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   Riley was sleeping when suddenly he dreamed that Sera was standing behind him, watching him sleep. His dream, now a nightmare, replaced Hart in all of the moments that happened in their house. Sera was the one kidnapping him this time, torturing him, showing him a new dark world, and in the end, killing his sister. His eyes opened as he let out a sharp gasp and he quickly looked around to make sure it was only a dream. There was no sign of Sera or evidence that she was here. Nicholas was sitting against a wall, sleeping peacefully and undisturbed.

It was dark, but Riley knew the sun would rise any minute. He got up from the cold ground and quietly searched the abandoned building. Sera said she came here, and she didn't deny when he asked her if she hurt Nicholas. But he was perfectly fine, so did she lie? Was she ever here at all? There was nothing in this place that gave away that a third member had been here before.

“Lies after lies,” he muttered under his breath.

He wasn't so sure if Hart was even alive anymore. He couldn't be, right? Riley killed him with the dagger. And even though he didn't know everything about the supernatural side of life, he knew Hart didn't lie when he said the dagger could kill him. Hart never healed from the scar Riley put on his face. Riley also killed that giant monster in the dark room with just the dagger. And why would the Mayor look so afraid when the dagger was put in his face?

Riley took out the dagger from his pocket and stared at it.

Why are you so important? He thought as he ran his fingers across the symbols filled with his blood.

“Morning.”

Riley's heart raced at the unexpected voice coming from behind him. It was only Nicholas, but would it kill him to make some noise before coming up behind him? Riley kept the dagger in his hand as he turned to face a tired looking Nicholas.

“Are you okay?” Riley asked.

“Me? I should be asking you the same question.”

“Yeah, I'm fine,” Riley replied, remembering that he had passed out from the pain. “Was she here?”

Nicholas looked lost. “Who?”

“Sera, the woman back at the hospital. Was she here?”

“Not that I noticed, why? Did you see her?”

Riley nodded and scurried over to pick up his belongings. He placed the dagger inside his backpack, knowing that if he carried it in his pocket all day long, he'd have cuts from how long it was. He was starting to feel nervous and a little bit sick. He was about to find out if Hart was alive or not, and he had no idea what he was going to do if he found him still breathing.

“She knows we're here, so we're leaving.”

“Where?”

“Back to where it all began.”

And back to the beginning they went. It was a long trip, but after taking a taxi to the edge of the town, they walked a couple of miles through the forest and found themselves on tire tracks from the many times Hart had come through. Nicholas stayed quiet the whole time, like he knew that Riley needed to be alone with his thoughts. He wanted to thank him, but couldn't find the words to do so. His throat felt dry and scratchy, and every breath he took felt like poison.

Riley wondered if his sister, Fiona, had come through this invisible road, too. Was this how she found him? She must have looked for so long. He wanted to talk to her again, ask her how she did it and to hold her and tell her how much he loved her for never giving up on him, but he couldn't, because the man he loved killed her.

Love. The word made him feel numb inside, because even after everything that happened, he still loved Hart. He wanted to feel wrong and disgusted, like any normal person, but he wasn't just another normal person, he wasn't even human anymore. A human doesn't die and come back to life. He was a monster, that was all he was ever going to be. Truth be told, he'd kill again if he had to.

It seemed like he left all his fears and worries behind in the house, where they belonged. He should have known that the second he was dragged into that house, he'd never come out again. The old Riley was gone forever. He was who he was meant to be now.

As Riley walked in silence, with Nicholas not far behind, his heart began to beat faster. He saw the familiar trees he'd seen many times, the same ones that hid the house from view. They finally arrived. Riley stopped walking and looked back at Nicholas.

“Stay here. I don't know what I'm going to see in there, but I'll let you know if it's clear. If you see anything bad, I want you to run and never come back here again, you understand?” Riley told him as he fished out his dagger from his backpack.

“I can come with you, I'm not totally useless, you know?” Nicholas replied.

“I know you aren't, but this is different. This isn't a war in Afghanistan where you are properly geared with armor and weapons.”

“You don't know anything,” Nicholas responded almost instantly, with a slight irritation in his voice. “Do you think you're invincible? Do you think you are better than me because you have a magic knife?”

“Nicholas, I'm only trying to protect you!” Riley said angrily. “The reason I cannot risk taking you with me in there is because I may die. And if I die, I know that I can come back to life. But if you die, you'll remain that way and it will be on my hands.”

That seemed to work. Nicholas didn't speak another word, but he still looked angry and offended. Riley couldn't care, he had bigger priorities right now than worrying about another person's feelings.

Riley tossed the backpack and walked into the forest, finding the entrance where Hart's car would come through. He saw the house, it was as he left it; creepy. Nothing had changed, but after being away for so long, it felt like a dream. He walked over the spot where he rose out of the first time he had returned from the dead and felt chills on his skin.

From the looks of it, the house was vacant. There was no sign that anyone was currently living inside, but he wouldn't really call it living. The front porch still had red stains from his incident, sending Riley in a spiral of uncomfortable memories. He exploded, there was nothing much to it.

The door was unlocked, so he opened it and went inside. It was still cold, that never seemed to change. He remembered his first summer here, how he never even noticed it was the summer until Hart came in with more victims than usual, and most of them wore barely any clothing.

It took a lot of strength and courage, but after standing in front of the staircase, Riley called out to him. There was no response. He couldn't bring himself to call his name again, he was afraid he'd get a reply next time.

He looked around on the first floor and found it empty and untouched. He left out the basement for obvious reasons. There was no way he was going down there. Even if all of the answers he was seeking were written on a piece of paper and placed in the dark room, he still wouldn't go.

Riley entered the kitchen and only found an empty bowl, one that Hart used to eat his cereal from. He moved on to the dinning room, then to the living room and finally the library. He never entered it before, only saw it from afar when Hart would randomly walk inside. He opened the door and immediately closed it. It was dark, there weren't any windows, but he thought he saw eyes and he wasn't going to find out if his imagination was right. He'd know if they were Hart's eyes, which they weren't, thankfully.

There was really only one place he still hadn't searched.

“Don't do it,” he told himself as he stood in front of the doorway that led to the basement. While he wasted time, taking in deep breaths to make himself feel comfortable, he saw something in the corner of his eyes. He looked at the door beside him that led to the backyard and spotted a raven flying over the dead garden.

Riley moved away from the basement to look at the black bird. It cawed loudly as it stood on the grass. Against his very own instincts, Riley opened the door and went outside. The bird immediately flew away and disappeared somewhere over the house. The garden looked like it had been eaten by the raven.

He was about to go inside when his stomach flipped. There was something in the corner of his eyes again, this time not a bird. It was a figure, a dark one. Riley froze, unable to move his eyes to see what it was. It was standing tall, like a person. He wanted to check if it was Nicholas, maybe he didn't stay put like he told him to. But he wasn't stupid, it wasn't Nicholas, it was . . . Hart.

Riley went rigid as soon as his eyes laid on him. He was standing in front of the cross, watching it with emptiness in his eyes. His clothes were ripped in places, especially around the area where Riley had stabbed him. His skin was dirty, covered in mud and black liquid. His hair wasn't brushed back like it always, always, was. Instead some of it fell over his eyes like sharp needles, and the rest was just all over the place. It was like when he took showers and came out looking like a different person.

“Har-Hart,” Riley stuttered nervously, hoping the man heard him, but he seemed to be in another world. Something inside Riley gave him the strength he desperately needed to scream, “HARTHEON!”

“Uh oh,” a female voice said.

Riley looked back to see that Sera and Nicholas were just walking around the corner. They both looked at each other with concern and fear written on their faces. But the big question in Riley's mind was, what the fuck were Sera and Nicholas doing together looking like they were best friends?

“Uh oh,” Nicholas repeated as his eyes went behind Riley.

“I didn't think he was going to remember,” Sera said.

He was going to ask what she was talking about when suddenly he heard the sound of bones cracking. He quickly looked at Hart and almost lost his marbles. The man was staring straight at Riley with his bright blue eyes, and he wasn't sure if that was a good thing, that he knew Riley was right there, because a second later those blue eyes turned yellow.

“Hart?” Riley said.

“Riley, Nicholas, run! Get out!” Sera screamed, pushing Nicholas away and running towards Riley to grab him. She genuinely looked terrified, and something about this made Riley think of when Sera was a little girl, watching her father inside the dark room and . . . and . . . it finally made some sense. “Riley, you need to take Nicholas and run. I'll try to hold him off as best as I can, but it won't be enough. Teleport if you need to, just get out.”

“I'm not running away!” Riley shouted back, his anger boiling inside. “He is alive! I thought I killed him but he's standing right there when he shouldn't be! He killed my sister, do you have any idea what that means to me?”

“Riley,” the gentle voice that called his name did not come from Sera, it actually came from Hart, but it was different, deeper and rough. Riley looked at Hart and felt sick the moment his voice met his ears. “Run.”

It was too late to run, the same explosion he had seen in Sera's memories happened right before his eyes. Hart burst into flames and everything underneath him turned black. The heat was so strong at first that Riley had to cover his eyes for the fear that they'd melt right off. But it cooled down in a few seconds, leaving Hart to be the only thing still burning.

“Hart! Fight it! Fight it or you'll kill him!” Sera screamed.

Hart roared inhumanly and his teeth grew longer and sharper. Sera walked in front of Riley defensively and they continued to watch as Hart physically changed. His skin burned and turned coal-like, then he started to grow.

“What is happening to him?” Riley asked, panicking.

“He's turning,” she replied.

“Into what?!”

“A demon.”

Hart's screams grew louder, but they were no longer human. His voice was a shrill, a piercing cry of a monster. Hart's hands were claws now, they were holding his head as two black horns slowly broke through his skull. His clothes disintegrated from the fire and Riley could now see the cracks forming on the man's body. The cracks were opening and fire was leaping out of them. It looked like the most painful thing he'd ever seen.

Sera turned to him. “He's not fighting it, you have to run or he will kill you. Take Nicholas and keep him safe.”

“No, I'm not leaving. I can't die, remember?”

“You want to bet on it?” she asked, glaring at him.

Her eyes turned yellow, just like Hart's. Then two long horns shot out of her skull like it was nothing. She instantly turned, not slowly like Hart. Now that Riley saw what a demon fully looked like – since Hart was still turning – he agreed to run like hell, no pun intended.

Nicholas grabbed Riley's arm as a scary Sera attacked Hart, and both demons began to fight, burning everything in their path. Riley was kind of glad Nicholas was there, because he couldn't have possibly ran without some help. He was shaking from head to toe and he was positive he hadn't experienced this kind of fear yet. He was honestly convinced that he would never be afraid of anything again, but there he was once more being proved wrong.

When they seemed to have escaped, they hid among the thousands of trees and Riley quickly grabbed Nicholas and pinned him to the ground.

“WHO ARE YOU?” Riley screamed.

“I'm glad you weren't stupid to forget our entrance, but then again you didn't figure it out before,” Nicholas responded, smirking slyly.

“I'm not going to ask again,” Riley growled, holding his dagger against Nicholas' throat.

“My name is Nicholas, and Seraphina is my girlfriend.”

Riley pulled his dagger back, staring into Nicholas' warm brown eyes.

“I can't trust anyone . . .” Riley told himself. “It will always be secrets full of mistrust and betrayal.”

“You think I betrayed you?” Nicholas asked, raising a brow.

“I thought you were my friend,” Riley whispered, feeling an emptiness creeping up inside him. “It seems like no matter what I do, I'm always one step behind.”

Nicholas opened his mouth to protest, but the sound of trees breaking and branches falling made them both freeze. They looked around, seeing nothing but trees for miles. But through those thick trees they saw smoke rising. Something was coming towards them, something on fire.

They glanced at each other for a mere second and didn't think twice before they were both running through the forest. In only a matter of minutes, the smell of smoke reached them. They weren't sure which way they were going and if they had ran in circles, the forest was getting deeper and harder to run through.

Nicholas, who was running in front of Riley, suddenly stopped and turned to him.

“You have to teleport us out, we can't out run it,” Nicholas said.

Riley shook his head, anxiously looking back at the black smoke. They could outrun whatever was chasing them(he knew what it was, he just didn't want to admit it to himself), but only if they kept running and didn't stop.

“I can't . . . It hurts me,” Riley told him.

“Well, you know what doesn't hurt? Being dead.”

“You don't understand,” Riley said quietly. “Last time, I didn't just black out . . . I died.”

Nicholas stared at him, horrified.

“What do you mean you died? I was there when you blacked out. I was there the whole time until you woke up again,” Nicholas said. “If you died, then you would've melted and resurrected somewhere else, and that didn't happen.”

Riley didn't bother asking how he knew that, Seraphina must spill out all of their secrets like candy on Halloween. Nicholas was lucky to know so much and not have to constantly feel like he was drowning in a sea of lies.

“Don't you think I've thought about it? For the past few hours all I can think of is that there's something very wrong with me and I don't know what,” Riley said. “Does it mean I'm running out of lives? I've only died three times and I've killed twice as much and more.”

“We will figure it out, but right now we need to run because your demon boyfriend is right behind you,” Nicholas said, looking high over Riley's shoulders.

Riley and Nicholas separated, throwing themselves back as a light appeared between them, followed by fire, a lot of it. Riley saw the panicked expression on Nicholas' face through the fire and realized that they weren't going to make it out alive no matter how far they ran. A demon was something he never thought about, never crossed his mind, even when he had been in hell. Riley knew Hart wasn't human, but a demon? Never in a million years would he have guessed.

Riley purposely wasn't looking at the source of the fire, he was frightened and honestly he didn't want to know what Hart looked like as a full demon. He saw Seraphina turn, and that was an image he'd never forget.

But as he quickly crawled under the fire to grab Nicholas' ankle, he took one glance at the demon right before teleporting and all of the feelings he had for Hart vanished. He wasn't Hart anymore, he was something else. Something that he kept hidden from Riley for a very good reason, and Riley was thankful that he never showed this side of him.

As the pain filled his veins and traveled through his body, he saw flashing images of all the people he killed, all of his friends and his sister. He might as well have killed her. She wouldn't be dead if it weren't for him. Now they all watched him suffer with smiles on their faces and vengeance in their hearts. He knew it wasn't real, he was hallucinating. But the pain was real, and it was greater than anything he'd ever felt.

“Riley! Stay with me!” Nicholas' voice slowly became quiet, like if Riley was inside a glass box and all he could hear were muffled sounds. He felt safe in his imaginary box, so he let go and shut his eyes.

*-*-*-*-*-*

Riley was stirred out of his sleep by the sound of voices growing louder. He opened his eyes to find himself in the dark room with no lights on, it was completely pitch-black except for the very little light coming from the slightly open door. He called out for his dagger and gripped it tightly in his hands as he dropped down from the metal table he had been resting on.

The voices ceased when he got closer to the door. He stopped in his tracks as the door to the dark room opened and the lights flickered on. Sera and Hart stood together at the door, watching Riley with their beaming blue eyes. They weren't demons anymore, they were just creepy siblings now. Their black hair, white skin and Gothic clothing made it seem like they were in a horror movie about ghosts. But if Riley was going to be honest, they looked striking together.

“Don't come near me,” Riley told them, but his eyes were fixated on Hart.

“Enough games, Riley,” Sera was the one to speak. “You died again.”

“I know,” he whispered, rolling his head, “I can feel it.”

“Then you know you're sick and you need help. We're not sure if you'll survive the next time you decide to pop out of the scene,” she said.

“Maybe I don't want to survive, you ever think about that? Maybe it's time that I die so that no one else suffers because of me,” Riley told them, giving them hard stares.

“Hart can heal you,” Sera said. “He can heal your soul, he will repair it and mend it. He will also help the pain stop so that you can easily teleport without it effecting your soul. Then if you want, you can just disappear right out of here and never see us again.”

That sounded almost peaceful. Riley couldn't bare another second of the pain. He wanted to teleport, the ability was useful in tough situations. And it meant he could come and go as he pleased without any interruptions. The idea was good, but it still had Hart in the picture, and Riley couldn't figure out what his emotions were doing.

“Why do you care? I mean, why do you want to help me if you're just going to let me go?” Riley asked.

“Because you're connected to my brother, which means you're connected to me,” she replied.

“What does that mean?” he asked.

Sera walked inside as she quietly spoke in a quiet tone, “The ink you mixed your blood with wasn't ink, it was Hart's demon blood. It was a connection spell, which fuels the magic that lets you teleport and do other incredible things. So, whenever you use magic, you are essentially getting it from Hart.”

“Right,” Riley said as he backed up against the table and walked around it to use it just in case Sera had other intentions by walking inside the dark room. “And what does it have to do with you being connected to me?”

Sera looked back at Hart, who nodded in response to whatever she was thinking. Riley wouldn't be surprised if they could communicate telepathically.

“Hart and I share a soul,” she explained, her eyes back on Riley. “I can feel what he's feeling, and he can feel what I'm feeling. We can share thoughts, and we can also block them. We've lived enough to learn how to use it for our advantage.”

“Are you saying that you're both one person? Because if you are then I'm going to teleport away now,” Riley said, sarcastically.

“No, don't be silly. We share a soul, but it split at birth, creating two separate – but weaker – ones. We are twins, but we are different people,” Sera said.

Riley looked at Hart and spoke to him, “Is it true?”

“Every word,” he replied.

“I understand the connection, but I don't understand how it effects us,” Riley told her.

“Because Hart loves you,” she said softly. “I can feel it everyday, so much that I've grown to care about you without even meeting you.”

“In what way?” Riley asked, glaring at her weirdly.

“Certainly not in the way you're thinking,” she muttered, sticking out the tip of her tongue in a disgusted manner. She left immediately after that and left him alone with Hart, who was unusually quiet. The thought of Hart's silence ever being unusual made Riley scoff. It was unusual because he looked uneasy, nervous and he was holding a lot in.

“Shall we begin?” Hart asked, quickly walking inside the dark room.

“Don't think I've forgotten what you did,” Riley told him, keeping his distance as the man walked towards the table.

“Lay down and remove your shirt,” Hart ordered, ignoring what Riley had said.

Riley obeyed, removing his shirt and sitting on top of the table. He thought being shirtless in the dark room brought some interesting memories. They were interesting because of how much he changed from when he was first here.

“I don't know how you're still alive, but I won't hesitate to do it again,” Riley said as he laid back on the table, his back arching at the touch of the cold metal, but mostly at the thought of how many people had died on it.

“Careful,” Sera's voice came, “he likes it when you talk like that. He finds it amusing.”

“Of course he does,” Riley muttered, looking up at Hart and meeting his eyes.

“I find it more than amusing, sister,” Hart said.

“Right, it also turns you on.” That made the already quiet room even more quiet, if possible. Hart made an irritated sound, or was it a growl? Riley couldn't tell the difference. It made Hart angry and he enjoyed it, even if it was because his stubbornness turned Hart on, apparently.

“Seraphina, please leave, I need to concentrate and I cannot do so with you snooping around,” Hart told her. Riley couldn't see Sera, because he was laying on his back staring at Hart and the ceiling, but he felt extremely uncomfortable by the way the scene played out. Sera was so much more different than Hart, she was normal – not counting the fact that she was a demon and probably killed just as many people as Hart had.

“Why is your sister different?” Riley asked when he knew she was gone.

“She and I had a very different childhood, you could say.”

“Hart,” Riley hissed at the vagueness of his answer.

He sighed and then suddenly the lights turned off.

“It's a long story,” he responded.

“You gave me the gift of immortality, I think I have the time,” Riley said.

“If you wish to know, then I think it's best that I show you instead of telling you. As I heal you, I'll let you see my memories so that you can understand,” Hart told him. “You have to relax and let your mind be free.”

Riley closed his eyes with the promise of Hart's memories. Something about entering his mind made Riley feel like his stomach had fluttering butterflies. Hart's hand touched the center of Riley's chest, it pressed against his skin for a few seconds and then his body began to hover. Hart moved around Riley's body and walked behind his head, placing his two index fingers on either side of his temple.

Memories began to rush rapidly through his mind, all of them blurry but with time they became clear. Riley was back in the dark room, watching just as young Sera was sucked into the room while a powerful female voice screamed inside. Riley's body went through the door and he saw what was happening. In front of their father, where the explosion had happened, was a young Hart transforming into a demon.

“Let me out!” Sera screamed as she pounded her tiny fists on the wooden door.

Darkness fell over them like a giant sheet, blinding them from the creature Hart had become. Riley now understood the purpose of the dark room, it was a cage for them. It kept demon Hart from going anywhere. Without his sight, he was vulnerable to the fire that had spread everywhere. It burned him and continued to as his father watched from a safe distance.

“It hurts!” Sera cried as she dropped and squirmed on the ground. Her skin turned bright red, as if she was burning. Then she turned into a demon and all of the pain stopped, at least the human kind. Sera ran back to the door and was about to crush through it when the darkness pulled her back and swung her across the room.

“Fight your emotions and you won't feel the pain anymore,” the female voice said, clearly their mother, Jocelyn.

The memory stopped and was replaced by another of the same scenario. It kept changing, showing Riley that the pain never stopped, the torture and abuse only grew more hostile. Hart's memory showed Riley how nothing changed over the years. Every day they had to endure pain to try to stop their emotions from taking over them, so that they wouldn't turn into demons, so that they could control it.

As Riley watched, he noticed Sera stopped turning and feeling the pain that her brother felt. She watched from across the dark room as twelve year old Hart was whipped every time he cried, showed fear or even sadness. Sera had learned to block out what Hart was feeling, she became numb while she watched her brother suffer for years, until at last he didn't turn anymore. But by then he was already corrupt and broken. His thoughts were all violent, but his eyes were empty. Their parents had created something far worse than a monster.

The memories stopped when Hart removed his fingers. Riley opened his eyes and found himself surrounded by the dead. He couldn't guess how many there were, maybe a hundred, maybe more. They stood like statues, watching him hovering over the metal table.

“Don't be afraid, they won't hurt you,” Hart's voice came.

“Who are they?” Riley whispered, his eyes scanning their cold faces.

“Everyone I killed, everyone my sister killed, and everyone you killed. This is where my mother hides them. You can't always see them, but they're always in this room,” Hart said as he came back and placed his fingers on his temple again.

“Always?” Riley swallowed thinking back to events when he was in the dark room, thinking he was alone.

“Always.”

Riley's heart beat fast when he saw a lock of golden hair tied up in a pony tail. As his mind snapped out of focus, he fell down on the metal table. He quickly swung his legs over the table and dropped to the floor, running towards the crowd of death.

“Riley!” Hart shouted after him.

Riley pushed the dead away as he chased the girl with the bright hair. He lost sight of her but continued to run through the countless of bodies, even as he kept hearing Hart yelling and running towards him. Riley spotted the blonde girl again and went after her, pushing more bodies out of the way.

“Fiona?” he called out desperately, closing in on her.

“Riley!” Hart was close, too. He shouldn't be more than a few steps away from Riley.

“Fiona!” Riley screamed as he reached the girl and grabbed her shoulder, turning her around. It wasn't Fiona. This woman had no jaw or nose, but it wasn't his sister. Riley's hands trembled and he pulled them back, rubbing them together near his chest as Hart grabbed him and pulled him away.

“She didn't die in the house, she's not here,” Hart assured him, holding his face between his hands.

“Why did you kill her,” Riley asked quietly, his eyes filling with tears. “Why did you kill my sister?”

Hart watched silently as Riley got on his knees and screamed, letting his anger out only to start sobbing. Riley got up immediately and pushed past Hart, running back to the table breathlessly. His heart was in so much pain. He'd give anything to get his sister back, anything.

Hart appeared again and walked behind Riley, touching his naked back with his cold hands, the one that murdered his innocent sister. He shuddered at the touch, but shut his eyes at the closeness of the moment.

“Please stop,” Riley whispered. “Just heal me . . . heal me so I can leave.”

“But you won't,” Hart said.

He won't, because whatever Riley felt for Hart was still there and alive. Wherever his sister was, she was going to have to accept that he was doomed from the start. There was no redemption, no forgiveness, no going back. This was his only road.

_______________________________________________

[Author's Message]: Hey guys, I'm gonna make this quick for you. A Little Insane made it to the Watty Awards and the voting period starts now. I can only win if you guys VOTE. So go to this link http://www.wattpad.com/wattys/showcase click the Paranormal/Horror category, scroll down to the voting list and vote for A LITTLE INSANE. It would mean the world if you did and if you told your friends to do it too! If it wins, I'll be holding a huge contest! O.O So thank you VERY VERY MUCH to you guys for reading this crazy story. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, please remember to vote and comment, I read them all and pick dedications on every single chapter!

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