"It's clear you have no idea how much I love you. Sure, the money is great, but I will literally lay down and die for you. After all these years, how can you not see it?" As Nolan spoke to the other Rhea, his ghastly double remained at his side, murmuring into his ear.

What did he whisper? I sneered at the thought, the possibilities. Even as I contemplated, a dark angry energy formed around them both as a dense black mist. It contrasted the stark white that surrounded us all in the studio.

Of course, the other Rhea didn't see it and therefore didn't react to it. She only shook her head at his words. "You say that every time I threaten to leave and live my life the way I want. That's always been your way of making me feel guilty, so I stay, and we make love, and the cycle continues. But not anymore, Nolan. It ends today."

I nodded. "Yes," I whispered. Maybe like ghost Nolan, my words could somehow make it into her ears and penetrate her mind. "The cycle ends today."

Nolan gulped and sighed. "Rhea, come on now. Listen—"

I shook my head at his attempt to change her mind. She answered, "No, I'm always listening. That's all I do, but when is it my turn to start being listened to? If you really loved me or cared, you would've told me you wanted to manage Joselyn Murphy's acting career. But you didn't because that's a conflict of interest and you know I wouldn't have agreed."

"So, she told you, huh?" He dropped his gaze, but my eyes went to his bloody look-a-like hovering at his shoulder. The bridge bone of his eyebrows became more prominent, showcasing his scowl.

As the couple continued arguing I glanced behind them at the door that led to the hall and the adjacent apartment.

With the mere thought of the apartment, the environment changed, and I found myself in the kitchen next to the bar counter. I glanced around the space, taking it in. The low lights set the warm tone and for a second I wondered how I had made the transition and what it signified.

I couldn't think long as the traces of sweet wine entered my nostrils, briefly distracting me. I glanced at the floor where cherry red stained the grout of the tiles, reminding me of two things; the shattered bottle of the tampered liquor, and the liquid that pooled around my head as I had lay on that very floor.

My gaze snapped to the hefty diamond shaped trophy on the counter with my name and the words "top multiracial fashion influencer" etched on the glass. An idea popped into my mind. If Nolan couldn't see the trophy, he wouldn't use it to hurt her.

From the other room, my voice reverberated through the space before reaching my ears. "I'm calling my mom and telling her I'm finally coming home, because I'm not staying here one more night."

"Are you serious?" Nolan's voice grew aggressive as it trailed my voice from somewhere outside of my immediate space. "You'd reconcile with that woman after the things she's said about you, us, and your career? She wished ill on you for choosing the path you chose."

"I'm sure she'd be forgiving knowing I'm choosing a different one now." There was a short pause before my familiar voice continued. "Give me my phone, Nolan."

"I can't let you make that mistake. You'll thank me later. Trust me."

I remembered. Nolan had taken my phone and placed it in his pants pocket. And if my memory were right, he and she would enter this room at any second. I kept my eyes on my goal, readying my hands to push the trophy from the counter before they made it to the room.

Inches from the heavy glass on its shallow pedestal, I pushed my hands toward the trophy. It wobbled on its stand before my hands went through it completely. I gasped at the progress and prepared myself to try again. Never one to give up on the first, second, or third try. To my surprise, instead of the other Rhea and Nolan entering the space, bloody Nolan interrupted my process instead.

"You're wasting your time." His voice startled me, and I froze, staring into the two dark holes in his head where his steel blue eyes should have been. "The outcome is inevitable, baby. Don't try to fight it."

Before I could respond, the couple entered the space.

"I can't believe you're doing this," the other Rhea told Nolan who followed behind her.

In a nonchalant manner, he said, "You know I know what's best for you. Have I steered you wrong yet?"

"So ridiculous," I murmured, amazed that her lips matched my words as if she whispered them at the same time. She rushed around the room searching for her shoes while Nolan stood near the counter in the same spot his ghost hovered. He and his likeness crossed their arms, synchronizing their movements and unnervingly merged into one. The handsome, vibrant parts of him quickly faded into the gloomy, malicious man he had always hid away.

"Where are you going?" He sneered at her. "You're seriously not leaving. It's late and dark out there, Rhea. You can't go anywhere by yourself. Crazed fans exist, you know?"

She mimicked him and crossed her arms. "So, what are you gonna do? Hold me hostage?"

"I intend to protect you," he said matter-of-factly. "That's my job. That's what you hired me to do."

She paused, her eyes intent, sure, and unwavering. "I hired you as a manager to manage my career and I trusted you as a boyfriend to love me like I deserve, and now because you failed at both, you're fired." When those words left her mouth, I felt her power surged through me, and it felt good to hear her say what I'd been feeling for so long. I stared at Nolan just as she did and her and I both declared, "You, Mr. Nolan Hudson, are fired from ever again being associated with Rhea Patel or her likeness."

He pinched the bridge of his nose and sniffed, but what caught me off guard was the other Nolan who stepped forward. His eyebrow bridge had become even more prominent to form the beginnings of what looked like horns, making his facial features as deep-set and dark as any evil villain.

I gasped and backed up. "Stay away."

"Never." He continued to move forward, prompting me further from the trophy. "You." He bared his teeth like a wild and rabid beast. His even pearly whites where no more as what emerged from his receding gum-line were rows of sharp and rotten bone. "You've been a naughty bitch," he growled.

Before I got too far, I rushed toward the trophy. Like the wine bottle before, I pushed it, but instead of toppling to the ground it wobbled violently instead.

Everyone in the space paused and watched the award teeter back and forth on the edge of its base. The silence was so loud I could hear the soft plink-plunk sound of the glass. Momentum finally urged it over, and when it came crashing down, everyone jumped back with a collective gasp.

The trophy didn't shatter into a million pieces like I had expected, but rather, the glass simply remained intact.

"What?" I said aloud, but only ghastly Nolan seemed to hear me.

Did this mean I had changed the cycle? Would this lead to a new outcome?

Before I did anything else, ghostly Nolan turned to his handsome self. "End this," he demanded. Nolan's bright blue eyes widened, and that's when I knew he had recognized his demon.

While they were distracted, I turned to Rhea. "Run!" I screamed.

She shook her head at the splintered trophy. "I'm done with this." As she turned to leave, Nolan grabbed her ponytail, stopping her in her tracks.

"You're not going anywhere," he snarled.

Her and I both yelped. She reached behind her to pry his hands from her hair to no avail. "What are you doing? Stop, Nolan. Let me go."

"I can't do that." His eyes were on his ghost as he tugged her hair, causing her to fall back onto her ass. Her hair brushed her shoulders as it fell from the ponytail. A chunk of long red strands hung from the elastic band in his fist.

An icy shock hit my system from being forced to experience the tragedy unfold again. Even though I viewed it from a different perspective, it affected me just as much as the first time. Even her pain and fear overtook me.

But what was most interesting is the shock on her face when she looked at me. Her brown eyes glistened with tears as they locked onto mine.

Nolan's ghost got Nolan's attention by pointing to the trophy lying on the floor and with one fluid motion, the dark ghost mimed his request by sliding his thumb across his neck from one ear to the other. But most frightening was that handsome Nolan obeyed.

I pointed to the apartment door and instructed Rhea to, "Go, Rhea! Get out of here."

She managed to get to her feet, but Nolan had lifted the trophy in one hand like a baseball he readied to pitch.

I put my hands up to stop him. "No!" But he looked straight through me.

She turned just as the diamond shaped glass left his hand to impact her temple before clanking to the ground.

I grabbed my head from the pain as I watched her go down like a feather. But instead of lying there and staring up at the man that had called her his everything, she crawled on her belly toward the bloodstained award on the ground ahead of her.

Bright red blood gushed from the wound on her temple, and I pressed my palm against the painful indentation on mine, feeling the cold liquid pour over my fingers.

"Oh, fuck," Nolan whispered through trembling lips. "What have I done? Rhea, baby?"

His dark, eerie ghost followed her as she crawled across the floor. The look on his face was one of satisfaction as he hovered over her, waiting for her to take her last breath.

The excruciating pain brought me to my knees. And at the same time, she stopped crawling and collapsed to the floor. But none of us could take our eyes from her, as if expecting something extraordinary to happen next.

Just as her breathing stilled her, another phantom figure that resembled me squirmed beneath her. I wasn't the only to see it, ghastly Nolan saw it too.

"Come back to me," he hissed, encouraging the phantom to emerge. "Yes, come to me."

Confused, I looked down at the blood on my palm only to realize I could see straight through my hand. I was fading, and the other Rhea was too as the body lay on the tile floor in a growing puddle of red.

From the distance ... a sound.

"Eyes wide open."

"Stop!" I cried and Nolan's dark figure turned to me. "This stops now!" I howled, shaking the foundation I kneeled on.

Just then, the other Rhea lifted her head from the red puddle beneath her. 

~~~

What do you think this means for Rhea?

Is any part of this chapter confusing to follow?