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When we approach and I see what is in the clearing I stop, my heart crashing to the floor. Dizziness almost overwhelms me, and I sway on my feet for a moment, looking at the scene before me.
"I-I'm sorry, Ana," Brutus slurs, tears running down his face, "I couldn't get to him. I—"
I hold my hand up to stop him as I take slow measured steps forward only to kneel beside him.
I've seen violence before. Hell, I've caused a fuck ton of it. Bodies, death, blood...These things have been a part of my life for so long, they don't register much anymore. Not usually, anyways. Not until it's someone you care about, someone you love. Somehow, that changes everything.
My hand reaches up to wipe a hair from Theo's face, almost unrecognizable under the blood. His eyes look up to the skies he longed to see again for so long and a drop of water hits his cheek that I didn’t feel fall from my own eyes.
"I'm so sorry, Theo."
Chapter Six
Axle
Iwatch Ana as she looks down at the old man and feel a pang of something in my own chest. Death doesn't bother me, hasn’t in a long time. But Ana's sadness does. I say nothing as I come up beside her, placing a hand on the small of her back. A quiver runs through her body, moving up until something inside her cracks and she begins to sob. I pull her into my arms, giving her a place to release.
Brutus catches my eye—shit, even he's crying —and he carefully lifts Theo and moves away to give us a moment. My eyes follow him and get a better view of Theo’s body, and even I feel rage and injustice at seeing him like this. There’s no way that old fucker did something to justify this kind of mutilation.
Leaning my head into Ana’s neck, I whisper Romanian in her ear, knowing the low cadence soothes her even if she doesn’t understand it. It’s funny how soothing threats of death and vengeance can sound if you don’t understand the language.
After a few minutes she finally sniffles and pulls back from my embrace, rubbing her eyes fiercely. Pride fills me at her willingness to not only allow herself to be weak but also at how she pulls herself back. I hope she knows that whether she’s weak or strong, I’ll always be the extra weight behind her.
"They didn't have to kill him," she says with a broken voice. "He wouldn't have fought. They didn't have to kill him."
I say nothing, knowing nothing I can say will help. She’s right, but men are vicious and evil and just because they don’t have to kill means nothing. The world is neither just nor fair and whether in The Tomb or not, death, it seems, is inevitable.
Eventually the three of us come back together and begin the process of cleaning Theo's body. The Watch certainly did a number on him, and even though none of us are squeamish, I can’t keep the grimace off my face at the sight of what they did. I tell Ana to take a seat, I want her to rest. I’m both worried and surprised when she doesn’t object.
Brutus and I start digging two graves, close to the stream with open skies above. The entire time we dig, Ana sits off to the side watching the distant forest. Common sense tells me she’s sad, mourning her friend, but the connection between us that runs deeper tells me there’s more to it than that.
By the time we finish, it’s nearing nightfall and Ana walks over to us to stand at the edge of the graves silently before moving back to her spot. My eyes follow her and there's a tightness in my chest. It takes me a second to realize Brutus is talking to me and I have to blink a few times before turning to him.
“What?”
“I go get wood for fire?” he asks simply, clearly not bothered that I wasn’t listening. I give a curt nod and he lumbers off the opposite direction. When he’s away I make my way toward Ana but don’t touch her, instead sitting just a bit away. I’ve seen her angry before and even crying. I’ve seen her in the throes of passion and fury. But I’ve never seen her quite like this.
“Will you listen to me now about The Watch?” she asks after a moment, her voice low and quiet. I frown as she continues, my mind trying to piece together whatever female logic is ruling at the moment. “How dangerous it is and can be? How careful we need to be right now?”
“What are you talking about?” I ask incredulously, “This was an accident, one that I intend to remedy the first chance I get. What the fuck are you talking about Ana?”
I regret my choice of words almost immediately, but fuck if the woman isn’t pissing me off. She’s blaming me for this? I’ve always heard women were unreasonable, but fuck, Ana’s usually not.
Ana turns to me with a burning fire in her eyes and I know I’m right. She blames me for Theo’s death. My lips tighten and despite myself, I feel my own anger rising.
“If you took this whole situation more seriously instead of just saying ‘don’t worry about it’ all the time then maybe—”
“Maybe what?” I interject. “Maybe grandpa wouldn’t be dead? Wake up. It’s a tough fucking world, whether in there or out here. This isnotmy fucking fault.”
“I didn’t say it was,” she replies with a steely tone to her voice and I actually snort.
“Come on, that’s exactly what you were about to say.”
Ana goes to open her mouth just as Brutus steps into the clearing, stopping and looking up at us.
“I come back,” he says, dropping the wood and turning.
“No,” Ana stops him. “It’s fine. We were done talking.”
