This is the final chapter of this story. I'm really sorry to end it, after all this time, but I think I'm happy with the way it turned out. And maybe a sequel will come soon…!

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That was a little weird…anyway…

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Months have passed. I have returned to my forest home after watching the new Drake exit the mine, all the while knowing that he wasn't Drake anymore. It has been awful.

The morning after that unforgettable night, we had said our final goodbyes and he had walked bravely to the mouth of the mine, where he stopped and turned back to me. I smiled and tried to pretend that I wasn't crying, that I wasn't holding back the insecure, unstable part of me that wanted to scream and run to him and drag him back, that everything was going to be okay. Nothing could change the facts, though. Nothing was ever going to be okay.

It was a small comfort to know that the last thing he saw in the light of day was me. Then he stepped into the mine and disappeared from view. Then I didn't have to try and hide it any more. I sank to the ground and cried. Why was it, why this cruel twist of fate—the only person I had ever loved had to die. And I felt like it was my fault. It was because he was with me that Drake hadn't gone back to his master, because of me that he had to be fully possessed. If I had been able to stop me from falling in love with him, then maybe, just maybe things wouldn't have ended like this. But they had.

And the sad thing was; I knew myself. If offered the chance, I probably still wouldn't change it. That was who I was: Sarah, the selfish, sadistic mutant. I would always be that girl. I had known years would pass and I would forget Drake. He would fade to just a memory, nothing more than a teenage boy I had fallen for in a moment of weakness. I would become fully myself, fully Sarah again, with no weaknesses or conscience, just painful memories and a fondness for knives and destruction. The closest thing to love I had ever had would disappear, and I would go back to my spying on my brothers.

For the first time in my life, I had looked at what my future might be. An asylum or a small house would be my home. I would continue to spy on Sam and Caine. It would be harder, now that they knew I existed. They would acknowledge me at some point, or at least Sam would. Maybe he would send me letters. Somehow, I had envisioned a card with Sam, Astrid and a little baby on the front reading, "Happy Holidays!" and another with Caine, Diana, and several children on it that said "Merry Christmas!". I hadn't been able to believe myself. Drake was being possessed, and I was thinking of my brothers sending me Christmas cards. After the worst of my crying was over, I had stood up and had begun to walk back to the woods. I hadn't wanted to be here when the monster in Drake's body came out. I hadn't known if I could take it. Back in the woods, I had cried at the same spot where I had first realized I loved him. Then I returned to the spot where I had first leapt on him, ready to kill him. After I had done my fair share of remembering and crying, I had gone back to my life as usual. Still, I had felt a strange emptiness as I worked alone to hunt and clean kills without him.

It had hurt to think about him, so I had focused on my covert jobs. Over the next few months, Diana had begun to eat more and more. She grew like a balloon and threw up all over Sam's shoes several times, while Caine had become more upset over her absence with every passing day. Astrid was still nowhere to be found, and Sam was sad without her, but he seemed happy enough up at the lake. He had done a decent job planning it; no one was without a home, and the Nutella had not yet run out, but how long that would last, I had no idea.

After a few months, I began to notice changes in myself as well. Diana was not the only one growing bigger. I was eating more than ever, and began to desire things that I knew I couldn't have. Foods like chocolate cake or yogurt would come to mind at any given moment, and no matter how much wild bird I ate, I wasn't satisfied.

One day, I ate until I was full of meat and berries, only to wake from my sleep hours later to regurgitate everything I had eaten. Feeling weak, tired and dizzy, I climbed back up to my tree house and lay down. I closed my eyes, trying to fall back asleep. They flew open a minute later when I felt something kicking inside me.

I ruled out the bugs that hatched from inside. I would be numb and unfeeling from the venom they secreted, and that didn't explain my weight gain. I realized with a strangely calm certainty what was going on. I was with child. And it wasn't just any child. I was going to give birth to the heir of Drake Merwin.

I stared at the ceiling. This changed everything. I had to hide from both my brothers now, construct a new home where they would never find me. They would kill the baby in an instant to stop a mini-Drake from running around. Then I realized something. I was thinking about trying to protect the baby. I laughed at my stupidity. Me, a mother. It was ludicrous. I could never protect this child. I had tried to protect Drake, and look how he turned out?

Heck, I would probably slit the baby's throat in its first week of life if its cries got on my nerves. I was a psychopath just as much as Drake was. I could never raise a kid, unless I wanted them more screwed up than both their parents. I realized what was necessary. I realized what was going to be the best for everyone.

I am with Sam's people now. Diana nearly had a heart attack when I told her who the father was. She really doubts my sanity now. Sam looked a little worried when he found out, but he hasn't annoyed me about it. I have grown even bigger and can constantly feel the pounding of little feet kicking, trying out its new limbs. I often wonder whether the child will have a whip hand too. I try to convince myself his hand wasn't genetic. But I still wonder.

I have a plan all figured out, and Diana has probably guessed what it is by now as well. I will give birth to the baby. I will feed it for as short a time as necessary, then go to Sam and ask for death. If he refuses, I will go to Caine, who I know will be more than happy to oblige. In order for the baby to have any chance of a decent life in the FAYZ, it will have to be raised in a family with no one who enjoys pain or has mutated limbs that are natural weapons. I will ask Sam to be the baby's foster father—he is going to be its uncle, after all. Astrid could be a mother figure, if she returns and hasn't been driven to insanity with guilt. Everything will be fine. I will be dead and the child will have a normal family. It is perfect, flawless.

Of course, the moment the child arrives, a flaw presents itself. A tiny, ugly, red, scrunched up, thing has been born and now rests in my arms, alternating between screaming, sleeping, and feeding. The screaming is awful. It is lucky I am confined and weaponless, because I want to stab the thing's heart to get the noise to stop. The sleeping is the best. The thing breathes slowly and is warm against my chest, bundled in an old towel. The feeding isn't so bad, but it will soon, once the thing grows teeth.

I constantly remind myself to stop referring to it as a thing. It is a baby boy, with a tuft of peach fuzz hair on the top of his head and those dark eyes all newborns have. Diana gave birth a few weeks before I did, and her little girl is just beginning to learn to smile and gurgle. I don't fawn over it the way the others do. I turn to my own little baby and wrestle with two questions: what should I name this child, and how can I possibly leave him?

I cannot think of anything to name the little boy. Suggestions come pouring in, but none are right for this adorable boy fathered by a sadistic psychopath.

"Drake Junior," Sanjit says, and Lana elbows him. In turn, she suggests Patrick. I tell her there is no way I'm naming my son after her dog. She leaves after that.

"Mario," suggests Edilio. I snort, and tell him there is no way I'm naming my son after a video game character. He follows Sanjit and Lana after that.

One day a name came from out of the blue. "Daniel," I say quietly, liking the way it sounds on my tongue. I look down at the tiny thing in my arms and say it again. I smile. Daniel's eyes open and then flutter closed again. I like the name. I decide to keep it. Sam comes in later, and I tell him. He nods and smiles at the sleeping bundle in my arms. I can see from his face that he's trying to convince himself that letting this kid live is not going to end with him killing us.

More time passes. Daniel can smile and giggle, although he usually frowns. He can crawl around on his hands and knees and can stand if he holds on to something. Soon he will be taking his first steps. I have decided he looks like his father. He has the same gray eyes and sandy hair, but Diana says he has my facial features. Sometimes I look at him and he looks at me and I tear up. My resolve nearly breaks and I want to stay here with him, but I know I can't. It will be better if Daniel is brought up away from me, even if he has to live in the FAYZ.

One night I put Daniel down for a nap and I know this is the time. I go to Sam's tent. This is what I have to do. I realize that it is Daniel's first birthday today. I laugh bitterly. Only fourteen more before he is offered the chance to disappear. That is, if the FAYZ is still up then. I knock on the door to Sam's houseboat. He opens it, and his smile fades immediately as he invites me in. "Sarah," he says. "I'm not going to kill you." I stare at him for a second. Then I notice Diana.

"You witch," I yell angrily. "I hate you!" She says nothing, just stares at the floor. "Well, then I'll just find Caine," I retort as I yank open the door again. "And while I'm at it, I'll betray you, see how you like it! I'll tell him exactly where you are and why you left!" I have crossed the line into hysteria now, and I run out of the boat and away from the lake. Diana is after me, but I have been running after prey for months before joining Sam. I was pulling away from her. I think I am home free until Brianna appears in front of me. I stop, surveying the situation. I can't hope to fight someone who could move at three hundred miles an hour.

"Let me go," I yell, "Let me go to Caine." She looks at me with disgust.

"No," she replies angrily. "You're going to betray Diana, just when I was deciding she wasn't such a female dog as she usually acts like." I reach into her mind for her emotions. She feels protective, trying to help her friend. Brianna and Diana are friends. I had never thought that could happen.

"Fine," I plead, "I won't expose her. I just need to die. You don't understand. I have to." She looks at me like I'm crazy, a bomb that might go off at any moment. I know I have to explain it to her to make her see and understand. I pour out the whole story to her, and she seems equal parts disgusted, equal parts sympathetic when I am finished. She lets out a long breath and shakes her head.

"Whatever. Go. But…are you sure you want to leave Daniel?" She asks. I nod.

"It's the only chance he'll have at being somewhat normal, even if he is in the FAYZ." I respond, and Brianna turns and walks away. Of course, walking for Brianna is the equivalent of sprinting for a normal person.

I reach Perdido Beach a few hours later. No one questions me, even though I use no mask of emotions. I walk straight up to the town hall, right down the hall, and knock on Caine's office door. An angry voice shouts from inside. "I swear, if this is Turk, I am going to throw you into a wall so hard-" The door flies open by itself, and Caine sees me. He sits there frozen for a second, so many questions in his head. I don't let him ask any of them. I voice my request first.

"Kill me," I say calmly, staring straight at him. Caine looks back at me for a second before smiling widely.

"Gladly." Then I am flying through the air, and I don't try to shield myself. I crash into the cinderblock wall and feel blood pouring from me, all around me, everywhere. It hurts to think, and I believe my skull is cracked. I feel myself fading, not just from consciousness, but from life. My last thought is that this is not the end. This is the beginning of a new life.