Chapter 21: All Those Dreams We Had (an alternative darker ending)

                                    

                                          
Note: Just a reminder: This is the additional chapter. It is set right after Jim tells Richie and Sev that he's going to see Sebastian.
                          
This is an alternative darker ending of the story. You, my dear fans, can choose which ending you prefer and just accept whichever ending you like as yours. I'm giving you a carte blanche!
Let me know in the comments though, because I'm curious ;)
                          
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                          
 So much feelings were rushing through Jim's heart and mind! He needed to get to his tiger as soon as he could! He needed to tell him everything, he had to see if they still had a chance... They must have a chance! Jim knew for sure that Sebastian loved him with all his heart! Sebastian was his body and soul, all Jim had to do was accept him. And now Jim was ready to do that, now Jim was ready to accept love.
                          
He took two-three stairs in one stride, impatient to start feeling alive again, impatient to sink deeply into Sebastian's embrace again! 
                          
He rang the doorbell. 
                          
Nothing. 
                          
He rang it again. 
                          
Silence. 
                          
"Sebastian?" Jim uttered nervously, knocking on the door and ringing the doorbell at the same time. "Sebby? Please, I need to talk to you." he said 
                          
Surely Sebastian was still drunk like he had found him a week ago. Maybe he was so drunk he couldn't hear Jim. Jim rolled his eyes, imagining how he had to wait for his sniper to get sober again before he could have a proper conversation with him. But then he just smiled and bit his lip at the thought of how happy the two could be from now on. 
                          
When there was still no reply Jim tried the door handle. It was open. Jim got in the apartment. It was quiet. The light was dim, almost nonexistent. Jim took a few steps forward. He felt this terrible smell! His love was stronger than that though! He'd just have to make Sebastian take a shower; or maybe they could take one together...
                          
There was a strange feeling in Jim's stomach as the smell painfully reminded him of something else... The stench of a rotting corpse! 
                          
Jim got to the living room where he could see Sebastian's leg from behind the couch. Yeah, the man was still spending his days lying on the floor! Seriously, Moran!
                          
Why were Jim's legs trembling like this? 
                          
He took a few more shaky steps into the room. The smell got thicker. He circled the couch, holding his breath. His eyes went wide and his hands reached up to his mouth to stop him from screaming. 
                          
Sebastian was lying on the floor. There was a pool of blood that Jim could not see a second ago when he first entered the room. Sebastian was dead. Not dead drunk. Just dead. There was a bullet whole in his head. His expression was pained. 
                          
Jim was forcing himself to shut his eyes, to not see this anymore! But the calculations were swirling in his brain, deductions, logic; his brain was frantically assessing everything, providing him with every detail of what had happened to the man he loved. It was painfully obvious to Jim that Sebastian had been dead for some time now... by the looks of it, a day, his brain supplied. Jim's heart was not spared any detail - the angle of the shot, the hand that pulled the trigger, the type of gun (present from Jim, oh, cruel irony!), the approximate time of death, even how long it took him to die... All this information that his well trained mind could supply was forced into his head like a hot iron blade!
                          
It all made sense, if you think about it. Sebastian's heartbreak. Sebastian without Jim. Sebastian having no reason to breathe any longer. Sebastian waiting for Jim to send his men to kill him. Sebastian finishing off what Jim could never start. Sebastian being the good right-hand man that he was, had executed his own murder by himself...