Finally, the penultimate chapter! There is extremely bad language in this chapter so apologies if this offends anyone. The only other thing to say is...hold onto your hats... x

The frozen plants of the garden were glistening in the pale winter sunlight, the sparkling surfaces reflecting a glorious spectrum of colour into the air, causing Matthew Edwards to blink rapidly against the brightness as he forced the shivering woman in his arms further along the grass.

"I don't understand!" Susan was unable to stop her voice from shaking, fear ingratiating itself unbidden into every cell of her body as she felt the tip of the knife nick the delicate skin of her throat. "Why are you doing this to me?!"

"Don't you know, Susie?" He hissed angrily into her ear, his body pressed flush to hers as he held her with one arm about her waist, the other teasing her neck with the blade, fascinated as he watched her pulse beat rapidly beneath her pale skin. "Don't you know after all this time?"

"You know I don't! I never knew, Matt, I never understood what you were talking about!"

"You're lying! You were always lying! How could you not remember what happened?!" Her neck was tantalisingly close to his mouth and he licked his lips, feeling his body begin to respond to her before pushing the sensation away, disgusted with himself at his lack of control.

"My sister... the Police who came to see me said something about my sister..."

He gave a sharp intake of breath, feeling panic begin to rise in his chest. "You got the Police involved?"

"No, I...They came to see me, Matt, not the other way round."

Matthew took another breath to speak but was interrupted by a loud voice emanating from a greying man leading a group of people towards their position. "Matthew Edwards? I'm Detective Superintendent Boyd..."

Instinctively, Matthew tightened his grip about Susan's body, steadying his grasp on the knife and holding it more firmly against her skin, ignoring her frightened whimpers as they permeated the crisp, still air. "Don't come any closer! I'll slit her fucking throat, do you hear me?!"

Boyd held up his hands, his palms facing his adversary in a placating gesture, his voice remaining steady despite the churning in his stomach. "I just want to talk to you, Matthew."

"Well, I don't want to talk to you so just fuck off and leave us alone!"

"Please, Matthew." A different voice now, a woman, long emerald cardigan hugging her petite frame. She took a step forward, away from the group. "We just want to understand what's going on here."

He gave a contemptuous snort and shook his head vehemently. "You're Police." He said. "I don't talk to Police."

The woman took another small step forward. "I'm not the Police, Matthew. My name's Grace, I'm a psychologist."

Matthew gave a tired laugh. "Will you lot never leave me the fuck alone?! I thought you'd all agreed I was 'cured'!"

"I'm not from the Unit either, Matthew. I'm an independent psychologist and I'm just here to make sure the Police understand your needs properly."

The laughter became suddenly maniacal. "My needs, Grace?! My only need here is to make sure Susan joins her sister, like she should have done forty years ago!"

Grace tried a small smile. "I don't think you mean that. I think if you meant it, you'd have killed Susan a long time ago, isn't that right?"

"I tried, for God's sake, don't you people read your files?! Dear daddy had me locked up so I couldn't get to his precious little cunt here!"

"I know that..."

"Then why ask such stupid questions, Grace? I thought head doctors were supposed to be intelligent."

Grace paused, her pulse quickening as she risked another fractional step towards the couple ahead of her, ignoring Boyd as he forcefully whispered her name in warning, aware only of Matthew and Susan and the subtle movements of the Armed Response Unit as they manoeuvred into position.

"Then help me understand, Matthew, help us all understand. Why are you doing this?"

"Why does it matter why?! It's got nothing to do with you!"

"Who has it got to do with?"

"Mary and Susan, they're the only ones who matter, the only ones that ever mattered in the whole of my fucking miserable life!" His voice had risen sharply in volume and was shaking with anger.

"Tell me about that." Grace said softly, encouragingly. "Tell me why they were so important to you."

Matthew smiled, momentarily lost in the events of the past, stroking the silvery blade across Susan's throat in a gentle caress as he remembered, ignoring her shivers beneath his touch. "They treated me with...they didn't treat me like I was a some sort of fucking...freak. They were kind, they shared their toys, they..."

"They were everything your father wasn't." Grace said slowly, realisation dawning in her consciousness.

Hot tears blurred his vision but he blinked them rapidly away. "That bastard wouldn't have known kindness if it had come up and sucked on his tiny cock." He spat bitterly, poison colouring his words.

"So, why kill Mary, then?" She asked, edging closer to Matthew and further from Boyd. "Why kill someone who you obviously thought highly of and who thought highly of you?"

Another hysterical laugh sounded from his lips, reverberating through the trees in the otherwise tranquil setting. "Don't you get it, Grace?! It was all an act, all of it! As soon as they could, they wanted to be back off to mummy..."

"And you couldn't let them go?"

"I wanted them to stay with me, to never leave me! I didn't care that they had a family, people who loved them, I couldn't...I didn't understand any of that then!"

"But you understand it now, Matthew. You understand that Susan has people who love her, who don't want to see her get hurt."

"Are you talking about her doting husband?! It'll serve that bastard right if he never gets to see her again!"

"Matthew, there's no doubt that your father treated you terribly badly, that he abused you and robbed you of your childhood. But none of that is Susan's fault, do you understand? She's completely innocent in all of this."

He gave a strangled howl, pain lancing across his chest. "She tried to leave me, Grace! She and Mary, they tried to leave me, to get back to their parents! They didn't want to be with me! I had no choice but to stop them, no choice!"

"I don't remember, Matt!" Susan was sobbing now, her face contorting with fear and anguish. "I don't remember any of it!"

"But you remember fucking my father, don't you?! You remember that clearly enough!"

Grace inched forward once more, a terrible realisation hitting her as she took in Matthew's wild eyes, the years of hatred rippling beneath his skin. Oh, God, it was the ultimate betrayal, his father and the girl he thought of as his salvation, as his escape...I don't think I can get her out of this...She took a deep breath, praying desperately for calm as she spoke again.

"Matthew..."

She was so close now, within arms reach of the entwined couple. Matthew growled as he too noticed the proximity. "Get away from me, Grace!"

"You need to let her go, Matthew. It's time to let it all go."

"I'll never let her go! I've waited too long for this, it's all that's kept me going for forty fucking years!"

"Give me the knife, Matthew. You don't want to do this."

"It's the only thing I want to do! I can't go on living unless I do this, unless I finish what I started!"

"You love Susan." She stated gently. "Do you really want to kill someone you love? Is that where you want this to end, Matthew?"

"I just want it to end! I want to be free of her, free of him!"

"Then give me the knife. Free yourself of them another way."

He shook his head rapidly, desperation in his body language, his eyes flashing, his body trembling with tension before letting out a sudden, animal scream, dragging the knife in a rapid motion across Susan's exposed throat, her rich, ruby blood spurting furiously, violently from the wound in huge arcs through the air as she fell abruptly to the ground, her body landing with a sickening thud. Grace could only watch, frozen with horror, her clothes spattered with large patches of crimson, as Matthew advanced towards her, his lips curling in another terrifying scream, his hand reaching out viciously with the blade to slash her across the chest, tearing easily through the layers of her clothes. She gave a shocked gasp as she felt the knife impact her skin, the excruciating, stinging pain sublimated by intense panic as she registered the pool of blood forming rapidly below her collar bones. She felt darkness begin to cloud her consciousness and she staggered backwards before falling to the ground, aware only peripherally of gunshots in the air and the sound of another body crumpling to earth.

"GRACE!!"

It was Boyd's voice, she was sure of that, but it sounded distant, as if her were calling her from miles away. She blinked her eyes rapidly, despite an almost overwhelming desire to rest them, desperate to remain consciousness, to fight the blackness. He was kneeling over her then, his hands instantly applying pressure to her chest, attempting, she knew, to stem the bleeding.

"Oh, God, Grace." His breathing was ragged, panic causing his hands to shake. "Oh, God..."

"Boyd..." She whispered hoarsely, every reserve of strength focussed on breathing his name, on keeping her eyes locked with his.

"It's all right, Grace, you're going to be fine." Tears were forming in his eyes, despite the reassurance of his words and he turned his head to scream over his shoulder, desperate not to let her see the grave concern in his expression. "Get the fucking medic over here, now!"

He pulled his jacket roughly from his body then, pressing it hard against her wound, a crushing panic rising in him anew as the material turned rapidly scarlet beneath his palms, her blood soaking instantly through the fibres and onto his skin.

"Oh, Christ...Oh, Grace...Grace..."

Grace was powerless to stop her eyes drifting closed, the lull of unconsciousness too seductive to resist any longer, his desperate sobbing of her name and his tears falling onto her face slipping slowly from her senses as her world became one of blissful night.