What Comes Next

Summary: What’s next for Grace and the only surviving member of the family?
Warning(s): Spoilers for the whole movie; AU; violence and gore
Pairing: Grace/Daniel

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She was surrounded by the remains of the family. Covered in blood and organs. Her wedding dress was torn and stained. She was wounded, suffering from innumerable cuts and bruises. She was in desperate need of a shower, or a bath. That sounded like heaven. A nice hot bath, complete with bubbles and bath bombs.

Should she feel anything for the family who’d completely and utterly destroyed themselves? She couldn’t regret watching them die. Even the children hadn’t been innocent. If they were, then surely they wouldn’t have been caught up in the effects of the curse.

A part of Grace had expected that she’d explode right along with the rest of the family. The whole night had been about her surviving. It had changed her completely from the happy, innocent woman she’d been less than twenty-four hours ago.

A low groan drew her attention to the doorway and she quickly turned, grabbing a kitchen knife from the side, ignoring the gore that stained both the handle and blade. She gripped it tight, enough to turn her knuckles white, and then turned to fully face the kitchen door, holding the knife with the blade pointed upwards.

Daniel stumbled into the kitchen, leaving behind a smear of blood on the white wall before he slumped against the counter, one hand clasped to his throat.

“Daniel.” Grace dropped the knife and raced to his side, heedless of her own injuries and avoiding the patches of gore. Reaching his side, she carefully pulled his arm around her shoulders. “How are you alive?” She helped him round to one of the chairs that had avoided most of the gore splatter and pushed him to sit down. “Let me take a look.”

“Hurts like a bitch, but it’s not bleeding anymore.” He gave her a forced smile, then looked slowly around the kitchen, eyes tracking towards each pile of gore that was all that remained of his family members. Then, he focused on her once more. “Even Alex?”

She took a step away from him, her brows drawing together and her hand curling into a tight fist. All at once, she felt every injury throbbing through her body. Before tonight, everything she’d gone through would have left her broken and crying. But she couldn’t even grieve the loss of her new husband. When she thought about Alex, when she remembered how happy she’d been at their wedding, all she now felt was empty inside.

There was a light touch on her hand and she looked down, into Daniel’s eyes, as he grasped her hand, looking into her eyes. “I’m sorry you had to go through so much just because of my family.” He let go of her hand and looked around slowly before muttering, “I guess I can’t really say ‘my family’ anymore.”

There was nothing she could really say to that. Thank you? He’d helped her in the end. No matter what had happened, she couldn’t forget that she owed him that much, at least. Of course, he’d had every opportunity to warn her about it long before now. Could one instance of turning against his family and everything they did make up for years of standing by and doing…nothing?

“You think I’m a coward.” He spoke with his head lowered, addressing the words to the table and not to her.

She glanced at him, taking in the slump to his shoulders. The bowed head. The twitching fingers. Maybe her thoughts weren’t exactly fair to him. After all, he’d been affected enough by everything his family had done enough to turn to alcohol. Maybe even drugs, too. She reached out and placed a hand on his, gripping gently for just a second. “You did the right thing in the end.” She didn’t want to rip into him with her words, even though it would be easy.

He said them anyway. “It took me a long time to do the right thing.”

“I don’t think they would have been killed if they hadn’t tried to break the rules.” She glanced towards the corner where she’d spotted Le Bail. Was he watching them, even now? If she chose to reject Daniel, would he too explode like the rest of his family? It was a responsibility she wasn’t sure she wanted, but how could she consign him to death?

“I’m sorry.” He said the words in a low voice, still not looking at her. “I know it’s not enough. I know it’ll never be enough for what you’ve suffered through during the whole night.” He finally looked up, meeting her eyes. “But it’s all I can give you.”

She wasn’t sure she could forgive him. Was he even seeking her forgiveness? Even if she said the words, she didn’t know if she could truly believe them in her heart. And even if she could, would he be able to forgive himself? She doubted it. “I’m glad you’re alive.” She gave him the sincerity she could. She was glad he was alive. She couldn’t voice words of forgiveness or absolution, but she could say that she was happy he hadn’t died.

The quirk of his lips looked more like a grimace than a smile, but a sincere note crept into his voice as he said, “I wasn’t expecting to live and I think I only am because of you.”

Once again, her eyes moved towards the spot where Le Bail had nodded to her. Was this his responsibility? Had he brought Daniel back? Saved him from the same fate as the rest of his family? And if it was his doing, just why had he spared Daniel and not any of the others? “The police are going to be here soon,” she said. How were they going to explain all of this?

“One or both of us will be arrested for murder.” His eyes swept over her body, before glancing away again. “Both of us are stained with blood. But you’re more obviously injured than I am.”

So he’d be accused of the murders. And she didn’t have to ask to know that he planned to let himself be arrested for what had happened. Was this his way of trying to atone for his part in his family’s crimes?

“Neither of us have to be arrested for this,” she replied. “If we time this exactly right, then we can get rid of any evidence.” She looked around the kitchen area and then focused on Daniel once more. “We need fuel. Gasoline. Alcohol.”

He locked eyes with her for a few moments and then finally nodded. He pushed his chair back from the table, muttering, “I’ll go and see what I can find.” He headed out of the kitchen, moving a bit easier now.

Movement caught her eye and she turned, glancing in the direction of the form of Le Bail, vague and indistinct but still there. “Did you bring him back?” she asked. “Why?”

He chuckled softly, raising his hand like he was toasting her with an invisible glass. “To make you a deal.”

“You would have willingly stood by and let them slaughter me, if they’d been able to find me before dawn.” She spoke with absolute certainty. “Why would I want to make any kind of deal with you?”

“That was nothing personal, I assure you,” he replied. “You had the same chance as every other potential member they brought into this family. And you were the only one with the strength to fight back and survive. No matter what it cost you.” His gaze moved towards the doorway that Daniel had disappeared through, before focusing on her once more. “It would be a pity for the whole family to die out without anyone left alive to learn from the mistakes of the past.”

She looked in the same direction he was and then focused back on him. “Forget it. I’m through with this family.”

His voice turned cold as he said, “I brought him back for your sake.”

She forced herself to meet him stare for stare and made her voice match his for coldness. “Don’t act like you’re doing me some big favour. Whatever you want from me, bringing back one of the people who tried to murder me isn’t going to encourage me to make a deal with you.”

He shrugged. “Then kill him. Torture him. Do whatever you want with the last surviving member of the Le Domases. I give him to you.”

“And in exchange?” she asked.

“A favour.” He shrugged carelessly. “One day, I will come to you and request something of you. Something that you won’t miss. If you choose to keep Daniel Le Domas, then you will give me what I want when I ask for it.”

“And you won’t tell me what it is you’ll ask for?”

“Not until the time is right to collect.”

She considered the offer for a few seconds, glancing once more towards the door. “Can I change my mind if I don’t want to give up whatever you want?”

Le Bail laughed; a cold, harsh sound that was like nails scraping over a chalkboard. “I will allow it,” he replied. “If he is in no worse shape than now, I will accept him instead of what I ask for from you at a time of my choosing.” He paused. “Do we have a deal?”

She had a choice. She could say no and she could let him take Daniel’s life. Make sure the whole family was wiped out forever. How many people had died at their hands since they’d made the deal with Le Bail?

But Daniel had saved her life and would have lost his own for doing so. And if she couldn’t give Le Bail what he wanted in the future, she could give up Daniel instead. If he proved to her that letting him live was the wrong choice. So she nodded and spoke the words. “We have a deal,” she replied.

Le Bail smiled, but he didn’t say anything. She blinked and he was gone.

“What are you looking at, Grace?”

At Daniel’s voice behind her, she turned, seeing that he was holding several bottles of vodka in his hands. She held out her own and took them from him. “Just thinking,” she answered. “Do you have a lighter?”

He nodded and then walked over to the oven, turning on the gas.

As the smell filled the kitchen, she opened the bottles and poured the vodka all over the floor. She watched without emotion as the liquid mingled with the bodily fluids that covered the tiles, only moving so that she didn’t step into the crimson liquid.

Once the bottles were emptied, Daniel joined her and the two of them headed out of the door. Just outside the house, he handed her the lighter and then stepped away.

Turning, Grace flicked the lighter and threw it into the house.

The flames erupted so quickly, she wondered if it was helped along by the supernatural. Aware of Daniel standing next to her, she watched without feeling any kind of emotion as the flames licked towards the sky and the thick stench of smoke filled the air.

Daniel’s hand crept into hers and she looked down at it, then looked into his eyes. He reached out and touched the side of her face, fingers grazing lightly over the sensitive skin of her lips.

She stepped forward and kissed him, pressing her lips to his as the mansion burned behind them.

The End