Hey guyz, I no sum of u havn't liked our plot as much lately but this is wut we planned when we decided 2 finis the story, so i hope u will see what we had in mind!!! We think its a killer endin'!

Rating upgraded for violence, squeamish avoid!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chapter Eight

POV Janine:

In a beautiful testament to how connected our souls are, Dawn followed my advice and wrote the letter. It was agony watching her struggle over what was the best thing to do. I wanted to stroke her porcelain cheek and tell her it would all be over soon. And it would be. Mallory Pike would be dealt with and then, then Dawn and I could enjoy our beautiful future. Being as bookish as I, one seldom believes in white knights and sunsets and the riding there into, but maybe my fairy tale would come true after all...

The plan was for her admirer to reveal herself at the school dance, Dawn claiming to want to share just one dance with whoever loved her so passionately. I tingled at the thought of her sweeping around the dance floor, her elegance illuminating the dreary middle school gym, blinding all to its tacky decorations and missing ceiling tiles. How that room would be altered for me, having before been a gloomy chamber of desperation in my own middle school days, now changed to the palace of my enchantress.

I walk to her and put my hands on her shoulder. I thrill to the touch of her strong shoulders and smell the clean scents of lemon and mint wafting off her hair. She's began and crossed out several starts to her letter until she finally got to this:

Dear Admirer,

I can no longer live like this. I want to know who you are, I need to know. Please, at the SMS dance on Friday (I'll be wearing a sea-foam green Laura Ashley dress, so you can find me in the crowd). Dance one dance with me. I'm going to request "Every Breath You Take" because it's so romantic. That's the dance I want you to dance with me.

Dawn

And then, as happens with geniuses, a flash of brilliance came over me. I would prove my love by Dawn for solving the problem for her. I wouldn't make her suffer such a confrontation. And then I would stroll, confident and proud, jet black hair flowing in the wind, love in my almond-shaped eyes, and claim that magical dance with her.

It took several drafts, but I finally mimicked her writing well enough. I invited Mallory to meet Dawn in the girls' locker room instead. I knew what to do from there.

The days until Friday crawled along at a glacial pace, but I was thankful for their slothlike pace because each minute brought a new fantasy about Dawn and I's future. A cottage in Wisconsin. A lighthouse in Maine. A condo in Los Angeles. Perhaps a quiet life in a Stamford suburb not unlike ours... I didn't know if I wanted children with her. We could both throw ourselves into our passionate work. With my smarts and her activism, we could make alternative fuel a reality.

But first I had to make us a reality. And finally, as was inevitable, Friday came...

I was hiding in the showers in the SMS girls' locker room when I heard someone coming in the room, mumbling to herself.

"Gonna be cool...Gotta be cool...Just like Claudia...Not be Creepy Mal...God, I wish this sweatshirt had glitter."

I looked down at my hands. Small hands. Good for computers and test tubes and Mead notebooks. No one knew that they were stronger that they seemed. That I worked out in the university gym three times a week. But I was strong. And not just physically. But mentally strong. Strong enough to hit Dawn with a rock, to frame my little sister for my crimes, strong enough to make the life for myself that I knew I should have! I am strong enough!

I didn't realize that I had said the last few words aloud until I heard Mallory gasp.

"Dawnie? Are you here?" Then, very woodenly, as if she had memorized it, "I love you. Let us be together forever, like two princesses in a fairy tale."

I moved into the light and saw the shock on her face until I brought the bat down on it. Again and again.

I didn't think it would sound like a watermelon breaking. That's my favorite fruit.

As I had planned, I wrapped her up in the tarp I bought, chuckling to myself that she would have appreciated its purple hue. Her body had stopped twitching. "Guess you're Sleeping Beauty," I cackled to myself. I covered the shower in chlorine and ran it, to drain away the blood. Dragging the "package" behind me, I descended into the basement through a service elevator. I had already left a suicide note on Mallory's desk, unicorn stationary and written in three different colors of pastel sparkly gel pen. The Pikes would think their eldest daughter had drown herself in the Stoney Brook River but in truth, along with my bat, gloves, and old clothes, Mallory was going to be cremated in the school incinerator. It took a whole hour to get everything going and shove her body in but haste makes waste, you know.

"Maybe your prince will come," I cackled as I shut the door. I had plenty of time to change into the clothes I had stashed. A Laura Ashley dress that matched Dawn's. It was my first dress like that. I normally prefer a degree of modesty in my garments, but longing so for Dawn had made me wish someone might long for me.

I twirled around the room, wearing my dress and singing softly to myself. Now that I think of it, I would like children with Dawn. I can see her playing with them and taking care of them after I come home from a long day at the university. She'll be the best mom in town, the one that everyone wants to have on their committee. All our children's friends will want to play at our house, even if we only have raw vegetables and carob brownies.

We will have the perfect life. I cannot wait to stroke her long Californian hair.

I squared my shoulders and marched proudly up the stairs, out the back entrance, and then around the building and into the main doors. I had to be seen entering. I had been hiding around the school since 8 am, sneaking in with the crowd of students at the morning bell. I was hungry and tired, but has much as I craved edibles, I craved Dawn more.

I waited outside the gym until I heard the requested song. 9:03, just like we'd planned. Strolling in, I saw Dawn standing awkwardly in the middle of the floor, her lower lip trembling. She was trying so hard to be brave. I came up behind her and wrapped my arms around her.

"I love you," I whispered in her ear, "Mallory isn't coming. I took care of it."

Dawn jumped back, looking confused. "What are you talking about, Janine? Why are you here?"

Although I wanted to shout with anger at her appalling lack of gratitude, I calmed myself, a force of will. Relationships aren't easy. And Dawn was damaged. I would have to explain this. I convinced her to come with me so I could do just that.

I took her to the science lab. It's where I feel most comfortable, most able to discuss things calmly. I should have thought that she might be a little nervous at the beginning, but now I have the chance to make her love me. So I've got to say it right.

"Dawn...Dawnie...My California Girl. I noticed you the very first time you came to our house for one of our meetings. You were always nice to me, always offered me a Saltine or whatever you were eating. Once you patted my shoulder when I got an A- on a calc test. And I guess what I'm trying to say is that...over time...I fell in love with you." I laugh and look at the ceiling. It feels so good to say it! I finally got to say it.

But when I look back down, Dawn doesn't look as happy as me. First she just looks confused...But anger and disgust seem to be visiting her face too.

"What?! You are my stalker!?

I interrupt, "It's not like that! I just love you so much and sending you notes was a way to be close to you...Until I was brave enough to tell you the truth."

"How could you do that to me?! How could you do that to Claudia?!" Her voice swiftly rose to an unmelodious shriek.

I cover her mouth with my hand and continue to whisper words of love in her ear. I tell her of our future, of our four children: Newton, Marie, Darwin and Seashell (Yes, I knew that was the name that she wanted to name a child someday, I heard her tell Mary Anne one night).

I don't even know how it happened. I was clutching her so close, whispering to her about how Claudia was sick and now she could helped and that Mallory had sent her to the awful notes (sometimes love requires a white lie) and that I hadn't stalked her. I had loved her. Watched her protected her. I killed Mallory for her. When she didn't react to my confession, I knew something was wrong. She wasn't breathing. I was clutching her so close…

I tried CPR at first, savoring my first contact with my love's lips. It failed.

But I am Janine Kishi. I never fail.

Even if I couldn't save her life in one way, I could preserve our love in another. I could let her live through me. I could absorb her life essence into my being. There could be a storm crashing in my eyes too. Dawn needn't fade away.

Yes, this science lab had seen so many of my successes over the years. And tonight, as I did my greatest feat, it would forever be the palace of my victories, the chamber that held my most awesome power. As I placed Dawn on a lab table, I mentally ran through the instruments I needed and fetched them quickly from the cupboard.

Cupping her beautiful face, I ran the scalpel around her eye sockets, removing the skin. I was so careful not to cut those beautiful orbs. They were like a snowglobe, but for the ocean. They would be mine. I dropped them onto a tray. Her lips came next, perfection that I wished could kiss me back. Part of her brain. Yes, that was her essence from there.

Moving lower, I made incisions on her torso until I was looking at her organs. I gasped at the site of her perfect organs, so neatly aligned. Beauty truly is on the inside, I thought. The choices were clear. I removed her heart, which I know, I know, I KNOW, held so much love for me. Her lung came next, I knew they were clean of toxins, that her love of the environment had strengthened them, giving out her vigor. I took her liver, knowing it too had no toxins, for her beautiful diet. Yes, my princess had treated her body as a temple.

And now I would worship at that temple.

I took great care to be gentle as I lifted out each jewel. I didn't want to be rough and quick. To violate her. Finally I removed an ovary for our unborn child and some of her muscle tissue, to remind me of her strength. I pictured her lithe form surfing. God, how I still loved her.

And then, salt running down my face, I did the last thing I could for my love.

I let her inside of me.

I read once about how in the Middle Ages, when your love died, you ate their heart. How sad for those great romances that they stopped there. As I ingested her essence, masticating each perfect morsel with love, I knew I had never been closer to Dawn. That as much as I had loved her, this was how two souls became one.

Plato theorized that love was a result of humans being split apart, that we had been beings with two heads and four arms and so on, but our arrogance angered the deities. They split us in two and made us incomplete. I knew he had been right. As I felt Dawn slide into my stomach, to be broken down by acids and made part of me, I knew her nourishment was the completion I needed.

I, Janine the Brain, had never been happier.

POV Kristy:

~~~17 YEARS LATER~~~

I dream of it sometimes. I'm at the head of what will always be left of the BSC. Mary Anne, Stacey, Jessi and Abby. We'd figured out that it was Janine too late and as we ran down the hall we didn't think that we'd see Janine there, her lips glistening scarlet as she ate Dawn.

Oh, god. How could we have all missed it? How could we have missed the insanity growing in Janine's eyes. Why didn't we pay attention to the many times we saw her at SMS. We just assumed she was volunteering or that she missed Claudia. But no.

And it all ends with scarlet lips and violence and screams, and Janine in a padded room and Mrs. Spier drinking herself to liver failure.

I'm married now. Mary Anne and I finally admitted our love. I make her feel safe, I know. We have a daughter named Seashell Dawn.

But sometimes, in the night, we awake screaming and we know we see the same thing:

Janine sobbing out her love for Dawn through her moist, ruby red lips.

FINIS.