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Olly watched as Jon walked in front of him. He kept the glare on his face, doing his best to channel every bit of hate he had for the commander of the Night’s Watch. He couldn’t let that drop. He couldn’t let himself wonder if he did the right thing. If plunging a knife into the man that took him and gave him a knee life after his village was destroyed was right.
After they’d done it, part of him had wondered if what he did was truly justified. Alliser Throne, who seemed to sense his unasked questions, then turned him and said “You did good, kid”. Until now the question had not returned.
Now about to face his death for those very actions he couldn’t stop believing it now. Jon Snow let the wildlings through the walls. The same wildlings who murdered and raped the people of his village. The ones that killed his family, leaving him on his own to join the Night’s Watch. He let those people through and even went as far as to give them the land they plundered. His old home now belonged to the very people who killed its people because of Jon Snow. He shouldn’t be the lord commander anymore if he did that.
By all laws of nature, Jon shouldn’t be the lord commander any longer, no matter the arguments. Six times they stabbed him, their daggers sinking deep into his flesh, with the words “for the watch” as the blows were delivered. Olly himself had taken the last stab, watching the light draining from his former friend’s eyes, blood beginning to soak his clothes. As they left him there, blood staining the snow a deep scarlet, they all knew he couldn’t just bounce back. Even if someone came soon Jon didn’t have that long. Whatever returned him to their world couldn’t be natural.
As Jon made his way in front of them asking for any last words the other men set hang with him ave theirs one by one. Thorne told Jon it was a choice between betraying Jon or the Night’s Watch, that knowing the outcome he hoped he would do it all again. Olly wasn’t sure he wanted to know if he could truthfully say the same. He wanted to think of something he could say as his final words, something to tell Jon just how much he hated him. How he admired him so much. How grateful he had been when Jon took him in. How much every kindness the man showed him meant. How he loved him like a brother. How all of that shattered when he let the wildlings through the wall and into his village.
But he couldn’t think of the words. He didn’t know where that would even start, so instead he just glared. If he tried to speak he knew he could tell Jon how much he hated him. If Jon still couldn’t look upon him with hate or anything like it he may wonder again if he actually hated Jon. He couldn’t do that now with what he would soon face.
When Jon’s gaze met his it held only sadness, no hatred or malice, simply a wish things didn’t have to end this way. He held strong, eyes shooting daggers as the man he stabbed only days before. If only he could make Jon drop dead again with just his glare.
Once their gazes broke, Jon drew his sword without another word, stepping up to the rope that would end his life. The Lord Commander himself would swing the sword that ended his killers. He would not hide behind a proxy. He simply raised the blade and sliced the rope in one clean swoop.
All at once ever stopped. The floor dropped from under his feet, rope tangling his neck to make up for vanished support. Slowly it began to choke the air right out of his lungs.
I did the right thing , he told himself. He needed to remember that in his final moments.
He felt himself struggle, but he couldn’t really tell much about his situation anymore. His vision blurred and his thoughts became muddled. No air could enter his lungs. He could feel the rope digging into his neck, tighter and tighter even if it didn’t really change.
I did good.
The world started to fully darken and this time he knew it would be for good. The last thing he saw as the life left his body was the man he betrayed looking as though he wished it never came to this.