The Fear of blood tends to create fear for the flesh
"C'mon Rach, you know that I was just kidding right?" Finn Hudson pleaded to his best friend Rachel Berry as they walked in through the town square. Summer was all around them and the small town of Silent Hill looked as beautiful as always.
She turned to face him, her face scrunched in a mixture of disgust and anger. "I can't believe that you let Noah Puckerman talk to me like that! He is a pervert Finn and I don't understand why you hang around him." She said as she walked a head of him. "He is always looking up the girls skirts when we walk up the stairs or always is trying to peek into the locker room…."
Finn smirked as he loosened his tie and untucked his white uniform dress shirt as he followed her. Yeah sure, Puckerman was a pervert and Rachel always hated that they were friends. But Rachel never understood teenage boys no matter how much he would explain it to her. He figured that she would kill him if he ever admitted that he had checked out her own ass in that short uniform skirt that she wore or the fact that he 'accidently' forgot an umbrella the day it rained and he got to see her white bra through her soaked white dress shirt.
"Finn Hudson are you listening to me?"
Finn blinked and then spurted and then looked up at his best friend who was scowling. "Stop looking at me like I'm a piece of meat!" She threw her hands up in the air. "Men!"
Finn chuckled and followed her to the park, they walked up the small track to the cherry blossom tree on the hill. Rachel huffed as she sat down on the green grass, she took her tie off and un-buttoned the first button of her top. "I think they want us to die in the uniforms." She muttered as Finn sat down next to her, their remaining books scattered around them.
"Well just think Rach," Finn starts with an all knowing smile. "In just one week school will be out forever for us."
She smiles as she lays back and closes her eyes, letting the summer heat cover her like a blanket. "What do you wanna do after graduation?"
Finn shrugged. "You're not gonna like what I have to say Rach."
Rachel just sighs. "Always the dramatic one aren't you Finn?"
"Me? I'm the dramatic one? Well I think you should take a look in the mirror." He comments and looks over at Rachel to make sure she is smiling…which she is.
She sits up and leans over him, her shiny brown hair tickling his neck. He opens up his whiskey colored eyes to see her warm chocolate bearing into him. She is so close to his face that, if he wanted to, he could lean up and kiss her. "C'mon Finn, please…I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours." She said with a teasing smirk.
Finn groaned, did she really have to bring that up…I mean for god sake he was just a curious thirteen year old boy when he uttered those words. "Alright but swear to me that you won't freak out."
She rolled her eyes . "I swear."
"Kiss on it?" He asked with a raised brow and Rachel punches him in the chest. "Ok, ok…I was thinkin' on leaving Silent Hill…and going into the army."
He watches Rachel's face soften. "Oh." She softly said. "Well if that's what you want to do Finn then I support you one hundred percent."
Now this seriously surprised Finn. "Really?" He asks.
"Really, that's what best friends are for right?" She says and Finn nods.
"So what are you going to do?" He asks, trying to get away from this mushy stuff.
Rachel smiles and settles back into the grass. "I want to leave Silent Hill to." She looks up at the clear blue sky. "I want to move to New York…I want to be famous Finn."
She's closer to him then she was before because when he moves his head to look at her he noticed that there was an inch of space left between them. "You will do great in New York, you will take it by storm…take no prisoners," He waggles his eyebrows. "Rachel Berry style."
She giggles and that's the icing on the cake, a comfortable silence comes over them for a few minutes as they watch the white, fluffy clouds roll by. "Hey Rach?" he finally says and Rachel opens her eyes.
"Hmm?" she answers lightly.
"Can you sing for me?" He asks, feeling like he is five.
She gives him a soft smile. "Of course, and since you asked so nicely I'll pick the song."
He gives her a chuckle and then opens her mouth and a voice of an angel escapes her lips, Finn visibly relaxes when she starts. "There once was pirate/ who put out to sea/ his maids all around him/ no maiden on his knee/ he'll sail for a little/ a little, little, little/ he'll sail for a little until she finds him…."
Finn opens up his eyes and turns his head again and looks at her as she runs her hand through his dark hair, her eyes on him and his eyes set on her lips. "There once was a maiden/who wandered the med/ to gather blue violets/ her mama would need/ a wail through the willows/ all hollow through the willows/ She'll wail through the willows till she finds him."
Rachel stops and Finn runs his own hand through her hair, it's a gesture that some would find romantic but for them it was just second nature. "Rach?"
"Yeah?" She says peacefully.
Finn's eyebrows frown and his eyes look her at her, memorizing her. "Promise me that you will always be in my life, not matter what."
Rachel smiles at him and intertwines his hand into her own. "I promise."
And at that moment, Rachel knows that her feelings for Finn has changed from something that was always known as friendship to something more deeper, more meaning full. "As long as you promise that you will always protect me…G.I. Finn."
Finn smirked. "Deal."
ii.
Graduation is a blur and she is already sitting when his name is called. But as he shakes principal Figgan's hand he can hear his named being cheered. Finn turned his head and saw Rachel standing up, cheering for him. She practically drowns out his mother and all of the football team. Finn smirks, winks at her, and then switches his tassel. Finn Hudson is a graduate and finally ready to leave this forsaken town.
When the ceremony ends, Finn feels a set of arms drape around his neck. He recognizes the pink nail polish and smiles, knowing who it is. "Congratulations." She tells him with a smile as he turns around to return her hug.
"Congratulations to you Miss Valedictorian" He says and she blushes. "Hey it's not every day that you're like voted as smartest person in the school…." He laughs. "Quinn was so pissed."
Rachel rolls her eyes. "Finn, Valedictorian is not chosen by voting, it's chosen by grade point averages. And according to this sash, I am smarter than Quinn Fabray."
Finn snorts. "You don't need a sash to prove that you are better than that train wreck." He said as he wraps his arm around her shoulder. "C'mon, my mom has reservations at the restaurant for the four of us. So let's go find your dad and say goodbye to this hell hole…and the sweaty uniforms."
iii.
He kisses her for the first time on his graduation party. It kinda comes at a surprise for him because his feelings for Rachel had always been that of friendship. But ever since 11th grade, he would have these overwhelming urges to kiss her and touch her. It confused Finn because he never felt that passionate about another girl before but Rachel, she was different.
The kiss happens as they clean up from the party. His mom is gathering up extra plates as Rachel's dad cleans off the grill. Finn had just gotten out of the pool because his mom gave him the fun job of searching for the diving toys so they didn't get trapped in the filter. "Hey Mr. Berry, where's Rachel?" Finn asks and Hiram doesn't look up from cleaning when he answers.
"Up a tree."
Finn raises an eyebrow. "Wait…really?"
Hiram nodded. "Yeah, she said she was going to get the lights down so there wasn't a fire."
Finn sighs as he looks at the willow tree and sees each string of light go off gradually. He shakes his head as he walks over to the tree. "Rach, whatcha doing up there!"
There is a small pause before she answers. "I'm saving one more tree from a devastating forest fire light by faulty Christmas lights."
Finn frowned. "There is nothing wrong with those lights."
"They're from 1997 Finn, they can and will start a fire." She says as Finn sighs. "Hey here is an idea, why don't you come up and help me instead of staying down there and pestering me."
"Fine" Finn says and moans and groans as he climbs the willow tree. He makes it to the branch that Rachel is sitting on, beads of sweat lacing his forehead. She laughs when she sees him pant from climbing then continues to turn off the lights. Finn just stares at her as the small lights glow softly on her skin, making her look even more beautiful in her white bathing suit cover up. She shakes her head as she untangles some lights.
"Getting out of shape Hudson?" She asks.
Finn shakes his head and gives her a chuckle. "Nah, I just haven't climbed this tree since we were thirteen. Why did we never come back up here?"
"Let me remind you, a horny thirteen year old boy said to his best friend, 'C'mon Rach, just lemme touch them, Puck got to touch Santana's'." She said, in her best mock voice of a young Finn Hudson.
Finn turned a deep red. "You let me touch them…"
"Over the shirt!" She reminded him. "I let you touch them over the shirt; then you went back announcing it to Puck only to find out that he was lying."
"Santana beat the shit out of him." He said with a smile.
"Yeah and Quinn spent the rest of the month calling me a harlot." She said with an eye roll as she threw some more lights onto the ground. "That girl always had a thing for you."
Finn nodded. "Yeah I know."
She squinted her eyes as she undid a small knot. "Why did you never date her, she is really pretty after all."
"She is not as pretty as you." It just slips out and they both look at each other, Rachel's look of shock makes his body burn and he decides to go on, trusting his gut he tells her the truth. "You're not pretty Rachel that words too low for you. You're beautiful." He scoots closer to her on the branch and caresses her cheek with his thumb.
"You know you can kiss me if you want to." She boldly tells him.
"I want to." He whispers and seals the deal. He catches her full warm lips in his own and Finn is pretty sure he is tasting heaven when he pushes his tongue into her mouth and tastes the remints of the fruit salad she just ate on her breath and when she whimpers it's like the icing on the cake. They pull away from each other minutes later with swollen lips and ragged breath. Finn thought she was going to get shy and leave but she laughs and he joins in before she pulled him into another kiss.
iv
Everything changes after the night of their first kiss and Finn thinks it's awesome. He gets to kiss her whenever he wants and he has an actual excuse to give dirty looks to guys that check her out because Rachel is no longer just his friend but his girlfriend. His mom is over the moon when she finds them on the sofa making out, he thought she would go ballistic but instead, she smiles and says. "Hiram owes me fifty dollars." And walks away with her bag of groceries in her arms.
And when Puck and Santana find out, Puck just makes a noise and Santana continues filing her nails. "We knew it would happen…someday." Santana says as she gives them an actual smile. "But we are very happy for you."
v
His mom throws him a going away party in august a day before he leaves for the army. Finn and Rachel manage to make their way away from the crowd and to the lake. Rachel laughs as she watches Finn struggling to get the untied boat off the dock and once he finally does he puts one foot in and holds his hand out to Rachel who steps in graciously. She sits down on one end as Finn grabs the paddles and starts to row away from the dock. He stops when they are in the middle of the lake that connects Silent Hill with three other towns. She smiles as he puts the ores into the metal rests and leans over to her. "You wanted to talk." He lets his mind take a picture of her now, her sun kissed face and the way her hair is curling from the august heat. His eyes travel down to her neck and the gold star pendant resting on the white sundress she was wearing.
"I wanted to give you your gift." She told him, snapping him from his thoughts, remembering that she didn't come to the party with an envelope or a wrapped package but just herself and honestly that was enough.
"Well what is it?" He asked her curiously with a raised brow.
For some reason she is blushing. "I-its something we have talked about Finn and I know we have only been dating for three months…but I want to give you something that no one else will ever get to have."
His eyes go wide because now he knows exactly what she is talking about, she wants to have sex…with him…right now…on this boat. Little Finn is already stirring and Rachel continues to ramble.
"So I mean if you don't want to-" She barely gets to finish her thought because Finn's lips are already covering hers.
She lets out a long breath when he starts to attack her neck with kisses and fumbles with the zipper of her dress. "I'll take that as a yes."
Finn pulled back and looked into her sparkling brown eyes. "Of course, you have no clue how long I wanted to do this."
It's their first time so of it is a little clumsy and awkward; Finn fumbles with her bra strap and almost falls ontop of her when he tries to help with his belt. When they finally got all their clothes off, Finn positions himself at her opening and she nods. She yelps when he slides into her and breaks her hymen. But she looks up at his concerned eyes and then smiles, remembering that this was Finn, her Finn that she has known since she was three and she completely loves and trust him. "Keep going." She whispers, he does and the boat rocks along with them. Rachel hooks her legs around his waist to urge him to go deeper and kisses him with all her might so she can show him how much she loves him.
They are laying in the boat, naked as the day they were born and cuddled in each other's arms. They are using the hot air as a blanket and Rachel inhales softly as she is snuggled on Finn's chest looking at the twinkling stars. "That was the best present ever." He says as Rachel gives a soft laugh. "Like seriously it means a lot to me." Finn told her and Rachel blushed and he kissed her softly. "I love you so much Rach, and when I come back from the army I wanna marry you."
Rachel turns around so her chin his resting on her chin on his chest, looking up at him. "Finn Hudson, are you asking me to marry you?"
He smirks as he runs his fingers through her long silky hair. "Sorta, I'm asking you if you would say yes to me when I actually ask you to marry when I come back from boot camp."
"So your promising me that you will ask me to get married?" Rachel asks and Finn nods. "Well…what would we do about a ring?"
Finn's brow frowns and he leans up a little to reach back and grab a tackle box. He takes out a fly fishing lure and some brown yarn, he took the hook off and was going to throw it into the lake but Rachel stops him because she is afraid that it hurt some innocent fish. He smirks as he puts the hook back into the tackle box and makes a necklace out of the two materials he had. He put it over her head and smiled as the feather rested between her breasts. "Is that good enough?"
She leans up and kisses him. "It's perfect."
vi.
He leaves the next day around 12pm, everyone is at the train station waving goodbye. Rachel kisses him ten times, each of them tear filled. "I'll come back." He promises. "And I will have a ring with me."
Finn walked on the train and took a seat as the conductor announced it was the last minute. As the train began to move, Rachel ran after it until she couldn't run anymore. She wanted to cry when it disappeared completely from her view but Santana came up behind her and rubbed her shoulder. "Hey," She said. "Let's have a girl's night, just you and me?"
Rachel nodded and walked with her. Santana smiled and gave her words of encouragement. "He will come back, and love you more than he did before."
Fort Drum, New York
Boot camp is tough, tougher then he thought it would be. The captain just freaks out for no reason and it makes it worse when he finds out that Captain O'Malley was a 'friend' of his father's so whenever Finn does something wrong, O'Malley gives him hell. "You are trying to make your papa proud huh? Well then be a fuckin' man and grow the hell up!"
But what keeps him going are the letter from Rachel, they always smell just like her and she always writes a new happening with Puck or Santana and she always ends it the same way. "I love you to the moon and back."
It was something they would say to each other as children and now it actually meant something more than just some silly words that would make a young Rachel Berry giggle.
He gets letters from her twice a week, his mom once a week, Santana once every two weeks and Puck once a month. Then, suddenly, the entire letters, each one of them just stops. He only had one month to go in Fort Drum before he could come back home and see everyone he loves and that confuses him because if Rachel didn't write, she would call on Sundays and there was no call. He read her last letter over and over again, trying to see if she had some kind of hidden message in it about them breaking up but it's all the same stuff. The only difference is the fact that she curses in it. "I can't wait to get out of here Finn, this god damn town and the people in it are freaking nuts."
He folds the letter into his pocket and turns to his friend Mickey Rider. "Hey look, this is a longshot man but…do you know anyone in Silent Hill?"
Mickey laughs. "You mean that town you're from? Nah, dude I haven't even heard about it until I met you."
Finn nods and then continues to pack his things. "Look man" Mickey says. "Maybe they just know you're coming home so they decided not to write."
"Yeah," Finn said as he put the picture of Rachel in his bag. "I hope so."
vii.
No one picks him up from the train station, the ticket lady even said there were no more trains running to Silent Hill and when he asked why the lady looked shocked. "You haven't heard?"
"Heard what?" Finn asked as he bought a ticket to Brahms.
The lady shook her head and handed him the ticket. "Nothing…its nothing."
When he gets to Brahms, he decides to hitch hike to Silent Hill and lucky for him, a truck driver picks him up. "I'm always happy to aid someone who is protecting our country." The man says. "The name is Travis, where you headed kid?"
"My hometown," Finn tells him. "Silent Hill."
The man gave him a half of a smirk and then started the truck back up. "Alrighty, what's your name though kid?"
"It's Finn," He tells him and Travis nods.
"Ok Finn, let's get you home."
viii.
It's very gloomy when Travis drops him off at the bus stop. He thanks the middle aged trucker and the man tips his hat and drives off. The town of Silent Hill was not what he remembered and literally lived up to its name. The town was dead quiet and a thick cloud of fog was descended upon it. There was no one walking about on this summer day and that scared him. He walked down the empty streets, noticing all the debris on the road and sidewalk. He looked up at the shops and the aparments above them, windows where broken and the signs where charred, He stared at the candy shop for a few minutes and watched as the pink curtain in the window above blew in and out of the apartment above. "What the hell happened here?" He walks a little more before he notices someone walking, the person is dressed in all black and very off balance as it walks down the street. Finally the person falls over and sobs fill the air. Finn drops his bag and rushes over to help the person. From what he can tell it's a female and he is not sure if she is hurt or what so he removes the veil from her head and then gasps. It's Santana, one of his closest friends that prided herself on looking good sitting in front of him with the word 'sinner' carved into her forehead. He barely recognized her as he looked over her scared face, the scar that took up most of her face ran deep and started with the 'r' in sinner and went all the way down, across her nose, cutting her lips almost in half and ending at her chin. "Jesus Christ." He cursed and Santana looked up at him. "What happened to you?"
Santana opened up her eyes, one of them was a milky white and another was its normal dark brown. She looked him up and down and then her bottom lip trembled. "Oh god," She said and reached her hand out to touch his face but then pulls it back because Finn noticed that the once nice skin was scared and healed over, making it look like a rubber glove. "Finn?"
Finn nods and Santana sobs again, she flings herself at him and cries uncontrobly into his shoulder. "Santana, what happened, what happen to you and to this town?"
Santana pulls back and looks at him with her good eye. "You look amazing Finn, thank god you got out of here before…"
"Before what Santana, what happened?" He persisted
She looked down at her hand and then back up at him. "The Order, they happened Finn."
"What?" He asked, he had known about The Order his whole life. They were a bunch of crazy religious loons that founded Silent Hill. Their ancestors practically ran the town and always preached that their religion was the better choice. Finn's mom was never a part of that, they just stuck to plain old Catholicism as did Santana and Rachel and Puck where both Jewish so they actually had to go out of town to celebrate their own faith. "What did they do?"
Santana looked around and then spoke to him a low whisper. "They caused this Finn…they, they…they burned her Finn, they took her to their church and tried to purify her…it didn't go as planned and…she…she was alive Finn and is still alive. They caused her rage by destroying the life growing inside of her and she made a deal with the demon Finn. The town burned, people died and now…we are stuck here."
"Stuck here…what do you mean by stuck here?" Finn asked and Santana nodded for him to look behind him and when he does, he sees that the road that he walked on was gone, cut in half and crossing it would be impossible. He takes a deep breath and then turns back to Santana. "San, w-who did they burn?"
Santana's eyes water and he already knows the answer before she mentions her name. "It was Rachel, Finn, they burned her."
ix.
It takes a long time for him to process this information, he sits next to Santana now, leaning against one of the shops and stares into space. "Is she alive?"
Santana nods.
He takes a deep shuddered breath. "But the baby?"
"Dead," Santana says, with no emotion in her voice.
Finn's head drops in his hands. "Oh God," He says, unable to stop the tears from falling. "Who did this to her?"
Santana blinks. "Quinn Fabary."
Santana then takes Finn to his house, she explains on the way what happen to her. "It was some kind of mass hysteria that took everyone over." She explained. "It was like Nazism, rounding up people that weren't like them. When The Order found out I was a lesbian, they punished me in the way that their holy book said." She spoke as she looked at the ground. "They branded me, tortured me, and they made me watch her suffer." She let out a deep breath. "They killed her dad to, Hiram was tied to a stick…just like the others in the town square and burnt them, and after they were killed they placed signs on their corpses. His read Homosexual, I thought they were going to put something much worse on him but…" She trailed off and looked up at him. "I don't want to talk about it anymore Finn."
"I understand." He said as the two of them stop in front of his house. "My mom is in there?" He asks and Santana nods. "Is she…"
"She is ok." Santana says as she walks up the stairs and knocks on the door, softly calling his mom's name. The door opens up slowly and Finn sees his mom, Santana says something to her and moves out of her way. Carole Hudson's eyes start to fill with tears and she covers her hand to her mouth as she tried to keep herself balanced. Finn studies her, she looks older and grayer, she also looks very grimy and her hair is greasy and in dread locks. She runs over to him and pulls him into a hug.
"You shouldn't have come back." She tells him as she holds her son. "Rachel…she…"
"I know" He says. "Santana told me"
She then lets him go and rushes both him and Santana into the house. He takes a seat on the musty sofa and his mom takes a seat in his father's chair. Santana stands watch at the window with a riffle in her hands, willing to shoot anything that came to the house.
"Rachel probably already knows you're here." His mom explains. "If she opened up the portal to let you in then she already knows, and if she knows…Quinn and The Order knows."
Finn sighs and closes his eye, trying his best to understand what was going on. "So they wanted to kill Rachel because they knew about what happened between me and her on the boat."
Carole nodded her head. "Also because they found out about the deal that her father and mother had."
"What deal?" Finn asked.
"Hiram was gay and in love with another man but he just wanted a child. Shelby, Rachel's mom and Hiram's best friend just wanted to get out of this place. So Hiram told her that they could fake a marriage, she could give him a child, they would divorce and Hiram would give her all the money he had so Shelby could live a comfortable life in New York." Carole said and then sighed. "When The Order found out about it, they called Rachel an abomination…the pregnancy was the cake topper you could say." She said as she started sobbing again. "She was going to have twins Finn, two little girls." She looked over at Santana. "What they did to those babies was…I can't even talk about it, it was so gruesome." She walked over to her son and sat next to him. "Apparently, Rachel's rage was so consuming that it awoke some kind of demon that exacted Rachel's revenge. She only keeps three people safe. Myself, Santana and Puck, the demon never hurts us."
Finn took a deep breath. "Where is Rachel now?"
Santana spoke up. "Only The Order knows."
"Where is The Order?" He asked and Santana turned to Carole, knowing exactly what he was thinking. Finn Hudson was going to get his revenge in Rachel's name.
"I'll take you to their church."
x.
He recognizes the church as soon as he sees it, the only difference is that it is covered in fog and there are crows perched everywhere. Santana steps back a little and Finn gives her a strange look. "You're not coming in?"
Santana shook her head no. "If they know you're helping Rachel…they will kill you, and they know that I'm on Rachel's side so…" She sighs. "I'll be waiting out here and waiting for the signal."
Finn nods and walks up the stairs to the church, he opens up the hug wood doors and is greeted by chanting. Finn closes the doors behind him and clears his throat, some town's people and people of the order look at him, they all go silent as Mr. Fabray clears a path, with his wife and daughter Quinn behind him. "So Finn Hudson has returned to Silent Hill," He looks over at Quinn and gives a small nod. "I assume you heard about Rachel?"
"Yes sir," Finn said and Mr. Fabray kept going.
"It's ashame," He said as he circled Finn. "A pity really, a beauty like that having to suffer because of her upbringing, don't you agree Finn?"
Finn clentches his jaw, letting the anger boil with in. "Yes sir, it is a pity."
Mr. Fabray smiles. "Well tell me my boy, why are you here?"
"I wanna help banish the demon." He tells Mr. Fabray. "The army trained me well for combat and I can take on anything. Rachel will listen to me." He tells him and Mr. Fabray flinches at her name.
"How can we trust you boy? We know that you and the demon where close." Mr. Fabray said with a raised brow.
Finn nodded and then closed his eyes. "I can give you Santana Lopez, I already know you have Noah locked up somewhere."
Mr. Fabray gives him a smirk and then looks over at a greasy fat man who pulls a black sheet off of a steel cage. In there was a badly injured Noah Puckerman. "We are skinning him little by little for his punishment, I'm sure there will be enough room for Lopez…where is she?"
Finn does his best to give a smirk smiler to Quinn's dad. "She is right outside the church…she thinks I am going to help the demon."
Mr. Fabray nods to the men at the door and they rush out. Quinn walks up to Finn and puts her hand on his shoulder. "I always knew that you would come over to our side."
They drag in the struggling Santana who plays her part very well. "You lying son of a bitch!" She screams as they lock her up. "You swore to me that you would help her!"
Finn tries not to wince as one of the guys backhands her and then looks to Mr. Fabray. "We will take you to where she stays." He motions for another man to come over and when he does, he hands Finn a hand gun. "I'm sure you know how to use one of these…for your protection." He tells him as he hands Finn the gun. "Now lets go before the darkness settles."
They end up walking to the hospital his mom used to work at; Brookhaven was what it was called. They walk through the main doors and stop at the elevator. "Memorize that map," Quinn tells him as some of the worker men raise the elevator. "It's the only thing that will keep you alive."
"It's ready Ms. Fabray." One of the men says and Finn along with Mr. Fabray, Judy Fabray and Quinn walk over to the doors of the elevator. He steps in and looks at the family of blondes.
"Kill the demon for us." Judy says and then Finn truly smirks as the doors close
"You're out of your fuckin' mind if you think I'm going to kill her…I still love her" Finn says and the doors snap shut and he can hear Quinn's father yell to stop him but the elevator is already falling out of control and then finally safely lands on the basement floor.
xi.
He memorized the path to the boiler room, where Rachel was being held. He constantly repeats the path over and over as he walks it, Finn hardly notices the blood stain walls or the fact that the corpses on the beds in the hallway are breathing. He is only focused on Rachel and Rachel only and when he gets to the door of the boiler room, he opens it and a bright light overwhelms him.
"You came back."
It's Rachel's voice that fills his ears and then he is suddenly teleported to the place under the cherry blossom tree, its blooming and the breeze picks up as the petals dance through the wind. He looks around wildly and then he hears her laugh and turns around.
Rachel is standing before him, her skin literally glows as her dark brown hair tickles her shoulders. She is wearing a pure white dress that sparkles every time the sun shines on it. Finn slowly walks up to her and places a hand on her cheek. "Rachel." He says hoarsely and she nods, tears shining in her eyes. "Where are we?"
"We are inside my mind Finn," She says as she leans into his embrace. "It's the only way I can escape this hell." She took a deep breath. "I'm so angry Finn."
"I know baby," He says as he pulls her into a hug. "What do you want me to do?"
She blinks as she looks up at him. "What?"
"They destroyed my future to." He explains. "I wanted to marry you Rachel and…and I would of helped with the twins."
"You knew about them?" She asked and Finn nodded. "And I know what they did to you…Rachel I wanna see what they did to you."
She pulls away from him. "I saw Santana and Rachel…I don't care what you look like."
"Ok" Rachel said and another bright light washed over him and he found himself in a boiler room with red stained walls and a hospital bed. He is about to walk over to the body that was laying on it but then is stopped by a voice.
"Finn?"
He turns around and see's Rachel, but it's but it is not his Rachel. This Rachel is wearing a torn blue dress that is covered in blood and her hair is matted and a mess. She looks at his with cruel, cold eyes and he gulps because he is actually scared of Rachel. "You're not her."
This thing smirks. "Ding, ding!" She remarks. "Your lover is lying in that bed over there, go on take a look."
Finn nods and goes over to remove the curtain from the bed. He sucks in a deep breath when he sees her because the only thing he recognizes is her eyes. Her hair is gone and her body just looks like a rubber wet suit. His anger finally reaches a boiling point and he picks up a throws the chair beside her bed and it hits the wall. He turns to whatever was posing as Rachel. "Who the hell are you?"
"I have many names." She answers and then looks at Rachel. "It's a damn shame, what they did to her and you want revenge right? For what they did, the way they made her suffers."
"I want them all to suffer." He tells it. "Just tell me who you are."
It smiles evilly at him and then walks closer to him. "Now is the End of Days, and I am the Reaper!" The Reaper walked over to Finn and embraced him in a hug, and when she or it did a memory flashed over his eyes. He saw Rachel being dragged through a hotel wearing a long white ceremonially dress and the others around her wearing put black. It only took Finn a few minutes to figure out that it was members of The Order bring her to a room in the back of a hotel. Another memory flashed and it was of Rachel again, strapped to a circular metal bed frame and she was screaming as they ignited the fire under her. Finn felt his eyes fill with tears, why was this thing making him see this. Then something goes wrong, one of the chains supporting the frame breaks and falls into the large man made pot that held the flaming coals, they fall and scatter everywhere and Rachel's pregnant belly gets slammed into a wall. He does notice, however a terrified Quinn Fabray pull her phone out and dial 911, the room is already in flames when the fire department comes. The men see Rachel and one of them turns and walks out as another unstraps her from the metal hell she was on. "Those people are fuckin' monsters."
"Yeah," another one says. "And the sad thing is, they are going to get away with it."
Then the last and final memory fills his head, Its Rachel and she is laying in a hospital bed. Santana is next to her sobbing about the death of Hiram and when she leaves the room for a snack, The Reaper strikes. Finn then watches as the Reaper disguised as Rachel use her unholy powers to burn the town and put it into its limbo. The memories fade from his head and he looks at the Reaper who has no expression.
"Are you still willing to help her?"
Finn nods and the Reaper looks over at Rachel, the next thing Finn feels is a searing hot pain as The Reaper walks right into his own body.
xii.
The Reaper must have gotten him out of the hospital safely because the next thing he knows he is in front of the church. When he walks in, he sees that The Order have tied Santana to a wooden pole as they got ready to burn her.
"No!" Finn yells and the cult turns around and looks at him. "You…you need to stop this!"
Mr. Fabray laughs when he sees him. "Well, well, well, looks like the demon's right hand has returned." He looked over at the two henchmen next to him. "Grab him."
Finn pulled the gun he was given earlier and points it at them. "Not another move."
"This is a house of God!" Judy Fabray exclaims and Finn rolls his eyes.
"Not my God," He seeths. "Do you think that God would have wanted this, for you to hurt an innocent girl."
"Rachel Berry was sin incarnate!" Mr. Fabray yells.
"No!" He screams. "You burn anything you hate, anything you do not understand! You burned in the fire that you started and nothing can save you because you're already damned!"
Mr. Fabray's face turns red. "Burn him! Burn him as a sinner!"
"Burn him, burn him!" The cult chanted.
Mr. Fabray walked closer to him as Finn talked him down.
"Burn me? That's your answer... Burn anything you're afraid of. Burn anything you can't control?" Finn asked. "You're in your own limbo, and God IS NOT here!"
Then he feels a sudden searing pain and he looks down and drops the gun, Mr. Fabray pulled the knife that he used to stab Finn from his chest and Finn wobbled to the center of the church, where they were going to burn Santana.
"Blasphemer... He was a blasphemer" Mr. Fabray announces as Finn bleeds out onto the floor. "God is here my friends and he wants us to destroy the sinners so we can be brought peacefully into the kingdom of heaven." He says as the lights begin to flicker in the church. "He wants…" Suddenly the air in the building gets ice cold and he looks over at Finn. "He wants…" Mr. Fabray watches in horror as Finn stands up and unties Santana from the stake. The wind beings to howl and the lights go off completely and the church is in pure darkness. Finn can hear people scrambling for flash lights and he sees Mr. Fabray point at him. "You…you let the demon in here!"
Suddenly, the center of the church caves in and something beings to rise up from the ground, it is Rachel in her hospital bed, people start to scream as barb wire snakes around the church grabbing every Order member in sight. The Reaper starts to ascend from the whole in the ground and dances in the blood of the dead. Finn pushes Santana into a corner and walks in front of Rachel as she finishes killing the people in the church. She has Russell Fabray assented in the air and Finn winces when he sees her cut him in half. "Rachel…" He croaks as his feet hit the blood stained carpet. "It's over Rach, stop…the order is dead you can't kill innocent people." He looks over at the Reaper. "Make her stop…please"
The Reaper nods her head and sunlight starts to shine through the broken stained glass windows. Rachel's bed is lowered from the air and she carefully steps off, walking over to him. He stands still as she stops infront of him. "Rachel, look at me."
She looked up at him, her innocent eyes meeting his. "You are still so beautiful to me."
"Finn" She says and Finn realizes it the first time that she had said his name in months and he leaned in to kiss her and when he did he heard The Reaper sigh.
"Damn, can't refuse that."
Finn opened up one of his eyes and saw The Reaper snap her fingers and a beam of light engulfed them all and the town. When it faded, Finn opened his eyes to see the Rachel he knew from senior year standing in front of him, her skin was bronzed and glowing and her lips full and pink and her long chocolate colored hair curled and brush onto her shoulder. She opens up her eyes and then blinks. "What?"
"Look at your hands Rach." He tells her and when she does she starts to cry.
"Oh my God." She muttered and looks over at Santana who was also restored to her old self. Santana started laughing and then ran over to take Puck out of his prison.
Finn pulls Rachel into another kiss and a clearing of a throat interrupts them. They both look over and see The Reaper in her true form. He skin is pale and she has long black hair and large green eyes. She sighs. "I can't restore the three lives that you lost Rachel but I gave you what I could, a sense of normalcy." She smirks. "It's was nice working with you." And with that, the reaper vanishes in thin air and Rachel turns back to Finn and touches his face.
"I just want to make sure that this is really you and not some kind of cruel joke." She says
He nods. "It's real Rachel, I'm real."
"But our children, and my dad." She said as she began to cry.
Finn took a deep breath and pulled Rachel into a hug. "I know Rachel and we will keep living out lives for them." He grabs her shoulders and then looks her in the eyes. He smiles when he sees that the necklace he made for her was resting on her neck. "I still wanna marry you Rachel, I still love you so much."
"I love you to Finn." She tells him and the both look at Puck and Santana who are standing at the door waiting for them. As they go to leave the building they see a shaking form in a corner, its Quinn Fabray, the only surviving person of the order. They both walk over to her and she looks up at them with red rimmed eyes.
"Why did you spare me?" she asked
Rachel looked down at her with pity in her eyes. "Because I knew in my heart that you never wanted to hurt me." She nods over to Puck who looks at the girl with confusion. "We can take her with us and heal together."
So the five teenagers, plus Carol leave the cursed town of Silent Hill never to return. They knew that the emotional scars would take years to heal and they were willing to help each other through it all and Finn knew the best place for all of that to happen, the city of Rachel's dreams, New York city.
