The Suffering

Disclaimer: I own nothing. These characters belong to the creator of Glee and The Suffering.

Pairing: Rachel/Quinn

WARNING: Profanity, blood, sexual content, death, and twisted plot!

Rating: M

Chapter three

Pieces of a Puzzle

Puck had left her. Quinn did not blame him, everyone left her eventually.

She could recall a conversation that she had with her ex-wife, more of an argument really. Her wife's face held no emotion, her blue eyes were empty as they stared into hazel, and she spoke with no love in her voice. "Quinn, you better never lose me." She had said. When asked why, she responded. "Because, no one else is ever going to be able to handle you, no one else will deal with your craziness. No one should have to, I shouldn't have to, but I do, because I love you."

At the time she had thought the words were ridiculous, but now she knew that they held truth. No one could "handle" her. She did not deserve their love, she did not deserve their friendship, she deserved to die, and even that had been taken from her.

These hallucinations were torture. In fact if the people at her trial had half a mind they would have realized that keeping her alive would have been more painful than putting to rest her chaotic mind. Many times she questioned what was reality? Were these illusions memories that she had forgotten because she blacked out and another personality had taken over, were they a connection with some other life or spirits from another world, or were they just her mind playing tricks on her? She had no answers, only questions.

Currently she was lying on her back, just outside the prison walls, staring up into the dark sky.

She had not escaped. The creatures were still on the prowl, and the scent of death surrounded her. Off in the distance she could hear the screams and cries of the dying, but she did not care to live, so she was not afraid to die. Instead, she was enjoying the sight of the stars. Trying her hardest to piece together her fragmented mind.

It was difficult to piece together a puzzle with so many missing pieces.

To force in pieces where they did not fit.

Quinn had gone over the night of the murders in her mind, over and over, but she could not recall what had happened. She could remember earlier that day, she went to work, took the children to the park, and she was truly happy. The blonde loved children, she loved her family more than anything and that was why this broke her heart so.

Imagine, having the perfect day with your family, and then waking up to find them all dead. Murdered. And you are being accused of this, you are possibly to blame for this, and you simply cannot remember anything that happened during the time of the murder. It was torment.

"If I could just remember." She growled out tugging her dirty pale fingers through blonde locks.

The last thing that she could remember was the conversation before everything went black.

'There was a tall blonde woman with blue eyes, pacing around in the living room of her apartment. She was arguing with Quinn. Frustrated with her. Turning she said. "I just don't get it Q, how can you have an entire fight with me, just last night, and not remember any of it! It doesn't make any sense!"

Quinn stared up at her with tear filled hazel eyes, jaw clenched. "I don't know! I don't know! I know it doesn't make any goddamn sense, that's the problem!"

"I'm just tired of these excuses."

"Excuses!" Her voice cracked as she stood to her feet. "Is that what you think that these are? Excuses! You think that I am making this up to get out of taking responsibility for my actions?"

"Well, Quinn what am I supposed to think?"

"You are supposed to believe me when I tell you that I don't remember! God!" She waved her hands around angrily. "Do you not understand how badly I wish that this was a lie? That I was just making excuses for my actions and bad behavior? I hate that I cannot remember anything! I hate myself because I cannot remember anything! I don't want to hurt you!"

"You won't be hurting me anymore." She stated, glancing away from Quinn.

"What do you mean by that?" Hazel eyes turned to slits and pink lips pursed out as she stared her wife down.

"I just—It's over Quinn. You keep saying that you're innocent, that you don't remember when you do these horrible things, but I don't think I believe you anymore. I'm filing for a divorce. You can't be a mother in jail, I can't bring our daughters there to visit you, it's better if they just… forget for now. It's better for me, too. I hope you forgive me Q. Things might have been different if I could have been able to hang on."

Then everything went black.'

"Why can't I just be normal?" Quinn shouted out, tears now freely falling over her pale cheeks, shimmering in the moonlight. "Why can't I just remember what happened?"

Laughter brought the blonde out of her thoughts, out of her anger and she turned to her side to look at the presence that had joined her. She would call it a person, but it wasn't, it was a figment of her imagination. Sitting beside her was the doctor that haunted her. He may not have been real, but he was one of the only people that never left her side, no matter how many times she begged him to.

His grin spread from one ear to the other and his laughter died down to a soft chuckle. "I would hesitate to call you a gentle soul, Quinn, but I do believe there is hope for you yet. You have some good left inside of you, I promise you, it is not all gone."

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"I mean you are curable. Nevertheless, if I am to treat you, I must first observe you further. See if you are capable of thinking outside of the box."

Before Quinn could question the apparition further he had shimmered away with a small wave in her direction, hazel eyes continued to stare off into emptiness as she thought over his words. There may be a cure for her illness if she is capable of thinking outside of the box? Honestly, she did not know how much further she could go outside of the box.

O

Despite having made it out of the prison, Quinn was still trapped. The towering wall surrounding the prison grounds did not look simple to scale and she was uncertain how to get out, uncertain if she deserved to make it out alive. Then of course, she was on an island, so from there she would also have to escape the imprisonment of the water encompassed land. She was definitely still trapped.

"Ahhh!" A high-pitched scream could be heard from one of the officer's posts. "Leave me alone!"

The young woman turned to look in the direction of the screaming young man and she contemplated if she should take the time to save him or not, he could help her escape if he was an officer, but he could also attempt to kill her.

"Stay away! Stay away!"

Her consciences again started waging a war inside of her, one saying that she should save him because he is terrified and the other saying that he is a coward who is weak and should die. It took all of Quinn's willpower to choose the right path and she quickly made her way toward the post, opening the door and peering inside. Gun gripped tightly in her hand.

There was a young looking boy inside dressed in an officer's uniform; he was extremely pale with large blue eyes that were dancing with fear as he screamed. Above him, hanging from the ceiling, was one of the creatures with blades. With only slight hesitation, she lifted her gun and shot it directly in the head causing its body to fall to the ground.

Approaching the young man she noticed that his eyes were closed and he was rocking back and forth singing under his breath. "What are you supposed to do, when you're in a nightmare, and you just can't wake up? It's like I woke up from a dream, and everything beautiful is gone." He actually had a beautiful voice, but she did not dwell much on it.

"It's dead." Quinn stated, simply.

He removed his thin arms that he had been cowering behind and stared up at her with shocked blues. "You're not a monster… you're not going to kill me?"

"No. I will not kill you."

Letting out a sigh he moved to stand to his feet, dusting off his uniform and retrieving his gun which had been discarded. "What a relief." When hazel eyes met his he quickly informed. "Look, I may be a C.O., but believe me, I always thought I had more in common with the inmates than the gung ho C.O.s they have here at Abbott."

Quinn flashed him a soft smile. "Good to know, now considering you are an officer, is there any way out of here?"

He appeared to ponder on it. "The only idea I have is that we should call for help, somebody has to be able to help us." Turning he started toward the door of the post. "C'mon, we need to get to the Radio Building, we can call from there. You'll keep me safe right?"

Quinn nodded begrudgingly.

"Okay good, by the way, names Kurt Hummel."

"Quinn Fabray."

"I know who you are, now come on, we've got to go along the top of the wall. That's the only way to get there."

The blonde simply followed his lead as they made their way up the stairs to the top of the wall. Honestly, she did not know if it would do any good to call for help, it most definitely would not help her to escape imprisonment, but for some reason she trusted the young man.

"You know what the magic hour is?" He asked curiously, as he skipped along the top of the wall, surprisingly he seemed less cowardly than she had expected. Perhaps it was because he had her protection.

"The magic hour?" Quinn asked.

"Yeah, it's when the sun is over the horizon, but it's still light out. Some folks call it twilight, but I call it the magic hour."

"I see."

"But on Carnate, I swear, it skips straight to night, no magic hour, no magic minute, just boom, like somebody turned out the lights. Something is not right here, it never has been, and it certainly isn't now."

Quinn did not know how to respond to this, she lived in a world of chaos, there was no magic hour, no moment of peace in her life. Also, she did not think that Kurt was actually attempting to hold a conversation with her; he was only trying to alleviate his nerves by busying his mind. She allowed him to talk, with slight responses, ignoring most of what the young man said.

"Now we need to get down from the tower coming up and head out to the field." Kurt informed.

Again she nodded, and upon reaching the tower quickly took the ladder and started down into the field. Gun still clutched tightly, always expecting the worst.

O

"In here, the radio's in here!" Kurt shouted out as they entered the Radio Building. The slender officer hastily made his way toward the radio in order to check if it was working, but there was an eerie sound coming in over the speakers. It sounded like a deep voice fighting through static, but it was saying nonsensical things.

"What is that sound coming from the speaker?" He caught hazel with blue and the blonde shrugged. "It sounds like it is possessed or something. Great, so after all of that work, we are still damned."

"What do we do now?" Quinn wondered, growing slightly agitated with the situation at hand, but she controlled her anger.

"I suppose I can see where this voice is coming from." With that Kurt started to look through the electronic devises, the blonde watching him closely. "Hmm… it looks like the interference is coming from the Western part of the island… wait! That's got to be from that old Asylum! Corrections officers go out there sometimes. They set up an old radio so they could stay in touch with Abbott, maybe that's causing the interference."

He paused then added. "But maybe it's something else; I always thought that place was haunted."

Quinn did not say anything, she would have loved to say that she did not believe in hauntings, but she was haunted everyday by beings that others could not see. Who was to say that they were not "ghosts" or "souls" of the dead? All that she knew was she was not afraid.

"So, we should go to the asylum." Quinn stated as if it were obvious.

"Oh no, there is no way that I am leaving this building with those monsters out there. So, you are the one who is going to the asylum. There's a map right there. You'll need to go through the old Quarry to get there. You can get out of the prison by climbing on the roof right above us and then jumping over to the digger's building." His lips curled up as he smiled. "I'll stay here and keep the radio safe."

"I bet you will." The blonde rolled her hazel eyes. He was a coward.

O

As much as Quinn wanted to believe that ghosts did not exist, she was finding it exceedingly difficult to do so as she walked through the cemetery. The trees rustled and there were human-like forms passing by her in each and every direction, wandering, searching, their sadness almost overwhelming. She could feel their pain and it made her sick to her stomach.

The voices were the worst. She could not decipher if they were in her own mind or passing through the cold air.

"Knowing is the worst part…" "So dark, so cold." "Won't you help me?"

"The horror, the horror." "I'll never see her again."

"Blackest night, eternal blight…."

"I… can't… breathe…" "I remember hearing them cut the string." "I was innocent."

"I didn't do it!" "My redemption day never came!"

"I can feel the ants."

"Ma was there, I told her not to come." "The judge was in the Klan."

"There is no god." "You die here, your soul never rests."

The voices were overwhelming her senses, she could not think straight; she could not focus on the task at hand. Her head was spinning with emotions. Some angry, some sad, some happy, some odd. The people here had so many things to say, so many things that no one ever cared to listen to them say. No one ever cared for their point of view.

Suddenly there was a noise that was louder than all of the echoing voices; it was the sound of a woman sobbing. Quinn glanced around for the origin of the sound and she spotted her, a young woman crying at a grave.

This woman was different, she appeared to be solid. She looked to be real, and she was beautiful.

Her naturally tan hands were small and shaking, as she set the bouquet of flowers down on the mound in front of the gravestone. Quinn felt her heart pounding quickly in her chest and a desire to protect this woman, this young fragile looking woman who was in the cemetery alone on such a chaotic night. Why was she here? How had she survived the creatures? She did not look strong enough to fend for herself.

Taking a step closer to the small woman she allowed her hazel eyes to look her over. She was not a typical beauty, but she was unique and there was something special about her. Those impossibly large brown eyes that were full of tears, emotion, and innocence, those long eyelashes that they hid behind, that large yet still beautiful nose and those full lips. Quinn had never looked at another woman during her marriage, but this woman was captivating.

She felt an urge to approach her, to protect her from the darkness.

O

Authors Note

Okay, I hate to do this, but I haven't been getting many reviews.

So if you all want to see what me to post up the next chapter tonight, leave me some reviews, and I will! If not I will try and get it up soon. I just am unaware if you all are enjoying it.

Thank you all for reading.