DISCLAIMER: I neither own Glee nor the characters. They are the property of Ryan Murphy and FOX. This is purely for fun. Enjoy!

A/N: I am so sorry this took so long but I hope it was worth the wait!


Chapter Eight: Showdown


It definitely was a humid morning, that was for sure. Rachel stood outside on her patio, trying to ignore the heat as she stood across from Sunshine Corazon and the insane look in her eyes as the two young girls slowly paced around the pool. Rachel tried her best to avoid the patches of blood that stained her once pristine stone patio but it was no use; between both Finn and Dustin's wounds the blood was practically everywhere. She peeked over her shoulder to spot Finn's body among the chaos and she silently prayed that he would be okay. People survived from stab wounds all the time, right? All she needed to do was hold out long enough for the police to arrive and she and Finn would hopefully be okay.

Unfortunately for her, Sunshine had no interest in being caught in the act and she was becoming desperate, fast. With a keening cry, the tiny Filipino girl raised her knife high in the air and ran straight for Rachel with a deadly, passionate fire in her eyes. On reflex alone Rachel was able to use Sunshine's momentum against her; she grabbed the girl by the wrist and dislodged the knife from her hands while Sunshine went falling in the other direction. Rachel threw the knife in the pool while her attacker was regaining her balance, and the two girls were now unarmed as they faced off against one another.

"You bitch!" Sunshine screamed as she recovered, shaking her head at the pool. "Now I'm going to have to kill you with my bare hands."

"Try me," was Rachel's low reply as she backed up a few steps, ready to fight. All of Rachel's sympathy for Sunshine's plight was gone, replaced with a need for vengeance that surpassed any regard for her past actions. She knew that she had been mean to Sunshine at the beginning of the year but people were dead now, and she couldn't help but blame herself. Her simple apology to Sunshine at Nationals would never be able to undo what Sunshine had experienced at the hands of Vocal Adrenaline, and nothing she could say or do could change what happened to her friends. But Rachel refused to stop until the threat was gone. She was not going to stand by and let Sunshine hurt anyone else, especially her and Finn.

"You're so lucky, aren't you?" The sarcasm was practically dripping from her voice. "You have so many friends, so many people who are trying to protect you. I could have had that too, if it weren't for you. I could have had friends who loved me and cared about me!"

"Yeah, you could of, I don't deny that, Sunshine." She watched as her eyes flew open from the shock of her statement. "I wish I could somehow change what happened between us, but I can't. However, that doesn't justify the fact that you went crazy and spent half the year trying to ruin glee club before killing my friends and trying to kill me." She crossed her arms as the standoff continued. "Why exactly did you kill all those people? I understand why you killed Jesse, but what about Azemio? What about Figgins and the detectives?"

"Oh, I don't know, there were a lot of reasons, I suppose." Her voice was neutral and nonchalant. "I wanted to send you a message and I wanted everyone to know that you were my target. And I know from experience that there's nothing you love more than the spotlight pointed directly at you; I thought you would enjoy the attention. Then the bodies just started piling up and I stopped caring."

"That's sick."

"So are you and your obsession with solos and glee club and the career you're never going to have because I am going to string your guts all across Lima, Ohio!"

Rachel scoffed, "Last time I checked your knife was at the bottom of my pool."

"It won't be for much longer." Before Rachel could react Sunshine lunged at her with her arms stretched out towards her throat. She grabbed Rachel by the neck and pushed the two of them into the pool, and Rachel quickly gasped for air before the water completely covered her body. She was so disoriented from the fall that she that she didn't notice how Sunshine started to squeeze her neck tighter and tighter, pushing her to the bottom of the pool with no way of escape. She flailed her arms and tried to pry Sunshine's hands off of her neck but the girl's grip was rock solid. She tried to struggle, but it did nothing but use up her already valuable air supply.

Slowly but surely, the air became stale in her lungs. She could feel the burn of need start to overwhelm her as the hands tightened on her neck. Her vision was starting to go dark as the air bubbled out of her nose and mouth and she started to panic. In an act of desperation she started to kick and punch wildly, trying to get out of the girl's grasp as they continued to struggle underwater. Rachel kicked Sunshine in the shin and in her momentary distraction she was able to claw at Sunshine's face until the hands were released from her neck. She quickly kicked to the surface of the pool and inhaled deeply, welcoming the humid morning air as it entered her lungs. Her body was desperate to suck in all of the air possible as she started to kick towards the ladder, trying to escape the pool and the dangers of being in the water with a serial killer. She reached the ladder and started to emerge from the pool, her clothes dripping all over the place and mixing in with the puddles of blood from before. She spotted Finn's body from her position and was about to run to check on him when she felt a pain like never before shoot up her side. It felt like she was being ripped apart from the inside as she tried her best to turn around and see what was happening.

"Ahh!" Rachel screamed when she saw the knife jutting out of her left side as Sunshine's malicious smile could be seen in her periphery. She pulled the knife out quickly and stabbed her once more in the leg this time, and Rachel could feel the blade ripping through her skin and her muscles, leaving her incapacitated and practically crippled. Rachel fell onto the patio, her blood now mixing with the blood of the others as the acrid smell of chlorine permeated her nostrils. The pain she felt in her side and in her leg were like nothing she had ever felt before as her head started to pound and her vision blurred. Her body started to sweat and shake all over as she tried to grab the wounds at her left side to staunch the blood flow. Was this what death felt like? If it was, then dying really hurt.

"Not so energetic now, are you?" Sneered Sunshine as she pulled herself out of the pool and next to Rachel's fallen body. The tiny Filipino girl kicked Rachel's good side and the pain spasmed all throughout her body as she tried not to yell out from the pain. She wouldn't give Sunshine the satisfaction of hearing her scream.

Sunshine held up the knife in the morning sun and Rachel could now see her own blood staining the blade as Sunshine hovered over her useless body. It felt like all of her strength was pouring out of the stab wounds in her side and as much as she wanted to run, she couldn't summon the energy to even move. Her side was on fire, the blood pouring freely from the wounds and as much as it hurt, she continued to put as much pressure on it as possible while her attacker watched with victory shining in her eyes.

Rachel could barely see through the tears that she wouldn't let fall, but she saw Sunshine kneel next to her body and tried to look up in her face. She wanted to look into the eyes of the person who was about to kill her. At least she'd put up a good fight, in the end.

"Shh, Rachel, it will all be over soon," she cooed as she placed the blade on the smooth and sensitive skin of her throat. One slice here and it would all be over. She wouldn't have to run or hide anymore. She wouldn't have to fear her safety wherever she went.

She would have peace. There would be no more pain.

She whimpered as she closed her eyes, welcoming death before she looked in the eyes of her killer. However, when she looked up, her killer wasn't the only thing she saw in her blurry vision.

"Finn. . .," she whispered in a daze, since she had already lost so much blood she was starting to lose consciousness.

"Yes, your sweetheart is waiting in hell for you, Rachel. Let that console you while I end your suffering." Sunshine moved her arm to make the clean slice across Rachel's throat but was immediately thrown off of her before she could make her move. Rachel turned her head to the side long enough to see Finn's body hovering over Sunshine's, pinning her down while he knocked the knife from her hands. She didn't know how he had summoned the strength to help her when she could barely move from her own stab wound, but his interference was more than welcome. Rachel could barely believe her eyes as she tried to move her weak and heavy body closer to Finn and Sunshine. The pain that spasmed through her body were so intense she thought she might faint, but now that Finn was awake and moving, she knew that she had to stay conscious just a little while longer, for both of their sakes.

"Get the hell off of me, you oaf!" Sunshine screamed but Finn refused to move. He was about twice the size and weight of Sunshine, so she wasn't going anywhere with Finn's massive body slumped on top of hers.

"Finn!" Rachel weakly called to him, elated that he wasn't dead, but she instantly saw the stains of blood on his clothes, that only grew deeper and larger as the blood still flowed freely from his wounds. The paleness of his skin also worried her, and she could tell that he was no better than she was at the moment. She tried her hardest to drag her body over to him, and she quickly snatched up the knife and held it close to her for protection.

"Rachel," he wheezed. His voice was barely over a whisper and his face was even more deathly pale the closer she got to him. "Are you okay?"

"We need to get to a hospital, Finn." She moaned, but Sunshine's struggling body was still pinned underneath Finn's and she didn't know how much longer he would last before his energy left him completely.

"I don't think I'm gonna make it Rach." She watched as his eyes fluttered while he tried to stay conscious and he slowly started to fall onto Sunshine's body even further as she protested and tried to slip away from his grasp.

"Finn, you have to just stay with me for a little bit longer, okay?" All of a sudden, the sound of sirens could be heard in the distance and they got closer with every second that passed by. After what seemed like a lifetime, the police had finally arrived at Rachel's house. "They're here, Finn! The police are here so all you have to do is hold on and we're going to be okay."

Finn nodded weakly, but she could see that he had lost way too much blood and was fading fast. She wanted to focus on nothing but her boyfriend's health, but Sunshine was putting up quite the fight against Finn and his giant frame. The weaker Finn became, the less he could contain Sunshine. "Get the fuck off of me!" Sunshine refused to sop screaming and squirming, and in her tantrum she kicked Finn right in his gaping stab wound. He hollered in agony as he flipped over away from Sunshine and she was able to slip out of his grasp and get to her feet once more. She kicked Finn in the face and from her position on the ground Rachel could do nothing but watch as he blacked out again like before. She really hoped he would wake up again like last time, but from the way his limp body stretched over the deep pool of blood on her patio, she couldn't be sure. She didn't even have the strength to run from her attacker, so as far as Rachel was concerned she wasn't going anywhere. She couldn't move, she couldn't escape, and while Sunshine was the smallest, most weakest girl Rachel had ever met, she still had the upper hand over her and there was nothing she could do about it.

Sunshine pulled her wet hair away from her face and looked down at the blood that was staining her clothes with an air of distaste. With a wicked smirk, she walked over to Rachel and sunk down onto her haunches, taunting her cruelly while she wanted nothing more than to run. However, every move she tried to make to stand felt like her body was being ripped apart from the inside, so she thought it was best to stay still even though all of the nerves in her body were screaming at her to run.

It was of no use. She was wounded, she was weak, and she had already lost too much blood. There would be no more running for Rachel. This was it.

"Well, that was inconvenient timing." Sunshine said as she towered over her bloody and broken body. Rachel sat there with a tight grimace on her face but refused to move, refused to speak. She watched as Sunshine looked around the patio with her face crinkled in confusion. "The cops should be here any second and I can't find my knife, so lets end this right now, shall we?" Without preamble, Sunshine sat directly on Rachel's chest, pushing all of the air out of her lungs and grabbed her by the throat once more as she tried to choke the life out of her. Little did Sunshine know that Rachel had been hiding the knife at her side, and as the small immigrant girl tried to strangle her she grabbed the knife in her fist and plunged it into the first appendage she could reach. It was her arm and immediately Sunshine started to scream and squeeze Rachel's neck even tighter as the blood left a crimson trail down her arm.

Rachel was already weakened by the stab wounds and the loss of air, but she refused to let Sunshine win as she pulled the knife back and plunged the knife into her body again, this time hitting her directly in the neck as blood started to pour from the wound and flow all over her body and down onto Rachel's. The grip from her neck was released as Sunshine fell off of her, gasping for air as blood poured from both her neck and mouth. Rachel tried to sit up and gasp for air as well while Sunshine struggled in front of her in vain. The blood gurgled in her throat as she choked on it and fell to the patio dead, her eyes still shining with vengeance as the life trickled out of her.

She stared at the body with wary until she was certain that it would move no more.

Sunshine was dead.

As the truth seeped into her already weakened mind, she could feel the overwhelming fatigue settle into her bruised and battered body. The low sirens in the distance were now blaring in their proximity, but she knew that she would not be conscious for much longer. With a loud clang she dropped the knife on the ground and closed her eyes, instantly falling into the welcome blackness of sleep as people in the distance started to call her name.

She didn't answer them as the blackness swallowed her whole.


Next chapter is the epilogue

Until next time, sings, Don't Stop, Reviewing

Merci mille fois mes amis