A/N: I'm really sorry about chapter 15. I wanted to give you a chapter and I didn't really check over it properly so it was quite bad :/ I've reuploaded it with a few adjustments (Santana is now on Puck's list of people, and the conversation between Rachel and Quinn is a little longer so hopefully it will make more sense) sorry about the chapter and hopefully this one will make up for it *fingers crossed* thank you for the reviews :)

Chapter 16: Eight become Six

"Quinn." Rachel screamed but she was too late. The girl had taken her own life. Taken it to prove her innocence. Died because she couldn't cope. And Rachel felt partly to blame. Why didn't I just believe her in the first place. She had become my friend. I should have trusted her. I'm to blame for this.

Rachel took the knife and lifted it to her own heart. She couldn't live knowing she had led someone to death. Someone who was her friend. Just as she was about to copy Quinn's action and plunge the knife straight into her heart, a figure in the doorway stopped her.

"Rachel. What the hell are you doing?" Matt ran over to her, grabbed the knife out of her hand and put it a safe distance away from her. Then he spotted Quinn lying on the ground and gasped. Oh my god. Did Rachel do this?

"Rachel" Matt tried to stay calm as he took in the scene before him. "What happened?"

Rachel started shaking and went over to sit on the bed. She mumbled something but all Matt heard was "Quinn", "knife", "drawer" and "all my fault Matt" He looked over at the shivering girl and making sure the knife was well away he went and sat beside her.

"Hold up. Start from the beginning. What happened after we left you?" He pulled his jacket off and wrapped it around her shoulders, before she snuggled into his side and slowly began talking. She told him everything from finding Quinn with the knife right up until the point where he had come in. He listened patiently and when she had finished he pulled her closer to him. Although it would have been easy for Rachel to have killed Quinn and for Rachel to be the murderer he believed her. He believed every word she said and he didn't quite know why.

Puck was fed up of knocking on doors. He had started trying to kick them down but without much luck. He banged on Finn's door once more. Just as he was starting to get anxious, the door opened and Finn stood before him. Before Puck knew what he was doing he pulled the other boy into a tight hug.

"Ummm hi" Finn laughed.

"Yeah hi" Puck mumbled awkwardly. He hadn't meant to hug Finn like that but he was just so relieved to see him alive. Puck tried to avoid eye contact with Finn in order to save himself from embarrassment so he looked down while rubbing his Mohawk. A sign that Finn had learnt over the years meant Puck was uncomfortable. "Umm, we were worried about you. We couldn't find nobody. So yeah it's, it's good to see you." Puck's eyes stayed fixated on the ground as he spoke.

"Oh, I'm sorry dude. I fell asleep. And you know me, I sleep through everything." Finn looked around sheepishly. He was right. He did sleep through everything. Thunderstorms. Lightning. His alarm clock. Puck remembered turning up to Finn's on many occasions to drive him to school and he was still in bed because he slept through his alarm.

Puck nodded. "It's fine. But we should go and look for the others."

Kurt looked down at his iPod. Out of battery. Damn. He rooted round his bag until he found a little silver key on a piece of worn rope. It was the spare key to Mercedes' room. Each room had two keys and most people kept both the keys to their own room because they didn't trust anyone else. Mercedes and Kurt however trusted each other one hundred percent. And for that reason they had decided to exchange keys.

He got to Mercedes' door and knocked lightly "Cedes, it's me. Open up" When there was no answer he assumed she was asleep or something so let himself in. He saw her lying on her bed, tucked underneath the covers, her hair covering her face. He walked over and whispered in her ear. "Wake up Cedes. It's me" She didn't even stir. So he whispered the same words again with still no movement from her. He went and sat on the other bed, deciding to let her sleep a while longer. She was obviously very tired.

But then he noticed how quiet it was. Kurt remembered the last time he slept at Mercedes' he got hardly any sleep because of her snoring. Now she was silent. Panicked, he rushed back over to her bed and starting calling her again "Mercedes, wake up. Wake up now" he cried. He felt something brush against his leg and looked down to see Mercedes arm hanging loosely by the bed. In her hand was a small piece of paper. Only when he bent to pick it up did he notice something. Something that made him scream in disgust. Kurt blacked out.

Three of Mercedes fingers were missing.

Puck, Finn, Rachel and Matt had all heard Kurt's screams so ran towards the sound. The door had been left unlocked so Matt and Rachel easily got into the room with Finn and Puck close behind.

Kurt lay passed out on the floor, with Mercedes lying lifeless on her bed. Puck went and grabbed the note out of Mercedes' hand wincing at the sight.

"Heads, shoulders, knees and toes, Knees and toes
Heads, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes"

Puck tried to figure out what the note could mean. All the other rhymes had made sense. To him this one didn't. Until he pulled back the covers. Rachel and Finn immediately ran out the room to be sick. Matt gasped and had to turn away. Puck backed away, almost tripping over Kurt in the process.

Mercedes' body had been cut into four pieces. Her head, shoulders and stomach, Legs and knees, feet and toes.

"This is just sick. What kind of psycho would do this?" Puck screamed. He punched the wall in front of him to release his anger. Although Mercedes wasn't his closest friend, he couldn't bare to look at her. This was just wrong.

Matt bent down next to Kurt and checked his pulse. "He's still breathing. He must have just fainted or something. I'm not surprised if he saw that" Matt said, gesturing towards Mercedes.

"Should we move her?" Puck questioned. Matt shook his head. He was gutted. Just after he had lost Mike a few days ago he felt so lonely. Then Mercedes came along and she made him feel just that little bit better. She became his friend. And now she was gone as well.

"We should leave her here. She's already on a bed and there are still enough rooms for everyone else. And she looks so peaceful." Matt walked over to her and gently brushed her hair away from her eyes, before putting the bed sheet back over her body.

Puck still held the note in his hand and noticed ink coming through from the other side of the paper. He flipped it over and saw another message.

"Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet
Eating her curds and whey
Along came a spider and sat down beside her
and frightened Miss Muffet away"

"Matt, we need to find Little Miss Muffet" Puck sighed, holding up the note.

"Oh shit. This is the fourth one today. I don't know how much more of this I can take."

"Fourth?" Puck was confused."Mr Schue, Mercedes and this one. That's three. This is the third?"

Matt shook his head. "I'm so sorry Puck"

Puck sat down on the bed opposite Mercedes'. "Quinn?" He mumbled the question, already knowing the answer, but praying he was wrong. Matt nodded solemnly. "Umm, what happened to her?" Puck asked, a single tear rolling down his cheek. Matt couldn't face telling him that she had committed suicide. That would be too much for Puck. "Stabbed. She was stabbed in the heart."

Puck opened his mouth to ask another question but Finn rushed into the room, out of breath. "Youu" He started as he tried to regain his breath. "You have to come and see this. It's Brittany. Brittany's dead."

They had found their Little Miss Muffet.