"Rachel, please!"
"No. I can't handle… I can't even look at you right now. How could you do something like this! What were you even thinking!"
"Chill, Berry. He came at us. Quinn just did what she had to do. Besides, he truly was a waste of your time."
Santana picked up her Cheerios jacket off the arm of the couch, throwing it over her shoulder as she strode toward the front door. Rachel called out behind her.
"Wait! Wh- where are you going?"
Her left hand rested on the doorknob as she took a deep breath and released it. She spun around with a smile on her face and a mischievous look in her eyes.
"With the douchebag gone, our phony circle is broken. Which means…" she raised her left hand into the air, fingers fully extended, then pressed each finger into her palm individually, starting with her pinky until her hand was shaped into a fist. The chandelier in the sitting room suddenly went dark. She let out a soft laugh before she finished her sentence. "…we can now do magic again. WITHOUT help. And you two need some serious alone time. Or couples therapy."
A few seconds later the lights were back on and Santana was gone. Rachel looked around the room as if she had never been in her own house. When she completed half a turn, her eyes fell on Quinn. She was sitting on the edge of the sofa with her hands clasped tightly in her lap. Quinn had been through a lot in her young life but she had never looked this broken. She looked up at Rachel with a silent pleading. There was a visible sheen on her face from the tears she had yet to stop shedding. Even with everything else she was feeling, Rachel could not ignore the ache she was feeling in her heart. An ache that only existed when she was with Quinn. She was conflicted but her heart won over her mind as it always did with Quinn. She steadied herself before taking the two small steps to the couch. For a moment, she stood over Quinn as if she might actually be able to ignore the need to comfort her friend. But the moment passed and she dropped down on the cushion next to Quinn. She straightened her back and stared Quinn in the eye with as much steel as she could muster.
"Tell me what happened."
Quinn's expression didn't change. She was too physically and emotionally exhausted to even attempt to pull herself together. She unclasped her hands and laid them palm up, one on each leg. Rachel looked at Quinn's left hand. It was still trembling. She let herself look once more into Quinn's pleading eyes before she took the hand that was waiting for her.
"I have no idea why I even bother listening to you."
"Because I'm your friend. Like, your only friend. And the only bitch in this town who isn't afraid to be honest to your face. Is there anything else you don't get or can we find what we need and get out of here?"
Rachel stood in the corner of the room, an unseen spectator of the past. Quinn stood in the middle of the dingy room questioning the validity of Santana's reasons for dragging her to the remote location. Santana went about the room searching in every crevice for something; what that something was, Rachel didn't know and apparently, neither did Quinn.
"Santana, I just don't feel comfortable being here. I don't even know where 'here' is."
Santana slammed the drawer that she was rustling through and turned to Quinn with an irritated look. A look that softened almost seductively, from Rachel's point of view, as she got closer to Quinn.
"Listen, sweet pea. And try to keep up, kay?"
Quinn hated when people were condescending towards her but she just really wanted to leave as soon as possible so she silently nodded.
"You yourself said that Fabrays and Berrys are destined. That it's, quote unquote, written in the stars…" She stepped even closer, placing one foot between Quinn's parted feet. Their faces were practically touching. Rachel could feel something swelling up in her. But it couldn't be jealousy. What would she be jealous of?
"So…" Santana's eyes squinted a bit as she placed her lips as close as possible to Quinn's without actually kissing her. She took a quick step backward and spun on her heels, returning to the disheveled drawer. "Don't you find it a little odd that this Hudson guy shows up out of the blue and has this weird pull over your girl?"
Quinn quickly interrupted. "She's not my girl. I just said-"
Santana shot a hand up in the air without even turning around as she moved on to the third drawer of the desk.
"Whatever. It's always been a male from one family with a female from the other. Blah, blah, blah. Maybe she's meant for a cousin of yours or maybe your parents gave up a brother before you were born and he'll magically find his way back to her. Whatever. All I know is that the only way Hudson is even close to Fabray is in the alphabet and you still got a letter in between. I mean, no one knows anything about him. It's not like we can actually ask our parents what families are supposed to be a part of the circle. We don't have all the family books. So I figure there's gotta be something we're missing. Something he knows that we don't. And I want to find it. For some reason, he comes here every once in awhile so I figure this is his little stash house of secrets."
She slammed the last drawer shut and turned around placing her hands on her hips.
"Now. Are you going to help me or not?"
Before Quinn could answer, they both heard the screen door open. Without a word or even a signal, they both sprinted out of the room looking for the cover of darkness. Rachel was still standing in the corner processing Santana's words. "Hudson has this weird pull over your girl. Your girl. YOUR girl." Her energy had always been stronger when she was with Quinn. And the sore spot in her heart had never ached for anyone else. Not even Finn. She began to walk in the direction they had escaped, forgetting her reason for being there.
Across the room the door creaked open, alerting her to where she was. He stood there for a moment before his head turned sharply to the left. He was looking directly at her. With muddled black eyes. The body was Finn, the boy she had loved from the moment she laid eyes on him, but in his eyes there was something missing. His soul. And she was wrong. He wasn't looking at her. He was looking through her. Into the kitchen behind her. The other girls had cut through the dining room and were trying to get out the side door. Just as Santana yanked it open, a fierce wind pulled it shut again. Both girls spun around with wide eyes. Santana calmed her expression quickly as she greeted Finn with a smile.
"Thank God. We thought you were a crackhead. Or some squatter looking for shelter. Or Freddy Krueger." She laughed uncomfortably. He still didn't move. Quinn kept a hand on the door as she reached for Santana's arm to stop her from advancing in Finn's direction. Santana ignored the fingers that brushed against her forearm as she moved closer to the lit living room. She tried again.
"Come here often?" That made him crack a small smile but it was unnatural. Even in the dark, Quinn recognized it before Santana did. She let go of the door and approached Santana planting her feet to the ground next to the shorter witch. She began to whisper a warning to Santana.
"I think he's possessed, San-"
He lunged for them before she could finish the sentence. Quinn instinctively pushed Santana to the side as she leaned away and let him hit the ground behind her. He quickly pushed his body up off the linoleum floor and tried the maneuver again before Quinn could reposition herself. Santana, fully aware of the danger now, tackled him from the side with the little strength she had. It was enough to knock him into the refrigerator and give them time to reach the front door. It opened with ease and they sprinted for safety with him in quick pursuit. He was much faster than either of them had ever seen him. Rachel ran to the front porch and saw Finn on top of Santana at the end of the pier. He was straddling her body as he attempted to choke the life out of her. As the wind picked up, Santana's voice was frail and nearly inaudible.
"Quinn! Concentrate! Please!"
Rachel could see Quinn's mouth moving but couldn't hear the words she was shouting out to the sky. When Quinn's head lowered there was a fervor about her that was uncharacteristic of her. She walked back in the direction of the demon possessed quarterback as if he posed no threat to her. With a wave of her hand, she proved that he didn't. He flew into the air and fell against the light pole with such force that it bent on impact and he fell to the ground a few feet below. Rachel fought against the strong breeze to get closer to them. As Quinn knelt down to help Santana up, Rachel heard the order.
"Kill him. You have to kill him Quinn. I don't know what he is but he will never stop if you let him live. He'll go after Rachel next."
Quinn had the same conflicted look that Rachel usually wore when thinking of Quinn. A look that turned into determination when she stood up again. As her arms rose to the sky it answered back in kind with a heavy rain. Finn struggled to get up. Quinn was eager to help him in his plight. She threw a hand up towards him with her palm facing him. His body straightened until his spine was flush against the light pole. He couldn't move. Santana sat up on the ground, watching as the imposter writhed and screamed in pain. Her facial expression indicated that she was at a loss to explain what was going on. Even with the torrential rain and funnel-like windstorm the breaking of bones could be clearly heard. Quinn was literally tearing Finn to pieces without touching him. Rachel looked away from the scene in horror.
When she opened her eyes she was back in her home, sitting next to the witch that had murdered her boyfriend. But she wasn't mortified. She knew she should be but she couldn't force herself to feel the way she should. She felt a calmness. And in that moment, she felt as if she had been relieved of a force that was binding her. She looked at Quinn and conveyed the fact that she was confused without saying a word.
"Santana was right, Rachel. He did have a weird pull over you. It was some freaky compulsion spell that the elders put on him so that we would accept him into the circle and then he could destroy us from within. When they say they don't want magic used, they mean it. I just… I had to protect you. I… care about you."
Rachel was still holding her hand. She squeezed it. She mimicked Santana's earlier action that had made her envious but she completed it and let her lips actually touch Quinn's.
"I love you too, Quinn. It doesn't hurt to say it. You should really try it some time."
They both sat in silence hand in hand and smiling until Quinn's phone vibrated in her jacket pocket. She quickly snatched the jacket from the floor where it had fell and fumbled to retrieve the phone. She pressed the screen to read a new text message.
"What is it?"
Quinn shrugged her shoulders. "A few weeks ago Santana traced her family line and found out Lopezes are destined for Pierces. I guess a Pierce just moved into town."