The tall, skinny man and young boy with a sheriff's hat, stood in the prison yard staring right back at me; bloody and wounded, basket full of formula in hand, the obvious look of exhaustion washed over me. The dead slowly turns their head and stare...
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The Lost Dixon
Ch. 25: Loss of a Child
Reece's Point of View: A storm was blowing through the woods. Peter and I managed to find ourselves a cabin. We found plenty of rabbit to hunt and collected plenty of firewood to start a fire in the chimney. It's the most we've had in two days. I skimmed and rabbits and cooked them. Poured us some water and sat our plates at the dinner table. I ate away, while Peter simply poked at his food. Once I was finished, I stood up from the table and picked up my plate.
"Should really eat, Peter." I say, putting my plate in the sink.
"Not really hungry." He utters. I shook my head at him. I can tell you now, if I were in Angelia's position, he wouldn't be looking so pathetic.
"I'm going to bed. We gotta be up early to leave." I say.
"You just let her die." Peter says. I paused in my tracks, turning to him.
"What?" I ask.
"You just...let her die." He shrugs at me. "How could you do that to her?" I stared at him for a moment.
"You're seriously not blaming me for her death, are you?" I question.
"We could've helped her. But you chose not to." He argues. I walk over to the table, standing in front of him.
"There wasn't anything we could've done, Peter." I say. "Even if we did got her out of there, she still would've died. Internal damage, she could've been bleeding out for hours or even days. And yet, she held on for that long." I say. Peter quickly shoots up, reaches out to my throat, body slamming me to the ground. I held onto his forearms, staring into his eyes.
"She was my life and you killed her!" He shouts. I held a stare with him, watching him sob.
"Do it." I lightly gasp. "If you're gonna kill me, kill me." Peter's eyes fill with tears. His brows pull together, his nose scrunches up and his teeth locked together. He quickly releases me and pulls away, keeping a distance between us.
"I'm sorry." He says. "I'm sorry, Reece. I'm just..." He lets out a sigh. "I've been trying to control m anger. I know I've been a shitty husband to you. You don't deserve half the shit I've done to you. You did nothing to deserve the things I did and do to you. I'm sorry. Okay? I'm...I'm sorry, Reece." He falls to his knees and begins sobbing even harder. The rumble of thunder shakes the cabin. My eyes roll to the back of my head and I let out a sigh, shaking my head. I roll onto my side and look at Peter. Part of me felt broken for him. Something must've happened for him to be so hurt and so angry at the world to treat me the way he does. But it's so hard getting him to open up.
For the rest of the night, I climbed on the couch and laid myself down. I didn't want to speak with Peter or even look at him.
The next morning, the storm had cleared. The sun was in the sky, shining down. The birds chirped and the wind lightly blew against us. I let out a sigh as I stepped down the stairs of the cabin, glancing over my shoulder to see Peter walking behind me.
