Sickness slammed into her like a fist in the stomach, taking her breath and weakening her legs beneath her. What she was thinking...it couldn't be. It just couldn't be. It couldn't...because Peyton would never...do that. Not that. Peyton wasn't...him. She'd spent years of her life running away from even the smallest reminder of...him.

Peyton would not suddenly become the thing she hated most.

It made no sense...

"Ma'am? Detective?" Tiffany's voice fell on her ears...dim and in the distance. "Are you alright? Do you need some water?"

No. She didn't need water. She needed...to be wrong. She needed to be completely and utterly wrong.

And maybe she was wrong. Because she could not hunt up a single reason as to why Peyton would...do that...to Hallie Whitmore. Peyton wasn't the one Nathan Rutherford was kissing in the picture. Peyton couldn't have been the one Nathan dumped in favor of Hallie Whitmore. And Peyton certainly couldn't have killed Etty Montrose.

She simply could not dredge up anything, any reason, that made any kind of sense at all.

Really, how could anything so nonsensical...make sense?

Because if she allowed it to make sense...  She'd have to admit that Peyton, her own sister, had murdered Hallie Whitmore in cold blood....because it couldn't possibly have been Kimber.  And Kimber Prescott had murdered Etty Montrose...because it couldn't possibly have been Peyton.  And though she wasn't clear on why Peyton would kill Hallie Whitmore in the first place, she knew that Etty Montrose had died because the girl had heard Kimber yammering away, had slipped Kimber the note...and thusly had to be silenced.

Peyton and Kimber had been working together, playing off one another...Kimber with her air-headed, ditzy act.  And Peyton...Peyton...

Peyton! Her own goddamned sister! After everything! Everything...

It seemed to sink in on her then...Peyton had killed someone...Peyton had needed to keep her close to make sure she didn't suspect...Peyton had agreed to go with her back to Savannah because she wanted to escape...

Every single word spoken mattered.

Peyton had said...Kimber would probably pout and disappear when it was time to go because she hates goodbyes. Her sister had been making sure that she didn't question it when Kimber was simply...never seen again.

"Detective? Sh-should I...call someone?" Tiffany asked.

Yes. They needed to call someone. The scene needed to be secured...forensics needed to be brought in to collect anything that might stand as evidence... And the salon wasn't the only scene. There were two houses and two vehicles that needed to be locked down and processed...

And there were two women who needed to be arrested.

She suddenly felt her cell phone in her hand, saw herself trying to work the screen...but somehow she wasn't wholly involved in the process. She was pressing the phone to her ear...speaking to someone on the other end, the words an unintelligible jumble in her mind.

She simply couldn't participate with her full awareness because her mind was taken up by the fact that she had to arrest her sister on suspicion of murder. Her own sister. After everything!

Fucking Peyton!

Fucking Peyton...

"Tessa?" a familiar voice came to her through the fog of her thoughts and she glanced toward it, feeling a fresh wave of numbness roll over her. "What are you doing here?

Even as Peyton spoke, her gaze was drawn to the open locker...and then back to Tessa...and as their eyes locked, her perfectly made up face fell slack and her eyes went dull behind the vibrant contact lenses...

And then Tessa knew.

"What did you do?" she heard the words leave her, hoarse and low and...dull.

In answer, Peyton let out a breath and let her shoulders droop, as if she'd just...accepted what was about to happen. "You obviously know. I don't need to say it."

There was no inflection to her sister's words, no feeling, no...life. She might as well have been admitting that the sky was blue or the grass green.

"You aren't even going to deny it?" she asked, noting that her own voice sounded much the same.

Peyton lifted a shoulder in an almost helpless gesture. "Would it help if I did? Would it make it easier if I said all the usual things? What are you talking about? How could you think it was me? I swear, I didn't do it?"

"No. I don't think it would," she whispered past her suddenly constricted throat.

"Well, then why bother?" was Peyton's riposte.

She felt the world reeling around her. "Why? After...everything? I just...why?"

Peyton offered up a shrug. "Because the apple doesn't fall far, I guess."

As Peyton spoke, her tone remained listless...her eyes hollow, with not an iota of life or light behind them... She'd seen that hollow, vacant look before. And she'd never forget it...never forget sitting on the witness stand in that empty courtroom, looking into those listless, vacant eyes as she'd testified against Robert Stark.

He'd stared back at her as if he didn't know her, as if she was sitting there discussing the weather rather than answering questions about the night she'd seen him burying the body of his latest victim.

Peyton let out another heavy breath then, giving her head a shake. "Tessa Marcheline, you always did expect everybody around you to be as stick straight as you are. And I actually am sorry that I couldn't be."

At that moment, another person entered the room, her eyes bright and her smile beaming. "Oh! Hey, Tessa! I didn't expect...to see you...here..."

Kimber's voice faded as the tension in the room struck her and as her gaze swept past Tessa and landed on the open locker...realization visibly dawned and she took several steps backward, toward the door of the break room.

"No! Don't move!" Tessa heard the command burst forth, freezing Kimber in place and suddenly she was facing two suspects...two women who'd committed a double murder, probably for the hell of it. And then her hand was on the hilt of her weapon. "If you go for the door, Ms. Prescott, I'll be forced to shoot you. So, don't move!"

No matter who they were...no matter...the two women had killed in cold blood. And it was her job to make sure they didn't get the chance to do it again.

"Tessa? What are you doing! I-I don't understand!" Kimber gasped, seemingly stunned.

Even as the woman spoke, Tessa's mind was surveying the scene, taking in the women in their scrubs, their purses slung over their shoulders...and Tiffany standing nearby, stock still and pale as a ghost.

"I need both of you to slowly drop your purses onto the floor," she bade, tightening her grip on her weapon. "Do not reach--"

Almost before the words began leaving her mouth, Peyton shot forward and within the span of a single heartbeat, she'd snatched hold of Tiffany's hair, jerking her downward, and as fast as Tessa had her weapon out of its holster and leveled at Peyton, the woman had already snatched the sharpened bit of stainless steel out of her purse and had it in her grasp, her hand raised...poised to plunge it into the side of Tiffany's neck.

Tiffany's startled shriek, mingled in with a similar shriek from Kimber, filled the air, but her own voice drowned it out. "Peyton, stop! Stop! Don't move!"

Peyton went still, hand frozen in the air...her empty gaze locked with Tessa's...as another shriek left Kimber, who was clutching at her heart, her eyes enormous and wild.

"Peyton! What are you doing!" Kimber exclaimed, clutching at her heart.

The room fell silent for a few seconds, but for Tiffany's terrified sobs...and then Peyton seemed to relax a fraction, though she continued to hold the sliver of steel aloft, continued to hold onto Tiffany, forcing the young woman to stay bent down at an awkward angle, leaving the full length of her neck exposed...which also opened up Peyton's own chest and shoulders...  And that was where Tessa was aiming her weapon.  Dead center of her sister's chest.

 "Kimber," Peyton spoke up in a calm, casual sort of way, "walk toward the patio door. You can go. I'll catch up."

Tessa shot Kimber a quick look. "If you move toward the door, I'll be forced to shoot you, Ms. Prescott!"

"She won't hurt you, Kimber," Peyton said easily. "If she tries, she knows what I'll do to Tiffany.  And she won't risk me hurting an innocent person."

Rooted to the spot, still clutching at her chest, Kimber turned her wild eyes to Peyton. "No. I-I...Peyton, I don't know what to do!"

"Do what I'm telling you to do!" Peyton ordered, her tone suddenly parental. "Get to the door and get away from here! I'll catch up with you as soon as I can."

Tessa felt an abrupt calm waft over her as she glanced back toward Kimber, a calm that came from the same place that had separated her from the pain of having to point to her father while she was sitting on the witness stand. 

 "That's not how this is going to work, Ms. Prescott. Neither of you are going to walk away from this."  It was a statement of fact. They'd been caught and they were not going to just...walk out the door. No matter what she had to do to keep them there.

"Kimber, she won't hurt you--"

"Your partner is lying to you!" she cut her sister off. "I'm not letting either of you go. And if Ms. Kendrick hurts Tiffany, I will shoot her...and then I'll beat you to death with my bare hands, Kimber.  I swear to God."

A panic stricken look crossed Kimber's ashen face as she stood, uncertain, trembling, her gaze darting back and forth.

"Its over," Tessa stated plainly, hoping the people out in the salon had heard the commotion and were calling for help. "And you should be grateful, Ms. Prescott, because Peyton was planning on killing you next."

A sharp gasp flew out of Kimber and disbelief flashed through her wild eyes. "What! No! You're...you're ridiculous!"

"Did Peyton tell you she planned on moving back to Savannah with me? Did she tell you she was leaving you?" she asked the woman, who seemed to go colorless.

"No, she wouldn't...she wouldn't do that! You're lying!" Kimber accused as tears began rolling down her cheeks.

"She told me last night she wanted to go with me when I leave here," she went on, keeping her weapon steady. "And then...she told me that you'd probably pout and disappear when it was time for us to go. She said that so I wouldn't ask questions when I never saw you again."

Kimber's entire face fell and she looked at Peyton...waiting...waiting for the woman to deny the allegation. But, she didn't. Peyton just stood there, stone faced. And in that instant, something physical...something cold and final...swept through the room. And both women knew it was over. One way or another...it was over.

"You bitch," Kimber whispered past her trembling lips. "After everything..."

After everything...

"Its over, Peyton. Drop the weapon and just...let go of the girl," Tessa ordered, her voice surprisingly...easy. Almost...coaxing...as if she was trying to get her younger sister to give up and admit that she'd lost a game they'd been playing.

Peyton didn't move, didn't respond other than to pull in a breath and give her head a little shake.

"Don't be a coward," she said. "You did this, now you have to face it."

"I have faced it," Peyton admitted. "I faced it the day you knocked on my door because I knew if anybody would figure it out, it'd be Special Detective Tessa Stark."

"Then what are we doing here?" she asked, sounding more annoyed than she meant to. "Its over and done with. So, put down that thing and maybe you can explain this all to me."

Peyton remained still...while choked sobs continued to pour out of Tiffany.

"You can't stand there forever, Peyton," she pointed out.

"You're right," the woman sighed and something flashed through her eyes that made Tessa's heart stutter.

"Peyton, no!" she heard herself shout. "Don't make me fix this for you!"

"But, that's always been your job, hasn't it?" Peyton smiled...a scream rent the air...and the bit of sliver in her hand was being thrust downward.

The deafening explosion filled the room, the recoil rippling through her bones as...right before her eyes...Peyton jolted, her body lurching...stumbling backward...as if in slow motion...stumbling...falling...hitting the floor so that her skull bounced off the tiles...and taking Tiffany with her as she went.

From somewhere outside herself...she heard another scream...or perhaps several people screaming... But, then all sound ceased. The world went quiet...dim around her. She lost track of the room...lost track of herself. And then she was there, on her knees beside Peyton... Peyton...whose white uniform shirt was already drenched so that it was no longer white...but ruby red.

"Peytie! No, Peytie!" she said, her voice disconnected from her somehow.

"Its...okay," Peyton choked out as a trickle of crimson slid from the corner of her mouth.

"No, Peytie. You can't! You can't do this! Please!" Her tank top was suddenly in her hands and she was pressing the ball of fabric against her sister's chest...pressing as hard as she could...because that was all she could do.

"Its okay," Peyton whispered.

"Peytie, no. Please, stay for a minute. Just another minute!" she heard herself beseech. Just another minute. Help would be coming...

Peyton gave her head a weak shake. "Its okay. I...I never belonged here...anyway."

She was pressing against the wound with all her might, but her shirt was already soaked through. The blood was bubbling up between her fingers...

"You do, though. You...belong...right here..." the last words made only the barest sound...and then Peyton was gone...as swiftly and surely as the snuffing out of a candle flame...Peyton was gone.

And just beyond that realization...just beyond the stillness that came with death...voices were shouting and footsteps were pounding...and hands were on her, pulling her away from Peyton.

She was fighting...she knew she was fighting...trying to stay there with her sister, needing to stay there so that Peyton wouldn't be alone...so Peyton wouldn't be afraid of whatever was happening to her...but, she was forced backward...and her sister was suddenly surrounded by a swarm of bodies...

And then Cole was there, towering over her, his hands gripping her, trying to keep her with him...but she couldn't stay there. She couldn't. Her sister was gone and...people were everywhere...and she just couldn't stay there.

Somehow, in the next moment, Cole's hands were gone from her and she was suddenly pushing through the glass door and stepping out onto the patio with the stone tables and benches...stepping out into the sharp heat...out into the open space that wasn't quieted by Death coming to collect another soul...a soul that she herself had hand delivered to Him...a soul that had never belonged on earth anyway.

Peyton was...had been...right. She'd never really belonged...anywhere. She'd never found her place in the world. But, maybe that was because there'd simply been no place for her to begin with.

So, maybe...maybe she'd just done the world a favor because monsters...even if they couldn't help that they were monsters...shouldn't be allowed to stay where they didn't belong... And whatever else she was...sister, daughter, friend...Peyton Stark was also a monster. So, there was nothing to do now but bury that monster beneath the dirt...and go give the families that had been hurt the answers that they deserved.

Hopefully, those families would eventually find some peace...even if she herself would never know peace again.