Final chapter. :D Enjoy.

Chapter Eleven

Cemetery Climax

This bastard had the nerve to pop at her and Dan's picturesque wedding night! And with him came three "crazies" from the Sefton ward, one of them being Jake. Now all three of them - herself, Dan and Lily - were all in the police car belonging to Lt. Leslie Chapham, rogue cop and wife-beater. She would be a stupid person to ask if this situation could get any worse.

"I'm sorry, Meg," Dan whispered to her. She sat between him and Lily in the backseat of the car, leaning into him while allowing Lily to hold her right hand which faced her. She shivered and held him. "I really am."

"I know," she choked, wanting to cry so much.

"Sshh," he breathed, holding her in both of his strong arms and kissing her forehead. "I really wanted this night perfect for you. I really did."

"I know." From the corner of her eye, she saw Chapham look in his rearview mirror briefly before snorting. Meg got angry again, then lifted her head off her husband's chest and snapped, "What? You didn't know what real love was when you married your wife?"

"Oh, I did love Elizabeth," he returned. "More than you thought."

"If you loved her, then you just had to take it out on her with a bludgeon?" Lily countered hotly.

He shifted his whole body around to face her that he almost lost control and ran them off the road. Instead, he brought them to a halt on the side of the isolated road. "She made me so mad...!" he started to say only for Meg to lose her temper again.

"Oh, take it out on the women, will you?!"

"All right, enough!"Dan roared, shutting everyone up. "Damn it, can we put our differences aside and focus on something more important than violence against women?!" His angry gaze switched between both women and the man in the front. "Can you do that?"

Chapham's ugly glower remained in place, but he nodded. "Where do you think that walking corpse took your mad friend?"

"Well, I don't think back to our house, because that would be too obvious and where we'd find him right away," Lily answered. She shifted in her seat and tightened her fists so hard the knuckles turned white even at the question that came next.

"Where he does whatever it is?" the lieutenant sneered. "Does Dr. West really believe that dead is dead? Do any of you?"

"You know nothing about Herbert," Lily spat, putting a hand on her stomach then. "You really don't want to argue with a pregnant woman, but you pushed my buttons too far, Chapham. Herbert is trying to do something that would make a difference in saving lives. He's trying to cheat death, but he's had trouble on the way, such as fellow doctors who didn't understand his cause and another who tried to snake in and take his discovery so he could take the credit. You're just begrudged against him because he brought your dead wife back when she didn't deserve what you gave her."

Meg sucked in a huge breath and tensed, bracing for the worst from the policeman, clencing her fist in Dan's; his massaging of her knuckles didn't help, either. Chapham, however, said nothing, only fixed his furious eyes on Lily, then moved back and forth between the newlyweds. "How would you explain your father then, Mrs. Cain?"

"My father was an accident," she answered steadily. "Something that shouldn't have happened. Carl Hill used him to get what he wanted: me and West's research. He started the mess in the morgue."

"And what about that thing out there at this moment?"

Dan took a breath and stepped in. "Something we tried talking him out of. He went beyond re-animation to the point of...creating new life. Like in the story of Frankenstein. Now she's loose because Lily upset her, and now she has Herbert hostage somewhere."

Chapham seethed. "Boy, all three of you, I wish I could turn you in for withholding information, but I got something else to do. I got a 'bride of Frankenstein' figure out there with her Maker held to her, and I'll be made a hero once the force hails me when I show them," he announced with a broad grin as he started the engine. "Any ideas where she took him?"

"I'd like to say cemetery - one of his favorite places," Dan stated, his voice as hollow as Meg was feeling; Lily had to be, as well. This man was going to finish them all off and far worse than death. Once Herbert's freak making was out of the picture, it was jail time for all four of them: West for being the main ringleader, Meg and her husband and cousin-in-law for aiding and abetting. Which meant, as well as those other three loose and about and following them at the moment, they had to go with this monster man who saw himself above the law when he wasn't even Batman.

~o~

That smell of rotting flesh was nowhere compared to Lily's living warmth and sweet floral aroma. In all his time with dead bodies and parts, Herbert had been used to it and touching it, but now with this living assembly of dead tissue holding him close to her and trying to kiss him lovingly, he tried squirming away from the body that he'd so once preciously assembled because of the women whose lives were lost: the feet of a suicidal ballet dancer, the legs of a murdered hooker, the womb of the raped virgin, the torso of a model, arms of a waitress, hands of a seamstress, and the face of Gloria who had once been a near resemblance of Meg.

"No, I don't want you!" he burst out, finally breaking free from Eve's strong hold and landing gracefully on his feet, standing his guard and lifting his chin up at her. "I don't want your foul-smelling body; I did once, but now there is someone else, and you know who that is. Her body is alive and sweet; mine desires hers and only hers. Not you."

"Herbert..." she gasped; he mentally groaned. Women never knew when to quit, did they? That was one sure characteristic passed down to this one he'd made himself. "But, when two people love, they mate..."

"Mating when both people are willing! Not only one of them! There is nothing beautiful about death, or a walking dead!"

The scream that tore from her was ear-piercing to his own ears, and shrill enough to match the Irish banshee who screamed death when a dying person was preparing for their final journey with her to the other side...in the stories. Herbert was once again grabbed - why couldn't she settle on somewhere else other than his shirt collar? - and dragged across the greenery only to be slammed against the gate. She nearly ripped off his tie in the process of undoing it and pulling it from around his neck before grabbing both of his hands in hers, also slamming them above his head and tying them to the space between the iron.

"Damn it, let me go!" Herbert shouted. "What are you doing?!" His only answer was her growling and grabbing his shirt in the front by both sides and ripping it off his body in a swift movement. He shivered violently before he realized what was going to happen, and it would be no different from what Hill did to him in that hotel room. "No, don't do this!" She didn't listen to him when she roughly yanked open his belt and worked on his pants. "This isn't right!" he yelled, squirming against his bonds and the unwanted touches. The rest of him was exposed to her gleaming, hungry eyes that sickened him worse than Hill; his bare back and front were getting colder amid the night chill and the fact that his lower crevice was split in half by one of the narrow bars of the gate, reminding him that it wasn't going to be pleasant.

Her coos were soft and loving, appraising, when her hands - the bloody muscles gleaming proudly as they searched his body - roamned over his chest and shoulders, then behind to massage his back and buttocks, violating him. He tried not to cry, not even to let the hint of a tear escape him when she moved over to the front and caressed his stomach, stopping just above the top line of his crotch area. "Herbert..." she whispered softly. "...I love your body. You're more man in nature than any muscled brute, more intelligent but lacking the masculine image. But no matter...I love it..." Damn it, her fingers clawed inward and caressed his pubic region. Herbert whimpered, angry at how his body was responding against his feelings; his erection was just beginning to twitch before Eve's glowing eyes when they fell on it. "The body never lies."

With that said, her tongue snaked out and began at his collar bone; Herbert wondered if this was how Meg felt when Hill's tongue molested her on the table, and if she did, then he thanked her for that. "Eve, stop this," he ground out when she licked at his nipples in the way that he wanted Lily to do. But she moved lower and lapped at his sensitive navel, making him gasp sharply and furiously. He tugged at the tie around his wrists harder, his back pressing further into his gated prison.

"But I love you, Herbert, and this is the only way I want you to love me back..." Eve whimpered, her bloodied mouth now closer to his most sacred place...

"Seriously, tying a naked man - and the same one who made you - to a gate and having sex with him when he doesn't want it is nasty as hell." His head jerked up at the sound of Meg's disgusted voice. "God, you remind me so much of Dr. Hill."

~o~

Lily's blood boiled at the sight of Herbert - her Herbert - kissed, licked, and groped by that horrid thing she was so ready to kill herself. Meg did the honors of distracting, as did Lt. Chapham with his gun out and behind her. Lily and Dan snuck up to Herbert, mostly nude and squirming, while the "Bride" abandoned her prize and advanced on Meg and the lieutenant.

"Who's this wench?" Lily almost gasped in the middle of releasing her man before she caught herself; that thing actually talked! She wondered how she got so smart before she decided she didn't care. Herbert was who she focused on; after undoing his tie and freeing his wrists, she threw her arms around his shoulders and kissed him, almost crying before she felt him move, pulling his pants back on and fixing them. His shirt had been ripped off by bare hands, so it was beyond repair. But Dan had been nice enough to lend his own, leaving himself in his muscle shirt underneath and not caring about the night cold, helping Herbert cover up what was supposed to be for Lily to see.

"I'm no wench," Meg snapped back. "Who's the one trying to get a man she can't have? I knew a man who ended up losing his head over me. So, what makes you think you are going to get a man you have no real brain over?"

The creature's back faced the three, but Lily could hear the baring of teeth. "Herbert made me, so I love him when no one else does..."

"But he doesn't!" Lily shouted, getting the monster's attention back onto her. "He's mine and no one else's!" Her opponent for the heart of Herbert let out a more than angry roar of fury as she began to move for her before being blocked by Herbert, who took a stand in front of Lily to protect both her and the baby. The monster stopped right there upon seeing him, at the same time Chapham fired a gunshot for her to stop and whip around to see him, more than ready to make a charge at him for interrupting her...

...at the same time his wife screeched wildly and pounced into the air, seemingly out of nowhere, and tackled him to the ground screaming. And then the rest followed out, happening at the same time.

The other two were the skinny man and sick man from the hospital psychiatric ward, and the third and final who came onto her was none other than Jake, ready to kill her for leaving him now that he was stronger and faster in re-animated form. "BIIIIITCH!" he bellowed, reaching to grab her throat only for her to duck him and have him crash his head into the gate, stunning him. Everything around her was a mess as she tried to pay attention to the others around her while at the same time trying to save her life and her baby's. She saw Meg fight off the black man who was trying to strangle her, and Dan moved to help her, while Herbert fended off the skinny man only to be helped by the "Bride"; she did the honors of bashing his head into the gate and then breaking his neck herself before he collapsed, dead a second time.

"Stevens!" Chapham yelled as he fought off his wife the best he could. "Use my radio to call for help!" After that, he managed to throw her his gun, which she caught and turned to run as fast as she could.

Lily had to pick up her skirts as she ran up the hill for where the police car was parked; the door had been left unlocked so the keys were still inside. Dumb Chapham for that, but thank God at the same time. She didn't hear anyone following her, but she knew she couldn't be here for too long. For all she knew, Jake was after her, and the rest of her family was at stake. Once the car itself was in view - and still no one else after her, not even a sound - Lily unbolted the door to the driver's seat and quickly locked all doors and windows before picking up the radio and crying into it, "Hello? Hello, this is Dr. Lily Stevens using Lt. Chapham's radio. Come in, dispatch. We need serious help, over."

She waited a few seconds before there was a response. "Dispatch to Lt. Chapham. Dr. Stevens, what's your situation?"

"My friends, the lieutenant and I are at the cemetery; three mental patients from Miskatonic University escaped and crashed my cousin's wedding party and are after us. They've cornered us here, but we're barely going to escape, so we need your help, over." She didn't get an answer before there was a loud bang on the hood of the car, and she screamed when Jake's bloodied face came into view, leering at her and licking his tongue on the window.

"Just where you think you're going, Lils? Thought you wanted to have some fun."

"Screw you, asshole!" Lily shouted, raising Chapham's gun and firing directly at his face. However, he'd backed up and away so the bullet shot into the air. Then there was a break of glass to her left; Jake had brought his palm flat against the glass, and Lily screamed again, keeping her hold onto the gun as she scrambled to the opposite side of her and finally managed to get the door opened just as Jake was finishing shattering the glass of the driver's window. She crawled as far away from him as she could; he'd seen her escape, but it was a good thing she had the weapon, whatever how many shots were left, so she rolled over onto her back and fired the last remaining six shots right into his heart, gore bursting from behind as he flew backwards with the impact, seeming slow-motion before he landed on his back, gagging his last before he breathed no more.

Staring at her ex-husband's dead body, Lily fell onto her back and breathed a sigh of relief. He was dead; the man who tormented her long enough was gone.

But the shouting in the distance told her there were other people who needed her still, so Lily bolted up and ran in the direction where her friends were, not before running back to the car to refill the bullet chamber.

When she got there, Meg was having the upper hand over the undead black man who threw her around a lot - it seemed these re-animated guys weren't in a hurry to kill anytime soon but still wanted to savor the pain - so Lily did the brave girl act that she was not afraid to do after killing Jake herself, and fired a shot into the air, getting everyone's attention. The black man let go of Meg and cowered back in horror before taking a shot to the leg so he fell down, coughing up more vomit and blood in the process, and finally one to the head where he twitched one last time and no more. There left only one, and she was still tackling her abusive husband on the ground.

"Hey, bitch!" Lily still thought the poor woman didn't deserve to die the way she did, but with the behavior she had now, she had no choice but to kill her again. Elizabeth saw her and quickly abandoned her husband for Lily, who was more than ready to kill her the same way she had her husband. The old lady shrieked painfully as she, too, fell down with bright red blood staining her soft hospital gown. Behind her, Lt. Chapham stood and shakily stepped back, staring first at the corpse of his wife and then at her.

"Y-you..."

"I did what I had to, Lieutenant," she hissed. "But I know you'll be next, too."

She felt the fire of vengeance build in her; that wasn't good for the baby, but it felt good. She had felt more than amazing killing her husband, and now this one was next; however, before she could say more, there were Herbert, Dan, Meg, and of course the last thing in the picture to off.

"She'll be doing this for me," Herbert stated, setting the lieutenant off at once.

"You little squirt, you used my wife for your sick experiments!" he bellowed, starting for him. "And now you're coming with me so I can finish you off myself!" However, he never got so far; the "Bride" stepped before Herbert and struck Chapham down to protect her Maker, snarling viciously, and Lily suddenly realized she didn't have to shoot the bad lieutenant, so that she could avoid facing murder charges. The woman then reached down and picked him up under both arms, heaving him upwards into the air, throwing him backwards behind her so Chapham - screaming like a little girl - slammed his whole large body into a statue of an angel, hitting the ground with a loud thud, some blood left on the statue from a mild injury, but more serious to come.

The Bride charged over to him, leaving the four survivors alone to stand and watch as she picked up Leslie Chapham again to finish him off by taking an immense bite out of his fat neck, severing his jugular vein and taking more cannibalistic bites out of his throat before dropping the corpse to the ground.

~o~

He would have called it heroic if not for the fact that this thing which he had backed out on making with Herbert had kidnapped him, tried to kill Lily, and just didn't fit into the world no matter how hard Herbert had tried to help her to do. Dan pulled Meg to the side and held her when she ran to him, more than happy that they were both alive on this terrible night which was supposed to be magical and perfect for them both.

Chapham lay dead before "Eve" - what a fitting name for that mistake of a woman - his eyes wide and jaw slackened, blood staining his chin red as his eyes remained frozen on his killer and would forever be so. Who just now turned back to them with her eyes wild and mouth stained, meat hanging off her teeth enough to make the person vomit, which was exactly how Dan was feeling.

Eve's eyes softened when they landed onto Herbert, whom Dan saw take a step back from Lily, who ran over to him and Meg to avoid getting harmed for real. All three watched as Herbert remained where he was as he stared face to face with his creation whose love he rejected all for the newly widowed pregnant one beside him. "Well, go ahead and finish me off if you can't have me," he told her. "Remember that if you can't have me, I'll have no one?" Well, smart move. What a genius, Dan thought sarcastically. He was setting himself up for a death sentence, but Eve shook her head desperately.

"No, I will never kill you!" she declared. "I love you too much I will do this for you!" And then she did the most horrible thing, gritting her teeth the whole time, and right in front of them all, even Lily who turned her head away and buried into Meg's shoulder:

She actually reached into her own chest, separating the metal plate holding the sternum together, and pulled out her own heart to hold it out for Herbert, who flinched and backed away from her. "I'm giving THIS to you, Herbert!" she wailed. "Take it while you still can!"

Herbert shook his head. "I'm sorry, Eve, but this is the final time I am saying this: I loved you once, but you changed. I love another woman who brought me to life." He turned his eyes to Lily when he spoke, smiling softly and getting one back from her when she lifted her face to him. Meg smiled at the sight before returning her attention with Dan and them to the howl of pain and heartbreak of the woman before them, doing a spin around with her cries before the sound of bullets burst through the night air, and she fell down for a final time, the parts of her from the different women they once belonged to falling apart and scattering throughout the earth.

~o~

Herbert held his breath and was tempted to nervously fidget from foot to foot as he waited under a rustic canopy perfumed and bedecked with seasonal blooms the following April. Nevertheless, he forced himself to remain composed as he stood with Dan beside him as his only best man on the day he was waiting for a certain special someone to come up here and join him.

There was also Meg, still smiling and sunny in sheer yellow lace despite the events of months ago, nearing the anniversary of the massacre at the hospital. When the police found them, the story had been that the escaped asylum patients had them and Lt. Chapham cornered in the cemetery as well as the monster-woman they'd been looking for all those weeks. She'd even been the one to kill him before backup arrived and finished her off. No fingers were pointed to the only four survivors left: Daniel and Megan Cain, Lily Stevens, and above all, Herbert West.

All four of them were safe once again.

Looking at Meg - aside from the seven-month growth that was her and Dan's first child - Herbert saw the bundled little one in her arms. Just two months ago, Lily had gone into labor and gave birth to a healthy baby boy she decided to name Herbert, which had made him laugh and flattered. Herbert West, Jr...he liked it. He was a loud little fellow, with his birth father's dark hair and mother's lively green eyes; Jake Stevens must be burning in the hellish afterlife other people still believed in. Little Herbert would grow up never knowing who his actual sperm donor was because it was for his own protection.

Gasps from the crowd were heard, and his attention snapped to the front where he saw his bride walking towards him with her father by her side. His breath caught in his throat, his heart leaping at the same time. Lily was truly more of a woman in her second wedding dress; while the first had been more modest and youthful from what he'd seen in a photograph, this one bared her back, had an extra long train sweeping freely, hugging her body in the right places, and was blinking with jewels at the sides of her hips, over the bust and the thin straps; it was all over covered with a bold lace pattern. Her luscious auburn hair was knotted elegantly, letting curls free while still set with pink rosebuds and a crown of green leaves. The bouquet was of wildflowers freshly plucked from the field. She was dazzling. "Are you ready?" she whispered.

"More than ready," he answered, for lack of a better answer.

The priest cleared his throat for the reciting to begin. Herbert was never religious, obviously, but they needed someone to officiate. "We are gathered here today to join this man and this woman in holy matrimony..."

Herbert drowned out the words the whole time he kept his eyes on Lily and Lily only, until the time came for their "I do"'s, and he forced himself back to life, almost missing out on his turn. Now came the part he'd been waiting for. He searched his pocket without trouble for the rings, handing her his to give while he did the first. His mother's ring - it was a soft vine filigree of gold centered with a small round opal. She smiled sweetly before taking his hand into hers, her warm, soft skin sending jolts through his nervous system.

"With this ring, I thee wed," she spoke, slipping the thick golden band on his slender finger. At first, it felt strange since he'd never been one for rings, but as soon as he got used to it, it bound him to her, that unbroken circle.

How could he have put her on hold once before? Herbert wondered this before sealing their marriage with a kiss that brought her close to him in his arms. He'd made a vow to never love until death was conquered, and that goal was still far from accomplished. But the love he had for this wonderful woman who saved him as he saved her and helped him as he helped her would never die as long as he faced the hardest task of his life: to never let her slip from his side.

In "Bleeding Rose", Meg wore the wedding ring from Herbert's mother, as his love in "The Scavenger Bride" did, and my Beyond fic "Beyond the Boundaries", my OC Heather did as well - it all seems to make an even bigger difference that a mother he lost so long ago leaves a ring for the eventual love of his life. :)

I really had fun with expanding the Bride more than she was before, that her love for her Maker was stronger than depicted, but only for it to take the turn in which her creator loses his love for whatever happens. In this case, the real living woman in his life helps rectify the mistake he made in trying to remake a human being with his own hands. It's truly a powerful story.

Read and review. :D