathy for these people or was it people in general?

"Hey, come back to me." Edward pulled me out of my train of thoughts and turned me to face him. "I know that look. Don't go too deep. I've lost some friends who delved too far into it and… it's not good, Madi. I'm here. Let's take things as they come, alright?"

I nodded, hoping that he was wrong. Were thoughts another enemy I had to protect myself against? I didn't think I could do that.

"Look at this mess!" Monet appeared out of nowhere, not even fazed by the sight of her own dead body. "If those bitches ever show their faces here, again, I'm going to kill them and see how they'll react!"

"The nurses?" I asked her, hoping that there weren't any other murderers I'd have to deal with.

"Nurses? Hell, no! Audrey and Lee! They were the ones who pushed me! All because I found out that Lee really did kill her fuckin' husband. That woman is an absolute lunatic!"

Lee? She seemed so calm whenever I was around. Granted, she was never in the centre of my attention. "I'm sorry, Monet."

She sighed. "Whatever. So I guess you're dead, too? I was wondering why there was so much commotion upstairs. I thought you and your red hot boyfriend were just getting into some kinky shit."

My eyes widened as I quickly denied everything and explained to her what really happened. When I was done, her eyes wandered to Edward who had been silent the entire time.

"So did Rory die in his costume or something? Or have the two of you been doing kinky shit. I mean, everyone saw how you guys were on set. Whew! I thought I was going to burst into flames." She fanned herself to emphasise her point.

"No!" I exclaimed. "It's nothing like that."

She raised her eyebrow at where our hands were still entwined.

"I'm sure that we do look quite similar, but I can you that I am not Rory Monahan and I will never be like him." His more sophisticated speech was all it took to convince Monet that the man beside me was nothing like the actor, but she took a step closer to inspect him.

"My God! The resemblance is uncanny. Are you relatives or something?"

Edward looked sad as he always did whenever his family was mentioned. "Perhaps. I never got to watch my son grow up after I died."

"I'm sorry…" she awkwardly muttered.

I frowned. Something about his story didn't quite add up. Where did I hear that his son had died and his wife shortly after? Or had that merely been what was believed after years of stories being passed down?

"Thank you. It's something I've come to terms with, but whenever I think about my wife and son, it does make me lament over them." He looked towards the stairs when his counterpart made his way down.

"Damn! Now, that's uncanny. Having the two of you in one room is making my head spin." She turned to Rory. "So did your wife survive? I don't see her anywhere."

He gave a small shrug. "I don't know. I followed the three of you as far as I could go and then, I was bounced back here when we reached the stupid barrier."

"Followed us, huh? So you weren't there when we came back to hide from those crazy hicks around here?" she huffed.

Rory shot her a confused look.

"You didn't… Well! Her and that husband-murdering Lee pushed me off that balcony and killed me! You see that body there?"

The redhead averted his eyes from the scene. "Sorry…" Everyone seemed to be apologizing a lot. It seemed like that was all we could say when we were talking to the other dead person.

As we all stood awkwardly in the room, the door suddenly burst open and two men in uniform came storming in.

The cops were finally here. Of course, they'd be too late. It was just how life was. Help always came too late.

They walked through the entire house, observing all the bloodshed that had occurred in the past few days. Most of the bodies weren't around anymore. The only missing one I had seen was Rory's in the forest. I didn't know where mine had gone. I could only hope that it would be found and when this entire thing hit the news, they weren't going to drag my name through the mud anymore than they already had.

It wasn't long before we all relocated out of the foyer. There was no point staying together as most of them were strangers to me and I never had a chance to get to know them, but Rory followed Edward and me upstairs to the outside balcony. It was then did I spot the bodies on stakes. They were burnt black. I couldn't recognize their body shapes and Rory didn't think it was Audrey, either. Could Lee be one of them? Or perhaps they were part of the production team?

We, soon, found out that neither assumption were correct. Three teenagers appeared. They were all arguing and putting the blame on each other.

Sophie, Milo, and Todd. They were going to be an interesting addition to the household.

"I told you there is paranormal activity here!" Sophie exclaimed after we explained as much as we could to them.

Todd groaned. "I rather not know and still be alive. This is so stupid."

"Hey, at least we'll never have to worry about chores anymore and we can go anywhere we want." Unfortunately, we had to burst Milo's bubble when we told them about the barrier. "Aw, man… That sucks ass!"

Despite their complaints, the three of them adapted surprisingly well to their unfortunately situation. They were exploring the house with excitement and tried to get to know all the resident spirits, until one of them killed Milo. The other two freaked out, while I tried to explain that he would return shortly. It wasn't until he reappear did they finally calm down.

Seeing that they were going to be fine on their own, we left them alone to laze on the couch in front of the old television set, wondering how long it was going to be before they cut the cable. Sidney's company was probably paying for it to keep us from all going crazy. It didn't help when we were alive, but afterwards, it was definitely useful.

We all crowded around the screen, watching the news channel broadcast our deaths. It was so strange.

And as expected, they thought I had killed myself. At least they didn't pin me for the other murders.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

This story is slowly coming to an end. Probably a couple more chapters. Would you guys like to see a Cult story? If so, what should the title be? I'm aiming for the same format of a 6 letter V word.

Thank you Vivi H88, guests (Guest, anonymouscsifan, Guest) for reviewing!

Vivi H88: Thank you!

Guest: I think Rory will forever be jealous. I personally cannot forgive a cheater, but… I guess we'll see how Madi will respond.

anonymouscsifan: Hehe… Rory getting his just desserts. Well, I mean… No dessert for him Muahahahaha!

Guest: I kinda hated how everyone just died in the show, sooooo lots of changes! Kinda… I'm not sure who she'll pick either! Madi is so fickle sometimes…

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

Please, leave a review if you enjoyed this!