A/N: I wrote this last night in two hours when I couldn't sleep. Not sure whether that's a good or bad thing. However, this is unlike anything I've ever written. I don't even know how to describe it. Maybe as a VERY dark, VERY twisted story of love and revenge.

Rating due to content and language.

Warnings: MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH, (indirect) SUICIDE, VIOLENCE (although nothing graphic), implied INCEST/RAPE

The usual disclaimer applies. Not mine. This is just for fun (hard to believe considering the warnings, but yes, it's true, whatever that says about me) and I make no money out of it.

They release him after three days. Perjury. Because he didn't reveal his relationship with Rebecca. What kind of bullshit arrest was that, anyway? It was a pretense, an attempt to scare him into a confession. Well, they couldn't have picked a less favorable moment. Because scaring him? Not going to work. It wouldn't have in the past, and right now, the idea of anything being able to scare him is ludicrous. Not after what happened. Not after he held Norma's lifeless body in his arms only hours after they'd had this terrible falling-out. Yeah. Try to top that and you will perhaps be able to scare him. Until then? Back off.

They wanted something, though, some kind of valuable information; otherwise they wouldn't have let him go. And he needed to get out of there. Soon. There was a job waiting to be finished. You might call it revenge. Ever since that little prick threw the ring of his mother, Norma's wedding ring, in his face at her funeral, he calls it a necessity. Some things have to happen in order for the world not to spin out of its axis. Well, if it hadn't done that already. So he gave them names. People associated with Bob Paris. Not the top dogs but high enough in hierarchy to cause damage that would redound upon him. There you go. He doesn't plan to stay in White Pine Bay, anyway. After he finished the job, that is.

He is back at his house, not home, home doesn't exist anymore. He takes a shower, changes clothes, his movements strangely robotic as if his bones have forgotten how to connect with his skin. Everything is wrong and what he is about to do won't make it right. He will do it regardless.

They didn't give him back the unregistered gun he had carried when they had arrested him. But he wouldn't be Alex Romero if he didn't have another one in his safe. You need to be prepared, right? Anywhere, anytime.

The sheriff's star on the table makes him stop on his way out. He bent the law in his interest in the past, but he has always stuck to his own code of honor. Not everything is black or white. Romero is not delusional though. Even his code of honor doesn't cover what he is about to do. That kid is sick. Dangerous and lethal, yes, but still sick. He should bring him back to Pineview and not hold a gun to his head. However, sometimes there is no other choice. Simple as that.

It's surprisingly exhausting to climb the stairs up to the Bates' house. They never were an obstacle when she was living there, the anticipation to see Norma open the door, see her smile at him enough to make him do anything, committing the one or other murder included. What would she think of you now? The thought is there out of the blue and stops him dead in his tracks. She loves Norman, more than anything. More than you. It hurts and maybe it's not even true. She loved him more than any other man she had been with. You can't hope for more than that. Norman is her child; therefore it's an unfair competition, one he was bound to lose right from the start. Romero doesn't believe in an afterlife, doesn't believe she is somewhere looking down on him albeit if there ever was someone predestined to be an angel, then it's her. And yet her spell is still there, the awareness that he wants to do something, needs to do it so bad, that would break her heart and would give her an actual reason to hate him.

When he moves again, he walks with a stoop, his feet heavy, the burden weighing him down. No, he won't be able to go through with it, can't do that to her. But he is here now, right in front of the house and the door opens on its own accord when he reaches out. This was their home, the only place where he has been happy in his entire life. So it's no option not to go inside. For a brief, irrational moment Alex hopes that it all was just a bad dream, that Norma will be awaiting him the moment he opens the door. Alex, hun, where have you been? She will embrace him, God there is no better feeling than to hold her, just hold her and know that she's safe. Her blonde locks will tickle his face, her perfume will surround him and welcome him home, her…

The stench is overwhelming as soon as he opens the second door. He knows that stench too well, the familiar reek of a crime scene whenever they find a rotting body. A grim satisfaction sets in. Norman must have done the job for him and killed himself. But when he takes a step forward and looks into the living room, everything Alex Romero ever thought he believed in goes straight to hell. It's her and it's not. The love of his life, exposed on the couch, eyes wide open, ghastly, her blue dress stained, her body in the early stage of decomposition.

An inhuman sound fills the room, the howl of a dying animal. Romero neither realizes that his throat released it, nor is he able to control his movements. In an instant he is on his knees next to her, his hands grasping her dress. Norma… If he prayed, this would be the moment. Forgive me. Forgive me that I couldn't save you. Forgive me that I argued with you the last time we saw each other. Forgive me that I couldn't protect you even after you died. He is swaying back and forth, holding on to the blue fabric, the color of her dress matching her eyes. Romero can't bear to look into the crude version death has turned them into, will keep her eyes in memory the way they were when she was alive – glinting and more mesmerizing than anything he had ever seen before. He likes to think he was predetermined to get lost in those eyes. She was always meant to be his fate. There are no more tears. Alex cried for Norma the night she died when he held her in his arms and later on when he was alone. All that is left is the cold awareness of a reality that is even worse than her death. Forgive me for what I will do. This is the point of no return. No matter how much Norma loves, loved, her son. This is the one thing he can't let him get away with.

An eerie calm floods through him as Romero walks into the kitchen and grabs one of the knifes. He brought a gun, but a gun is too clean, too easy for the rage he feels. He is not religious, but this, her, is a sacrilege and has to entail an adequate retribution. The house is silent. However, the grave desecrator has to be somewhere and he will find him.

When Alex steps outside later, the sun is mocking him. It is raining every day in this shitty town, but today of all days the weather has other plans. He closes the door behind him although it is futile. He didn't cover any tracks, sooner or later someone will find Norman or what is left of him. It was no easy way to go, just as he intended. Good thing that there are no guests at the motel and that the house is secluded. That way no one heard Norman's screams. Romero doesn't know how much time he spent sitting in the living room afterwards, unable to leave her behind. He considered picking Norma's body up and carrying her back to her grave, but what good would it have done? She will have a proper burial when whoever finds Norman. This is not Norma anymore anyway, only a shell that remotely looks like her. So he got a blanket and tucked her in, pretending she was sleeping albeit it didn't make it any easier to leave. For a brief, sick moment he could relate to Norman and his need to be with her, whatever the cost, whatever the circumstances. Love is some kind of insanity, after all.

Where is he supposed to go now? Romero feels almost drunk as he stumbles down the stairs, leaving blood splatter everywhere. He didn't bother to clean his hands or clothes. Might anybody just as well notice from a distance that he has gone mad. In fact, that might happen sooner than he expected because there is someone coming up the stairs. He knows that man, but his confused mind needs a moment to remember. Probably because meeting this man on this day is too much of a coincidence. You could almost assume fate has it all well planned.

The man jerks to a halt when he sees him, covered in blood and all that. Obviously he recognizes him too, though, and is not as fazed by his blood-smeared appearance as most people would be.

"Sheriff Romero. What happened? Is everything okay with Norma?" The concern in his voice is raw and honest. He doesn't know. Of course. Norman didn't tell anyone; there was no one else at Norma's funeral.

"Caleb." Considering what Norma told him about her brother, about their years-long incestuous relationship that ended in rape when she tried to stop it, Alex is unable to suppress the contempt. This is some seriously fucked up family. It's a miracle Norma managed to survive as long as she did and had such a radiant, almost innocent personality

"Do you need me to get you to a doctor?" Suspicion creeps into his concern.

Whatever Caleb is doing here, he knows something is wrong, something that goes beyond Romero's blood stained clothes. Caleb is one of these guys that have a natural survival instinct, solely the fact that he wouldn't suspect the sheriff of committing a hideous crime protecting Alex from an instant physical approach to find out what might have happened to Norma.

The love for his sister that exceeds brotherly feelings is written all over his face as Caleb worries what is going on and why the sheriff won't give him an explanation. Well, he will find out soon enough, but there is something Caleb has to do for him first. Something Romero wouldn't burden anyone else with. Caleb is perfect though and he won't hesitate to do it; Alex is dead certain of that. More retribution. Turns out once you begin, it's hard to stop before the entire world has gone blind, an eye for an eye and all that.

"I killed them," Romero says deliberately slowly, slurring the words. Make him believe he has gone mad. That's not far from the truth in the end. "Norma and Norman. I killed them both."

Caleb will find out that this is not true, but Alex only needs him to believe it now. And he does. Why would the sheriff lie to him? After all the blood seems to attest his statement. Caleb's reaction is as quick as violent, his temper and his love for his sister a dangerous mix. Something in his eyes changes, a wild flicker appears that reminds Alex of Norma shortly before one of her conniptions. That's the way it is with people. You just have to find their buttons and push them. In Caleb's case, it is his inappropriate love for Norma. A passion that makes him do anything to avenge her death, like kill her supposed murderer.

Romero left his gun at the house as well as the knife he used to kill Norman. He is done taking lives. Caleb apparently carries no weapon whatsoever because he attacks him with his bare hands, choking him. Suffocating is no easy way to die, but hey, beggars can't be choosers and perhaps his time for retribution has come now. Alex pretends to fight back a bit. It would look too weird to just let Caleb kill him even if that's the point. Every story has to have an end, and given the fate of his mother, Romero never could have committed suicide.

There are these reports everyone has heard from people who almost died and came back. Reports about what dying feels like. White light, floating, music. It's nothing like that, not that Alex expected anything. As he feels life making way for something else, he closes his eyes and remembers. Not a special occasion, just the way it felt to be with her. And then he hears it, her laughter. It always cheered him up, no matter how bad his day was. He would have done anything to make her happy. And when he opens his eyes, it's not Caleb standing over him anymore. It's Norma, smiling and reaching out to him.

"There you are. I've missed you."

The end

One more thing: I feel the need to say that although I killed Norman off here, I like all the characters of the show, especially the two leads Norma and Norman and how Vera Farmiga and Freddie Highmore play them. Sometimes my muse just comes up with weird story ideas. And needless to say, I hope, that I despise violence of any kind in real life. That's what fiction is for.