~ 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. 

"Reese," he pauses after he says my name. He doesn't get to say my fucking name. My grip on the gun tightens. "I love you like a brother, man."

My lips part as I scoff. 

"Some brother you are," I say dryly. "Dig."

His eyes turn red as he looks at me. He stares at me for a moment longer before starting to dig. He pushes the shovel into the ground and tosses the dirt to the side.

Azalea stands to the side, watching. Just her presence here is enough to keep me from losing my fucking mind despite the circumstances. 

Alec continues to dig. The bright moon in the sky shows that it's nearly 12. The pile of dirt beside him slowly becomes bigger as the hole grows wider and wider.

"Reese, I'm so sorry-"

I don't wanna hear his fucking voice. I cut him off by sending another bullet into his shoulder, and he grabs it while yelling. I shout, "You talk again, and the bullet will go in your fucking voicebox."

His clothes are stained in blood and his face twists in pain. He continues digging. Digging his own grave. My hand shakes a little as I keep my gun pointed at him. 

After a torturous while for him, the hole is finally big enough to fit his body. Tears roll down his cheeks as he notices this. He looks at me through his glossy eyes and gulps.

"Back on your knees," I order him.

Even though he has two bleeding bullet wounds, he looks as if he can't feel them. The wind whipped his shirt around before he slowly gets down on his knees. 

"Can I have one last request?" he asks me. I don't reply and keep my jaw tight. "Look me in the eyes while you kill me."

I stand just a few steps away from him. The only thing between us is the hole and grass. I tell myself that I'm shaking from the cold even though I know that's not true. 

I take a single step forward until I'm directly in front of the hole. I continue to aim the gun at his head.

My lips part, I tremble a little, and my eyes are glossy as I look him in the eyes. 

"Tell me it's not true," I whisper.

I'm searching, I'm praying, I'm grasping for anything. Just anything that'll give me a reason to not kill him. Give me something. Anything. Don't make me kill you, Alec.

"It's true," he confirms, and the second he does, a single tear falls from my brown eye and rolls down my cheek.

I shut my eyes for a moment as I take in the last words I never wanted to hear.

"But I promise Reese, I was doing it for you," his words make me open my eyes again. "As fucked up as it is, I was doing it for you. I love you and you're going to get yourself killed if you don't leave New York soon, and I knew that would be the only thing in the world that could make you leave."

Another tear falls from my eye. 

You can only be betrayed by people you trust.

"You piece of fucking shit," I spit, and take a pause. "You goddamn asshole. You don't even deserve a bullet to the head - you deserve worse."

His eyes stay on mine. I know what I have to do, no matter how badly I don't want to.

"I'll see you in Hell eventually, Reese," Alec forces himself to smile despite the tears in his eyes. "Maybe you'll be able to forgive me once we meet again."

Every tear that rolls down my cheek only makes me colder.

My finger rests on the trigger. I'm about to pull it, and he knows it. He gives me a singular nod while continuing to look me in the eyes.

I start to pull it. With a shaking hand I start to pull it.

The bullet would go through his head and kill him instantly. Although he is on his knees and I'm in front of him it would probably make him fall forward into the hole. He watches, waiting for me to pull the trigger.

But I can't.

I swear and lower the gun. I run my hand through my messed-up hair and swear to myself.

"You deserve to fucking die!" I shout. "You deserve to watch me be the one to fucking kill you!"

But I can't. I can't fucking do it and it only makes me angrier. My chest rises and falls.

"Hey," Azalea says softly. She puts her hand on my arm and her touch alone provides me with a sense of comfort.

I turn my head to look down at her. Her big light brown eyes look up at me as her blonde hair gets blown behind her shoulders.

"I can do it," she says softly, as she runs her hand up and down my arm in a comforting way.

My lips are parted as I keep looking down at her. She wipes my tears and the headlights continue to hit us as we stand here.

"It's okay," she nods, her voice sweet and calm. "I can do it. You don't have to watch."

I think about her words. And I remember words I had spoken to her a different time. 

Sometimes the most beautiful people, do the ugliest things.

Azalea's beauty is as great as the flower she is named after. The light that shines around her is enough to light up the darkness around me.

She's far more beautiful. Stronger, too. 

So I hand her the gun. She takes it, her warm hand skimming mine as she does. She gives me an encouraging nod as she takes it from me. 

Once it's in her hands, I give Alec one last look. He gives me a curious look. He's waiting to hear what the last thing that I'm going to say to him is. 

But I say nothing. I give him no final words.

And I keep walking, leaving him behind me as I walk back to my car.

Azalea is clearly the better one between us two. She's smarter than me. She's stronger. She's braver. She surpasses me in every aspect imaginable.

And despite only being dragged into this world a few months ago,

She's already the one better at it. 

~ Azalea POV ~

There was a time in my life when I'd be shaking if I were in the position I am in right now. And it wasn't too long ago, either.

I hold the gun in my hand. Reese walks back to the car.

He's not weak for not being able to kill Alec. He's human.

Even those consumed by the darkness still have a light inside of them. Their humanity. Even if it flickers, and almost goes out, it's always still there, no matter how dim.

I stare into Alec's eyes as I point the gun at him. But as I look at him, my eyebrows lower, and my head tilts.

He looks different now. The look on his face with me standing in front of him was different than when Reese was.

With me here, now he's scared.

I can see it in his eyes. He knows that I'd pull the trigger without blinking and there was no fight inside of me like Reese had. He knows who I am. He knows what I've done. And he knows what I'm willing to do. 

"Do you remember that day in November?" I ask him. I swallow. "You told me I was sleeping tightly away in my mansion while my dad was making life Hell for others."

I can see in his eyes that he remembers. 

I nod, "Yea. You remember, don't you? You counted me out. You saw me as nothing more than a weak spoiled brat who didn't belong in this world. You thought that I was weak."

He continues to look up at me while his bloodied clothes stick to his body.

"But now look at you," I add. "Look at you terrified, on your knees in front of me, shaking because you know that I'll kill you and I won't feel bad about it."

My words shouldn't have made me feel good, but they did. 

He swallows his saliva.

"Your name has been thrown around in this world far more than you know," he tells me. "People talk about you as if you're the Devil. They say to not cross your path unless they want to end up with their throat slit, or burnt alive. Your name is like an urban legend that lingers in people's minds when they walk alone in the dark."

I had no idea my name was ever being uttered. But to hear it was, sent a rush of energy to my head.

I've been trying to prove that I'm not weak. That I should be what people fear. That I'm the one that they should never cross.

And it worked. 

"Get that victorious look off of your face," he cocks his head at me. "It's not a good thing. The more people fear you, the more they want to eliminate you. As you continue to get soaked in blood and claim life after life, the number of people that want you dead only grows."

My head tilts to the side as I listen to him. 

"Killing your dad's men to help Reese escape? Killing Michael? Setting people on fire?" he starts to list things off. "Killing Simon? Killing the husband and wife that knew where Joesph lives? And now, killing me? People are scared of you, Azalea. You crossing over to our side was a mistake. It has made you moralless, it has made you a monster."

My finger rests on the trigger. My teeth clench as I look down at him. The wind blows my hair and the cold eats at my skin.

"I'm not a monster," I argue. "I'm on this side to put an end to my father. He has hurt far too many people. And once he's bleeding out below me, I'll go back where I belong."

"Where you belong?" he almost laughs. "You don't belong on that side anymore, Azalea! You're too far gone! You're never going to stop killing people. The darkness you let inside of you has taken over, there's no way to redeem you now!"

"You don't know shit!" I yell. "You don't fucking know me, Alec! You don't know what it's like to watch your dad kill a child! You don't know what it's like to have him whip you and hold a gun to your head!"

He yells back, "Maybe I don't! But you know what I do know, Azalea? You're so corrupt that you aren't going to ever be able to go back to normal life again. You're not normal anymore."

"I didn't ask for it to be like this!" I shout, my skin probably hot to the touch. "I didn't ask to be born into a life like this!"

He doesn't yell back this time. He just stares at me for a few moments while I breathed heavily. 

"So you're the victim in all of this?" he raises his eyebrows. "It's not all of the people you've hurt, it's you?"

"I never hurt without reason," I defend myself. 

He nods, "Sure. If that's what you need to tell yourself."

My knuckles turn white as I continue to grip the gun. 

My finger starts to pull on the trigger. His eyes widen and his fate suddenly becomes much more real to him.

"Azalea," he says calmly. "Wait. It's not too late to change your mind."

"We can both leave here," he adds. "I can help you and Reese. I can-"

The bullet goes in between his eyebrows. My shoulder hurts a little from it firing but I still don't move. 

His eyes go wide and get stripped of all of the life that was in them before. His lips part and his skin turn pale.

He falls forward. Falling into the grave that he dug himself. His body lays against the brown soil under the moonlight.

And as the moon moves, the time striking 12:00, Alec Milkovich didn't make it to see the next year.

At nobody's hands but mine.

Word Count: 2704

There are going to be 35 chapters in this book btw <3