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Jake Fitzgerald dies with a scythe down his middle and a desperate plea that no, this is not how it ends.
But for him, it is. Because sometimes people die, and they don't get to 'win back' their Miss Maddox - but let's face it; she was always his- and they don't get to live.
Brooke drowns herself and her sorrows; first in a pool -their pool, Jake- and then in the new boy, because Stavo is warm, and he likes her, and she needs someone. And then, when she starts thinking maybe, maybe he's the killer, maybe he killed Jake -Jake...
Well, then she fucks him; keep your enemies closer, don't let them know you're onto them, maybe they'll let something slip.
And Zoey dies -poor, poor Zoey- and Noah aches like Brooke does and she wouldn't wish it on anyone, but she's sickly glad that someone knows, someone understands.
And she's not sure what she's doing with Stavo anymore, but she knows if he hurt Jake -Jake- then her face will be the last thing he ever sees.
Her father dies on the end of a pitchfork, and Brooke loves him and hates him and cries over things like juice; her heart whispering he got Jake killed, he hurt Jake.
And then the video is released, and Brooke knows - she knows- it's a trick, it's a trap, but it's a beautiful story, it fits like puzzle pieces, like it was designed that way. And she thinks of Stavo's drawings, and this is the story he would write.
So at the theatre she won't let him in; though she's sure he'll find another way, the killer always does.
When Noah says it could be one of us, Brooke's heart plummets. Even if she thinks its Stavo, the very thought of any of them hurting Jake-
Brooke won't think of it. So she doesn't, and she's caught off guard when the killer slips a knife into her stomach because she didn't think Stavo would hurt her, that wasn't part of his plan.
And when she goes into surgery and everything is fading and futile, Brooke promises herself and Jake that she's going to solve this shit.
When she wakes up, she aches like last year, and when she thinks of Piper, of the freezer, she can't help but think of Jake and how he promised she was okay and he wouldn't leave her.
Sometimes people don't mean to break their promises. Sometimes they do anyway.
Noah is by her bedside, which Brooke finds doesn't surprise her; after Zoey, after Jake, her and Noah understand each other in a way others can't, save for Audrey maybe. (Brooke vows to ask Audrey about Rachel one day soon.)
And then Noah speaks, and when his mouth says it was Kieran, Brooke thinks she must have misheard, misunderstood.
But he repeats himself when she asks and all Brooke can think is that all the pieces fit, perfectly, sickeningly. And she cries, and Noah holds her awkwardly, and soon he's crying too and then Brooke asks the million dollar question.
"Is he dead?"
Noah looks at her with something like pity, and she knows the answer before he speaks.
"Why?"
"Well, they couldn't just kill him-"
"They killed Piper."
Noah looks like he has been thinking the same thing, but shakes his head slowly.
"No, Brooke, it was different. They overpowered him, he was unarmed, the cops showed up. He's in prison, he'll never get out-"
Brooke interrupts him with a crack in her voice, "Are you trying to convince me, or you?"
Noah doesn't respond, so she knows the answer.
***
Surprisingly, Emma is the one who settled back into school best. Brooke guesses she's just really done with letting Kieran and Piper affect her life. Audrey does well too, but she jumps when her phone rings, and has a new security system in her house. Noah decides not to go back to Lakewood- he says he feels her too much there- and does distance education, which is a good fit for him.
And Brooke?
Her mother was deemed unfit to look after her, so Maggie - wonderful Maggie, but also all her fault- asks Brooke to move in with her and Emma.
Brooke does. She doesn't know what else to do.
One night she dreams of visiting Kieran in prison and shooting him in the fucking face, and it’s so satisfying for one beautiful moment, and she thinks Jake would like it. He'd smile, she thinks, and say 'look at my baby off to destroy people'. Or maybe he wouldn't. They hadn't watched Mulan since fourth grade.
But that gets Brooke to thinking, what if she can kill Kieran? She knows she couldn't get a gun into prison, but she's rich. She can pay the right people. Oh, but she wants him to suffer, to scream, to beg her not to. She wants to look him in the eyes so he knows what he's taken from her, and she wants to kill him, brutally.
And it’s stupid of her, she knows, but she tells Noah and Audrey. They have a right to know what she’s planning, maybe they’ll want in.
Audrey, for the briefest moment -right after Brooke tells her that it had to be Kieran who killed Rachel, because Audrey herself as with Piper that night- looks like she might agree. But the moment is over before long; Audrey has made her peace. Audrey tells her not to throw her life away for that son of a bitch.
Noah looks at Brooke and tells her she’s stepping into a mindset she shouldn’t, she’s becoming Kieran- cold, and calculating.
Brooke slaps him, because she could never-
The slap across her own face comes as a surprise, and at the hands of Audrey.
“Sometimes people die!” Audrey yells, and Brooke bites back the what the hell she’d began to say, “Sometimes people kill people and you will never understand why or how they could do that, but it happened, and you have to deal with it, and in a way that does not involve killing anyone!”
And Brooke reaches out for Audrey with tears in her eyes and wails softly, “but why did Jake have to die, I loved him so much and he didn’t know, and he didn’t deserve this!”
Audrey wraps her arms around Brooke and holds her as she cries.
***
And Brooke Maddox lives, like Jake hoped she would. She loves too. None of them like Jake- but whoever could be? She's not sure what would have happened had Kieran - fucking Kieran- Wilcox not taken a scythe to her Jake; maybe they would have been happy, maybe they would have crashed and burned. Brooke doesn't know, but she hates that she'll never have the chance to find out.
But Brooke is happy, in the end, and she thinks Jake would have liked that.