The ghostly redhead had faded as the other Rhea lifted herself from the floor to crawl. I watched in awe as she fought to slither along the white tiled floor toward the apartment door. Would she make it beyond the threshold, to the photo studio, and out the front door of the building like I imagined was her goal?

Nolan's attention remained on his ghost as the dark figure hovered near the bar counter. His deep voice instructed Nolan to, "Get rid of her phone," and relied on a bad attempt of sign language to get his point across. Deep-set hollow eyes receded in his head. The look of utter anger exuded from the entity. "As long as you do what I say, you'll be fine."

It was amazing that the sight of him didn't scare Nolan. I imagined he had grown well acquainted with the figure as it represented all that he truly was but kept hidden from the world. It didn't surprise me at all that the most handsome and successful can hold onto such ugliness on the interior.

So many girls looked at Nolan as the perfect man, companion, and lover, but like me they were looking at him from inside a neat little bubble. Nolan had ejected me from that bubble quite harshly me from that bubble, and soon our fans, family and world would see

I too had an ugliness that consumed me. The fragile, naïve, girl afraid to use her voice or speak out when needed. And look where that led me. But now I was determined to make sure that version of me spoke up today.

While the two Nolans tried to communicate with each other, I went to Rhea's side. "Come on," I encouraged. "You need to get out of here." Her attention was on the blood pouring from her head and down the side of her face. I wasn't even sure she knew I was there, but I instructed her anyway. "Move faster, Rhea. You have to get out of here."

As I reached out to help pull her along, the transparency of my hand revealed the bright red pool of blood on the floor beneath her. Why was I fading? From what I had put together, I thought I would remain in the misty realm only if my physical body died. So why was I disappearing if Rhea and my physical body was still alive. Whatever was happening it was clear that I didn't have much time to figure it out.

Rhea collapsed again as her hands slipped on the growing puddle beneath her. It was then that I saw the phantom within her struggling to push itself up as well. It resembled me in every way, including the weightless strands of hair surrounding her injured head. If Rhea dies, will the phantom within her replace us both? Would that begin a new cycle, the final cycle as Nolan suggested?

"Get up." I tried to nudge the collapsed body but like every time before, my hands went straight through. Neither Rhea or her phantom acknowledged me or my efforts. In fact, it was as if I was invisible to everyone in the room.

Getting as close as I could, nearly mimicking her on the floor, a wave of relief briefly washed over me to see the subtle movement of her torso rise and fall with her breaths. She slowly blinked her eyes as if each time would be her last. Was she on the verge of giving up? Knowing myself, I was convinced she would just lie down and let her life drain. She had to know she still had a chance, and she had my support. I still existed for a reason, and that reason was to get her out of this hell.

I needed to do something to get her attention. I looked around for anything that could help. And while the Nolans continued to struggle with their communication and remain distracted, I worked on the splintered yet intact trophy.

If I can bring attention to it, maybe Rhea would see that she still had some fight left in her.

Again, I tried moving the heavy glass with my fingertips. I concentrated on the texture of it, imagining how it should feel on my fingers and how much effort it should take to slide it along the tiles. I concentrated so hard, my wounded temple throbbed and radiated heat.

"Come on," I whispered, mostly to myself. But Rhea's eyes snapped open and stayed fixed on nothing in particular. "Yes, yes. Come on." My eyes shifted from Rhea, to the Nolans, then back to the cracked diamond shaped glass.

The abrupt cold, smooth surface registered on my fingertips, and I grew excited. In the distance, the sound of my elevated heartbeat could be heard through the matching beeps of the hospital monitor. I didn't let it sidetrack me in my goal, but the distant beeping and my attempts seemed to grab the dark, grim figure's notice.

"Stop her!" His deep haunting voice shook the very space around us, but only I was thrown off balance.

His wafer-thin figure rushed toward me, but I managed to push the trophy before he tackled me and pinned me down.

"Run, Rhea!" I called out from beneath the ghoulish figure. I wasn't sure if she heard me or not, but she pushed herself up from the floor to get on her knees. Her sights on the trophy a few feet ahead.

Although handsome Nolan was nothing but when he quickly pulled the phone he took from her from his pocket and tucked it under the mattress of the bed. I screamed, watching him hide her quickest way to call for help and panicked at the reasons why he would want to.

I wrestled with his dark twin, trying desperately to free myself from his powerful grip. His angry scowl looked more like disappointment, especially when he cried, "Why are you making this difficult?"

I shook my head, not wanting to stare into his hollow eye sockets for too long. "I'm not gonna let her lie down and die for you."

"It's already done, Rhea. Stop trying to fight it." He turned to look at Nolan as he stood near the edge of the bed, frozen as he watched Rhea struggle to make it passed the open door.

"What have I done?" The fear and uncertainty in his shaky voice angered his dark companion. "Stop her!" he growled. "End this, you coward."

Startled, Nolan rushed forward toward the slowly crawling woman he claimed to love and respect for so many years. "I have to do this. For us," were his last words before rushing to her side and slipping on the trail of blood he tried to hop over.

As he went back, the thud of his head hitting the floor tiles rattled in my chest. "Rhea, run!" I called.

Ghastly Nolan squeezed my wrist so tight I was sure he would snap them from my phantom body. I screamed in pain, as his face came inches from mine. "You're ruining this. Stop trying to save her. It's pointless." He forehead came down on mine like a hammer, sending a sharp pain through my temple. I lay on the ground, surrounded by dark fog, with no intention of fighting to get up through the pain.

I only imagined Rhea felt the same.

Eerie Nolan hovered over his handsome likeness as he cradled his head groaned in pain. "You're a bloody failure. You don't deserve her for how you perform. Look at you, worthless." His face contorted into a mixture of evil, anger and disappointment. "All you had to do was what I told you. How can you be such a failure. You're not focused. What are you doing?"

Nolan squirmed on his back in the blood and reached inside his pant pocket to retrieve his cell phone. Instead of calling anyone, he ran his thumbs along the text pad.

While his ghost continued berating his physical self, I lay silently and watched as Rhea pushed herself from the bloody puddle to stand. I didn't make a sound as she bent to gather the trophy in her arms.

"You want to lose her?" Ghost Nolan went on, even kneeling to get closer and demand attention from his likeness. His focus solely on his pathetic physical self. "Have I steered you wrong, you bloody loser. Get up. Get up now and finish this."

I held my breath in anticipating as Rhea, stained in her own bright red blood from head to toe, shuffled toward Nolan and lifted the trophy.

"W-wait." He looked up at her and put his hand up. "Rhea, baby?"

His dark ghost stood and pivoted in the most unnatural choreography. "No!"

And down came the hefty, beautiful diamond shaped trophy. Somehow it managed to bounce off Nolan's head and onto the floor next to him. The impact instantly took him out and judging by the amount of blood spewing from his thick hair and trickling from his ears, he wouldn't be waking up.

With his ghost gone, I sat up, wondering what this meant. I was still here, the Nolan were gone, but something didn't feel right.

Rhea dropped to the floor next to Nolan's body and the trophy. The amount of blood over the tiles and splatters along the walls and furniture turned this once cozy apartment into the sight of a massacre.

Confused, I stood to get a closer look. She couldn't just collapse and die? And why would Nolan's ghost disappear upon Nolan's death? It wasn't until Rhea groaned in pain that a wave of relief washed over me. She was weak and losing blood but was still alive.

It wasn't until she reached for the trophy and let out a painful growl, that I realized why she sounded so defeated. The trophy had finally split in two and red tainting both pieces. But it was what was beneath the phone that made me realize this nightmare was nowhere near over. The trophy had somehow landed on the cell phone, her direct link to help, crushing it.

~~~

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