Punk -It is with a long over due deep breath, we present the last chapter of this horror. We always promised we wouldn't give up on it and now here we are. Thank you for every person who helped this story come out of us and every person who was willing to take the chance to read it. Hope it was worth it in the end.

Angel - First of all I would like to thank Punk for starting this journey with me a little over two years ago. So much has happened in the last two years and yet Punk never gave up on my very bad habit of letting life get the better of me and steal me away from killing off a few characters. Thank you for hanging in there and knowing when to push me towards a computer. I think part of why it has taken me the longest to get this last chapter out is the fact that this really is the last chapter in more ways than any of you will ever know.

Thank you to each and every one of you who contributed in any way to get this story out there. From our Beta's who fixed our bad language to our readers who left very awesome reviews and reactions.

This story is NSFW and sated M for extremely graphic violence. If you are not older than 17 then please close your browser. But if you're a lover of all things bloody, join us for this the crescendo of Dripping Red.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognisable characters, settings, etc are the property of their respective owners. The authors are in no way associated with the owners, creators or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

CHAPTER 14

Wednesday, March 3

A boy's best friend is his mother. -Norman Bates, Psycho

"What are you talking about Jacob?" The quiver in Bella's voice can be heard from her position on the floor, this time there's no way of hiding it. She doesn't even have to wait for his response before the gaps in her memory begin to fill, unasked questions are answered in an instance.

She remembers every time she couldn't get ahold of him. Some days he would suddenly disappear and then reappear just as quickly. Sometimes for brief moments and other times for longer. He always had an excuse and Bella always readily accepted his word. But now? Now she sees how little he really was around. Especially when she needed him, and always before a body was found. It had to be a coincidence. But deep in her soul Bella knows she is wrong.

"She's thinking, she's thinking." Jacob's sarcasm laced voice comes across plain as day. He's teasing her. He knows how much he has done all this time and Bella has been none the wiser. He watches with a grin on his face as the different emotions cross hers. "Ahh, ahh, ahh she's getting it now."

"But why?" Bella's chest constricts, air puffing from her chest. Shortness of breath takes route as she tries to make sense of it all. "Why would you do it? I mean...Jasper?" The sobs in Bella's throat break free. It doesn't make sense in her mind. How could Jacob be capable of all the horror that has been occurring. "He was your FRIEND!"

"Oh Bella, Bella, Bella. This was supposed to be so different." Jacob calmly says and inches closer to where she is crouched on the floor. Bella matches him move for move, in turn moving further away from the backpack. Eventually Jacob steps right next to the bag, keeping eye contact with her the entire time he bends down and slips his hand into the zipper opening it further.

A sinister grin unlike Bella has ever seen before crosses Jacob's face as his hand emerges again. Gripped in his fist a glinting knife. Jacob looks down at the knife before slowly looking back at Bella. "Member that night at the bonfire Bella? When Jasper was talking about the rules?" Bella just stares at him wondering where hes going with the questions. " ….well someones not a virgin anymore."Jacob's sing songy voice sends chills down Bella's spine to lodge in her gut and she swallows the bile that threatens to rise in her throat.

Jacob suddenly lunges at Bella with the knife and Bella acts on pure instinct, adrenaline pumping through her veins as she swivels away and flees towards the front door.

The door opens without resistance, swinging open to bang against the wall. Bella releases the door knob and launches herself across her front yard in a dead sprint.

Just as Bella rounds the hedges surrounding her neighbors yard she slams into a brick wall. Her attention firmly on the pursuing danger behind her, Bella didn't notice the person coming towards her. Edward grabs onto her arms to steady her before she can slam into the ground.

"You know we really have to stop meeting like this Bella." Edward tries to joke but immediately grows serious when he sees the wild look in her wide eyes, she looks like a gazelle running away from a lion.

"Bella what's wrong?" His eyes follow Bella's as she looks behind her, frantically searching for danger. The sight of Jacob stalking down the walk swinging a large knife is enough to make his balls constrict and make their way into throat. "FUCK!" Edward looks back the way he came from and sees the shadow of someone walking down the road. He wraps his long fingers around Bella's wrist and yanks her behind him as he starts to run towards the shadow.

"Hey! Hey! Hel-" The scream for help lodges in Edward's throat as Bella slams into him when he comes to a dead halt. Edward immediately knows this person will be no help to them. Alice drags the blade of a large machete down the street behind her leaving a creepy scratching sound in her wake. The sounds seems to echo in the silence of the empty street like a song of coming death.

Edward freezes knowing they can't move backwards towards Jacob yet they can't move towards Alice. Just as Edward looks around for an escape from the two psychos boxing them in, Alice swings the machete up in a practiced move and lunges towards them.

As the rusted blade arcs its way towards them, Edwards ducks shoving Bella out of the way with all his force in barely enough time to avoid the certain pain Alice is so focused on inflicting. His lithe athletic body turns to kick Alice in her shins. With a sharp cry of pain, Alice loses her balance and her grip on the machete. There is no conscious thought except for survival. Edward does not consider any repercussion or consequence when he tightens his grip around the hilt, firmly plants his feet on the ground and plunges the long blade as deep as it will go into the center of Alice's chest.

Unexpectedly Alice giggles, her demented laugh ending in a gurgle as dripping red blood spills from the corner of her mouth before her gaze dulls and body goes limp. Shock makes Edward release the blade, the metal clattering on the cracked asphalt.

"Oh fuck, fuck me," Edward mutters, taking a step backwards without looking, he trips over Bella's splayed legs.

All Bella can do is look on in shock and disbelief as Edward impales a feral Alice. Alice her friend, Alice her enemy, Alice her would be killer. Never in a million years would Bella have suspected quiet Alice of the atrocities this town has experienced. Alice always forgotten seemed to be so cheerful, so content on the sidelines. Maybe Bella was wrong, maybe Alice finally found a way to be noticed.

As Alice lays on the ground before them, an anguished bellow of anger comes from behind. In all the chaos neither remembered Jacob was still in pursuit of them. Jacob saw everything get taken from him in a fleeting moment of death. Edward has just enough reaction time to grab Bella and swing her behind him just as Jacob sinks the blade of his hunting knife into his gut.

Edwards hand releases Bella's wrist as his body bows from the impact and his hands automatically grab for the knife, long fingers wrapping around the blade impaled into him. Jacob pulls it out, lacerating his victims fingers and slashes across Edward's stomach blindly before plunging it in again on a growl.

Bella can do nothing but scream as Edward crumbles to the ground before her. She tries to run away but makes the mistake of running too close to Jacob who reaches out in time, grabbing her shirt and yanking her back into his grasp.

Jacob's arm, with the knife still coated in Edward's blood, wraps around Bella's chest. His other reaches up and brushes the hair back from her face. "Where do you think you're going my dear Bella?"

Bella continues to struggle and before she can scream again and draw the attention of neighbors Jacob makes a decision. His arm swings up and brings the hilt of the knife squarely down on her temple promptly knocking her out. her body becoming limp in his arms as knowing smile curves his lips, this is the big moment he's been waiting for all these long weeks.

"Lets go home, darling." Jacob mutters as he looks around to make sure no ones attention appears to have been drawn to them, before dragging Bella by her hair back to her house.

~DR~

Bella wakes with a start. It doesn't take her long to realize shes in the basement of her house. The one place she has avoided for the past year. The throbbing in the back of head distracts her just enough to keep her from thinking about her fear of this place. The wisps of hair fluttering around the front of her face block her vision. She tries to move them to get a better view but the clinking of metal on metal tells her that won't be happening anytime soon. The handcuffs around her wrists restrict her movements. The tape across her mouth muffles the frustrated scream that escapes her throat.

"Aww, let me help you with that sweetheart." Bella isn't sure if she jumps from the sound of Jacob's voice sneaking up on her in the barely lit room or the tender tenor of it. It reminds her of how he used to act. Bella can't help but question what of him was ever real. She shrinks away as his fingers brush the hair back from her face and she gets her first full view of him.

"So." Jacob seems almost excited as he squats down in Bella's line of sight. "I think it's time for a story. What do you think?" Bella just silently stares at Jacob watching the glint in his eye dance around. "Let's tell one of my personal favorites. It's about a slut bag whore of a mother who slept with every man in town. Including my very own father. And all the people who protected her."

The air rushes out of Bella's mouth as Jacob rips the duct tape from her mouth. Jacob continues on as the pain radiates all over Bella's face.

"Yup, thats right. And the night my mom died in that car wreck? It was because her and my dad were fighting about your mom. YOUR MOM BELLA!" Jacobs sweet face morphs into unrestrained anger as he screams in her face. Bella closes her eyes and lets the tears escape even as the spit bounces from Jacob's mouth to her face. "Your mother Bel-la is the reason my mother is dead and my dad won't walk again. She's the reason I've been in a living HELL!" Jacob enunciates her name with more enmity that she has ever heard from him.

"She was so angry that night cause my deadbeat father said he wouldn't stop FU-CKING YOUR MOM! She ran outta our house crying jumped in the car to get away from the asshole, but he chased her anyways, and five miles down the road she was dead Bella. DEAD! And my dad's in a wheelchair for life. All because of your whore of a mother." Jacob stops for a moment and lets it all sink in before dropping the big bomb. He's waited for the moment he would be able to look Bella in the face and tell her the truth.

"You know me Bella, I've always been one to get payback. So, since your mom was the reason my mom died. What more fitting of a way than to have yours die by my hands?" Jacob holds his hands out, palms up as if to show her her mothers blood still on them.

Bella's eyes grow wide. Her mind flashing to finding Riley covered in blood kneeling before her mom's body. She was so sure at the time that he had been the one to murder her mother. But now with a clear head and Jacob's words bouncing around in her mind, she realizes she could have been wrong all this time. Sure, she had found him at the scene but she had never actually seen him do anything.

"Oh yeah, that's right." Jacob smirks as he stares at the play of emotions reflected on Bella's face. "How does it feel Bella? How does it feel to know that you put someone away by falsely accusing them of murder?" Jacob laughs condescendingly as the tears keep dripping down Bella's face. "Yeah, I'd say you screwed up."

Jacob paces around the room looking at the ceiling as he continues to tells his debaucherous story. "After you falsely accused Riley, I was free to do as I please. And I thought why stop there? So, I came up with the perfect plan Bella." Jacob stops and leans in to bring his face in close to Bella's. "I set out to inflict pain and suffering and get my revenge on all the people whose stupid existences were the reason my mom died."

As Jacob returns to moving around and around the dim room Bella continues wiggling her wrists. Charlie had taught her as a kid how to get out of police cuffs. It was a joke between them as Charlie used to get a kick out of seeing how quickly his little girl could get her wrists out of the cuffs. Her wrists may have grown but with Jacob's loose cuff job she has been able to wriggle out while he rambled on with his story.

When his voice seems to be fading off Bella looks him in the eye. "But why Alice? Where does she play in all this?" Bella hopes the question can distract him just long enough for her to finish escaping without him noticing that anything is wrong.

Jacob smiles widely, as if Bella has just opened a Pandora's box of his most treasured secrets. "Ahhh Alice. She was nothing but fun for me. I needed the extra help. The extra body. The extra hands. And she was perfectly pissed off at being ignored all the time she was just the person I needed. Plus it doesn't hurt that she was willing to give me a piece of that ass when you sure weren't."

Jacob stops his pacing and looks at Bella with a mock shameful look. "You know lack of sexual release has been proven to be quite detrimental to a teenage boys psyche. Add that on top of my mommy issues and well, I was just a boiling pot of fucked up." Jacob let's out a loud laugh as he turns away and looks for something on the table behind him. "Now lets get this show o-" Jacob doesn't finish as Bella finishes releasing herself from the chair and lunges at his back. She timed it just right and caught him off guard enough his body flails and sprawls out, knocking knives off the table in front of him.

Cashing in on her surprise, Bella sprints for the basement stairs and the freedom it represents. Bella's escape comes to a sudden end when Jacob wraps his calloused fingers around her ankle, yanking her backwards. Her chin connects with the wooden stair, pain flaring along all her senses, darkness flaring around the edges of her vision disabling her long enough for Jacob to drag her back onto the floor and flip her over.

The fear Bella feels is taking a back seat to her determination to survive this, to survive him. She kicks at him, her sneakered foot hitting him on the chin. Unfortunately that only enrages him more and he launches himself at her, pinning her legs down with his body as he grabs her wrists in an attempt to subdue her. Turning her head Bella bites Jacob's wrist hard enough to break skin, the taste of metallic blood almost making her hurl but this is not the time to be weak, this is the time to get away.

As Jacob roars in pain, pulling his hand away Bella curls her fingers into her palm just like Charlie taught her and she punches him as hard as she is able too considering the restricted space she has to swing a punch in. Unfortunately, it isn't enough of a blow to stun Jacob. But it is enough to push Jacob over the edge. Pushing himself up, his face contorted in anger and the hatred that has been simmering under the surface of his skin from the day he lost his mother, jacob wraps both his hands around Bella's throat, squeezing.

"Die, bitch!" Jacob shouts.

At first Bella grabs at Jacob's hands, trying to pry his fingers away from her neck. Desperate for air, she scratches at his skin like a feral animal acting on instinct, trying to survive but Jacob just squeezes harder and shouts louder. Bella is about to give up and accept the darkness, darkness that is creeping in from the edges of her vision. Her last thought is of her mother, strapped to a chair bleeding on this very floor where she's losing the fight for life. Like kindle to the dying embers of Bella's fire, the image of her mother smiling gives Bella the will to fight on just that little while longer. Bella throws out her arms looking for salvation when her numbed fingers tips find the unmistakable coldness of a blade. One of Jacob's forgotten tools of torture.

With determination verging on desperation, Bella stretches her arm as far as she can and takes the blade securely in her palm before bringing it wack and lodging it into Jacob's back. Shocked, Jacob rears back his arms trying to reach the blade, trying to pull it out.

Spluttering for air, Bella takes a couple of deep breath through a raw and ragged throat before pushing herself up off the ground. Lying between the tools of death littered on the floor Bella grabs the machete, takes it firmly in both her hands and swings it like a bat at Jacob's head.

"This is for my mom!" She shouts as the sharp blade cuts through his flesh severing his head from his body.

The expression of utter shock etched on Jacob's face is almost comical but Bella doesn't allow herself to dwell. She is still driven by her survival instinct, she still needs to escape the confines of this basement tomb and as such she doesn't look back at Jacob's body laying in a pool of blood when she races up the stairs.

As Bella emerges from the front door a hand on her ankle nearly sends her flying down the front path. She looks down to find a bloody Edward laid out on her front steps. Even with the obvious signs of pain on his face nothing has ever been a more welcome sight to Bella in her life.

"Oh Edward!" Bella collapses next to him taking his face between her hands. His body is nearly limp in her hands but there is still life in his eyes.

"I tried…..I tried... couldn't Bella. " His weak voice tries to get his point across as his eyes glance around her looking danger or for signs of injury.

"I know Edward. I thought you were dead! Im just….so…." Bella can't even finish her thought as the emotions overwhelm her. So instead she crushes her lips to his in hopes of conveying all the feelings racing around her. Feelings of relief, regret and hope. Edward uses his last bit of energy to wrap his arms around the girl before him. He can see the regret in her eyes, he can taste the relief in her tears and he is devoured by his own feelings of hope. Hope that finally the monsters of their shared past can be buried.

Even the flashing blue and red lights of the police and ambulance dancing across their faces isn't enough to distract them and break them apart. They see only each other and the solace they found when their souls met.

~DR~

Charlie slams on the breaks of his police cruiser sending the gravel of his own front yard flying in a spray of pebbles. Charlie's door stays open as he steps out of his vehicle and with relief, his eyes focus on the individuals standing between the open back doors of an ambulance.

"BELLAAA!" Charlies screams over the chaos, catapulting his body across the space between them.

Bella turns around from focusing on where Edward is being worked on, on the stretcher in front of her. Her arms open just as Charlie envelopes her in his. The familiar smell and scratch of her dad's police uniform automatically calms her adrenaline heightened veins.

"Daddy, daddy, daddy." Bella's sobs are muffled by her face buried in Charlies chest. The tears she had been holding at bay can no longer stay contained as the protective force of her father lets her know that it is okay.

"Bells are you okay?" Charlie visually checks his daughter as she clutches tightly to him.

Now that he has his daughter safely encased in his arms Charlie takes the time to look around at the chaos that has flooded his yard. Memories of a year ago crash into his brain but he pushes them back.

"What the hell is going on? The neighbor called into the station, something about a bloody boy collapsed on our front steps?"

Bella pulls back to look at her father. "Oh, daddy it's Jacob. It's been Jacob this whole time. He's dead daddy. He's dead." Bella crushes her head back into Charlie's chest as a new round of sobs wracks her body.

"Oh hon. I'm so sorry." Charlie isn't positive about what has happened but hearing his daughter say Jacob's dead means nothing good. He knows from the shaking in her body she needs something positive to grasp before he loses her to the same place he almost did when her mother died.

"Hey." Charlie pulls Bella away to look her in the eye. "They found Em." Bella's eye widen. She figured with the scene she saw her friend was gone just like the others. "He got hurt pretty bad but Seth found him hiding in the woods behind his house during a sweep."

The joy in Bella's heart leaves her short of breath until the slam of an ambulance door shocks her back into the present.

"We need to get him to the hospital. Are you going along?" The EMT informs her. Bella looks up at her dad questioningly.

"Go." He kisses his daughter's forehead and ushers her towards the open door. "Go get checked out while you're there. I'm going to check out things here and then I'll meet you down there."

Bella immediately clamors into the ambulance and slides into the bench taking Edwards hand in hers as the last door shuts them safely inside and they move towards the hospital and away from the horrors behind them.

~DR~

The night was a hive of activity, from ambulances escorting patients to police canvassing scenes and cordoning off possible crime scenes. Charlie stands with his arms crossed over his chest, looking on as the small limp body of another of Bella's friends is loaded into an ambulance for transport to the morgue. Alice was found not even a block away from their home, bleeding onto the dark asphalt. The EMT pronounced her dead within seconds of arriving. Taking a deep breath, Charlie takes a step backwards before turning back to his house wondering if they would ever, really make any sense of all the madness that had occurred over the past few weeks.

With a clang of metal the stretcher is loaded into the back of the ambulance before the doors are shut with a dull thud. The sirens aren't turned on because there is no life to be saved. As the ambulance swerves around a corner Alice's limp hand slides out from under the white linen of the blanket they had used to cover her with, hanging over the edge.

The blood on her hands has long since dried to look like rust on her twitching porcelain fingers.

A/N Punk- Oh no every good horror fanatic knows you NEVER transport them in an ambulance. And you always make sure their dead! Btw in no way are we leaving this open to a sequel. Thats what the epi is for!

A/N Angel - There you have it people, the bad guys bite the dust. Or have they? Wasn't there some rule about them always coming back? What do you think?

We know there are still a lot of questions unanswered. Don't stress your blood thirsty little heads, the answers are coming in the epilogue.