♡ Chapter 29 ♡

                                    

                                          
~ Reese POV ~
I have never hesitated to kill somebody in my entire life. It's something I've always credited myself on.
I've pulled triggers and taken lives like the Grim Reaper. Collecting souls as if I need them to keep me alive.
But as I stand in this empty field on December 31, I don't pull the trigger. 
I stand. The wind is cold but I don't feel it. The man I used to believe was my best friend kneels in front of me. Blood spews out of his nose which is now slightly crooked. The wind whips my hair and shirt around and the sound of my running car is all I can hear.
"What...what are you talking about?" Alec questions me. The situation has seemed to force him to sober up and his words no longer sound slurred as his knees dig into the cold grass. "Reese, what the hell are you doing, man?"
My teeth could crack under the pressure. I'd say my hand nearly shakes as I keep the gun pointed at him. 
"I saw the letter from Joesph," I force the words out of my throat. I didn't want to say them because I knew that they would force the conversation onward, and it would speed up the process which was inevitable. 
I wanted to stay here in this moment forever. The moment before I killed the man I called my friend for years. The man I trusted with my life. 
But we can't always get what we want. 
His face shifts as the words leave my mouth. The blood on his face starts to dry as his mouth hangs open and he looks up at me. He says over the wind, "I can explain that."
I didn't want to admit it, but until those words left his mouth, I was holding out hope. Hope that he'd say he didn't know what I was talking about, that it was a lie, that it was planted. But the second the words leave his mouth, I know this road only leads one way.
"No, no, no," I whisper over and over again to myself while shaking my head and gripping my hair. 
"Let me explain," he says louder as I shut my eyes.
I kneel down and grip my hair at my roots with closed eyes. I continue whispering to myself, "No."
"Just let me explain!" he yells.
My eyes shoot open and I rise back to my full height. I aim the gun at him again and shout, "Shut the fuck up! I don't wanna fucking hear you talk!"
His eyes fill with fear as I look down at him. A lump forms in my throat as my gun remains perfectly aimed at his head. He doesn't talk. He just remains on his knees, looking up at me in fear. 
It was always a look I had enjoyed. I'd say I could even get high from it - the look of somebody that has wronged you, knowing you're about to kill them. But this time, it was different. I wasn't filled with adrenaline. I wasn't filled with vengeance.
My eyes turned glossy as I was filled with nothing but pain.
"Dig," I order him.
He looks down at the shovel in front of him. He stares at it as if it were lethal, and if he touched it, he'd die. 
"I said fucking dig!" I yell. I send a bullet into his thigh which makes him groan out in pain.
I trusted this man with my fucking life. I trusted him with Azalea - God, he could've hurt her. I put her in danger without even realizing it and would beg her for forgiveness if I had to. 
My breathing is visible in the cold weather. And I breathe heavily. My eyes remain glossy and I blink harshly to try and dry them.
Alec grips where I had shot him with one hand while grabbing the shovel with the other. He uses to shovel to aid him while standing to his feet, favoring his uninjured leg. But he doesn't start digging right away. He just stares directly at me.