Ethan blinked and he was back in the sickeningly familiar white room.

Adonis was nowhere in sight. This made him angry. He intended to kill that bastard. Make him suffer. If only he had more time. Time was all he wanted with that sick fuck. He wanted to wipe that smile off his face and torture him the same way he tortured others. Unfortunately his time in that world ran out. 

All this for what? For popularity? Just so he could be loved? He was loved. That's all he had ever wanted. Why couldn't it just end there? He knew his time with Lance would eventually come to an end, and yet, it was almost as if part of him believed they would stay together forever. But now that world was lost... once again he allowed his heart to be vulnerable... he allowed himself to care for those who were doomed to either die or get hurt because of this stupid plot. And in the end, the person he was hurting the most was himself. He didn't remember who he was anymore, what kind of person he had become. He couldn't... he couldn't do this anymore... it wasn't fair. Why did he agree to this?

If he had just accepted his fated death, accepted his pitiful existence, none of this would of happened... Lucas, Charlie, Ben, Miles, Cyrus, Lance... none of them would of gotten hurt. If he kept going like this, only more and more people would get hurt. More would die. Their deaths would be on his hands.

A pair of heels echo around the room and stop in front of Ethan. Cara. She bends down in front of him, her slender hand cupping his chin and bringing his face up to hers. Her long golden hair, her slim figure, her sculpted face. What he once thought of as beauty, now made him scowl with disgust. She smiled at the sight of his scowl, and that only proved that her beauty was laced in poison. If her appearance mirrored the kind of person she was... he wondered if he would of trusted her and her words at the very beginning of all of this.

She drops his chin, and his head droops down. She begins to circle him, arms crossed over her chest, "Love... love, love, love... I simply do not understand it. Mortals will kill for it. It brings destruction, anger, and sorrow... but it also brings lust, loyalty, and happiness. The power it must hold..."

"Why am I here?"

"Hmm?"

"I didn't kill him. I didn't finish my mission."

"Well if you didn't, you wouldn't be here would you?" She continued to circle around him, "What's interesting, you see... that boy was dead the moment he transformed into a wolf. He and the wolf inside that body - they weren't compatible. Conflicting souls and all that. But that boy... what does he call himself again? Adonis? Heh, cute. Anyway, he found a way to force the transformation. The moment he turned back into a human his wolf rejected the body it was inside, killing itself and its host. But Adonis held on until the very last second. All so he could tell you he loved you... Then, he simply gave up knowing you'd complete your mission. He's quite an interesting one, is he not?"

Ethan was silent, struggling to comprehend her words. It gave him a headache. He didn't want to do this anymore. He didn't care about the popularity. All he wanted was to die. In peace. In a final darkness.

"I give up."

She stops in her tracks, "What's that?"

"I can't do this anymore. I don't care what you do with my soul, just end all this. Please."

"End?" She laughs, "Oh, no. This only ends when I'm satisfied!" She stomps her foot on the ground and a crack stems from the bottom of her heel to the shocked Ethan. He locks eyes with her and is surprised to see her glaring, "This only ends when you learn your lesson, mortal."

Lesson-? Suddenly, the weight beneath him collapses and he falls. He stares up at the image of Cara sneering down at him before she paints back on a smile and turns to greet another trapped soul. He barely catches a glimpse of them. He opens his mouth in hopes to warn them - but his words are trapped in his throat.

Ethan's tears float up into oblivion, and as he reaches up into the empty space, he finally reaches his destination.

-

It takes him a second to register his situation. There's the sound of banging and also loud groaning - as if someone was in pain. No, not just one person, multiple. He looks around at his surroundings and realizes he's in a... convenience store? But it looked trashed. The shelves were out of place and most of the windows were shattered. Dirt and debris painted the floors and the walls.

He realized he was leaned up against one of the shelves, sat on the ground. His clothes were beyond dirty and torn. His eyes furrowed when he looked down at his arm. It was bloody... teeth marks? Was he bitten? Maybe that's how this body died. But bitten by what-?

He looks up from his position and finally towards the sounds of commotion coming from the entrance of the store. There were... people? They were banging against the glass door and windows, almost as if they were desperately trying to get in. A large freezer was pushed in front of the door preventing them from doing so, but... it looked like it wasn't going to last very long. Slowly but surely, the door was being pushed open.

But why were they so desperate to get in? And why did they look so... dead? Ethan's face drops. Wait, he played enough video games in his life to realize what was going on. Zombies. Those were actual human flesh eating zombies.

"Are you kidding me?"

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