A Trail of Smoke and Smugglers (Santi/PopexReader)

Forgiveness

[A/N: Hello my lovely readers! Please forgive me, I have been absolutely swamped with work and my updated have been way later than they normally would be. Please accept my sincerest apologies! Don't forget that I love you all dearly and am grateful for every single one of you! Here is the next chapter for you all and I hope you enjoy! -K 🖤]

[🌿This chapter is extremely long, contains swearing, as well as extremely saddening angst.🌿]
**
Constant sounds of the jungle surrounded our trail of smuggling mules as we trekked through the dense vegetation. It was difficult to admire the sky above us, as the emerald foliage was so overgrown that it blocked our view of the sun.

Darkened clouds had also rolled into the atmosphere recently, and the dropping temperature only furthered my assumptions that rain would soon meet us along our journey.

The air itself was muggy and humid, but with every step, an inbound breeze drifted through the trees and allowed us a moment of relief from the brutal heat of our gear and the environment itself.

Due to the pace of our mules, our order had substantially changed. Benny was now leading the group, followed by Fish, and then Will. Behind him was Tom, myself, and the train was finished with Santiago bringing up the rear.

"Did you pay for the damage?" Will's voice suddenly shattered the silence that we had been walking in for the past few hours. Aside from the natural ambiance of the jungle and the curious sounds of the wildlife, we had ventured in absolute quietness. Only the sounds of our boots crunching over sticks and leaves gave away our position.

Tom sniffed and patted the side of his mule's head. "Yeah." He responded blankly, allowing the conversation to die down quickly.

Will inquired as he walked, "How much?" He didn't turn around to face Tom, but resumed his pace that was significantly slower than that of Benny's or Fish's. It was most likely due to his injury, or his curiosity of the situation that he had been distanced from witnessing.

"Two hundred for the animals. A million for the families." Tom stated in a plain tone of indifference. I rubbed at my temple, exhausted and not wanting to hear anymore mentions of money.

I wanted to be free from this blood money.

Tom suddenly halted and I briskly stopped behind him. The mule connected to my lead huffed in aggravation. "I'm sorry, buddy..." I whispered, knowing that he had no intentions of desiring to carry the illegal and burdening weight of stolen money on his back.

I didn't either.

"Which one of you shot first?" Will was the sole reason that we stopped, and now he was turned to face Tom directly. My stomach dropped once more. I was famished, but the declining events of the past few days prevented me from eating.

The more regretful actions that were mentioned, the more sick and regretful I became.

"I don't know." Tom returned, shrugging his shoulders and shaking his head indecisively. His tone of indifference to the situation instituted a burden on my heart.

People had been murdered. Families had been affected.

And no amount of money could ever repair the damage that had been done or heal the hearts that had been irreparably broken.

Will's gaze retreated from Tom's figure to mine. His eyes searched my saddened face before he softly pet the face of the mule that he was leading. "We need to watch ourselves here."

"Yeah, we do." Tom agreed, watching Will turn back around and begin walking once again. "What the hell does that mean?" He questioned, turning around to face us in bewildered confusion.